Hello Aracton,

Thank you for taking the time and agreeing to do this interview. Let's get started.

Shockdot: With the announcement of a Closed Beta 3, players were left stumped with one question. Will they be able to keep there characters in the transition from Closed Beta 3 into Open Beta and if so under what conditions?

Aracton: If the closed beta 3 is without duplication issues, or any other unforeseen problems, such as lag spikes, then the game will move from CB3 into Open Beta without a character wipe.

Shockdot: In old Turf Battles players and Tribes were ranked from 1-100 on the Turf Battles Website, based on the amount of accumulated PK Points, will Aeria Games be re-introducing the Top 100 List? If so will it be made during the Closed Beta 3 period or later on?

Aracton: The top 100 list has been requested for the game. But will not be available at the beginning of Closed Beta 3. It is definitely an important feature though, and will be made a priority if the CB3 launch is smooth.

Shockdot: Will Closed Beta 3 be purely closed for players that were not invited or will anyone be able to join?

Aracton: Anyone will be able to join the CB3. It is open to all.

Shockdot: Closed Beta 1 and Closed Beta 2 had numerous Drop Parties and also quite a few Monster Spawn Events. Will we be seeing these once again in Closed Beta 3 and will we see new events as well?

Aracton: In CB3 there will be several contests run by Aeria Games, as well as in-game events. We are currently planning on running Noob drop events, with items that are very generic and easy to get. There will also be PVP based events such as betrayal. We are also going to run something special for the duration of the CB3 that allows players to accumulate raffle tickets for participating in the events. Players will then be drawn at random and some will receive some pretty sweet prizes.

Shockdot: I am quite sure that the question in everybody’s mind is, when will we see Closed Beta 3?

Aracton: Closed beta 3 will begin very soon.

Shockdot: How long do you think Closed Beta 3 might run for?

Aracton: The closed beta will run for 2 weeks.

Shockdot: One of the biggest updates that the community is expecting for Closed Beta 3 would have to be the Fully Developed Island System. Could you describe how the system works?

Aracton: The Island system is perhaps the crowning achievement of turf battles. There are 5 Islands, each with a certain level bracket attached. Players will join a tribe and are then able to fight other tribes on the Islands. If a tribe succeeds in killing the NPC Island guardian, they capture that Island. The reward for capturing the Island is that the tribe gets to farm the NPC’s of the Island for valuable items.

Perhaps the best part of the system is that the Islands can be under contention 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Once the NPC guardian is killed, the winning tribe will have a nice 30 minute window until it respawns. Once that happens, any attacking tribe can take the Island.

To prevent monopolization of the Islands by an individual tribe, the owners of the Islands will vary from channel to channel on each server. So Tribe A can own Hau Island on Channel-1, but at the same time Tribe B can own Hau Island on Channel-2. This adds for a ton of variety in terms of the tribes that will be successful in capturing and holding the islands.

During PVP on the Islands players will lose and gain PK points. If a player A kills playerB they will receive 1 PK point, while player B will lose 1 point. As players gain these PK points en masse, they will eventually earn their first PK Halo. This halo will always be present on the player and signifies their rank, in terms of pvp. For example, at 500 PK points a player will achieve a Small Green Halo around their character. At 1,500 PK points that halo will turn yellow. This signifies to others that this player has killed 1,500 people in combat, and should be feared.

Shockdot: Finally, with the release of the Fully Developed Island System, we are left wondering what is next? Will Aeria Games continue to modify the game to how it was in the previous version, as well as add new updates?

Aracton: Once CB3 launches we will continue to improve and update the game. There are several updates that the Korean version of TB has, that eventually will be placed onto our servers. I like to include the community in much of what I do though, so of course everyone will remain involved in the evolution of the game.

I wanted to also thank you, and all the other players that have made this process possible. I look forward to launching TB in CB3 and beyond.

Thank you for your time Aracton.