EpicDuel PVP Game Design Notes

December 05, 2013

Welcome back, Duelists! We hope you had a happy and safe Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, or last Thursday of November! Did you complete the Black Abyss Saga? If not, there's still time, but some big changes are coming this Friday to EpicDuel!

Achievement Overhaul

The central feature of this latest release is a complete overhaul of the Achievement system. Over time, EpicDuel has released over 300 achievements in multiple categories. Some are seasonal, some are rare, some can only be earned once while other accumulate. We will be consolidating them all into one interface, divided into categories:

General: Basic achiements like those earned through Mission completion.

War: Earned through events like the Frysteland War and the ongoing territorial control achiements.

Boss: Earned through defeating bosses like Titan, Nightwraith, and the Black Abyss Spider.

Arcade: Achievements earned through Arcade play.

Seasonal: Recurring achiements like Frost Warrior.

Badges: Purchaseable achiements.

Feats: Especially hard or impossible to earn achievements like Epic Artists and Alpha Tester.

From this interface, you will also be able to track your progress in collecting all of the available achievements. To make this feature easier to access, we've readded the Achievement button to the main HUD. Also, you can purchase Badge-style achievements from the main Achievement interface now, instead of seeking out a VendBot.

Winter Rares Return

Visit Hank and Valestra in Frysteland to browse a robust selection of returning seasonal rares!

These items will only be around for a limited time, so get them while you can!

Speaking of rares, a lot of current seasonal rares will be leaving this Friday, including all the Harvest and Nightwraith seasonal rares. Rabblefroth's Thanksgiving rares will remain a bit longer, but all the Harvest and Nightwraith missions will also be leaving until next year!

Balance 

This Friday we will also be pushing out a balance update to address energy stealing skills like Static Smash and Static Grenade. Energy stealing skills will be capped to the target’s current energy, thus obeying the laws of thermodynamics.

Preview

As I type this, Charfade is busily concepting new armors, vehicles, weapons, and bots for the upcoming winter release. It's going to be a super-sized mega release so we'll need two weeks to complete it!

Stay tuned for further updates!

Royal Wedding Royale

Tags: Nightwraith Frysteland Juloffenblotten Hank Valestra Achievements Winter Seasonal Rares Weapons previews Wedding Artix snow Frost

November 26, 2013

Battle Gems is coming soon

More news from Artix! Get the latest info on AdventureQuest: BattleGems!

Do you have an iPhone, Android, iPod, iPad, iToaster, iSock or iWeirdSenseOfHumor? This holiday season we plan our releasing our first major mobile game! It is an RPG/Battle-Puzzle game calledAdventureQuest: Battle Gems.

You battle by touching the screen and connecting 3 or more gems of the same type. We got creative and added slime levels, lava challenges, bombs, cages, and a bunch of other crazy game mechanics. As you read this we are in the home stretch of creating the game's 140+ monsters and 256 levels.

Yes, it will be free. Probably an optional upgrade in it -- but we do not know what yet, we have been competely focused on the gameplay and level design. We want you to fall in love with our first mobile game.

The Battle Gems project was started to "teach us how to make mobile games" so we would be ready to create a mobile version of AdventureQuest Worlds. It turned into something really amazing... we hope you will be one of the first people to download it and try it out when it is ready this December.

Want to be the first to know when it goes live!? Like the BattleGems Facebook page!

Tags: Nightwraith

November 22, 2013

It's that time again! Time for family, giving thanks, and, of course, battling to save the world! We've crammed so much into this release that we'll need to hold off on releasing today (Friday) and instead release next Tuesday! Sorry for the inconvenience, but we're sure this update will be worth it. New bots, weapons, missions, achievements, an incredible boss fight, and a new item bank system! There should be something for everyone in this latest harvest release!

Darkness Rises

The evil Chairman Platinum was defeated by the combined efforts of Delta V's warriors and Elon Musk, but while his EbilCorp Factory was active, it stirred something terrible in the depths of Delta V's cavernous interior.

This mysterious region of Delta V is known as the Black Abyss. Years after the initial colonization of Delta V, Baelius' scientists concluded that there was nothing of value in this region so it was sealed off from all mining and exploration operations. At least, that was the official story. Once again, Legion and Exile forces are threatened by this fearsome new enemy. If it is not defeated, this may be the last Harvest Festival for the citizens of Delta V. Fortunately, new technology has emerged to help you prepare for the trials ahead!

Into the Black Abyss

The dark substance that emerged from the Ebilcorp Factory site was unlike anything Delta V scientists have ever seen. Like most new discoveries, however, it was quickly adopted for the manufacturing of new weapons! The Black Abyss Battlegear will be available in physical and energy flavors from an NPC near the current site of the Wasteland's SolarWorld Factory. 

Again, the Black Abyss Battlegear will be available in-game with a new, locked, active core. We'll post more about that as we finalize details.

We are also restocking Rabblefroth with the seasonal Thanksgiving rares. Be sure to stop by and check them out if you missed them last year!

In addition to new weapons, we will be introducing an exclusive new Varium package that will include 2 new bots, the Black Abyss Bots! In addition to dealing a devastating slash attack, it is also capable to unleashing powerful secondary skill. Again, we will post more details as they become finalized.

Mighty Missions

An epic-sized release wouldn't be complete without new missions, and new missions wouldn't be complete without new achievements! Collect the new seasonal-rare Turkey Terminator achievement from any VendBot. It will only be available for a limited time so get it while you can. Also, the Hallowarrior Achievement will be leaving to make room for this new achievement, so if you haven't picked it up yet, now's your last chance!

New Achievements will also be available for completing the new mission chain related to the anomaly in the Black Abyss. One does not just walk into the cavernous depths of Delta V so level up and perfect your builds for one of the greatest challenges yet!

Bank Access Bots

This release introduces the new BankBot system, more accurately described as a Bank Access Bot. Once the release is live, you will be able to load inventory items into a centralized "bank." This bank can be accessed from any BABot you have on one of your homes. To make access as easy as possible, we are gifting all players one free Basic BABot with 20 bank slots. This feature introduces a lot of changes to the current inventory system so I will list them as clearly as possible:

• Everyone will get a FREE Basic Bank Access Bot with 20 slots
• Addtional BABots can be purchased from your home item inventory. They will not provide additional slots, but they will allow you to access your bank from any home in which they are placed. Plus, they look way cool
• Normal Inventory slots will be capped to 100 slots.  If you have slots above 100, you will keep them
• New players will start with 20 normal inventory slots and 20 bank slots
• Players can buy more bank slots just like they can buy inventory slots
• 10 slot / 495 Varium  (same price as normal inventory slots)
• Mission items WILL begin counting toward your inventory limit.  This is for clarity and to discourage players from hoarding a million of the same item, bogging down the database
• If you exceed the inventory limit as a result of these changes you will not lose items
• In a future release, we will allow players to tag items with custom labels so they can easily be found,  ex: "Beta Build", "My Alpha Gear",  "Defeat Titan Set"

Stay tuned for more updates on this epic upcoming release!

Tags: Nightwraith Black Abyss Bugs Turkey Thanksgiving Holiday Sale Cores Banks Inventory Bot Cores Weapons Achievements Boss Missions

November 14, 2013

Prepare for one of the most comprehensive balance updates EpicDuel has ever seen! Every class will be affected as we focus on making battle more interesting, strategic, and fair. We understand that these changes can be rough, especially as everyone struggles to find new builds and strategies, but know that we're trying our best to keep all the classes fun, interesting, and competative.

