Released time updated to Noon on Friday!
I am so happy that everyone is eager for this release. Warlic's area is looking awesome! On the forums I read
so many posts that this release is too late at night -- especially because we ALL want to be present and able to play for
a long time when it happens! Therefore we have officially set the launch time to 12:00 Noon EST on Friday. Battle on!
Less than 48 Hours away from the live release!
Starting at noon on
Friday..... the portal opens to Warlic's area, the DragonAmulet goes on sale, the level cap increases to 25 and new items
will be found by you and your fellow adventurers! Join us in this week long RPG party... it all starts Friday!
The Doom Weapons and the Undead
On this day, for no reason... no conceivable reason at all...
these strange weapons have begun to cast an eerie red glow. The undead in Doomwood have risen from their graves and are much
more powerful than any undead we have ever seen in the past. Rumors are spreading fast that the Doomcrawler has nearly doubled
in strength... can this be possible? Is anyone capable of taking one down? ... and.. someone please say this is not true...
did the Doom weapons increase in power AGAIN!?
Surewood
Forest has been released!
This new zone is the level 1 to 10 questing area. Many new drops are being added. Also,
Build 2.999999 of the engine will be released tonight featuring tweaks that make combat flow faster, easier to access character
sheet, and the inventory can scroll. After the release next week we will be adding the quest strings which will start with
the main NPC of each area. Battle on!
The Release
is coming!
We are just over a week away from our release. So many of us can see the potential in this game. Every
story has a beginning...and you are one of the great players standing right at the beginning of this one. Thank you for being
a part of it! Our plan is the same, new areas to 
explore, lots of new stuff, lift the level cap, and allow you to get the best items and more gold so that you are ready for
what is to come next! We have the core game stable, so next we will be working to release more ways to personalize your character
-- advanced classes with new skills (including Guardian), main storyline (plot) quests, weapon special effects, and skills
like fishing, mining, cooking, alchemy. Not to mention Guilds, Castles, and AI-driven PvP. We have ambitious plans for DragonFable
-- and we can do it! Below is information on how you can help.
DragonAmulet
Finally! Next Friday you will be able to purchase a DragonAmulet for your character.
This magical amulet will allow your character to enter an ever expanding number of special areas in the game and equip the
most powerful items. It will also unlock an additional three character slots. It is just like Guardianship in AQ and the price
will be $19.95. In addition to being one of the very first to obtain a DragonAmulet -- which plays a vital role in the story,
you will also be supporting the growth of DragonFable, helping us achieve all of the goals. Because you are a Guardian, we
are making a special offer to you: For a little more, you can upgrade your entire account. Yes, your entire
account -- including all of your existing characters AND all new characters you make on that account. That is a total of 6
characters with the DragonAmulet.
DragonCoins
If you have been to Cysero's shop in the game, you have probably been wondering
how to get these coins. They are an ancient form of currency with a mysterious origin. Along with your DragonAmulet you will
get 200 of these VERY valuable coins. Suggestion:
If there is an offer to get more.... take it! (and horde them until Castles come out) Trust me on this one.
A Date has
been set!
Friday, June 9th, 2006 -- We wipe the word Beta off of the DragonFable website! I want to tell you
more, but OMG there is so much to do! Wish us luck.
VICTORY!
Congratulations
to the Guardians on winning the first DragonFable war! The special prize shop will be available until the end of Tuesday.
These items are excellent... only seconed to the DragonLord weapons. A special thank you to you for playing in the beta. The
prize for the mages has been fixed and will function as a staff. Congratulations!
The Doom Weapons... what are these things?
This... this.... is unthinkable! Did they actually
grow in power? By simply being in your backpacks on the battlefield... did they charge up with unnatural dark energy? Is it
possible you were feeding them by battling the undead? Are they cursed? Are they some sort of a test? Is it dangerous to even
own one?
P.S. On a game developer's note... these things are the most powerful items in the game. Were they not supposed
to get nerfed? .. or even removed? WHY DID THEY GET STRONGER? WHAT IS GOING ON?
Undead Army
Approaches!?
See the homepage for an eye-witness report from old man Grizzleguts!
Doomwood: One
evil forest that plans to branch out!
Most of the time when a web comic artist is running behind schedule he/she
skips releasing a comic. In my case, I am running behind schedule on the game so I made you a web comic. This is one forest
I recommend not taking your character for a stroll in! (Note: No players were harmed in the making of this web comic) View the comic
What will the
Dragon Amulet Bearers be called?
Lloyd Laff a lot on the forums made an excellent point. In AQ, Guardians are called... well... Guardians. What will characters
with a Dragon Amulet be called? Gorobei was pushing along the right line of thought. Without giving away too much... those
who wear the Dragon Amulet are destined for for something amazing. Perhaps they should be called... The Destined? Let us know your thoughts on the forums. Also, I wanted to show you some of the
new monsters on their way. J6 just finished animating these three... In addition we have bandits, Warlic's favorite -- the
flying eyeball, an aqua sneevil, and an ice yeti (Maybe IceMaster Yeti will be showing up in game too!)
