Artix

July 31, 2007
Announcement Day
But first... <shakes fist at the Time travel faeries from yesterday> ... that may have been the biggest time leap yet! Second, WOW you guys had a lot of good ideas for the Mage buff! Double damage seems obvious, but a single target DOT (Damage over time) makes a lot of sense too. I think we should save heals for when we release healing classes, but doing a monster debuff to make your spells hit them for more damage would work too. When Zhoom becomes available I am going to ask him to build a damage meter for =DF=. Right now he is buried under MechQuest database stuff so it may be a while until he can do it (I am really good any making ANYTHING more complicated than it should be). Now, on with the announcements...

LEVEL CAP INCREASE FRIDAY!
We do not have the new zones ready to go yet... but we are going to raise the level cap anyways! Any arguments? Oh right, you need high level stuff to do....

NEW "all level" NPC Quest Giver on FRIDAY!
Yesterday I mentioned that we were working on a new concept. We have the universal loot tables working* and were thinking of a way to have new monsters that everyone could fight. Scaling monsters are ok for wars, but it is no fun when a monster leves up at the same time you do! That is why we have developed scaling monsters who do not level when you do. <blinks> "WHAT? How is that even possible?" I am glad you asked! It is possible by having monsters who have a specific level depending on your level range.

* Translated: We have not tested it at all.

For example, let us pretend we just released a brand new questing area where we can battle some new new undead foes together. We want this area to be available for players of all levels because it is a server-wide event. In this event there is a perticular type of skeleton called... hmmm, how about an Undead Axeman. Depending on your level bracket you would face a different level of the Undead Axeman.... see below!

Undead Axeman
Base Level 3

Player Level 00 to 10 would fight Undead Axeman Level 3
Player Level 10 to 20 would fight Undead Axeman Level 13
Player Level 20 to 30 would fight Undead Axeman Level 23
Player Level 30 to 40 would fight Undead Axeman Level 33

The Undead Axeman may gain new skills when it is a higher level and it also may become visibly more dangerous. Using this method makes it possible (with good level design) to let you fight monsters that are good for you level that are "fixed in place" just like static monsters so that you can become more powerful against them as you level. Then, using the universal loot table, you could win the quest and get good drops and rares for around your level too!

Furthermore, we could actually design a zone that at first is good for a specific level range, but once you beat the storyline, you can rerun your favorite (or maybe some new) quests at a higher level for gold, exp, and maybe bonus rare rewards that are good for your level. Oh, and a good thing to note... we can also have different level shops for some NPCs. Ideally I would like to have 10 huge zones, each with their own storyline, NPC, Villian, and 100 levels worth of monsters and items to make them complete... and then have a bunch of extremely level-specific zones with cool specialty stuff in them. In an RPG this would be ultimate freedom to choose what type of places you like to play in (Enchanted forests, Dragon lairs, Haunted Castles, etc) and if each zone offers one or more classes you can customize your character into the perfect Hero or Villian to fit your playstyle. I think now you might understand why I was so excited about this yesterday. If it is a hit, it will bust free our current creative / prioritization log jam. I would really like the test this theory...... Cysero will have the next Xan quest, with yet another new boss with a unique skill, ready for Friday. Maybe we can give you a few Mage skills to try out, (different versions of the normal mage, NOT new mage armors) and we will raise the level cap to 40; Then, if we can create everything in time**, I would like to put my character in Falconreach with a test of the new system that we talked about above. We will need some help coming up with new weapon names and specialty rewards for levels 1-10, 10-20, 20-30, AND 30-40!. What do you think? We have a lot of work to do for Friday. See you on the forums!

** That is a HUGE IF. Imagine an IF that is twice the size of the Guardian Tower in Falconreach. That's how big that IF is. -C

 

   
Artix

July 30, 2007
Playing as a Mage... I smell buff!
This weekend I created three brand new level 1 characters and played through to Falconreach. Until level 6 the mage is REALLY hard to play. I think we need to replace "Power Boost" (The 15% power buff) with something that gives the Mage some better single target damage. I would prefer not nerfing anything to compensate (the real advantage for Mages now is level 6 triple strike ability which has 0 cooldown). Mages are the most effective against three targets, but have a very hard time DPTing down a single target. This caused some problems for us balancing the Huff Puff monster on Friday. Do you have any positive ideas on what you would like us to do? Let us know on the forums!

