Guild name: June
Alliance: Daddy
Guild leaders: Goof
Date founded: June 1, 2019
Number of members: 290
Primary language: English

Tell us about your guild. What sort of activities do you focus on?

June is primarily a guild where you can find competitive PvP content, with a focus on GvGs and Crystal GvGs. We are aiming to be the best guild in the game on all fronts, not just GvGs. We are actively raiding mages, defending our territories and just recently have been conquering castles and attacking cities.

Where is your guild primarily located? What regions in Albion do you focus on?

We are primarily based out of Lymhurst. However... our 73 territories make it so we utilize guild islands on Thetford, Lymhurst, and Fort Sterling, so we are currently focused on all these areas.

Do you have any particular rivalries or ongoing quarrels with other guilds?

Given that we're one of the newer guilds in the game, we have made a name for ourselves with our ability to GvG and completely take over other guilds' territories. And as such, people have taken notice and attack us in search of a good fight. I'd say our biggest rival is Money Guild. They are probably the most well-rounded guild as they dominate every aspect of the game.



What were some of your most memorable battles/activities?

There have been many moments of valor for June, but one in particular stands out. As a new guild trying to make a name for ourselves, Money Guild saw us as easy prey. And during the off-season they decided to launch an attack to stop our world-conquering campaign. They got off a couple early wins and thought they'd got the better of us. But we didn't back down, and our core GvGers quickly adapted. They have since beaten the Money Guild A team 10 times in a row in their last 10 matches against them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUaIzC8Kmzo
What does your guild do for fun?

The core idea behind June is that we have no mandatory content or CTAs. We try and find the fun in whatever we decide to do. We run daily mage raids, defend our own mages, run castle outposts and castles. We have tons of opportunities for players to Crystal GvG: we run an average of 15 Crystals every day, and have a live discord community. We also run many regular GvGs every day, and have plenty of opportunities to scrim in the guild.

What is your guild' approach to the game? Do you have any sort of overarching philosophy?

While June is aiming to be the best PvP guild in the game, it’s important to note that we prioritize having fun and messing around above all else. That’s why there is no mandatory CTA in our guild, the only thing we ask of our members is that they are active in-game and on our discord.



What are your goals for the future? What is your ultimate goal in the world of Albion?

The goal is to open up PvP content to those who want to compete in GvGs and Crystals. We want to dominate in city fights, and continue to establish the meta that other players follow.

Anything else to share about your guild?

We are an English-speaking guild, primarily US-based... but we are accepting international English-speaking players as well. We are recruiting active GvG/ZvZ players, and people who are interested in assisting the guild in our quest for #1.

Check out more videos of June in action:

June vs. Ironborn in Smoothfloor Well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtIXJJTKUPI
June vs. Inmortal in Weeping Marsh:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U830Kll_wSo
Guild Spotlights are a regular series showcasing the diverse activities of Albion's numerous guilds. If your guild has content to share (including interesting, high-quality videos), please contact PrintsKaspian via the forum.

What was your background in games prior to working at SBI?

Like most devs, I spent a lot of my youth playing games, mainly anything with a ranking. My career in games didn’t start until I was accepted at the London College of Communication to study Game Design. I fell in love with the depth of design behind a good game and made it my profession. Since 2012 I have been developing smaller games, and in 2015 I worked on my first proper game, “Iron Fish” by BeefJack, where I was Level and Narrative Designer. The project was too ambitious for the small team, and the whole thing kind of sank, like, well, an iron fish. So I looked for the next opportunity and went back to Germany, my home country, to start working for SBI.

You've worked at Sandbox since 2016. How has your work on the game evolved over the years?

It has been almost three years now since I joined the team. I basically went from the guy who would move bushes and grass out of the way to the guy who would design why there is grass in the first place and how the grass should look and what type of grass it is.

I really enjoyed bringing small stories into the world. All over Albion you can find these small elements, such as a working sundial in an Essence template and a pumpkin scarecrow chained to a bed in the asylum in Camlann. At the same time, I played a ton of Albion, mainly doing Hellgates and Fame farms, learning to see the game from a player perspective.



As my understanding of Albion grew, so did my ambition, and with a small team of devs I worked on the first event, The Headless Descent. Given my love for quests I also took over the world quest line for the subsequent winter event, and eventually the major overhaul of the tutorial, culminating in my latest and biggest contribution: the complete rework of the starter experience.

Can you give an overview of the Level Design process?

We work very closely with all other departments. An idea comes to us from Game Design, which is then given an initial structure by Level Design with all the assets that we have, then polished by Art with new assets. I really feel that for such a small team we have an amazingly detailed and vast world. Due to our small size we are greatly limited in what we can do, and have to keep efficiency in mind at all times. But as I like to say, creativity grows with constraints.

And in my humble opinion, Albion is in all facets a great example of that. Many things we do in Level Design are limited by size, as we are using a so-called template system, meaning we are creating a lot of different puzzle pieces that have to fit together. Which makes it vastly complex to create small areas that look unique enough yet also normal enough to make up a “good”-looking landscape.



