3.0 at the end of May?

Finally we've gotten a vague date at least out of the new AM for the game, "Raven".

Better than no date, I suppose.

He seems more forthright than Neume, though.

Q. Obviously Neume was stalling/didn't know the situation at IMC, can you explain what happened between K2 and IMC that communication broke down so badly?

A. .. same here, Business Related.. Only my boss knows the details, but things are back in good shape and working smoothly

Neume would either lie or ignore that question.

What's new in Sword?

Well, from reading the official forums, sounds like the servers, or at least Orpesia, are having trouble with the hamsters that power them.

Still no apparent word of when the rest of 2.9 (or 3.0) is coming, so who knows when (or at this point, if) I'll be back.

In Atlantica I'm up to 85th (almost 86th level). I've now spent $20 on that game (buying 4 merc rooms, that game's version of quarter slots. The cash shop there is expensive!)

In LOTRO I've been playing once in a while, now up to level 37. They're about to roll out a big update there in the next couple weeks.

Right now though, I'm not playing much of anything because my internet is screwed up again. Constant disconnects, which makes play games almost impossible, and even just browsing not much fun.

And every time you call Verizon for help, they are just so clueless. "Oh, just update your networking program." Uh, no, that's not the problem. Your lousy network is the problem. If you spent half the money you do advertising saying how great you are, actually improving your network, I wouldn't be having this problem.

As much as I hate them though, my contract is up at the end of the year and I'm afraid I'll be out of options then. Verizon no longer offers the unlimited plan (which I have), but charging a quarter for every megabyte after 5 gigs. My normal usage in a month is about 15 gigs, which would run about $2000. Oy!

Hughesnet is an option, but not a very good one. And it's horrible for gaming, so I might be out of MMORPGs for a few years....

But I got 8 months left, so no need to completely panic yet. But at this rate, disconnecting every 15 minutes, I won't be playing games in those 8 months, either.

Target Cards now worth more gold!

I've used these, because I've had problems (who hasn't?) with K2's credit card service.

Used to be though it gave you gold according to the old formula, which wasn't a real bargain, but not a ripoff either (especially since I got a $10 surcharge added to the cost when I bought online, thanks to Moneybookers being in a foreign country).

But now apparently, a $15 card gives you 5000 gold and 4 mystery boxes, while a $30 card gives you 11000 gold and 6 mystery boxes.

(Thanks to AllyK/Delacourte for posting this)

Ah, only getting one Santa costume after all...

Instead of 5, one for each class, looks like we're only getting 1 costume


I know I'll get a lot of hate here, but we are only giving out one (based on the classes you have, yes you can submit a ticket to change them). It took us 2 weeks to get these out, if we did all 5 we wouldn't be done until summer and that would mean no events until then. So, we're just doing one.

Sorry for the confusion.

Santa suits on the way?

Reports are filtering in on the official message boards that people are starting to get them.

Sort of. Seems like people are getting one suit, of a random class.

(Still playing Atlantica. Up to level 62)

That's a relief

Take this as fact, I got this from our CEO, COO and VP of Game Operations today. SWORD OF THE NEW WORLD HAS NO INTENT OF CLOSING ANYTIME SOON!

I am sick of hearing about these rumors by former disgruntled employees. We are not closing, we have no intent to close and we have a full staff around the world working on the title on a daily basis (including myself).

I gotta say, the lack of 3.0 (or all of 2.9) has made me wonder about the future of the game. But Neume just today said the above.

I'm still having fun with Atlantica, though. Just turned 52nd and a couple days ago got my 9th Mercenary, the Beast Tamer. She's an axe wielding chick that rides a tiger. Pretty soon though I'm going to have to decide whether or not to spend money on the game. It's like Sword in that you have multiple characters. But each "room" to store a character beyond the 9 you use costs $5

Another month for 3.0?

From this thread, we have Neume quoted as saying

I make no statement on dates for a patch... but we are working on it. Unfortunately imcGames will be out until the second week of Feb for New Years soo...

Sigh. Just what is the hold up, anyway? Sword seems to be relegated to the bottom of IMC's priority list, if that.

3.0 coming soon?

In a recent thread on the official forums, the new K2 guy said

"Keep checking the announcements on website and forum regularly, you might have a surprise soon rolleyes.gif"

Of course, considering the amount of times Neume has said something and was wrong, it's hard to get too excited. But still...

Here come the Mystery Boxes....

The first wave of them, 5 for being logged in on Xmas eve.

