Design Notes

July 21, 2011

Sam

Getting to know ArcAttack's Tech Guy!

We are enjoying showcasing a new member of Arc Attack each day this week! It's an excellent introduction to tomorrow's MASSIVE Musical Event featuring ArcAttack in DoomWood. These are your compatriots in the fight against Vordred; they may be working for him under duress, but they're not going to go down without (Arc) attacking back!

Today's chapter focuses on Sam, the Wizard of the Wires, the Sultan of the Sound Board, and the Pharoah of High Frequencies! He is ArcAttack's Tech Guy (it's an industry term!) and he's the one that gets the coils to cooperate!

Now, Sam is not your ordinary Mad Scientist. He came to Necro U hoping to become a Necromancer. But when he attended his first Grateful Undead concert, he was blown away (literally, all the way across the auditorium!) by the supersonic waves blasting from the group's speakers! That got him interested in the power of sound, and when he coupled that with his keen interest in Quantuum Necrotics, he knew the path his career would take.

Fast forward four years and you'll find him deep in the dungeons of CastleMania, performing sonic sonar experiments on bats and appalling auditory tests on ghouls, skeltons, and lichs. (He rejected slime-based subjects as they have no ears.)

Epic Member-Only Event Items!

Yesterday we gave you a preview of some of the awesome AC items going rare with this event. But today we want to show off the Member-only items that will be released! Mennace has been hard at work all week Flashing these fantastic objets de guerre (thanks, Google Translate!) aka "weapons," if we're not being fancy.

So, how 'bout a peek?

Pictured above are the:

• Techno Mage Armor (Color custom!)
• Techno Hood
• Dual Resistors
• Electric Arc
• Circuitbreaker Blade
• Static Staff
• But more will be released!

Join us tomorrow at sundown for the launching of AQWorlds' most SHOCKING musical event yet! Watch Vordred as he attempts to become supercharged and work with the members of Arc Attack to save themselves and the WORLD!

July 11, 2011

Grab Bag of Goodies

138 Cheaters

One Friday when the 3 and 15 month member bonus items went live there was an exploit that allowed hackers to access the shop for about five minutes before we fixed it. In that very small window 138 cheaters grabbed the Chaos Shaper class or some of the other member rewards without having supported the game like the rest of you guys.

We catch and ban hackers, cheaters and scammers every day to try and keep the game as safe and fun as possible for the rest of our real players, and sometimes it takes us a long time to gather enough evidence to ban someone but when it's something like THIS, where we can very clearly and eaisly see that they have something cheated to get... well, they're just asking for it.

So those 138 people had their stolen items taken from them.

They also all ALL of their other items taken from them, as well as all of their gold.

The next time they log in they will see that they have No Class & the Default Sword equipped, and they will find a note in the backpack letting them know that stealing is wrong and that there are consequences to their actions.

ARC ATTACK Is On The Way!

AQW's next Musical Event is coming closer and we're happy to announce that the high-tech, high-energy ARC ATTACK has agreed to make a special appearance in a musical event leading up to the DoomWood Finale!

If you've never heard of Arc Attack, they (cut paste from thei website) "use their high tech wizardry to generate a truly 'electrifying' performance.

Two custom engineered hand built Tesla Coils throw out electrical arcs up to twelve feet long, each one acting as an instrument with a sound reminiscent of the early days of the synthesizer. A robotic drum set accompanies the spectacle, it's high power LED's flashing bright colors with the stroke of each mechanically actuated stick, while ArcAttack's six members churn out rhythmic instrumental melodies.

Yeah, this guys is getting hit in the face with 12 million volts! For real.

Live instruments meet drum loops and samples to produce rock, electronica and indie with a splash of punk and a dash of metal served with a side of pop."

The first time that we met Kimberly of One-Eyed Doll, she was opening for Arc Attack at DragonCon. Since then, they have gone on to appear on America's Got Talent as one of the finalists and Kimberly bravely volunteered to play the Bride of Frankenstein in their Faraday Cage as Arc Attack astounded millions of viewers with their magi-science!

Like all of our live musical events, this one will have a Pre-Show Merch Shop filled with shocking AC Rares which will leave when the event closes, but THIS event is staying a permanent part of AQWorlds and the DoomWood Storyline!

If all goes according to plan the live Musical Event will arrive Friday, July 22nd (NOT this friday)! Prepare yourselves to harness two of the most powerful forces in nature. Electricity and Music!

Limited Quantity Shop, This Saturday at 10:00 AM EST.

The time has come for guest Artist Tomix (of DragonFable Fame) to visit AQW. He has kindly agreed to take time from his busy schedule over there to make a few items for us. SO far he's got a helm, cape, armor and a bow and Dage has a few items that he would also like to add to this LQS.

I will give you guys some images, exact quantities and exact prices as soon as we are sure about the final item list. I don't want any surprises popping up, but one thing that we know for sure... THIS SATURDAY MORNING AT 10:00 AM EST, the Tomix LQS opens!

Mark it on your calendars and set your alarms.

The Noxus War!

This weekend, it looks like you guys are right on track for a Friday War Boss. There will be a few cutscenes and a LOT more items added to the war merge shop and more rare drops added top the war monsters!

It looks like Mennace might be feeling better so he plans on completing his hard work that he began last week, adding at LEAST 2 new armors to the Player Suggestion shop!

Innovations!

Zhoom and I are working on a final version for the AQW Color Picker, which should not only allow you a much wider range of set colors from the grid list like we have now, but also allow you to make your OWN color with a freestyle color picker (which may be reallllllllllllllly buggy, fingers crossed!).

We were also talking about some localization options for canned chat that will detect your language and present you with canned chat for your own language (we will be starting, of course, with English and Portuguese) but what's even better is that it should also translate channed chat from one language into another based on your language settings.

If you select "Obrigado!" from your canned chat list, I will see "Thanks!" on my screen!

We are also working on adding a few new Member perks to AQW, such as the option for members to set your background on your CHARACTER PAGE (behind your character in the view-window) and a few other small perks like member only emotes (a few more dances, shadowboxing, a Power-up, Jump & Cheer, a few new battle animations to which non-members don't get access).

FORUM QUESTION: What kind of member-only emotes would you like?

We are ALSO doing a complete overhaul on the Book of Lore. It's really become quite messy and more than a little out-of-date. 

Most of these innovations are ongoing projects that will NOT be released this Friday but most of them are small changes and shouldn't take too long before you see them in AQW!