Nov 30, 2006
PvP Crunch (Not a new cereal featuring Captian Rhubarb)
It is Thursday... and by now you know what that means! Cysero, Zhoom and I are sitting here with another weeks worth of uncompleted work that must be completed for tomorrows launch. The Arena is not working, the rank system is non-existant, weapons are not colored, the NPC is stuck on a piece of paper in Washington DC where there is no scanner, the rank updater prototype... um, guys.. did we remember to do the rank updater? Oh, and the complete battle system re-coding on the testing server still has 5 pages of bugs left (Thank you Geo!). *Smiles Broadly* Yup -- a typical Thursday. I LOVE CRUNCH TIME!* See you tomorrow!

New PvP Reward Weapons!
They still need colored! Come tomorrow... you may be dueling in Black and White! ** An important thing to notice is the Staffs are different from previous staffs found in DragonFable. Previously we used a single type of handle and put different heads on them to make them unique. These staffs are all one piece with a design that goes from the base all the way to the head.... these staffs are truely unique. Additionally, the sword with the HUGE blade looks AWESOME.

* The scary part is, he is not being facetious***.
*
* Looks more like Black and Gray.
*** The scarier part is that facetious was actually spelled correctly on the design notes.

Nov 29, 2006
Monster Joust Madness!
OMG! This was released a month ago and I forgot to tell anyone. It is cheesy, short, fun, and... awww, who cares you get to ride a Frogzard! If you like it, be sure to tell some friends :-)


Play

Arena Promoters! (Player GMs?)
This is a great idea!* I think the lists of arena contestants should be player run. That is, the list of current tournament combatants could continually be updated and maintained by a group of PvP experts on the forums -- who have the authority to keep the arena balanced. (Reens says, "So players 1-10 will actually be 1 to 10!?!?") With the initial launch we are going to have three arena groups: Level 1-10, Level 11-20 and Level 21-30. Each arena will feature with an ever changing list of combatants appropriate for that level range. It might be updated once a week... or maybe once a day? We could also have special "Featured Duelists" to challenge. Simliar to the "choose your opponent" that is available in the test. The only difference is new people would be featured on a regular basis. Fight well (or dress well) and maybe you could earn your day of Glory** in the spotlight. Back to the Arena Promoters topic -- I think this is something we can all participate in. I mean, people are doing it right now by maintaining lists of char ID#s. Zhoom has his hands full coding, but I asked him if he could make some tools to help verify the ID#s (showing the name, level, and DA accessability of characters) to prepare the first list of duelists. So much to do, so little time!

* I am going to get flammed on the forums until my ego is crushed like that expensive car from the new James Bond movie.
** Where your friends from the forums would beat your character up over and over like that expensive car from the new James Bond movie.

Nov 27, 2006
The PvP Coliseum
This week in DragonFable the team is continuing work on the new PvP system! Complete with rewards, new challenges, and our re-coded/fixed (Yup, pets will attack properly again) battle system! You can help us find bugs in the re-coded battle system on the DA Testing Server.

Oaklore updates, Game Clean Up, and New Website
The newest plan moving forward it to release new stuff AND fix existing stuff each week. It is a novel idea! In fact, I am going to go make some new stuff for you right now.... read below for the secret insider scoop!

Classes / Armors / Capes and Helms!
I posted previously that we finally figured out how to fix the problem with the Rogues. Specifically... the dual wielding hack that we made that day so long ago (Flashback time!) when I posted the image to the right and EVERYONE said "WOW! Rogues are getting dual wield)... and then, like any over-enthusiastic player-loving game makers we figured out how to make it happen at the expense of literally every piece of consistent functionality in the game! *Chuckles* Hack after hack went on to support the hack until the day... (DUNNN DUNNN DUNNNNNNN!) we released the Cordemi Codex*. Later when we attempted to release weapon specials we watched in horror as the unpredictability of the Rogue's weapons did unimaginable things that were too strange even for screenshots. Doooom! But last week... we found a solution** . A solution that does not require us to change/nerf/alter the rogue in any way. In fact, we are going to ADD*** helms, capes (actually it is "back" which means... wings!) and then, finally, we can add the skills to the Guardian class and start releasing this enormous pile of class armors that have already been vectorized. Yay for progress! Go team go!

