Design Notes

March 05, 2015

Artix Card Purchase Update

System Glitch Causes Delay, Fix in Progress

If you purchased an Artix Upgrade card recently, you may have seen a delay in your points being awarded. If so, this information is for you:

• The 3rd party system that awards your Points has been down, so points could not be redeemed. A fix is in progress.
• Until that is done, we are manually awarding Points to get them to you as fast as possible.
• To get your points, please contact the Artix Help Team with the following information:

1. Your Artix Account name 
2. Upgrade Card Serial Number 
3. PIN 
4. The name of the store where you purchased the card 

Make sure the card information is correct and included in the email itself so the Help Team can get your points to you as fast as possible.

If you did not scratch the card to see the PIN yet, please go back to the store you purchased the card from with your receipt and get a refund instead. 

Message from Nythera, Head of Player Support:

I personally apologize to any players who were confused or inconvenienced regarding this issue. In the future, I recommend using an online payment like credit or debit cards, or a PayPal account. If you cannot use those, you can purchase cards from stores like Subway and CVS to se via OpenBucks, or you can redeem a store gift card with leftover money via PayGarden. These methods are fully functional and reliable.

Here are the AQWorlds help pages about OpenBucks and PayGarden for more information: http://www.aq.com/help/aw-payments-openbucks.asp and http://www.aq.com/help/aw-payments-paygarden.asp.

Thank you so much for playing and supporting AQWorlds! If you all have any questions about your account, a payment, or a technical issue you are having, you can always email the Artix HelpTeam via the Help Pages at www.AQ.com/help.

BattleON!

Nythera
Head of Player Support

October 15, 2013

Need Help with your Account?

Make Sure to Use the Help Pages!

Player Support is the first line of defense whenever you have ANY issue, be it payment, account, technical, or game-related, and we personally read EVERY email sent to us. We’re a small team, but we are MIGHTY in our power to help solve your problems and make sure you enjoy our games as much as possible!

The Player Support team is made up of:

• Nythera, head of Player Support
• Zazul
• Neveya
• and Lady Tomo
• (Stratos helps too, when he has time)

Where Else to Get Help?

You should only email the Help Pages! For us to help you in the best and fastest way possible, we NEED you to use them, not Twitter, Facebook, or the forum!

If you post on Twitter, Facebook, or the forum, that just means our team members need to redirect you to the Help Pages anyways! (It's also very easy for our team members to miss your important posts on social networking sites, because sometimes they need to sleep.)

 Using the Help Pages right from the start means we can start helping you confidentially and directly as soon as we read your email. (Remember, because real people read each email we get, it may take between 1-3 business days to respond!)

Where ARE the Help Pages?

You can find them linked on each of our game websites!

• AQWorlds
• EpicDuel
• Oversoul
• HeroSmash
• AdventureQuest
• DragonFable
• MechQuest
• Heromart

Account Safety Tips

There’s nothing I enjoy less than a stolen account. I’m sure you feel the same way - who wouldn’t?! So here are some tips to help keep your account safe and out of the hands of thieves.

• Never share your account with anyone! Not even a friend. Every person who knows your password makes your account less secure.
• Use a secure password! Use oth letters AND numbers, use both upper and lower case, and make sure your password is at least 8 characters long.
• Confirm your email with us! This makes sure your email can’t be changed without your permission.
• Never enter your account name and/or password into any site or email that isn’t owned by Artix Entertainment!

We Don't Want to Ban or Mute You!

We have rules in place to help keep ALL our players safe and having fun in AQWorlds! Make sure you follow the rules so you don't have your account muted, banned, or disabled! Not sure if something's ok to do? Review the rules!

October 08, 2013

A Better Botting Solution

We're Taking Action Against Botters in AQWorlds!

We make AQWorlds for and with our players, and we love that so many of you love the game! That enjoyment makes a lot of you - and us - upset when we see other players using bot/cheat programs to play for them. (When you play a game with other people, giving yourself an unfair advantage directly impacts other players.)

Rage no more, Hero! We've got a plan.

We have always tried to reduce the ways that botters can exploit the game, and take action against the players who choose to use 3rd party programs (bots, shop/quest loaders, auto-kills).

What is a "Bot"?

Thousands of players are banned every week for botting, which tells us a couple things.

Many players don't know what a bot IS.

• A bot or "autoer" is a program built by someone else that plays the game for you. 
• ALL massively multiplayer games have a problem with them, and they are, and always have been against the rules. 
• It is easy to understand why  - it is unfair to legit players who put the time and effort into the game, it takes time away from building the game to deal with botting/cheating/hacking issues, and... these programs are dangerous! 

Many players don't know that botting is not allowed.
It absolutely is NOT allowed! It hurts the game and other players. We want all our players to enjoy AQW the way it is meant to be.

