PSOX

Dopo tanto lavoro direi che la versione “avanzata” (per quel che riguarda le features di wordpress sviluppate) del sito è finalmente accettabile (ci sono ancora numerosi problemi di design da sistemare), o per lo meno tale da poter essere pubblicizzata e navigata, segnalo quindi il link di dove proseguo più fedelmente gli aggiornamenti dei contenuti.

Date un occhiata a Zonde.it e ditemi cosa ne pensate.

16 giugno 2008 – Patch Log

Player Characters
Archetype

New buff counters were added to a number of mage and soldier effects.
All gathering feats should now have the correct proficiency suffix in their name (e.g. ‘You need Woodcutting Novice to perform this action’ messages).
The Goad ability can be trained and used on a NPC that does not have aggro on you. You must be in combat to use this ability.
The buffs from rogue general feats Concealment, Distraction and Mountaineer will now be removed from characters when they untrain feats.
You can no longer enter spellweaving when climbing or swimming. If you are hiding or crouching and enter spellweaving, you will leave that state immediately.

Assassin

Flesh Rot now applies a separate debuff for each player
Lotus Weapons now applies a separate debuff for each player.

Bear Shaman

Wreck Armor I+II+III combos now have improved visuals and sound.

Conqueror

You may now use Incite the Ranks if Fire Weave is running.

Dark Templar

Soul Barrier’s cast time has been reduced from 3 seconds to 1 second.
Changed the Cooldown of Unhallowed Blight III to 20s.
Changed the Unholy Debuff to be 5% on all combos and changed the duration of the debuff to last for 25s.
Reduced the Mana cost of the following spells by 50%:

Aura of Dread Fury (Ranks 1 – 4)
Aura of Infusion (Ranks 1 – 5)
Covenant of Pestilence (Ranks 1 – 4)
Covenant of War (Ranks 1 – 3)
Covenant of Death
Covenant of Invulnerability (Ranks 1 – 3)
Covenant of Vengeance
Drain Life (Ranks 1 – 5)

Demonologist

Waves of Flame now inflicts more damage each tick.
The animation for the Demonologist-spell Unholy Hate has been slowed down a bit.
Resolved an minor issue with Demonologist spellweaving not affecting stamina potion effects.

Herald of Xotli

Resolved a issue with “Blood Pit” so it will always spawn if you successfully kill a minion with the “I Eat Your Heat” combo.

Necromancer

Vile Insight now gives the intended Unholy Specialization as reflected in the description.
Plagued Heart Curse will now correctly increase in damage with more feats trained.
Parasitic Soul Swarm now inflicts more damage each tick.
Pestilential Blast now has an additional skull visual.

Priest of Mitra

Resolved a problem with the priest of mitra spellweaving ability.
Repulse has had its base damage lowered slightly and contribution from bonus magic damage increased.
Cleansing Fire now has a slightly lower manacost and now scales correctly across all levels.
The damage bonus applied to Repulse, Cleansing Fire, and Lance of Mitra from Force of Will has been lowered to the correct amount.
The damage bonus from Improved Repulse has been significantly increased

Ranger

The buffs from ranger stances Shattering Stance, Piercing Stance, Fire Stance and Sniper Stance will now be removed from characters when they untrain feats.

Tempest of Set

Brutal Lightning Strike should no correctly increase the critical strike chance of Lightning Strike.

Mounts

You can no longer be knocked off the horse from the front.
You can be knocked off from the side: more likely by monsters higher level then you and less likely by monsters lower then you. The chance almost drops to 0 if they are grey to you.
Full chance to be knocked off from behind by monsters of higher or equal level than you. Monsters that are grey to you still cannot cause a dismount even from the back
Fixed a problem where advanced mount abilities were being given out by the basic training. Mammoth and Rhino owners – Please use /claim again. This will train the attack abilities associated with these two mount types.

Quests

Dealing with Dila: Dila should now attack.
Hunting the Spider: Quest can now be completed.
The Lost Scouts: Waypoint to Diarmad was fixed.
Oasis of Zaara: Waypoints for quest were fixed.
Flowers of the Snow: The flowers way markers were adjusted.
Paetus and the Nemedian Crown: Waypoint for Armsman’s Tavern was fixed.
Rahim & Lord Camillus: had it’s journal text modified to point to the correct location.
Death to the Undead: Indicators for minimap were displaying to small. This has been resolved.
The Mark of Acheron: Players will now be able to experience the destiny event in the Field of Chiefs.
The Mark of Acheron: The Mark of Acheron is permanently removed when performing the Medallion Ritual now.
Soul Chamber: If you die in the soul chamber you now lose the tablet in your quest inventory.
Added item rewards for the quests “The Honoured Dead I”, “The Honoured Dead II”, “The Honoured Dead III” and “The Honoured Dead IV”.
Destiny Quest: The quest rewards ‘King Conan’s Tribute’ & ‘King Conan’s Esteem’ can no longer be traded.
The Lost Bottles: Wine bottles will now have a blue flame indicating you can interact with them.
Tradeskill Quests: You can now delete all tradeskill quests but not tradeskill progression quests.
Tradeskill Quests: Resolved various level requirement issues with the quests.
Securing the Caravan Route”: Added the correct waypoint for returning to Gua
In the quest “A Curious Encounter” in Field of the Dead Quest, Radi will no longer give the player an amulet.
“The Wolves at our Throats”: Moved the waypoint for the location of the Wolverines, for the quest .
Vistrix now drops his tooth for the quest “Master of the Silver Peacock.” The player will need to DELETE their quest, and return to Kalanthes to get the quest again in order for the tooth to drop.

