Hellgate (Abyss Chron.+Japan expansion) New Info!

Some new info I found on the interwebs, enjoy:

"This is intended to answer most of the questions popping up surrounding Hanbitsoft/T3 Entertainment's re-release of Hellgate: London.

1. What is / Why is it called Hellgate: Leisure Wreck Shawn?

Hellgate: Leisure Wreck Shawn is the re-packaged version of Hellgate: London by Hanbitsoft / T3 Entertainment and Redbana USA.

Hanbit/T3 felt that re-branding the game was justifiable since the initial release of the game had such an unfortunate and rough start. They also are using it as part of a marketing campaign that which emphasizes Hellgate's unique feel and different approach, compared to pretty much all of the online games of today. Hence, one of the key points of the game is that it breaks the mold of the tired, cannon-fodder MMORPG by giving the player fast paced, instantly gratifying, high violence action / arcade / fps / arpg entertainment.

Also, it is actually called "Hellgate: Resurrection". Leisure Wreck Shawn is the Korean pronunciation of Resurrection; as amusing as it does sound, that is what they call it.

 

2. I want to play it! How do I get to play it?! When!?!!

Slow down son. Unless you were lucky enough to exploit a security hole in Hanbitsoft's online game portal a few months ago, you won't be able to play it. And even if you could play it right now, you wouldn't like it; it's only available in the Korean language.

 

3. So are we SOL?

Recently Hanbitsoft purchased the distribution rights for the Hellgate franchise outside of Korea. They have also announced plans to market and distribute the game in North America, Europe, China, Japan and apparently the Singapore area.

Apparently they will be first be re-introducing the game to the Asian markets. So North American and Europe will have to hang tight.

No actual time line has been put out; but there is much speculation that the Japanese version will be coming out very soon (as in the end of this month). So the American release shouldn't be too far behind.

4. Does the game cost anything to play? Is it still using the subscription system?

No, it is 100% free to play. The only thing that you have to pay for are cheats/character options from the in-game store.

5. What does the store sell? Does it force the store onto you?

A. Here is a short list of what the store sells; prices and items are subject to change before NA launch:

Extra skill points for your character (up to 10) .... $4.40 each

Skill / Attribute / Perk re-trainers .... $9.60 / $11.00 / $14.30 per retrainer

Super Adrenaline Pills (30 second duration) ... $0.33 cents for 50

STR/WIL/ACC/STAM pills (4 HR and 8 HR durations) ... $0.33 / $0.77 each

Debuff Removers (Ignite/Shock/Poison/Stun/Phase)* ... $0.33 for 100

Super debuff remover (applies to all debuffs)* ... $0.50 for 100

+25% experience / +50% experience for 8 hours ... $0.99 / $1.98

Resurrection Hearts (Revives you where you died w/out any penalty) ... Varying prices for varying stacks; low as $0.27 for 1 to $2.35 for 90

Shared Stash Rental ... $1.43 for 30 days

Storage bags (work like the cube) ... Varying prices, I.E. $2.75 for a 4x4 size bag

Super Analyzer (ID's all items in your inventory) ... $0.33 for 100

Socket Enabler (adds sockets to items that didn't spawn with all slots) ... $1.43 for 1

*These things sit in your inventory and if you get hit with a debuff, they automatically trigger and remove the debuff while also giving you 10 seconds of immunity to the debuff.

b. Beyond the obvious notion that you will probably want to buy store items for making your inventory bigger; it really depends on how fast you want to get through the game. The extra 10 skill points are also pretty tempting, but some may view this as cheating. And the extra life hearts are obvious 'cheats'. Sadly, players have taken such a liking to those items that they often sell them at the consignment house to make big bucks. And Hanbitsoft hands out 1 up hearts quite often... so it's pretty much left up to whether or not you want to ignore the stuff and destroy it, take advantage of it, or take advantage of other players.

To make a long story short... it's there, you may as well take advantage of it somehow. But if you have the patience, you may never use the store.