Players who bot don't know the problems it causes.
Problems caused by bots, and the fixes we've implemented because of them, have delayed, for example:

• Development of new functionality like Guilds 
• An overhaul of the PvP system 
• Cause virtually ALL of the server-side lag 

H.A.L. knows the problem bots cause.

 Players who bot don't know the risks involved.
Many stolen accounts are the result of people entering their login information into these programs or the websites claiming to provide them. If you download and use these programs, they can execute malicious code that can do ANYTHING a virus or trojan can do, harming YOUR computer... including stealing your personal data.

Do not use bots. In addition to the dangers above, using them will get your account banned from AQWorlds!

What Do You Do About Botting?

Right now, we have a number of ways to detect botters - and different types of botting. These automatic bans test to see if people are hacking achievements, using combat hacks, or shop/quest loading. We also have in-game moderators who can take action against botters if players admit to botting.

Because screenshots can be edited, we do not accept emailed reports of botting with screenshot evidence. If someone is NOT botting, we do not want to ban them!

What Are You Going to Do Next?

Artix, Nythera, Zazul, and I met earlier today to put together a plan of attack. It will require a lot of new functionality, but once it's ready, it will be a great day to be a good player! Here are some of the things we are looking at: 

• Restrict botters to certain maps and disable combat while "banned" (though they will still be able to log in)
• Implement warning points and cooldown system to allow players to earn back goodwill
• If players continue to bot, we will give longer and longer bans, up to permanently banning accounts. (We do not want to do this, but we need to protect our players!)
• Remove levels, gold, non-AC items, rep, rank from serial botters

All of those are ideas right now. I'll sit down with Yorumi tomorrow to see what we CAN do and how FAST it can get implemented. But we ARE going to take action against botters. We love our players - and our game - too much to let the problem grow!

Recently, some players have illegally given themselves the BrutalCorn badge from tomorrow's release. Because we have not yet been able to implement some of the ideas listed above, those players have received a 24 hour ban. 

Artix says:

As you know, our goal is to keep our game fair, safe and fun. NOT to ban players. We are all human, we all make mistakes.

Apologetic robots are the saddest thing ever.

From this moment on, we hope and encourage EVERYONE, whether you have used bots in the past or not, to help us keep the servers fair, safe and fun. Thank you to all of the players who have always been doing this.... Battle on!

March 03, 2013

Protect Your Account

A Letter from Nythera, Head of Player Support

Dear AQWorlds players,

Nythera here. As many of you know, not only am I an awesome half-dragon Void Mage, I am also Head of Player Support for Artix Entertainment! That means I'm one of the people helping to protect YOU from scam/phishing sites. I work on getting all the harmful webpages taken down that hurt our game and threaten YOUR account! 

Not sure what I'm talking about? Read on!

How to Keep Your Account Safe

NEVER give your username or password to anyone! Not even to us. We won't ask for it because WE don't need it to help you!How to Keep Your Account Safe

• Never share your account with anyone!
• Use a secure password!
• Confirm your email address with us! 
• DO NOT trust any other sites or emails except official AE sites/emails. 

For more information on how to keep your account secure, see our Account Safety Help Page! 

What sites are NOT safe, and Why?

Any site not owned by AE which asks you to enter your account information. We do not own them and we will never use them. Examples of popular scam sites are:
Yola.com (yolasite), Weebly.com, Jimbo.com, dot.tk, webs.com, fordeon.com, jigsy.com, etc. 

The ONLY sites you should enter your account information on are:

• AQ.com (or a page linked on it, like the Design Notes or Upgrade page)
• Artix.com
• Portal.battleon.com

What Should You Do If You Find a Site Like This?

Email us using this email form, please!. We will do our best to get them taken down, but it's impossible to find all of them, so we need YOU to help!

Army of internet account protectors!

Beware of Scams from Email/FaceBook/Twitter

We will never contact you from a gmail.com or yahoo.com email address. The ONLY official email addreses we use are battleon.com or AQ.com addresses. 

AE staff will never ask for your passwords! 

Scammers use FaceBook or Twitter to steal accounts, too. Check our official AQW and AE team FaceBook/Twitter accounts to see who is talking to you. 

December 01, 2011

AQW Save The Players Event

Let Nythera help you directly - TODAY!

Dear AQWorlds players,

Nythera here. As you all know, I'm a half-dragon Void Mage, married to Ryuuji... but did you also know that I am Head of Player Support for AE? If you didn't, now you do!

Today, December 1st,  is a special day. It's not just the first day of the last month of the year, but it's also a special day called "Save the Players!"

Today, from 3-5PM EST, I welcome all those players who have lost their account or did not know how to get it back to contact me directly! I will be helping players live via Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/savetheplayers and the AQWorlds Facebook account at https://www.facebook.com/AQWorldsMMO in getting their accounts back.

If you can't login to Twitter or facebook or I am unable to fix your account during the event, do not fret! You can always email the AE HelpTeam via our Account Recovery Help Page! You will receive a response the same day or the next business day unless we are very busy or it is a U.S. holiday.

