Hi guys,
Another year has passed for Anarchy Online - 12 years is a massive milestone for any online game and it is really thanks to the community that Anarchy Online is still kicking butt after all this time. So thank you for your support and enthusiasm in keeping Anarchy Online still alive!
With the Anniversary still in full swing, if you haven't jumped in, now is the time. The Tinker and the Desert Nomads and free gifts and gametime are still all in full swing.
Yesterday, during the Borealis event there were upwards of 500-600 people running amok in the city! It was an amazing event, thanks to all of the people who showed up and the ARK Events department for putting it together.
The Anniversary runs for another week and a half, and there has never been a better time to get into the game.
The Engine Beta
As work on the new engine progresses, we are finalizing plans for the closed beta. Over the coming months we will invite many players to help us out by putting the engine through its paces.
The main errors holding back the engine from closed beta at the moment are some render bugs with water and some models which have too many animation bones (I'm looking at you, mechs!).
We will need to test the client on many different configurations in order to be able to nail down system specific bugs and problems. Theoretically because the rendering engine is the same as the one from Age of Conan, we shouldn't have too many problems, but you never know where problems might crop up.
Currently the file size for the new engine is around 15gb, as opposed to the lightweight 3gb we have now, so for those of you planning to upgrade, save some space
General Updates
Apart from the engine, Genele is still continuing work on the New Player Experience for the 18.7 while Michizure is helping out with both NPE and some quality of life improvements.
Outside of the game, you may have noticed that anarchy-online.com is once again getting regular updates, now that we finally remembered where we left the keys to the website.
We're also still looking at the overhauling the store exploring different options - including a game time for credits option on the ingame market. While this is not 100% nailed down, we're all positive to the benefits that such a system could bring to the game.
In response to the community requests, Genele and I will also be alternating these monthly updates, so you'll hear from her next month. Until then, thanks for listening!
Joel
Creative Director
P.S. Thanks for all the well wishes for my daughter. Her name is Zoe - and she will be a clanner.