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

December 21, 2012

The Dark Yeti offers an energy-based alternative to the classic Baby Yeti's attacks. When Omega goes live, you will be able to upgrade it to the Omega Dark Yeti!

Along with a Baby Yeti and Dark Yeti in EpicDuel, you will also receive a Baby Yeti Battle Pet in AQW!

Shirts are a real limited quantity item. There are only so many, so once they're gone, we're very unlikely to reprint more.

Get a shirt, save three yetis! Can't beat that! Mr. Scrabbles approves!

Happy Holidays! I look forward to continuing Omega development in the frosty Northlands.

Tags: Titan Are You Yeti Shirt HeroMart Yeti Pet Bot AQW

December 06, 2012

Now it can be told: the official release date for Omega is December 14th early February! Of course, we can't confirm what time exactly, but we will do our absolute best to get this epic release to you in a stable, tested condition! To satisfy your curiousity on some of Omega's amazing features, enjoy this new Design Notes as we continue the Omega marathon!

Changes to NPCs

Today we wanted to go over some changes to how NPC fights will work in Omega. We want NPCs to fill the purposes of:

                1) training or testing builds

                2) gaining credits

                3) furthering missions and the storyline

They currently fill some other purposes that we want to move away from, including padding battle records, faction farming, and leveling.

Some of the changes are as follows:

• NPC fights no longer count towards your battle record. We want the Leaderboards and your battle record to clearly reflect your PvP accomplishments instead of forcing players to farm NPCs to pad their win rates.
• You can now fight NPCs an unlimited number of times.
• NPCs will not give experience after level 5. This will allow new players to be eased into the battle system, but afterwards we want the focus to be on PvP. This also allows leveling players to get credits without continuing to level if they feel like they are falling behind.
• NPCs will no longer give Battle Tokens or Influence. Since you can fight them without limit, we don’t want factions or players to farm them for Tokens or Influence. Again, we want the focus here to be on PvP.
• NPCs will not give rewards if you lose. We don’t want people to purposely lose to NPCs over and over, so you will need to win to get Credits or other rewards.
• Brainwashing is removed since it is no longer necessary.

Enhancements

We know there are still many questions about what we’re doing with Enhancements, but we’re not quite ready to talk about this in-depth yet. We will say now that the new system will allow for much greater customization than before, and will involve equipping passive effects and active abilities to your weapons.

Additionally, we will be providing compensation for those that have enhanced weapons in the current system. We’ll provide more specifics soon.

Omega Obliteration! 

We would like to kick off our new development phase with not one, but TWO promotional packages. These designs were inspired by devoted EpicDuel player and aspiring artist TrizzzCentrino! You can choose from the Omega Obliteror set, which features an energy sword plus a mutating weapon! 

OR if physical damage is more your thing, you may select the Omega Onslaughter!

All of these weapons will offer 2 new weapon skills (one active, one passive) to give you an edge in Omega. We will explain what these skills are and what they do as soon as we finalize the details!

Speaking of promotions: Check out Heromart's Coming Soon page for details on the upcoming "Are You Yeti" shirt! This epic garment will come with not one, but TWO yetis for you to play with for the upcoming release!

The Frozen North

Alydriah has been up to no good in her captured territory. However, there is one bastion of hope in this shattered land:

Titan stands watch from his mountain lair in Frysteland. Many displaced Krampus have taken shelter at the foot of this mountain fortress, seeking some respite from constant harassment from Legion troops. Alydriah is smart enough to steer clear of this mysterious refuge, but not so fearful that she wouldn't taunt the gods of Delta V through more indirect means. What new cybernetic terrors has Alydriah created in during the Legion's occupation of this region? Would Alydriah burn Frysteland to the ground just to annoy Titan? How many cheeseburgers do you think Titan has hidden up there?

I guess you'll have to login to find out!

