Design Notes

September 28, 2012

The Marriage of J6

A Wedding In Three Acts.

J6, AQW's Lead Artist, has worked on just about every game we have ever made or currently have in production. He's got his own faction of rabid followers, his own t-shirt on HeroMart and has drawn many of the items and almost ALL of the maps that you walk around during every new release. He is an amazingly talented artist and craftsman who has also made real life sculptures of Artix, Galanoth's Dragonslayer Helm and his own J6 Helm.

He is capable, versatile and best of all very, very fast. This dude is a machine who has never failed to meet or best any task that we've thrown at him no matter how busy he is.

J6 lives and works from Canada so we don't get to see him as often as we'd like but when he does visit, Cinazool always comes with him. She is a kind, bubbly, fun, friendly and stunningly beautiful woman and after years of dating, they have finally decided to tie the knot and you're invited! 

Artix was actually able to fly up to the great white north to attend the real wedding earlier this month, but for those of us who couldn't make it we have crafted this special in-game event for you. J6 honored me by asking me to write the event and keep all details about it from him. He wanted to be surprised. 

I was so stressed about making it funny that I got writers block and went through four complete re-writes. Everyone on the AQW team chipped in on this one and I even managed to trick J6 into doing the art for Captain Stubbing and the Love Goat map.

If you complete the event, you will be awarded the J6 Wedding Badge in your Book of Lore (not a character page badge) and you will also unlock all of the Member, Non-Member and AC items in J6's Wedding Shop. You will also find a lot of new drops on the various goats found in the release and on Filthy McGee.

As usual there are the stock wedding items like the Bounty Hunter's Berry Mug, the Silver Eternal Flame, Cinazool's Wedding Bouquet and some others but we also have some brand new armors, helms, back items, weapons and pets in this special event.

Congrats, J6 and Cinazool. May you have the best of all possible lives together.

Four NEW Rare Houses in J6's House Shop!

Click the "Rare House Shop" button in Battleon to check out J6's four NEW rare houses! These aren't just ANY new houses, either. They have a secret, owner-only entrance, so that no one can enter unless YOU are home! If you want your friends to gain entrance, you'll need to go to your /house and then they will need to /goto YOU!

Guild Renaming is LIVE and FREE this weekend!

Check your Guild menu to see how to re-name it! This weekend only, Guild re-naming is FREE!  On Monday it will begin costing AdventureCoins. Be warned, if your client is cached, your name change may not appear immediately.

Vindicator of They Leaves Oct 12th!

It's been almost one year since we did our special They Might Be Giants AQW Birthday event and as we mentioned when we released it... we only have the rights to use this stuff in AQW for a year. Our contract with TMBG expires on October 12th, so on that day the event will be locked forever. No more rep farming quests, no more special songs that they wrote and performed just for AQW and no more Vindicator of They Class.

Time is growing short. If you haven't had the chance to earn the Vindicator class and items, remember that you still have a few weeks to buy it from Itzachi in Battleon.

83 days until Just Another Day

September 22, 2011

Interference

The Alliance Is Coming.

The Trolls and Horcs have had problems with each other for hundreds of years, but have always managed to deal with them on their own terms. Now that the rumors of the Twins appearing in Bloodtusk have reached King Alteon and Empress Gravelyn, they feel that it is their duty to step in and help the Trolls and Horcs settle their differences before a new Chaos Lord is born from the mutual hate and distrust.

General Tibias of the Shadowscythe Army and the former Pactogonal Knight, Knight Commander Cynari will arrive in Bloodtusk this Friday with a Alliance army behind them.

There is an ancient temple in Bloodtusk which hold great meaning for both the Trolls and Horcs and plays a large part in their shared history. Now, the Trolls and Horcs battle has managed to spread deep into Blookdusk Ravine and threatens to topple the Ar’Huus Temple, leaving it a pile of rubble.

We all know that Alteon and Gravelyn are dedicated to making the Alliance between Good and Evil work, (at least until the Chaorruption of Lore has been dealt with) but it just seems like trying to FORCE two ancient races to stop fighting is just adding more people to the conflict. I wonder if this is exactly the kind of chaos that the twins were sent to spread?

This release features a new expansion to Bloodtusk as well as a Member Only section of this map with high level monsters with special member only items, but there are plenty of other items in the new area and in the Horc and Troll reputation shops!

It all starts Friday!

TLPD SHOP EXTENDED!

Due to a flood of requests to keep Quibble in town for another week, he has decided to stay but he WILL be leave Friday of NEXT WEEK. If you don't have your TLPD rare booty by then, then you're out of luck.

Our art team had their hands full this week so there will be NO additional items added to the shop. Sorry.

3rd Upholder Is Coming!

