EpicDuel PVP Game Design Notes

May 04, 2021

The Tyrant's Trial, EpicDuel's first tournament of 2021 has concluded. Congratulations to all the 50 finalists, including the grand prize winner, Daddy!  Maintaining that dueling momentum for 2 weeks isn't easy, but you were able to rise to the challenge! Thank you everyone who participated in this anticipated introduction of EpicDuel's Tournament system.

The following prizes were awarded to the top 50 winners! Each tier receives all the awards from the lower tiers:

• Platinum Tier
  • Alydriah's Armor
  • Alydriah's Avarice CC P
  • Alydriah's Avarice CC E
  • Alydriah custom hairstyle
• Gold Tier
  • Alydriah's Arsenal P
  • Alydriah's Arsenal E
• Silver Tier
  • Alydriah's Arbiter P
  • Alydriah's Arbiter E
  • Alydriah's Annihilator P
  • Alydriah's Annihilator E
• Bronze Tier
  • Alydriah's Avarice P
    Alydriah's Avarice E

Tournament Post Mortem

Throughout this tournament we learned a few lessons and will make some changes for future tournaments. Botting, an issue in all online games, reared its ugly head here. This was expected, and we increased our regular patrols to identify and ban as many botters and dummy accounts as we could. We understand the temptation: logging off means missing out of duels which means fewer points. This is exacerbated by a longer tournament which can create dueling fatigue.

To help reduce the temptation and pressure, subsequent tournaments will be shorter, likely a week or less in length. We may also need to adjust scoring to discourage botting in Juggernaut, if not removing it from the tournament scoring completely. Juggernaut has been in a weird place for awhile in which it's the mode most susceptible to botters, while also being a safe-haven for players who need to grind XP and credits before facing the high rank Legendary players. We don't want to remove an entire battle mode, but adjustments will need to be made to ensure a PvP tournament is actually PvP and not AI vs AI.

Thanks to the flexibility of the Tournament system, we can introduce tournaments exclusively for single battle mode, like an all 2v2 tournament which could bring in new players to the mode who exclusively build for 1v1. 

May the Fourth

Like last year on the 4th of May, EpicDuel staff Twitter accounts will be distributing codes for "Star Saber" weapons! You'll need to be quick if you want to collect them all. Not all of them will drop today so you'll need to keep an eye on Twitter if you want to collect them all!

Tags: Nightwraith

April 15, 2021

The Tyrant's Trial is nearly ready to begin! Prepare and perfect your build to climb the leaderboard and secure epic prizes! The tournament will begin tomorrow at noon (EST) and will conclude at the end of the day Sunday May 2nd.

Power Up with New and Returning Weapons!

Celebrate Spring with a bounty of new items available at Bido:

• Radiant Spring Sword P
• Radiant Spring Sword E
• Radiant Spring Blades P
• Radiant Spring Blades E
• Radiant Spring Axe P
• Radiant Spring Axe E
• Radiant Spring Staff P
• Radiant Spring Staff E

To help eager Duelists power up before The Tyrant's Trial commences, the Infernal Fantasy items are now available at Kraggor:

• Infernal Fantasy Buster P
• Infernal Fantasy Buster E
• Infernal Fantasy Blaster P
• Infernal Fantasy Blaster E
• Infernal Fantasy Bazooka P
• Infernal Fantasy Bazooka E
• Infernal Fantasy Battlegear P
• Infernal Fantasy Battlegear E
• Infernal Fantasy Knight
• Revitalization
• Focused Fury
• TrueShot (Gun)
• Mana Burst

Tester Progress

As mentioned last week, our list has been narrowed down to a few finalists, and those finalists will be contacted shortly after their accounts are reviewed. I wanted to get emails out this week, but I've been quite busy lately and I may not get to that. Thank you for your patience in this process as we're very excited to expand the testing team with experienced, passionate Duelists.

Tags: Nightwraith

April 09, 2021

An announcement echoes through the streets of Fortune City: Alydriah requests (demands) your participation in the ultimate test of might and will. Will you accept the challenge?

