First thing we'd like to announce is the main mid-year event: the Summer Solstice Celebration! This year's is the sixth such installment, and the epic jubilation will begin on Friday, June 15th, running until Wednesday, July 4th. Everything will be shut down after the fireworks are over!
For the event, we will be introducing a storyline involving the god Taran. Whether you want to dust off an old character or start a brand new one, the main quest is available for players of all levels! The Planes of Light event areas from last year will be re-introduced as regular zones for high level play, and of course we will be re-opening the Puzzlewood Forest area! The Puzzlewood challenge involves defeating wave after wave of enemies of increasing strength. This year's Puzzlewood challenge will be similar to last year's with one major difference. In previous years we have set up the challenge to try and push players to defeat as many waves as possible to see how far they could go. We have done this special event several times in different ways and we've found a sweet spot that's high enough to be challenging but not be impossible, so we will be limiting the waves to around 40. The event will cover three weekends and a major American holiday, so that gives the playerbase plenty of time to try it out. Once you reach the last wave, you will receive a ring of limitless possibilities. We're also looking into an alternative for adding a single player option to defeat as many enemies as possible with its own legacy reward. Let's review some major additions from May. They include: - Tweaks to weather, largely transparent to players but including a slight buff to change weather. - The ability to list 'critical', 'important' and 'helpful' skills and spells at teachers. - The ability to get and put objects into worn equipment. - Lowered object costs in general. Shopkeepers can still be pretty stingy about buying things. - Crafting refinements, making it easier for highly skilled players to get composite bonuses, particularly with high difficulty materials. Armor takes a little less time to forge, and weapon weight is handled better. Assembling a weapon will now take your strength into account and attempt to match the weight to something you can wield. The upper limit on weight has been expanded with an algorithm that will keep up with future increases in player max stats. - Three new high level zones: The Misuto-Shima Ruins, Suboria deepling realms, and the island of Jahmecca. This summer we'd like to work on the following: - Make shopkeepers a little less stingy, but not too much so we don't break gold balance. - Improvements to heraldry, with the ability to design clan crests from objects in the heraldry lists. - Sailing vessels will consistently be called 'ships', to avoid confusion with BOAT-type objects and in preparation for the major ship updates we would like to do later this year, such as high seas combat and free trading. - Improve the skill and spell helpfiles so that they will list whether they are 'critical', 'important' and 'helpful' in their metadata. One last thing: The apiarch hive from Crepuscula will be expanded into a full area with a new questline, hopefully by early July. We'll see what legacy was left behind by the drules of yesteryear. For more information, check out our latest audio presentation on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRExSkIqmX4 -Shadowfax http://www.alteraeon.com
