I sat down with Todd Carson, Executive Producer of Dragon’s Prophet, to talk about some of their progress over the last year and some things we should watch for in the coming year. Dragon’s Prophet may also see a push over the next year to expose more new players to some of the systems in the game that they may not know about yet.
One of the big changes in the last year is the number of dragons you can have at any given time. The team has added a dragon chamber that allows you to store dragons you’re not using from either your current inventory or your lair. They’ve also added a dragon compendium to help you track all those dragons. The compendium sorts dragons by family, and it also lets you know exactly which breeds you have or are currently missing. With new titles and achievements for collecting whole families of dragons, there’s a new dimension to the game that didn’t exist a year ago.
They’ve also added new dragons to the game. Todd tells me they’ve added thirty in just the last week alone. Plus, they’ve done some cross-over with EQ and added Lady Vox, along with a host of seasonal dragons. There should be plenty of new species ripe for the collecting for those who’ve got to catch them all.
The mastery system has been revamped and players can access masteries at level 10 now. Todd says they’ve really wanted to help make the classes feel more diversified and unique. The new system helps make the four classes feel more distinct, which should help players feel like they have a more specific impact in battles.
The starting area and storyline has been reworked, and now includes whole new quests. The team wanted to new players to have an even better first experience. Plus, there was some empty land behind the starting city of Helmoth that now is central to the new storyline. It might be worth starting a new character just so you can experience the new content.
The team also has some cool plans for Dragon’s Prophet that they’re announcing over the weekend. One of the really cool things being worked on will be dragon eggs. Players will be able to find eggs, and be able to take care of them from their inventory. Once they have the egg, the stats of the dragon will depend on the methods the player uses in taking care of it until egg hatches.
Dragon’s Prophet will also be heading to SOE’s new All Access package. Members will get about $50-worth of Dragon’s Prophet stuff per month for subscribing to the pass. The monthly bundle of goodies players get in-game includes a 30-day repair hammer, revive tokens, and transportation tokens. Plus of course, you get the 500 Station Cash and the discounts in the cash shop.
One of the other conversations Todd and I had was how new players miss some of the content because it’s not always readily obvious it exists, so one of the projects for the Dragon’s Prophet team in the coming year is finding ways to help new players find and use those systems.
One such oft-missed component is their kindred system. The system was designed to help encourage players to make friends. By teaming up with friends and declaring them as kindred, both players build points based on what the other is doing. Those points can then be cashed in to spin a wheel for random loot. It’s all free, so the only reason you wouldn’t be using it is if you didn’t know about it.
Another feature Todd says new players often miss is harvesting resources with their dragons. If you’re not intending to do much crafting, you may ignore it, but tasking your dragons to gather resources is how you level them up. At level 10, your spare dragons can be sent to the academy for academy points. Those points are how you level your dragon past level 20, and it’s the only way to break that level 20 barrier.
So, as Todd points out, when you’re a new character you should go ahead and capture those little lower-level dragons, even if you don’t need them, because they can then be sent to the academy for the points. If nothing else, you get resources you can use later if you do decide to check out the crafting. Plus, it can all be done with in-game currency, so it doesn’t necessarily cost you anything.
A lot has been added to give the game a slightly different feel, and a significant amount of additional complexity. It’s also backed by developers who bring a great deal of obvious passion to their project, and that means you can expect quality work on the new content. If you haven’t played Dragon’s Prophet in a while, it’s worth reinstalling to check out the new features.
