TL;DR
I created a laundry list of high-level tenets that drive the game design of specific genre I coined the World game based on Brad's famous quote. These aim to be applicable to any game that would scratch my old school MMO itch.
What tenets would you choose?
Preamble
The MMO community is, to some degree, divided by the different expectations and desires of its player base. Even an MMORPG can mean so many things to so many different people. I wanted to get to the root of what a good MMO is to me, and in the process, I found that the ambiguous label of MMO is likely getting in the way.
Passionate players across the board seem to complain about the same issues. Ease of difficulty. Cash shops. Single-player focus. Theme park design. Players of these games either leave the genre, ultimately disenchanted with the thin veil over Skinner box design, or they continue to search for something better, because they know it is possible. Maybe this is intentional. Developers piggy back on the MMO genre to hook the player-base before extracting as much as they can from the whales in their glorified casino.
So, here, I present the tenets of a specific game genre: the World genre. The focus on world over game is not a new idea. Brad McQuad famously said, “I want to make worlds, not games.” That focus can be seen right there in the name of Visionary Realms. And without the right language to describe what we are after, the community is continually bit by games that fit the abstract label but disappoint in the details.
The goal with these tenets isn’t to create a template so much as it is to create rough guidelines. In fact, these guidelines probably wouldn’t do a game designer much good in creating a solid design. But they should help in evaluating different options and validating an existing design. Certainly, none of the tenets get as specific as the theme or even the existence of combat. They should apply equally well to a game set in feudal Japan, The Sims Online, or the next zombie apocalypse.
Some tenets are broad, while others more specific. Some tenets are rigid, others more malleable. Some tenets are critical pillars of the genre, while others are less important. Tenets frequently conflict, creating tension.
A note on intuition
The tenets below are driven by the principle that they should be intuitive. The World genre is trying to capture something deeply human, buried in our brains because of the way we have interacted with ourselves, each other, society, and our planet over millennia of evolution. There is no right or wrong answer. When in doubt, we err on the side of realism.
A note on ownership
Establishing reasonably prescriptive tenets on the World and gameplay highlights the necessity of strong ownership and vision for this style of game. This is particularly true given that many of these tenets go explicitly against what makes a great game in general. For example, how many games would actually benefit from less player matchmaking? This also does not lend itself well to player-generated content, where those tenets can be easily violated.
The tenets of immersion
TENET 1 The player should be directly represented in the World
The World genre requires the player to form a direct relationship with the World, not with the character. This is a key difference between Eastern of Western RPGs (both of which I love) and so this may be controversial. The player should be able to insert themselves into their avatar. On the flip-side, it precludes certain mechanics, such as squad-based designs.
TENET 2 The World should be realistic in both form and function
That is, the World should minimize the need for suspension of disbelief. It should pull the player in naturally. I have always felt conflicted by WoW’s appearance. I absolutely loved the cell-shaded look of Wind Waker, but instinctually disliked the cartoon-like nature of WoW. This goes back to immersion. That doesn't mean the visuals have to be photorealistic. They just have to pull you in. It may be possible to get around this through the setting. For example, if the setting is a digital afterlife, you may be able to get away with a more abstract appearance.
TENET 3 The player and World should interface only through the player character
The player should only be able to influence the World through their character. And the World should only be able to influence the player through the character. This means, respectively, no cash shops and a first-person camera. It also means no GPS — unless, of course, the setting supports it. Taken to an extreme, this precludes voice chat, at least without something like racial voice filters.
TENET 4 The player should directly engage with the World around them
The key here is “direct”. No minimaps, no waypoints, no fast travel. Of course, these are not absolute deal-breakers. The key is that the player is able to establish a connection with the World around them. The player should, over the course of the game, develop a strong mental model of the World and its relation to their character.
The tenets of freedom
TENET 5 The player should not be assigned a story
The World itself can (and should!) have a story to tell. But the player character’s story should be their own. The player must have the freedom to make their own place within the World, eschewing the rails that a story provides. Side quests are lesser evils, but still evils. The more choice the better.
TENET 6 The player should be able to pursue multiple forms of progression
The choice should not just be in how to progress. It should be in which ways to progress. The most obvious example is crafting, but this can also include loot, skills, the economy, faction, or even — maybe most importantly — growing in strategy and skill.
TENET 7 The World should be demanding, but not prescriptive
This is an extension of the idea of a lack of story. If the game is too prescriptive, it becomes a job. A chore. To combat this phenomenon, the player needs significant choice at all times. This may, in fact, be the primary draw of the World genre: to provide an environment where players are purely driven by their own will. It is equally important to avoid visibly and overtly influencing the player’s decisions. The player’s incentives and motivating factors should be an organic part of the World. No daily XP boosts, for example. Alternate forms of progression can help here, because even once a player is motivated to progress, they have the choice of which dimension of progress to pursue.
TENET 8 The World should encourage downtime
The player should not feel compelled to move forward at all times. There should be joy simply in existing in the World, experience it moment to moment. Even better, progression itself can require downtime; this is related to the notion that players should be encouraged to play any game in the most fun way possible. This can be accomplished with world design, such as guard-protected cities or social taverns, or mechanics, such as fishing, firework shows, and waiting in queue for a boat. This is effectively the white space of gameplay. And it is all but lost in modern MMOs.
TENET 9 The World should be dangerous
Choice is meaningless without consequence. With real, negative consequence, comes danger. This not only gives weight to the player’s decisions, but also helps to establish the intricate give-and-take relationship between the World and the player. Looking at you, death penalty. If a World game is about finding your place within that world, then danger and risk makes this a meaningful pursuit. If that tension between risk and reward does not exist, even at the start of the journey, it undermines those goals. Note that this is different than challenge — and challenge itself is not enough.
TENET 10 Players should be encouraged to explore the World
This doesn't mean that players are constantly seeking some never-before-seen point of interest, but it does mean that players get out and move. In other words, the world provides resources across its footprint, and you must seek those out. Most forms of progression should require you to get out and explore. This also does not necessitate baubles scattered around the landscape to find.
The tenets of impact
TENET 11 The player’s actions should be worn like a badge
You should be a product of your choices. Your reputation, gear, and skills should tell a story about where you have been and what you have accomplished. Your spoken languages can tell a story of what cities you have spent the most time in. As you spend time in different climates, you may develop a natural acclimation to those environments. Imagine you walk into town and one of the NPC gnomes recognizes the scent of the nearby crystal caverns you have been exploring. This is interesting because it relates to life; the player’s accomplishments should come with artifacts. This also means that auction houses should be limited, as they create an artificial divide between adventure and outcome.
TENET 12 Players should have something unique to offer
The ways that a player can help others in their progression should be relatively unique to that player. As much as possible, they should tell a story about adventures undertaken; e.g., a proc from an item dropped by a famous mob. Of course, classes and class-specific skills are one way to accomplish this, but the more ways the better. For example, if one form of progression is fishing, then fish should be useful to others in many ways. A cooking skill is obvious. More creatively, certain kinds of fish could be used as powerful but low-level weapons. A butcher could extract gills or eyes to, in turn, be used as reagents for spells.
TENET 13 There should be no end game
Even the name “end game” is problematic for several reasons. It suggests a hard limit to progression. It suggests a hard divide in the way the World is experienced once the player reaches this limit. It also suggests that the focus is no longer on the World, but on the game — which is to say, the core promise of the genre is lost. This doesn’t mean to eliminate raids or AA points. It just means that those things should be included in the game proper. This tenet also implies that progression should be relatively limitless. Skyrim is an interesting example of this. One way to accomplish this is to create exponential progress; for example, having each level take 10% more experience than the last. Granted, this is a much harder problem than the simple discussion here suggests.
TENET 14 The player should leave a mark on the World itself
Can a World be meaningful if there is no way to make an impact on it? Of course, their character is one such mark. It is easy to imagine statues erected in town, or NPCs chatting about the first character to hit max level. But there should be a means for all characters to leave some lasting impact. Given that players can already say whatever they want in chat, breaking immersion, a simple example is the ability to leave a journal. These could even be curated. Other possibilities include geocaching, naming items, plaques that can be erected in various places throughout the world. Player-owned housing is perhaps the most obvious.
TENET 15 Power, fame, and fortune must be possible
A world game should be able to provide all three of these drivers. As with reality, these should not be the only reason to play. Fame is largely supported by communication; fortune by economy and loot. Power can be found even outside the game, in the player’s mind, as they grow in skill and strategy.
TENET 16 The player should have a home
Can you have a world without a home? Some place in the world should feel like your own. Where even the NPCs tend to be supportive of you: merchants give discounts and trainers more assistance. This could simply be your birthplace, your hometown.
The tenets of socialization
TENET 17 There must be no explicit matchmaking
Players must find each other. In fact, a World game should ideally employ the opposite of matchmaking: some players should have barriers preventing that connection. This makes it all the more meaningful when these seemingly unlikely relationships form. There are many ways to accomplish this, including separating players by distance or climate or language. Allowing certain players to engage in PvP is another.
TENET 18 There should be risk in trusting others
Trust can only exist when that trust can be violated. Otherwise there is no trust — just a cold, lack of consequence. By allowing negative consequences through socialization, we enable trust, and so enable more meaningful relationships. For example, a player might grief the group, log out at the wrong time, or simply lack the skill to effectively play their character. They might steal your loot.
TENET 19 Players must be able to communicate with language
The purpose of having a World is to allow the player to tell their own story within it. And what story is worth telling that doesn’t involve real connection with others? Connection with others requires communication. And not just any form of communication, but with language. This communication should extend throughout the game, as much as possible. That is, it should be limited to the tavern, but should naturally extend out to the dungeon as well.
TENET 20 Players should be able to help each other organically
Those that have the means to help should find themselves naturally in proximity to those that might need it. For example, have high-level dungeon entrances in low-level areas. Have new characters start out near big cities.
TENET 21 Cooperation should generally benefit progression
For example, a blacksmith could gather all of her own materials or rely on other players. In some cases, a blacksmith might actually require an enchanter to lend a hand in creating the best equipment. This is not a difficult tenet to design towards; it is more a warning against designing forms of progression that specifically do not lend themselves to cooperation. In many MMOs, solo combat is so fast-paced and rewarding that there is little incentive to try to find a group.
The tenets of the World itself
TENET 22 The World should be persistent
Things can change, but not so frequently that it harms the connection the player has with the World. This is one reason why Minecraft may not work as a World game, and perhaps one reason why the focus on player-generated content in EverQuest Next did not lend itself well to a fun experience.
TENET 23 The World should be shared
There should be no instancing. If you need to come up with elaborate lore and mechanics to facilitate this, then so be it. For example, say all of the top tier raid bosses are spirits that can only be summoned by rare relics. And the spirits can only be hurt by those that share a clan sash with the one who summoned them. Obviously this is terribly contrived. But it demonstrates that it is possible to work backwards from the need of a shared world.
TENET 24 The World should be big
You should move slowly compared to the size of the world. It should always feel as though there is somewhere new to explore.
TENET 25 The World should be open
Big by itself is not enough. Theoretically, you could create a massive, linear world — imagine Ant Hill: The MMO. But that is not sufficient for a World game. Exploration is critical, and so the specific layout of the space is important. For another example, imagine Destiny but with hundreds of expansions. The game would be large by any standard, but it would not be a World.
TENET 26 The World should be alive
To some degree, the World should be the main character. Day and night cycles are a simple start. Other possibilities include transient events or even changes to the landscape over time. The World should be full of surprises, unpredictable. You should come across enemies not normally found in the local climate. You should discover loot normally reserved for much tougher mobs. Emergent gameplay can help here as well. The more mechanics and attributes that can be projected naturally to some underlying physics, the greater the chance for interesting and unique interactions. In the same breath, the World should have history. The best example of this is Hollow Knight, a game that tells the history of the World through visual storytelling, environments, enemy design, dialog, secrets, and journals.
TENET 27 The World should be consistent
The World should carry an underlying consistency through it. The World should feel congruent. Variety, also important, must be tempered.
TENET 28 The World should be varied
Different places within the World should have an identity of their own, through climate or culture or environment. Different environments should encourage different play styles and behavior, even downtime.
TENET 29 The World should have landmarks
The World should be defined by the interesting places within it. More than that, the World should have locations that pull players together. Breath of the Wild does an amazing job with this, whereas it is one of the weaknesses of The Witcher III. In EverQuest, the camps themselves often serve this role — think Treants — showing how landmarks can emerge from gameplay rather than, say, visual interest.

