James
11-29-1999, 10:00 PM
Greetings!
The Public Test Server is now open for your testingenjoyment! We're pleased to introduce game update 1.2.1 which includeseveral new ORvR features, improved UI functionality, Career Balancingand as always, multiple bug fixes.
For information on how to transfer your characters over to the Public Test Server please read here (http://forums.warhammeronline.com/warhammer/board/message?board.id=pts_announcements&thread.id=23).
Please be sure to check out the Public Test Forum (http://forums.warhammeronline.com/warhammer/board?board.id=pts_announcements) for all of the latest news about the happenings on the PTS.
Keep Upgrade System
Owna Keep? Want to keep it? Want to get more out of it? Then the newKeep Upgrade system is perfect for you! Guilds that own a Keep can nowpurchase upgrades to bolster their hold's utility and defenses in avariety of ways.Once a Keep has been claimed, a guild member withsufficient permission can speak to the Guild Keep Agent on the upperlevel of the Keep to choose what upgrades to purchase. These upgradesrequire a periodic maintenance fee and some are available in multiplelevels. Once purchased, upgrades will take time to be completed. Thisprocess can be monitored via the new Keep Upgrade Interface. Upgradeswill decay if funds are unavailable to pay their maintenance or if aguild member chooses to stop paying for the upgrade.
Guildsthat successfully hold a Keep until the zone is captured will berewarded with a free gold bag that will be mailed to the guild master,and is tradable to his or her guild members.
Combat Responsiveness Improvements
Weare always working to improve the overall responsiveness of our gameclient and server. With version 1.2.1 players will see some significantimprovements including the following:
Casting times havebecome more accurate under normal play conditions, and players shouldno longer see a significant “stretch†or “pause†when casting spells inlow or moderate latency situations. Accuracy of the spell castUI has been improved. The display will now show ½ second increments andwill no longer “stretch†time to compensate for latency. Instead,players will see a pause after the bar has filled completely if theyare in a high-latency environment. Continued improvements toanimation and visual effects performance have been made. Players willsee smoother transitions between animations and significantly lessstuck visual effects, especially when chain-casting abilities. UI Improvements
We are pleased to announce several improvements and enhancements to the game's User Interface!
TheGuild Window has received a major facelift and several functionalimprovements. We have added more information to the Guild Window, suchas new news alerts and additional statistics on the profile tab. Wehave also resolved several interface bugs with the window, such aspromoting and demoting through the UI and loss of guild permissions. TheUser Settings window has been divided into tabs for convenience andclarity. The Customize Interface window has been folded into the UserInterface window under the "Interface" tab. Tooltips have also beenadded to various elements in the User Settings window in order toexplain their function. RvR Zone Control Rewards
Variousimprovements have been made to Zone Control Rewards in Tier 4 zones toreward players for zone captures more so than individual Objective andKeep captures. When active zones are captured in Tier 4, all players inthe zone are awarded Renown based on their level similar to Tiers 1, 2,and 3. If a Keep is claimed by a guild when the zone is captured, aGold Bag will be mailed to the Guild Leader who can then mail it toanyone in the guild, as they see fit.
BattlefieldObjectives that are owned by the conquering realm will also buff all ofthe players in the zone with the same buffs that Sergeants grantplayers. Lastly, players who have captured a Keep or BattlefieldObjective in the zone which is then captured will be awarded double theamount of Renown they would normally gain from capturing thoselocations.
Upgrade Your Assault with Ordnance!
Weare pleased to introduce a new resource to RvR that players can tradein for deadly assault upgrades! Scattered throughout the RvR lakes andacquired from killing players, Ordnance is collected and traded in forvarious items and weapons to use in open field RvR! Battering ramswith more hit points, ballistae that do more damage, oil immunitypotions, caltrops, and dynamite can all be purchased and used onunsuspecting enemy players!
New Guild Recruitment Options
Guildscan now set up a "profile" for their guild using the “Recruitment†tabin the Guild Window. Settings for type of guild, careers, and levelsbeing recruited, as well as guild "recruiters" can be set in theRecruitment tab. Once your guild recruitment info is filled out,players can search using the same criteria in the "search" tab to findguilds that fit their individual play-style and needs. Guilds can alsobe hyper-linked into chat either by shift-left clicking on the "LinkYour Guild" link in the Recruitment tab, or by shift-left-clicking theguild title in the search results panel. When players click the guildhyper-link, they will receive an individual window identical to thepanel in search results. No more chat spamming required, just let thehyper-links fly!