Technical Victories!
While we are working towards our next big release I would like to congratulate the team on getting the tough
stuff done! Capt. Rhubarb and Zhoom worked together and got the load balancer setup up. (Load Balancers make a bunch of servers
appear to be just one. AdventureQuest uses this and so do a lot of big sites like Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, etc.) This means
they also got cool stuff done like the backend filemanager (I upload once and... BAM... all the servers are updated with the
new files instantly). AQ and DF are made up of hundreds of files (Many thousand in the case of AQ) and just keeping track
of them all can be a tricky task.
New Stuff
Cysero has 5 monsters in the works and 22 new dagger models that Oishii is coloring
now. J6 has dedicated a large amount of time over to DragonFable to help us get the new monsters animated. Additionally, since
Galanoth has been sneeking some of my weapons into AQ I am going to port a few of my favorite AQ monsters into DF. Any favorite
monsters from AQ yo uwould like to see ported over to DF? Let us know on the forums. We liked the idea of using the Seekers
to hunt the last of the Guardians! (Thanks Blackfire)
DragonStones
Also, as a secondary in-game curency we talked about Coins and Tokens.... but
I think we finally decided on DragonStones. A DragonStone is a magical stone with a glowing rune on it. Those who know the
rarity and value of these items are likely to trade very... very... very impressive weapons, equipment, and pets for them.
Yes, a pouch full of these stones will come with your DragonAmulet.
Playing with Action Figures
Do
you remember how you played with Action figures? You know… G.I Joe, Transformers, He-Man, etc. We had a long and very
eye opening series of talks about it… and were surprised to find that the way we play games now is very similar to the
way we used played with Action figures. We would love to hear your personal stories on the message forums… I will start
by summing up some of ours:
Artix: I always created huge armies (undead zombie theme when possible… even with robots…
undead robots rule!) and always used a lone action figure hero to charge head on and destroy them all.
Cysero: Would carefully lay out devious traps then guide a small party of action figures to their terrible
doom picking them off one at a time.
Safiria: Always played with friends and would go on rescue missions where the key was stealth….
Sneaking past foes instead of combat.
Warlic: Had all out wars pitting all of his different toys (regardless of genre, size, or um… self
build) in a giant battle completely justified by science! His favorite character was Storm Shadow.
Zhoom: Played with a wheel. (Judging by his name, our guess is that he rolled it very fast.)
I have no idea why talking about this stuff is sooooo much fun, but it is. Anyone who says differently needs their sig
picture changed to a My Little Pony as punishment. Someone please start a thread and lets share some stories. By the power
of the Ewok Forest and Castle Grayskull!
New Town and Quests Live!
We fought through
bugs, battled with lag, broke more stuff than we fixed... but it is here! Login and see what you think. We have been making
edits and updates all day based on the message forums -- thank you so much!!! The current Game Build has been upgraded to
2L8 (Appropriate since we were supposed to be at this point a month ago) Lets all look forward to the live release which will
be 2G84DB8. (Actually, it will be 3... just 3. My favorite number!) But before that... we have our first big in-game event
coming up!
New Record!
... and it is Tuesday. But we would like to call it TWO THOUSAND-THS DAY! Congratulations
to the players of DragonFable, we hit 2000+ simulatanious users (and look, no server crashing!) 2010 as of the last time we
checked. That is like 5 more than the number of years that have passed since the Millennia!
Bugs Squishing Hammer of Justice +2!
Our apologies again. The bug fix from yesterday made
some... um.. new bugs. "Oh noes! They have learned how to multiply themselves!" Zhoom fixed it and uploaded a new version
just a few moments ago. We will be releasing a new version of the game tonight with the final version of town and the two
new quests.
New Town going live tomorrow! (And sorry for the bugs today)
We will be releasing the New Town as well as two new quests
tomorrow: The Linken Lumber Mill and The
Sneevil Secret Base. To get the quests previously given out by Fae... I mean.. um.. who is Fae? Ash will serving
as the official town crier for a while and you will be able to get to most of the quests from him. We apologize for the NaN
and Anti-healing bugs in the game today -- if you refresh your browser these bugs should now be fixed. We need to get this
new town launched as soon as possible... we need DragonFable's first war!
Build U2 Features!
Zhoom just make the new
version live. Below is what we need help testing!
- You can now level up in the middle of a Quest
- Improved Inventory (w/ new icons too)
- Improved Shop
New town coming Monday! (Maybe Tuesday)
I will be working through the weekend to finish up the new town -- it is looking SO GOOOD and is much more functional than
the existing one. In game, Artix and the gang will be departing, so say your goodbyes this weekend. Next time you see them,
will be.. um.. the first time you see them!
