The biggest release in Achaea's history will be happening

Zulah

Nicola says to you, "In fact, the biggest release in Achaea's history will be happening before the year is out."

----

Let us all take this moment to randomly speculate!

There was mention UW is coming back very soon...?

Antidas

Zomg. This is not cool, now I'm gonna be up all night wondering what it might be.

Kayeil

Makarios, the Meticulous says, "Safe to say it is not something that will be guessable."

Not Azatlan/Therophage.

Nicola says to Zulah, "In fact, the biggest release in Achaea's history will be happening before the year is out."
Nicola says to Melodie, "Bigger in terms of build and development time and scope."
Nicola says, "And bigger than Meropis."
Makarios, the Meticulous says, "Bigger than the last three times its been said."

Sobriquet

Estach will loosen his belt

Aralaya

Shallam raises from the sea to declare war on the infidels?

Skye

They're going to blow up all the cities. No more cities, only clans.

ROGUEWORLD

Sobriquet

Whatever it is, it'll be in US time zone 

Jonathin

Won't matter. I'll be at work anyways.

Mathilda

It's gonna be one new room called Up of North of New Thera.

Aralaya

All rooms will be named in relation to New Thera.

Like North North North of North of New Thera

Penwize

Biggest release ever?  Maybe they're merging Achaea, Aetolia, Imperian and Lusternia into one.

Thalak

You can close the thread now, the reveal already happened:

Makarios is.

Makarios gives a gigantic potato to you.

Makarios isn't.

Athroseilon

Penwize said:

Biggest release ever?  Maybe they're merging Achaea, Aetolia, Imperian and Lusternia into one.

Yeah, they're calling it Starmourn.

Makarios

Ok, more accurate quote: the biggest release since Achaea opened.

Zulah

Makarios said:

Ok, more accurate quote: the biggest release since Achaea opened.

@Makarios How does that differ from "The biggest release in Achaea's history"

(fishing for clues)

Krypton

Achaea, as a project, existed prior to its release.

Minifie

I found this on Nicola's phone, so pet housing confirmed?

Krypton

Not enough Veils being deleted.

Hataru

Daeir said:

while Lana del Ray plays in the background somehow. 

I fixed your mistake.

Aralaya

and then all of a sudden, Bal'met descends and gives everyone cake, and then he dies again because yes

Thalak

Don't forget the potatoes

Tahquil

So, to get a scope of size... @Makarios What is currently holding the title of biggest release in Achaean history?

Sena

Makarios, the Meticulous says, "Safe to say it is not something that will be guessable."

So I'll guess things that I would never guess will happen, which would be bigger than autoclass, multiclass, Meropis, etc.:

Achaea's entire class system is being rebuilt from the ground up into a classless system. You'll be able to learn a mix of skills (new and rebalanced, of course) in nearly any combination you'd like, with limitations like a certain number of offensive skills and certain number of support skills and so on, and some skills will be mutually exclusive. The huge amounts of work being put into classleads and balancing is just to make a very convincing smokescreen so nobody will expect the changes.

PvE is being redesigned from the ground up, so every PvP ability can be used against denizens, and each denizen will have complex AI and tactics to deal with the new complexity. Bashing in its current form will still exist for those who prefer it, but it won't be the primary method of gaining experience or fighting denizens, it will be more of a special case (like seamonster hunting is).

Starmourn is being released earlier than previously stated and will be revealed to take place in the same universe as Achaea (another plane or just in a distant galaxy), with the two games being connected and Achaean characters being able to interact with and visit Starmourn on a limited basis (though not so limited that the two games won't have a huge influence on each other). This will of course come with a lot of new content, such as new classes, new locations, some form of space travel, etc.
Or maybe it's still set to be released in 2018, but the Achaea side of things will happen this year and later lead into the release of Starmourn.

Tsol'teth will become a playable race (along with many other new races and classes) and the Underrealm will be opened in its entirety with a size (as in the number of rooms) rivalling the rest of the current world. Achaea will be essentially split into two "sides", new characters having the option to create a character in the Underrealm with its own cities/factions, cut off from normal communication with the rest of the game; almost a new game entirely like Aetolia, but with the ability to cross over between the two. Travel between the two sides will be limited but possible, and I'm sure there will be a lot of conflict between them, adding a new axis in addition to the Good/Chaos/Evil/Nature we have now.

IRE has partnered with a secretive group that's years ahead of the rest of the world in natural language processing and AI, and as a test of the technology a lot of Achaea's denizens (maybe even all sentient denizens) will be upgraded to be nearly indistinguishable from adventurers, able to have individual personalities and memories, carry on intelligent conversations, and go about their realistic daily lives in a natural manner. This will come with a lot of changes, most likely including the aforementioned PvE revamp. This will of course draw a flurry of media attention from all over the world, and put MUDs back into the spotlight and revitalise the entire industry, ensuring that Achaea will continue to thrive for decades to come. Unfortunately, the massive cost of implementing all of this means that Achaea will have to charge a monthly subscription fee of $200, as well as $1 per minute of play time, and credits will triple in price.

In an effort to thwart the Senas of the game, improve the roleplaying environment, and move PvP away from being a numbers game, nearly everything will become numberless and obfuscated. Instead of numerical health values, you'll have textual descriptions of your injuries and general well-being. Instead of levels, there will be a smoother (but not directly visible) progression in strength and toughness as you kill things. All PvP and PvE damage will be randomised based on various unknown factors, and criticals will be replaced with improvements to the random damage distribution. Balance and equilibrium will no longer be based on strict binary states and you won't be given a message when you're able to act again; instead, trying to perform an action too soon after your previous one will result in diminished effectiveness or random failure in various forms, with no easy way to determine the optimal timing (think tease/jerk timing when fishing, you'll only have vague guidelines to work with and different people will settle on different timings).

Krypton

My guess is, we're getting an expansive, first-of-its-kind, top-of-the-line, immersive MUDSEX system.

Aralaya

Seriously though, will there be warning signs (A la the start of the black wave with a Revelation in UPCOMING) because I really don't wanna miss the start of this event/thing/mudsex party/whatever it is so having a warning would be nice.

Kogan

Dochitha says, "Wow really... they gonna release in xBox finally."

Keorin

Aralaya said:

Seriously though, will there be warning signs (A la the start of the black wave with a Revelation in UPCOMING) because I really don't wanna miss the start of this event/thing/mudsex party/whatever it is so having a warning would be nice.

Nicola said that they planned to have any big things on upcoming, when asked exactly this.

Skye

Inb4 my nipples are automatically upgraded to coin-sized in preparation for this complex mudsex system.

Hataru

Skye said:

Inb4 my nipples are automatically upgraded to coin-sized in preparation for this complex mudsex system.

  Hrm.

Xaden

Skye said:

Inb4 my nipples are automatically upgraded to coin-sized in preparation for this complex mudsex system.

Fully customisable, too. Take your pick: 

Devran

Skye said:

Inb4 my nipples are automatically upgraded to coin-sized in preparation for this complex mudsex system.