Battle on News [6\9\2011]

**Hexicidal²** · 09-06-2011

Adventure Quest (AQ)

August 2011

It Was a Dark and Stormy Knight....

Recently, we had a discussion about what you expect an advanced knight to be able to do. I think, judging from what I read, most of you will be getting exactly what you asked for! This class is one of my toughest projects yet, but I think you'll appreciate the results.

Today I want to discuss something very important, as my work on Knight begins to move into the planning stages. It's the aspect of story.

Unlike Wizard class's revamp, Knight required work beyond just the class. It has a very generic and boring storyline that doesn't fit with the new path we're taking Knight. As such, we're creating a brand new story for it! You will train as a knight-in-training for your first five levels, then you'll make a commitment to one of Lore's knightly orders, where you'll start to learn some more advanced techniques....up until the very end, where you'll learn the special unique moves known only to the best knights of that order! You'll have to choose your order wisely, since you'll only be able to use your order's armor and skills! You can't represent multiple kingdoms, after all.

But what we need to discuss today is what I've termed the "transfer quest". Suppose you're playing as one type of knight, and you feel as though perhaps the grass is a little greener in someone else's kingdom. The "transfer quest" allows you to switch between one order and another. Now here's the question I want to ask: do you think that, upon switching from one order to another, you should have to retrain those levels, or should you keep the levels you've got?

Let me give an example. Billy trains himself as a Knight up to Lvl 8, then decides he wants to change to another order. There are two ways we can allow this:

1) Billy can be "untrained" down to Lvl 6, where he started. He would lose some levels, but he wouldn't miss out on any of the Knight class's storyline, which is unique to each order. So this option focuses on the importance of the story, rather than training all of the levels.

2) Billy can stay at Lvl 8. This saves you the time of retraining his levels, but he'll miss all of the storyline that Lvls 7 and 8 had to offer, which will make it a bit tougher to follow his new order's storyline. This option focuses on training the class rather than the importance of the storyline.

July 2011

NoDrop Updates and Other Things

As I'm sure everyone has noticed, there have been a *lot* of updates in the past week - and the release was both early (new nodrop shields!) and late (UltraGuardian). We were releasing things as they were ready to go out - which tells you just how much work it was getting some of them ready to go. So here's a list of what we did!

The first release was the addition of new nodrop shields - Adventurer, Guardian, and Awe - which level with your character. The Guardian and Awe ones also follow the elemental selection you choose for your Guardian armor.

Second came updates to existing nodrops:
Adventurer (Long Sword, Short Sword, Wooden Staff, and Spear) weapons are Earth and scale to YourLevel - 20 (minimum 0)
Guardian (Blade, Dagger, Spear, and Staff) weapons are random element and scale to YourLevel - 5 (minimum 0). Guardian Dragon was also updated.
Awe (and Awe!!!) (Blade, Dagger, Spear, and Staff) weapons follow the element you select for your Guardian Armor (None is Earth) and scale to YourLevel - 5 (minimum 0) (Awe!! weapons scale to YourLevel). They also had significant updates to the Special (including a very large increase in the frequency of Power Word Die - which was also updated so that if it fails, it does the new Guardian Dragon attack).
Dragonhand (PLvl 110) and Dragonhand Z (PLvl 105) were updated in themselves and to use the new Guardian Dragon.
Adventurer (Steel Plate, Leather Armor, Cloth Robes, and Students Robes) armors now scale to YourLevel - 20 (minimum 0). They are all flat resistance.
Guardian (Plate, Leathers, Robes, and Savant Robe) armors now scale to YourLevel - 5 (minimum 0). They adjust significantly based on the element you choose for them.
Full Set bonuses for using an Adventurer, Guardian, or Awe set (weapon, shield, and armor) together were also added.
The Insightful Armor of Awe also had its attack changed to be less powerful but to boost spells cast in the armor (similar to what the Guardian armor does).
The rentable Awe weapons were updated. All elements are now available and scale to YourLevel. You can switch between them during the same login session for no extra charge.
Adventurers can also rent the Awe weapons - for a slight additional fee.
The Tomb and Army of Awe quests were added to Valencia's menus.
Valencia can now swap you temporarily or permanently to any of the Awe items instead of just the weapon. For the armor and shield, you must have first taken the Awe armor and shield for free permanently from the Armor of Awe quest. You still need to have collected all of the pieces of the Blade of Awe for her to give you an Awe weapon.
Yulgar can now swap you temporarily to any of the Adventurer no-drop items.
Valencia shows your progress in collecting the Blade of Awe

