All Posts by Stradden

I hope you all had a good weekend! We're kicking off the week with the regularly scheduled population bonus adjustments:

Killibury Changes:

• Server size remains in the medium population range 
• Albion – Continues to be an overpopulated Realm (OM)
• Midgard – Continues to be a Realm needing help (UM)
• Hibernia – Changed from an overpopulated Realm (OM) to a Realm needing help (UM)

Caerleon Changes:

• Server size remains in the medium population range
• Albion – Changed from a normal Realm (NM) to an overpopulated Realm (OM)
• Midgard – Changed from a normal Realm (NM) to a Realm needing help (UM)
• Hibernia – Changed from a normal Realm (NM) to an overpopulated Realm (OM)

Ector Changes:

• Server size remains in the low population range
• Albion – Changes from a Realm needing help (UL) to an overpopulated Realm (OL)
• Midgard – Changes from an overpopulated Realm (OL) to a Realm needing help (UL)
• Hibernia – Continues to be an overpopulated Realm (OL)

Just got this note from one of our producers. She said: "Generally, we make the population bonus adjustments to keep the various realms in alignment with each other. Since neither Gaheris nor Mordred have realms, we generally do not adjust them. However, because of their lower populations, we decided to give them bonuses, as well. We assigned them second-best bonus adjustment available. As such, they will receive free levels every three days and all associated bonuses and discounts."

The Hiorten is a historic ship built in CarlsCrona in the year 1692 by Francis John Sheldon. She was designed to be easy to sail; as well as being light and strong, she had a normal crew of only 4. Hiorten is a galeas, a type of small trade ship common in the Baltic in the 17th and 18th centuries. The characteristics depend on the country of origin, with Swedish and Finnish versions being two-masted and ketch rigged in the 18th century. Later, larger versions could have three masts and be ship rigged. The galeas derived from the Dutch galliot, which was rigged in a similar way, but had a rounded stern. The Swedish galliot would be called a Dutch hoy, or English dogger. The galeas retains the rig of the galliot but has a square stern.

The Hiorten (deer in Swedish) was used as a Postjakten or mail-yacht. She sailed the Baltic carrying mail, passengers and small items of cargo between Ystad and Stralsund from 1692 to 1702. After 1702 her fate is unknown.

Game Uses

Small coastal trader and mail carrier.

Comparable Ships

In size and shape the Hiorten is closest to the schooners. She is shorter and broader than the small schooner the shape of the hull should give her more cargo capacity than the small schooner but at the price of speed.

Distinguishing Characteristics

Short and fat, the Hiorten is designed for good cargo capacity in a small ship and the smallest crew size requirement. Very light armament means she should stay in safe water, since she can neither run nor fight well.

Blizzard Entertainment is looking for experienced customer service representatives to serve as Game Masters (GMs) for our recently released game, World of Warcraft.

GMs are customer service specialists that offer support to our customers within our World of Warcraft game. Their main role is to provide assistance and guidance to players through a chat (typing) client. GMs will serve as the direct link between Blizzard and its customers- a global audience, hungry for new adventures within the famed Warcraft Universe. Additionally, GMs will be responsible for in-game customer support, as well as email-based customer support. The ideal candidate is an experienced customer service representative who is very organized, with excellent communication and customer service skills. MMORPG experience is a plus!

These are hourly positions and most positions are full-time (40 hours per week) at our headquarters in Irvine, California. Shift hours and days may vary. The Game Master Department is open 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. Please note that applicants must be able to work additional (overtime) hours and weekends as needed. Sorry, but there are no internship-level positions open at this time.

Blizzard offers a fun, creative, and technically challenging environment with excellent compensation.

Requirements

• Excellent customer service, typing, spelling, and communication skills
• Must have a passion for games
• Previous experience as a GM for an existing MMORPG a big plus, but not required

Here we meet Shana, who happens to be very busy fending off a few of the Enclave's enemies. These Arionites are dangerous to say the least, but Shana is not unskilled herself. One thing is for sure: it's going to be a tough fight all around!

Yet again we've brought you some more concept art today.

Flying Lab Software is seeking talented individuals to fill key positions on our development team. We have immediate job openings for Mission Designers, Programmers, Graphics Programmers and Software Test Engineers. Qualified applicants are encouraged to visit our job postings at http://www.flyinglab.com/jobs.html for further details!

We are aware that some of you have been eagerly awaiting the contest results, but there were unfortunately a few obstacles preventing us from announcing the results by our target date. However, the selection process continued even if, I must admit, they were quite difficult because of the high quality of your submitted works and the implicit technical constraints imposed by them...

We deeply regret that we are only able to reward one of you as each entry had its own merits. What motivated our final decision though is this [the file can be downloaded from the site]: an “extra” Morriar-Elu sent. We think everyone will understand why this drove us to grant the first place title to Morriar-Elu, but we will do our best to find a special way to reward the aforementioned participants with a little something as well!

The official blog home of the Star Trek Online development team has a new look! This improved version of our 'In Development' site will still provide you with official news about the game and special insights from members of the team, plus it will allow us to coordinate new blog publishing over the RSS feed more precisely. We hope you enjoy the chance to peek inside the game's evolution, and be sure to watch for our official community site launch expected in 2006!

At 20:45 on Sunday evening (2005.11.27) EVE players broke their own Peak Concurrent Player (PCU) record with 17.816 playing at the same time.

We're pleased to announce that the server of M&M has been moved to USA. You can enjoy the game more smoothly than before with your friends, don't forget to share this news with them to have more fun. M&M official site will be moved to USA later. Let's work together to build an interesting community.

Today we'd like to introduce "Neocron Arcade: The N.M.E. Project". It is a classic arcade shooter based on the world of Neocron and will be distributed online as a teaser game to raise the interest in Neocron 2. The N.M.E. project was developed by a small team of new employees, who will join the regular Neocron 2 development team after this initiation project! "Neocron Arcade: The N.M.E. Project" will be released on December 7. Check out the screenshots below!