General

• Infrastructural changes to help us make ELO and XP more reliable and robust.
• Added Practice Arena to the Arena map rotation.
• If you disconnect or leave after a part of a round, your XP is saved.
• Fixed players getting a team if they join a Ranked Arena game while it’s running.
• Fixed Ranked Arena games starting with uneven teams when a player on a team leaves in the warmup.
• Score display period sped up for Ranked Arena games (from 18s to 10s).
• Fixed Founder armor set not working if you disconnected and then reconnected to a server.
• Fixes to improve the server counts in the Steam server browser.
• Stopped bots in large Co-op games from spamming the chat so much.
• Fixed casting effect bugs that can be caused by high ping.
• Now blocking Ranked Arena to new users until they’ve earned 30,000 XP.

UI

• New ranking icons.
• Improved the reliability of the Play menu unlocking.
• Fixed a couple of issues with cooldown sliders and cooldown flashes with some ability orders.
• Fixed the escape menu warning about leaver status when you’re a spectator in Ranked Arena.
• Forsaken message made clear in the main menu and clearer in-game.
• Fixed issue where hitting Escape in some frontend sub-menus could break the menu.
• Preceptor and Tournament Winner titles and scoreboard prefixes added.
• Changes to hopefully improve AMD Eyefinity users – not full support.

Gameplay

• Bot skill level in Co-op mode is now adjusted more often and doesn’t require a respawn.

Assassin

• Assassin’s Disorienting Strike focus B no long has the ‘miss next attack’ component.
• Removed Assassin’s Panteras Kiss (default only) initial damage.

Shaman

• Shaman’s Spiritual Burden cooldown to 12s from 10s.
• Shaman’s Spiritual Fervor focus A now has a 10s cooldown, no mana cost.
• Shaman’s Blessed Aura focus A AOE range reduced.

Warden

• Warden’s Shockwave range down to 650 from 700.
• Cooldown for Warden’s Shockwave up to 12s from 10s.
• Warden’s Charging Leap mana cost to 10 from 15.

Ravager

• Removed the pin from Ravager’s Grapple.
• Ravager’s Mangle cooldown to 2s from 0 (GCD).
• Ravager’s Mangle cost to 20 from 15.
• Ravager’s Grapple now only costs 1/2 energy if missed (1/2 on firing 1/2 on hit).
• The pull on Ravager’s Grapple now always happens on hits (damage can still be blocked).
• Fixed Ravager’s Hook and Grapple beam VFX in multiplayer.
• Fixed Ravager Sword mode acting like Chain mode when you don’t have a target.

• Saturday, May 4th
• 2:15pm EDT (GMT-4)
• Sign in to the Mumble voice chat server at 2:15pm EDT (GMT-4) so that we can organize teams
  

Head over to the forums to talk about the tournament, sign up and check out gameplay footage from last week.

General

• Ranked Arenas can now have spectators, and will rotate players between rounds.
• Matchmaking improvements to reduce the likelihood of joining empty servers.
• Tutorial mode toggles properly when hitting ‘F1′.
• Survivor medals can’t be earned through suicides.
• Players can’t respawn just after the match ends in Arena mode.
• Fix for players getting assists when a teammate dies.
• Improvements to Steam Stats handling to reduce the likelihood of dramatic ranking loss or failure to gain XP.
• AFK kicks apply while the server is waiting for players again.

UI

• New ranking tier icons.
• Ranking tier icons are explained in the splash screen for Ranked Arena.
• Double/Triple down arrows appear in the scoreboard in Ranked Arena for large ELO losses.
• Grammar fixes for Ravager ability descriptions.
• Level Up menu correctly handles losing titles through class resets.
• Players don’t look like they lose lots of ELO if they join part-way through a Ranked Arena game (visual bug).
• Fixed leaver warning sometimes coming at the wrong time

Gameplay

• Shield Storm no longer attacks people from beyond the grave.

• Ranked Arena!