Tomorrow's release!
We have a brand new inventory
and shop system ready to go live. A new version of the town is nearly complete which has been compacted into a single file...
no more multi-download-waiting! You will be able to level up in the middle of a quest AND exit quests without fullly completing
them ( keeping the gold and exp you have earned too!) Next week we will be releasing new monsters, you will be able to explore
the first of our three new Areas and be the first to see the new Intro quest. Look forward to watching Artix crumble under
the pressure as deadlines slip through his fingers like sand!
Is that Dragon laughing at me?
"9 Dmg? Hahahahahaha!" *Begins to cast Firebreath*
Special Announcement
Congratulations to Furfur
and Enzik, the first to wield the Twin Blades of Doom! As per our tradition we have crafted two new daggers in their honor
which can now be found... somewhere.... No one knows... Not even Enzik and Furfur! *Dings the gong* Let the hunt begin!
This just in: A third set of Daggers is being smithed by the Utilitarian Mage, Cysero for Lord Max II. What
is a Utilitarian Mage you ask? Well, there are two types of mages... Battemages who use their magic for combat, and Utilitarian
Mages who use their magic to.. um... light street lights, unclog sewer jams (Alligators get stuck from time to time) and finally,
to create magic weapons!
The Dragonlord's Arsenal
Several brave adventurers have already discovered magical items
deep within the dungeons which require the power of the DragonAmulet to unlock. There is a legend which surrounds these items....
a legend that.... OMG! Lookout it is.... *silence*
One-ish week left!
We have the three base classes
released, now we need to start getting these new areas up! It always seems like a lot less work when you are just thinking
about it. Below is a list of expected improvements coming this week:
- Better Inventory (Easier to see and select your items)
- Better Quest System (You can get exp from a quest if you leave it early)
- New Areas (We have no idea what to do first, but we better get it up fast!)
E3... are you serious?
Everyone knows that
E3 is the biggest game related convention of the year. All of the big companies show off their stuff and it is all magazines
and websites will be talking about for a good while after. Getting an unsolicited invite to attend E3 was an incredible honor
for our small and growing team. This is our chance to shake hands with the biggest names in the business. Since our beginning
we have been shocked (and you might be too) to find out just how many game company execs and famous folks (and their kids)
have AdventureQuest accounts. So, which member(s) of the team will we send in then? If you guessed Artix, Galanoth and Safiria
-- you WOULD have been correct if it were not for the deadlines and unavoidable responsibilities. But because E3 is a big
chance to make some business contacts and meet with a lot of the people we have relations with face to face -- we sent in
three members of our elite business team. The business folks do not get mentioned much... first because they do not have online
names (yet), and second, because for some reason talking about advertising costs, legal bills, tax planning and accounting
are a lot less exciting than the upcoming DoomKnight class and legendary Shadow Weapon collection. Not sure why *looks perplexed*.
But what makes this entire post worth reading.... is that my Father is going to be at E3. *the sound of jaws dropping and
hitting the floor makes it almost impossible for you to hear your own thoughts*.
New Record: 1632+players online!
Special Announcement
The Rogues have been unleashed and the game has been upgraded to Phase
2I (Two Eye). Which is ironic since.... um.... you can only see one of the character's eyes. New quests coming next week!
Also, 18 players were accidentaly sold what appeared to be heavily underpriced editions of the Daggers of Doom by Sabrina...
their daggers turned out to be fake replicas! Fourtunately, Sabrina has apologized and is offering to buy the fake ones back
for 500 gold. The real Twin Daggers of Doom are now available for 20,000 gold and as per our tradition, the first player(s)
to earn them will get an item added to the game in their honor.
Is anyone else curious about these Doom items? What are they, who made them, where did they come from? *Thinks*
Gosh, I hope they are not the property of some Unstoppable Diabolical Undead Overlord capable of launching a full scale assault
on the small defensless town in order to... nah, it could never happen.
Artix
Entertainment at E3
A few months ago we were very suprised to recieve an invitation to E3. (Does that mean we
are a real gaming company?) Safiria and I spent a lot of time talking about it and who should go and what should we plan to
see while we are there.... (Please use this moment to guess which member(s) of the team will actually be going to E3: Artix?
Galanoth? Zhoom? Safiria? Nythera? Cysero? Captian Rhubarb? or Perhaps another Team member?) ... 
*dramatic pause*.... The plane takes off on Monday, there will be a special post this weekend with the answer (Hint: You will
never guess this one in a million years... and it is crazy... pure madness!)
Rogues are about to be released!
I was up until 3am last night... Hungry... Tired... Nearly fell asleep before I finished it. But that is what
you get when you stay up late to watch a movie! OMG, Final Fantasy: Advent Children was so good! Moving on to a completely
unrelated subject... Yesterday, we finished the Rogue (ON TIME!). We are taking the server down today for some heavy database
changes and when it comes back up... lets get stabby! Battle on!
