Factions and Missions in Albion Onlline

In the last alpha test, the main purpose of PvE was to collect silver. Going forward, we want to give more meaning to PvE by doing something with the different factions in the game.

We will be introducing NPC agents that will give you missions and those missions will grant you faction standing and faction points. Faction points can be used to obtain special faction rewards, though it is likely that most faction rewards will also cost silver and need some extra ingredients.

Agents will have different levels, and in order to unlock higher level agents you will also need a certain standing with the faction first. Of course, the higher level the agents are, the more dangerous the underlying missions and regions will be.

Regarding the missions themselves, we are planning to introduce different types, such as combat, gathering, crafting and transports.

Destiny Board Changes and Progression Speed

There is two potential issues with the current destiny board: Power gamers, in particular if they have a strong support from their guild, can often unlock high end nodes really really fast. On the other end of the spectrum, other players might feel that some nodes are too grindy, i.e. that you have to repeat that craft / gathering action too many times in order to progress.

We believe that we can address both issues at the same time, by adding a learning points system. This system will work like a time-based skill queue in reverse: people will automatically accumulate learning points over time and unlocking certain nodes in the destiny board will require learning points on top of the usual task of getting a certain amount of fame in doing a certain activity. However, as learning points are pre-generated, if you have enough of them saved up, you can instantly unlock the node once you have completed the task.

On the one hand, this will make sure that we can reduce the grind on the task level while at the same time making sure that progression is not too fast.

In addition to that, we also will significantly improve and boost the role that mastery levels currently play. They will grant stronger bonuses and will also sometimes be required as a prerequisite for higher level skills and unlocks.

Value of Crafting

We believe that crafting should be valuable and that it should be possible for a crafter to earn money in the market place.

In the current state of the game, the problem is that once a player has unlocked the required skill, he or she can craft an infinite amount of items. This essentially means that one crafter in the world can meet the needs of everybody else. In the same way, one crafting building in the world could meet the needs for everybody.

We want to address this problem by introducing two concepts:
Crafting Endurance: crafting items will deplete some endurance from your character, which will recharge over time. This will not really affect you for normal items in normal amounts, however, might have an strong impact on special or higher tier items. The result is that those Albion Online Items will be limited in supply, allowing crafters to make money. Your crafting skill, in particular your mastery levels, will reduce the endurance requirements.
Building capacity: same as the above, but the limit is on the building level.