Posted by PrintsKaspian (Source)

Brimstone and Mist launched on October 21, bringing significant improvements to Corrupted Dungeons, the Roads of Avalon, and large-scale combat. In our newest Dev Talk, Game Director Robin Henkys discusses major improvements coming to Faction Warfare and Hellgates with the next content update.

No time to watch the video, or prefer a written summary? Then read on...

1. Faction Warfare

We’ve long wanted to expand Faction Warfare into a major activity for players of all levels. We want players without large guilds to experience the excitement of massive battles, while also allowing maintaining Faction Warfare as a valuable and rewarding activity for experienced players.

To achieve this, we’re changing the following:

• Faction Conquest: In addition to Outposts, factions will be able to conquer entire zones. To provoke large-scale battles, Factions will only be able to attack Outposts and zones that border another Faction.
• Faction Points: Points will be awarded not only for taking Outposts and zones, but also for killing enemy defenders. Loyalty to a faction will become more important via Faction ranks and weekly/monthly Faction Campaigns with valuable rewards.
• Core System Changes: To encourage beginning and mid-level players to participate, Faction Warfare in blue/yellow zones will be non-lethal, instead allowing knocked-out players to rejoin the fight from their nearest Outpost. At the same time, the red zones will contain the highest-value Faction Warfare areas, and will offer a unique red zone battle event to encourage high-value, full-loot Faction Warfare.

With these changes, we think Faction Warfare will become the perfect way for new Albion players to get their first experience of large-scale warfare, while offering a deep and interesting activity for veteran players who don’t have an Outlands guild or want to enjoy large-scale warfare even when their guild is not currently fighting.

2. Hellgates

Hellgates are an integral feature of Albion Online, letting players participate in high-stakes PvP in a challenging but balanced battleground. Hellgates were developed during the Alpha phase of Albion Online, and it's finally time to give them the attention they deserve.
Goals of the new Hellgates:

• Make them more accessible by adding Hellgate maps, which lead to a Hellgate in the open world (similar to Dungeon Maps) whenever your group is ready.
• Make them more rewarding by adding a ranking system and an Infamy-like system that boost your rewards as your ranking increases.
• Make them more competitive by reworking the matchmaking system, ensuring you get matched with challenging opponents and don't receive rewards without fighting. We’re also adding all-new 10v10 Hellgates.
• Make them more polished via a complete rework of their visuals and their PvE experience. The new Hellgates will offer varied PvE challenges and rewards while waiting for an enemy team, as well as a variety of different Hellgate layouts.

I hope you’re as excited about these major improvements to Faction Warfare and Hellgates as we are – we’ll share more details as development continues.

In the meantime, you can look forward to our upcoming Play Store beta as well as major changes for Season 11 (including updates to Season Point scoring and the Outlands map) which we’ll cover in an upcoming Dev Talk.

Thanks for watching!