Design Notes

July 30, 2014

Chaos Fan Art Winners: Ledgermayne

7th Lord of Chaos Fan Art Contest winners announced!

Exciting news, folks! A new Chapter has appeared in the Lorepedia!

As you can probably deduct, this chapter unfolds the pages that contain the Chaos Lord Fan Art winners!

Grand Prize Winner: 7th Lord of Chaos

This is a dream-come-true! Fellow player Nightmare created this AMAZING Chaos Lord Ledgermanye fan art and won the Grand Prize!

Nightmare

Your artwork is truly magical, Nightmare. Please accept: 1,000 AdventureCoins, the exclusive color-custom Chaos Paintbrush + Chaos Artist Palette dual weapon set, the Art of Chaos character page badge, AND your art as an in-game House Item (which will be released at a future date)!

All Other Winners

Please click here to see the 2^nd Place, 3^rd Place, and Runner Ups for the Chaos Lord Ledgermayne category. Great job everyone, and keep up the wondrous work!

xoxo Beleen <3

November 12, 2010

The Hollow Halls

“The corridors in HollowSoul are so big that people often get lost and die within its walls.” You will soon see why!

It’s Friday again! Man, this week has just flown on by. With the release of the Novel and Calendar pre-orders in HeroMart… along with the Toys R Us meetings… and finals coming up in college… and preparing for this week’s release… and playing BladeHaven nonstop… and preparing for the holiday season… and battling the Flu irl… it has been one hectic week!

First thing on the agenda: HAPPY BIRTHDAY J6!

Yes, our very own bounty hunter is leveling up in real life! If you see J6 in game, make sure you wish him a happy birthday. You could always deliver him a personal happy birthday wish inside the Hyperium! Well… if you can find it, that is.

Secondly: HollowSoul Castle Expanded!

Duke Ellington is waiting for you in the Hollow Halls. Only the bravest Members will have the opportunity of exploring HollowSoul… but your success of reaching the end is something no one can promise. These corridors are unlike anything you have ever encountered. For starters, it’s a new map so of course you haven’t seen it! =p

But more importantly, there is no “right” path since the halls will forever change no matter which direction you go. Yeah, it’s pretty aggravating especially if you are trying to test it out and Cysero is over in the corner LOL’ing his mutton chops off. Grrr >………<

There are 3 Keys hidden inside 3 secret Treasure Chests throughout the Hollow Halls. You will have to search each random hall for each treasure chest without first getting pwned by the VERY aggressive monsters inside. Yup, they are all set to aggro so don’t think for a second that you can just run through blindly and hope to find each treasure chest without taking out the baddies first.

More fun in store: even if you are in a group with your close buddies, you will still get lost. Duke Ellington said that people get lost and die within the castle’s walls… and this will prove true tonight. Until you Respawn, and then will have to start back at the beginning. WAHAHAA!

Even more fun: you can go to the Hollow Halls anytime you want, but if you haven’t already completed Duke’s Quests in the first HollowSoul Castle map, then you will get stuck in the Hollow Halls FOREVER.

So let’s say that you completed Duke’s original quests, found all the keys in the Hollow Halls, survived the onslaught of aggroing monsters, and reached “the end.” There is a Hollowsoul Lich waiting for you! If you defeat him and get his skull, you can turn it back into the Duke for a chance to get the Hollow Revenant Armor. This armor is pretty killer on its own, but is also a pre-requirement for something totally awesomesauce in Duke Ellington’s Merge Shop.   

Thirdadadly: Hollow Halls Merge Shop

Merge Shops are so much fun. Especially when the item requirements are crazy ridiculous! Duke Ellington has a new Merge Shop that has some killer items in it.

Every item in this shop requires more than 1 item turn in, either from the Hollow Halls, Hollowsoul Castle, or from other places in Lore. Happy Hunting!

Chaos Lord Ledgermayne—now available for everyone!

Last week the Members really showed Ledgehead who was boss. But tonight, everyone gets to bring the fight to the Arcangrove Chaos Lord!

Ledgermayne even has SIX more item drops in addition to his 9 original drops. So even if you have already defeated the Chaos Lord, you might wanna go back because he has something AMAZING you should check out…

OMGOMGOMG is that… woahh… what ARE THOSE? ...Mods? AhAH kidding. What you are looking at are the Atomosian Armaments and Academic Acoutrements… dual wielding “daggers” that are different items!

