Sandbox Interactive Talk Albion Online's Strengths And Weaknesses, Future Plans

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In a new developer blog, Sandbox Interactive outline where they think Albion Online's strengths and weaknesses lie, as well as some of the steps they will be taking to address weaknesses. In the two months since the Closed Beta has been running, the team claims to have learned a lot about the current state of the game. Here are the areas they feel need work.

One concern is that the game world feels "too unified and boring." The initial goal was to "create a huge world, with a small team, in a limited amount of time." Due to the success of Founder's Pack sales, they will be hiring more level and world designers to spruce the world up and make it more interesting. Changes promised include "improved aesthetics [...] and also more strategic depth."

Albion Online offers a good variety of content with "dungeons, gateways, and hellgates." Unfortunately, the team has identified a core issue with their frequency, distribution, and rewards. In the future, they will be tweaking these aspects as well as adding new content to each category.

Red zones and black zones will be given more purpose in the future. Black zones will contain "open world buildings" that the guild currently in control of the zone can claim, construct, or destroy. Red zones will be "subject to a crime and reputation system" that helps protect peaceful players. A particularly high penalty will be incurred for zerging, ensuring that the focus is more on "solo and small group players" in these zones instead of large guilds.

Crafters will have more control over the items they craft and the skills they are imbued with in the future. "Special rare items with unique abilities" will be added, crafted from resources that "certain bosses or treasure chests" drop. The armor system will be simplified to "remove the confusion / mix that currently exists between armor material and armor heaviness."

For more information, you can head over to the official Development Roadmap.

Albion Online Gameplay Stream with the MMOs.com Crew (1/2)