2024 Retrospective and our 2025 Plans

Hello, everybody!

It’s hard to believe that 2024 is over, especially considering all the wild hijinks we have all gotten up to! Before we talk about all the exciting things on the horizon for 2025, we felt it would be best to discuss all the fantastic achievements from this year:

[0;1;33mStory Events, Player Agency, and Consequences[0m

After the Monomachy, we felt it would be difficult to top the scale of significant story events and had a lot of internal discussions about how best to approach this. We also worried that players would experience ‘doomsday burnout’, as the content is complex and challenging to take seriously if it happens every six months. Razmael and I agreed that the best way to move forward was to hit the reset button on the scale: we would try to avoid ‘cosmic threats’, world-ending arrangements, and dire apocalypse scenarios for a little while. Even when we wrote last year’s review, we had already determined that this was the best way forward and intended to have Varach Scolrys return to the game’s story. While we envisioned a much different event at the outset, Spinesreach had other plans. Rather than deny the sentiment brewing within that city’s community, we took the opportunity to make good on our commitment and let every city take the reins with how they would respond to the event. Though it had some rough spots and its subject matter defied some of our new threat-level guidelines, we count it as a rousing success that convinced every city to move the needle and take more control of their destiny.

After the Ire of Scolrys, we decided to take a break from ‘world events’ for the rest of the year and focus instead on empowering every city to embrace the mindset detailed above. It seems as if every single city has had something unique happen throughout the second half of the year: Spinesreach attempted to war three minor city-states and wreaked havoc in the process, Duiran ousted the would-be Salmati Empire from the Ithmian reaches, Enorian began the long process of purging Mor as the first stop on their enduring fiery crusade, and Bloodloch continues to toil away in the name of Abhorash’s grand vision. These events have allowed every city to grow accustomed to being in control of an event’s direction. However, we understand that some of these are works in progress rather than ‘done deals’ and intend to pick these loose threads back up in 2025.

Ultimately, this year proves that this mindset is helping Aetolia thrive, and we don’t see that changing. Instead, we want to focus on better empowering this approach and making it less stressful for each of you. After all, world events are a much-beloved aspect of the Iron Realms and provide an experience impossible to find in other, more prominent mediums.

I have spent a lot of time thinking about how to improve this year’s narrative progression. We hope to weave several individual narratives into a larger story that clarifies where we’re ‘going’ in Aetolia’s narrative. A familiar undercurrent in player feedback is that they miss some of the guidance/direction the prior chapter provided.

[0;1;33mGods and Gravitas[0m

In addition to the above, we had hoped that the Monomachy would uplift the gods and get them out of the ‘main character’ spotlight, as we firmly believe this position belongs to players.

At the end of the Monomachy, we made it clear that the gods had recaptured most (if not all) of their lost power. However, we realised that this increase in power needed to come with an increase in aloofness; if the gods continued to meddle in every event personally, nothing would ever possess risk or danger from an In Character perspective. Understanding that this would take some time to bear fruit, we started laying the groundwork for this as soon as possible. Instead of doing things themselves, we began steering gods toward indirect intervention by using their orders and congregations as proxies/agents. This ensured that most of the ‘heroism’ directly translated to player activity that lets all of you feel like the badasses you are, and this has started showing its merit in the last six months.

Throughout this year, we have also pushed for increased visibility of every played role. As a result of this, I am sure many of you have seen far more of Arvelis, Abhorash, Slyphe, Tanixalthas, Haern, Dhar, Euthymius, Lexadhra, Bamathis, and Celezor than you might have in previous years. We hope to continue this trend and refine each role’s place in Aetolia so that we can tell personal stories that help you further refine your characters into figures that rival fantasy’s most significant examples. This specific goal aims to answer a constant request from players: more involvement of the gods, more meddling and direction, etc. We will continue to calibrate aspects of this to perfection in the new year.

[0;1;33mSkill Lore and Messages[0m

One of Aetolia’s greatest triumphs is how much effort it has put into being a separate world with its narrative and unique characteristics, despite its humble beginnings as a mirror of Achaea’s world. In continuing with this vision, we elected to give our oldest skill messages a much-needed facelift that would grant better insight into Aetolia’s tone and themes. We initially identified three (yes, three!) skillsets that sorely needed this treatment and set to work, making a note to find a way to work these into the Varach Scolrys narrative.

Though mentioned in both posts, I would be remiss if I didn’t thank Brax and Orlayth again, who worked alongside me to define new aesthetics for Necromancy and Devotion, respectively. These projects would have been of lower quality without their contributions, and I am excited for you to see what we did with Spirituality when the time comes to unleash that upon the world.

Alongside these reimagined class messages, 2024 also saw the release of Morale’s Adherent and an incredibly flavourful rewrite of the Tiarna an-Kiar to better suit Duiran’s Dia’ruian duty. Though I would like to uplift the flavour of older 200 classes like Chaos Lord, this is of a lesser priority when compared to our outstanding goals for 2024 and our upcoming 2025 roadmap.