6. Have they added in the Abyss Chronicles? What's all this talk about Tokyo?!

a. Yes, they've added in the Abyss Chronicles. They've also added in the 12 or so extra areas that Flagship never got to show us.

b. Tokyo was an extra big surprise that Flagship was working on in secret; it's basically the expansion pack to Hellgate: London, if you will. It will be included with the North American launch.

7. Did they leave anything out of the Abyss Chronicles?

Sadly, they did; and some stuff they yanked out of it and put into other areas.

What made it:

- Parliament Square

- The Abyss

- Achievements

- Ravager fix

- Abyss bosses (the old ones have been moved to the "Second Invasion" area)

- Abyss monsters

- New Abyss bosses (presumably these were made by Flagship for something else; they replace the old 4)

- Graphics engine overhaul

- Improved User Interface (2 shortcut bars instead of 1, easier to read font, easier to understand interface, in-game shortcut menu, more options for chat and guild)

- Better party / pvp match making menus

- New unique variants of Hellgate 1.3 weapons (I.E. Arclite Cannon, Masamune Odachi, Mutenicle, etc.)

- New unique varients of Hellgate 1.3 armor (I.E. Kabuto, Dullelos, PVC, etc.)

- New dye kits

- Entrance to P. Square is in Templar base

- Consignment House (sell-only market place, terminals for this are found in most major stations such as Charring Cross)

- Improved background downloader

What didn't make it:

- The ultimate weapons from the Abyss (I.E. Gleamcarver, Dissector, Thumper, Glyph Cage, Claws, etc.)

- The ultimate armors from the Abyss (Seraphic, Tech and Armor of Darkness sets)

- Rings / Trinkets

- The new skills (I.E. Spider Drones, Shield Throw, Bone Wall, etc.)

- The improved Wake Hollow

- Balance fix for armor and shields

- Balance fix for monster damage

- Balance fix for solo and party play

- +skill item bug fix

- Augumatrix improvement fix

- Feed re-balance

- Templar weapon damage fix

- Double Edged, Mythic and Set items (they had them in for a couple of months but then they vanished without a trace)

- PVP overhaull (Death match, CTF and squad command)

- Melee damage overhaul (they fixed the bug on the equation, but STR to melee remains at 1%, not 3%)

- Power regen fix

- Some of the memory leaks that Flagship had fixed with their version of 2.0.

 

It is unknown as to if they intend to implement the above content, if ever. Many are disappointed that they left it out. At the moment, it seems like they are holding it back for either Tokyo or a more climatic expansion.

8. Is there anything else that they've put in / changed that we've never seen?

a. Storyline / Cosmetic changes

- Rewritten the storyline (markably better, but it's their own change; it still has touches of Mel Odom's original design, but unfortunately it's also too serious and opaque.)

* They do however make the NPCs more important, and you find out some information that you would have never known from Flagship's joke story.

- Got rid of almost all of the comedy from the joke storyline that was left in since Hellgate Alpha (Arlo and his buddies are still in the game, but now only Arlo cusses)

- Better faces (although very Asian-looking) for character generation. It is unknown as to if they will be using the western faces for the North American launch.

- Allay Penn is actually included in the storyline beyond her supposed death in the intro movie

- Murmur doesn't look like a walking corpse when he shows up after you kill Sydonai

- New running animations

- New area tile sets (HELL NOW ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE HELL!)

- A slightly annoying "BUY OUR CRAP!" button that is floating on the far right side of the screen, underneath where your buffs are displayed.

- You can now quit your character and go back to the character selection screen, instead of having to log back into your account.

- The donation system is gone; they use the medics for other in-game events now.

- New season event items (I.E. Different Fawkes and Christmas helmets/consumable items)

 

b. Quest Changes

- The RTS mini-game from Act 2 where you fought Beelzebub is gone; you now actually have to fight Beelzebub mano-mano in a very exciting confrontation nearby a very creepy looking tree. And he is easily the biggest Felbore Archfiend you will ever face.