We're aware that many parts of the world still seem “copy-pasted” as many of the puzzle pieces are used multiple times, due to the creation of an enormous world in a limited amount of time. We're not too happy with that, but we are dealing with this issue and are improving the world design with every iteration, focusing more and more on the needs of the playerbase and their feedback.

Examples of updated level design can be seen all over the world, most noticeably in the T3 starting clusters which have served as a test run for further changes.

In addition to Level Design, you've also worked in Game Design, and have recently begun working on strengthening Albion's lore. How do these different game development processes relate and connect to each other?

They are so very similar and yet so very different, which is why I always like to use this simple metaphor: Level Design is the creation of the chess board while Game Design is the creation of the rules. Lore, well, lore ties everything together and gives meaning to the numbers and rules of the game. Without narrative elements one would not threaten to destroy a tower, kill a bishop, or overthrow a king, but merely be playing with wooden pieces.

Due to Albion's sandbox nature, only a bit of lore was needed to keep everything together, but I do believe that with more of a background story all design processes can be enhanced – again using the idea that limitations require innovation. The more lore in the game, the more limited our ideas will be, but they will also have more direction and weight. And thus I became more involved with the lore of Albion, going through very old documentations, our amazing paperback book and other sources to update the story and collect everything we know of our own world. We also added a lot of voice lines to mobs and NPCs such as:

• The Cook: "There is no 'peas' in Albion, only beans."
• The Alchemist: "Death in a bottle, life in a bottle... uhh, I should really label them."
• The Torturer Boss: "The pain... what pleasure."

These voice lines add a few more specks of color to Albion's palette, and I can’t wait for players to find more and more lore hidden throughout the world.



What are the biggest challenges when working on a game like Albion Online?

To make everyone happy. It is a tough task to choose and pick in what direction to go, knowing exactly how certain players will react to it, knowing that it might still be the best choice. In the end we are creating this world for the players, and it is very hard to do something that might upset a certain player group. In the end it is not possible to create a world everybody always likes, but we will always give our best to make certain to deliver what we can. And yes, sometimes there are bugs and also misjudgements, but they have been done with the purest intentions. And the great thing about an ongoing development process is that it is never over, and things that might have been once broken can return to glory (see hellgates :D, which might be slightly broken again, but well). It is the circle of games, I guess.

For the Oberon update last spring, you redesigned the game's tutorial from the ground up. Can you give some insights into that process?

This was the fourth time I worked on the tutorial. The first iteration was a streamlining of the starter island to create a natural flow of movement for the player, basically moving rocks and roads.

The second iteration brought a quest line, intended to help the player craft their first set of gear and gather resources.

The third iteration introduced the newly designed starter areas into the game and the first narrative-driven quest line started, which brought my personal favorite reward of the game: the Royal Steed, which is basically a back-alley mule with a royal sigil stitched on the side. This tutorial was far more complex than the previous ones, empowering the player to actually go out into the open world to gather and craft and switch clusters. It was a very inspiring design process going through all the biomes, thinking about how to introduce different resources and tiers to the player while they make their way outward from the starter town.



Then the internal announcement of free-to-play arrived, and we knew that a new and improved starter experience was needed. I was given a few months to work on the complete rehaul of the tutorial, with an updated goal: I needed to create instanced content to have enough resources and space for the rush of new players that would be joining the game.

But this also allowed me to bring a deeper narrative layer to the whole thing. Yes, the story of the hero stranded on a beach is not a new invention, but it lent itself sooo very well to Albion. It's the same premise used in our book, and for those hardcore fans out there, many of the characters one meets in the tutorial are out of the book, like Tia, our fearless captain.

So the new tutorial took shape, created out of elements such as lore, gameplay, and introductions to complex mechanics. Finally we explained the Destiny Board and the Marketplace in the tutorial which made the whole thing a bit less flowy, but as we've seen in our stats, a lot more players understand how the game works and stick with it longer.

Briefly, the new tutorial should show you what the game is all about without being too scary. It should display the love of detail, the combat and crafting system, the depth of progression, and how beautiful the world of Albion can be.

And I am deeply sorry that there is no full loot PvP in the tutorial, but come on, let people breathe before you take their T2 gear.



What are some of your all-time favorite games? Which games have you learned the most from?

I am a very competitive player and did quite well in shooters such as Unreal Tournament, Counter-Strike, and MMOs like Guild Wars and WoW. These games taught me how much of a difference a well-placed column or box can make, and how important it is to give players the opportunity to use their knowledge of the environment to gain an advantage.

But my favorite games are the so-called Souls games. I love the brutal skill check and PvP these games have, but what I love most is the level design and lore. Everything in these games is there for a reason, nothing is there just because someone felt like it. If you dive deep enough into discussions with super enthusiasts, you can find a reason behind every stone and every metal type of every armor.

And this is what I eventually would love to achieve for Albion, to create a world where players feel that everything has a reason, and where skill matters most.

Anything else to add?

Our work might not always be perfect, but Albion is our passion, and as I said above, we are doing this for the players. Sometimes we piss them off, sometimes we please them. But in the end, all we want to do is give you a place to have fun and kill some guys and maybe make you chuckle over the silliness of a T2 mule as a quest reward.