* A.K.A. Super Ultra Mega Hack
** Another Hack
*** The game will probably explode

Nov 23, 2006
Happy Thanksgiving!
Have fun*, be safe** and eat lots of Turkey*** :-)

* Talk, Play, and think about DragonFable every moment in between obligatory family hugs.
** Do not bring your Mecha Battle Turkey to the table
*** Constructing your own clockwork technology based assault poultry could result in the inevitable destruction of Falconreach. Please use caution when performing Technomancy and only do it under maniacal scientist supervision.

Nov 22, 2006
Dr. Voltabolt returns....
I know... you were wishing for a giagantic mechanical missle shooting Turkey pet for Thanksgiving. It is your lucky day! The event starts tomorrow on official Turkey day (or maybe we will be sneaky and launch it at the end of the day!)

Cysero's 1-year Anniversary!
It was one year ago today that Cysero, our magical weaponsmith, joined the AQ/DF team. We know this because today he baked oatmeal-raisin-cranberry cookies and brought them in to celebrate (Backwards, but we love cookies so no complaints here!) *Salutes Cysero* Thank you for being a here Cysero, I do not know how we could ever do this without you. *Eats a cookie*

New Testing Server
If you are a DA holder, please help us test the battle engine on the brand new Dragon Fable Testing Server ( https://testdragon.battleon.com/game/ ) ! It *should* work exactly like the old one! Zhoom redid the battle system to remove problems with turns -- your pet should attack right after you now. Please post engine/combat bugs and problems on the Official Test Server bugs thread!

THIS JUST IN! Our first screenshot of a player using the Shrinkray linus to shrink... himself!

Nov 21, 2006
The Design Notes in CRISIS!
Yes, rest at ease friends -- we are aware of the critically severe crisis caused by the Design Notes dates often being incorrect. I know we can discover the root of this plague, but WE NEED YOUR HELP! Now, obviously a problem of this severe game-destroying magnitude cannot be caused by Artix simply copy-and-pasting the previous day's notes and forgetting to change the date. *Hears the collective voice of the non-sarcastic forum gods* "OH NO... NEVER!". Therefore, it is up to us... to find the TRUE reason! I will help start...

Design Notes: Why the Date is wrong..... sometimes!

  • Warlic occasionally teleports Artix back in time to write them
  • It helps generate posts for the Forum Admins to delete so they do not get bored (Rolith loves "Wrong DN days!")
  • Ebil Moglin Haxxors change them to see if anyone will notice
  • So many players are still logged in from the day before that it confuses the server!
  • Someone convinced Artix that he is in the real life verion of the Groundhog's day movie (or that new one that is coming out that looks exactly like Groundhog's day but with more action)
  • He took one too many crits to the ol' noggin in PvP (Yes, it is ID #22)
  • Pae and Reens have been trying to set his clock a day ahead so that events are actually finished and tested a day early... but they changed the time the wrong way! (That would explain a lot)
  • Hyperdimentional Ice Monkey Ninjas refused to eat a square shaped bananna which caused a quantum irregularity.... hey, I saw it in a movie once -- it can happen!
  • ..... see you on the forums!

Nov 20, 2006
Bonus DragonMaster Wallpaper!
DragonMaster Frostscythe was a formitable foe.... to remember our first encounter with him (there are certain to be future ones) you can grab these new wallpapers. (Right click the links and choose "save as" to save it to your computer)

DragonMaster Frostscythe (Dragon version) - 1024x768
DragonMaster Frostscythe (Pose version) - 1024x780

Nov 19, 2006
Boss Fight happening now!
The evil Dragon behind his war has been drawn out. Battle the boss of this war (extreme mode if you are insane) and join on the forums to talk about what this DragonLor... Mas.... guy.... was after! (Well fought!)

