Albion Online - The future of the game and its updates

Now that the game is officially released, it is of course normal that content is added regularly!

The Albion Online team is planning a lot of updates and plans to release 3 to 4 major updates per year. These will include both new features and improvements to existing systems. However, be aware that the team is focusing on solving the few small issues currently in play, such as connectivity issues. These were mostly caused by an update to their DDoS protection, but the team is currently fixing the issue.

Back to the updates!

 

Update # 1: Joseph

This will be the very first major update. Entitled « Joseph », the latter is scheduled to be released in late September / early October. The main addition of this update is the implementation of "Albion Arena".

The arena will allow players to compete in matches non-fatal in 5 against 5 for matches lasting 10 minutes. It will be possible to register for matches in the same way as you register for expeditions. Registration at the arena includes a classification system which will allow players to come across players of equivalent levels.

This combat mode is based on a control point capture system. In case of victory, the players will win "Arena tokens", which can be redeemed for rewards in the Arena Shop.

The objects in question will be mainly aesthetic or upgrade objects. The dev team ensures that items earned through the Albion Arena will not interfere with the economy of craftsmanship. They want to add new content to make it easier for players to familiarize themselves with the complexity of PvP, while still making it accessible, fun and loss-free to play.

In addition to the arena, the update "Joseph" will bring many improvements, such as:

• Relic Chest Slots (Hourly Chests) will be transformed into profitable territories, because they will always contain the relic boxes, but also continuously recoverable silver coins, with some specific monsters of great value within restricted PvP areas around chests.
• The  dungeons and fixed camps will receive significant boosts in the number of loot chests found at these locations.
• We add two new T6 expeditions to make it more interesting for players who have continuously chained "Fungicide" expeditions
• The  essences can be recovered from essential spirits and can be used to improve the potency of potions
• News skills are available on various weapons that were still lacking.
• THEUser interface has been improved in many ways, including:
  • The  IU following were converted to the new style :
    • Friends
    • Island merchant
    • Gold market
    • World map
    • Mercenary Invitation
    • Furniture
  • Smart Casting available in options
  • Orderable list of guild members with last login status guild members in the Guild Interface
  • Monster health bar in combat to see which monster to focus the attacks on.
  • Auto reject option for group invitations or exchanges.
  • Improved display of buffs and debuffs
  • A function ofself learning in the Panel of Fate.
• THEbalancing du combat and objects, including the effect of healing in team fights and the progression of mount speed, has been improved.
• A large number ofcombat animations / FX reworked will be added.

Update # 2: Kay

The second major update is slated for release three months after Joseph, around end of year celebrations.

This update will focus on one of the fundamental aspects of Albion Online:a Guild vs Guild competition. This update will be used to ensure that more players can participate effectively in guild activities. A new system of rankings and rewards will also be implemented.

It is with this new update that will be added "The invasion of territories" and, as said just before, the "Guild power rating".

Guilds will receive Ranking Points if they manage to maintain Watchtower Territories. Please note that the Global Guild Ranking will be reset periodically. When this happens, the Watchtower territories will be invaded by NPCs and the guilds will then have to regain control of them by defeating them. The reset will be done at the same time for many territories, in order to prevent the bigger guilds from taking everything from the start.

At the same time, the "Territory raid". The latter will allow players to go and steal some reward points from the guild that owns the attacked territory. It will be possible to attack, kill and replace the guards of a territory with those of the invaders. The guild that owns the territory will have to get rid of the new guards to bring the productivity of the territory to the maximum.

Many other additions will also be present, such as:

• A redesign of the market user interface.
• More coherent “black market” loot.
• The implementation of relics and artifacts at the “relic” level.

The future of gaming in 2018

Of course, the development team is thinking and already starting to work on what will come next. Since the above two updates are PvP oriented, subsequent updates will focus on PvE content.

Currently, three features are being studied by the team:

• Elite Expeditions and Expedition Challenges - Players will be able to obtain access objects allowing them, with their group, to engage in particularly exciting expeditions with a bunch of new monsters, challenging bosses, and appropriate rewards. The most talented PvE players will be able to compete against each other to see who can overcome the higher difficulty level.
• Interactive PvE locations - We seek to make the Open World PvE much more interesting by making it less predictable and adapting and reacting to player actions. Random special monsters may appear and certain actions may result in special events (e.g. killing a Morgana Faithful may cause her to summon an inverted portal to hell from which large waves of demons arise, etc. .). These events could in theory also affect an entire area: for example, after killing the Guardians' main boss, Mother Earth, it is possible that the Guardians decide to besiege a player town in retaliation and many players will then have to cooperate to end it. The idea behind these additions is to break the monotony of open world PvE. The design of all of this is still in its infancy, but their goal is to make open-world farming more engaging and rewarding, by adding more interactive, cohesive and fun mechanics.
• blessings - Blessings are a type of character upgrade in play that cannot be obtained only via PvE. These rewards will be available as scrolls obtained from monsters and the power of the blessing will be determined randomly when using. Players will be able to choose to keep or replace their previous blessing with a new one. This will allow a stat optimization known in other games. The Blessings cover a wide range of effects, some of which may be lost upon death while others will persist.

The team would like to point out that what is presented here concerns only the bulk of the planned content, but that many other additions are planned and already in the works!