Stay tuned for more Dev Spotlights in the coming weeks.

Guild name: Le Culte
Alliance: none
Guild leader: Elror
Date founded: June 1, 2018
Number of members: 40
Primary language: French

Tell us about your guild. What sort of activities do you focus on? What sort of members are you looking for?

Well, we are a small French guild focused mainly on the PvP aspect of the game, especially all things gank-based. Our content is broad: 2v2 / 5v5 Hellgates, dungeon diving, wolf gank squads, open-world PvP, mage raids, etc. We recently began adding GvG and castle / castle outposts to our list of content. Although we do love PvP, sometimes you can find us fame farming for progression.

We’re looking for people with no fear who are willing to take unfavorable fights and travel with valuable gear, with a passion for battle.

Where is your guild primarily located? What regions in Albion do you focus on?

Our guild works mostly in the Royal Continent red zones. This is where we are the least chased by zergs when we want to operate efficiently.

Otherwise people can find us sometimes in the green-portal black zones, hunting people that cross our path or seeking out zergs.



Do you have any particular rivalries or ongoing quarrels with other guilds?

We go through a lot of quarrels with guilds daily and we love that. We have kind of a bad reputation because of that and we work hard to maintain it. The price of people talking about and reacting to us is what gives us pride, especially when we think about the size of the guild.

We have a discord channel dedicated to screens of people talking about us in every way as a trophy.

What were some of your most memorable battles/activities?

Every battle when outnumbered is memorable, but there is one fight in particular that surpasses everything. One evening while we were 7 members diving in a random dungeon, we got caught between two zergs.

Without any choice other than fight a very unfavorable fight, we took the decision to take the challenge. While they engaged our tank we took this opportunity to counterengage, making a huge hole in their troops. That surprised the enemy zerg and made the survivors run away.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUXFq8sGWMo
What does your guild do for fun?

In addition to PvP content, we also roleplay as the followers of Morgana which can reflect in our guild name and the way we play and approach the game. People can even find lore in the forum about our guild and the connections with Morgana (unfortunately only in French).

Otherwise our activities have us kill as many people as possible, without getting worked up, and without competition against people or rival guilds. Depending on the guild members' moods, we do ambushes, wolf patrols, or just getting into some scraps with people. The most important thing is that everyone has fun together.



What is your guild's approach to the game? Do you have any sort of overarching philosophy?

In comparison to some big guilds and alliances where members get taxed and have binding rules and mandatory calls, our members are independent people that can progress in the game alone without a problem, while still grouping together to do our main content, all without rules or taxes.

We stake everything in a family type of philosophy, where every member knows each other and progresses together, with friendly banter and funny stuff in comms to keep a good atmosphere. This is our philosophy for a very sustainable and healthy guild since the beginning and it works very well for us.

What are your goals for the future? What is your ultimate goal in the world of Albion?

We always seek to improve our craft, in every aspect and as the ultimate goal to be the most feared and dreaded bandits in the unsafe roads of Albion.

Anything else to share about your guild?

As said before we have our lore in the Albion forums and I will slip this inside joke in the Guild spotlight: “Le Culte recrute!”

Check out Le Culte in action:

A showcase of our Guild, our content, and our private jokes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BA226JXYeM
Our first PvP montage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcUcbgPGaCo
Guild Spotlights are a regular series showcasing the diverse activities of Albion's numerous guilds. If your guild has content to share (including interesting, high-quality videos), please contact PrintsKaspian via the forum.

In anticipation of the expanded Wardrobe feature coming with the next content update, sale orders of following items have been canceled, and while they can still be traded directly between players they cannot be crafted, bought or sold on the Marketplace:

• Red Tulip Hat
• Red Tulip Dress
• Red Tulip Shoes
• Rich Noble's Hat
• Rich Noble's Doublet
• Rich Noble's Footwear
• Bridal Veil
• Bridal Dress
• Bridal Shoes
• Bridal Bouquet
• Groom Hat
• Groom Suit
• Groom Shoes
• Groom Cape
• Wedding Ring
• Jester Mask
• Jester Costume
• Jester Shoes
• Uncle Frost's Hat
• Yule Hat
• Yule Coat
• Yule Shoes
• Yule Backpack
• Snow Bunny Stalker Hat
• Bunny Stalker Hat
• Bunny Stalker Overalls
• Bunny Stalker Shoes
• Bunny Stalker Basket
• Hygienic Mask
• Hygienic Coat
• Hygienic Boots
• Grinning Pumpkin Head
• Sad Pumpkin Head
• Angry Pumpkin Head
• Laughing Skull
• Ribcage
• Legbones
• Ragged Cape
• Undead Skull
• Undead Ribcage
• Undead Legs
• Ragged Undead Cape
• Master of Bats Helmet
• Master of Bats Cape
• Recruiter's Cape
• Riuros Cape
• Recruiter's Banner
• Ogronios Banner
• Recruiter's Cape - Toad
• Recruiter's Cape - Rottweiler
• Recruiter's Tiger Cape
• Recruiter's Fur Cape
• Recruiter's Grey Wolf Cape
• Recruiter's Portal Cannon
• Recruiter's Fox Crop
• Recruiter's Beer Mug
• Recruiter's Ale Mug
• Recruiter's Hunter Horn
• Recruiter's Trumpet
• Legendary Explorer's Cloak
• Legendary Explorer's Hat
• Legendary Explorer's Armor
• Legendary Explorer's Boots
• Legendary Adventurer's Cloak
• Legendary Adventurer's Hat
• Legendary Adventurer's Armor
• Legendary Adventurer's Boots
• Explorer's Hat
• Explorer's Armor
• Explorer's Boots
• Adventurer's Helmet
• Adventurer's Jacket
• Adventurer's Shoes
• Arena Veteran's Circlet
• Arena Veteran's Cloak
• Arena Veteran's Boots
• Arena Veteran's Cape
• Arena Veteran's Eyepatch
• Arena Veteran's Small Banner
• Arena Veteran's Medium Banner
• Arena Veteran's Large Banner
• Decorative Undead Platemail Cape
• Decorative Undead Leather Cape
• Decorative Undead Cloth Cape
• Decorative Keeper Platemail Cape
• Decorative Keeper Leather Cape
• Decorative Keeper Cloth Cape
• Decorative Morgana Platemail Cape
• Decorative Morgana Leather Cape
• Decorative Morgana Cloth Cape

