With the sun shining brighter than usual this Spring, all adventurers are eager to discover new places with only a backpack, hoping to fill it with dreams and many treasures!

But if you were worried about spending too much time collecting your findings, rather than admiring the landscape or slaying some zombies, we have an amazing offer for you!

From Thursday, May 2nd until Wednesday, May 8th, rediscover the Temporary Astral Servant and the Temporary Magpie in the Allods Item Shop!

You will have the chance to tame the 7 and 25-Day Magpie that will pick up the loots for you in a blink of an eye when you are busy fighting your ruthless enemies. This is a great opportunity to test these assistants before adopting them for good!

	Helper: Magpie – 25 days: allows you to summon a Magpie helper for 25 days upon its activation. When summoned, the Magpie will collect loots until your bag is full.   The Magpie can be sold or exchanged, unless obtained through Premium Crystals or activated by right-clicking on the icon.
	Helper: Magpie – 7 days: allows you to summon a Magpie helper for 7 days upon its activation. When summoned, the Magpie will collect loots until your bag is full.   The Magpie can be sold or exchanged, unless obtained through Premium Crystals or activated by right-clicking on the icon.

The Magpie will collect your loots if you don’t want to lose time while killing off your enemies so you can continue your rampage!

And who do you call when your bag is full of loot or ores? You guessed it right: the Astral Servant! Along his peers, he will make a comeback for a limited time as! So why don’t you try out the 7 and 30-Day Astral Servant and see the wonderfulness of this creature!

	Astral Servant – 30 Days: summons a 30-day Master goblin that provides instant access to mailbox, bank, auction and Currency Exchange, teleports to any location, buys items and sells Myrrh. Only player who summoned the Goblin can interact with him. When you obtain this Astral Servant from the Item Shop, it will be bound to your character and the timer will start.
	Astral Servant – 7 Days: summons a 7-day Astral servant that provides instant access to mailbox, bank, auction and Currency Exchange, teleports to any location, buys items and sells Myrrh. Only player who summoned the Goblin can interact with him. When you obtain this Astral Servant from the Item Shop, it will be bound to your character and the timer will start.

The ingame text says the Astral Servant will be consumed after use although the Astral Servant will not be consumed after use. Instead, it stays in your character’s bag until the item duration runs out.

Thanks to these servitors, you won’t worry about the number of Master goblins left in your bag, and you can use these 7 and 30-day Astral Servants any time you want during the day, and whenever you want during the length of its service! If you never used them, it is the perfect trial for you!

Let’s recap: you can have you own personal Goblin Banker and just enjoy your time admiring the wonderful landscape of Allods Online with your Magpie helper doing the looting so you’ll have more spare time to slay more monsters!

Don’t forget you can obtain these items with gPotato, Gem Shards, or Premium Crystals. The items will be bound to your character if you use the Premium Crystals currency!

Get your hands on Temporary Astral Servant, and the Temporary Magpie between the 2nd and the 8th of May!

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Hello Sarnautians,

 
“Allods Online” is a game that is constantly evolving. But there can be no development without adding a lot of new content that fills and spreads through the whole game world. That is why the Allods’ Team never ceases the creation process. And now, thanks to the Developer Diary, we are able to showcase how new content is imagined and created by this amazing team!

Let us present to you the latest entry of the Developer Diary: the Astral Allod creation!

In this article I’m going to tell you how I build Astral Islands. By the way, a brand new one is set to to appear in the game pretty soon.

It all starts with a concept

I always store a few ideas of how I think new islands should look. They come into my head in the course of my everyday life: on my way to work or during my vacations with friends. While reading a book or watching a movie, I collect my greatest impressions to incorporate them into my future creations. The tiniest things may inspire me, whether it be an interesting story or a bright visual image that sets an atmosphere.

For example, the concept for one of the islands was born by mixing up two images: a June city lost in the jungle and snowy mountains with a temple. And so the allod appeared: an ancient city in a frozen jungle.

During the pre-production stage I pick my favourite idea and start developing it. This produces the Reference: a very important component, a connection between allod elements and the real experience of a player. When in the game, players meet things they have come across before, and these allusions to something already known brings positive emotions, making them believe in whatever is on the screen.