Balance is not my specialty, so I'll defer to our resident Numeromancer Rabblefroth. If you wish to comment about the changes or following the specific nuances of the changes, you can follow this thread in the AE forums! The following is a quote from Rabblefroth in the thread's first post.

Hey everyone! 

We have quite a lot of balance changes on their way this week, so I wanted to highlight some of the major ones and discuss why we're making them so it doesn't come as a big, overwhelming shock. 

OVERVIEW 
Most of the changes fall under three major areas that we want to address. They are: 

1. Battle duration 
2. Energy flow 
3. Followup balance for the new skills 

BATTLE DURATION 
In general we feel that battles are ending a little too quickly, especially in 1v1. With so few turns available in the average fight, strategic options become limited, and certain events in battle such as critical strikes and blocks have a bit too much impact. 

In order to help extend the duration of battle, we're making a couple of key changes: 

• Increase the amount of health players have. 
• Decrease base damage in a couple of key areas, especially on weapons. 
• Reduce the effect of critical strikes 

The goal here is to both increase Health pools and lower some of the free damage everyone does to slow the pace of battle down, putting less emphasis on each individual turn. Every turn you take should carry weight, but currently we feel it's a bit too much. 

Each individual change is relatively small, but we hope that the cumulative effect will be a noticeable improvement. 

ENERGY FLOW 
With recent updates adding energy costs to cores, and reworking passive skills into useable skills, energy management has become much more important. We feel that this is an important aspect to managing the pace of a fight, but certain things are a little out of line, so we want to review the system in general to make it fit better with the updated skills. 

The major changes here include: 

• Increasing the amount of Energy players have. 
• In general, lowering the impact of energy draining effects. These have become much stronger now that Energy is a more important resource, so they just need a little nudge to bring them in line. 
• Adjusting energy gain on each class. Examples include giving Bounty Hunters a reliable way to generate energy, reducing Tech Mage energy generation, and adjusting Static Smash to be more useful. 

Nearly every energy-affecting class skill has been adjusted in some way. We hope that this will improve the strategies around Energy management and help push the pacing of battle into a more interesting direction. 

One other change I'd like to cover is the removal of the Energy gain effect from Reflex Boost. We want to change skills that have odd sets of effects that don't really make sense together. Reflex Boost currently gives you a stat that makes you take less damage, then gives you energy based on damage taken. The two effects are counter-productive and make the reason to cast the skill unclear. "Do I want this for extra Dexterity, or for extra Energy?" We want each skill to have one clear primary goal, and to accomplish that goal well. Now that the classes that use Reflex Boost have more reliable ways to generate Energy, we feel that this effect can be comfortably removed. 

BALANCING THE NEW SKILLS 
There has been a lot of great feedback regarding the new skills, and you have highlighted a couple of clear areas where we can improve them. 

Some of the planned changes here include: 

• Increasing the amount of defenses given by the Armor skills. They will also no longer be affected by buffs or debuffs. The intention here was to create some gameplay around buffing yourself, further improving your defense, but the real result was that in too many cases a debuff would make the skills not worth casting. Finally, a bug was causing the duration of these skills to be 3 turns instead of 4. In short, these skills should be much stronger than before. 
• Lowering the Energy cost of Mark of Blood. This should make the skill feel worth casting in more situations and lessen the drain on the relevant classes' energy pools. 
• As partially covered in the previous section, we're also lowering the Energy gain from Battery Backup. 
• Not directly affecting any one skill, but relevant to the removal of passives, NPCs got a bit harder in the last update. Part of this was due to a bug in the Bloodlust values on them that was giving them twice the intended amount of lifesteal (Oops!). But they also needed to deal a bit less damage, so we're lowering their base weapon damages across the board. 

CONCLUSION 
There are a few other balance changes coming this week that weren't covered here, but since there are so many I wanted to cover some of the major ideas and explain our reasoning behind them. 

I'll be happy to answer questions or concerns you have, but I might not be able to delve too deep into specifics since things are liable to change before the update. I also might not be able to respond tonight, but I'll be around tomorrow so I'll make sure to address what I can then!

 

Black Friday Preview

A dark force is awakening in Delta V. Elon Musk may have stopped the Chairman's Ebilcorp factory from destroying the planet, but he couldn't stop the evil Chairman from disturbing something that was better left forgotten.

Something is returning. Something that has slept for thousands of years. Something that is very hungry. Stay tuned for more updates on this new threat!

Tags: balance preview Thanksgiving Skills Weapons Black Friday Nightwraith

November 07, 2013

Prepare to party! This week, celebrate the birthday of EpicDuel's resident artist/assassin: Nightwraith. New missions, new weapons, and revamped skills await for your celebratory needs! As if that weren't enough reason to celebrate: the winners of the Creative Carving Contest will be announced in-game at Elon Musk!

Back to Party Business

Visit me at my usual haunt in the Wasteland to investigate my stash of weapons and armors! Do you have your OneX6 Keys? No? We've got you covered -- you can either buy one directly or win one by completing a new mission. Be warned: I've been buffed to level 36 so I'm not the pushover I used to be!

The classic birthday missions are also returning, with a few new additions in case you've already completed the old ones. Complete them all for huge rewards!

Suggestion Shop

In addition to hunting bounties and weaving baskets, I (Nightwraith) am EpicDuel's lead artist, but I don't mind sharing the spotlight with aspiring artists. That's why we're combining my birthday celebration with the introduction of a new round of suggestion shop weapons, created from ideas submitted from our creative EpicDuel community!

It's been way too long since we've done a shop like this so we're really going all out. We hope to have over 12 new weapons culled from the best of the best suggestions. Charfade and I are working as hard as possible to deliver more, but this is a thoroughly packed release. The weapons are still in progress so check back for a full list of items and their associated artist after we go live. If your suggestion was not selected, that does not mean it was terrible or we hate you -- it just means it may have to wait for the next suggestion shop. Hopefully it won't take a full year to do another one! I wouldn't be surprised if more items enter the game next week!

Arcadia

It wouldn't be a proper birthday without a new Arcade Game! 

Horrifying! Give it a spin and be the first to claim the grand prize! As with other games, Nightwraith's Nightmare will introduce it's own new evolving achievment and leaderboard!

Cheevo Counter

Speaking of achievements -- we now have tracking for many of the daily achievements like the 1v1 and 2v2 automatch daily winners. Players who win the daily achievements multiple times will increment their number on the appropriate achievement.  

Active Update

To address balance this update, we will be tweaking a few energy numbers from last week's update, but we also have a far grander change in store: Converting all passive skills into active ones.

That means Blood Lust, Reroute, Deadly Aim, Shadow Arts, Adrenaline, and all the Armor skills will be converted into active skills. Blood Lust and Reroute will become Mark of Blood and Battery Backup respectively. The purpose of this change is to add strategy to battle. Currently, passives grant HUGE benefits with little sacrifice, especially for level cap players. Active skills require more sacrifice in terms of energy cost and turn cost. To compensate for these sacrifices, the effects of the skills will be modified. This change will affect all classes so we're really interested to see what new strategies emerge from this change. 

Adrenaline

• Adrenaline

  • Replaced with Adrenaline Rush. Adrenaline Rush instantly grants the target a percentage of their maximum Rage.

Hybrid Armor, Mineral Armor, and Plasma Armor

• Hybrid Armor

  • Hybrid Armor now increases the target’s Defense and Resistance by a percentage of their base Defense and Resistance (the portion from your Dexterity and Technology) for 4 turns.

• Mineral Armor

  • Mineral Armor now increases the target’s Defense by a percentage of their base Defense for 4 turns.

• Plasma Armor

  • Plasma Armor now increases the target’s Resistance by a percentage of their base Resistance for 4 turns.