Easy on the Eyes

As we mentioned earlier, the early game experience is getting a drastic overhaul, starting with the login and class selection screens. We will also be refreshing the look of the base armors and styles to reflect this graphical overhaul. This might not be tremendously exciting to our veteran players, but it will make EpicDuel 1000% more appealing to new players, expanding the total number of active players, which means more opponents for you!  

WHY NO UPDATE?!

With all the changes to the database structure and game code, we literally cannot release before it's ready.  Also, preparing a weekly release would divert time away from development on Omega, and we cannot spare a second at this point!

On that note -- Code Sorcerer, away!

Tags: Titan promotions Omega Frysteland Winter Obliterator Onslaughter Yeti HeroMart Shirt Enhancements Stats code TRizZzCENTRINO Update Holiday Seasons Epic Skills Weapons alydriah

November 29, 2012

Some of you may have seen on Twitter that BIG changes are coming to items. We wanted to take the time to explain some of these changes as we get ready for Omega. Today, we'll be talking about gear requirements and stats.

SO LONG, DELTA!

Before we dig into the meat of this post, I will tell you that as soon as Omega launches, the Delta Knight armor, Platinum's Pride armor, the Dragonoid Saga gear, and all the Harvest gear will be leaving the in-game shops and Varium store. Delta Knight we go ultra rare, never to return again, while the Dragon Buster II and Platinum's Pride will be going perma-rare. We're not yet comfortable posting an official date, but it WILL happen sometime in December before Christmas. If you've been holding off on picking up any of this superb gear, what are you waiting for? Grab it before it's GONE!

REQUIREMENTS

One major change we want to bring to the game is greater freedom of choice in gear. Currently your choices are severely limited by the level and stat requirements on gear. If your level is too low, you simply can't equip the item. If your level is too high, the item isn't useful enough. If the item has odd stat requirements, you either can't use it or you have to alter your build to equip it.

In Omega, these requirements are going away entirely. You can buy and equip any item at any level, and there will be no stat requirements to prevent you from equipping anything. The only requirements that will remain are gender and class for class-specific items.

STAT FREEDOM

One other limitation to picking your gear is the built-in nature of stats on your items. If you like a staff or gun, but the stats are bad for your build, then that weapon is no good to you. In Omega, you may now arrange your stats how YOU want on all of your items.

To maintain balance, you will not be able to put all of the item's points into one stat, but otherwise you can customize it as you wish. Similarly, you will be able to choose the allocation of Defense and Resistance on any armor.

UPGRADING ITEMS

(Please note that the above graphic is still in the testing phase and not finalized. It's simply meant to illustrate this exciting new upgrade feature!) 

Another major change coming to items in Omega is the ability to upgrade any item. As you level up, you will gain the ability to put more stats, damage, and defense/resistance onto your items, up to their maximum potential for your level. This effectively means that any item can be used at any level and will not be stronger or weaker than any other item at that level.

Let me repeat that. You'll be able to upgrade any item to your current level and it will be useful in battle. Founder Armor, Beta Gear, last year's Autumn items, that weapon you loved using at level 6 -- all of these will be viable at your level.

And just to be perfectly clear, these features will be available with or without Varium. Upgrading your gear and rearranging your gear's stats will have both Credit and Varium options available.

ENHANCEMENTS

That covers everything we want to share today, but we have more still to talk about in the coming weeks before Omega's launch. Maybe next time we'll discuss our plans for enhancements.....Stay tuned! Feel free to discuss everything in the forums.

Other Progress

Here's a quick look at some of the projects the art team is working on for the Omega release!

Stay tuned for further updates as development on Omega progresses!

Tags: Titan Omega Update Weapons Armors RabbleFroth Forum Yeti Delta Rares

November 20, 2012

Rabble's Bounty

So you roughed up Rabblefroth pretty good last week, eh? Apparently, you knocked his massive backpack over and forced him to unload a bounty of new harvest-themed seasonal rares!

