Topic: Looks like Hellgate is in for a very rough launch.

[MysterD]

If y'all didn't know, Patch 1.0 will be adding a new area to the game -- Stonehenge.

Click here to check out a trailer for this new area.

And if you're a paying subscriber, well -- you can already actually test this area out.

[MysterD]

I'm moving the post I made here, which was on HG: Earth.
I went way off-topic in the Space Siege thread about HG: Earth, so I'm moving it here.

Y'know, instead of the subscriber stuff HG: London is doing...
I'd really like to see a true Hellgate expansion.

Actually, let me go even further.
I'd REALLY like to see Hellgate: Earth, once Flagship decide to actually do that.

(They have hinted at this in The Making Of The Game DVD and in past-interviews)

That's supposed to be what's next -- where all kinds of different locations all over the sci-fi futuristic world get attacked all over the globe; Paris, NY, Russia, etc etc.

We dunno if that'll be a expansion or new game yet...

[Pugnate]

Get laid dude.

[Jedi]

I sometimes wish I could be so absorbed in games again like D life was so much easier when my biggest issue was finding a decent party in WoW or if my PC would run a game.

Oh and hahaha. 

[Pugnate]

Well of the 16 posts before the one where I laid out my advise, D had 11. That's 11 out of 16 lengthy posts that belonged to him, on a game that only one other person from this forum has played... me. And I've given it only an hour.

He is so dedicated.

Here I should probably heed my own advise, after wasting time on the following:

[MysterD]

Well of the 16 posts before the one where I laid out my advise, D had 11. That's 11 out of 16 lengthy posts that belonged to him, on a game that only one other person from this forum has played... me. And I've given it only an hour.

He is so dedicated.

That's kinda like when we had our NWN2 Thread and NWN2: Mask Expansions Thread, the only ones really saying anything about these games was you, me, and Xessive. That's it -- after the original NWN here which many found disappointing around here, nobody gave the expansions a chance; even when they got dirt cheap. For that matter, nevermind the NWN2 sequel -- even more of a brush-off. It's kind of a shame, too -- NWN only got better w/ each expansion. And NWN2: Mask was a major improvement over NWN2: Original itself in every regard; especially in the technical performance department. Plus, NWN2: Mask had one of the best stories in a RPG since PS:T.

Hellgate, it's just so much fun; it just feels like those old-school grindfests and loot-gathering games, where you just hack-n-slash; a la Diablo II. Unfortunately, it does take a little bit too long for the story to really get worthwhile and actually interesting. Didn't really begin to pick up, until you start assembling the demon. Unfortunately, it doesn't have too much depth to it. And unfortunately, the presentation on the main quest really lacks; not much voice-acting and no style of any in-game cut-scenes found here which are now in many of the new games (like even Guild Wars and NWN2). Hopefully, they can improve on these things in an expansion AND in a true-blue sequel.

Without having any subscriber stuff, I'm still having a lot of fun w/ the stock game. And I've definitely spent LOTS and LOTS of time w/ this game, since I got it back not too long around X-Mas. I'm done yapping; gonna go try and keep this game going.

I'm in The Final Act; Act 5.

[Xessive]

I'm willing to give Hellgate a shot, but according to all I've been hearing it's best to wait for some serious patching.

Hehe that NWN2 thread is still kicking somewhere in the back pages

EDIT:

I just peeked at Pug's little bit of art Hehe I love "Meow" bit hehehe

While I put the Modify/Edit option to good (though almost abusive) use I think MyD posts another reply in order to bump the thread or get attention.

[MysterD]

I'm willing to give Hellgate a shot, but according to all I've been hearing it's best to wait for some serious patching.

I've got most stuff on Medium -- runs very well in 1024x768. Never below 30 frames. NEVER. Even when the screen's jammed w/ loads and loads of monsters.

The few bugs I've hit are very little stuff

1. Portals not working to go to next area even though you are supposed to be able to enter them -- had that happen like twice, so far, so I conjured my own portal back to a Town/Station. That or I sign off and sign back on; it'll take you back to nearest Station.

2. Portals say that you can't enter them w/ a "Forbidden Entry" message above it but you already took a quest to enter that area so the portal will actually open up to let you in  -- no big deal, since you can advance to where you're supposed to go.

3. Quest logs not displaying details of the quest but if you turn the quest on as "Active" it'll display the quest details in the right hand side of the screen; some game crashes cause a PC reboot.

Yeah, since I'm on Quest stuff. In your Quest Log/Journal, what's cool about making a quest "Active" in the log is you can make a bunch active at once on the list! When you do so, while in-game and just playing, on the right-hand side of the screen, your active quest list will show on the right hand side of the screen, in one small sentence. And yes, it will update itself, as you go along and perform parts of the quest, too -- very nice feature. More games should do this. Usually, when I make quests active, I usually make the ones that are in the same area active at once, since it will only show like 5-6 of them at once, on screen in 1024x768.

Hehe that NWN2 thread is still kicking somewhere in the back pages

Somewhere.

EDIT -- Jan 13, 2008, around 9:08 pm Atlantic Time:
Okay, I just finished the game. Yeah, it was a good game. And the last final few fights were freakin' awesome and tough as hell.

Though, the ending felt way too abrupt; kind of like Bioshock. It just feels like it ends way too quick.

ENDING Discussion

The Narrator Of The Game....

(click to show/hide)

Part of the ending I really like, as it's well done and explains one question I had lingering since the opening -- is there a character in-game telling the story as the narrator? Or no? And well, that question is nicely answered blunt, smacking you right upside the head, at the very end of the game -- it's Murmur!! Well done.

The Twist At The Very End

(click to show/hide)

But part of the ending, I really don't like -- leaves too much lingering and hanging, without much explanation as to why Murmur does what he actually does, using you and all; and who and what he really is.  At least when DS2 pulled this twist of "you're being told you're saving mankind, but in the end it turns out you were used to kill off a bad guy so some other bad guy can take charge" and left something open for a sequel, the dude explains why he used you and all....

[MysterD]

About Stonehenge areas for upcoming Patch 1.0....

...On Monday Jan 21st, Hellgate: London - Stonehenge will be coming.

AND Stonehenge will be subscriber content.

Stonehenge Launch Date Set
HELLGATE: LONDON GOES TO STONEHENGE


Explore New Environments, Conquer New Demons and Find More Phat Loot
in the First Chapter of the Hellgate Chronicles


The fight for humanity is spreading away from the streets and sewers of London and moving all the way out to the mystical areas surrounding Stonehenge – or what’s left of it. The first installment of the ongoing Hellgate Chronicles is going live for subscribers on Monday, January 21st, 2008.


Stonehenge is a huge outdoor hub accessed through a special portal in Templar Base, connecting players to several new and exciting quests. Heroes will find themselves in completely new open, outdoor wilderness areas unlike anything seen within the city limits of London, battling terrifying new demons and bosses and finding new items very distinct in their appearance. This action-packed update includes:


    * The Caste Caves – Unlock four unique dungeons, one for each caste of enemy – Beast, Necro, Spectral and Demon – to seek and destroy a powerful overlord that resides in each cave. Defeating them and collecting their heads will allow you to continue the adventure…


    * Moloch’s Lair – Only after collecting the heads from the Caste Caves will heroes be allowed entry into the lair, with a chance to defeat the legendary Moloch, one of hell’s most imposing minions who carries very unique items that can only be obtained by defeating him in combat. And because Moloch’s soul is eternal, this quest and it’s rewards can be a never-ending challenge.


    * The Wild – These three mini-raid areas present players with difficult obstacles but also huge rewards with three levels that get increasingly more difficult even with the recommended full party size – you will need a small army to get through these challenges.


In addition to the above, The Stonehenge Chronicles also includes many of the other updates the Hellgate: London community has been asking for, including improvements to game UI, a large number of skill balance changes, a PvP dueling arena and more. Hellgate: London subscribers can also now pay for their subscriptions via PayPal and PayByCash. For more information on payment options and a full list of notes for this update, please visit www.hellgatelondon.com.