Also, Cysero, Zhoom and I fixed a number of problems in Oaklore this weekend (more to be released tonight) including reducing the experience required to get to level 5 which will help players join us in Falconreach faster. We also removed and rebalanced monsters in many of the lower level quests. Finally we developed a new "universal loot table". This will allow special scaling dungons to give you rewards based on your level. Zhoom finished the code this morning. We are going to try testing this is a special questing event for you this week. We are also working on something so strange, cutting edge, wierd and/or brilliant that it will make DF the best game ever... or send us spiraling back to the drwing board (and we actually have a drawing board... I mean... it is made of carboard.. but we like to draw on it!) . But if you want to hear more about that... tune in tomorrow! You can help us decide.

Rack to the future!
As you may already know, we have been in the process of ordering the cluster of servers for the upcoming game* MechQuest. While picking out the hardware we needed, Captain Rhubarb asked me, "Artix, what if we just ordered a few private racks and put all 29 of the game servers behind a massive gigabit connection?" To which I thought, "Wow, what a GREAT idea**!" This would mean nearly 10 times the amount of bandwidth and an END to the massive lag of Friday night releases! A gigabit of bandwidth per second... is A LOT***! So, thanks to the AQ promotion we are getting some funds to cover the dangerous transfer (since our current servers will not fit on the two racks we have to swap them for all new ones which means a major move sometime in the next month.) Which also means that during that time we will temporarily have (24+30+1) 55 web and game servers running at the same time. CRAZY! Once we are done, we should have all three games running on what should seem (to us at least) like infiniate bandwidth (~124 Terabytes per month) Goodbye launch night lag! They will be hosted mighty powerful machines too.... the new database servers have raid arrays with eight 10,000 rpm drives each (take that AdventureQuest save times!) If we actually have a smooth MechQuest release... hmmm, that almost sounds impossible... a lag free launch? Actually, it sounds like a dare! I accept! A special thank you to everyone who has bought a DragonAmulet or/and Guardianship. We will be putting things into MechQuest for you as a big thank you (very easy since all the databases will be able to talk behind the industrial strength firewall of their new home!) Also, thank you to those of you visiting the ads to support the site. With that... <Signs the server contract and hands it to Safiria> ... Battle on! ****

* Highly anticipted train wreck... of the future!
** Until I saw the monthly bill...
*** Higher than I can count on my fingers, toes.... um.. higher than I can count period. (... and you have seen how good at math I am!)
**** Yes, I actually just signed the contract. Soon, our entire game network is going to Level Up! I feel bad for Captain Rhubarb though... he has to do all the work!
   
Artix

July 27, 2007
Friday Release: New Boss Monser Type!

We have created a new challenge that will blow you away.... literally. You will only have five turns to defeat this monster before he does something battle ending. Do you have the fire power to take him out in time? It is the ultimate DPT (Damage Per Turn*) test for your character. We only have the boss to finish before we are ready to release! If you are a mage you will be happy to know that we kept your skill set in mind. We might have to put some additional levels of difficulty in for severe bragging rights on the forums. So, would you rather it be hard by default and you have to choose easier if you cannot do it... or would you like it to be medium difficulty with the option for INSANITY?

AdventureQuest: Ballyhoo's 500 Z-Tokens
Heads up! If you have an AdventureQuest account be sure to log into AQ within the next few days to get 500+ AdventureQuest Z-Tokens. If you do not have an account, this would be a REALLY good time to make one... because Z-Tokens are just like our DragonCoins and an opportunity like this has never happened before. It is all thanks to Ballyhoo and our sponsor (See what is going on). I like this because a relatively small group of players who like Coca-Cola are going to to something amazing for all of their fellow players. If you are going to help the AQ community achieve their goal be sure to read MyCokeReward's rules and do it honestly and fairly. (Example: Signing up fake accounts hurts our communities reputation and will prevent us form getting things like this in the future). This all started late last night and I was told that Ballyhoo has already gotten over a thousand sign-ups. It definitely looks like they are going to do it!

Sleepyhead Cysero
We all love Cysero, so today's forum topic is to help him update the excuses he gives me when calls to let me know he slept through his alarm**... like a few minutes ago this morning. Yesterday. The day before. And Monday. Oooh! You can also create clever ideas on how we can help wake him up with an assortment of in-game and technical (Should players be in charge of an alarm next to his bed?) methods. This is going to rule***!