Since we were strapped for time, we asked the kind artists at AQW to lend a hand and we received enough assets to create a veritable cornucopia of new weapons! We tried to add enough EpicDuel flavoring to make them appear uniquely dangerous, while retaining that festive holiday feel that AQW artists do so well.

Visit Rabblefroth in the Wasteland to inspect his holiday wares before the Harvest ends and the cold winds of the North descend upon the citizens of Delta V.

Are You Yeti?

That's right! The cuddly-but-deadly creatures from Frysteland are alive and well and will be returning to EpicDuel this December. There's no better way to rub this oversight in Alydriah's face than by wearing it on a slick navy blue t-shirt. 

*Shirt logo colors are not finalized. We are still working with the printers to get the best possible quality.

Look for the "Are You Yeti?" shirts in HeroMart within the next few weeks.  Be sure to follow Faith's Twitter for ongoing developments!

Omega Marathon

Note: Today's update is not Omega. This section of the DNs is a preview of our current progress on Omega. 

As part of the Omega release, we will be returning to the frozen tundra of Frysteland to check in on Alydriah and her latest plans for the region. Check out some of the awesome concept art Charfade has been working on as we prepare to revisit this arctic wonderland.

I've seen a lot of questions on the Tweetbooks and Facespace about the purpose of these class designs, and I will clarify right now that they are not new classes, but revamped versions of the base classes (Hunters, Mercenaries, and Mages). This is to create a better experience for new players and make the game feel fresh again for veterans.

Balancing 6 classes is no simple task, and we would rather tighten that balance than add 3 new classes. Plus, we feel it would be much more interesting to increase the diversity of play styles for all the existing classes so a Tech Mage plays completely differently from a Bounty Hunter and so forth. One way we hope to achieve this is by eliminating or modifying overlapping skills. We hope to make several changes in the Omega update that will make this diversification easier to implement and balance which we will elaborate upon as more details are finalized.

That's all from me for now. Happy dueling and Happy Harvest! Be sure to take time and reflect upon all that your are thankful for and cherish those close to you!

Tags: Omega Nightwraith RabbleFroth Weapons harvest alydriah Frysteland Wasteland previews Yeti

January 25, 2012

The end of the Frysteland saga, that is! As the War comes to a close, I want to congratulate each of you who participated and made the Frysteland war a success! Remember that your actions determined the outcome of the War for Frysteland, and influenced the storyline as a whole. I’ll be posting an addendum with the official announcement of the alignment winner, along with a description of the missions you’ll have to complete to discover how this arc concludes.

What's gonna happen to these little guys? You'll find out soon!!!

We’ll probably be revisiting these characters in a future arc, and I know some of you were interested in the mythology. Frysteland will remain open all year to visitors from all over Delta V, whether you're seeking conquest, information, or riches.

Since this marks the end of this particular story arc, we’ll be implementing the Aftermath missions, and making changes to the Frysteland screens to reflect the aftermath of the Frysteland conflict.

Also, all the seasonal rare frost weapons will be leaving for another year, possibly taken by the mysterious Titanfraggr for unknown reasons.

Traitors

I would like to confirm that an individual cannot have both the Legion’s Bane achievement and the Krampus Slayer achievement. Players who switched alignment to earn both achievements will lose the second achievement earned. So, if you killed 100 Krampus for the Krampus Slayer achievement, then switched to Exile to kill 100 Yeti and get the Legion’s Bane achievement, you would only get to keep the Krampus Slayer achievement.

This situation showed us that we need to overhaul the war system for the next epic war event to encourage loyalty, and punish treason more severely.

Broken Hearts

Following the Frysteland arc, we will be starting with the next EpicDuel story arc. As Alydriah was distracted by the conflict in Frysteland, the Exiles in Old Fortune City seized this opportunity to plan a counterattack at the Heart of Alydriah’s operations. Not much more I can tell you right now, except that this arc won’t hold back- it’s the darkest thing I’ve written for EpicDuel so far; I hope you are prepared for it!