AE Player Support consists of the "AE HelpTeam" which includes only 5 people - myself, Zazul, Memet, Lady Tomo and Neveya. We are a small indie gaming company and DO NOT have automatic email responses! Each email is read and answered manually by someone of the AE HelpTeam.

Thank you so much and BATTLE ON!

-Nythera

PLEASE NOTE: This event is for those players who legitimately lost their account and did not know how to get it back. We understand some people may had been confused and did not know how to contact us via our Help Pages. This event is not for those who lost their accounts due to an account or payment issue. If you have an account or payment issue such as a ban or dispute, please email us via our help pages instead!

March 04, 2011

Nythera’s Wedding Event!

Nythera is to wed Ryuuji the Half-Dragon Elf… and you’re invited!

Love is in the air! Nythera the Half-Dragon Purple Mage is tying the knot in real life and in game!

This is a very special release for everyone here at the lab and all of our friends… including you! We couldn’t possibly be more excited to see the head of AE Player Support getting married to her life-long friend, Ryuuji. Morale is at an all time high!

Although their love is ever-lasting in real life... Nythera in game isn’t exactly excited about the marriage… because it was pre-arranged by her parents from birth! During tonight’s release, it will be up to you and your friends to save the big day and become part of AQW History!  

Travel deep within the Void to never-before-seen areas and help Nythera find a loophole in her wedding contract. Brand new Void monsters can be found patrolling this unexplored landscape along with bunches of new quests, new zone music, amazing cutscenes, and—of course—new items!

Did you say... NEW ITEMS!?!?!!

Not only are the Void baddies loaded with drops, the Event Rare shop in the Void Temple has some of the most AWESOME items we’ve ever seen! Some are Member only, some are ACs, and some can be obtained by everyone who joins (or crashes!) the wedding ceremony!    

There are 18 Event Rare Items in the shop that are up for grabs. Dage the Evil, Xyo, J6, and Lodarazs really went above and beyond making these spectacular armors, helms, capes, and weapons for you to show off during Nythera’s special day. As Event Rares, these items will only be available for a limited time, so make sure you get these items before the Event closes next Friday!

Speaking of Limited Time…

Dage the Evil’s birthday was on Wednesday! He has a special shop in Battleon that is selling some of his personal items, including that Dark Caster Armor that EVERYONE loves!

This shop will be leaving this Monday, March 7^th, so make sure you get these items before they go RARE. And since Dage IS evil… I don’t think he’ll be releasing these items ever again.

On behalf of the Team...

The entire Staff at Artix Entertainment wants to wish Nythera and Ryuuji many happy years of eternal bliss! Our warmest wishes go out to the newly-wedded couple… and also to you! We want to thank you for making AdventureQuest Worlds possible!! =D

Really, it is because of you that we are able to create this game and host one-of-a-kind events like this one. Whether you helped by upgrading to Member, making suggestions, supported us by getting AdventureCoins, squashed bugs, clicked on ads, tested new features, or helped your fellow players on the forums -- you are the reason this game is online for everyone to enjoy!

Thank you! And Marriage ON!      

March 01, 2011

Nythera & Ryuuji

Two Half-Dragons In Love!

This Friday: Nythera, the hard-working half-dragon in charge of AE Player Support is getting married this weekend and and you're all invited!

About 1000 years ago, The Purple Mage's parents arranged her marriage to Ryuuji, another very magically talented half-dragon. Just one problem... Nythera has NO interest in getting married, no matter what her parents agreed to.

She thinks she can get out of the marriage contract promising her to Ryuuji but she will need your help and Ryuuji will stop at nothing to win her heart.

As promised, there will be a number of rare items including (but not limited to) some AC rares and since so many of you have been asking for it through e-mails and tweets, the Violet Eternal Flame back item will be one of them.

Much like my wedding event, Nythera plans on getting married just once so this is literally a once-in-a-lifetime event. Don't miss it. Come and help us celebrate and if you can't make it, please stop by the Forums and wish her good luck! :)

Dage's Evil Birthday!

Tomorrow, March 2nd is Dage The Evil's Birthday and to celebrate he has decided to come to Battleon and offer you some of his items, including the highly anticipated Dark Caster armor!

For you Dage The Evil fans, this will be one of the only times when you can grab a few of his items for gold/ACs instead of buckets full of Legion Tokens. These items will ONLY be in game starting tomorrow March 2nd, until Monday Mar 7th. The shop will open sometime during the day.

Dage has requested that the armor price be set to 2000 ACs as he has previously mentioned over Twitter. I just don't want anyone surprised by this.

Bugs and Progress

There has been a lot of recent discussion about bugs and I wanted to adress these concerns and also ask for additional help from you guys.

Some people are concerned that they haven't seen any progress on some of our bigger (actually huge) ticket items. Specifically Guilds, Name Changes, Gender Changes and PvP improvements.

