Rolith
will probably be some kind of scientist...

Cysero
Is The
King Of
Useful Info.

September 30th, 2008
Engineered Away + Some AQW Info!

Normally I would not put this above Rolly's post but it's kind of a hot topic.

People have been writing to me asking me about AQW Pricing and finally I have some useful information for you!

First... We are going Live October 10, 2008 (we hope)!

I can't give you exact prices yet but here's what I can tell you:

There will be a FREE PLAYER option in AdventureQuest Worlds. Compared to our other games, the free player option will be a lot more limited but it will be there.

There will be 3 payment options. One for 3 months, one for 6 months and one for A YEAR. Naturally, the longer you buy a membership for the more you will save. You will also get a proportionately large number of goodies, depending on which package you go for.

I can tell you THIS tidbit for sure;. Even the Year Upgrade Package will be less expensive than a new Xbox game, and you will still get a constant stream of new content released, very much like all of our other games. It's the only thing we know how to do. *shrug*

For you parents who are concerned about AQW being our first game with LIVE CHAT... fear not. We will have a few chat-safe "Moglin Servers" (named after famous Moglins... like Twilly server) in which every player will be limited to a number of pre-selected phrases, questions and answers.

For those of you less concerned with live chat there will be a number of "Legendary Servers" (named after AE characters like Artix and myself, for example) in which players will be able to chat as they do now, with a strong profanity filter and the ability to report inappropriate behavior.

Here's the catch. If you have upgraded in ANY of our games (AQ, DF, MQ, AQW) then you will be able to talk freely using free chat... if not, then you will have to use pre-set canned chat, no matter which server you are on.

This will help us cut down on bandwidth (our server bill for AQW will still dwarf all of our other games, but this will help) and it will be a way to reward and thank those of you who have decided to help us support the games over the years! YAY YOU!

Now let's talk for a second about becoming a Founder.

This week marks MechQuest's 1 year anniversary and Warlic has some neat stuff planned for everyone and some REALLY neat stuff planned for the founders. When we were making DragonFable we didn't think to have any such founder-type set-up, luckily for YOU we keep very good records! This Friday every founder (meaning that you upgraded that specific character to DragonLord on or before AUGUST 11, 2006) will get 200 free Dragoncoins Added to their founder character or characters!

Remember, if you missed out on your chance to be a founder of DragonFable you DO NOT want to miss the chance to become a Founder in AQ Worlds!

Being a Founder in AQW will get you some neat special treats, and because this game will be truely interactive... you'll really be able to brag about it and show off your Rare Founder pet (oops... forget i said that).

Now... On to Rolith's part.

See? we like all of JoCo's stuff...not just Code Monkey and Still Alive.

Anyways, being the resident evil dev in the office I figured it'd be my pleasure to let you guys in on the doom that's on its way.

MWHEHEHEHEHE

Woah, channeled Kefka there for a second, sorry. First off, for the hardcore players out there who have continued to push the limits placed on the game, we're preparing a fun little challenge for you. A level 50 fight against a very challenging mini-boss that will push even the best equipped 50s to their limits. Don't feel bad if you can't kill him yet, that's kind of the point.

Also: Lymcrest renovations are almost complete! This week will see the release of floors 11-15, the last of the old floors being redesigned, and the completion of a project long long overdue. And with it, of course, comes another community challenge. This one will test your patience, I've got a feeling, to the very limits. Five rooms will be filled with 10 monsters a piece. Yes, you will have to kill them in the right order or face a reset. Yes, this does mean there's litterally hundreds of thousands of permutations you're going to have to go through, yes, that means this one MIGHT take you guys a bit. Hopefully longer than 9 hours at least.

Alac already has the map almost ready for the following floors, and we'll be discussing the challenge for those sometime later this week, I think sticking with every other week for lymcrest makes the most sense. If we can't come to a concensus about how to test you guys, we might ask you to pick your poison so to speak, so keep your eyes here.

Also planned this week is the continued release of the quest log, we're taking input from you guys on the forums about your questions and concerns and will be cleaning up the interface as we go, responding to your input.

