Game updates/20070214

Update 2 - Wednesday February 14, 2007

 * Made further preparations for this weekend's Canthan New Year event.
 * Removed sounds from miniatures.
 * Fixed a bug that caused some titles to display incorrectly.
 * Fixed a bug that caused some players to crash when loading skill templates.

Update - Wednesday February 14, 2007
To usher in the New Year’s Festival, Emperor Kisu requested a cinquain be written by the royal poet laureate, Wi Liam. Messengers have been dispatched to every corner of the realm to read the official New Year’s poem to the populace:


 * It's time!
 * Canthan New Year
 * Festival has begun.
 * Quests, races, fortunes, and a feast
 * Await.

Skills and Attributes Panel

 * The Skill Bar displayed in the Skills and Attributes panel now allows the player to change the order of equipped skills while in a mission or explorable area.
 * The Skill Bar displayed in the Skills and Attributes panel can be expanded into a set of full descriptions by a new button on the bar itself.
 * The "Sort by:" drop list has been removed and replaced by the following iconic drop menus:
 * Sorting Method, which offers all the options the "Sort by:" drop list used to offer.
 * Display Mode, which offers "Display as a list," "Display as a small grid," and "Display as a large grid.”

Other

 * Added an option to the Hero Control panel that forces Heroes to drop the currently carried bundle. This option is mainly useful for forcing Ritualist Heroes to drop urns created by skills.
 * Added Skill and Equipment Template Summaries to all template-related panels.
 * The Performance Monitor is now customizable so that you can change its position and visibility.
 * You can now log out to the Character Select screen by hitting the "Character Select" button on the logout dialog.
 * Challenge missions now track high scores differently and show the top 50 scores. They now track quarterly best scores instead of all-time best scores. They also track scores internationally across all game territories.
 * Added a trophy to the Great Temple of Balthazar for the Wintersday Tournament Championship.
 * Replaced the "Gain Olias" and "Gain Zenmai" Hero quests. The new quests "All for One, and One for Justice" and "Chasing Zenmai" are now received in the Consulate Docks in Guild Wars Nightfall. Those who have already completed these quests will be unable to take the new versions.
 * The "kill count" objective has been removed temporarily from rotation in the Hall of Heroes. This change was made to better facilitate testing of 8v8.
 * Fixed a bug in the “Capture Points” objective in the Hall of Heroes, which was sometimes causing the wrong team to be awarded victory.
 * Changed Mallyx the Unyielding's "Summoning Shadows" skill to work through doors, and changed its casting requirements.
 * You can now use miniatures in towns and outposts. Only 20 miniatures can be used at a time per district.

GuildWiki notes

 * The change to Mallyx's skill, Summoning Shadows is not fully known at this time, however part of it is that the skill now activates instantly, like Call to the Torment.
 * Changed the layout of the Skills and Attributes panel so that the attribute ranks are immediately to the left of the attribute names. Previously, the names were on the left and the ranks were to the far right.
 * Sunspear Title Track is no longer maxed at Spearmarshal: there is a new level at 30,000 points, Legendary Spearmarshal.
 * Added a new title track: "Sweet Tooth Title Track". You will get one or more points by consuming various sugary foods or drinks.
 * Kamadan, Jewel of Istan, Lion's Arch and Shing Jea Monastery have been redecorated to celebrate the Canthan New Year. Storage agents and other NPCs have been moved around.
 * Added 5 Imperial Chefs, Imperial Chef Jiong, Imperial Chef Yan, Imperial Chef Chen, Imperial Chef Reun, and Imperial Chef Tian. Each require various Collectable Drops. Currently they do not offer the rewards for these items.
 * A Festival hat maker was added to Shing Jea Monastery. There is now a Festival Hat Maker for each campaign.
 * The light-colored shadows around each slot in the character inventory and Vault Box windows are now brighter.
 * Inventory icons for some items now change quality depending on your graphics settings.
 * The pop-up skill bar preview window that was added to the template save/load/manage screens obstructs the names of the selected template and those near it.
 * This update may have added the Charr Bag. This may have been in an earlier update.
 * The same display and sort options that have been added to the Skills and Attributes panel have also been added to skill trainers. This affects also the skill select panel with the signet of capture.
 * "I'm Very Important" is now available as the 3rd rank of the maxed titles rank.
 * This update has introduced a strange bug which sometimes restricts party size to 7 instead of 8 with no obvious reason, indication or explanation.
 * Removed the easily accessible Demonic Chest in the Stygian Veil region of the Domain of Anguish. This update modified chest spawns in the game. This was made to address chest runing in the Domain of Anguish. Prior to this update, Chests associated with spawns that had yet to appear (like those that trigger by accepting a quest) were accessible before the groups that they are associated with appear. This allowed for easy access to a few chests in the Stygian Veil and Ravenheart Gloom in the Domain of Anguish, two areas that feature a lot of pop-up groups tied to quests. This update tied the chest appearance to the group itself appearing.


 * Added Cobalt Scabaras to various groups of Cobalt creatures throughout Elona.
 * Added Dragon Moss outside Maatu Keep.