Announcements & News

[center][img]http://flightrising.com/dropbox/banner_launchplans.jpg[/img][/center] We would like to preface this message with a sincere thanks to both our alpha and beta testing groups. You have helped us find and fix hundreds of bugs, given us thousands of posts of feedback, and stress-tested our system with over 2,200 dragons. Simply put, you are [i]amazing[/i]. The development team would like to lay out [i]Flight Rising's[/i] launch plans so that there are no misconceptions of what features will/won't be making it to Launch Day. This provides us with an affirmative goal to work towards (at some point y'just gotta draw the line), and the community a better idea of the kinds of things we will need more focused testing on, as we head towards opening (the date of which we have not announced yet). [more] As always, some of this is subject to change, but this should provide everyone with a concise and transparent picture of what we have decided upon. Please keep in mind that we are a very small team (most of whom work rigorous full-time jobs) and that our man-hours have to be spent as wisely as possible to get the site out there for everyone to enjoy. When the beta test is over, the site will enter a bit of a lockdown for final prep. [i]Flight Rising[/i] will receive continuous updates, improvements, and additional content, so we'd like to remind everyone that just because a feature isn't listed here, doesn't it mean it cannot follow in an update soon after. That being said, let's move on to the details! [b]General[/b] [i]Flight Rising[/i] will support two major currencies, treasure and gems. Gem packages will be purchasable through Paypal and Google Checkout, or earned slowly through gameplay. Prices may undergo slight alteration from what is shown on the page right now, but we are fairly happy with the values. The major core features of [i]Flight Rising[/i] will be attainable and playable solely with treasure. Treasure will not be purchasable. Players will be able to add friends, and send items/currency to single recipients through the Message Center. Players will have no limit to their Hoard (the inventory in which they gather items). [b]Breeding[/b] Players will be able to breed dragons that are not related and not currently on cooldown. Cooldowns will vary in length in accordance to the rarity of the dragon's breed. Both parent dragons will remain caretakers on a nest for 5 days, in which they will not be available for exaltation or auctioning/trading/selling. Breeding will take into account the genes of the mother and father dragons only, and the most common clutches will be 2-3 eggs. Eggs will have a chance of perishing if they are not incubated once a day. Players can purchase a Boon of Fertility to hatch a nest immediately. Offspring will always be the element of the player's lair, and will mature to full size in about 5-6 days. [b]Species[/b] [i]Flight Rising[/i] will launch with a confirmed list of 8 dragon species, with the possibility of up to 10 if our Kickstarter stretch goals are met allowing us to fast-track two additional species.*** The species are: [list] [*]Fae (Starter) [*]Guardian (Starter) [*]Imperial (KS Backer) [*]Mirror (Starter) [*]Pearlcatcher (Treasure) [*]Ridgeback (Treasure) [*]Snapper (Treasure, available at-launch if we reach our KS stretch goal 2) [*]Spiral (Treasure, available at-launch if we reach our KS stretch goal 1) [*]Tundra (Starter) [*]Wildclaw (Gems)[/list] [b]Dragon Lair[/b] The dragon lair will support a maximum of 99 dragons, 15 displayed per page (due to site optimization and data query efficiency). Dragons can be arranged in any manner the player wants, as long as they have enough room. All den expansion levels will be available. Players will be able to feed their dragons all-at-once via the Feed button, and the appropriate food point amounts will be deducted. [b]Gathering[/b] Players will be able to gather items for their clan, and all items gathered will be deposited into the Hoard. Each used turn will contribute to a clan's experience in that type of gathering. For launch, players will be able to progress each type of gathering type to Level 20, with new items entering the yields at level 10. There will be six types of gathering: [list][*]Hunting - Produces Food Items (Meat) [*]Fishing - Produces Food Items (Seafood) [*]Insect Catching - Produces Food Items (Insects) [*]Foraging - Produces Food Items (Plants) [*]Digging - Produces Materials / Battle Stones [*]Scavenging - Produces Trinkets/Junk/Dragon Eggs [/list] Players will be granted 10 Gathering turns a day (15 if they have kept their clan well fed for 3 consecutive days), and will have the option to repeat the last gathering attempt they executed. Gathering in specific elemental zones will affect what items are yielded. During holidays, a special type of currency will appear in the gathering yields for the element that is being celebrated that week. [b]Fairgrounds[/b] Four fairground games will be available for launch. [list][*]Runestones of the Arcanist [*]Jigsaw [*]Shock Switch [*]Tidal Trouble[/list] They will undergo extensive optimization for multiple