Cysero
Saws
Quest Logs.

September 26th, 2008
Quest Log!

We have lot coming out today so here's the break down.

1). DF finally has a QUEST LOG! It's not complete yet but we're got it inside the game for you to play with. It gives even eaiser access to most of the game's quests (for those of you who don't feel like walking around the world and exploring or for those of you who are allergic to Gryphon feathers)

You will find this MAJOR game advancement inside the DA button, which is found...

Right here!

Just click on the DA and any player (players with or without DAs) will now be able to see the DA button options. Including the Quest Log button which is found...

Right here!

It's been a long time coming and when it's complete it will give you a complete list of EVERY quest in DF so you can finally see what you've walked right passed or missed when you were at your grandparent's house for the weekend.

2). The next step in the Dragesvard chain is now open and drops 9 brand new weapons! See if you can make it through the Killguin King's tests!

3). The next baby dragon quest is now live in Lady Celestia's zone. It will require a little Luck and quite a bit of Charisma in order to get your baby dragon to do what you say.

We will be making all of these things live within 5 minutes of me posting this.... Enjoy the release guys!

Cysero
Shall
Forever Be.

September 23th, 2008
Our First Print Ad.

Check it out, this just showed up on the doorstep of the underground lab this morning.

It is our FIRST EVER PRINT AD! It appears in the November issue of Shonen Jump (Volume 6, issue 11).

You may be asking yourself why an online gaming company would bother taking out a print ad in an Otaku Magazine. The answer is BECAUSE WE CAN! Artix has been a fan of Shonen Jump forever...Personally I let my subscription run out when I forced myself to break my Yu Gi Oh addiction.

I figured you cvould either run out and buy the magazine... or I could just show you the ad here and save you a few bucks (unless there is something in there that you actually want to READ).

Back to piling more things onto Rolith's To Do list.

Rolith
Loves Tab and Mountain Due...

September 22th, 2008
Very Simple Man!

I've got to say, in all honesty, Friday night before release, I was hoping that about this time today, I'd be encouraging you guys to not give up on finding Greg. Shows how much I know.

Nine hours! NINE! For all of you who just want the answer: HERE Congratulations to all of you, especially fire blaze who was the one who found Greg in the last quest, opening the way to one of my favorite fights so far in DF. The coding behind it is kinda cool. I don't know if anyone noticed, but Greg randomly went into "Charge Mode" and powered up until he had over 9000 skill points and unleashed his special attack.

Not the most challenging fight in the world, but at the same time, the resolutions/rewards aren't the point of these challenges, Which I hope you guys keep in mind. Sure while the recolored foam Rolith's Hammer is by no means weak, it's not exactly uber in anything except coolness factor...

Sorry... may be a little biased here...but that's an AWESOME weapon!

...The Lymcrest community challenges are about...the Challenge, solving it with friends and allies on the forums and working together. Keep that in mind if things seem a little "weak" when all is said and done.

Anyways, the next part of Lymcrest isn't due out until next week, should give me plenty more time to think of ways to frustrate you cause you to work together to solve the problem! I've got a feeling you'll all really start to fear me after the next one... and remember, after floor fifteen all bets are off in terms of difficulty Mwhahahaha.

*cough* Sorry, totally not evil.

This week we're working on some serious fun for everyone, including a much wanted/long desired quest log that's been promised, talked about, debated, and argued over since long before DF was even out. It's a massive project, but considering it becomes a larger one every time we delay it, it's been decided we start to get to work on it. Cysero and Artix are working on the design and interface while I have already started working on the coding..

The quest log is by no means the only thing on our plate, and I've got a to-do list right in front of me, and instead of counting it in pages, lets start counting it in "gulps" it triggers in me over the course of the day when i read over it. This week? Five gulper. Last week, for comparison, was a three.

Cysero
is.

September 19th, 2008
The Cricket, The Mirror and the Wardrobe.

Hiya game-monkeys,

We've got a lot of stuff this week so letsbreak it down in nice, easy chunks.

1). The new 20,000 DC package for $49.95! It's out best DC sale yet and it should last you a while as long as you're not a DC-Item-A-Holic.

