The winners for the Best Action Screenshot were announced on December 24, 2001 on Anarchy Online.com Welcome to the first in the series of screenshot competition winner announcements. We will be going through the winners of each category before the New Year. First of all we would like to thank you all for all the many submissions we received. Most of the entries came in the "low resolution" category however, so we had to redefine some of the categories. We included the low resolution ones in the other categories. We also realised it was near impossible to differentiate "action" and "battle" shots hence we merged that category. For all of you who see your shots presented during the next few days: Congratulations, and expect to see your prize early in the new year. Some of you might also see your screenshots in our regular screenshot section. These were the ones that almost made it into the prizes. Better luck next time! Over to the winners, and we start with best action-shot. As mentioned we included entries from battle shots in this category as they were hard to differentiate. And the winners are: 1st: Frank Mascaro 2nd: synj 3rd: Kim Arild Foss

There is a problem where some people get stuck in their Yalmahas after zoning into an indoors playfield. When you zone into an indoors playfield with the Yalmaha equipped it will get disabled. If you then die inside that playfield, you might not be able to un-equip the Yalmaha after you get resurrected. If you un-equip the Yalmaha before zoning into the playfield you will of course not encounter this problem. If this should happen to you, you need to make sure you include the text "stuck in Yalmaha" in your petition to ensure that we can get to you in a timely fashion. We are sorry for this little inconvenience

From the editor on Anarchy Online Official page explains a little problem with getting stuck in your Yalmaha. There is a problem where some people get stuck in their Yalmahas after zoning into an indoors playfield. When you zone into an indoors playfield with the Yalmaha equipped it will get disabled. If you then die inside that playfield, you might not be able to un-equip the Yalmaha after you get resurrected. If you un-equip the Yalmaha before zoning into the playfield you will of course not encounter this problem. If this should happen to you, you need to make sure you include the text "stuck in Yalmaha" in your petition to ensure that we can get to you in a timely fashion. We are sorry for this little inconvenience!

According to Anarchy Online.com the new patch is live. The following is a tidbit from the news page. Episode 104, "Dust to Dust", of the Anarchy Online Animated Series, and patch 13.4 is now out. You can download the latest episode in the Story Portal to see what our heroes on Rubi-Ka are up to this time. We hope you enjoy both the episode and the patch, and remind you that there is a dedicated conference in the forum to the discussion on the story Read on for the patch notes... On Live Server Build Notes for items that have passed the test process and have been patched to the live servers. Build Notes v13.4 General Changes: Added a large new dungeon; the level range is 40-70 Added a new bar: "Beer and Booze Pub". Merit boards can now be worn with social armour. This means both battle suits and grid armor. We have added the first few static missions. Primers finally removed from the shops (they had no function). We have made a change to the inventory system when it is full. If you receive an item, a new window will now be opened where you can extract it. This will for instance apply if you complete a mission without sufficient room available. Please note that the window will work as the loot view you open after killing a mob. The items will not be considered yours, until you make room for them and move them to your inventory. If you decide to close the window, the items will be lost. When zoning to an indoor playfield with a vehicle equipped, it will no longer drop to your inventory, but be disabled. It will then be marked red in your wear view. When you enter an outdoor playfield again, it will automatically be enabled. Removed mission entrances that were in accessible in Eastern Foul Plains and Omni-Entertainment. Information tools now work as intended. Removed the old organisation items from shops. The new organisation code means these items are no longer needed. Social armor will no longer be so common reward when doing missions. The Pioneer Backpack can be modified using a screwdriver so that, instead of it increasing your size slightly, it will reduce your size slightly. This can only be done with an empty backpack. Bureaucrat Changes: Charm fix – charmed monsters can now be treated as pets. Fear fix – The fear nano "Sudden Scare" will now work as intended, and we have added a psychic skill check to it. Metaphysicist changes: The 3rd pet will be added. It is a psychosis/mesmerize pet. Healing pets will no longer go into a coma if their target dies or fades away. Agent changes: Agents in False Profession being healed with a team heal will now be healed instantly, and no longer have a 10 seconds delay. Pet Changes: The /pet terminate command now has unlimited range. PvP Changes: A warning will now be given if you try to attack a player who is in a group outside of your PvP level range. Trade-skill Changes: Added new trade-skill departments to all ordinary supermarkets. The content of the shops might be adjusted when we've seen them in action for a while. Player feedback on these shops is appreciated. Added trade skills for improving certain melee weapons. Check out the shops!

The AO servers will be down for approximately 3 hours tomorrow for a patch starting at 11:00 GMT. To see what changes are being made, go to this link.

I'll be watching AO from now on to make sure you guys get your ear-full of information. Now, directly from anarchy-online.com ... Tue, 18 Dec, 2001 Editor Episode 4 of the Anarchy Online Animated Series, "Dust to Dust" , scheduled for release today, has unfortunately had to be rescheduled for tomorrow. Patch 13.4, which is closely tied with to the episode, needed a few more hours of testing and won't be ready for release until tomorrow. We hope everyone understands that this is the best way for us to ensure a high quality patch, and that we wouldn't do this unless we felt it was important. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Here's the official update for today: Today the topic will be about new content, and specifically high level content. Also a bit of information on the coming server patch. We would like to give you a brief summary of two of the content issues we have been working on lately: Static dungeons: We have a number of static dungeons in internal testing. We are very happy with them, and as soon as we find them ready, we will add them to the game in patches. Unique monsters: Some of these will be "named", regular monsters with better loot, others will be aimed towards high level encounters and as such it will be required that multiple groups of players cooperate to beat them. On a side note, in the next few days we will release a server patch. At this point it is in the final stages of internal testing. The patch will address the time warp problems some of you have been experiencing.

Here's today's update from the official site: Based on feedback received from players we have made a list of the 10 most important problems AO-players are experiencing. The list is quite long and detailed and has been posted in full at the Funcom Official message board thread The purpose of the list is to get a common understanding between the team and the players on what the most important issues are. Please use the Funcom Official thread if you think other problems are more important or would like to give other feedback on the list. For some of the concerns the list will give an update of the situation. For others it will point players in the right direction for where to find more information or previous discussions about them. 10 most important player concerns in Anarchy Online:

Problems in cities (including lag and memory leak) Server stability (including time warps)

IP-reallocation

High-level play

New content (including items, static dungeons, variety in missions, unique NPCs)

Trade skills and other skills with little content (Thrown Weapons and Water Vehicles)

Exploits and exploiting

Clan, faction and community

Profession balance

Pet issues