I want to write a quest....
Where there is an ebil skeleton in the frostlands named Ribs who steals a baby... and then the baby's mother is with you and says:
"I want my..... I want my..... *burrr* It is Chilly! I want my baby back Ribs!"
Flash 8 Upgrade Test Results
We only updated the home town of Falconreach with the bitmap caching that made it run faster (even on best!). That is why the other places were still laggy. We figured out that anyone who was running Flash 7 experienced OH NOOOOOOOOO mode. Zhoom is putting something in place today that will detect your current version of Flash and assist you in getting the most recent. Bitmap caching is supported by Flash Player 8 and up. There were two changes in Falconreach on the test server -- the eyeballs were flying and the town was tinted red. We did this because that is exactly how the town was originally going to be for the war.... but when we ran it, the lag was unbearable and it took FOREVER to walk to the other side of the screen. So I removed the tinting and the animation from the eyeballs when we made it live (We cried that day). SO....... to all of you who were able to run smoothly, please continue to use the test server to play and see if you can find any "wierdnesses". For those of you who got the OH NOOOOO super special mode... DO NOT UPGRADE YOUR BROWSER OR FLASH PLAYER! We need you to be our guinni pigs once Zhoom fixes it for everyone. 20,000 or 1 - the game has to work for everyone! Stand by for further instructions *bzeeeep bzaaap kchk* I want my... I want my..... I want my baby back Ribs! *kchk*
Flash 8 - Help us test! Links: |
Feb 27, 2007
Sepulchure
Dwarfing* even the most evil of villians is Sepulchure, the Doom Knight. His wicked heart** has been consumed by hate and evil. We have caught only glimpses of him in the past.... but soon, you will meet someone who has SEEN much of Sepulchure's origins. At the end of this war you will learn (perhaps too much) about the Doom Weapons*** and this Evil Knight.
* Even better than Gnoming, Elfing, and Smurfing!
** And if you think that is something, look out for his Angry Toe!
*** Ruh roh.... you guys are in trooooooouble!
P.S. I made you an official Sepulchure Wallpaper
Misc Matching
I would like to thank Zhoom for cutting up the design notes.... before yesterday this page was 3 times bigger than the game engine. This means, now that it is fixed, that I can start posting images all over the notes again! You can find all of the old posts in the ol' archive. On another note I made us a new logo last weekend. Finally a good looking logo! It is not drastically different but it is a lot better and has that fantasy feel that the old one was missing.
Between Thyton, smbDoll, Ghost and Miltonius we have completing 3 to 6 new monsters/pets a day. Oishii finished the Rolith NPC who will be the "front facing" Knight in Oaklore Keep. She is now working on creating the Zhoom and Ash NPCs. Today Cysero and I are setting our sights on a level 30 to 40 zone. Lets get moving!
Feb 23, 2007
War At See! Eye, eye Captian!
We should have seen this coming..... we do not know who their master is, but pupils are here! Turn your eyes away, for the invasion of Falconreach has begun! The 3.5 new monsters in this event are out of sight!
Winners announced!
Origins of the Flying Eye Contest
I would like to congratulate everyone who participated in this creative project. I hope you had fun! 41 pages of posts ran our printer out of ink. That was A LOT to read! Fortunately we drink so much caffine around here we do not blink much anyway. The stories ranged from funny and crazy to serious and legendary to insane and completely over the top (with a few rhymes in between). As I wrote previously, it is amazing how much I have learned from you by reading your entries. Writing is like a little window into one's soul.... which is really scary -- because it made me realize how much you must know about me by now. This was a TOUGH decision for me. I would like to make you all winners (and actually, you are). The story I chose for the grand prize was a dark fairy tale written by Chrysolite.
Grand Prize Winner! (500DC)
Chrysolite for her tale of Zarek and Palladia.
"Chrysolite, would it be alright if we used Zarek as a boss in a future related quest?"
Golden Eyeball Awards (200 DC)
sandorasbox ID#: 228626
Lord Qwerty ID# 1544929
Rainribbon ID# 171664
tayo23 ID: 395898
Dragon Battler ID: 167408
xTheBeast ID: 99472
Silencer Alpha 14802
Staff Picks (100 DC)
These are must reads!
katcult ID# 27935
Riey – ID# 275729
dunkelstern ID# 5164242
Metal_Gear_Box ID# 2026 (Got it, thanks!)
