I am writing two (maybe three) releases for AdventureQuest Worlds this summer. Cysero and Beleen are coming back to write special releases too! For this one, Titan Hollow, I wrote a short story about three Titans battle for the tear of a Fairy that turned into an eternal curse. Like the most popular dungeons from Doomwood, this will be a story-crawl adventure with bonus hidden secrets for hard core gamers.
Concept by Dage the Evil
Originally, I wanted to make it a Grimskull dungeon, but for some reason, players hate dying horrific terrible animated deaths over and over again. <_< Not sure why. >_> Really. So instead of animating comical death cutscenes, we will be focusing on heroic acts of how to cleverly get from point A to point B which will provide scores of awesome screenshot worthy moments.
Beware of living dungeons though.... sometimes... they move. O_O
EpicDuel’s Heartbreaker Saga Launching this Friday the 13th
Journey into the great Hereafter and meet a fascinating cast of new characters including the Necronauts, explorers of the last great frontier: DEATH. Journey beyond time and space to confront the dangers and challenges of the Afterlife while you uncover a trove of new seasonal items created by our talented Guest Artists—historic EpicDuel players . Be warned those blindly driven by greed and adventure: This tale woven by Cinderella, Ranloth, and OWA is not for the faint of heart!
Do you have what it takes to become the most epic dueler in all of EpicDuel?
One of the most common questions/suggestions that we get is about adding Trade to AQW.
I know that I'm on the OMNI team now but the answer is the same now as it was back when I was working on AQW. We wish we had expected AQW to get as big as it did, because then we would have added it in when we were laying the groundwork. It's already something that we are heavily discusing for AQW 3D but for AQW... Trade will never be a part of AQW.
There are several reasons.
First, there is nothing in the AQW engine that would allow for trading of any kind so it would take not just writing the new function into the engine but a complete retooling of the entire AQW engine. The ability to give an item to another player is pretty core functionality. It's not something that you can just tack onto an existing game in most cases.
Second, Flash actually has an actionscript line limit before it can no longer compile. The changes to allow for Trade and to make it secure, as it would need to be, would be a massive addition to the engine and the engine is already large enough that Adobe Flash has issues compiling it. Think of the engine like a slice of pizza. The AQW pizza already has so many toppings that the crust can barely support it all right now. Adding trade would essentially be adding another pizza on top of the first one at which point the pizza would then collapse under its own weight. Then you'd have to eat pizza with a fork and who want's to eat pizza with a fork? Mutants and losers, that's who.
Third, having a reasonable trade system means having a balanced economy in-game. Gold rewards and item sale prices would have to be normalized across the game to make gold a reasonable currency with which to trade. This would mean going back over the game and retooling EVERY SINGLE quest, item price, monster kill award and shop by hand, one at a time, to balance the economy. All that could only take place after the math was done to figure out what changes would need to be made to make the ongoing economy viable.
Fourth, all of this would take the code team a REALLY LONG time and without the coders, there isn't much that the rest of the Devs can do to make a release. While the programmers took the time to do all this and do it right, AQW would probably have limited to NO weekly releases which would make people come back less often which would reduce player count which would reduce sales which would pretty quickly kill the game off. We don't want that. That's bad.
Fifth, it would pretty much ruin the concept of rarity which still plays a very big role in AQW. Some people would say that it's already ruined but those exact same people have some pretty amazing rare items that they wouldn't part with for all the tea in Teattle (which is like Seattle but has tea instead of coffee), so they can stuff it. People have suggested only making non-rares tradeable but most people wouldn't care about trade unless they could purchase hard-to-find items like rares so that's a pretty bad suggestion.
Finally and most importantly, the ability to actually trade items would give hackers and scammers a real, actual reason to hack people's accounts. Right now, there's no real reason to do that other than to feel important in a pathetic sort of way and we STILL get THOUSANDS of e-mails a day from players who got "hacked" (read as: gave away their account to someone who promised them something, or tried to trade accounts even though it's against the rules for this very reason). Once the hackers and scammers actually had a reason, one of AQW's biggest problems would get substantially worse overnight.
It's not impossible. Anything can be done but as you can see there are some pretty HUGE obstacles that make it very improbable. We're not scared of a little hard work and if something changes that someday makes it possible then we'll let you know but for now, it's pretty safe to say that Trade will NEVER be a part of AQW. Tell your friends.
From Travelers leaving the Frozen Wastes come rumors of a vast treasure, waiting for those strong enough to take it. But, say the travelers, no one who has set out to claim it has ever returned… and no sign of them has been found. Is the treasure so grand, the luxury so rich, that they never wish to leave? Or is something darker, deadlier, lying in wait at the heart of the hoard?
Unlock an exclusive zone, storyline, boss battle, and rewards with the BoneBreaker Adventure Package!
Discover the deadly reason heroes seeking the Winter’s Heart Hoard treasure never return!
Talk to Aran the Tundra Hunter in Yulgar’s Inn for a tale of frozen fear and to get his gear!
Happy birthday, Beleen! Check out her pretty pink birthday presents in Battleon and Frostvale!
This Friday, unleash a fury which has never been seen in a browser MMO with 2 NEW promotional packages. Get fully-equipped with Frozen Fury-themed scythes, armors, bots, mutating weapons, sidearms, and auxiliary weapons. This awesome gear comes loaded with SIX new cores! This gear will allow you to dominate your foes in EPIC PvP battles.
Continue the Saga
Take a break from the conflict between Edgar Boothe and Alydriah to explore the Frysteland wilderness and investigate the mass disappearance of yetis and blood hawks.
Give and Receive
Remember to login every day to claim your free gifts! While you're in, why not share the love and offer gifts to all your friends?! New prizes will be added with the new update so there's never been a better reason to login and give!
