Sir Vey survey's the Survey

Artix Krieger | Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Talking to Artix about AdventureQuest 3D

Over 2,000 players gave their deepest thoughts about AdventureQuest 3Dto a survey that deep down inside they figured no one would read. SURPRISE! We did. All of them O_O.

2,197 Responses to the Survey

I say about 2,000 players because at least 100 of you sent in multiple responses-- some of which were clarifications and additional thoughts which I am really grateful for. So... time to talk.

Our Community's Super Obvious Goal

We want are going to evolve AdventureQuest 3D into one of the greatest games of 2018. We are going to do whatever it takes to make this happen. Step #1 is creating a shared vision, which shall henceforth be unironically known as, "THE GAME PLAN*"

* Actually, that is ironic. Also, there is more to the plan involving the cross-platform conversion of our other games, but this post is focused solely on AdventureQuest 3D.

New Years Resolution

Normally I would joke and say, "1920x1080" but seriously, it is 2018, it has to be 4K resolution or bust.  Every year I work through the holidays and spend the first week or so of the year entrenched in deep planning & organization.

There is no Eye in Team

I met with the AdventureQuest 3D leaders (Zhoom - Programming team, Yergen - Content team, Oishii - Balancing & Q/A, Nythera - Player Support) and reviewed our accomplishments and list of the most important and critical goals for AdventureQuest 3D this year.

But we needed more...

Needless to say I talked to everyone at the lab. But before finalizing any plan, I wanted to talk to you too. So I released that "talk with Artix" survey. Glad I did.

Sir Vey... surveying the Survey responses

I vote, from now on, we use the Pactoganal Knight, Sir Vey, to post and conduct all of our future surveys.

Yergen and I sat and read through the responses taking careful notes in a separate doc. Instead of trying to tally frequently requested features we put "a few", "lots", and my personal favorite, "999999" which meant basically everyone mentioned it. There we sooooo many responses. Our eyes bled.... but worth it!  Look at this beautiful result!

Here are some of the things the community REALLY wants!

  • Potion and Travel Form Buttons on the main interface
  • Hotkeys for EVERYTHING
  • Emote button on interface & more emotes
  • Loot Improvement (not needing to click to pick it up + hotkey)
  • Better drop graphics including colors so you can see if there is something good in there
  • Inventory sorting by tabs (like AQW)
  • Bank Previews
  • Skill Trees
  • PC Interface
    • UI Scaling
    • Better PC UI
    • Render Distance Slider
    • % and/or numbers on Health and Mana
    • Black outline or custom mouse for snow maps
  • Mobile Interface
    • Mobile Camera Improvements (lots)
    • Fix being able to tab between combat buttons
    • Move jump button
    • Option to lock movement pad in place
    • Battery Indicator
    • Fix iPhone X resolution issue
    • Swipe menus for potions/travel forms/ emotes
  • Chat bubbles (like AQW)
  • More info when you inspect characters including what they are wearing
  • Mini Map (This one might not be possible)
  • World Map ("Death to /join!")
  • Combat compatible Travel Forms (Which would really be "Transformations" at that point)
  • Shealth Weapons on your back
  • Alerts when your friends come online
  • DragonCrystals from watching ads (was surprised by this one... seems like something we would have inflicted on you, not a reoccuring feature request)
  • DPS Meter
  • Marriage
  • Book of Lore to travel progress

... and then a few mentioned so many times they deserve their own list!

  • PvP
  • Trading
  • Flying
  • Voice Chat
  • Guilds
  • Guild Wars
  • Controller Support
  • Houses/Castles

A GAME PLAN designed by both the players and the team

We combined the wants and needs of the players and the team into one massive Game Plan.

This plan combines the Programming teams goals, which include....

 

  • Combat system upgrade <that we are not talking about yet... experimenting>
  • Daily Login Reward
  • Daily Quest (tracker)
  • Class Unlocking
  • Combat Mechanics + Classes (Paladin, Ninja, Alpha Pirate, Necromancer)
  • All Kickstarter goals and custom rewards completed
  • Mega upgrade to Unity 2018
  • Guest Login
  • Hair Shops
  • Titles
  • Sound API
  • Mob Mechanics
  • Treasure Chests
  • Dungeon Improvements
    • Regular Mode
      • Long respawn 30+ seconds
      • Player soft Cap +3 to 5
      • Dungeon resets on party wipe
    • Challenge/Extreme Mode
      • No respawn unless room is cleared
      • Enforced Player Cap (cannot exceed)
      • Dungeon resets on party wipe
  • Dungeon Objective Tracker
  • Interface revamp
    • PC Version
    • Mobile Version
  • New Death / Respawn Screen
  • Summoning/Goto-ing a player places player at exact x,y coordinates
  • Extend Waypoint system to include quest objectives and other transfer methods
  • Interruptible use bar
  • Pets
  • Emotes
  • Non-Combat (Fishing, Smiting, Mining... for bitcoins?)
  • Sidekicking
  • Class Ranking
  • PvP
  • Not to mention Bug fixes

And the classes...