I've thought alot on gaining poweprogress on an account, and the best way to accomplish it. Then extrapolated a little from my other experiences to come up with this. Please realize that almost the entire guide excludes Light/Dark in any regard.
TL:DR Version: I have tested and managed an e5 two times now in under 5 months. It should be even easier than when i did as since game has gotten alot friendlier. My luck was not good nor bad. Just takes doing the goal oriented things below. Saving what you should save. Spend when you should spend. Feathers really are important for this. Its also very important to prioritize the feathers in events. Get 240 Casino coins, 80 POs, or 500 HSs THEN spend them to complete said event. Don't use them before that since you lose out on the feathers. Once you start building a supply of feathers, don't spend them until you can fully build the hero. Next is focusing on 4★ shards for most of your growth. Last is DON'T BUILD HEROES YOU WON'T FODDER. Do these and even you can do it. I know its a bit of a read, but this whole thing does work, but you can't cherry pick the parts you want to do, and expect it to not take you longer, in some cases alot longer.
Keep these heroes until you know better what you are doing:

Horus	Gustin	Tix	Ithaqua
Cthuga	Morax	Ignis	Kroos	Delicium	Nakia
Heart Watcher	Rogan	Elyvia	Garuda
Xia	Sigmund	Inosuke	Sherlock	Penny	Unimax - 3000

Starting

The idea behind this whole post is to focus efforts towards the earliest most efficient E5 you can make. The power of an early E5 vs a team of 6x 10★ isn't really even comparable. The E5 will wipe the floor with them in every way. More specifically an E5 of one the best heroes in the game will carry your progress well beyond any other strategy after its made. No hero does everything the best. Therefore, we want to pick as good a hero as we can, without waiting forever. We still need to get this made in a reasonable time frame so you can build on your progress.
So once again the idea is to go all out for ONE hero. Don't level anything you can't sacrifice. ALL Prophet Orbs, Prophet Branches, Feathers, Guild Coins, EVERYTHING that is a resource and can be used to progress your E5 will be used for your E5.

The Basics

Lets start with the basics by breaking down Hero ★ ranks. The basic unit is a 5★ building block. Heading over to the Creation Circle, we can turn some 5★s into 6★s. Once at 6★, level the hero to 100 and promote it. Then the promotion tab becomes active on that hero. The rest of the promotions will be done here. Requirements below:
​

7★	4x 5★ Same Faction	-	-
8★	3x 5★ Same Faction	6★ Same Faction	-
9★	2x 5★ Same Faction	6★ Same Faction	1x Copy of Hero
10★	9★ Any Faction	6★ Same Faction	2x Copy of Hero
E1	9★ Any Faction	-	1x Copy of Hero
E2	9★ Any Faction	-	1x Copy of Hero
E3	10★ Any Faction	-	-
E4	10★ Any Faction	-	1x Copy of Hero
E5	10★ Any Faction	-	1x Copy of Hero

​
Looking at this we can see that we will need to get our E5 hero to 9★, three 9★ fodders, and three 10★ fodders. That's 304x 5★s if i did the math right. That is alot of 5★s.
So here is the basic plan.

• Step 1: Pick and build good 10★ Fodder Heroes
  
• Step 2: Pick an E5 Hero, exclude all other potential heroes.
  
• Step 3: Complete events specifically with Feathers in mind.
  
• Step 4: Steal Underpants
  
• Step 5: ???
  
• Step 6: Profit
  

The most common ways to majorly slow your progress seems to come in 2 forms.
1.) You feel you need a full team of heroes with lots of stars. 2.) You struggle with the long view and build non fodder heroes.
So let me just say once again. You don't need a full team. You need 1 good hero. If you decide on a hero, stick with that hero.

Picking the E5 Hero

This is your first E5, once made it will be your only hero for a time. Because of this, it needs to be a solid hero for carrying your progress from that point on while you start on your next. I used to rate heroes on a per Category basis and weight the results for a best hero ranking. That takes too much work. So instead of that non-sense i'll just tell you who i would build.
1.) Tix 2.) Inosuke 3.) Garuda
Try to build 1 of those 3. Tix and Inosuke are a bit better than Garuda, but she is still very solid if you happen to have alot of copies of her. You can always build the other 2 next.
Picking your E5 hero is probably the trickiest part of this whole thing. The several month building process gives you time in which your fortunes can change. So here is my advice. Build Norma to 9★ and use her for early game. Start working on 10★s of other decent fodder heroes. In that time, if you pick up 2-3 of any of the three heroes i listed, just lock in and go for that hero. I also don't count the Imp Adventure Chest as picking up a hero. I'm talking through PO, HS, Super Casino, Random Holiday Events, Heroic Miracle, or Altar Event. Keep the Imp Chest a Chest until you pull the trigger on deciding which hero you are going to make. Once you decide on a hero, you can open the chests. Feathers should never be used until you can promote a hero to E5 the exact moment you spend them. If you are still building Fodder or the copies don't add up to 9, you don't spend feathers. The reason is because we really only want to spend feathers on this first hero for speed. After this first hero, feathers should be solely for Light/Dark hero copies or 400 Feather P2W Artifacts. So the less you can spend the better. It is still worth using them at the right time for your first E5 though.
If you aren't sure where to orb, i would suggest one of 2 things. 1.) If you have any copies of the heroes above, try the faction you have the most of. 2.) If you don't have any, pick Fortress. It has Inosuke and Sherlock. Both are great. Shadow basically only has Tix. Forest has Garuda and Rogan which are good but aren't quite as good as Sherlock and Inosuke.
At the moment Inosuka and Tix are probably the most useful heroes. Therefore if you have no copies of any of the other listed heroes, you should just start your aim there.
Once you get an E5 hero, you don't start filling in your team with a bunch of crap low star heroes. You start the process over again on a new hero. Though maybe this time include Light/Dark as options. You really shouldn't ever be building anything that isn't going towards an E5 Hero, other than maybe HeartWatcher and Sigmund which are generally fine at 10★ or E3.

Picking 10★ Fodder Heroes

Faction	Hero	Hero	Hero
Shadow	Dominator	Walter	Corpse Demon
Abyss	Karim	Barea	King Barton
Forest	Starlight	Groot	Vesa
Fortress	Ormus

​
To make an E5 hero, we need three 10★ sacrifices for the last steps. So it helps to make those useful heroes until its time to sacrifice them. Which of these heroes you build will depend on luck, and the faction you choose to use Prophet Orbs on. Each faction has a few worthy 10★ heroes listed above.
​

Streamline the Fodders

The fodder process needs to be focused on building only 1 Non-Fodder Hero to E5. That means leaving all other God Tier Heroes unmade and in Token form if you can help it. This will stop them from taking up a hero slot. Good to get in the habit of keeping heroes in Token form until they are needed. That being said, any hero i didn't list at the very top of this thread should be put to use making 10★ fodders. No need to save them if they aren't on that list.
The biggest mistake newer players make is underestimating the power of 4★ Shards and not picking them up at every available opportunity. The importance of 4★ Heroes IS HUGE. It is the basis for 75% of my growth. You build the shard numbers daily, in small amounts. By the end of the month, they add up to thousands. On top of that, with the monthly Fusion quest, the first 20 5★s you make reward you gold, which you will need. They should be picked up at every chance. Here is where to find them.

