Maintenance!

[GM-Pandora]

Finally the new computer that I purchased for heRO is ready, it's time to switch the server on it, in order to do this we will unfortunately need to have a downtime for the duration of the maintenance, this Saturday (January 10th). The Control Panel will unfortunately be down for a few days, since it too needs to be moved.

The maintenance will start at 7:00 AM and if things go well it should be done by 2 PM, server time EST of course.

We'll do our best to announce it so everybody knows and no one is surprised that the server is down saturday morning, but if you wanna to help, then spread the word to your friends and guildies.

For the duration of the downtime, similar to the other major maintenance, we'll have a temporary high rate server open with things you can do for fun (I'll detail them later in the post).

New server's specs:
Intel Duo-Core 2 E8400 3 Ghz FSB 1333 Mhz 6 MB cache (Asus Motherboard)
4 GB of memory DDRII PC 6400 (2x2GB)
320 GB hard drive
10 Mbit professional connection (hosted at iWeb)


Patching

There will be 2 patches on Saturday via the heRO patcher, one to give you access to the temporary high rate server and the other to give you access to the real server after the maintenance is complete. We will also have a new mini-installer available, which will contain up to the 2nd patch of that day. If you cannot use the patcher unfortunately you wont be able to join the temporary high rate, but you'll have plenty of time to download the new mini-installer during the maintenance to be able to access heRO after and you'll also be up to date on all patches.
*Note: If your heRO patcher has no problem you do not need the new installer, just run the patcher saturday.


Reaching Infinity!

To Celebrate the maintenance and our new and better computer specs and hosting line, and also to test the capabilities of the new hardware, we will have a run at the Infinity Tower on that same day, at 7 PM! We hope to have as many people as possible to adequately test our new machine. (In the unlikely event that the maintenance is not done at that time the Infinity Tower will be postponed to later).


Temporary High Rate

A fresh (empty database) server will be available for the duration of the maintenance, you will have to create a new account, use _M/_F.

Commands available (don't get used to them): all the ones on heRO already, in addition to @go, @storage, @heal, but they will be disabled when the tournament starts.

A job changer NPC will be available.

The rates on the maintenance server will be 500x/500x/300x and in addition to just messing up for fun and trying builds and equipments with the higher rates, here are a few things you can do:


Mining

We're in dire need of testing for our new mining script. If you talk to the old miner in front of coal mine he will unlock the mining quest for you (without the need to bring any items) and will give you 65 Mining Points to start with, he will also offer to warp you near the new mining spot (don't forget to buy picks). You need to be level 70 at the new spot and we recommend a smith, alchemist or super novice.

We will reward you for helping us test the new mining spot, here are the conditions:

~ For your mining character name please use the same name as one of your character on the real server, since this is the character we will look for to give you the rewards, a char you use on a regular basis is recommended.

~ Please do the tests in batch of 200 picks, put the excess picks either in a pet, cart or storage. When starting a session of mining make sure you only have the 200 picks on you (in addition to the equipment you're wearing, meaning in your inventory you should have no other items, drop any other loots), stones (the useless 0z ones) can de dropped. Once you're done with your 200 picks you have to tell us what you obtained, you can do this 2 ways.

1- Take screenshots of your inventory, 1 of the item tab, 1 of the equip tab and 1 or more of the etc. tab, make sure your screenshots show all the items you obtained in mining. Host** the screenshots and post them in this thread.
???? If need be put some items in your cart, make sure to SS the cart too if you use SS to show what you obtained.

2- Write a list of all you obtained, list each item and its quantity.

Please also fill in this template:

Time of start: (In server time, do @time)
Mining Points before: (How much Mining Points you have before the 200 picks)
Mining Points after: (How much Mining Points you have after the 200 picks)
Time of end: (Server time too)

~ If you kill monsters while mining, please drop the loots they gave you, then continue mining.

~ After you're done posting your result, if you want to do another session please drop everything on the floor and start with 200 picks only.

** Websites you can host screenshots on:
http://www.imageshack.us/
http://tinypic.com/
http://xs.to/

Rewards:

For each session of 200 picks that is duely reported, you earn the following:

25 picks
1 OPB
3 OBB
1 gold


If you do 10 sessions or more we'll also give you 5 Allegiance points! (only given once)

If you reach 100 Mining Points we'll also give you an OCA! (please screenshot when you reach 100 at the new mining spot and post it here).
Note: I am not certain how long it takes to reach 100 with the new script, I cannot confirm if this is actually possible in the time of the maintenance.

If you find any bugs with the Mining please report them here!


Bulletin Board

This is a new NPC, it is near ready for addition to the real server, however we feel that a last test would be helpful. We want to be extra careful since this is a npc that deals with items and zeny, it must not be possible to abuse it in any way, so you're invited to try all possible ways you can come up to try to bug it!

Please report any bug you find here!

The NPC is located in Prontera, around the center, east of the Tool Dealer entrance.

We have added 50 missions in the terminal already, you'll recognize them with the name of the mission giver being GM-1, GM-2, GM-3, ..., GM-50. The names of the mission giver doesn't show up (my bad), so instead you'll recognize them since they will be the first missions in the terminal, everything until the 100 Thanatos Card is the missions available for prize. The 100 thanatos obviously is not doable, it's just there as a separator.