Items

Hood of Jagged Barbs has been revamped.
Added new purple rare drops to world loot.
Conqueror Spear should now look the right size.
Cimmerian Hide Light Wrist item should no longer clip with arms
Khopshef Province: Treasures are now located throughout the province.
Average, Fair, Fine and Superior Meat will no longer end up in the quest inventory.
Crafting Item: Renamed item “Bloodsilver-studded Boots” to “Bloodsilver-mail Boots”
Hek’lar’s Accursed Dagger will now appear with the correct icon in the player’s inventory.
Fixed an issue with ‘Darfari Armbands’, they should be visible on female characters and have stats now.
Reinforced Iron Warhammer no longer goes into the quest inventory.
Prices of vendor bought food items have been adjusted.
Vendor bought tradeskill components have updated visuals.
The stack-size of building materials has been raised to 1000.

NPC

Ice Cave: Ice worms should now attack correctly.
The Acheronian Warlord will drop bossloot armor again.
The trader in Lacheish Plains has been removed as intended.
Toirdealbach should now be a more fun and playable encounter.
The Catacombes: Necromancer Undead Warlord should now attack correctly.
Purple Lotus Swamp: Weaponsmith Ethi woke up with his height a bit smaller than what it was yesterday.
Villa Lentulus: Gurges the Nimble should react normally to players.
Yakhmar’s Cave: Yakhmar should no longer get stuck if it cannot reach its target.
Kyllikki’s Crypt: Kyllikki should reset properly when nobody is in her hate list.
Khopshef Province: Freed Rogue Slave should now use his weapons correctly.
Border Ranges: Greven, Histacus, the Nemedian Adventurer & General Zarathus will all drop Nemedian community loot again.

Playfields

Purple Lotus Swamp: Ladders should now work correctly.
Tarantia Noble: Armsman Tavern – Players should now be able to teleport into the arena by clicking on the door.

Tradeskills

Obsidian has been renamed to Feldspar.
Weaver quest line: Changed reference to Steelsilk to Gossamer Silk
Orichalcum has been renamed to Duskmetal.
Tigereye Gems will now end up in the resource inventory.
Skinning Trainer will now tell you were to get skins.
Resource nodes can now always be harvested while their health is at 10%.
All crafted Cloth; armbands, wrists, boots and belts can now be worn.
Increased dps on ‘Swiftsilver Flat Bow’.
Skymetal Battle Crossbow, Moonsteel Katar and Moonsteel Ratchet Crossbow have all received one free gemslot.
The Weaponsmith Trainer now gives the cooldown warning for the tradeskill quest progression when the cooldown is in effect.
The dialogues of the Resource Gatherer Trainers and Crafter Trainers now check if the player has the appropriate feats set on them, in addition to quests. If the player has the quest to gather resources or craft, but has lost the feat that enables him to do so, the feat is now retrained (to the correct tier).
All crafted cloaks now support the equipping of gems.

GUI

All Assassin abilities which stack multiple times now have a stack count in the buff GUI.
All Bear Shaman, Priest of Mitra, and Tempest of Set abilities which stack multiple times now have a stack count in the buff GUI.
The targeting arrow should now be positioned correctly when targeting a horse, a gorilla or a mutilator
We have implemented a control to the options menu for how often background music plays. Tweak this if you wish to change how often you hear background music.

General

You should no longer do the loot animation while swimming.
Fixed a problem where certain high level monsters wouldn’t spawn.
Now all spells can be cast with dagger and staff without problems.
When you train Basic or Advanced Riding, you will no longer be teleported
Fixed an alignment issue with quest indicators over quest NPC’s heads.
Locking to raid instances have been fixed. All players participating in a raid will now be locked to the same instance instead of entering a new one after death..
Fixed problem that would cause the resource manager to download the same resource again and again.
Bonus spell damage now increases both minimum and maximum damage, instead of just maximum (average damage will remain unchanged).
Stat bonuses from items (strength, wisdom, dexterity and constitution) will now affect your character properly (Note that strength now directly affects your DPS, not your attack rating).

Khopshef Province

Numerous quests has been added to the playfield.
Freed Rogue Slave should now use his weapons correctly.
Treasures are now located throughout the province.
The Arax Queen should now stick to her spawn location.
Tweaked some gameplay; added more camp NPCs and roaming animals.
Fixed some areas which could be exploited.
Boat Captain Amyr should now have the [Khemi] tag.
The Traveling Merchant should now travel.
The Followers of Derketo should now patrol.
Ptah should no longer get killed by the Mantis.

12 giugno 2008 – Patch Log

Mounts

The Killer Rhino and War Mammoth have received a minor increase to their trot and gallop speeds. The trot (default movement speed) should now be slightly faster than a jogging player, while the gallop should only be slightly slower than a sprinting player.
The Standard Horse has received a moderate increase to it’s canter and gallop speeds. The canter (default movement speed) should now be equal to a sprinting player, while the gallop should be slightly faster than twice the speed of a jogging player.
The Armored Horse has received a moderate increase to its canter and gallop speeds. The canter (default movement speed) should now be a slightly faster than a sprinting player, while the gallop should be moderately faster than twice the speed of a jogging player.
The Swift Horse has received a substantial increase to its canter and gallop speeds. The canter (default movement speed) should now be equal to twice the speed of a jogging player, while the gallop should be only slightly slower than three times the speed of a jogging player.

