So, the update to 0.5

It's official, the update to Planeshift happened, we're now in 0.5, holy crap.

Well, I was on, the main roleplay server is down, so I logged into the non-rp server. The graphics do seems slightly cleaner, it runs a bit smoother, although that might just be because there were only 20 players on at the time. It did take a while for the game to load everythign and get to runnign smoothly but once it did I only really had a few hiccups, which is impressive considering Planeshift servers have a reputation for being as reliable as a whore for abstinence.

The interface is much nicer now, much better, clearer, usable. The chat was a bit confuseing for a while, just trying to figure out which tab had my own words in.  I don't know if this was ever a problem for Windows users, but I run a mac, and was pleasantly surprised to find that the attack animation, kinda dodgy as it is, is back with us.

The quest system - oh thank God they fixed it! It now runs far smoother, you can just pick your responses and whatever, it's all good, it's usable. This is a step in the right direction if ever there was one.

Nice little added touch was the guards in cities will tell you to put your weapons away if you have them out. You can ignore them, it's just nice. Personally i'll put my weapons away from planeshift adds a 'sheath' capability. Until then you're buggered on denizens of planeshift.

Apparantly there are mounts in the game now, I'll keep an eye out for one. Also new monsters, again I'll keep an eye out for them.

They've added capability for group duel apparantly, that's nice. PVP never hurt anyone, in fact I think it's oneof the better things in an mmo. not that planeshift is PVP friendly, but it's nice to have it there in anycase.

I'll do a bit more exploring when the main server is up, a bit more testing, but it's looking at least slightly better than it was. 

I'd like to see better combat functionality, skills etc. A better system than progression points in the future. Some kinda of overall points based system for advancement would be good. At the moment everything's gimped, but it'd be nice to believe that there is some hope from this release.

Beware - they have a security program called Paladin,a nd it's a bit like a raving pill head. It will randomly accuse you of speedhacks for things like  going down stairs, talking to NPC's and walking.  This is apparantly the cause of lag and the server catching up on positions so it looks like velocity has kiked up madly. But you may get booted from the server randomly. I was accused of speed hackign for walking down some stairs, which you no longer fly over like a paraglider with a rocket up your arse by the way, another good thing, and moving forwards. I wasn't kicked though. 

So, plaenshift looks as though it's moving into the 21st century. Slowly, but it's doing so, this is good.  Hopefully we will see some more improvements to come.