Etherstorm's Water Realm...

Where Galanoth's Future is Decided!

Under a blood-red sky, a dragon is about to die! All dragons do, when facing Galanoth, right? He is not in any Etherstorm Realm you've seen yet, and there is no way for YOU to get to him. You will be too busy working to save the dragons and elements of Lore. No time to...

...find out just where Galanoth went! Or what he plans to do now that he's there! But the way he's holding that sword indicates that he's NOT on a mission of peace! Which dragon is about to feel the wrath of Galanoth the DragonSlayer? (We all know he is not very fond of fire dragons...)

MEANWHILE, IN THE WATER REALM: you have learned the location of the new Prime Dragons! Now your task is to unravel the complexly woven protection spell that is guarding them! (Wait... the Priests knew where they were all along? What?!)

Quest through a marsh that flows into the open ocean! Battle Marsh Lurkers, fishy foes, and wipe out water monsters as you race to an undersea finish! And don't forget:

The Deep Dweller waits!

Oh, and keep an eye out for anything fishy on the beach. Something that prooooobably shouldn't be there. Once you find it, run away. Fast.

Suggestion Shop Update!

Dage, Solrac and Jemini have whipped up some wildly awesome Suggestion Shop items based on the work of Impactor, Ayuzu, and disturbed indestructible!

Fantasy Warrior and Disturbed Blade!

• Fantasy Armor - Impactor
• Valkyrie Blade - Ayuzu
• Disturbed Blade - distrubed indestructible
• Seaweed Hat/Hairstyle - Ganloth

Fantasy Warrior and Valkyrie Blade!

Mid week release reminder!

Hey MEMBERS! Make sure you /join tower to check out the newest mid-week member-only release! Learn about the shadowy Silent Sentinels, an organization within the Guardian Order itself!

Coming next week!

Get ready for:

• Etherstorm Earth Realm!
• Member-only Mid-week release in Cornelis!
• Quibble arrives in Battleon with an Etherstorm-themed shop!
• New weapons in Chinese New Year shop!

Have a GREAT weekend, guys! Enjoy the release, stay dry, and make sure you keep an eye on the calendar, because the arrival of the next Chaos Lord draws ever closer...

Tags: Alina Etherstorm Galanoth Suggestion Shop Guardian Tower

Purple Elephants on a SkyShip

That seems like a silly SkyPirate strategy...

Afternoon, Heroes and Heroines and Anti-Heroes! (Not the same thing as Villains according to literary theory!) Cysero told Twitter that I would write Design Notes. Now, I didn't think that was really wise since I'm taking some medicine for pain (I had 3 wisdom teeth pulled yesterday), but I trust Cysero! He's never steered me wrong yet, except for the time he suggested I eat the snozzberry yogurt. But might have dreamed that memory.

OOOH speaking of literature, I was reading a book Monday to distract myself from the pain in my mouth and it was about Hannibal using elephants in war. And THAT led to my dream - which happened when Rolith made me take a NAP (even though I need to work and not sleep!) - which was KIND OF about the release...

In that I dreamed about the SkyGuard (visions of BattleOn, Arcangrove, Lolosia, and more exploding as SkyPirate bombs fell on them) and SkyPirates using (this is a REALLY bad idea, pirates) purple elephants to attack the SkyGuard's Department of Strategization...

which sounds like defenestration...

which means to throw out of a window...

and the eyes are the window to the soul...

and sailors say "Aye Aye Cap'n"...

and the SkyGuard are sailors of the air...

and air is in hairspray...

which they use to style beehive bouffants...

which sounds like elephants...

that the SkyPirates want to purple! It all makes SENSE!@!!!

...
...

The TV and the DVR are glaring at me with malice in their beady little red LEDs. They're going to get me, and Rolith's out getting more juice! Oh NOOOOO!

I'm gonna need a Hero! And the SkyGuard are holding on for a Hero 'til the end of the Flight! You've gotta be brave, gotta /unsheath at the sight of SkyPirates as they start to fight!

Members will get a chance to be Heroes and earn
a SkyPirate Slayer character page badge this Friday!

I need a heeeeeeee-rooooooo-oooooo! Don't need teeth to sing. Success!

FOCUS. Need to FOCUS. Writing DESIGN NOTES.

Also successful (we think) will be this Friday's Limited Time Shop (member-only items sold for gold)! Cysero talked about that here. Cysero talks about a lot of things (he is REALLY smart! No joke.), and this is one of the ones you should definitely remember to pay attention to.

