EpicDuel PVP Game Design Notes

April 17, 2012

"Welcome Home!"  That was the resounding message of PAX East, or Penny-Arcade Expo, a convention unlike any I have ever attended.  The tone, the overarching "vibe" of PAX, is one of celebration; not of just one genre or style, but of all gaming culture.  My three days in attendance were like being  at a party with 70,000 friends who get all of your jokes and are also wondering if anybody else saw the man dressed as Chun-Li.

I did, PAX.  I did.

Bean Town

I have never been to Boston, so I was eager to arrive at least a day before the convention to do some urban exploration.  I wish I would have given myself more time because the city is amazing!  I love the juxtaposition of colonial architecture and modern skyscrapers. 

Boston is famous, at least in my mind, for its seafood.  I came hungry, and I was not disappointed.

I will let this picture speak for itself.

Boston also has the highest concentration of Dunkin' Donuts stores per square mile I have ever seen.  I did not know it was possible for a city to have a corporate sponsor, but apparently it is.

Con Gear

One of my goals in attending PAX was to maximize my enjoyment of the convention whilst conserving my wallet.  Con food is expensive while its quality is questionable, so I came prepared with a backpack full of ostrich jerky and vitamin water.  For the first day I was running strong, but I needed a boost.  Then, when my desperation was at its peak, I saw the oasis:

FREE FIVE-HOUR ENERGY!

This is the best idea ever.  I cannot even imagine how many tiny bottles of caffeine and B vitamins were consumed over the course of the weekend.  At least enough to get to Mars and back.

Prepare for Inspiration

This is the line leading to the Main Theater in the Boston Convention and Expo Center.  In that theatre, Jordan Mechner, the creator of the platforming classic Prince of Persia delivered a truly inspiring keynote describing his journey from building a game on an Apple II to finding independent success, traveling Europe, handling defeat as his own company failed, and his triumphant return.  One point he made really resounded with me – that life is not a resume.  Life is a series of challenges, failures, and experiences, and it is not a constant march forward.

Game design has progressed so much since its inception, and it is still so very young.  It took film over a century to evolve into the medium it is today, but electronic games as we know them have only been around for about thirty years.  In that time we have gone from Pong to being able to play full-3D multiplayer games on a device the size of a notepad.  Technology and storytelling techniques have intertwined in such provocative ways that the potential of games as a creative medium are nearly limitless.

This keynote eloquently set the tone for what would be a first PAX experience to remember. 

Purity of Vision

Many conventions reach a point at which they attempt to cater to a wide swath of the population.  Often, this is so wide that the original intent of the convention is diluted and the target audience is enveloped in the wave.  PAX is 100% about gaming.  There are no dealers peddling cheap katanas or bizarre anime DVDs or washed-up 1980s actors selling overpriced signatures (which may be a turn-off for some) but it means that the convention is entirely focused around the goal of celebrating games and gamer culture.

Unlike some other major conventions in the industry like E3, PAX is a more ground-level view of gaming.  It was a convention designed by and for gamers, meaning there is minimal corporate nonsense.  The focus is not on the spectacle of big publishers trying to outspend each other trying to overhype products, but convention attendees playing and discussing their favorite games while having an opportunity to test drive the latest and greatest upcoming products.  Typical convention fixtures such as "Booth Babes" are discouraged as the convention organizers feel they are degrading to women and detract from the games themselves.  This helps cultivate a much more comfortable convention experience. 

PAX is also an amazing venue for independent developers.  Many of their modest booths reminded me of the booth Titan and I constructed in Ohio while attending small, local conventions with extremely rough versions of the EpicDuel (one-shot Supercharge, anyone?) available for the attendees to try.  It was exciting to think of the possibilities of an Artix Entertainment megabooth sitting next to Square-Enix and Microsoft, but that might be a bit ambitious for a first outing.

Hint.  Hint.

Panels

I tried to attend as many panels as possible, but not nearly as many as I planned.  Some were funny, while others were funny, informative, and inspiring.  The best was an impromptu panel in which two of the three panelists dropped out at the last minute, so the sole panelist picked several people from the audience to fill in.  It ended up being one of the most random, yet informative panels at the convention.  Of all the panels attended, not one felt like a waste, and it would be truly amazing to see an Artix Entertainment panel at PAX. 