     

Reroute

• Reroute

  • Replaced with Battery Backup. Battery Backup grants the target an immediate boost to Energy, and doesn’t cost the user anything to cast.

Deadly Aim

• Deadly Aim

  • Deadly Aim was replaced by two new skills: Fire Scythe for Tech Mages, and Energy Parasite for Blood Mages

  • Fire Scythe deals physical damage to the target, ignoring a percentage of their Defense.

  • Energy Parasite applies a debuff that steals a percentage of the target’s current Energy for 3 turns, granting 1.5x the amount stolen back to the caster.

Blood Lust

• Bloodlust

  • Replaced with Mark of Blood. Mark of Blood leaves a mark on the target for 3 turns, granting lifesteal to anyone that attacks the marked target.

Shadow Arts

• Shadow Arts

  • Shadow Arts now casts the target in shadow and reduces all damage they take by a percentage for 3 turns.

Contest Announcement

When this update goes live, be sure to visit Elon Musk for a list of the winning entries! The effort so far has been stellar with such short notice. We are currently in the process of judging entries and narrowing down the list of finalists!

Tags: Titan Nightwraith Suggestion Shop Elon Musk contest Arcade Missions balance Skills Weapons Birthday

November 01, 2013

NEW CHANGES / FEATURES 

• New “Musk Mania” Arcade Game
  • New and returning Musk and Ebil-themed items
  • New Achievement
• 12 new home items
• New scavenger hunt mission chain on Elon Musk
• Mission manager now has scrolling
• Revamped Leaderboard layout supports up to 20 players, 5 portraits, linkage to character page

BALANCE

• Some active cores will now have energy costs

Tags: Nightwraith Patch Notes Cores Arcade Items balance

October 31, 2013

You've done it! The forces of Ebil have been vanquished from Delta V with the help of Elon Musk. This week, enjoy even more spoils of war with new weapons, new home items, balance improvements, new missions, and a new arcade game!

Musk and Ebil Gear!

Try your luck at the new Musk Mania arcade game for Musk-tech and Ebil-tech loot not available anywhere else in-game!

Can you win the grand prize?

Pumpkin Hunt!

Visit Musk to embark on an epic hunt spanning all of Delta V! Musk is preparing something special for you if you can complete all of his scavenger hunt missions and retrieve all the weird, wild pumpkins from the far corners of the planet!

Be vigilant! Some pumpkins will be harder to find than others!

Home Decor

Some of those pumpkins mentioned above, as well as several new Musk and Ebilcorp-themed items will be available as home items for your decorating pleasure!

Not so intimidating now, are you, Chairman?

Balance

Another change coming to this Friday's release is a balance update that will specifically address cores. For many builds, it is more useful to use a series of cores than to invest in particular skills and stats. For this reason, we are adding energy costs to many cores. This change will require you to think strategically about reserving enough energy to use all of your cores and necessary skills, adding variety and tactical choice to battle.

This is not the last balance change we have in mind, but because it is quite a big change, we could not fit in any other adjustments this week. Look for more farther reaching changes in the coming weeks. 

Storefront Cleaning

Next week, to refresh the Varium store, we are clearing out the following Varium packages:

• Exile package

• Legion Package

• Dread Package

• Omega Packages

If you have not already picked up one of these exclusive and powerful packages, now is the time to do so. Next week, they will no longer be available in the Varium store or in-game. Also, the items featured in the packages will be available for resale if you need the extra loot. 

Again, this change is not happening until NEXT WEEK so you still have another week to pick them up before they're gone! We wanted to announce this a week in advance so it didn't take anyone by surprise!

Tags: balance Arcade Weapons Elon Musk SolarCity SpaceX Tesla Nightwraith

October 25, 2013

NEW CHANGES / FEATURES

• New shop on Elon Musk's SolarWorld Factory (after Ebilcorp factory falls)
• 2 new cores: Critical Heal and Piston Punch
• Musk Husk class-changing armor
• New "Model L" hovercar
• Flight Module allows players to fly by equpping module and typing "/fly"
• 6 new Iron Musk styles
• Added Confirm screen to the Faction Creation Module  
• Confirmation screen when creating a new faction
• Re-added the Law Giver and Antimatter missions.
• Re-added Hallowarrior Achievement
• Re-added Harvest missions in Hallowarriors Event mission chain
• Re-added Harvest Seasonal Rares

BUGFIXES

• Updated "Did You Know?" text at the end of battle to reflect new level cap of 36
• Anya’s dialogue has an extra space
• One of Desert Guard’s dialogue has an extra space in it
• Landlord achievement’s description needs to be change from 4 to 5
• Rabblefroth’s Tome achievement is too long due to the win counter added into it
• Fixed several that were too long
• Fixed an issue where Stat Boost Cores would not visually update Skill Details Rollover panels
• Equipping the Strength Boost core would not visually improve Assimilation in the rollover 
• Game screen froze after purchasing Class Change (Credits)

Tags: Nightwraith

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 16, 2013

Ebilcorp is back with a vengeance as Chairman Platinum is attempting to suck Delta V dry of all its precious resources. Fortunately, a more benevolent businessman, Elon Musk, has arrived on Delta V and he's ready to help. Complete Musk's missions to defeat the Chairman and dismantle his life-sucking factory. To help you on your journey, Musk is selling 4 new passive cores to give your stats a much-needed boost!

Visit Musk in the middle of Fortune City for a complete list of your tasks. If you complete them all, you'll be rewarded with material treasures, but you can also gain a wealth of knowledge about this real-life innovator.

In addition to a full character bio, you can also watch intensely cool videos. You haven't seen anything until you you've seen machines turn 20,000 lb spools of metal into working vehicles. You can see firsthand how Musk is bringing the technology of the future to the present!

Are they assembing the next generation of powered armors? Only one way to find out!

Challenge the Chairman!

You thought Chairman Platinum would learn his lesson after the beating Delta V's dilligent duelists gave him and his cronies last year, but I guess if at first you don't succeed...

...build a giant, resource-sucking factory on your enemy's homeworld? Classic Chairman!

The only way to shut down his Ebil Factory of Doom in the Wasteland is to defeat the Chairman, but he's too tough to take on in a 1v1 duel. Fortunately, Musk has volunteered to help you and your fellow duelists crush the Chairman and send him packing. However, you'll need to gather a few supplies for Mr. Musk to help him devise the technology necessary for blasting the sinister CEO.

The Factory's strength is measured by a War Bar at the top of your screen. By defeating the Chairman, you can help take the bar down and bring Delta V one step closer to ridding itsself from Chairman Platinum for good! According to Musk, he can re-engineer the factory to be a source of renewable, clean energy. There may also be some other amazing prizes inside once the Ebilcorp Factory's defense are eliminated.

If you defeat him, you'll be rewarded with an achievement. Why fight him again, you may ask? Good question!

We've add boss defeat tracking to all "boss" achievents. That means every time you bring the pain to Titan, Nightwraith, Caden, or any other NPC that offers an achievement, your achievement will track the number of times you were victorious! Unfortunately, this change is not retroactive so if you want to rack up the wins on the other boss NPCs, you'll have some work to do!

Scavengers

Over the course of Elon Musk's epic mission chain, you'll have the opportunity to try a new mission type: scavenger hunt!

NPCs can now direct you to search a specific region of the world to find a mission item. Look carefully -- some items may not be as easy to find as others!

Musks' Cores

Musk has come to Delta V packing some pretty amazing technology -- including these 4 passive cores that buff the stats Strength, Technology, Dexterity, and Support!

If you want an extra edge over your opponents, these cores will provide a great way of doing so!