Play against the best in Arena-style games for an official ranking, using a heavily modified ELO system. Matches are 3v3, played with 5 rounds per map over the Arena maps. Compare your ranking with friends and the best in Forge via the Leaderboards.

• Armor Sets!

The skins system has been replaced with armor sets – now you can choose separate armor for each class’s head, body, arms, legs and feet. The default and Founder skins are now armor sets. The level 99 Black skin is now an armor set available at level 25. And level 99′s now get access to the all-new Divine armor set.

General

• Forest Ambush Arena – a new map to join the Arena rotation!
• Reworked spawn points on the Capital Siege Market and Forest Ambush maps.
• AFK kick doesn’t activate while the server is still waiting for players (pre-warmup).
• Several issues with leaderboard values fixed.

UI

• All new look for the Level Up menu!
• You can’t accidentally activate the chat box while playing by clicking on it with the hidden mouse.
• The chat text entry box background won’t stretch up over time if you haven’t chatted and somebody else has.
• You can now buy levels for classes when you have the exact amount of XP left to buy that level.
• Killcam UI icons show up properly when you die in bot match.

Gameplay

• Bots now get picked at random when more then 5 players are playing in coop.
• Coop bots will not be added until new players pick a class for the first time.

Press Kit:

Key New Features

• A new class – the Ravager, added as soon-available free DLC
• A new map, the Den Of Fenric
• Completely rebuilt basic tutorial
• Brand new class-specific tutorials for each of the 5 base classes
• New co-operative game mode – team up against AI controlled players
• 12 new Steam achievements

General

• Fixed the blind effect so that you can’t get around it with extreme brightness settings.
• Added password protection support for tournament servers.
• Changed the scrolling around for zooming in on a player as spectator.
• Enter defaults to team chat. Holding shift when using a chat bind toggles its team/global state.

UI

• New main menu, including a reconnect button and tooltips.
• Spectators can now see if players are in Shadow Shift through a visual effect.
• A compass added to HUD, showing relics, towers, all teammates, and visible enemies.
• Spectators now show in the scoreboard.
• Scoreboard ranks fixed to no longer include spectators in their calculations.
• Scoreboards and chat windows won’t hang around after match start if you had them open at the wrong time.
• Objectives of the current game mode displayed on map change.
• Added Healing and Protection leaderboards.
• Players are now told when relics are dropped or stolen.
• Colorblind mode works with notifications for team events (relic stolen/dropped, tower capped, etc).
• Cooldown numbers on abilities show a decimal place when less than one second.
• Sounds added to the menus.

Gameplay

• Increased the blocking cost for holding block to 15/s from 10/s.
• Reduced the ramping blocking cost to 10% of missing mana from 20%.
• Reduced move speed of all classes while blocking to 40% from 50% except the Warden.
• Fixed bots being able to turn when stuned.

Assassin

• Made the Assassin bot more likely to use Shadow Shift.
• Bots can no longer see you if you’re in a different Shadow Shift state.

Pathfinder

• Fixed a visual bug with cooldowns when using Camoflague focus B.
• Explosive Trap A damage down to 100 from 160.

Pyromancer

• Added extra check in bola to stop delayed stuns.
• Bola focus A damage up to 100 from 40.
• Wall of Flame focus A cast time down to 1s from 1.5s.
• Wall of Flame base and focus B damage to 115 from 100 (A is still 100).

Shaman

• Spiritual Drain now stops when the target has lost all their mana.
• Spiritual Fervor now only gives 4% damage per stack instead of 5%.
• Seed of Healing focus A now does 165 healing instand with a 2 second cooldown, no slow.

Warden

• Charging Leap cost up to 15 from 10.
• Shockwave cost up to 25 from 20.
• Raise Morale focus B and Protect Allies focus B cost up to 5/s from 3/s.