The Tyrant's Trial Tournament

EpicDuel's 2nd official tournament and first tournament of 2021 with the new and improved tournament system (praise Titan) launches today! The Tournament officially starts Friday April 16 at 12 P.M. and will last until the end of Sunday May 2nd. How do you participate? Just follow these steps:

• Visit the Tyrant Totem in Fortune City to purchase a ticket
• The ticket is available from the "View Tournament Status" button
• This ticket will give you an achievement that will track your progress
• Once the tournament officially begins, your PvP wins will be tracked and counted towards your tournament score
• The leaderboard will be visible from the Tournament Status interface
• You can view the rules from the Tyrant Totem
• Prizes will be awarded at the close of the tournament

Special thanks go to Titan for helping complete this highly-requested and anticipated feature! If this feature is successful, perhaps we can wrangle the demi-god to make even more progress on the vast EpicDuel feature wish-list!

Draconic Frost King's Avatar

The final Silver Secret package item will be delivered after today's update. This is a manual process so please allow about an hour to distribute them. This impressive new travel form utilizes both /boom and /fire commands.

Call for Tester Progress

Thank you everyone who applied to be an EpicDuel Tester. We received an astonishing amount of applications, but we were able to narrow the list down after rigorous review. The selected applicants will be contacted next week for a follow up to determine who will move on to the final interview. Thank you for your patience during this process! We appreciate all applications (Almost all. You know who you are.), as your interest in applying shows an exceptional dedication to the EpicDuel community.

EpicDuel 2021 Survey

Thank you all who were able to get to the end of this lengthy, but thorough, survey. The results have been reviewed and will help us prioritize feature and content development. We can't definitively promise anything, of course, but gaining a clear perspective of what you liked most of EpicDuel's history will help us craft a bright future for EpicDuel in 2021 and beyond.

Tags: Nightwraith

March 26, 2021

Happy Belated Birthday Dage! Visit the leader of the fearsome Undead Legion for an assortment of new 2021 weapons!

New Undead Arsenal!

Embrace your dark and broody side with a new assortment of Dage the Evil-themed gear, available from the man himself! These will be limited quantity and unsellable until the items leave the shop.

• Legion Operative Pistol P
• Legion Operative Pistol E
• Legion Hero Slayer P
• Legion Hero Slayer E
• Legion Hero Dagger P
• Legion Hero Dagger E
• Bonefire Warlord P
• Bonefire Warlord E
• Darkside Slayer P
• Darkside Slayer E
• Darkside Shredder P
• Darkside Shredder E
• Legion Leviathan Cutlass P
• Legion Leviathan Cutlass E
• Legion Leviathan Breaker P
• Legion Leviathan Breaker E
• Legion Wrath Scythe P
• Legion Wrath Scythe E
• Legion Skewer P
• Legion Skewer E
• Legion Hero Destroyer P
• Legion Hero Destroyer E

As a bonus reward for partaking of this awesome collection, you'll receive the Dage Collector 2021 achievement! This is also another opportunity to challenge Nightmare Dage for his rare drops! If you already have his full collection, help a friend tackle this infernal challenge!

As new items arrive in Dage's shop, many of his 2019 and 2020 Collection items have been retired and tagged Rare.

New Dage Styles

• Wrath Mask
• Horse Skull Mask
• Virgil Mask

New Dage Décor

Decorate your Underworld abode with new Dage-themed décor!

• Evolved Darkside Runes
• Evolved Darkside Altar
• Darkside Pillar Left
• Darkside Pillar Right
• Darkside Skull Left
• Darkside Skull Right
• Legion Hero Statue Right
• Legion Hero Statue Left
• Bonefire Sconce 1
• Bonefire Sconce 2
• Bonefire Sconce 1 Right
• Bonefire Sconce 1 Left
• Bonefire Sconce 2 Right
• Bonefire Sconce 2 Left
• Floating Skull Flame Right
• Floating Skull Flame Left
• Legion Hero Floating Right
• Legion Hero Floating Left
• Virgil Statue Right
• Virgil Statue Left
• Gluttony Statue Right
• Gluttony Statue Left
• Wrath Statue Right
• Wrath Statue Left
• Lust Statue Right
• Lust Statue Left
• Greed Statue Right
• Greed Statue Left
• Serpent Head Right
• Serpent Head Left
• Leviathan Serpent Right
• Leviathan Serpent Left
• Bonefire Wolf Right
• Bonefire Wolf Left
• Evolved Darkside Wolf R
• Evolved Darkside Wolf L
• Crossed Legion Skewers
• Legion Skewer Right
• Legion Skewer Left
• Crossed Legion Pistols
• Legion Operative Pistols R
• Legion Operative Pistols L
• Crossed Legion Wrath Scythes
• Legion Wrath Scythe R
• Legion Wrath Scythe L
• Underworld Scourge Crescent
• Undead Hero Emblem
• Undead Hero Banner

These home items will not count towards the Dage Collector 2021 achievement.