* We think... or was it Dingleberry Power Thrower? Dark Portal Thermometer? Drinkable Pasta Tub?
** Oishii says there was a reason his hair was drawn like that...
*** I am so DEAD when he reads this.
Artix

IT'S NOT MY FAULT!!
Ah, the immortal words of Han Solo.

My phone is having issues, and it is also my alarm. Artix has actually taken time out to buy me an alarm clock, which will never leave its box, bless his heart. He doesn't have to know that so shhhhhhhhh.

The dates that he gave you were grossly inaccurate. Today was correct, I woke up 30 minutes before my alarm was set to go off, and went back to bed then I woke up at exactly the time that I was meant to be AT our underground headquarters. My phone/alarm failed me again. This is the 3rd time that it's happened and it's getting old.

Since we've got most of the quest done, i'm going to make a few new lower level weapons for my shop. With all the higher level people on the forums, it sometimes escapes my notice that there are more level 4 players, than there are level 8-29 players total. Maybe it's time to introduce the game's first wands. What do you think?

   
Artix

July 26, 2007
Happy Birthday Website!

<Wipes a tear> It was two years ago today that this website was first discovered and poked fun of by players all across the internet. Actually, if I remember correctly, I never even told anyone that the website was live... many of you just found it using your mysterious web voodoo. Oooh, we should make a voodoo class where you do not attack your enemy, but rather you just do mean things to a little symbolic doll to cause damage. <immediately replaces Daimyo's chew toy with the doll> Take that undead! Power move "play time!"

Back then, DragonFable was just some doodles on the back of torn piece of notebook paper*. We started working on this game together, throwing ideas back and forth on the forums... struggling and perservering through all the tough questions, nay-sayers and limitations of Flash to actually create this game together. There are no less than 958,256 urgent priorities** left on our current list of things to do for DragonFable. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for allowing us to continue making the game better! To celebrate the birthday of the website today we are going to change the party hat in the shop... but not to the DF website, instead we will be changing it to the player known as qw248. Contrary to that one statement in his very nice post, we actually care a lot. With that, I am making a call for the return of the good ol days! (I guess these would be the NEW good ol' days!). What were some of your favorite DragonFable memories?

July 26th, 2005: Creation of DF website
November 30th, 2005: Release of first beta
June 9th, 2006: Release of the full game

* This is still the official design document.
** I used to say we had a million things to do, but <whispers> we actually did some of them!
Artix

I Want To Try This!
I have a teeny tiny head too.

What do you guys think of the new layout? Think I should have green text boxes, or go back to green lettering? Both? Artix put the new format together and I think it looks spiffy!

   
Artix

July 25, 2007
Alliance of Evil
The floating undead Dragon castle* has been spotted in every region from Swordhaven to Lolosia. Alas, we know Xan is only one of the many powerful villains who can be found in our large world. Rumors are spreading that Sepulchure, with his recently acquired Dragonis now questing to gain the allegiance of the other villains whom he will undoubtedly use to take over the world to spread his darkness. If this is true... then we must stop defending Falconreach. The entire world is in peril..... with that, my friends, the time to defend is over.... now, WE must go on the offensive!

P.S. Jimmy the Eye has been tracking the flying castle carefully. It had been at Xan's volcanic fortress for quite some time before moving to... what Jimmy did he best to describe as as a Pirates Cove, a Ninja Training facility, a Pyramid, a Haunted Forest, an Ice Castle, the land of the Giants, and.... uh oh, this is not good.
P.S.S. I missed you guys
P.S.S.S. I know... I still have the P's & the S's backwards
P.S.S.S.S. But it sounds more like you are saying "Psssssssssssss....."
P.S.S.S.S.S. Guess which NPC will make his final home and become levelable in the haunted forest! ^_^

* DragonFable stands behind its realistic physics (So we are harder to see)

 

Before July 26, 2007
Post Posted Posts!
Prior to today we used a color system for who was posting in the design notes. Now... we use pictures! You know, just in case you had a black and white CGA monitor or something. It also solves the problem if we get more than 24 million staff members.... each needing their own color (Actually the human eye can only see roughly 8 million colors... but even then it is hard to distinguish more than a few hundred). So, um... the old color legend is below!

