Design Notes

April 18, 2011

CardClasher is LIVE!

The AQW Anything-Goes BattleOn Battle Cards game is now on sale at Toys R Us!

Some of you happened to get the CardGame from your local, U.S. Based Toys R Us store this weekend (before they were tsupposed to go on sale) and from what i'm reading on my Twitter, you think this card game is as addictive as I do!

This is our first game that is NOT a video game and we're all pretty proud of it. If you are living in the Unites States, you should be bale to find the card game at ANY US Toys R Us location OR on their website.

If you are living OUTSIDE of the U.S. (and ONLY outside of the US) you can buy the cardgame NOW at HeroMart!

(FORUM QUESTION: Is AQW Anything-Goes BattleOn Battle Cards AE's 7th game? It IS a game. We DID make it. What do you guys think?)

The Color Custom CardClasher Class which comes as a bonus with the card game is LIVE in AQW NOW! If you were one of the lucky few to get the card game early you might have gotten them before the CardClasher Code redemption page was live. If you were having trouble redeeming your code earlier in the weekend, you will find the page is now working!

Since the class is now live, let me tell you all about the class's unique skill set!

This class is unlike any other in AQW's history. It has the ability to deal cards to you and your opponent and each card has a different effect on each of you!

It gives you a lot of power no matter how you play the class but also a lot of customizability to how fit your play-style and a random element that makes this class addictive

CardClasher Skill Write Up!

     AUTO ATTACK:

2 second cooldown.

This is the basic fighting skill that ever class has. Nothing fancy about it.

     DRAW: 

15 Mana. 2 Sec cooldown.

Deals a card to you and your opponent. Cards make you stronger and your opponent weaker. Cards have additional effects when Tap is cast.

You get three types of cards. A Sword, A Shield and a Spell card.

The cards dealt are random, but you can hit Deal again to get different cards. Be careful! Don't spend all of your time and mana looking for just the right cards!

     TAP:

25 Mana. 2 sec cooldown.

Tap the cards on you and your target, removing the cards and applying powerful effects. Power is increased by Raise The Stakes stacks, which are consumed.

TAPPING THE SWORD CARD: If YOU have the sword card and you use TAP, it will increase damage you do to your foe. If your FOE has the sword card and you use TAP, it will decrease the damage they do to you.

TAPPING THE SHIELD CARD: If YOU have the shield card and you use TAP, it will increase your defenses making you take less damage. If your FOE has the shield card and you use TAP, it will decrease the their defenses making them take more damage.

TAPPING THE SPELL CARD: If YOU have the spell card and you use TAP, it will apply a decent HoT (Heal over Time) spell to you, restoring a portion of your health for the duration of the spell. If your FOE has the spell card and you use TAP, it will apply a decent DoT (Damage over Time) spell to your for, eating away portion of their health for the duration of the spell.

     RAISE THE STAKES:

20 Mana. 2 Sec cooldown.

Each cast of this spell makes the effects of Tap and Clash more powerful, but it also hurts you and leaves you more vulnerable. Stacks up to 4 times. Consumed by Tap.

This skill will increase ANY of the card effects listed above, but it's a dangerous tool. Raising The Stakes in any game of chance has its concenquences...

     STACKED DECK & BEAT THE ODDS:

Passive Skills.

Stacked Deck: Luck increased by 15%

Beat The Odds: Crit, Dodge, and Hit chance are increased

     CLASH:

10 Mana. 6 Sec cooldown

Deals damage to your target based on Raise The Stakes stacks, but does not consume them.

This power is your mini-nuke, and the best part is that you can still use your stacks of Rasie The Stakes when you Tap the cards you have in play if you time it right, but again... you know what could  happen if you bet it all on one big crit.

This class is also our first LUCK BASED class, so you will need to visit me in the tub in Yulgar's Inn to gear up!

Your CRIT can get pretty high with the ALL LUCK build but try your own builds and see what works best for you!

