General

* All Guardians, Evokers, and characters on Subscription accounts will have one Skill Retrainer when logging in after this patch goes live.
* The timer and quest requirement have been removed from the mini-game.
* Fixed a bug where chat entry became visible in the Character Select screen after logging in and then logging out of the game.
* Fixed a crash bug associated with exiting out of the Character Creation menu.
* Players that had beaten Normal mode with a character but then were unable to access Elite mode (and Hardcore mode for subscribers) with a new character should now have access to that game mode by logging in once with the character that completed Normal Mode.
* Fixed a bug which caused audio and sound effects to sometimes stop playing.
* Party and PRD Portals created by a character in a group will now properly close when that character leaves the group.


Monsters

* The Beast of Abbadon, Oculis, and Sydonai will now re-spawn normally, even if the player has previously completed their associated quests.
* Fixed a bug which would sometimes prevent Oculis or the Furuncle from spawning properly.
* The loot algorithm for Ash (Beast Caste General) has been adjusted to drop better items.
* Errgoth (Demon Caste General) now does less damage.
* Stalkers and Burning Fiends are now part of the Beast caste and Tortured Souls are now part of the Spectral caste (to balance a disparity of Essence drop rates between castes). This applies to all types of Stalkers, Burning Fiends, and Tortured Souls.


User Interface

* Offline friends are now properly displayed in the Friends List.
* The “Player Requests” confirmation buttons have been reordered to [accept] [decline] [ignore].
* Skill Retrainers now have a confirmation dialogue to help players from accidentally using them.


Items

* Armors with the “minion damage bonus” affix now work for the Engineer.
* Restorative injectors are usable when either health or power is below the player’s maximum since they can help recover both health and power for the user.
* Increased the amount of Shields found on items and affixes, ramping up after level 10. Note that this change is not retroactive and will not apply to existing items; however, newly dropped items and existing items upgraded through the Nanoforge will receive the adjusted amount of shields.
* Guild Heralds can now be sold back to merchants for full price.


Skills

* Increasing ranks of Drain Power now work properly at all power ranges.
* Increased the amount of Shields granted by skills that provide Shields.
* Engineer Drones now come with a base armor rating.


Stonehenge Bug Fixes

* Players may now Recall or Party Portal out of the Hell’s Heart level.
* Party Portal limitations have been removed from the Stonehenge levels.
* Stonehenge now appears as a destination on the Station Transit Terminal.
* Stonehenge weapons can now have Mod slots.
* The stash in Stonehenge now properly detects collision.
* Fixed a blocking bug in the Essence Caves which prevented a portal into that specific Caste General’s Lair from opening.
* Essence drop chance increased from 15% to 20%.
* Fixed rare cases where Essence Caves were not connected to the next level.
* Fixed bad pathing around the Stonehenge wilderness huts.
* Fixed a bug causing additional Skill Retrainers to spawn when they shouldn’t have. Duplicate Skill Retrainers should now be removed.


Patch Notes Disclaimer: While we make every effort to include all upcoming changes in our patch notes, please be aware that occasionally some changes are unintentionally omitted.

S: Cool. So what would you say… do you have any influences for your creative style, with Diablo and Hellgate, they’re both kind of demonic?

DG: Yeah, they’re very, uh, similar. I think it was a style that appealed to me when I played the original Diablo. I’d say a lot of it… other forms of entertainment, books, games… I’ve always been into fantasy, dungeons and dragons way back when. So that was an easy transition into the Diablo series. And then the overall mood and atmosphere comes a lot from particular movies I grew up liking, like Aliens or Excalibur from way back in the day. These dark moody, sort of medieval fantasy, but Aliens was Sci-fi, but the same sort of gritty… well Star Wars sort of started that whole trend I think with taking sci-fi and making it dirty and real and gritty. So those were definitely a lot of the influences.

All in all, Hellgate: London isn’t the next revolution in Diablo-style gameplay. While it does some important parts well, notably the item management and upgradeability, other parts like the skill sets and character customization fall short. The technical issues have gotten better since the last patch, but they’re still present, and can hamper the experience, especially the framerate. It all adds up to a game that doesn’t live up to expectations. It’s not a bad game; it’s just severely flawed, and ends up just being decidedly average.

This build should make it to the live servers early this week. I'll have more of a true ETA tomorrow. -- Scapes

General
All Guardians, Evokers, and characters on Subscription accounts will have one Skill Retrainer when logging in after this patch goes live.
The timer and quest requirement have been removed from the mini-game.
Guild Heralds can now be sold back to merchants for full price.
Fixed a bug where chat entry becomes visible in the Character Select screen after logging in and then logging out of the game.
Fixed a crash bug associated with exiting out of the Character Creation menu.
Players that had beaten Normal mode with a character but then were unable to access Elite mode with a new character should now have access to that game mode by logging in once with the character that completed Normal Mode.
Fixed a bug which caused audio and sound effects to sometimes stop playing.

GS: Is the game viewed internally as an MMO, or more of a single-player game with online elements?

BR: Internally we treat the game as an MMO because we're constantly working on improving it and creating new content. The challenge with launching Hellgate: London was that it was both a single-player stand-alone game and an online game. This meant our focus was divided at times, but now that the game is out, we're all about working with the online community to get them the features that they want and making the play experience better and better.

In addition to the above, The Stonehenge Chronicles also includes many of the other updates the Hellgate: London community has been asking for, including improvements to game UI, a large number of skill balance changes, a PvP dueling arena and more. Hellgate: London subscribers can also now pay for their subscriptions via PayPal and PayByCash. For more information on payment options and a full list of notes for this update