But it's not as bad as it sounds. Here is what you need to know.
You will NOT be losing your names or your Tech Demo / Alpha Tester badges. That is locked in now and will never change (At least until we add paid name changes or you pick an inappropriate name and Player Support changes it for you). However, sorry to say that you WILL lose everything else. Levels, gold, items, etc. There will be AT LEAST ONE more character wipe before Full Release, probably at the launch of Open Beta, when anyone will be able to play the mobile version of the game on iOS and Android.
These items are mine. You need to get your own.
We have to reset the characters back to level 1 for a couple of reasons.
First, New Beginnings. When we go in Open Beta a whole bunch of new players will be joining the game because it will be open to ANYONE who can run it on their mobile iOS and/or Android devices. We want everyone starting off on the same level, although of you Alpha Testers will know what you're doing and have the Alpha Knight set so you'll have a pretty big advantage. We will want everyone to play through the rough tutorial that we will be adding too.
Second, Levels. We will be raising the level cap to from 3 to 15, and implementing the actual Level Curve for you to follow. The levels that we have in now are just placeholder levels with numbers we just made up off the top of our heads to test the XP system. Leveling up to 3 will be MUCH faster once the have the real Level Curve in the game, but getting to 15 will take a little while. As we progress and add more content to the game, the level cap will be raised regularly.
Next, Gold. The Reward Curves will also going into the Open Beta so everyone will need to start from 0. Some people have MILLIONS of gold right now and after the wipe, you will be earning gold at a much more reasonable pace. This will affect when you buy your new gear. Speaking of which...
Finally, Gear. We will be changing a lot of the items, adding stats, changing names, moving locations and more. In fact, even if you got to keep your items, there's a good chance that your items won't exist in their current state anyway... so no big loss there.
I wish I had an exact date for you but everything is still in flux and we're trying our best to move fast but it's really, really, really important that we do this right.
We won't get a second chance to introduce AQ3D to the world and it needs to be fun and fast, with as much content as we can cram into it, and stable enough to impress a brand new player who has never touched an AE game. We are doing everything we can, but we will really need your help to make this happen.
We're getting closer to Open Beta when the characters will be wiped but there's still some time to save up for Sworn Oath and take your Alpha Screenshots to show off when this thing goes worldwide. Until then, LET THE PARTY CONTINUE!
Undead Legion Ruler
Scribble Scribe
