HO HO HO! Période de Noël oblige, voici un petit cadeaux de la part de Sigil. Espérons qu'il y en aura d'autres! /poke Papa Noël a/k/a Mr. McQuaid. Qui sait, une date de sortie peut-être?
December Newsletter!
Bref sans me fouler, je vais simplement la copier et vous laisser vous réjouir de toutes ces bonnes nouvelles =D
A voir aussi vite fait: sur le site officiel des newsletters ya quelques SS vraiment sympa et aussi sur le site officiel ya quelques SS "panoramiques" qui sont tout simplement splendide!
P.S. Regardez la dernière chose qu'ils prévoient de faire aussi... ;)
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December Newsletter!
As many of you may have already heard, we officially entered Beta 4 earlier this week. We also began inviting new testers again and at a much higher rate now. If your friends have been waiting to get in, tell them to keep checking that inbox – we may have a surprise for them in the not too distant future.
As with any update of this magnitude, we expect some bugs. At this stage in development, all of your feedback and bug reports are extremely valuable to us so please, as you explore the new areas and features, be sure to keep submitting them and posting here.
Anyway, here's a few of the big changes to look forward to:
NPC Ferry
First version of the intercontinental ferries will go live.
Active routes:
* Khal - Ca'ial Brael
* Ca'ial Brael – New Targonor
* Ca'ial Brael – Tanvu
* Intercontinental teleporters will be deactivated
Adventuring Areas Opening
The following regions will go live – All starting cities will be open and all races will be selectable at character creation
* Bordinar's Cleft
* Tanvu
* Youngtree
The following areas are coming soon
* Oni – This will be a week or two after Beta 4.
* Marsh of Peril – This will be patched the week after Beta 4.
* Three Rivers, Renton Keep, Shrine of the Flame, and possibly Ruins of Southwatch: Before Christmas.
Player Housing
The vast majority of all planned player-housing chunks will go live. (Somewhere between 2500 – 3000 plots).
Performance
Some changes that should significantly increase performance as well as shrink the size of the Vanguard directory will be added and updated.
We're nearing the home stretch now, and it's a very exciting time. Thanks for being a part of it!
PVP SERVER
On 12/21/2006 at 10:00AM the first Vanguard PvP beta test server went live...
May you claim honor through the slaying of your enemies! (Or just any unlucky person who happens to be AFK)
To log in simply select the server from the server screen, current rule set is FFA with no penalty, gameplay may (read: will) evolve as testing progresses. PvP starts at level 5!
You must be within 10 levels of your opponent, to target them press ctrl (control) + left click. Show no mercy!
READY FOR TESTING
* All starting cities on Thestra, Qalia, and Kojan are now open. Please feel free to start a newbie and run through the starting progression in: Tursh, Rindol Field, Bordinar's Cleft, Leth Nurae, Halgarad, Dahknarg, Khal (Cliffs of Ghelgad), Mekalia, Hathor Zhi, Lomshir, Qur'xa, Tanvu, Ca'ial Brael, and Martok!
* Mid level content is also available on all three continents; although some of the Thestra stuff is still coming online in the next few weeks. Basically, all content from 1 – 30ish should be available.
* Diplomacy newbie content is ready in almost all starting areas with the exception of Dahknarg, Leth Nurae, and Tursh. Once these cities are complete, all newbie diplomacy
* content will be ready for testing. Crafting is functional in all starting areas in the game and we have opened up additional stations in the capitol cities of New Targonor and Ahgram.
* The equipment expertise system is in and ready for testing. It will require tweaks before we arrive at the final version.
* With boats working properly we are opening up a ton of player housing islands throughout the world. You can now find plots on the mainland and off the coasts of Thestra,
* Qalia, and Kojan. Harvesting animations have been finalized, and we've created proper resources for the entire world. You will now be harvesting region specific trees in all areas as well.
* All armor has been categorized by tier and assigned to all players and NPCs in the world. If you look a lot cooler lately, this is why.
* The main orchestrated themes for every starting city and the capitol cities are now live.
* FEEDBACK WE ARE LOOKING FOR We are primarily concerned with newbie and mid level encounters on Qalia.
* We need feedback on all game play spheres. Are the mechanics solid? Are the systems intuitive and easy to use? Is there enough variety and depth?
* What encounters do you like or dislike and why? Is a certain camp too difficult for the level range? Should specific areas require more or less people to successfully complete? Is there enough solo and group content to keep you busy?