If you follow that link, you'll ALSO get to learn, or to remember if you've already learned it, about the update to the Treasure Chests this week! We're not going to stop filling those until you have HUNDREDS of items to collect! (That is a HUGE chest! Perhaps it is a Treasure Chest of Holding. HAH! D&D reference. I love being a nerd.)

We will also TRY to update the Player Suggestion shop. It depends on how much time we have.

Ok. Ok. Talk about the SkyGuard release. Talk about the Limited Time Shop. Talk about the Treasure Chest update. Talk about the Suggestion Shop. Check. Check. Check. Check. ... Check please! I'm checkin' out, it's nap time!

I'll leave you with a pretty pretty picture:

Rolith bought me lovely flowers but the cats eated them.

Tags: Alina Purple Elephants Wisdom Teeth SkyGuard LTS Treasure Chest Suggestion Shop Flowers Cats Killer TV-DVR combos

Con Release!

Dragon*Con does NOT Drag On!

It can't, because it NEVER STOPS. It's 1:46AM and Yergen, Rolith, and I are sitting around relaxing and going over the AWESOME panel we hosted earlier today. But first, let's go over the AQWorlds release before I either fall asleep or fall into the middle of a conga line of StormTroopers. Both options are equally as likely to happen.

Mystery MMO (Massively Molten Operation)

That's right, a mystery villain has kidnapped you and dropped you at the bottom of a volcano! He doesn't want to have to deal with you because he KNOWS how much trouble you were the LAST time he dealt with you.

That's right. You've tangled with him before. But not in AQWorlds. Good luck taking on his fiery, furious riddle-laden dungeon crawl. I mean it. You better hope you're lucky, because he is INSANE.

20 floors of battling on will have you in a frenzy of flame-laden fighting until you reach the top... and FREEDOM!

Suggestion Shop Update!

• Raging Fire (by Na Tra)
• Legendary Bow (by xserenax)
• The Unknown (by theavenger07)
• Unknown Hood (by theavenger07)
• Medieval Shadow (by Dudulokinho)
• False Blade of Champions (by Ayuzu)
• Turbulence (by Ninjudo)

Members' Free Treasure Chest Keys Coming Soon!

We're all at Con. Working. Yep. Working. (And playing. It's a company retreat to learn, meet players, and recharge our creative batteries.) So we will get the functionality for the 2 free Member Keys working once we get back to the Lab on Tuesday.

Con Fun! (Not Con Funk. That's different, and gross.)

We have already had SO much fun, and met so many awesome players! Aeonarial, Practel, CrystalStar, and so many more came to our Player Pizza Party! We destroyed 30 pizzas, had a lot of laughs, and got a lot of great ideas for AQWorlds!

Today's panel was AWESOME! We announced 3 VERY big announcements which I will let either Artix or Cysero tell you next week. (Unless you hear it on Twitter or the forums from someone who was here.) Voltaire came and performed live. We gave away calendars and Zazul threw a LOT of candy at people.

It's 2AM. Rolith and I are going to go find Trouble. (When Cysero is involved, the word uses a capital T.) Trouble will likely include a Wookie, a superhero, and possibly a Hynotoad. We'll have to see!

Cysero will share more stories and many pictures here in the DNs next week! For regular Twitter updates from Con, just check my Twitter account, or Cysero's, or Artix's!

Tags: Alina MysteryVillain Volcano Suggestion Shop Con

"Coming Features" Progress!

Duel Invites option turned OFF!

Do you love battling your friends and foes, but only on your OWN terms? Do you want to prevent nasty cases of random "Shattered-Skull Syndrome" or inconvenient bouts of the "Battered-Bone Blues"?

Yes? Excellent! Then we have the solution for YOU! Just head into your options menu and uncheck the Duel Invites button!

Your Options screen if you DON'T want to duel.

This new option is LIVE! (Right now!) But that's not all Yorumi's made progress on...

Character Pages are getting a NEW look!

Have you ever wondered what AWESOME armor the enchanting new Mage in your party has equipped? Too shy to ask? Then you'll find our handy-dandy, new and improved Character Page feature that displays what your fellow players are wearing a huge help:

Yorumi worked hard ALL day! /Cheer him on!

This feature should go live this Friday! It's looking good in testing, so with luck, you'll have a shiny new, much more useful, character page this weekend!

Bits 'n' Bobs about other News

• An update is coming to the Player Suggestion shop! Mennace, Skyline, and Dage will all contribute as they bring to life (bring to Flash? That doesn't sound as impressive somehow...) the ideas of players just like you! The next update could showcase YOUR creativity, but you have to show us what you've got, and you can do that here!
• The Event Rare shop in the ArcAttack zone will go rare THIS Friday! So if you want to equip epic electrical-themed gear, get it now!
• The weapon/item drops from the Shadowfall War will ALSO go rare this Friday! The Darkness Gems that drop which are used in the War Merge shop will NOT go rare, nor will the items in the Merge shop.

