EpicDuel PVP Game Design Notes

October 25, 2013

Thanks to you and your fellow duelists, Chairman Platinum and his vile sludge factory are all but defeated! When the life bar finally falls, get ready to access Elon Musk's SolarWorld factory, to be contructed on the ruins of Ebilcorp's sluge machine. Within, you'll find many awesome gadgets, including and exciting new power. What power you ask? How about the power of flight!

The new Flight Module equips in your vehicle slot just like bikes and hovercraft. The module is activated by typing /fly to takeoff and again to land.

This new flight ability looks great when combined with the new Musk Husk Armor, a mass-production version of Elon Musk's power suit.

This elegant, yet efficient design is able to adapt to any class or gender. If you don't have the stomach for air travel, you can always try a more grounded method: the Model L hovercar!

This new vehicle allows the driver to travel in luxury and privacy while preserving the environment!

Core Contingency

The SolarWorld factory will also house two new cores for your dueling pleasure!

Piston Punch

Deliver a solid, solar-powered punch that absorbs your opponent's energy with this new active armor core! The energy absorbtion is based on your armor's Defense and Resistance values.

Critical Heal

Always have a backup...especially when your life is on the line! This armor core improves the effectiveness of Field Medic when you're in critical condition (less than 20% HP).

Rare Harvest

While you're in the Wasteland, you might want to visit Snork in his subterranean home beneath the Minetower to check out some of his awesome returning seasonal rares!

Also, be sure to check out the Event-based Harvest missions and collect the Hallowarrior achievement! There's more holiday fun to be had next week -- we just need to boot that pesky Chairman off the planet for good!

Tags: Elon Musk Nightwraith Lotus James Bond Car Vehicle SolarCity SpaceX Chairman Platinum EbilCorp Armor Battle Green Energy Rares Solar Cores

October 11, 2013

*There will be no release today as we prepare for a MEGA RELEASE next week. Thank you for your patience!

It's been nearly a year since Chairman Platinum last showed his face on Delta V -- the populace quickly gave him a proper EpicDuel beat-down and put an end to his plans for a hostile takeover. If there's one thing the Chairman is good at (aside from robbing grannies and punting kittens) it's holding a grudge. After a year of planning and healing, he's ready to end the fued -- along with all the inhabitants of Delta V.

Rather than bringing an army, the Chairman is taking a more subtle approach -- forcibly extracting all the Varium from Delta V to cause the entire planet to collapse! The Ebilcorp extraction device is protected by a nearly impervious shield and in order to breach it, you'll need to face the Chairman himself!

This time, there will be no deals, no negotiations. The Chairman wants to annihilate those who wronged him and make a tidy profit while doing it. If only there were someone who could help us stop him!

Enter Musk

To defeat this otherworldy threat, Delta V will need an otherworldy benefactor in the form of Elon Musk, engineering mastermind and visionary businessman (basically the closest the real-world has to Tony Stark). While testing his new Ultraloop interstellar transportation device on a routine visit to a Martian colony, Musk overshot his target and landed on Delta V.

Although his ship was not damaged, he'll need some time to adjust his calculations. Since he's always up for a challenge calling for ingenuity, he's prepared to offer the citizens of Delta V his expertise in expelling the Ebilcorp threat and reversing Platinum's damage, offering Delta V a means of generating efficient renewable energy in the process!

This task will not be easy, however, as Musk is lightyears away from his fabrication workshop. You'll need to scour Delta V to find the parts necessary to allow this benevolent genius to invent a permanent solution to your Platinum problem. 

Coming Soon

New Missions

As stated above, Musk will need your help securing various items from across Delta V to devise a means for you to defeat Platinum. Also, he's not letting you go it alone -- complete his mission chain and he'll join you in a battle of the business titans as you take on Platinum in an epic 2v1 duel!

New Achievement

Complete the mission chain by defeating Chairman Platinum and you'll receive a new achievement!

New Cores

Chairman's Ebilcorp extractor is bad news, but Musk has plans to reengineer it to be a source of limitless energy! As an added bonus, the power plant will be able to produce advanced cores capable to augmenting basic stats!

New Armor

Musk sees you admiring his armor -- don't worry, he brought extras! Power up with the Musk Husk and send Chairman Platinum packing!

More!

Since next week will be a MEGA release, there are bound to be aspects that we forget to mention here. Stay tuned on Twitter and the Design Notes for the latest and greatest updates!

Tags: Titan EbilCorp Elon Musk Tesla Space Travel Solar Power Energy Pollution Clear Green Chairman Platinum Armor NPC Missions Achievements War

March 14, 2012

Hippity Hoppity

Welcome to another Design Notes, EpicDuelists. As I announced on Facebook, we’ve got a lot of exciting things on the horizon for you! We’ve all been super-hard at work these past few weeks, getting stuff prepared for this and the coming weeks.

