Greetings adventurers,

Today we bring you an update from our team on our immediate plans as we progress into 2021. We’d like to take this opportunity to wish everyone from our community well in this difficult time and we’ve all got our fingers crossed for a bright future and good health to all of you. As a small team working on a big project, our progress has been hindered substantially in these times, but we have a few developments to share with you so let’s get to it.

Point Release 11 

Due to the temporary loss of key members on our team, Point Release 11 has been postponed indefinitely. A release such as this, complete with a new landmass and its proposed features, is a big job and something which demands a level of completion and polish that the smaller team size cannot complete to a level of standard we expect in a reasonable frame of time. Until such a time as work can continue in full we can only keep you updated and anticipate for when progress can continue. We fully intend to revisit development on both The Outlands and other features – such as Necromancy, the Magery revamp, and Pet Skills – in the future. 

With our decreased team size, we have decided instead to work with the community to develop a new plan for moving forward. Over the past few weeks we have held a number of round table discussions and conversations in Discord and have reviewed large amounts of feedback from our most passionate players. These discussions have informed our plans for the immediate future. Instead of focusing on temporary content, such as Seasons and Arenas, we will be working with the community on systems, content, and experiences that will influence the Legends of Aria experience in a more permanent way.

Factions

The single most common request was for our team to revisit factions. This was something we always intended to do when we initially removed the feature from the game, but we did not have the time to devote to development on a meaningful faction system that could not be easily exploited with the other features we had already committed to in our Point Releases. With development on Point Release 11 suspended, we have the capacity to revisit this system. 

We thank our players for passionately championing their wishes, and are eager to provide you with further information on our new approach to factions as soon as we have more details to share. Previous designs for factions were imperfect for our players and our team, and redesigning the system in a way that is fun, rewarding, and fair will take a bit of time, but we will keep you updated on the progress of the development.

The Forge

While Factions are a focus for our existing official servers, we also want to work with the community to create a new Legends of Aria experience. We will be launching a new type of experimental server, one where we will work closely with the community to reimagine the experience of adventuring in Celador from the ground up. 

Development on this server will be informed by regular communications with, and feedback from, our community. Instead of large, sweeping updates, we will work slowly with a focus on polish and ensuring that all systems work well with others.

In our discussions with the community, several pieces of feedback have given us a starting point for this experimental server. We want to work to make sure the space in our game is meaningful. The size of the world on our existing official servers doesn’t make that easily achievable, so we will be starting small with The Forge. To prepare for the launch of this server, we will be revisiting the map of Celador and creating a smaller, more intimate play area designed to encourage cooperation.

Each account will be limited to one character on this server, and there will be no transfers from the existing servers to The Forge. In order to ensure a healthy economy in the future, access to The Forge will require a Citizen’s Pass or active subscription.

We will be holding regular community roundtable discussions in our Discord server, and will be distributing a survey to our active players to allow them the opportunity to weigh in on features and mechanics. We will also be adding dedicated channels to our Discord server for discussions related to The Forge.

With The Forge, our focus will be on polish and quality instead of pushing out content and landmasses, and our focus is on delivering what the majority of our players are most passionate about. We will be sharing more information about The Forge in the coming weeks, once we have held discussions with our community and have had the time to distribute and review everyone’s survey responses and feedback.

Community Admin Program

Our third focus will be on delivering on one of our earliest promises to you – the opening of the Community Admin Program to the public. While our focus immediately with the resources we have on staff is The Forge and Factions, launching the Community Admin Program is still a goal for us. There are a number of issues that need to be considered and addressed prior to opening the program. We have begun conversations with the admin community and will continue to work with them in the coming months to determine what needs to happen, and will update you on progress as it occurs.

Discover a world forged by players, where your choices write the story. What role will you play?

Key Features:

• • A Living, Breathing MMORPG: Explore a true open world without limitation. Build, explore and adventure with thousands of players in a living breathing world defined by you.
  • Skill-Based World: Legends of Aria returns to a true skill based system. Build your character your way, be you a crafter, adventurer, merchant or humble fisherman. Hone your skills through use and play your way with a choice of over 32 unique skills.
  • Return to a True Sandbox: Legends of Aria is inspired by the original sandbox MMORPGs. Experience a world that does not hold your hand. A world that is driven by you and shaped by our community. A world of dangers, where friendships, enemies made and your actions written into legend