Tournaments! (For Real This Time)

It's been over a year since Tournaments were "coming soon" to EpicDuel, and I'm happy to say that they're nearly ready to launch. Why the long wait? Titan and I were about halfway done with the feature last year, but his magic was needed on the AQ3D team. It happens! Finally, we were able to allocate dedicated time to finish the feature and deliver on a promise to EpicDuel players. Functionally, they will be similar to the Golden Yeti Tournament of yore, but much more robust to allow for placement ranges, achievements, prizes, and themes. Participation for the first Tournament will secured by purchasing a Ticket from the Tournament NPC (not yet in-game). The first tournament date will be announced soon and offer brand new prizes, achievements, and a PvP challenge not seen on Delta V in ages!

Call for Testers Continues

EpicDuel's call for testers is still underway. To date, we have received over 100 survey applications, and we're in the process of reviewing them to narrow the list down for follow-up interviews. If you haven't applied yet, it's not too late to apply!

Misc Changes

• Legendary Endless M4tr1x will no longer drop Omega Wolf Shards.

Tags: Nightwraith

March 18, 2021

We just rolled a small patch with fixes, graphical optimization, and structural updates for an exciting new feature!

New Features/Changes

• Database and game client updated in preparation for new feature launching soon!

Bug Fixes

• Skull Cracker was using the damage type of the primary weapon instead of sidearm
• Optimization of CC Celtic Hunter and Celtic Cleaver weapons to help reduce lag
• Adjusted skills for several NPCs that may have been causing battles to hang and turns to skip

Tags: Nightwraith

March 12, 2021

EpicDuel Tester Search 2021

It's been awhile since our last call for testers and a few aspects of the process have changed so please read the rules and requirements carefully. 

Think you have what it takes? We are looking for someone who is:

• Experienced (this does NOT necessarily mean you have to have 5 level 40 Legendary characters)
• Knowledgeable (you should know how all the various parts of the game play)
• A good communicator (if you cannot explain the bug you've experienced, we cannot fix it)
• Available (if you'll only have time to pop in for an hour or two, this is not for you)
• Easy to work with (our testers work hard and have fun. Since this is a volunteer position, we want everyone to enjoy what they do and who they work with. Even if you are an amazing, reliable tester, you can and will be booted for having a bad attitude.)

We will be looking at your EpicDuel account history, AE account history, social networking and forum accounts if you have them, and arranging a Discord interview to talk individually with potential candidates. 

Want to apply? Here is what you need to do:

1. Follow this link to the EpicDuel Tester Google Form.
2. Fill all the required fields. 
3. You must be at least 18 years old to be considered for this position. No exceptions.
4. If you send an application via email or Twitter or anything else other than the Google form, your application will not be considered.

One application per person. We will read and consider applicants, but cannot reply to them all. If you are chosen to go through a further interview, we will contact you by e-mail. If we do not respond, we want to thank you for being awesome enough to volunteer! We are not obligated to explain why you were not accepted for the role. Applications will close Friday, April 2nd. We hope to accept around 5 testers but this can change based on quality of applications. We will begin contacting applicants we are interested in as soon as possible, but please understand it takes time to manually review and vet candidates. Contacting staff about your application status will not help your chances. 

Position Details

Please note that this is an unpaid position, but it does come with in-game perks and the opportunity to test game content as we develop it before release. Plus, most importantly, it is invaluable experience with a honest-to-goodness gaming company which will look good on ANY future resumes.

EpicDuel 2021 Survey

2020 ended on a high note for EpicDuel as the most dedicated fans from across the globe delivered the best gifting event yet! Help us make 2021 even better with your feedback! We wanted to have this survey out sooner, but this has been an exceedingly busy new year.

Please follow this link to the EpicDuel 2021 survey and help us make 2021 the best year yet!

New Celtic Content!

Visit Charfade for new CC variants of the Celtic Hunter Weapons!

• Blazing Celtic Destroyer CC
• Mystic Celtic Destroyer CC
• Blazing Celtic Pistol CC
• Mystic Celtic Pistol CC
• Blazing Celtic War Bow CC
• Mystic Celtic War Bow CC

Visit Naomi for new variants of the Celtic Cleaver!

• Dark Celtic Cleaver (suggested by Raxzer)
• Celtic Cleaver P CC
• Celtic Cleaver E CC

Tags: Nightwraith