Have an excellent Tuesday night! We'll see you all tomorrow for another day of writin', gamin', and rockin' the Secret Underground Lab!

Tags: Alina Duel Off Character Page Suggestion Shop Shadowfall War ArcAttack

Epic War in DoomWood!

...but attacking SHADOWFALL?

Darkness! Doom! The bones of MILLIONS OF UNDEAD!!! All of this and more are almost in Noxus and Vordred's grasp... IF they succeed in conquering Shadowfall! It is an epic battle for both Light AND Dark this week; only YOU will be able to save Gravelyn's home and undead army - and you'd better, if you want to have any hope of saving Lore.

Noxus and Vordred are on their way to Gravelyn's throne room and you've got a ways to travel from DoomWood to Shadowfall. So grab your most terrifying weapons, equip your highest enhancements, and prepare to /unsheath on a moment's notice because THIS FRIDAY the war for ShadowFall BEGINS!

War rares galore AND a Player Suggestion shop update will have you stuffing your backpack with new loot until it's so heavy you'll need to train your STR in order to carry it!

Paladin/DoomKnight Revamp 2.0 Begins!

Last week we launched the introduction of the re-vamped DoomKnight and Paladin classes. Many of you were really happy with the changes, but enough of you wanted to see MORE! So we're going back to the coding board and seeing how we can fine-tune, rework, and SUPERCHARGE those improvements!

Revamp 2.0 begins this week; we'll keep you posted on details as we work out and change up the numbers!

Chaos Shaper - Shaping up Nicely!

Chaos will recreate you into a completely new form, but not if YOU master it first! This LUCK-based class will have you causing pure havok on the battlefield; your enemies won't know what hit them, only that they're down for the count and seeing stars! (Or skulls, if they're undead.)

Male Chaos Shaper class

Because this is a preview, and because we love teasing you with information, here are the NAMES of the skills:

• Twist Time
• Chaos Fog
• Chaotic Touch
• Death Grip
• Two un-named passives which will deal crit and damage

Yorumi is in a coding frenzy getting the code right. Cysero's given him a list of twisted skills to confound, confuse, and concuss your enemies until they won't be able to STAND against you, let alone attack you!

We're making good progress on the class and hope to have it done soon. We'll keep you posted!

Things we are working on RIGHT NOW!

We had a meeting this morning to go over plans for AQWorlds. They were divided into 3 parts: Immediate, Current, and Future plans.

Projects we are working on for this week:

Shadowfall war: this week's release, with rare items galore and a nifty Suggest Shop update.
Color palette fix: this will NOT get fixed this week, but Yorumi is working with Zhoom on it.
Doomwood being added to the map: on Friday you'll be able to walk to Doomwood!

Projects we are making progress on:

New Tutorial coming:
To make the new player experience the BEST it can be, we're introducing a tutorial! Written by Cysero, this walkthrough of gameplay basics should make getting in-game, gearing up, and getting your BATTLE ON much faster and more fun!

Battle On Battle Cards EXPANSION PACKS!!!
If you enjoyed the card game, you'll LOVE these two expansion packs featuring ALL NEW cards!

PaladinSlayer Pack:
This will feature a doom-filled deck of darkness and destruction! The featured card-game class will be... PaladinSlayer! (NOT the same as UndeadSlayer, which is an in-game class which will come in Doomwood!) You'll get cards like "...On a Bonemuncher!" and "Vordred's Sword"!*

Chaos Pack:
Chaos consumes ALL! And with this chaotic card-deck you'll be able to completely chaorrupt your friends! The featured card-game class will be... Chaos Lord! (NOT the same as an in-game Chaos Lord class. That doesn't exist.) You'll get cards like "Yokai Dexterity" and "Chaorrupted"!**

We do not know what the in-game items attached to these will be. But we will think of some! We're working hard on the expansions, but do not yet have a confirmed release date.  We will keep you updated on when that will be!

* Card names are subject to change. These are just examples.
** These are examples too, and will change if we can come up with something more AWESOME!

Forum question: What cards would YOU like to see in the Paladinslayer and Chaos card decks? Let us know and your favorite weapons, pets, armors, counters and traps might end up in the expansion pack!

Tags: Alina DoomWood Vordred Suggestion Shop Chaos Shaper Tutorial Card Game