It's worth mentioning that just about anything can happen at one of these panel.  During the first Q&A panel, the panelist were surround by Aperture Labs scientists, a lightsaber duel broke out, and everyone witnessed a very sweet marriage proposal complete with a poem about the couple's shared experiences with gaming.  That was all within an hour!

Key Learnings

This is a great time for the little guy.  It has never been easier for independent developers to enter the market, with services like Steam and the App store making even the most humble games accessible to the masses.

If you want to break into the industry, make a game.  Now.  This is simple yet challenging advice was echoed throughout many of the panel discussions with veteran developers.  If you fail, make a better game.  However, in order to be successful you will need to make sacrifices, and often those sacrifices come from your social life.  You have the infinite expanse of the internet at your disposal for a knowledge base, so there is no excuse for not having enough information to begin.  

Mobile, Mobile, Mobile

Handheld game systems are a common sight at any PAX, but this year it was impossible to ignore the prevalence of tablets, specifically, the iPad.  Indie developers were shaming the major studios across the expo floor with polished mobile efforts that were easily worth their modest price tags.

See game.  Try game.  Buy game.

I marveled at the ease with which interested gamers would see a game, play it for a bit, and purchase the App within a ten minute window.  This seemed like a huge advantage over traditional distribution models as many games at the show were either not ready to purchase, or were only available through traditional retail channels. 

Budding developers and small studios would be wise to take advantage of this new trend in gaming because crowded as it may be, it is full of unprecedented opportunity and possibility.  EpicDuel for tablets, anyone?

No One Is an Island

The game industry is a community and all companies and gamers are intrinsically linked.  No company can survive the vacuum that comes from ignoring industry trends or consumer needs.  The history of gaming is littered with companies that have failed to think progressively.  Want to succeed in the gaming industry?  Make friends with other developers, make games that nobody else is making, and pour your entire being into your work.  In the words of Wayne Gretzky, "A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be."

Concerts

Video Game Orchestra, Supercommuter, The Minibosses, The Protomen, AdventureQuest Worlds musical guests Paul and Storm and Jonathan Coulton, and many more!  I could describe the crowd becoming a vibrating mass of frenetic energy and rockitude, but that only does so much.  Watching Paul and Storm urging an army of 4000 nerds to take over a 7-11 or a rock opera interpretation of classic games performed with a full orchestra is just a "you had to be there" experience.  I shall do my best with pictures.

The Omegathon

For those unfamiliar with the concept, the Omegathon is the centerpiece gaming tournament of PAX.  Throughout four rounds, the competitors known as Omeganauts battle each other in games ranging from the latest console titles to ancient board games.  The final round is always super secret and the prize becomes more epic each year.   

This year the final four Omeganauts took center stage in the Main Theatre to wage war across a freshly waxed Crokinole board for an all expenses paid trip to Gamescom in Germany.  The loser was destroyed.  Not really.

Oh yeah, and we were also treated to Paul and Storm and Jonathan Coulton singing the Canadian national anthem.

That happened.  I teared up.

PAX Over

With a final applause and the drop of the microphone, PAX ended.  The ground rumbled, the air thickened, and the Boston Convention and Expo Center collapsed in on itself like the house from Poltergeist.

The flight back to Tampa was a long sad one, but I arrived safe, inspired and ready to dive back into the business of making games.  This is an exciting industry to be a part of, and if PAX was any indication, it will get even more exciting in the near future.

Tags: Titan PAX East Boston

March 14, 2012

Hippity Hoppity

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

Rabble Rabble Rabble

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

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

Coming Attractions!

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

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

The Bionic Battalion Cometh!

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

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

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

Shamrocks from Heaven!

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

On the Silk Road

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

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

Call for Moderators!

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

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

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

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

What they need you to included in your email is:

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

2. EpicDuel Game account name and email address

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

4. Languages you speak/read

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

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

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

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

November 08, 2011

A Delicious Part of Your Balanced Breakfast

We meet again, EpicDuelists. How did you like our Monday update? I hope you’re enjoying the new quests, low-level bazookas, and Guy Fawkes masks all the cool kids are wearing. And we have more stuff ready to come your way this week!

So, let’s get right on down to our milk and cereal!

You’re older than you’ve ever been, and now you’re even older...