Please understand that each of these projects are fairly big to enormous and require a LOT of time and effort on behalf of the entire team especially considering that we release new content every week, and not just a hat or two but usually a full adventure with music and at least one animated cutscene.

Even comping up with a concept for an easy and fun way for you guys to build and run YOUR OWN guilds while keeping the game family friendly is a challenge, much less the back end.

Name Changes require changing the entire flow of the Login process to require a Portal Account  among other things, plus deciding how far back to go and sieze names of innactive accounts which is bound to make a few returning players mad.

PvP is a constant pain, which requires real-time positioning (so you see your enemy where is, instead of where he sees himself so you're not attaching his ghost image whule he wails on you from behind. It's a lot more calls than normal positioning within the game (except for the Ledgermayne battle). Balancing PvP against PvE (Player versus Environment) is an uphill battle that every MMO has to come up with a solution for (and the most popular MMO on Earth still struggles with) especially in trying to keep up with player demand for new classes, which is one of the most constantly requested game additions.

Lag. It's like snot. Everyone has it and, no matter what you do, it is sometimes unavoidable. Making a Flash based MMO gives us the power to reach a LOT more people than we ever could if we made a console RPG or an MMO that required a client download. A very large amount of our players play from internet cafes and librarys. Unfortunately Flash has some drawbacks and one of them is that it's very prone to lag, but some of it also comes from older computers, slower browsers, intermittent internet connectivity due to the ISP or a wireless connection and some of the lag comes from the servers as well. I'm sure you've noticed how hard it is to log in after a restart. That is because everyone is trying to crowd into the servers at the same time and just like a real door... it gets clogged when everyone tries to run through at once. We are always fighting lag and we are really sorry for the lag you experience.

Each of these items presents their own unique challenges plus keep up with our weekly release bugs and some of those are game-crahsers.

Here's where you come in... WE NEED BUG REPORTS. Everytime we get a bug report we try to replicate it to see if it was a real bug that we can track and fix or just a code-hiccup. We go through the bug reports for EVERY release in GREAT DETAIL and try and fix every bug that we can duplicate, but we can't fix the broken bits of AQW without your help.

Please, when you encounter a bug go to the AQW Bugs Forum and REPORT IT! The more details you can give us the faster we can get it fixed. There are sections for just about every kind of issue you can imagine and without your detailed bug reports, we don't know that they are there.

February 14, 2011

Love Is In The Air!

Babies and Weddings for everyone!

Happy Heroes Heart Day, guys! It's really good to be back. If you weren't aware I've been gone for the last 2 weeks. On February 2nd at 7:50 AM server time, my second (and final) son was born. We named him Jetson.

Jack and Jetson.

Since Jet's birth I've been at home helping my wonderful wife as much as I can and helping Jack get used to having a new family member, and generally being a very attentive husband and father.

My first son, Jack is now a big brother. He's got a 13 month head start but i'm sure that he'll teach Jet everything he needs to know about being my kid like: Which buttons to never press, Where daddy keeps his secret stash of socks, Which of his parents knees are the tastiest to chew on,  How to sense when Mom and Dad have just drifted off to sleep so he can wake up and start fussing, How to eat, drink, spit-up, burp, fart, poop, pee and cry all at the same time, and many other fun talents.

For those of you following me on Twitter, Nursey and I were completely blown away by the number of very nice messages flooding in washing over my happy family, blanketing us all in good vibes. You're all far too kind, but I humbly accept those kind wishes and pass them on to my family. Thank you.

But Wait... There's More!

Nythera is getting MARRIED!

She is the half-dragon who recently lead us into the void (and head of AE Player Support) and she's finally tying the knot with her long-time fiance'. We're happy to let you take part in her wedding in a special ONE-TIME ONLY wedding event on Friday March 4th. (Not this weekend, I'm just leading with this because it's exciting news and because Heroes Heart Day is a day to celebrate Love)

We'll have more details on that special event as we get closer to it, but for now please join me in saying a big GRATS to our favorite snarky half-dragon!

But Wait... There's STILL More!

We just found out today that AQW/HS super coder Llussion just asked his long-time girlfriend to marry him and she said YES! No date has been set and we may or may not have an in-game event but we're all VERY happy for those two crazy kids. Llussion has saved my bacon more times than I can count so I'm going to have to build him a truly excellent wedding present.

CardCaster Is Now CardClasher!

Very soon we will be releasing our Artix Entertainment Battle Cards card game, which comes with the exclusive in-game CLASS, CardClasher!

We had to change the name from CardCaster to CardClasher due to an unforseen copyright issue with another game. 

The Class will be for everyone who purchases the card game, but we also plan on releasing a Member-Only CardClahser area to give you some backstory on what a CardClasher is and provide the AQW Members with some additional content to really trick out their Class.

There is still no set release date for the card game but we WILL be selling them on HeroMart, which currently delivers to 57 countries and we are adding more ALL THE TIME! Is your country on the list?

