A bunch of new little and big things are in today..
1. New Jobs:
a) Crystal Mining
b) X-Corp Research Lab

Each of these jobs pay more than the previous one and also drop some cool items. I hear OG Mining also drops something. With a fair number of dangerous jobs, I wonder if there's an item that can make things.. less dangerous?

2. 3 New Status Effects - these are higher tiers of the existing ones as some of you may have seen on dev. You get them by consuming a Large Power Cell, which you can get.. I wonder where?

3. Cow Bell (decreases training time for currently-training ability by 1 hour) sold for 160 wfps.

4. New item in Casino Shop for all you 1337 hackers out there.

5. 110 Badge and Banner

6. The Honing Combat Log messages have been abridged ever so slightly. If you still have a broken combat log history from it later on, PM me and I'll take care of it.

7. New Medic ability category. Medic Study has been unlocked for you if your level is greater than or equal to 20. Go to Information > Abilities to train it and then go ahead and buy/train the (currently sole) ability, Healing Touch, within the Medic category from the Hall of Knowledge. You can read the description of Healing Touch to learn more but it let's you heal a fellow gang member on the same square at the cost of focus (so avs only can unlock it for now - lowbies, don't worry we haven't forgotten about your potential to be medics!). Using /heal will also generate a new type of Combat Log message for the which can be toggled on/off under Template Control (last option - Incoming Targeting Ability).

Armor/Weapon Honing abilities now give +3 hourly bonus with an additional +3 at max level. However, they now come with an inactivity decay. So for every day you aren't logged in since your last login, you will receive a -8 to your hourly bonus. Ability levels 4 and 5 get a 1 and 2 day grace period respectively. They also now give a flat +1 xp per armor/weapon hit in all PVP/PVE.

You can see here (link) but here's what it looks like for someone with a maxed honing ability to go from level 1 to level 5 with an item:

XP/hour = 18 | 156.25 days at Level 5.
(281.25 days for avg daily [no ability])
(100.45 days for average daily active attacker)
(96.98 days for average daily active attacker with ability and +1 WL pvp xp)

[Day 1] + 432 | ItemXP = 432 (Lv. 1 )
[Day 2] + 432 | ItemXP = 864 (Lv. 1 )
[Day 3] + 432 | ItemXP = 1296 (Lv. 1 )
[Day 4] + 240 | ItemXP = 1536 (Lv. 1 )
[Day 5] + 48 | ItemXP = 1584 (Lv. 1 )
[Day 6] + 0 | ItemXP = 1584 (Lv. 1 )

You will now receive a Combat Log message regarding your hourly gains. The Status Effects module now only shows when you have any status effects active. Also, status effects have been centered... you're welcome.

Regarding the new honing abilities - Weapon Honing and Armor Honing, the +xp bonus per hour has been buffed. The original numbers were far lower than what I actually wanted them to be (due to a calculation error that was uncaught because of an issue in the original calculator that helped determine the numbers.. I wonder who's responsible........).

The abilities now work as follows: (Average daily active attacker is estimated to gain 240xp for an item).

For +6 XP per hour per ability levels (1-4) and +9 at Level 5
XP/hour = 6 | 468.75 days at Level 1.
(175.78 days for average daily active attacker)

XP/hour = 12 | 234.38 days at Level 2.
(127.84 days for average daily active attacker)

XP/hour = 18 | 156.25 days at Level 3.
(100.45 days for average daily active attacker)

XP/hour = 24 | 117.19 days at Level 4.
(82.72 days for average daily active attacker)

XP/hour = 39 | 72.12 days at Level 5.
(57.40 days for average daily active attacker)

Additionally, Double Gains Weekend will not happen this weekend but will be held 2 weekends after this one (Jan 20th) in order to give people a chance to have time to train/understand abilities like Intermediate Item Study, which allows you to use Power Cells that provide the following Status Effects:

1) Radioactive Efficiency - Active only for 15 mins, it gives x2 wfps for all wl-related activity, including misc xp, except attacking guards.

2) Radiation Sensitivity - Has a small chance of activating upon using a power cell. Active for only 10 mins. Gives x2 to expo gain.

You can only use Power Cells for these effects once in every 3 hours, unless otherwise blog-posted or system-announced. When you try using a Power Cell, it will always tell you in how much time you can use it again.

If you're confused about what I'm talking about, see my previous (also confusing but more introductory and emoji-filled) blog post

Enjoy!

Along with the new wasteland map today, we have another smaller update.

Introducing...

1. New Abilities - There's a whole new category of abilities called Items that comes with a few abilities for now (and more in the future). This comes with Item Study, Intermediate Item Study, Armor Honing, Weapon Honing. Item Study is unlocked for everyone whose level is greater than 20 in Information > Abilities.

Armor Honing and Weapon Honing are 2 new abilities that let you passively train equipped Armor and Weapon XP per hour.

Intermediate Item Study let's you use certain special items. For now, there's only one green radioactive item that you can use. (Hint: ).

It comes with another ability too but more on that in a few weeks.

Using the gives you...

2. Player Status Effects - These are effects that either provide players with buffs or debuffs or both . Right now, if you use a , you can get the following Effects:

a) Radioactive Efficiency

b) Radiation Sensitivity

On using a , you will always receive the first status effect, while having a small chance of getting the second! Bare in mind that you can only use a once every 3 hours (unless otherwise blog-posted).

I hope you like this smaller update. I expect there to be ..polarizing opinions on the new abilities in particular but enjoy

On a separate note, or notes:

1. Contributors for the Phoenix Key phase of the event - your reward will come soon!
2. We've been slowly increasing in average online now. General online now numbers have gone from 60-70 to 70-80s and occasionally now 90s!
3. We hit Online Now 101 earlier this week Whether these numbers are to do with new year's, advent, or updates, or none of these, I think they're great and encouraging!

As a tiny dumb celebration for #3, this weekend will have Double Gains active. The effects of Radioactive Efficiency? They'll stack on top of Double Gains. Enjoy