So have you figured out what’s so special about this Friday? Besides that it’s all 11’s? Why, it’s Nightwraith’s birthday, of course! Our wonderful creative lead Nightwraith is older than he’s ever been, and he’s celebrating it with you! Some of the denizens of Delta V- the ElectroHazard, Hank, Charfade, Big Tuna and Cinderella, to be exact- have teamed up to throw our fearless creative leader a surprise party! Between mischievous squidlings running off with his presents, a backlog of orders of exactly 11 slices of cake and other misadventures, battling Nightwraith will give players an 11% chance of a dropped item, the OneX6 Key, which unlocks Nightwraith’s personal stash!

Level 34! Limited time only seasonal rares!

This release is a bit more complicated than most.  In order to access Nightwraith's personal stash, available in the new ArmoryBots across Delta V, you'll need to collect the OneX6 Key.

You can obtain this key as an 11% drop from Nightwraith if you accept the OneX6 Key mission, or purchase it from him outright.

This is just one of many ArmoryBots across Delta V in the Barrens, Fortune City, Central Station, the Biological Preserve, and the Minetower.  They all have the same inventory, but we felt it would keep screen populations down to have more options.

Portuguese Support

You may have seen that part of the delay of the last update involved incorporating support for Portuguese into EpicDuel as a step towards making our game friendlier for our International Player Community. Titan and Hudelf will be working on translation, localization, and special characters. The system they are building is especially exciting because it will make adding additional languages in the future very easy, and provide a template for localizing the other AE games! Hopefully we won’t lose visuals on our text. Again. D:

The Arctic Guard

Baelius’s presence is felt all over Delta V, including its frigid and mountainous Northern Continent. Protecting both the miners working in the dangerous conditions- including the great carnivorous Beasts as well as Delta V’s indigenous mountain people- and Baelius’s interests are the Arctic Guard, specially trained soldiers who are well prepared to deal with the frigid temperatures the Northlands offer.

The leader of the Arctic Guard is one Arctic Outpost Commander Edgar Boothe. As a young man, Boothe rapidly rose to prominence in the Shadow Guard. Perhaps because of his tactical skills, or maybe because of his handsome appearance, he quickly caught the eye of Alydriah Descarl. She assigned him a command position in the frozen Northlands- something about it just seemed... right.

Commander Boothe is one of the characters you’ll be interacting with closely during the winter event, as well as helping to shape his destiny.

Balance Adjustments

We’re still planning on readjusting the Tactical Mercenary skill tree, but due to the addition of support for Portuguese language, I’m told it is unlikely to be released this week.

I can confirm adjustments to Frenzy and Smoke Screen. Following this update, Smoke Screen will now have a Support requirement. Frenzy should be a little less powerful after this update, as the healing factor will no longer take into account the damage adjustment, which was what we intended in the first place, but it was not working correctly for some reason. The practical effect of this is that Frenzy will heal you for less than it did before.

New Identity

I'd also like to make a quick announcement that our Mod and tester formerly known as Rainaka, is now known officially as Lycus!  His green name should update by the new release!

Paper or Plastic?

Certain social wasps build their nests out of cellulose fiber that’s been wetted and crushed, then reconstituted (a material known better to you as “paper”). The families of wasp that do so are the yellowjackets and paper wasps.

 Members of the genus Polistes are the most common and recognizable type of paper wasp. The European paper wasp is often mistaken for a yellowjacket, due to the similar yellow and black coloration. However, they can be distinguished from yellowjackets due to their more slender figures and long legs which dangle distinctively during flight. Colonies are founded by a single female or a small group of often, though not exclusively, related females. The foundress lays her eggs directly into the hexagonal cells of the nest, and she and her sisters will feed the emerging larvae by regurgitating masticated caterpillar flesh. In the early summer, workers emerge and co-foundresses are often exiled to found their own nests. Males emerge from the broods during the reproductive phase of the colony, along with reproductive females, and colonial cohesion breaks down, with intercolonial aggression increasing. Over the winter, the colony huddles together in a hibernative state.

One type of paper wasp, the Mexican Honey Wasp, is one of the only insects other than bees that produce honey. These dark golden-brown and yellow wasps construct paper nests and produce honey from plant nectar in the same fashion as honeybees. This honey is the larvae’s sole food source and is also consumed by humans, although the nectar from some plants can result in the honey being toxic.