Player Character

18 new robe assets added to the game for the mage classes
Players can no longer be knocked back while in spellweaving state
A large number of abilities had a tendency to not trigger in some situations. This should be fixed now.
The following emotes are now available to both male and female characters: scratchhead, scratcharm, apprehensive, danglefeet, squirm_on_ground, relaxed_lean (new)

Assassin

Assassins in Unholy Stance will now generate a Soul Fragment from performing a Sneak Attack.

Barbarian

If a Barbarian performs a unarmed attack after executing their No Escape ability they should no longer slide around without animating their legs.
Unstoppable should stop functioning when the feat is untrained
Finishing Blow damage boost after charge should always cancel (even when missing the target) – Finishing blow should scale like this : 1 point = 2x damage, 2 points = 3x damage, 3 points = 4x damage.
Decapitation feat should scale better when more than one point is spent in the feat.

Conqueror

There is now a 5 minute cooldown on the resurrection effect gained through your Furious Inspiration ability. This cooldown is on the character offered the resurrection, not the conqueror, so you can still resurrect multiple people in the team, just each of those people cannot be brought back to life by you more than once every 5 minutes.

Demonologist

Fires of Gehenna (Rank 1) will now correctly inflict fire damage.
Inferno of Amher (Rank 4) now has the correct casting time.
Increased the movement speed of all your pets significantly.

Herald of Xotli

The effect of Demonic Fortitude has been increased to convert 10/15% mana to 10/20% stamina.

Necromancer

Significantly lowered the manacost of your nukes and dots.
Increased the movement speed of all your pets significantly.
Corruptors, Mutilators, Necrotic Bombs and Harvesters will now correctly trigger Bone Horde.
Pets no longer have the base monster miss chance. They no longer have an innate chance to miss their attacks.
Fixed Life Leech so that it will tick correctly on a monster that was not initially aggro to you.

Priest of Mitra

Armor of Faith is no longer cancelled by Holy Light triggering.

Tempest of Set

Tempest of Set spellweaving should now have all abilities enabled.

Mid Level (40) gameplay improvements

Field of the Dead: 100 additional mobs have found their way into the the playfield. In addition respawn times have been adjusted on both normal mobs and bosses to improve the playing experience. Also, a number of quests in the playfield have been improved upon.
Treasury of the Ancient Ones: This Dark dungeon in Khopshef plays like a new dungeon now! It has been revamped with a new event for both solo and group players. Special rewards await those who dare to take the challenge in Epic Mode. And you will no longer fall through the world when climbing up the statues.

Quests

Quests in the 20 – 40 level range have been checked that all are categorized under the proper locations in the quest journal.
Den of Wolves: The Plains Wolf population has increased.
The Curse of the Werewolves: Quest NPCs population has increased. Corinocht Slayers also update the quest now.
Wolf Hunt: The Yukagi Wolf population has increased.
Hunting the Vanir: Increased the number of Vanir in the SE camp, also increased their respawn rate.
Cure for Lycanthropy: Removed Skull of an Alpha Wolf pickup item, this skull can now only be gotten as a loot drop. Added mobs and reduced the respawn time of most mobs.
Toirdealbach’s Tomb: Fixed the respawn rate, fixed the lighting and Toirdealbach’s behaviour has been adjusted.
Water for the Soldiers in Thunder River: Updated the waypoint for Guard Captain Marcus.
Wagon Wreck: Added a missing waypoint for the quest The Wagon Wreck.
The Chieftain’s Vengeance: Updated waypoints for the goals “Destroy Vanir Supply Crates” and “Kill Crazed Vanir” in the quest “The Chieftain’s Vengeance”.
Finding Safe Passage: The player now has to kill 7 Lupine Hunters. The waypoint has also been tweaked.
Cure for Lycanthropy: Added the missing waypoint to the “Collect Wolf Blood”.
Wagon Wreck: Removed the level requirement for the handing in of the quest Wagon Wreck. The player will now see the ? above the NPCs head.
A Silver Bracelet: Fixed requirements on Bartholomo’s dialogue, so he won’t show destiny dialogue during daytime.
Phoenix of the South: Made sure the destiny quests are resolved and spawned in the right order, to prevent full quest journals to break the destiny quest.
The Awakening I: The quest reward has received a revamp based on feedback.
The Awakening I: An intermittent stall when watching the cutscene “Nadini’s Vision” in the Destiny Quest has been resolved.
In Defense of Beauty: quest can be completed now.
Get Mantis Scales: The description was improved to better indicate where to get the scales.
Chaos in the Fortress: Burning the tents will now provide team credit.
Emerald Eyes: Quest classification has been corrected.
Family Matters: Quest description has been corrected.
Khopshef Province Quest: Updated the waypoint to Rami’s Position
Kalutma: The dialogue has been tweaked to be more logical.
Lions and Lambs: The quest cannot be ’stolen’ by other players now.
Lost Bottles: Wine bottles will correctly show as quest items in the world.
Seven Years: The text has been updated to be more accurate.
The Worshippers’ Demise: Certain NPCs on white sands have been eating those worshippers with glee and will now have a much higher chance of dropping their gems.
Ante Up: Giants Approaching has had it’s quest marker adjusted so that it appears in the proper location.
Path of the Raven: Rogan will now give the player 3 feathers for the quest.
Conall’s Valley – Destroying the Ymir Totem has been updated to reward group credit.

