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Letter from the Game Director - June 2010 (3)

Moving forward…

As I mentioned last month strictly speaking it isn't linked to any specific content updates, so hopefully we will be able to also deliver some of the new content mentioned above while this integration is progressing. The content teams can continue to work on their new content while the technical folks make all the stuff mentioned above happen.

There will come a point in the late summer when we 'lock down' the new integrated version and it is then tested on the public test servers. This is really the only point when have to allow the time for that testing (i.e. we won't throw lots of 'new stuff' into the mix for that period) but as above hopefully there will be some nice content additions in that version as well. The only real factor that affects our usual schedule in this respect is that obviously a highly complex code integration takes longer to test than an update that only contains new content. So once that version goes to the test server you can expect a slightly longer test cycle for it before it appears on the live servers.

The short term…

As I write this the 2.0.5 update is being finalised, so as you read this it is either about to be deployed, or just been deployed (the curse of having to write this text over a week in advance!). This update brings with it a lot of nice changes, and did grow a little from what we originally thought was just going to be another small post-expansion update. With around fifty new quests, a significant set of changes to the Shrines of Bori PVP feature, the Ranger class revamp, another positive adjustment of the token drops for faction armor and the new rez and staging areas for the instances, an awful lot of that content was all derived directly from your feedback. I am very proud of how reactive the team have been to the feedback from players and we will continue to work on the progression balance and find ways to ensure everyone is as happy as they can be with the directions heading forward.

As I said above in terms of the engine development, we are really looking forward to being able to continue developing the game, and push it forward, keep improving as much as we can and hopefully providing you all with entertainment not just in the coming months, but in the coming years.

Until next month!

[Origin:Original] [Author:Admin] [2010-07-13]   BACK