Tags: Titan 11-11-11 Nightwraith Cinderella Missions balance Portuguese Achievements Loot

August 30, 2011

Hey there EpicDuelists! Sorry about making you wait for the last update- we ended up having more to fix than we’d anticipated. I cannot apologize enough for the delay, and I cannot apologize enough for the lack of communication from me personally. I’ve started my Master’s Degree and teaching undergraduate bio lab, but don’t worry! I’ll still be writing the Design Notes for all your EpicDuel needs.

Dragon-Con

As Nightwraith explained in the last DNs post, ArtixEntertainment is visiting the 2011 Dragon-Con in Atlanta, GA over the weekend. You will be able to meet most of the AE staff, including EpicDuel’s own Nightwraith and Charfade! I wish I could be there with you guys (see the previous paragraph). Say hi to everyone at the lab for me though!

On Thursday Night from 8-10 join the AE staff at room 4724 at the top of the Mariott for a pizza party with Artix, Cysero, and the rest of the team! It’s all ages, and super-casual (although I would not suggest showing up in pajamas and bunny slippers. I mean, I guess there’s no one stopping you...)

On Friday at 2:30 PM at the Savannah room at the Sheraton, join the staff with the official AE panel (if you’re cosplaying, that’s the place to do it. If you’re of the female persuasion, I can suggest a certain EpicDuel Biodome scientist whose costume is particularly inexpensive...) There will be videos, moglin punting, quiz games, Ponies, and more!

Dragon Duds

To celebrate DragonCon, the Dragon Weapons are returning to Delta V, along with two new mutating weapons (by which I mean they change class with you, not that they cause point changes in your DNA): the Draconic Destroyer and the Draconic Devastator.  These powerful weapons will be limited quantity/time seasonal rares. These items will last as long as Dragon-Con, but after the con period is over (midnight on Tuesday, September 6), the shop quantity will reset to 0.

We will also be returning the back-to-school items, and just like last year these, as well as the Dragon items, will be available from Slayer in The Barrens (Barrens Outpost).

There will also be new  Varium and credit-only Dragon styles available from Steve 2.0 in Fortune City or Steve 1.0 in Central Station.

Calendar Giveaway

Alina announced in her Design Notes today that there are FOUR 2011 Year of the Moglin Calendars up for grabs! All you have to do to enter is to complete an offer from AExtras. You can find them under “Get Points” when you sign on to your Master Account at Portal.Battleon.com. Don’t think you have a Master Account? Luckily for you, if you're an EpicDuel player, it’s your EpicDuel login! The more offers you complete, the more ArtixPoints you can receive, and the more chances you have to win!

This calendar includes a code that unlocks the Chronomancer class in AQW and DragonFable, as well as the Chronomancer armor in AQW.

To show our international community some love, one calendar will be awarded to a player from each region of the world:

• Northwest (North America)
• Southwest (South America)
• Northeast (Asia and Europe)
• Southeast (Africa, Indian Peninsula, Australia) 

Offers are not available in all regions, and all AExtras are third-party offers. We have no control over the content of the offers, or what offers are available worldwide. As always, participate at your own risk.

Insect Fact of the Week

To celebrate DragonCon, today’s Insect Fact of Science will be about Dragonflies! Dragonflies are characterized by large multifaceted eyes, two pairs of transparent wings held perpendicular to the body at rest, and their bodies are elongated. They are hemimetabolous insects (if you remember my earlier fact about insect metamorphosis, this means that they gradually molt from a nymphal form to an adult form), and the nymphs live in water.

Dragonfly nymphs have a unique mouth structure, where the labium (a part of the mouth that resembles a chin on many insects) is modified to extend from the insect to snatch prey. They then use these raptorial mouthparts to hold prey- such as aquatic insects, other juvenile insects, or even fish- while they eat it.

Adult dragonflies are generalist predators (hence the association with dragons) and eat mosquitos, flies, bees, ants, and very rarely butterflies.

Dragonflies are very similar to Damselflies, but can be distinguished by several characteristics. For example, damselflies hold their wings parallel to their bodies, over their backs, while it is physically impossible for dragonflies to do so. 

Tags: Titan dragon-con dragon weapons Calendar Chronomancer

August 26, 2011

Titan vs. Adobe

After a struggle spanning many days, from the darkest cavern, to the highest peak, until at last, Titan threw down his enemy and smote its ruin on the mountainside! That is to say, Titan and our wonderful crew of testers made it known to the software behemoth that their latest "update" was ruining performance in EpicDuel (and a few other Flash-based MMOs) so they essentially released an update just for us! I'd call that a WIN. Get the latest version of FlashPlayer here!  Thanks Adobe!