For a more detailed explanation of these changes and the reasoning behind the cancellation of these orders, please see this forum post: https://forum.albiononline.com/index.php/Thread/117501

• Based on community feedback, the castle scoring time slot at 19 UTC has been moved to 20 UTC
• The Heretic Chief Blaster has been practicing and is now able to throw his mines and bombs through obstacles
• Poison zones in Undead Randomized Dungeons now tick every 3 seconds (was every second)
• Due to noise complaints, Silver Bag opening sounds are now shorter, quieter, and only play twice, even when many bags are opened in succession
• Improved spell indications for Keeper Giant and Rock Elemental
• All passive spell sounds have been reviewed, fixed as needed, and generally "tuned up"

​One-Handed Cursed Staff

• ​Death Curse
  • Damage from Death Curse can no longer be reflected

• Adventurer's Challenge mounts have been assigned a value, meaning repairing them now costs Silver as intended
• Fixed issue where 'Cluster is full' message would pop up even when cluster change was successful
• Guard Towers will now only target hostile players with an active Outlaw debuff
• "Floating" lanterns in numerous dungeon templates have been reattached to solid objects
• Fixed the "skating mobs" issue that allowed Earthchild and Cursed Deathmaster to slide around between attack animations
• Alliance tag now disappears from access rights if alliance is disbanded
• Fixed an issue where using a ranged weapon or targeted spell would not put you in combat state until the projectile hit
• Access rights logs are now no longer lost when upgrading/downgrading a building
• Fixed an issue where single characters were not imported correctly when copy/pasting chest access rights
• Royal Cities have regained their pride and will display their banners on the World Map once again
• Spell fixes:
  • Fixed an issue where Battle Frenzy would also make user immune to knockback effects
  • Fixed an issue where Cleanse was not triggering Adrenaline Driven Charity passive as intended
  • Parry Strike no longer counters non-CC and Damage-related effects of a spell (such as Death Curse and other debuffs)
• Additional graphical, UI, audio, animation, terrain, and localization fixes

For the entire month of August, take the Divine Challenge to collect limited-time rewards. Earn points for open-world activities, unlock chests to get valuable loot, and claim your very own mount skin, avatar border, and more.


NEW MOUNT SKIN: This month's Challenge introduces a brand-new mount skin: the Divine Stag. Once obtained, this mount skin will permanently unlock the pure white Divine Stag for all characters on your account. (Note that this skin requires an Adep's Giant Stag base mount to use.)


NEW AVATAR BORDER: Adventurers who rack up enough total Challenge Points will also earn the Divine Challenge avatar border to frame your avatar in glowing divine light. This non-tradable item permanently unlocks this avatar border for one character.


SEASONAL SPECIALS: All month long, reach weekly goals to unlock Divine Challenge chests. In addition to valuable rewards like Adventurer's Tomes, Silver, and other loot, you'll also have a chance to unlock three furniture items - the Mage Statue, Magic Rune Circle, and Glass Sphere.

As always, you can earn Challenge Points by gathering, fishing, farming, and killing monsters. Points count simultaneously toward a daily bonus, a weekly unlockable chest, and the monthly mount skin / avatar ring reward. So log in, head out into the open world, gather points, and claim these exclusive rewards while they last!


A new referral season starts today! Refer your friends to Albion Online and get three fantastic rewards, including the first-ever mount skin referral reward. For 1, 3, and 5 referrals respectively, you'll receive:the Recruiter's Storage-Barrel, the Recruiter's Pile of Tomes (worth a total 100,000 Fame), and the Sheepdog mount skin. (Note: like all canine mount skins, the charming Sheepdog requires a Direwolf base mount in order to be displayed.)

The current referral season lasts until maintenance on September 1, so you've got until then to refer your friends and claim your rewards. As a reminder, with the shift to free-to-play the referral system has been streamlined and simplified:

• Send your referral link, which you can find here, to a friend. (You must be logged into your account on the website to view this page.)
• Your friend registers an account and starts playing Albion Online (preferably along with you!).
• The first time your friend purchases at least 30 days of Premium, they will trigger a reward for you.

