News comes from the official website of two new patches. One for the live servers one for the test center.
The Shulgoth (US) and Sydonai (EU) servers will be updating to Patch 1.3d tomorrow, July 9th. The Shulgoth (US) server will be taken down at 10:00 AM PT and the Sydonai (EU) server will be taken down at 8:00 PM PT (0300 July 10th GMT). The estimated downtime for both updates is about one hour.
Both servers will resume normal service after the update. Patch notes for Patch 1.3d are available here.
The test center is also being updated:
The Test Center server will be undergoing database maintenance and updating to Build 4 of The Abyss Chronicles (Patch 2) tomorrow morning at 10:00 AM PT. The downtime will be about five hours. The server is estimated to resume normal service at 3:00 PM PT.
Patch notes for Patch 2 Build 4 will be published shortly after the update.
– Scapes
Exam in a few hours. So I’m just going to copy this from Kotaku:
When I start an open letter to the world, I begin with “Dear So-and-so.”
When Microsoft vp John Schappert began his open letter to PC gamers today, he started with “Growth and Opportunities in PC Gaming.”
Weird start. Nevertheless, Schappert has issued what is basically a Microsoft-penned report on the state of PC gaming. Pretty rosy. No mention of World of Warcraft or Steam or The Sims.
But some good stuff nonetheless, like:
Other popular titles such as “Crysis” and “Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures” have sold and shipped more than 1 million copies, respectively. “Hellgate: London” now has more than 1 million active subscribers.
This just in off the front page of the offiial Hellgate London website:
This third installment of SneakShots comes from our art department in the form of a high-resolution wallpaper of the new Abyss Chronicles splash image. The wallpaper features a Cabalist in Darkform, a new Summoner skill in Patch 2. Additionally, the transformed Summoner is sporting new armor and focus items found only in the Abyss laid out behind him.
Darkform is one of eighteen new unique skills, three per class, learned through the acquisition of mysterious items found in the Abyss. The Summoner’s new skills are as follow:
Darkform (Level 10): Using this skill transforms the Summoner into a demonic being, exchanging the use of weapons for vicious claws. This skill also passively allows the use of dual focus items.
Dark Lord (Level 15): This skill passively grants a chance on successful attacks to summon up to 3 Shadow Minions to aid the Summoner.
Dark Offering (Level 20): Using this skill sacrifices a Shadow Minion to unleash a powerful attack against all enemies within range.
To find out more about what new features The Abyss Chronicles (Patch 2) brings, check out the latest Test Center patch notes on the forums here. Care to explore the Abyss before it comes to the live servers? Click here to download the standalone Test Center patch!
The Test Center has been updated with the second version of Patch 2 (The Abyss Chronicles) and a changed set of patch notes has been posted. There are mainly fixes and balance issues, however new dye kits have also been added as a feature. You do not have to download the build again, as it will just be an update when you login to the game. Scapes has also said that there are over 300 changes for this build.
Hey everyone, incase you haven’t noticed yet, we’ve made a number of improvements to the front page of the website which should make it much easier to read now and provide a layout that seems more professional and modern. It also means that all of our sites across our network now share a common theme.
To go with the change, there is also a new background design, as well as a whole set of new smileys you can use on our forums.
Are you tired of having to pester Flagship Studios for small tidbits of news about the game?
Are you bored of not having any recent exclusives?
Are you eager to hear about some new and exciting information about Mythos?
If you answered yes to any of the above questions, you’ve come to the right place!
That’s right! We here at Mythos Guru have gone out of our way to do the job for you. You won’t have to wait in line to get one measly question answered. You won’t have to leave your kids alone in the car, baking under the hot sun, as you dash to your news press to find the latest goss on the game only to find a police officer waiting for you with a warrant and a pair of silver handcuffs when you return. You won’t have to sit there doodling words and pictures on your wall hoping they will be the new exclusives for Mythos.
All you simply have to do is feast your eyes upon our wonderous interview with the amazing Max (Note: Max may or may not actually be amazing, but the interview is indeed wonderful!). Not only do you get exclusive new information at Mythos Guru about the game’s upcoming new modes of transportation, brand new ways to live and die, new ways to dress and express, as well as the secret race that was going to be put in until Max was abducted!!!
You will see the answers to these questions and more by read not one, two, or even five, but twenty four whole questions that will make you wish that you could hibernate until open beta!
This interview was conducted by Kotaku with Ivan Sulic and Guy Somberg to discuss the state of the game and the general workings of the company.
We first heard back from Flagship’s marketing communications manager, web manager and writer Ivan Sulic, who said while he couldn’t speak about Somberg’s emotions, he guessed they were “like anyone who spent a lot of time and effort on something that wasn’t received as well as hoped… And then a few of our friends and coworkers left. It’s a bummer”.