After that, the Guardian Tower was updated:
The AntiGuardian quest arrived!
AntiGuardian armor is the quest reward for the AntiGuardian quest
If you are a Guardian, you can do the Challenge battle at the end of the AntiGuardian quest and unlock a new nodrop armor and shield - UltraGuardian
The UltraGuardian armor and shield are equivalent in power to the Awe armor and shield - they are MasterCrafted upgrades to the Guardian armor and shield (each with a special ability)
The Guardian Armory can swap you to any of the Guardian nodrop items - temporarily or permanently.
The Guardian Armory can swap you to any UltraGuardian armor or the shield temporarily or permanently as long as you have accepted them permanently for free from the UltraGuardian quest.
Element Customization has been updated (there is now a cost).
Missing Miss Fixit is now available from Nimrod.

In addition:
The Legendary Warriors are now Elite monsters; the weapon they drop is now different for each variant. It is the power level of the Legendary Warrior. The Mythical Warrior is currently in hiding, enhancing its evil (and buffing its weapon!)
A number of other monsters were updated or had new versions added (Mummicane, Cyclops Chieftain, Roc, Enormous Salamander, Scorpzard)
Color Customization can now be saved with any Guardian, Awe, or UltraGuardian items equipped.
UltraGuardian resistances have been buffed
Gokar's Gi no longer has the old doubled spell statpercent and also now takes normal LUK/2 on LUKy Strikes
Solaris now takes LUK/4 on Solar Call LUKy Strikes (instead of LUK/2)
AntiGuardian now uses shields properly
Tiny clickable buttons now appear below the menu with AntiGuardian equipped, so that you can click your shield and weapon for those with click-effects.
AntiGuardian now takes LUK/4 on Dark Bolt LUKy Strikes (instead of LUK/2)
AntiGuardian Z armors are now using the MPLevel to determine how much Dark Bolt costs
IF you are wearing the UltraGuardian armor, the AntiGuardian monster now reverse-seeks on all attacks EXCEPT his Challenge Battle Dark Bolt (which seeks normally) (UltraGuardian is protecting you). This is because you are forced into the UltraGuardian armor.

As you can see, this was a tremendous release. The final dev and balance work on this was started several weeks ago (for example, Awe stats were created in time for the Awe release, but could not go out until the shields all weapons were ready to go). Due to schedule issues, the final crunch time started on Tuesday and lasted 16+ hours a day until the Guardian Tower was released; we're still doing small things (as you can see from the "In Addition" section), but the major release is out.

June 2011
Army of Awe

Good news, everybody! We're picking up right where last week's cliffhanger left off! I mean sure, last week had an ungodly powerful evil released upon the world again, but you've overcome worse...maybe...well, even if you haven't, there's a first time for everything. And as things stand you have found yourself in a rather unique position. This old evil has just been reborn. You know where it is (general area, at least), you know what it's capable of, and you have a couple friends to help you. So sorry to anyone hoping for a long saga, but the story dicates that things move very quickly at this point. You have to stop Awethur before he can fully reestablish himself. Besides, that jerk is running around in that armor you wanted.

The climax of this little tale is fast approaching, so get ready!

Adventure Quest Worlds (AQW)

September 06, 2011

Chaos Rising means WAR!

Back from Con and busier than ever!

We are back from Dragon*Con! Thank you to all of you who came to see us, it was SO COOL to get to meet you all, and hear all your excellent (if occasionally unfeasible) suggestions! Artix is going to write a BIG post about all the AWESOME events that happened at Dragon*Con this weekend, but right now we're going to fill you in on what will happen this week in AQWorlds. We've got a LOT planned and very little time to do it. So lets get started!
Two races. One land. A recipe for WAR!

If you've been keeping up with what's happening in Bloodtusk Ravine, you'll know that there is an uneasy peace between the Trolls and the Horcs. Not all of the Trolls and Horcs are for a truce, though, and when Chaos rears it's divisive head this week, the ravine's river will flow with more than just water: it's not called BLOODtusk for nothing!