• On top of that, for your very first referral ever, you'll receive a T8 Recruiter's Pile of Tomes, worth a whopping 200,000 Fame.

• Guild Challenge: guild members can now earn Challenge Points by gathering, killing creatures, fishing, and farming, as with Adventurer's Challenges. At certain thresholds, these points will provide Season Points to the member's guild.
• Number of tower levels in Crystal Realm Battle system: 3 → 7
• GvG attack times have been consolidated to make it harder for one team member to fight multiple GvGs in a day
• GvG notification messages now more clearly state conditions leading to counterattacks, decisive victories, and whether or not Silver is returned
• Changes to Siphoning Mages:
  • Channel duration of Ice Block increased to 20 seconds
  • When channel is started, three Summoned Guardians appear
  • Guardians are normal mobs if less than 8 players are attacking the mage, Veteran mobs if 8 or more players attacking
  • Guardians drop an area that replenishes player energy
  • Additionally, a tornado is summoned that throws unwary players into the air and deals some damage
• Mercenaries have been disabled for regular GvGs. Mercenaries can still be used in Crystal Realm Battles.
• Castle Outposts (smaller versions of castles) now appear in the open world. These can be claimed by guilds for season points. They appear four times as often as regular castles, but only give one-fourth of the points.
• The time window in which a castle can be captured has been greatly reduced (time between castle mob spawns: 15m → 3m)
• Item Power Softcap for 20v20 City Fights:
  • Thetford, Bridgewatch, Martlock: 50% softcap above 1000 IP
  • Fort Sterling, Lymhurst: 50% softcap above 1200 IP
  • Caerleon: no IP cap
• Maximum City Tax level (set by guild in control of the city): 25% → 10%

• Updated Guild Season Rank brackets:
  • Crystal Rank Threshold: 180,000 Season Points
  • Gold Rank Threshold: 60,000 Season Points
  • Silver Rank Threshold: 15,000 Season Points
  • Bronze Rank Threshold: 3,500 Season Points
  • Iron Rank Threshold: 1,000 Season Points
• Castle Scoring Times (UTC):
  • Thornbush Mire 19:00
  • Flesheater Morass 01:00
  • Heart of the Forest 01:00
  • Stonegrass Steppe 01:00
  • Charhide Steppe 19:00
  • Hill of Hollow Earth 19:00
  • Edgerock Sink 01:00
  • Bleak Moor 19:00
  • Eskdale 01:00
  • Armboth Fell 19:00
  • Creag Ard 19:00
  • Creag Uchag 01:00
  • Creag Bron 19:00
  • Creag Rudd 01:00

For more information about these changes, as well as some of the reasoning behind them, please see this forum post: https://forum.albiononline.com/index.php/Thread/115466

Blue Army's Season 6 winner statue now appears at the front gates of Conquerors' Hall near the Caerleon Realmgate. Anniversary decorations have been removed from cities.

Access Rights

• Alliance members can now be given similar access rights to chests, islands, etc. as guild members
• Access rights can now be copy-pasted from one object to another
• "Withdrawal from Account" rights have been split as follows:
  • Withdrawal from Silver Account
  • Withdrawal from Energy Account
• "Attack Territory" rights have been split as follows:
  • Attack Territory
  • Pacify Warcamp (new)
• "Manage Banks" rights have been split as follows:
  • Manage Banks
  • View Chest Logs (new)
• Co-Owners of Banks tabs can now view the tab's logs

Item Sort Improvements

Pressing the "Sort" button in any inventory display (chests, banks, personal inventory, etc.) will now sort items as follows:

• Item Type (see additional "Item Type" sorting below)
• Item Name (e.g. "Hunter Jacket")
• Tier
• Item Power
• Stack Size
• Durability

Item Types are sorted in the following order:

• Equipment items, further sorted by slot (Two-Handed Weapon, One-Handed Main Weapon, Offhand, Head, Chest, Feet, Capes, Bags)
• Mounts
• Consumables
• Consumable-from-inventory (e.g. Tomes of Insight)
• Farmables
• Simple items (e.g. resources, cooking ingredients)
• Furniture
• Journals

Loot Table Updates

• Castle chests can now drop Level 1 Artifacts
• Treasure sites (chests/lockers) can now drop Level 2 and 3 Artifacts

Other Changes

• Confirmation message added when attempting to use Tomes of Insight while not wearing any relevant gear
• Earthdaughter spell changes:
  •  "Thunderslam" cast time increased from 1.84 to 2.5 seconds, and now more accurately strikes the indicated position
  • Summoned Pebbles are now of the correct tier

• Fixed an issue where customized party member order would reset on cluster change
• Fixed an issue where party markers could sometimes not be placed on mobs
• Fixed an issue where incorrect guild logo would sometimes display after zoning
• Spell fixes:
  • Rejuvenating Breeze and Raging Blades can no longer be used prior to being unlocked
  • Battle Frenzy no longer removes shrine buffs
  • Time Freeze can no longer circumvent an immunity bubble
• Fixed an issue where terrain would sometimes display incorrect textures (water, etc.) when logging in after disconnect
• Fixed an issue where Personal and Guild Bank Tabs would slip further down each time "Save" was clicked or a new tab was purchased
• Additional graphical, UI, audio, animation, terrain, and localization fixes

Michael Schwahn, AKA Retroman, has been a part of the Albion Online team since 2015. Prior to joining Sandbox, he worked on Spec Ops: The Line at YAGER (also based in Berlin) and created an indie shoot-em-up called Teslapunk for mobile, Xbox One & Wii-U. As Combat Designer for Albion Online, Michael is responsible for keeping a huge range of weapon and armor skills up-to-date, and ensuring that the combat meta remains fair and vital with each game update.