IrishWonder ID# 5617192
Lewa Arkhan ID# 198836
Cottonfish ID# 164550
KajexXIV ID# 6070493
WizardOfAus ID# 2707884
Vymora ID# 631807
Liph ID# 4493677
KajexXIV ID# 6070493
Honorable Mentions
Rimblade - ID# not given
Pepito - ID# not given
Zeedlefritz- ID# not given
A Special Thank you
I would once again like to thank everyone who posted a story.
DragonLords
It is well known that the destiny of those who bear Dragon Amulets is to become a DragonLord. Many of you saw the DragonLord entrance on the latest mockup of the new website (Now with final colors!). That is a VIP door which leads to the same world that all players exist on, with appropriate features. We know the day could never come fast enough... but know this, the DragonLord and related quests shall not be rushed. If I am ever accused of doing anything right in DF... it will be the creation of the DragonLord quests.
Feb 22, 2007
Eyeball Origin Story Contest -- Judging begins!
The thread is locked and.... HOLY FROGZARD DROPPINGS BATMAN?!?!?!?! how am I going to be able to read all of these by tomorrow? I know*!
* Clearly it would take less time to build a time machine than to read all of these posts. Then I could just go back in time and read them! But, since these were only posted this week and I would probably go back at least a month I could change history so that instead of doing the Love Potion #8 quest for Valentine's day (which as you all know we called Dragontines day) we could do something completely insane like have a little mac daddy cherub dress you up in a bear suit. LOL, it would have been so funny if we had done that instead. Also, if I went back time I might as well convince everyone to rename the holiday "Hero's Day" because of all of those "Dragonstine day sounds dumb" posts on the forums. Sorry guys! Well, too bad I do not have a time machine. Oh wait... I have an idea!
Website - Version 9,482,348,723,487,234,234
Hot off the press.... what do you guys think? It is still a rough draft, no attention to detail except for the header which will feature a rotation. Which means we could promote the current event, another thing, and another thing all at the same time with just one header. Any thoughts on a color scheme? Originally I did red and gold to match the existing one, but maybe we should break away from the Artix black, red, and gold obsessed color scheme and try... *shivers* blue?
Update: I tried several different color schemes... ultimately those who responded on todays DN thread and I share the same thoughts-- our theme is already Black, Gold, and Red, lets march forward with it. Pretty, pretty... Shiny, shiny! I am so impressed you caught all the little goofy things I put in the mockup... and oh yes I had original written "30th" but changed that date at the last moment just for you.
Tomorrow.....
The event begins!
Feb 21, 2007
If eyes ruled the world.....
Consumer electronics would watch you instead!
Pae's Official Stress Chart
How many undead minions of stress are you feeling today? Find out here (Feels like a 3 today)
Feb 20, 2007 Feb 19, 2007 (Curse the time travel faries!)
Strange Flying Eyeballs spotted to the West
Grandmama Ethel says, "You bet yer pants they were flying! Flying eyeballs! They were shooting their crazy laser beams at my porch. Mustah been hundreds of them flapping by. Big ones too! Their heading east so I reckon those folks in Falconreach better keep an eye out. Eye out, tee hee hee. I made a funny."
It is the opinion of this Paladin that Grandmama Ethel's words are not to be taken lightly*. Prepare thyselves, good adventurers.
* Unless she has been hitting the Moonshine again.
Feb 19, 2007
Forums Contest: Where do Flying Eyeballs come from?