Health and Mana for all!
I agree heavily with the threads about Mages having more mana,
Warriors have more health and so forth.... I think AdventureQuest did it best . Start at 100hp 100mp and let the player decide
what he/she wishes to put points into to get an additional bonus. So when the server comes back up, all charracters will be
enchanced with more Mana as if they started with 100hp and 100mp. The formula to calculate your new amounts is: HP and MP
= 100 + ((Level-1) *5). Also, the drinking animation now plays when you drink your potion.... um, all the potions are currently
red (this will be fixed later)
New Daggers added to the game!
Rogues love using pointy things -- and they can dual wield
daggers! 27 new daggers have been added to the game. Some are in stores, some are in dungeons, and as you were expecting...
the Twin Daggers of Doom have been released as well! New quests are coming out next week to take your characters on.... get
ready!
Twin Daggers of Dooooooom!
As usual, things
are a flurry of bugs and chaos at the hidden underground laboratory of Artix Entertainment. (Yay! Time for bizzare insider
stories.) The rogue is levatating weapons... and when it attacks it is doing completely bizarre damage. Once I hit for 400
dmg with the default weapons *gulps*. More scary is that if you equip the rogue with a weapon, the moment he starts walking...
the weapon disappears and he goes back to using daggers. I think he is stealing them! Also, the DragonAmulet has successully
prevented the staff from entering and using almost every item and area in the game... the magic is too powerful for even the
team to control. Not a single dagger has been added to the database, and new bugs are found with each passing moment! With
a tight deadline looming, how will the DF team ever get your game released on time? *Dunnnn dunnn DUNNNN!* Tune in tomorrow
for the exciting conclusion to "Twin Daggers of Dooooooom!" Same Dragon time, same Dragon channel!
Update
Servers
will be offline for roughly 3 hours tomorrow starting at Noon EST. *Whispers* DOOOOOM!
The DragonAmulet
"What is that you say? The DragonAmulet... hah, that mysterious item is
far to powerful to be anything but a fairy tale. It is inconceivable that it could grant the person holding it the ability
to unlock the secret powers of items... or allow them to pass through the magical barriers that the Dragon Ancients placed
across the land so long ago. It has to be some sort of a rumor.... if someone were to get their hands on item like the DragonAmulet....
they would be.... *shivers* unstoppable. "
Rogues sneaking in this week!
This Friday we are ramping up to release the Rogue class.
Rogues specialize in dual wielding stabby things and get many other bonuses for using daggers! We also also aware that many
players from the forums are interested in the ROUGE class, which specializes
in looking great at blushing, appearing in movies like Moulin Rouge, and/or living in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. That being said,
do not worry if you spell it wrong on the forums, Artix seems to type it that way every other time... and obviously his spelling
is *coughs* um *coughs* flawless! This is why we have decided to announce a special cheer: BEWARE THE MOGLIN ROUGE! The Moglin
Rouge is a Ninja-Moglin who secretly switches the U and G in Rogue making players look bad everywhere! Now that we caught
on to him we can easily identify his handywork. Beware friends.... beware of the Moglin Rouge!
The Enchanted Grove
A new area featuring a
good number of never before seen staffs has been added to the game. Speak with Ash and visit the Grove. Also, the game Sound
FX have been toned down a bit to make the sound better on all speakers... especially for the FireBall. We redid the AI for
the Minx Fairy which will be added soon.... it is... so.... evil! It will be the first monster to actually use its mana. Battle
on!
New Dungeon to be released!
Cysero is filling up a new quest with new staffs (lots of staffs!)
and other weapons. This new area features an enchanted forest full of the monsters from the Faerie set. We might be able to
release this dungeon as early as.... tonight! Also, I am fixing the sounds in the game. A new version of the engine should
be released tonight with fixes for fire/energy/ice/darkness.
ForumFables
This weekend many DragonFable
adventurers were hunting for the two new staffs. Players organized on the forums and split up into groups to hunt the various
dungeons and report their findings. Cysero was repeatedly asked the location of the secret items -- naturally he did not say
(It was a secret!) So, he snuck notes onto some of the searching players characters in game saying something to the extent
of "Haha, you will never find them!" I was thinking to myself... wow, what amazing interaction between the game, players and
developers. What else can we do that would be this much fun?
The Skull Staff of Dooooooom!
It was a tie!
Congratulations to both Roibup and Cyanda for obtaining this extremely powerful and pricey staff! To celebrate, two new good
mage staves have been added to the game in their honor! Roibups Razzor staff and Cyanda's Glowing staff can now be found....
but no one knows where! As per our evil tradition even the Roibup and Cyanda have to search dungeons to find their own weapons...
Battle on!
BlueDragon Server is Online
The RedDragon Server which was currently hosting DragonFable
crashed last night -- it is showing memory parity errors. We will have the ISP repair it and bring it back online today. We
had BlueDragon sitting in reserve (Nice thinking Zhoom!) so if you refresh the homepage it will get you back into the game.
