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EpicDuel PVP Game Design Notes
 | December 19, 2013 A Legendary Release
Become Legendary Prepare for the most exciting evolution of EpicDuel since Omega! In addition to an impressive new Varium bundle, we're unlocking level 40! But what happens after you reach 40? Level 40 will allow all players to achieve Legendary status! This means you will continue to earn experience toward Legendary ranks, all the way up to 100! Each Rank will allow you to unlock points to invest in new stat categories. This part of Legendary mode is still in development and will be fully-released after the new year. This is partially because we want to make sure enough players have reached level 40 before turning it on, partially time constraints, and partially because of the next major chage to EpicDuel described below!
10x the Balance! Well, maybe 10 times the balance is a bit of an exaggeration, but this release, we're increasing key stats like health, energy, damage, and defense by a multiple of 10. This means that every point of stat investment will have a significant impact on your overall combat effectiveness. It also means that all the EpicDuel Maximum Damage videos are going to be posting some huge numbers!
In addition to looking impressive, multiplying the stats also gives us finer control for balancing skills. We're making all the adjustments we can before we go live, but we're also hoping that all the battling over the holidays up to level 40 will give us good information on further tweaks.
Blood Hawk Battlegear Mega-Bundle This release, we're unveiling the new Blood Hawk Battlegear Mega-Bundle! For the price of one 10k Varium package, you'll be getting 2 Blood Hawk Battlegear Mutating Weapons, 2 Blood Hawk Slayer Swords, 2 Blood Hawk Bots, and, of course, 10,000 Varium.
These weapons will be available in the one-stop Varium shop for a limited time. For those who would rather purchase the items piecemeal, Frysteland Valestra will be stocked with the Blood Hawk items in-game. These awesome items will come with some killer cores! Check them out: Hawk Guardian
This Active Core comes equipped to all the primary Blood Hawk weapons. When your health is critical, summon a wild Blood Hawk to come to your aid and deliver a devastating claw attack to your opponent!
Blood Hawk Claw
This Blood Hawk Bot skill allows you to summon the spirit of the mysterious Frysteland Blood Hawk to deliver a nasty attack with razor-sharp talons.
Armor Annihilator
As a Blood Hawk, use your metallic claws to temporarily disintegrate your opponent's armor!
Kawkaw!
Mega Mutations! This Winter, we decided to have a little fun with our new vehicle selection. Indead of riding a bike, you can actually become one of the creatures below! These designs are fully color-customizeable with entertaining travel animation!
Are you Yeti? How Yeti are you? This year you can be an actual Baby Yeti!
Soar above it all as a Blood Hawk!
Dino Hawks are the ancient precursors to the Blood Hawks. They can't fly, but their strong hind legs allow them to move quickly across the snowy landscape.
The final bike is a more conventional vehicle, concepted by G00ny and Smackey El Frog and vectorized by Charfade! It's powerful treads will allow you to tear through the frozen tundra with ease!
Artix Arcade Bonanza! Ever wished you could take your favorite items from another AE game and use them in EpicDuel? After this release, you'll have your chance as we unveil new Arcade games for AdventureQuest, AdventureQuest Worlds, DragonFable, MechQuest, HeroSmash, and OverSoul. By collaborating with the other teams, we've amassed a mighty hoard of legendary weapons!
New Arcade games also mean more Achievements and more leaderboards to dominate. With 6 Arcade prize pools respresenting the biggest AE games, you'll have plenty of reasons to farm Arcade Tokens over the Holidays!
Stylin'! Thanks to the help of Revontheus, we've been able to introduce 30 new Asgardian styles! Alter your looks to resemble a notorious trickster god or a mighty Asgardian warrior.
What more crazy styles will Revontheus create? I have a feeling they have something to do with a moose...
Into the New Year This Legendary release will be our last major release of 2013, but that doesn't mean we're slacking! We already have big plans for 2014, including a tutorial system to welcome and teach new players as well as features to keep the game fresh and exciting for veterans. All the tools we've added to EpicDuel over the years, especially this year, have really streamlined our processes and made delivering feature and content-packed releases easier than ever. We have very high hopes for the future of EpicDuel, and we hope you'll join us in making 2014 Legendary! Happy Juloffenblotten and Frostval from all of your friends at Artix Entertainment! Duel On! Tags: Nightwraith Legends Legendary balance Arcade styles Stats Frysteland Winter Holiday Level 40 upgrade Blood Hawk |
| November 08, 2012 Wear Your Birthday BestHappy Birthday to me! Happy Birthday to me! Happy Birthday to m...OK, that's a little over-indulgent, I admit. Even though I'm leveling up in real life, what I'm really excited about is what I get to offer you!