As soon as we have a fixed release date for the card game and Class, I will let you guys know.

This Week: Back To The Sandsea

This Friday we will be continuing the Sandsea Saga we you and Zhoom head to the Sek-Duat Dynasty Pyramids to track down the immortal mummy, Sek-Duat. It will also feature a brand new mini-game and lots of new Sandsea gear, both in the release AND in the Sandsea Rep Shop.

Don't forget that the Chinese New year event will be leaving this Friday, as well as most of the Heroes Heart Day content and rares. The Heroes Heart Day Limited Time shop will be closing tomorrow at NOON, server time.

I've also heard a rumor that Black Market vendor will be returning on Friday.

GAMETASTIC

The GAMETASTIC challenge is over and we have a handful of great new mini-games which you can find HERE. A winner will be decided soon and Artix will announce the winner here on the Design Notes. As I was out, and on none of the design teams I will be a fair and impartial judge who doesn't want to get fired by his Boss who i'm told has an EXCELLENT mini-game.

HeroSmash Heroes Heart Day Items

Dumoose literally just PMd me to let me know that he will be releasing a number of new Heroes Heart Day items in HeroSmash in just a little while. Remember, right now you can only Alpha test HeroSmash and get these items if you are an AQW Member.

December 10, 2010

I Believe in Quibble

Deck the halls with Armors and Weapons!

You asked for him! And Quibble Coinbiter is back in Battleon just in time for Tonight’s Release! He’s brought a sleigh-full of Frostval-themed items with him too!

There’s actually A LOT more items in his shop. But there is only SOO much I can fit in a 350 pixel wide JPG, you know? It doesn’t really matter if you’ve been naughty or nice this year… Quibble’s got something for everybody. So stock up on some AdventureCoins and get shopping!

• Randolph the Red Nosed Reignzard (RARE Non-Member Pet!)
• Arctic Dragonslayer Armor Set (Completely Color Custom)
• Chaos Claws Suit Armor and Helm
• 9 Frostval Weapons
• Santa Cutie and Santa Hunk Hats
• 3 more Color Custom Frostval helms

If you have been keeping a tally… that’s a whopping 21 NEW Quibble Items! Someone’s in the Frostval spirit this year =D

Enter The Void

After you’ve stuffed your inventory with Frostval trimmings, head back to the Frozen Northlands and speak with Adak in the blinding snow forest. He’s come up with a theory on how to get you into the Void... but he’s left the saving Nythera part up to you!

I refuse to give out any spoilers as to how the storyline will play out. I already gave you hints in my last post (which was only like 12 hours ago), so if you REALLY would rather read than play through the awesome release, scroll down a bit and get your pink font fix on =3  

The NPC in the Void will enlighten you on everything you need to know about the Void. EVERYTHING. This little guy is very insightful. He even has an impressive Shop stocked with some DF-Classic Void Items and New Void Items… if you can afford his high prices.

The monsters in The Void have a nice collection of items that they drop, too. A Void Larva Pet even drops from one of the baddies… but I’ll leave that up to you to guess which monster drops it =p

The Void in AQWorlds was created entirely from DragonFable’s Void. Map, monster, and weapon art was borrowed from DF in order to recreate the epicness that is The Void with a completely new storyline twist!

Please Note: If you haven’t already played through all of the Frozen Northlands quests, including Old King Coal’s quests (which come directly after defeating Queen Aisha) and finding Nythera in the blinding snow forest, you will NEED TO do so in order to play tonight’s release!

I truly believe you guys are going to have a BLAST with this release =D

December 10, 2010

Knight Owl

The Early Bird may Catch the Worm, but the Night Owl Catches the Sneak Peak.

I know it’s late. TRUST ME—it’s Thursday night (well, technically, Friday morning) and it has been a non-stop adventure since Monday. With soooo many exciting things going on, from planning out this week’s release to HeroSmash alpha’ing (is that a word?) to drooling over the cookie contest and preparing for the BattleOn Holiday Sweepstakes, there just hasn’t been enough time for the heavily-caffeined Beleen to make a proper Design Notes post.

So let’s fix that right now =D

BattleOn Holiday Sweepstakes: Winners Picked Tonight!

If you haven’t already entered the BattleOn Holiday Sweepstakes, now is your last chance! On December 10th, 2010 (that’s today!), Artix Entertainment LLC. will randomly select FIVE winners for our Holiday Sweepstakes. Each winner will be contacted via e-mail and be allowed to select ONE item of their choice from our new AE Store, HeroMart.

All you have to do to enter is start a free Battleon Master Account on our portal site!  So what are you waiting for? Hurry up and enter the Sweepstakes before it’s too late!

Quibble is Coming to Town!

Your favorite traveling sales Moglin is finally making his way back to Battleon! And what goodies does he have for you in his sleigh  treasure chest? It doesn’t really matter if you’ve been naughty or nice this year… Quibble’s got something for everybody!

