I've been giving some thought to what stats the crystals should give. There are a few decisions that need to be made. Firstly should crystals give flat stats or should they give percentage increases to the items in to which they socket.

If we go with percentages I imagine we would never see a Void Sword with anything but Fire Crystals (damage) in them and we would rarely see a Rift Gun with anything but Air Crystals in it (accuracy) as increasing the largest stat by a percentage would be the biggest advantage. So right now I'm thinking more along the lines of flat stat increases as they are also easier to balance.

If we go with percentages (or even if we don't for fire crystals) what happens when you put a crystal in an item that doesn't have that stat to increase. A damage crystal can't increase damage done when it is in armor, etc. I guess they just wouldn't be socketable in items that did not have their respective stat to increase.

Given the potential for this update to go badly, I'm not going to proceed with it until I'm happy with the plan in full. Please comment and discuss on the forums. Also congratulations to hincha for getting the first Misc item to level 5, the other item types are still open to be won.

Sometimes I wish people who get very loud when they disagree with a change would be equally as loud when they agree with something. If all I hear is the vocal minority who disagree obviously get a distorted impression of what players want.

When players disagree with future changes, you better be equally as vocal if you want them to stay.

Void Sword: + 10 Minimum Damage, +18 Maximum Damage, +5 Melee Skill
Rift Gun: +25 Accuracy, +5 Gun Skill
Prime Amulet: +1 Accuracy, +1 Dodge, +10 All Skills

This makes Ventrix's drops clear upgrades over old Avatar equipment but equal to each other. Apart from the 2nd Amulet which is a clear upgrade over the Prime Amulet.

Crystal Fusion is delayed until next week as I have no idea what percentages to give each crystal yet to keep them in balance with each other. Feel free to play with the simulator and make suggestions.

I've spent the morning working on Tibos' combat simulator. Link to my new one can be found below, all open source so you can see exactly how it all works if you wish.

Link: http://jsbin.com/hiqujewe/13/edit?js,console

Using this new simulator I've tweaked the stats of Ventrix's drops. So that they give comparable results to an Avatar with 2 x Scythes equipped. It's never going to be perfect but this is as close as I've managed to get it.

Today I'm making the following item changes:

Void Sword: -10 Minimum Damage, -18 Maximum Damage, -5 Melee Skill
Rift Gun: -30 Accuracy, -10 Gun Skill
Prime Amulet: -10 Def Skill

These changes should bring the items back in line with Scythes. You're welcome to play about with the simulator and prove me right or wrong. The second Amulet Ventrix drops has been ignored from these tests as it was always intended to be an incredibly rare upgrade to current Misc Items.

I'm going to use this simulator to calculate exactly what percentage stats the new crystals should give, it's going to take some time though so please be patient. Have fun!

Sorry for the delay, the next warfare map is going to be the Void Map. We will once again be running it without Gang HQs. I'll also be updating you guys on the Ventrix changes later today as well as the upcoming Crystal Fusion update.

Objectives will be in the same places as the past Void Map although I may swap some around. Have fun!