The Reference helps bring a story from real life into our game world. Our Emerald Isle is a recognizable allusion to the Wizard of Oz, that is so familiar since childhood. The game gives a wonderfull opportunity to follow in Alla’s footsteps along the Yellow Brick Road and meet Tin Woodman, Scarecrow and Lion who turn into hostile and dangerous bosses under the influence of Mysterious Astral.

After the concept of the island is decided, I begin to work it through and expand on its background. This is a very creative process that is a lot of fun. I put down detailed chronicles of the events and describe the zones on the island.

This stage involves the Scriptwriter. We strive to make a deep and fascinating storyline. The story is important, for all the details such as mobs and bosses, scripted events and NPCs, will deeply support it. We decide what places players will visit on the island and what and who they are going to see there. This will help with the further design of the monsters, bosses and topology.

Look before you leap

When the storyline is finished, we can get down to the topology. I use a special Map Editor to make a rough draft of the island. Since I am going to make a city-like island, I have to lay the main road, a big temple, a couple of city squares and a huge portal at the end of the island – its landmark.

A landmark is a unique object that serves as a reference point and is often noted by the players. There is such a mark on every island, like the Mana Station in Zone 51.

Landmark: Huge June Portal

When the draft is ready, I focus my attention on the details: I place small and medium objects (trees and buildings). In case of the Icy Isle these were mountains and hills. But all this is still a draft! It still requires a little more work.

After my draft of the island has been accepted, the time comes to switch to designing Bosses and Mobs. Here the background of the island helps a lot, for the mob hierarchy was created at that stage. I want to give unique abilities to all the mobs and bosses to bring new challenges to the island. Now players will not resort to a “button mash” strategy and will have to invent some new tactics to fight these enemies.

I assign some unusual mechanics to one of the optional bosses, such as the Cayman on a beautiful Koch-Itzmahl Island.

On my island I created a golem who throws enormous fireballs, so players have to run about all the time to avoid them. If players manage to defeat the boss quickly, it gives them bonus damage and healing for easier exploration of the island.

I invent special abilities for mob packs to stimulate the players to think harder, plan more accurately and work as a team. There is usually one of the mobs that increases the others’ damage, controls or weakens the players or casts area of effect spells upon death. It isn’t always for the best, however. My experience shows that players may sometimes misunderstand the mechanics, so they should always be crystal clear to them!

Strike while the iron is hot

After the design is completed, a new stage of production begins. This is the time for all the ideas to come to life. When my design gets the green light, I start working on the detailing of the map and the mechanics implementation. I can assign special tasks to programmers in case I need any new game mechanics introduced (e.g. mechanics for The Poison Wing).

Pretty often, when standard mobs are not enough to fill the island, I ask designers to create some brand new ones. My favorite demands are often connected with the final epic boss, like the one in Zone 51. This time is not an exception! There will be a totally unique last boss and a unique place to fight him.

During the final stage I spend a lot of time with the artists. Together we adjust the lighting and choose colour shades. The artists produce concept art of the new objects, locations and creatures. Here is the concept for the Island’s final boss:

To develop mechanics I use special editors that help tune mobs and bosses just as I wish. I set their abilities and script their behavior that can be corrected during the numerous playtests to come. Another important thing is the visual appearance of monsters’ spells and abilities. That is how it all looks in the editor:

Finaly the island is ready for the Playtest. It means that all the work of the designers, artists and scriptwriters has ended. The island is filled with decorations, scripted scenes, monsters, NPCs and even some easter eggs!

I test the island personaly a few times. Then we gather a group of people who have worked on the island and play together. We mark all the good and bad things, think of suggestions on how to improve on the bad or alter the gameplay and mechanics. But the last word always belongs to the creator of the Island’s concept. When we finish, the island goes to QA Team for bug testing.

The creation of an Astral Island is a fascinating and exciting process. It requires a great deal of inspiration and imagination because this all is in the hands of one person. This is such a good opportunity to create an adventure of your own and share it with other players. I enjoy reading the Allods Online forums; particularly threads where the players discuss Astral islands, including mine. The comments are a very valuable resource for our team. They help make Allods Online better and more enjoyable. Travel through the Astral and share your impressions, discuss your ideas and thoughts as all of them can find their future in the Astral!

Have Fun!

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To go in line with the glorious Prophetic Card event going on now until May 1st, we’ll make the next 3 days a special one with Lucky Moment bonuses to help you gather as many Prophetic Cards from monsters as possible!
 
