Albion Online: Development Recap Video Featuring Upcoming Outland Modifications

“Hector”, the final major update before the official launch of Albion Online, is around the corner. In addition to a number of other changes, “Hector” also contains improvements for the Outlands, the lawless territories in Sandbox’s MMORPG. In the latest development recap video, Robin Henkys, Game Director of Albion Online, explains what these changes are all about and what intentions the developers have with them.

What is Albion Online?
Albion Online is a sandbox MMORPG from Sandbox Interactive, set in the medieval fantasy world of Albion. Whether playing a hardened fighter, a farmer, a merchant or a master craftsman, in the player-driven world every single weapon and every single building is created by the players. Thanks to a “you are what you wear” system free of typical class restrictions, a skilled archer can instantly become a powerful mage, and the players define their own role within the game world. PvE, PvP or the battle guild vs guild, every action in the game has a meaning … as well as consequences. PvP battles in the danger zones of the game world are a “winner takes it all” affair. Albion Online is the first PC game to enable the exact same experience on tablets.

Albion Online is currently in final beta phase; the official launch is scheduled for July 17, 2017.

Check out the Video:

Caerleon as a Portal to the Outlands

One of the major gripes we have with the current Outlands, is that the cities are not fulfilling their roles of being a home for guilds without territories or players who have been excluded from the Royal Continent. For this reason, we have decided to remove all cities in the Outlands, as well as all harbors. Instead, a massive portal will now be available in Caerleon, the center city of the Royal Continent.

This portal will lead to different parts of the Outlands, with four exits per region of the Outlands. These exits are different per arena of the Outlands. The low regions will have green exits, the mid region yellow exits and the high-end region red exits. Using the portal is free of costs, but it will bind you the exit you have used for a short time, as well as the region of the Outlands you travelled to for a longer amount of time. This limits how guilds can project their force in the Outlands, while still allowing Caerleon to function as a hub for the Outlands.

With these changes, Caerleon will now be considered a black zone citiy, allowing players with a Nefarious or Dreaded reputation to enter.

Increased Rewards and Other Changes

There are two changes coming to the rewards of the Outlands.

First of all, the resource distribution is being adjusted. All parts of the Outlands are getting the same amount of resources, but will have different rates of enchanted resources. The higher areas are getting an increased rate. Overall, the black zones will have a significantly higher amount of enchanted resources compared to the Royal Continent. This creates a really strong incentive for gatherers to go to the Outlands, if they want to get their hands on level two and three enchanted materials.

Secondly, in order to make GvG more attractive, we are changing the way watchtower territories work. Watchtowers will now be the only place in the world where you can find Tier 8 resources. On top of that, resources will respawn at the start of the prime time of the territory. This means that at that time, or right after the first GvG fight, you can begin to harvest those resources.

If your guild does not own a watchtower territory, you can still get your hands on Tier 8 resources as you can now raid watchtowers and collect its high-end resources, even if it does not belong to you.

Lastly, we are currently testing out the anti-zerg display in the Outlands on the Albion Online live server. This mechanism shows groups of more than ten players on the minimap, and should in general provide more balanced fights and overall action. Right now we are analyzing the data we have collected from this test in order to decide if we keep this display enabled or not.

Evacuate!

As the harbors and black zone cities are being removed, so are their banks and cityplots. If you have any items stored in one of the following maps, please make sure to move them to a safe place before Hector goes live on June 7!

Aberdown Harbor

Cawl Quay

Clack Quay

Farewich

Fort Thursair

Harlech Quay

Lowe Quay

Lyme Harbor

Mull Quay

Noss Quay

Pember Quay

Sheerbrough

Sunder Quay

Tenby Quay

Marketplaces and islands linked to soon-to-be removed maps will be moved to Caerleon.