Character Profiles
Introducingthe new character profile system, which gives you complete control overthe way you play your characters! Each character will now have its ownInterface Profile. This will allow customization of addons and UIlayout on a per-character basis. You can also customize multipleprofiles per character. For instance, if you want to have a differentset of addons for soloing versus open RvR, just open the ProfileManagement window, create a new profile, and make any changes you wish.You can then swap between those profiles at any time in the managementwindow.
Profiles can also be copied from character tocharacter, even across servers. Just choose "Create from 1ff8existingProfile" when making a new profile, and you will be shown a list of allthe profiles for all characters you have on all servers.
Whenyou first log in, your first character will automatically map yourexisting user settings to the new profile. On first login of analternate character, you will be asked if you would like to start witha default profile or use the profile of an existing character.
Pleasenote that this is only the first iteration of the character profilesystem. We are working to add new features, including the ability tosave keybindings as part of the profile.
The Battle for the Gates of Ekrund Expands!
Themassive Gates of Ekrund are all that stand between the Dwarf-held minesat Ekrund and the greenskin-infested domain of Mount Bloodhorn. Thebattles fought for control of this ancient structure have been amongthe most bitter in the Age of Reckoning, and now both sides are callingfor additional reinforcements!
Beginning with this update, playersof Rank 19-24 will be able to join a special 6-on-6 version of theGates of Ekrund called "Broken Gates of Ekrund." Also, a new quest hasbeen added to the game to reward players who answer the call to defend(or smash down!) the Gates.
In addition to all of these excitingchanges and new features, we will once again be hosting developer leadlarge scale Open Realm vs. Realm tests on the Public Test server, thefirst of which will be taking place, tomorrow, April 2nd starting at8:00 PM EDT. Please keep your eyes on the Herald for more informationregarding this test. We will also be hosting an event on April 7thstarting at 8:00 PM EDT to test the new Keep Upgrade/Attacker Ordnancesystem. More information will be available on the Herald about thistest in the coming days.
For a full listing of the 1.2.1 Public Test Notes, please follow the jump.
We'll see you on the PTS!
James Nichols
Community Forums Manager
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
"I must need to sneak a last few chezzy snack in cause I bored to eat my sloppy joe...."
Source (http://forums.warhammeronline.com/warhammer/board/message?board.id=pts_announcements&message.id=35#M)
The Public Test Server is now open for your testingenjoyment! We're pleased to introduce game update 1.2.1 which includeseveral new ORvR features, improved UI functionality, Career Balancingand as always, multiple bug fixes.
For information on how to transfer your characters over to the Public Test Server please read here (http://forums.warhammeronline.com/warhammer/board/message?board.id=pts_announcements&thread.id=23).
Please be sure to check out the Public Test Forum (http://forums.warhammeronline.com/warhammer/board?board.id=pts_announcements) for all of the latest news about the happenings on the PTS.
Keep Upgrade System
Owna Keep? Want to keep it? Want to get more out of it? Then the newKeep Upgrade system is perfect for you! Guilds that own a Keep can nowpurchase upgrades to bolster their hold's utility and defenses in avariety of ways.Once a Keep has been claimed, a guild member withsufficient permission can speak to the Guild Keep Agent on the upperlevel of the Keep to choose what upgrades to purchase. These upgradesrequire a periodic maintenance fee and some are available in multiplelevels. Once purchased, upgrades will take time to be completed. Thisprocess can be monitored via the new Keep Upgrade Interface. Upgradeswill decay if funds are unavailable to pay their maintenance or if aguild member chooses to stop paying for the upgrade.
Guildsthat successfully hold a Keep until the zone is captured will berewarded with a free gold bag that will be mailed to the guild master,and is tradable to his or her guild members.
Combat Responsiveness Improvements
Weare always working to improve the overall responsiveness of our gameclient and server. With version 1.2.1 players will see some significantimprovements including the following:
Casting times havebecome more accurate under normal play conditions, and players shouldno longer see a significant “stretch†or “pause†when casting spells inlow or moderate latency situations. Accuracy of the spell castUI has been improved. The display will now show ½ second increments andwill no longer “stretch†time to compensate for latency. Instead,players will see a pause after the bar has filled completely if theyare in a high-latency environment. Continued improvements toanimation and visual effects performance have been made. Players willsee smoother transitions between animations and significantly lessstuck visual effects, especially when chain-casting abilities. UI Improvements
We are pleased to announce several improvements and enhancements to the game's User Interface!