This release is packed to the brim with content, but we're not done yet! Once the Chairman's factory falls, the real party can begin!

Tags: Nightwraith SolarCity Tesla Innovation Elon Musk Chairman Platinum EbilCorp Cores Missions SpaceX

October 15, 2013

Make Sure to Use the Help Pages!

Player Support is the first line of defense whenever you have ANY issue, be it payment, account, technical, or game-related, and we personally read EVERY email sent to us. We’re a small team, but we are MIGHTY in our power to help solve your problems and make sure you enjoy our games as much as possible!

The Player Support team is made up of:

• Nythera, head of Player Support
• Zazul
• Neveya
• and Lady Tomo
• Stratos helps too, when he has time!

Where Else to Get Help?

You should only email the Help Pages! For us to help you in the best and fastest way possible, we NEED you to use them, not Twitter, Facebook, or the forum!

If you post on Twitter, Facebook, or the forum, that just means our team members need to redirect you to the Help Pages anyways! (It's also very easy for our team members to miss your important posts on social networking sites, because sometimes they need to sleep.)

 Using the Help Pages right from the start means we can start helping you confidentially and directly as soon as we read your email. (Remember, because real people read each email we get, it may take between 1-3 business days to respond!)

Where ARE the Help Pages?

You can find them linked on each of our game websites!

• EpicDuel
• AQWorlds
• Oversoul
• HeroSmash
• AdventureQuest
• DragonFable
• MechQuest
• Heromart

Account Safety Tips

There’s nothing I enjoy less than a stolen account. I’m sure you feel the same way - who wouldn’t?! So here are some tips to help keep your account safe and out of the hands of thieves.

• Never share your account with anyone! Not even a friend. Every person who knows your password makes your account less secure.
• Use a secure password! Use oth letters AND numbers, use both upper and lower case, and make sure your password is at least 8 characters long.
• Confirm your email with us! This makes sure your email can’t be changed without your permission.
• Never enter your account name and/or password into any site or email that isn’t owned by Artix Entertainment!

We Don't Want to Ban or Mute You!

We have rules in place to help keep ALL our players safe and having fun in AQWorlds! Make sure you follow the rules so you don't have your account muted, banned, or disabled! Not sure if something's ok to do? Review the rules!

Tags: Nightwraith nythera Player Support Help Pages

September 27, 2013

The Arcade is nearly here, but before Valestra officially has her Grand-Grand Reopening for her Arcade, I'll walk you through the newly renovated Arcade.

You know Valestra's, right? Fortune City's premiere hangout -- at least before Baelius banished most of the population to an interdimensional prison. If you're new to the game or just never explored much beyond Central Station, you can find Valestra's in Fortune City tucked behind Alydriah's Spire. Don't worry, there's a sign.

Token Time!

Once you're in Valestra's you can activate one of many ArcadeBots. You can't miss them -- there's a least one on every screen. An Arcade interface will immediately appear, displaying a game title, prize, list, leaderboard, and buttons for playing / purchasing more Arcade Tokens.

One Arcade Token gets you one press of the "GO" button. That's one chance to hit the Jackpot. Even if you miss, you'll leave with something nice. Arcade Tokens are easy enough to come by -- Daily Missions reward one Arcade Token as a reward for completion of the mission chain.

Maybe you don't want to play once. Maybe you want to mash the "GO" button until it shakes the whole Arcade, and all the players around you give you the old shifty eyes look and back away slowly. If that's they case, we appreciate and accommodate your enthusiasm. Each ArcadeBot features an option to buy one Arcade Token or a bundle of ten. Since they don't take up space in your inventory, you can buy as many as you want. 

Just be mindful of your Varium balance -- once you hit a winning streak, it might be difficult to stop!

Game Changer

Snork's Stash not exciting you? Choose from 3 other games/prize pools buy using the navigational arrows. Each game offers a different assortment of prizes. We look forward to offering many new prize pools in the future with truly unique rewards!

Prizes aren't the only different aspect of each game. Every time you deposit an Arcade Token, you earn a score based on your prize -- the higher the tier (Bronze, Silver, or Gold), the better! All the different games store an individual score based on your success. This score comes with a unique achievement that evolves as your score grows! Currently, we are offering 5 tiers per achievement. Can you level them all?

Each game also features an all-time leaderboard displaying the top scoring players with your current score displayed alongside them. 

What are you waiting for? Grab your Arcade Tokens and head over to Valestra's Arcade! You can't win if you don't play!

Tags: Arcade Nightwraith Credits Prizes tokens Achievements evolution Games

September 12, 2013

Are You Ready for a Challenge?

After weeks of controlling events from behind the scenes, Administrator 10 and the mysterious Exile Leader are ready to step into the spotlight, and they’re taking matters into their own hands! Team up with a friend to challenge these foes and claim their achievements for your own! These bosses will be some of the most challenging in game, but we’re not without mercy. To make it easier to triumph over these foes, we’re raising the level cap!

Level Up!

At long last, we have increased the level cap to 36. It won’t be quick or easy to reach so we’re sure there will be a mad dueling dash to be the first to reach it. The first players to reach this goal will be able to upgrade their gear and skills to become the most powerful duelists on Delta V! Will you be strong enough to defeat Administrator 10 and the Exile Leader?

Daily Missions

In between duels, Administrator 10 and the Exile Leader will have some new tasks for you. Check back with them daily for missions and rewards.  The missions will be part of a chain so players will need to complete all of them in order to receive the best reward! To keep missions from becoming monotonous, we’ll be cycling in new chains each day to guarantee that there’s always something exciting to do on Delta V!

Arcade Returns!

Remember the Arcade? We haven’t forgotten, and we’re working on implementing a new and improved version next week. Under the new system players will be able to deposit Arcade Tokens for a chance to win anything from a pile of credits, to never-before-seen weapons, to previously retired rares (gasp)!

Tags: Nightwraith Missions Daily Level Cap Arcade Prizes Legion exile War Challenge Achievements

September 06, 2013

After a brief hiatus for DragonCon and other important real-life events, the EpicDuel team is finally assembled at full strength. The problem is we only had 3 day to build a release (technically one full day and 2 half-days if you include planning and release testing)! We were so tight on time that I just got around to the Design Notes now. It's like I'm typing live! Anyway, no more wasting time...let's get down to it!

Administrator 10

Fighting in the Dread Plains has gotten so heated that Alydriah has ordered Administrator 10 to oversee battle operations directly. Normally content to manipulate events from behind the scenes, the Administrator has a nasty battle record that keeps his troops loyal and his enemies in a constant state of fear. He is also an extreme hypochondriac and wears a gas mask constantly to prevent himself from breathing in the irradiated vapor and toxic dust that blows across the Dread Plains. This, combined with his notable paranoia and disrespect for authority makes him an exceptionally unpredictable and dangerous foe.

Mission Organization

This week we've also made improvements to mission organization. Completed, pending, and unavailable missions are now color-coded and sorted for easy navagation!

Talk Like a Pirate Again!

Yaaaaaaar! Since we've fixed the error with the seasonal rare scheduler, we are able to reintroduce the Talk Like a Pirate Day-themed rares! It turns out that the error was due to a single misplaced letter among the dozens of lines of code -- like finding a needle in a needle-stack! Visit Big Tuna in the West Naval Yard to check them out!

Also, the Talk Like a Pirate achievement will also be returning!

Yarrrrrrrrr!

Because of this error, the Titan weapons were removed early. We have returned them for one more week! Thanks to Rabble's hard work on this system, we will now be able to add and remove items to merchants without rebooting the server, making it easier to get the right gear into the right hands!