EDIT, Jan 19th, 2008:
Bill Roper has this LONG, LONG interview w/ Gamespot about HG: London -- talking about the rocky beginnings of the game (technically), the upcoming HGL: Stonehenge Content, the future for the Hellgate IP, how well the game's doing in the Korean Market, and so forth and so forth...

Q&A: Bill Roper opens up on Hellgate
Flagship Studios CEO and cofounder details the first major content update for hybrid action-RPG and addresses the game's rocky beginnings.

By Tom Magrino, GameSpot
Posted Jan 18, 2008 5:23 pm PT

Diablo held a special place for many fans of action role-playing games due not so much to its combat mechanics or storyline, but its addictive item collection system. This concept has been taken to the next level with Flagship Studios' Hellgate: London, a game which seeks to blend fast-paced shooter gameplay with deep RPG-oriented customization and item collection. And that's no wonder, considering the studio was founded by former Blizzard Entertainment brass, including Diablo creators Bill Roper, Max and Erich Schaefer, Schaefer, and David Brevik.

Rather than having the experience limited to how much content was packed into the box when the game shipped, Flagship Studios offers an optional pay-to-play subscription model, which promises regular updates to the game to continue fueling gamers' desire for fancier and more powerful items. For those who have decided to pay, Flagship will be releasing its first major content update for the game on January 21.

Titled Stonehenge, the update extends Hellgate's borders to the eponymous druidic artifact outside London, adding three new areas to the game and a host of new quests, items, and encounters. The Stonehenge update also adds a number of UI tweaks, as well as makes significant skill balance changes ands adds in a player-versus-player arena, in addition to other changes.

For more on Stonehenge, as well as to get an update on how Hellgate has evolved and appreciated in the past several months, GameSpot spoke with Flagship CEO and cofounder Bill Roper.

GameSpot: The Stonehenge patch was initially slated to arrive before the end of the year. What prompted the delay?

Bill Roper: When we started talking about the Stonehenge patch, we wanted to get it out to players because we were so excited about what we were adding to the game. We were pushing to get Stonehenge released before the end of the year, but we realized that we wouldn't be doing the right thing to push it out before it was ready and properly tested. After looking at what we wanted to accomplish, we decided to take the time necessary to make our first major content patch right. If there's one lesson we learned from launching Hellgate: London, it was that our releases should be a question of "what" and not "when." We just felt that we would be doing everyone a disservice to push this out before it was right. We're proud that we still met our original promise of providing a major update within three months of the game shipping, and we'll continue to work on major releases on a quarterly schedule.

GS: What features implemented in this patch is Flagship most excited about?

BR: Adding our first non-linear game play elements in the Essence caves and Moloch's Pit, the first of our raid-type content in The Wild, making our first major class balance pass with the Evokers, and starting to refine our player-versus-player play by adding a dueling arena. There are also a host of tweaks, from animations to items to crafting to skills that everyone will be happy to see.

Non-linear stuff -- cool.

GS: Hellgate launched with more than a few serious bugs. Was this a matter of staying true to the ominous Halloween date, or were outside forces to blame?

BR: Honestly, we tried to do too much with the game. We created our own engine, tools, and online destination from scratch in just a few years. We are really proud of the work we did, however we were perhaps a bit too ambitious.

If we could have waited another three months to ship, we would have, but the challenges of an independent game studio are much, much different than what we had during our days at Blizzard or the guys at Arena.net face (since we often see comparisons with them and Guild Wars) as they were owned by NCsoft before they had to ship. We don't shy away from the fact that Hellgate: London was far from perfect when we launched, but we've also stayed dedicated to the game and our players and have been exerting every effort to make amends and get the game to what we envisioned. We're thankful to our fans that have stuck with us, and encourage people who maybe tried the game when it launched or never checked it out because of early concerns to give us another look with The Stonehenge Chronicles.

I'm glad he's honest about how the game wasn't technically sound, upon its release. Some designers just seem to think they can't do no wrong...

GS: Is the game viewed internally as an MMO, or more of a single-player game with online elements?

BR: Internally we treat the game as an MMO because we're constantly working on improving it and creating new content. The challenge with launching Hellgate: London was that it was both a single-player stand-alone game and an online game. This meant our focus was divided at times, but now that the game is out, we're all about working with the online community to get them the features that they want and making the play experience better and better.

GS: MMOs launching while still riddled with bugs seems to be a recurrent theme in the industry. Do you ever see this changing? Will there ever come a time when an MMO will launch without an oppressive amount of technical issues?

BR: The truly massive amount of design, art, code, balance, and testing required to put out an MMO is far beyond any other type of game. This means that it is practically impossible to catch everything before you launch unless you were willing (or more realistically, able) to have the game in advanced test for six to nine months. And by advanced testing, I mean the game being in a state where the developers think they are close to release quality. Unfortunately, even the best and biggest MMOs launch with serious issues. Being able to basically sit and iterate on a game for over half a year isn't something you can really sell to a publisher, or fans, to be honest. As gamers, we all want great games, but we also want them right now, so it is a difficult line to walk.

Fortunately most players forget about those starting problems after they have been addressed--as long as the core game is fun and the developers have proven that they are willing and able to work on the game experience. We've seen that if a developer shows their commitment to the game experience and their players, the gamers understand the complexities involved in launching an MMO.

The hard part for any MMO launching now is that they are inevitably compared to games that have been on the market for years. People forget that the current reigning champs on the field didn't launch with all of the features and options and polish they have now. All any of us �new kids on the block� can do is to stay dedicated to improving the game, keep talking with our community, and get the word out that the game today is vastly improved over when it launched. That is the upside of creating an MMO. You can keep working to make it the experience that your players want.

Okay.

GS: It's common rhetoric from MMO developers after the first few months that the game has been out that significant improvements have been made, and people should come back and try the game again. What were some of the most griped about early problems that you all feel you have a handle on now?

BR: The team has worked incredibly hard to smash the biggest, nastiest bugs that we shipped with. A high-level list (and this is FAR from complete in terms of everything done) of what has been addressed includes:

Client-side crashes due to memory issues
Invisible party members
Improved chat, grouping and general UI
World movement and getting stuck in certain geometry
Quest blockers
Tons of skill fixes, tweaks and balance changes

We've also added a lot of persistent game play features. The top ones on this list being:

Achievements: These are long-term goals that players can work toward which provide completion points. These points will be able to be spent on special perks and bonuses.

The Transmogrifier: An item that allows players to discover recipes which allows the alteration and creation of items. It also doubles as extra inventory space!

And with the Stonehenge Chronicles, here are two examples of what we are adding:

Essence Caves: These adventuring areas off of Stonehenge introduce non-linear game play by offering repeatable quests that can be done across multiple character levels. Unlocking and completing these caves leads to the final confrontation against Moloch the Pit baron who has rich and extremely rare rewards. The best part is, this sequence can be done multiple times and the encounters scale with the level of your character or party.

The Wild: This area attached to Stonehenge Introduces our first party-specific zone, allowing players to go on mini-raids. The difficulty of these areas are balanced for groups only, so players will have a real reason to group up with their friends or guild members to claim new, powerful rewards.

Cool.

GS: It's often the case that several months after launch, some combat classes simply aren't panning out as expected. Have you all identified any classes that are in store for an overhaul?

BR: We are constantly looking at all of our classes and making adjustments, both small and large. The Stonehenge Chronicles sees our first big sweep on the Evoker class, as well as some tweaks on the Guardian auras. We're continuing to give all of the classes in-depth evaluation and will be making everything from tweaks to whole-sale changes as required. We're also very close to starting up a �Team Advocate� program where specific members of our community will be organizing feedback in several areas from our player base and then speak directly with the design team to see these issues addressed. We have a lot of very passionate players in our community, and we think this will be an invaluable way to best get their feedback and improve the game.

GS: With the most recent update, Hellgate will be further expanding its boundaries outside of downtown London. How far do you see this geographical expansion going? Will the game eventually evolve into Hellgate: Britain? Hellgate: Europe?