As usual, most of Quibby’s items cost AdventureCoins, but as an EXTRA SPECIAL BONUS for the holidays, this little guy has a RARE NON-MEMBER PET that will also be selling for ACs. This will be your only chance to get the rare Randolph the Red Nosed Reinzard pet for non-members!

Low on AdventureCoins? Here’s a buncha ways you can stock up for the Holidays:

• Purchase an AC bundle here
•  Visit Ballyhoo up to 10 times a day for a chance at winning free ACs
• Earn ACs by completing third-party offers
• Enter (and win!) the Creative Cookie Contest
• Membership packages come with bonus ACs!

What’s really cool about these AC items (besides the fact that they’re Frostval-themed) is that all of them can be stored in your Bank for FREE and FOREVER. This is especially helpful since no one knows if—or when—these Quibble items will ever be offered again!

Enter The Void: Nythera Saga Concludes Tonight!

This is it, guys and gals. We’ve come a long way in the Frozen Northlands. You helped defeat Queen Aisha’s ice army, saved Guwio Village, aided Old King Coal in his time of need, and braved the wintery wilderness in order to find Nythera.

You found her, all right. But she’s found something else… Chaos. And now she’s vanished into The Void.

Adak Amaroq has a theory on how YOU can get to the Void! Talk to him later tonight and see if the two of you can create a portal of some sorts that will take you into The Void.

DragonFable players are going to LOVE this place. Actually, everyone is going to love this place—especially me, since it’s all pretty and pinkish ^_______^

No Artix, I didn’t come up with The Void color scheme—talk to Alina and Geopetal about that.

Anyhoo, back to what I was saying. What was I saying…? …something about something….

Oh yea! The Void in AQWorlds was created entirely from DragonFable’s Void. Map, monster, and weapon art was borrowed from DF in order to recreate the epicness that is The Void with a completely new storyline twist.

You will meet a new friend when you stumble into The Void. Luckily for you, your new pal is incredibly insightful and will enlighten you on everything you need to know about The Void. He even has an impressive Shop stocked with some DF-Classic and New Void Items… if you can afford his high prices.

I really don’t wanna spoil the storyline, so I’ll just give you a teensy teaser: the Great Void Dragon summoned Nythera into The Void because she is willing to lose everything in order to gain anything!

The Great Void Dragon lives in the heart of the Void, protected by a magical door that requires 4 Void Spheres to unlock. But the Great Void Dragon is not foolish; he has hidden the 4 Spheres somewhere in Lore!

And as if THAT’S not a high enough security measure, even if the 4 Void Spheres are found and placed within the door, then the only way to unlock it is by successfully completing a three-round “simon-says” style minigame.

Is Nythera too far gone? Has Chaos chaorrupted her beyond saving? Will you be able to find the 4 Void Spheres? What will happen if you get inside the Void Dragon’s lair? What IS The Void and its connection with Nythera, anyway?

So many questions! And guess what—they will all be answered tonight =D

ZzzzZZzzzzZZZzzz….

Oh boy… it’s late. Getting sleepy! Someone once told me that sleeping is the best cure for sleepiness.

I’m going to test this experimental remedy now.

Zzzzzz Zz!

December 03, 2010

Nythera Continued

Everyone's Favorite half-Dragon is BACK!

Just about a year ago we introduced Nythera to AQW in her first storyline in the Frozen Northlands! Finally, we return to the frozen north and continue where we left off!

Spoiler: We are ALSO building up her legend before the REAL Nythera gets married next year and we tie her wedding into AQW with a special in-game wedding event. 

Man, people around here are getting married like... ducks?

Cause they mate for life, ya see.

.....and we're carrying on.

If you haven't been to the Frozen Northlandss, just look for the snow-covered area on the top of the map and begin your quest! This is the first of a two part quest continuation which picks up where we left off!

Pay special attention to the constantly mutating wolves. Chaos... is there anything it CAN'T DO?!

There are three amazing Cutscenes written by Beleen and animated by Miltonius, and tons of great gear brought to you by Dage, Skyline and yours truly.

This week's item list:

Stark’s Ice
Longclaw
Shimmering Flakes cape
Hearthside Axe
Champion of the North armor
Glacial Guard helm
The Frosted Falchion
Chaorrupted Mountaineer Hood
Chaotic Headsman’s Axe
Chaorrupted Northland Blade
Chaotic Crystal Glaive
Gravitating Chaos Crystal
Cloak of the North Wind
Serrated Chaos Edge
Tannenbaum Trimmings Cape
Chaotic Winterror Sword
Tannenbaum’s Tinder

It should be a pretty awesome pre-holiday haul!

Holiday Cookie Contest!

START YOUR OVENS!

Since Beleen did such a great job with her post, I'm just going to COPYPASTE it here!

Last year’s winners did SUCH a great job creating totally scrumptious works of art and we cannot wait to see what you come up with this year. Check out last year’s Creative Cookie Contest winners for some delightful inspiration.

