EpicDuel PVP Game Design Notes

December 21, 2023

So far the 2023 season of Gifting has been truly extraordinary. Several players have crossed the 1 million gift threshold, while Exempt and Thaddeus have exceeded 2 million gifts. The #1 gifter so far, Musashi, has crushed the all-time record with over 5 million gifts! Even with this awesome performance, the leaderboard isn't set in stone so there's still time to secure a place in the top 15!

Gifting Leaderboard Expansion

Probably the first change you'll notice in this update is that the Gifting leaderboard has expanded to include the top 50 Gifters. This should make it much easier to tell where you stand in the ranks if you're trying for a Silver or Bronze prize package. 

Due to the phenomenal performance of the top Gifters this year, we've also updated the prize tiers for the Gold, Silver, and Bronze chest items to the following:

• Gold: 1st - 15th
• Silver: 16th - 30th
• Bronze: 31st - 50th

Since we've updated the rules yet again and still haven't posted previews of the Cyber Wolf Collection, we're extending the 50,000 Varium package until the end of Gifting. Also, it would be weird to remove it right before major holidays. If you're within striking distance of the various tier collections, the overstuffed Varium package should provide a great opportunity to climb a few ranks to secure your spot!

Omega Void Trials Return

Early in 2022 the Omega Void Trials disappeared after what was intended to be the final Gifting event ever (it wasn't). Since we brought Gifting back, we thought it made sense to return the Omega Void Trial missions to the Daily Mission pool to give people a way to spend their extra Void and Omega Wolf Shards. 

Credit Sink

A major Gifting session can leave most players with more credits than they could reasonably spend in a year. To help give newly Credit-rich players a place to spend their new wealth, we've introduced a new upgradeable Snowflake badge with 16 levels of upgrades. We've also added snowflake home item decorations.

These won't be the last high-Credit value items introduced so expect more to come, especially after Gifting concludes.

If we don't post another Design Note before December 25th, we hope you have a happy and safe holiday and continue to Duel On into an amazing 2024!

Tags: Nightwraith

December 13, 2023

Gifting's 2023 season has now been live for about a week and the performance of this year's participants has been extraordinary! A special shout-out is deserved by the player Musashi, who ascended to the #1 spot on the 2023 leaderboard with a staggering 4,450,519 gifts! This unprecedented outpouring of generosity has led us to update the final prize criteria for the top 15 Gifters as well as extending the 50,000 Varium package a bit longer.

Gifting Top 15 Prizes

This year's Gifting season has been impressive beyond our wildest expectations. We never anticipated seeing so many Gifting clear or crush the 1 million gift threshold so quickly. To add incentive and reward for the most generous gifters, we've updated the final prize criteria with the following additions:

• Gifters who place in the top 15 at the end of Gifting AND meet or exceed two million gifts will have the ability to ask for 2 Legacy Rare items (P and E versions included, meaning you could get X RARE P/E and Y RARE P/E).
• Gifters who place in the top 15 at the end of Gifting AND meet or exceed three million gifts will have the ability to ask for 3 Legacy Rare items (P and E versions included).
• Gifters who place in the top 15 at the end of Gifting AND meet or exceed four million gifts will have the ability to ask for 4 Legacy Rare items (P and E versions included).
• Gifters who place in the top 15 at the end of Gifting AND meet or exceed five million gifts will have the ability to ask for 5 Legacy Rare items (P and E versions included).

We hope these additions are sufficiently rewarding and enticing for those still contemplating participating in Gifting this year. Our original goal with prizes this year was to avoid the situations that occurred in previous years in which the prize creation workload piled and compounded, dragging prize fulfillment late into the year, sometimes even the next year! This modest addition increases the rewards without substantially increasing the workload, allowing the winners to receive all their rewards much more quickly than in previous seasons!

50,000 Varium Package Extension (Again)

The 20,000 AP package for 50,000 Varium will stay in the shops a bit longer while we prepare the preview for the Cyber Wolf prizes. Additionally, since we updated the prizes, we wanted to offer people who want to secure a placement in the top 15 another opportunity to get this delux Varium package and boost their Gifting score.

Tags: Nightwraith

December 07, 2023

EpicDuel updated with the following fixes!

• /open1000gifts command changed to /open100gifts
• Cooldown on /open100gifts command increased to reduce server load
• /open1000gifts will be reverted at the conclusion of Gifting
• Challenger now stocks Revenant's Wall (Armor)
• Frost Revenant Battlepass armors now equipped correctly with Revenant's Wall (Armor)
• If you still have an armor with Revenant's Wall (Primary), it will be automatically updated to the Armor version.
• Revenant's Wall (Primary) core equipped to Primary Frost Revenant Battlepass items.
• Rating point error corrected for Void Stars.

Hopefully these fixes will diminish the low latency that occurs during heavy Gifting sessions, but at the end of the day, there's only so much that can be done to improve performance when 400+ characters are in the same room at once. It's a miracle of engineering that the game doesn't instantly crash when this happens, but we'll continue to investigate possible improvements for future updates.

Duel on, and happy Gifting!

Tags: Nightwraith

December 04, 2023

EpicDuel's 2023 Gifting Event has begun! Login now to give and receive inconceivable mountains of loot, earn achievements, and spread holiday cheer throughout Delta V! Let's send off 2023 on a high note!

If you haven't already, remember to select "Low Performance: Hide Other Characters"  from the Settings menu when Gifting heats up, or the main heat you feel will be from your CPU!

This Gifting Event will last from December 4th to January 8th, 2024.

To review the rules and regulations for the final prizes, please refer to this Design Notes post!

To view a preview of the Gold, Silver, and Bronze reward tier prizes, please gaze upon this Design Notes post!

Good Luck and Have Fun!

I don't know if it's even possible to top the previous Gifting events, but let's still try to make this the best Gifting season yet! Be safe, have fun, and Duel On!

Tags: Nightwraith