Raiders 3

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**Raiders 3**, or **R3**, is the third installment in the Raiders franchise released on 6 December 2019. It is developed by DefileCraft and made by Team 1 and 2 of the Raiders Team. The game changed the formula of the Raiders series opting into a massively multiplayer online role-playing game rather than a PvP-oriented resource rush. The release saw 40,000 players actively playing two weeks after its launch and continues with an average of 20-30,000 daily players.

*Raiders 3* continues the spread out stories introduced in Raiders 1 and Raiders 2 and forms them into a cohesive and episodic basis. The game features 7 playable classes, Destroyer, Crusader, Wizard, Ranger, Binder, Survivalist, Engineer and Elementalist. In contrast to other MMORPGs, Raiders 3 does not have seperate playable factions or races. Instance running and PvP are the two most popular activities in the game.

While built entirely within the Minecraft client, a modpack was created to fit several features in that could not be done in vanilla.

## Development

### A sequel to the sequel

Kern Baker and Peter Collen, both game directors and developers on Raiders 1 and Raiders 2, began developing what would become Raiders 3 in early 2017. The process began with determining its genre. Kern was in favor of the third installment being the same as the previous games with extra features. Peter, however, wanted them to attempt an MMORPG genre. Peter had previously been director for Forges which was created with an MMO basis in mind. Peter's ideas made Kern interested in attempting the new genre and by autumn of 2017 they had put together a team.

### 2018 and announcement

In early 2018 the Raiders 3 team put together the world map and created the classes. They wanted to keep the game recognizable to the Raiders franchise and created the zones to include enemies previously found, and many of the classes were put into the game. With Kern's ideas, the team crept toward the game having some new and unique enemies for the storylines.

> *"We were really just making Raiders 2 but on land. I mean, all the enemies were basically the same. We started to get away from that and made something more unique while still having that Raiders feel. You can thank him [Kern] for that.*
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On 10 June 2018 Raiders 3 was announced via DefileCraft's YouTube, Twitter and Discord. A Closed Test Realm was announced and subsequently opened on 2 July 2018. The Closed Test Realm included 4 playable classes and only one zone. A micro-update was released on 20 July 2018 which unlocked the last classes and opened more zones along with bug fixes. On 8 September DefileCraft upgraded to an Open Test Realm available to all which included testing the first instance, PHN Raid 1, which would become Host of Nothingness in later builds.

The game received positive ratings by testers during the beta. It was especially liked for diverting the Raiders franchise into a new genre and focusing upon story and in-depth gameplay.

### Release

Raiders 3's release date was announced on 20 November. The game launched on 6 December 2019 and continued to receive praise after the launch. It amassed 6,000 active players within the first week.

The first few months leading up to the release of Reroute were met with praise from players, albeit some criticism were drawn to the games repetetiveness.

### Expansions

#### Reroute

Reroute was the first expansion of Raiders 3, released on 1 April 2020. It introduced a new zone, the Gearbiome, as well as the first introduction of the Attribute Orbs system. There was a forge system that made a player stronger depending on how much they upgraded their forge, a time-gated system that drew criticism. While the update was mostly made up of content that could not be published for the original release in time, Reroute proved to be the launch point of the next big update.

#### The Black Gate

The Black Gate released on 20 September 2020, being the second expansion. The expansion took place in the nether, taking great use of the newly added Nether update. With the release of this expansion, Raiders 3 began to involve itself more in the story, setting up key characters that still influence the story today. The Black Gate also introduced the Crusader class from Raiders 2, though it saw itself being themed around the Crimson and Warp energies that flow through the nether.

By far the most popular expansion, The Black Gate was the first expansion to include raids in its modern format, with Blackcastle Raid, The Unholy Temple and Netheropolis. Several changes and updates to the PvP functionality of the game led to popular demand for more PvP content in the game, being mostly delivered through new arenas. The game reached peak expansion launch activity and would be seen as a major accomplishment that set modern Raiders 3's standard.

#### Landfall

Following the success of The Black Gate, Landfall released on 6 June 2021, being the third expansion. The update effectively revamped the entire world while adding plenty of features to the zones with each update, including even more raids than in The Black Gate. It reintroduced Attribute Orbs and made a focus on the PvP aspect of the game. It added bounties, a solo-content matchup against a powerful boss that would reward the player for completing it.

The update was generally seen as a great expansion to come after The Black Gate, but was also criticized for its lack of PvP features later into the expansion, and its general bloat of currency and factions, as well as its overreliance on higher end content

#### Rise of the North

Rise of the North, the latest expansion and fourth expansion, was released on 20 October 2022. Currently, the expansion has three major updates. It added three new zones and a new class, the Engineer. The expansion's main goal is to take what made previous expansions good and improve on them, while remaining steadfast in its contribution to the game overall.

So far, the game is seen as an improvement to Landfall and a return to form.

#### Scer

Scer, the fifth and upcoming expansion releasing on 9 February 2024, is taking players to Scer, the last base of the evil wizard Margos. The game is bringing back many elements of Rise of the North and Landfall in particular. The game is going to be developed via a roadmap. It introduces a new class, the Elementalist.