Increase value of Celestial Sigil on traders
Restore footprints and display of path taken on map
Save chat filter preferences
Update Korean translation
Add missing resurrect point to "Sage Lands"
Correct miscellaneous text and NPC names
Correct names and armor values for Druid armor in “Ventari’s Refuge”
Update monster difficulty in “Augury Rock”, “Sage Lands”
Fix animation problem for final gate in Dragon's Lair
Fix bear hunters’ reward from “Regent Valley”
Fix bug that returned players to pre-searing Ascalon if they logged out immediately after the searing
Fix district menu periodically displaying the wrong district number
Fix misleading signpost in “Lion’s Arch”
Fix splinter mines in “Elon’a Reach”; they now only damage NPCs when players drop them
Fixes for miscellaneous rare crash bugs
Improve hardware compatibility
Update - Sunday May 1
Add request for email confirmation during account creation
Add new "/preorder" command to restore preorder items
Incorporate quest improvements to "Althea's Ashes" and "Regent Valley Defense"
Update European and Korean translations
Fix "cancel" button when setting up guild matches
Fix camera periodically refusing to enter first-person mode
Fix henchmen periodically refusing to follow the party after resurrecting
Fix statue activation when a world gains Favor of the Gods
Fix Signet of Capture unlocking skills
Fixes for lag
Fixes for miscellaneous rare crash bugs
Improve hardware compatibility
Note: To work around a problem in this update, we temporarily removed footprints and the red dots displaying the path taken in the Map Area window. We will restore this functionality in the next update.
The nice thing about these updates is that they didn't need the server to be taken down to apply. Just got a message in the client from ArenaNet saying something like "There is a new build available. Please restart the client."
Logout, get the patch downloaded(took all of 10 seconds) and then I was back in game and going.
No need to interrupt your mission to apply this or anything.
Currently have a L10 Monk/Ranger(And I only use Beast Mastery from the ranger abilities)
Not only is it that easy to patch things. They can dynamically change zones on a whim, and the next time you zone there... yeah its the different one. No big patch, no big hoopla about it.
That's the benefit of having a game where everything is instanced. People move around so much that changing stuff is simple.
Impossible to patch a zone in MMOG's simply because you'd havta to force everyone out of the zone and then put the update and let everyone back into it.
Animalor wrote:That's the benefit of having a game where everything is instanced. People move around so much that changing stuff is simple.
Impossible to patch a zone in MMOG's simply because you'd havta to force everyone out of the zone and then put the update and let everyone back into it.
It isn't impossible; it is just sufficiently non-trivial that no one has figured out how to do it yet. I do think that technological trailblazers, like Arena Net, will open up new ideas to the community at large that may one day lead us to a solution for all future MMO titles.
I think they can do server side stuff as well without bringing the whole thing down:
Our servers are also capable of running multiple versions of the game simultaneously, so we can quickly fix a bug or exploit and patch the server without rebooting or even terminating games that are currently in progress. We did have a database server hardware failure one evening, but otherwise the hiccups were minor and affected very few players.
Yeah, they dont have to take down the server for most server side patches. Some of the heavier ones maybe, but for the most part, the servers will almost never be down.
Major changes to PvP Arenas! Previously, each Arena had a separate outpost. When you joined an Arena, you continued playing on that map repeatedly until you lost. Now, the various high-level Arena maps all share a common outpost. When you enter the high-level Arena, you’ll play on many different maps with many different victory conditions, and you’ll need to master all the maps to keep on winning.
After each consecutive PvP victory, the game now displays the number of consecutive wins.
A new screen at the end of PvP character creation allows you to choose the starting location of your PvP character.
We retired the old “Dazed," “Shock Sniper," “Divine Healer.” and “Trapper” PvP-only character templates, and rotated in some new templates, including three new templates created by guilds that won our April ladder contest. Additionally, we tweaked the skills of many other PvP character templates. These changes only affect the creation of new characters; existing characters created with an old template may continue to use that old template.
You can now store gold in your account storage vault! The vault can store up to 1000 platinum pieces, and individual characters can now hold a maximum of 100 platinum pieces.
PvP-only characters can now access the account storage vault for free.
Entering “The Underworld” now costs 1 platinum piece, the same as entering “The Fissure of Woe." Rewards in both maps have been significantly improved.
New quests! In Post-Searing Ascalon: “The Weaver of Nebo” and “Iron Horse War Machine." In “The Fissure of Woe:” “Tower of Courage," “The Wailing Lord," “A Gift of Griffons," “Army of Darkness," “The Eternal Forgemaster," “Defend the Temple of War," and “Restore the Temple of War."
Primary quests in Pre-Searing Ascalon now chain together, making it more straightforward for new players to complete Pre-Searing Ascalon and gain entrance to the Academy.
Increased drop rates for Uncommon and Rare items in Explorable Areas.
Implemented various minor fixes and clarifications to existing quests.
Implemented various tweaks to monster difficulty and loot balance.
Added new boss monster encounters in the “Ring of Fire” area.
Added new bonuses on certain collector and quest items.
Instituted skill changes: “Watch Yourself!” correctly affects characters who were already affected by another instance of the skill. “Firestorm” now continues to cast even if the target enemy dies during spellcasting. We’ll revise other area-effect spells to work this way in future updates.
The party window and account storage windows now correctly remember their position and size.
There are many new hints displayed in Pre-Searing Ascalon, and a new option to disable the display of hints.
When you gain a level, a button now appears prompting you to spend your newly acquired attribute points.
Quest destination points now appear on both the Map Area and Map Travel windows.
Most NPC text is now logged to the chat window, as well as being displayed in game.