Bye, Bye, Botanical Gear!

Since Fall is on the horizon (for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, anway) we felt it was time to retire the Botanical Gear and the Botanical Borg promotional packages. 

If you managed to snatch them up, good job! If not, you'll have another go at them next year around Springtime to add them to your robust arsenal.

Coming Soon

All the battling in the desolate Dread Plains has begun to stir the local wildlife. Normally shy but curious Dire Wolves and Goat Lizards have begun to creep into the warzone. Will they align with Legion or Exile forces? 

I hope they're on my team!

Patch Notes 1.5.30

NEW CHANGES / FEATURES

•  Arborgeddon and Botanical Battlegear promo packages removed from the shop
• Mission List now sorts and displays mission groups in a more intuitive way
  
  

BUGFIXES

• Seasonal item sheduler fixed -- TLAPD and Titan items now showing properly on merchants
• When purchasing battlegear weapons (legion or exile) the passive core slot shows a “-1”
• Cores included with Promo Package items were not showing up properly until relog
• You were able to see the opposite alignment assets for a brief moment when you joined the Bazaar.
• Reward from “Not a Good Reason” still result in a loss when you finish the mission. Should now give you a net profit of 1000 credits
• Limited quantity Concussive Shot now working correctly
• If you attempt to use the Strike button right after your opponent leaves, you would see an error message “You must select an enemy character to use the null.” 

Tags: Nightwraith Pirate Achievements Toast Titan RabbleFroth charfade Administrator 10

August 28, 2013

As we noted in previous DN posts, we have automated the seasonal rare restock process. This means that we can plan releases for seasonal content well in advance without even requiring a server restart. It also ensures that we won't miss any items. Since there are some items using this system in game, it seems appropriate to let you know when this ephemeral equipment will leave the game for another year.

All dates are Eastern Time (Lab Server Time) at 12:00AM. Don't know how to figure that out from your Time Zone? There's a website for that!

Titan's Gear

• Leaving September 1, 2013, 12:00 A.M. 

Dragon/Charbinger/Back-to-School Gear

• Leaving Leaving September 20, 2013, 12:00 A.M. 

Talk Like a Pirate Day

• Arriving @Big Tuna in the West Naval Yard September 1, 2013, 12:00 A.M.
• Leaving October 1, 2013 12:00 A.M. 

Tags: Nightwraith

August 27, 2013

Greetings, EpicDuelists! It’s that time of year again where many of the Artix Entertainment staff, admins, mods and our most adventurous players head off to Atlanta Georgia  for Dragon*Con this weekend. Which means EpicDuel will be releasing a mini-mid-week release today!

For those visiting Dragon*Con this year, the Artix Entertainment panel is this Saturday Aug 31st @2:30pm in the Hilton Atlanta hotel  room Grand Salon E. We are also on the Dragon*Con app,  under Events -> MMORPG.  EpicDuel’s very own “RabbleFroth” will be attending this year’s panel and hovering over the AE fan table. Be sure to say hi!

AE Panel at DragonCon
Title: Making Video Games with Artix Entertainment

When: Saturday, Aug 31st @ 2:30pm until 3:30pm
Where: Hilton Atlanta, Grand Salon E.

First time DragonCon attendee? Lucky for you, Cysero has posted a DragonCon survival guide on the AQW design notes!

For more information about Dragon*Con, please visit the official DragonCon website! 

Mini Mid Week Release!

Without time this week to work on a huge fun filled release, the EpicDuel team decided it was best to go on a mission bug hunt and make further improvements to the New Mission system. Titan is also making more changes to the player’s user experience by polishing up the new mission interface. You’ll notice minor changes in how you interact with NPC’s this week, this will hopefully streamline and reduce the number of clicks you need to do in order to access mission content.  These are small changes, but we really hope they improve your game play experience!

NPC Notifiers

Naomi has a question for you!  New to EpicDuel this week is the New Mission NPC Notify System. Now if a NPC has something for you to do, like a mission you’ve been putting off, that npc will let you know with a notify indicator above their head. The same indicator icon will be carried throughout the flow of finding and accepting any new missions. All the maps with NPC’s had to be updated to support this change.  Which you can imagine, took up most of the development time.

No new missions this week. More time is needed to fully develop and test any new missions. We also need more time to implement and fully test the Daily Mission features. Which are in the coming soon bucket!  The EpicDuel team returns from their mini hiatus on Sept 3^rd. So there is no release scheduled for this Friday. Will be back to full EpicDuel power next week!

Patch Notes - 1.5.29 

NEW CHANGES/FEATURES:

• Further improvements to the New Mission System interface
• Add Mission notify system
  • Updated every screen to support new NPC missions notify system – Which now supports indicators above NPC heads.
  • NPC mission button flow polish, limiting the amount of clicks to access and accept missions.

Item Resale Correction

• Emeralds (Flawed = 50, Regular = 200, Perfect = 400)
• Ice Gems (Flawed = 50, Regular = 200, Perfect = 400)
• Infernal Gems (Flawed = 50, Regular = 200, Perfect = 400)

 Mission Bug Fixes 

• Naomi’s mission ‘Purify’, small spelling error fixed
• Fighting For Fabulous - NPC IDs were wrong. Database fix
• Coffee, Tea, or Battle - description says 5 wins, but the mission is asking for 10 wins. Should be 10. Adjusted text to be consistent
• Not a Good Reason - Reduced purchase to 1 Trident Blaster instead of 4. Your reward will net 1000 credits instead of a steep loss
• The Annoyance of Humanity - Incorrect NPC IDs. Fixed
• The Golden Gun Gals mission is resulting in a credit loss. The 4 Imperial Blasters required cost 3,000 credits, but the final reward can only be sold for 625 credits 
• The mission “Restock” to only require 2 Imperial Blasters and to reward the player with a 1000 credit profit if they sell the gun
• You Know My Choice - Yeti Hulks will now also drop Coffee
• Business Partners - was reported on forums that it wasn’t tracking wins. No issue found 

Tags: DragonCon Nightwraith RabbleFroth charfade staff mission Bugs

August 22, 2013

Dragon Returns

It's that time of year again! Time for Summer to slowly ease out into Fall. Time for students to go back to school. Time for...DRAGONS!

The classic Dragon and Back-to-School items will be returning to The Slayer, along with the Charbinger weapons and Harbinger Armor from last year's Dragon's Reckoning Saga! Some of these are limited quantities, so better move fast!

It's All About Timing

Rabblefroth's programming skills have allowed us to put seasonal items on a schedule. This means that items like the Heartbreaker weapons or the Independence Day gear will automatically stock in the shops without requiring a restart. This means we'll never have to worry about forgetting to add something as the list of seasonal content grows every year. This will also give players a larger heads-up before we add and remove gear from the various shops.

Mission Overhaul

Those of you who have been around awhile have probably noted the lack of missions lately. The existing system has a number of flaws that make adding missions cumbersome. For one, NPCs do not support more than 4 missions. With a small-ish cast of NPCs, this means if we want to add more, we have to move or remove missions. Another reason is that mission are hard to find. Aside from players who closely follow the Wiki and these Design Notes, most players would only stumble upon missions through luck. Even after finding a mission, there is still the matter of navigating the mission chain, which is often unclear. Because of those flaws and because so few players were able to experience the missions we were adding, we made a conscious choice to stop adding new missions until we could build a better system. 

Now, we finally have that system! From the Mission button at the bottom of the main interface, players can view a directory of all available missions! This will allow players to view different mission categories like Permanent, Seasonal, and Daily, view details about those missions, and jump to the NPC offering them. 

