The One About V2.4 Countdown

We are less than 24 hours away from V2.4 launch!

Do take note that although Bahia Island and Island of Fire will be opened tomorrow, Tierra De Los Muertos and Bahamas Swamp will be out at a later time, tentatively in February and March 2008 respectively. Currently, only 2% of the entire GE population can take on the monsters in that map with their current AR/DR. With the Island of Fire, hopefully this 2% will increase to at least 50% by the time these two other maps are released.

RNPCs Angie and Karjalainen will be out tomorrow as well. Other RNPCs are planned to be released monthly. Lil' Viki and Feng Ling (Soso) is scheduled to be released next month, Jan 2008 while Edward Jameson & Kurt will probably be out in Feb 2008 and lastly, Gavin Jameson in March 2008. This is the tentative schedule and subject to change since this industry is so dynamic and changes might happen at anytime so please don't swear by my schedule.

V2.4 patch notes are still being tested on the servers and will be released fully only tomorrow morning. Lots of system changes and such. One of the more interesting system changes enables you to right click on a player's name (in faction/ squad/ private chats or even broadcasting) and a variety of options will appear:

Another relatively interesting system change that would prolly change the dynamics of the PK-ing is:

1) When logging out or exiting programs, user has to wait for 5 seconds now.
2) If the character moves, attack, uses skills or picks items, then the 5 seconds countdown will be cancelled.

For the carebear servers, this will probably affect you in the Island of Fire where everyone else is seen to be an enemy (except squadmates) and is PK-able (although you will not get baron points or drop items)

Stock class changes are:

Changes to the Wizard class
a. “Reflection” has been changed to “Energy Shield”
b. While using energy shield, the shield will protect the user from damage by consuming SP instead of HP
c. Decrease Levitation stance attack range
d. Increase cool down time for “Photon Splash” and “Hole of Darkness”
e. Uses one Magical Orb for “Photon Splash” and two Magical Orb for “Hole of Darkness”
f. Reduces Mental RES when using Magical Piercing
g. Does not decrease movement speed and DEF when using Invisible Stalker skill

Change to Elementalist class
a. “Activate Mana” has been changed to “Elemental Blessing”
b. After casting “Elemental Blessing”, you will be allowed to defend against any attack once. After blocking the attack, “Elemental Blessing” will be gone
c. Increases damage of “Meteor Strike”, “Firewall”, “Blazing Pillar” and “Volcanic Eruption”

The premium item mall preview is out as well in the web catalogue here. Enjoy!

The One About Super Fight

So most of you would have read the article on V2.4 Super Fight on the web. There were a few points I missed out since the article was getting too lengthy already.

1) 5 minute window of opportunity

The warp gate will only be opened for 5 minutes. A world-wide announcement will be made via system notice 10 minutes before the opening of the warp gate. Once the warp gate is closed, no one else can enter into the Super Fight map.

This makes a lot of difference in terms of survival. If you get killed after the warp gate closes, you will not be able to enter again if you relog or return to barracks... which is why stocking up of soul crystals or having a supportive squad who resurrects one another is crucial.

2) Random Warp Points

When you get warped in, you will spawn on a random location on the map - regardless of whether you are squad members or not. It would be ideal to meet up with your squad members at a fixed location, and try your best to avoid enemies - both players and boss monsters while you are at it.

3) Who said what?

In these Super Fights maps, you will be unable to tell who is talking in public. No names are displayed. So you never know who is around the corner. And you never know who is plotting against who.


4) ...Better late than never

Bosses don't all spawn at the same time. Every 15-30 minutes or so, there will be map-wide announcements that XXXX boss will make his grand appearance in 5 minutes etc.

...For some strange reason, I'm reminded of all those Royal Rumble wrestling matches that my brother used to force me to watch with him when we were younger. 2 wrestlers would start fighting first and try to throw each other out of the ring. Then after some time, a new contender would be announced and dynamics change as the initial 2 wrestlers now face some new dilemmas:

a) Ally each other to kick out the new enemy
b) Be so focused on kicking each other out of the ring that they take no notice of the 3rd party
c) One of them allies the new enemy to take down his initial rival

And I foresee these elements coming into play as well in Super Fights and I can't hardly wait to see how these elements will be brought out by the GE community.

Conclusion?

Form your squads wisely. You will need a tight team that watches out for one another. Make use of terrains. Within each of the Super Fight maps are all kinds of nooks and crevices, high landscapes and low lying areas. I've always fancied that the higher up you are, the safer you are. However, with different militant strategies, all kinds of landscapes have their own usages.

Super Fight adds an additional element of surprise with that random spawning feature and a 'I know what you did last summer' kind of feeling cos you never know who's round the corner out for your blood. ;)

The One About Barbie World

Since we are on the topic of summoners, the ever-so-popular Catherine and Viki will be getting some new costumes in V2.4 as well!

Here's lil' Viki's new look:

























And here's Catherine's new wardrobe:
























There's something disturbingly wrong about Catherine's outfits. I mean... c'mon - look at it! It's blasphemy! Catherine is a doll, Frankenstein-ed into life by Dr Torsche! She's supposed to have this gothic, creepy, chucky-from-childplay aura.

But now... She has sold out to the Barbie Doll entourage!

Oh what has this cruel world come to...?

"I'm a barbie girl in a barbie world. Life is plastic... its fantazzztic!"
- Reclusion Family (Aqua's No. 1 Fan)

The One About Summoners

So I've been trying out Hellgate: London recently and my favorite class so far has been the summoner class.

And I think I know why.

You see, on screen I see this:



Hellgate:London's HRIN summons her minions

But as I am happily summoning them minions in Hellgate: London - in my mind's eye, I am actually seeing this:



Granado Espada's CatheHRIN summons her dolls

I swear Granado Espada runs through my veins. I can never look at any other game in the same way!

On a side note, I encountered some Granado Espada players in-game in Hellgate: London and it was somewhat amusing that we were discussing about the exciting, upcoming V2.4 updates in the in-game chat of HGL and then we started comparing the various classes in GE to those in HGL. Here's the conclusion we came to:

Granado Espada	Hellgate:London
Fighter	Templar
Musketeer	Marksman
Wizard	Erm… MIA
Elementalist	Evoker
Scout	Guardian
Catherine + Viki	Summoner
Jack + Diego	Engineer

What was even more amusing was that one of the players didn't believe who I was. So he asked me what the name of the upcoming V2.4 patch as a proof of my identity.

I haven't officially discussed the name of the upcoming patch with KingKongJon yet but considering how we had once discussed the previous patch name and had decided at that point in time that the standard naming convention for each new patch would be the name of the new map that came along with that patch...

I replied,"Tropical Island patch... or more specifically, Bahia Island patch."

Yes, that's right. The name of the tropical island for the V2.4 patch will be Bahia Island. The previous direct translation from Korean had been 'Gigante Island', but the localization manager, DG, wanted to continue his trend of staying true to the background storyline, so after a few rounds of shortlisting, we unanimously chose Bahia Island.

Coming back to HGL, we are releasing more figurines! Yes, yes I know. The next question you will be asking me is - HOW ABOUT GRANADO ESPADA FIGURINES?!

It's something we are exploring as well. (Not the nude bug version though. So don't get any funny ideas!) ;)

More peeks at these upcoming HGL figurines: