Albion Online: Lands Awakened has a Release Date
Albion Online, one of the most popular MMORPGs on the market has a new major content update on the way, Lands Awakened. Today, Albion's developer Sandbox Interactive announced the launch date for Lands Awakened, November 24, 2021. The update is focusing on reinvigorating open-world gameplay in Albion.
Albion is one of the few western MMOs on the market that has continued to grow year after year, even recently allowing Mobile players to join the fray. Sandbox Interactive's dedication to continually building a living world is apparent; the community wouldn't thrive as it has otherwise!
Here are some of the features and some of what Sandbox Interactive had to say about the new release:
Improved Open-World Graphics and PvE:
Massively improved graphics and layouts for all five biomes
Mobs that upgrade in strength and value over time
Reworked Static Dungeons with limited-time "Dungeon Rush" events
Updated world map overlays showing Silver and resource values
Lands Awakened is a complete re-working of open-world PvE in Albion Online, offering a massive variety of things to do for all types of players. Mobs in the world now upgrade to increasingly powerful versions the longer they remain alive, offering potentially colossal Fame and loot in Albion's less traveled lands.
As for group content, Static Open-World Dungeons have been entirely reworked and expanded to include entrances in multiple zones. New Dungeon Events that are timed have been added with enormous rewards for players skilled enough to take on hordes of enemies. The new world map overlays now also offer additional details about resources, mobs, and the overall value of a given zone. These new features bring thrilling gameplay and great rewards in for all group sizes and playstyles.
As the name implies, Lands Awakened completely refreshes the look and feel of Albion's game world. Every biome and sub-biome has been re-designed to create a more diverse and visually pleasing environment as you travel through Albion, with the character of each sub-biome emphasized through its visuals.
Additionally, the layouts of the world have been improved to make zones more exciting and memorable. Finally, each biome's terrain features are reflected on the maps, forming visible choke points that players can use strategically- or avoid-. These changes will make adventuring the open world a more engaging and exciting
New Open-World PvP Objectives:
New Treasure Sites that spawn at random in the open world
Energy Crystals and Power Cores that generate in the Outlands as valuable objectives for guilds
Lands Awakened will bring many new open-world PvP objectives to Albion, rewarding exploration, spontaneity, and bravery. Treasures now spawn at unpredictable time frames, with randomized loot that offers the chance at massive rewards. Treasures are shown on the map only to players nearby, solo and small-group players will have the opportunity to claim them before larger guilds and parties.
New for guilds, Power Cores and Energy Crystals that spawn randomly in the Outlands. These Power Cores and Energy Crystals offer substantial rewards to those able to bring them to a Hideout or Territory. However, these high-value objectives have to be returned safely without using mounts, creating intense, high-risk scenarios in Albion's most dangerous zones.
New "War Gloves" Weapon Line:
Albion's first all-new weapon line since launch
It Brings brawler-style gameplay with damage/mobility options
Includes full combat and crafting trees on the Destiny Board
This update introduces an entirely new weapon type to Albion, the War Gloves. It features three base weapons, four artifact weapons, and fifteen total new abilities. This new weapon line brings exciting new fighting styles to Albion while breathing new life in to the combat metagame. War Gloves are melee-focused weapons with damage, mobility, and control abilities along with some limited ranged skills and also are geared towards keeping an enemy combatant engaged while doing consistent damage. The War Glove can be crafted in the Warrior's Forge, with Artifacts obtainable as open-world drops or via the Artifact Foundry. Like all weapon lines, they feature their Combat and Crafting masteries on the Destiny Board.
Reworked Guild Seasons:
Headquarters Hideouts allow active guilds of all sizes to make a secure home in the Outlands
New Conqueror's Challenge lets all players, regardless of guild affiliation, earn season rewards
The new "Might" system gives points for PvP-related activities
Might builds Guild Might Levels, benefitting all members via payouts and increased rewards
Players can spend new Favor currency on unique and valuable rewards
The Conqueror's Challenge is open to all players and allows every guild member to help contribute to their particular guild's triumph. Players can earn Might by participating in variety of activities, which in addition to bringing its rewards, will also help their guild's overall Might Levels and increase their Favor with their guild. Each new Might Level a guild achieves brings greater rewards, allowing smaller and mid-size guilds to grow their strength however they choose. Additionally, territory levels are now based on Energy from both the Crystal League and new open-world Energy Crystals, rewarding guilds willing to engage in these high-risk, high-reward activities.
