Alganon Expansion, Low-Level Refinements in 2010

Alganon designer David Allen posted a letter on the Alganon website detailing plans for the recently released MMO on the Alganon website today.  The letter reveals a retail expansion titled “The Dawning” and detail goals to refine the pre-level 10 experience.

The expansion is promised to include a bundle of content, detailed succinctly by Allen:

This expansion will include a bunch of new instances, new history and introduction materials to teach the player more about the lore of Alganon, the Asharr & Kujix, and their chosen race, as well as numerous bug fixes and gameplay enhancements for classes. The Dawning will also feature the Consignment house, a system where players can place buy orders for items, creating a whole new dynamic for those who engage in tradeskills and item hunting.

Allen also relayed their efforts to change the low-level experience in Alganon, realizing that the particular elements that make Alganon great aren’t apparent until after level 10.  To remedy this, Allen wants to refine the tutorials and introduce more lore and history earlier, as well as add new systems to make Alganon more unique.  In addition to these refinements, Allen also promised an add-on system in January that will allow players to “create their own interfaces and visual adjustments.”

He also acknowledges how hard it is – especially as an independent studio – to create an MMO against games that have had five years of refinement and teams with huge budgets.  He asks that players not make unfair comparisons, and to “remember what DAoC, WoW, EQ2 and other MMOGs were like when they released, and look at what they evolved into.”