Albion Online News

The Queen update arrives on January 20, bringing a huge number of new features. One of the biggest and most anticipated of these is Hideouts. In our newest Dev Talk, Game Director Robin Henkys covers what Hideouts are, how they work, and the range of new opportunities they open up for Albion's guilds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTWYIXPgtLI
No time to watch the video, or prefer a written summary? Read on for more info. For specifics of placement, upgrading, and attacking Hideouts, see this forum post.

[h3]I. What are Hideouts?[/h3]
Hideouts are structures that guilds can place in the Outlands. Members of the guild (and those they grant access to) can enter it and use its facilities. Hideouts offer guilds a home away from the crowds of the big cities and allow them to live in the wilds of Albion.

Placing a Hideout requires a Hideout Construction Kit. These are crafted at the Toolmaker and cost 10 million Silver, plus significant stone and wood and siphoned energy. They are quite heavy, so transporting them requires a sturdy mount.

The construction kit must then be transported to wherever you want to place it. There are various rules about placement: for example, Hideouts cannot be placed too close to other Hideouts or to entrances of major dungeons. Think about your guild's needs: if you do a lot of crafting, you'll want to consider the new regional crafting bonuses based on biome and proximity to the center of the Outlands. Alternately, it may be more important for you to be in a particular spot for strategic reasons. Finally, keep in mind that Hideouts can only be placed during the cluster's battle time displayed on the cluster map.

If all these criteria are met, you can simply place the Hideout, which only takes a moment. After 24 hours, your Hideout will become fully operational.

From there you can upgrade for additional silver and resources if you desire additional building space or features like a guild marketplace. Whatever your Hideout level, remember to regularly supply it with food so it remains operational.

[h3]II. Risks[/h3]
Building a Hideout is fairly straightforward. However, everything in Albion comes with a risk - in this case, other players. Successfully building and maintaining a Hideout requires defending it from attacks.

Hideouts are only susceptible to attack at certain times. During construction, it will be vulnerable twice: once immediately after placement for 20 minutes and a second time during the last 20 minutes of construction. Make sure your guild is ready to protect the Hideout at these times, as any attacker determined enough will be able to attack the structure with siege hammers.

Once construction is finished, it will be even more secure. A completed Hideout can only be attacked during the first 20 minutes of the cluster's battle time, and only by the owner of the territory within the same cluster after paying the required attack cost.

During this period, the Hideout can be attacked with siege hammers but slowly regains durability. Should its durability be reduced to zero, all is not lost: Hideouts have a number of defense points, and as long as any remain, the Hideout will not be destroyed. A maximum of 1 defense point can be lost per battle, and if the defenders manage to prevent their Hideout from losing a defense point in any given battle, all defense points are restored and any would-be attacker will have to start over the next day.

Though Hideouts are hard to take down, you may still face an aggressor you'd prefer not to fight. In that case, you can try convincing them to tolerate your Hideout by paying a tribute. The tribute system allows you to set a silver sum that will be transferred daily to the guild controlling the local watchtower. Territory owners will think hard about whether to go through the arduous process of destroying Hideouts versus simply collecting taxes.

Should diplomacy fail and all your defense points be lost, your Hideout will be destroyed. All contents of the Hideout are lost, except items in players' personal banks, which are transferred to the closest public bank. It takes 4 weeks for these items to become claimable and claiming them requires paying a fee, but this is much better than losing a prized collectible permanently!

[h3]III. In Summary[/h3]
Hideouts allow your guild to build a permanent home in the Outlands, which can be upgraded from a small base to a massive underground operation. Your crafters can benefit from regional crafting bonuses, and your fighters can use it to store gear and respawn. You can build a flourishing guild economy with your own guild marketplace, and use your Hideout to access Crystal Realm Battles and Expeditions. You can even open your Hideout to other players and establish your own trading post!

Whether you use your Hideout for conquest or to build up an economic powerhouse, we're really excited to see what you do with this feature.

That's all for today - stay tuned for more Dev Talks, and we'll see you ingame when Queen goes live on January 20!

Over the past several months, the Avalonian Invasion has grown more and more deadly: new enemies (including strange statues and machines) are stalking the Outlands, threatening to tear the land itself apart. And now they have their sights focused on the crown jewel of the Royal Continent: Caerleon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfzjWe1AGBE
Only one man stands in their way: the mysterious Baron of Caerleon, also known as "The Don", the underworld boss who runs the Black Market. His economic fortunes are intertwined with those of Caerleon, and he won't let the city fall without a fight.

But the Avalonians are no ordinary enemy - and their near-limitless power may allow them to rupture the magical fabric of the Caerleon Realmgate and invade the city itself.



[h3]Join the Fight![/h3]
On Sunday, January 19, the Battle for Caerleon will take place.

Starting at 21:00 UTC, the first wave of invaders will attempt to breach one of the Caerleon Outland Portals. Attacks on other Caerleon Portals, escalating in intensity, will follow (keep an eye on in-game chat announcements for details). The Baron of Caerleon will supply players with limited free gear sets in order to defend the city.

At 10:00 UTC on Monday, January 20, the game will go down for its final maintenance before the Queen update. When Queen goes live, Caerleon - and the Outlands - will be forever changed.

Join the fight to defend Caerleon and be a part of this historic battle!

(For important information about player and item migration once Queen goes live, as well as amnesty for players with low reputations, please see this article.)