• Marketplace: 30x Shard for 1.5m Gold (pick up 3★s too)
• Seal Land: Smash daily for the most you can (after 10 or so buy 3x extras smashes)
• Event Raid Hero Challenge: Spend gems for extra completes here. All that you can EVERYDAY.
• Tavern Quests
• Aspen: The Lady Dude sells 30x Shards for 1.5m Gold

​
My Monthly Progress:

1. All month long, do everything to build 4★ shards
2. Once Heroic Miracle comes around
   • Use all my Heart Summons, destroy all 1★ and 2★
   • Use all my Random 4★ shards along with 3★ shards to form 5★s
3. Keep forming 5★s until i can turn them into a 6★
4. Once i have three 6★s of the same faction a. Collect 9 more 5★ fodders of that faction b. Collect 1 more copy of one of the 6★ heroes c. Craft a 9★
5. Use 5★ Random Summon Shards a. You want to collect 5 of any of these heroes. b. If you have 2 copies of any of them, make a 6★ c. Make a 10★ with said hero

​

Change Log:

Changed all kinds of crap. Cut out tons of non-sense filler. Mostly updated so people reading don't build the outdated heroes. Its been awhile since i updated this.

Welcome Bosses, Chicagoans and all! Today we bring you great news, crew. See here, we have decided to let the public in on the operation: we are now doing public betas of new patches!
This means that if you play Empire of Sin on Steam, you can now choose to opt into playing the latest stable beta build of the game. Here is how to do it:

1. Open Steam.
2. Go to the Library and right-click on Empire of Sin > Manage > Betas.
3. Choose the beta branch available in the drop down menu.
4. You should then be able to download the beta build. No password needed!

And that’s it, you’re good to go, boss! Of course, we would love to hear your feedback on the beta patch. Feel free to let us know in the comments below, in the Empire of Sin Discord or in the Empire of Sin Beta sub-forum.
Discord: https://discord.gg/qX2PTYK
Forum: http://pdxint.at/3tflvQ6
See below for a full list of Patch Notes for Beta Branch 1.03.

Update Notes - Beta Branch 1.03​

Please Remember:​

• Back up your game save folder to ensure any issues during this test do not affect your main game saves
• When reporting issues, please include the build version number in the report. You can find the version number on the main menu, or by dropping down the developer console.
• You may be asked to attach a game save or log to a report. You can find your save games at C:Users[username]AppDataLocalLowRomeroGamesEmpireOfSinGameSaves
• Player logs can be found at C:Users[username]AppDataLocalLowRomeroGamesEmpireOfSin.... Look for the folder that matches the time the game crashed
• If a build update happens while you are playing the game you will need to restart Steam to get the update

Known Issues:​

• We're aware of an issue where you can receive notifications & loot regarding Big Jims Stash incorrectly. The team is working on a fix for this.
• We're aware of some stability issues around the tutorial. The team is working on a fix.
• We're aware of rare issue where buildings in the world can occasionally disappear. If you encounter this issue any additional Information you can provide would be very helpful.

Changelog​

The Highlights​

• Safehouses are now hidden
• Combat AI has been improved and provides more challenge
• An option to avoid nuisance combat demands has been added, a new system will be implemented in the next update (1.04)
• Fast travel has been limited
• You can no longer attack an Enemy Faction you’re not at War with

​

General Changes​

• AI ignores temporary alliances when deciding to break an alliance
• Loot crates are now rebalanced
• Adjusted racket income filter list to take the prosperity modifier into account
• Added separate notoriety gains for raze, ransack, and smash up
• Prevented Personality Traits from reapplying every time you save/load
• Removed time-free teleporting
• Fix disappearing gangsters
• UI polish
• Locale polish
• Prevented alcohol resource errors when ransacking that could lead to inventory corruption
• Fixed instances of disappearing actors when upgrading ambience
• Fixed severe issues when a game is loaded where "master hotelier" is in effect
• Fixed an issue where actors could be sent to the void if two buildings changed their racket type at the same time
• Added more building and colour variety in the neighbourhoods
• Player cannot scroll the claim list without using virtual cursor mode when using a controller
• Gangster Talents need to be unlocked
• Fix boss ability items inheriting incorrect modifiers through weapon stats
• Add a wait to the flee action so players can see the characters leave the area
• Character model improvements
• When editing a building name, if player adds a space or lowercase letters, the building name will not be displayed correctly
• Adding more building variety throughout the neighbourhoods
• Better telegraphing and delay for Hotels Disbanding
• Better notifications for players when hotels are disbanded
• Fixed a softlock when assigning Lieutenants
• Fixed issue where if a character has more than 9 Status Effects on them, the UI will start to overlap. If they receive 28 or more, the icons will start to go off screen
• Empire screen filter lists scroll resets on repopulating
• The missing synergy icon has been found and returned to its rightful slot
• The Crew screen and Black Market now have no whitespace issues when viewed in 4:3
• The issue when switching to Asian languages and switching back would cause text to disappear in the tutorial is now resolved
• We have updated the hiring costs for the starting gangsters
• An issue with Safehouse discovery resetting on load has now been laid to rest
• The awkward silences in sitdowns have now been filled with conversation. We Cleared the truce/end war sitdowns when war is removed
• Missing translations in the Settings window from the Title screen have been replaced
• Increased the difficulty of the difficulty levels
• Change Threaten Option in sitdown pop up
• Fixed alcohol resource being released twice
• Save upgrader to fix older saves not loading from alcohol issue
• Saltis issue with rackets being locked fixed
• DMJ issue for Thompson not on map in Blues fixed
• Capone softlock when talking to Guard fixed
• When skipping to Ronnie’s phone call in the tutorial, we didn't have a valid reference to the brewery
• Increased the tiers for racket guards for all major factions
• The issue with gangster talents not needed to be unlocked has been whacked
• Multiple tooltips were missing in the Empire Overview, Finances and Alcohol info screen. We found them
• The name of the neighborhood is now added to the surrender dialog options
• Various UI fixes
• Fixed an issue where sitdown and mission icons stayed fixed on screen if the player pressed 'f' to transition to another neighbourhood
• Made sure that the tutorial safehouse doesn't spawn exterior guards while the tutorial is active
• Addednew advertisements, see if you can spot them all
• Fixed Safehouse Discovered Softlock in Tutorial
• Friend In Need mission fix for not completing after killing lodge members
• Jaqcues Attacks mission fix for not completing if you upgrade all rackets at once
• Fixed crate positions
• Increased the sitdown timeout from 5 minutes to 15 minutes
• Unknown characters will no longer reveal the faction name if we start pre-combat near them
• Mark Target will now work in pre-combat and start combat immediately when activated
• Resolved an issue where the AI could initiate combat while a sitdown was beginning. This would result in a soft lock in some cases
• Added recruiting time to AI squads
• Removed war-free attacks, you want a fight, start a war
• Raul is placed so close to a building that his arm was in it
• Genna fix for Round The World mission not completing
• When the player refuses the police request for cash, their rating with the police is reduced depending on their notoriety. If they pay up, their rating with the police is increased
• Fixed a cursor issue when cancelling a load game request
• Nicknames should display how you got them in pop up
• Fixed issue where all tutorial attacks by player were asking for confirmation
• Fixed Issue with safehouse storages being nil
• Prevented Moles from being added to selection
• Non-tutorial AI Factions now start with a safehouse security level of 2 instead of 1
• Fixed bookshelf collisions in bars
• Created a Sal's Tips update for 1.03 to advise players in-game as to what the updates are
• Updated Large Casino interiors
• Different colors for the Explore and the Exterminate Agenda icon outline on the minimap and street view. This change also fixes colors of agenda icons not updating when you encounter a squad from an unknown faction
• Fixed Status bar icons overlap with combat status UI
• Police now resume patrolling correctly after TurningABlindEye is over in a location
• Made all loot in crates uncommon
• OBanion's mission POI not updating if racket becomes invalid is now fixed
• Duarte's mission racket showing 0 cost for buildings after takeover, CMA mission not continuing
• Injured Gangsters are now correctly disappearing after taking over a racket when they become injured
• Fix for Word on The Street mission not continuing because combat was starting during a conversation
• Various save game fixes
• Made prosperity only update on weekly events
• Fixed issue where character entered into a t-pose if they travel while paused
• Fixed issue where players could end up not being able to move long distances