As a minor housekeeping task, we have grouped many existing missions into chains, altering them slightly to flow together naturally. We also filled several gaps in term terms of missions for low to mid-level players (1-20) so players getting familiar with the game will have more opportunities for credits!

Because this is new system with many changes and opportunities for critical bugs, we will not be offering Daily missions this release. If everything works with few or no bugs, however, we could see Daily missions very soon!

Finding Mission has never been easier! With a little time and effort, you'll be rolling in credits!

Tags: Nightwraith Missions Dragons Weapons

August 16, 2013

Shields Activated!

Defend your hard-fought War Objectives with Shield Generators! These critical structures allow you to reinforce the influence of other structures you own in a certain region. Like Turrets, Shield Generators can only be used on another structure within the same region. 

Like Turrets, Shield Generators have 3 levels of improvement depending on the amount of your Alignment's Influence.

New War Objectives!

Building upon the Turret release last week, we have added Turrets and Shield Generators to all contested regions. Here's a quick look at the new Objectives and their locations. Better hurry if you want a foothold in a heavily disputed region!

'

Wasteland Missile Turret

Barrens Shield Generator

Central Station Cannon

Central Station Shield Generator

Overlord Shield Generator

Bio Cannon

Naval Yard Shield Generator (formerly Propaganda Tower)

New Titan Cores!

Titan's birthday may be over, but he's not done giving just yet. Visit him in his frosty Frysteland lair to try three new Charge Cores!

Bacon Breath 

Unleashes the powerful scent of bacon on your target, dealing 114% weapon damage.

Titan Chomp

 Summon Titan to chomp your target for 114% weapon damage.

Bacon Rain

 Rains down delicious bacon, dealing 114% weapon damage to the target.

Matchmaking

Rabblefroth is also making some fine adjustments to the Alignment matching. It should allow for better quality matches, especially in 2v2.

Tags: Nightwraith Shields Factions War Objectives Turrets Cannons Destruction Cores Charged Titan Birthday

August 08, 2013

Covering Fire!

EpicDuel is finally rolling out the heavy artillery for the Dread War. Capture and upgrade turrets to fire upon opposition War Objectives within the various regions of Delta V. Turrets can be upgraded by filling the control bar. The more heavily an alignment dominates a turret, the further it will upgrade.

To fire a turret, simply click on it as you would an NPC. You can then select an option to fire the turret, select your target, then fire. The turret will fire in real time and those on the target screen will see the impact! Remember, you can only fire turrets that your alignment controls so it is imperative to capture and hold turrets to maintain a tactical advantage in any region in which they are present.

Titan's Triumph

Soon we will be celebrating the birthday of everyone's favorite Delta V demi-god: Titan. This mighty being uses technology so advanced, it is indistinguishable from magic. Some believe he created Delta V through sheer force of will. These people are quickly dismissed as fanatics, but there is no denying his awesome power.

Visit Titan in his Frysteland lair to collect new mutating weapons and a mighty new sword: Titan's Triumph. These will be limited in quantity so you had better be quick!

Hmmmm...seems a bit sketchy.

Also returning will be Titan's Burger Bike! 

Omnomnomnom.

The image speaks for itself.

Core Continuum

We are adding additional Active Cores to the roster of Charge Cores. Each use in battle will deplete a Core charge. We're hoping to have enough time to implement some completely new Charge Cores for your battling enjoyment. Could they be Titan-themed? Perhaps...

VendBot Upgrade

One of the oldest and most prolific NPCs in EpicDuel is the humble VendBot. These little guys have seen the evolution of EpicDuel from the earliest Alpha days to the modern Omega phase. In that time, they've traded their inventories of obsolete boosters to Cores. Their old technology can barely contain the demand so they've been refitted for extra capacity to provide you with the latest and greatest hardware upgrades, serving as a one-stop core shop.

Someone's been working out!

Miss the old design? Don't worry, the original will still be around in a few remote places of Delta V. 

Tags: War Nightwraith Titan Birthday Rares Bike Mutating Weapons Turrets Objectives Cores

July 31, 2013

We've recently received reports from players failing to load the game client, and we fear that many players have found it difficult to log into the game now that the file size is over 3 megabytes. All the shiny new graphics we've added since Omega have come at the price of quick data transfer. We've externalized many embedded assets to reduce the initial load and make it easier for players to login.

As I write this, I'm seeing reports from players who are not having any problems logging in anymore. There is a chance this issue was also due to ISP caching (something we have no control over) or some other unrelated issue. The point still stands that EpicDuel's game client needs to drop a few KBs. While the reduction may be unnoticed to players with speedy connections, those with unreliable or slow connections should see a major improvement.

Legion vs. Exile Matching

We hoped to have this ready last week, but unfortunately it couldn't go live due to a lack of testing. This week we hope to finally implement alignment matching that is quick, fair, and accurate. The system is designed to impose strict matching rules that losen the longer the match queue remains active. This is to prevent extended wait times to find a viable match. With a lot of hard work, rigoruous testing, and a bit of luck, you'll be nearly guaranteed to match against your opposing alignment this Friday.

Legion and Exile Styles

Are you a soldier for the Legion or Exile forces? Now you can look the part with these new styles. Don the helms of Legion and Exile footsoldiers or cloak your loyalty in a mysterious hood! Oooooo! 

All of these styles will be available Friday from the Style Change interface. Remember -- these are linked styles so if you unlock the Legion helmet for your Mercenary, that style will carry over even if you change class.

Independence Day Rares

Wow! When did August get here? The Indepence Day rares currently equipped to Naomi in Central Station will be leaving along with the Indepence Day Achievement that can be found on all VendBots. Better hurry if you want these seasonal rares before they go back into storage for another year!

Tags: Nightwraith Cores Revamp Independence Day

July 25, 2013

Sorry for the wait, but starting tomorrow, Juggernauts will be able to participate in Dread War and earn influence. This is not because we hate Juggernauts -- if anything, they represent the hardest of the hardcore EpicDuelists, able to take down two foes singlehandedly! No, this was because of a boring technical reason. Since Juggernauts could only start battle from the Slayer and Influence is only earned by fighting on a War Objective screen, Juggernauts were locked by location on a non-Objective screen. We plan to remedy this by adding a Juggernaut button to the main interface, right next to 1v1 and 2v2. This should also give the feature some much-needed exposure. I'm sure many new duelists don't even know it exists!

Starting tomorrow, instead of battling from Slayer, Juggernauts (anyone owning Slayer's Silver or Gold Skull Cards) will be able to engage a Juggernaut battle from any screen! Sound good to you? I thought so!

Are you ready for Juggernauts?

Alignment matching

Rabblefroth is hard at work refining the Legion vs. Exile matchmaking system to heavily prioritize alignment when choosing opponents and allies for Duels. We understand that many are concerned that this change could make matches painfully slow to find and we are aware of this. Hopefully, with enough variables at our disposal we can easily fine-tune the system if matches are too slow or imbalanced.

As I'm writing this, Rabblefroth is still building and testing this feature. It is of the utmost importance that it be tested thoroughly so I'm not sure yet if it will go live tomorrow. Be sure to follow our Twitter feeds for the latest updates!

More Dynamic Objective Screens

To make the war feel more tactile, we've updated over 60 screens (including battle backgrounds) to show Legion or Exile content depending on the alignment controlling the War Objective. This gives us a tremendous amount of control for each screen -- we can even change the active content such as NPCs!

Administrator 11 just got busted!

Influence Tracking

I've seen a lot of questions on Twitter and in the forums about the specific numbers for each achievement level for the regional war achievements. Your questions can now be answered in our handy new influence tracker, accessible from the Delta V world map.

