As you’d expect from a good AMA, the folks from Albion Online covered a lot of ground and touched on a variety of topics in theirs this weekend, from plans for what’s next and questions about PvP to questions regarding the new Outlands arriving in the Queen update.
One of the earliest questions was regarding whether there would be new weapons incoming. While the team didn’t confirm any new weapon trees were arriving, they did announce that the next update will be introducing one new artifact weapon per weapon line.
Another question asked about whether the team had considered adding a high-risk, high-reward 1v1 PvP option. This was answered with a design concept for a special dungeon full of silver and loot separated by foggy entrances that only permit one person at a time. The dungeon is described as the size of a single cluster and anyone entering would spawn at different locations, meaning players could run into one another as they push through. After a set amount of time, the dungeon resets and everyone is kicked out, with loot distribution and possibly dungeon layout randomized.
One of the lengthier answers was in regard to removing alliances. While the team does not plan to do this, they are aware of the problem of zerging and are taking measures to make it difficult for mega-alliances to form. Several of these measures include making distances matter more and requiring large groups to spread out, introducing focus fire protection that lessons damage on a single target the more people attack them, adding AoE escalation that lets AoEs do more damage the more players they hit, and adding features in Queen such as a debuff for having more than 25 players fighting together in one area and automatically balancing player numbers in each zone.
One player also asked about focusing on quality-of-life improvements, which the team admitted needs to happen and will likely be the focus of future updates once Queen releases and data have been collected.
There are other answers in there, too, like questions about how work on the mobile version is going, whether Albion Online will open up to more casual play (no, it won’t, but the team wants to make it accessible so new arrivals can have a realistic chance of trying out the PvP Albion Online offers), and more.
If you’re a fan, make sure to set some time aside to scroll on through. Queen drops tomorrow, with a big event slated for this afternoon.