Items

Champion of the Honorguard now correctly drops T1 shoulders for Priest of Mitra instead of T3 shoulder for Ranger.
Herald of Xotli raid gear has been fixed and should now offer proper bonuses
Widowdusk Fauld should appear correctly now in inventory and in game.
Crafted crossbows should now appear correctly in the character’s hand.
Updated item names to Gold Carcanet and Filigree Gold Carcanet
Fair Meat: will no longer end up in the quest inventory.
Drinking cape should no longer clip with chest item
Polearms are now all of the same length
Katars are now held and animated correctly

NPC

Field of the Dead: The dusk wolf pack has developed an aversion for bridges, and has changed hunting grounds.
Waudreen has been resupplied with an ample amount of armor.
The Champion of the Honorguard now uses its correct abilities again.
Toirdealbach’s reset behaviour has been fixed.
Wulfere has lost his overly large belly, and gotten a head that is the same color as his body
Sergeant Vargus and his troopers have gotten a visual overhaul
Obenathis got a visual update
Fixed so the Axeman play they’re animation when they get back up.
City of Tortage: The Town crier has realised he is not Cimmerian. He is Stygian. So he can, in fact, cry… and he now will.
Conalls Valley: Hydallan has had a potential dialogue loop fixed.
Conall’s Valley: Kinkaid’s dialogue has been tweaked.
Pyramid of the Ancient: Pashi dialogue updated.
Captain Mycus’s dialogue has been updated to reflect his new career as a wagoner.
Alyssa in the Thirsty Dog Inn has had a false level warning removed.
Stygian Soldiers in Khopshef now correctly attack the wolves when they are out hunting.

Tradeskills

Gemmed items should now work (giving bonuses) and viewing them should no longer crash the client.

Playfields

You should no longer get stuck in Renton’s House.
There should no rain and lightning in Toirdelbach’s Tomb now

General

Combat-dodge animations updated for both Male and Female characters. Females now seem faster when dodging.
Victim of “I eat your heart” will not fall into the attacker’s mesh anymore.
Picts will no longer raise their eyebrows at people after having been killed by a fatality
Players should now use proper animations when interacting with items while swimming.
Players should now have a correct landing animation when jumping.
Character Creation: Avatars can no longer be rotated after selecting enter game.
Doing a fatality will no longer cause your character to increase in size.
Polearm fatalities now collide with the victim properly and show more blood
More client and server crashes resolved.

9 giugno 2008 – Patch Log

General
*By popular demand we have added a new “Level up” sound effect.
*Player Building tooltip displays correct predecessor information now.
*Fixed some randomness in when you would see the tutorial popup flags.
*Trading with another player will no longer cause traded items to appear in the incorrect inventory tab.
*Removed the commandline to setting hotkeys since it was only intended to debug hotkeys before the GUI was there
*The “usable items only” checkbox with traders should now work as intended.
*The facemarking ‘Freckles’ should now work for new characters.
*Minor issue with tradeposts and setting up items for auction has been resolved.
*Corrected several animations for mobs as well as NPCs during cut scenes.
*Increased the xp gained from group normal mobs and group bosses.
*Players will now be able to experience the destiny event in the Field of Chiefs.
*New voice over for some of the events in the Capture The Skull minigame.
*More client and server crashes resolved.

Combat
*Evade bonuses are now applied when you are being attacked from behind.
*Players with Shield of the Risen will not be affected by secondary effects from combos.

Chat
*If you drag a chat window with only one tab in it over the tab-bar of another chat window it will now be added as a tab to that window (inserted before the tab that the mouse is over in the “target” window).
*When pressing enter the input focus will by default go to the last active chat tab rather than the selected “default tab”. The previous behaviour can be achieved by checking the “Default Window” menu entry for one of the tabs.
*Tweaked the areas you click to resize the chat window to make them easier to use.

GUI
*Guild Feats: It should now show a scrollbar.
*Buff icons no longer get stuck on after teleporting or talking to an npc.
*Resolved a GUI related crash when clicking on the bank (broker).
*Fixed an issue causing buffs placed outside the currently visible area of shortcut bars to still flash when ending cooldown.
*Whisper replies now always go to the chat tab you sent the original message from, in addition to the tab that is subscribed to the “Tell” channel.
*Added some missing class icons used by the team/raid GUI.
*Raid leaders now have an orange name in the raid GUI.
*Removed an unused hotkey (Show chat config).

Items
*The weapons should now always appear sheathed in the character selection screen.
*Potions: Fixed an issue with the stamina potion ‘Old Redrouse’, it will now get consumed when used.
*The ‘Nemedian War Flail’ has been renamed to ‘Nemedian Mace’.
*The Rending Strike and Rupturing Strike proc from some equipment will no longer linger on the target indefinitely.

Tradeskills
*Gemmed items should now work (giving bonuses) and viewing them should no longer crash the client. ==> UPDATE: This issue has not been fixed with the latest Patch. We will provide you with more information about this asap..
*Becoming a Woodcutter should no longer erroneously tell you that you’ve learned the ‘Evading Roll’ combo.
*Harvesting: Script now keeps track of the persons that are using a resource node. This prevents the user from trying to use it twice and thus not harvesting anything at all.

