Arctic has updated his great GUI skin - Symbskin - to version 2.6. Here is what he had to say over on the official forums:
ok 2.6 is up.
Some changes:
+Added a "perk Attack Menu" to the main buttons. +Moved the "options/config Menu" into the "Win menu"
Will upload another version later, with lower bars and menus.(When i know that 2.6 is working ok) Hope ya like it, if not.. then .. toss teddybears or .. beer at me
/arc
Once again: Big thanks to AOSweden for the hosting the skin. *bows*
You can now find Symbskin here thanks to the good folks at AO Sweden. Thanks to Arctic for the updates and all the work on Symbskin.
Terri 'Ziana' Perkins, Funcom's Online Product Manager, has posted to the official forums with updates for all those lucky players that nabbed themselves a prize during the recent birthday celebrations:
Hello,
All Prizes were mailed out on 3 July . If you won a prize and live in the U.S and have not received it yet, please write [email protected] with your information and I can give more information. Winners from outside of the U.S should be aware that customs can often hold up delivery. Especially on posters. Don't ask me why, but these often get delayed in the name of increased security.
So far only one prize has been returned as undeliverable.
There are still a few folks who I have not received emails from and therefore have no way to contact these people regarding prizes. For those, I will send another msg in game .
For the 4 beta key prize winners, the keys will be sent to you no later than 1 August.
However, I need Porter from Dim1 and Fatboy5000 from dim2 to please email me with their prize code and contact info.
Please be aware that if you use hotmail, we often cannot contact you via email due to spam filters. This happens on occasion with other mail providers, but frequently with hotmail.
Lastly, please never send us a password. If Funcom emails you, we would never ask for such information. Lots of scam artists in the world unfortunately. We even had someone recently trying to convince players in game that they were contracted by Funcom to promote the game and thus were giving out free year accounts and to visit their website for more details. Please be cautious and if in doubt on any such claim, please send us the details at [email protected].
Thank you! Had a blast at the party and look forward to the next one.
Terri aka Ziana
You can find the original post here for all the details and congratulations again to all those who won.
As many of you will have noticed by now Funcom's tie-in with Alienware has now seen the sponsorship of some of the advertising hoardings in and around Rubi-Ka.
This certainly seems like a natural progression for the in-game hoardings, but players obviously have some concerns about how it's presented in game. Personally speaking I actually think that Funcom have adopted a fairly unobtrusive way of introducing this into the game, and if it raises the games profile all the better for its future development, but hey, that's just me (and the office Atrox is always bemoaning my eternal optimism!)
So what do you think? Rather not see real life companies advertising in-game? Like or dislike the way it's been implemented? Really don't care?? You can have your say and answer our poll here on our forums.
The current UK edition of PC Zone has the full AO client (including Shadowlands) on its DVD this month, so for those on dial-up might be the ideal opportunity to take a look at AO if you haven't had a chance before. Included is 30 days of playtime so there is no excuse for not trying it out!
Alien invasion and the recent three year anniversary celebrations are also featured in their on-line section and there is an AO related competition to win a brand new Radeon graphics card!
The issue is in stores now if you want to check it out for yourself!
Our friends over at RPG Vault have nabbed AO Game Director Marius Enge again for another look at what's coming up with the Alien Invasion Expansion, this time taking a deeper look at how organisation headquarters will work:
Why organization headquarters? When we started to discuss the possibility of player-owned headquarters and other player-made buildings in Anarchy Online, there was one crucial aspect we felt was of the highest importance; we had to make sure that our housing and headquarter system had specific reasons and benefits. At all costs, we wanted to avoid barren "ghost cities" and headquarters, standing there as lifeless shells, unused, and merely functioning as money drains and "land fillers". The reason for this concern was based upon how some other massively multiplayer online games have implemented housing and cities. Whereas some have managed to implement player-owned housing with success, it seems as though others have failed in the sense that cities and player houses are seldom or never used. With this in mind, we started to design an organization headquarter system where we wanted to stimulate use of the headquarters, and as a consequence, use of the entire city.
To achieve this objective, we first agreed that the organization headquarters should be a logical place to start any given playing session in AO, if you were a member of an organization or had friends in one. Not only would it enable the players to find fellow players with ease, it would also be a place where you could get skill boosts and other enhancements before coping with the many challenges found on Rubi-Ka. Additionally, we wanted to give the players easy access both to and from their organizational headquarter by providing quick and efficient transportation and, finally, it should be a place that was attractive and convenient to stay in, both inside and outside. So, how do we make this possible, and why should our players invest time and credits into this particular feature? It can all be summed up in three words - Power, Prestige and Fun!
You can find the entire article here for all the details.
Some players have noticed that after the 15.5.5 patch, some Shadowlands monsters have suddenly gained immunity to Calm/Mez and Charm Nanos. Cz quickily took notice of one of the disscussions and followed up with the monster designer.
Had a chat with the monster designer, and apparently the "immunity" flag got attached to a lot more monsters than it was supposed to.
