Hello!
Yet another month has gone by and I am back with some news. The past month we have worked on the upcoming patch (We patched today, actually). This patch will for the most part contain Halloween and Christmas stuff, but also a very important conversion of the RDB in preparation for the new engine. Hopefully this will go smoothly so we can avoid much downtime. (When I wrote this on Friday I jinxed it, and we will have to do another patch to correct an issue with The Collector. )
The New Engine
The preparations for the close beta are moving forwards, but we can't set an exact date yet for when we will start inviting players. QA is testing the content and the server while we are fixing bugs, which means things are progressing nicely. I also know that many of you are curious as to what to expect from the new engine and we will get back to you with a feature list quite soon.
Halloween
Uncle Pumpkinhead is returning to Rubi-Ka once again to terrify weak hearts. This year he has beaten up some Omni-Tek prison guards to steal prisoner outfits He has also been in his basement and picked up some old school goodies. The Enigmas still need help with defeating the Entvines and these guys will drop high QL Miy back armors.
Aside from that, we have re-introduced the BBQ Shoulder Pillow as part of the Halloween ACG mission loot. Griefing Uncle Pumpkinheads will mingle in the lower suppression gas areas as usual, and ARKs will get a special Uncle Pumpkinghead pet to hand out through events. The Item Shop will also have a couple of free social items to claim during the Halloween events.
NPE
More quests have been made for the NPE including one to teach players about the insurance terminal (the hard way) and another one about sending in game mail. We have also done some planning and investigation in regards to the help system and an update of the Planet map.
Whom-pahs
As promised I will add some more detailed information about the changes to our Whom-pah system. The first reason why we are doing this was to make it easier for new players to see the difference between a Clan Whom-pah and an Omni Whom-pah to prevent unnecessary deaths. The second reason was to make the Whom-pahs a bit better looking. The third reason was to make up for the fact that we removed many areas for transportation when we closed down the outdoor player cities. Now that this is said, lets get to the details:
Each side has gotten one new Whom-pah location:
- Neutrals will get a Whom-pah from Mort to Sabulum, The Perpetual Wastelands.
- Clans will get a Whom-pah from 4 Holes to a completely new outpost in the Enigma Forest, Central Artery Valley.
- Omnis will get a Whom-pah from 20K, Pleasant Meadows to Klatran, Southern Fouls Hills.
A few other links have also been removed, changed or added:
- 4 holes is no longer connected to any Omni-tek locations.
- 4 holes is now connected to The Clan Camp, Broken Shores.
- The Omni Camp, Broken Shores is now connected to The Omni-Tek Outpost, The Longest Road.
- 2HO, Stret East Bank is now connected to Mutant Domain.
- Borealis no longer provides any access to Jobe, this Whom-Pah will be located in ICC HQ.
- Jobe Whom-Pahs in Old Athens and Rome has been moved from their lonely locations in to the main Whom-pah cluster to make them easier to find for new players.
As a side note, all the playfields with Whom-pahs have gotten all player outdoor cities removed. Floating objects and known errors/places to get stuck in these areas should also have been fixed. I hope to get more areas fixed as the NPE gets closer to finished.
I hope all of you will have a great time during the Halloween celebrations.
Until next time!
- Gelene