* What quests are really good, and which are really bad? Surely the 'kill X beavers and bring me 10 beaver tails' aren't your favorite, but are there enough other quests to keep you busy? Do any quests in particular really stand out and why?
* Does the content flow naturally and intuitively? For instance, does the flow in Lomshir to Serpent of Sihari, to Sea Hag Grotto, to Temple of Dailuk, to the Mage Cultists and onward feel well paced? Is it clear how to move from location to location? Are there enough outposts, merchants, trainers, etc available along the way?
* Are the proper tools in place for fostering community? Is the LFG functionality adequate or lacking? Is it difficult to find a group? Are encounters; and therefore people, spread too far out?
* Do any NPCs act strangely? Are creatures disappearing through walls or terrain?
* Are the main threats for each starting area or race clearly defined? Do you feel connected to your village or outpost? If not why? This is important!
* Does itemization make logical sense? Are items dropping in appropriate areas with an even distribution and risk factor?
* Do creatures have abilities that make sense for their class and location? Are NPCs displaying decent or poor tactics?
* FEEDBACK WE ARE NOT LOOKING FOR 'Stuck' mobs do not need to be reported.
* Broad generalizations are not helpful, try and be specific. Telling us the bard is horrible, when the real issue is the bard's choice of weapons at low levels isn't implemented properly or there is incredibly more helpful.
* Mid and high level areas are basically not ready for serious testing right now. An exception might be Trengal Keep which is somewhat ready. Please adventure in these areas at your own risk with the understanding that they are likely not balanced properly.
* Comparing the game to other games is fine, but we need to know how Vanguard stands on its own.
* PLACEHOLDERS There are placeholder NPCs all over, especially in the higher level areas. Many creatures on Qalia and Kojan are in the pipeline but not quite ready yet.
* There are a few more voices to record, then we will swap all of the new content in.
* Many icons, including the ones on the diplomacy cards are temporary and will change as the art assets get added to the game.
* COMING SOON The Thestra revamp is now in the teen and twenty areas of the world so expect some of these areas to be closed. They are due to reopen very soon.
* We are tweaking terrain in many areas on Thestra and Qalia. This includes opening up newbie areas, raising mountains, widening rivers, adding lakes, and trimming coastlines.
* Veskal's Exchange and Paladin Hold (working title) have been restructured to appear like more permanent outposts in the eastern Elven Forest.
* A lot of work has been put into the Marsh of Peril in the southeastern part of Thestra. Vol Tuniel has had an update along with adding a massive new adventuring area; Lair of the Drake Riders. This is a level 30+ area opening soon.
* New NPCs that are now available: Clay Warrior, cockatrice (new model), Efreet, Efreet Lord, Kappa, Mummy, Ulvari, Ulvari Minor, Okami, Ratman, Sahaugin, and Yukionna. You can see these in the new and updated areas.
* A huge sound dump just went into the latest patch with new sounds for over 100 creatures.
* New locomotion animations for all male player characters are now in place and the female ones are coming shortly. We have also planned and implemented racial body proportions to provide a wealth of variety between the various races.
* Most of the new hairstyles are complete and in game. Eye brows and facial hair are almost complete as well.
* A new hand drawn map is coming to replace the dreaded satellite photo version.
* We've created cultural crafting stations for all three continents. They will make their debut shortly.
* A huge amount of weapons is entering the world soon. Once we get everything separated by tier, we will begin swapping all of the new stuff in.
* A pass on shields is almost complete. Expect to see racial and regional specific shields appear all over the world in the coming patches. At last count I saw 50+ new shields in production.
* Factions. We keep talking about these internally and we are almost ready to pull the trigger that will assign racial and regional factions in the world. Players will no longer be able to walk freely in all areas. There will also be ways to lose and gain faction with just about every conceivable organization in the game.
* We are going to be making a pass on fixing and fleshing out all of the tutorial pop-ups in the game. Many of these are out of date and need some love.
* Optimizations to help alleviate the hitching when moving throughout the world are being introduced. There is a post in the Performance Forum if you wish to test it. It is currently an entry in your INI before we tweak and integrate the final version of the code. Many users are reporting significant reductions in hitching and stuttering.
* COMING LATER Raid content for level 35+ areas.
* Contextual Loot. No more plate mail breast plates and shields from killing boars and snakes. We are working on a system to convert context specific racial loot into useful equipment.
* We are cancelling Christmas.
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Eh oui, Sigil l'a fait les gars! Noël est ANNULE! TAC TAC!
HAHAHAHAH! j'adore!
Allé patience la nouvelle année est bientôt là! A bientôt les gars! CALINS!
>_<