Yergenhere! There were well over 450 submissions to Legend of LORE’s first ever contest. Each and every submission was awesome in its own right. The monsters ranged from cute, silly, gross, to downright frightening. Oddly enough I didn’t see any monsters that shot lightning out of their butts. Anyhoo - The battle was tough, so tough in fact that we extended the deadline to let a few more monsters get in. In the end, however, a winner (or shall I say - winners) has emerged. What better way to celebrate a 10 year anniversary, than with winners! Here is how it all breaks down:
Gargantuan Grand Prize Winner!
The winner’s monster will be “Thytonized,” 3D modeled by Xero, painted and animated by the 3D team and will be put in one of the first playable maps in Legend of LORE. The winner will get a print of the monster, signed by the entire Legend of LORE team, and 4000 Artix Points.
And the winner is...... Acevorah: by Vypie
Rightful Runner Up
The runner up will get a limited edition black variant Artix or Sepulchure figure, or a signed poster of your choice. (You may only choose one of the previous items.) And 4000 Artix Points.
And the runner up is...... Cappy the Guardian in a Box: by Jaikon
Terrific Team Favorites
All submissions below will receive 2000 Artix Points.
Miho: by Col3ra
LORE Ghost: by Callado123
Steampunk Scorpion: by Ergotth
Snakephant: by Gossj1000
Oblivion Diwata: by JuanKunai
Greenmist Guardian: by Kantro
Zeitgeist: by LordKaho
Monsturtle: by Monster AE
M.A.M.A.: by Nitramier
Eye Durr: by RedKutai
Rune Calibur Knight: by shock_troop
Nagmaul: by Wion
Serpiend: by Zined
Talonius: by Draconerix
Awesome Art
General Esrow: by FlameXero
Advare: by Heartdragon
ToxicLeechDragon: by Boxdragon
We Didn’t Expect THAT!
2000 Artix Points.
Aracat: by Amymist
Eldritch Beast: by Pygar 2
Sarian: by Ryumin
Pwnicorn: by Karpousi
Craziest Creations
2000 Artix Points.
Orncoia: by Therril Oreb
Arachnida monster was disqualified.
Dr. Q: by Darth Necroktus
Cutest Creatures
2000 Artix Points.
Chuppa: by Ammarnight7
Jarkel: by Ownzer
Screttly: by Sorro Asjurai
The Squoat: by iSwim
Thintle: by Animalking
Delectable Descriptions
2000 Artix Points.
Serpent Dragon Like Thing: by Akikane
Ars Custos: by Crepusculum
So many amazing submissions! You all are amazing, and talented, and wonderful. Keep up the good work, and we’ll see you in the Legend of LORE! Yergen OUT!
Yergen here! How is everyone doing? I have something special for everyone. It’s the internet premiere of the AdventureQuest 3D: Legends of LORE trailer!
But first -
The flythrough trailer premiered at DragonCon at the end of our now infamous panel. My guess is there was no panel that was even near as loud as our panel. AE fans are the best! The trailer was a perfect end to an amazing panel.
While we were working our butts off to make get this game ready, I knew DragonCon was on the horizon. Our work was looking so amazing (especially for a browser-based game) that I wanted to do something that really showed off what we can, and have, done. I had the idea of a flythrough of sorts, showing off some amazing environments and hinting at things to come. I figured we could come up with 4-5 cool environments to fly through. We had finished Ravenspire and had the Skulldoor Dungeon. But we needed 3 more, so Geopetal, Thyton, Artix, and I thought chose three new environments that we called the Ice Giant Kingdom, Northpointe, and the Sky Pirates Lair (*note: Location names are subject to change, and probably will). Did I forget to mention that we had a month and a half to finish them? A month and a half!!! The team dug in their heels and worked like mad to complete the three full environments in the unbelievably short time. It was an impossible task and they did it! I can't wait to show it to you.
But first -
This video wouldn't be possible if it was not for our amazing team working on it. First off, Zhoom and Minimal have been building this thing from the ground up. They have been (and are still) feverishly working to build a kick-butt engine that will blow all other browser-based MMO’s out of the water. Thyton, being the master of monster making, brings his unique blend of awesomeness, and epicness (“Epawsicness”) to the game and makes some of the most epawsic monsters, armors, and weapons you can imagine. Next, Xero, the dimensional dominator, takes those hand-drawn designs and brings them into the third dimension. He and Thyton are so in tune, it’s scary what they can accomplish... Scary AWESOME! And then Korin takes those newly created 3D models and makes them move. That bag on his head must be used to hold in his talent, and am I glad for that. I suggested he double bag it, to ensure that we don't lose any of his talent. Next is Llussion: Not only does he help in designing most of the landscapes and architectures, but he then turns around and begins building them in 3D. He has really shown how multi-talented he is. Then comes Tamarann. He takes all of our drawings and scribbles and turns them into amazing 3D models. Lately we have given him many challenges of making extremely modular houses and architecture. He accepted the challenges, and created some amazing looking and highly modular pieces, that helped make one house look like twenty. We have begun to borrow Geopetal more and more to have her start building a rich and lush world that will be LORE. She will take her experience and success of creating the world of DragonFable, and add jetpacks, nitrous, and iron armor to it to create a story that will be Epawsic! Lastly we have been lucky enough to borrow Samba. Her amazing animation skills in AQW make her perfect for jumping in and helping out with animating some of our monsters. Now, without further distractions let’s show this video!
But first -
Ha! Just kidding...
I give you the AdventureQuest 3D: Legends of LORE Flythrough Trailer!
NOTE: This was screencapped with FRAPS from a browser! (That is right, this is actual game footage, right in the web browser.) What did you think? Let Artix or Yergen know. We’d love to hear from you.