Albion Online – Page 2

Albion Online Goes Free To Play April 10

Albion Online is officially going free to play. Starting April 10, you’ll be able to jump into the fray without being required to buy a game pack. Free accounts will be under no gameplay restrictions and can take part in all aspects of the game. The business model will not be changed, being built on premium status as well as a vanity-only cash shop.

As a thank you to their present customers, Albion players who buy the game before April 10 will receive a Specter Wolf mount, 1,000 gold, and 3 days of claimable premium. Starter packs will be discontinued as of April 10 and will be discounted until that point.

Overall, the game is doing very well. We have a fully staffed development team of 35 people, just released our sixth major post-release update, and have a stable and growing player population.

However, we’re also convinced that Albion Online can be taken much further. Our mission is to bring back that old-school, hardcore MMORPG feeling, to as many players as possible.

In today’s world, a 30-dollar paywall – the price of our cheapest game pack – is a massive deterrent for trying out a new game, especially one as unconventional as Albion Online. We believe that by removing the initial paywall we will be able to grow Albion Online as a game and continue to further expand our development team to bring you even more content updates and exciting new features going forward.

Ultimately, we believe this step will help us realize our long-term vision for the game.

Albion Answers: Cool Drops When Everything Is Player Crafted

Sandbox MMOs have always had a rough time answering what sounds like a simple question: How do you balance drops in a game that is supposed to be driven by player crafting? For Albion Online, the answer is simple, you just make the drops player-crafted.

The Black Market doesn’t work like a normal NPC merchant, instead he will buy player crafted items based on supply and demand, for which a buy order can be generated by a player killing a mob, and when a certain number of buy orders are generated, the price will rise. Players can go to the black market and fulfill those buy orders directly or set up sell orders so that the item will automatically sell once their price is met.

In short, imagine it like this: The loot tables operate like normal, but there is finite stock based on what players are selling. So if Player B kills a goblin and his loot table pings an iron sword, the game will check to see if there is an iron sword available and if there is, drop it for Player B while Player A gets paid.

The system, in theory, allows Albion to increase drops and have mobs drop cooler stuff because it is all coming from other players. In addition, it creates an item/gold sink as some items are naturally lost in such a shady, back door environment.

You can check out the short video below.

Watch: Albion’s Final Beta Trailer

Albion Online has put out its final beta trailer, dubbed Everybody Matters.

Albion Online Will Be Buy To Play, At Least At The Start

The latest Road to Release from Albion Online has given us a look at what launch has in store for the MMO, and that includes quite a hefty and elongated beta period. According to a post on the main forums, the closed beta has been extended to at least August 2016, with the launch hopefully following close behind. In addition, the team has decided to bench the idea of launching as a free to play title, and instead Albion Online will be buy to play.

For this reason, we are putting the free to play plans on hold as well. Making the game ready for a free to play model would take up significant development time which we would much rather use to make a better game. Free to play would also create a lot of risks for the game – spamming, botting, world too small, etc – which we do not want to take if it can be avoided.

Update plans include a significantly expanded world with diverse biomes, more unique cities and dungeons, and a reputation and crime system similar to that found in Ultima Online.

(Source: Albion Online)

Albion Online Releases Aurelius Update

Albion Online continues to march its way through beta, with the latest update introducing multiple user-friendly features. While player vs player combat is the focus of Albion, the developers recognize that players still want traditional MMO features like dungeons. The Aurelius update introduces three new ‘safe zone hellgates,’ allowing players to raid with a safer environment.

Safe Zone Hellgates offer an introduction to PvP. Five players can enter a hell dungeon where they must face mighty demons – and possibly other players that are also after the precious loot. Hellgates in safe zones utilize yellow zone PvP rules – knockdown only and no full loot, making them a perfect starting point for newer citizens of Albion to begin their PvP adventures.

The update also introduces a new interface, as well as improved controls to allow the player to stay in combat. You can find the entire list of patch notes below.

(Source: Albion Online)

Albion Online Introduces Auction Bidding For Housing

Albion Online is ditching its upkeep system in favor of a new way to keep you paying for your plots of land. Initially, plots of land will be considered unclaimed until a player puts down a bounty of silver to take over ownership. After a set amount of days, generally one or two months, the plot of land will come up for auction during which other players can outbid you for your plot. If another player wins the plot, they take over not just the land but the buildings that were erected there by the previous owner.

The good news is, the owner isn’t completely out of luck. For starters, owner bids count as double, so you only need half as much money to fend off competing bidders. Secondly, land owners receive a compensation based on the value of the buildings on their land should they lose the bidding war.

The goal of this new system is to prevent a constant blockade of building plots – and also to give players joining Albion Online later a fair chance at owning a desirable building space. Theoretically, players now can purchase any plot – as long as they are able to outbid the previous owner. With this change, we want to encourage a more fluid market and also bring some additional „economic PvP“ into the game.

(Source: Albion Online)