In our newest video, Albion's Game Director Robin Henkys checks in from his home office with an update on the game's development progress. After catching up with everything that's happened over the past months, he looks forward to Albion's next major content update and covers some of the major features it will contain.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rok0ZCFRz3k
No time to watch, or prefer a written summary? Then read on...
[h3]The Queen Update[/h3]
January saw the launch of the massive and highly successful Queen update, which brought an entire new Outlands continent and numerous new high-level gameplay options to the world of Albion. Since then, we've been working nonstop to support this update, and to date we've release thirteen patches with numerous fixes and improvements:
- Fixing critical technical issues, especially for Windows 7 users
- Improving loot and rewards
- Adjusting ingame systems to make them more fun and rewarding
- Conducting a massive Alliance test with penalties for holding more territories
- Updating the way portals work
- Introducing a completely reworked mobile UI and working on the stability of the mobile version
We're of course continuing to support this update in various ways, including fixing exploits within the Smart Cluster Queue system and making adjustments and improvements to mount stats.
[h3]What's Next?[/h3]
Of course, everyone's here to find out what's happening with the next update. We've made a ton of progress toward the next update, far too much to cover in a single video, and soon we'll be releasing a whole series of Dev Talks with in-depth information about each topic.
Today we'll take a brief look at each of the major features that are coming. These features are in the final stages of development, and are about four weeks from being finished. With such massive features, though, we want to really take our time to make sure their implementation is as flawless as possible, so we want to make sure we test them properly. This means the next update will likely happen
after the end of Season 9, and will be in place for the start of Season 10.
So what are some of the major features coming?
[h3]Avalonian Weapons[/h3]
One of the most anticipated features of the new update is the new
Avalonian Weapons. There will be
fifteen new weapons with entirely new spells, and even more excitingly, with
all-new mechanics. Examples:
- Avalonian Cannon: allows retargeting while the weapon is still firing
- Mimic: allows you to steal an enemy's ability and use it against them
The new Avalonian Weapons will shake up the meta quite a bit, and unlike the current Artifact Weapons, they will be useful for all levels of play, from small-scale to large-scale combat.
These new weapons will be covered in much more detail in an upcoming Dev Talk.
[h3]Corrupted Dungeons[/h3]
Another major feature coming with the next update is
Corrupted Dungeons. For those who missed the last Dev Talk, Corrupted Dungeons are like regular dungeons that have been
infected, reshaped, and taken over by demons. When a player enters, the entrance closes behind them, meaning no one can
directly follow them in. However, there is a way to invade these dungeons by making a pact with the demons, allowing you to hunt down players who are trying to cleanse these dungeons.
Corrupted Dungeons offer
an entirely new dimension of 1v1 PvP in Albion, as well as
an entirely new one-player PvE experience with completely new dungeon layouts, hazards, and mobs. These dungeons will also be covered at length in an upcoming Dev Talk.
[h3]Roads of Avalon[/h3]
The
Roads of Avalon are a massive new game feature that opens up
three entirely new ways of playing:
- They create connections, allowing you to find shortcuts through the world for travel, trade, and relocating.
- They allow exploration, and will contain lots of exciting new creatures to fight and resource spots to exploit.
- And most excitingly, players will have the opportunity to live within the Roads via Hideouts, shielded somewhat from the politics of the Outlands and developing their own unique style of play.
We'll have a whole mini-series of Dev Talks explaining these different features of the Roads of Avalon soon.
Thanks for joining for this special from-home talk – hopefully our upcoming videos will be from the office once again. Stay tuned for more Dev Talks coming soon!