BR: We've always planned to move the game play into areas outside of London, as well as using some places within the city that we haven't yet explored. We have a lot of ideas on where we think good story and game hooks exist, as well as places that we think would just be cool from a visual and game play standpoint. Other areas within the UK are definitely on the drawing board, including some ideas outside of Britain.

GS: Do you see future expansions delving more into the geographical regions of Earth or the bowels of Hell?

BR: Yes! We have ideas both for areas around the world as well as digging deeper into the realms of the underworld. One of the great things about the universe we've created with Hellgate: London is that we have a massive amount of areas to explore and expand into.

I'm definitely looking forward to Hellgate moving outside of  London and to other locations throughout not just Britain, but also in the entire world.

GS: As with Diablo, one of the primary draws of Hellgate is the addictive item collection. Are future item updates simply going to focus on the bigger/stronger aspect of new gear? How do you all plan on keeping players interested in the items?

BR: Players always want bigger, better, and rarer versions of what they know, so we'll do that. We also have some ideas for all-new item types that we'll be rolling out in the months ahead. It is really a combination of refining the items in the game, creating improved and rarer versions of the existing items, and introducing new concepts. The exciting thing for us is that we really didn't have much a chance to add new item types in the Diablo days, so we can really see how the game will expand in terms of item choice and combinations in Hellgate: London.

I must admit, the amount of items you can find and do all kinds of stuff w/ in HG: London is crazy. It's one of the main reasons I just couldn't put this game down -- kind of like what I felt about TQ and D2.

[MysterD]

My last post was too long, so here's Part 2 of it, from the Interview w/ G-Spot in the above post.

GS: One of Hellgate's primary claims to fame is its hybridization of first-person shooter and RPG gameplay. Does the game's current gameplay fit the original concept, or what kind of compromises had to be made to reach the current balance?

BR: We always wanted the game to be an Action-RPG first and foremost. The FPS elements that we added were designed to contribute to that style of gameplay and that goal has been reached fairly well. At the same time, we wanted the game to be very approachable by a large group of people. Many of the current FPS games are difficult for more casual gamers. We were able to maintain the feel of an FPS while still keeping the game RPG focused.

That being said, we have been talking about ways to make our guns and gameplay feel better to FPS players through different sound and animations, as well as looking at some different skills.

GS: Were the hybridization elements a direct effort to break the mold of traditional MMO gameplay? Do you feel there are any specific aspects of the game that break new ground that other MMOs creators will attempt to replicate?

BR: We set out to make a game that would be different and fun. Perhaps we tried to do too much, but in doing so, we came up with some very fun ideas and concepts that are outside the MMO norm. We built a game that is much more centered on action and fighting larger groups of monsters rather than pulling a single creature and fighting it with modal attacks. We elected to make the entire adventuring instance-based to allow players to have the exact experience they wanted, and being able to be more selective with who they play. We chose a setting that was outside the �classic fantasy� that 99 percent of MMOs use, and created a world that blended reality, sci-fi, and fantasy. We also tried to create a hybrid business model where players could buy the game, play it as a stand-alone game, go online and play the game for free, and then subscribe for additional content.

Will any of our ideas be used by other developers in the future? Who knows--but it would be a great compliment if someone did since, as developers, we tend to be the harshest critics of all.

GS: What is the climate like in the MMO industry? What is considered a success in the wake of WOW?

BR: WOW is an aberration in the industry, and you can't base your success on how it compares. To be honest, this has almost always been the case with Blizzard games. We constantly exceeded our own goals and dreams when we were there, and we recognized that we had reached a rarified status. The MMO space is incredibly crowded right now, and to a good extent, that makes sense. It also means that there are a lot of us competing for the mindshare of gamers. If you can get your game launched--a rarity in and of itself--and then get enough players to keep the doors open while you continue to build on the core experience, that is successful. If you look at a game like Eve Online, for example, they started with a very small number of players, but had enough to sustain themselves while they grew the game. Today, they have a healthy and dedicated player base that makes them a success story.

GS: What do you think MMO developers need to do to break down WOW's stranglehold on the industry?

BR: I don't know if anyone can consciously do this. Blizzard didn't set out to monopolize the space with WOW. It became a cultural phenomenon through years of hard work, good timing on the release, having a quality game, and luck. All a developer can do is make the best game they can, stay connected to their community, and iterate on the game to make it what their players want. The publishers have to be willing to put a lot of time and resources into the game--including being willing to let it sit in test for far longer than any other sort of game there is. And even then, there is no guarantee that the game will do well. MMOs are the biggest crap shoot developers and publishers can make, but the potential for rewards has a lot of people rolling the dice all the time.

GS: Is WOW even a competitor? Is Flagship's focus more on bringing in new audiences rather than pulling gamers away from WOW or other MMOs?

BR: We never focused on trying to take WOW players, or to specifically steal players from any game. There is a lot of talk in our industry about stealing players from other games because we all know that there is a limited pool of people that will play an MMO, and that MMO players tend to stick to one or maybe two online games. Our goal was to reach out to the gamers that we felt were under-represented in the MMO space--the action-RPG fans. We also hoped to draw in some traditional MMO players, and maybe even some FPS players that wanted a way into the MMO space that felt more familiar to them. The best thing you can do is try to expand the global player-base for MMOs. It's something that WOW accomplished, and as we've always believed, any game that brings in more gamers overall is a great thing.

GS: What kind of response have you all gotten from the optional pay-to-play business model? Is the paying option proving to be popular or meeting expectations?

BR: In hindsight, perhaps we should have only talked about how Hellgate: London had free online play and not talked about the subscription service until we were announcing the Stonehenge Chronicles. A lot of the misconceptions and uncertainty over what players got for subscribing would have been avoided, and the whole model might have made more sense to people. By trying to offer a delineation of services on day one, a lot of people just got confused or upset because they saw the players in the other side of the fence as having some sort of advantage. We don't see this between MMO players that do and don't buy an expansion set, for example, so somehow we had bad messaging or timing on what we were offering. We really hope that players who experience The Stonehenge Chronicles will understand what we've been trying to do with this since the beginning.

GS: What regions is the game available in? How has adoption of the game in those regions compared to the North American market?

BR: The game is available all across the US and Europe, as well as in Singapore for Southeast Asia. The game has done well in all areas, although PC in general was down this past year. We're working very hard to get the word out about what we've done to improve the game and online play experience in all these regions.

We just started our open beta in Korea, and it is going incredibly well. The numbers we are seeing are tracking very well compared to the top MMOs there, and we are feeling very good about meeting our goals there. The players in Korea are definitely seeing the benefits of all our work on their day one, so we hope that players here are going to give us another look, as well.

[MysterD]

MP Patch 1.0 info.
Patch should be released soon, even though it's been delayed.
Here's the patchlog from HGL's site.

Here's some info.

Multiplayer: The Stonehenge Chronicles - JANUARY 21, 2008

North America and Europe Only
The Stonehenge Chronicles
Update Notes

Happy New Year!

2008 is upon us, and we’re thrilled to be kicking it off with our first major update – the Stonehenge Chronicles. We’ve got a lot in store for all of our players, so let’s get to it!

In this update, you’ll see the first of the big balance sweeps we’re doing on all of the character classes. Both the Guardian and the Evoker got a lot of attention this time around, and we hope that players of those classes will dig into how the classes play now. We’re making it simple for these players to get a handle on the new balances by allowing them to completely respec their characters.

PvP is starting to get more attention with the introduction of the Dueling Arena. This both makes dueling easier to accomplish and also gives us a better and more accurate way to track play habits and stats – a key to really increasing this section of the game.

There’s also a whole slew of other overall improvements, tweaks, and additions, so take a couple of minutes to go through the release notes and see what’s new.

For our Subscription Members, we’re opening the portal to Stonehenge! This is a completely new area that not only has new items and monsters, but also completely new ways to experience the game.

The Essence Caves are the first of our non-linear style of play. You can repeat this long quest chain multiple times throughout the career of your character as it scales with your character (or party) level. The rewards are rich and many of them are unique to the Stonehenge area.

The Wild is also a new type of game play since it is focused exclusively on group play. You need big groups to have success out there – and the deeper you get, the harder it gets. It’s time to get your friends together!

