Latest Neocron News and Information

Here is what Holgar Hathrath wrote. Here also added a extra bit in the thread which cleared up some confusion. (See the bottom of this page)

Developer Planfile #5

Two weeks after the release of Neocron Evolution 2.1 it’s time for a review and for an outlook into the future.

Review

We were very happy with the positive feedback coming from the community. It assured us regarding our new strategy we are able to follow since July of this year. It’s a strategy of careful but lasting development of Neocron itself. But it also includes a certain development of the product framework which represents Neocron towards new customers.  The first step in this direction was the completely new website.
 
Another very important part of this strategy is the enforced activities in sense of marketing and communication. Meanwhile Neocron is represented with banners even on well-known websites like Game Spot, IGN, MMORPG.com, the Warcry and the Stratics network.
 
We also improved the communication policy towards the community. Instead of posting only a few big updates we are delivering smaller news in a regular basis. Our new webpage is helping us a lot to make this happen. We will unfortunately not be able to establish the “in development” rubric. It’s just not possible to express and explain all details without having a constant problem with misunderstandings. Due to the fact that such a section would be very static and would not deliver what you would expect. We hope you will understand our decision.
 
The overall package has increased the user count significantly. Encouraged by this success we decided to continue our chosen way. With this I’ll come to the outlook on our next steps:

The Christmas Patch

We will release a patch before Christmas which will contain several new things and bug fixes.
 
One of the most important fixes could be the solution we created for the reload problem. Now it’s possible to change your weapon again during the reload time. But if you switch weapon before the reload process is finished the weapon will not be reloaded. That means you will have more freedom again but the mechanism is not exploitable any more.
 
Beside the fixes we will give you new models for the freezer weapon family and some other surprises that will be presented to you according to the storyline during Christmas time. The patch will definitely bring some Christmas atmosphere into Neocron. But you’ll that see yourself…

Neocron Evolution 2.2

Beside the short term perspective we also have plans for the next year. After the very positive experience with Evolution 2.1 we decided to create Evolution 2.2. Like 2.1 we are planning to release 2.2 for free and it will contain some changes with a really high impact to Neocron. We won’t try to fix everything but try to bundle a package which we can develop in about 6 months just like we did for Evolution 2.1.
 
The most important and biggest goal for this Add-on will be a complete revamp of the player models and all human NPC's. We aim to raise their level to the quality of the new weapon models. Important will be to embed the new models in style, detail and texture in the Neocron atmosphere in a better way.
 
Another goal is the revamp of the vehicles. This package is not too big and that’s why it’s a good extension to the Character package.
 
Beside the graphical stuff we will put more effort in adjustments of gaming systems like the outpost system, the opponent KI or balancing questions. Of course we will also work on the engine to add more features and increase the performance and stability.
 
In sense of product framework there will be a major change in the sector of payment services. But we will give you more details on this later.
 
I hope that Evolution 2.2 will contain something for everybody. I also think that the new package will represent a good balance between product keeping and further development.

...And the extra bit

I'm glad that we now know how dumb we all are here at KK HQ 

First of all we will definitely do patches before Evol 2.2. Of course you dont have to wait for the add-on to get content updates, fixes and some new features. Certainly the revamp of certain systems will be done in cooperation with you, so you have the possibility give you opinion. Until now we have just a rough idea and no detailed project plan of what Evol 2.2 is supposed to contain. We just decided to create this Evol 2.2 package. The details will be planned early next year.

The reload time subject is an important problem and has our full attention. We think we are on a good path with the current solution even if we see that you are shouting a lot about this. This is not the last step. Things like mag size enhancements are absolutely possible. We definitely don’t want to return to the old system. You have to admit that there is no other game out there where you can reload by switching weapons.

Please have some patience. We have to find a good way to handle this system and balancing changes together with you (community) because otherwise the changes for the next half year are going to be a painful path for both sides.