When Warlic and I were little we had a favorite flying eyeball named "Jimmy the Eye". We used to call this specials of flying eyeballs "swod" -- they were the things that came from behind the refrigerator. But since DragonFable takes place a minimum of 5 years before refrigerators were magically teleported to lore by an evil Technomancer -- we need a history for these strange airborne creatures. Perhaps the secret lies within you.... so head to the official forum thread and weave your tale of how flying eyeballs came to exist. Mind you that there are 4 kinds... Red which are evil, Black which are eviler, Pink.... oh dear... the pink eye!... and Blue -- like Jimmy! They are magic loving eyes *coughs* Also evil *end cough*. Like the previous contest you may only have one entry, it must be suitable for all audiences, and you must put in your character ID# to be considered. Feel free to speak of some magical item essential to their creation that we will be forced to put into the game as a result of selecting your entry. There will only be one winner who will receive 500 DragonCoins. We reserve the right to award or harass individuals who go above and beyond with a few DragonCoins, or a special item, or a special mention here. The contest shall end.... definitely sometime on or around Thursday!
Battling the Lag Monster and Coloring Lessons
Why do some scenes in DF have movement lag while others do not*? That is the subject of Zhoom's research today. We started ripping apart the Enchanted Grove to unravel the laggy mysteries that lurk within. What is strange, is it runs on all of our machines** flawlessly in dev mode. But when played on a browser it starts to lag.... but only on some machines -- and even stranger, it runs better on slower machines runner older browsers. We are doing this because of the lag reported on the forums and we think it might be a good idea to fix this before making the next 20 zones. Meanwhile -- Oishii, Cysero, and Thyton are perfecting their color mastery for places and monsters in DragonFable. We have 250 uncolored monsters, pets, and NPCs awaiting them in the "color me bin".
* I told Zhoom it was the evil screen fairies that live inside your monitor... they get lazy some times. But he did not believe me.
** Cray 9000000 Super Mega Computers with a bazzilion megs of ram and dedicated DF graphics processors
Feb 16, 2007
The Forest of Infinate Terror
So, how exactly was this location "valenformed" to become the ultra pink Hero's Heart day forest of love? Return to the special event and defeat the mini Boss quest to find out!
So you want SnuggleGram Armor?
We read your threads.... we think you are crazy... but we read your threads! Thus a special SnuggleBear Helmet has been added to the game as a rare drop until Monday! If you click on equip the helmet you will look stylish. But, if you click on the helmet it will magically transform you into the Snugglebear armor! (Poor Zhoom had to rewrite the walking engine to make it work -- so be sure you are playing on the the most recent build of DragonFable 3.14i)
The SnuggleBear transforming helm is a seasonal rare and has a very small percent chance to drop in the new mini-boss quest and in dungeons that shall be announced by Cysero on the forums. Alternatively, you can aquire it from Cysero's shop for 45 DragonCoins. The helm will only be available until Monday..... may the fates favor your dungeon drop rolls!
Feb 15, 2007
What screen size do you use?
If you have a moment, please help us with an important decision by letting us know if you ever use a machine thats entire screen resolution is 800x600 on this official forum poll.
It is the little things that show you care....
Over the past 5 years we have recieved tens of thousands of letters in the mailbox. (I really like the love the ones with drawings, thank you!) But I also get a lot of businessy letters and emails like the following.... in todays Design Notes I was urged to share this with you as it is pretty typical and gives a deep insight into my stance on both electronic and snail-mail spam. Not to mention *smiles* this is a pretty good example of what I believe a professional business letter response is! Yes, this is a typical real, actual bussiness letter response screenshotted right out of Artix's emaill. (I try to be polite) Enjoy!
Official Hero's Heart Day Wallpaper!
Oishii made this wallpaper (Download here) for you to celebrate the event. Hope you like it! We are preparing a fun boss-style battle for you tomorrow and as per the amazing suggestions on the forums we are attempting to make a version of the bear armors that you can keep via a special bear helmet. We thought this would be easy but some of the tricks are causing the game to lock up during walking and battle -- worst case scenario we have some cheesy bear helms!
Feb 14, 2007
Happy Hero's Heart Day!
Just released!
Big daddy is here and his regular Snuggle-Gram delivery heros have called in sick.... it is now up to you to deliver these singing messages of love! Login now and experience what may go down as the most embarrassing quest in DragonFable history.
Hero's Heart Day Special Prizes! (Seasonal Rares)
15 new weapons are available for the rest of this week only! Including 'The Heart Breaker', 'Love at first Scythe', "The Ex's Caliber', and more..... also be one of the first to take down monsters with your killer dance moves!
This just in.....
