Design Notes
March 27, 2012
Mid-Week Member Class
Become a Blood Ancient!
Vampires are a VERY old race on Lore and with society full of immortals they don't really have much need of records. If you want to learn a spell that was created 2000 years ago, just go talk to the guy who made it.
But accidents, battles and wars can claim the unlives of even the most powerful vampires. Powerful secrets of vampire lore are lost get lost in the pages of history. That is where Orlok comes in.
Orlok is Queen Safiria's Vampire Loremaster and his job is to search what records there are and use his keen intellect to rediscover lost vampire secrets. Recently he has come upon one such secret and if you help him complete his research you might become Lore's first BLOOD ANCIENT!
Tomorrow, the Mid-week will take place in the Safiria map, where you will find Orlok standing outside Safiria's castle. Complete his tasks to unlock a single farming quest which will allow you to purchase the first Mid-week CLASS, the vampire based Blood Ancient!
Blood Ancient Class, armor and helms designed by Solrac.
I will be doing another Design Notes tomorrow with the skills breakdown but I will tell you that it is warrior based, good for solo-ing and PvP and, like all Mid-Week Releases, MEMBER ONLY!
Earning the class will NOT require any reputation. All you have to do is complete the Mid-Week quests and farm for the merge items necessary to buy the class (and either or both of the helm hairstyles shown above). It will take some time to earn it but far less time than grinding a Reputation to Rank 10.
For those of you who don't have the time for the Mid-Weeks and don't want to wait until the weekend to put in the time to earn it, a 2000 AC version will be available from Itzachi (class only, no helms). The 2000 AC version will ALSO be MEMBER ONLY. This class is part of a mid-week release and mid-week releases are intended to be Member Perks.
Both versions of Blood Ancient as well as the both helms will be tagged as AC items so you can store them all for free.
I know that I said over Twitter time and time again that we would probably never have time to do a class in a mid-week considering the time and effort that it takes to create one and the skeleton crew that contribute to the mid-weeks, but considering how many of you have asked and that everyone who asked MUST all be Members, it became a priority for me to try and make it happen.
Come back tomorrow for the Skills Breakdown!
Limited Quantity Shop Reminder
10:00 AM Server Time on Saturday.
The die has spoken. Be there or don't.
Artix and Sepulchure Collectible Action Figure Toys Coming Soon!
I know that is a mouth full but some people don't know what Action Figures are. Just calling them toys doesn't do them justice considering the quality with which they seem to be made and the fact that they are in-game swag pinatas.
You can get Artix and/or Sepulchure! Each figures comes with their own weapon. There are rare BLACK variants of each toy (which look pretty awesome.
Artix figures come with:
- Paladin's Castle In-game House
- Paladin High Lord Class
- Palaldin High Lord Armor
- Artix's Helm (Legendary item!)
- High Lord's Battleaxe of Destiny
- Paladin High Lord Character Page Achievement
- FIVE original cards to modify your AQW Battle Card deck! (different from Seppy's toy's cards)
Sepulchure figures come with:
- DoomKnight's Fortress In-game House
- DoomKnight Overlord Class
- DoomKnight Overlord Armor
- Sepulchure's Helm (Legendary item!)
- Overlord's DoomBlade
- DoomKnight Overlord Character Page Achievement
- FIVE original cards to modify your AQW Battle Card deck! (different from Artix toy's cards)
These will be available in Toys R Us in the United States and on HeroMart shortly after that. I'm sad to say that I STILL have no fixed release date for you, but I keep getting told "Late April, Early May".
I CAN HAS MOD - LAST ROUND DRAWING
The final I CAN HAS MOD contest is coming to a close and the drawing will be held on Friday. Then, as usual, we will contact the winner through the e-mail that the character has provided to us. Remember that if you don't check your e-mail then you can't win.
Also remember that for every month of Membership you get one extra chance to win and with the new class coming it might be the right time to Upgrade (shameless plug). You can also get one extra entry for every AEXtra that you complete on the AEXtras offers page.
See you guys tomorrow for the Mid-Week mini-release and the skills breakdown.