One of the most obvious changes we’ll be making to the game is the introduction of piece-by-piece customizable armor and a brand new armor set. We’re calling this set the “Divine” set. While we’re waiting until a little later this month to publish screenshots of these sets, suffice it to say they are far more than just a texture swap and are simply amazing. While the progression system will remain the same in regards to armor, in that you unlock an entire set at a time as you level, this feature provides us the option to introduce individual pieces in the future.

The Ravager makes an appearance this month as our first free DLC. You won’t be charged anything to play the new class. The Ravager fulfills our goal of having a highly mobile, damage focused melee class that is intended to stick in the midst of battle. While every class has a new challenge, every class will also benefit from having this role filled as it will put less pressure on our other melee classes to try and fill it when they’re not suited to that playstyle.

For new users, we’ll also be releasing the completely overhauled tutorial. It is a much more guided experience that provides better instruction on how to play as well as placing the player in context of why they’re fighting in the first place. We’re confident this will have a tremendous positive impact on retaining new players and is worth a look even if you’re a veteran.

We’re overhauling the user interface, especially the menu system, to make it more organized and have less of that “Fresh from the Indie Shelf” feeling. Each class will get another set of Focus ability options to choose from. Several key visual effects have been slightly reworked to improve visibility and ensure that the team/enemy options for each are clearly visible. We’re making some improvements to the spectator system.

In all, this will be our most significant update to the game to date and marks the beginning of a new period for us. These changes are planned to be split between two updates. We’ll keep everyone posted as we near the patch dates for each!

• 30 new ability focuses now available via unlocks.
• Steam leaderboards available (under Community) for damage, experience, and kills.
• Infrastructural changes allow Forge to grow its playerbase.
• Matchmaking favors finding a server with players that have a similar time played.
• Tooltips re-written with improved consistency and coverage of mechanics.
• Reset Class button added to Level Up menu for re-specing a class.

• Added “Tutorial Complete” Steam achievement.
• Server data in the Steam server browser should be more up-to-date.
• Servers now add the version, region description, and if they’re in random cycle to the server name.
• In spectator mode when following a player, you can use the mouse scroll wheel to change zoom.
• In spectator mode when free flying, you can use the mouse scroll wheel to change your fly speed.
• Steam avatar and name changes should appear in Forge more quickly.
• Bind available for moving spectator camera vertically down.
• In spectator mode when free flying, you can follow a player by clicking on them.
• Changed the default keys for abilities to 1-8.

• Medals have mouseover descriptions in the scoreboard.
• Your score on the scoreboard highlighted more clearly.
• The equipment tab in the Level Up menu now just show skins.
• New loading screens for all maps.
• Temporarily increased health or resource pools now display correctly on the HUD.
• Changing your resource pool via customization points now shows up correctly on the HUD.
• Suicide icon added for death notification.
• Higher tier medals are notified along with kills.
• Reset buttons added to the Settings menu.

• Dying in the shadow realm no longer leaves you invisible.
• All damage in the shadow realm is now spiritual damage.
• Bots no longer look around while stunned and pinned.
• Blocking cone now ignores Z so you can block jumping players.

• Fixed sprint speed with Stealth focus A.
• Shadow shift has a lowered cooldown, every attack in the shadow realm is now counted as “from Stealth”, Puncture damage reduced.
• Shadow Leap focus A now 2/3 range, 2/3 cost (was half and half).
• Smoke Clouds also blind enemies inside it.
• Smoke Cloud focus A blockable.
• Puncture cost reduced to 15 (was 20).
• Smoke Cloud focus A cooldown increased to 12s (was 10s).

• Explosive Trap focus A no longer stuns, but provides more knock back and more damage.
• Volley now has a max number of hits for the same target, set at two.

• FireStorm focus A damage now 55 (from 52.5).
• Molten Armor focus A now does half damage, has half cost, and a 15s cooldown.
• Wall Of Flame focus A cast time increased to 1.5s (was 1s), and length reduced.
• Only one Wall Of Flame can now burn a player at a time.