There will be something for everyone regardless what your ingame desires are as everyone will enjoy Double Experience, Double Gold, and Increased Drops!
 

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The new Prophetic Card won’t only bring chaos, but many rewards for those who manage to decipher it: vanity costumes, crystal chips, gold dust, some great new shoulder accessories, other great prizes and… the set of the Doomsday Horseman! Before showing you what we’re talking about let’s get to the details of the offer first!
 
From Thursday, April 25th until Wednesday, May 1st you will be able to loot the amazing Prophetic Card of the Infernal Treasurer, giving you a chance to win exclusive (but evil) pony mounts and a mysterious costume!

To unravel the treasures of the Prophetic Cards, Ancient Compass will be available in the Item Shop from April 25th until May 16th!

It is now time to explain how the Prophetic Cards work for our new recruits, and to provide a reminder for our veterans!

For players who joined our adventures in the recent Lords of Destiny expansion, let’s start with the basics of the system. From the 25th of April, players will see a new item dropped by monsters in-game, it is the Prophetic Card of the Infernal Treasurer. This item allows players to play a game of chance, and win some truly amazing prizes! They start dropping from mobs from the 25th of April until the 1st of May!
 
To take part in the action, any player that wishes to use the Prophetic Card needs to obtain an item called an Ancient Compass, which is available from the Item Shop from April 25th until May 16th. This will allow them to scan the Prophetic Card and see what prizes are hiding within!
 
You will then be given an opportunity to turn over one to four cards and winning the prizes that lie beneath, depending on how many Ancient Compasses you have in your bag! Don’t worry if you have some Prophetic Cards left over after May 1st, as you can open them after that date with your Ancient Compass until their expiration.

 
These can be obtained through gPotato, Gem Shards, and Premium Crystals. Be advised that any Ancient Compass obtained through Premium Crystals are bound, but if using gPotato or Gem Shards you can trade or auction them!
 
Players should also be aware that prizes won through the Prophetic Card of the Infernal Treasurer are bound to the character, so when opening these, make sure that you are using them on the correct character! Keep reading to find out more details about this new mechanic.
 

Prophetic Card of the Infernal Treasurer: Contains many prizes. Can be traded. You will be able to gain them from monsters from April 25th until the May 1st. Beware, these cards expire after 15 days, so don’t wait too long before using them!
 

Ancient Compass: Used to open the Prophetic Card. Can be traded or auctioned unless obtained with Premium Crystals. Available in the Item Shop from April 25th until May 16th.

 

Stroke of Luck

 
Those here for the last event may remember that each time they used a prophetic card, a bar below the interface (see the screenshot above) would fill up, and every 60 points accumulated would give them a Stroke of Luck.
 
Once this bar is full your interface will change color and you will be given a chance to win one prize from a selection of some of the very best prizes available in this event!
 

Prizes

As for previous Prophetic Cards events, you will have the chance to tame exclusive mounts! And unlike their cousins, the evil ponies won’t be cute and fluffy, but will bring the Apocalypse to Sarnaut! Brrr….
 

Excellent news for our mount lovers everywhere! For those of you who prefer to know how useful your mounts are in getting you out of tight spots when questing, here are the stats:
 

But we know there are lots of you who will be looking at these mounts and this offer, for the sake of pure vanity. After all, who doesn’t like showing off their unique look, new costumes and sparkling mounts in Novograd and Nezebgrad? This Prophetic Card will be bringing back the much sought after class costumes for all the archetypes, including the new set of the Doomsday Horseman!

There will also be the beloved shoulder accessories, but before we get to them, let’s refresh your memory with some of the class costumes.

But now for some new reasons for vanity! This Prophetic Card will be reintroducing the shoulder accessories, ranging from a new lovable creatures to a book of magic. Have a look and see what you think!

Talking again about vanity, there is a brand new item to discover! We are talking about the amazing Doomsday Horseman set!
Have a look at it!

So many awesome prizes to win, so remember to get looting those Prophetic Cards of the Infernal Treasurer as soon as they start dropping from the 25th of April!
 
The Apocalypse has never felt so good in Allods Online!

Ancient Compasses will be added to the Item Shop in the latter morning PDT of Thursday, April 25th.

Tags: Allods, Allods Online, event, sale

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