Darkprince99: "Yep thats right, t'day I am gonna go to my GF and do the dance that I learned from DF, lol wish me luck, and I recommend everyone does the dance for someone they love."
DrewDropFairy: "To the AE team (just to go with the spirit of the season): I love you guys. Silly, pointless, embarassing, buggy and laggy as hell - I'm loving every bit of this quest ^_^. Also, in case this was a test for adding new armours, congrats!" (Extra points for figuring out we were testing the armor stuff...)
PlainTiger: "When i put on the Special Armor i laughed out loud. now i'm bustin' a mooove all *over* dese monstahs sorry asses. i love this quest! where else but in DragonFable??"
Famous Lovers!
Many players on the forums figured out that the to and from's in the delivery quest were actually puns and spoofs of famous pop culture and historic couples. It made our hearts swell with happiness and pride when the Turkleton spoof was properly identified..... you guys are so awesome. Can you get all of them? (P.S. He-Man and She-Ra were siblings!? erm... well.... it is ok to ... um.... send family members a Hero's Heart Day card.)
Feb 13, 2007
The Legend of Hero's Heart Day
It was 100 years ago that the legendary hero Valen Tidus set forth on his dangerous quest to rescue his one True Love who was kidnapped by an evil Sorcerer. He defeated the Sorcerer's monsters and fought his way to the secret spell chamber where Valen found himself in a most unfortunate situation. It was a trap! See, the sorcerer's scheme was to create a scenario in which Valen would be forced to sacrifice himself in order to save his True Love. This was part of the Sorcerer's spell to summon a creature of unimaginable terror! The Sorcerer could only accomplish this if Valen was to give his heart (literally) over willingly. Valen did.... without hesitation.
Laughing, the sorcerer placed Valen's heart upon his magical contraption and begun the words of summoning. The Sorcerer's only mistake was underestimating the power of True Love. Valen's heart glowed and turned to pure gold. Instead of conjuring a monster of immense size and power.... it was.... little... blond... sorta cute and had angle wings and wielded a pretty wicked looking bow with heart shaped arrows. Valen Tidus had been reborn... as a 3 foot tall blond messenger of.... LOVE!
Each year we celebrate this heroic sacrifice*. It was originally called Hero's Heart Day. But the girls complained..... so then they called it Hero and Heroines heart day..... but that sounded sorta funny. I mean, seriously.... Hero could be either boy OR girl. So... depending on your gender -- call it whichever you would like!
Robina: "Happy Heroine's Heart day!"
Artix: "Happy Hero's Heart Day!"
Zorbak: "When you are dead I will reanimate your bodies like puppets."
P.S. It is unknown what happened to the Valen Tidus, the Legendary Love Hero.
* ... and make a ton of gold on Chocolate and Flower sales.
Feb 12, 2007
Love is in the Air Elemental!
Ah..... flowers, jewlery, teddy bears, chocolate and an endless stream of new ways to spend money to show your admiration and affection*. Upholding the spirit of this most romantic month, SnuggleFest (Our yearly Valentines Day event) is about to take place in AdventureQuest!
Meanwhile, in DragonFable -- a "Heart-y" new friend and his beautiful guards are headed towards town on Wednesday. Why does this treasure chest smell like chocolate? Oh... and bring your dancing shoes.**
* We suggest sending puntable Zorbak and Twilly Plush toys .
** At least they are not going to make us dress up in a funny costume..... right?
Feb 9, 2007
New Quests: Sir Vey!
A new lower level quest chain has been added to Oaklore. Talk with Sir Valance -- if you have completed all of his sneevil quests he will direct you to his cousin Sir Vey (Cysero he was!) . Together you uncover what appears to have NOTHING to do with the Feb 8th Design Notes, nor the giant Assassination plot quest contest. But rest assured the fate of Oaklore is in your hands.... again.
Sparkling Sand
As of this quest you can now turn in these items for a new Helm, Cape and Belt.
Assassination and Defense Plot Update!
Killer posts! Litterally The forums event has officially ended and the thread has been locked. I would like to thank everyone who submitted a plot.You guys all did a fantastic job, these are great! The staff members (Reens, smbDoll, Rolith, Geopetal) are now picking their favorites... and this will not be an easy task. The 4... erm.... 7 lucky players who were picked were each awarded 100 Dragon Coins.