With the next Guild Season starting this Saturday, we took the opportunity to talk to him about his approach to game design, what makes combat in Albion unique, and the games that have influenced him.

You've worked at Sandbox since the very early days of Albion Online. How has your work on the game evolved over the years?

The first big task I had was to overhaul the combat balance for the first beta. That was a very exciting, but frankly also a bit intimidating time, since I had never worked on an MMO before and Albion Online’s game design is quite a complex beast.

So, how to best approach the balancing of a sandbox MMO? Well, the game has PvP and PvE. Each of these aspects requires quite a different balance approach. But since Albion's endgame is heavily focused on guild warfare and PvP, I really wanted to focus on the PvP balance first and foremost. Of course PvE can’t be ignored, but all items are first designed around PvP and then after their PvP role is settled we can look at their performance in PvE.



I also want to see how far we can push the skill cap, to make the game less about numbers and stats, and instead increase the importance of group coordination and individual performance. With these requirements, I was more interested in MOBAs as a reference than other MMOs. There are a lot of similarities: MOBAs share the same perspective, also have a few spells active at a time, have a very high skill cap, and are often 5v5 like our GvGs.

As my forum name suggests, I am a gamer of a different era, and one of my absolute favorite game genres is fighting games. I played them semi-competitively and even held small tournaments back in school. With Albion Online, I wanted to bring this sense of excitement and personal mastery that I felt with these games to a new generation of gamers. That is the reason we have no random elements in PvP, because I always appreciated the super-deterministic mechanics of fighting games with no RNG. And on an abstract level, some of the concepts found in fighting games also translate surprisingly well to MOBAs: things like trying to bait enemies, the importance of positioning, and counterplay options.

Okay, so now I could decide on the first set of abilities and roles for the items. The next thing was to get the actual numbers into the game. To adjust so many numbers, you create a mathematical model with formulas with certain assumptions about the gameplay in mind. Things like how damage and stun translate. So every spell gets a certain power which comes from cooldown, cast time, AoE radius, etc… and also a ‘situational’ factor on top (for instance, skillshots have increased power because they can miss). This spell power is then split into the spell’s effects. For example, you could split the spell power to have 70% damage and 30% slow. This is a very useful approach to create a baseline for all abilities. However, it is just a tool to help you guide the values.



In the early days I sometimes followed these values even when they felt a bit off, which is not the intention. Because there are spells that are really hard to put a number on, like Blink. The original balance approach for Blink was, "you save so much time moving X meters, how much more DPS can you get out from the time you save". Which is one way to approach it, but it really doesn’t translate well into the actual value. It doesn’t consider, for example, that you can dodge abilities, make up for a positioning error, or secure a kill. The truth is this approach doesn’t cover all utility or synergy effects, which are so crucial. So nowadays I still use the math model to get a basic idea of the spell’s worth, damage, heal, CC, or energy values. But is is really just a first baseline. Playtests and meta observations play a very important role in changing the actual values.

Balancing combat and introducing new skills is a multistep process that involves multiple playtests. Can you give an overview of this process?

So first I start with a rough idea and a concept of an ability. Then I produce a prototype with our internal spell scripting system, using existing effects and animations. The first iteration of the ability will also use numbers from the above-mentioned math model. Then I try to get as much early feedback from players as possible. For this process we have the NDA playtests, to get the feedback of experienced players, because I often trust their feedback on PvP even more than our own feedback. Simply put, this is because many of the high-level players are better players than the devs.

I have to stay aware that all players are human beings, and so their feedback might be biased towards a specific weapon or activity in the game. But if many players from competing guilds complain about the same issue, it is very likely that they are on to something. We also record the gameplay sessions and I sometimes also join the playtests to directly talk to the players for feedback. But recently, FuS has been doing a great job covering the playtest responsibilities, which leaves me with more time to work on the game. After each playtest I keep making adjustments and performing more playtests until we reach a patch deadline. And after one patch ends another begins, so I'm often already working on the next patch as soon as the current one goes live.

Is there anything you wish you had done differently during development?

My biggest mistake was the Grudge meta. The main problem wasn’t that the spell was so crazily good that it dictated the meta (which it did), but rather that I didn’t try to push a balance patch out earlier. I remember this was after release, and I was kinda hesitant to make meta adjustments on the fly. I originally intended to have fix update cycles, so all players could rely on their team compositions for a season. But I think this approach was a bit outdated and came from my old-timer gaming experience from an era without patches. Now when I have the impression the meta is getting too unhealthy, I try to fix it as soon as possible.