You can thank J6 for coming up with the necessary genius coding and Dage for making these awesome items! The merge shop in Hollow Halls has a similar item… and there *might* even be another one floating around in game somewhere… but that’s a secret.

So if you are caught up in the Arcangrove storyline, head on over to Rayst by the Tower of Magic and take the final fight to Chaos Lord Ledgermayne!

Pet ‘o the Month: Iron Rune Dragon

Look everyone—we remembered about the Pet of the Month! YAAAY! Since November is Month of the Dragon, Cysero made a VERY awesome Iron Run Dragon for you!

The Iron Rune Dragon is not actually a baby dragon but a dwarven construct shaped and given life deep within the Great Forge in Dwarfhold Keep. Or at least that’s what his item description says. This little guy will only be available for the month of November (and by ‘only’ I mean ‘probably, maybe, if we remember to take him out come December’) so make sure you get him while ya can!

I know there are A LOT of Dragon collectors out there… so don’t miss out on the Iron Rune Dragon!

Well folks, I think that might be it. I am very happy that I got to share all this with you (and flood your monitor screens with an absurd amount of pink).

Have a great weekend and Battle on!

November 08, 2010

Chronomancer and The Dragon's Secret!

HeroMart Items, New and Coming Soon!

Heromart is online and ready to deliver Artix Entertainment swag to your door!

As long as you live in one of the 41 countries (the list is still growing!) to which we are able to deliver.

The first ever AE NOVEL, The Dragon's Secret is now on sale!

It comes with a special weapon in AQW, a pet in DF, a weapon in MQ and a LOT of stuff in AQ classic!

The AE 2011 Year of the Moglin Calendar will go on PRE-SALE on HeroMart this Thursday, but probably won't be delivered until later November. We did have a few on hand at ShadoCon this weekend so you might even see a few people walking around with the class that comes as a bonus with the calendar!

The calendar comes with the non-member Chronomancer Class in AQW! It also comes with the Chronomancer Class in DF, Chronomancer Armor in AQ classic, and Chronos Mech on MQ!

Here is a brief write up of the class, courtesy of Beleen.

As celestial manipulators, Chronomancers alter the flow of time with supernatural divinations and otherworldly expertise. Rather than counting every second in every day, Chronomancers make every second in every day count. Only those with a divine understanding of time may call themselves such.

Chronomancers regain mana when they attack while under the effects of Temporal Rift, a Rank 1 ability. Although the Chronomancer excels under many different Enhancements, the Hybrid Enhancement is often the most common choice.

• Temporal Strike: Rank 1
  5 mana, 2 second cooldown
  Deals light damage to the target and applied Temporal Rift to the caster, a stacking effect (up to 4) that other abilities rely on.

• Rift Inversion: Rank 2
  20 mana, 12 second cooldown
  Heals you for an amount based on the damage you’ve recently taken while under the effects of Temporal Rift (up to 40% of your HP) and consumes Temporal Rift. Applies Inverted Matrix, boosting haste but preventing Temporal Rift from being applied for 6 seconds.

• Rift Collapse: Rank 3
  30 mana, 6 second cooldown
  Deals damage based on the damage you’ve recently dealt while under the effects of Temporal Rift. Consumes Temporal Rift stacks.

• Fall Back: Rank 4
  Passive Ability
  Dodge Chance increased by 15%

• Spring Forward: Rank 4
  Passive Ability
  Critical strike chance, Hit chance, and Haste increased by 5%

• Riftburn: Rank 5
  50 mana, 16 second cooldown
  Places a DoT effect on the target, based on the number of Temporal Rift stacks you have, and consumes those stacks. The DoT deals more damage with more stacks, and gets stronger over time.

One For The Cheaters

Some of you might have already seen some people running around in Chronomancer Class. Most likely, they were cheaters beacuse only 7 players have actually purchased the calendar from our merch booth at ShadoCon.

We missed a key element in our hack-protection for the shops that are unlocked when you buy the calendar or novel. The issue was quickly fixed but we have a long list of people who decided to use a cheat program to open the shops for the calendar and novel this weekend.

