As you might already be aware, Valentine's Day is just around the corner and that means that Joe has started stocking his usual romance-themed items again! Head over to Joe's Merchandise in Sector 3 to get your hands on them. You might notice some Valentine's-themed cosmetic changes around the game too.

In other news, we're in need of at least one more Guide. If you're interested in the position, head over to the application thread in the main forum for more information on the role and how to apply.

Finally, we're over half way through the Warfare rotation so decisions on the next map to be used will need to be made shortly. I'll be picking maps out of the Map Submission Thread in the Wasteland & Raids Forum and putting them to a vote. If you would like a say in which map is played next, please go and participate in the thread by either submitting a map or voting on the existing ones in there. We won't be using a map with any new functionality for the next round, so please keep that in mind when creating a map or voting in the thread.

The next wasteland map has been chosen based on the game vote. Bongo will setup the map on January 1st, 2022 at 12pm EST (server time).

We'll be playing the unnamed Option #3 map with 4 objectives (WL Shop, AA, Jammer, Hospital) that rotate clockwise between their positions every 6 hours. There will be 1 neutral square in the center.



The bigger Crater Expedition map was also pretty popular but it was clear there were some issues to work out there.

We decided that the wasteland round after the next one can be a big map one exclusively. This should give people time to come up with fun big map ideas and/or finesse Crater Expedition more for the next-next round.

PM Pie if you have any questions.

~Aldo

Couple of things to share today!

1. There is a game vote up to vote on the next round's WL Map. Please see Pie's thread in the WL/Raid forum for details on each option and then proceed to vote in the Game Vote.


2. Faelust has released 5 new colored Neon paints on the plat store! Go check them out


3. There is a new Holiday Pack of emojis created by UnicornBob available for purchase in Joe's Merchandise for a limited amount of time (i.e. only during seasonal holidays like right now). It contains some very fun, seasonal emojis, including a few animated ones!


4. The equipment template module has a new, real-time Attack Style switching option. It currently only works in the Hive but an update soon should allow it to work while in WL as well.


5. Dev currently has a pretty ginormous update on it that I've been working on periodically over the last couple of years.
   
   
   
   
   1. In terms of visible/testable changes, the raid map engine has been updated to use the WL Map engine code.
   
   
   2. Alongside that, all hive combat is now replaced by a new, real-time Combat page for PvP and PvE (both regular hunting and SNPC hunting).
      
   
   
   3. Combat in raids also uses the new combat code that powers this combat system (no functional changes to combat formulas though).
   
   
   
   
   If you get a chance, do test and share bugs in the Main Forum on Dev.
   
   It's a little hard to express non-technically why this update is important but suffice it to say that once it's fully done, it'll allow us to do more with combat more easily. I can also only move ahead with SH3... and some other stuff... once this update is in.


6. The Chapter 5 raid design is in progress. ETA is probably by the end of the first week of January given its ...size. >


7. Also, at some point in the first week of January, I am going to take Shad down and replace it with something else with a similar reward/setup and potentially as a private raid to counter leeching concerns in this instance.

Are you ever in Wasteland? Do you find yourself, and your teammates, in low spirits AND low health? Don't have the credits to pay for a full heal AND your taxes?

Well, let me tell you, this product right here fresh out of X-Corp's oven is sure to make you feel better!

Presenting... the Deployment Kit, the earliest latest stolen development in medical nanotechnology! A scientific breakthrough of an intersection between drone technology and nanotech.

Use this bad boy (internally known as Good Boy) in Wasteland and find yourself and up to 4 other teammates basking in the glow of healing nanites!

Wondering how it works? Me too! Let's see:

• A little bit after this post, Deployment Kits will be available in the Warfare Shop for 200 Warfare Points.


• When a kit is in your held items, use /deploy heal in WL, immediately consuming the item, to spawn a visible gang NPC called 'Healing Drone'.


• Every minute tick, the healing drone will expend healing power (currently set at 100HP), consuming it from its own HP bar.


• If there are friendly gang members on the square, the expended healing power is split evenly among the gang players who need heals (up to a max of 5 players).
  
  (eg. If only 1 player needs heals, they get the full +100HP. If 2 players, 50 each..etc up to 5 players, 20 each,).


• Once its HP <= 0, the single-use drone will become useless (like my future).


• Higher gang ranks (not me ) can use /alert heal to explicitly create a new type of alert ("Healing drone"), but gang chat messages also go out when someone deploys a healing drone (also logged in Warfare log).


• Each gang can only have up to 3 of its own healing drones active simultaneously.


• Right now, anyone can deploy a healing drone once they have the item (which is also tradeable, fyi).


• You cannot stack drones/deploy a drone on a square that already has another healing drone (friendly or otherwise).


• War lords and above can go to a new drone management page in the citadel to destroy any active gang drone.


• Healing Drones are not combat-equipped other than having really strong armor! Defend them with your life!

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Feel free to discuss in the WL & Raids forum! As always, report any bugs or things that come up and I'll do my best to address them.

Also dev is down for ...erm reasons. Feel free to speculate, but I promise you it's nothing exciting.

~Aldo