Dear Fellow Adventurers,
now that the closed beta test is in full swing, we have a very important announcement to make.
The closed beta will be extended until at least 1st August 2016
The game will not be free to play at launch
Our goal is for Albion Online to be a long term success, therefore, we only want to release the game when it is truly up to its potential. The extension of the closed beta period will allow us to make significant improvements to the game.
For this reason, we are putting the free to play plans on hold as well. Making the game ready for a free to play model would take up significant development time which we would much rather use to make a better game. Free to play would also create a lot of risks for the game - spamming, botting, world too small, etc - which we do not want to take if it can be avoided.
When the game goes live, current founder's packs will be discontinued and replaced with starter packs, which will give full access to the game but offer less value for money than the founder's packs as this is only fair to all founders who help us in making the game. Of course, all founder's will automatically get full access to the game on release as well.
We are truly overwhelmed by the success of Albion Online thus far and would like to thank all of your for your ongoing support and feedback. Together, we will make sure that Albion Online will be a great game made to last.
Your Albion Online Team
Major Game Improvements
Note: the below does not list all the changes planned. Also, not everything listed below will make it into the final game.
New, Expanded and Immersive Game World
Significantly increase world size
Make cities and zones more unique
More and better dungeons
Different biomes (snow, swamp, etc
Zone Rework
Introduce Reputation and Crime System for yellow and red zones
Strongly increase the number of black zones
Remove fast travel to non-safe zones
Introduce "naked" teleport as an alternative to fast travel in PvP zones
PvP
Introduce an Ultima Online inspired Reputation and Crime System for yellow and red zones
Special perks and titles for virtuous and evil characters
Armor System Rework
Enchantment Rework
Tons of new items and abilities
Kill mails
Conquerable/Destructible open world structures
Improved ranking system
Scouting mechanics and items
GvG respawn timer
Larger variety of Hell Gates and better rewards
PvE
Allow lower tier mobs to provide fame towards combat progression
Increase the number of higher tier mobs
Fame bonus for group play
Make dungeons and gateway dungeons more rewarding
More and better dungeons and boss fights
Random spawning of special mobs
Armor System Rework
Enchantment Rework
Tons of new items and abilities
Rework faction and mission system*
Introduce Expeditions*
Introduce unique item blueprints and expedition maps as special drops/rewards*
*details to follow in seperate developer update
Gathering
Introduce special items and abilities supporting gatherers
Provide gatherers with better stealth and escape options
Economy
Remove excess supply of items from the market via training option at crafting buildings. Sneak Peak
Fast Travel Rework
Farming
Animal produced fertilizer to increase plant yield
Fishing
Details to follow in seperate developer update
Player Made Open World Structures
Details to follow in seperate developer update
User Interface and Quality of Life Improvements
PC optimized HUD
Friends List
Repair all button
Fast Salvage
Shift Click to move items
Smart Casting
Spell Range/Skillshot Indicator
Guild management improvements
Improved rights management system for guilds
Auto-sort/stack for banks
Allow items to be stackable
Better "mute" system to combat spammers
Outline characters/mobs that are hidden by objects
Bank asset overview
Transaction Log
Improved Mount/Dismount
. and many many more
Kind regards,
Stefan
PS.: Thank you from the whole "Albion Online Team" for your support!