Headquarters Hideouts give every active guild a fair shot at making their home in the Outlands. Guilds can earn the ability to designate one Outlands Hideout their Headquarters, making it invulnerable to attacks during a region's battle time, as well as during the Hideout's third construction phase. This invulnerablitiy is based on their performance in the prior season. Invulnerablity doesn't come for free, though: it must be maintained via Boosters which are earned by capturing Hideout Power Cores from the open world and bringing them back safely. Rival guilds can fight to capture these cores for themselves during transport, bringing exciting new capture-the-flag gameplay to Albion's black zones.
Elite Levels and Fame Balancing
Elite Levels offer high-level players the opportunity to bring their weapons masteries above and beyond the previous Level 100 cap. Those with enough dedication to a single weapon, armor piece, or offhand can push their stats even higher and gain the edge in combat, allowing for previously unreachable stat levels.
Additionally, players can now see the degree of specialization they have in a weapon directly on the icon when equipping it in their inventory, as well as when they inspect other players and in kill details, via a small icon that improves in multiple steps as the player advances. Alongside this, the overall Fame progression in the game has been boosted, with an approximately 20% increase in Fame across all combat, crafting, gathering, and farming nodes, allowing players to advance through specializations and Elite Levels more efficiently.
Expanded Soundtrack and Combat Audio
The sonic experience of Albion has been updated and enriched, with adaptive combat music, brand new city themes which reflect the characteristics of each Faction, Hideout themes that progress as your Hideout develops, and brand-new music for the Tutorial and Destiny Board.
Id you'd like a behind the scenes of the making this new music, check out this introduction from Marie Havemann, Senior Audio Designer.
Numerous Quality-of-Life Improvements:
Updated soundtrack
Saved Loadouts can be bought directly via the Marketplace UI
Farming usability improvements
Party improvements, streamlined item rerolling, combat balance changes, and much more
Lands Awakened brings numerous long-requested quality-of-life improvements across a wide range of game systems. Player-created Loadouts can now be bought directly through the Marketplace using a wide variety of adjustable parameters. These loadouts allow for quick regearing and more accessible large-scale purchases for solo and guild players, gatherers, traders, and other player types.
Farming usability has been streamlined to allow the harvesting and raising of crops and animals with far fewer clicks. Rerolling items now uses a cleaner and more satisfying interface that displays the options available and has its costs and chances rebalanced to require fewer button clicks for an upgrade. Owner fees associated with player buildings are now much easier to view, compare, and adjust, while new party commands have been added to chat functions to streamline group play.
Albion Online: Lands Awaken Dev Talks
About Albion Online
Albion Online is a sandbox MMORPG designed by Sandbox Interactive, set in their medieval fantasy world of Albion. Albion gives you the opportunity to play a hardened fighter, a farmer, a merchant, or a master craftsman, every single weapon and every building is created by the players in the player-driven world. Albion works on a "you are what you wear" system free from class restrictions, an archer can instantly become a mage, allowing players to define their own roles within the game world. Whether PvE, PvP, or guild vs. guild, every action in the game has a meaning… as well as consequences, as PvP battles in the danger zones of the game world are a "winner takes all" affair.
Additional information on Albion Online can be found at:
Website: https://albiononline.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/albiononline
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/albiononlineofficial
Twitter: https://twitter.com/albiononline
Twitch: http://twitch.tv/albiononline
About Sandbox Interactive GmbH
Sandbox Interactive is a game development studio founded in 2012 in Berlin, Germany. The fifty-person strong team develops and operates the cross-platform sandbox MMORPG Albion Online. Sandbox Interactive holds the belief that the creation of your world and the interaction with other players are essential to entertainment and that these ideas are brought to life in the sandbox. Creating Albion Online, the studio has made a game that places compelling gameplay and the player experience squarely in the foreground.
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