The Staff Picks!
Geopetal picks: Wierdguy's entry
"It literally made me laugh out loud. XD I was impressed by the Paint Rube Goldberg machine, but my sense of humor is weird."
Rolith picks: Well... here I am' s entry
"The Staff of Puns made me laugh like 3 different times today just remembering it."
Rayf Drayson picks: Rimblade's entry.
"The nature of the ruse is elegant in its simplicity. The old switcheroo. Simple, tried and true. Works like a charm. Plus, waylaying is so easy it's so often overlooked. Then there's the fun this pokes at storytelling cliches. Humorous and smart at the same time."
Seahawk picks: RainRibbon's entry
"Friends, family, and loved ones? A TRUE Evil Mastermind knows they are merely pawns that can be exploited to achieve one's nefarious goals....(Kabroz would approve)"
smbDoll picks: Izon' s entry
"I like the sneevils, it's something that could logically happen in the DF world and bonus points for punting Twilly is the most fun idea ever."
Reens picks: Aeracaun' s entry
"Vayle getting double crossed, then double crossing Sepulcher in true evil fashion. And the asides are awesome."
...and an honorable mention (or extra vote) for the.fabled.dragon's entry
"Sneevils, boxes, bad puns and Twilly....."
Did you have fun in this event? Want more chances to get Dragon Coins through a little creativity and brainstorming? Let me know on the forums.
Feb 8, 2007
Top 10 Ways to Assassinate a King
King Alteon has ruled his country well. While he is surrounded by loyal guards and happy citizens he knows trouble is brewing. It has been foretold.... darkness will come to this land and the only hope for this world will be in a select few who are brave, strong, and occasionally insane enough to...... <screeeeeeeeeeeech>
Sepulcher, the dreaded DoomKnight rides through the pitch black night focused on the difficult quest given by his evil Master. He is merciless and has never failed.... ever. This quest, would prove his most challenging -- The assassination of the good King Alteon! But how should accomplish this vile and wicked task?
- Impersonate the Royal Guard
(Hire Vayle to do it... she did a great job in the Inn in Falconreach) - Hire Elite Ninjas
- Poison the King's pudding!
- Retrain the royal dog to attack upon hearing a special whistle
- Frame one of the Kingdom's heroes
- Put a never ending increase speed spell on the King's horse
- Prepare a special fruit that when properly prepared by an alchemist can be used to control the minds of those who eat it. Get one... or all three of the King's daughters to eat the fruit and have them do the dirty work..... wow.... forget going to ten... this is brilliant! Now.... where can this this fruit and an alchemist be found?
Protecting the Kingdom for Fun and Profit!
We are aware that *coughs* SOME *coughs* players of DragonFable may be decidedly evil. While we are working to change your ways (and we will.. oh yes we will!) this is a good place to use your brilliance and tactics. What other vulnerabilities might the King have and how do you protect him for it? Head to the forums and post on the Official Save King Alteon thread. Rules: Not only must you come up with a clever way that the villains may attempt to use to assassinate him, you must also come up with an appropriate defense! I have given Rolith, Reens, smbDoll and Geopetal each 100 Dragon Coins -- they are to award these to whomever they feel creates the most amusing plot. Be sure to include your Character ID# in your post if you want to be considered for selection! You may only create one. We will distribute the prizes tomorrow (Friday) while we launch the new quest! OMG, I cannot wait to read your posts -- Battle on!
Feb 7, 2007
Dear DragonFable Team,
This letter is written with the utmost concern regarding the design notes. HOW DARE YOU NOT UPDATE THEM ON MONDAY OR TUESDAY! IT IS THE ONLY THING THAT KEEPS ME GOING! I NEEEEEEEED IT! NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED IT! OMG IS ARTIX DEAD? DID HE DIE FROM OVERWORKING? If so I am so sorry. RESSURECT HIM AND BRING HIM BACK TO LIFE AND PUT HIM IN FRONT OF HIS STUPID COMPUTER AND MAKE HIM UPDATE THE DESIGN NOTES. DO IT NOW!