2). The long awaited Armor Closet has finally beed released! With this House item you can load nearly any armor that you've ever unlocked in DF!

THIS WEEKEND ONLY! The Armor Closet is on sale for half price! For this weekend, the closet is only 500 DCs. When monday rolls around, the closet will return to its original price of 1000 DCs!

3). The Magic Mirror, for sale for gold in Ikea's House item shop, this magical item will take any DA holder who owns it to a shadow pocket dimension for some quick gold farming!

4). 18 new weapons, (6 have specials!) and 6 new helms (which match the Shadow Class armors VERY well), have been released in my Superstore of Savings!

5). Greg the Extradimensional Cricket! This new interesting challange begins in the Lymcrest Labyrinth and will take you all over DragonFable! This little, green guy is fast and tough so team up with the other players on the forums to help track him down in the 10 quests where he's hiding.

This new challange was put together by Rolith and more than a little help from the forum-famous Alac! If you get frustrated enough to cry...blame them.

Not me.

Not my fault.

Cysero
For
President!

September 18th, 2008
20,000 DragonCoin Package Is Now Live
And To Never Take A Picture With Your Phone's Camera In A Gas Station Bathroom.

Well, that pretty much sums that up.

A few weeks ago Warlic released the 20,000 Nova Gem package for $49.95 U.S.D. in MechQuest. Since there has been a non-stop stream of e-mails and forums PMs begging for this kind of deal in DragonFable. We've got it all set up and ready to go for you, and we wanted to give you something extra nice to spend them on.

We decided to take a break from Dragesvard this week and release something special that we've been working on for a while. This weekend we are updating the Superstore of Savings with 6 new weapons (some of them have specials... if I have time, all of them will) and a few new helms.

The BIG news for the week is the semi-secret project that Rolith has been working on all week... the Armor Closet!

This is a house item (to be found in both the normal house shops AND the Dragesvard house shop) that will allow you to equip ANY armor in the game that you've unlocked (the only exceptions are the Snugglebear armor, the Chickencow Armor and the new Base Class armors that come from the Shadowscythe shirts.... in short the exceptions are armors that you can load from your backpack)

This means, Pali, Necro, Ranger, Guardian, Pirate, Ninja, Pirate Monkey, Pirate Ninja, Dragonlord (as well as color custom and evolved Dragonlord), and special holiday armors like the Pumpkinlord can all be loaded from your house! That’s not all... As more armors become available in the game, those will also become available from the closet!

No more hauling your butt to a certain city just to load an armor.

This may not seem like much of an advancement to you guys but it's a pretty big deal to us. It's a masterful feat of coding, and it's an addition to the game that we have wanted to add forever (along with several thousand of you).

We'll also be adding a few new items to the Dragesvard House Item shop... some fish plaques, The juice barrels from the basement of Yulgar's Inn in AQW, some new couches and the like.

We will also be releasing the new repaired versions of the Lymcrest Labyrinth, floors 6-10. The remaining floors will be released next week!

Finally, Greg The Extradimensional Cricket (DBZ fnas will like this one) has issued a challenge to you. The challenge is "Catch me if you can". He will be hiding in random places in several of DragonFable's quests, waiting for you to show up. Much like the new Lymcrest Challenge this will also be a task for forum cooperation! Catch him, defeat his challenge, and you will be rewarded with a temporary Captain Rolith's Hammer!

So, to sum up: This week's release... 20,000 DC package, Armor Loading Closet, other house items, 18 New DC weapons with some specials, 6 New DC helms, Lymcrest labyrinth floors 6-10 re-released, and finally the challenge of Greg the Extradiminsional Cricket.

Now for a story called The Great Cysero Cell Phone Disaster of Con08!

There we all were with our bags packed, on our way to DragonCon 08' when we decided to stop the car at a random gas station in the middle of nowhere for a bathroom break.

My time came and upon entering the gas station bathroom (which was as clean as any gas station bathroom that you've ever seen... which is to say NOT, in any way, clean) I saw 3 main items in the room, the toilet, the sink and the novelty dispenser on the wall.