Legend

Artix: Types in White
Cysero: Types in Green
Geopetal: Types in Purple

Contests
Prior to today we used a color system for who was posting in the design notes. Now... we use pictures! You know, just in case you had a black and white CGA monitor or something. The old color legend is below!

See the Edited Motivational Poster Winners
See the Edited Screenshot Contest Winners
See the Original Art Contest Winners
Link to: Full Screen DragonFable

July 23, 2007
Contest Winners!

The Motivational Poster contest was a huge success! Thanks to all the AQ and DF players who took part and made this one of the funniest contest that we've ever had! It was so amazingly hard for the judges to decide from all the enteries that we had 1 winner, 1 second place winner, and 37 RUNNER'S UP!

In first place was MegaSlaya, who chose 3000 Z-Tokens as a prize! Great Job!

Second place goes to Narmacil, who took home 500 Dragon Coins!

And all the rest of the winners either took home 100 Dragon Coins or 300 Z-Tokens, depending on if they posted a DF or AQ character ID. The Runner's Up are:
answer me this
ayashi
azlynd
betbest1
Blueboy250
ChaoticRevolution
CLN
Dante Enkoro
DigDog
Dr. Pickles
DragonGuard
draigo
fayzeshyfft
Fidelo
imfor umm
Iznoguud
JediAnn Solo
jillyjo1
jknight05
KainOcelot
Lord Me
minimac
Ninja Paladin
optimus33467
petermaxo
Rayker
rehtaeh11
sandorasbox
Shadow_Eagle
som3dud33
Suikoman444
Tanzlee
TiamatRoar
trailokyam
whos john?

The prizes have already been given out so next time you log in you should have a heavier backpack. We really want to show off all your hard work so we're working on a seperate page with all of the winner's posters and we will get that up as soon as we can (Probably tomorrow morning), so stop back here and check for an update. Thanks again guys for making this another fantastic AE Fan contest and enjoy your hard earned rewards!

Update: Edited Motivational Poster Winners

July 19, 2007
Future News

I have, as usual, been reading the forums and I, as usual, wanted to clear some things up to avoid confusion.

The level cap is not being raised tomorrow. Sorry lvl 29ers, but we rrreeaaalllyyy need to complete Warlic's zone and the Xan chain before we start a new zone. We plan to begin the new zone IMMEDIATLY after we finish the Xan chain and DF will be releaseing nothing but Xan chain quests until it is done. As soon as we have one single quest in the NEW zone, then we will will raise the cap.

Tomorrow's release will be the next quest in the Xan chain after the River of Fire quest. We're working on a few little special effects that we've never tried before (colums of flame that you need to time to walk between or else you lose life, weapons that have a small chance of dealing 1000 fire damage at random, stuff like that) that should make this quest pretty fun, plus you get to learn a little more about why Xan hates Warlic so much.

I'm really excited aboot (intentional) this whole thing! It's a quest chain that we've had on our minds for literally months. Galanoth, Artix and I sat down in a room and over the course of three hours talked about Xan and Warlic's past. We outlined how Xan would have his revenge and how you would get caught between these two magical masters. Artix even wrote a short story about Xan growing up and how he eventually met Warlic. I want to skip all the build up and jump straight to the finale but that would be bad game design.

The quest will drop some new weapons, and a few belts for you guys. We've started the art for the weapons and they are purty. Yes, I misspelled pretty on purpose.

In unrelated news, we have taken a few more steps toward a way for everyone to earn Dragon Coins within the game. The idea is still on rocky terrain so I won't say too much aboot (intentional) it, and get your hopes up, but this is the closest that we have ever been to a method for people to earn DC in the game without shooting ourselves in our collective feet. Yay!

July 18, 2007
Geo Is Tired And Can't Think Of A Title

Wednesday. The week is half done and things are progressing nicely. The end of the war is coming up (it's at 83% as I type this!) and we'll finally get to see what evil plans that Xan and the Necromantress have laid out for Falconreach. Will we be able to stand up to the new minions they're created? Once the counter rolls to a 100% what menacing monster will we be facing?

The guys would also like to extend a special thank you to all the moderators who have always helped with testing. Their patience and willinging to test has been extremely helpful and without them things would be decidely buggier.

P.S. Car fixed, no go boom now.

