Players relishing the epic feats of 'bug squashing' and play testing new material should head over to Star Wars Galaxies. Update 4 is heading for TC Prime and the Test Center. In fact, at this writing, it may already be up and running.
Check out the patch notes after the jump.
Tabula Rasa's weekly Friday Feedback is out and about. The discussion kicks off with some news about the upcoming patches and new features to be included:
PTS Level Command
Meet PTS Level Command. Level Command will be activated on the Public Test Server with Deployment 8.3 with one sole mission - to grant your character with levels and sweet cash! Don't you wish all NPC's were this way? At this time Level Command does not dispense logos, so for the time being, you will have to collect them yourself. Level Command is just part of several changes we have planned to make testing easier and more fun for Tabula Rasa players.
Patch Note Update
There is a patch note in Deployment 8 that the Classes and Combat Team would like to expand upon.
Crab Mines are now more responsive. They acquire targets sooner, chase them earlier, and explode with little or no delay.
The developers adjusted the Crab Mine AI in an effort to make them more responsive. They will now generally acquire a target within 0.5 seconds of creation and they will now generally detonate within 0.5 seconds of arriving at their targets' feet. However, they still for unknown reasons sometimes fail to detonate, or switch targets without reason. The Classes and Combat team is working towards improving the reliability of Crab Mines in for a future Deployment, and more information will be released as changes are put into place.
Check out the rest of the Feedback Friday news by clicking below.
The Guild Wars official wiki has been updated with developer input about the May 9th update and the fine art of skill balancing:
Rather than introducing another skill update this week, we're finishing a new system to balance key skills separately for PvP and PvE. Within the next few weeks, we'll introduce PvP versions for a handful of skills. These skills will work the same way as normal skills, but have different number values (damage, healing, cost, recharge, and so on). We will do this as sparingly as possible and start with very few skills. So that we don't confuse players, we intend to keep as many skills unchanged as we can.
PvP versions are designed to target only specific skills. With such a system we can revert high-impact nerfs, such as Light of Deliverance and Defensive Anthem, to make them strong again in PvE. When we see something becoming severely imbalanced in PvP, we'd like to avoid harsh PvE nerfs without creating different versions of a large number of skills.
Skills that differ in PvP will have (PvP) at the end of their names when in PvP outposts and matches. These skills will automatically be adjusted within PvP outposts and matches. All players have to do is equip the skill as normal, and it will use the PvP version where appropriate.
We've decided to release our next skill balance update simultaneously with these changes. We can take full advantage of the new skill balancing mechanism and avoid multiple balances over a short time frame.
Thoughts? Let us know on the forums.
In celebration of the forthcoming Empyrean Age content addition, EVE Online developers are planning a live blog event on May 15th:
With our upcoming expansion, Empyrean Age, being just around the corner we thought it would only be fitting that the next Live Dev Blog focused on it. Mindstar, our always present host, will be joined by Greyscale from Game Design and t0nyG, author of the upcoming EVE novel, to discuss and answer your questions about Empyrean Age.
To listen in all you have to do is join the in-game channel 'Live Dev Blog' at 20.00 GMT this Thursday, 15 May, and join audio.
If you need help with that GMT conversion for your timezone, CLICK HERE.
The weekly Grab Bag has been published at the Camelot Herald. As always, the Grab Bag features community questions with developer answers and announcements of interest to players:
We've got a new poll that we announced on the Herald this week that asks if you would be interested in a new server type that would include Old Frontiers. We really do want your input if this new server type interests you. If you haven't had a chance to vote yet, please do. Don't forget to let your friends know too. Go vote now!
Have the disappearing doppelgangers got you down? Worried you won't have any good eldritch horrors to eradicate? Well worry not; the doppelgangers have left untapped energies in their wake, and it's only a matter of time before someone puts them to use. Who will dare to claim this power? Keep an eye on the Herald for upcoming details!
Tomorrow night the Camelot crew hits the road for a journey about 20 miles west of our studios at the Dave & Busters in Bethesda, Maryland. Come on out and join us as we give away prizes, answer your questions about Camelot and munch on some free snacks. The festivities start at 7:00pm EDT and we can't wait to see you there! For more information of where it is and where our Road Trips will lead us in the future, please click here.
That's it for me this week, it's time for a bit of relaxation then onward to the Road trip tomorrow night. Take care everyone.
Check out the Q&A; at the Camelot Herald.
Fury League has kicked off the qualifying season for a PvP award of $25,000.
FURY LEAGUE: Turn your Skill into Cash
Customize your perfect character Incarnation and Unleash your Player versus Player skill.
Features:* Fast-paced, adrenaline fuelled combat
* Free armour and skills for everyone
* Player skill is rewarded not hours played
* No rigid class restrictions
* Millions of possible combinations
* Play solo or join a Clan
* Balanced matches based on Skill Rating
* 5 different competitive game types
* Competitive weekly & monthly Ladders
* Enter Elite Ladders for major prizes
* Challenge other players to win Fury Gold
* Turn your Gold winnings into real cash*
* Purchase additional armor appearances
Find out more at http://www.unleashthefury.com
As part of today's media blitz regarding Wrath of the Lich King, IGN has posted up a pair of developer interviews. The first is with lead producer J. Allen Brack who spends some time speculating about WoW's future:
IGN: Is that something we'll ever see in future expansion packs, a full graphical overhaul?
J. Allen Brack: We talk about that for every expansion. We talked about it for Burning Crusade, we talked about it for this expansion and we've got new engine technologies that we do to make things better in terms of going back and redoing things. That's a pretty significant undertaking. And then other games have tried to do that and it's often with mixed results. Some people really like that idea, a lot of people continue to play with the old graphics. Invariably there's this huge jump technologically in terms of how you're going to go forward supporting new technology, new art assets, and still maintain the support for the old stuff, so it's a tricky challenge.
Click below for the second interview snip. WARNING: SPOILER ALERT IN THE 2ND INTERVIEW!!!
The free-to-play game Exteel has sent out a game play video to IGN. You can view the video HERE.
Enjoy!
In this week's update, we answer questions from the community. There were also many questions on the public beta and release dates. To this I can say now, that during a planning meeting we determined that our launch date will be...
Click for more!
Sony has announced that they are opening up a pair of server transfer opportunities in the near future:
Vanguard's excited to announce that we're offering two opportunities for server transfers to new and existing Vanguard players! Originally, we had offered one transfer per character created before the server merges, but due to a large amount of old friends coming back to the game, we've decided to do away with all those rules, and open up the server transfers to anyone - regardless of their creation date or prior move history.
We're hoping this opportunity will let people come back to the game, and easily find a home on a server where their friends are playing.
The first round of transfers will be happening on Tuesday, May 13th. The second will come sometime the following week. Requesting a move is simple, and only requires logging into the game and using the /petition command. Players will need to include the names of all the characters on their account they would like to have moved, along with the server they would like to be transferred to.
Things to keep in mind:
Players cannot transfer to the Sartok (PvP) server, but are free to move to any other server.
All broker items should be packed up before the move, tombstones and house items collected. Players do not need to tear down their homes.
Don't let this opportunity slip by!
