EpicDuel PVP Game Design Notes

January 24, 2014

As you may have noticed, this week's release is a wee bit behind. We've been working all this week and most of the week prior to develop a new tutorial to welcome new players to the worlds of Delta V in style! This requires a lot of custom programming and loads of new artwork to make the experience streamlined and exciting. When finished, it will be leagues ahead of what we have now: randomly placing a new character in the midst of Central Station without the foggiest clue of what to do!

Since the success of this new feature is so crucial to maintaining new players, we're devoting the weekend to refining this feature to release early next week. We don't want to risk releasing the tutorial Friday evening, only to find that new players coming in over the weekend are getting stuck, frustrated, and logging out forever!

In the meantime, check out this brief rundown of what we have so far. It may not be thrilling for you veteran players, but it is interesting to think about from a game design standpoint: how to introduce EpicDuel to a new player without overwhelming them with options! 

Soft Landing

Welcome to the Feldspar Flats! This region near Central Station was mark for heavy construction before the war against Baelius. Now, it's littered with the ruins of abandoned scaffolding and rogue construction robots. Miraculously, life still flourishes in this region, as the volcanic soil is quite nourishing for plant life.

Your first task will be to move around the screen. This may seem overly-simplistic for veterans, but you might be surprised by how many players first attempt to use the keyboard for movement!

Ok, you've overcome that challenge. Feeling good! Ready for a mission?

AI Trainers (relatives of the M4tr1x AI) will offer simple missions, introducing players to missions as an important means for collecting credits, experience, and items. They will also serve as an introduction to some quick battles against Renegade Junkers. Apparently, years of neglect and dust storms have corrupted their programming and made them openly hostile to new arrivals.

Collect Robot Parts to help the AI Trainers reset their programming!

Be sure to disarm them! You'll need all the help you can get to face the enemies ahead!

After completing this mission chain, new players should have a weapon for each slot (primary, sidearm, auxiliary). This will guarantee that new players emerge from the tutorial more battle-ready than before.

Whoa! This fellah means business!

Learn about Physical/Energy Damage and Defense/Resistance by defeating a series of Boss Junkers.

These Junkers are bosses in name only. They can be handled easily with the right equipment.

That doesn't mean they're harmless, though.

Gather their Corrupted Chips and return them to your trainer for your reward!

I think I see the problem: It was set to MURDER!

Your journey isn't over yet! We've moved the alignment selection from the character creation process to the tutorial. Representative NPCs will plead their case and request your pledge of support. If you accept, you will be offered a new mission to complete an automatch battle.  

After you complete the battle (win or lose, all you need to do is complete the battle), turn in the mission, and the gate to Central Station will rise, allowing you to join the rest of the experience EpicDuel community!

Don't forget your "One Small Step" achievement! 

Legro Inmortuorum Poster

And now a word from HeroMart!

HeroMart is proud to offer an Art Nouveau (French for New Art) inspired poster of Dage and his undead legion! This new 24” x 36” high quality poster by Diozz featuring Dage and his undead army will be a great way to make your room feel more alive! Or rather undead.

Order the poster soon, because I don't think anything this awesome is going to stay on HeroMart's shelves for long! Did I mention it also includes a mysterious new blade, Dage's Desolation, in EpicDuel? 

Tags: Nightwraith Tutorial HeroMart Dage Diozz