We’ve got lots more in store, and we’re working on every aspect of the game. Thank you all for your support over the past couple of months. We’re listening and doing all we can to make Hellgate: London what we all want.

See you online!

Okay, below is all the new stuff, fixes, and changes for ALL Gamers that are using MP Patch 1.0.

General
Based on the number and depth of balance changes to skills in this update, certain characters will be provided a “respec token” that allows them to reassign their skill points. This token is automatically placed in the character’s inventory and can be used at any time.

All Evokers and Guardians will receive respec tokens, as will all characters in Subscription Member accounts.

PvP
A Dueling Arena has been built for those who wish to test their mettle against each other. When challenging another character to a duel, the invitation dialogue indicates that the duel will take place in the Arena. When the duel is accepted, both characters are instantly transported there.

When both characters have loaded into the Arena, a countdown begins. During the countdown, characters can move, but they cannot use skills, activate items, cast spells, or attack their opponent. After a duel has been won, the defeated character is reset, as is their opponent and a new countdown clock begins. Players can leave the Dueling Arena by activating their Recall device.

Players can still duel in other areas by joining the same party and activating their /pvp flag as before.

Group Play

    * Increased experience and treasure bonus for groups. Characters now receive more experience and treasure on a greatly accelerated scale based on number of players in a group.


    * Fixed a bug where grouped players that were separated from the rest of their party were receiving extra experience for all of the other group members.


Graphics

    * Templar melee animations have been tweaked for smoother combat flow.


Memory Manager

    * Party members will now show up in higher resolutions. Players will not see the change until they move to a different zone and users must have Textures at least set to High.


User Interface

    * The Mini Map is now set to the top right of the screen with character state icons appearing below.


    * The Chat Window is now scalable. To adjust the size of the chat window, hold down the ALT key. There is a small tab in the upper right hand corner of the chat interface that can be used to resize the window.


    * The LFG interface has received new functionality. To activate the LFG Interface, simply press the ‘P’ key.
          o The screen has been re-arranged to allow for more information and additional features.
          o Party Leaders can advertise existing groups to add new members.
          o Individuals can advertise themselves as being available for a group. To instead create an entirely new group, select the CREATE PARTY option. Otherwise, the character is listed as an individual looking for a group to join.
          o New search filters have been added to better find the right group dynamic.
          o Players can now Invite, Join and Whisper to individuals or groups listed in the LFG interface.


Skills
There are a wide variety of balance tweaks across the Templar and Cabalist factions.

Cabalist:

    * Brom's Curse
          o This spell now heals a fixed amount based on the attacker's level instead of being based on a percentage of the attacker's health.
          o The rank progression of this spell has been adjusted. Brom's Curse affects up to 4 targets for 5 seconds at rank 1. The maximum number of targets is increased by 1, the duration increased by 1 second, and the amount healed is increased by 12.5% per rank.
          o This spell may now be cast while moving.
          o The range of Brom's Curse has been increased to 20 meters.

    * Afterlife
          o The power cost of this spell has been reduced.

    * Elemental Drain
          o The power cost of this spell has been greatly reduced.
          o The casting time has been reduced by 1 second.

    * Word of Fear
          o The Fear Attack Strength of this spell now properly scales with the caster's level.
          o The base Fear Attack Strength of this spell has been increased by 25%.
          o The rank progression of this spell has been adjusted. Word of Fear now gains 33% more Fear Attack Strength per rank.


Evoker
Skill Rank bonus descriptions have been updated and normalized to be based on their initial rank 1 effect. For example, Spectral Bolt now displays no Phase Attack Strength bonus at rank 1, but displays a more clear bonus of 25% Phase Attack Strength per additional rank.

    * Spectral Curse
          o Spectral Curse now also reduces targets' movement speed by 10%.
          o The rank progression of this spell has been adjusted. Spectral Curse now affects up to 4 targets for a 5 seconds at rank 1. The maximum number of targets is increased by 1, the duration increased by 1 second, and movement speed penalty increased by 5% per rank.
          o This spell may now be cast while moving.
          o The power cost of has been reduced substantially, and the range has been increased to 20 meters.
          o The explosion damage caused by Spectral Curse has been increased.

    * Drain Power
          o The damage of this spell has been increased significantly.

    * Drain Life
          o The damage of this spell has been doubled.

    * Arcane Shield
          o The rank progression of this spell has been adjusted, providing slightly less shields at lower ranks.
          o Arcane Shield is unaffected by the Evoker's movement.
          o This spell now lasts for 10 seconds with a 25 second recast time.

    * Concentrate Damage
          o The rank progression of this spell has been adjusted. Concentrate Damage now provides a lower initial damage bonus, but grants a greater bonus per rank. Concentrate Damage's new damage bonus progression surpasses its previous curve damage bonus progression at rank 4.

    * Summon Ember
          o The rank progression of this spell has been adjusted. Additional ranks of this skill now provide 15% more damage instead of 20%, but the base damage of the Ember pet is significantly higher across all ranks.
          o The Ember's Health, Damage, Ignite Attack Strength, Critical Chance, Interrupt Strength, Interrupt Defense, and Armor have been increased.

    * Firestorm
          o The rank progression of this spell has been re-designed. Additional ranks of Firestorm now provide a 5% increase in damage rather than an increase in Ignite Attack Strength. Firestorm surpasses its previous damage at rank 3.
          o The Ignite Attack Strength of this spell has been reduced.
          o The range of this spell has been increased to 10 meters.

    * Flameshards
          o The Flameshards spell has been re-worked. The number of shards fired is now fixed at 7, but multiple shards stack with each other. Individual shard damage has been decreased slightly to take damage stacking into account.
          o Increased ranks in Flameshards now increases each shard's Ignite Attack Strength by 25%.
          o The spells now has a cool-down time of 2 seconds.
          o This spell's power cost has been decreased.
          o The base Ignite Attack Strength of this spell has been increased by 25%.
          o The range of this spell has been increased to 25 meters.
          o The explosion delay of Flameshards has been decreased to 1 second.

    * Hellfire
          o This spell's casting time and initial power cost have been reduced significantly. Additional ranks now provide a slightly smaller decrease in power cost.
          o This spell now has a cool-down time of 2 seconds.
          o The damage and Ignite Attack Strength of this spell have been increased substantially.
          o The range of Hellfire has been decreased to 25 meters.
          o The targeting of this spell has been fixed.

    * Spectral Bolt
          o The rank progression of this spell has been adjusted. Spectral Bolt now provides an additional 25% Phase Attack Strength per rank. The initial Phase Attack Strength of Spectral Bolt has been slightly increased.
          o The power cost of this spell has been decreased, and the Phase duration has been increased by 1 second.
          o The cooldown of Spectral Bolt has been decreased to 1 second.
          o The base Phase Attack Strength of this spell has been increased by 25%.

    * Spectral Lash
          o The damage of this spell has been increased by 35%.

    * Spectral Lash Mastery
          o The damage of the explosion caused by this spell has been doubled.
          o The rank bonus of this spell is now applied to the explosion effect properly.

    * Lightning Field
          o The damage of the Lightning Field has been increased substantially.
          o The power cost of this skill has been decreased.
          o This spell now has a cool-down time of 2 seconds.
          o The rank bonus tooltip now properly displays a 15% instead increase in radius.
          o The splash damage of the initial effect has been increased by an additional 17%.

    * Tempest
          o The casting time, power cost, and cool-down of Tempest have been decreased.
          o The base damage of Tempest has been decreased.
          o The strike frequency bonus per rank of Tempest has been decreased to 10% per rank.
          o Each Tempest cloud now lasts for 15 seconds and has a range of 15 meters.
          o The rank bonus of this spell now properly increases the frequency of lightning strikes.

    * Arc Legion
          o The rank progression bonus of this spell has been changed. Additional ranks now increase the Shock Attack Strength and Shock Effect Damage of Arc Legion by 25%.
          o The range of this spell has been fixed at 18 meters.
          o The damage of this spell has been increased.