July 17, 2007
The Xan Plan

So yes, we pronounce XAN so that it rhymes with "can". Xan has destroyed Falconreach and he has defeated you at every turn, but soon you will get your chance to face him in a final showdown. What are his ties to Warlic? How, EXACTLY, does your head get set on fire PERMENATLY? What happened to this promising magic student to break his mind? How will you defeat him with his powers amplified a thousand-fold by the Pyronomicon?

All these questions will be asked again and MIGHT EVEN BE ANSWERED, as we begin to flesh out Warlic's zone, the mining town of Lymcrest and the Xan quest chain, starting this Friday hopefully!

In other news, some people were having problems logging into Flaconreach lately. We found the source of the problem and corrected it. This falls under an ever-shortening list of small bugs that we have been smooshing lately. We're working to make you a bug-free game, that is fun to play for everyone, and if things keep up this pace then we might just be able to do it!

in OTHER other news, we had a wicked cool storm yesterday with over 35,000 individual lightening strikes logged! There was lightening in all kinds of flavors! Whites, blues, purples and even a few reds! Neat, huh?

FRIDAY THE 13TH
The Plot Thickens!

So the Beach Vacation Invasion was just a distraction set up by Xan to wear you out. There were several ways that this combo war could have gone depending on what you heroes voted, but this was by far my very favorite! The Special Cutscene available from time now explains some, as does the Legend of Rotgut... But I guarentee that not ONE of you can see the end of this war that will change the course of events in Falconreach from here forward.

Have you started to wonder why Xan has such an obsessive need to destroy Warlic? Next week we will be drilling deep into Xan's psyche as we reveal a bit about the past events that tie the two magi together. It's messy in his head so bring rain boots.

-C

The Legend of Rotgut
(Yay for spooky plot related story time!)
This is a tale of mystery. Of King Alteon's 299 Knights there was none so intimidating large and strong as the mighty Karth Rotgut. Unlike the other Knights, he was a rude and vulgar bully who exercised his arm by raising his drinks to his wide mouth instead of aiding others. How he managed a place amongst the Kings elite 299 is a mystery even to us. Perhaps they thought they could change the ways of this cruel and gluttonous warrior. One thing is certain... he was often seen meeting with a strange purple robed Necromantress. We are all familiar with the events that would come later. And yes, Rotgut was there amongst the Kings 299 elite in the tragic battle to defend Falconreach from Xan's fiery wrath. But what you may not know was Rotgut's coin purse was 5 times heavier that day. Furthermore there are rumors that the specific path they traveled was of his choosing. Worse yet... Rotgut is rumored to have fled the battle to a dark forest where he was last seen demanding, "Fair compensation for my deeds!" to a purple robed figure. What happened to the traitorous Knight, Karth Rotgut, is a mystery.... perhaps you should ask the purple clad Necromantress yourself, she is commanding the army that is attacking Falconreach right now!

=AE= Motivational Poster Contest!
I am sure you have seen these in stores and all the walls behind the desks of your favorite executives (We have favorite executives?) Regardless, it is time for us to help aspiring people around the world with our own unique collection of quality motivational material! Make your own motivational poster with a screenshot from any =AE= game including AdventureQuest, DragonFable, and EbilGames.com. I whipped up a few examples of my own for you: Poster 1, Poster 2

This is our FIRST EVER all-game contest! Winners of the contest will be able to choose a prize of Z-Tokens or DragonCoins's for their main character and, as always, we reserve the right to award additional prizes for those who go above and beyond!

See the Official Contest Forum Post

Where: The =AE= Inspirational Poster Contest
When: The contest thread will close for judging on July 18th at 5:00PM, winners will be announced a few days later!
What to do: Grab an unaltered screenie from AdventureQuest, DragonFable or one of AE's minigames and make an Inspirational Poster out of it, just like the one in Mayor Rayf's office. Only two entries

July 12, 2007
An army of undead approaches from the West!
What shall happen when light and darkness colide upon on us at the same time*? Can the town of Falconreach withstand two simultanious wars**? Where has Xan been all of this time***? Something strange is happening with the Doom weapons****..... it all starts tomorrow -- Friday the 13th!

* Doom
** Doooom
*** DOOOOOOOOM
**** I think you can figure this one out for yourself.

July 11, 2007
The Treasure Chests have opened!
The rare items from this past weekend's special event have opened to reveal an assortment of goodies! An excellent light pet, a belt, a brand new... and very strange item to wear on your back and "Her-O's Cereal" the special +5 points Dragon chow!

