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| - The secret is out! We've been working on Citadels for what feels like a long time, and it's been hard to keep it quiet. Even before we started working on the core clan infrastructure, we've wanted to give you flying castles. I've had a beautiful piece of concept art of a citadel pinned up in the clan dev team bay for what seems like forever. So to finally see them fly has been very exciting. The first clan update was about providing clans with the tools to become more embedded into the game. We didn't try to give clans a lot of new content, but aimed to help existing clans who had already created their own activities. For this update we wanted to give a wide range of clans something to do and strive for and give something extra special to our members. Citadels are huge. We didn't just want to give clans a home, but an epic home, a place that you won't just want to use, but develop and maintain. You will be able to expand and improve your citadel and make it function better, accessing more features as you progress. Importantly, we wanted to give clans a focus, a set of aims, and having a way that all clanmates could contribute to the development of the citadel was key. Skilling and resource collection works rather differently from the surface world, but we want to try and encourage clans to skill together, and to support the idea that being part of a clan is a responsibility. The Citadel is something you're all going to have to work together to keep at its best, so that when you show your citadel off, you're not just showing some flashy buildings, but a symbol of how well organised and committed you and your clanmates are. We also wanted to allow you as much choice as possible, so that each citadel would feel like your clan's home, not just any old clan home. The Citadel has many customisation options, and also has meeting and social areas , mostly centering on the keep, your centre of operations. We're also giving clans a way of designing and creating their own activities within the citadel. The Battlefield is the most ambitious piece of player generated content we have ever created. I've always loved the way players get together and engage in activities that are not designed content, and although we gave you Faruq's tools to play with a while ago, the Battlefield is so much more than that. The Battlefield means you can design and store whole layouts, allowing you to create your own games, and then get your clanmates, or other friends to have a go! I think clans are the ideal place for this kind of play, and I'm really excited about the possibilities the battlefield has to offer. The remainder of this blog will be small blogs (blogettes?) written by the content developers who did the hard work - the detailed design and implementation of each part of the 'big plan'. Hopefully they will answer some of your burning questions about the detail, and provide some morsels to whet your appetite for Citadels whilst we complete the finishing touches to this work. Enjoy!
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