New Online Record!
907... 920... 951...996...
997... 1003... 1101...1205... 1304... 1379... characters are logged in as of this post! WOOOHOOOOO!
Stealth Upgrade to Beta Phase: R2-D2!
If you return to the homepage and re-login, you should
get the new version of the game engine solving any caching problems with the Mage Class. This stealth upgrade was done for
Darkhunter Jake, Lord of Darkness1234, SirBozo and all of the players their words were representing on the message forums
-- thanks guys! (It is actually Phase 2D-R2... but seriously... this is so much funnier)
21 new Staffs added to the loot tables
All of the mage/staff bugs have been corrected and
21 new staffs have been added to the game. We are going to keep adjusting things as we get feedback from you and do a full
build upgrade next week. Also, resistances have just been added to the elementals.
Staffs being added (and Fixed)!
If you buy one of the new staffs being added to the shops
it may not let you cast spells. You can fix this by reloading your character -- we are changing the database to solve the
issue permanently. Also, we just uploaded a fix for the hair shop -- in the new version, mages no longer wig out in the barber
shop.
Update: Mage Class Release!
Mages have been appearing all across the land. New staffs will
be appearing in the shop and in dungeons soon. (Also, we are aware of the Barber issue about the character berserking if you
try to cancel.... which is hallarious for the record) As of the time of this posting, there are 528 characters logged into
DragonFable.
Do you believe in... Magic?
Ack, I just got the song stuck in my head. Shortly we will
be releasing the Mage class. After it is released, be sure to clear your Temporary Internet Files (Cache) if you are having
any problems creating a mage. We will be adding new staffs to the shops and dungeons all day. Enjoy finding them all! Also,
I would like to ask for your help. Cysero, Zhoom and I will be carefully reading the forum for your Mage Class ideas, comments
and suggestions. I think we are going in the right direction -- but we really need your help to make this class as fun as
it can possibly be. See you on the forums!
Mage Class Skills
Much like the warrior,
the mage gains new skills after leveling. All three base classes have simliar abilities, just different ways of accomplishing
them (Which makes sense since the game should be balanced for everyone). Starting with this next release we will introduce
Staffs and Daggers to the loot table. These weapons will do roughly half the melee damage of Swords and Axes that are the
same level. ONLY HALF!!!!!????? Whaaaaaaaaa? Are these guys out of their.... wait, what is the catch? *Smiles* The catch is
that Mages do double damage! You can channel your mystical energy through your Staff, Dagger, or Wand to do 200% or greater
damage to your opponent (Base, before critting). If a Mage ever gets ahold of an extremely high damage staff to channel spells
through... oh.... the carnage.... the carnage. Due to popular damand the Mages can equip and use ANY type of weapon. However,
you will not be able to cast your primary offensive spells if you are using big weapons like an Axe or a Sword. (There will
be classes released in the future like BladeMage, ShadowKnight, etc that can). So, if you have a staff equiped in your Mage's
hand and press the attack key... you will hurl a ball of magical enemy for 200% of the weapons damage at your opponent. If
you are out of mana, or are using a big weapon, you will run up to the oponent and hit him like normal. My apologies for such
a long winded post.... but this is getting really interesting. The reason daggers are only half damage too (other than the
fact that many mages like stabby things) is so that Rogues can (am I going to commit to this?) *coughs* DUAL WIELD *coughs*.
Current Mage Skills (May change a bit)
1.) Shield - Creates
a protective magical Barrier around the mage
2.) PowerUp - Increases the Damage of your Magical Attacks
for 5 rounds
3.) Meditate - Restores 10 Mana
4.) Fire Ball - BOOOOOOOM!
5.) Sleep
- Makes monsters sleepy Zzzzzzz
6.) IceStrike - Casts an iceball based on your weapons damage x2
7.)
Blind - Reduces Monsters chance to hit you for 5 rounds
8.) Wind - Casts an Tornado based
on your weapons damage x2
9.) Lightning - Casts an Energy Blast based on your weapons damage x2
10.)
WildCasting - Extremely Dangerous and Risky Catastrophic Casting
11.) MageFury - Attack
all monsters with a single Cast
DragonFable *Gulp* Dealine Approaches
This
is where the real "work" starts. Every time I get to this point in a project my stomach get nervous butterflies, my nerves
get a little stretched thin... it was the same in AdventureQuest, ArchKnight and UndeadAssault.... this part is just like
sitting down the night before the term paper is due to start writing it. You have already done all the research, created your
outline, physically gotten the pen and paper and word processor up -- and even took 15 minutes to stall and bring in an extra
snack.... Now, we are ready. All that is left is to let loose that last big breath and start cranking it the actual work out!
(Anyone have papers due this week?)