platforms (aiming for Chrome, Safari/iOS, Firefox, and later versions of Internet Explorer). Each will have a balanced treasure payout that is roughly equivalent to the time and effort of each of the others. The final results of said balancing may not be seen by the end of the beta test, and may undergo changes in the first month following release. [b]Trading Post[/b] The trading post will go live with three merchants: [list] [*]Swipp's Swap Stand: Players will be able to trade in materials, food, and trinkets for special items (some of which are exclusive to this area of the site). Swipp's deals will rotate every 2 hours and new deals will be continually added in content updates. [*]Crim's Collection Cart: Players will be able to trade in items for a considerable amount more than their sell price. Crim will produce ten randomly generated new offers every 12 hours. [*]Pinkerton's Plundered Pile: Players will be able to receive one random item from the game's item database every 24 hours. [/list] [b]Coliseum[/b] Players will be able to level their dragons to Level 25, and the following battle venues will be available for play: [list] [*]Training Grounds [*]Scorched Forest [*]Forgotten Caves [*]The Waterway [*]The Arena [*]Boreal Wood [/list] Monsters will drop a variety of food, items, chests, familiars, and apparel. [b]Flight Dominance[/b] Players will be able to exalt their excess dragons to contribute to their flight's army. Exalting a dragon will remove the dragon from the player's lair and provide them with a sum of treasure that is proportionate to the dragon's level. These values are still being decided upon. The number of exalted dragons from a combined pool of clans of the same element will be checked against that element's active population in the last 30 days, producing a ratio that will keep all flights competitive. These ratios will then be calculated into a leaderboard. Each Saturday, the system will reward the flight that is at the top of said leaderboard with a week's worth of rewards. Exalted dragons will contribute to the element of the lair they were exalted from; their personal element will not factor. [b]Holidays[/b] [i]Flight Rising[/i] will run elemental-themed holidays (one celebrating every flight) from February to December, each occurring roughly the last week of each month. A holiday shop featuring rare and unique items will be open for the duration of that week, and players will be able to shop with special currency (found via site activities) only available during the holiday. Once the shop is closed, it will remain so until the next scheduled holiday. To keep the items from each rare, they will not be available for purchase beyond the last day of the holiday. Players will be allowed to sell, trade, and keep the currency they obtained to use the following year. [b]Dragon Customization[/b] Individual dragons will be able to equip apparel, skins, accents, and pair themselves with familiars. They will be displayed with their hatchday, level, stats, growth measurements, genes, lineage, and customizable information box. Dragons can be Liked on Facebook or Tweeted. Clicking the "Generate Code" button will provide the player with a dynamic URL that will always display the dragon as it currently appears. This is useful for forum threads. [b]Custom Skins & Accents[/b] Players will be able to download PSDs of all available dragon breeds and design their own custom skins (cover the whole dragon) or accents (cover 30% or less surface area) and submit them for approval and item creation. In order to upload a submission, a Custom Blueprint will need to be purchased for gems. These prices are subject to be adjusted, but in comparison to market research, we feel they are close to what they should be. [b]Familiars[/b] Familiars can be paired to dragons and over time, can bond with the clan. Only one familiar can be equipped per unique type per clan (meaning that a clan cannot have two of the same familiar paired at any one time). Visiting a familiar each day will increase their level of familiarity with the clan as well as provide monetary rewards. At each new level, familiars will give you a special present. When a familiar is maxed out, it will not earn futher experience or grant items, but it will continue to give treasure each day. [b]Encyclopedia[/b] [i]Flight Rising[/i] will launch with an encyclopedia of basic articles about the site, as well as be a repository for official [i]Flight Rising[/i] lore. Our current plans are to launch the Encyclopedia with a basic amount of information to assist any user with understanding the site's core functions, and then expand the amount of articles as time goes on and new content is added. [b]Kickstarter[/b] Shortly after we close our beta we will be working furiously on the site to ready it for launch. While this is going on we will launch a kickstarter to help generate funds for a dedicated server. During its beta [i]Flight Rising[/i] was on a virtual private server. While this was fine for several dozen users online at the same time, we want for the site to be able to handle a good amount of traffic while staying nice