EpicDuel PVP Game Design Notes

February 28, 2013

We are already on the cusp of the second week of the Golden Yeti Tournament and the competition is extremely fierce! There is still one more week to go so don't give up yet! Any breaks the leaders take is a chance for latecomers to swoop in a snatch one of the top 100 spots!

Do you see your name up there? Congratulations! But be afraid! Those top positions may be difficult to secure as the tournament continues!

New Cores!

Need some diversity in your build? Gear up with 3 new cores this Friday!

Nanosteel Armor: Critical hits getting you down? This passive armor core effectively reduces the damage reduction of all critical hits inflicted on your character!

*Dead Battery: Applies a curse to an enemy that causes that target's remaining energy to go to you if the enemy is defeated while the curse is active. This means that if you apply the curse to an enemy, and they still have 20 energy after dying, that energy is added to your own pool!* This works even if your ally is the one to defeat the target.

*Dead Battery still requires some more testing, but we do not wish to push the release any later. We will continue testing this core after the release and hopefully make it available next week!

Plasma Meteor: Meteor shower just got an energy damage based equivalent!

Sneaky, Sneaky Azrael

For those that missed it last week, we introduced two new Azrael Scythes last week on the Alydroid. These were limited quantity, so of course they sold out very quickly. This Friday, we will restock twice (depending on demand). Once at 10 AM EST, and again at 5 PM EST. We will also restock the Dage rares at these times. We will only restock if the quantities are depleted.

EpicDuel Turns Four!

It’s hard to believe that four years ago EpicDuel had just launched it’s first public Alpha. It’s even harder to comprehend how the game has changed since this momentous event. In that time, we’ve joined with Artix Entertainment, gone through four development phases, released thousands of weapons, developed countless features, and hosted over 100 million battles. Now we are in the midst of the most exciting evolution in EpicDuel’s history: Omega!

Mod Application Deadline

The application deadline is almost upon us, but it's not too late to submit! Please send your COMPLETE application before 12 P.M. E.S.T. this Friday (March 1st) to: EDCallForMods@artix.com

Lycus and Cinderella are still hard at work narrowing down the list of qualified applicants, but unfortunately, due to the volume of mail, we will not be able to respond to all of you to explain why you were not selected. 

Balance and Bugs

To round out the release, we're making some adjustments to balance, targeting the rise in power of Support builds and some more tweaks to help classes that are underperforming. We have some larger changes in mind to help with balance, but we don't want to do anything too drastic while the Tournament is still live.

There will also be a number of crucial bug fixes. For a complete, detailed list of the fixes and changes, check Rabble's patch notes shortly after the release goes live!

Coming Soon!

This guy.

Tags: Nightwraith Azrael Tournament Yeti Leaderboard Cores Omega LQS balance Bug Fixes Endless Moderators

January 07, 2013

It's 2013! Already? When did that happen? How does it feel to have survived yet another apocalypse? I think if you survive 12, you get a free cold cut combo with a drink and chips. That might not be accurate. In any case, we had a busy, bittersweet end to 2012. Our goal was to release Omega before 2012 at all costs, but after a serious dose of reality, we decided our goal in 2013 should be to make the wait for Omega worth it.

For the New Year

The future of EpicDuel post Omega will hinge on gameplay. When all the items in game suddenly become viable options, the dynamics of battle will shift to your build and what skills are equipped to your items.  We will work hard to make the battle engine, the core of EpicDuel, as dynamic and robust as possible to offer interesting experiences in every battle. Tournaments, new battle modes, and new skills will ensure that battles always offer interesting choices.

Omega Progress

Our Twitter pages have been quiet lately, but not for lack of working. The holidays offered a brief interruption in the development routine, and getting back in synch proved to be challenging. For this reason, we've been hesitant to drop more details. However, after today's intense Monday meeting, we decided that it would be best to keep everyone as informed as possible by posting Design Note updates every day until Omega goes live! It may be a tiny blurb or a massive, multi-paragraph summary of a feature. Many of you already know what's releasing in Omega, but I will try to be as informative and interesting as possible!

