So this has been a fun week. And by 'fun' I mean 'holy crap I'm glad it's the weekend'.
Means is feeling a little under the weather today, so about... oh... 45 minutes before this was posted he asked me to fill in and write something up. So let's see what we can cover, shall we?
Feedback on the latest update has certainly been enthusiastic to say the least. At the end of it, with the update we released on Weds., I think the Collector has just about hit the spot we were initially looking for in terms of risk vs. reward. The instance isn't designed to be a one-stop-shop for everyone to get everything they need from the game - Far from it. Instead it was designed as a difficult encounter requiring a unique, new train of thought from the players involved - It's not about tank 'n spank, it's about coordinating efforts and discovering tactics that fall outside the scope and realm of previous character roles. Is there a chance for phat lewt? Oh yeah, definitely - Gotta have something to get you guys up there. But getting the loot should be a bonus - An additional reward to the sense of satisfaction gained in actually managing to complete the encounter. Plus, hey, awesome new social armour for folks to grab; all good stuff all around.
Right now we're looking to create a small update for early next week (hopefully either Monday or Tuesday) that'll clear up a couple of small issues from the Daily Missions quests, as well as tweaking the wall spikes from the Collector instance - After this you'll only get hit by one spike at a time, giving you a small grace period before you can get hit again. This should hopefully prevent any 'instakill' occurrences in the instance where someone gets slammed across several of the spikes at a time. Additionally, the rest of the "QL1" item issues from the Collector should be resolved - Thanks to everyone who's posted for the help and vital feedback in getting stuff like this tracked down.
We'll also be 'opening' the playfields which contain the new city plots for our DNW-transferred players, filling in a long-closed gap in the AO map between Mort and Avalon. True to the oldskool game, these playfields will be named Three Craters (East and West) and will contain a large number of city plots (Edit: I should note: Just city plots, no gameplay content). Most of these have already been taken by the DNW players, but there may still be some plots still available when the areas open, so if you've been looking for a non-instanced city you might have a chance at snagging one in the very near future.
I also wanted to take a minute to thank everyone who posted in last week's FwM thread regarding desires from the playerbase. Everyone on the dev team has been very interested in reading over the feedback and we're all glad to see that the concerns you guys are raising mostly mirror our own: Attention paid to the startup experience, ensuring the rebalancing process goes smoothly, getting good press and attention paid to the incoming engine launch. It's good to know that our long-term plans meet the long-term expectations of the players, and really helps solidify our goals for the coming year. Lots of good stuff on the horizon, I promise. =D
Meanwhile, back in the office, we've got both of our artists working hard on the high-rez character models we're looking to include with the incoming graphics engine update - MstrBstrd's currently working on the Opifex Female model, while Flaptoot's taking care of the Atrox. I'm not entirely sure how it's going, but Flaptoot keeps muttering something about cabbages under his breath while looking like he's about to bludgeon something, so I figure it's in my own best interests to just stay away from his desk at the moment. Hopefully we'll have some shinies to show before long, though.
Speaking of shinies we've got two cool things to show off this week - First off, two new heads to show, this time of the Nanomage Male and Solitus Male varieties. Usual disclaimers on these - Screengrab from the Max viewport, work-in-progress, transparency doesn't display in the hair properly, ect. ect. Even with said disclaimers, though, I gotta admit that I really like these; lots of details on the faces, really cool structure, and just pretty awesome in general.
In addition to that we've also got screenshots of an incoming armour upgrade for the various ICC guards stationed around Rubi-Ka. You guys have noticed several updated armour textures sliding into the game over the last patch or so, the majority of which has been the work of Genele, who in addition to being a damn good designer also knows her way around Photoshop something fierce. The ICC armour she's made looks absolutely awesome and should also be hitting the game with the small update early next week - For you storyline guys out there, there's a bit of significance to this as well... but as to exactly what? We'll get you more info on that later.
And that's that. Sorry if it's a little shorter than usual today - It's been a long, long, looooooooooooong week and my rant juices are pretty depleted at the moment. But, hey, shinies! And stuff.
Enjoy your weekend, guys. Catch you later!