Nov 17, 2006
The Dragon's Assault has begun!
As hordes of Frost creatures swarm into town we are the last line of defense. Talking about defense, new items have appeared in the Defender's Shop! (Yes, we are aware of the bug that requires you to have at least one space available in your inventory before merging, this will be fixed with the next engine release). If you get Artix, Ash, and Cinder or Prydemaster/PrydeLord you will deal unbelievable damage against these waves of monsters. The army is is only 1/3 the size of the one we defeated in DoomWood... this DragonLord is about to learn a lesson in humility! I am sounding the horn for reinforcements. May the fates favor thy battles, I will see you on the battlefield!

The Dragon has begun to move!
The icy beast is moving its army into position.... they are just hours away from Falconreach. The temperature is starting to drop. I dread saying this... but there is indeed someone riding the Dragon

Nov 16, 2006
Frost Dragon raising an army outside of Falconreach!
A new Dragon has appeared and from its frosty wings blows the icy cold breeze of oncoming destruction! My cold was nothing like the cold you are about to get*.

* Actually I had strep throat... but that line sounded a lot cooler!

Nov 14, 2006
PvP Coliseum
Check out Cysero's sketches of the PvP Collosium . Different types of battles and challenges will take place on different dueling platforms. The Arena will be a place where the greatest duelists in the world* come to prove their mettle. There is only one rule -- no killing! (Note: 0 HP in DragonFable = Knocked Out**).

* namely.... You.
** Unless the target explodes, disintigrates, dematerializes, get eaten, dragged into a grave by skeletal clutches, are eaten by their mount, or any number of other visual anomolies which still represent them *coughs* getting "Knocked Out". If there is one thing that we all learned from video games... it is ok to beat up your best friends, but you are not allowed to keeel them!

Down with the sickness....
It is days like these when I wish I had invested a few talent points into cure instead of throwing them all into obliterate undead. *Blows his nose* Curse you evil Bacteria! During the past 30 days every single member of the team has been horribly ill (Moral: sharing is not caring!)

Nov 13, 2006
A Chinese Tall Story
This past weekend multiple movie channels were playing ALL 6 StarWars movies.... back to back to back to back. I watched them again (in pieces) in the worst possible order imaginable. Lets see....

1.) Episode III - Just the middle
2.) Episode VI - Just the end
3.) Episode I - Just the Beginning
4.) Episode IV - From the middle to the end
5.) Episode V - Just the beginning
6.) Episode I & II -- all the way through -- YAY!
7.) ... and so on.

But even still I saw new things in the movie that I did not understand the first time I saw them. I also saw another inspiring movie this weekend. It was called "A Chinese Tall Story". I picked it up at DragonCon earlier this year and finally got to watch it. It was amazing, and insane! It had the character that Goku from DragonBall Z was modeled after, had people visit the Heavens, Spaceships invaded, Armies of Darkness unleashed hordes of monsters upon the land, there was a magical weapon which MUST go into DragonFable ASAP and only people who know the secret words to command it will ever be able to use it..... and the main character (A monk) even dressed up like Spider Man at one point. It unraveled into a love story that inspired me deeply. If you are able to rent / buy / find a friend that has it / etc, I highly recommend this movie. It is only available subtitled and the content guidelines are very simliar to AQ and DF.

This week in DragonFable

  • Work on new PvP Collosium has begun
  • New quests and improvements to Oaklore in progress
  • Zhoom is fixing the pet order, and several combat issues that will allow us to start adding weapon specials
  • 18 new amazing monsters have been drawn by Thyton and are beginning their long journey through vectorization, animation, and coding! (We have so many monsters jam logged in development is it insane.... J6, Miltonius, Arklen, Oishii, and Cysero have no small task ahead of them) All of these monsters are intended for the upcoming new high level quests.

Nov 10, 2006
New Sneevil quests are live!
Head to Oaklore Keep and speak with Sir Valance to battle the newest Sneevil threat! Fear the Ninja Shogun.... Sho'nuff.... SHOGUN!!!!!!!!!

The almighty Shrink Ray pet upgrade for Linus!
As a special bonus for the higher level players we added a rare item called the Royal Penguin Shrink Ray. These are very rare items that can be found in the three new sneevil quests. If you are lucky enough to find one, head to Gram's Pet Shop and use the new Pet Upgrade button to supercharge your Linus pet. He will gain a % chance to do a new special attack that will SHRINK your opponent. I shudder at the thought of the screenshots that will come of this... just imagine PvP.

