Hello everyone! We wanted to check in and talk about a few important things. Those of us on the moderator team wanted to share some news about what we’re working on for the future, and we want to share some information about what goes on behind the scenes. We hope that this news post can clear up some questions that you may have!

First and foremost…

what we're working on

Those of us on the team would like to share some information about what’s in development for the ARPG! Some things are being worked on more actively, and other things are being worked on, although a bit slower. Here’s what to expect in the future with the group:

• A dryad festival in April! One of our owners, Key, has taken the lead on this project. We’re fleshing out the dryad legendary subtype by giving them a little more lore, a festival akin to the solstice festivals for Amiyn and Mazri Andrasians, and brand new traits. Along with this, we plan on introducing a few other surprises for the event. Stay tuned!
• Festivals for the sea-touched and seraph legendary subtypes. Similar to what we’re doing with dryad Andrasians, we’re planning on creating a yearly festival/event prompt centered on these unique subtypes. Please keep an eye out over the next year to see these subtypes get some love!
• Shard adoptables. This is something we would love to introduce to the group, and it is in the works. We would love to give players the opportunity to purchase designs with the group currency: shards. 
• Discord raffles. We have done a few test runs with our giveaway bot, and we’re aiming on holding these more often! Please make sure to sign up for the raffles role on the discord! Similarly, we’re looking into doing scavenger hunts on our Lorekeeper!
• New art for traits, items, and more. This is something that is happening more slowly, but we’re trying our best to update as many things as we can. 
• A mount/companion size chart. We know some players would like to see how large (or tiny!) the creatures of Andras are in comparison to woolynes and faelidh. This is lower on our to-do list, but it is certainly something that we would like to tackle in the future.
• New items, traits, companions, and customization options for Andras characters and creatures. Ever since launch, the mods have made an effort to introduce new items, traits, and companions each month/prompt so that old (and new!) players can have some fun with the ARPG. We’ve seen a lot of interest in creating items that allow players to customize mounts and companions further, so we’re brainstorming ways to allow this! We’re thinking about options similar to the sparkle nikyak potion. Stay tuned while we work on these features!
• Guides are being worked on by the lovely Herboreal. She’s working hard to make the site easier to understand, and she’s working to make certain systems and game aspects clearer. 
• There are certainly other things we’re working on! Right now, these things are aspects that we’re more actively trying to develop. We hope that you’re excited about what’s to come!

What goes on behind the scenes?

This is a subject those of us on the mod team would like to broach, and we would like to touch base with everyone. We understand that some players would like some more transparency about what goes on behind the scenes, and why some things might be moving at a slower pace. This is important, and we would like to share some stuff about what’s going on, how things work, and what to expect from the ARPG. We hope this clears up some questions!

To begin with, we’d like to address how development works. Currently, we have a small mod team. All of us work to keep Andras up and running in our free time as volunteers, and any work we do is done for free. Because we work on Andras in our free time, we try to do as much as we can, but we can’t typically host events to the degree that some groups do. As a note, we don’t have plans in the near future to expand our team -  right now, we would prefer to keep our team on the smaller side. However, it is something we may consider down the line.

When woolynes were created, the idea for the group was to be a casual ARPG, and when we later rebooted as Andras, we aimed to keep that same style of ARPG and gameplay. As such, we aren’t planning on having multiple story-heavy prompts going on at once, but rather monthly prompts with some new lore and the occasional larger event. Previously, large events were held once per year (like the Rift, or the Search for the Arcanum), and we would love to host similar events, but it requires a lot of development and work behind the scenes, as events like these have many moving parts. While we do plan on having more larger storyline events, we ask for your patience as we’re a small team developing the ARPG in our spare time. We appreciate everyone’s participation in our monthly prompts, training prompts, exploration prompts, and mini prompts, and we love to see what you guys create with the lore and prompts in the meantime!

Another concern that our players have had in the past is new features for our Lorekeeper. While we love the idea of adding new extensions, it’s often costly and time-consuming to install new features. Freya, our site developer, helps us in her spare time, and some features require custom coding that isn’t possible for her to do for us at the moment. Costs for site upkeep also comes out of our own pockets, which can also be a challenge when considering anything Lorekeeper-related. We sincerely apologize if we’re missing a feature you’d like added! We may add more in the future, but in the meantime, we appreciate your patience!

Furthermore, one thing we would like to shine some light on is how we develop events, prompts, items, and lore, and how we tackle basic site upkeep. Currently, all mods pitch in with prompt, MYO, and design approvals. You might have seen our lovely mod Drake help with a lot of approvals (thank you Drake!). Fayeskies typically writes our monthly prompts, and she brainstorms new item and companion ideas with the team, but Key has taken over for a bit while Fayeskies finishes up college. Gale and Fayeskies both work on art assets for the site, such as trait images, Lorekeeper images, companion art, item art, and more, with Noctli assisting in creating some images for our shops and items. Naye and Alley help us a lot with discord moderation (thank you guys)! Key helps with many features on our site, including helping plan new prompts/events, guest artist events, and new lore. Herboreal helps out with a lot of stuff behind the scenes, like guides, the masterlist, and creating other things for the Lorekeeper site. 

When it comes to brainstorming ideas for new prompts, lore, traits, and more, all of our mods come together to bounce ideas off of each other. Similarly, we all discuss new features we’d like to implement and suggestions with each other. Sometimes, we have certain prompts or events that some mods take the lead on, such as our upcoming dryad festival. Key and the other mods are very excited about this event!

Wrapping Up

We hope that some of the information here helps answer some questions that you guys have! Those of us on the mod team enjoy seeing the amazing art and writing that you guys create within the Andras universe. In the future, we have some fun events planned, and we hope that you’re excited to see some new prompts, items, traits, and companions from us as well. 

Before you go, please feel free to fill out this survey about the Andras ARPG. All of your responses are anonymous! We would love to hear from you! Check out the survey here.