All your favorite items will be returning from my personal stash of weapons. I'm generous, but I don't want to make it too easy to access them. Like last time, you can either buy the OneX6 Key from me directly or win it from me by besting me in combat! Check out these new level 35 bazookas suggested by ..TRizZzCENTRINO..!
All your old favorites are returning as well!
The missions will also be returning. Visit my friends and associates around Delta V to see what Birthday trickery they're cooking up! The one key absense is the 11-11-11 achievement. 11-11-11 is only happening once in my lifetime so it's RARE. 11-11-12 doesn't really have the same ring to it. Dress Your Best! It wouldn't be a real party without outrageous costumes! Suit up in one of 42 NEW STYLES (7 groups with one style for each gender and class). These artisan styles were crafted with great care based on the winning designs from our Spooky Head Design Contest. Join us Friday to see the designs come to life in-game!
On Friday, the winners will also receive their achievements and their in-game styles free of charge! Congratulations, you earned it!
A Cold Front Approaches! As Fall comes to a close, a cold wind blows from the north. Last year, Frystland fell to the Legion and Alydriah has commanded the occupying forces to do...something. We don't know, and that's terrifying. We have a feeling that she'll unveil her schemes soon, though. In the meantime, check out these new concepts for revamped EpicDuel classes: Bounty Hunter and Tech Mage!
^Thyton
^Nightwraith Tags: Nightwraith Titan contest styles Cake Birthday Missions Weapons Armory Omega |
| September 27, 2012 Spooky Head Design Contest!Hey there! Just to let you know, there a totally rad contest we're hosting in the AE forums! Dust off those pencils and grab that printer paper because it's time to DRAW! As many of you know, Halloween (or Mogloween) is celebrated widely among every single game Artix Entertainment makes! Delta V celebrates a Harvest Festival, but the spirit of dressing up in cool, scary and twisted ways is still a major part of the holiday. For this reason, the team and I thought it would be a great idea to kick it off this Harvest season with a contest. This contest is all about “Player Head Designs!” Since it is the time of year that Halloween rolls about, we are looking for some very awesome Scary, Funny, or Creative head designs. However, it is not required that it is related to Halloween. To be clear, all head designs must be drawn, either traditionally or digitally, but in-game screenshots are NOT allowed at all. To make life easier for you, I've uploaded head templates for all the classes and genders. You can deviate from the template, but it's a good place to start if you're running short on inspiration. I recommend printing them out and drawing over them using a lightbox to perfect your design. You can also import them into your drawing program of choice!
To award the wonderful artists of the community, we have the following awards to give out:
1 Grand Prize Winner will receive 1,500 Varium, a very special 1,000 rating points achievement, all the hairstyles in-game up to the point the winner is declared, and the style they created added into the game permanently!
Well, what are you waiting for? Head to the official forum topic right now and get drawing! Tags: Nightwraith contest Halloween styles Drawing Art Forums |
 | September 20, 2012 Charfade TriumphantYaar 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!
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 |
| October 13, 2011 A Very Scary Design Notes
Boo! Hi there, EpicDuelists! Hope I didn’t scare you! With Halloween just around the corner, we have some scary and sweet things in store for all you players! This Harvest Festival (which will involve several updates) should be full of yummy treats for players (and only a few tricks ;3 ).