    * Demonspine
          o The rank bonus of this spell has been slightly adjusted to a 25% increase in Stun Attack Strength per rank.
          o The power cost of this spell has been decreased.
          o The damage of this skill has been increased.
          o The base Stun Attack Strength of Demonspine has been increased by 20%.

    * Boneshards
          o The rank bonus of this spell has been slightly adjusted to a 50% increase in Stun Attack Strength per rank.
          o The damage of this spell has been increased by 60%.
          o The cooldown of this skill has been decreased to 6 seconds.
          o The base Stun Attack Strength of Boneshards has been increased by 25%.
          o The power cost of this skill has been increased.

    * Skullsplitter
          o The rank progression of this spell has been adjusted. Skullsplitter now begins with 12 fragments and gains 2 additional fragments per rank.
          o Skullsplitter now explodes into a significantly more predictable nova pattern.
          o The power cost and cool-down of this spell have been slightly decreased.

    * Venomous Spirit
          o The damage of this spell has been increased and the power cost has been decreased.
          o The Fear Attack Strength of this spell now scales properly with the caster's level and has been increased significantly. Additional ranks of Venomous Spirit no longer provide an increase in Fear Duration.
          o The travel speed of the Venomous Spirit has been increased significantly.

    * Venom Armor
          o Several bugs with which allowed the swarms created by Venom Armor to bypass its intended cool-down time have been fixed.
          o The damage of each swarm created by this spell has been increased, and each swarm now lasts for a fixed amount of time on their target.
          o The initial armor provided by this spell has been decreased, but the absolute bonus to armor per rank has been increased, reaching the previous maximum armor bonus at rank 10.

    * Swarm
          o The rank progression of this spell has changed. Additional ranks in Swarm now increase the Poison Attack Strength and Poison Duration of Swarm by 20%.
          o The cool-down of this spell is now fixed at 6 seconds.
          o The power cost of this spell has been decreased significantly.


Templar:
Aura of Power, Aura of Renewal, Aura of Defense, and Aura of Salvation have been rebalanced. Additionally, their skill rank progressions have been normalized to provide a 33% increase in effectiveness per skill level. Blademasters and Guardians will now see more return on investment in these auras.

    * Aura of Power
          o The power regeneration granted by Aura of Power has been decreased. At rank 10, Aura of Power grants 94% of the power it gave previously.


Blademaster

    * Call of the Chosen
          o The Taunt and Fear Attack Strengths of this skill now properly scale with the Blademaster's level.


Guardian

    * Aura of Renewal
          o The initial health regeneration granted by Aura of Renewal has been slightly decreased. By rank 10, this aura provides significantly more health regeneration than it did previously.

    * Aura of Defense
          o The armor bonus granted by Aura of Defense has been decreased.

    * Aura of Salvation
          o The initial elemental attack defense granted by Aura of Salvation has been slightly decreased. By rank 10, this aura provides significantly more elemental attack defense than it did previously.

    * Grand Aura
          o This skill now provides an equal percentage increase to the Guardian's Holy Aura radius at each rank, ending with the same total increase at rank 5 as it did previously.

    * Challenge
          o The Taunt Attack Strength of this skill now properly scales with the Guardian's level.

    * Denounce
          o The Taunt Attack Strength of this skill now properly scales with the Guardian's level.


Quests

    * Certain quests that could not be completed after defeating Sydonai because Emmera was no longer accessible can now be turned in to a new NPC named Sammy.


Items

    * Unique items that were found before Patch 0.5 that are missing special attributes may now be rerolled for free. The process is as follows:
          o All mods must first be removed using a Delux De-Modificator. This is available once at no cost for qualifying items.
          o Once all the mods are removed, insert the item into an Augmentrex 3000. Now click any of the three "Add Property" buttons to reroll the item attributes.
          o All item attributes will be rerolled and the item balance will be up-to-date. If the item level was previously upgraded with the Nano Forge, the additional item levels will be added to the newly generated base level after the item reroll. This means that the new item level may not be the same.

    * The Stun Defense granted by the Gyro Stabilizer has been increased.


    * Health and Power injectors now show up in high level stations.


    * Fire Extinguishers now give the appropriate Ignite Defense.


Monsters

    * Monsters with the Infested ability have had their damage reduced.


Crafting

    * The limit on number of times an item can be upgraded has been raised to 10.


    * Upgrading an item takes 50% less resources.


    * A new, rare salvaged material crafting material called Nanoshards are now required to upgrade items.
          o Nanoshards can be obtained from any item, but the chance to salvage one is increased when disassembling rarer items.
          o The number of Nanoshards required to upgrade an item increases each time the same item is upgraded.


Fixes

    * The mini-game now has a timer. This is partly a fix for characters at level 50 who have finished all the quests and get the quest icon and therefore cannot finish it.


    * Fixed a bug where characters would not save when they killed 65,534 monsters in one session.


    * Grappler no longer changes a character’s position in PvP.


    * Fixed a rare bug where equipping the Cleanser and a shield can delete the shield.


    * Fixed a rare bug where Templar could equip both the Cleanser and a shield.

[MysterD]

My last post would've been too long.
But, here's what MP Patch 1.0 includes for SUBSCRIBERS

Special Subscriber Features
Stonehenge is a new, non-linear adventuring area that can be accessed through a special portal in Templar Base. The quests and areas around Stonehenge scale in difficulty to challenge characters of any level. This is to allow players to return to this section of the world numerous times and complete the longer associated quests, missions, and raid areas.

Stonehenge itself is a new hub that holds a larger number of players than most Underground Stations. There are new NPCs, new quests, and most importantly, new adventuring areas that are unlike anything within the confines of London.

Quests
A new series of non-linear quests introduce the area surrounding the great druidic monument of Stonehenge.

The Caste Caves
These mystic caves can be found in the wilderness areas outside of Stonehenge. Each caste of demon - Beast, Necro, Spectral, and Primus – has a powerful overlord that resides in these caves. The caves themselves are sealed by the essential aspect of their master’s caste. These caves cannot be entered until the essence of five (5) Champions of the matching demonic caste has been collected. Essence can be collected from any Champion, so adventuring above and below the streets of London may gain you the keys to unlocking these special areas.

Once a character has gathered the required essence of a single Caste, they can either solo or lead a party into the caves and battle against the resident overlord. Not only are there great and special riches to be won, but the head of the caste overlord is also claimed. Once a character has collected the heads of the Beast, Necro, Spectral, and Primus overlords, the adventure continues.

Moloch’s Lair
A great and powerful Demon known as Moloch resides in the rough countryside surrounding Stonehenge, and only the worthy may enter his domain. Characters that have collected the heads of the Beast, Necro, Spectral, and Primus overlords can then make their way deep into the realms of Moloch, the Pit Baron.

Moloch has very unique items that can only be won by defeating him in combat, so the journey to his defeat can be well worth the effort. His soul is eternal, however, so the process of opening his sanctum and destroying his corporeal form is a never-ending challenge.

The Wild
The other main area that lies outside of Stonehenge is known only as The Wild. The challenges here are far greater than anywhere else in or around London, requiring raiding parties to properly navigate them.

The Wild is divided into three increasingly difficult sections that are balanced for parties of six, seven, and eight. This is regardless of the number of characters that enter The Wild, so while you could try to make your way slowly with a smaller group, the going will not be easy.

Items
There are new weapons and armor that can only be found in the areas surrounding Stonehenge. These new items have very different appearances from those found within London, so keep a sharp lookout for them.

    * 13 new base weapon types divided amongst the Templar, Cabalist, and Hunters.


    * Each faction also has two all-new Helmet types.


Environments
Apart from the settlement that has secreted itself at the Stonehenge triliths, there are numerous new areas to explore. Chief amongst these are the various Caste Caves and grand expanses and dark forests of The Wild. There are also new undergrounds and interiors to explore scattered throughout the countryside.

Monsters
The areas around Stonehenge also have spawned new Demons. The Winged Imps rain death down from the skies and swoop in to sever heads of those foolish enough to seek them out. Burning Fiends move amongst the underbrush and between the windswept trees. Moloch, the Pit Baron, also makes his fiery presence felt for the first time.