With this story arc, we’ll be implementing a NEW Promotional pack to replace the Frost Destroyers. This promo which will be going live Friday will include Azrael Borg and Azrael's Curse. The Azrael Borg is a robotic wasp does that physical damage, and has the special ability to sting your enemy with it's unblockable serrated tail and deliver a Heart Attack!  Well, technically it's not a real heart attack, but it does drastically reduce the effectiveness of any applied buffs on your opponent.  It also has a physical primary attack in which it uses it's razor-sharp heart blades to give your opponents more than a broken heart!

The second part of the promo is the awesome mutating weapon, Azrael's Curse! This potent physical weapon forged as a warped marriage of technology and magic carries the Mark of Azrael, which offers a +5% chance to crit!

Tags: Cinderella balance Frysteland Yeti Azrael Curse Skill War Heartbreaker Valentine's Day Promotion Weapons

December 19, 2011

First of all, I want to congratulate each and every one of our players who have participated in the Frysteland War so far. The war is still going on, so be prepared for even more goodies and ways to defend your side. This conflict is far from over!

Remember, your actions WILL determine the fate of the Yetis and the Krampus people permanently. There are consequences to your actions, so fight well, EpicDuelists!

We've got a lot to do this week and not much time to do it! We plan on releasing Thursday, but depending on progress, we could release as early as Wednesday. I apologize in advance if anything in these DNs don't make it for this release, but we're aiming high and we're willing to stock up on enough caffeine to make it happen!

There Will Be Bugs

As with most new features, bugs are inevitable. We’ll be fixing a few things for this next update- the War schedule will be synchronized with the daily events from here on out, and many people were finding it more difficult to defeat the Yetis than the Krampus, so we’ll be balancing out the War NPCs. The Cryostaff and Kringlebot will both be returning to Hank, and Frostbane is being set to Permanent Rare.

New Threads

This week, we’ll also be introducing two new armors for purchase, the Frost Reaper armor for Legion players and the Beast Rider armor for Exile players. Equipping this armor increases the amount of War Points you earn for your cause by 20%. They will also offer an 11% chance to deliver a defense variant of FrostBite, which can apply to the attacker if they hit you with a normal strike while you have the armor equipped!

Moar War!

We’re adding THREE new War Ranks to bridge the large gaps between ranks, which should make ranking up a little bit easier for all players. Some of you may notice that you have a different rank that you had before, but that will be a good thing since some ranks are easier to obtain than before.  We have also readjusted the rating points that the higher-end achievements award.

We’ll also be implementing missions that will award points toward the war- remember, missions take forever to test, so if it’s a late night release don’t be too disappointed. Hope I don’t disappoint!

NPC Improvements

Since many were having trouble getting those Krampuses and Yetis to cough up War Bombs, we are increasing the drop rate for all NPCs, with the stronger NPCs offering a significantly higher chance to drop. We’re also implementing an Ice Gem drop that can be exchanged for credits, with more valuable Gems being dropped by higher level War NPCs.

We might be implementing a drop armor from War NPCs, but that depends on how much art Nightwraith and Charfade get done- you may have noticed that the areas are pretty art-heavy and Nightwraith and Charfade can only do so much with the hours in a day!

Also, the NPCs are pretty strong and silent right now, but we will be adding in the battle text soon! Maybe I’ll even take some time this week to write even more conversation into their text!

The Night Before Juloffenblotten

On Juloffenblotten Eve, the Citizens were busy

with shopping and gifting, all in a tizzy

Buying weapons and gift wrap and fruitcake- Half Price!

All the children were proving that they could be nice!

For on Juloffenblotten Eve, the old folks all tell,

comes Titanfraggr, ringing his shiny glass bell.

“You must leave out your shoes” say the grandmums and dads

“And make sure that you try to be good and not bad.

For if you are not rowdy and do as you’re told,

and keep your word as precious as gold

the man from the mountain will come down at night

with yummy lute berries to fill up your shoes tight

Also, copper wire! Such valuable stuff!