Combat Fixes/Changes​

• Issues with the AI not using grenades if they have to step out from cover have been fixed.
• Dead combatants can no longer panic during combat
• Allowed the boss to gain notoriety if anyone in their faction performs an execution
• Ensure AI squads that are about to attack a building are not used by other tactics before they have attacked
• Reduce the OW Angle for Dart Gun from 180 to 130 degrees and reduced the OW Angle for LP08 Pistol from 180 to 150 degrees
• Suppressed Fire shot does not deal damage to targets
• Ensured combat can't start during conversations
• Fixed issue where player is able to equip regular rounds on dart gun
• Tweaked Last Rites as it can deal more damage than it is supposed to: All attacks with more than one shot would always deal crit damage after the first crit shot
• Fixed issue where certain conversations couldn't start combat
• Stop heal over time effects being applied when their item is equipped
• Fixed a softlock in combat when moving characters who had been revived from bleeding out as the result of an overwatch shot
• Fixed Ability & Melee descriptions being truncated during combat
• Fixed issue where Gun panel would stay up with no gun icon
• Fixed an issue where entering combat during the war tutorial softlocks the game
• Remove the drunk animation while in combat to fix characters teleporting across the map
• Ensured errors in AI tactics don't block AI behaviour
• Fixed softlock related to a primary faction being eliminated in a war
• Fixed softlock when a revenge reaction turn was triggered after shooting
• Fixed softlock when using batter up on a character that doesn't die
• Weapon Balance: Reduced the effectiveness of a number of weapons. Critical hit damage has been reduced across the board. Removed the instant kill modifier from the Funeral Arranger Shotgun and the Deceiver Rifle. Added Knockback and Bleed to the Deceiver
• Fixed for knife attack anim freezing
• Fixed save games with broken melee weapons after using a batter up reaction attack
• Fixed an issue where Knocking Out a character with an overwatch shot would softlock the game
• Fixed issue where character can be stuck in the knocked out pose after combat ends
• Last Rites ability has limited range, which was not implied by the game in any way
• Fixed issue with Remedy not appearing on action bar
• Fixed issue with Hair Trigger ability activation popup showing even when character is knocked down
• Fixed an issue where certain combat reactions were using stale position / vision data. Could cause an issue where a character would "step out" to an old position several meters away
• Time Bomb will disrupt overwatch when thrown
• Characters no longer get up after they have been executed if they were put in the BleedingOut state by a critical hit
• Fixed issue where Last Rites doesn't indicate that DMJ's Mauser has 10 shots leading people to believe it is bugged
• Characters no longer get stuck in the overwatch pose at the end of combat
• Characters rotate back to their overwatch direction after getting attacked
• Run Away option is displayed in surrender dialogue if gangster is under attack outside
• If a gangster or boss will be affected by the exterior combat, the dialogue offering surrender now shows their name
• The camera will no longer move after the player abandons exterior combat when the attackers are attacking the outside of a building
• AI attacking building exteriors will now attack between 8-15 metres from the building door instead of between 0 - 5 meters
• Fixed issue where corpses would block player moving to tiles
• Vicekings boss Donovan leaned on us for getting his name wrong in German
• The camera will no longer move after the player abandons exterior combat when the attackers are attacking the outside of a building
• If a gangster or boss will be affected by the exterior combat, the dialogue offering surrender now shows their name
• We have ensured the Run Away option is displayed in surrender dialogue if the character is under attack outside
• Added even more variety in the buildings
• Made sure characters cant get stuck in the overwatch pose at the end of combat
• Characters now rotate back to their overwatch direction after getting attacked
• Increased the duration before an AI will declare war without an antagonizing incident
• Adjusted weapon ranges and stats
• Smooth out the curves for weapon ranges to reduce a number of sharp drop offs.
• Lowered a number of critical damage multiplier values for numerous weapon types.
• Removed critical hit chance from a number of explosives weapons.
• Removed armor damage from rifles
• Fixed an issue where the AI would get close to the player
• Added new movement parameters that allow the AI to want to move towards the effective range of their weapon
• Improved the performance for moving towards enemies and grouping with allies
• Fixed an issue with all tiers of Saltis melee racket guard being equipped with Brass Knuckles. Now each tier of Salltis melee racket guard is equipped with appropriate tiers of melee weapon
• Wandering thugs and thugs near loot crates will no longer attack the player on sight. They will attack if the player opens a loot crate near them
• Guards of major and minor factions will now only attack the player faction characters on sight if they are at war
• Melee attacks now trigger the correct animation if the target bleeds out
• That combatant who started a battle while in sitting pose, will no longer stay in that pose for the whole fight
• Guards in rackets will no longer sit in chairs
• Resolved a UI Overlap in combat with large text settings
• Further updates to the combat AI to help them move when no targets are visible and stay put when they can do actions from their current position
• Made sure bleeding out targets are prioritised correctly in the chance to hit order
• Friendly fire no longer removes non-aggression types of pacts (ceasefires/defense agreements..etc)
• Fixed issue where Unleash Fury could fail to activate
• Reduce the movement debuff from exhaustion from -2 to -1
• Fixed an issue where clicking the "Exit Ambush" button did nothing in combat
• Character speed returns to normal if Drunk status wears off during combat
• Only play Gut Shot sfx when someone

Mission Fixes/Changes​

• Auto focusing missions that come from quest givers and boss missions
• Fixed failing Ryley mission when Alfred dies
• Fixed Helen being placed in Dyer mission when placement invalidated
• Removed repeated objectives failing missions
• Fixed alcohol production being stopped forever in CMA mission and Burned Bozze and Ruined Barley event
• Fixed unclickable option for DMJ's mission
• Added placement invalidated to RPC missions so they stop failing when a building is upgraded
• Moved Kicking the Habit mission to mid game to stop both maria missions spawning together
• CMA fixes - Stopping All Good Things on Alt time auto-completing, fix for Jaques Attack and They're on to Us
• Boss mission fixes - Stopping NPCs from spawning on band stand, buildings taken over by killing boss now count as conquering and progress mission, fix for DMJ mission Down Hearted Blues
• Fixed missions not completing in groups
• CMA fixes, Auto accepting mission rewards instead of relying on resolution pop up
• Persisting mission npcs that are going to be resurrected to stop them from disappearing, misc boss mission fixes
• CMA fixes, body bag removal fix, removing persistent POI over Maria's head, adding do not revive tag to mission npcs to stop them getting up after combat
• Moved any mission npcs standing on stages in bars off them
• Fixed an issue where interior guards could duplicate themselves after winning a defensive fight
• Union mission, family business mission and npc approaching player to talk fixed

Thug Variants​

• You should now see 13 different thugs
• The appearance is randomly selected

Racket Guard Changes​

Any old saves that were made before these changes were introduced will keep their previous racket guards until that racket is upgraded or sold and purchased again. Once upgraded or purchased the racket will start using the new guard configs.

• With each level of security upgrade the guards will now become much tougher
• A new tier of racket guard has been introduced at security upgrade levels 4 and 5
• These changes only attribute based. The number of guards has not changed and there has been no changes made to the guard inventories
• Fixed issue with racket guards not being replenished

Faction Changes​

• Allowing the boss to gain notoriety if anyone in their faction performs an execution
• Fixing Spiffing Brit minor faction exploit
• Faction AI no longer attacks buildings outside of war. Existing attacks outside of war in older saves are cancelled.
• The diplomacy option for retribution demands has been removed

Safehouse Changes​

Gameplay change to safehouses hiding has been pushed.

• Safehouses start out as hidden (white buildings you can't interact with)
• Discovery chance increases by 1% a week from meeting a faction
• Once a month a safehouse discovery chance checked and the safehouse is revealed if the check passes
• Diplomacy screen shows your current discovery chance
• Taking over that faction's rackets further increases the discovery chance and checks (dynamic percentage based on faction rackets remaining)
• Event fires on safehouse being discovered
• Guards don't show up outside the safehouse until the safehouse is discovered by the player
• Ensuring taking over safehouses correctly assigns lieutenants
• Fixed issue with gangsters flagged as “away” being able to be assigned to a safehouse

Public Beta of Patch 1.03 - get in on the action! | Paradox Interactive Forums (paradoxplaza.com)

I feel like Red Dead Online in general has highlighted some worrying trends in regards to Rockstar's design philosophy and I am concerned about the online experience in their future titles such as GTA 6.
 
I don't expect this post to have any massive impact on the future of RDO, but I wanted to share my expectations and attitudes as a consumer in hope that it might help Rockstar gain a better understanding of their audience. After all I have money that I am willing to spend and they seem to be after, there just hasn't been a reasonable incentive to do so.
 
For a long time GTA:O was my main source of entertainment and I used to regard Rockstar Games as the best video game publisher in terms of quality and value of the experience their games provided.
 
When RDR2 released two years ago, I was excited by the massive step-up in terms of complexity and immersion from GTA:O. I was also quite burnt out with GTA so I was prepared to turn RDO into my main source of entertainment.
 
I didn't own a console so instead I decided to save and build a high end PC in time for the game's PC release. I was prepared to commit 100% to this game.
 
October 2019 came, my PC was ready and I pre-ordered the Ultimate Edition.
I got the game, played Story mode through all of Arthur's chapters, but stopped when I reached the Epilogue - I was excited to get into Online and see how it felt. And then it all fell apart.
 
Meh, the game felt a bit GTAish at the start, but I didn't mind it so much. I think I experienced some bugs or technical issues that made me take a break from the game and wait for a fix.
 
I was away for the holidays and then travelling for work so I get back to the game in late January. I finish John's story too and then head back into online. At this point I'm greeted with a message that Outlaw Pass season 2 is in progress.
"Great, so I've already missed one?" I tell myself. I was not aware at that point in time that Steam PC players didn't even have access to Outlaw Pass season 1. But this was already starting to become a deal breaker for me and I'll elaborate on it further:
 
What is the appeal of Rockstar's games?
 
Let's take a look at GTA:Online, Rockstar's most financially successful title, success which they are probably trying to replicate with Red Dead Online.
I don't know what goes through the minds of other players, so I'll share my personal experience.
Before I stumbled upon GTA:Online in 2017 I had been mainly playing World of Warcraft for 3 or 4 years, but I was at a point in life where I just started my first full-time job and no longer had the time to pour into an MMO. I remember I used to describe it as "I come home from my job and have to log onto my other job" on raid night. I was also fed up with 90% of the game's content becoming irrelevant whenever a new update came along. it was just the same gameplay loop in a different packaging.
 
So what was so special about GTA: Online?
 
The biggest aspect for me was the Sandbox experience. It's an open world environment, you can fuck around freely, there is no linear gameplay imposed upon you or other restrictions that limit gameplay for the purpose of "balance".
You are also free to experience the game at your own pace. There is no FOMO (fear of missing out) mechanic dictating that you play now or risk being locked out of content permanently.
 
Another big element of GTA Online that appeals to me is Customization options for the purpose of immersion and roleplay. The game contains so many references to Hollywood tropes and it allows you to act almost any persona that crosses your mind: Pablo Escobar, killer clown, every Charlize Theron role I can think of, the list is endless...
 
One thing that GTA Online did well and I used to praise them over other games for it was the inclusion of Universal Reward/Currency. Any activity you carry out in the game rewards the same currency, it's always meaningful progress towards your next goal. You had the ability to purchase it via Shark Cards, but the microtransaction served as an alternative in order to save time, not as a means of unlocking content behind an exclusive paywall.
With the Arena Wars and the Casino DLC it looks like Rockstar has been experimenting with new ways to milk both "player engagement" in the form of time spent grinding secondary currency and revenue in the form of microtransactions. They can go claim to their shareholders "our playerbase is more active than ever and also spending money on the game". It just feels very limiting and at least the Arena Wars currency comes across as an artificial incentive for people to engage in gameplay that R* is not confident about it being popular on its own.
 