For your "OH DEAR GOSH, how are they ever going to finish this?" enjoyment... (Yay! These are the best) the
behind the scenes horror stories: While the mage class is the closest to being complete, the female is having some very strange
coloring bugs, some of the skills are a little wierd, I swear to gosh that I saw her cast at least one spell out of her big
toe this morning. When she powers up it looks like she is going to faint. The rogue female is working, but the skills seem
way too much like the warriors... and right now when the rogue stealths he/she is yelling "Nananana you cannot see meeeeee!!!!".
My personal favorite was when my new Rogue used its dodge skill and said "Just try to hit me!" and the Water Elemental slammed
its watery fist into my face... critical hitting... and killing me. The new town is being stiched together but has hundreds
of little bugs hidden in the graphic-clips that make it up that we are trying to fix. The DragonAmulet is back from Cysero,
Arklen, and Oishii but we have no idea how we are going to fit it (Jam, squish, cram) into your character sheet. On the brighter
side, we all really like the book idea for the character pages that was being discussed on the forums. The current plan is
to finish and release the Mage and Rogue class, then release the first new area by this Friday. Cross your fingers for us!
(and ask friends to cross their fingers too). The official message board emote for finger crossing is X__ (if you are right
handed) and __X if you are left. Or um, _X_ if you are really talented. \\ // if you are Vulcan (Or from Ork!)
More Weapons of Doooooooooooom!
We have
amassed what can only be refered to as a GINORMOUS amount of art for DragonFable. The six weapons below are brand new (as
of yesterday) and have been added to the endless pile of things you should expect to see following the big live launch. The
big news for today is that all three base classes are animated and color customizable -- we are starting to add skills to
them now. We are going to release them with some "OK" skills to start then go back and rebalance them once we get your feedback
(We can build them together). I would really like to allow every class to use every type of item... but give advantages for
using specific types. For example, a rogue should be able to do special attacks with daggers and short swords. Mages should
be able to cast most powerful spells if they are using a staff or wand to channel their magical energy. Oh, before I forget
-- we have the code for the character pages working, but we have not come up with anything better than the "Toss it on the
ol' AQ scroll" for the page. Have any ideas?
Arklen is not skipping Class, but he is making Classes
for DF!
The rumors are true. Arklen, the legendary AQ animator, gave up his Spring Break.... the beaches... the
sun... the *blinks* girls... and instead he came to our secret AE underground headquarters to bravely fight along side the
DragonFable team in our evil crunch-time of doom! Arklen... on behalf of the players, the team, and all of the folks out there
who have not heard of us yet but are doomed to join us as DragonFable addicts.... we salute you! *SALUTE* As I write this,
Arklen and Cysero (who was crying all weekend -- something about a pun on the forums?) are finishing the new male and female
Mage classes. Considering that they are wearing robes (which is really hard to animate in our style), the running animation
is looking awesome! Yesterday they finished the Rogues and tomorrow they will be designing the Dragon Amulet and starting
on the world layout. Meanwhile, Zhoom and I are rushing to get the game engine and website issues fixed (Not to mention running
through Pae's HUGE list of bugs from the forum). Today I uploaded new versions of the pages to fix all of the issues with
the new IE patch -- if you find any problems, please let me know! We are adding an online user count as early as tonight,
and soon character pages will be going up (so you can finally show off all of your stuff!) We may be able to release the first
three starting classes this Friday (I said may! may! may!). We are sitting on the artwork for a good number of future classes
too (yup, you will be able to multi-class like in AQ).... this game really feels like it is starting to move.
Breaking through Boards
Punching and Kicking
through increasing amounts of wood is typically associated with the Martial Arts. The reason they do this is to help change
the way the mind thinks... not to just smash your body parts into solid things. The truth is, boards are not really that hard
to break -- the secret is not to just punch the board (Which normally ends up with a sore or bruised hand) The real secret
is to aim for an invisible target far beyond the other side of the wood.... then punch all the way THROUGH!! (Pssst, Artix...
what does this have to do with making a game?) Well, just like punching through a board we have to make goals that are GREATER
than what we think our limits are and then work hard to drive way through them. Only by shooting for the stars and believing
in ourselves will we see what we are really capable of. I think that many people think to themselves "I will fail" or "There
is no way I will be able to do that" or "Trying is just pointless" -- and unfortunately they talk their mind into helping
them fail before they even start. Sometimes, it is worse because they start telling other people that they are unable to do
things to. But I believe that anyone can accomplish big things... no matter what they have done in the past. Aim for huge
goals (like having more people on than RS *coughs*) and once you have found that target line up for a well aimed strike all
the way through those boards.... it does not matter if it takes months, years, or the rest of our lives, we are capable of
anything. We will only see what we are truly capable of if we set big goals and give it everything we have. Battle on!
Game Version 2D Live!