Rabble Rabble Rabble

RabbleFroth recently got back from the Game Developer’s Conference, the largest annual gathering of professional game developers, and he’s filled to the brim with ideas for how to improve our little game! He’s been working on a few different things that are being released this week. First on the agenda is a revamped leveling curve. Experience gains by level will make more sense for middle levels, although low and high level players won’t see much change. Along with the revamped leveling curve, weapons will be getting a balance to reflect a more consistent increase in power and value across all levels (eg. pricing, resale, requirements, bonus, damages). This is a major undertaking and may take several weeks to complete.

In addition to weapons balancing, the Mercenary class will also be receiving a buff of some kind. According to RabbleFroth's balance data, Mercenaries are having a great deal of trouble at the level cap in 1v1 battles. We've heard many complaints that Blood Shield is not useful enough, so we may be improving it or possible replacing it with a new, more useful skill.

Coming Attractions!

RabbleFroth isn’t the only programmer who’s been hard at work. Titan is releasing several bug fixes, including a bug with the Baby Yeti and a weird faction chat bug. In the coming weeks, we’re moving from CS3 to CS5 (yay Modernization!) to make things better for all of us, and combatting the ever-raging Lag Monster. This may sound like an easy task, but anyone who has developed for Flash knows that it is very picky when it comes to which version you are using, so a lot of the code that worked in CS3 simply will not work in CS5, and the software does little to indicate why. 

We’ll also be replacing the somewhat vague“Power Up!” button on the lost battle screen with helpful tips and tricks to end their losing streak!

The Bionic Battalion Cometh!

The bunnies have escaped from the Biological Preserve, but not every rabbit is a dumb bunny. Several of the rabbits have achieved sentience, and need your help to achieve their plans. These adorable creatures are not seeking world domination, destruction, or greatness- merely answers.

The first rabbit you’ll meet is Brachylagus, the Lagomorph Captain. The first of the rabbits to realize sentience, he is the driving force behind this ragtag group of superintelligent space rabbits. After determining to find others like himself, he was able to find several clever individuals: his lieutenant Myxoma, the strong and loyal Capensis, the gentle Lepus, and the genius Mr. Cottontail.

Brachylagus can be found in Central Station, but you’ll have to search all over Delta V for the other four, as they were separated when all of the rabbits escaped.

Shamrocks from Heaven!

There's now so much green on Delta V, that it's reached critical levels!  That means PvP drops will include, for a limited time, Emeralds of varying quality to redeem at any vendor for mega loot!

On the Silk Road

The Silkworm Bombyx mori is the larval form of the domesticated silkmoth. The moth was domesticated from a wild silkworm species and is completely dependent upon humans for survival. This species is completely reproductively isolated from wild populations and cannot reproduce on its own nor does it have any antipredator defenses, as they’ve been selected exclusively for their silk.

The silk itself comes from a cocoon the caterpillar spins over itself as it pupates. Typically, the silk is retrieved by boiling the cocoons, which kills the pupa. Alternatively, certain types of wild silk can be produced from wild silk moths or tussock moths (from family Saturniidae or Lymantridiae) that have eclosed from their pupae, thus negating the need to kill the pupa. This kind of silk is often called Ahimsa silk, but is not always as desirable, since the silk threads are cut when the insect emerges.

Call for Moderators!

We saved the best for last! With EpicDuel’s continued growth and expansion, we’ll need a few more people to join our team! Here’s a message from Nightwraith about it:

Want to be a mod? Want to spend hours a day not getting paid while helping your fellow players, catching cheaters, hackers, scammers and muting people who use abusive language?

If you answered YES to either of these questions, then you should probably check yourself into the nearest psychiatric hospital as soon as you can, but I also have exciting news for you.

We are looking for new mods / testers for EpicDuel, and now is your chance to apply! One thing we needs to stress - you MUST be over 18 year old. If you are under 18, if you don't include your age, or if you start with "I'm not 18 yet, but..." the application will not be considered.

What they need you to included in your email is:

1. Your real name, age, and country of residence.

2. EpicDuel Game account name and email address

3. Forum account name and email address if one is entered. (not required to have one)

4. Languages you speak/read

5. C.V. (Resume) *please note we'd like the CV in English.

Please send your COMPLETE application to beamod@battleon.com . If the application is not complete, we will toss it out. And please - one application per person.

We will read all the applications. If you are chosen to go through a further interview, we will contact you. Unfortunately, they cannot reply to everyone. If you do not hear from us, sorry.

Tags: Titan Bionic Battalion Bunnies Green Emeralds St Patrick's Day balance RabbleFroth GDC Moderators