Of course, many people made alt accounts and logged them in to get more. I showed some restraint, only making 2 extra (plus my regular alt). One guy apparently made 40. Honestly, I maybe have made more if I had more email accounts. But I only have 3.

Anyway, so I got 20 mystery boxes today.

2 Le Blancs
3 AA Passes
2 Types of Wings (30 day)
40 UAs
40 AM Boosts
40 Soul Crystals
40 Triumph Fillers
10 Ottite Perfumes
10 Ring Boxes
And an Iron Chef Panfilo

Not a bad haul, all in all. Though of course, Iron Chef was the UPC I wanted the least. Emilia the Sage is the one I want the most. Next is Soho the Wind. Then Battlesmith Idge, then Captain Adelina, then Iron Chef Panfilo

Merry Christmas (events)

Well, no patch, but K2 at least tried to do something...

First off, they gave out a free christmas hat and a free rudolph hat.

Secondly, they had sort of a treasure hunt game. An AM would give clues and you'd go to the next location. The first place was the clock in Rebo, then under the statue in FJ, the third was the beach, and that was as far as I got. Something about where treasure is hidden and evils lay unbidden. I thought first Fire Island (since they have the treasure hunt there). But no. Then the treasure quest in the quay. And apparently not that, as I was still wandering around when the contest was over.

Thirdly, there was a boss event (I guess). Said that Jack Frost and the snowmen were under the control of Novia, and to go outside Auch, Ch 2.

So I went. And there was a crowd. A huge crowd. More people than I think I've seen ever at an event. The lag was immense. Didn't help that at least 4 people brought Vikis and summoned those giant robots. Why do people do that? I don't know.

Anyway, I really had no idea what was happening for most of it, I stayed out by the edge of the crowd and occasionally killed stuff. What, I really didn't know, since I couldn't really see it. But the only drops I got were 9 Cabosse 99% (from the Valentines's event, I think). Never actually saw a proper boss, just mobs, really.

Another Clan Wars...

Dang, this was much easier when I was in a clan that had Citadel fight for us.

We declared on Neph, like usual. But then Maelstrom declared on us. So we had to fight Neph and Maelstrom. Which is pretty silly, as we really aren't a match for Neph alone. But they seem to be afraid of us for some reason.

We attacked Old Port of Coimbra. This was tough for some of our lower level guys, but every bit helps.

Did okay, but eventually we got overwhelmed by Nephs Experts (I think they have as many as we have vets, or close to it). I managed to take out a couple before getting killed, which is a nice feeling.

Then we regrouped and attacked Maelstrom at Tejeda Verde (top picture). This was more successful, we actually got the colony to about half before Mael stormed us, including former elements from my first backstabbing clan. (Boo!)

We do okay in colony wars, but our trouble is we never have any help from the other clans. We had a little from Fatal, one guy, Dragonmajere (who was 77th), but none from the other clans, really. (Telos apparently wared with Mael for a while).

We're going to have to be closer allies if we want to beat the Neph-Mael alliance.

Premiums are up on G1...

Who can resist 8000 gold and 6 mystery boxes for $24.95? Not me!

It never fails to amaze me how fast you can blow through gold in this game, though.

1 Premium Treasure Chest (had to try it) - 2150 gold
1 Wheel of Destiny Pack - 1495 gold
1 Merc Warrant - 1495 gold
20 Enchant boost and 20 UAs - 950 gold

Got 1900 left. On the plus side, I got another Calypso and am busy powerleveling her. Had trouble with her fight, though, it's kinda tricky. Calypso and her opponents are all 5 levels higher than you. So I created a trio of 1st level guys and it actually worked.

Scenes from the Halloween Event

Done two, haven't gotten anything

First time in, I lagged for 30 seconds, then got killed by something. The lag was so bad I couldn't see anything. So eventually I logged out.

Second time, I waited a bit, then entered. Less lag, I guess because it was 5 am and less players. A bunch of Thoros wandering around. These were killed by the mob of players

Then I think some Fallen Knights (guys on big horses). Again, killed.

Then a big raid boss appeared. This lasted awhile, then it got killed. Lots of drops, but I didn't get any.

Then a little while later, a giant treasure chest appeared. Killed it, only one person got something (chips?)

Then the AM appeared, and we had some more Thoros. I actually got a drop from one of those. I think leather boots. Whee!

I guess better than nothing, but compared to events in other games, pretty lame, IMHO.

Got my pet...

Looks pissed off, actually, and can't say that I blame him, me having killed his mother and siblings and all that.

