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Aetolia: 2015, and beyond.
Razmael
Administrator, Immortal
Hi folks,
As we head into a brand new year, I wanted to give you all a quick look at our major plans and ambitions for 2016. But first, I want to take a look back at 2015 and mention some of the bigger things that we accomplished throughout the year.
We expanded on the Foci conflict system with the release of Major Foci, which provides a grander scale of battle than lesser with colossal eld bosses to battle, putting rewards other than ylem at stake. We also saw the release of the Manipulation research tree, which unlocks ways for players to use their ylem reserves for powerful effects. Along with four class liaison rounds over the year bringing various skill updates, there were updates to the Mage classes, the Monk class, the Indorani class, and an overhaul of the Praenomen class. Let's also not forget the facelift given to the Sect of Blades that improved on the system's original concepts. To top off all these combat changes, we also released an overhaul of the server-side Firstaid curing system, bringing it into competitive levels, as well as the new Fluidcache, which stores all your curing liquids in a similar fashion to herbs in your regular cache.
The War of Night was a big event we ran this year and left permanent changes upon the world. The cities of Enorian and Delos were destroyed, both later to be rebuilt better than before; the flow of time changed forever in Aetolia as days became four times longer; and two new Goddesses made their presence felt. Unrelated events also saw the release of our first major region of the Albedos continent, the Dramedo Peninsula, with plenty to explore and do. On the continent of Sapience we released the Three Widows mountain range, rivalling the Dramedo in scope and content. These two regions combined have added almost 2,000 new rooms to the game. A glimpse of the massive Dehkay Plateau was also seen when a portion of the region was opened up during a political summit and festival. Other areas we released include the Shattered Vortex, a large open PK bashing area; three new villages; Mandre's tower; and more!
A new crafting talent was added to the game, Tambourier, for building percussion instruments. Ylem mines were released for each of the cities. These are a daily solo instance with a variety of quests that players can do to generate ylem for their city and net some experience and gold for themselves. The Fishing skill was also released this year and has proven to be a huge bite. And what goes better with Fishing than a brand new weather system! Rewritten from the ground up, the new weather system has a finer degree of realism, with plenty of new effects to experience.
However that's enough of the past, let's list what our main goals for 2016 are:
- Another new crafting Talent coming out very soon.
- War system is still our biggest focus. We plan to release this in several distinct parts to both get the content out quicker, as well as making it easier for us to balance and fine-tune the system after release.
- A release for our second region on Albedos: The Red Quarter.
- We'll be adding more areas to Sapience as well, including some new end-game bashing zones.
- An overhaul of bashing and introducing new mechanics for it.
- At least one new class (!!).
- Updates for the Sentinel class.
- An overhaul for the Cabalist class.
- We'll also be running class liaison rounds each quarter again.
- Our background story involving the elder Albedos Gods will continue to progress, as tensions rise between the two Pantheons.
Just to reiterate, these are just our main goals. We will be still be releasing other content such as new areas, events, and crafting updates. But our focus as we head into 2016 will be directed at what I've listed above.
As we head into a brand new year, I wanted to give you all a quick look at our major plans and ambitions for 2016. But first, I want to take a look back at 2015 and mention some of the bigger things that we accomplished throughout the year.
We expanded on the Foci conflict system with the release of Major Foci, which provides a grander scale of battle than lesser with colossal eld bosses to battle, putting rewards other than ylem at stake. We also saw the release of the Manipulation research tree, which unlocks ways for players to use their ylem reserves for powerful effects. Along with four class liaison rounds over the year bringing various skill updates, there were updates to the Mage classes, the Monk class, the Indorani class, and an overhaul of the Praenomen class. Let's also not forget the facelift given to the Sect of Blades that improved on the system's original concepts. To top off all these combat changes, we also released an overhaul of the server-side Firstaid curing system, bringing it into competitive levels, as well as the new Fluidcache, which stores all your curing liquids in a similar fashion to herbs in your regular cache.