We've also been making some important changes to the backend of the game -- changes we can't go live with until they are completely.  Because of this, we won't be releasing until later tonight.  I'm predicting a... *summons the guidance of the mischievious time faeries* 9-10 PM EST release time.

Localization

As a byproduct of the efforts to optimize EpicDuel and streamline performance, Titan has been replacing all the interface components in the game.  This paves the way for another very important feature going forward: localization.  Soon* EpicDuel will be available in multiple languages, starting with Portuguese. It's a good thing we don't have as many quests as the other AE games, or that task would be monumental!

*Soon as in sometime in the future that may or may not be near at all we don't really know

Ye Olde Fortune City

Tonight, you will be introduced to the newest area of Delta V, or is it a sub-area?  In any case, Old Fortune City, the current headquarters for the Exiles is accessible through the staircase in the back of Hank's in Fortune City.  All the new equipment will be there, so you'll want to hurry if you want to be the first to check it out!

New Gear!

Of course, we didn't forget all the lovely implements of destruction we showed you last week!  They're still coming, and thankfully, there's plenty for Varium and non-Varium players!  You might also check out the Limited Quantity Shops.  Just sayin'.

A New Champion Rises

We've been teasing at a new character to be introduced to EpicDuel since the early Delta previews.  We're finally ready to drop him in game, but not quite ready to reveal his true identity.  Some of you may already have figured it out, but the explanation will shock you!

DragonCon 2011!

It's that time of year again, folks!

Time to dust off your plastic lightsabers and Doctor Who fezzes and join us for the 2011 DragonCon in Atlanta, GA! This will be AE's 7th consecutive year attending and if you plan on going, we would love to meet you!  

What is DragonCon?

It's basically a four day long, 45,000-person costume party with games, comics, anime, robot battling, art galleries, vendors, concerts, celebrity guests, and panels on everything from how to swordfight, write novels, make costumes, meet the cast of your favorite TV series…AND you can go to our panel and meet US! DragonCon is for audiences age 16+ (unless accompanied by a parent.) DragonCon is not run nor operated by Artix Entertainment.

PIZZA PARTY!

Thursday Night at 8pm to 10pm
Everyone is invited up to our suite at the top of the Mariott (Room 4724) on Thursday to eat pizza and hang out with Artix, Cysero and the team. This pre-DragonCon party is for ALL AGES and is very casual and informal.

• Meet the Staff
• Mmmmmm.... Free Pizza, Soda, Water and Air.
• No costumes. You can dress up if you want, but you should save yoru costumes for the AE Panel that happens the next day!

ARTIX ENTERTAINMENT PANEL (Main event!)

Friday at 2:30pm at the Sheraton, Savannah room
Join us as we kick off DragonCon's gaming track with the official AE panel. It will take place on Friday at 2:30pm at the Sheraton hotel, in the Savannah room. If you brought a costume, dress up for the panel!

• Meet the AE Team!
• Learn... secrets......
• See brand new cheesy videos
• Quiz questions for the audience with prizes and giveaways!
• Yes... the rumors are true. We have ONE, still in shrinkwrap, 2011 Calendar with the Chronomancer class that we will give away during the panel. (For those of you who cannot attend, we have one more that we will be running a contest for in-game)
• X-treme real-life Moglin Punting!
• Bring things if you want them signed by the staff. (This year we are making sure we have PLENTY of time to hang out after the panel and talk and sign things.)
• Bring your art to drop off in our art box
• We received a letter from EbilCorp that Chairman Platnum is going to "stop by" our panel.
• Official release of the game *shivers* Ponies vs Ponies!

Fan Table

Also this year, there will be an Artix Entertainment fan table located in the Hyatt. Stop by each day for a special ribbon to hang on your DragonCon Badge (Jemini made them... there is a different dragon for each day!) There are limited quantity of badges for each day... so first come first serve! We will always have two members of the team and any volunteer players who want to hang out and play battle cards with us. There will also be an art drop-box on the table if you want to submit any of your artwork in person.

-----

Pack your energy drinks and assorted totems of nerd culture and join us for the biggest AE party of the year!  Remember: what happens at DragonCon, stays at DragonCon...until it's posted on the Internet!

