The One About The V2.9 Website Teasers

If you hadn't already noticed, the GE website has been closed down these 3 days for 'hatching purposes'. These are teasers for the launch of V2.9 'Secrets of The Underground' expansion by which the new major feature of pets has been added.

If you missed out Day 1 of the teaser, here it is:

When you click on the egg...

And here's today's teaser...
And when you click on the egg this time...

Unfortunately, the beauty of the 'website closed for hatching' seems lost on some people. Too subtle for them, perhaps? :_(

The One About V2.9 Poster & DVD Sleeves

Sneak preview of V2.9 Poster and DVD sleeves!


Meanwhile, I'm currently uploading the V2.9 client to various mirror sites. Will continue to update this list as we go along. If you happen to have any other mirror sites to contribute, leave a comment!

Download sites for V2.9

The One About The Program Lineup For October~November'08

Here's a sneak preview of what's up and coming after the launch of V2.9 next Thursday, 23 October 2008! Once again, dates and event mechanics are tentative.

GAME CONTENT RELEASE SCHEDULE

COMMUNITY EVENTS

16 October: [In-Game Event] Novia Execution - Bach & Rembrandt

The Queen wishes to pay a social visit to the new worlds, Bach and Rembrandt.However, due to time constraints, The Queen can only visit one of these worlds! Since her daughter has been demanding for the Ice Wizard Tower to become her new ice-skating rink, The Queen has decided the perfect way for the 2 worlds to prove their worth: The 2 servers are to compete each other against time in killing Novia! The world who first executes Novia and posts a screenshot onto the forums first will get to see The Queen!

The date and time of Queen’s visit has yet to be fixed, it all dependent on the residents of Bach and Rembrandt. So, what are you waiting for? Do the necessity to welcome The Queen of Granado Espada, Bach and Rembrandt!

18 October: [In-Game Event] Newbie Faction Formation

This will be the official formation date of the Newbie Faction for new players joining Granado Espada. Our objectives are to lend a helping hand to these players, such as providing them with useful tips and tricks, introduction of lower level game mechanics/features to them, marking of milestones for them and allowing them networking and socializing opportunities with other low level players. There will also be weekly newbie tours every weekend, where we will bring players to low level raid maps and dungeons.

31 October: [In-Game Event] Trick or Treat?

LATEST UPDATE: Event cancelled due to bugged Event Zone on LIVE server.

It’s Halloween again and all kinds of trivia will be asked about Halloween. The person who gets the correct answers will be asked by the GM whether he/she wants a trick or treat. Tricks would generate monster spawns while treats would generate mini prizes to be won. Be sure not to become greedy and keep asking for treats! Or consequences may be dire…

1 November: [Forum Event] Quest Master

Always wanted to see your story become a reality? Pen down your story and WE will create an in-game event for the whole community revolving around your story. The community will submit their stories and we will select one of these stories and craft an in-game mechanics around it.

8 November: [In-Game Event] Newbie Tour Kickoff

This is the kickoff date of the first Newbie Tour. This Newbie Tour will bring them through low level quests, Super Fights and Raid Maps. The Newbie Tour series will take place on a weekly basis, with the assistance of the Community Crew and Player Moderators.

1-30 November: [In-Game Event] War of Factions III

Who will dominate the new worlds of Bach and Rembrandt? The stakes just grew higher in November with the comeback of War of Factions. Certain colonies in the world map will yield a special package of prizes for the factions who conquer it each week. Points will be allocated to these factions and the top 2 (or maybe 5?) factions who get the most number of points will have a final PvP showdown.

14 November: [In-Game Event] Pets Day

Calling all pet owners! Bring your pets down to the Event Zone for a day of bonding and PvP (Pet VS Pet). A series of mini events involving pets and their owners will be held, such as pet races and loot picking competitions will be held.

28 November: [In-Game Event] The Underground Trivia Quiz

How much do you know about what’s underneath in The Underground? We’ll be quizzing you on the secrets of the culverts and beyond.

The One About The Werewolf & Ogre Series

Some great news! The world migration is ahead of schedule at this point in time and if it continues this way, we may be able to open the servers slightly earlier!

Anyway, I was looking through the V2.9 script and I truly LMAO-ed when I saw the flavored text for the Ogre and Werewolf series of weapons. Ogres and werewolves are part of the Secrets of the Underground, located in the culverts (sewers) beneath Cite De Reboldoeux. This map is tentatively scheduled to be released in another 1.5 months time, mid-December.

Oh, and have I mentioned that the Ogre & Werewolf series has an AR of 30? Ho hum.

The One About The Talking Sheep

I think I just met the love of my life.

Meet my new best friend, The Talking Sheep...

"I'm a talking sheep. Is this the first time you've encountered a talking sheep like me?"

Well... at least that's what you guys will see if you attempt to talk to him.

Me and the other [GM]s, however, have a different level of conversation with this harmless looking sheep...

If you haven't figured it out by now, this is an Event Zone. How it works is that the [GM]s will create an 'Event Zone Warp Gate' that allows players to port into the Event Zone Map.

Other than the typical boss summon type events, this Event Zone has some pretty cool events like Quiz Mode (True/False) and treasure chest summons. The event type that I am highly anticipating to organizing together with the [GM]s is something called 'Summon Race Track', where a race track will appear and races can be set for 1, 2 or 3 rounds.

The race track can even be set to Easy, Medium or Difficult. Difficult races include obstacles like 'Knockback' that will occur to all racers every few seconds!

Previously, it had extremely difficult conducting events since there were no such automated GM tools that enabled smooth implementation of events. Everything had been done manually and even so, IMC had placed a strict ban upon us over the past few months in regard to summoning high level raid bosses since they felt that it would cause game imbalance. But with this awesome new feature, there really is a lot to look forward to in V2.9! :D

I just finished a meeting with the [GM]s this morning to put together the in-game event calendar for the next 3 months, so stay tuned for more details! Feel free to leave comments to this entry if you have some awesome ideas in regard to in-game events.

The One About World Migration & V2.9 Updates

Needless to say, if I haven't blogged for a while, it usually means I am drowning in so much work that I can barely come up to the surface to breathe, or rather blog... Which is such a pity, really. Cos the repressed writer in me has so much inspired blog material in my head lately that I wish could materialize on this virtual canvas.

Anyway, some quick updates. There might be some slight delays in world migration. Due to a lot of feedback from the community and from partners that they would like an additional amount of time to arrange their items and to inform their inactive friends, there is a high chance we will be postponing the world migration till the following week on Monday, 13 October 2008 instead. At the same time, we are also trying to work out some additional mechanics with IMC in regard to some other issues mentioned in the forum. When things are more firmed up, the announcements will be posted up. Right now, we're trying to confirm everything by tomorrow to announce it.

And if this is the case, then V2.9 will likely to be delayed as well till Thursday, 23 October 2008. On the bright side, we have just installed V2.9 on our test server this morning... but arghhh! There are some localization integration issues so oh well... yet more QA testing to be done, more bugs to fix and more tasks to pick up...

Dang I want a real life Grabbermon...

Presenting Mama & Baby Grabbermons 'Live' from V2.9 Test Servers