Titanfraggr knows all, and will give you enough.

But if you are wicked, deceitful and bad,

you will lose those shoes that you once had.

He’ll take your shoes, all the shoes, one by one

and give them away to a child who has none.

Instead of shoes, bad children will find

rusted old nails, and bitter orange rind.”

Children all try to earn Titanfraggr’s grace

so leave bacon and coffee to stuff in his face!

So tonight Titanfraggr on his toboggan will ride

With his robot termites by his side

And over the ground his steeds they run

By name he calls them, one by one

You can’t really hear him, so it comes out quite jumbled

so this part of the poem is usually mumbled.

But whatever their names, they pull this man

for they are the most magical landsalmon.

His eyes how they glow! His skin, abiotic!

His copper gauntlets he keeps cationic.

He is lanky and lean, with his beard so impressive

He counts all the shoes in a manner obsessive

And as the sun rises, Titanfraggr disappears

for he won’t return, ‘least not ‘til next year.

Tags: Cinderella Juloffenblotten Frysteland War drops NPCs Armor Yeti Krampus Titanfraggr

December 15, 2011

Hi EpicDuelists, I know that these DNs are a little later than usual, but that's because you already know most of what's coming from last Friday's DNs. However, this post should help fill in the blanks and inform you on some exciting new additions! Let’s get right down to it, shall we?

Wow, Alydriah certainly has a beautify new coat. Hey, is that made out of..AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! T_T

War Ranks

Last time, Nightwraith introduced the mechanisms by which you’ll be able to crush your opponents’ side with munitions either purchased from an Armory Bot or dropped from Yetis and Krampuses during battle. When you join the war, you’ll start out as a Frysteland War Grunt, but you’ll be able to rise through the ranks to become a Frysteland War General!

You’ll be able to earn a variety of achievements, including the elusive Frysteland War Hero badge (renamed from Most Wanted), or the Bombadier achievement!

You can check out your personal contribution at any time by visiting your alignment's War Hero board.  This will give you your own personal score so you can see how you stack up against your friends! This time more than ever, the fate of Frysteland and Delta V hang in the balance!

New Characters

You’ll be seeing some new faces in Frysteland this week, many of them being Krampuses.

Aldhagrimm the Erudite, the Krampus Shaman, is your go-to for information about the War. Ahldagrimm is the oldest member of the Krampus tribe at 80 years of age. As a young woman, she was known as Ahldagrimm the Know-It-All, but following the death of her sister, she seemingly aged 20 years in one night. Ahldagrimm has lived through the rise of Baelius, the Uprising and subsequent Exile, and has buried 3 Kings- her father, sister, and nephew- along with temporarily leading the Krampus people with her brother-in-law Tryggvi the Woeful. She will assist you if you seek Wisdom and Knowledge, but if you seek only death and destruction, well, she has friends on the other side...

Ylwa the Demon Rider: The Beasts corrupted by the Outsiders are still Beasts, according to Ylwa. But it takes a very special breed of BeastRider to bond with a corrupted yeti, and Ylwa is that kind of BeastRider. Since that horrid woman started doing... whatever she did... to the Beasts, they’ve been harder to train, more horrible, more like beasts. But Ylwa is never one to back down from a challenge, and she Rides a Beast the Outsiders call a “Frost Demon”, but Ylwa knows the Beast’s name is Maia, and she holds some sway over the other Hazards.

Fenris the Vicious: Fenris is the large, violent, wolf-like Krampus Champion. He has slain countless enemies, and his name is feared among the Arctic Guards, as well as among the Flatlanders- the name the Krampus have given Snork’s people.

Everybody look under your seat...

As a special present for all of our players, everybody is getting 10 FREE inventory spaces! You get inventory! And you get inventory! Everybody gets 10 inventory spaces!

We will still be working on ways to conserve inventory space, don’t worry. But this might tide players over for a little while.  For those who just can't wait to stockpile rares, we're raising the inventory cap to 120 items!

