Join Us for the Rum Cellar Campaign this April!

Discussion in 'News and Announcements' started by Windstalker, Apr 1, 2015.

  1. Windstalker Executive Producer

    Greetings Norrath!

    We’ve been toiling away hatching our plans and are ready to talk about our bigger targets for the year ahead.

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    I’ll start by saying we’re preparing for a new release at the end of April that we are calling “The Rum Cellar Campaign.” This is the first step on a new path for us and one we are jazzed about. Let me explain for a sec…

    As you know, we are players as well as devs and we want our characters to be growing and changing and having lots of fun with our friends. So, what does this mean? As a team, we decided we want to release content to you more often than one big release a year. So, we’re introducing what we’re calling “campaigns” – because it seems apropos for what we do as an RPG! You can think of campaigns like DLC packs you see in other games.

    Why the change? We want to keep the world turning with intrigue and fun and be able to react more quickly to you, the community, and do what’s right for the game at the moment. The Rum Cellar Campaign is the first stab at what we see as a DLC-type of release philosophy. We have a much larger one planned for late fall too.

    For the sake of clarity, we will release a similar amount of content as an expansion over a year, but in packages that make sense to us and the ever-changing community.

    With that in mind, our goal with future releases is to also offer variety for all the ways you play – like creative bundling of content options for families or players with multiple accounts, decorators, adventurers, crafters, and collectors, for example.

    In case there is any doubt, character advancement remains a focus in our future, but we’re staying at Level 100 for a while. We want to spread our wings on character progression later this year and work on some cool new stuff with existing systems, like renewing the Deity System that brings more meaning to experience you earn in the world.

    So, what’s in The Rum Cellar Campaign? It includes a new distillery-themed environment tied to Altar of Malice (the 2014 expansion and Level 100 are required to play it given it is integrated with the mechanics and storyline). In this campaign we have an event solo zone, advanced solo, heroic, event heroic, event heroic - challenge version, and raid. There is new loot in the zones as well as on a merchant tied to this campaign who accepts Ferrins. There are new collections and achievements and a cool zeppelin mount that drops in the content as well as one that can be purchased on the Rum Cellar merchant, and a pretty noteworthy drop will be a drunken monk elite merc...hiccup.

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    The Rum Cellar Campaign will be available for $15 starting April 28 and we’ll be offering some bundles with a discount on the Altar of Malice expansion. We’ll get those details to you very soon. The new campaign content will be going to Beta in the second week of April and we’d love feedback from players who want to help us test it.

    In other news, you may have noticed weekly updates on each server as we lay the groundwork for Cross-Server Dungeons which are planned for late summer. We appreciate your patience as we take on this substantial amount of work. These are some pretty meaty changes that will give us some great new options in the game and development.

    As I said in my last letter, we are continuing to look at ways to improve performance. And, in case there is any doubt, we will continue to bring you infamous holiday fun throughout the year and regular attention to bug fixes. Please continue to use /bug and /feedback if you are experiencing issues.

    We’ve got exciting times ahead and a lot of plans up our sleeves that we’ll share as we race along. Your passion and love of our game is shared here and I can’t say enough how much we appreciate your support and feedback.

    Stay tuned, my fair friends! Fun ahead…

    (Edit: Because this team works insanely hard, we have added an advanced solo and event heroic-challenge version to the list of content for Rum Cellar taking it from 4 to 6 instances.)
    Moonfyre, bluegod, Blueiris and 8 others like this.
  2. Uncle Active Member

    is this content gonna be avaible to beta server before launch or no???
  3. pzpz Active Member

    This sounds like a great idea, after you give us the rest of this expansion's content. Looking forward to this next year for sure!
  4. Roshen Well-Known Member


  5. Kham Active Member

    I hope you plan on making this purchasable through stationcash or giftable, cuz i can tell you right now if you dont, you really will lose a bunch of people.
  6. Bloodguts Well-Known Member

    So all of a sudden, what's been done for over 10 years with releasing content that was promised to be released post-expansion and part of the content that has to do with the story of this current expansion is going to cost money over the price we payed to purchase Altar of Malice?

    I hope this is not the case, because if so i feel you are overcharging a complete expansion over what has been a consistent price and nothing other MMOs like WoW is doing.
    Rynda, Mindsway, Charlice and 9 others like this.
  7. konofo Active Member

    I'm eager to hear where this new raid is expected to fit in the existing raid progression.

    kono
  8. Terrius Well-Known Member

    So you're going to charge us more, for less content, over a longer period of time? o_O
  9. Newks New Member

  10. Juraiya Well-Known Member

    Um... April Fools? I'm guessing, at least.

    No company ever bothers with a serious release statement on April first, knowing that no one will take it seriously.

    Edit: At least no one SHOULD take it seriously. Too many people - and companies - like to shock others, even their own clients, on April first. Which is sometimes a big mistake.
  11. Thand Well-Known Member

    Grin and here i was hoping for a Luclin Expansion if this is not a april fools joke :)
  12. Darkon Well-Known Member

    Uhh..

    The entire idea of expansion + free content updates over the time leading up to the next expansion is what warranted the price tag on the expansion.

    Everyone who bought AOM at the very least should have the first 2 of these DLC's included in that price, then go forward from there.

    Doing anything else would not be in good faith.
    Charoite, Mindsway, Rynda and 26 others like this.
  13. Nelie Well-Known Member

    How many "campaigns" do you plan on having per year roughly?
  14. Arieste Well-Known Member


    Many people seem to think that charging $15 for what were previously free updates is an april fool's joke. If it's not, maybe not pick April 1st as the date to announce major changes in game direction. If it is - well done, you got me! :)
  15. Colm Active Member

    I'd like to think it's a joke, but when I was beta testing there was a world bell that led to the Far Seas Distillary on the beach next the the Keep.

    So yeah, not terribly excited for this change in format.
  16. Gramma Active Member

    How unfortunate that this post was made on April Fools Day. Now I don't know what to believe!
  17. Terrius Well-Known Member


    ^This,


    If this is not an April fool's joke then we all over paid for AOM and should be compensated for the trickery.
    Kinya, Quillyne, Bashem and 6 others like this.
  18. NadikOne Member

    If it was any other day. But I wouldn't bite on this.
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
  19. Bivin the Halfling Ranger Member

    Posting a link to a youtube video of a man dancing in a bunny suit, and claiming it is John Smedley would be a good April Fools joke.
    Never "jest" about people's money in a recession, especially those who already pay a monthly fee for "all -access."
    Any DLCs should be available for purchase with SC or gift cards.
    If not, well, we know what direction its headed.
    Blueiris, jakenn, Gaealiege and 6 others like this.
  20. Stitchersherd Member


    Terrible April Fool's/Bristle bane Day joke correct?

    If not, losing two All Access subs even though we just redeemed $100 bucks I cash cards. I will go play ESO which gives their sub members DLC included in the sub and is level agnostic. As much as I love this game, I will not continue to pay money to a corporation that routinely overcharges for expansions compared to the industry and then only puts out content for max level characters that will be irrelevant shortly. Cross server dungeons are well and good for people that like to rush through dungeons or who just want to level quickly.

    If this isn't a joke, then for the sake of the community that will remind loyal please go learn what the competition is doing before it is far too late for the Everquest franchise.
    Blueiris, Kinya, Quillyne and 10 others like this.