June 14, AQW Design Notes

Release-adin

June 14, 2013 Friday is RELEASE DAY! Grimblight of Destiny We thought Artix's 1st axe was destroyed... but oh no. It fell into wicked hands that reforged something horrifying: The Grimsblight of Destiny! The weapon does bonus damage against dragons and... well, pretty much everything EXCEPT undead. When you click the center of it, it unleashes a laugh and three rune covered stones appear. Each stone activates a different feature. The first attempts to kill AFK players in the room. It is rumored the axe plays with the mind of it's master and has a slightly hallucinogenic effect. The second casts a wave of confusion which causes all players in the room to return totheir idle stance -- Handy for decreasing lag for those "ahhhh... stop dancing.. TOO MUCH LAG" moments. The third rune has a special ability which will be revealed next week when the "VAULT OF ENDLESS DOOM" opens. Grimskull's assistant, Mort, will be in the town of BattleOn selling this axe for an insane amount of AdventureCoins to raise funds to complete the dungeon. 2,000 AC. The Blinding Light of Destiny (which is a non-Member item) is also getting improvements tonight. It will do something special when you click on it. Great for photo ops! New Quests in the town Library Reading has never been so dangerous! Maya is a Loremaster. She is training assistants... want in? First, you will have to learn EVERYTHING about Lore. (The hard way) The first step is learning all about monsters. You will find and battle specific monsters from all over the world. Talk to Maya in the Library. Binky the Magical Mean Eating Unicorn Members get first crack at facing the hardest battle in the entire game. We are only calling it hard because... no one has actually defeated Binky yet. If you do, you will get his Uni-horn. It is a 100% drop relic that has the power to "break apart the most powerful weapon in the world." Developer's Note: Binky was originally a surprise monster from Grimskull's "The Endless Pit of Doom." We will be balancing Binky based on your experience with him.... making him harder or easier so that it takes a skilled team of 6 high level players.  This fight will be available for ALL PLAYERS next week inside the new dungeon. NEXT WEEK: The Vault of Endless Doom! Grimskull is eager for you to enter his first dungeon. It will open next Friday. At the request of many players, this new dungeon is available for ALL players, and focused on gameplay and... sneaky death traps. The dungeon is secretly in two parts. The first part is a compelte adventure and designed for players level 20+. However, if you are clever, you will discover there is a second, level 40+ area which is far more deadly. Each room of this new dungeon requires a large amount of custom code on every frame. The first part of the dungeon is 42 rooms long. As you read this out programmers have started on room #11.  We will be working through the weekend and next week to have a smooth, polished release ready for you. With enough testing, the only frustrating part of next weeks release... will be Grimskull's evil, evil, evil, evil traps!