So I've established what were the most appealing elements of GTA:O as a consumer: 1.Freedom of Sandbox environment 2.Immersion and Roleplay in the form of customization options 3.Unique Currency serving as the means of progression
 
Now let's take look at Red Dead Online. You've got a Rockstar title that is expected to play out as a sandbox, but displays the characteristics of a live service game. Here's a definition of a live service game, see if it rings a bell
 
In my opinion, time-limited exclusive content should have no place in a sandbox game. I like the Outlaw Pass as an idea, it gives people something to work toward. I am just not a fan of the thought that development time goes into creating the rewards, they're added to the game, take space on my drive, but they are just locked forever with no means of obtaining them.
It just diminishes my perceived value of your product. "Oh great I didn't play from the start? Time for an incomplete experience." Not to mention the fact that PC players are getting an incomplete product by default because Outlaw Pass 1 was never available on their platform.
Some would argue that it's rewarding players who have been playing from the beginning. At what cost? It's also penalizing new players. Players that would've easily spent money on the pass, they just picked the game up too late, so now they are locked out of features forever.
  As someone who has missed almost 3 Passes worth of content, this is my biggest gripe about the game and what's holding me back from committing to the game to the point where I'd be willing to drop real life money on it.
  And I'm not arguing about getting the rewards for free. I am arguing for making that content available through other less efficient means. I didn't play the game when I was supposed to play it and now there's less content available for me. Oh sure, that'll definitely bring me back to the game and not make me abandon it on the spot. You can still reward players who buy the pass by unlocking the rewards for them, but why lock content forever and devalue the experience for any future player that buys your game? You could add them on a rare rotating stock for a ridiculously high gold bar price. There's a gold sink for you right there, now you're giving people a reason to spend money on your game. Or I don't even know, sell the passes again at some later time. You probably have the technology to allow players to purchase multiple passes and keep one active at a time. Just make old passes no longer reward gold or whatever.
 
Rockstar, you're concerned with reducing people's means of obtaining gold while also falling behind on delivering meaningful content. That's cause you're digging your own hole with your shortsighted approach on FOMO, working on adding content to the game only to then lock it away. But most importantly, you're establishing your stance: "Monetization by all means, screw player experience, screw a quality integral product, pay us right now or risk the game becoming more incomplete."
 
Some would argue that the Outlaw Pass is just cosmetics. I would totally get that point if this were a MOBA or a FPS or any other genre where gameplay is the predominant feature. But have a look at what's the most popular GTA content on Twitch: roleplay. Immersion and Roleplay have always been defining features of Rockstar games. Time-limited exclusive content just detracts from the value proposition of a sandbox game. If not cosmetic options, what else is there to work towards in RDO? It's not supposed to be a competitive game. K/D has no meaning, high scores have no meaning, It's a Club Penguin with guns and horses. Also the whole point falls apart because with Outlaw Pass 4 and 5 there are actual gameplay upgrades that are featured as time-limited exclusives,
 
The perceived loss of value from missing one outlaw pass was what made me drop the game again back in January. I picked it up again a month ago and I was actually enjoying it to the point where I was prepared to buy gold for the Outlaw Pass. Inaccessible content was a minor issue that I was willing to overlook since it didn't look like I missed out on any gameplay impacting features from previous passes. But oh boy, Rockstar, you didn't even try to be subtle in the latest update. You just reinforced the statement that you're after my money at any cost. I get that daily challenges had to be addressed, but at least the nerf didn't lock away access to content. But now you're taking gameplay impacting upgrades and holding them hostage behind a time-limited paywall. To me that's a sign that you're willing to compromise the quality of gameplay for a Q4 financial boost. It's very hard to justify spending money on this game at this point when there is no sign of good will from its developer.
 
GTA Online didn't need all these extreme incentives of monetization and look how well it performed. RDO feels like monetization came first and the game was build around it. Every feature feels like it was designed to psychologically entice me into spending and that's its biggest flaw. Everywhere I look I see a price, but I don't see value.

I work at a local casino in a smaller city of about 30,000 but we are growing rapidly. My casino is looking at getting a reward program but I can’t seem to find any way to do it. Is there anyone with ideas of how to start one? I can’t seem to find an app so if there is an easier way to log people maybe using Microsoft Excel or something then any help would be appreciated

[Each section has a header so you can just skip to what you’re interested in]
INTRO
Rogue Company was released with high hopes and a bright future. Some, myself included, saw this release as the next competitive shooter to rival other free to play games. Perhaps we expected too much from the studio that brought us “Smite” and “Tribes: Ascend”. Where we saw well preparedness and thought out design from those games, we found a lack of infrastructure and confidence. Personally, I don’t think they were prepared for an TPS game like Rogue Company. We understand the difference between these games because studies have shown us that shooters aren’t all about strategy: High-end set-ups and reaction time. Games like Smite require strategy and “big brain”. To clarify, I’m not saying that an TPS doesn’t require thought. What I am saying is that shooters can reward raw skill rather than strategy. That’s why TPS games tend to see an influx of cheaters. When it comes to combating these people, it takes a lot from the company. Where their interest lay depends on the revenue being generated. Free to play games make a fraction of their money from “Founder Packs” and the majority from cosmetics. Rogue Company doesn’t have the varied catalog like most free to play shooters; Apex Legends, Fortnite, and Warzone. Since the money being generated from this game isn’t quite as abundant as other titles they’ve dedicated resources too, there’s a disparity between development and balancing. In the following, I will discuss how these problems have affected me personally then give a resolution that works best for Hi-Rez. Going forward, I’m not saying I could produce a better game or that I’m talented but these are my thoughts for a game I genuinely care about.
CHEATING THE CHEATERS
While browsing Reddit, I noticed a lot of people complaining about cheaters: Players using aim-bots*, ESP**, and other software that breaks the terms of service agreement. Usually I would play with the mindset of “get-gud” but lately I myself have found this to be cumbersome. The first time I actually gave up was during a match against someone using ESP with aim-bot on console. The initial reason I turned off cross-play was to prevent cheaters but it turns out that there’s an abundance across all platforms. What makes this particularly frustrating is a lack of evidence. Certainly, most match-ups where I'm completely are genuine. While there are those few that leave me wondering. Without verifiable proof, I can’t rightfully report someone. That leaves the cheater’s teammates to decide if they’d like to report them or take the win. This puts the burden of proof on you. Looking at it from the point of view of Hi-Rez it really comes down to a simple line of thought “the losing team reported this player but their teammates didn’t so we can't be sure.” That makes sense to me and I can even entertain a certain level of justifiable ignorance. Well then, how do you get proof to report someone? The answer has been around since the early days of Call of Duty multiplayer: Kill Cam. Allowing someone to see the process leading up to the kill gives valuable insight. Why hasn’t Hi-Rez released this already? Lack of responses from their community? No. Genuine negligence? Possibly. The more likely culprit? These cheaters provide a solid chunk of income.
MONETIZATION AND LACK OF CUSTOMIZATION
Maybe you’ve noticed the week long updates to their in-game store. Some people, myself included, just wait for that perfect cosmetic to complement our main. That could take weeks, maybe even months, with minor releases that you either purchase or pass. There’s nothing wrong with that but free to play games need whales***. The entirety of a game's income depends on how much someone is willing to spend. Normally popular titles have streamers who purchase cosmetics to add flair but Rogue Company doesn’t rank among the top twenty streams in any given day. How does a studio justify dedicating resources to cosmetics when very few buy out the store? They can’t. Most players find their niche Rogue(s) and don’t bother with unrelated cosmetics. Games like Spellbreak and Warzone don’t need a large catalog because it doesn’t matter what skin you have: you can play with it in every game because they aren’t dedicated to a single character you may or may not be able to use. Every time I log in, I wonder why Hi-Rez didn’t prepare for this. Apex Legends had the same concept of specialized characters and knew that releasing a few skins wouldn’t generate the revenue needed to sustain development. Respawn started out with dozens of interchangeable skins. Granted, these were mostly color swaps with four that actually changed their outfits entirely. Hi-Rez doesn’t need to put too much effort into creating this many variants but they can stop the bleeding by mass releasing dozens of colored variants for each rogue. Cosmetics we can purchase outside of the In-Game store. I wouldn’t even mind having to wait if they openly outlined a plan but it’s clear they’re interests are elsewhere. This is probably why development seems slow and uninventive.
PLAYABLE CONTENT - A LACK THEREOF
Other games have a little more freedom when it comes to new features like weapons, items, perks, and game modes. The reason Rogue Company doesn’t is because equipment usage depends on the Rogue rather than an open faced store. That’s why the Arms Race was well received. You were able to equip almost any weapon to any rogue: allowing the player to snap-change their load-out for any given scenario. Hi-Rez decided from the start to lock in the possible load-outs for players while still allowing you to pick up an enemy’s weapon. That makes balancing very easy because you’re tweaking the weapon stats based on who’s using them. This means you’ll only get to enjoy the perfect load-out once in a while. The restricted load-out benefits the company because they spend less time adding content for Rogues to focus on other game-modes, maps, and new rogues; Except they aren’t. There have been a few new releases but the content is rather slow coming because attention is split between all facets. Hi-Rez seems to have almost no plan or one that builds a little around everything at one time. Playable content is important and I understand why they’re slow but steady. They need to create a plan focused around the problems affecting gameplay and monetization before they can really ramp up production. No split-focus, no detours, just one thing at a time.
IN CONCLUSION
Rogue Company isn’t perfect but I don’t think I’ve ever played a game that was. We’ve seen lots of games released with their fair share of issues. The most notable being No Man’s Sky: a title which started out as a horrible mess but evolved into something astounding. Rogue Company can become a top competitor if given the chance. They need to fix their problems one at a time instead of blanketing every little thing. Work on the problems with cheaters first. Follow that up with a mass release of cosmetics to satisfy the players. Finally, dedicate your staff to new features and content. These are just my opinions and I believe the company doesn’t need my suggestions. Who knows, maybe the slow steady progression will eventually make this game something to be proud of. Only time will tell.
Note to the reader
-Thank you for taking a look at my essay. This is the first time I’ve written one for a game. Hopefully I’ll write a more positive one in the future. I’d love to hear your feedback; What do you think needs to be fixed first; What are your opinions on some of the stuff I talked about; What do you think I should write about next?
*Aim-Bot: a program that focuses the player’s aim. Sometimes it doesn’t require manual input while most require you to at least pull the trigger. These bots also remove the recoil.
**ESP; stands for Extra Sensory Perception. This program allows the user to see where the enemy is. This means they can see you behind walls and, sometimes, see your health.
***Whales; people who spend exorbitant amounts of money. Usually used in casinos as a term for wealthy gamblers. Not to be confused with the derogatory term for an overweight individual.

