Hello everyone - I hope you have all had a great April!
18.7 Launch & Upcoming patches
Last week, the 18.7.0 patch arrived on our Live server. As stated in previous Dev letters, this patch is the result of a rather long development cycle, spanning a couple of different Game Directors, and is the result of everyone on the team from then until now; I am honored and humbled to be in this position, delivering the fruits of our labor to all of you.
Change is often scary, for everyone involved. Many decisions were second-guessed, changes reverted, toolsets revamped or redone...to unleash such a list of changes at once is quite a lot for all of you, as well as us. Now that the initial patch has been deployed, however, we can begin to adjust and adapt. Earlier this week, the first follow-up patch, 18.7.1, was released, with a couple more on queue behind it. While I am very proud of what has been accomplished with 18.7.0, it would take a grotesque amount of hubris to write off AO as being perfect, and then moving on. Over the next couple of weeks, expect a couple more follow-up patches which will primarily be focused on further tweaking and polishing aspects of the game.
It is worth noting that with 18.7.2, which I aim to release towards the middle of May, a Full IP Reset will be available to everyone to redeem. The delay of this Full IP Reset is the result of having to redo aspects of how the Full IP Reset actually works, ensuring that players will receive the correct amount of IP for their level, and allowing for multiple Full IP Resets to be held by a character at once.
Thank you to everyone who has been providing feedback on the changes made in 18.7! Over the next couple of patches, I hope to address the lingering issues.
Future Content
After the planned batch of 18.7 patches have been released, focus will be directed towards implementing some new content targeted at two very specific level ranges: endgame and roughly levels 90-150. These new encounters will serve rather different purposes, but both should enrich the experiences of characters within those level ranges. This content will be primarily Rubi-Ka based, and will open up a couple new zones/instances to explore!
I look forward to being able to provide some more information, once some tangible progress has been made towards these endeavors - Stay tuned!
It has been quite the month. Thanks again to everyone who made 18.7's launch possible, and to everyone who shared in this occasion. Have a great May, everyone, and I'll talk to you later!