Remember that buying AQW Card Game also earns you the CardClasher Achievement Badge on your character page and in your Book of Lore! You will also find the Secret Bonus Item on the CardClasher Achievement Page now as well!

When playing CardClasher, you can totally get by on using nothing more than Draw and Tap, but where's the fun in that?! The whole point of this class is to offer you some risky skills that can GREATLY increase the effectiveness of the skills... or send you crashing to the ground as you bet it all and lose big time.

This Week in AQW!

This week is the return of Grenwog, Lore's Spring, Bunny and Egg based holiday! You can expect some great tagged seasonal rares plus a host of NEW great seasonal rares!

Captain Lore will also be making an underwear-on-the-outside return to AQW as we celebrate Planet Day! Also new seasonal rares there as well!

Last but not least, April 21st is a day that everyone knows. It is the day (TV show timeline) that the super-computer Skynet achieves self-awareness and starts its all out war on humanity. To celebrate the end of all human life here on EARTH, we will be having a special 24 hour shop in Battleon.

The Shop will ONLY LAST for 24 hours but will be filled with a number of rare theme items that will probably never be seen in AQW again!

Liquid Metal (model number: M-1000) moglin pet? Yeah, we're doing that. Cyborg Skeleton Armor? Yeah, we're doing that too.

AQW Is Going To Be On TV TONIGHT!

Did you see Artix's Earlier Post? If you are in Canada, tune into the show EndGame at 10pm EST on Showcase. AQWorlds will appear in tonight's episode.

If you Tweet about the episode, be sure to use the #AQW tag! Let's see if we can make our own #AQW trend!

April 15, 2011

FEAR CHASER EVENT!

Fear Chaser Event & Event Rare Shop are now open!

The Fear Chaser event featuring the music and voice talents of Ayi Jihu, is now LIVE!  As usual we  Event Rare Shop with TONS of items, several voice-acted cutscenes, an achievement and a bunch of great drops!

I should warn you that the Fear Garb is one of the laggiest armors that we've ever created but that is the price for having animated spiders crawling all over your body and in and out of your rib-cage and having  animated lava pouring out of your eye sockets!

By request, we've increased the room size to 10 to hold more of you and your friends. Ayi asked me to pass on her thanks to everyon who logged in and asked her all of those fantastic questions! You really made her day by just showing up to the event!

Remember, once the event closes, it will become Member Only! Members will still be able to get the monster drops and the achievement anytime they like by accessing the event re-run in their Book of Lore but the Event Rare shop closes with the event and takes all of these items with it!

To learn more about Ayi Jihu or the Fear Chaser project, check the Fear Chaser event page!

CardClasher Arrives MONDAY!

Monday, Arpil 18th, the AQW Anything Goes BattleOn Battle Card Game arrives in U.S. Toys R' Us Stores! it comes with the Color Custom CardClasher Class, Card Cape, Card Blades and we're working on a special bonus item!

It also comes with a special achievement badge on your Character Page and inside your Book of Lore!

If you live outside the USA, have no fear... the AQW QW Anything Goes BattleOn Battle Card Game will come to HeroMart early next month! Keep your eyes on the Design Notes and we'll give you a date very soon!

HeroSmash Founder Coming April 28th!

Finally, your chance to become a Founder in HeroSmash!

As AQW has AdventureCoins, HeroSmash will have a micro-currency called SmashCoins! To become a founder all you have to do is buy $20 worth of SmashCoins in the first month and bingo... you are a HS Founder!

We will be making an announcement about HS Memberships later this month, but for right now all you need to know is $20 or more of SmashCoins ensures that you are a Founder in HS. If you missed out on being an AQW founder, please don't miss this!

Reminder!

AEXtras is still a great way to get FREE ADVENTURECOINS and even FREE BATTLEON POINTS, and with new Inventory, Bank slots and Preimere Event rares to buy there's never been a better time!

 Just CLICK HERE to get started!

Or, You can jump onto your Master Account and start earning free BattleOn Games Points using AExtras and use those Points to get stuff in ANY of our games!

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.