Bummers aside, though, Sulic said that nobody’s been taken off or left the Hellgate team except for systems programmer Peter Hu, who’s been able to work on some other projects now that the game is well underway. Said Sulic, “Everything else is pretty much business as usual”.
Said Sulic, “We’ve actually had very few people leave. Flagship is still fully staffed and working on both Hellgate and Mythos… I think we have about 100 employees now”.
Some people have moved on from Flagship, said Sulic, due to simply moving up on their career paths or being tired of windy San Francisco, but said those departures don’t constitute cause for alarm. “People finish a game, want to work on something else, and then leave to do just that. It’s pretty typical in this industry. I don’t know the exact number, but we couldn’t have had more than five or six departures. Still, if those five or six dudes are people you work with everyday, it can’t feel great”.
And Somberg himself joined the conversation. “Ivan said it quite well”, he said. “Things here at Flagship are running business as usual. We’ve just put a build of Chronicle 2 onto our test centre, which has represented a lot of hard work from everybody at the company, myself included”.
GameBanshee has updated their Hellgate London section of the website with an item database, a skill database, quest database, many high resolution screenshots as well as exclusive screenshots from the Abyss Chronicles and an interview about it with Tyler Thompson.
And, to help you track down weapons and armor that meet specific criteria, we’ve also set up an advanced search page. Should you ever find yourself looking for a one-handed weapon with over 1000 ignite attack strength, a piece of armor that increases your critical chance and your accuracy at the same time, or maybe a Focus item that adds a rank to all Evoker skills, we hope you’ll find this page to be invaluable.
GB: What can we expect from The Abyss Chronicles? What were your primary goals when developing this particular update?
Tyler: Our Chronicles are designed to be much more than a patch and the Abyss Chronicle is much more significant in scope than our first Chronicle. We’ve added a long laundry list of new features with this update, but the four big goals were making a new set of levels with new boss fights and some really cool rewards, three new skills for each character class, the Blademaster rebalance and the Consignment Shop. The new levels should give Subscribers a lot of new content to run around in. The new skills really enhance the current character classes and allow for some completely new play styles – including the Summoner transforming into a demon who focuses on melee and summons freaky melee fighters. The Blademaster needed some love. He will be doing much more damage and have more viable skills with this update.
GB: Are you introducing any new unique items with The Abyss Chronicles update? If so, will these items only be obtainable in the new zones or will they also have a chance to drop in the original and Stonehenge zones?
Tyler: We have a large set of new items in the Abyss Chronicles. There are new armor lines for each faction which look pretty cool and have some interesting plus and minus choices for the player like Cabalist armor that adds to power but removes health. There are also some new weapons for every class – like a massive mace which has spinning blades when you swing it. With the exception of the new focus items designed for a melee Summoner, all of these items can only be found in the Abyss areas. All of them have unique versions which mostly are set to drop off of specific bosses.
GB: Also included in Patch 2.1 is a (much needed) rebalance to the attribute feed system on items. What can we expect from these changes? Will feeds still be dependent on which enchantments are present on an item (ie. critical bonuses requiring accuracy), or will they be calculated in another manner?
Tyler: Patch 2.1 will include a careful rebalancing of the feed system. We have a few ideas about how to approach the problem. One thought has been to make the enhancement’s feed requirements match your faction’s more common attributes. We are still talking about a few other ideas as well. To help players until Patch 2.1 comes out, The Abyss Chronicles has an NPC that will charge you palladium to redistribute your attributes.
GB: What’s next after The Abyss Chronicles and Patch 2.1? Can you give us a rundown of features and changes you’d like to implement into the game with future content updates?
Tyler: We’ve got a few different directions that we can go with Hellgate: London after Patch 2.1. I can’t really commit today on which path we will take – there are some high-level debates about this going on right now.
Well, not really. But they are on the official Korean website, which means that we can officially post them now!
I can’t embed them as they are in Windows Media Player, but if you go to the link you can either open them from there or download them.
The first video on the list is the Patch 2 trailer, but now in a much higher resolution and the second is the 1.3 trailer, also in a much higher resolution (1280 by 720 for both) than before (however it has Korean subtitles now).
EDIT: Just to add, the video is titled China Joy 2008, which means it’s being shown at the large China Joy game’s even in China. So guess the marketing for the game is starting with Patch 2 over there in time for the launch which I would think is some time soon.
Hellgate Guru was founded in mid-2005 and has ever since been one of the most popular fan sites and forums devoted to Hellgate: London, catering to a wide range of interests, as well as having a dedicated team of staff members who keep the website full of constant updates, news and generate activity and hype around the game. More
