Happiest Monday, heroes! Today I'm taking you on another wild adventure as we reminisce about my very first Live Event in AQ3D! I hope you like exclamation marks and run-on sentences because I’m bursting with excitement as I spill the beans (Beleen beans?) about what went down when my Live Event started up! Even if you missed this weekend’s festivities, together we’ll relive those epic moments, a few hilarious "oops" incidents, and a whole lot of fun that was Beleen’s Live Event weekend. So grab a cup – or a carafe – of coffee, and let’s embark on epic story time together!
Since this was my first MMO rodeo, I had to learn the ropes of how AQ3D Live Events were done. I was told that Hero Hangout – accessible when you /join 100forest – would be a great place to host a Live Event because, well, that map holds 100 heroes at a time! And what would be more fun than battling the slew of monsters I had picked out with 100 players at the same time?
Well...
Since AQ3D is a cross platform game, that means we’ve got heroes playing on phones, tablets, and computers of varying processors, graphic cards, and other technical capabilities. So! When I started summoning my first collection of monsters – a pack of 9 Firezards – the latency went WILD when a hundred heroes started attacking all at once with visually impressive skills and spells. Those Firezards soon evolved into an OP Level 83 Firezilla that legitimately took the teamwork of 99 brave souls to take down. I myself died far too many times, so I can honestly say I couldn’t help with slaying the Firezilla :(
Luckily!!! We have so many stronk heroes in Lore, so the Firezilla did not stand a chance. Once victory was achieved, it was time for a BIG celebration! Cue the fireworks… aaaand the lag.
Ooohhh… aaahhhh…. AGGGHH?!!? What I *thought* would be a beautiful display of fireworks turned into a game-breaking experience for many a player. Fireworks were shooting high, mirroring ping speeds which were reported to top 1000 ms! OMG I am sooo sorry!
The fireworks were indeed pretty to look at, but having lost half of the players made for a sad time since these heroes had to “worm” their way back into the game, potentially missing out on the Live Event Chest drops.
Speaking of worm…
The next batch of monsters I summoned were worms! Well, more specially, 12 massive Dune-sized Worms that started killing players FASTER than the lag!
As if that wasn’t traumatizing enough… I was still learning all the Game Dev commands, and so I kept accidently sending game-wide messages (the red text in the chat box) to everyone in the game – instead of everyone playing in my map! I am certain I confused so many players exploring other areas of Lore who had 0 idea of what was going on. I apologize for that!! But thankfully Gold Raven kept pinging me on Discord to let me know that, “HEY! Beleen! You’re doing it AGAIN!”
Lol whoopsies!
More whoopsies included perpetual typos, me running with WASD but still being in the chat box, and one time I accidently sent a secret Dev Chat command into the wild, so uhm hopefully no one snapped a screenshot of that… >…>
Since the lag was unreal in Hero Hangout, we took the party over to Past Battleon where players promised the lag would be less. This map only holds about 50 players at a time, so that probably helped lower the lag… but that didn’t stop players from dropping like flies! A Level 76 Fiery Dravir took center stage, dealing damage that surpassed 18,000 per hit, omg 🙈
The result? Players banded together and finally took down the Fiery beast! A Party Sneevil was summoned and fireworks illuminated the sky – although players kept asking for a Thrash Chest, which I had 0 idea of what the hecc that meant! Come Sunday, I would find out…
But first! The grand finale on the first day:
Players were asking for a challenge, and I wanted to give them the toughest battle to date. So I summoned a Level 84 One-Eyed Racnor that had over 1,500,000 HP and was dealing over 100,000 damage per hit!!!
I legitimately thought I was going to lose my Live Event privileges on the FIRST day >…<
But! The players LOVED the challenge (oooor maybe they just loved the Live Event Chests lol), and so come Sunday, even more challenges – and even more Live Event Chests – were to transpire!
Artix reached out to me Saturday morning, crestfallen that he had real-life responsibilities to take care of that day. With the saddest X_X I had ever seen, Artix informed me that he was not able to play Saturday’s Live Event with me. However, he was brimming with anticipation and raring to go once Sunday afternoon rolled around! Artix called me up, and even though I could hear him in the background helping his children with their homework, that Paladin was not gonna miss this Live Event for anything in the world!
We decided to hold Sunday’s Live Event in Battleon, since Hero Hangout was far too laggy, and Past Battleon was far too difficult to find. For those curious, Past Battleon can only be discovered by following these steps: Main Menu > Adventures > World Areas > Special Locations > Past Battleon. WHEW! The only reason I found Past Battleon was because I cheated with my Dev powers and magically teleported there. However, for many heroes without cheat codes, we wanted everyone to have an equal chance at joining in on the fun!
