Atlantica Online Dungeons
Atlantica Online's Kim Tae Gon writes another in our series of bi-weekly developer journals. This one focuses on the dungeons in the game.
The dungeons in Atlantica Online that players must go through to find Atlantis are located all over the Earth, taking players on a globe-hopping journey to accomplish their mission of saving the world. Part of the fun of these scenario dungeons, the dungeons that follow the main storyline, is the legends and myths that they play off of, which then gives players a little peek into the cultures of these places. Then there are Atlantica’s shadow dungeons, which are more difficult areas players must often enter if they want to recruit new, more powerful mercenaries.
But we didn’t stop there when it came to designing different types of dungeons. We decided to create more dungeons to provide players yet more unique gaming experiences. Individual dungeons allow one person to take on a special area, but by giving them limited time and access to it, we think we’re putting on a little more pressure for them to succeed.
Guild dungeons and nation dungeons can only be entered with your fellow guild or nation players. Having these two types of group dungeons allow for multiple players to battle together and party beyond the group of three that’s currently possible. So while the turn-based combat does make it difficult for large groups to fight together in one screen, these dungeons make it possible for many players to fight together in a different way to accomplish a common goal. So for this developer’s journal, I would like to go into a little more detail on the types of dungeons in Atlantica.
Individual dungeons are a great way for players who like to play alone to test themselves. But, if they want, they could still party with up to two other players to take one of these on. Currently, there are four — the Forbidden Abyss, Arachne’s Nest, Hypogeum of Death, and the Sealed Tower of Darkness — and they are only open to players who are at level 90 or above.
)
For you to enter an individual dungeon, you must acquire the proper key with the required number of battle points. Therefore, you must have also participated in other aspects of the game like the Free Leagues or other PvP tournaments to get those battle points. Once inside an individual dungeon, you gain twice the number of experience points, which is one way to address the concern that players have about how difficult it is to level up after reaching level 90. But, you can only enter once a day, and you have a limited time to complete it. So there’s no repetitive combat with an individual dungeon, and the pressure to succeed your one and only shot for the day can make going through one of these more exciting. One way for you to think about an individual dungeon is as a special event for the day. And your reward for clearing one is the acquisition of special items.
Guild dungeons, which were introduced into the game before individual dungeons, are a test for players in a group. In addition to fostering more community among players, guild dungeons is one way we can reward guilds, and to provide incentive for players to join one, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to access these exclusive areas. We started off with Marksburg Castle, and now there are five guild dungeons. Guild members must kill all the monsters in the dungeon within the time limit of two hours. So the key to success is having a lot of guild members participating. Therefore, the best way to prepare is to find out when the maximum number of your guild mates can take part. But a guild dungeon can also be defeated by a smaller group of well-equipped players who are well-coordinated and work very cooperatively with each other.
Most guild dungeons can be entered with a certain number of guild points. However, the Golden Dragon’s Cave is unique in that the key to this guild dungeon is sent to the king of the nation with the guild that controls the town Chongqing, which makes Chongqing a desirable town for a guild to take over.
Nation dungeons take this group dungeon concept up to another level. With a nation consisting of up to 500 players (the nation maximum is 10 guilds of 50 players), there could be hundreds of players entering one of the three nation dungeons together. So we hope nations’ kings use the nation announcement to bring all his or her fellow countrymen and women together for one of these special missions.
Within these different types of dungeons, there is a unique subcategory, the 7-character dungeon. Instead of the usual nine characters in your formation, you can only use seven characters, your main plus six mercenaries. This applies to the Golden Dragon’s Cave guild dungeon, and nation dungeons of Ghost Ship of the Caribbean and Alcatraz Prison. This smaller number makes players have to think differently when they go into combat, putting more stress on strategy since there are few options, and forcing players to come up with new tactics to defeat enemies.
)
Plus, Alcatraz Prison is similar to the Golden Dragon’s Cave in that the key to the dungeon is given to only one person, the king with the guild that controls a specific town. In the case of Alcatraz, that town would be Vancouver. Making access to these dungeons limited like this would be one way for us to influence how guilds and nations interact, as they must plan and think differently in order to try to take over these important towns. We hope that this adds to the complexity and community of Atlantica.
More community and fostering stronger bonds between players while they all can level up together is what we’re trying to achieve with the guild and nation dungeons, while adding more elements to the experience of playing Atlantica. More dungeons are still in development, and we look forward to introducing them into the game soon. And we’re not done coming up with new styles of dungeons, either. One idea we’re thinking about is a dungeon only open on the weekends. So we hope we can keep you caught up in Atlantica for a long time!
