EpicDuel PVP Game Design Notes

September 05, 2012

Welcome Home!

First off, a hearty welcome back to all of our staff and players who had the opportunity to attend Dragon*Con! Practel twisted my arm and he’ll be writing a recap post later this week.

Codes and Keys

If you visited us at Dragon*Con or follow us on Twitter, you may have seen some codes being posted that you could redeem for a starter pack of weapons by entering the code at any City Guard to redeem the code for starter pack items!

How can you get a code? Well, we gave codes out at DragonCon, but the best way to find a code is to follow us on Twitter or Facebook! It is possible that this code redemption system could be used for other promotions in the future so stay tuned for more developments!

Decide Charfade’s Fate!

As Nightwraith announced at the panel at Dragon*Con (and you may have seen in this video by Practel) we are allowing players to decide whether to save or sacrifice Charfade. To decide this, we will be polling players in game. Visit Dravax to choose a side. After voting, you’ll be able to see how many players are with you and against you. When the poll is complete, Charfade will be sacrified or saved based entirely on YOUR votes!

Also, to discourage “stuffing the ballot box”, voting will be restricted by account, IP, and level (you must be at LEAST level 5 to vote).

Lock ‘em up!

The missions to obtain the Exile and Legion locker keys are going rare with this update, and eventually these keys will convert into achievements.  The Blueprint scraps will be sellable if you still have some taking up space in your inventory.

Tags: Cinderella Dragonoid Dragon Draconic Keys Achievements DragonCon

August 28, 2012

DragonCon this Weekend!

Hey there, EpicDuelists! With Dragon*Con this weekend, we’ll be rolling a midweek release. Remember that if you visit our fan table in the Hyatt Regency Atlanta (lower level) and write down your character name for us (one per attendee, please; please don’t beg your friends to get free stuff for you) to be awarded the Dragon Slayer armor, which is also available in-game and comes with the Dragon Master achievement! For those who are brand new to EpicDuel, we will be giving out codes redeemable for a free set of starter gear! This is an exciting new feature as it can be used for more special promotions in the future. First time DragonCon attendee? Lucky for you, Cysero has posted a DCon survival guide on the AQW design notes: http://www.aq.com/gamedesignnotes/dragoncon-2012-2072 !

For those who only want the bare-bones details on for meeting us at Dragon*Con, here they are:

This year the Artix Entertainment Panel:

• The time will be Saturday at 5:30PM
• The hotel will be the Hilton Atlanta
• The room will be the "Grand Salon E"

This year's AE Pizza Party:

• The time will be Thursday at 7:30PM
• The hotel will be the Marriott Marquis Atlanta
• The location will be on the 10th Floor, in the Skyline meeting area.

We understand that many of you cannot attend Dragon*Con, but please understand that we are not affiliated in any way with the management or funding of the convention. We cannot ask them to host Dragon*Con in your hometown, and as great as it would be to travel to your city or town to meet you, it is not logistically feasible. Again, we understand that not everyone can travel to Atlanta, GA to visit us, but we do not want those who do stop by to see us to leave empty-handed.

A Char-faded Memory

We did not release the first missions for this arc because we were building a new battle feature! With this release, players will be able to team up with the Slayer to defeat Dravax itself and send his master a message he'll never forget! Your missions start with Dravax, who attempts to convince you to hand over Char without conflict. Your quest will then lead you to Mirv, who needs your help to re-enable the turrets defending the planet. Will you surrender Charfade to the Harbinger and its Master? Or will you keep her safe and save Delta V another way?  

Bombs Away!

Of course dragons do not exist, but there are insects who are pretty close to spewing fire! Bombardier beetles are a cosmopolitan tribe in the Carabidae consisting of over 500 species of beetle named for their defense mechanism. The beetle maintains two reactant chemicals (hydroquinone and hydrogen peroxide) in abdominal reservoirs, and spray the foul-smelling resulting chemical at enemies. The product is not only foul, but the reaction is highly exothermic, with the spray reaching 100C (ie. Boiling) and quickly volatilizes. This system is often used by creationists as an argument for intelligent design and irreducible complexity, but the use of hydroquinone in defense is conserved in the carabids and hydrogen peroxide is a normal waste byproduct  of cellular respiration. 

Tags: Cinderella charfade MechQuest Dragon Harbinger Dravax Battle Mode DragonCon