• Spiritual Drain now does 10 damage/s, and drains equal to damage (so reduced by armor) with 600 range.
• Spiritual Drain focus A now does 8 damage/s, and drains equal to damage (so reduced by armor) with 900 range.
• Seed of Healing focus A now slows by 25% (was 20%).
• Spiritual Drain now breaks when the target goes into Camoflague or Stealth.
• Spiritual Drain now looks red if the enemy is using it.

• Charging Leap focus A now slows rather than stuns.
• Vengeance cooldown now 10s (was 5s), and is sped up by incoming damage (20 damage taken = 1s less).
• Vengeance gives 5 energy for each enemy hit
• Buff damage per Vengeance stack of Raise Morale now 5% (was 4%).
• Matched shockwave to the VFX better and fixed jumping over it.
• Damage from Vengeance stack now 3% (was 4% – they can hold more stacks now).
• Shield Storm focus A now the same as default but with less cost, damage and knockback.

First, we’ll be introducing experience based matchmaking. This means those of you that are new to the game, and those of you that are veterans, are more likely to play with people of similar experience than before. The more people that play the game, the better this matchmaking algorithm becomes. Second, we’ll also be introducing a leaderboard. The first leaderboards will be focused on: Damage Done, Healing Done, Protection Done and Experience Earned. We’re still investigating the right time period to reset these leaderboards, but we expect it to be around once per 30 days. We’ll also be releasing another set of Ability Focus options to choose from!

Now, on to the development diary update from SuperGenius, one of the finest groups of people I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. Without them, there would have been no Forge.

“Steam has provided us with a very unique development system which we are currently experiencing while developing Forge. For someone with a long history in console development, this is a strange, albeit, compelling way to make games. In the spotlight and alongside the community.

In console development, we spend a year or two developing in total secrecy, and then we launch a game out into the wild where we will never touch it again, at least until the sequel. With a game like Forge, on a delivery system like Steam, your launch is just the beginning. It is the foundation in which you build a bigger, better game.

Steam allows us to build, and quickly ship, a fun, core game and get it into the hands of players quickly. Once it is out there, we can really get to work shaping it into the best game possible. Because Forge is a pure PVP, MMO, it is the players that make the experience what it is. We just provide the playground. Although we launched a pretty extensive Beta, we still had no idea how players were going to play with Forge until there were a hundred thousand players online. With a hundred thousand players your game is put to an intense, fast-paced, and real-time test and if something breaks, it happens in public. This can be incredibly stressful. It can also be incredibly exhilarating, and when done right, can make for a much better game.

This is what we are attempting with Forge. We are constantly collecting player feedback and using that information to shape the game as we go. This is nothing like the console development of yesterday. We are literally playing Forge with the community in one window while simultaneously developing new features with the teams in the other. For developers like Blizzard and Arena Net, this might be business as usual. For us, it is like nothing we have ever experienced.

I can foresee this having a serious downside as well. Developers can take liberties with this model and ship a less-than-quality game with the promise of improving it down the line. There is a fine line between a good, foundational game in which to build from and a sloppy title with no promise of improvement. This is something gamers and critics are not shy about pointing out. We got a taste of that ourselves when Forge was reviewed by critics who felt the game was too light at launch. While the overwhelming response to Forge was very positive, it did get nailed for features not yet implemented. We accept that Forge may have been light on launch, but we felt the best way to build a long lasting franchise was to get it into the hands of players as quick as possible and start collecting feedback. We feel we shipped an exceptional game that is well balanced and looks great, but we are also aware that it was no Moby Dick on launch. It was light and we cringe at the thought of letting our fans down. Especially those who have been with us since the first piece of concept art was released. Thankfully we’ve kept up good numbers and have a consistent community playing it every day who believe in the game. Thankfully we are a nimble operation that can turn feedback into features relatively quickly. And we are especially thankful for Steam, which allows us to develop alongside the players.

