I am writing to give you the latest insider news on our upcoming Saga, the Dragons of Ashfall. Since Friday, I have been playing it and testing, re-testing, and re-testing. This release is one of our most important. Mostly because we are once and for all trying to lay down the perfect blend of epic dark adventure combined with a splash of AE humor and fun gameplay. So instead of rolling what we have right now live and then fixing it after your feedback... I am personally playing it first, and making complaints and demanding fixes. (NOTE: I am a very good tester-- I break everything! Even things that are not even bugs.)
Developer's & Dragons
Here are the things that I found, and what we are doing to improve them.
Broken Questing Flow (Urgent) This is the big one. Last week, we changed the game so that quests could span multiple areas. This has shined a light on a new, and even larger problem-- that we have multiple ways of questing that are so confusing that even *I* was unable to figure out how to turn one of the quests in. This is what you call a show stopper. Turns out there are something like 6 different quest flows... the result of how flexible and complicated our NPCs can be. So this weekend, Zhoom coded a solution based on our feedback. We met for a long while this morning and went through all 6 flows again... and hopefully this does the trick. It is a pretty big change, which means once it is coded, we need at least two days to test it before pushing it live as a hot fix.
Making things Clickable... Are you like me? I run around and click on everything. I jump and go everywhere. So Yergen, Cysero, and I started adding little things you can click on around camp. They are not labeled... and not mandatory in any way... these are things just for people who curious. You know, like me.
Fixing Grindy Monsters- Get Nerf-a-sauraus-rex'd The level cap is raising with Dragons of Ashfall and the monsters start at level 15. It was taking me up to 24 rounds of combat to slay a single monster, which felt too long. So Oishii is doing re-balancing at my request to make it more fun. (EDIT: The amount of time in this 1st part of the saga is currently unknown. Our goal is to have the core story be really solid and offer fun side contend for our elite players :)
Seeeeeecrets! Do you like jumping around and climbing on things you should not? Me too! *not saying anything else* Fortunately in this giant lava filled volcano map there are tons of chucks of rocks in the lava, floating, and being held by chains. Falling into the lava is no longer the only danger facing explorers :D :D :D
Release Schedule
If Zhoom finishes his changes and we resume testing today. Then two days later we should be ready to submit Wednesday night or Thursday. I will beg for an accelerated submission given how important this release is. Which means launch will be coming up very soon. Keep checking the Design Notes for a hard release date.
Frostval Leaves Friday
(Cysero steals the Design Notes) Hey guys! Just wanted to let you all know that the gate to the Frost Labyrinth will be closing on Friday. This is your last chance to get the Frostval season rares until next year!
Check back tomorrow!
In tomorrow's design notes we will start meeting the Dragonslayers. Also, we should talk about Martial Arts!