and speedy. A dedicated server is a pricey investment, and we're hoping our Kickstarter will help raise the funds while providing our backers with a selection of spiffy rewards to chooose from. We're aiming for a very modest goal of $3,000. This amount should cover our backer rewards, the amazon and kickstarting fees themselves, and 6 months time on a really nice server. [i]***If we're able to go above and beyond our goal, we have stretch rewards lined up that will have our team working overtime to push out some keen releases well-ahead of schedule, ready for launch day![/i] [b]Post-Launch Content Plans[/b] The following items will not be available at launch, but are planned for implementation soon after. Although we would have liked to include some of these into the final version, in order to get the site opened to the public in a timely manner, we have locked the above features in and will be improving them over the life of the site. [list] [*]Continual Updates for Genes and Apparel As expected, we will be continuously adding new apparel and genes into the site for you to further customize your dragons and breeding experience. These will likely be released every few weeks or so, dependent on development team time constraints. [*]Private Dragon Transactions We loved your suggestions for private dragon transactions and would like to implement this as soon as possible after launch. Our philosophy will always be to protect both parties from scamming, and this will create another secure way to perform deals. [*]Full or Partial Viewable List of Swipp's Swap Stand Deals We have evaluated Swipp's Swap Stand over the life of the alpha and beta and would like to implement a bit more of a transparent solution for the kinds of things Swipp offers up. This may end up being a randomized, smaller list of possible deals, or it may be all of them - we just haven't decided yet. [*]The DragonMeet We are currently working behind the scenes to create a social outlet for players to meet one another that is not the forums. This feature will allow you to move your focal dragon (avatar) around in a visual environment and chat with other users in real-time. While details about this system are still being hammered out, we feel it will be a cool place to hook up, roleplay, and discuss Flight Rising, and show your dragon off in a themed setting. [*]Adventure Due to the immense size and scale of this feature, it will not be available for launch (or even several months after launch), but we have already begun content creation and have many backend systems in place for our adventure/questing mode. In a content update some time after launch, players will be able to take a party of dragons into a few subregions of the world map, select quests to embark on, and earn treasure/loot for completing them. The player will be able to move their party of dragons around a visual environment, explore, and battle their way through random and scripted encounters. This feature will expand over time, encompassing more and more areas of the Flight Rising realm for players to explore. [*]Coliseum Versus Mode We are continuing behind-the-scenes development on a Versus Mode for the Coliseum, which will make use of some cool new technology that allows multiplayer directly on our server without the use of a tertiary environment. This update is coming later so that we have plenty of normal Coliseum usage to monitor and analyze to create as balanced an experience as possible. [*]Trading Post Addition - Baldwin's Bubbling Brew A new dragon will be setting up shop at the Trading Post and bringing along his trusty cauldron. Players will be able to drop almost any item into the cauldron (1 per hour) to create different kinds of oozes and sludges. These sludges can then be used in various recipes for exclusive items, apparel, and familiars. [*]New Fairground Game - Artifracture We will eventually be introducing a new fairground game called Artifracture. It will be an earth-themed puzzle game where lining up like-colored rocks and artifacts will cause them to disappear and contribute to a level goal. Meeting the goal for the level will get progressively more difficult, as a timer will continue to tick down. This game is already in very early production. [/list] While there are many other features in the pipe, we wanted to give you guys a sneak peek of what is on the way! Your suggestions have been immensely helpful in determining a lot of upcoming changes and goals for the team. We look forward to continuing to refine the site til the beta test comes to a close, and are excited to release [i]Flight Rising[/i] to the world! Again, our humblest thanks for all your hard work. We are working round the clock to get everything polished and completed for launch day. [indent][indent]- The Flight Rising Development Team[/indent][/indent]

I was wondering what Subregions where for

Woooaaahhh, awesome! I'm excited for the launch, can't wait to try out the new games! ^_^

can we make a prayer circle for baldwins please

one item an hour??? its going to take 3000 hours to drop my stuff in dont do this to me and its going to be a nightmare to get the gene