Design Notes

October 07, 2011

Mogloween Review!

Spooky Quests For Creepy Heroes!

The Cauldron Sisters are back to wish you a Happy Mogloween!

This week we are re-opening MystCroft and the surrounding Mogloween-themed areas to everyone for a recap of ALL the previous Mogloween releases! This will give all the players who have started this last year a little time to play through YEARS worth of Mogloween content to get all caught up before we release ALL NEW MOGLOWEEN expansion coming OCTOBER 28th with all NEW Mogloween seasonal rares!

Even if you're an old school player, you can revisit the Cauldron Sisters in the Mogloween Map, fight the Thriller in the Mogloween Graveyard...

Fight the evil dentist/scientist Dr. Voltabolt in his Dentist Office of Nightmares, Battle huge Moglinsters, Fight Mailk-EYE and the other Children of the Candy Corn and the StalkWalker ...

And of course battle the Pumpkin King for your chance to earn the ever popular Pumpkin Lord CLASS!

There are SO MANY seasonal rare items and armors to be earned in this holday event and we can't wait to add more on the 28th! Happy Mogloween!

A Few Small Changes!

We've added some new functionality this week!

First off we've got a new MEMBER PERK! Members can now change the backgrounds on their character pages! All you need to do is explore your favorite maps and click the Set Background buttons that you find to pick your new background.

We even added a special Mogloween one which you will only be able to get as long as Mogloween continues!

Next, we've added a SERVER CLOCK to the game.

It can be found right in your options menu! This will let you know what time it is here at the Underground Lab (as well as other places like New York, Philly, Boston, Quebec, Ontario and everywhere ELSE in the EST time zone) which sould come in VERY handy for you LQS nuts!

THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS AQW BIRTHDAY EVENT STARTS NEXT WEEK!

That pretty much says it all!

Our biggest special event ever is coming Friday, October 14th!

Next Friday - They Might Be Giants special event!

Friday After That- They Might Be Giants special event PART 2!

You can expect more out of this special 2 part release than we have EVER done for any of our events before! The story is bigger, the rares are bigger, the guests are HUGE (pun intended), We are raising the level cap to 45 and adding other surprises I don't want to spoil!

Annual AE Pumpkin Carving Contest!

If you missed the news, our Pumpkin Carving Contest is on again!

The past two years have shown that you guys are INCREDIBLE carvers. Check them out for inspiration; 2009 Pumpkins & 2010 Pumpkins!

We are taking submissions over at the forums RIGHT NOW. This contest ends Monday, October 31st. Winners will be announced on the Design Notes and the Forums on Friday, November 4th! (The same day you get your 3rd Upholder treats!)

Like the previous years, the Grand Prize winner(s) will receive 5,000 AdventureCoins and additional prizes may be awarded to other groovy gourds! This includes a custom Mogloweeny weapon custom made by me. Last Year's Winners received the For The Gourd sword that you can see in my character page picture above!

You want to know how to enter right?

Wait-wait that's not it! These rules and guidelines are simple but MUST be followed accordingly for your entry to be considered eligible:

• Your pumpkin MUST be carved BY YOU! 

• Only ONE photo submitted per person, please. 

• Your pumpkin MUST be your own ORIGINAL WORK! Any work that is copied via Internet and/or Stencils or simply Copy-Pasted of some supreme pumpkin-carving legend will lead to an automatic DISQUALIFICATION.

We will also make fun of you here at the Lab.

• Your pumpkin MUST be carved in an AE theme. Check out pumpkins from 2009 and 2010!! 

• Include an index card or a piece of paper with the year (2011) and your (and only your) AQW Character Name--this way we really know it's made by you, and so we can award you with AC prizes if you win! Make sure your AQW name is readable and legible! 

• Your pumpkin carving can relate to anything from AdventureQuest Worlds or any other Artix Entertainment game! 

• Your canvas must be a pumpkin or another form of squash and/or gourd. (since people have asked, Melons count too)

• The photo of your carved pumpkin must be of the Highest Quality—the bigger and more clear the picture, the better! Make sure that you provide a VALID URL to your photo. Try using a reliable photo uploader like Photobucket, TinyPic or Twitpic. 

• You have until 11:59pm EST on Monday, October 31st to submit a photo of your carved pumpkin! 

Questions? Ready to submit? Go haunt the Pumpkin Carving Contest Thread!

GET CARVIN'!

3RD UPHOLDER!

3rd Upholder Time!

Now that October has actually arrived, the weather is starting to cool down, the days are getting shorter and it's Upholder Time in AQW!

October is AQWorlds' anniversary month! And THAT means that anyone who upgrades (as long as your upgrade expires ON or AFTER November 4th, 2011) will become a 3rd Upholder! That'll get you a sweet character page achievement and the EPIC Platinum Star Sword! (The Star Sword will not be released until November 4th.)

Don't get sick on all that Moglweeny candy!

August 05, 2011

J6's Hyperium Continues

The Mysterious Bounty Hunter Flies Again!

The puzzle-driven J6 area got a big expansion this week!

If you are up to date all you need to do to continue your space-western adventure is enter the Hyperium's VR room and head to the next area!

If you're NOT YET up to date, you will need to play through all of J6's previous content to get to this week's map, items, the much-coveted J5 armor and several cutscenes that raise a lot more questions about this masked man.

