HGL - Underground Communique, Issue #3 : FPS / MMORPG / RTS Discussion

Underground Communique #3
Week of April 14th

Don't Stop Me Now!

And so begins a new tradition: music-referencing passage titles, this one inspired by just how non-stop this week has been thus far! Welcome to the third installment of the Underground Communique, a weekly news summary about all things Hellgate: London. Things are very faced-paced at Flagship Studios these days - just the way we like it. Here's the latest!


"Reconnaissance Mission" Accomplished!

The Stonehenge-centric screenshot contest that came to a close at the start of April yielded some truly impressive results. After much deliberation, four winning entries were selected, the creme de la creme. The participants received the following "turning in the quest" transmission from the People of Holborn Station:

WOW!

...oh, sorry, that must have been loud: Wow! Wow wow wow! Thank you Hellgaters for these amazing shots of Stonehenge! Just look at these shots! A brave Templar standing proudly over fallen Moloch, a 100-page publication all about the Stonehenge frontier, a fantastically-composed image of warriors on the hunt in the Wilds, and a comprehensive postcard of all the lands we hope one day to visit ourselves! Wait a tic...why is Techsmith 101 holding the magazine sideways...

...a centerfold of Desiccator along with its turn-ons and what it looks for in a victim. Well that'll keep Techsmith 101 occupied for a spell. There he goes, running off with it. Not sure if we're going to want it back after he's done with it.

Well, noble champions, you have done this humble station a good turn. The People of Holborn Station would like to provide something additional to fully convey our thanks, Scapes has the details. FOR THE LIVING!

In addition to Hellgate: London posters signed by Flagship Studios employees, the artist of each winning submission will receive a Hellgate: London t-shirt as well. Check out the screenshots here. We're looking forward to setting up and announcing our next community contest, just a little ways out!


Two Weeks, Two Patches, Five New Versions Total

Last week was certainly a busy and productive one. It was the second week in a row that Friday yielded new builds of both the Single Player Patch 1.2 Beta and Test Center Patch 1.3. Additionally, yesterday saw a third new build of the latter uploaded to the Test Center server, increasing the already lengthy patch notes by half.

Single Player Patch 1.2 Beta is on the cusp of completion with just one more bug preventing its ultimate release. A new build is due out later tonight and should address the persistent bug which prevented players from creating Elite Mode characters. An announcement will be made on the forums when this penultimate version is ready for download. As always, please backup your saved Hellgate: London data before installing this patch.


Exercising Our "Evil Eye"

A recent update to our game servers introduced some database software which will allow our gameplay metric system, The Evil Eye, to document a wide assortment of Hellgate: London statistics for the education and edification of our players. Just today we took a "Game Snapshot" for this past week on the Test Center server and generated "Top 5" reports on the game's richest guilds, top average richest guilds, top friended characters, and most popular character classes.

As this was a test run, we culled data from the Test Center rather than the live servers but weekly Game Snapshots are planned and should offer even more tantalizing details about Hellgaters' habits and superlatives. Check out the Top 5 lists yielded here on the forums.


Forum Section Created Solely for Patch Notes

Looking for a bit of Hellgate history? Trying to determine when X rebalance or Y bug fix was first introduced? Look no further than the Patch Notes subforum on the official Hellgate: London forums. This section has been made to house all final release versions of Hellgate: London's patch notes since the game's launch in October 2007. From Patch 0 to Patch 1.2, they're all there. The website's Patches section is also being updated to include this information.


Hellgate: London Celebrates the Most Successful Online Korean Launch in Three Years

San Francisco, CA (April 11th, 2008) - Flagship Studios today announced that its action role-playing game Hellgate: London has become the most successful online video game launch for Korea in the past three years with over 1 million accounts registered within the first two weeks of its open beta test. Hellgate: London is the first online game in over three years to use a monthly subscription business model.

You can read the full press release either on the Flagship Studios website or the Hellgate: London forums.


Hellgate: London's Community Manager Playing Hellgate: London?

It's not as fantastic as it sounds! Scapes, Hellgate: London's Community Manager, can often be found chatting it up with other Hellgaters in Chat-1 on the Shulgoth (US) server using a character of the same name. So stop by, hang out, ask some questions and I'll do my best to answer them and/or crack witticisms in the midst of multitasking any number of other odd tasks. (If I'm a bit slow to reply, you now know why.)

To join Chat-1, enter "/channeljoin chat-1" without the quotation marks into the chat pane. To enter text into the chat channel, enter "/chat" (again, no quotation marks) to set your target channel, then type away.


Well That Was a Long One

I've a feeling this could be the average length of these Underground Communiques. Would seem the format is leveling out some, too. However, if you have suggestions, I'd like to hear them. Click the "Talk About This Story!" link below to be taken to the forum thread where you can post your ideas, grammar corrections, recipes for Seared Carnagor Salad, whathaveyou.

Hope it was an enjoyable read! Take care of yourselves in old London town, Hellgaters!
-- Scapes

http://www.hellgatelondon.com/undergrou ... ue-issue-3