And fun there was!
Artix used so many Dev codes and summoned so many things that I did not think were possible in the game. He was also able to summon NPC helpers like Galanoth to help slay dragons alongside us all! It was so awesome to see his prowess in action as I carried on with my oh-so-limited Live Event-knowledge :p
Live Events aren’t just about killing monsters and getting Live Event Coins; there’s a story that is told too, albeit one that is riddled with typos as we Devs type as quickly as we can to keep the fun flowing! The reason I summoned monsters like Firezards, Lava Worms, Fire Kappas, and the like was because I was telling the story of the first RPG I had ever played and became positively obsessed with:
Pokémon Red.
This game transformed my love for gaming; the moment I chose Charmander and headed out into the tall grass, I… got killed by Pidgey because here I thought Growl would scare the bird away 🤷♀️️ I legit had NO idea what I was doing! This wasn’t like Mario where you could just jump on a baddie and kill it—oh no no no. I had to learn – all by myself, since Google wasn’t even invented back then! – how to play an RPG and all the strategy it involved. It was this strategy that fueled my obsession for RPGs, solidifying my passion for working on an RPG game one day.
So of course I had to pay homage to the RPG that started it all! Since we can’t have Charmander in AQ3D due to blatant copyright infringement, I summoned Firezards which then “evolved” into the Firezilla. Then came Lava Worms which were as annoying as all the Caterpies in Viridian Forest – those evolved into Huge Lava Worms, more powerful than Diglette and Dugtrios from the Kanto region! Next were Fire Kappas evolving into the Fiery Dravir, followed by adorable (yet suspiciously vicious) Red Dragonlings evolving into the Red Server Dragon. This dragon put Charizard to shame! The grand finale was a riot of Fire Phan Sneevils evolving into the massive One-Eyed Racnor, who slaughtered me far too many times to count 🤪 Lots of Live Event Chests were dropped throughout the fray, and everyone in Battleon rejoiced from all the fun and all the Live Coins received.
Not surprisingly, the players demanded more. And so Artix summoned something even bigger than Racnor: Akriloth! This was my first time fighting Akriloth in AQ3D, and it was INSANE! The Level 55 Akriloth had over 1,000,000 HP and was easily one-shotting heroes left and right. Myself included.
Once we finally took the dragon down, Artix asked me what else our players have been asking for. I said “Something about a… Trash chest?” and he chuckled, knowing exactly what that meant. So he summoned the Thrash monster monstrosity, followed by the Heavy Metal Chest following its defeat. Players were THRILLED after destroying this chest that was harder to break than an 20-year-old Nokia phone.
Just when we thought all the fun was over… Artix un‘leashed’ the hounds! Artix summoned Werewolves and Wolfwings before dropping a Golden DireWolf Chest that made the players howl in delight! Also, legit howl, because, well, a surprising number of heroes transformed into Werewolves.
It was also the perfect time to plug the dog-themed Screenshot Saturday: Furtography Contest, which is happening now for all you four-legged fans!
Artix and I were so busy typing on our keyboards that we hardly had time to take any screenies ourselves! Thankfully, heroes on Twitter are sharing their remarkable moments from the Live Event that we are more than happy to share with you all! We created an Album on the AQ3D Facebook page that highlights all the fun that unfolded in perfectly captured snapshots from our super talented players! (spoiler: their screenshots are AMAZING!)
Wanna share your screenies? Hit up @ArtixKrieger and @BeleenAE on Twitter (or w/e you wanna call it now) so we can marvel at your moments and add them to the Facebook Album too! Because, after all, YOU'RE the real heroes of the Live Event!
Just like in every great game, “the end” is never the end (…unless it’s Shadow of the Colossus, RIP 😭), and so the end of my Live Event was just the beginning of something spectacular! Sure, my first-ever event may have been a rollercoaster of lag, typos, and a few too many "oops" moments, but it was also a testament to the incredible spirit of the AQ3D community. We learned that sometimes the most memorable experiences emerge from unexpected mishaps! It's a great reminder that, even in the virtual realm and IRL too, laughter and shared experiences can bring people together in wonderful ways!
So let’s all /cheer for many more epic adventures, hilarious happenings, and unforgettable Live Events in the ever-expanding world of AdventureQuest 3D!
Can’t wait to play with you all again real soon, heroes!
Battle on!
Beleen, Artix, and the AQ3D team!
Official Twitter of AQ3D
Pun-slinging Paladin
Undead Legion Ruler
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Dawnforger