It's one thing to open a shop without doing the quests, it's another to cheat your way into a shop that should only be availible to players who paid real money for the merch and in-game bonus items. That's called theft. You're cheating at the game, you're cheating AE and, worst of all, you're cheating your fellow players.

As punishment, ALL of those accounts have had those items removed, they will be banned for 3 days and every single one off those cheaters will have all of their Character Page Achievements removed and replaced with one single Cheater Badge.

In addition, those players will not be able to display any future achievments on their character pages.

There is a way out of it... pay for what you did. If any of you cheaters would like your character pages returned to normal you may purchase a membership upgrade that is 3 months or longer. Your account will have a note attached to it and if we have any further issues with that account it will be dealt with more severly. 

Remember that you brought this on yourselves by cheating and... enjoy.

This Weeked! Ledgermayne for ALL & Hollowsoul Expanded!

it's time for ALL players to show Chaos Lord Ledgermayne what's up! This Friday the Arcangrove Finale opens for all players, and we'll be adding a few new member and non-member drops to the Chaos Lord!

Non-members, you will probably want to pick the member's brains to find the best method for bringing this being of living magic to its knees! It's waiting for YOU!

The member-only Hollowsoul Castle will be getting an expansion. The Duke Ellington is once again seeking help from the best of the best to quell the endless castle's endless hunger for fresh souls!

In the expansion you will find some new secrets and a merge shop where you will be offered the chance to upgrade some of the older Hollowsoul items!

Mogloween will also be leaving this Friday as the town of Mystcroft pull back into the mists and vanishing for another year. Be sure to grab all the Seasonal Rares that you want before they disappear!

ShadoCon

This weekend was the first year for ShadoCon, Tampa Bay's anime, gaming and comic convention. Since it's right down the road from the underground-lab's surface, and since One-Eyed Doll was going to be in attendance we decided that we should at least have a merch booth set up.

We brought a laptop so people could just sign-up for an AQW account right then and there! We were able to meet a few new people who play the game and meet back up with old friends who are crazy enough to attend every con we attend. It was awesome!

We were also able to hang out with Kimberly and Junior from One-Eyed Doll. They arrived on Friday, exhausted from driving all the way from Atlanta where they had a show the night before. Due to some scheduling confusion they were a little late for their meet and greet, so I volunteered to sit at their table and pretend to be them until they arrived.

Wearing the "I'M THE END OF THE LINE" sign confused most people. That pleased me.

They had a ShadoConcert on Saturday night, which melted some serious face, and a fun suite party directly afterward where serious AQW fans and serious OED fans got to hang out together. My friend Alces took some footage with his phone. If I can get my hands on it, i might post it later.

Once again, thanks to everyone who came out to visit us. I've said it before and I'll say it again, it's always super swoop to get to meet and hang out with our players in real life. Thanks for coming out, supporting AQW, buying some CDs, shirts, calendars, and novels and showing some love for Kimberly and Junior. :)

November 05, 2010

Chaos Lord Showdown

in addition to Player Suggestion Shop Update, AE’s 1^st ever Novel, Pumpkin Carving Winners announced, and quite possibly the longest Design Notes post that I have ever made.

I love Fridays! Once again, Artix and Cysero have entrusted me with tonight’s release while they are at ShadoCon in Tampa, Florida. Wahhaha >:D

Don’t worry, I haven’t had the time to change everything back to pink. …yet.

I hope you have equipped the necessary protective eyewear because this is going to be the longest, pinkest, and most uberly awesomely epic DN post to date!

A Cut Above the Rest: Onyx Starswords for 2^nd Upholders!

In case you missed it, or have been AFK for over a month, or just joining in the legendary AQW madness that you are now an accomplice to, 2^nd Upholders received their awesome badge and Onyx Starswords this past Wednesday!

Because of the support from our most dedicated players, this has been the best Birthday ever! We could not have gotten this far without you guys and gals! The entire AE team loves making games that you guys love to play—it’s almost like it’s our job or something =p So thank you all for your kindness and support, and we will continue doing our VERY best to make the very best games out there for you!    

Chaos Lord Ledgermayne

As a special THANK YOU to all our wonderful Members and 2^nd Upholders, you will be the FIRST to fight the Arcangrove Chaos Lord! (throwing you right into a heated Chaos boss battle is a great way to thank someone, right?)