NPC
*Monsters 4 levels or higher will now correctly have increased evade and immunity chance.
*Resource gathering npcs will now display the ‘?’ over their heads when you have the goal and items to return to them.
*Princess Akivasha now attacks back when attacked in Sanctum of the Burning Souls.
*The encounters in the Armsman’s Arena should be less chaotic.
*Demonic Pict will no longer try to cast spells at players without being able to do so.
*The Quest NPC’s for the Frost Swamp, Imerian Ravine and Oasis of Zaara have been shuffled around in the *Resource and Building playfields to make it easier for players to spot them amongst all the other tradeskill NPC’s

Pets
*Movement speed of pets have been increased both in and out of combat.

Playfields
*The Armsman’s Arena is now a private instance.

Archetypes

Mage
*Contract of Protection, Protection of Set, and Runed Flesh now have 1 hour cooldown. While any of the three is active, the player will temporarily receive a ‘Weakened Protection’ debuff indicating if the maximum amount of absorbed damage has been expended until the shield refreshes.
*The maximum damage Protection of Set and Runed Flesh can absorb before failing has been increased by 50%
*The Archmage feat has been moved to the 2nd tier of the Mage general tree

Player Characters

Demonologist
*The base splash damage inflicted by Fires of Gehenna has been increased from 10% to 30%
*The base splash damage inflicted by Shockstrike has been increased from 15% to 20%
*The base column radius of Hellfire Stream has been increased by 1 meter
*Hellfire Stream and Shock have received a minor damage increase
*Inferno of Amher and Shockblast have had their cooldown reduced by 0.5 seconds
*The splash damage bonus of Discharge Shockstrike has been increased to 100%
*Swift Shockstrike now additionally increases the damage of Shockstrike by 1/2/3/4/5%
*Shock now has 35% splash damage, up to 3 targets and 3 meters from the primary target
*Shockstrike and Shock have had their base chance to crit increased
*The scaling of the Shock spell has been corrected, leading to a damage increase at most levels
*The bonus of the Lingering Flames feat on the Incinerate effect has been increased from 30% to 250% at maximum rank
*The casting time of Detonation has been reduced from 3 seconds to 1.5 seconds
*Living Thunderstorm and Living Firestorm now correctly use a percentage-based manacost
*Living Thunderstorm should now correctly appear in the hostile spells tab
*The casting time of Infernal Knowledge, Diabolic Insight, Mark of Dagon, Shield of Infernal Flames, *Abaddoron Warrior, Mystic Suppression, Cursed by Hell, and Cursed by the Heavens have been reduced by 50%
*The beneficial effect of the Pact of Earth Walking spell has been increased from 200% to 400%
Pact of Earth Walking is now instant cast

Necromancer
*Fixed a bug causing the available pet point indicator in the pet list GUI to sometimes show 0 points available rather than the actual number.
*Spellweaving can be cast and cancelled normally now.

Dark Templar
*’Mystical Bane’ combo: The damage dealt by the Incinerate Ether component of Mystical Bane combos will now correctly deal 50% of the mana burned to be consistent with other power burn effects.

Priest of Mitra
*Revivication Feat: The healing effect granted by the Revivication feat will no longer fail to trigger if the Priest is level 65.
*Condemnation now receives a partial cooldown if the spell does not complete channelling.
*Purification procs will no longer incorrectly apply a cooldown to Condemnation.

Barbarian
*Barbarian’s should no longer be unable to attack or move directly after performing any rank of their ‘Savage Rage’ combo.
*’No Escape’ combo should now always give you a cooldown when used and you will always get disarmed.

Herald of Xotli
*’Fire Lance’ combo now only needs 3 attacksteps to execute so it can be triggered faster. The combo now also hits targets a bit further away than before making it more effective.

Conqueror
*Combo ‘Throat Slash’ has been corrected to be a spear attack instead of a ranged attack.

Tempest of Set
*Mark of Set now has the correct casting animation and effect for all ranks.

Quest
*Updated quest journals of “Phoenix of the East” to reflect new position of NCP General Tatius.
*Fixed animation problem where Arias could not decide to sit or stand during conversation.
*Ninus and Si-Khu will reliably spawn when logging out near the Temple of Mitra.
*The access quest for the Armsman’s Arena revamped.
*The Phoenix of the North: Resolved an issue with Mithrelle not standing up if not viewing the small cutscene.
*Resolved an issue that forces quests to not update on zoning.
*Wagon Wreck: Revamped with a new quest goal.
*The Poisoned Cup: Revamped with more interaction with the objects in the quest.
*The Curse of the Werewolves: Slight enhancement on quest targets.
*Wolf Hunt: Slight enhancement on quest targets.
*Greater Prey: Slight enhancement on quest targets.
*Death to the Vanir: Slight enhancement on quest completion.
*Finding Safe Passage: Revamped with a new quest goal.
*Captives of the White Hand: Revamped with a new quest goal.
*The Cheiftains Vengeance: Revamped with a new quest goal.
*Wolves at our Throats: Revamped with a new quest goal.
*Bartholomo’s Wife will respawn more often, if you happen to kill her before required to by the quest ‘The Awakening III’
*It should be easier to deal with Renton’s Corrupt Friends when doing the quest Awakening II
*Sanctum of the Burning Souls: The boss drop ‘Bloodtainted Hoop’ will no longer end up in the quest inventory.
*Field of the Dead: ‘Fur of Bloodclaw’ will no longer end up in the quest inventory.
*Tarantia Noble: Improved these quests: Bloodroot, Concealing the Chinks, Purging the Fallen, Source of Contagion.
*The Lurking Horror: The Area marker is now set on the map
*Pool of Black Blood: Quest now updates when you kill the Lesser Black Ones as well.
*The Slave Rebellion: Replaced radius with a fixed waypoint for one of the goals.
*Fetching Fungi: A waypoint will now lead the way to Sanctum, and to the mushrooms inside.
*Lifting the Curse: Waypoint will now lead you to the Sanctum of Burning Souls.
*The Sinister Sepulcher: Orb is now destructible, and all the Undead Thralls in the area will update the quest.
*The Black Skulls: Corrected some wrong waypoints.
*Fleet of Mouth: Cycaelus has upped the difficulty. You now need to beat his record on half the time you needed before .