Fairy Tales

The smallest insects on record are the tiny, delicate fairyflies, with some species even smaller than a single-celled Paramecium. These tiny little insects are parasitic wasps, who lay their eggs in the eggs of other insects, and have very unique nervous systems with neurons lacking nuclei to accommodate for their small size. They earn their nickname from their distinctive wings, which are fringed with tiny delicate hairs called setae. 

Tags: Cinderella Legion exile Factions War Achievements Yeti Krampus

November 22, 2011

Preparing for Juloffenblotten

If you follow our Fearless Leader Titan on Twitter, you saw he spilled the beans on the name of EpicDuel’s Winter Celebration: Juloffenblotten! Citizens all over Delta V are preparing for the holiday filled with joy and cheer, and the Krampus traders will be trekking southward from their northern mountain homes to sell their wares to Delta V’s citizens, including the adorable baby yeti pet!

I want to clear up some confusion about the name of the celebration. I am speaking not of the origin in-world, but my creative process. The term “Juloffenblotten” is Scandinavian in origin- the word itself comes from “Julofferfest” which refers to the Yuletide celebration, and “blot” (pronounced like “bloat”) which is a Swedish word referring to a solemn and significant celebration or feast. Nightwraith and I used Scandinavian references while brainstorming the celebration- the Krampus being one example- and we wanted a name that distinguishes that EpicDuel does not take place in the AQW in-game universe. Delta V is not Lore, and her citizens do not celebrate Frostval. There was some speculation that the name was in reference to something with extremely horrific implications, and I can assure you that this is not the case.

Yuletide Celebrations!

One of the happiest times of the year, Juloffenblotten is a time for family, friendship, and gift exchanges! An element you might recognize from your own planet is the figure of a magical bearded man, who breaks into your house at night and rewards children for their good behavior with gifts.

Who is this mysterious gift-giver? It has to be Titanfraggr!

Titanfraggr, as any child raised on Delta V will tell you, rewards good children by filling their shoes with copper wire and lute berries- a very rare fruit that grows around Titan’s home. They are not tasty, but are high in nutrients. If, however, a child has been bad, Titanfraggr will replace his or her shoes with rusty bolts and bitter orange rind.

You can learn all about the legend of Titanfraggr in the poem “A Visit From Titanfraggr” which may or may not be read by George Lowe. If we can’t get George Lowe, we’ll just make Nightwraith do it. :3

Baby Yeti

I already mentioned that the Baby Yeti will be sold by Krampus traders after Wednesday's release. He will work in battle as a bot, taking up that slot in your inventory (although if I chew on Titan’s ankles enough, he MIGHT eventually be convinced that the Baby Yeti needs to follow you around in-world as well), and his special attack will be particularly effective against support builds. See, this baby Yeti is teething, and needs to chew on something to soothe his pained gums. The most convenient thing is, of course, your opponent’s bazooka.

The baby yeti will have a varium cost of 1900 Varium, with an as-of-yet undetermined credit price.

However, the baby yeti will not be the only bot offered during the Yule season, so keep watching this space for more information!

Words, Words, Words

We’ve become aware of several bugs and we’ll be rolling out fixes for these issues, such as the war kills leaderboard reading “fame” instead of “war kills”. We’ll be continuing to translate EpicDuel into Portuguese and we hope to have the game translated into Spanish shortly after Thanksgiving.

Thanks!

Our American players will be celebrating Thanksgiving shortly, and I want to wish you all the very best of days. Thanksgiving is a time for family, friends, food and fun, and most of all a time to reflect upon the things we are most grateful for in our lives. In uncertain times like these, it’s important to think about the ways that we are lucky. I am thankful in no small way for my friends and coworkers here at AE, and my bosses at on EpicDuel are the best I could ever ask for! And thank you players for playing, and giving me the opportunity to make an awesome game for you. <3

Braaaiiinnnsss....