Seriously, Las Vegas is one of the closest big cities to the Hoover Dam. In fact, the Hoover Dam basically built Las Vegas. So I was thinking "what if a family wants to go see the Hoover Dam or any of the museums in Las Vegas, but don't want to go to a hotel with a casino?" or "What if someone knows they have a severe gambling addiction and knows that they would lose of their money if they went to a hotel with a casino?" Essentially, I was thinking, "What if someone wants to go to Las Vegas, but not to gamble?" Seriously, Las Vegas has Zak Bagans' Haunted Museum and one of the Madame Tussauds Wax Museums. So many museums are all around Las Vegas, some of which are great for families. And of course that proximity to the Hoover Dam. So I thought, "why not replace the Casino with an Arcade?" So maybe theme the entire hotel around video games? Have consoles and games be rentable for periods of time, including retro consoles like the NES, the Nintendo 64, the Sega Genesis, etc. Then, have the game companies create hotel-exclusive stuff like skins and stuff like that, which, if you log in to the console with your home account, gives you that hotel-exclusive stuff as kind of a virtual souvenir. It would work as video games have had location exclusive stuff for a long time (think about those times when video games had people go to stores in order to receive rewards). The consoles with the accounts would be specially designed that after the person is done, the accounts will be logged out and removed from the console. There will also be computers in each room to allow for people to use their Steam/other accounts and/or to plan out their day. Overall, it will be mostly for families, for those who want to go see the museums of Las Vegas without gambling, and/or for those who want to see the Hoover Dam.
So, what do you think? Is my idea feasible?

Overview

• Name of Run: the born loser
• Metaplot: krimewave
• Run Link: [krimewave] The Born Loser <2021-01-31> : NeonAnarchy (reddit.com)
• Date: 2021-01-31
• Time: 2200
• Duration: 2.5 Hours
• Threat: Semi-prime
• Scheduling: Impromptu
• GM: u/coy-coyote (c0z1)
• Runners: u/doubleharts (Killdozer), u/aztechnologypr (Aegean), u/tkul (ZDT), u/anubonk (Bubblegum), u/n4shwise (Aurora)
• Johnson: Pit Boss, Planet Horizon
• Relevant NPCs: Herbert Gerber, Market Analytics & metadata collation, NEOnet (VIP)
• Location: Planet Horizon Casino
• Opposition: Jarl, F10; Herbert (Decker)
• Casualties: 0
• Collateral: 0
• Synopsis: Runners are hired by the casino management of the Planet Horizon to quietly & politely remove Mr. Gerber from the casino floor and prevent his return to gaming by shifting his obligations elsewhere.
• Run Rewards: 60,000 nuyen -or- 90,000 nuyen gear credit: Misc. (Survival, Tools, Tools of the Trade, Lifestyle payments [advance]), Pharmaceuticals & Medical, [15 RVP] 5 Karma [5 RVP], 2 knowledge karma [F]
• Choice of Quality(s) up to 10 RVP value, at chargen cost, Free [10 RVP]: Alibi [4], Analytical Mind [5], Astral Chameleon [10], Biocompatability (Bio or Cyberware) [5], Barrens Rat [5], Battle Hardened [2], Blandness [8], Brilliant Heuristics [5], Catlike [7], Common Sense [3], Cynic [6], Daredevil [6], Drug Tolerant [6], Focused Concentration [4 per, max 5], Guts [10], Honest Face [5], Instinctive Hack [2], Juryrigger [10], natural Athlete [7], ninja vanish [5], Perceptive [1 or 2 ranks, 5], Quick Config [5], Shoot First - Don't Ask [2], Magic Resistance [6], Social Chameleon [7], Profiler [3], Observant [5], Outdoorsman [3], Perfect Time [5], Toughness [9], Spirit Whisperer [8], Tough as Nails [5, S or P], Astral Chameleon [10], Resistance to Pathogens, Toxins [4, 4, or 8], Radiation Sponge [5], Rad-Tolerant [3], Natural Immunity (Natural or Synthetic) [4 or 10], Natural Hardening [10], Master Debator [10], Empathic Listener [10], Vehicle Empathy [7], Reverberant [5], Practice-Practice-Practice [2], Will to Live [3], Golden Screwdriver [8], Go Big or Go Home [6], Fade to Black [7], Stunt Driver [4], Speed Demon [3], Steely Eyed Wheelman [2], Innocuous [5], Groupthink [5], Special Modifications [5], Prototype Materials [5], Redliner [10],Black Market Pipeline [10], Poisoner [5], One With The Matrix [10], Lightning Reflexes [20], Spike Resistance [10], Brand Loyalty (Manufacturer or Product) [3], Double Jointed [6], Sharpshooter [4]

Background
Metadata manipulation is Vegas is dangerous; especially when metagaming relies on accurate metadata for trending bet predictions and odds to be properly calculated.
Meet
Runners meet the Johnson at the Casino Grande online Mahjong Table #12.
Run
Runners make their way to Vegas courtesy of ZDT's cessna, landing in searchlight and getting their comped room at the Planet Horizon as well as a limo ride from the airport. VIP services checks them in, and ZDT and Aurora proceed to search the fuck out of everything they can, getting a little background on the Johnson while ZDT foments a plan.
Bubblegum and Aegean take turns on the casino floor attempting to surveil the Johnson, with Bubblegum sitting a few hands of poker to realize that he's dealing, yet again, with another person Dream Pacted by the Fae - a Jarl possessing the man spends all night up gambling while he toils his days away in his hotel room remoting in to work. ZDT decides to frame him for corporate collusion with a rival entity while the team agrees to the plan.
ZDT hacks the NEONet foundation, grabbing some project data linked to Gerber, escaping the foundation after a daring series of hacks and receiving some secondary host code from Aurora, who vacates the host after getting chased for encryption-cracking while helping ZDT get into the foundation.
Back in the hotel room, they decide to kick it in Vegas for a couple days, doing the touristy stuff like feeding the lions during the virtual Siegfried and Roy show with a Krime T-Shirt Cannon and generally fucking around till their edge comes back.
Two days later, ZDT and Aurora get on the hacks, putting all the copied compromised data into gerber's comms, masquerading them to forward the files to Horizon and copying the transcript log of the transfer, and then Aurora anonymously calls NEONet for the tip-off. Not even an hour later, Herbert is checking out of his year-and-a-half long room at the PH, forced to return to chilly boston as his bosses start screaming over his corporate defection. Nasty guest evicted!
Aftermath
A CFD-ridden, dream-pacted executive may be an interesting threat during the Boston Lockdown...
Expenses
Johnson covered room & board as part of negotiations.

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Warning: Rant below. I felt the need to vent after seeing another pro-credit card hot take.
If you have been around this subreddit for any amount of time you will often come across people explaining how they are very financially savvy and recommend getting a credit card for a number of seemingly great reasons. I would argue that this is a really irresponsible, because it is just not true.
Credit cards are nowhere near as great as they are touted to be, in any category. And this misrepresentation of them causes real world damage to financially vulnerable people and families everyday.
​

"Credit cards help build your credit score!"

This is not a valid reason to get a credit card. In New Zealand the only credit score that matters is a bad one. There is no need to have had previous loans to secure lending, especially when getting a home loan. If you show good financial habits with your account logs, and you have the necessary income and deposit you will get approved. In fact, just having a credit card can greatly reduce the amount they will lend you, even if you have a zero balance, because you have an open line of credit.
​

I am protected from fraud, and insured when I go overseas!

Any debit card has the exact same fraud protection, and when you do go overseas, travel insurance is easy to purchase and often a one click purchase when buying a plane ticket. It is not expensive at all.
​

The points! I get so many points! If I didn't have my card I would never have been bought XYZ

No matter how hard the banks try to convince you, your reward points are nowhere near equal to cash. Reward points can expire. Reward points are not legal currency. Reward points can only be spent at certain merchants, which are high margin and more expensive than other merchants which are not entered into a reward affiliation. Reward points cannot be used to pay many bills such as your rent or mortgage.
​

But if I spend X amount I will break even and get free points!

Reward points are most certainly NOT FREE.
In order to maintain a points yielding credit card you must pay fees. The more points you earn per dollar you spend, the higher the fee. This means that all things being equal, you will ALWAYS be down in cash equal to at least the credit card fee if nothing else. Even if you 'break even' and spent 100 bucks on the fee, and made 100 dollars in points, you are zero REAL dollars better off, you have exchanged $100 for 100 points of limited utility.
You cannot invest points in stocks, or put it in your Kiwisaver. You can't use them to help with your house deposit. You can't even spend it wherever you want.
You should really think of points like, someone getting you a gift card for Christmas. Everybody knows that cash is superior than an equivalent value gift card, but the damn gift card companies have made grandma think that cash is not as loving as a gift card.
​
The other thing to remember is you are not only paying for the card annually, you pay per transaction.

But not everywhere charges a surcharge! I only use my card when there is no extra surcharge!