What do you think are the biggest challenges when working on Albion Online?

Like I mentioned earlier, this game is a design beast. It has a lot of complex systems which are interwoven, which really makes it unlike anything else I've worked on. The whole player-driven economy and the the sandbox nature of the game impacts all design decisions. This goes down even on the combat level: for instance, fights can be 1v1, 5v5 or 100v100, they can be in different situations in the game: gathering, ganking, in Hellgates or dungeons or castles.

So while I mentioned earlier I tried to get as much influence from MOBAs as possible, there are of course a few crucial differences in Albion Online. First off, this is an open-world game, so mobility is extremely powerful. The one who has more mobility in the open world dictates the engage or disengage. Which is why I needed to tone down a lot of the early mobility options like Haste or the kiting potential of Warbow.

Another difference is that the introduction of traditional healer roles for MMO PvE really changes the PvP dynamic. If the healer has a lot of impact in a 5v5 fight, he becomes potentially very strong in 1v1 fights. Another difference is, because of the full-loot nature, in general the combat should not as bursty as a MOBA, so one-shot builds are not encouraged, which made finding the right balance for assassin builds always a bit tricky. Or how in ZvZ fights the big Wombo Combos are actually also a bit against the general idea of preventing one shots. On the other hand, these combos enable a smaller group to win against a big group, which is pretty cool. And I also consider players engaging in big ZvZ fights aware of that risk.



At first I thought "balanced" meant every item should be used the same amount. While it is true that every item needs a purpose, and ideally something it excels in, I don’t think the balance question is so easily answered. Because what does "balanced" in a game even mean? If everything is equal or very similar you get a very balanced game, but it won’t be very exciting to play.

I think a good balance for a game means it offers a variety in playstyles and interesting decisions, where weapons excel at one thing but feel equally strong. You can also bring up the mathematical model for game balance here again. I think if your game can be easily broken down in numbers, then players can enter your game into Excel and find the strongest composition. But if it is more about situational plays, synergies and counters, it is much harder to "solve" for players. And it will actually keep them interested longer.

Of course, trying to give everything a unique role makes it quite difficult to keep all the options viable in high-level play, but I think in the long run this approach creates a way more interesting and dynamic game. Ideally all abilities feel OP when used with the right setup or synergy. This is at least the direction I want to push the game further into. Abilities with potential high impact and outplay potential, but with counterplay options.

What are some of your favorite parts of working on Albion Online?

Definitely the community feedback. It can sometimes be harsh, but seeing our players so engaged with the game, on streams, videos and discussion on the forums and reddit is really an immense payoff for the hard work. It reminds me of when I was on the player side and was totally engaged with a game. The other thing I really enjoy working at SBI is the sense of personal responsibility and freedom I have. Being a small team means we are not very corporate and an individual can have a lot of impact on the game. And although I have been working here for more than four years, I still learn new things all the time. Recently I got involved with new topics like the Randomized Dungeons and the Season 7 adjustments. It can be a lot of work and stress, but seeing the result in the end is really fulfilling.



What are some of your all-time favorite games? Which games have you learned the most from?

I have no single favorite game. But I can list some of my favorite franchises:

Fighting games: Street Fighter, Tekken, Garou (and currently Samurai Shodown). Shoot’Em Up games, which probably no one knows: Dodonpachi, Giga Wing, Gradius V, Einhänder.

Apart from that I love all the From Software games since Dark Souls (Bloodborne & DS3 are my favorites), lots of retro games like Super Metroid, Final Fantasy VI, Castlevania games, Contra games, Zelda games, Advanced Wars and Tetris Attack. And a lot of other games that I'm sure I forgot to mention.

Anything else to add?

Maybe a bit out of the blue, but if some of you readers are considering becoming Game Designers yourself, you can do it. Just be aware it is a lot of work, it is not the most secure job and it won’t be easy. But if you really want to do it, it is possible. I remember as a kid I wanted to work in the game industry and the dream seemed almost impossible, all the grownups around me tried to talk me out of it. So I didn’t talk about it anymore, but inside I just couldn’t give up the dream. And in the end I found my way in the industry, even if it wasn’t the most direct way, but passion and dedication made it possible. And even if it is not the most rational decision, if your passion really lies with making games then give it a try. Maybe build a small game in Unity, Game Maker or even a board game. If you don’t end up in the industry, I think trying and failing feels much better than not trying and wondering “what if” your whole life.

Stay tuned for more Dev Spotlights in the coming weeks.

As part of our ongoing Second Anniversary Celebration, we've released the Official Albion Online Soundtrack on all major digital platforms! Now you can listen to the game's 22 award-winning tracks whenever and wherever you want. Whether you use Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, Amazon, or Deezer, we've got you covered - click here to see all the links in one place.

And for those who prefer to listen on YouTube, we've also uploaded the whole soundtrack to the Albion Online YouTube Channel, where you can listen to individual tracks or the full playlist.