P.S. Zhoom is working on bug that is causing the Wererabbit. Congratulations to Trailokyam for getting the joke about the back + pet combo.

SPECIAL REPORT: Artix's Real DeathNoteBook
Not since Paris Hilton or that American Idol guy who got beat up on a plane has there been a story so unworth talking about that you should probably just stop reading now. Stop reading now, I am serious. *Moment of awkward silence* Still reading? Well I should warn you.... some people get excited about having babies. Or winning the lottery. Or getting a car. Or getting a car that happens to transform into a giant robot that looks in no way like any of our battle machines in MechQuest. For me.... the day to get exicted for was yesterday. The day my electronic doom weapon arrived. Now, I warned you that this post was not worth reading. So if you are going to continue let us just consider you a personal friend of mine and know that I am going to share a deep insight into my life with you.

As a long time martial artist I view the tools just as I do weapons. They are not things to be wielded but rather to become extensions of ourselves. AdventureQuest was built on a black Dell Inspiron laptop that, without question was the greatest machine that ever existed. The computer was named Paladin. I think a part of my soul was linked to that machine... much in the same way I think there is something special about the big blue machinical pencil that Oishii uses (She has had it since she found it on the floor in highschool and since has drawn every single NPC with it) My faithful machine Paladin has long since expired and its hard drives no longer turn. It sits siliently with its lid closed on the shelf near my work table. The two machines that followed it just did not compare. One was a 3.6 GHz desktop processor in a tiny box which made it quite HOT and required special prepherials to run some of the "hottest" games. Too be honest, since Paladin was gone I felt like a Knight without a sword. I have always loved working on the games, but there was something special about working on that computer. Do you know what I am talking about? Have you ever had a favorite chair that you just loved to sit in? A favorite shirt to play in? How about the best pair of shoes you ever owned? Perhaps a special car and all of the memories that still live on with it? It is like we never truly appriciate what we have until we are forced to throw it away*. So you can imagine my excitement in what I wanted to share with you today. I found a WORTHY SUCCESSOR to PALADIN!

*
Side effect of having a girlfriend

I tapped into my savings and ordered it 6 months ago.... I think this story might get a sales person fired, so let me just say this was either the first, or one of the very first ordered by a an individual customer. It finally arrived yesterday... sleek black and hungry to make games. Sitting down and typing this to you now on it just feels right. I feel like a painter who was just given a new color of paint to use for the first time. I hope my old machine will not be jealous.. which Warlic will be using once he moves down here in *checks watch* two weeks! I thought about naming this machine Paladin.... but it has not earned that name. No, until I hear my work and effort has improved from your posts I will call this machine... hmmm, something relevant, dark, funny.... HAH DeathNotebook! <changes the title of todays post> Let us hope I do not write any of your names in it *winks*

Give us the Specs!
Remember... DeathNoteBook is a laptop: SLI (2x) NVIDIA 7950 GTX, Raid 0 with two 7200 RPM drives, Intel Dual Core T7600 @ 2.33GHz, 4 Gigs of Ram, Blue-ray/DVD writer, native 1920x1200 resolution. On a completely factual but unrelated note we sent clothes to a childrens orphanage in Peru today. Now, it is time to make stuff for you to play!

July 10, 2007
Darkness Approaches

The bright summer sun, with all of its brilliance, is stoically blocked by the thick black curtains of Miss Fortune's house. She sits patiently inside with a devious grin and the anxious jittery stomach that some get before opening their Frostvale presents.... but the holiday she is looking forward to is far more unlucky. Her chair breaks*. The beautiful and slender girl picks herself up from the floor and attempts to remove a splinter from her finger with her mouth. A black cat darts across the room knocking over a candle setting fire to the calendar. Miss Fortune mistakenly grabs the oil cleaning rag to beat out the flames. As the flames dance towards her illegal fireworks arsenal**... which also happens to be next to her great Granny's extremely fragile glass and origami moglin figure collection... she glances at the half-burnt calendar and her heart is filled with joy. This Friday.... IS FRIDAY THE 13TH! <The sound of a fuse is heard igniting in the background> Miss Fortune turns to the camera and says, "Not again!"

* Happens a lot. The local chair crafter makes a killing off her. But you should see the dishes guy!
**The delivery was late so she did not get to use them at the festival, that she was sick for anyways, but the entire set just arrived 15 minutes ago!

