Hellgate: London – London 2038 Development Update #30

The London 2038 team is back in action after a bit of a break, and they bring us this here development update for their multiplayer Hellgate: London mod. The update addresses a recent tester departure, mentions community contributions, and highlights some upcoming updates.

Check it out:

Hello, hello!

It’s been a long time indeed. Well, that “life” thing happened, landing right on top of that “fatigue” thing, and the result of that simple addition was a “pause”. But here we are now, quoth the Kurt Cobain, and entertainment awaits. So let’s not delve into the past, but look straight into the future.

Shall we?

Shady business

But before we do, let’s quickly address a subject that seems to have seen some traction in my personal absence.

First, the relevant basics; the 2038 team has a “Shady Ones” program in place, where we pick upstanding and willing players to serve as internal testers and, to some extent, advisors. If you’d like to know more about this you may glance through the program’s application form 4.

(Note: you may by all means apply for the program as well, if you’re interested. We’re not currently recruiting, but we likely will soon-ish – and when we do, we will examine all existing applications alongside new ones.)

With this in mind, then, we’ve rather recently had a dismissal from the program; one which attracted more attention than past ones. To keep this part focused on what matters and avoid making this a personal issue, since that’s by no means my intention or my place to do so, I’ll be discreet and won’t be naming the person in question here.

What I mean to cover here, then, is that all dismissals from the program boil down to

• adherence to the rules,
• contributions, and
• personal conduct.

So, all this section means to highlight is that this was a dismissal like all others before it, with no other external factors influencing the decision. We absolutely will not hold any grudge, display any animosity, or unfairly judge, penalize, or ostracize any ex-Shady, past, present, or future. We deeply care for all our players, and especially ones committed enough to have made it into the program. So here we’d like to wish all our ex-colleagues all the best, assure them of our intentions to be fair towards them, and – why not – cross our fingers for future contributions on their part.

Contributions, you say?

Why, yes, my esteemed hypothetical interlocutor. Such a fitting transition there.

I’ve hinted at community contributions, such as voice work, a few times before. Since work effectively paused since 1.5.10, I still don’t have a solid enough application form or other “official” thingy to direct you to.

BUT!

Not only have we received some excellent contributions already, to be revealed in due time, but we now also have a new Discord channel for this exact purpose. So if this interests you, you may first join our Discord server 1 and then head over to #community-contributions to flex your creative muscles.

Speaking of “creative”-

Yes yes, of course. Thank you for another excellent transition, you word-savvy Londoner.

So 1.6 didn’t come and didn’t go, in that we unconventionally went from 1.5.9 to 1.5.10. This will continue into 1.5.11, as we’re now easing back into things before rushing ahead with the oft-teased expansion 5 1.6 intends to signify.

Said 1.5.11 doesn’t include much at the moment; a few bug fixes here and there, some visual polish, and so on. Still, it already packs a punch (hint hint), and it just might manage to include a summer event alongside all that. No promises, of course, as some of you may remember how our Christmas event didn’t get off the ground and our Easter event wasn’t perfect on launch. But it might just happen, so consider thyselves teased.

And then yes, the long-awaited 1.6 will be free to preoccupy us almost exclusively – since the general state of the game is solid enough, and event-wise there’s the legacy Halloween/Guy Fawkes events to look forward to.

Cheers!

And with that I may bid you farewell, after noting that the current pace may not suffice for a timely diary entry in 14 days. But fingers crossed, hm?

All the best to you and yours, brave Survivors.