You might not always be aware of it, but you actually still pay to use the card. Have a look at Noel Leeming vs PB tech. Noel Leeming charges no extra to use a credit card, so I guess it doesn't cost you any money to get your points? Wrong. Noel Leeming pays the credit card service charge, but they pass it to you in the price of the product because they have beefier margins than the cheaper places to buy identical products. If you are not familiar with pricespy.co.nz, get familiar real quick before you buy another item at Noels, JB or Harvey Norman.
PB Tech charges a service charge for credit cards payments directly, and you will notice if you take two items at their listed price PB will be lower than Noel Leeming, 9 times out of 10. Right now Google Nest mini for example, $85.43 at PB and 89.99 at Noel Leeming. That is a 5% difference in price, and that's how your credit card surcharge is hidden.
I know there are die hard credit card users out there. You truly believe you have cracked it. That the banker goes home every night and complains to her husband about how badly you owned them today. "If they could just miss one payment!" she pleads "then we might make some damn money out of them!".
The system is not setup that way, the bank will always profit in the end, they do their best to hide that from you so you think you are winning. They are smarter than you, they are like casinos in that regard. You can't beat statistics.
Conclusion
In any case, all I would ask is please stop being an unpaid credit card advocate. It is no skin off your nose. You don't get a commission, or a kick back. It doesn't get you a better price or into heaven the more people you convert. And you most certainly aren't helping others with pro credit card advice.
To "win" with a credit card takes a lot of things going right, and realistically a good amount of cognitive work.
For every person that "does well" with a credit card, there are many people that are completely ruined financially due to their monthly credit card bill. Some of those people would have gotten their first credit card because they have heard anecdotes from people about the free points, the great rewards. They remembered hearing about the awesome credit building power that a credit card unlocks. Even if you think that is true for yourself, I think we can all agree that people who aren't very financially aware will more than likely get no benefit from a card, and in some cases be much worse off because of it.
TLDR: Please don't contribute to someone else's decision to get a credit card. Please enjoy your 'very valuable' points in private and don't recommended highly dangerous financial products to people when you don't know anything about their financial circumstance or ability.

December 11, 2020 Update

It's time for holiday festivities! In addition, there are big changes to Elite and Boss monsters in this update. There are also revisions to the Ice Magic and Deer skills. And, of course, various other things as well. Read on for more info.

Ri-Shin Celebration

The holidays are upon us! While Alharth doesn't celebrate Christmas, it does celebrate Ri-Shin Day, and New Years' Day. Townsfolk who are your Friends will offer you gifts when you speak with them. (Make sure to have your favorite combat skills active in case they give you a piece of randomly-generated gear!)
There's also a Ri-Shin festival waiting to happen in each city and township in the land, but they will need your help getting their trees assembled. Look for townsfolk in festive red Ri-Shin hats to get started.
This year, there's also a new way for the community to work together. This is an experiment -- we've never tried anything like this before. You'll receive an introductory quest for this part of the event after you've assembled a few Ri-Shin trees. (If you're a Druid, you'll be briefed immediately upon login.)

High-Level Elite/Boss Changes

As mentioned in the last patch's notes, we're working on making high-level combat take longer. This will eventually include both solo and group combat, but we're focusing on group combat right now. Some of the big-picture details are in flux a bit as we experiment and see what's going to work (e.g. "how many Elites is a tank supposed to be able to handle at once?" answer: "we're not sure yet").
We've been improving the "tanky skills" in preparation for these longer fights, but it's been hard to get good tanking data because most high-level Elite monsters simply haven't needed a tank: a group of players could blast them to death in seconds. So it's time to make Elites live longer and see what happens!
In this update, Elite/Boss monsters have a lot more health and armor, and Bosses deal less damage. We'll be watching your feedback (and our combat data logs) to try to figure out where to go from here. We may need to temporarily revert these changes, reduce them, increase them, or add more systems into the mix to address specific problems.
Bosses (but not Elites) also deal less base damage than before. The actual amount varies by boss-tier and the bosses' personal stats, so it's hard to generalize, but at level 80 an "average boss" deals about 25% less base damage.
Both Elites and Bosses deal less damage with their Rage attacks, also. The median reduction in rage-bonus-damage is about a 40%, but again it's hard to generalize too much.
Here's some more details about the implementation.

• Prior to level 35, elites/bosses have about the same overall health+armor, but some of their health has been switched to armor as a side-effect of the formulaic changes. This will make them a bit harder, so be careful!
• Starting at about level 35, elites/bosses gain more health and armor than before. This increases fairly gradually until level 50, then it starts going up more quickly. By level 80, the total health+armor of most elites and bosses has almost doubled! (And a lot of that increase is in armor, which means the monster has more mitigation for longer.)

Elite/Boss Loot Changes

We've also added some additional rewards for killing Elites/Bosses. When you loot an Elite, you'll now automatically "find some Councils" on the corpse. The amount is based on the monster's level, with some random variance. Bosses also drop extra money in the form of Council Coinpurses. (And bosses with curses drop more money sacks.) Finally, the most deadly tiers of bosses have a higher chance to drop high-rarity gear.
(These quick generalized changes were made because we didn't want to revise every monster's custom loot table just yet. But hey, maybe it's fun enough to remain permanent. Let us know what you think after you've had some time to try it out.)

Ice Magic Changes

Ice Magic is supposed to be a versatile wizarding toolkit: it can provide exceptional crowd control, potent survival tools, and decent damage, depending on which abilities you use. Its crowd-control abilities were already top-tier, so we've focused on other aspects of the skill in this update. There's a few nerfs and a lot of buffs.
Fire Magic Over-synergy
The biggest nerf to Ice Magic is actually a change to a Fire Magic treasure mod:

• (Chest, Hands) "Calefaction causes target to take +45% damage from Cold for 12 seconds" => now +16% damage

We realized this mod was overpowered shortly after it was introduced, but it was a "let's wait and see if this is actually a serious problem" scenario. A lot of accidentally-overpowered treasure turns out to be fine, and sometimes an accident like that can really make everything "click" and help define a skill. But not this time. It was hamstringing our ability to make Ice Magic more powerful on its own, so it had to be reduced to a more reasonable level. (And it's still probably the most powerful cross-skill synergy mod in the game.)
Cryogenic Freeze
Cryogenic Freeze needs to take its rightful place in the Ice Magic survival toolbox. It has TREMENDOUS mitigation, and it's intended to be something of a "freebie" for Ice Mages: it's useful without needing to invest lots of treasure mods into it. The only cost is that you have to make room for it on your ability bar. (And treasure makes it more versatile and useful.) Of course, Cryogenic Freeze has the extreme down-side that you are completely frozen and cannot move. But now instead of a forced 10-second lockdown, you can control the duration precisely.

• Cryogenic Freeze now lasts 20 seconds or until dispelled by using the ability again. The reuse timer is 20 seconds, which begins as soon as Cryogenic Freeze ends.
• Power cost increased; all treasure effects recalculated in potency

Ice Armor, Ice Veins, and Shardblast
Ice Armor has been buffed up a bit. We've also worked to make Ice Veins and Shardblast more useful. You can now use either one to reset Ice Armor's timer, allowing you to immediately put your armor back on. Which, in turn, allows you to take advantage of Ice Armor's healing mods again!
This "Ice Armor loop" technique can be very powerful but requires a lot of treasure mods to reach full potential. It's also possible to use Ice Armor in a more passive role, and there are mods to support that style also (such as the ones that boost Cold damage).

• Ice Armor: highest tier of ability has slightly higher mitigation (+27 vs crushing, slashing, piercing, and ice), and all tiers now grant extra mitigation from Elites (+54 additional at highest tier)
• Ice Veins: power cost and base damage increased. All treasure potency recalculated
• "Ice Armor restores 80 Power over 30 seconds" => "Ice Armor costs -19 Power and restores 51 Power after a 6-second delay"
• "Ice Armor restores 170 Armor over 30 seconds" => "Ice Armor mitigates +16 Physical and Cold damage, and mitigates +32 more against Elite attacks"
• "Ice Armor boosts Cold attack damage +34" => +50
• "You regain 44 Health when using Ice Nova or Shardblast" => "Ice Nova and Shardblast deal +61 damage and cost -12 Power"
• New treasure (off-hand): "Ice Veins heals +16 Health and resets the timer on Ice Armor (so it can be used again immediately)"
• "Ice Veins heals 120 Health over 10 seconds" => 180 health over 10 seconds
• Ice Veins is now marked as a Minor Heal ability (making it eligible for equipment that boosts Minor Heals).
• New treasure (head): "Ice Armor instantly restores 80 health"
• "Shardblast resets the timer on Ice Armor (so it can be used again immediately)" => "Shardblast deals +X% damage and resets the timer on Ice Armor (so it can be used again immediately)" *

Cold Sphere Changes
Cold Sphere's old Rage attack (at high level) was a 10-second root. This was too much of a good thing and it's now a 5-second root at all levels.
We've tried to make Cold Sphere useful in two different scenarios: for Ice Mages who are using a different skill as their primary damage source, they can invest in Cold Sphere mods to get a bit of extra damage on the side (plus its innate root is always handy).
For players who ARE using Ice Magic as their primary damage-dealer, Cold Sphere's damage-boosting mods are often not worth using, but there's a new mod that gives it a Cold-vulnerability debuff. This makes Cold Sphere an interesting (but not mandatory) option for any Ice Mage.

• Cold Sphere: increased base damage-boost of all pets level 50+. The "root" effect from their rage attack is reduced from 10sec (!) to 5sec
• "Your Cold Sphere's attacks deal +34 damage and taunt -65%" => "Your Cold Sphere's attacks deal +50% damage and taunt -25%"
• "Your Cold Sphere gains 156 Armor" => "Your Cold Sphere gains 90 Health"
• New treasure (chest): "Your Cold Sphere's attacks deal +24 damage and cause the targets to suffer +12% damage from future Cold attacks (non-stacking)"
• New treasure (head, hands): "Your Cold Sphere's attacks deals +170 damage, but their Max Health is -80"

Other Ice Magic Changes
Added a bit more damage overall. Nerfed one of Frostbite's mods, but don't be misled: it's still an extraordinarily good debuff. (And it will only become more powerful as combat duration increases! In fact, we may need to tone it down some more later.)