Sincerely,
Absolutely normal, non-obsessed and/or non-over-reactive fan
P.S. OR ELSE! YOU HEAR ME?!?!?! OR ELSE!!!
Feb 2, 2007
Boss Fight!
Venture into the fog..... discover the deadly secret of Thursday!
Amityvale Prologue
There was a post on the forums that suggested Amityvale was based on the song Amityville by Emminem. Which made me think... most people might not have gotten all of the jokes we put in the zone (sort of like the Sir jokes in Oaklore). The truth is we were spoofing a classic horror film called The Amityville Horror. The entire zone was a tribute to horror classics. We tipped our hats to the greats by referencing to Friday the 13th (Jason & Crystal Lake), Nightmare on Elm Street (Freddy), Child's Play (Chucky), The Ring, Pumpkin Head, Creature from the Black Lagoon, the Adamm's Family and OF COURSE Bela Lugosi who played Dracula and Lon Chaney who played the original Wolfman. While this chapter of Amityvale has been brought to a close, rest assured that... given Artix's passion for battling the undead.... we will certainly have more darkness based zones in the future. Hats off to Cysero, Oishii, J6, Arklen and Zhoom for their hard work on this saga. We are all looking forward to what is coming next!
Stat Untrainer - NEW!
If you wanted to change the way your stat points are allocated... good news! You can now reset your stats in Town Hall. It costs 1,000 gold for the resident stat trainer to beat the wisdom, strength, nibleness and good looks out of you. Zhoom said he was sorry for bringing the game server down for 10 minutes (3:30pm EST) during the upgrade.
Terror stikes -- wrong boss quest!
Please accept our apology for the bug this morning where the boss fight was the Pumpkin Pi. We rushed in as fast as possible and fixed this. (Officially Fixed as of 10:20am EST) We ran through the quest and fixed another bug with the rewards before posting this official "It is fixed" post. If you did not get offered quest rewards from Thursday after winning the quest, please restart your browser and try again. Battle on!
Feb 1, 2007
Whatever happened to the Guardian Tower in Doomwood?
There is an unspoken rule at the remaining Guardian Towers to never ever... NEVER EVER.... ABSOLUTELY NEVER EVER speak of the Guardian Tower that was located in the haunted forest of Doomwood. *dramatic pause* Why, you ask? That is a very good question, and we have no idea because no one will talk about it. However, very soon... you will find out for yourself.
Class and Skill System... continued!
Slamming Gavels as seen in the Jan 31st post is not my forte (Unless there are some undead underneath.... even still I like Swords and Axes better) but it was a symbolic guesture of accepting our flaws and continuing forward despite them. Instead we will just keep adding things that make the game more fun. Abstract statements like this can be a bit vague.... so I will use the follow Metaphor to illustrate the situation:
Actual Metaphor with um.... Rogue Duel Wielding!
"It is like when you have a girlfriend who also happens to be a Rogue and also happens to be able to duel wield the exact same dagger in both hands when she picks it up. Sadly the Dagger only does half damage because when you made the daggers for her for her Birthday you did not want her duel wielding to outdamage your best friend's sword which he could only swing once. Since her best friend who was a mage also wanted to use daggers you ended up making them half damage too.... and then had to do the same with staffs. In retrospect you realize it would have been smarter to have all gifts do equal damage and then give bonuses if it was good for you... THEN you remembered about the duel wielding thing and started thinking about how mad your girlfriend would be if you gave her new daggers as a present that said they did the same damage as the sword but only hit for 1/2 as much as they said they would... even though they hit twice. One rule that all good boyfriends know... girlfriends hate hitting for 1/2 damage! Worse yet, she also has the exact same weapon in both hands and when the special goes off in the back hand the animation would play in the front hand causing all sorts of insane and unpredictable results... but that one is ok now, because you sat down and worked that bug out over a cup of hot cocco. In the end you realize that you loved her just the way she was..... so why try to change everything? Instead, if we focused on all the things we could go do exactly the way we are...we would have a lot more fun!"
Moral: Artix knows absolutely nothing about metaphors or women..... but holy crud, I love reading the design notes.
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