[0;1;33mNew Classes, Racial Revamps, and Ambitious Redesigns[0m

While Aetolia’s oldest classes experienced aesthetic transformations, Keroc was toiling away at everything he is fantastic at! This year saw the release of a reimagining of the Ascendril class and its associated mirror. Made more cohesive and streamlined, the kit was adopted by plenty of players, including new combatants who have since made a name for themselves through their mastery of the elements! Of course, these adjustments came with new messages that pointed Bloodborn in a slightly different direction, making it more accessible (and a bit less gross) in terms of themes and messages. Since the release of this ambitious project, the class has experienced a renaissance in terms of engagement and adoption rate, proving to us that a redesign was time well spent.

Though just a class revamp would be fine, Keroc promptly outdid himself by developing a new class kit: the Siderealist! Drawing upon one of Aetolia’s most mysterious branches of lore and new fields of magic, the Siderealist has already exploded onto the scene and is already one of our most popular classes. We are incredibly excited to see how it changes Aetolia’s combat landscape in the coming months, and we eagerly await an enthusiast to arise and show the world what this new class is capable of!

In addition, the Racial Skill system was completely redesigned, which presented meaningful decisions and opportunity costs to players everywhere!

[0;1;33mWar Changes[0m

Though a hot topic, the war system continues evolving under Keroc’s watchful eye. As the year’s second half began, we adjusted the pace at which war progressed. In hopes of increasing the weight and gravitas of the war system, we instituted a condemnation system that serves as a stepping stone to outright war, emulating the political tension of geopolitics and military manoeuvring. Though this reduced the frequency of war, we interpret this as a success, as a declaration of war is a far more meaningful decision now rather than something done on impulse.

Those who frequent the Combat channel on our Discord will likely recall that Keroc hinted at coming system changes. These continue to be his priority, and they will coalesce when ready. However, we want to be confident that any addition answers your feedback while enriching the system, so we have committed to taking all the time we need on the matter.

[0;1;33mPK Attitudes[0m

Combat enthusiasm feels as if it is at an all-time high! Most of the Duels held this year had high participation rates, culminating in the Grand Duel featuring a staggering 60 participants! We’re delighted to see this, as we view PK as an essential aspect of RP in a conflict-oriented world. We view it as an enriching option that lends itself well to the competitive elements of organisation themes and character creeds, and we’re thrilled to see more and more players regard it as a normalised part of the game rather than something to be shamed, avoided, or shut down.

[0;1;33mContent Accessibility[0m

Though all of the above constitute broad, sweeping changes, we have not forgotten all the little things that make Aetolian an exceptional world in which to participate. As the world’s movers and shakers shattered the geopolitical gridlock, artisans embraced Bonro’s beloved art of Ceramics! We also reassessed the costs and difficulties of seeking opportunities in a new city. We mirrored the Vampirism Cure, allowing Akkari characters to finally step away from their Lightbound duty if they saw fit. To go along with this, we also lessened multiclassing penalties via guild-granted class slots. Last but certainly not least, we provided a way to convert your class to the other tether’s mirror to lessen associated losses in lessons or credits.

In the past, we had displayed a bad habit of creating content for specific moments and then abandoning that content to the sands of time. This year, we decided to turn that on its head and release some of this content in re-imagined scenarios that allow future players to taste those glory days. For example, look no further than the Relovec Mansion and Unending Night scenarios now enshrined within the Memoryscape, as well as introducing new options for milestone bosses such as the Scourge of Mannaseh.

In addition to the above, we focused more on player feedback and player-submitted ideas. Last week, we went through the Idea Queue and implemented a staggering amount of feature requests as a gift to each of you. We hope to continue seeing your passionate feedback and brilliant ideas in 2025!

[0;1;33m2025 and Beyond[0m

Speaking of 2025, here is what you can expect…

1. Airships are our top priority. We indicated this was a 2024 promise, but the sheer scope will dwarf any content release we have ever undertaken in Aetolia’s history, and we thus needed to secure more time to make it the best product we can. We promise it will be well worth the wait! I’d like to thank our Mortal Builders, who are already toiling away at the areas you might visit once you can sail the glorious Aetolian skies!

2. Persuasion’s release: though initially slated for December, we felt it would be better to hold off and let people enjoy the holidays and grow accustomed to Siderealist before we launched into Persuasion. We’re incredibly excited to see what you do with this, and we’re ready to accept feedback and feature requests shortly after its release!

3. The return of world events; we haven’t forgotten about these! Before returning to global storytelling, we want to wrap up some pending business with cities. However, we want these global events to be more structured to facilitate a better, smoother experience for you and an easier time for us as the ‘showrunners’. The Demon Blade’s prisoners remain at large, Idaltu’s newly architected planets pose new and unique mysteries to unravel, and new trouble looms upon the horizon – what will the endgame of our next significant moment look like, I wonder?

4. Continued God presence; we are not yet done with the Monomachy’s aftereffects and other loose threads left dangling in its wake. Many of those stories will require the presence of our gods.

5. A Wisdom-focused player class! Let the speculation begin! Remember that Wisdom fuels the ‘knowledge’ damage type, i.e. familiarity with processes, devices, and tools as opposed to Intelligence’s magical powers.

6. The third agricultural skill: though we prioritise the release of Piloting and Persuasion, we have a vision for Agri3 and its position in portions of the game’s economy. We know exactly what we want it to do, we just have more significant priorities.

Happy New Year from all of us here in the Pools! We hope you’re looking forward to everything just as much as we are in 2025!

Penned by my hand on Falsday, the 24th of Lexadian, in the year 8 AC.