Patch Notes Disclaimer: While we make every effort to include all upcoming changes in our patch notes, please be aware that occasionally some changes are unintentionally omitted.

[MysterD]

A bunch of stuff has been fixed for HG: London, w/ their newest MP Patch 1.1.
Link here for the notes on it.

A lot of fixes for non-subscribers.
And a handful of fixes for subscribers dealing w/ the Stonehedge content.

Multiplayer: Patch 1.1 - JANUARY 31, 2008

North America and Europe Only
Patch 1.1 Notes
January 31, 2008

Stonehenge has launched and we’ve been busy cleaning up a handful of issues, as well as listening to the feedback from our players on the Stonehenge Chronicles.

Thanks to everyone who has posted issues and suggestions. And in fact, you’ll notice that a lot of the fixes and features in this patch are linked to posts in our forums. When we’ve addressed something you’ve brought up, we want to acknowledge your contribution to the betterment of the game!

See you online!

The Hellgate: London Team

---

Genera

    * All Guardians, Evokers, and characters on Subscription accounts will have one Skill Retrainer when logging in after this patch goes live.
    * The timer and quest requirement have been removed from the mini-game.
    * Fixed a bug where chat entry became visible in the Character Select screen after logging in and then logging out of the game.
    * Fixed a crash bug associated with exiting out of the Character Creation menu.
    * Players that had beaten Normal mode with a character but then were unable to access Elite mode (and Hardcore mode for subscribers) with a new character should now have access to that game mode by logging in once with the character that completed Normal Mode.
    * Fixed a bug which caused audio and sound effects to sometimes stop playing.
    * Party and PRD Portals created by a character in a group will now properly close when that character leaves the group.


Monsters

    * The Beast of Abbadon, Oculis, and Sydonai will now re-spawn normally, even if the player has previously completed their associated quests.
    * Fixed a bug which would sometimes prevent Oculis or the Furuncle from spawning properly.
    * The loot algorithm for Ash (Beast Caste General) has been adjusted to drop better items.
    * Errgoth (Demon Caste General) now does less damage.
    * Stalkers and Burning Fiends are now part of the Beast caste and Tortured Souls are now part of the Spectral caste (to balance a disparity of Essence drop rates between castes). This applies to all types of Stalkers, Burning Fiends, and Tortured Souls.


User Interface

    * Offline friends are now properly displayed in the Friends List.
    * The “Player Requests” confirmation buttons have been reordered to [accept] [decline] [ignore].
    * Skill Retrainers now have a confirmation dialogue to help players from accidentally using them.


Items

    * Armors with the “minion damage bonus” affix now work for the Engineer.
    * Restorative injectors are usable when either health or power is below the player’s maximum since they can help recover both health and power for the user.
    * Increased the amount of Shields found on items and affixes, ramping up after level 10. Note that this change is not retroactive and will not apply to existing items; however, newly dropped items and existing items upgraded through the Nanoforge will receive the adjusted amount of shields.
    * Guild Heralds can now be sold back to merchants for full price.
 
Skills

    * Increasing ranks of Drain Power now work properly at all power ranges.
    * Increased the amount of Shields granted by skills that provide Shields.
    * Engineer Drones now come with a base armor rating.


Stonehenge Bug Fixes

    * Players may now Recall or Party Portal out of the Hell’s Heart level.
    * Party Portal limitations have been removed from the Stonehenge levels.
    * Stonehenge now appears as a destination on the Station Transit Terminal.
    * Stonehenge weapons can now have Mod slots.
    * The stash in Stonehenge now properly detects collision.
    * Fixed a blocking bug in the Essence Caves which prevented a portal into that specific Caste General’s Lair from opening.
    * Essence drop chance increased from 15% to 20%.
    * Fixed rare cases where Essence Caves were not connected to the next level.
    * Fixed bad pathing around the Stonehenge wilderness huts.
    * Fixed a bug causing additional Skill Retrainers to spawn when they shouldn’t have. Duplicate Skill Retrainers should now be removed.


Patch Notes Disclaimer: While we make every effort to include all upcoming changes in our patch notes, please be aware that occasionally some changes are unintentionally omitted.

[scottws]

Probably too late at this point.

[Pugnate]

Yea the game went from record sales in its first week to absolute tank fest.

[MysterD]

Yea the game went from record sales in its first week to absolute tank fest.

You know, if EA didn't push the damn game early out the door, things might not've hurt them so bad. I mean, when I installed the game in late December, it ran damn good and I never hit any bugs. Which was not unfortunately the response upon the game's release, which was littered w/ performance issues and bugs back in late October.

My biggest complaints w/ HG: London was that the lack of presentation, lack of voice-acting in the main quest, lack of story-depth, take a little bit too long before the thin story gets going, lack of variety in quests. You know -- what's funny enough, is that this is all stuff Silverfall does better than HG: London -- shit, I figured it'd be the other way around!

Still, amazingly enough, despite those pile of minor issues, I had a blast w/ HG: London and couldn't put the damn thing down.

Really, they need to stop w/ this subscriber crap. I'd rather them make me pay one flat fee of like $5-10 fee just to buy some new Stonehenge content and it's yours forever -- kind of like what Oblivion did w/ its DLC content.

Though, I'd rather Flagship work on a new HGL Expansion or a new Hellgate game entirely. I'd really like to see Hellgate: Earth, whether that's an expansion or new game entirely, we'll eventually find out.

[Pugnate]

Seeing as how you are the only one here who has finished the game, I doubt you'd get any meaningful responses. That will eventually change when I get around to the game.

[gpw11]

hhahhaha.  OMG Chingy!!

[Pugnate]

hain?

[MysterD]

Seeing as how you are the only one here who has finished the game, I doubt you'd get any meaningful responses. That will eventually change when I get around to the game.

Will that be by the time Hellgate: Earth comes out?

[MysterD]

For those wondering what's up w/ HG: London, here's their plans for upcoming Multi-Player Patches 2.0 and 2.1 -- basically to add the new Abyss Chronicles content to the game (for monthly Subscribers).

The more I look at all these HG:L updates and whatnot, the more I scratch my head and wonder why Hellgate didn't just do the Guild Wars approach -- give new in-game content to gamers just by letting them buy these extra pieces separately.

I really don't like the "you must pay-to-play and keep your MP-extra game content" thing, too.

The Lowdown on Patch 2.0 and 2.1
Discover that which awaits you in the Abyss, brave Hellgaters! The Abyss Chronicles (Patch 2) is rapidly taking shape and form and we’re ready to share some of its most exciting offerings with you. As Hellgate: London’s second major content update, the Abyss Chronicles boasts an impressive and lengthy list of new features including a major class rebalance, new environments, new enemies, new skills, new bosses, and new inventory slots . Then there’s the Consignment House, Attribute Respec Vendor, item linking, achievement rewards, and lots more. Suffice to say, the Abyss Chronicle is big. Very big.

Plans are already underway for the patches beyond the Abyss Chronicles. A small content summary for Patch 2.1 has been included as well. This update will open up an entirely new side to Hellgate: London in the form of ranked player versus player (PvP) gameplay. Originally slated for release with the Abyss Chronicles, the decision to release new PvP content as part of a supplemental patch was brought about by a desire to introduce five cohesive elements of PvP in a single update: ranking, matchmaking, rewards, achievements, and Capture The Flag. Together, these features will provide a robust PvP experience within the Hellgate: London universe.

---

The Abyss Chronicles (Patch 2) Content Summary

    * New Abyss Quest Line with Five New Boss Fights:
          o Travel to the all new Parliament Square and help Titus of the Cabal fend off the rapid spread of the Abyss, a new Demonic underground that grows in size as Demonkind consumes more of our world. The only way to halt the Abyss is to seek out and destroy those who control it. Lure the five Abyss Lords from their cursed realm by collapsing their Hellrifts (a new Rift for each of the boss types), then confront the masters as they emerge to investigate the problem. Five repeatable boss runs with five new bosses! Features three new environments and some reworked environments.

    * New Shared Stash System:
          o The Shared Stash will now feature separate panes for each gameplay mode: Normal, Elite, Hardcore, and Hardcore Elite. Items currently in your Shared Stash will be placed in the correct pane.

