EpicDuel PVP Game Design Notes

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

September 20, 2012

Yaar and so forth

Yesterday was Talk like a Pirate Day!  If you haven’t already grabbed the cheevo and items from that salty wench Isla “Big Tuna” Grier.

The Dragon’s Reckoning

The Dragon’s Reckoning is coming to its epic conclusion with an epic cutscene!  What will become of the Dragonoid?  What about Dravax?  Will Mirv finally get the praise and attention he craves?  See Charfade in-game to find out!

Epic Stylist!

You may have noticed that you can now purchase hairstyles, and said hairstyles are yours forever.  Changing between hairstyles or just changing your colors now only costs credits!  Unfortunately, this is only relevant going forward, as we cannot figure out every hairstyle every player has ever had.  But the Steve-bots are eager for you to get your hair did, so they’re offering a new, evolving Epic Stylist cheevo!  Epicly stylish!  Can you buy enough styles to unlock them all?

Codes...How Do They Work?

If you follow any of the ED staff on Twitter, you may have noticed us posting codes periodically.  What are these codes and how are they used?  Currently, the codes can be redeemed for free Starter-Kit weapons, but we are expanding the system to offer a number of different prizes.  Here's a step-by-step guide for redeeming these codes.

Step 0: Get a Code

Currently, you can get these codes by seeing us in person at a convention or by following us on Twitter!

Nightwraith

Cinderella

Titan

Charfade

RabbleFroth

Step 1: Find a City Guard

They primarily hang out in Central Station and Fortune City.  You can use the Delta V map to travel quickly between areas if you don't feel like going on foot (or by bike).

Step 2: Select the "Prize Code" option

Step 3: Enter the Code and select "Submit"

These codes are currently one-time use so only the first one to redeem the code will get the prize.

Stay tuned for more developments on this exciting feature as we add features such as more prizes, more redemptions per code, and more ways to receive codes!

Something Ebil This Way Comes!

Some twenty years before the current events of EpicDuel, Baelius had a “falling out” with his investors and backers when he declared the colony on Delta V a sovereign state and declared war.  But not all of his backers turned on him -- Baelius’s war was partly financed by the mysterious and influential Chairman Platinum.  Word has it that the Chairman is returning to inspect his investment.  Is he coming to free the people of Delta V from Baelius' vile machination or will this be a hostile takeover?  Knowing the Chairman, we suspect the latter.

Terrible Tachinids

If you follow me on Twitter, you know that I had a pet caterpillar named Nova.  Nova was a happy caterpillar, was hand-fed the finest tomato leaves whenever he was hungry.  Eventually, he was slated to pupate (that is, metamorphose into his adult form), and after wandering for a bit, he turned brown and began pupating.  He was also a lucky caterpillar -- I’d noticed that he had cleared an infection by braconid parasitoids.  But his luck was not to last -- a few days after pupating, I noticed that his coloration was off, and there was a weird discoloration along his ventral nerve cord.  Naturally, I observed, and much to my horror eventually Nova exploded, leaving a pile of slimy grey maggots.

These are the larvae of tachinid flies (likely Winthemia manduca), which lay their eggs on lepidopteran larvae (ie. caterpillars), and develop inside the caterpillar.  They’ll begin to devour the caterpillar from the inside during diapause and emerge.  They’ll spend a day or two as free-living maggots, and pupate for 10-24 days depending on environmental temperature.  As adults, they resemble house flies, and will repeat the whole process over again.  As they reduce populations of lepidopteran pests naturally, they are attractive for use in integrated pest management. However, they are not extremely host-specific, and will attack related species to the target organism- eg. an East European tachinid fly introduced in the US in areas affected by gypsy moth has caused a massive reduction in Saturniid moth numbers.

Tags: Steve Cinderella styles TLAPD Pirate Dragons Dragonoid charfade Twitter Codes