  • Warrior
  • Mage
  • Rogue
  • Guardian
  • DragonSlayer
  • Paladin
  • Ninja
  • Necromancer
  • Alpha Pirate
  • Pirate
  • More to be announced!

And the Content's Teams goals....

  • 50+ Levels of Main Storyline Content
  • Guardian Parallel Storyline
  • Class Mini-story (Quests)
  • Sound FX & Music Revamp
  • New Interface
  • Daily Dungeon Boss Fights
  • New Areas
    • Yulgars Inn (non holiday verison)
    • Mouse Hole (Gonna need a shrink potion)
    • Barber Shop
    • Museum
    • Pet Shop
    • Cysero's Forge
    • Bank (Move collections and add Stocks here)
    • Parkous Map
    • PvP Areas
    • Guardian Towers
      • Ashfall
      • Darkovia
    • Existing Area Revamp
      • Heartwood
      • Livingston Caverns
      • DoomWood
    • Dragons of Ashfall: Part III
    • Dragons of Ashfall Bonus Adventures
    • Darkovia Parts 3,4, & 5
    • Shaman Forest
    • Dragon's Graveyard
    • Tower of Necromancy
    • ...and a lot more

Alongside our team's other important tasks....

  • New Help/Support System
  • Administrative Tool upgrades (so we can create maps and items faster)
  • AQ3D.com website revamp

HOOOORAHHHH!

Making the Game Plan Public

I really liked what we did when we started AdventureQuest 3D. We put our main goals public and crossed them off as we achieved them. This was really great. One drawback, is often it looked like we were working on random or unrelated things because unless you are physically here, how could you know if Yergen is waiting on things to come back from other people and instead of twiddling his thumbs he creates a Mouse Hole adventure for Yulgar's Inn? I would really like to put our game plan public for you to see. Let me know if you like this idea.

Can you have everything done tomorrow Plox?

Yes!

Wait.

WHAT!?.... O_O

Prioritization

My toughest job is to prioritize the tasks in the Game Plan. Sometimes really important things take a lot longer, and have blockers which have to be done first. (Like, even thought we have the Barber shop 3D, hairstyles, and NPCs ready-- we do not have the barber shop interface feature done yet which is a blocker to its release.) Sometimes really easy things are so low priority that the before mentioned important things. Also, some tasks are required by people who may be out sick, family emergency, be on jury duty (this list accurate describes thing things that happened since yesterday).

Therefore!

I suggest we focus on making massive momentum forward. Because no matter what order we tackle that list... if we are making massive momentum forward we will inevitably get all of it completed-- and a lot more.

Breaking down the survey

We learned a lot... sharing is caring.

Who took it?

Answer: Our most hard core max level players.

I was surprised at how many of you who followed the initial link I posted on Twitter and instantly filled out the survey were doing it from your PC! It makes sense. But while the vast majority of our player base is on Android devices, our most tight knit vocal players are on PC. A few important notes here... most of the feedback is also from long time players who definitely played AQWorlds prior to this. We really did not get to hear much from new players-- and we definitely need their input too. So next time we are going to put the link to this directly in game. (Smart!)

Getting to know you better

"MOOOORE SKULLLLS!" I loved reading through your answers. Statistically, 23.7% of you are "milk shooting out of the nose" funny. The more I read, the more I understood the different ways (and things) that you play. In our normal daily interaction on Twitter I see one side of you-- but in this more personal communication I got to know you and our fellow players a lot better.

A few fun facts

  • Favorite type of character: GOOD (33%)
  • Favorite activities: Questing, Farming, Hanging out
  • Play Session: 1+ Hours
  • Favorite weapon: Sword (38%)
  • Can you lift the Blinding Light of Desitny?: Yes (42%)
  • Best release yet: Darkovia (24%) ...basically tied with Ashfall

The Team Meeting

Yesterday, we assembled everyone working on AdventureQuest 3D and did a comprehensive review of the raw unsorted Game Plan. Everyone is in agreement, and dedicated to making this happen. I hope that after reading everything above (you and the two other people who had the reading endurance to make it to the bottom of this novel!) you are with us too.

Battle on!

So here we go... boldly into 2018.

Play AdventureQuest 3D

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