So it's not intentional, but don't expect it to be reason for an emergency patch. My current impression is that it'll most likely be in the next regular patch.
The groups of known monsters affected by this are all Shadowlands bosses, some non-boss Shadowlands monsters and, some Catacomb(Tier armor dungeon) monsters. Hopefully, this will be fixed soon.
Just a quick note off the back of today's patch in that both Auno's and Anarchy Mainframe have updated their databases to the 15.5.5 data for everyone out there that likes to look up the changes in detail. Thanks as always go to Auno and Jayde for the updates.
The live servers are back up ahead of schedule and the 15.5.5 patch is now live, so here we go with the full patch notes:
Summer 2004 tweaks and corrections Tuesday June 20th 2004
Game Mechanics The special attacks Brawl, Fast Attack, Backstab, Fling Shot, Burst and Full Auto now check against defensive skills when calculating the chance to hit. Note that Full Auto always did this, except on the first bullet. Aimed Shot, Sneak Attack and Dimach works as before, at least for now. We've also corrected some bugs in the special attack code, like reporting misses twice, and we've done some tweaking of the to-hit chances.
Fling Shot, Burst, Full Auto and Aimed Shot now deduct ammo from your weapon. If your weapon does not contain enough shots for the special attack, the attack will still be used, but with limited or no effect. Weapons that operate without ammo will not have this limitation.
The SkillLockModifier no longer affects the recycle time on Brawl, Dimach, Fast Attack, Sneak Attack, Fling Shot, Burst, Full Auto, Aimed Shot and the various Shadowbreeds.
All hostile nano programs used on a PvP (Player versus Player) flagged character should now make the user of the nano program PvP flagged.
Items equipped in the Belt slot can no longer be deleted.
A bug with corpse decay has been fixed. Normal corpses will now stay for exactly 3 minutes, while the corpses of boss creatures will stay for 30 minutes.
All versions of Stunned by Brawl now count as stuns and can be stopped by stun resistance or immunity.
Nano Programs Nano Technicians have received a new nano program line for debuffing their opponent's range.
Izgimmer's Celestial Implosion has had its damage corrected.
Greater Hold Victim and Hold Victim have been corrected. Their data were switched.
One With Nature has had its description updated to reflect the amount it actually heals for.
Meld with Background now correctly gives the user's team a Concealment buff.
Guardian of Might and A Keeper's Physique no longer get overwritten by Iron Circle.
The Doctor team health buff programs have had their non-working instant heal effect removed to avoid confusion.
The Soldier's Heavy Weapons skill buff programs have had their duration extended.
Three of the Keeper's Vengeance programs had the same name. Two of these have been corrected to Vengeance of the Blessed and Vengeance of the Holy.
Fists of Shocking Touch is now only overwritten by Fists of Fire and better nano programs.
Beauty of Life no longer requires the target to have the Shadowlands expansion.
Doctor Shadowlands heals and Chaotic Modulation have had some unnecessary feedback messages removed.
Exhaust Defense has had its duration corrected to 100 seconds instead of 10.
Abolish Tin has had its execution time corrected to be the same as the other programs in the same line.
Contemplation has had its nano resist value decreased from 103% to 100%.
Monsters and Non-Player Characters (NPCs) IPS representatives now release additional information on how to improve the helmet, support system, and shoulder pad items of the Jobe Suit.
Some Blueprint bosses have become less timid and will no longer try run away if facing powerful enemies.
Calmed creatures now heal faster, as they don't consider themselves as "in combat" and thus can stress down a lot.
Tarasque and The Beast seem to have found that shirt with that sleeve where they hid the aces. Watch out for some sneaky combat tricks.
World We've done some tweaks to the creatures around the Abandoned Facilities introduced in the previous version.
The portal that appears after killing The Beast now lasts longer.
The first island of Pandemonium has been split in two, and a new adversary awaits explorers of this unfriendly realm.
Quests Sirocco will now give out his quest to those above level 201 as well.
Items Turn Spirit Flesh Pouches now contain random Turn Spirits as originally intended. This ensures equal opportunity to get hold of each type of Turn Spirit.
Weapons using Heavy Weapons or Grenade as main attack skill now count as ranged weapons for the purpose of using actions depending on wielding ranged weapons.
Nano Crystal (Shadow Veil) has been added to the Agent start-up equipment.
The Channel Notum Vein nano crystals description (not the nano program description) now includes a comment about the garden key being required to upload the program.
The Malaise nano crystals can now be bought in different Gardens and Sanctuaries.
The basic merit boards that are given to all members of the Clans or Omni-Tek are no longer Unique. This includes all merit boards that the basic merit boards can be upgraded to.
The Adventurer's Shadowlands service towers now works as intended in Shadowlands.
First Tier Metaphysicist Pants have had their statistics revised to bring them into balance with the other First Tier armour.
Prohibited Hand-Mortar of Bacam-Xum should be easier to wield now, and has had its statistics revised accordingly.