Although we do not have a formal deadline for Omega, we will inform you as soon as we do! Some have speculated that we will "surprise" you with Omega. This is a profoundly bad idea for such a massive release. We will absolutely inform you of the date as soon as we are confident in our timeline, but also understand that we will not and cannot release Omega until it is in a ready state. We may be able to find features to cut, but the largest part of Omega is the battle engine, and we cannot release a broken battle engine no matter badly we want to release Omega.

We thank you again for your patience, and we hope we can make Omega release to remember!

Golden Yeti Tournament*

Mention of the Golden Yeti Tournament in previous Design Notes may have grabbed your attention. We discussed it further. and we are making a few adjustments / clarifications. First, it will be a 2-week competition instead of a 30-day competition. 30 days is a long time to expect someone to constantly battle at 100% capacity, and seeing someone at the top of the leaderboard with thousands of wins might be discouraging to someone unable to participate at that level.

Second, we will not be offering the Omega Ticket with a promotional package after Omega is live. We are doing this because seriously participating will be more challenging the longer the tournament progresses and entering midway through the event would place a participant at a huge disadvantage. All those who preorder will be able to participate in this tournament as soon as the tournament goes live.

Participation will be simple --  if you preordered you have the ticket. Each PvP victory will automatically earn you points. These points will position you on a leaderboard with other ticket holders. At the end of the competition, the top 100 players in terms of point total will be awarded the Ultra-Rare Golden Yeti as well as a tiered achievement based their standing on the leaderboard. It's more of a competition than a tournament, but if it succeeds, it will be an important stepping stone to a fully realized tournament system!

Some have mentioned that it's not fair to the non-Varium players to restrict this tournament, but the tournament is a special reward for the preorder offer and making it available to everyone would defeat the purpose. Keep in mind that this will not be the last competition of this type -- future contests will be open to a much wider range of players!  

*As of January 9ths DN post, we decided will be adding a buffer of a few days between the launch of Omega and the start of the tournament. This will give everyone a chance to explore all Omega has to offer.

Wiki Recruitment

When we go live with Omega, the EpicDuel Wiki is going to need major help updating all the entries for items.  Stats and requirements as you know them are going out the window, so much of the existing information will be obsolete the second Omega goes live. We are constantly impressed by how quickly the Wiki updates with each EpicDuel release, but they are definitely going to need help for this one.

Please contact a member of the EpicDuel Wiki Staff to find out how you can join the cause and help to keep this great resource as accurate as possible while lessening the burden on the small but dedicated staff. Please do not contact the Devs about being a member of the Wiki Staff as we are not directly involved in it.

To encourage more participation on the Wiki, we will be increasing the value of the coveted Lore Master Achievement by 1000 Rating Points, as well as offering the extremely rare Rabble's Attack Tome sidearm for contributors deemed worthy by the current staff.

Please do not confuse Wiki Staff with Moderators or Developers.  They should not be contacted concerning bugs, account issues, or player reports. Also, please don't send them your passwords. They don't want or need your account information.

Become a Bug Hunter!

Artix.com just unveiled this snazzy new system for reporting bugs! No more tweeting at Devs hoping they'll see your report! No more trying to find the right place to post on the forums! This is your one-stop reporting zone. The bugs will never know what squashed them!

Charity Is Child's Play

One more item before I wrap up this DN post: Child's Play Charity, the charity that raises money year round for toys and money for hospitals around the world! This year gamers showed astonishing generosity and raised a grand total of $5,085,761! That's a lot of happy sick kids! I feel it's an incredible feat and definitely worth sharing.

Can this record be shattered in 2013? Given the track record for boundless gamer generosity, even in times when others are tightening their belts, I have no doubt that record will be obliterated!

Tags: Nightwraith Resolutions Omega Tournament contest Progress Report New Year Child's Play Charity Bug Artix