ZAM went on an exciting pre-launch tour with Todd Carson and Rod Haza - plus a Crystalline Dragon giveaway!

Dragon’s Prophet, a free-to-play MMORPG developed by Runewaker Entertainment and published by Sony Online Entertainment, has been staying visible with its “BetterWithDragons” and the more recent “SUPERMETAL” social media campaigns. In addition to engaging fans over platforms such as Twitter during their final stretch toward the game’s official launch date of September 18, we saw firsthand how passionate the team behind the dragon-filled world of Auratia can be. Earlier this week we attended a tour run by Senior Producer Todd Carson and Associate Producer Rod Haza and got the scoop on what’s in store for Dragon’s Prophet, and even snagged some Crystalline Dragon codes to give away.

Evolving Development
A trend that has been emerging recently has been for MMOs to not wipe characters that partake in their final beta stages. This holds true with Dragon’s Prophet, which has been in open beta for several months now. All characters, items and advancements made during this time will be retained when the game transitions into its full launch next week.

Many things changed during beta as the team observed how players interacted with the game and listened to the feedback they provided. One notable change was to the statistic that aids you for the time it takes to capture dragons. Formerly players had to rely on Charisma for this, but Todd talked about how, after seeing players assign so many of their attribute points to just Charisma, the developers refunded attribute points and created a Draconic Influence statistic. Now players can seek out Draconic Influence gear in-game to boost their capturing timeliness and focus on spreading out their attributes to benefit their classes.

To complement the number of dragons a player can capture, there is now a Dragon Chamber, which can be accessed from the Dragon Lair Manager. In addition to the original 12 dragons that a player could have at one time, they now have the accessibility to unlock up to 96 extra slots using the chamber. We asked how the slots were unlocked and were informed that the first row of six slots is free and expansion beyond that can be unlocked with Station Cash.

Another recent development is the ability to customize your character in-game. This includes normal customization choices such as the face, hair, skin tone and so on. Beauty comes with a price—be prepared to spend Dragon Insignias (earned from participating in social events) or Station Cash on this feature.

One more enhancement that players are enjoying is changes to the Dragon Shard system. These shards allow players to power up their armor and give stats to their character. Previously you could only combine two shards together, but now that has been expanded so that you can use shard attunement to combine two or more shards to make an even more powerful shard. This change introduces a more player-friendly interface for the feature.

Guilds and Sanctuaries
Guilds in Dragon’s Prophet are able to invest effort into quests and earning points, which in turn contribute toward the guild levels. Dragon Sanctuaries, likened to a “guild house” and added back in July, have the same appearance for each guild but provide a common area to meet in. This includes the August addition of the Dragon Altar to the sanctuary, which allows guilds to summon powerful dragon bosses. These bosses can provide experience and loot drops. To summon them your guild will need to invest the time in seeking the appropriate items out in the world, but this gives the opportunity for guilds to coordinate and work together on their own schedule.

New Player Experience
Auratia originally featured three starting areas but, as the beta progressed, the team decided to focus more on improving the new player experience and narrowed the choice to one. The area that was kept and revamped is called Puretia, while the two discontinued starting areas will be repurposed later on. Recent additions to the starter area include introducing Dragon Quests earlier in the game, improved mob aggro and a rebalancing of the area’s population. A hub is being added into the starter zone, which gives players a social gathering spot.

Level Cap Increase to 80
During the open beta players have already enjoyed a level cap increase from 60 to 70, along with a new area called Wintertide as well as three new dungeons plus a legendary dungeon. When the game launches the cap will increase again, this time from 70 to 80. A new zone called Inartia will be released, which again includes three new dungeons and another legendary dungeon. The new area continues the storyline, gives new dragons to capture (Todd and Rod gave us a peek at the new horse dragon—it doesn’t fly, but it still looks awesome!), and opens up new quests and achievements for players to enjoy. Todd mentioned that the final update before launch may have some of those achievements available to look through, so keep your eyes peeled!