First, some Treats! If you’ve been following me on Twitter or the ArtixEntertainment forums, you know that, due to my wide creative streak, my talent for wordsmithing, or (most likely) my willingness to work a full-time job for no money (seriously, guys, you can at least subsidize my caffeine habit), I have inherited the storyline of EpicDuel. We haven’t had a designated writer for the game in quite a while, and having a writer means that things like story arcs, plot lines, and missions will be coming out at a faster rate. My first assignment was to write a few missions for EpicDuel's Harvest Festival, and players will be able to complete several new quests, with unique attributes and special rewards! Most of these quests have to do with the Candy Harvest. An amalgamation of harvest tradition from the colonists’ home planets, young citizens of Delta V were encouraged to wear masks and collect candy from their friends and neighbors. The giving of sweets represents the sharing of joys in life, the masks represent generosity to all, regardless of who they are to you, and prosperity. All players, including low level players, will be able to visit Steve 1.0 in Central Station to earn a unique achievement, or visit Brunson outside the Mine Tower to collect some ingredients for his Mama’s Pumpkin Pie. There are sweet treats for our higher-level players as well! Collect some candy from several shopkeepers for Naomi Page in exchange for a handsome sum of Battle Tokens! But not all is light and sweetness. The indigenous people of Delta V celebrate the Harvest Festival very differently- as the Harvest of Souls. Delta V’s native people believe that the souls of the dead can only enter the Afterlife one day a year. The living collect and display bones and all other things dark and distressing, along with brightly-colored flowers, rich clothes and delicious food. This juxtaposition of the frightening with the familiar is both to celebrate the lives of those who passed during the year as well as to ease the dead into the Afterlife. The weapons dealer beneath the Mine Tower is a member of Delta V’s native people, and hides his identity behind a mask depicting the indigenous War God, Snortivit, from whom he takes the name “Snork”. In exchange for a certain amount of won battles, Snork may be convinced to part with one of his special designs, a valuable and rare weapon, exclusively available from this quest! I’m super excited to get started on some longer story arcs, fleshing out the world’s mythos, and working with Nightwraith to bring the characters to life! Stay tuned for more supernaturally awesome quests next week!
Tricksy Playerses... In addition to all of those things listed above, you’ll be able to trick your friends by hiding behind one of 30 (!) new hairstyles! There are credit only and credit + Varium styles!
Also, Hudelf has something in his bag of tricks for you- the retrain revamp is HOPEFULLY being released! I know many of the players were getting impatient, but it ended up needing a little more care. We'll see if the EpicDuel programming team can work some miracles tomorrow! We’ll be continuing with balance updates, including a slight revamp to the Tactical Mercenary skill tree in the coming weeks. I know many of our players were upset by the addition of requirements to the Tactical Mercenary skill tree, but when 40% of high level players are playing as one class, and defenses of the class reveal that there are only a handful of highly-specific builds that can defeat one build of the class (while being completely weak to any other build the class can put together), there’s something wrong with the class. Which class one choses should not determine the winner before the battle has even begun. As for the revamp of Feld Medic, we determined that support and Field Medic were being abused to a point which was frustrating and painfully unfair to other builds. However, we are going to look at the speed at which the skill improves with level, and see if we need to make it improve faster. With the new adjustments, we’ll also be reexamining the level range for Juggernaut battles for future releases.
*** Stay tuned for more Harvest releases as we move into the month of October! ***
They Might be Giants in AQW
To celebrate AQW’s third birthday, AQW is running a special event with special guests They Might be Giants! On October 14th, Join Us for a very special two-week event “The Collector”. The Collector collects special people before their greatest moments, from not only Lore but other worlds as well (maybe someone from Delta V?) Read more about it on the Event Page and the AQW Design Notes!
They Call Me Doctor Worm Good Morning! How are you? I’m Doctor Worm! Insects and worms are often studied together (being abundant invertebrates), so this week, we’ll be talking about Earthworms! Earthworms belong to the class Oligochaeta in phylum Annelida (round, segmented worms). Their bodies mainly consist of a tubular digestive system surrounded by a muscular outer body formed of segments. They move by means of waves of muscular contractions to shorten and lengthen the body. They are covered with tiny bristles that act as claws, allowing them to tunnel through soil- which, along with decaying plant matter, make up their diet. Worms have a variable number of “hearts” (technically aortic arches) which pump blood through their simple closed circulatory system. They do not have separate sexes, and baby worms reach adulthood within one year. Worms live for 4-8 years in the wild. An interesting attribute about worms is their ability to regenerate lost segments, and it is theoretically possible to grow two whole worms from a worm cut in half. Tags: Cinderella TMBG retrain balance styles Halloween harvest Missions Achievements Weapons |