2 Giugno 2008 – Patch Log

General

*Fixed some more server and client crashes.
*An issue which could make NPCs evade forever has been resolved.
*An issue which could lead to pets becoming unresponsive has been resolved.

GUI

*You should now receive feedback if you try to take items from the guild bank without having enough rank.

Items

*Items in tradepost now show stack-size.
*Resources Gathering: Cotton and Cottonwisp have been fixed.
*Kheshatta: Drop rate for Scorpion plate has been increased.
*Fixed a grammatical error with Knarled Leather. It should now be named Gnarled Leather.
*Boltshock Bangles are now properly classified as “Cloth Armor” instead of “Wrist Armor”
*Thunder River: The quest item ‘Smoked Meat’ has re-received its visual appearance.
*Field of the Dead: ‘Fur of Bloodclaw’ will no longer end up in the quest inventory.
*Thunder River: The quest item ‘Helvenia’s Herbs’ has re-received its visual appearance.
*Sanctum of the Burning Souls: The boss drop ‘Bloodtainted Hoop’ will no longer end up in the quest inventory.

Massive PvP

*PVE Player city buildings should no longer be attackable.

NPCs

*Bartholomo’s Wife will now respawn more often.
*Acheronian Ruins NPCs will respawn more often
*It should be easier to deal with Renton’s Corrupt Friends when doing the quest Awakening II.

Player Characters

Barbarian
*Finishing Blow damage boost should only affect the first hit after the charge.
*Thirst for Blood should correctly trigger it’s stacking damage bonuses for you and your team.

Necromancer
*Pets should not auto dismiss so fast when they cannot reach their owner.

Ranger
*Knee-Capping should no longer trigger Root Immunity on NPCs
*Marked for Death should give the correct damage values for bow/xbow.
*Marked for Death cooldown has been adjusted to 3 minutes like originally intended.
*Critical Aim should no longer fail to execute in some situations.
*Critical Aim duration increased to 10 seconds, but it will instantly terminate on the next ranged hit
*You should no longer get messages about getting non existing abilities when training Eagle Eye.

Tempest of Set
*Triumphant Life of Set has had its total damage dealt per cast increased.
*Triumphant Life of Set now deals the damage over 3 seconds instead of instantly.

Quests

*Old Secrets: Golden Golem should now always spawn.
*The Demon in The Tree: The Demon in the Tree Minions should now always attack the player.
*End Battle: Strom should now respawn, making it impossible to break the last part of the end battle.
*Quests Bloodroot, Concealing the Chinks, Purging the Fallen, and Source of Contagion have been improved in Tarantia Noble.

29 Maggio 2008 – Patch Log

General

* Withdrawing cash from the bank should now correctly add coins to your inventory instead of replacing the already existing ones.

27 Maggio 2008 – Patch Log (2/2)

General

* Traders and Banks are now available again
* Fixed some server and client crashes
* Invite to groups is no longer case sensitive

GUI

* Added character right click menu to the chat

27 Maggio 2008 – Patch Log (1/2)

General

* Grouped players that are apprenticed will now get their kill XP capped to the correct level.
* Characters should now always get zoned back from a PvP game
* Characters should now be able to move away from their spot, without the server thinking that they are hacking
* Using a lower rank ability should not lock up your character anymore

Quests

* Players should no longer lose destiny quests if their quest log is full
* Corrected some typos in various quest texts
* Updated directions in the quest “A Dangerous Challenge”
* The flame on the Torch of Eiglophian will now die after a while in Fields of the Dead.

Playfields

* Fix a lot of graphics lag issues caused by particles in Tarantia Noble, Field of the Dead and Eiglophian Mountains which should result in much lesser lag in those playfields

Player Characters

Necromancer

* Necromancer – you no longer lose the Cannibalism spell when investing the second feat

Guardian

* Guardian – Fixed a problem where the third rank in Counterstrike Stance was not giving you the damage shield while in defensive stance.

Bear Shaman

* Bear Shaman should now correctly recieve Blood Flow (Rank 3), Claws of Stone (Rank 2), and Spirit of the Bear (Rank 2) at level 40. (Note: If you are past level 40, you will gain these spells at level 45, 50, or 55 instead.)

Dark Templar

* Feat – the Dread Shadow pet will successfully spawn again.

NPCs

* Ragall the food and drink merchant has received a fresh stock of merchandise.
* Ranger archetype NPCs will no longer cause issues with the player’s HP displayed incorrectly.

Crafting

* Bow/Crossbow now require wood
* More than 50 alchemy items have been added to vendors

City Building

* Requirement checks and consumption of resources when building PVE city buildings should be fixed.

GUI

* Changed the chat colors to be more like what players are used from other games.
* The guild chat text is now green
* Removed the DirectX 10 option from the option panel.
* Removed the ‘Remove from Spellbook’ functionality
* OOC chat channel should no longer be inactive after teleports.

