EpicDuel PVP Game Design Notes

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!

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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 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