Thursday, April 2, 2009

Surprises in 1.2.1

The patch notes for 1.2.1 were released yesterday. Earlier in the week Mark had given us a preview of what was to come, but he did not mention everything. I was pleasantly surprised to see a lot more changes than I expected.

Secondary Stats. While this may not be for 1.2.1, it is being tried out on the PTS. Some of the lesser used stats have gotten improvements. For example, Willpower now Increases your Magic Critical bonus damage dealt, and also increases the effectiveness of Healing Criticals from your healing abilities. I am pretty much for anything that adds variety and player customization to the game.

New Guild Page. This change has been a long time coming. The Guild page was very archaic. With 1.2.1 it has been given an overhaul. Among other things, this caught my eye: Added more guild statistics to the profile page. Keep name and upkeep cost, personal renown and tithe contributed. Finally! I really hope it will at least tell you how the keep is benefiting your guild.

Escape! Pre-game splash screens and opening cinematic can now be skipped by hitting the ESC key. Another small but very nice change.

What's the door at? Keep doors and other attackable objects will now display their health. No more needing a mod, so long as you can see the door.

Scenario fixes. A number of scenarios have had their points adjusted and spawn camp defenses added. With Open RvR alive and well, I rarely do scenarios anymore. Still, nice to see changes.

New items? You may now occasionally discover items that can be traded to other players, but cannot be put on to the Auction House. Not sure what this means, but I look forward to finding out.

City Scenarios. It seems all will be able to participate in the city siege, as the scenario will be for non-T4 ranks. They will be bolstered to an equal level. This sounds like a good idea, as it will get everyone involved. I never bother with the scenario, as I am too focused on the siege game.

Easier looting. I had always wondered why looting felt more difficult in WAR, now we have the answer: The game client will now prioritize corpses with loot on them over empty corpses. As a result, players will now be able to more easily loot items from piles of corpses.

Style and Profile. You can now tie all your settings to a character profile. This will be very helpful if you have different settings for different characters.

2 comments:

Could the "New Items" thing possibly be...loot bags? It would make sense. Trade loot bags to other players, but can't put them on the AH. Sounds like it fits to me.

The cards is most likely the new items they refer to.

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