8:20 EST - Deployment of December Content is done.
Our second Content Update of this year is arriving this week, Tactical Escalation Phase 2. The content is based on our combined community and internal priorities.
You will see expansion of current content, balancing, bugfixes and improvements to a lot of systems, on top of continued infrastructure and performance optimizations.
We are now just ironing out the last bugs of the release candidates, which determines when we are ready for deployment. We're changing core systems so this one isn't without risk.
Let's get right to the contents! (All detail in upcoming patch notes)
PVE HORDE MODE - New game mode with 3 new maps and various general AI improvements. I hear it's a 5% chance so far of winning 3 on Hard.
MEGA VETERANS - We reworked both their purpose, rules and looks. A pre-cursor to incoming elites aka Burning Dude and Angry Eldar.
COMBAT & MELEE IMPROVEMENTS - Rokkits, Plasma Cannon, Plasma Gun, Ablaze ailment, Grav, Vehicle changes (don't blow up while using claws/fist), Melee fixes and animation work to name a few.
VISUAL CUSTOMIZATION - A long with a lot of new visuals added, there are now bundles which give you a 40% discount. If you have something in it already, you do not pay for it in the bundle.
MAP & CAMPAIGNS - Map improvements as well as scaling up of core systems allowing Campaigns to start (and other systems improving on the backend performance).
Oh, and Tabards and Robes along with a host of smaller things.
This Content Update will be rolled out in waves enabling and disabling content, as we want to monitor individually after changing a lot of those core systems and hotfix if need be. We can't test this scalability properly except on Live.
The rest of the team has already moved on to the January update a couple of weeks ago, while not the Expansion, it should still prove quite interesting for the game.
We're all on call over the holidays, ranging from the dev team, to customer support to devops (the infrastructure group) so we'll be watching you as usually. To respond to emergencies of course.
We wish you all happy holidays and may the god of your choice bless you :)
Nathan