HGL - Underground Communique, Issue #2 : FPS / MMORPG / RTS Discussion

Underground Communique #2
Week of April 7th

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Welcome, one and all, to this second Communiqué du Métro. Hellgaters who waited with bated breath this past Friday were treated to a pair of tasty updates in the form of Test Center Patch 1.3 and Single Player Patch 1.2 Beta. We've been harvesting the feedback from threads related to both and will have new builds of each out in short order. This week is shaping up to be a marathon as well. Read on to find out more!

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Test Center Patch 1.3 Leaves Testers /taunt'ing Into The Wee Hours

Stonehenge was an absolute party this past Friday night when the Test Center Patch 1.3 build was uploaded to the Test Center server and dozens of eager Hellgaters rushed in to see the latest offerings. The ancient druidic site played host to characters sampling chat bubbles, shared stash, and, of course, the many emotes introduced with the new patch including /taunt, featured in the Patch 1.2 Trailer.

However, as this was an early build, a dark evil crept up from deep within its code and caused disconnections and login queues and other nasty bits of nastiness. Apparently bugs don't like testers having a good time. A new build of Test Center Patch 1.3 is already being compiled and should vanquish this evil. In addition, close attention is being paid to tester feedback not only on bugs but also on balance, tweaks, and other changes so keep providing it!

There will be more information on this new build tomorrow if not later tonight. Should the Test Center server run into the trouble experienced over the weekend where the queue appears or the server ceases to respond, fret not. It will be restored on the morrow.

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Single Player Patch 1.2 Beta Released, New Build Coming

The massive Single Player Patch 1.2 Beta update was released Friday afternoon. Its patch notes, 15 pages in length, contained a massive list of changes including all of the tweaks made with multiplayer patches 0.7, 1.0, 1.1, 1.1b, and 1.2. Four of the six classes had significant rebalancing and the single player client's overall stability was drastically improved. Single Player fans who were eagerly awaiting the announcement of beta's release put the energy to some rather industrious URL scouting and actually discovered the patch's executable file while it was being uploaded!

Two significant bugs have been reported in the beta build: Skill Retrainer tokens weren't given to all characters who were supposed to receive them and Elite Mode isn't triggering upon Normal Mode completion. These two pesky pests are rapidly being squashed and swatted and otherwise done away with. A fresh build, quite possibly the release candidate for the Single Player Patch 1.2 final, is being worked on and will be released later this week.

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"Reconnaissance Mission" Screenshot Contest Judging Underway

Wow. That pretty much sums it up. The contest participants took on the mission presented to them and ran with it. Screenshots of all things Stonehenge Chronicles were offered to bring a bit of excitement to the otherwise dull lives of Holborn Station's stalwart denizen NPCs. Here is the latest transmission from the town:

Greetings and hello! And thank you! When we, The People Of Holborn Station, received your care package of footage brimming with photos of the world beyond London's city limits, our elation was so boisterous that the outpost guards report nearby demons distanced themselves from the station entrances! Such images you've all managed to capture! Action! Loot! Demons! Demons being beaten with loot in action shots! Thank you, noble Hellgaters! Thank you!

...oh, and Techsmith 101 thanks you as well! And says he misses you still. And...dammit, Techsmith, that is beyond M-rated; I won't say it.

Suffice to say, they liked the results. We are currently finishing up judging the submissions and look forward to posting the results later this week! Once more, a big thanks to all participants! Be sure to be on the lookout for our Patch 1.3-related contest, soon to be announced.

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A Bit Of April Fool's Day Fun

Flagship Studios strikes a deal with Mattel to produce Hellgate Barbie and friends. Hellgate High School acquired by Hellgate: London developers to hone students' innate game industry talents. These two stories published to HellgateLondon.com on the first of April may have been written in a rather convincing manner but, sure enough, they were in the spirit of the holiday and wholly fictitious.

Not only did some astute Hellgaters on the forums pick up the subtle nod to a particular episode of The Simpsons in the Mattel partnership press release, one forumer even revealed himself to be an alum of the actual Hellgate High School in Missoula, Montana. Much to the surprise of many, we were indeed referencing an actual educational institution (and yes, their team name is none other than the Hellgate Knights).

As subtly mentioned in the final paragraph of both articles, we here at Flagship Studios enjoy a good April Fool's Day joke as much as the next studio and hope you all had a great April 1st filled with "OMG NO WAI" and "LAWL NO".

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Two Down, Many More To Go

Believe that covers the big stories of the week for the most part. There were a lot of great suggestions made in response to the first Underground Communique, one of which was to have weekly interviews with key members of the Hellgate: London team. Well, the good folks here at Flagship Studios are quite eager to provide interviews for these weekly installments. With luck we'll have the first one ready to go for UC3!

Looks like an exciting week ahead! Stay frosty and, as always, good hunting, Hellgaters.
-- Scapes

http://www.hellgatelondon.com/undergrou ... ue-issue-2