The novelty dispenser was really what caught my eye, so as I was doing my business, I was glancing over the various headache medicines, imitation designer colognes, and Stay Awake pills (for hard working truck drivers) all available for less than a buck.

I had no interest in any of these items but I thought I would take a picture of the dispenser with my phone and send it to my girlfriend to demonstrate that we were having fun on our little road-trip, kind of a "wish you were here.... well not RIGHT here but at least with us," sort of thing.

Watching sitcoms as much as I have in my life I should have realized what a set-up this was, but when you're starring in the show... you never catch it until it's too late. I raised my phone to take the picture and WHOOPS, fumbled it directly into the gas station toilet basin.

Any mortal man (or sane person) might have decided to leave it there in it’s watery grave... but I had a problem... see, I haven’t memorized my girl's phone number, having always just used the return call button... and there was NO way that I was going to flush my phone down into the sewers of Wherever, Florida before we ever got to Con with no way to contact her for several days.

DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME OR ANYWHERE ELSE...

I gritted my teeth and did what I had to do. I plunged my hand into the basin and, in a fraction of a second, pulled it back out with my poor phone in hand. I whipped around and immediately, and ran my entire arm and cell phone under the hottest water that I could get to come out of the sink (pretty hot) because I'd rather have a slight water burn on my entire forearm than... say... hepatitis A.

Of course the waterlogged phone refused to work but once we were on the road again I took it apart, patted it as dry as I could with the paper napkins on hand and let it dry in the sun until we stopped a few hours later to eat.

Holding my breath I reassembled my phone and turned it on. It came to life and the buttons were confused but they mostly worked! I knew that I had to work fast so I navigated to my girlfriend's phone number as fast as I could with the water damaged interface. I had just enough time to write it down (and make Waldo put it in HIS phone as a backup) before the phone switched itself off, never to return to life.

My little loyal phone had come back to life just long to whisper my girlfriend's number into my ear with it's dying breath, then went to the great cell phone recycling center in the sky. I removed the SIM card, and the 1 Gig Micro-SD card, (my cell phone was an organ donor) and we held a brief service for it. There were tears.

I remembered that our hotel in Atlanta was located directly next to the Peachtree Mall, so as soon as we arrived I grabbed my two bags and told Artix " Dude, I’m going to the mall to get a phone." To which he replied "Why don't we take a couple of minutes and check in.... once we get settled we can...Cysero? Cysero?" but by that time I was already in the mall.

Within 3 minutes I called Artix and asked where everyone was. He asked me how I got a phone so quickly. I had made my new phone purchase within 47 seconds of entering the mall (yes, I counted), The phone was an upgrade to my old one but the SIM and Micro-SD fit fine and so my loyal phone with all of my numbers, pictures, movies, wallpapers, and MP3s was reborn into a sleek new body with a healthy new battery!

A few minutes later I called my girl and asked her how her day was. I already had one funny con story to tell her.

Moral of the story... never take a picture with your phone's camera in a gas station bathroom.

Rolith
Hasn't Posted in a while...

September 17th, 2008
My My How time flies!

It's been an interesting few weeks, to say the least.

I just wanted to emphasize again how much you guys impressed me with the release of the side boss in lymcrest. You impressed me so much that I decided to make the next extra challenge even HARDER!

I've decided that each set of Lymcrest floors will contain a new game play twist that I've always wanted to try but never managed to find a place they'd fit before.

As we wanted to keep the first 15 floors relatively unchanged from the original releases, these changes for now are going to be optional. After floor fifteen is re-released,however, expect some fun fun things to prevent you from reaching deeper into Lymcrest.

This week we'll be re-releasing floors 6-10 of Lymcrest. Alac and I have been working on this map for over a week and a half now, and it's making good progress with her help.

The side challenge will include a fight wtih a completely new monster drawn and animated by Ghost! As for some spoiler information, you'll be chasing him all over LORE, trying to hit him with a hammer to prove you're better. I'm hoping someone already gets the reference, but if not, I'm sure it'll become abundantly clear Friday.