March 14, 2012
Mid-Week Market!
It's Been YEARS In The Making.... Sort Of
Back in July of 2009, we first introduced Dwarfhold and since that time there has been a small nook of just inside the mountain that was once the Dwarven market but had been closed for repairs.
Finally, after nearly 3 years of waiting, this week's Mid-Week release gives you the chance to help in the clean-up efforts and open the Dwarven market again!
All you have to do (if you have completed the storyline up to this point) is enter the mountain and speak to Hartok Darksoil, Armorer and owner of the "Dwarven Defense" Armor Shop. Or at least the pile of rubble that was once the "Dwarven Defense" Armor Shop.
Once you help them clean up the entrance, you will find Domi, Hartok and Nathrae each have quests for you to help them build up their shops once more. As you complete their quests you will unlock all the items in Domi's weapon shop, both Armors...
and all the helms and all new Dwarf and Drow hairstyles from Nathrae the Drow Hair Stylist!
A sample sheet with some of Nathrae's hair options
As I mentioned on Monday, there is no Lore-shattering crisis to solve this week. Just helping to war torn people get back on their feet. Sometimes, that's all you can do and it takes a real hero to do it.
J6 Shirts Back In Stock!
Just letting you guys know that we got a few more J6 Shirts back in stock in HeroMart!
This shirt comes with a Character Page Badge and gives you access to J6's Helm and Outfit. If we are already out of your size, don't worry. This is only the first shipment to come and we will be getting more in stock as soon as they arrive from the printer!
282 days until Just Another Day
March 12, 2012
Is it your Lucky Week?
Everyone Can Use A Little More Luck!
Happy Monday, happy peoples!
Just a quick Design Notes to let you know what we're working on this week for both the mid-week and the big Friday release.
Back To Dwarfhold!
For the mid-week we are finally going to open the Dwarfhold Market!
It's been a LONG time since we have visited this area and if you walk to the area pictured above it has ready "Dwarven Market closed pending repairs" for FAR TOO LONG!
This Wednesday, you will get the chance to help make those repairs and get the Dwarven market up and running again!
No deep and dangerous plots this week. Sometimes a hero just needs to take care of business to either help the people out of a jam or serve their own needs. There's nothing wrong about getting your hands dirty doing a little hard work. It won't be easy but that is why they call it HARD WORK.
You will be able to re-open a weapon shop, a dwarven armorer and a hair shop all of which will have new items to sell you (not merge items, just plain old gold shops. Dwarves LOVE them some gold). As always, the mid-week and all of the shops and items unlocked are for AQW Members Only!
This IS one of the locked areas in the Vath storyline so if you have not yet been to the Pines to visit the Inn-ternet or Donna Charmer the llama farmer, then you will need to do those quests first before you head beneath the mountain.
Friday: LUCKY DAY!
It's almost Lucky Day again and that means that the Shamrock Fair is coming to town!
As we do every year we will be adding a brand new fair game to the Shamrock Fair this year, which means another way to earn Golden Tickets to redeem for awesome seasonal rares! AS it is tradition, we will also be adding one or two AC Rares as well that you will never see again.
We are also working on the long awaited Evolved Leprechaun Class. We released Evolved Leprechaun Armor last year (and we will again this year) and the Class will LOOK identical but will operate very differently.
Like the original Leprechaun class this class will also be for everyone, Non-Members and Members alike,.
There will be THREE ways to get the class:
- You will be able to purchase the class for ACs from Mog O'Rahilly in the Shamrock Fair or from Itzachi in Battleon, but only until the Shamrock Fair closes.
- You will be able to EARN it with a combination of Golden Tickets earned from Fair games and some farming quests which Mog O'Rahilly will give you. It won't be easy but if you're dedicated then you will be able to earn the class before the Fair closes.
- If you already have the original Leprechaun class from back in 2009, you will be able to earn it much faster using special quests designed just for you long time players, rare collectors and class fans. Don't worry, the original will only unlock these easier farming quests for you... you will NOT have to trade in your original Leppy.