We released a new
build of the game today (I love naming build versions). Rolith keeps sending me tells that I need to archive the design notes....
apparently this page is actually larger in KB than the game engine. Talking about which -- we reduced the filesize of character
models by 25% when we added all the new stuff to them... which... is.... wierd.... normally when you add a bunch of stuff
it gets bigger. Go Flash, go! The barber shop is live!
New Features in Beta 2D:
- Barber Shop: Change your Character's Hair Style, Hair Color, Skin Color
- Armor Customization: Create a new character and customize their armor color too!
Please let us know of any bugs you find, we will be eager to hear what you have to say!
Barbershop to be released on Friday
This
weekend in AdvetureQuest, Galanoth is releasing a new seasonal event -- anything that combines egg hunting and monster slaying
sounds fun to me! In DragonFable, we will be releasing the barbershop, new hair styles and you will also be able to create
new characters with custom armor colors (Very simliar to the guardian armor in AQ). Later, we will add a armor customizer
NPC who can change your existing armor's color. Also, I changed the "PLAY" button on the homepage to directly link to the
game server and moved the button up on the page so it is easier to get to. Wish us luck finishing this up today!
Bad Hair Day
Sometimes things go wrong...
horribly, horribly, horribly, horribly wrong. And we took a picture for you!
"Oh well...nothing to wig out about, the barbershop and new style
will be hair when they are ready.... " - Amdusias Furfur, from the Forums
20 new hair style have been completed
Well, 18 really... two of them are "bald". That means
there are 9 real starting hairstyles per gender. The male and female warrior armor has successfully been made "color customizable"
by Cysero. Zhoom is finishing the changes to the barbershop. We are planning to release a series of hats, helmets, hoods, beards, and "wierd-head-thingies" which you can obtain through
specialty hat stores (and traveling barbers) in the future. They key is giving you enough options to make a character you
really like. Cysero said that this will be a huge step forward for the Beta as we have all looked simliar for so long....
we are all about to become unique.
Microsoft's new patch -- not hurting us, but some sites
are getting hit hard.
The buzz on the Forums has been about an optional new patch released by Microsoft that
requires you to click on A Flash movie (or any Active X control) to activate it. The patch may be optional now.. but all future
MS Browsers will be using this new system. For AdventureQuest, it only means you need to click one extra time to play the
game. However, the really cool layout of the DragonFable site uses multiple flash movies on each page... which makes site
nearly unusable for anyone who is currently using the patch. We are currently entrenched in getting the new content for the
game ready, but in my spare time I will get the navigation fixed so that if you have the patch you will not be bothered by
it any more. You can read a little bit about what this patch does on Microsoft's site. While I understand the security concerns (revolving around non-flash ActiveX controls) that have caused this, it is a shame
that Flash and so much of the creative ability of the internet is going to be affected by this change.
Update:
I am sorry, I was mistaken (Should have read the boards closer). It appears the reason for this change to IE is due to a lawsuit against Microsoft by a company who has a Patent for embedding content in a web browser. *Shudders*
Update #2: Rivet,
Rolith and I used a work-around to fix the left hand navigation of the DragonFable site temporarily. (Yay!) That should make
the site easier to navigate if you have the IE update.
Rogues, Mages and Bears... oh my!
Cysero
has started animating the Rogue class and Oishii drew a 3rd and final new version of the Mage class which just started being
vectorized (I cannot believe she did not kill me... but the new mage looks sooooooooo gooooood! FIREBALL!). The server is
back up after successful database changes and Zhoom is now wrapping up the code for the Barbershop which is coming next.
Barbershop coming next!
Would you trust your character's hair to a bald gentleman with oversized
scissors and an even larger handlebar mustache? A gentleman who sometimes is known to make *coughs* mistakes in his never-ending
quest to create the perfect hair cut? If so -- you will like our next release which will allow you to change your characters
Hair style, Hair color, and Skin color!
Note: Servers will be offline for a short while while we make database changes.
Face Off!
This is a tale of nitty gritty details. The male Face was altered when the Female
Warrior was released. At a quick glance they are the same... but after some study the difference in lips and jaw shape becomes
easily noticeable. The mouth on the left was the original one an it had lots of benefits: Could smile, frown, gasp, shout,
and more.... the one on the right has benefits also: It looks a lot better and you can put a beard on it because it does not
move. The extra shading that you see on the right mouth makes it very difficult to animate (because of the color customization,
see yesterdays notes). Also, when looked at from the side, the shape of a person's mouth changes when they open their mouth.
So, we are eager to hear your thoughts... what is more important to you -- a moving mouth that can help convey facial expressions
or Better looking head with Beards?
Female Warrior and Account Activation
A lot of Adventurers from the message board have
commented that the changes are not showing for them, even after clearing their cache. We suspect that in some of these cases
that the user's ISP is using a bandwidth saving tool which is essentially caching the .swf files somewhere between us and
them. If this is the case, the issue should resolve itself in a few hours. For those of you who wish to activate your account
but have lost, or do not know what your currently registered email is, we are releasing the account Manager early.... Warning:
this is what stuff looks like before we make it pretty!
