Keep your eyes peeled to E3 Stratics because the coverage promptly begins Tuesday, May 9, and it will be coming hard and fast!

Golos like to dig; it's what they do. They are good at it, and they do it a lot. Golos dig for various reasons. In the wild they do it to pursue various prey and to locate the mineral deposits they need to regenerate themselves. An area that has a large population of Golos tends to be a precarious area to traverse. Generally, the ground will be unstable and littered with holes that are exposed or covered by drifting soil. The unwary traveler can easily fall into one, some of which can be quite deep. So, always bring a rope. If you are lucky enough to capture a Golo, their body often contains various minerals that can be extracted and used to determine the content of the local soil.

Player Influence on the Planet of Atriana: The Atriarch Team has always been a big believer in giving the player a sandbox in which to play rather than a predictable and controlled environment. In fact, this belief is what weighs in heaviest when making design decisions. We envision gamers really taking part in the evolution of the world. The best thing about this is that we don't know how the world will end up. The players are in control of its destiny.

This is in stark contrast to many other game companies who want everything controlled. By 'controlled' I mean controlled by the developer rather than the player. Yes, of course, this type of game has value. The problem is that we are saturated with games controlled by the developer. Why then would we build yet another? We said this when we very first started Atriarch and we stand by it today; it is time for something different.

Atriarch has always tried to approach the game design from a point of view of what we would want to play. And what we want to play is an environment that we influence and that responds back... better yet an environment where players have a role in building and growing. That's the style of game we are aiming to achieve with Atriarch.

In the upcoming month, we are going to share more about the innovative approaches we are taking to insure that the world is evolved and influenced more by players than by developers and make Atriana your alien home away from home :-)

Salvage as a Player-Defined Specialty Skill: What is great about Salvage as a Basic Skill is that it can be made into a Player-Defined Specialty Skill directed at any potential Resource. What that means is that after a player has acquired the Basic Salvage Skill, a player can specialize it by directing their skill toward a particular resource. That is done through the player's actual actions in-game, not by choosing it on a drop-down list, nor by applying points.

For example, if a player wants to specialize in Kicen Plant Salvaging, then a player would direct their efforts and activities around the Kicen Plant. Salvaging from a Dubo Plant may improve the Salvage Basic Skill, but would not necessarily increase the Kicen Plant Salvage Specialty.

There are only three known herds of Giant Slugs. Unarra researchers have been tracking their movements for several hundred currans and only recently have some patterns begun to emerge. It appears they migrate not on a seasonal basis, but rather on a ten-curran cycle. They are compelled by a strange signal that some theorize come from deep within Atriana herself. Their passing is like that of a glacier, uprooting trees and moving soil and rock, changing the landscape as they go. Some say Giant Slugs are a force of nature and have no intelligence of their own. Others claim they are agents of Atriana and server her will.