As for what else is coming this week, I'll leave what to fill you in on up to Cysero, I've spilled enough beans for the day.

Side Note: I moved 6 months worth of design notes posts to the archive. We've got to get better about doing that on a regular basis...

Cysero
Helped
Robina Hide

September 12th, 2008
Player Appreciation Weekend *Bonus Gold!*

Hi guys,

We've decided to have our own player appreciation weekend, so as of right now, every single quest in the game drops an additional 5% gold! It may not sound like much but it really adds up. So if you've been looking to earn a little extra cash, this is the weekend to play!

Sorry to pass along that the next Lymcrest Labyrinth update will not be this week because we made Rolith do fun things instead. But we DO have 2 brand new quests for you to play!

The first is the next quest in the Nythera chain, where you go back in time and play as young Nythera and reveal the secret behind why she cannot access her dragon magic!

Next is the next quest in Galanoth's Dragesvard chain. Gal has spent a little time as a captive of the ice elves and now it's time to do your best Steve McQueen impression and bust him out.

I'll wait here while you go Google Steve McQueen.

Back? K.

I'm kind of happy to report that you guys ate the Shadowscythe T-shirts up like they were the pancakes and pancakes were going out of style (which will never happen... nor will these shirts ever go out of style... see how I tied it back in like that?)!

I'm told that every single size has sold out already... a few hours after they became available to buy. Crazy.

We're going to try and get some more printed, and the second run will STILL have the codes that will get you the upgrades in all 3 games. To those of you who got your shirts.... well done! To those of you who did not.... CLICK FASTER NEXT TIME!

Happy Weekend!

Cysero
Wears Shirts

September 8th, 2008
FRIDAY T-SHIRTS!

HI! We've got some shirts that you want!

Shadowscythe T-Shirts in Red on Black or
BLACK ON BLACK

Aside from just being smotherd in rich, creamy awesomesauce these shirts also come with an In-Game bonus for EACH of our games!

In MQ, you get a special Mech based on Sepulchure's Doomknight Armor!

in AQ you get a special Doomknight armor of your very own!

And in DF (because we will eventually be releasing the Doomknight class on it's own) you will get a special In-Game item that loads a Shadow version of your base class armor!

Show your loyalty to the Darkness by equipping this special armor for your class. Become the Shadow Warrior, Shadow Rogue or Shadow Mage and keep all of your original skills!

This week, heroes, you will also be attempting to rescue Galanoth from the Ice Elf Prison and taking a trip down memory lane with Nythera!

And THAT is your head's up.

Tomorrow I get to tell you one last Con Tale. The tale of How Cysero Got His New Phone.

Cysero
Is Glad That
Rolly Is
Enjoying
Himself

Rolith
Was Expecting this to take longer...

September 5th, 2008
Gary. Not The Snail.

Hi guys,

What do we have this week? Ok first, and most fun.... this is the 5th year anniversary of Rolith playing AE games, so he decided to redo the first 5 floors of the Lymcrest Labyrinth and add a special side-boss.

This guy hits for 5k per, so how are you supposed to beat him?

You and the other heroes have to figure that out. Toss out some ideas on our forums!

Next, the next quest in Galanoth's Dragesvard chain is live, with 3 brand new, very pretty DA only weapons. This is less of a challange than Lymcrest but unless you know what you're doing this quest could be a little tough too.

Oh yeah.... there is NO such thing as "too many Portal jokes,".

Remember that.

It's not even 10PM yet! You guys are AWESOME! I guess that means we're going to have to do something a bit harder next time! I saw some awesome teamwork, which is exactly what I was going for!

Cysero
Never Wants
To Give You
Up!

Rolith
Never Gonna' Let you down

September 3rd, 2008
DragonCon Panel Video (not really)

Hi guys, busy working on this week's Dragesvard Quest and Rolly has got his hands full fixing the Lymcrest dungeons, which should also be ready for this weekend.

Ok... ORIGINALLY I had a link here. It was supposed to be a video of the first panel (which we DO have and will probably post in time) but In actuallity it was me Rick Rolling you, which is always funny.