Just click this button!

From this new interface you will be able to see your current level of regional achievement as well as how many more points you need to achieve the next level!

I've got a long way to go!

We like this new system so much, that we are making it the start of a long-awaited revamp to the Achievement system.

Capture the Spirit!

In addition to the regional war achievements, we are introducing another evolving achievement: the War Objective Capture achievement! This achievement is awarded to players who participate in the capture of a War Objective up to an hour before the Objective is officially captured. Do you have enough conquering spirit to reach the highest level?

Claim the world!

Meet the AE Team this weekend

Direct from Artix's Design Note post!

Want to meet the team and talk about video games? The Metrocon Convention in taking place this weekend at the convention center in Tampa, FL. The Artix Entertainment team & I will be running a panel on Saturday. They gave us a 2-hour time slot. Hahaha, boy are they going to be sorry. Maybe we can have the staff fight to the death for your amusement. Or maybe we will make a game. Or maybe we can... hmmm, we will think of something. We hope you will come join us!

Artix Entertainment Panel at Metrocon this weekend

• This Saturday, July 27th @ 11am
• Panel Room 22-23
• Official Metrocon Website

I hope to see you there!

Tags: Nightwraith War Factions Alignments Matchmaking Juggernaut Influence Achievements

July 17, 2013

Prepare for Dread Domination!

Are you ready?

After weeks of fighting in the Dread Plains, plans for a powerful new weapon have been captured by both sides of the War.  Now, Legion and Exile forces are prepared to unleash their power upon Delta V in the form of the Dread Domination Varium Package!

This package includes 4 unique weapons and is not available in game!

• 2 Auxiliaries
  • o Dread Desolator P
  • o Dread Desolator E
• 2 Sidearms
  • o Dread Disruptor P
  • o Dread Disruptor E

We've equipped the Dread Desolators (auxiliaries) with technology of unknown origin in the form of the Improbability Gate Core. This exclusive core uses technology derived from an undisclosed research facility in the Dread Plains to open holes in the fabric of the universe. These tears in reality have been weaponized to allow players to summon creatures and objects from other worlds to come to their aid and help vanquish their foes! Be warned, however, this technology is quite unstable: you never know what will come through!

War Objective Leaderboards

Can you rule them all?

New leaderboards on each War Objective will display the top Influence contributors in addition to showing your own contribution. With 34 War Objectives to dominate, you have 34 chances to get your name and face out there, showing Legion and Exile forces that you’re a force to be reckoned with and that either alignment should feel honored to hold your favor. Can you dominate them all? We think it’s impossible, but we also know never to underestimate a dedicated EpicDuel player with unlimited access to energy drinks!

Alignment Switching

Where do your loyalties really lie?

This week we are introducing the heavily requested feature of alignment switching. Our primary concern with this change is that it could irrevocably tip the balance of the alignments, as players with weak loyalties rush to whichever alignment has the upper hand. 

Delicate negotiations.

To ensure that alignment switching is treated with the gravity it deserves, we are limiting the feature to Varium only. Players will only be able to switch alignments once per month. Players currently in a Faction will need to first leave the Faction in order to switch. There is still no way for Factions to switch alignments with disbanding and recreating themselves.

Bug Squashin’

Inevitably, when new features are released, new bugs will pop up, sometimes in old features. We try to make each release as bug free and polished as possible within a week of development time, but often bugs slip by. This update will fix several issues that have arisen since the last update (for specifics check out Rabble’s patch notes leading up to the release). To track down and fix bugs as quickly as possible, we need your help. Posting bugs on Twitter, while appreciated, isn’t always helpful since reports quickly get lost in our feeds. The best way to help us fight bugs is to post them to the official EpicDuel Bugs Forum. 

Please be as descriptive as possible when reporting bugs, explaining exactly what you were doing when the bug occurred. Giving us those details helps us to reproduce bugs more easily. A reproducible bug is usually an easily fixable bug. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Tags: Nightwraith Factions Dread War Alignment Legion Exiles Weapons Varium Leaderboards Bugs Reports Cores Forums

July 11, 2013

Another week has passed in the Dread War as both alignments continually clash across Delta V. Every day, War Objectives change hands and entire regions fall as the war rages on. This week, we are expanding upon the existing War features while introducing some new ones.

Collect them all!

New Regional Weapons

This week, we will be introducing 6 new regional weapons. You can find them at the Dread Plains Control Array, Fortune City Battle Arena, and the Archive AI in the Biodome.

Dread Destroyers - Control Array

Fortune City Slayers - Battle Arena

Bio Busters - Archives AI

Some may be confused about how to acquire these devastating new weapons. Allow me to clarify: in order to unlock these regional weapons, your alignment must control a key War Objective in a region. For example, to unlock the Barrens Busters, your alignment must control the Bazaar in the Barrens Outpost region. This unlocks a supply of 5 of each weapon, BUT they will restock periodically. Holding the key War Objectives longer allows as many of your fellow soldiers to have a chance at the weapons as possible.

Barrens Busters - Bazaar Command Hub

Trainyard Terrors - Train Command Hub

Overlord Overkills - Overlord AI

Wasteland Wardens - Minetower Suite Door

Nautical Nightmares - Naval Yard Shack

Core Confusion

Last week we introduced limited-time influence buffs. By equipping these cores onto a weapon, the owner would be granted an influence buff for a certain number of victories. Currently, if a limited-charge core is exchanged/removed, it is destroyed, even if it has a remaining balance of charges left. In the future, we would like Cores to behave more like regular items that can be equipped and unequipped to items. However, this requires a greater discussion of intense interface and programming changes so it will need to wait for a later update.

War Chests

Last week, we finally "opened" the War Chests to all those who already owned them to reveal 8 regional influence buffs. Unfortunately, those who purchased War Chests after the release found their locks still intact. This week we will be fixing that by unlocking all the remaining War Chests. However, the War Chests will no longer be available with the Legion or Exile promotional packages once we go live. All of the marketing materials will be updated to reflect this change.

Last Chance for War Chests!

Achieve Greater

Have you collected all the regional War achievements yet? Really? Impressive. Now, can you level each achievement all the way to the max? It won't be easy, but each level earned represents a new tier of mastery and truly epic bragging rights. 

New Achievements!

Since we're adding so many new achievements, we thought it would be helpful to give you a way to easily track your progress through the war. Through the map screen, you will be able to easily see your battle contributions for each region and how close you are to reaching the next tier! (Sorry, but we had to cut this feature due to time. It will be coming next week though!)

Additionally, you can now determine at a glance which War Objectives are on the verge of switching alignments and need your immediate attention for defense or offense. Also, each War Objective will now show your personal Influence contribution! Can you dominate them all? 

Claim the Battlefield

With the update on Friday, the controlling alignment will be able to alter the appearance of many of the War Objective screens. Drape war banners over the Battle Arena, flood the Minetower with Legion guards, or move your troops to secure the Control Array. Now, when you capture a region, everyone will know it!

Under new Management.

These changes will persist in the battle backgrounds, allowing you to duel while your Faction's banner flies high in the background!

Wow! That's quite a few additions for a regularly scheduled release. Stay tuned for more updates!

Tags: Nightwraith exile Legion Weapons Alignments Achievements Control Objectives War

July 02, 2013

Contest now live at Artix.com!

It's that time again -- time to sharpen your pencils and test your creative mettle against the best the AE community has to offer. Since Beleen already nailed the contest details in her post over at Artix.com and AQ.com, I'll repost it here for your enjoyement rather than force you to slog through my mangled prose.