The War of Night was a big event we ran this year and left permanent changes upon the world. The cities of Enorian and Delos were destroyed, both later to be rebuilt better than before; the flow of time changed forever in Aetolia as days became four times longer; and two new Goddesses made their presence felt. Unrelated events also saw the release of our first major region of the Albedos continent, the Dramedo Peninsula, with plenty to explore and do. On the continent of Sapience we released the Three Widows mountain range, rivalling the Dramedo in scope and content. These two regions combined have added almost 2,000 new rooms to the game. A glimpse of the massive Dehkay Plateau was also seen when a portion of the region was opened up during a political summit and festival. Other areas we released include the Shattered Vortex, a large open PK bashing area; three new villages; Mandre's tower; and more!
A new crafting talent was added to the game, Tambourier, for building percussion instruments. Ylem mines were released for each of the cities. These are a daily solo instance with a variety of quests that players can do to generate ylem for their city and net some experience and gold for themselves. The Fishing skill was also released this year and has proven to be a huge bite. And what goes better with Fishing than a brand new weather system! Rewritten from the ground up, the new weather system has a finer degree of realism, with plenty of new effects to experience.
However that's enough of the past, let's list what our main goals for 2016 are:
- Another new crafting Talent coming out very soon.
- War system is still our biggest focus. We plan to release this in several distinct parts to both get the content out quicker, as well as making it easier for us to balance and fine-tune the system after release.
- A release for our second region on Albedos: The Red Quarter.
- We'll be adding more areas to Sapience as well, including some new end-game bashing zones.
- An overhaul of bashing and introducing new mechanics for it.
- At least one new class (!!).
- Updates for the Sentinel class.
- An overhaul for the Cabalist class.
- We'll also be running class liaison rounds each quarter again.
- Our background story involving the elder Albedos Gods will continue to progress, as tensions rise between the two Pantheons.
Just to reiterate, these are just our main goals. We will be still be releasing other content such as new areas, events, and crafting updates. But our focus as we head into 2016 will be directed at what I've listed above.
3
Comments
Is the new class going to be Spirit, Shadow, or neutral tethered class??
Love it.
Liaisons.
Love 'em. Shapeshifters WOOT.
Class overhauls.
Don't rememeber 'em. Mage leaves a weird taste in my mouth after the following liaisons.
Sect of Blades.
Cool. Stop making @Ezalor angry.
Firstaid.
Love it. Use it while I'm too lazy to finish my system.
Fluidcache.
LOVE IT BUNCHES BOUGHT THE VIALS, BANDAGES, AND TSHIRT
Events.
Wish I was around to involve myself. Still waiting on the Mhun to open their gates or start ascending so we have NPC references for the races.
Talents.
Cool.
Fishing.
Cool for more flavor. Maybe I'll try it.
Weather.
Love it. Plz to be expanding this to havens. Please!
To review for 2016:
Cool.
War System.
Cool.
The Red Quarter.
Cool.
New Sapience zones.
Really? Alright. Cool.
Bashing overhaul.
I still want details.
New class.
Is it Bloodborn 2.0? You guys hinted you were going to do something with hematurgy and rituals.
Sentinel overhaul.
With what purpose? I'm not sure what needs working with that class, besides unlocking them from their dhurives, or allowing crossbows to be more general population like bows can be.
Cabalist overhaul.
Cool. Would love details.
Quarterly liaisons.
Love it.
Albedos Gods
Cool. Is Maghak's lack of a heart going to be addressed at some point?
Thank you to all the volunteers doing your thing. Thank you admin. You're all cool.
Sentinels isn't going to be a large overhaul. We're just unhappy with the way a few aspects of the class are underutilized after their revamp and want to nudge things in the right direction.
And yes. I'm not sure if you were here for it or not, but there was actually an event earlier today that progressed that story a bit.
