There were some really, really big changes to the game that came unexpectedly. [View the whole patch notes here.]
Here are a couple big changes:
-The maximum positive alignment you can have has been reduced to 10.
-Attacking an invulnerable player will no longer skill up the skill you are using
-Supreme Generals can now kick players that are bound to a specific city/hamlet.
-Gates have been added to all Clan City entrances.
A max of +10 alignment means that players will now go red within one full kill (maybe two at most). This is huge because players were able to build up their alignment and just go on a killing spree without any real repercussion. Now if only Aventurine would add more incentive to be red or blue, such as rogue-only cities or other focal points for commerce/etc, then we could have a really magnificent social hierarchy. This change also means that, until such a system as mentioned above is added, players will continue to spread out and only be encouraged to adopt a xenophobic attitude.
Attacking invulnerable players was a nasty oversight left alone for far too long. Half the server used this to raise their weapon skills. I even got 12 points off of abusing it. The unfortunate part of this change now is that players who truly abused it to the max since the launch of the server have 75+ weapon skill. They’re using the best weapons and annihilating everyone.  If you’ve never been hit by someone using a rank 70+ weapon then you have no idea how bad this change has made it for the rest of the server. There is now no feasible way to catch those who abused it in abilities for at least 2-3 months.  The alternative was to leave it open to exploiting forever which is no good either. In my opinion, everyone’s weapon skills need to be reset.
Kicking people off bind spots is something we should have been able to do all along as well. We’ve had characters who were deleted bound to our city, using up spots and keeping real playing members out, with responses from GM’s being, “Sorry, we can’t remove them at this time”. Hopefully I can log in and kick people off the stone and allow our members to all bind. Great change.
The best change out of the bunch, by far, is the addition of gates. This changes the way sieges work entirely. We’ll have to bring siege hammers and siege weapons to the cities we’re attacking now instead of just pouring in like zerglings and overrunning everything. Manning the walls and keeping people off the gates will bring a whole new dimension to the game’s sieges.  It’s also going to keep out random people from riding by and ganking you while you’re in your own city.  Having random nakeds run through and slap you around then run out was stupid. The gates should have been in from day 1, but having them in now is such a wonderful addition that I can’t help but be happy about it.
WTB more patches like this one.
Sounds like Darkfall is coming along nicely.
Was looking forward to it, but now it looks unappealing and Mortal Online looks very appealing.
The Darkfall forums are pretty entertaining with the arrival of the alignment change 🙂
@Hazzerd
Hard to say until MO comes out. All I can say is that I logged onto Runes of Magic today while I was downloading the DF patch, and found it ridiculously unappealing. I was soloing mobs with little (to no) effort, and I tried to kill a guy that ran by and got “Invalid Target”. Target? WTF?
All I’m trying to say is the DF is it for me right now. Nothing else is entertaining. Even if MO is a DF clone, it’ll still be great compared to the WOW-clones out there.
(RoM is free though… DF should take notes :P)
This patch is making me druel in anticipation of my first city siege. Definetely going to be interesting and challenging.
I’m on of those who did not get my weapons skills up high from nailing invulnerable players, I think my highest skill is one-hand swords and it’s barely over 20. I don’t really mind being outgunned for now, I know it sucks because they abused the system but I’ll catch them eventually. The game is coming around nicely.
“Kicking people off bind spots is something we should have been able to do all along as well.”
I’m assuming this also applies to kicking enemies that have bound to your city’s stone? That was always annoying, especially during a siege. If they can now be forcibly unbound, I’m guessing this will make sieging MUCH harder, especially with the lovely gates!
I look forward to logging on tonight. I finally got in a guild so I hope to start getting more into this game. Farming goblins gets old, though it’s more profitable than I would have thought.
The down side about the patch is new players can’t get skill ups with the starter weapons. They should have made it no skill ups past 25 or something. Now new players are going to have to buy a weapon if they want to raise pretty much anything other than one handed or archery.
This was a great patch all around. The nerf to skilling off of afk people sucks, but it was certainly necessary. The gates are a great addition and the fact that you have to be a certain rank within the guild to open/close them, adds yet another aspect to the increasingly interesting espionage meta game.
Also, fuck Hyperion.
@Nobs
New players should start using the drops from goblins as soon as they get them, due to the higher damage. I know I did. Also, since almost every goblin drops an axe or something similar, I have a feeling a lot of new players will be going axe rather than sword or polearm. Interesting, no?
Patch is indeed awesome, although bit my clan on the ass a bit hard with the inclusion of the gates (although we expected it).
We lost our city the night before the patch was rolled out – taking it back is going to be a royal pain the proverbial.
Alliance was collapsing anyway, so no huge shock, but a shame nonetheless 🙂
[…] must travel far and wide to find any PvP. Perhaps due to exploitation methods in the past (e.g., being able to skill up on invincible mobs), some players feel they need to grind before they can be truly effective in the game.Play style […]