Tags: Nightwraith DragonCon Titan adobe flashplayer localization fortune city

August 10, 2011

Those of you who frequent the forum were treated to a post from our Fearless Leader, Titan. For those of you who haven’t seen it, here’s his post in its entirety:

For those who are wondering what the changes made on Friday and over the weekend actually were, I am here to enlighten you.

What it means for you is a variety of exciting possibilities. I’ve installed several structural changes as promised in EpicDuel Delta that will make new features possible. Prior to this update, many of the major features were what I would classify in the “overwhelming difficult to build” category because of limitations caused by the design of the game code. After spending loads of hours rethinking and retooling the engine, you can expect big expansions to the game at a rate faster than you’ve seen since we launched.

Some of these features include new armor types (not just for player, but also for NPCs), larger more meaningful factions, tournament brackets, larger buddy lists and group chats, item banks, improved retraining system, and additions to the storyline that will push the faction war to new limits.

Thousands of lines of code were updated to work more dynamically over the weekend... this means faster development times for new features in the future. When it comes to adding things like new drops, prizes, armors, weapons, etc, it’s now a much faster process for us. Instead of having to define an item id in 15+ different places, we can now more rapidly create content that simply works! This is an empowering change for Nightwraith and Charfade as they’ll be able to more easily add content without the need for additional coding assistance.

These are all ways in which we can now improve the game for you, and though balance changes had to wait until this week, the options now available to us for new features, and items is vast. Overall, this week’s progress, though it may not look big content wise, has been a very big step! We would like to thank you all for understanding, and hope you enjoy the exciting features and items these changes will allow us to release!

Plus, an added benefit that hopefully most of you are finding is an improvement in server response times... faster gameplay means more battles, more fun, and more EPIC!

As always, the entire EpicDuel staff is dedicated to making a fun gameplay experience for everyone, whether it’s Titan actually coding the game, or Charfade and Nightwraith drawing the in-game content, or my team balancing, testing, and disciplining the game, or me with the varied things I do for the game (writing the DNs, some of the writings on the website and in-game are my doing, I run the Facebook, etc.) We are working hard to improve the game, Dear Players, and I hope that hearing it directly from Titan reassures you of that fact.

Balance Changes

I announced last week that we were prepared to roll live with several proposed balance changes, including adjustments to set-damage skills (such as Plasma Grenade or Overload), which could either buff or nerf the skills depending on your current build.  Factoring in character’s level with set-damage skills will establish a more fair range of damage for the skill, and allow us extend the usefulness of skills that are often overlooked at the higher levels.  This level based improvement formula. can also be extended to buffs and debuffs.  We will even be able to control the rate at which certain skills improve to prevent them from becoming UPed or OPed at higher levels.

As always, we’re concerned with improving balance and making the game more fun, for all of our players, and some of these balance changes should help to bridge the gap between paid and unpaid players. It’s always been a tricky situation for us to maintain balance, and the battle is never over.  However, with changes like these, we feel we’re taking steps in the right direction.

In addition, we’re talking about raising the level cap to 34, so both paid and free members will have something to which they can look forward!

Insect Fact of the Week

If you’ve gone down through the mines, you’ve likely met Insectoid mine worker Kraggor. Kraggor’s people are modeled after real-life eusocial insects. In these creatures, which include members of the orders Hymenoptera (bees, ants, and wasps), and Isoptera (termites). Eusociality is characterized by a colony being “ruled” by a Queen, who is the mother of the colony, and has a very strict division of labor. The workers, such as Kraggor, in this type of system are always the Queen’s daughters or sisters, who perform upkeep tasks, building, food gathering, and caring for the young. Males in these colonies are soldiers when they live in the colony, although in the case of termites, many colonies have both a King and a Queen.

Some species of gall-forming aphids or thrips (order Hemiptera, or True Bugs) display a type of eusociality where non-reproductive members of the gall become soldiers, who protect the young.

Tags: Cinderella balance Titan code lag performance

May 31, 2011

This is the LAST DAY to get Founder in HeroSmash!

Only a few hours are left for you to become a Founder in our new super-game HEROSMASH, simply by getting a VIP Membership or buying a package of SmashCoins!  You have until 11:59 PM EST TONIGHT.

Becoming a Founder will give you a warm & fuzzy feeling of supporting the game's ongoing releases, a badge on your character page, access to the Dark Vengeance set, and serious bragging rights -- because founder proves you were there at the beginning, and it will never be available again. 
Read more on becoming a founder on the upgrade page

Tags: Titan HeroSmash Founder dark vengeance hero upgrade

April 08, 2011

Eggzooka Egg-stacy!