Have Your Cake and Eat it Too: The Prizes

Along with an endless amount of internet fame, the Grand Prize Winner(s) will receive 5,000 AdventureCoins AND a one-of-a-kind weapon created by Dage the Evil!

Additional AC prizes will be awarded for other super sweet desserts!

Fun fact: last year, the 6 grand prize winners received the ultra-rare Confectioner’s Slayer sword. When taken into consideration that there are over 20 Million registered users in AdventureQuest Worlds, being one of the verrrrrrry few to have such a one-of-a-kind weapon is truly remarkable.

Will you be a Grand Prize winner this year? One way to find out!    

How the Cookie Crumbles: The Rules

This contest will range from NOW until 11:59pm EST on Sunday, December 19th. The winner(s) will be announced on the Design Notes Thursday, December 23rd!

The rules and guidelines are short ‘n sweet but MUST be followed accordingly for your edible entry to be eligible. I repeat, in boldface and in red font, ‘cuz a lot of people miss this: YOU must follow EACH rule if you want your entry to be considered eligible.   

The easiest way to make sure your hard work gets judged: Read all of the rules before submitting your entry!

• Your dessert MUST be created by YOU. Do not copy someone else’s hard work. That my friend is called cheating, and you will be disqualified for it.

• Include an index card/piece of paper/ icing signature that says your AQW Character Name alongside your tasty treat. This way we really know it’s made by you! And NO, photoshopping your name onto your picture DOES NOT COUNT, and you will be disqualified if you do.

• Your dessert MUST be created in some sort of Artix Entertainment theme. Create anything you want from AQW, EpicDuel, BladeHaven, DragonFable, MechQuest, AdventureQuest, and WarpForce!  If we cannot tell what it is from our games, you will not be qualified.

• Your canvas must be a cookie, cake, pie, or any other form of holiday dessert. Mmmm, get creative!

• The photo of your dessert should be of the Highest Quality. The more clear the picture, the better and tastier it will look, upping your chance at the Grand Prize!

• Remember to post a VALID link to your dessert photo! Uploading your photo to your Facebook does not allow us to see the photos via the Forums. Also, if you upload your photo to your LOCKED photobucket account, we cannot see it either. So make sure your link is valid and isn’t locked to the public!

Preheating The Oven: Enter the Contest!

Now that you are ready for the 2010 Creative Cookie Contest, it’s probably a good idea to know WHERE to post your delectable desserts!

Submit your yummy creations on the official Creative Cookie Crafting Competition twitter account or AQW Facebook post.

The team is really looking forward to seeing all of your wonderful ideas and delicious cookie creations! There is only one way to win—and it starts by entering this contest! 

Best of luck to you all =D Eeeeeeeep

What Else Is Going On?

• HeroMart is getting the 2017 Calendars in the lab today! We began shipping them out this week. 
• Beleen's birthday is next week! Even though our favorite, pinkest Loremaster has gone on to new adventures, we'll still celebrate her day with a few pinkified items to show her we care!

December 02, 2010

To the victor go the Spoilers

Sneak Peek at Friday’s Release!

A few days ago, Cysero posted a little teaser at what was coming in this week’s release. And I say “little,” I really mean it—he wrote like three sentences.

Pffffft, what kind of a spoiler is THAT?

Now that my Finals are over (yaaay!), I can dedicate my time to filling you all in on what’s going to happen tomorrow night. If you want it to be a surprise, I suggest hitting the Back button as fast as you can as to not catch a glimpse of tomorrow’s totally cool release.

And yes, ‘cool’ is a pun—you caught me!

Nythera and the Frozen Northlands

If you are up to speed on the Frozen Northlands chain, then you will recall helping Nythera take down that cold-hearted Ice Queen Aisha. Here’s a quick little summary to refresh your memory:

Rooooaaar! Nythera uses Chaos Gemerald to transform into crazy dragon!

But then… oh no!

Don’t do it Nythera! It’s Chaos! It’s not worth it!

And theeeeeen……

Overly dramatic DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUUUUN!

If you haven’t already witnessed this for yourself in game, and if you haven’t already played through Old King Coal’s quests (which come directly after defeating Queen Aisha), you will NEED TO do so in order to play through tomorrow’s release. That poor King has been sick for awhile now…

Anyway! Tomorrow (and right now, since this IS a spoiler) you will discover that Nythera has vanished! Adak Amaroq, the Guwio Village Messenger, has traced her footprints and found them leading into the uncharted Northlands Forest.

So much snow falls here that no one has ever been able to find a straight path through. And we mean NO ONE. Not even the Mods know the “correct” path, because there is NO correct path.

It’s just like getting lost somewhere in real life. No matter which direction you choose, you never seem to end up where you just were. I ended up upside down once. Don’t know how that happened….

So bundle up in something warm, because in order to “find your way out,” you will have to get lost!