- Rob Someone is no longer hanging around the Exospectre

- The game doesn't require you to replay it on Nightmare mode. After you beat Sydonai, you move onto the "Second Invasion" and after that, Tokyo. Stonehenge and The Abyss are once again accessible from Templar base at levels 20 and 30.

- Supposedly (this is unconfirmed) ranks give you 5 extra attribute points, like a regular level-up

- New intro area and tutorial mission(s)

- Angel's Passage and Occulus are gone; you now go through an entirely new area with some new monsters and fight a new spider-demon boss. So no more cleansing.

- Sadly, the Broker is still around.

- Generally speaking, quests give much more Palladium and more experience

c. Game play changes

- As mentioned up above, the str to melee equation has been fixed, but it remains at 1% instead of Flagship's 3%

- Monsters no longer hit multiple times per frame; so no more orbile and stalker insta-deaths

- Hardcore mode is gone (for now)

- Normal/Nightmare/Hell mode is now selectable from a drop-down menu while you are in a station. It only effects instances you haven't visited yet. When it's applied, it scales the difficulty up accordingly to your level.

(Hell mode is not in yet, but is promised for the future)

- The overall game is now harder (in order to entice you to buy stuff from the store).

+all attribute items are harder to find at low levels

Monsters hit slightly harder

More monsters appear

Champion monsters appear less frequently

Drops are a bit worse

You cannot buy adrenaline pills at merchants anymore

Vendors prices are higher

The Nanoforge now has a chance to reverse nano weapons after 2 upgrades and totally destroy them after 7 upgrades

The de-modifier has a chance to destroy mods; the chance goes up when you use mods that are a higher quality than the weapon they are put into

You level up slower

Proc-on-hit effects have been toned down slightly (I.E. Shrapnel was nerfed, a bit)

d. Second Invasion

- Talox, Squadro, Fulcrum and Dreadnaught all have their own 5-6 map deep areas for you to explore before you fight them. They have been re-named from their Abyss names however. The areas that they occupy were originally meant to go with the Abyss Chronicles, but Hanbitsoft has moved them around quite a bit before hand in order to make due with content that was usable. This content is now reachable after you finish Sydonai.

e. Class Changes

Marksman

- Grenades were buffed

- Strikes were nerfed a little (only levels 1-4 of each strike)

- Dead Eye and various other passives were slightly tweaked (mostly incidental changes)

Engineer

- Fixed the AI on the drone

- Fixed the drone's sword attacks

- Added some synergies for the bots

- Bots move faster to keep up with the Engineer

- Strikes & grenades changed as with the MM

Evoker

- Hellfire was buffed tremendously

- Swarm was buffed

- Arc Legion was buffed

- Tempest was nerfed (only a little)

- Spectral Lash was buffed tremendously

- Brom's Curse was improved

- Word of Fear was improved

Summoner

- Summoner was given the poison tree (venom armor, pestillent spirit, swarm)

- Elemental tree was changed so that they receive buffs from the summons tree

- Summons have had their skills consolidated to get rid of point sinks

- Reaper was buffed

- Carnagor was buffed

- Warper was nerfed

- Witch Doctor was buffed (slightly)

- Brom's Curse was improved

Blademaster

- Blademaster surges proc on hit

- Whirlwind was buffed tremendously

- Sweeping strikes was buffed tremendously

- New BM skill - Grappling Hook Attachment; lets you shoot a grappling hook without the gun

- Call of the Chosen was buffed

- New BM skill - Parry (replaces Thorns); gives the BM passive dodge and chance to counter

- Onslaught was changed; gives a chance to crit instead of enhancing charge attacks

- Sword Typhoon was buffed

- Faster base move speed

- Small amount of natural health regen

Guardian

- Stampede and Shield bash were buffed (although Shield Bash cannot be used while jumping now)

- Taunts had their skills consolidated from 4 to 2; less point sink

- Prayer of Retribution was buffed tremendously

- Great Defender was buffed tremendously

- Thorns was changed from an aura to the BM version (passive buff, adds permanent thorns)

