It’s finally here, what you’ve all been waiting for! Albion Online’s Winter Alpha has an official start date, and it is… (drumroll please)…
The 26th of January, 2015
This leaves the developer with just 5 weeks to build in the great new features we have planned, ready for testers to enjoy in the alpha. It will last 4 weeks, similarly to the previous Summer Alpha, and will put Albion Online well on the way to closed beta testing later in the year.
What the developer got planned for you?
Here’s a run-down of just some of the great new features debuting in the Winter Alpha, based on feedback from testers in our previous alpha:
Farming
Want to take a break from non-stop PvP action? Why not retire to your own farm to breed and raise animals, cultivate crops and harvest their yield in order to produce food and consumables. Check out a more in-depth blog on farming and consumables here.
New buildings
In addition to farms, a few more buildings are being added under the farming system; these will help players make use of their farms by allowing them to create consumables which will afford their characters buffs to make their journey through Albion just a little bit easier.
Consumables
Consumables can be created from produce harvested from farms. Players can take their harvest to one of our many new buildings to refine the produce into ingredients, and subsequently use them to create meals. The miller, for instance, will mill a player’s grain into flour, so the flour can be used to create a tasty cake to replenish health.
A whole bunch’a new weapons!
Albion Online’s arsenal has been extended massively, with more weapon styles and options than ever before! In a classless world where you are what you wear, more weapons allow you more options to work out your perfect play style!
Player and guild islands
Players and guilds can now claim their own islands around the world, which will give them extra building space and alleviate problems with lack of land for player housing and other building space without devaluing owned land.
Changes to crime system
Players will now have the option to flag themselves as friendly or hostile in PvP areas. This constitutes a big change from the earlier system, which categorised the level of PvP available solely on which area a player found themselves in. There will still be free-for-all PvP in designated regions in the world, though friendly players will not be able to attack other friendly players.
And a few extras:
– Controls options for remapping hotkeys for spells and abilities, a common request from testers after the Summer Alpha.
– Overhaul and rebalancing of weapons and spells, to improve overall balance and enjoyment.
– Dungeons will now be classified based on their size and difficulty, and a notice on the world map will inform players of the recommended group size for tackling a dungeon.
– Resource nodes in the world now have a chance to become magical, providing magical resources which can increase the quality of items crafted from them.
– New territory types for guilds to claim and control. This will hopefully increase turnover on territory ownership, making guild vs. guild play more accessible to more guilds.
And many, many more!
You can head to their new six-month development roadmap in their forums for more details about our intended direction for the game in the future.
They will be releasing a thorough changelog in the coming weeks, so you’ll be able to see exactly what kind of world you’ll be playing in in January!
The Winter Alpha test will be open to ALL Legendary and Epic founders, and if you’d like to join them, you can head to their website to become a founder. Becoming a founder helps support the development of Albion Online and brings all sorts of rewards, including access to closed testing phases AND exclusive in-game items and currency.
source: albiononline.com