Sandbox Interactive has pushed out a new dev blog this week focusing on upcoming balancing changes in Albion Online, all part of its push to “renew open world gameplay” in the PvP MMORPG.
“The current strategic balance in the Outlands encourages large power blocks to form, and these power blocks in turn have an incentive to discourage conflict and raise a stable income by demanding rental payments from guilds under their protection,” the studio says by way of explanation of an extremely common phenomenon in PvP MMOs since 1997. “Enforcement of rental payments is possible due to the power blocks being extremely dominant in large scale fights on the one hand, and the difficulty of organising enough groups to fight against a power block at the same time on the other hand. The risk of losing one’s Hideout – and the hassle that this comes with – is simply too high for many of them.”
Consequently, the team aims to introduce hideout HQs for guilds that will ideally shake up the rental dynamics in the Outlands. That’s just one prong of the upcoming update that will also include a “the first in a set of three new weapon lines” on the way. It also sounds as if season 14 will end early to get the new season going sooner.
In other Albion news, the latest monthly challenge went live in the game yesterday. Do your dailies, get a… heretic combat mule. OK, it sounds dumb, but it’s actually pretty fun, and combat mounts aren’t cheap.