A note about traders and banks

We are fixing the traders and the banks but some exploits would still be possible with the version we have now.

We know how important it is to have traders and banks back in the game but the system must work absolutely correct before we put them live again. The possible exploits that would result when this is not ensured would lead to much bigger issues for all players.

Thank you for your understanding.

UNOFFICIAL CHANGES MONITORED / FOUND BY USERS

General

Various framerate improvements
HP regen seem to work now
Crashes and Lag seem better in FoTD and other zones
No reported crash at exit
Some reports of shinier avatar textures (NEW)

Classes

Demonologist – Cooldowns added to Shockblast, Waves of flame, Living Firestorm, Inferno of Amber and Hellfire stream.
Necromancer – Unholy Hands – Only working, scaling spell we have gone from 0 seconds cooldown to 45 seconds – no mention in the notes.
Tempest of Set – Quicksand now has a 30 second cooldown
Tempest of set: idiol of set is now working as intented (1 up at a time)

UI changes

Group members now have a much larger and visible icon (blue potion bottle)
The select instance button is much bigger and move obvious.

Tradeskills and resources

Alchemist tier 2 quest unlocked

Mounts

Mammoths are faster and better turn
Speed on horses were scaled down
Mammoths are now as fast as horses

Ho letto con molto interesse questo articolo di Mascalzone su MMORPGITALIA e ho deciso di riportarlo anche qui. Si tratta di una rivistazione/traduzione della prima preview fatta da TenTonHammer.

Qui di seguito la preview:

Cinque anni fa la Funcom ebbe un’idea. Questa si sviluppò, diventando Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures (AoC). Uno dei più attesi MMORPG degli ultimi anni. È stata dura, ma il lancio è giunto e ne è valsa la pena aspettare.

Sono stato fortunato per aver partecipato al processo di closed beta di AoC. Ho potuto guardare il gioco crescere, rispetto a come era stato concepito dall’inizio, al bellissimo mondo che è oggi. Molte persone non realizzano quanto un gioco cambi durante una beta.

C’è sempre il flamers che sulle board afferma che questo è fatto male o altre sciocchezze. Pensate che geni. Adesso è completamente un’esperienza differente. Diamo uno sguardo e vediamo cosa il gioco ha da offrire.

Grafica

La grafica di Age of Conan è stata ripulita durante la beta. Il gioco si è evoluto ad un livello di bellezza straordinario. Per darvi un esempio a che tipo di cambiamenti grafici AoC è andato incontro, dalla beta al live, esaminiamo questi due disegni di Casilda.

Uno di questi è di una fase precedente alla beta, mentre l’altro è di alcune settimane dopo; i settaggi del mio computer sono gli stessi. Potete notare quanto la grafica è stata migliorata. Non solo con riferimento a Casilda, ma anche il mondo ha subito dei cambiamenti. La Funcom ha fatto un eccellente lavoro. È bello camminare per Hyboria senza fare nulla, fissando semplicemente il paesaggio.

Suono

Una cosa che ho apprezzato di Vanguard Saga of Heroes è la sua grande musica e il suono ambientale. Hanno fatto un eccellente lavoro, forse è uno dei migliori MMORPG, ma AoC è andato proprio su un altro livello.

Il suono è una delle esperienze migliori che farai, rispetto a qualsiasi altro gioco e sicuramente è il migliore sul mercato. Il paesaggio, il combattimento e la musica rendono il gioco profondo e gli conferiscono un aspetto veramente epico. È superbamente ben fatto.

È forse uno dei miei aspetti preferiti e Knut Avenstroup Haugen ha davvero svolto un gran lavoro con la musica. Se non hai familiarità con Knut assicurati di vedere la sua intervista con la Ten Ton Hammer qui.

Combattimento

Ormai tutti hanno molta familiarità su cosa AoC offre dal punto di vista del combattimento. Il combattimento in mischia è da manuale ed offre un’ampia giocabilità. Il tuo nemico cambia costantemente le sue difese e ti obbliga ad adattarti. Quando un nemico si sposta per parare i tuoi attacchi, questi infliggeranno molti meno danni. Concentrarsi su un punto meno protetto darà i suoi risultati. Tutto ciò rende il combattimento molto attivo e più coinvolgente rispetto agli altri MMORPG, come World of Warcraft ed Everquest.

Anche il combattimento dalla distanza non ignora questi aspetti. I giocatori possono scegliere di fare fuoco in prima o in terza persona. Entrambe le modalità hanno i loro pregi e difetti, ma è molto più coinvolgente del tradizionale sistema degli arcieri dei giochi più vecchi. Proprio come in mischia, dovrai prestare attenzione a come colpisci per arrecare più danno.

Gli invocatori funzionano similmente alle loro controparti. Tuttavia con il sistema di spellweaving hanno un aspetto mai visto negli MMORPG tradizionali e questo aggiunge un’impostazione davvero interessante al modo di combattere, rendendoli molto versatili e letali.

L’ultimo aspetto del combattimento è senza dubbio il sistema fatality. C’è una grande varietà di fatality che ogni classe può eseguire. Per darvi un esempio, questo è quello che ho visto sul mio guardian. Decapitare un nemico, impalarlo, lasciarlo appeso, sventrarlo, tagliargli un braccio e poi mettergli la spada in gola torcendo la lama. Ce ne sono molte altre ma è solo per farvi un’idea e mostrarvi quanto è malata la mia mente. Questo rende il combattimento molto interessante, con colpi combinati e mix di elementi casuali.