Since Nythera has meddled with Chaos, you will have to collect Chaos Crystals in order to forge some sort of Chaos Positioning Spell… like a GPS, only more magical (and one that doesn’t tell you a million times to make a U-turn if you miss the path you were supposed to turn down). There are 10 Crystals hidden throughout this snowy terrain that you will have to find and collect, and then take them to George Forge-man in Guwio Village so he can do his thing with them.

Only when you have the Chaos Positioning Spell (the C.P.S.) will you be able to find out where Nythera is hiding!

Well what happens when we find Nythera?!

AH HA! That, my friend, is a surprise! I can’t give you all the juicy details because… well… when you do play through tomorrows release, and get to the end, you are going to be sooooo incredibly surprised and excited that whatever is within the vicinity of your computer may be knocked over from your flailing cheering arms.

But here’s a little hint to leave you off on: DragonFable players are going to scream with anticipation!

November 29, 2010

The Big Red Button!

Who Could Resist Its Call?

We have finally returned from our glorious Thanksgiving Holiday Break, which really wasn't much of a break. As some of you pointeds out on my Twitter, it's been a few days since we've done a Design Notes and some of you were downright HOWLING for a few DNs post but I don't have anything in-particular to tell you about so I guess I'll just humiliate myself for your enjoyment.

If you were playing Weds then you know that we suffered from a horrible bug that was making it unable to get ANYTHING from most of the Cornycopia shops. At one point we shut down the servers.

That server lock-out was my bad.

See, we have a little dashboard that lists a bunch of commands for the controlling the game. It has commands just about everything that you'd need to control AQW. It also has a button that SHUTS ALL THE SERVERS DOWN AT ONCE. In my haste to solve the shop bug I accidentally hit that button.

No sweat, just turn them back on, right? WRONG! Here lies the problem... if the servers are off then the dashboard can't control the servers. Zhoom or Minimal has to remote in and turn them back on and both of our codemeisters were gone.

Something is wrong with my head and instead of panicing when anyone SHOULD panic, I start laughing uncontrolably instead. So there I was, ROFLing my face off having just accidentally turned off AQ Worlds leaving literally thousands of your fellow players stranded outside the game and every single person who could turn on the servers was either flying to their home state for Thanksgiving or driving back to their house.

I did what any great leader in my position would have done: I started messing with people on Twitter and waiting for someone else to fix it. About 15 minutes later Zhoom arrived home and turned the game back on for me. Thanks Zhoom.

I stayed until I figured out what was wrong with all of the shops and finally went home.

Every release we need to shut the servers down to add the new content to the game. There's no way around that, but this was the first time that anyone has accidentally hit the OFF switch and hopefully it will be the last

Other than that, I had a great Thanksgiving and thanks to everyone who wished me Happy Thanksgiving via Twitter. I hope all of you had a good one too. Even those of you who live in Sweden where, I am told, there is no American Thanksgiving. Which makes sense.

Things To Come

Artix and I are hacking away at our Frostval event which will feature some musical and acting talent that LOTS AND LOTS of people have heard of. I don't want to jinks it and I legally can't say more than that bit if it works it will be HUGE for AQW! Even if that doesn't work out we have a lot of Frostval Fun planned, the return of our Cookie and Cake Contest from last year...

and the holiday appearance of Quibble planned as we bring this year of AQW to a close.

This week, we are continuing the Frozen Northlands quest chain as chaotically charged Nythera leads you through the frozen wastes of the north.

It's been a year since we began her storyline and now the calendar was come full circle. It's time for a little Dragony Goodness!

Calendar Update

You may have heard but the AE 2011 Year of The Moglin Calendars hit a little snag. They were coming from the printers over-seas when they got held up in the Customs office in Los Angeles. Finally they have begun to move toward us again and are scheduled to arrive at the lab tomorrow sometime. 

That means that the FIRST 1000 Calendars should start getting shipped out by the end of the week. Sorry for the hold up, guys, but it was WAY beyond our control.

If haven't been to HeroMart in a little while you might have missed that we now have Battleon Point Printable Gift Certificates just in time for the holidays.

Print them out and give them to your best friends!

Actually, you can give them to whomever you like. We don't really keep track of stuff like that. Maybe you want to give one to that one guy that you kind of know, or maybe your worst enemy.

$10 Worth of Battleon Points FREE!

Biggest RIXTY Promotion of the Year!

Get $10 FREE!

Feeling the need for some bonus game currency? From now until December 31st, you’ll earn $10 FREE when you deposit $40 or more into your Rixty account using Coinstar machines or Rixty prepaid cards.

Here's how to apply your Rixty Points to your Battleon Master Account!

Coming To A Close

The Toilet Set leaves Ballyhoo THIS FRIDAY so you only have a few days left, and remember that the Battleon Holiday Sweepstakes is still going on. The Drawing isn't until December 10th and all you need to do is create a Battleon Master Account! Good Luck.

Hmmm. I guess I did have some stuff to talk about.