GameBanshee's New Content : FPS / MMORPG / RTS Discussion

After months of demon-slaying and item collecting, we're pleased to reveal a massive dose of fresh Hellgate: London content. Included in the update are an interview with Flagship Studios' Tyler Thompson about the Abyss Chronicles, a massive quest database, a skill database, and an extensive equipment database that details every known (pre-2.0) rare, legendary, and unique named item in the game.

And, to help you track down weapons and armor that meet specific criteria, we've also set up an advanced search page. Should you ever find yourself looking for a one-handed weapon with over 1000 ignite attack strength, a piece of armor that increases your critical chance and your accuracy at the same time, or maybe a Focus item that adds a rank to all Evoker skills, we hope you'll find this page to be invaluable.

Rounding off the new content are six exclusive Abyss Chronicles screenshots, a new class section, a mini-game page, and dozens of high resolution (2560×1600) screenshots from the original zones and the Stonehenge Chronicles. And, as soon as we get a chance to spend some time on the test center, we'll be going through all of this content and updating it with the 2.0 changes. Enjoy!

GB: What can we expect from The Abyss Chronicles? What were your primary goals when developing this particular update?

Tyler: Our Chronicles are designed to be much more than a patch and the Abyss Chronicle is much more significant in scope than our first Chronicle. We've added a long laundry list of new features with this update, but the four big goals were making a new set of levels with new boss fights and some really cool rewards, three new skills for each character class, the Blademaster rebalance and the Consignment Shop. The new levels should give Subscribers a lot of new content to run around in. The new skills really enhance the current character classes and allow for some completely new play styles - including the Summoner transforming into a demon who focuses on melee and summons freaky melee fighters. The Blademaster needed some love. He will be doing much more damage and have more viable skills with this update.

GB: Are you introducing any new unique items with The Abyss Chronicles update? If so, will these items only be obtainable in the new zones or will they also have a chance to drop in the original and Stonehenge zones?

Tyler: We have a large set of new items in the Abyss Chronicles. There are new armor lines for each faction which look pretty cool and have some interesting plus and minus choices for the player like Cabalist armor that adds to power but removes health. There are also some new weapons for every class - like a massive mace which has spinning blades when you swing it. With the exception of the new focus items designed for a melee Summoner, all of these items can only be found in the Abyss areas. All of them have unique versions which mostly are set to drop off of specific bosses.

GB: Also included in Patch 2.1 is a (much needed) rebalance to the attribute feed system on items. What can we expect from these changes? Will feeds still be dependent on which enchantments are present on an item (ie. critical bonuses requiring accuracy), or will they be calculated in another manner?

Tyler: Patch 2.1 will include a careful rebalancing of the feed system. We have a few ideas about how to approach the problem. One thought has been to make the enhancement's feed requirements match your faction's more common attributes. We are still talking about a few other ideas as well. To help players until Patch 2.1 comes out, The Abyss Chronicles has an NPC that will charge you palladium to redistribute your attributes.

GB: What's next after The Abyss Chronicles and Patch 2.1? Can you give us a rundown of features and changes you'd like to implement into the game with future content updates?

Tyler: We've got a few different directions that we can go with Hellgate: London after Patch 2.1. I can't really commit today on which path we will take - there are some high-level debates about this going on right now.