You might have already read my 3RD UPHOLDER POST, but if you missed out... here are the finer points:

Upholders are people who help support the game buy buying Memberships during October, which is AQW's Birthmonth. First, there were Founders, next came the 1st Upholders, then last year came the 2nd Upholders and now is YOUR chance to become a 3rd Upholder!

If you buy any Membership in the month of October OR if you already have a Membership that expires ON or AFTER NOVEMBER 4th, 2011... you will be a 3rd Upholder!

3rd Upholders get the Platinum Star Sword rare weapon and a shiny 3rd Upholder Badge on their character pages to show off that you supported AQW during our 3rd Birthday.

You can use any method you like to get your Membership, even Artix Points, but it HAS TO BE A MEMBERSHIP. ACs DO NOT get you 3rd Upholder. 

You get the Character Page padge as soon as your upgrade takes effect but you don't get the Platinum Star Sword until November 4th.

Since I've been getting a ton of questions from Brazilian players, here it is again... em Português:

Nós temos tido mais questões do que o normal vindas de jogadores brasileiros a respeito do status de 3rd Upholder, então pensei que isso pudesse ajudar.

Para se tornar um 3rd Upholder, conseguir a 3rd Upholder Badge na sua Character Page, e a Platinum Star Sword em 4 de Novembro, você PRECISA ter uma membership (ser membro no jogo) que expire EM ou APÓS 4 de Novembro de 2011 , ou você pode simplesmente comprar uma membership (se tornar membro) a qualquer momento durante o mês de Outubro.

Você pode comprar uma membership utilizando qualquer método no site do AQW ou utilizando Artix Points, mas PRECISA ser algum tipo de membership DO AQW.AdventureCoins NÃO CONTAM. Espero que isso ajude a esclarecer um pouco da confusão, e obrigado por tudo!

Thanks For The Support!

I see a some of you are already sporting your 3rd Upholder badges on your character pages. We know that there is a lot to do in AQW for free, and every Membership and AC is optional, which makes it mean so much to us that you have chosen to support AQW.

Thanks for helping to support AQW with your membership. We really appreciate every Membership and AC, which helps keep the game moving forward every week but we always want to make sure that Members get the most out of the game.

There's no denying that some of the AC items you see are great, and it can be a fantastic short cut to unlockeing some of the best classes in the game but members get tons of pets and battle pets, daily quests to make rep farm easier, some of the finest armors and items the game has to offer, special areas and member only game content, challenge fights and areas, 2 free Treasure Chest keys per month... the list keeps growing.

Members really do get the best that AQW has to offer and we work hard to make sure that you get more than your money's worth. AdventureQuest Worlds would not be possible with out you.

See you tomorrow for the weekly release!

September 19, 2011

Happy TLPD 2011!

Yar!

Happy Talk Like A Pirate Day, maties! It be time for a little nautical education. A lot of people didn't grow up in a piratical culture like I did here on the gulf coast of Florida so I'm sure a few of you don't really know what YAR actually means. It's not just something pirates yell to be piratey.

I think it was best defined in one of my favorite movies. Katherine Hepburn's character Tracy Lord is talking about a ship she and her ex-husband, Mr. C.K. Dexter Haven (Cary Grant) once owned:

" My, she was yar...It means, uh...easy to handle, quick to the helm, fast, right. Everything a boat should be..."

So there you have it. NOW BACK TO SWABBIN' THE DECKS, YA SCURVY SEADOGS! 

Quibble has really outdone himself this time, brining more than 40 TLPD rares including the Platinum Naval Commander Set, The Inverted Pirate Captain set and the Legion Jolly Roger set! Quibble will be here at LEAST until Friday, maybe longer, but he won't stay forever. If you like this year's TLPD rares, grab them quick!

Screenshot Contest Is OVER!

At noon today (EST, server time) our latest Screenshot contest ended and we have a LOT of entries to sort through before we can announce the winners but keep your eyes on the Design Notes and we will announce them as soon as we have some to announce.

Thanks to everyone who participated. I can't wait to see how these new shots look on AQW Screenshot page!

The War Is Over... But The Battle Is Just Beginning.

Word of the Twins appearance in Bloodtusk Ravine has spread far and wide, as well as tales of the increasingly bloody conflict between the Trolls and Horcs.

Princess Gravelyn and King Alteon have come to the conclusion that neither a Troll or Horc should be allowed to become a new Chaos Lord and they are willing to use all the combined might of the Good and Evil Alliance to end this stalemate.

The undead armies of evil are marching alongside the armored knights of good and they are all marching on Bloodtusk. The Allaince plans to force a peace between the Horcs and Trolls by any means necessary.

The war AC shop going rare at Friday's release as well as all of the Boss's drops EXCEPT for the Tigriff and Chaos Tigriff pets. War Merge shop and drops are staying in, as promised.