Trouble Shooting:
1.) Activate your account using: DragonFable Account Manager
2.) Clear your Temporary Internet Files
3.) Close all your browser windows and then try.
Girls invade DragonFable!
I got a little off
course this week (meetings... horrible, 
horrible, horrible meetings! Day long, nerve wracking, sleep losing, would rather eat my own toes [even the big ones] without
Katsup meeeeeeeetings [yes, of Doom] !) But Zhoom and Cysero were still hard at work so we should be able to release
the female Warrior tonight. Next Monday we will need to take the game server down to change the database and game files to
support customization and the Manage Account area. Featured to the right are the first round of female hair styles from Oishii
(They will be color customizable like AventureQuest) I will announce here, on this page, when the female Warrior class goes
live today!
UPDATE
The Female Warrior Class is Live! Clear your temporary internet files and create
a new character to be one of the first Adventurers in DragonFable to be free of that pesky Y-Chromosome! We are anxious to
hear what you think. (Woohoo!)
Notes on Color:
Our ability to use color has really evolved over the past year. Until just
recently we have always shaded things with black and white to get our highlight, base, and shaded colors. Any artist could
go on for quite some time about why doing this is a bad idea for shading anything other than grays. Most importantly... because
adding white to a red cape makes it pink -- instead of just making it a brighter red. When you hear me use the term "Custom
Colorizable" what I am refering to is your ability to pick a "base" color, and then the highlights and shading are done automatically
by the game. For example, you pick a nice color of green for your hair (see above) and the game automatically adjusts the
shadows to be a pleasant darkner green (As pleasant as green hair can be!) This same technique is used on armors, pets, monsters,
weapons, and so forth. It is suprisingly hard to do on an animated object... but consistant art quality in the game definately
makes it worth it!
Surprise Meetings
... *gulp* ...
Female Warrior and Customizable Hair
We have an ambitious schedule to get both genders of all three starting classes fully functional, along with three large "quest
areas" by the end of the month. For this Friday's release we would like to have the "Manage Account" area functional (So if
you have not activated your account to unlock more character slots, you can do so) and have the Female Warrior functioning.
Also, a working barber shop where you can change your character's hair style and color. Which means, finally... we can take
the "Boys only, no girls allowed" sign off of the Warrior's Guild treehouse! (We know they still have cooties though)
Floss... and how Zorbak can help you through Customs
"I went twu waa Wentwist twuday an my mout is stwill nwumb fwrom the nwovicane....
"
*speaks through telepathy instead*
So the moral of today -- Floss! Fortunately I have a new really cool dentist who is into old-school video games.
Although, I thought it was odd that he decided.... while I was immobilized by his assistant in the chair of doom and he was
impaling my jaw with his needle...to tell me that reads a lot of HP Lovecraft. (I thought Dentists were scary enough as it
is!) Then he grabbed the drill.
On the other side of the world, Rivet (Capt'n Rhubarb's new assistant Programmer) was going through Customs
for his flight to New Zealand. He was holding a Zorbak and one of the customs officers saw him.... (this is completely serious, I am not joking).... and the customs officer approached
him and said he was a HUGE fan of AdventureQuest. Upon finding out that Rivet was working on AQ, the Customs officer moved
him straight to the front of the line (skipping about 100 people) ... *insert blank stare and open mouth*
P.S. More Proof -- We really do have the coolest players in the planet!
Special Announcement: Quest Released!
Clear
your cache and talk to Ash about the "Elemental Attack" . This is a style of quest I always wanted to put in ArchKnight....
massive non-stop fighting! If you were looking for a fast way to finally get your character to the level cap, this quest was
made for you. (Not bad for just a few hours) Battle on!
Happy April Fools!
While we did
not get to pull any pranks in DF this year (we will get you next year!) there were a few evil plots brewing at AdventureQuest.
For a week before April Fools they let a "fake" administrators forum become visible to the players and pretended that they
did not know people were reading it. They talked about secret mergers with big companies and had massive (sometimes too real
looking) in-fighting between the staff. Even Galanoth pretended to have quit. Most people realized it was a joke in progress
but a surprising 1/3 of those who read it believed it! So... um... "Nanna Nanna Naaaaah naaaaaaah, they got you!" There was
also an evil in-game prank in AdventureQuest. Meanwhile, I was at a horse farm being shocked by an electric fence (Note: not
pleasant.... not pleasant at all) and my laptop has begun the melting process.... again. *Cries*. Finally, there was a miscommunication
about Monday's "Update". I meant that I was going to update you with more information... but as we read on the forums today,
everyone believes there will be a new release today. *Gulps* We would hate to dissapoint.... so Cyserco, Zhoom, and I are
now moving at maximum speed to release something fun for you tonight! (You = The Boss)