P.S. Luck and Charisma will give his % chance to shrink a little boost!

Pet Attack Order and Pets in PvP
Zhoom is fixing the pet attack order (which was temporarily changed to prevent a VERY VERY VERY VERY nasty bug) and says that the Pet attack order will be back to normal next week. Yay! Also, opponents will be able to bring their pets with them in PvP soon after this fix (meaning you just might get shrunk yourself).

New Item Merger... thingy!
After the last item merger quest I realized it was going to be insane to build a custom interface for every single item. So, Zhoom finished a new item merger screen (looks just like the shop... that is why the item descriptions changed for a short while..... it is fixed now). We are going to use it for this pet upgrade, and here are some ideas of how else we can use it. If you have any cool ideas, post them on the forums!

Ideas for the merger....

  • Defender's Shop
    Finally we can put a bunch more items in the Defender's shop with an easy to understand way of upgrading things!
  • Trade Skills!
    Armor making, Weapon making, Cooking, Jewlery Making.... you name it. Get a high enough skill, then use the merger to create new items! For example: The Broken Blade + Dragonite x 30 (used at a forge) = Magical GreatSword of DragonKabobing. OMG... that that weapon has a 50% to crit against Dragons....
  • PvP Rewards
    Earn tokens for battling enemies that are near your level and get special armor and weapons. We could have tournaments, special types of fights (endurance matches, barefisted fights, no potions, 1 hp, multiple opponents "surrounded!"). Perhaps even have a PvP item closet that you can unlock special perks from and new types of challenges.
  • Think of more?
    If you have great ideas, let us know on the message forums!

Nov 9, 2006
New Quests coming tomorrow!
Hear no Sneevil*
See no Sneevil**
Speak no Sneevil***

* Because footsteps do not have SoundFx
** Because Ninja Sneevil are masters of Sneevil-jitsu and are sneeeeeeeaky
*** Because when you say something outloud... no one can call you on misspellings!

Also I would like to do something for the higher level adventurers.... hmmm, we have not done an egg hunt in a while. Our new "built in, standardized" item merger could really be put to the test with this.

Nov 8, 2006
The Paradoxical Commandments
Last night I had an extremely long "what is the meaning of life" style conversation with Oishii and Galanoth. Leave it to fate to recieve an appropriate email from my martial arts Master Instructor who just returned from one of his legendary journeys. He brought home and shared with us an inspirational piece that comes from the wall of Mother Teresa's children's home in Calcutta. It is called the Paradoxical Commandements, by Kent Keith.

  • People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
    Love them anyway.
  • If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
    Do good anyway.
  • If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
    Succeed anyway
  • The good you to today will be forgotten tomorrow.
    Do good anyway.
  • Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
    Be honest and frank anyway.
  • The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
    Think big anyway.
  • People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
    Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
  • What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
    Build anyway.
  • People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
    Help people anyway.
  • Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
    Give the world the best you have anyway.

Nov 7, 2006
New Sneevils coming for a box near you....
It is hard to say why everyone like sneevils so much. Perhaps it is our recessive box loving gene trying to express itself. One thing is for certain -- if I was a Sneevil, I would be a Ninja Sneevil! His little sai is so cute. *stab* *stab* *snort* *spit* *stab*

Mentioned in the Washington Post!
Great catch Acquist! To all of our players from Willow Springs -- thank you for getting DragonFable mentioned in the Washington Post!

Cysero returns tomorrow!
Wooohooo! I just got the call that he was no selected, so Cysero will be back tomorrow.

Nov 6, 2006
Let Mortal Contract.... begin!
The NEW secret underground laboratory of AE is completely signed, setup, and moved into! We start doing real official looking (non-meeting) stuff starting today. I arrived early and walked through the facade of a dentists office to sit in the black chair and press the discretely unlabled button known as... THE BUTTON. *Wooooooooosh* it carried me deep below the basement level... further down still... so fast that you could actually hear the wind pressing against increasingly more solid rocks. *Creeeeeeeeeeek plushhhhhhhhh.....* It stopped. Opening my eyes I smiled and gazed over a large chamber full of computers and cappuccino conjuring devices. I noted the only thing louder than the constant whirling of spinning raid arrays was the clatter of the hastefully moving moglins who were running papers into Safiria and Nythera's lightless office. I fixed my eyes upon the main terminal which proudly displayed this weeks top priority list: The expansion, cleanup, and revision of Oaklore!

