Design Notes
July 19, 2010
What's Up With Miltonius' Area?
You Didn't Explain Yourself Very Well...DO BETTER!
OK, I will do better. We've been getting a HUGE number of questions about the changes coming THIS FRIDAY to Miltonius' Secret Area. If you don't know what that is, look it up. If you don't care then you can skip the next few bits.
First, Why Are You Changing It!
As many of you know AE has a very small but very dedicated Player Support team headed up by Nythera and Zazul. The team handles all the "I GOT H4CK3D!" reports, returns what accounts and items that can and deal with all the various payment issues that arrise.
Miltonius, as Art Director of the game, was given free reign to create his own area which quickly became so confusing that nobody except him had any idea what was going on, thus ensuring that it would become a fan favorite.
It became a fan favorite.
Unfortunately he added some AC items and weird item-trade-in voodoo that really messed with the payment system, causing HAVOC for the poor Player Support team and complicating their job.
As the Game Lead, the task fell on me to straighten out the entire mess once and for all. So I made Dumoose do it.
THIS FRIDAY (I can't stress that enough) we are permanently changing around the most of the AC items, repalcing a few with non-AC copies that will be MUCH MUCH harder to get.
OK, What's Changing?
We are removing a few of the quests that allow you to trade items back and forth. We are also removing ALL the items that you buy with ACs and replacing them with Totems of Miltonius.
How Will I Get Totems Of Miltonius?
Miltonius' minions, the Dark Makai, have a small chance to drop the Essence of Miltonius. You can trade in 100 of these for a Totem of Miltonius.
What Can I Buy With The Totem of Miltonius?
You will be able to use these (in various amounts) to buy MOST of the Miltonius Items, Such as the Arcane Orb, Blood Orb, Primal Orb, Shadow Orb, Void of Miltonius, Coin of Miltonius Pet, Betrayal Blade of Miltonius and others...
But I Already Have The AC Version Of That Stuff!
GREAT! Because it's going to be a LOT harder to get the new versions with these Totems of Miltomius! You lucked out!
We are NOT... I REPEAT, NOT... removing any of the items. The Chaos Lord Helm will still be there, but only as a helm. You will no longer be able to trade it in for the orbs. If you have an AC version of one of the duplicated items.... Gratz! They will be RARES on friday.
We'll be chaging the rarity score and tagging them as rare in the title! (If you happen to have one of the accidentally released non-member Coins of Miltonius Pets which is already tagged as "Rare",, then we're tagging those "Extra Rare").
Who Cares?! What About Drudgen, Crag & Bamboozle!
Due to popular demand,the Drudgen The Assisstant and Crag & Bamboozle pets will remain AC items but Miltonius will sell them directly for 5000 ACs, rather than trading you for a 5000 AC item.
YOU WILL NO LONGER BE ABLE TO TRADE ONE PET IN FOR THE OTHER, so decide which one you like the most by THIS FRIDAY!
If you have an AC item to turn in, Or decide to get one of the Miltonius items before they go rare/very VERY hard to get, You have until we release on Friday to do so. We don't want you getting stuck with a useless Miltonius Minion Voucher.
OH, I Totally Get It Now!
Good, I'm glad we had this chat :)
So What Else Is Happening This Friday?
We've having a minigame in the Giant Tale storyline! Race across the dinnertable before the racing roaches beat you to the giant's soup!
Warlic is making a new song JUSt for the racing minigame and Miltonius is focusing all of his considerable artistic might into making some amazing member and non-member rewards for beating the mini-game!
What About MetroCon?!
Oh yeah! This weekend is MetroCon in Tampa and we've got a merch booth there! If you happen to live in the Tampa Bay area (like us), stop by, say hi and pick up some swag!
This will be your first shot at the Chickencow Tee and your ONLY chance to get the Metrocon Samurai Moglin non-member pet!