HGL - Underground Communique, Issue #6 : FPS / MMORPG / RTS Discussion

Underground Communique #6
Week of May 28th

Back in Black

Back in black, I hit the sack,
I've been too long, I'm glad to be back.

Very glad to be back! Got a monster Underground Communique this week including the introduction of a new feature called "SneakShots", screenshots of upcoming Hellgate: London content. As mentioned in the previous installment of this article, Community Manager Scapes went touring the far east two weeks ago where he met some not-so-tame deer in Nara and got happily lost exploring the gamer mecca that is Akihabara. To kick off this first Underground Communique since returning, here is a small souvenir from Tōdai-ji in Japan for all Hellgaters out there.


These tiles are purchased by visitors to replace worn ones on the temple's roof. A quick disclaimer: drawing the Hellgate: London logo with a calligraphy brush is damn hard.


Live Servers Updated to Patch 1.3b

Hot on the heels of Patch 1.3a comes 1.3b which addresses many of the remaining issues experienced with Patch 1.3. In addition to in-game mail system improvements and fixes for pesky bugs, a small change was made to Engineer class' calldown skills in that they share a cooldown timer. Full patch notes for this update can be found here.

Patch 1.3b also put an end to nightly server restarts that began earlier this month after 1.3a launched on the live servers. The restarts were an effort to prevent server instability.

One additional change worth mentioning is a decrease to the War Drive Donation goal. After monitoring player habits for a week, the target sum has been adjusted to two million palladium. When this donation goal is met, a random buff is bestowed upon all players on the server at that time which lasts for 30 minutes. More on this topic here.


Lowdown on Upcoming Updates, Round Two

Dedicated Hellgaters will remember how we laid out a content summary of what was being slated for Patch 1.2, 1.3, and 2.0 here. A new pair of content summaries have been published for the Abyss Chronicles (Patch 2.0) and the subsequent Patch 2.1.

Click here to find out more!


SneakShots: The Abyss Chronicles (Patch 2)

This first installment of SneakShots focuses on the looming Abyss Chronicles content update. With scores of new features, it was strenuous to single out a solitary seven screens to share. These selections should serve to stimulate speculation.


Alliteration achieved, anticipate away: click here to see all the images.


6500+ Characters Transferred to Test Center

A massive invasion force of thousands of brave champions of humanity is taking place. However, their target is not a demon stronghold nor a temporal rift into the hot place. No, it is our Test Center server which will soon play host to the Abyss Chronicles (Patch 2). Players submitted transfer requests so they would be able to sample and test the new content provided by this major update with the latest iteration of their characters. We will announce when the transfer process has completed.

On a related note, Test Center updated to Patch 1.3c yesterday, an update which introduces some changes to the back-end of the game and does not affect the end-user. Players on Test Center are encouraged to focus their time in Moloch's realm in this build.


Junior Game Designer Hired, New Summoner Team Advocate Sought

The original Summoner Team Advocate, MattN, has been hired as a Junior Game Designer here at Flagship Studios. Congrats and welcome, Matt! As such, the Summoner Team Advocate position is open and available for new Summoner aficionados to apply for. Additionally, the Guardian Team Advocate position is also available.

The goal of our Team Advocate Program is to amass the feedback, knowledge, and play experience of our community to better ensure that every aspect of Hellgate: London is as enjoyable as possible. Team Advocates are players that volunteer their free time to assist the Hellgate: London development team by providing testing, compilations of player feedback, general feedback on proposed changes, and new ideas on ways to improve their area of the game. Team Advocates also have a secondary mission of helping to keep the player base informed on Flagship Studios' positions on issues related to their topics.

Click here to find out more about the Team Advocate Program.


HellgateLondon.com's Forums Now Available to Public

Visitors to HellgateLondon.com may now browse the official Hellgate: London forums, previously only viewable by logging into an account. All sections of the boards are available, as is the search function and Dev Tracker. However, you must sign in to an account in order to be able to post to the forums.

Click here to go to the official Hellgate: London forums. To our new visitors: welcome!


Back in the Saddle Again

And here, in the end of the Underground Communique, I selfishly take the opportunity to thank folks for the well-wishing I received on the forums (and on some media sites) with regards to my vacation in Japan. Good to be there. Glad to be back.

As always, good hunting, Hellgaters.
-- Scapes

http://www.hellgatelondon.com/undergrou ... ue-issue-6