Posted by PrintsKaspian (Source)

The next major content update for Albion Online, Nimue, is coming soon. In this Dev Talk, Robin Henkys discusses some of the major changes and new features this update will bring.

Don't have time to watch the video? Read on for a written summary of his talk. For more context you can also read the full details of the current Albion Online Development Roadmap in this forum post.

Recent Changes

In the last couple of weeks we’ve already delivered some of the new content, rewards and improvements promised in the roadmap:

• Adventurer’s Challenges
• Guild Warfare Season Rewards
• The return of season points for mage killing
• Limits on guild hopping

So what can you expect next?

Nimue: Quality of Life, Crystal Realm Battles, Party Finder, and Season Updates

Next up is the release of the Nimue content update in late November. (If you're wondering, it's named after the mythical “Lady of the Lake” in Arthurian legend.)

Nimue will be an opportunity to roll out a long list of quality of life improvements you’ve been asking for. This includes:

• The ability to change your guild logo after guild creation and to preview your guild logo in a variety of different contexts
• The ability to mark a player or NPC as a target in battle
• The ability to see your party members' combat roles (tank, healer, damage dealer, etc.) while in the open world
• And many other changes

In addition, Nimue will be an opportunity to roll out two major features from our roadmap:

Crystal Realm Battles

Crystal Realm Battles provide a daily opportunity to enter the magical Crystal plane and fight other guilds attempting to do the same thing in a GvG-style battle. Of all the features in Nimue, we’re most excited about this one, as it will significantly increase the number of GvG battles to well over a hundred battles every day, opening lots of opportunities for new GvG teams to make a name for themselves.

Party Finder

The second is the Party Finder, which is a lobby-style system that allows players to publicly post and join activities. This should make finding parties for all activities in Albion significantly easier, as well as serve as a tool for organizing activities within guilds.

Both these features as well as the other changes coming with Nimue will be the subject of upcoming dev talk videos.

Finally, of course, you can also expect Adventurer’s Challenges to continue - and we’re already thinking about what rewards and changes there will be for GvG Season 5!

Beyond Nimue: Random Dungeons vs. Hardcore Expeditions

We’re already deep in development for some larger features beyond Nimue, the biggest of which are random dungeon entrances. This brand-new feature will be nothing short of a redefinition of open-world PvE in Albion Online.

Here's what the feature entails:

• Not just the location of the dungeon, but the structure of the dungeon itself will be randomized and unpredictable
• Dungeons will be generated dynamically when the first player enters, the mobs in them will not respawn, and the dungeons will collapse after being cleared
• This will enable a roaming style of group PvE, where you look for dungeon entrances in the open world and you actually explore an entire dungeon before starting the next
• Due to the unpredictable placement of the entrances, these dungeons will be significantly more safe from PvP, since gankers will have to scout the entrances first
• In terms of risk vs. reward, we aim to make them a far better PvE activity than hardcore expeditions

Since this change will have such a big impact on Albion, we’re taking our time to get it just right.

That said, we’re making good progress and we’ll keep you posted as development continues.

That's all for today - we hope this talk gives you a good idea of what we’ve been working on, what you can expect to see in the Nimue update, and a little preview of what to expect beyond.

We'll be bringing you more Dev Talks soon, where we’ll get up close and personal with Crystal Realm Battles, the new Party Finder system, and the many quality of life improvements coming with the Nimue update. Thanks for watching!