After about two weeks in public beta testing, the Hellgate: London Single Player Patch 1.2 update is ready to be finally be released. The release candidate published last week has been poked, prodded, and otherwise fully tested and has been retitled sans "beta". Those users who have already applied the release candidate version of this patch need to take no additional action as the update has not changed since.

The reason for the lengthy patch release was due largely in part to an issues players were experiencing where they couldn't make Elite Mode characters. This problem has been fixed and is listed in the compendium that is the Single Player Patch 1.2 notes, available here. The patch can be downloaded from the same link or by loading up Hellgate: London and clicking the Update Available button. Clicking the Details button under Single Player yields the patch notes, clicking Update will apply the patch.


Many thanks to those Hellgaters who helped out by testing preliminary Single Player Patch 1.2 versions!

For two weeks now, Fridays have been "new build" days for Single Player Patch 1.2 Beta and Test Center Patch 1.3. These patches are both early "test" versions of their final iterations and are used to fix issues, bugs, rebalances, and other tweaks with every build. These fixes culminate and become the finished patch notes.

Single Player Patch 1.2 Beta is rapidly closing in on its final build with just a few remaining issues left to fix. The most vital of these is an issue which prevents players from creating new Elite Mode characters. This past Friday's build solved two bugs: one that caused characters not to load properly and another which prevented Skill Retrainers from being given to characters which required them. A new SP 1.2 Beta build is estimated to be out tomorrow which will fix the Elite Mode bug.

Multiplayer Patch 1.3 is having its kinks worked out and quickly on the Test Center server. The patch notes have doubled in length in the ten short days Patch 1.3 has been on Test Center, half of them being new feature and new details on those features. The patch's list of known issues has shrunk from a dozen plus to two, many of them fixed in the build uploaded to Test Center this past Friday and this afternoon. While an estimate for release is still a little ways off, it shouldn't be too long now.

These updates and others like them are first reported on the Hellgate: London forums.

The "Reconnaissance Mission" Screenshot Contest was announced late last month and the results are now in!

We saw an impressive number of offerings despite a few hiccups with the email address set up to receive them. In the end, all submissions were received and reviewed. Allow me to say something here: JUDGING IS HARD! However, we embraced the difficult task, soliciting the help of Ivan Sulic, Hellgate: London's game writer, when I found myself wanting to choose too many. The winners are (in no particular order):


"Warcry" by Ahcruna


"Better Homes and Tunnels Magazine" by Aurien


"Grouping in Wake Hollow" by Olivierdc


"Stonehenge Postcard #1" by Sheftu

The People of Holborn Station have just received all of the submitted images and I believe they wish to communicate their thanks. Incoming transmission!

WOW!

...oh, sorry, that must have been loud: Wow! Wow wow wow! Thank you Hellgaters for these amazing shots of Stonehenge! Just look at these shots! A brave Templar standing proudly over fallen Moloch, a 100-page publication all about the Stonehenge frontier, a fantastically-composed image of warriors on the hunt in the Wilds, and a comprehensive postcard of all the lands we hope one day to visit ourselves! Wait a tic...why is Techsmith 101 holding the magazine sideways...

...a centerfold of Desiccator along with its turn-ons and what it looks for in a victim. Well that'll keep Techsmith 101 occupied for a spell. There he goes, running off with it. Not sure if we're going to want it back after he's done with it.

Well, noble champions, you have done this humble station a good turn. The People of Holborn Station would like to provide something additional to fully convey our thanks, Scapes has the details. FOR THE LIVING!

As some folks know, this was my first official contest. As such, I'd like to personally add a small token of thanks. In addition to signed Hellgate: London posters, each of the four winners will receive Hellgate: London t-shirts as well.

I would like to thank everyone who participated in this contest. I'll be posting up some very close runner-up submissions in this thread on the forums later on. I've already got ideas for upcoming contests and look forward to presenting them soon!

Soloist Hellgaters will be excited to learn that a "beta" version of Patch 1.2 for Single Player Mode will be made available for players to try out next week. This is similar to how our Multiplayer patches are "road-tested" on our Test Center server before being released.

This Single Player patch will match the content, balance changes, and bug fixes found in the Multiplayer version of Patch 1.2. Our QA team has reported no show-stoppers in the course of testing it thus far.

A solid ETA for the publishing of this "1.2 Beta" Single Player patch will be made available early next week.

Patch 1.2 launched last week and Hellgaters have started discovering what lies in wait in the murky depths of The Deepest Wild. For those who have yet to make the journey, here is a brief glimpse at what horrors and treasures await you. Heed the lesson to be learned from this tale: The Desiccator has very sensitive feelings and doesn't take kindly to brash adventurers who left their manners behind in Stonehenge.


A decidedly higher quality version of this video can be found on the front page and a number of major game media sites have it available for download. (Frankly, I'd encourage you to watch it using something other than the YouTube link.)

In what is the first contest since the launch of the Stonehenge Chronicles, bold adventurers must march beyond the safety of Stonehenge proper and venture out into The Wild, an expansive and demon-infested forest, to capture footage of new features introduced with Patch 1.2 including The Desiccator, newly strengthened Moloch, and the special loot drops both tempt champions of humanity and treasure hunters alike with including functional pets, attribute-adding dye kits, and all-new unique weapons. Such is the essence of the "Reconnaissance Mission" Screenshot Contest in which participants must provide a little excitement for the world-weary "People of Holborn Station", denizens of what is arguably the safest town hub in all of the London Underground. Here is a snippet from their last transmission:

Hello! We are the People of Holborn Station broadcasting a message for any and all willing champions of humanity out there. We have been hearing about some of the new findings being reported from Stonehenge... *BZZT* ...something about a large beastie called Malach? Malock? Moloch! That's the name. Him and that other Desiccator creature. Well, we'd like to be able to put faces to the names! News takes a long time to reach Holborn, what with the entrance to Covent Garden Approach breaking down every few minutes. ...what's that? Oh, Techsmith 101 wants to say it isn't his fault. And that it's the capacitors that keep frying or some such. And that he misses you very much. And...yeah, I'm not repeating that, Techsmith 101. No. Just...go away!

The reward for the four brave photographers (screenshotters?) who bring the best visual reconnaissance of the front lines of the battle against demonkind are Hellgate: London posters each signed from top to bottom by a host of Flagship Studios employees. As for how the People of Holborn Station managed to secure such a prize, that one we'll leave to your own imagination.

To find out more, click here to travel to the related forum thread (and read the full transmission)!