    * Major Rebalance of the Blademaster Class:
          o The Blademaster class has been significantly rebalanced with changes to almost every skill. Overall, they should d
          o more damage and have many more options than before. Some of the highlights include Strength now stacking on top of the skill percent bonuses – a huge boost – and Blademasters can now gain a Surge with any melee attack or with any melee skill (rather than just when killing something with a Surge skill).

    * Improved, Configurable Guild Controls:
          o Guilds will now have four titles they can assign to members. The titles can be renamed. There can only be one Guild Leader. Non-subscribers can only have the lowest title. The Guild Leader can configure what the middle tw
          o titles are allowed to d
          o including invite new members, promote and demote existing members, kick members, and send all-guild e-mail. The lowest title is not allowed to invite, promote, demote, kick, or send guild e-mails.

    * Consignment House:
          o Players can place items into the Consignment House to offer them for sale at a set price. All players in the same gameplay mode can see and purchase that item. The Consignment House currently only offers a “buy out” price, there is no bidding.

    * Three New Skills for all Classes:
          o Skill Scrolls are new items which unlock the new skills and allow skill points to be put into them. For example, the Spider Mine Schematic unlocks the Spider Mine skill for Engineers. The Skill Scrolls will be tradeable and can be used by all players; however, they drop off of boss monsters in the subscriber-only Abyss levels. Only a few of the skills will be enabled in the first Patch 2 build that goes to Test Center. Here are a couple sample skills to whet your appetite:
               1. The Summoner will get a melee demon transformation with zombie minions.
               2. The Blademaster will get skills that use up Surges to do things like perform a group heal.
               3. The Engineer will get Spider Mines.

    * Trinket Inventory Slots:
          o There will be two new Trinket inventory slots. The first trinkets will drop as cursed rings which can be cleaned up through the Transmogrifier. These cursed rings will mostly drop in the Abyss levels, but they can be found elsewhere too. These items are tradeable and can be used by all players.

    * Attribute Respec Vendor:
          o Bob, the Attribute Respec Vendor, will allow you to spend palladium to remove points one at a time from an Attribute and add them to your unassigned Attribute Points pool. The cost to remove each point goes up with character level.

    * Stack Splitting:
          o You will be able to right-click on a stack of items and select to split it into smaller stacks using a new radial menu option. A dialog will pop up and let you type in how many items to place in the new stack.

    * Gameplay Changes:
          o Character defenses against Secondary Damage Effects have been increased.
          o Shield Overload has been removed from sword weapons.
          o Strength has a much more significant impact on melee skill damage.

    * Item Linking:
          o Players will be able to enter a clickable “link” to an item’s details into the chat pane by right-clicking on the item and selecting the Link Item option on the radial menu.

    * Achievement Rewards
    * New Armor and Weapons for all Factions
    * New Monster Types
    * New Chat Color Scheme
    * Many bug fixes and performance tweaks.
    * A few more features yet to be announced.



Patch 2.1 Content Summary

    * PvP Ranking
    * PvP Matchmaking for Teams and Individuals
    * PvP Points and Rewards
    * PvP Achievements
    * Capture the Flag PvP Game
    * Improved predictability and balance for the attribute feed system.


We are hoping to get a Patch 2.0 build into Test Center next week, but we will see what happens.

[Quemaqua]

Fuck this shit. Go play Guild Wars.

[Ghandi]

Speaking of which, I do plan on actually playing with you guys whenever my work schedule permits. Which means hopefully tonight if you guys are on.

[Quemaqua]

I wish I could guarantee something... but I'll be at Sy's probably for a while.  Not sure how long.  I will definitely, however, be playing all day Sunday.

[Ghandi]

A haiku:

Sy's house is so lame
You know that you want to game
So lets play Guild Wars

[idolminds]

Thats beautiful.

[MysterD]

Impressive.

[MysterD]

All kinds of madness happening w/ Flagship Studios.

First off, this stuff has been confirmed by Flagship -- they let go of some of their Ping0 (the in-game advertisers) and Flagship Studios staff.

Second off, this is a rumor -- take it as a grain of salt, until we know if it's true or not. Rumor has it HanbitSoft (that's the Korean game-development/publishing house that distributed over there in Eastern Asia HGL and Starcraft) is actually looking to take over HG Intelectual Property to turn HG "into a good game with proper content."

Flagship Shake-up - Hellgate Takeover Attempt? [July 11, 2008, 4:45 pm ET] - Viewing Comments
First the confirmed story: Layoffs Confirmed At Hellgate Developer Flagship on Gamasutra has word that a Flagship rep has confirmed that "staff at both the Flagship development team as well as online services subsidiary Ping0 were let go." They also report contact from "source close to Flagship" that the company has been "going through internal turbulence."

Now for the part that's less clear, in what may or may not be related news: Hellgate Guru has a report based on a translation of a Korean news story saying that Korean operator of Hellgate: London, HanbitSoft, claims co-ownership of the Intellectual Properly for the game, and is looking to take full control of the IP to "properly manage and develop Hellgate: London into a good game with proper content." Their report quotes HanbitSoft's statement on their reasoning: "It is hard for us to accept Flagship Studios’ requests for continued support in capital and funding any longer and because Flagship was being difficult." They also have a response to the story from Flagship Studios calling the story an "outright lie," except they don't appear to be refuting the accuracy of the Korean news story, but rather HanbitSoft's rights to take over the IP, seemingly indicating that such an attempt may actually be underway. According to Flagship:

    This story is an outright lie. We have no idea where they are getting their information from and have asked legal counsel to pursue the issue. We are mystified by Hanbitsoft’s conclusions and any attempt to take over the IP will be met with a strong and swift response, to “illegally take over the IP”. All right title and interest in Hellgate; London resides in Flagship Financing, LLC a wholly-owned subsidiary of Flagship Studios. We are outraged that Hanbitsoft would attempt to completely tarnish the reputation of its most vital developer. Hanbitsoft’s new management clearly does not understand the terms of its relationship with Flagship.

EDIT:
And the drama keeps on escalating here.
Hanbit's lawyers supposedly contacted HellgateGuru site to remove the story.
Not only that, but they tried to clarify the situation a little bit, while they are at it...
I can only wonder how Flagship will reply...

UPDATE #3: Someone claiming to be a lawyer representing HanbitSoft has requested for us to remove the story. We are ready to comply, but only if other websites and news sites reporting the story agree to do so as well:

    We are U.S. attorneys for HanbitSoft. Your story is a repeat of a quote that is not accurate and we request that you pull it down. At the request of Flagship’s attorney, we must correct the record:

    Please understand that the facts are (1) HanbitSoft is an exclusive licensee of both Hellgate and Mythos in Asia, with rights to sublicense the games; (2) in addition, HanbitSoft is a secured creditor who has been pledged the Mythos (but not the Hellgate) intellectual property as collateral for a loan; (3) Comerica, another secured lender, has been pledged the Hellgate intellectual property as its collateral for a loan; (4) Flagship Studios does not currently own the intellectual properties to either game, which are held in separate companies subject to the security interests of lenders, and Flagship Studios’ interest in those companies is also pledged to its lenders; (5) it is unfortunate that Flagship turned down additional investments HanbitSoft offered to make that would have allowed it to keep its doors open, but HanbitSoft hopes to work with Comerica and some of the team at Flagship to see if there is a way to continue to generate content to keep Hellgate online in Asia and to finish the development of Mythos.

IGN’s VE3D is also reporting the news.

[scottws]

They do ask for them to pull it down, but it seems the main purpose of the contact is to set the facts straight.

[Quemaqua]

What a clusterfuck.  This game was doomed to fail from the moment it released.

[MysterD]

What a clusterfuck.  This game was doomed to fail from the moment it released.

There are just so many factors that hurt this one.
I really don't know where to begin.

Bad Business Stuff
--Flagship partnering with EA to publish this thing.
--The whole EULA w/ Ping0 pissed many gamers off.