Thank you all for your hard work.
Thanks for all the work so far.
Keeping the rankings like they are is just a super easy way to turn off everyone but the most serious of hardcore players who've invested truck loads of money from another aspect of the game. Pay to win or pay for perks? Sounds like pay to win to me.
So, seasonal (or whatever time period one wishes to use) doesn't sound to bad of a suggestion to me. I mean, experience is tied to levels and as it is, we don't really lose levels anymore. It's kind of difficult to change the fact that they are of an absurdly high level and the rest of us are... well, not that high.
Edit for spelling. I'm tired!
For the record, I don't think he should have to drop. I'm fine with there being 2 separate things for experience rankings. An all time and then something that resets, like the last version of the combat rankings, or Sect seasonal rankings for Crown of Omens, but still gives out a nifty fame line people can realistically work towards without grinding for a minimum year solid just to get to where Zsadist is now (that's a rough guess on how long he's been working towards 200. You got a real time frame on how long you been seriously doing this @Zsadist?) + whatever ground he's covered in that year.
I'm also not trying to say Zsadist is a dick for not dropping out of the rankings and letting someone else have a chance for it. I mean Z is but for completely other reasons.
In contrast to some of the more 'scripted' bashers out there who dont even respond because they push a button and let their system run around and bash, Z is generally about, with Coribhell or alone and truly working and interacting and responds to people running through his room int he same area. If anything we should appreciate someone who is legitimately trying to reach a goal and still -playing- the game. Over the group of people (Not naming any names) with a persons bashing script who idle bash the same loop of places for hours on end.
(Mind you I only know about this script because I have it, and I tried using it once but I didn't have mounting and everything went ape-unicorns, but I can assure you it will bash faster for you than any other "bashing script" out there)
Go get that 200 Z, I am on your team with this one!
If I'm coming across like I'm bashing Z then um...sorry? I like the kid, he knows that, I don't mind that he's bashing for level 200.
I'm using Zsadist as an example of how silly the system is since there is no level cap because he's the guy at #1 and he's not stopping. Making a system that allows new players and old players alike who can't dedicate themselves as (for lack of a better word) psychotically as Zsadist has for X amount of time a chance at gaining the fame line doesn't hurt his ability to get there.
If you take my playtime and subtract my idle hours (yes, I do have them too), PK times (practice, lessers, majors, arenas, etc), and the days upon days I've spent coding stuff for myself, Coribhell, and help others with their systems.... I've probably been hardcore bashing for at LEAST 340 days... give or take 5 days.
As of right now: Played : 401 days, 19 hours, and 25 minutes
Edit: Keep in mind that I do bash with Coribhell any time that she's online, so that cuts xp gain by 50%. And I've still managed to bash up to the level I'm at now.
Zsadist, I bash vicariously through you!
@Razmael: Can you expand a bit more on these two areas? I mean, a few areas that have been released as "end-game" areas are not in fact "end game" areas in retrospect to other areas (ie Xorani, Tcanna, Vortex, Volcano, Tiyen). Are the new areas going to be able to contest and be classed in the same category as the above areas or will they be classed as sub-par endgame areas like Arbothia and the like?
Secondly, what exactly is your vision of the overhaul of bashing and what kind of new mechanics are you looking to implement?
I don't really want to say too much on the bashing overhaul, as it's still in very early changes. However one of the big things I'm going to be looking at is new incentives for bashing as a party.
@Razmael are the hunting areas going to be instances like Xaanhal, or NEW areas as a whole?
Here's a small tidbit that some of you are familiar with and what you'll be seeing more of in the coming months. Not completely finished either, so expect some things to shift as I readjust and remap!
Years ago I used to draw up maps of these game like this (not necessarily as good), just for myself.
I found they help with immersion into the game, visualising where my character is becomes easier.
So, thankyou!
In all honesty, @Hadrak, that map is pretty freakin' sweet. What program are you using to create the map?