Check out the dark and moody "Forest Theme" here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4oFELNC2gc&list=PLvJxnupyVHJi_sR_uPMlyA1G_U9zFu9pk&index=9

In our latest Dev Talk, Robin Henkys, Game Director of Albion Online, discusses the changes coming with GvG Season 7 and gives a preview of the roadmap beyond Percival.

Please note that you can find a detailed description of the Season 7 changes as well as a description of our roadmap in the forum or simply by following the links in the description below!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdQFZjzaWdU
Season 7 Changes: https://forum.albiononline.com/index.php/Thread/115466
Roadmap for Percival and Beyond: https://forum.albiononline.com/index.php/Thread/104122

No time to watch the video? Read on for a written summary of his talk.

In this season, we’re introducing a number of changes and features which aim to achieve two primary goals:

• Allow more players to contribute to their guild's Season Points in a wider variety of ways
• Limit the ability of a few guilds and players to dominate the GvG and castle gameplay, allowing a wider range of guilds to compete in the season

First Goal: Allow More Players to Contribute

To achieve the first goal of having more players contribute, we’re introducing Guild Challenges. Starting with Season 7, every player will be able to collect Challenge Points for their guild. When the guild hits certain challenge point goals, it will be rewarded with Season Points.

Challenge Points are generated for killing mobs and other open-world activities, just like in Adventurer's Challenges. This means you can now contribute to your guild’s season success, even as a non-PvP focused player. The guild challenge also comes with a ranking, so guild leaders and other guild members can see how many points everyone is contributing to the guild’s goals.



Second Goal: Leveling the Playing Field

To achieve our second goal of limiting the ability of a few players to dominate the game, we’re introducing a number of different changes.

First off, we’re introducing Castle Outposts to the Outlands. These outposts are capturable in a similar way to castles, and will also be paying out a daily Season Point reward as well as loot chests on weekends.

These will be four times as common as castles, but only give a quarter of the rewards. They will pay out their rewards at the same time as castles, opening more opportunities for smaller guilds to claim an outpost for themselves, while larger guilds will tend to fight over the big castles.

In addition, we’ve rebalanced castle capture times to be much shorter. This makes it harder for an alliance to move their army from one castle to another in response to an attack, and forces them to split their forces if they want to contest multiple castles.

We’re also making some changes to GvG and Crystal Realm fights:

• First, we’ve consolidated GvG attack times so more territories now share the same attack times, making it harder for the same players to cover multiple GvGs in one day using alts.
• In addition, we’ve deactivated mercenaries for GvG fights, which limits the projection ability of elite GvG teams onto their own guild’s territories, and makes it less likely for them to show up unexpectedly. (Note that mercenaries are still allowed for Crystal Realm Battles.)
• Finally, we’ve reworked the crystal realm system to include more tower levels and to put more emphasis on the win bonus, decreasing the incentive to “stomp” your opponents. This makes it more rewarding to play at the higher end of the tower levels, and as a result should make it easier to compete at the lower end of the tower levels.

That covers the main changes coming with Season 7, though I encourage you to read the full forum post if you’re interested in all the details.



For the most part, we’re still following the roadmap we published with the release of Oberon. Essentially, we’re aiming at a completely reworked Outland experience, where guilds actually live in the Outlands in secret bases we’re calling “hideouts”.

The goal of this roadmap is to solve the issue of large alliances being able to dominate the map, and at the same time fulfill Albion’s dream of allowing as many guilds as possible to build up their own base in the Outlands.

We’re already deep in planning the new Outlands map, and our plans for the hideouts are also proceeding nicely, but it has become clear that we’ll need to make quite a large number of changes and improvements in order to make living in the Outlands an exciting and fun experience. Therefore, we’re currently planning to split the rollout of this change over the next two content updates as well as upcoming patches.

We’ll soon be ready to share more details of our plans and what changes you can expect to happen when. That's all for now - we wish you the best of luck for Season 7, and we'll see you ingame!

Today marks two years since the official launch of Albion Online! Along with our retrospective of the past year, we're also celebrating ingame with a week-long party. Read on for all the details!

The Mists of Albion buff will be active for one week, giving an additional 25% Fame for all activities! Boost your combat, gathering, and crafting stats and get ready for the upcoming GvG season with this automatic buff. Here are all the details:

• Duration: July 17 10:00 UTC (after maintenance ends) to July 24 10:00 UTC
• Does NOT affect Fame earned through Tomes of Insight
• Does NOT affect the rate at which Challenge Points are earned

To take advantage of this powerful boost, just log in and play all week long!



To spread the celebratory mood, we've placed decorations in all cities, and sent out special gifts including the Anniversary Banner - a festive new furniture item - and three different colors of fireworks. Let's start Albion's third year with a bang!

Here's how to get your free gifts:

• Items are automatically sent to all players with accounts created prior to July 17.
• In addition to having a previously-created account, players must log in between July 17 10:00 UTC and July 24 10:00 UTC to trigger the reward. (It can then be claimed any time after that.)
• To claim, click the gear icon at the upper right, and select "Claim Rewards".

Thanks to our community for being a part of the world of Albion, and for making the game what it is today. And in case you hadn't heard, the award-winning Albion Online Soundtrack has now been officially released - click here to learn more!