Please note that this class will be a SEASONAL RARE, it will return every Lucky Day.
I will tell you guys a lot more about this class when I do the Skill Breakdown a little later this week but Evolved Leprechaun is a CRIT based class with lots of skills to buff your Crit CHANCE, as well as some all new skills which will raise your Crit DAMAGE. Rather than doing double damage, your crits might do triple or even quadruple damage and you will be criting often.
It's based on the original class to some degree but each skill is new designed just for this new class. It will work best with LUCK Enh (as it should) and like all modern classes it will have a rank 10 passive.
So, get out your shamrocks, green shirts, horse shoes, rabbit's feet (Ampy, run for yo life) and lucky pennies! It's time to go to the fair!
284 days until Just Another Day
February 23, 2012
SpiritHunter in BludRut
The New Member Only Mini-Storyline In Bludrut Keep Is Here!
Sorry for the one day (and 1.5 hour) Delay but the Mid-Week is here as promised.
Head to Bludrut and speak to Veddrian the SpiritHunter. Help her solve the mystery of her forgotten past and why she keeps dreaming of herself as a child and you will unlock the SpiritHunter Shop where you can earn your OWN SpiritHunter Gear.
This has to be my favorite Mid-Week release so far in terms of story. It was fun to tell but took 4 Cutscenes which is rather a lot for a mini-release but I wanted to do the story justice.
Oh yeah, you'll want to turn your speakers up for this one.
Thanks for being patient with us, have fun and come back tomorrow for the Skyguard Release and the first appearance of the Skyguard Class, Grenadier (skills write up in tomorrow's DNs)!
302 days until Just Another Day
February 22, 2012
Not Quite Mid-Week
Mid-Week Release Coming One Day Late
Sorry guys, I've been a little busier than usual this week with both Ae stuff and real-life stuff so I'm sorry to admit that the Mid-Week Blutrut Mini-storyline will be coming tomorrow instead of today.
I'd rather give you a well put together and tested mid-week than try and push through and give you something slapped together four hours late anyway. It's already 2:15 and I still have too much work to do to reasonably get done by the end of today, there is still a lot of database work to get done, special functionality for the quests, Cutscenes to animate and I have to replace all the ancient pop-ups in Bludrut with our standard ones plus a bunch of other stuff that you really probably don't want to hear about.
To give you a heads up, this week's mid week will introduce Veddrian, the SpiritHunter. She has trained her whole life to either destroy hateful spirits who wish to harm the living or help them move on to the next world. Recently, though, she has been having bad dreams of herself as a little girl in the halls of Bludrut near where her adopted family found her.
Solrac has made a number of great Spirit Hunter items...
... which will, as always, be unlocked when you finish the mini-story and are, as always, Member only.
Try to look at it this way: You're not getting the Mid-Week late, you're getting an expanded, extra long, weekend release one day early :)
See you guys tomorrow!
303 days until Just Another Day
February 01, 2012
The Heir to Cornelis
Hodan Cornelis Is The Last Of The Cornelis Line!
He has wandered the face of Lore for years and has returned to reclaim his family's ancestral home from roving gargoyles and twisted Chaos magic!
He needs you help to find his family vault hidden in the maze-like ruins of the once great city of Cornelis. Until he has the Cornelis Title which proves he is the last true heir to Cornelis, he can do nothing to restore his home.
That's where you come in!
Defeat the invaing Gargoyles, defend the city, uncover the vault's secret location (with a little help from yours truly) and solve the RuneSweeper puzzle to unlock the treasures of the Cornelis Family Vault!
This Mid-week release also comes with a Member Only Character Page Badge for unlocking the treasure chest within the Cornelis Vault! Thanks to everyone on the forums for your fresh ideas about the Mid-Week Reward Systems!
PS: MEMBERS - your two FREE Treausure Chest keys are available once you do your monthly quest to get them!
Quibble Comes Friday!
We will, we will ROCK YOU with this earth-shakingly awesome armor by Dage! The Exosuit Binsoku will transform at your command; all you need to do is click the part of the armor you wish to change!