To the Necromancers of Doomwood, it has become an inside bet (and joke) as to whom can destroy the town of Falconreach. A great reward of ultimate dark power has been offered as a reward to the one who does... but it must be done on the weekend of Friday the 13th. Why? We have no idea.... but why are the Doom Weapons making that sound?

To be continued...

July 9, 2007
The end.... of DeathNote

But first, inquiring minds want to know: "Artix!? Where in limbo were you last week!?"

<Flash Back to Artix's phone conversation early last Monday morning>

Artix smiles as he walks Daimyo and says, "Warlic, this is a amazing, we have a completely clear schedule all week long... we can get EVERYTHING done this week!"

Warlic replies, "Wow, that is great! I am sure there is no possible way things will be interrupted by an unexpected chaotic string of horrible tragic personal trials involving illness, broken hearts, broken cars, evil business people, and hospitals that would all be ultimately be solved by teamwork, friendship and working as a family!*"

* An hour later the entire team was interrupted by an unexpected chaotic string of horrible tragic personal trials involving illness, broken hearts, broken cars, evil business people, and hospitals that would all be ultimately be solved by teamwork, friendship and working as a family! As for today, things are almost back to normal. Safiria and Nythera are out sick (So if you contacted us with problems please be patient until tomorrow.) and *checks watch* yup, I am very late for work. But the FINAL book of DeathNote came out this weekend!

Back to DeathNote
I know we have a lot of major Harry Potter fans in our community... so when I say, "That is how crazy about DeathNote I am" you should understand. DeathNote is truly unlike anything I have ever read before and for the past year I have been obsessing over the storyline. BUT NOOOOO WHY DID THEY END IT LIKE THAT!* <Falls over> I was really disappointed... there was so much more they could have done**. As a result I am completely rethinking the Manga we are working on and am going to have a meeting with Cysero and Galanoth on the DragonFable storyline (w/ AQ crossover). Let us starting building DragonFable to be something that exceeds our wildest expectations... with, um... our very "special" sense of humor***.

* Since I have been reading/watching Manga/Anime I have been greatly effected by the endings of epic stories. The ending of Berserk left me in a stomach wrenching despair that actually changed my ambitions and the way I run our games. The end of Evangelion left me in a confused mind-spiraling loop for months that very well changed my entire view of reality. But DeathNote left me feeling... well, what did you think? (if you read it) (And no spoilers please or clearly label the tread as a spoiler).
** Artix is really just grumpy because all of his wild theories and speculation did not happen....
*** The Special Sauce!
Bonus: Wow, I had 34 Typos when I ran spellcheck.... are there even 34 words up there? NEW RECORD!

July 6, 2007
An Orchestrated Campaign Of Obstruction

Sometimes it really feel like the universe is out to get you. There have been no less than six minor personal catastrophies this week within the ranks of the DF staff. I will spare you the gory details but here is a good example: Geopetal (as reliable as the solid stones that she so adores) was left in charge of gathering the IDs of Dragon Riders for the arena. This morning I got a call from her, her car exploded on the way here and might be totally unable to get that all-important list to us in time, which means that the arena might have to be put on hold. Le sigh.


One thing that WILL be coming today is another Treasure Hunt! A lot of you said that you would really like another one because you missed the last one. Some of you said that it was a bad idea unless we were more clear about the times. So lets do that.

The Treasure Hunt will be released tonight at 6:00 p.m. server time unless another announcement is made.
The items, like last time, will be available in many free dungeons and DA only dungeons with a slightly higher drop rate from the DA dungeons.
The Items will be for sale in my shop (Cysero's Dragon Coin shop in Falconreach).
There will be 4 items.
The Treasure Hunt will end at 6:00 p.m. on Weds. July the 11th and the items will be removed from my store at that time.
The Items will reveal themselves as soon as they have left the strore and all the dungeons.

But dig this... One of the mystery items will be the SUPER SPECIAL DRAGON CHOW that gives your dragon 5 stat training points, which will be changed from DA only to a normal item for the duration of the week. It will be changed back to a normal DA only item Friday July 20th at 6:00 p.m. server time.

Some of you will be incluned to fill up yor backpacks with all these items so that you get as much chow as possible, but remember that you largest stack of the super special dragon chow is a stack of ten.