Giocatore contro giocatore (PvP)

Gli amanti del PvP apprezzeranno AoC giocando sia su un server PvP o in uno PvE. Il combattimento attivo mette sicuramente i giocatori in una posizione in cui le abilità giocheranno un ruolo importante per ottenere la vittoria. AoC fornisce molte opzioni per il PvP, come quello Free for all (FFA) PvP server, i mini giochi PvP come Cattura la bandiera e Annihilation ed una vasta gamma di assedi dove i giocatori possono costruire una fortezza per poi difenderla, mentre gli altri tenteranno di conquistarla.

Se avete bisogno di essere più convinti, date uno sguardo a questo video della Ten Ton Hammer sull’assedio, dell’evento di lancio tenutosi ad Oslo, cliccando qui. Non c’è bisogno di dire altro.

Città dei giocatori

I giocatori potranno anche costruire delle proprie città dopo aver raggiunto alcuni requisiti, come ad esempio una gilda di 23 membri e di livello 40.

Queste città, per essere costruite, avranno bisogno di molti membri esperti nelle professioni di crafting. Questo è forse IL MIGLIOR aspetto, con riferimento alla gilda, mai visto in un MMORPG. La mia gilda sta lavorando per raggiungere il suo obiettivo e una volta completato avremo un posto eccellente per i giocatori, il quale si riuniranno dando vita ad eventi role-play.

Se avrete bisogno di cose più convincenti guardate questo video tratto dalla Funcom, sulla costruzione degli edifici, cliccando qui.

Tradeskill

I giocatori possono acquisire una delle molte tradeskill di AoC, una volta raggiunto il lvello 40. I Crafter avranno un ruolo importantissimo nel mondo, perché sono in grado di costruire oggetti speciali, armi d’assedio e fornire i materiali necessari richiesti per costruire una città eduna fortezza per i Border Kingdoms. Puoi anche dare un’occhiata alla preview in questo crafting demo video.

Performance

Le performance durante il lancio di AoC sono eccezionali. Mi aspettavo di trovarmi come al solito problemi di lag, ma AoC scorre veramente bene e inoltre ho potuto giocare con molti amici, restando impressionati dalla stabilità. Solo in pochi casi ho notato problemi di performance, ma non sono durati neanche tanto. Abbiamo avuto dei periodi morti a causa di patch e fixes, ma tutto il tempo abbiamo giocato bene.

Considerazioni

Non vorrei sembrare un fan, quindi lasciate che vi mostri i punti negativi.

- Interfaccia utente (UI) – L’interfaccia utente è un po’ scarna. Non consente di essere personalizzata abbastanza. L’impossibilità di cambiare il colore del testo senza editare un file nella directory di AoC lascia un po’ perplessi. Molte opzioni sarebbero una bella aggiunta. Sicuramente la UI non è un problema che rende il gioco non piacevole, ma sono certo che la community apprezzerebbe l’aggiunta di altre opzioni.
- Voice Over’s – Le voci degli NPC non sono molto curate. Spesse volte dovrai leggere il testo. Non è un problema debilitante, ma sarebbe più carino curarle maggiormente. Sono una di quelle persone che si stanca a leggere, quindi le voice over’s sarebbero una grande cosa per me. Mi aspetto che saranno inserite in una patch futura, ma per adesso dobbiamo leggere.
- Penalità di morte – La penalità di morta è abbastanza leggera. Ho trovato molte persone che tendevano ad utilizzare la morte come mezzo per viaggiare più velocemente. Quando muori tante volte la penalità non è qualcosa di cui spaventarsi. Al livello la mia penalità per essere morto con il mio guardian, era un debuff di -2 in attack rating per 30 minuti. Puoi naturalmente prende la pietra per cancellare la penalità, ma una singola morte non è qualcosa di cui devi preoccuparti.
- Non ci sono server PvE di ruolo – Questa è un’opzione che sorprendentemente manca. Specialmente per la popolarità di questa tipologia di server negli altri giochi. Per alcune ragioni la Funcom ha deciso di non avere server RP PvE, che ha portato la community a formarne uno, non ufficiale, su Wiccana.

Sommario

Age of Conan offrirà un’ottima esperienza sia ai veterani che ai nuovi. Con un grande sistema di combattimento ed un assortimento di fatality, i giocatori avranno molte ore di divertimento squarciando i loro avversari, ma questo non è la sola cosa che il gioco offre. È anche uno dei migliori MMORPG, un mondo che vive e respira, che ha un grande sistema sonoro e molte altre cose.

Sappiamo tutti ciò che AoC offre e il lancio è andato bene. Ci sono state un po’ di complicazioni ma nel complesso la Funcom ha fatto un buon lavoro, rispetto al lancio di molti altri MMORPG. Molte persone, come me, hanno fatto parte della beta, vedendo l’idea diventare realtà. Abbiamo visto il gioco crescere ed evolversi. Alcune cose sono state tagliate e altri modificate, ma del prodotto finale la Funcom può andarne fiera, sia io che molti altri potremmo goderne per gli anni a venire.

26 Maggio 2008 – Patch Log

General

* Barbarian in Reaver Stance now correctly moves at slower speed while hiding

* Fixed an exploit with Demonologists (infinite stacking of certain spells)

* Hostile spells casted by the player on itself should no longer trigger reactive spell procs.