Exosuit Binsoku: For hard-headed heroes and hard-hearted villains!
We'll have many more items in Quibble stock, too! Make sure you don't miss Quibble Coinbiter's bevy of elementally excellent items in this Etherstorm edition of his time-traveling shop!
Enjoy!
January 25, 2012
Guardian Tower Mid-Week Expansion!
Meet Sloan
This is the Guardian Sloan.
He is now standing just inside the entrance to Guardian Tower. Since the beginning of the game, it has stood tall and silent at the top of Battleon, home to the verification shops but not much else.
Finally we have returned to Guardian Tower in this mid-week mini-storyline and given you a real reason to run around there! This story is full of intrigue and suspence as new and interesting aspect of the Guardians will be revealed.
You get to travel to strange and exotic location. It's a cave.
You also get to tie a dude up and question him.
As usual, if you complete the Member Only storyline quests you will unlock a shop full of new armors, weapons and other items all made by SOLRAC (spelled it right this time).
There was some confusion about this release going to the AQ Classic Guardians instead of being AQW Member Only. While we do appreciate AQ Guardians (as displayed by the verification shop and Guardian Only Class, one of the few totally redesigned at your request) but THIS release goes to the AQW Members who support THIS game.
Guardians still get a LOT out the game in which you have upgraded, AQ Classic! :)
Stuff Closing
I've been seeing a lot of questions about when stuff is leaving the game, or happening in the game so here's a quick-n-dirty list.
- FEB 6th! Friday the 13th Event Rares, House Shop and chance to get the Friday the 13th Character page Badge will leave on FEB 6th! The rest of the event and the other badge will be permanent additions to the game.
- FEB 13th! The nect I CAN HAS MOD contest winner will be selected on FEB 13th. We will try to contact them that day but it may be several days before and IF their wish changes the Golden Cheezburger Deluxe into anything. The Golden Cheezburger Deluxe will also be removed from Cleric Joy's Shop on FEB 13th!
- NEAR VALENTINES DAY: The Artix and Sepulchure Action Figures which will be sold at Toys R Us in the US and HeroMart everywhere else, will be going on sale NEAR VALENTINES DAY. That is the closest to an exact date that we can get. These toys come with the Paladin HighLord and Doomknight OverLord classes, armors, weapons, helms, houses and Character Page Achievement Badges respectively.
CORRECTION: I just found out this the Artix and Sepulchure Action Figures will not be released until Late April of this year. - EARLY to MID-OCTOBER: The THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS event will be going rare this year and taking everyything with it, including the Vindicator of They Class (unless we can finagle our way out of the contract) in EARLY to MID-OCTOBER of this year.
- NO IDEA: Our newest project, known under the working title AQ3D, will be released when we are done with it. It takes a long time to develop a game (especially a 3D Browser game) and we're just getting started. We have goals set but it's so early in the project that it's really not worth getting your hops up about it yet.
331 days until Just Another Day
in·trigue
January 18, 2012
Secret Ninja Release!
A Mid-Week Attack From The Shadows!
This Mid-Week release is an expansion to the asian themed city of Akiba, home of Princess Ai No Miko! To start on your new ninja-esque mini-adventure, speak to Nukemichi, Emperor Daisho's Master of Shadows!
If you have what it takes to help this master ninja save Princess Miko from an assassination attempt, then your adventures will lead you underground to the secret caves that lie beneath Akiba!
Complete the adventure and you will unlock the new ninja merge shop which will give you access to some of the coolest ninja gear in AQW all created by AQW Artist Solrac!
Remember, the Mid-Week releases and all of the new rewards are for MEMBERS ONLY!
What's With The STOP SOPA Dragon?
You've probably been hearing a lot about SOPA and PIPA today. If you're curious about what they are and why we NEED to stop them, please read my Design Notes from earlier today!
Don't forget that Friday there will be a huge expansion to the Etherstorm Wastes and RETURN to Akiba for the AQW Chinese New Year celebration with our traditional NON-MEMBER Chinese new year pet!
See ya then!
AQ3D
BattleGems
BioBeasts
Dragons
Undead Assault