• Ice Nova: power cost and base damage increased. All treasure potency recalculated
• Frostbite ability: ability base damage increased slightly
• "Blizzard deals 328 armor damage and generates -120 Rage" => "Blizzard Damage +255"
• "Frostbite deals +154 damage and raises the target's Max Rage by 79%, preventing them from using their Rage attacks as often" => "Frostbite deals +176 damage and raises the target's Max Rage by 33%, preventing them from using their Rage attacks as often"
• "Freeze Solid resets the timer on Ice Spear (so it can be used again immediately)" => "Ice Nova deals +110 damage and reuse timer is -2 seconds" *
• "Freeze Solid restores 161 armor to you after a 15 second delay" => "Freeze Solid restores 112 armor to you"

One-Tier Mods Changed\*
You may notice a couple of asterisks above. Those are treasure mods that previously only had one "tier" of effect. The revised versions add more tiers to each mod, allowing the mods to become slightly more powerful at high level. This resulted in a slight quirk: pre-existing items with these mods are still stored as having the first tier of the mod. This means even high-level items will have the lowest-tier version of these mods.
This isn't really a huge deal in terms of potency, but if you want to fix it, you can Transmute the mod off the item and then Transmute it back on -- it will be the appropriate tier when it's re-added. (And this month, Transmutation is cheap for the Ice Magic and Deer skills.)

Deer Changes

The earliest animal forms were all experimental designs, and Deer was originally the prototypical "off-tank" skill. Then we decided that off-tanks weren't useful in a game without raids, so Deer was revised in a few other directions. But the most recent revision made Deer fairly tanky again, so let's build on that. Here's a fresh idea: what if Deer was like an "off-tank"?
In old-school MMO terminology, an off-tank can act as a tank for an elite enemy (or multiple solo enemies), but may have trouble tanking some bosses -- although dedicated healers can help there. What makes them unique, though, is an ability to take over aggro for anyone... including a tank! (Hence the name "off-tank", because they can pull monsters off the tank.)
We'll try to give Deer that ability and see what it's like. There's new treasure that gives you a new sidebar ability "Feign Injury", which "temp taunts" a target. Temp taunting works like regular taunting, except it decays at a rate of 20% per second. So a temp taunt of +10,000 would be 10,000 Taunt at first, then a second later would be recalculated as 8,000, then a second later as 6,400, etc. So this ability should help Deer get aggro from anyone, anywhere... at least for a few seconds.
An off-tank should also have solid taunting and survivability, and deal decent damage. So that's what we'll try to do here. In addition, the Deer skill has always had incredible mobility (which is what makes them an interesting off-tank), and we want to keep that too.
Rethinking Deer Pet
Deer players can summon an ally deer to aid them. Previously these deer had an innate 300% taunt multiplier and were intended to be sort-of off-tanks themselves, sharing tanking duties with the player deer. We recently gave these summoned deer the benefits of our experimental genetics system, which could randomly give these pets incredible health and armor. Better for tanking! But yet... at high level, a well-equipped player deer can easily out-taunt and out-tank a pet deer. This just feels like an unwieldy design.
We've dropped the idea that these pets are tanks, and focused them on damage. They no longer have an innate taunt bonus or souped-up genetics. However, they have higher base damage, and the pet's taunting-related treasure effects have been changed into a damage boost.
There are also new treasure mods that summon additional deer for a few seconds at a time. This makes for a fun solo build, although it's somewhat mod-intensive and also pretty chaotic. But a fun kind of chaotic! (For those who don't want chaos, we've also bumped up Deer's more traditional murder methods.)
It's useful to know that every attack your pet deer makes is considered a "deer kick". This is relevant for one specific treasure mod:

• (Hands, Necklace) "Deer Kick implants insect eggs in the target. Future Deer Kicks by any deer cause target to take 310 Nature damage over 5 seconds"

This mod is unchanged, except that it no longer stacks more than four times: twice for each piece of equipment it can show up on. (That's *not* a limit of 4 stacks of damage, it's 4 stacks of the debuff that applies the damage!) Also, we've reworded the effect to clarify that pet deer can trigger the damage.
Removed treasure mods
We've tried hard to avoid breaking existing equipment by repurposing obsolete Deer effects with new ones. However, in one place this was impossible. A head-slot mod was removed without any replacement. If you had this mod on a piece of head gear, that item has become "Legacy", meaning it will stop working after a month. You can fix this by using a Transmutation table to remove the mod off of your helm, or you can speak to the Legacy Golem in Serbule to receive a randomly-generated replacement item. (Transmutation of Deer treasure is much cheaper this month, to help you adjust to these changes.)
Specific Deer Changes

• Doe Eyes: Power cost increased. Ability now resists more physical damage, especially against Elites, and lasts for 24 seconds instead of 10. (At level 77 it now gives 36 mitigation, plus 72 more vs. Elites)
• "After using Doe Eyes, your next attack deals +169 damage" => "Doe Eyes reuse timer is -2 seconds, and after using Doe Eyes your next attack deals +190 damage"
• "Doe Eyes restores 95 armor" => "Doe Eyes mitigates +16 physical damage (Crushing, Slashing, Piercing) for 26 seconds. Against Elite enemies, mitigates +32 more"
• "Doe Eyes heals 80 health" => "For 10 seconds after using Doe Eyes, you mitigate +36 from all attacks, and a further +72 from Elite attacks"
• Ability "King of the Forest": base damage and Power cost increased slightly; all treasure stats tweaked slightly as a result
• "King of the Forest gives you +15 mitigation of any physical damage for 20 seconds" => this effect was available on two slots, but only applied once. This was intentional at the time, but now we're trying to make all treasure mods stack together when possible. New (stacking) version: "King of the Forest mitigates +14 physical damage (Crushing, Slashing, Piercing) for 10 seconds. Against Elite enemies, mitigates +28 more"
• "Cuteness Overload heals you for 114 health" => "Cuteness Overload Damage +270"
• "Combo: Deer Bash+Any Melee+Any Melee+Deer Kick: final step hits all enemies within 5 meters and deals +100 damage." => deals +240 damage
• Summoned Deer no longer have the benefits of the experimental genetics system, but have higher base damage
• Summoned Deer no longer have an innate 300% taunt bonus
• Summoned Deer can randomly be male or female
• "Summoned Deer Taunt +X%" => "Summoned Deer Rage Attack Damage +Y"
• "Antler Slash has a 50% chance to restore 48 armor" => this effect has been replaced with an entirely unrelated effect. (head, chest): "You can use the Deer ability Feign Injury, and it temp-taunts +11300. (Equipping this item will teach you the ability if needed.)"
• (Hands, Feet) "Deer Bash deals +120 damage and knocks the enemy backwards" => "Deer Bash has a 15% chance to summon a deer ally for 30 seconds"
• New (ring): "Cuteness Overload deals +160 damage and knocks the target backwards"
• New (Head, Necklace): "Pummeling Hooves deals +45 damage and has a 8% chance to summon a deer ally for 30 seconds"
• "Antler Slash deals +X% damage" => "Antler Slash hits all enemies within 5 meters and taunts +Y". NOTE: this effect used to be available on two slots, Head and Hands. It is now only on Hands. See above about Legacy items.
• "Psychic Mitigation +34 while Deer skill active" => "Psychic and Nature Mitigation +34 while Deer skill active"
• "Nature Mitigation +34 while Deer skill active" => "Burst Evasion +8.5% while Deer skill active"
• "Deer Kick Damage +85" => "Deer Kick Damage +45 and grants you -10% Fire Vulnerability for 10 seconds"
• New: (main-hand) "Combo: Forest Challenge+Any Melee+Any Melee+Any Epic Attack: final step deals +150 damage and summons a deer ally for 30 seconds."

Live Event Token Prize Changes

We've revised some of Riston's special prizes so that they use abilities instead of items. For those that have already purchased a Vendor Fox in a Box or the Small Box of Space, the summoning item in your inventory has been converted to a skill book that will teach you the new ability. This skill book can only be used once, so use caution if you must transfer this skill book to another character on your account. Also with this change, you will have to purchase these items per character now if you wish to have it on more than one character on your account.
Other important notes:

• Once you learn the Vendor Fox in a Box ability, the ability requires you to have some type of crate in your inventory. Any crafted storage crate and most pet crates (when Animal Husbandry is released) will work to allow use of the ability. The crate will not be consumed. The cool down timer on the ability will reset in 2 real-time hours, but you still need to spend 2 hours in-game before you can use the ability again. (You can see that timer in your effects bar under the effect 'Boxed Fox'.)
• Once you learn the Small Box of Space ability, there are no other requirements. Just use the ability to summon your storage box. The cool down timer for this ability has been extended to 90 minutes (from 60 minutes). The cool down timer on the ability will reset in 90 real-time minutes, but you still need to spend 90 minutes in-game before you can use the ability again. (You can see that timer in your effects bar under the effect 'Spaced Out'.)

As time goes by, we will slowly be adding more and more items, abilities and services to the game that will require Live Event Tokens. For this update, we have added a new 50 token prize! Find Riston in the Red Wing Casino to check it out!

Other Changes In This Update

• Bug fix: Rabbit: "Bun-Fu Blast deals +80 damage and restores 44 Power after a 9-second delay" => this did not add damage to Bun-Fu Blast as expected
• Bug fix: Rabbit: "Bun-Fu Blast deals +78 damage and hastens the current reuse timer of Bun-Fu Strike by 3 seconds" => this did not add damage to Bun-Fu Blast as expected
• Rabbit: added Astounding Familiar Controllers (level 80 ice magic tiara) to loot
• Flight in-combat: the Power penalty for flying while in combat now has a much higher cap (meaning flying while in-combat for more than a few seconds costs more Power than before)
• Added a "quit" button to the login and character-select screens
• Fixed AI bug that caused monsters to hate the first attack that hit them more than intended
• "Carbon-form Scrutinizer Array" only gave a +5 pathology bonus instead of intended +10 bonus
• The visual appearance for Winter Court Murder Armor (level 80 Hardcore armor) did not glow as intended
• "Rubgag's Dancing Shoes": sprint buff now only works out of combat
• Worked around Unity shader bug that could cause treants to turn into nightmarish blobs of polygons
• Fixed bugs that caused "corpse stink" particles to continue emitting after the corpse was closed