I promised you zombies, and you’re getting zombies! Insects infested by mind-control parasites!

The cordyceps are entomopathogenic funguses- that is, they live inside and off of insects. The cordyceps are a particularly interesting group of funguses due to the fact that they are able to control the behaviors of their insect host. Ophiocordyceps unilateralis infects carpenter ants, and takes over the ant’s brain. The victim will climb up a blade of grass, and latch on with her mandibles- a phenomenon described as her “death grip”. There she will stay until she dies and the fruiting body of the fungus bursts out of her head.

There are other organisms that are able to control their host’s behavior. Parasitic hairworms that infect grasshoppers force the insect to commit suicide by drowning themselves, leaving the worm safe to swim from the host’s drowning body. Lancet liver flukes control ants by forcing them to climb to the top of a blade of grass until they are consumed by the fluke’s preferred host. Gypsy moth caterpillars infected by their baculovirus are compelled to climb to the tops of trees in the rain, and subsequently explode, spreading the viral particles.

Tags: Cinderella Yeti Juloffenblotten Krampus bots zombies

November 15, 2011

A Festive Look Forward

Hello there, EpicDuelists. First off, we’re not sure how much in the way of content we’ll be able to release for you this week. The first update in December is the start of a HUGE EpicDuel event, so we’re all working really really hard on it! Here’s what’s coming up soon!

Improvements, Improvements, Improvements

We’re working on continuing to improve support in-game for the Portuguese language, which will lead to a better gaming experience for our international players.

In the coming weeks, we’ll also be working for improvements in the inventory systems. With collection quests and nice drops from NPCs in the game and coming up, we’ll be integrating solutions for inventory crowding, such as stacking quest items, items that do not take up inventory space, etc. basically to make things easier on you, especially with the big Winter event! In case you were curious, the OneX6 Key will be resellable after the 11-11-11 event ends, but also keep in mind it will never be offered again.

The Krampus

Delta V’s mountain dwellers are a proud warrior people, more used to utilizing guerrilla tactics, or Beast Riding than the decisive and clean killing style of the Shadow Guard. Many of the Krampus were wiped out after Baelius decided to use mountaintop reveal mining on their homes. In an attempt to garner mercy for her people, the King Krampus Andra the Merciful went before Baelius, but her cries were met by the executioner’s blade. Following her death, the Krampus, led by Andra’s widower and infant son, took to running and hiding to escape Baelius’s devastation.

During the Rebellion many years later, some Krampus thought it wise to ally themselves with the Legion as the Guards promised safety to any Krampus who did so. Others, due to the horrors they were subjected to under the Legion joined Oz and the Uprising. Andra’s son, King Callan the Decent, took a true neutral stance until his death during the Haze of Iwona, when an Uprising faction led by Oz’s right-hand man Royce Armand devastated a Krampus village.

Since the Exile, the Krampus have mostly been ignored by Baelius’s forces- the Arctic Guard remains to threaten and control them, but are unable to bring true devastation, and under the rule of the young King Alaric the Technologically Inept they have been able to rebuild their culture- including the resurrection of the ancient art of Beast Riding. Because of their ability to control and train the wild creatures- colloquially known as “yeti”, as well as the corrupted versions you know as Hazards.

The next content update will introduce you to the first Krampus you meet, and you’ll be able to purchase some Krampus weaponry for credits! If you have some varium, you’ll be able to enter battle with your own Baby Yeti!

Who’s an adorable abomination? YOU ARE! 03

Wraith Weapon Errors

If you’ve suffered any inconvenience due to the stat error on the Elite Big 50 or Wraith Repeater, please PM one of us on the ArtixEntertainment forum so we can rectify this issue manually.

No insect facts?

You may or may not know that, in addition to my development and moderating duties, I’m a graduate student. I am turning the DNs in and leaving right for class, so expect a fact about zombie insects for the next DNs!

Tags: Krampus Winter Event Yeti Festivities Cinderella