If you complete one of the missions, you have the option of leaving your name, do so as it will be our way to give out prizes, your name must be the same one as one of your regular character and if you do not leave it, you cannot get a prize.

Rewards:

For each mission completed you will receive:

20 Red Envelope (gives zeny)
1 Poring Box
3 Gift Box

If you complete 5 missions or more we'll also give you 5 Allegiance points! (only given once)

You can also add your own missions or complete those made by other players, however you will not receive a prize for those.


PVP Tournament

At Noon server time saturday we will have a PVP tournament! This means you have roughly 5 hours to level up and gear up a character ready for PVP, with the rates it should not be too hard. Everyone has the same chances and can make any class, the player's true skills should decide the winners.

This will be a 4 VS 4 player tournament, meaning you must form teams of 4 players, which will compete against other teams of 4 players.

It will be a 2 out of 3 fight with bracket elimination tournament, and to make it fair GMs will assign a number to each team, in the order that they register for the tournament. We will accept up to 8 teams only, first come first serve. Bracket elimination looks like this.



Each number representing 2 teams fighting each other until one team has won 2 fights, the one what wins moves on to the next round.

After 5 minutes the fight will be stopped if it has not already ended.
If a team has more members still alive they will be considered the winner of this fight.
If both team have the same number of members alive, there will be a new fight, each team will send their "champion", meaning their best fighter for a 1vs1.
In the unlikely case that after 5 minutes both fighters are still alive, both team will have lost and their future opponent in the next bracket wins by default.


Conditions to participate:

~ For your participating character name please use the same name as one of your character on the real server, since this is the character we will look for to give you the rewards, a char you use on a regular basis is recommended but you don't have to choose the same class.

~ You must be in a guild with your other team-members to participate. The guild must only contain the 4 participants.

~ The guild name must contain only alphanumeric characters (no symbol and no space).

~ You can only participate with 1 character (meaning you cannot be part of more than one team and log back and forth).

~ ToH Item restrictions and PVP rules apply. You may bring all you can carry for the whole tournament.

~ General ToH rules also apply:

~ No trading whatsoever, same goes for dropping items on the floor.
No outside buffing. This means you cannot buff other teams. It's fine to buff your team of course, during prebuff period.

~No pets.

~ No interference from the audience.

~ Not responsible for any log off, disconnection or lag. Both team will be recalled in the fighting area and will be given a 60 seconds prebuff period, after that the fight starts ready or not.


Rewards:

The winning team for the final bracket will get 5 Allegiance Points each, in addition they have first choice of prize, the leader decides on the prize for the team. The team that lost in the final bracket will have 2nd choice on prize, and can pick from the 2 remaining choices.

There will be a last fight held between the 2 teams that lost the semi-finals, the winners from that fight will be considered 3rd place and win the remaining choice.

~ Prize Pack A - "Hats"
Each member get to choose 1 hat of their choice from the list below. Each member must choose a different hat.

Apple of Archer +6
Hatter's Hat +6
Red Glasses
Kawaii Ribbon +7
Solar Panels +5
Fish Head Hat +6
SantaPoring Cap +6
Angry Kitty +5
Luck O Irish +6
Note Headphones +6
Easter Hat
Adventurer Hat
Deviruchi hat of the color of your choice (from the available ones)
Beanie hat of the color of your choice (from the available ones)
Mage hat of the color of your choice (from the available ones)
Drooping cat of the color of your choice (from the available ones)

~ Prize Pack B - "Equipments"
Each member gets to choose 1 equipment from the list below, each must choose a different one.

Valkyrja's Shield [1]
Wool Scarf [1] +6
Tidal Shoes [1] +6
Poll Axe[1]
Hurricane's Fury[1]
Mes[3] +8
Infiltrator[0] +7
Survivor's Rod[1] +8 (Dex)
Staff of Recovery +9
Chain[3] +9
heRO Advanced Backpack
Celebration Wings +5


~ Prize Pack C - "Chance"
Each member receives:
1 Refined Elunium
1 Refined Oridecon
2 OCA
3 Jeweled Box
4 OPB
5 Bloody Branches


There will be no participation Prize this time, to make it easier on the GM who distributes the prizes on the real server afterwards.

That's all folks, hope the temporary high rate will make the maintenance more bearable, and that you will have fun ^_^

[i.Phan]

Finally yay =)

[Motenai_Ronin]

cool~ I'll simply wait patiently till sunday for the hopefully hero with lag-death

[Yuriohs]

Panda I love you.

[Kulluminatii]

Awesome, free st00f!

I haven't played heRO in ages, I'll definitely be on Saturday to do a little testing

[Logester]

we will unfortunately need to have a downtime for the duration of the maintenance

WHAT!?!?! OH NO! PANIC!!!!

Ok, ok, I'm kidding.
Those rewards look awesome...

[Former-GM-Mystra]

Everyone have big cheers for Pan, she is on it since this summer, and the tech guys had it rough for her!

Grats Panda, we all give you a cuddle and a cookie, take it, since I wont do those often!

[SyaoranShadow]

yay new comp gg

[Général_Argos]

Great work Panda!

[JJJ]

XD im so doing the mining + the bulletin quests =3



PS: i have to ask whats going to happen if someone uses WPE or macro's during this testing period >.<
and if anyone will be watching them to make sure they don't do it