The legendary dungeon is called the Palace of Methos and is intended for a full group of players. It is a level 80 dungeon that leads toward the conclusion of the current storyline. In order to engage the bosses players will need to meet certain criteria, which encourage them to work more fully through the content instead of rushing to the end.

No Raid Content… Yet!
Todd assured us that while there’s currently no raid content in the game, it is something they hope to get in a month or two after launch. “We wanted to make sure that raid content felt epic as well,” Todd commented, “and felt like it’s challenging for more than just a group of five.” The Guild Sanctuary and Dragon Altar are the team’s basic introduction to a raid setting.

A world boss will be added as part of the earlier mentioned revamp of the starting zone, Puretia. While putting a high level mob in a starter area is a questionable move, Todd stated that “what we’re looking for is for the higher level players to interact with the lower level players, and give those lower level players something to shoot for.” This boss is a giant level 80 skeletal dragon that will require players to get into siege equipment to bring the dragon down, allowing everyone to engage it. Everyone that is involved in the fight will have a chance to get a reward. One possible reward from this boss is an item that would allow you to summon and take a chance at capturing your own skeletal dragon.

When asked about how many players a raid will be a balanced for, Todd says they’re aiming for about 12-15 players, but it is expected that each player present will also have their dragons, which could potentially expand your force to about 40.

A Citadel on the Frontier
The frontier is a guild versus guild, alliance versus alliance PvP system. The citadels that players will battle for in the frontier are a floating island surrounded by crystal towers. These citadels will be unmanned at first and only occupied by NPCs. Your alliance (a group of guilds) can work toward destroying the crystal towers and defeating the NPCs. Completing this act triggers a PvP event to be scheduled for the following day, always at a pre-defined time of the day.

Any alliance can partake in this PvP battle. There are different capture points on each island that alliances will fight to hold, the amount of capture points varying by island. At the end of the battle, whichever alliance ends up with the most points or hits maximum score, earned by holding capture points, wins control of the citadel. They receive some time to build back up the defenses to prepare for the next PvP battle.

We questioned Todd for more information how many islands will be available for alliances to battle over, as well as what customization options are available to those who hold the citadels. Todd stated that there are only a total of 14 islands per server. As for customization of the defenses, the primary guild of the alliance, called the Highlord, will have a list of seven different items they can do each day that will bolster the defense of not only the island, but also give a bonus to players in the alliance and who have their housing there. One of the examples given was summoning a legendary dragon to help defend the citadel.

Shhh, it’s a Secret
Housing in Dragon’s Prophet has seen price reductions during beta, some lots going from a price point of 33 million down to 4 million. For some strange reason, players weren’t always fans of other players coming into their homes to PvP them while they’re decorating. In response to this concern, developers introduced Secret Apartments. These are an add-on to your house with its own private instance, and the only other players allowed inside are those that you invite in.

More Features to Enjoy
As the tour drew to a close, Todd and Rod went over a few last items of interest. Based on player feedback, the bag inventory will soon be expanded with an extra page of storage. Cosmetic pets, which take up an inventory slot for each that you possess, will receive their own special bag for storage. Emotes, such as dances, are being added so that players can express themselves better. Finally, the team is working on Twitch integration to open up the option to live stream, as well as preparing to launch the game on Steam.

Are You SUPERMETAL Enough?
Our last question for Todd and Rod was wondering what the most metal thing they’ve ever done was. Todd responded, “I went skydiving twice in real life. That was super metal. In game the most metal thing was using a flute to capture Cobalt Lightning… all by myself!” Rod’s metal moment “was taking down Fafnir (a special event dragon) with just two people.”

(UPDATE - September 18, 2013: All keys have been claimed, we hope you enjoy your new dragon!) Now it’s time for you to have a SUPERMETAL moment with your very own Crystalline Dragon (pictured below)! Just head over to our giveaway page and claim one of the codes there, then redeem it on your SOE account… it’s that simple! They're limited in quantity, so don't delay. Remember, characters created while the game is still in open beta will NOT be wiped, so claim your dragon and enjoy it in Dragon's Prophet today!

Ann "Cyliena" Hosler, Managing Editor

Follow me on Twitter: @Cyliena