Road To DragonCon

I'm sitting in the Exit 5 Cracker Barrel just over the Gorgian border with the AE Lab Crew. We stopped to have a bite to eat and I wanted to see if the new Design Notes system worked on my phone. If you can see this, it does.

Tags: Cysero

Dragoncon Panel Info

When & Where is AE?!

I know that most of you aren't going to be able to make it to Dragoncon, but it's the fastest way to reach those of you who are going.

Safiria wants to make sure that you know where we are going to be and when:

AE/AQW Panel
Saturday Sept. 4, 2010
1pm to 3:30 pm
Sheraton Hotel
Savannah Room

We will be wandering all around con, of course, from Thursday night until Monday morning. I'll be carrying Zorbak with me as much as I can. Please, say "Hi". We are WAY more excited to run into you than you are to run into us.

Mudluk Village

Thought I'd post a little teaser pic of the village.

You'll get to see a LOT more Friday!

Tags: Cysero DragonCon Mudluk

Mudluks & DragonCon

The Mudluk Village

I'm pleased to say that we are already testing this week's release and it's only Tuesday. Since we are headed to con EARLY on Thursday, we have all been busting our respective humps trying to get this week's release ship shape and ready to launch on Friday. Of course we are learing EARLY on Thursday morning and I wanted to have all Wednesday to test the Mudluk Village, so we are pretty much done with the release ALREADY.

My goal was to have a quality (mind you, not-rushed, fully tested and fun) release ready to go by tonight and somehow we have succedded. I have to say, even i'm impressed with our work. This is one of the most fun and well rounded releases we've had in a while.

We have a beautiful new map, a new fun boss monster, a killer cutscene, lots of great monster drops, secret AC shop, new rep items, a great new NPC, new area music (Skyline's first try in-game song!), and a wicked puzzle that will require a pencil and some paper to get through.

Unless your friends decide to go all lamezorz and tell you the solution.

Personally, I'd make you work for it.

We even had a little time left over so we made a new Social Item (like the Marshmallow On A Stick from the Friday the 13th Event) to share with your friends. It's the FREE Color Custom Sorcerer's Apprentice Hat. Keep an eye on Twitter and other social networking sites for your free hat! You have my personal guarentee that it will never return once it is removed so keep your eyes peeled.

Peeled eyes. Gross.

We will be releasing the hat later today probably but the Mudluk release isn't coming out until Friday, as usual. It's fun cramming into Artix's hotel room and releasing from Dragoncon!

Cysero's Con Survival Guide! (revised 2010 edition)

Last year, in honor of Beleen's first con, I posted my con survival guide. She managed to live through it so I've decided to repost my helpful guide here!

WHAT TO BRING

• A Large Bag. You're going to to be carrying a LOT of stuff around with you and picking up a lot of stuff as you con so a large bag is necessary.

• A Towel. Your hotel room will probably come equipped with these but I always preffer to bring a large, beach-sized towel with me wherever I go. Hitchikers listed most of the uses, but for a more practical example: I have fallen asleep in the hallways of more than one convention hotel and it's always nice to have a towel for a blanket or pillow.
  Note: Cysero also wore a white bathrobe to our last panel - use your best judgement with all advice.

• Energy Bars. Meals come unpredictably during con and staying alive can be hard. You never know when you'll be stuck at a table-top gaming session that lasts 14 hours straight... and if you leave the brutal GM will just kill you.

• Bottle Of Water. See above.

• Extra Strength Energy Shots (Optional). You know, those little bottles of energy booster that they sell everywhere. These things are not great for you, but caffine and sugar have no effect on MY metabolism and you might be built the same way. Con goes day and night, all weekend long. And it's a holiday weekend. I consider them a necessity during Con.

• Cash (Well Hidden). As you explore the convention you WILL encounter some stuff you NEED to own. Swords, pithy shirts, novels, Lou Ferigno selling autographs... and there is a 50% chance that the thing you want to buy, you can't buy with plastic.. If you plan on falling asleep in a hall somewhere, be sure that your cash is in your sock or in the secret pocket in your boxers... you don't want to wake up broke.

• A Mobile Computing Device. Most modern cell phones will do, but you might not get a signal in the underground mazes that connect the convention hotels. Having a wireless card in a small laptop is priceless. A smartphone attached to a 3G network will do (con-tested my iPhone last year, worked like a dream). You might or might not Tweet. You might or might not need to check your facebook but your FRIENDS will NEED to contact you about something that you HAVE TO SEE RIGHT NOW!

• A Friend. The buddy system is always a good idea. That's why I bring Alces. He's part Dr. Gonzo, part Chief Medical Officer and part Tech Support. He is all best friend and has been for more than half of my life.

• A Camera. Fully charged. Memory card empty. NEEDS a flash. Your cell won't do for this. Too many dark corners with Halo Spartans hiding in them.

• A Zorbak Plushy. It's the ultimate ice-breaker. "Can I get a picture of you holding this guy, please?" "Sure... what is he?"

• Good Walking Shoes. Trust me.

• Glow Sticks or a Dance Party App. Last year Alces and I accidentally found ourselves in a mobile rave. One guy was wearing the sound system and power supply on his back and his two friends were each wearing giant speakers converted into backpacks. The party never stopped moving. Alces and I took a chance, caught a cab, went to an all night market and bought $44 worth of glowsticks to give to share with our fellow mobile partiers. We were gone about 4 minutes, but when we returned to the street corner, they had moved on. We spent the next hour followig the sound of those booming speakers until we caught up. If on'y we'd had the glow sticks on us!

That should be, more or less, everything that you need to pack. Other options include: clean clothes, costumes, things you want autographed, video camera, portable game systems (some lines are long), a map of the con (some of us like getting lost), a pair of scissors (for a lock of Kevin Sorbo's hair while he's passed out in a fountain somewhere), a sketchbook (for ideas), a steampunk R2 unit, Sonic Screwdriver, or grappling hook... just cause.

It's going to be a heck of a party (and I get to bring my shiny new wife and son. It'll be their first REAL CON!). It's a Artix Entertainment Underground lab tradition and it's one that we love. Last year we got to meet a few of our most hardcore fans and we hope to see a lot more of you there this year!

Tags: Cysero DragonCon Mudluk

Arcangrove Disconnect

The Fix Is In

When I woke up this morning I saw 2 pages of bug reports about the same bug. People were crashing in Arcangrove. It was really frustrating because nobody could complete Reens' Daily potion tasks, or pretty much anything else.

Zhoom and I got to work and now we are fairly certain we fixed the issue.

Sorry to everyone who got DC'd during their fight and lost their progress, and thanks to the brave room of adventurers who helped me test the fix. The entire room made it through all 3 dailies without anyone crashing once.

Thanks also to everyone who went to the Release Bug forum and reported the bug. Without your very helpful reports and eye for detail it would have taken MUCH longer to fix it.

Have fun in Arcangrove!

Pay special attention to the Cysero entry in the Encyclopedia Arcana. Beacuse it's about me. Cysero.

Remember, if you think you've found a bug, the best way to let us know is on the Release Bugs forum thread!

Update

There is another bug causing disconnections in other parts of the game. We're working to resolve this one now.

Tags: Cysero Arcangrove Bugs