You already survived the enchanting realm of Arcangrove and proved victorious throughout its perils. You pieced together the Supreme Arcane Staff and explored the Para-Elemental Plane of Magic, defeating the great Chaos Beast: the Mana Golem. So taking out Chaos Lord Ledgermayne should be a piece of cake…

Uh-hem, the cake is a LIE!

Chaos Lord Ledgermayne is waiting for YOU in the Para-Elemental Plane of Magic. And he…she…whatever-it-is is not too happy that you have foiled its plans of world domination thus far. A new boss mechanic will require you to pay close attention during the showdown if you hope to survive long enough.

Speak to Rayst in Arcangrove if you are ready to take on Chaos Lord Ledgermayne!

Items that are out of this World

If you are lucky enough to defeat the Chaos Lord, you might just be lucky enough to get his impressive item drops. Ledgermayne holds some of the coolest items that are out of this world. Literally. They’re from the para-element plane of magic. Not from this world ^___^

Here is a nice spoiler of the items that Ledgermayne has stored away under that big bulbous head of his: Astral Entity (seen above in their natural habitat), Wizard's Blessing & Dark Wizard's Disparage Staves, Ledgermayne Armor, Ledge Head, The Supreme Arcane Staff (a 1% Drop Rate!), Fragmented Astral Helm, Armored Astral Morph, and the Astral Runes Cape.

Best of luck to all of our Members and 2^nd Upholders! You guys are ganna need it.

New Items in the Player Suggestion Shop  

More items have been added to the Player Suggestion Shop inside Yulgar’s Inn! All of the items in this shop were inspired by our fellow players. We have some really talented artists out there. Did your item get picked? Check ‘em out!

• White Witch and Warlock Armor with matching hats, inspired by Redleafchannel  
• Demonic Devourer, inspired by Max Man58
• The Clockwork Scythe, inspired by Unleashed Rage
• Petrified Autumn Wood Polearm, inspired by Mennace
• HolloEnergy Blade, inspired by Hollo
• And the Sword Of Animus, inspired by Vampirel28

We truly have some amazing artists out there! We are so honored that we get to make YOUR own ideas into amazing AQW items!!

If you wanna see your item in game, head on over to the forums and submit them in our Suggestion Thread! You never know if your idea will be the next one seen in the Player Suggestion Shop!

The Dragon’s Secret

Our first full-length novel, The Dragon's Secret, has arrived at HeroMart!

Written by Lyra Trice Solis, a member of the AdventureQuest storyline team, The Dragon's Secret tells the tale of apprentice mage John Black who loses his entire family to a dragon onslaught and vows to get his revenge one way… or another.

Filled with dragons, dwarves, and some VERY dark magic, The Dragon's Secret puts you right in the middle of the Great Fire War in a brand new and exciting way! Special in-game items in AdventureQuest, DragonFable, MechQuest, and AdventureQuest Worlds are given to those who discover The Dragon’s Secret.

Get the exclusive Crystal Seed Runed Staff in AQW by using the special promo-code found inside the novel!

Pumpkin Carving Contest Winners!

The results are in! Pumpkin Contest Winners! The prizes have been awarded to the winners. Thanks for making this the BEST Carving Contest yet! Way to squash the competition!

Last Week of Mogloween—get your tricks and treats!

This is the FINAL week of Mogloween! If you haven’t already gotten your fill of the MASSIVE amount of Mogloweeny Seasonal Rares… now is your last chance. The fight with the Vampire Lord Incubus still rages on, so if you haven’t already confronted him yet, you just might want to do so since he drops some pretty impressive items!

If you missed last week’s musical mayhem event, One-Eyed Doll is still around for an encore. Jam out to the “You’re a Vampire” music video and make sure to get your hands on the OED Event Items while you can!

BIG BladeHaven Update!

BladeHaven is our newest game… AND NOW it’s available for EVERYONE!

It's got FIRST PERSON slashing action, achievements, terrified villagers, Jimmy The Eye... pretty much everything you'd want out of a single-player, first person slasher webgame! You will need a Battleon Master Account linked to your other game accounts if you want to join the newest game taking the internet over by brute force. If you get the "Mercenary Contract" item in BLADEHAVEN then you automatically receive the Non-Member Mercenary Gnome Pet in AQWorlds!

WOW!

I told you this was going to be a long one. But well worth it, right? Go forth my heroes and...

Battle On!