To celebrate the beginning of the Spring season, we are introducing the Eggzookas.  These ferocious, wabbit-face auxiliaries are capable of dealing intense damage and feature amazing stat bonuses. 

But how will you acquire these beauties?  Both the energy and physical Eggzookas will be avaible with purchase of the 10,000 Varium package or in-game from Titan and Nightwraith.  Get them before they're gone!

Level Up!  Again!

Numbers will once again go up as we raise the level cap to 33!  It may seem far away, but all the level 32 have been clamoring for this for ages.  It's not an easy journey, but once you get there, it's totally worth it!

To make life easier for those eager to reach the level cap and get the most out of the new Eggzookas, we've introduced a few features to make the leveling process less of a grind. 

Epic Power Hour!

Starting at 10:00PM ET and 10:00AM ET, players will receive DOUBLE XP from all victories for an hour!  This also means that players using XP Boost will receive QUADRUPLE XP!  This puts level 33 easily within reach.

Level Ranges and Encumberance:

To keep the latest and greatest weapons from being out of the range of hardworking players, we have introduced a level range requirement to weapons.  You will now be able to equip a weapon as early as 4 levels prior to the highest requirement, as long as you meet the stat requirements.  However, there is a catch...

We have introduced a restriction to this feature called Encumberance.  You may equip a weapon before you meet the highest level requirement, BUT you will take one point of damage reduction for each level you are below the highest requirement.

Actuall, this block of text explains it better:

This new feature applies to Primary, Sidearm, and Auxiliary weapon types.  Armor, Robot, Bike, and Booster are unaffected. 

Focus Change

Since raising the level cap makes it easier to pour more and more points into one attribute, throwing off balance, we have removed the Focus damage bonus and rewrote the calculations for increasing stat effectiveness.  This means after a certain point, it becomes increasingly difficult to gain more damage and defense.  This will prevent one-sided builds that favor loading up on one stat for an almost guranteed victory.  This change is largely experimental and it can be adjusted as it's been through some more thorough battle testing.

Please note that while the player damage bonus from Focus is removed, Focus will still directly affect Bot damage.

Tags: Titan Nightwraith spring bunny egg Easter Bazooka focus balance

April 01, 2011

Tags: april fool's banana Fame Card Game Missions Titan Achievements

March 25, 2011

Be Famous!

This week we decided to give everyone their 15kb of fame.  With our new and improved character pages, you can search, view win records, and increase the fame of different players.  You can vote for as many characters as you like, once per day.  We've even added an in-game leaderboard to list the most famous, and infamous, players!

Are you more famous than me?  Probably.

Grab Your Popcorn!

To make EpicDuel more cinematic and create a more immersive experience for new players, we have implemented a short intro cutscene leading up to your first confrontation with a new and improved City Guard!

The new and improved City Guard would like to assert that his lawn is not an acceptible venue.

You can also click on Oz in Central Station to view the EpicDuel Trailer.  It's pertinent to the story, and it's been off the site for awhile, so we decided it was time to bring it back in-game.

There goes the property values!

New Missions!

While you're at Oz, you might want to try his latest missions, including our very first PvP mission!  You'll need to win 12 challenge matches to prevail and win Oz's respect.  Can you do it?  We plan to add a new mission type each update until EpicDuel has a mission system to rival any other AE RPG!

Server Lock!

Anyone's who's played in the wee hours of the night may have seen very low player numbers on Doom or Legion.  Few players means few matches, making EpicDuel especially frustrating for new players who don't know to log into more populated servers.  Low population servers will now automatically lock if the number drops below a certain point, encouraging dense servers with quick matches.  As an added bonus, it will make practices like dummying and piloting much more difficult.

Where's Titan?!

Titan and Nightwraith have been relocated to other parts of Delta V.  We're starting a big renovation of Central Station to make it more streamlined and accessible.  Also prettier.  Much prettier.

Ongoing Engine Improvement!

We're still working to update the Engine to the new standard.  Titan tells me it could be finished as soon as next week!

Tags: Nightwraith Cutscene Character Page Fame Titan Engine Missions

March 15, 2011

Tags: Titan Earthquake disaster relief Japan donate Red Cross

November 16, 2010

Tags: Child's Play Titan