Albion Online’s upcoming Nimue update will not, despite being named after the mythical Lady of the Lake, allow you to wield supreme executive power just ’cause some watery tart threw a sword at you. It will, however, be bringing a handful of changes to the Arena and Faction Outpost systems to Sandbox Interactive’s medieval sandbox title.
The biggest change is to the game’s Arena matchmaking system, which has been altered to prevent premade groups from completely steamrolling matchmade teams. After the update goes live, premade groups will only be matched with other premade groups of the same size — i.e., five-player premades will be matched with each other, and “groups of 1, 2 or 3 players will be matched against other teams also built from 1, 2 or 3 players.” Four-player premade groups, unfortunately, will no longer be allowed to queue for the Arena. On top of that, kills in arena matches will be worth two points rather than just one.
The update will also address player feedback regarding the inadequacy of rewards for Arena participation. While the devs “completely agree that a ‘safe’ activity should never surpass an open-world activity in terms of efficiency, [they] still want to give suitable rewards.” As such, each of a player’s first three wins every day will reward three Arena Tokens, three Journeyman’s Tomes of Insight (worth 5,000 Fame each), and one Adept’s Bag of Silver, which contains a not-insignificant 10,000 silver pieces.
Also slated for the update is a relatively minor but still significant change to the game’s Faction Warfare system, which will adjust Outpost Boss mechanics to make their challenges somewhat more surmountable for smaller groups of fewer than three players. According to the devs, “This will give smaller groups, particularly those made up of very experienced players, a better chance of taking part in outpost battles.” Albion Online’s Nimue update is currently slated for release on November 21st.