... then I woke up and realized I was 5 minutes late for work. OMG it is the first day!

P.S. The goal is to spend about one week per zone, adding LOTS of new stuff to do. I would like to release stuff as it is completed and get your help testing it. Cysero has *gulps* jury duty.... so it looks like it is just us until he gets back!

Nov 3, 2006
Mr. Clean....!. Mr. Clean.....!
Today and tomorrow we shall finalize our plans* for moving DragonFable and AdventureQuest forward! THEN -- Galanoth, Cysero and I shall do things no other game... erm... no other pair of co-existing web RPGs released in reverse chronological order has ever done before! We shall start with a full revamp of the existing 5 DragonFable zones so they make perfect, fluid sense ** by adding new non-scaling quests, new items, new monsters, new world events, fixing bugs, adding new cutscenes, mini-games, destroying things, and world bosses (and a few ultra hard ones). Starting next week it is time for us to clean, shine and polish the game!***

* Change literally everything we just agreed upon... probably twice.
** We will unintentionally break and/or move everything you love bringing down the wrath of fire and brimstone from the forums.
*** We can also clean your house Note: We do not do windows... (xp)

Game Crashes
Zhoom and the Captian are fixing the problem that has been causing the game and web server to unexpectantly go offline. This is a serious problem and our highest priority.

P.S. I know I mentioned Multiplayer in the design notes earlier this week and I just wanted to let you know this is in very early development. Our first goal is to release multiplayer PvP. This is a HUGE project and no release date has been set.

Nov 2, 2006
Animated Short News!
This just in....

  • We made Google Video's Top 100!
  • We got on FilePlanet!
  • We are on Yahoo Video too!
  • Voltaire gave us a call and said the video was the best thing he has seen in a long time (Safiria is a HUGE Voltaire fan.... she is such a Vampire)

Thank you so much for making this video a success (Actually, you guys made this look easy!) In less than a week we have been on the homepage of YouTube, Top Rated with over 35 total honors (I wish they kept the old ones listed). I mean, seriously.... we released it with only a few days left in the month and got #1 spot for the month last month AND this month (in multiple categories!)

Day 2: The Meeting continues
It is days like this were I wish we had a Pactoganal Table. (You know... Circle, Square, Triangle, Pactagon..... Perhaps the Pactagon is best explained by viewing my childhood playset). Our table is square.... *frowns*. And there are so many of us in this room that the oxygen is at a premium and we started drawing sticks to see who was allowed to breath first and in which order. While our efforts comes at a great cost* we know that the fact that we are actually sitting here sweating over important "businessy" things which should bring a smile to all of the hard working people who think we just get to sit around and draw funny looking monsters all day long**. Sorry I have been keeping Cysero so busy -- he is making some weapons to drop from the "Well" quest while we take our short 10 minute break. "All is well that ends well."

* About $7.45 which includes some coffee and donughts from the 7-11 next door
** I resent that, we draw funny looking weapons too.

Nov 1, 2006
100% More SECRET
The Secret Underground Lair has moved to a new and even more SECRET location!
It looks like an ordinary Dentist's Office from the outside... (Dr. Voltabolt would be so proud, it is such a great cover) ... but it is actually our newest secret command center! Peering inside today you would behold Captian Rhubarb in a room beheading Cat 5 cables while Nythera and Safiria are eaten alive by an army of evil ants (Important note: Do not put food on the floor). Meanwhile Galanoth, Cysero and myself (Artix) are leaning over a giant drawing board that is resting on hastefully pushed together tables... pointing and drawing... plotting the unspeakable things you will see happening in AdventureQuest and DragonFable over the next year. Apparently everyone is getting their own Dragon in DF. (Good stuff is coming from this -- you are really going to like it.... SOOOO MUCH FUUUUN!)

P.S. Cysero is finshing up the the new Well quest which should be live tomorrow (or earlier if we can sneak Zhoom out of that meeting for some debugging!)