TheGuild Window has received a major facelift and several functionalimprovements. We have added more information to the Guild Window, suchas new news alerts and additional statistics on the profile tab. Wehave also resolved several interface bugs with the window, such aspromoting and demoting through the UI and loss of guild permissions. TheUser Settings window has been divided into tabs for convenience andclarity. The Customize Interface window has been folded into the UserInterface window under the "Interface" tab. Tooltips have also beenadded to various elements in the User Settings window in order toexplain their function. RvR Zone Control Rewards
Variousimprovements have been made to Zone Control Rewards in Tier 4 zones toreward players for zone captures more so than individual Objective andKeep captures. When active zones are captured in Tier 4, all players inthe zone are awarded Renown based on their level similar to Tiers 1, 2,and 3. If a Keep is claimed by a guild when the zone is captured, aGold Bag will be mailed to the Guild Leader who can then mail it toanyone in the guild, as they see fit.
BattlefieldObjectives that are owned by the conquering realm will also buff all ofthe players in the zone with the same buffs that Sergeants grantplayers. Lastly, players who have captured a Keep or BattlefieldObjective in the zone which is then captured will be awarded double theamount of Renown they would normally gain from capturing thoselocations.
Upgrade Your Assault with Ordnance!
Weare pleased to introduce a new resource to RvR that players can tradein for deadly assault upgrades! Scattered throughout the RvR lakes andacquired from killing players, Ordnance is collected and traded in forvarious items and weapons to use in open field RvR! Battering ramswith more hit points, ballistae that do more damage, oil immunitypotions, caltrops, and dynamite can all be purchased and used onunsuspecting enemy players!
New Guild Recruitment Options
Guildscan now set up a "profile" for their guild using the “Recruitment†tabin the Guild Window. Settings for type of guild, careers, and levelsbeing recruited, as well as guild "recruiters" can be set in theRecruitment tab. Once your guild recruitment info is filled out,players can search using the same criteria in the "search" tab to findguilds that fit their individual play-style and needs. Guilds can alsobe hyper-linked into chat either by shift-left clicking on the "LinkYour Guild" link in the Recruitment tab, or by shift-left-clicking theguild title in the search results panel. When players click the guildhyper-link, they will receive an individual window identical to thepanel in search results. No more chat spamming required, just let thehyper-links fly!
Character Profiles
Introducingthe new character profile system, which gives you complete control overthe way you play your characters! Each character will now have its ownInterface Profile. This will allow customization of addons and UIlayout on a per-character basis. You can also customize multipleprofiles per character. For instance, if you want to have a differentset of addons for soloing versus open RvR, just open the ProfileManagement window, create a new profile, and make any changes you wish.You can then swap between those profiles at any time in the managementwindow.
Profiles can also be copied from character tocharacter, even across servers. Just choose "Create from 1ff8existingProfile" when making a new profile, and you will be shown a list of allthe profiles for all characters you have on all servers.
Whenyou first log in, your first character will automatically map yourexisting user settings to the new profile. On first login of analternate character, you will be asked if you would like to start witha default profile or use the profile of an existing character.
Pleasenote that this is only the first iteration of the character profilesystem. We are working to add new features, including the ability tosave keybindings as part of the profile.
The Battle for the Gates of Ekrund Expands!
Themassive Gates of Ekrund are all that stand between the Dwarf-held minesat Ekrund and the greenskin-infested domain of Mount Bloodhorn. Thebattles fought for control of this ancient structure have been amongthe most bitter in the Age of Reckoning, and now both sides are callingfor additional reinforcements!
Beginning with this update, playersof Rank 19-24 will be able to join a special 6-on-6 version of theGates of Ekrund called "Broken Gates of Ekrund." Also, a new quest hasbeen added to the game to reward players who answer the call to defend(or smash down!) the Gates.
In addition to all of these excitingchanges and new features, we will once again be hosting developer leadlarge scale Open Realm vs. Realm tests on the Public Test server, thefirst of which will be taking place, tomorrow, April 2nd starting at8:00 PM EDT. Please keep your eyes on the Herald for more informationregarding this test. We will also be hosting an event on April 7thstarting at 8:00 PM EDT to test the new Keep Upgrade/Attacker Ordnancesystem. More information will be available on the Herald about thistest in the coming days.
For a full listing of the 1.2.1 Public Test Notes, please follow the jump.
We'll see you on the PTS!
James Nichols
Community Forums Manager
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
"I must need to sneak a last few chezzy snack in cause I bored to eat my sloppy joe...."
Source (http://forums.warhammeronline.com/warhammer/board/message?board.id=pts_announcements&message.id=35#M)