Kinda slow at picking up stuff. On the plus side, came with a 24% charge, so can use him a little (since I'm lacking fesos to buy food).

Thoughts on the patch (so far)....

Calyce is pretty cool. Only got her up to 49, but the Escrima stance isn't nearly as bad as I feared (in fact, I think I'm going to try a Lisa after I'm done with Calyce).

The pet quest is pretty evil, killing cute little furry animals.

The tweaked UI skin took a little getting used to, but seems to be a lot better.

The whole fesos thing has prices in an uproar. As well as the massively upgraded Bellem's boxes, which now drop mission lobbies, keys to instances, dyes, jewels (including high quality gems) as well as the occasional talt.

I'm not sure the fesos thing is going to make the game more friendly to non-uber people, since they are apparently available in PY, which means experts are going to crawl all over it (that was the case when my clan tried it, I got stomped, then lagged out). And people are going to be hunting all the mini-bosses to get jewels for the socket machine

The new patch is live, kinda.

Got Calyce (pictured above). Little trickier than I expected, the fight apparently scales to your highest character, and I had my scout (20% vet) and two 60 level guys. I ended up fighting a bunch of 107 level pirates.

Unfortunately, through a combo of server problems (they've been up and down) and ISP problems (Verizon still sucks) I haven't been able to play much. AFKed Calyce up to 27, but haven't actively played her much. She doesn't get her Xbow skill until level 60, either.

Calyce is finally coming (next week)

We should be getting an update next week, including Pets, Fesos, some other crap, but most importantly, Calyce!

I've had 50 mp set aside for her for months, and finally I shall have her. It's almost here.

Of course, it's from Neume, so take it with a huge grain of salt.

Ok, next topic. On patch day (a week from today) players will be able to add sockets to their items by talking with Claire (she won''t be available as a UPC just yet). Players will also be able to obtain jewels and socket them into their newly socketed items (Claire does this too).

After you do that players can head to the Pet Master in Gigante Beach and get their first pet: Poppet. He likes to pick up things for you... BUT you gotta remember to feed him. The pet food for him can be found on the Feso Exchange.

Feso will also be immeadiately available on the Bazaar. Just purchase an Earthstone and take it to the Feso Exchange. Players can also get Feso Stones by completing Andre''s UFC and killing monsters in the Forgotten and Ancient Areas. We will have additional ways to get these as well (e.g. AM Events, Community Events, F2P Promotions and Raid drosps).

The Feso Exchange will be live on Wednesday. This will change a few things on the Bazaar. From now on, most temporary items (excluding Premium Back costumes) will ONLY be available on the Feso Exchange. Consumables and Permanent items (as well as packages) will be what the Bazaar focuses on. What this means is that most of the powerful Cash Shop items will be available to all players through the Feso Exchange.

Wednesday will bring a host of other minor changes I have already posted about in my other thread. There is more I haven''t talked about yet and we will have more patches on the way before we get into Echoes of an Empire (anticpate an Update 5, 6, 7 and possibly 8).

Emilia the Sage comes to Sword...

http://forum.swordofthenewworld.com/index.php?showtopic=27146

Basically she's like the regular Emilia, except she doesn't completely suck. She gets more wizard stances, including levitation.

The catch is, though, they aren't giving her out freely, basically a lottery system, a random person buying gold (well, lacquers) this weekend will get her.

Lottery systems and random grab bags are one of the ways a company can squeeze the most possible money out of a devoted fan base. Because people will go crazy trying to get a super-rare item. This is the basis for collectible card (and other) games.

I know K2 has to make money off this game, but cash grabs like this are pretty tacky

K2 comes through...

I'm usually not a huge fan of K2, but this time they really came through, finally giving out the costumes as compensation for 2.4 characters who lost theirs.

Really, I never thought it was something they needed to do (and indeed, I spend $20 buying the costumes for my guys from the cash shop in case they ever were removed, since we had warning). So I'm quite happy.

The only one I was really excited about getting was the La Ventisca dress for my elementalist. In the game itself, it's wore by some sort of tranny (like a shrunken Abe Vigoda), which is creepy. But on an elementalist, looks much better. Probably raises the rating of the game to M though (basically the skirt is in shreds, and she's only wearing a thong).

Calyce coming October 1st?

In this post http://forum.swordofthenewworld.com/index.php?showtopic=26910&view=findpost&p=255153

Neume says we'll be getting her in 28 days (which would be October 1st).

Of course, Neume says a lot of things that aren't true. Not that he's deliberately deceptive (other than his denial about the mineral exchanger exploit), he just gets overexcited....