Letter from Game Director

[Znore]

Hello Rubi-Ka,

I want to say a few words about the current status of Anarchy Online and what to expect in the near future.

We are quickly approaching the four-year anniversary of Anarchy Online. We have come a long way, and looking back over the years and examining all we have accomplished leaves me very satisfied with all the changes and improvements that AO has undergone.

We owe a lot of credit for these changes and additions in AO to the constructive communication and cooperation between players and developers. This communication has helped us tremendously in ensuring that all the right decisions has been made and allow us to build the best possible game for our players. For that I thank you.

Things are looking very well for AO with our steadily growing community. There is a stream of players that are signing up with our free offer brining people flowing into the game. I would like to congratulate our veteran players for welcoming these new people to the game and making their first experiences of AO the best they can possibly be.

During these last months a lot of things have changed within AO and a lot of problem areas have been ironed out. New features and content is steadily added to the game making it even better every day that goes by.

This does not mean that we consider the job done. AO is a dynamic world where thing demand constant attention and we will continue battling any problem areas in the game and making adjustments where needed. In future content upgrades we will bring more high level content out increasing and strengthening the end game.

15.9.5 Veteran Program

This update is currently found on test live. The main feature you will find in this update is the introduction of a Veteran Program. This will allow our veteran players to pick up a few new items that should make their life a bit easier and a series of new toys to play with. More information about this program can be found here

We have also made some more adjustments that will hopefully remove the remaining rubber banding problems that has been experienced in certain areas of Shadowlands. Our testing so far has been very positive.

Our cooperation with Massive Incorporated has been very successful and has allowed us to maintain the free offer that so many people have taken advantage of. We are very pleased with the results so far and we wish to continue to have this option available to everybody that wishes to play AO.

To strengthen our ability to maintain this free offer we will in this patch start supporting movie files to be used on selected advertisement boards. These changes will not affect the paying customers unless they wish to turn advertisement on and can do so as a separate option to the normal billboards.

For the free players this mean that a handful of boards around the world will no longer show static pictures but will instead be playing a live movie with sound. These movie files are remarkably small and should not affect your game experience when they are being displayed. The sound from the boards will only be played in a short distance from the boards and should not be a disturbance.

Four-Year Anniversary

As previously mentioned Anarchy Online will celebrate its fourth birthday on the 27th and we will celebrate this across Rubi-Ka. During the weekend 25th – 26th there will be contests and events going on all over the planet so make sure to log in to take part in this global party.

There will also be a PvP tournament where players will finally get to prove who is number one and have the chance to win unique items that can only be acquired through this competition.

Graphical updates

We will be releasing the new ground textures to the game in a very short time. I am very pleased with the result and the game looks better than ever. With this patch we have also given Old Athen a small makeover and it should now be a bit more lush and inviting.

Even though the city has visually changed quite a bit you will still recognize the Old Athen that you love. I am very dedicated to maintain and upgrade AO and will be adding more upgrades to various parts of the game in future patches. If you have any suggestions about what area should be done next we would love to have your feedback.

16.0 Biomare a.k.a The Foreman’s Dungeon

We have gone over this dungeon and given it an upgrade. There has been a series of new encounters and quests added filling the area with a varied Gameplay experience for the players to enjoy.

The level range of the dungeon will remain about the same as it is today and you will find all the old bosses roaming the area, even though they might have picked up a few new tricks. We have also made the dungeon more available and should make it easier for players of the intended level to make their way out there.

Lost Eden

There has been a lot of good feedback from the community after we announced this expansion. Over the next period I will start to release more information about the different aspects of the expansion and go into a bit more detail in how I intend the various features will work. Stian Dahlslett has done a remarkable job with creating the visual aspect of the expansion and I am sure you will all agree with that when you get to see what’s in store with Lost Eden.




See you all on Rubi-Ka,



Morten “Znore” Byom