- New skill: Onslaught (works like the BM version)

- New skill: Blessed Onslaught (adds to the critical damage bonus)

- Faster base move speed

- Small amount of natural health regen

f. Item changes

- New unique versions of all the version 1.3 weapons and armor, mostly for levels 40-50

- Palladium drops are now higher

- Items that do not drop with all sockets will show the missing sockets greyed out; you can enable them via an item from the store

- Some new % chance affixes, not sure of what they do

- Items now list move info when you mouse-over them

- The number up above the item name is now clarified as the DPS of the item

- New 2 handed swords for the Templar that Flagship never got to implement

- New guns for the Cabalists (I.E. Poison Beetle Bores)

- New guns for the Hunters (I.E. Gattling guns)

- Items sell for a slightly higher price at vendors

- Low level items give much less scrap or no scrap at all

- Nano shards do show up more frequently

- Most staple items can now be stacked into higher quantities (I.E. Adrenaline pills up to 50, Essences up to 100)

9. WOW! Ok, how much cool stuff is in Tokyo?

- Check out the preview site that Hanbiton has set up

- At least 2-3 acts worth of new areas, probably more (none are under-ground, but some are in Hell)

- Samurai inspired Armor sets for the Templar (and presumably new armors for the Cabalists and Hunters)

- Lots of new weapons

- Perhaps some new skills

- NO new classes

- The next chapter in the story

- Supposedly more UI overhaul

- Supposedly a level cap raise

- SUPPOSEDLY the PVP portion of the game will see some improvement after the initial Tokyo patch

- UPDATE: Tokyo is officially set to launch 4/6/10 in Korea.

10. I'm a subscriber/founder from the old Hellgate, will I get my stuff back?

Probably not. They made their own subscribers abandon their characters to start fresh on a new server when they switched over to Leisure Wreck Shawn.

11. Will I be compensated for the stuff I lost / the money I spent?

Maybe. They DID compensate their own subscribers by giving them refunds and/or free in-game store credit.

They also gave them a free unique zombot pet who gives a 25% damage boost and a 10% run speed increase, along with a free storage bag and about 20 extra life hearts. It seems like only one character per account was allowed in on that deal.

Store credit was applied to accounts only if the players did not chose to have a refund.

But we'll have to wait and see if they do ANYTHING at all. Don't hold your breath, but also don't give your hopes up. If they do give anything, be greatful. As far as I know, they are not legally obligated to do anything for us at this point besides market a product. And even then, that's if they actually follow through with the North American / European re-launch.

Alas, let's not go pounding our fists on objects made from decapitated trees.

12. I've heard they do in-game and out of game events almost non-stop every month. Will they be doing that for our servers?

Probably. From what I can tell, all of the games Hanbitsoft has brought over to America has kept its livelihood of in-game events. But it ultimately depends on how good of a localization dev. team they put up.

From what I can tell, Redbana USA will probably be handling our side of the world - which would probably be for the best, since they are supposedly handling most of the development.

However, keep in mind that they had the Redbana team moved to Korea so the project manager could keep a better watch over them and speed up the development life cycle. Still, Redbana is behind it... so just stay optimistic.

13. What happened to Elite Mode and Hardcore mode?

- Elite mode is gone for good. If you want something like that, play on Nightmare mode or Hell mode only.

- Hardcore mode is supposed to be coming back; sadly it isn't their biggest priority. They felt it was too frustrating for their player base. Perhaps they'll reconsider if the western audiences pester them.

But beyond that, you'll have to keep in mind that the resurrection hearts may still be in hardcore mode. They'd rather sell you the ability to revive than miss out on an opportunity left un-touched (or so it seems).

13. What if Bill/Tiggs/Scapes/Guy Somberg/FSS-10 shows up ?

Run. Especially if FSS-10 does. That guy was too shady to be trusted with anything. And he cheated. A lot.

He must've been a ninja. Which explains why they were doing a Tokyo expansion