------

It’s a good day for bad monsters! Instead of using weapons and magic, pit your creative talent and artistic skills against all the existing monsters and villains from your favorite Artix Entertainment games. And have a chance at winning awesome loot in the Bad Guys & Good Battles Contest!

Your Quest

Help Loremaster Maya! Create artwork or write histories for Artix Entertainment’s monsters and villains! Winning entries will help us build the AE Encyclopedia Lorepedia (currently on AQ.com, but probably not there forever)!

How to Start Your Adventure

Take a look at one of Loremaster Maya’s first Bestiary pages, then get out and hunt up a monster or villain of your own to observe! http://www.aq.com/lore/monsters/Frogdrake

Ideas for artwork submissions include:

• Draw
• Paint
• Illustrate
• Photoshop
• Sculpt
• Craft
• Bake
• Sew and Stitch
• Carve
• Balloon Animals!

Ideas for writing submissions include:

• Details about where the monster/villain lives
• Any unique behavior or identifying appearance details
• What they’re good for after defeat
• Any lore we already know about them (like the Bloodtusk Troll/Horc cultures)
• Anything we DON’T know about them that doesn’t contradict what is already in-game

So long as your submission is a monster and/or a villain from your favorite Artix Entertainment game, then you’re one step closer to winning the contest! Make sure you post your submission in the contest thread at Artix.com!

Quest Requirements

1. Read ALL THESE rules before submitting!
2. This is not a suggestion contest, all of the entries must be based on monsters/villains that already exist in our games.
3. All artwork must be original—absolutely NO tracing and NO stealing someone else’s artwork.
4. Pictures must be at least 500px wide and in either .jpg or .png format.
5. All writing must be original. If you use any existing in-game lore in an entry, you must add original ideas onto it.
6. Written entries must be no longer than 500 words long.
7. Entry must be inspired by a monster and/or a villain from an Artix Entertainment Game (AdventureQuest, MechQuest, DragonFable, AQW, EpicDuel, HeroSmash, OverSoul).
8. You may use any form of media for your design (Pencil, Flash, MS Word, Notepad, cake mix, etc).
9. You can include other Artix Entertainment characters alongside your monster, be it your player or a popular NPC like Warlic or Cysero.
10. Post a valid link to your picture in the Comments section below in the Image URL field.
11. Include the text of your writing entry in the Comments section text field.
12. Only ONE Bad Guys & Good Battles contest submission will be judged per game account (although you CAN post more entries under each AE game account you own, so you can post one entry for your AQW hero, then another for your EpicDuel account, another picture for your DragonFable player, etc).
13. You can enter artwork, OR writing, OR both. But only one entry total per game account.
14. Your entry MUST include your Character Name AND which game your character belongs to. How else are we gonna award you if you win?
15. Your entry MUST include the name of the monster/villain you created.
16. Please please PLEASE only post once—it will take some time to approve your submission, so please don’t spam the Submit button!
17. You will be automatically disqualified if you do not follow all the rules.
18. We have the right to remove any entry that is unacceptable or inappropriate—so keep your entry safe for everyone to enjoy!
19. And, most importantly, have FUN!

Quest Rewards

Here’s your chance at wining awesome stuff in your favorite online game! The Bad Guys & Good Battles Contest prizes will be broken down by game, but since the Lorepedia encompasses ALL our games, we will award prizes in Artix Points!

Additional prizes may be awarded to those who go above and beyond!

Quest Turn-In

In the Comments field below, please include:           

• Your Character Name
• What game your Character is in
• What monster(s) and/or villain(s) you’re basing the entry on
• A short biography and/or picture of the monster or villain
• A valid URL link in the Image URL field or the text of your biography

Please make sure your URL link works online! Use a free online photo uploader like Tinypic, Photobucket, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Quest Time Frame

The Bad Guys & Good Battles Contest begins today, July 2, 2013. Submissions will be accepted until July 10, 2013, at 11:59pm EST. Judging will ensue the following week, and prizes will be announced and delivered around that time too! 

Good luck everyone, and may the best Bad Guy & Good Battles entry win!

--Beleen

Tags: Nightwraith Artix contest Design Monsters AE Beleen Lore LorePedia Good Evil Art

June 25, 2013

Step 0: Register an Account

This should be obvious, but you cannot participate in this war if you do not have an EpicDuel character!

Step 1: Choose an Alignment

If you are not already in a Faction, then you will be prompted to select an alignment. Choose carefully, because although alignment change will be offered later, it will come at a price. 

Step 2: Open the World Map

Once you are in Delta V, war is all around you, and getting to the conflict zones has never been easier. Use the interface button on the lower part of your screen to open the redesigned World Map.

This map shows the various regions of Delta V (i.e. Fortune City, Barrens Outpost, Biodome, etc...) and the Alignment in control of each region. Click a region to zoom in and see the individual War Objectives.

Most regions feature War Objectives that can be captured by your alignment. A rollover shows the War Point value of each War Objective. If your alignment captures enough War Objectives to have the Point majority in a region, your alignment will control that region. It is not necessary to control all the War Objectives in a region to get War Points. Even if you only control one War Objective, you will still earn Points toward the daily War Point total. Different War Objectives can be worth different amounts of Points.

If you zoom out, you can see the daily War Score. Each War Objective earns the controlling alignment War Point every 15 minutes. The score resets at the end of the day.

Step 2: How to War

Once you have determined where you want to fight, controlling a War Objective is fairly simple. While zoomed into a region, you can click on any War Objective to jump directly to it.

While you're on the screen with the War Objective, you will notice a bar at the top of the screen with a banner displaying the controlling alignment and leading Faction. 

You can see that on this screen the Legion controls this War Objective. A Legion player can fight to defend this Objective and reinforce the position while an Exile player can fight from this screen attempt to take it for his or her alignment. Let's try to take it for the Exiles. 

Automatch 1v1 or 2v2 victories earn Influence which allows you to control or reinforce a War Objective. Support for Juggernaut battles is coming soon. Challenge matches do not earn Influence. You can only earn Influence if you battle from a screen that contains a War Objective.

At the end of battle screen you will see how much Influence you earned. 1v1 battles earn 5 Influence while 2v2 battles earn 15. Influence is a versatile number that goes into a number of different places.

Personal Influence

Your personal Influence, viewable from your Character Stats page, is earned through victories on War Objectives. It is not capped or taxed.

Faction Influence

Faction Influence is earned through battles by all of a Faction's members. It is not capped or taxed.

Banner Influence

If you belong to a Faction, your Influence accumulates on a War Objective. The Faction with the most Influence accumulated on a War Objective will have its banner displayed over it. All Influence on a War Objective is taxed so inactive Factions can be passed by more active Factions. Banner Influence is not capped.

Control

Control is a number that is driven by Influence earned in victories for a War Objective. This number is capped to prevent one Alignment from building an insurmountable lead. Once an Alignment has earned a certain amount of Influence on an Objective, it is considered to be captured and goes into cooldown. 

During cooldown, no Alignment can earn Influence while battling for this War Objective. Once the cooldown period is over, the controlling Alignment can reinforce its position and the attacking Alignment can battle to seize control, putting the Objective into cooldown again.  This is to encourage players to move to different regions and keep the war from bogging down in one region.

Step 3: Victory

As we have seen in the past, the Alignments truly succeed in Wars through active recruitment and organization. Although it's not necessary to join a Faction to participate, Factions have the tools and organization to rally forces to take down heavily fortified War Objectives.

We are currently adding more clarification and balance elements streamline the War and minimize ambiguity. Stay tuned for another DN post with more update details!

Tags: Nightwraith War How-to Alignment Legion exile