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Enjoying some ale at Soilstone's Beer Garden

Letter from the Project Lead

Hey everyone!

December has been an amazing month for the project. Our army of supporters has grown more this month than any other month since Kickstarter. By the time you read this, we should have over 2500 supporters in total! It is great to see so many new faces in the game exploring the world of Celador. Here's what people are saying about our latest release:

"Absolutely LOVING the game so far, can't stop playing it literally. It's in-depth, it's rich, it's %$#%$^#ING delicious." - RipperX from MMORPG.com

"Most fun I had in an MMO in 10 years" - YoMamma

"Best fun I have had since my Beta UO days" - Elinari
We are so glad everyone is having fun. We've also received some great feedback and squashed some pretty nasty bugs since the release. Sorry guys, you can't train an un-killable demon into the village anymore!

Looking ahead, things will get a little quiet as we work on our next maps, Outlands, Catacombs and Founder's Shard, as well as the technology to seamlessly travel between them. To keep things interesting, we'll also be rolling out a few additions like our first hirelings: Player Run Merchants, and guild housing!

If you haven't pledged yet, there is no better time than now. A 40$ pledge will get you instant access and you could be playing Shards Online in just minutes. And the higher tiers are chocked full of cool rewards that get you even more involved in the project.


See you all in Celador!

Derek "Supreem" Brinkmann
Project Lead
Worldbuilding has begun on the exclusive Founder's Shard.

Referral Program

Supporters now have a special referral link on their dashboard. If someone pledges for the game using this link, you will earn 250 loyalty reward points to be spent on exclusive items on official servers.

Loyalty points are bound to your account which means they can be redeemed on any character on an official server. They will also be completely refunded in the rare case of a server wipe during development. This means the points you earn now will actually get you stuff when the game is in full alpha and even release!

All the details about the program can be found on the Referral FAQ.
 

Community Event: Tournament of Champions Sign-ups

Our very first PvP tournament will be held at the Azure Sky Arena on Saturday, January 16th at 3pm EST. We will be doing 2v2 battles in a single elimination tournament bracket. This is an experiment, but I think it can be a lot of fun if we get enough entries.

The winning team will earn 100 loyalty points and 5000 coins each and the runners up will earn 50 loyalty and 2500 coins. Don't worry if you don't think you can win, everyone who shows up to the event will earn 50 loyalty points so sign up and let's have some fun!

Sign up by replying in this thread (Playtesters Only). If you don't have a teammate, just mention that in the thread and we will pair you up with someone.

Designers Den: Player Run Merchants

Derek Brinkmann
Every time I ask the guys on the team for a new Designer's Den, I hear them say "When are you going to do one?". Since I've been working on Player Run Merchants, our first hireling, I figured this would be the perfect time for me to finally write one of these.

In order to understand how Player Run Merchants are going to work, you must first have an understanding of how our hireling system will work. Hirelings are NPCs in search of employment who will perform tasks for you for a price. Each of them have their own specialty such as gathering resources, crafting, guarding player owner areas of the map, and of course peddling wares.

Unlike animal ken pets, hirelings will stay in the world after you log out and continue to perform their designated task. The fee the NPC charges will depend on the type of task he is performing and his skill level. The more difficult or lucrative the task and the more skilled the hireling, the more they will cost to keep under your employ.

In the case of merchants, you will find one wandering Eldeir Village seeking employment, lead him to your home, tell him exactly where he should set up, place goods for him to sell on tables or in chests, set their prices and you are in business. Additionally, you will be able to talk to him to collect your profits and even change his name and what equipment/clothing he is wearing.

Initially, he will just be limited to selling items, but in future releases, you will also be able to specify specific resources that you are looking to purchase from others. 

We did not plan to release Player Run Merchants before Alpha, however it has become evident that they are absolutely necessary even at this early stage in order to have a working player driven economy. You can expect the first iteration to be available in the next release (0.3.2).
The team is starting on Catacombs content this month!

So You Think You Can Mod

Our Pre-Alpha Admin modding contest has been pushed back to March to give all of our modders more time to put together their entries.

We don't have an exact date, but sometime in March, everyone who has pledged at least $40 will be able to log in and vote for their favorite mod. There will be two prizes: Player's Choice and Developer's Choice. Both winners will receive a $200 gift card that could be put towards hosting for their community server. 

Want To Play?

If you haven’t pledged your support yet or if you have been dying to upgrade to a better pledge package, now's your chance!  Head over to our pledge page right now and secure your early access to Shards Online. This project will be successful because of your support.

Copyright © 2014 Citadel Studios, All rights reserved.

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