In related news, J6 will be at DragonCon with the rest of this year, so if you can make it to our annual panel at DragonCon in Atlanta, GA at the beginning of next month, then you'll get to meet the man behind the mask.

Player Suggestion Shop Update!

Once again we have taken a number of suggestions from players just like you and pulled them into the game in Yulgar's Player Suggestion Shop!

This week, both Dage and Mennace chose to reshape these items into AQW items!

•  Gia Blade - Vamprincess Dorene137
•  Paladin's Victory - pikachu199519
•  Soul Stealer Advanced - Darkon Drago
•  Demonic Revenge - Darkon Drago
•  Snowstorm Hood - gompa
•  Snowstorm - gompa
•  DragonSlayer's Solace Hat - mietior
•  DragonSlayer's Solace - mietior
•  Royal Maximus - Prince Knight

As usual, each of these items have been given to their creators regardless if they are member, non-member or AC items.

If YOU have an idea for an item that you would like to see brought to life in AQW, please visit out Suggestion Forums and make a post. Who knows, maybe yours will be in the next round!

Please, remember: Even thought we do like to see your art and ideas on Twitter and Facebook, We ONLY take items from those forums to add to the game! We don't add every items in the forums, but if it's NOT in the forums, we WILL NOT add it.

New PET O' THE MONTH: The Vordred Nightmare Pony BATTLE PET!

It's a new month and that (sometimes) means a new PET O' THE MONTH!

This month, in honor of the completion of the Vordred Storyline and the internet's recent fascination with ponies, we've combined these two ideas into one terribly cute monstrosity of necromancy.

Introducing the member only BATTLE PET (Works as a normal pet, but for NECROMANCER it will replace your Skeleton base pet for damage dealing!)

He's been hugged and battle-tested against Noxus in the Shadowfall war to guage his lovable might. Visit Aria's Shop in Battleontown to get your own Vordred Nightmare Pony!

NO GENDER CHANGE THIS TIME!

Sadly, J6's maps are so insanely involved that Yorumi didn't have time to properly code or test the Gender Change option which will hopefully come next week but we did make a few changes that you might have already noticed.

QUEST TRACKER: The first addition is a new Quest Tracker Button on your character portrait.

It's right there on the left, opposite your level. Just click this and any quests you are on will appear in a list on your screen to help you keep track of what you need to complete it without opening your Quest Log every time.

CHARACTER PAGE UPGRADE: The second change is on your character page. Now you can look at almost anyone's character page and see exactly what they have equipped right next to their image. (I say ALMOST anyone, because MOD items do not show correctly).

Now available for the iPhone and Android

The AE team created a mobile app our favorite voice actor... ME! So now, you too can have your life narrated by George Lowe (best known as the voice of Space Ghost!) Includes 300+ soundbites (even some favorites from the games.) At the touch of your fingertip, you will instantly be able to make any cramped elevator more uncomfortable.

Next week we begin work on our next CHAOS ZONE, you can also expect a Mennace LQS (keep watching the Design Notes for times, items lists, images and prices!). Until then, have a great weekend!

or else.

August 02, 2011

"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!

August 01, 2011

A Six-Sational Week Coming Up!

J6's storyline and feature updates ahead!

Junk in the trunk? Who would'a thunk? J6 could, would, and DID! And so did all of you, because you kept requesting more Hyperium updates. That's why, even though he's on a well-deserved vacation this week, we're taking you from the Sandsea's Spitoon Saloon full of hard-ridin', quick-shootin' cowboys all the way into... SPACE!

This Friday you'll want to check out J6's popup text for the hint to where the next encrypted Datadisk is hidden. Happy hunting! And once you find it, you'll need to make your way to the Hyperium's reality-bending VR Room because the search for item 58-Sr3 is ON, and it's VITAL J6 finds it! 58-S4r3 is the key to a plan that's been in production for millennia!

The Hyperium's Artificial Life system is voiced by Warlic.

Remember, though, that everything you'll be seeing in the VR Room is all a part of J6's memories, as replayed by HAL. And memories can contain a lot of clues about a person... IF you're quick enough to pick up on them! What have YOU learned about J6 so far? And what will you learn this weekend? Better sharpen your wits and polish your six-shooters, because you're going to need to puzzle (and BATTLE!) your way through Friday's out-of-this-world update!

Suggestion Shop Update Coming!

That's right, it's time for another round of Player Suggestions to be released in-game! We've gotten some REALLY good submissions, and we're eager to see your art Flashed-up and spiffified by our artists. If you haven't shown us any of your art yet, head on over to the AQW Suggestions board and share it with everyone!

Features, features, features!

We've been planning on making some feature changes and updates to the game for a while, and now that the DoomWood Saga is over, we've got the means and the manpower to make them happen!

Here's what we'll be working on this week:

• PVP duel on/off:
  choose whether or not to receive 1v1 PvP invites
• Book of Lore restructure:
  streamlining, updating and re-organizing
• Character Page updates:
  list items equipped
• Gender changes:
  from male to female and back again! (AC feature)

We're PLANNING on getting ALL of these out this week, but we can't promise that EVERY one of them will be released. Most of these feature implementations are on Yorumi's schedule, and he also has to code the J6 release. So if you're really eager to see these get in-game, make sure you /cheer Yorumi on!