Unfortunately Reens informs me that this is a bannable offense on the forums so I had to remove it and to set a good example I will take my ban with pride and composure.

Instead of a Rick Roll, here's Artix's recap of the Panels.

Yeah…Rickrolling you guys? Partially my idea.  Sorry.

Anyways, since C decided to spill the beans on what I’ve been working on so far this week, I figured I’d come and post some more info on what’s coming. 

Lymcrest has been a bit of a weight on my shoulders since it first started getting released.  It was one of my first major attempts to create a new style of quest, and in short, it was a failure.  But that’s alright.  Everyone has to learn somewhere, and at Artix Entertainment, we learn on a weekly deadline!

Now that I’ve got a little bit of free time, and a better understanding of how DragonFable works, I sat down and decided to give it another try the other night, and it turns out some of the stuff I came up with isn’t half bad.

Also, while the first five floors are being released more or less unchanged, keep a lookout for something special extra tossed in as a surprise. An easteregg that bites, if you will.

When describing Dragon*Con over the past two days to friends and family, I’ve used the term “Life Changing”several times.  Also, thanks to the large number of costumes, “Eye Pleasing”has been said several times; the latter, accompanied with pictures, has been more accepted.

D*Con Story Time:

When I was walking up to the Sheraton (where our second panel was to be held) to check out the accommodations we’d be looking at for the following day’s MMO panel, standing out in front were a row of bellhops waiting to help anyone that was showing up to the hotel.

In order, there was a bellhop, another bellhop, another bellhop, a bellhop with a Starfleet communicators badge and tricorder, then more bellhops.  I’ve never wanted my camera more than I did right them, so it was a pity I’d forgotten it in the room. It was crystal clear: these people weren’t there FOR the con they ended up there that day just by going to work, but when confronted by that wall of weirdness they just gave in and decided to have fun with it.  How many Starfleet ensign bellhops have you seen in your life, seriously?

Experiencing stuff like that, and many other dozens of stories that there just isn’t time to share, makes me realize I’m one of the luckiest people on the planet, and I thank you guys daily for allowing us to continue to entertain you week in and week out.  It’s nice to feel like a rockstar…or, well, more popular than the geologist panel being held.

Cysero
Is Glad
To Be Back!

September 2nd, 2008
The Long Con

We're back. Sort of. Historically the day after Con is a day of rest and healing, but there is no rest for the silly.

I wanted to show you guys some pictures from con that might not make it to the Zorbak goes to Con site, and let you know that the Sock Pets have found their way home to you lovely people who came out to meet us and listen to me babble into a microphone.

Zorbak and I taking a nap on the way to con.

Cracker Barrel 1: Halfway to con. My friend Waldo (A.K.A Alces) invents the breakfast Taco which consists of a pancake shell, scambeled eggs, cheesy hashbrowns, and a very serious strip of bacon on top.

Cracker Barrel 2: Me playing with the convex security mirror, Nythera on my right, Waldo on my left.

The View from Artix's 47'th floor suite! Hello Atlanta!

The view of the hotel's inside from the 47th floor.

Me, before con has begun, full of life and vigor! Ready to con!

The smallest stormtroopers in the world taking on Aliens.

Zorbak trying to make a break for it, Waldo and Alac chasing him through modern art.

Waldo finding Waldo. (Yeah, Alces has heard the "Where's Waldo" joke before. Lots.)

Me and Rosie the Riveter!

First Panel 1: Right side.

First Panel 2: Left side.

This DF fan built herself her own DA! Now THAT is a dedicated DF Fan!

This is the same fan... she wore the sock that I gave back to her.

AE Party: The Mysterious Stranger pays us a visit. Notice the detail in the Skullstaff of Doom that he built himself! Technically, our first Cosplayer!

The last night of Con, about 4:30 AM. Con is still in full swing.

Me, the morning after con. Tired, defeated, a little haggered, but happy and ready to go home!

So, there you have it. A taste of DragonCon 2008! Thanks to everyone who made it out to talk to us and hang with us. We all had a great time (as usual) but you guys really were the best part of Con for us! See you next year!