With EPIC war rares and lots of loot that you'll only be able to pick up here, this will be a war to remember as some familiar NPCs gain new roles and raise their voices for and against war. And keep an eye on all of the Bloodtusk residents. One of them is more underhanded than they seem...

Brazilian Independence Day Shop comes tomorrow!

Obrigado, Brazil! (That's the only Portuguese word I know. How do you say "Happy Independence Day, Brazil!" and "Enjoy the epic rares!" Someone let me know! Those online translators make mistakes sometimes.) We've got some awesome holiday rares coming your way to celebrate Brazilian Independene Day! If you live in Brazil (or just think the colorful items they've inspired are awesome), then you'll want to check out these celeb-rockin' items!
Pictures will come tomorrow once the shop rolls live since Samba is working on schoolwork and recovering from Con today.
Many people on Twitter are asking "Why do Brazilian players get a shop for their Independence Day and not (their country)?" Our answer to that is: Brazil has one of the largest (and friendliest) numbers of AQW players in the world. This is just a way to say "thank you" to the entire nation of Brazil for their overwhelming enthusiasm for AQWorlds!
Members' Treasure Chest Keys: Update

SO many of you Members are flooding us with requests for your two free Treasure Chest keys. We want to give them to you, as well! And we will, just as soon as the code to do it gets written up.

What we've realized is that it will be easier to have a monthly member-only quest which will give the keys as a reward (a quest like the treasure chest turn-in). Once we get that set up, you'll be able to get your two free keys.
Dragon*Con Pet and Dragon Khan Blade

If you attended Dragon*Con and saw us at the Panel, fan table, or just wandering around, then you probably got your name on the list for a Dragon*Con pet! (And really, who wouldn't want a chibi, candy-throwing Zazul pet?) MOST of the people who wrote their account names down on the list have received a "DragonCon Not-Yet-Pet" item which will turn into the REAL pet once Dage finishes making it.

This like, but chibi. And with more candy.

However, there were some people who wrote the wrong information down, or whose handwriting got blurred. If you don't have your D*C placeholder item in your inventory yet, please let me know on Twitter or by contacting Customer Support (though Twitter will probably be faster). We have a list of names to check against and ways to match your info, so attempts to sneak onto the list will be meant with gentle laughter and a "Sorry!"

A BIG dragon requires a BIG blade!

You might also have seen some people with a Dragon Khan blade in their inventory. You DON'T need to have gone to Con to get this crazycool modified DragonBlade! So long as you can get the code from someone who has it, you can use it to unlock Valencia's shop and wield one of your very own!
AQW's third birthday next month!

CRAZY! AQWorlds' third birthday is in a month, and so is Third Upholder (with the attendant gift-badges and loot galore!) We're starting to plan out what we want to do for it, but what would YOU like to see happen?
Look for Artix's crazily-detailed (and sometimes hard to believe) Design Notes post about everything that went on at Con later today!

Dragon Fable (DF)

September 02, 2011
DragonCon Panel

We had a very fun and successful panel this year at DragonCon! Lots and lots of awesome fans showed up!

Panel Fans!

The Panel itself talked about tons of stuff! Everything from AdventureQuest Worlds to Ponies vs. Ponies! Even Voltaire stopped by to play a few songs from Spooky Songs for Creepy Kids!

Cleric, Rolith, Korin, Cysero, Artix, Nythera, Nightwraith, and J6.

Video of the panel should be available sometime next week for those of you curious enough to watch Zazul throw candy at random people for several hours.

The DragonFable portion of the panel consisted of me answering questions about various questions from the audience and then Artix and I posing one huge question to the crows having to do with Chapter 2. Basically.... should we change up the style of DF gaming experience? We have several options that we can explore and we'd like to hear from you!

Poll - OMG Chapter 2!

Continue the game in single player format, as is.
Use the AQW engine to make DF into an mmo, but using the current style of storyline and changing combat system to be more like the current DF style.
Render out the game into 3D with a new engine.
Smash DF and MQ together into a DragonMech single player world.
Smash DF and MQ together into a DragonMech mmo world (using the AQW DFified engine).
Try to ultilize an EpicDuel style engine to for battles and PvP (player suggestion during panel!)

Let us know what you think! (and hopefully someone can make this into a real poll in the DFGD!)

Thank you for reading