Ok, the new map is almost ready to roll out. To give us chance to put the amount of work needed in to each of the new concepts we're using in this map we will be staggering the release of parts of it.

Gang HQ Movement (Day 1)
Gang HQs will retain the ability to go mobile but will not be allowed to go beyond the 9th row of squares. Meaning there is a line across 1,8 to 15,8 that Gang HQs may not pass.

Roaming NPCs (Day 2)
The roaming none player characters are called Sentries, they will patrol around regardless of gang control / guards and attack any they perceive to be their enemies. They will only be active for a few hours at a time and this time will be selected randomly.

Objectives (Day 3)
This map contains 3 new objectives, you can control them at first but you will not be able to access them until Day 2. They have the following functions.

The 'Sentry Control' allows the controlling gang to select which gangs the Sentries attack on sight when they are active.

The 'Phase Disruptor' can be activated once per day. Once active it will remain active for 1 hour and disable cloaking, radiance, summoning, phasing and astral blasting for all gangs including the gang that activated it.

The 'Satellite Uplink' can be accessed from the Hive and will allow the controlling gang to monitor the movement of enemy avatars in real time. This system will only catch a percentage of movements and can be circumvented with the cloaking ability.

Moving Bridges (Day 5)
After 4 days the northern island that contains the 'Sentry Control' objective will retract all 3 of its connecting bridges. After this point only 1 bridge will extend per day to allow access, this process will be random.

This staggered release will allow us to properly test each system on Dev rather than rushing them all out together. Some of the above may change based on our testing. Have fun!

The new map is still being built ready for tomorrow. This map will release at midnight without any pre-released information. Just a few things you need to know, all Gang HQs will start at the bottom, all 3 objectives are in the top half and Gang HQs will not be allowed to move north of 8th row. This map will also contain some new mechanics you have not seen before and 3 new objectives.

Some things may need to be tweaked after launch but I'll be around for a while after to fix any problems.

Testing is going well, I've done a bit of testing on Dev and a lot on the main server. There are currently 5 bunny rabbits hopping randomly around the wasteland. Basically testing the random movement AI system stability. At the time of posting they're on tick number 2,117 with no problems yet. The server also handled 100 rabbits with relative ease, using next to no RAM or CPU and processing all the movements in little over 0.2 seconds.

During map 5's "night phase" it will become populated with NPCs just like the bunny rabbits only they will wander around attacking and draining focus from players not in the gang that controls their special objective. The closer you get to the north of the map (where the objective will be) the higher level these NPCs will become.

The night phase will come in to and out of play randomly with a 1 hour warning before transitions. This entire concept is just a way to test wandering / hostile AI ready for a more dynamic guard system in the future.

We all had fun at LegCon, lots of things got discussed. We have also decided that from now on all LegCons will be followed with a community game of TripleJack (beer optional). Normally I get lots done the day after LegCon but this hasn't been the case as my computer exploded in firey... or well my main HDD died. Still re-installing programs and restoring files but all should be well again once that is done.

First thing on my list of things to do is shutting down Dev and starting tests on the new AI for Map 5. If you missed LegCon you'll have no idea what any of that is, I'm sure Scott will post logs soon but for now just ask somebody more awesome than you who attended!