While we have released a few patches recently we are especially excited about our late April relaunch. If everything goes well, we will be releasing a whole new chunk of the game with new features and content based on the feedback we have received from the community. New characters, armor swapping, an extensive tutorial, and more levels are just a few of the new additions. As developers we have not slowed down since we started on Forge and don’t foresee slowing down anytime soon.

We see this as just the beginning. In five years, Forge could be an entirely different monster than it is today. Much of it depends on the feedback we receive from the community. It forces us to look at our launches differently and build something that is more open to new directions. For me, I definitely have a new appreciation for developing in the multiplayer space.”

- SuperGenius Studio

When we first released Forge, there were two classes already designed that we simply didn’t have time to complete and ship with the game. They fill two key roles that are missing from team play at this time: A “stay in the fight” melee damage dealer (the Ravager), and an area control/area denial archetype (the Tinker). While the Assassin is melee built with damage in mind, its gameplay is intended to work around hit and run or control tactics. The Warden is melee as well, but is designed for team defense rather than offense.

The Ravager

If you haven’t noticed yet (we hope you have!), we do our best to step back from what is expected of an archetype and start with something completely fresh. Our “fire mage”, the Pyromancer, does not have flowing robes. He does not use a staff. He doesn’t have a long flowing beard or ornate jewelry. We didn’t do this just to be different for the sake of being different. We designed the Pyromancer by starting with what he was and what made sense in our perspective of how a universe like the one represented in Forge. We thought someone working with metal melting flames all day would likely be in full, head to toe flame resistant body armor.

The same is true of the Ravager. We didn’t start by mimicking every barbarian or warrior class you’ve seen in any other game. We started with the idea of what this character was all about. We realized they needed to be highly mobile and agile, but with a sturdier frame than an Assassin. They would need plenty of armor, interlocking plates to keep them agile but it couldn’t be metal. It would just be too heavy to match their mobility. We also realized, they wouldn’t carry around a two handed sword. They needed to be almost acrobatic, able to shift around the battlefield with alarming speed. The answer quickly became clear: They’d used a sword and grappling hook as their primary weapons.

The Ravager class is built with all of this in mind. They’re short, approximately the size of the Shaman. They’re stocky. But, they are extremely mobile. They are able to use their grappling hook to move around the map by firing it at a surface and jumping while they have momentum. They’re also able to attach the grappling hook to friends and enemies, either dragging the other player to them or themselves to the other player. By alternating between their two fighting styles, they can shift from an AOE melee character using their chain to a single target character using their sword.

While the Ravager’s damage output is not quite as intense as the Assassin’s, their ability to stay on target and move around the battlefield to continue doing damage is unrivaled. Short of the Pyromancer’s Flame Burst, there is no character in Forge more able to get where they want to go on short notice.

The Tinker

While a group of Forge characters can decide to hold an area and do the job well, no single character is built around that concept. It’s an important one, especially for gametypes that involve the capture of an objective or traveling through a tightly defined route. The Tinker is designed with this role in mind.

The Tinker has a variety of gadgets and traps that they can deploy to help defend or attack an area. While we of course have the traditional concept of a turret as one of these, the Tinker goes well beyond that.

She also can lay down a “Catatrap”. This allows the player to point a trap in a particular direction. When it’s triggered by an enemy (or intentionally triggered by a teammate, which requires an action beyond just stepping on it) it throws the enemy far and high into the air in the direction the trap was set.

The tinker is also able to place a buzz saw trap that, when triggered, let’s loose a wild saw blade that does damage to anything it touches. The blade follows an unpredictable pattern but deals a significant amount of damage when touched.

Other tools include a trigger-able armor booth, a barricade and a malfunctioning backpack. The Tinker will be a favorite for players that enjoy the Engineer style gameplay, but also those that enjoy Tower Defense. Smart use of the Tinker ability set with teammates can lead to some deadly, and hilarious, combinations.

When?

We can’t say with certainty when both classes will arrive. However, we do feel safe telling you that the Ravager is planned for release in April, 2013 and the Tinker should follow shortly afterwards. We hope you’ve enjoyed the class preview.