The nano crystals that contain Average Delayed Health freeloader now have the correct names.
Keeper and Shade nano crystals are now available as mission rewards.
Expensive Gift from Earth now has varying content.
Spirit Shroud of the Exterminator now adds to direct nano damage.
Advanced Restoration Kit now properly locks the First Aid skill of the user.
Decus Armor Pants have had new icons applied to them.
Trade Skills The process for creating Chosen Fixer Boots and Chosen Fixer Pants now works properly.
A bug resulting in several trade skill processes being broken has been fixed. Among other things, hacking Portable Surgery Clinics is now possible again.
Perks Perks that always affect your fighting target no longer requires you to have your fighting target actually targeted to be used.
Perks attacks now scale their effect properly. The scaling was faulty under specific conditions, one of those being the attack skill being higher than 1000.
Channel Rage now has level requirement for the target pet.
Ignition Flare now works properly.
Team Hale and Hearty now executes properly even if you have a hostile target selected.
Energize, Bio Regrowth and NCU Booster have all had their descriptions corrected.
Guardian now correctly requires the user to have Total Mirror Shield running.
Jarring Burst now has a visual effect connected to its stun effect.
Big Smash now affects your current fighting target, not your currently selected target.
Pets All versions of Mortificant can now zone with its master.
Some of the Meta-Physicist pets have been revised to make them scale correctly in power. Urulok the Rotten has had its health decreased. Ettu the Cursed has had its attack skill (and thus its damage) decreased. Zhok the Abomination has had its damage decreased but its health increased by a large amount.
Technical Two chat system bugs causing client crashes have been fixed
The patch is around 3.5mb and can be downloaded manually here if you don't want to use the patcher. Lots to digest there and we'll bring you more as we hear it.
The live servers are currently being patched to 15.5.5, over to Cz for the details:
Downtime F.A.Q. When does the downtime start? 7 am (07:00) EDT (East Coast USA) 11 am (11:00) UTC/GMT 12 pm (noon) BST (Great Britain) 1 pm (13:00) CEST (Central Europe)
When are the servers open again? The estimated downtime is 5 hours (including server maintenance). Thus the servers should be up at 12 pm (noon) EDT (East Coast USA) 4 pm (16:00) UTC/GMT 5 pm (17:00) BST (Great Britain) 6 pm (18:00) CEST (Central Europe)
Where can I download the update files if I don't want to update automatically? On the updates page. 15.5.5 files will be available around when the servers are opened again.
What's the size of the update? To be announced.
What's changing? Build notes will be posted on the live server page around when the servers are opened again.
Why not give us build notes and exe files earlier? Due to the possibility of a rollback. If people update and we have to roll back to the previous version, people will have to reinstall. And if people don't notice the update is pulled, and think the stuff in the build notes got in, that only creates confusion.
As always Cz has provided a temporary patch day forum over on the official boards for you to discuss the patch which can be found here. We'll let you know as soon as the full patch notes are available.
Community News Alien Invation featured in CGW Magazine
In their special 2004 14-page E3 report Fall Game Preview issue of August, Computer Gaming World (US edition) has published their preview of AI (page 50).
What did they have to say?
"Alien Invasion shakes things up for the world's first sci-fi MMORPG"
"Beside the vicious E.T.s, the key feature is the addition of player-run communities"
"Anarchy Online is getting up there in years, and it's starting to show. Though it is currently the best it's ever been"
Pick up a copy of the zine at your local store and read the entire article.
The game launcher is now carrying news that the 15.5.5 patch should go live tomorrow:
Downtime tomorrow!
As a reminder, the newest updates will be going live tommorrow, Tuesday the 20th. Servers will go down at 13:00 CET/ 07:00am EST and estimated downtime is 5 hours. Sorry for the inconvenience.
You can find the provisional patch notes for 15.5.5 here for all the details. For reference time zone conversions can be found here to find out when the patch will hit where you are.
The game launcher currently has a message that Funcom are aware of the situation with people having connectivity problems and are investigating:
Disconnects It has come to our attention that there is a growing problem with disconnects , beginning this past Sunday. There seems to be an external network problem and we are looking into it.
Please be very cautious when you are in game and please do not petition concerning repeated disconnects. The reimbursement policy will remain as normal, so if you do lose items because of a possible disconnect, we will look into it for you but we will not be reimbursing any lost XP or credits.
We will update you again once we have more information on the issue. I am sorry for the inconvenience.
Another Alien Invasion beta competition for you to try your luck at today as MMORPG.COM offers another hundred keys for those looking to get an early glimpse at the upcoming expansion:
MMORPG.COM offers visitors chances to win 1 of 100 keys to unlock the marvels in the closed beta for Anarchy Online: Alien Invasion.
Another chance at winning a position in the Alien Invasion beta is now available from MMORPG.COM. The contest will run through the week with winners being sent keys on August 1st, 2004. Alien Invasion is slated for release on the first of September.
You can find all the details here, over on the official site. Good luck to those that enter!