Speaking of baby dragons, we will also be releaseing baby dragon UNtraining today for a flat fee of 1000g. This will refund all the points that you have put into your dragon so far and allow you to re-spend all of thos points as you see fit, just like normal stat untraining.

July 5, 2007
The Voice Of The People

The people of town have spoken and decided to face the beachy threat themselves, with no hired help! Here are the vote results if you missed the final count:


"We'll do it ourselves" - 49% (1826 votes)
"Mysterious stranger's help" - 35% (1287 votes)
"Zhoom's help" - 10% (396 votes)
"Valencia's help" - 3% (135 votes)

I have to admit that we were all really surprised. Most of us thought that the mysterious stranger was a shoe in for winner (even though I voted for Zhoom)
, but I'm really proud that you heroes decided to stand up to the threat yourselves. There is a difference between asking for help when you need it and paying for help because you don't feel like doing it. Good job heroes!

But still, it makes you wonder... We all know why Valencia wanted the gold, but what kind of services would have Zhoom provided for the town? What does the Mysterious Stranger want with all that gold (and the gold that he gets from the sale of Doom Weapons) and how would he have taken out 65% of the monsters by himself?

With our eyes still full of last nights light show and our noses still filled with the sweet smell of gunpowder, we are hard at work on the conclusion to the Beach Vacation Invasion (since you guys told us the ending by voting for it). We are also working on the Dragon Arena, and we've encountered a few problems with it that we hope to have worked out for tomorrows release. Maybe it's time for another contest? Maybe it's time for another Treasure Hunt? Maybe not. Let us know.

July 3, 2007
4th of July Week and Weekend (Yay)

For those of you in the states who will be traveling, be safe* and have fun! Any reason to have fun with the whole family is A-OK in my book**. The team here at A.E. is very much a part of my family... which is why we are all dressed up snazzy today! See, we have some VIP family members of the team coming in. It is sort of like Parent-teacher day in school except that the school is a secret underground lab and the princi-PAL is a PAL-adin! <Hands out holy detentions of strength +1> . I will be holding my hand out and saying, "Oh, and over here next to the undead slaying trebuchet you will find some servers, a boiling cauldron of witch's yaga's famous recipe (Now with 20% more bat eyes!), our entire how-to-draw artbook collection*** and Cysero's hidden stash of moglinberry yogurt..... and this is just the bathroom!" Hmmm, I smell a new contest coming on -- check back later!

If we are short any team-members come next Monday... you will know why!

* Especially if you are planning to go all Xan with the fireworks this year
**
The Death Note. <Rolls on the floor in spazful impatience waiting for the next issue to come out at the end of the month. Must... know.. .what.. happens... next!>
*** All audio-books of course!

War & The Falconreach Treasury
The enemy forces are numbered at 4 million! In a strange turn of events, Sir Render, the Knight in charge of the Falconreach Militia has put in a request with Rayf... a request to hire Mercenaries to thin the enemy ranks! Three offers have been made by Valencia, Zhoom and the Mysterious stranger!

Town Treasury: 3.1Billion Gold

Options
A.) The Mysterious Stranger: 65% of the enemy light monsters for 1 Billion gold.
B.) Zhoom: 55% of the enemy light monsters for 850,000,000 gold.
C.) Valencia: 30% of the enemy light monsters for 500,000,000 gold.
D.) We will do it... ourselves!

Rayf has decided to hold a town vote on the matter.... check back soon friends, this has never been done before in the history of DragonFable! Talk about it (and the consequences) now and check back to see how to vote.

The Future of Falconreach: VOTE NOW


July 02, 2007
Like every Monday, everyone is preoccupied.. too busy to even update the design notes. I had no choice but to come out of the secret DF lair. Too bright out here!!

I hope you all enjoyed the Dragonlord and Dragon releases. More content for your dragons is on the way. The arena for Dragon dueling is still under construction... gotta keep in mind those dragons are huge and VERY destructive! Cysero is working on the content where you will finally meet me and help me fight the evil.

Hacking!! Honestly, I really do not care about people who want to hack their own accounts.. (as long as it does not affect other players' gameplay). But lately, I have been bogged down by too many reports of hacking... which has been very distracting. Now might be the time to unleash my dark powers! (insert evil laughter here) I promise I will try to make it painless!

I'm glad I finally made it out!

-Zhoom

PS: Any evidence of hacking (whether it is your own account or others') will be treated very seriously and will result in account ban.