Online Portion/Subscriber Stuff
--The online portion just couldn't be decided on being a subscriber pay-for-MMO or free MP game. Seriously, they should've just picked either one or the other!
(I think it would've succeeded better if it took the usual route -- Free MP like Diablo II. And if you want new content, buy an "HGL Expansion pack" from them. That would've been a better business model than this subscriber crap.)
--"Subscriber" stuff was not being pushed out fast enough; and there wasn't much of it, either.
--"Subscriber" stuff was not even good, according to many subscriber, gamers, and reviewers.
--You can't keep "Subscriber" content, if you actually quit paying the monthly fee. Plus, the MP-subscriber content doesn't even roll itself over into the SP mode, either...
--"Founder's Fee" sounds ridiculous for a game that probably won't be around, years from now....

The Game
--The game itself has a lack of story depth.
--The game itself has a lack of presentation and lack of voice-acting for the main quest.
--The game was deemed Beta-in-a-box upon release.
(At least when I got it, all was well technically, even if it was WAY too late in many people's opinions...)

[MysterD]

And "subscribers" have been dropping their subscriptions like crazy, due to this newsbreak.
Also, something else has changed from the game -- the option for "Subscribers" to be able to un-subscribe from their "Subscription".

Oh, man... this is something...

Update #2: Subscription options have been removed from account areas, as has the ability to unsubscribe. On the forums, the lock-happy mods have yet to touch a fifty-seven page complaints thread that has spiralled out of control since the news regarding redundancies was released.

[Quemaqua]

Quick, somebody photoshop a flagship crashing into an iceberg and sinking.  While on fire.

[MysterD]

Let the drama continue...
It's getting really, really messy now.

VE3D's Andrew Burnes is reporting that Taylor Balbi of Flagship said Flagship is closing today and lost all their IP's.

[Xessive]

Wow, that's a kick in the nads for all the Hellgate: Londoners.

Balbi went on to reveal that three of the studio's top brass dug into their own pockets to provide 30 days of pay to all employees.

That was cool of them.

[MysterD]

Oh, it gets crazier.

Now, Taylor Balbi of Flagship is saying that he never spoke to VE3D at all.
Hmmmmm...interesting, since he doesn't flat-out deny anything about Flagship closing there...

And well, Burnes is still sticking to his source.

[MysterD]

I saw some of this info being broke yesterday in the actual never-ending thread of "Lowering The Flag" (it's like up to 300+ pages now!) on The Official HGL Forums, but a handful of Flagship's employees have already updated their online profiles/resumes -- to have now listed themselves as working with Flagship from whenever they started to July 2008 on LinkedIn.

Now, as you could've figured, VE3D is still following this

Update: A Goon by the name of GLC, who claims to be a former Ping0 employee (thanks Hellgate Guru), said the following on the SA Forums:

    Former Ping0 employee checking in here. I feel bad for some of the talented guys on the staff who busted rear end to try and get a game out on a ridiculous schedule, but I think we all kind of saw this coming after the game came out and basically bombed. Flagship bit off way more than they could chew and made a lot of development and structural mistakes in how they went about things. They had a lot of big dreamers on staff, but not enough nitty-gritty people who knew how to get poo poo done. It sucks, but that's life I guess. I didn't always agree with the decisions of the leadership, but it doesn't surprise me at all to hear that three of them (probably Roper and the Schaeffers) dug into their own pockets to pay people. Nothing about them, Max Schaeffer in particular, ever made me think they were less than standup guys.

    I think it's less that they aimed too high than that they tried to aim that high and do it quickly, and they didn't do anything the easy way. They had their own server architecture, their own client, their own chat, their own graphics engine, their own everything basically. Plus they wanted a game that could support thousands of concurrent connections with no downtime, had an engaging single-player campaign, and could support an ongoing, persistent world. It was like picking everything that's hard to do in a game, and then putting it on a brand-new company (two of them, really) with people who hadn't worked together before.

    Plus you had Ping0 doing the back-end and multiplayer, working off a forked codebase, and trying to make sure that what they were designing was open enough that it could be marketed to other companies. And then Mythos, with a team working out of Seattle under Travis Baldtree (who is a loving genius, by the way), which had to fit into things somehow even though it wasn't as much of a priority. It was just a really chaotic situation all around. Hopefully the talented guys I met there will bounce back quickly, it's a lovely time to be unemployed in the bay area.

Update #2: Guy Somberg, Flagship's final programmer and the Guy who wrote that infamous tirade, has modified his employment history on LinkedIn, which now reads as, "February 2005 — July 2008 (3 years 6 months)." Thanks Flagshipped.

Update #3: Kotaku's closure story contains further confirmation from their own anonymous source.

Update #4: Amol Deshpande, Chris Schillinger, Jesse Jones and Ray Li all list their Flagship-Ping0 positions as having ended July 2008.

Update #5: Producer Patrick Harris is no longer employed by Flagship.

Update #6: Eric Liu is no longer in the employ of Flagship-Ping0. Having served for seven months as a QA Manager and Automation Engineer, he was promoted in October 2007 to International Producer, a position he held until the studio's closure.

Update #7: Flagship-Ping0's IT Manager, Brent Shinn, is the latest staffer to officially leave the firm's employ.

Update #8: Grant Watters, Greg Brown and Jonathan McEvoy are the latest Flagship-Ping0 employees to have listed their positions as previous experience on LinkedIn.

Update #9: Flagship-Ping0's Project Manager, Jack Wood, is now also an ex-employee. Jack had many important responsibilities, including: stakeholder, investor and regional distributor liaising; final say on all patch and product launches; and oversight of day-to-day end user support.

Update #10: Lead Graphics Engineer, Chris Lambert, is the latest to go. Chris was with the company for four years.

[scottws]

Wow, it's like watching the TItanic sink live or something.

I feel bad for the actual individual people involved, but as a group I'm sort of glad it's happening.  No one at all liked the retarded subscription crap they were trying to foist on gamers, and basically what a piece of crap the game was when it released.  Now they are burning in effigy for it.

[MysterD]

Wow, it's like watching the TItanic sink live or something.

Basically. Yeah, it's quite crazy.

I wonder what is going to happen w/ the MP -- I'd say it's done, if Flagship's done and if some American company with lots of money (like say EA) don't get the HGL Rights.

Sure, we can always still play the SP-game alone. At least we still got something here.
 

I feel bad for the actual individual people involved, but as a group I'm sort of glad it's happening.  No one at all liked the retarded subscription crap they were trying to foist on gamers, and basically what a piece of crap the game was when it released.  Now they are burning in effigy for it.

I didn't like the "optional" subscription idea, Since they pumped out very little new content for "subscribers," it didn't look very attractive. Lifetime Founder subscribers got to keep their content on the MP side; while if you paid for a monthly subscription and quit, you lost the new MP content until you re-subscribed; what crap. Now, it looks like -- Founders are screwed period, since the MP Subscriber content don't rollover into the SP.

I think they should've let the MP be free. For new content, they could've did the Expansion Pack route for new content that you will keep. That or they could've done the DLC Route -- where you pay for the new areas to buy-to-download and its yours to keep forever; release some DLC packs in retail outlets if they wanted, too. Or even go both DLC and Expansion routes like Oblivion did -- and succeeded quite well with, I might add.

And yeah -- Flagship and EA definitely burned for releasing the game in a Alpha state. I mean, the sales went through the roof for...one week, until word got out how buggy it was. When I got HGL, it was fine on the MP Side when I played it (very end of December 2007 to end of January 2008). I think most gamers moved on to something else, by then.

[Quemaqua]

I second what scott said: feel bad for the folks, but they sort of had this coming.  I wouldn't hold it against them personally, as I'm sure they're all fine people, but this was poorly planned with bad business decisions from end to end.  IMO, their biggest mistake was allowing EA anywhere near them, and while I have no confirmation of anything, I could easily see how EA's involvement might have driven the nails into the coffin, depending on how much rush they were forced into.

Oh well.  It's a shame, but that's life, I guess.  They should have been smart about not tried to make this grand thing out of what was essentially just another Diablo game with pretty graphics.  It would have worked fine if they'd just given us a standard package of stuff and not tried to tack on a lot of useless bullshit.