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Summer Update

RazmaelRazmael Administrator, Immortal
in Aetolia Development
Hello everyone!

We realize some time has passed since our last update, but we've been quite busy in the meantime! Our summer has been a whirlwind of activity, between IronCon and training a batch of new coders and Celani, all of which who have added great additions to the game in the interim.

Early on, we had the introduction of our ATTIRE system, which has changed the way characters can display items worn on their body. We have also had vast changes to our brewing system, improving what had been a very outdated fluids program. Both of these changes, plus the addition of dyekits to the game, have given mortal crafters many new and interesting ways to enhance their creations. Crafters also saw the addition of crafting shelves to the game, which permit the auto-creation of designs using commodities stored in their stockroom. 

Our enhancements to the newbie experience continue with the Academy system being released for three of the four cities, with Bloodloch's Academy well underway in its construction and development. The Academy is currently in live beta-testing mode, permitting all players the opportunity to participate in the Academy in order to provide the most thorough testing and feedback. The Academy is available for all newbies once they graduate from the introduction, giving them an engaging quest-based extended tutorial to follow in order to learn the more advanced concepts of Aetolia, as well as earn some equipment and items for their new life here.

We currently have some major plans to rework many other aspects of the newbie experience, involving the original tour (Slaver's Isle) and the current newbie areas. Our aim is to create a progressive storyline for players, giving them an engaging plotline to follow through the newbie areas and eventually continuing that plotline into higher level areas as well. Slaver's Isle will eventually be replaced, as newbies will instead be passed into one of four tours depending on their city. These tours will take place within some of our newly revamped newbie areas (two of which are already revamped and awaiting release). As always, we are constantly focusing on making the newbie experience better as we work on improving our retention rates.

These plot upgrades are not only for newbies, fear not! Our upgraded quests and mobile system has improved many PvE aspects of Aetolia, with many zones receiving minor touch-ups and conversions over to the new system. It's given us the ability to be more creative with what mobiles are capable of doing, including mimicking behaviors typically performed only by players. We've been busy adding quests and storylines to Aetolia, so be on the lookout for many more enhancements in this area as old content is upgraded to meet our current standards. 

Speaking of storylines, Aetolia is currently in the midst of wrapping up its Year 400 activities with the Celebration of the Stars! This unprecedented event pit city against city in a series of highly-competitive events. With over twenty major events (and many other activities to perform solo or at your own pace), the Celebration had something for everyone to enjoy. The Celebration features some new events and games never before seen in Aetolia, including the infamous Liar's Dice. Keep an eye out for the return of the Celebration in the Year 450!

Back on Sapience, some major changes are underway for the city of Bloodloch, some of which have been influenced through townhall meetings with the player leadership. Some major changes to the city's layout and features are underway, with the goal of creating new avenues of role-play for its citizens and allies. Without spoiling too much of the reveal, Bloodloch will be seeing some increased interactions with its surrounding villages in order to give more credence to its Empire-esque theme, with a sinister twist. The city will also see some interesting changes to the newly-rebuilt prison complex, asylum, and the Alcazar fortress, with some Dominion-only activities included. 

A new batch of artifacts was released very recently, with two more waves coming soon. These utility and quality-of-life upgrades will include additions to the artifacts purchased with Iron Coins. Be on the lookout for the rest of these artifacts showing up in the Ankyrean shops very soon. Tagging along with this release will be the introduction of several new minipets. 

The lycanthrope revamp continues to be a major project of ours, with the addition and refinement of our Factions system taking up considerable resources to perfect. The Factions system, it iself, adds a great level of depth to the Aetolian environment, and can be compared to other games' "reputation" systems. Factions will give players the ability to ally (or adversely, work against) with NPC-based organizations in the game, gaining prestige through quests and PvE encounters with the potential to unlock rewards or other special treatment. As you might imagine, we want this system to be done right rather than done quickly, and we're sure the content-rich addition will satisfy players looking for new ways to pursue individual character development.

On the immediate horizon is the Sentinel revamp, which is at the end of its coding phase and should soon be available for liaison testing. In addition to this big release, we have prioritized some class changes in our latest liaison round, including some big things for the Carnifex and Teradrim classes.

Finally, we have some exciting news to share with everyone that will definitely have a major impact on Aetolia's development cycle: Riley Pagett (Oleis) is now a paid member of Aetolia's staff, which will significantly speed up our manpower for all things coding-related. Although his official title is 'Assistant Producer', his role within the game will be largely coding-focused, and so all producer-related inquiries should still be going to myself. Oleis will be spending the next few days knocking out liaison and Teradrim changes, then both him and I will be working together on changes to the Carnifex.

We are very excited to have Oleis with us, and looking forward to the improvement this will have on our turnaround times for code-related changes. Please join us in making him feel at home!
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