[h3]I. Statues and Swarms[/h3]
It's been a wild few months: new enemies all over the Outlands, stomping and strutting all over folks' territories and causing all sorts of mayhem. We Outlands types are nothing if not adaptable, and we've made do, even if we do have to gear a bit differently or run for it when we're overwhelmed – or even, in my case, start traveling with Handsome Jim's much-less-handsome (and decidedly worse-smelling) brother, Smuggler Pete. Pete knows his way around a warbow for sure, and also knows how to loot and gather the good stuff and get it back to Caerleon without anyone lifting it off him.

Me, Jim and Pete were heading back from a particularly good Morgana lair, heavy with loot and artifacts and some sparkly enchanted hides we'd gathered along the way, when one of those flying spheres comes barrelling at us. We dodge out of the way handily and land a few blows, and the thing flies into pieces. No trouble there. So we round the hill, and there's another, flying right into Jim and knocking the wind out of him. This one gives us a bit more trouble, but we dispatch it and head on our way.

Then another, and another... and another! Soon we saw the source: a big hulking statue, made of some sort of white metal, spitting the things out one after another. We braced for a fight, swigged our potions, and laid into it.



With a flood of the little round guys to deal with on top of this tough-as-nails statue thing, we settled in for a longer fight. We had to manage our energy, hit the thing when we could, and protect ourselves from the swarm. Finally, after an intense few minutes, the thing collapsed into pieces, and we raided its remains for that sweet glowing energy.
[h3]II. The Colossus[/h3]
Spoils of war in hand, we made our way through the wilds of Mercia and back toward the portal. Beneath the clip-clop of my horse's hooves, I thought I could hear some sort of deeper sound – like a steady booming – but I dismissed it as the result of one too many knocks to the head in our fight with the statue.

Soon it got louder, to the point that even Pete, who's deaf in one ear and half-deaf in the other, could hear it. We hopped off our mounts, and we could feel it in our bones – boom, boom, boom. This was something new. We drew our weapons and peered from the trees into the clearing, and once again, had no words for what we were seeing.



It was some sort of machine, powered by magic, huge and lumbering, stomping around like it owned the place. Say what you will about those creepy mages, at least they stick to guarding their energy crystals. But this thing... it was just wandering, looking for a fight. Almost as if it were scouting.

We kept our distance and managed to give the big, stomping lunk the slip by taking a wide route around it, and soon enough we were back at the Caerleon portal. But as I stepped through the shimmering ring and onto the hard stone of the Caerleon streets, the sense of safety and well-being I usually felt was gone. In its place was a new unease. No, stronger: a tremendous sense of foreboding, as if Caerleon itself were under threat.

Since then, we've heard reports of these things all over the Outlands. Folks say the ones in Mercia are especially aggressive – almost as if they're on the lookout for weaknesses. I fear this will come to a head soon. How can we hold back a force of such mindless might, such unceasing energy?

***

Stay tuned for the final Outlands Report in the coming weeks.

Queen is coming! This update brings a complete rework of the Outlands continent along with fully revamped open-world territory control. Hideouts let guilds place their own bases in the open world, and the new Crystal League allows players of all levels to participate in 5v5 battles. This update also introduces a new elite faction to the game: the Avalonians. Found in the new Elite Randomized Dungeons, the Avalonians offer incredible rewards to those who can best them, including week-long PvE Fame buffs and new Artifact Armors. And on top of all this, Queen also brings a huge number of quality-of-life improvements to streamline and strengthen numerous aspects of the game.


[h3]A New Era for Albion's Guilds[/h3]
Queen brings a complete rework of the Outlands, allowing guilds of different strengths to compete at their own levels and fulfilling the next major milestone in Albion Online's journey to become the ultimate sandbox MMO. Hideouts allow guilds to build their own underground bases in the open world, and open-world battles bring new opportunities for large-scale combat.

Together, these massive new systems allow every guild member to contribute to their guild's strength and progress. And the new Crystal League system allows players of all levels to engage in 5v5 combat, with elite players able to unlock tremendous rewards for their guilds.


[h3]Avalonians and Elite Dungeons
[/h3]Queen brings a completely new faction, the ancient and powerful Avalonians, to the world of Albion. These elite enemies can be challenged in Elite Randomized Dungeons that appear throughout the Outlands, providing a high-level challenge to groups of 15-20 players, and offering incredible rewards like week-long PvE Fame buffs and shards that can be crafted into the most powerful Artifact Armor in the game.


[h3]Numerous Quality-of-Life Improvements
[/h3]Along with a huge new Wardrobe Skin system, Queen brings numerous additional features and improvements to the game, such as:

• Enchanted stone with improved refining efficiency
• New cursors for improved visibility
• Keyboard shortcut to inspect players
• Simplified and streamlined Item Power progression
• Updated World Boss icons
• ...and much, much more

For a complete rundown of everything coming with this massive content update, please visit the official update page.

Saturday marks the third Territory Reset Day of the Avalonian Invasion Standalone Season, with Season Points earned by guilds doubled. The next Territory Reset Day follows just one week later, and will be the final day of traditional GvGs in Albion.

In addition to the Avalonian Mage world bosses, which will continue to give Season Points, a new type of Avalonian world boss will appear in the Outlands. These fearsome and mysterious creations will appear at random throughout the Outlands, spawn approximately every 5 hours, are suited for groups of 10-20, and give Season Points as follows:

• Anglia and Glouvia: 80 Season Points
• Cumbria and Siluria: 112 Season Points
• Mercia: 144 Season Points

Here's a list of all the remaining dates for the season:


Saturday marks the beginning of the end of the Outlands as we know them. Get ready for a new challenge, and be sure to watch all the action live on AlbionTV!