The Mini-Event update is complete! Servers are up!
Enjoy!
-- Q.
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About the mini-events:
Keep in mind that the mini-events are randomly-timed in random places.
Even though there are 16 events, you'll only be seeing from 1-5 of them per hour, depending on what time of the day it is. (More events happen during the "prime time" part of the day and fewer in the off-hours because the events are a LOT more fun when more players are on-line.)
So they're different than, say, mini-boss lairs, which are available 24/7. These mini-events occur once in a while, and you need to be in the right place. They're designed to add randomness to the game. (And we'll be pushing that much further with succesive launches in the future.)
SPECIAL NOTE: Some of the mini-events have unique rules associated with them. If you have questions while playing, or are just curious, be sure to look up the "Random Mini-Events" section in GAME HELP after the update on Thursday.
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Update Details:
Random events will occur in various zones now at random times, more in prime time than in off-hours. If you are in the proper zone when it occurs, you will be notified so that you're aware that it's happening. NOTE: This is just the start of the event structure. We'll be adding more and more events...some of them quite large!...in the coming months.
Instructions and details of the events are supplied to players in the zone when the event begins, but as a teaser for the sort of things you can expect to see, here's a list of the events:
- Barton Town : Aerial Bombardment! (CL 2.0 and below)
- Village Greens : Rotary Menaces! (CL 2.0 and below)
- Bill's Ranch : Grucken Chuckin'! (Unlimited CL!)
- Zen Gardens : Deadman Spies! (CL 4.0 and below)
- Bass'ken Lake : BuzzKill! (CL 5.0 and below)
- Old Aqueduct : Bug Breakout! (CL 6.0 and below)
- Gold Beach : Trophy Hunters! (CL 7.0 and below)
- Otami Ruins : Saving the Spirits! (CL 8.0 and below)
And every zone also has occasional Orb Spills where Charge Orbs begin appearing for a short period of time, available to anyone that can grab them first. Scramble!
ADDITIONALLY
* The Night Patrol (flying giftboxes) in Bass'ken Lake now spawn twice as often, but you must now also suppress to CL 5.0 or lower to fight them.
* The chapter end-boss encounter has been changed. If everyone in your Crew gets Dazed during the encounter, your unconscious bodies will be moved away from that encounter area. When you recover and return, the fight will begin again from the start. This means that you'll need to fight the tail, body, and head all in one session now. NOTE: Health totals on the EB body parts have been reduced to adjust for the need to do the encounter all in one piece.
* The logic (AI) of the Robofish have been changed. They are a bit faster than they were previously (so they can catch you) and they now have various ways of reacquiring targets, so the tactic of "run through the tunnel" won't work nearly as well as it used to do.
* The logic (AI) of monsters in general that have multiple attacks has been improved so they will change between the attacks on occasion and use them more logically. The upshot of this is that you may see a few attacks that weren't getting used very often, and some monsters may feel a bit different in game (like the Predator Prairie Pups). This is the first in a series of improvements to the AI system that will occur over the next couple of months.
* You must now be CL 7.0 or lower to fight Landshark. Landshark itself is 7.5, and a Boss, so be prepared for a tough fight.
* Ring Buffer and Double-Orb PowerUp durations have been reduced from 60-minutes to 20-minutes. See this thread for details of the compensation program for current owners.
* An exploit has been sealed. When a higher-CL player buffs or heals a lower-CL player, the buff/heal is applied at the CL of the target. This prevents veteran players from reducing the difficulty of encounters to ridiculously easy levels, but still allows them to participate/help without suppressing their CL.
* The Papa Saw encounter now requires players to have been involved in the scenario before Mama Saw spawns in order to gain rewards at the end of the encounter.
* Suppression Feature Added! You can now go to the MENU and choose "Suppress CL" in order to downgrade your current overall CL to a lower setting. NOTE: You still have to go to the Null Chamber in order to raise your CL back up to normal, but this feature makes it very easy to suppress to a required CL when traveling or playing the mini-events.
* Graphics Options Added! You can now turn off the sillouhetting system (that shows your sillouhette and your target's sillouhette when behind an object), as well as changing settings on the ring animations within the game. Ring Animation settings are : All (just like currently implemented), Crew Only (shows only ring animations from members of your Crew), and Self Only (shows only ring animations that you trigger or which directly affect yourself). These settings will allow players with slower framerate issues to easily toggle these features off in order to save framerate.
* Random Mini-Event Rules in GAME HELP: The GAME HELP feature now has a section called "Random Mini-Events". That section describes all the game rules that are different in the various events and gives you better tips on how to play them and maximize your rewards. It is *highly recommended* that you take a look at this if you are confused while playing any of the Mini-Events.
