Some important info has been released for AO players: Hello AO, -Both missions and bravery tokens have been made unique. This means that you may only have one of these in your possession at all times. IMPORTANT NOTE; if you have tokens in your inventory at this time, you need to upload these before you can get a new one. -Chest loot in missions has been changed. There should now be a larger variety of items dropped. -Ash Andersen in Smugglers' Den no longer have any assignments to give out, this is due to some players not fulfilling the mission to his liking... Best regards, Darren "Dai-Galean" Scott Community Team Funcom Oslo AS http://www.funcom.com http://www.anarchy-online.com

General Changes:  The PVP grace period now works as was originally intended. This means no more grid camping!  PvP Title will now update without the need for zoning, so you will see your new PvP title instantly.  Neutrals will now have PvP titles.  The reward for PvP has been changed. You will now be able to loot all items your opponent has gained since last saving, and you will receive a trophy if the person loses more than 10% of the experience needed to gain a level.  You will now be able to apply implants when wearing social armour.  You should get more "points" from each token at higher levels! This should now better reflect the time it takes to get the tokens at higher levels. Please do not see this as us "devaluating" your past accomplishments.  There is now a chance of getting a special token reward for killing sided monsters at medium high levels  You will now receive feedback when trying to use Brawl and Dimach before the recharge time has expired  Fixed a bug that caused locked chests to close again after they where opened.  Fixed a graphic bug that caused models to become distorted when using continuously level of detail.  Some mission descriptions were missing locations. These have now been fixed. Please note that there are still missions without locations, this is intended.  Your team members will no longer share the experience gained as a reward when completing a single player mission. All experience gained from killing mobs will still be shared.  Your faction will not appear as monster in the character creation any more.  You will no longer hear your own footsteps while flying with Quantum Wings.  There have been added new static missions. Launcher Changes:  Added new background bitmaps in the launcher. NOTE: This means that if you are using a different skin on your launcher now, it will be overwritten. If you would like to keep it, please make a backup. Item Changes:  Fixed the “unique” stat. You can no longer have two “unique” items of the same type in your inventory. Unfortunately, this means that Engineers and Bureaucrats can only have one pet shell of the same kind in their inventory.  Some melee weapons displayed ammotype=0 in the description. This has now been fixed.  Fixed the incorrect look of the higher quality level Kodaik vehicles.  The Biomech armour cloak will now fit in the correct clothing slot.  The Balanced Netgun now has the correct icon.  Purchased ammo will now stack with looted ammo.  The superior deflection shields from quality level 105 and up gave too much of an AC modification when used. We have now fixed the bug causing this, resulting in the modification being lowered.  Special arrows have been added to use with the Bow Special Attack skill. The Bow Special Attack requirement has been removed from all bows that had it. You will still need a bow to fire them, but the bow can be of any quality level. This should make this weapon more flexible.  Some armour textures got messed up after un-equipping a vehicle. This has now been fixed.  Most Martial Artists Weapons (weapons that use Martial Arts as their main attack skill), have had their initiative type changed from Melee Initiative to Physical Initiative. This should make them more useful. Due to technical reasons we've not been able to change this on two weapons: They are the "Click Stabber" and the "Burning Crescent". All the possible "improved" versions of these weapons will use Physical Initiative, as they should. Game world changes:  Added a new dungeon: Smugglers Den!  The Treepine Hut in Pleasant Meadows now has 100% suppression gas inside.  The Tir arena has a few changes to the borders around it.  A few graphical glitches in Tir have been fixed  Two places where you could get stuck in Tir have been fixed.  We have added special shops for Fixers and Traders.  Some shops have been cleaned up. A few of them still had tradeskill items that we now have specific shops for. Monster changes:  NPC Nano Technicians have had several nano programs removed, since they made them too powerful.  Some NPCs did not have textures on their weapons. This has been fixed.  A certain large lizard has some new goodies.  Monster AC decreased. There was a bug in the AC of "human" monsters. They got their AC added twice. This has now been fixed, and should result in a decreased chance of hitting "minimum" damage only.  Ghasap’s minions have had their spawn time increased.  Tarasque will now de-spawn if he is pulled to the 100 % suppression gas area of Camelot, and he will return to his platform when he no longer have aggro. Nano changes:  The "Team Warp Time and Space" programs have had their descriptions changed. The team side requirement was missing.  All Taunt nanos now inflict a minor amount of damage and now work as they should.  False Profession Engineer and Bureaucrat nanos have had their descriptions changed to clarify their use.  We have decreased the duration of the Agent's Assume and Mimic line of nanos. The Assume line now lasts for 25 minutes and the Mimic line now lasts 20 minutes.  The DoT (Damage over Time) nano "Slime Cascade" will no longer occasionally heal the victim.  The following nanos were missing their nano point cost, and will now require the correct amount of nano to execute: o Total Focus (soldier) o Limbo Mastery (martial artist) o Imaginary Distractions (trader) o Mimic Profession: Nano Technician (agent).  All stun nanos will now have their recharge time executed correctly.  It will no longer be possible to break Root nanos during a fight by executing hostile nanos on yourself.  The feedback has been reduced when Speech nanos are executed on you. You will no longer receive a message each time these nanos refresh.  Another size bug with Ruse of Taren has been fixed.  Armour summoned by Fixers should now go in the right slots.  Quantum Wings will no longer terminate when you zone.  Area effect nanos will no longer be non-resistible to anyone who wasn't the original target. Martial Artist changes:  The martial arts damage output has been increased! The "damage range" has been increased too, so the chance of doing minimum damage to monsters is less.  The martial arts critical have been increased quite a bit.  Blessed with Thunder has been modified slightly. The data for the DoT part of BwT has been changed to correspond with the damage it was actually inflicting - so, the complete damage has not been changed at all. The damage shield segment has been slightly changed and will result in it no longer being possible to stack this aspect of BwT.  Fixed the stun effect on the Bird of Prey special attack. Note: there is only a possibility of achieving a stun with this attack, it won't happen every time.  The animations when using special attacks have been fixed.  Fixed a bug where MAs stopped doing fist damage after zoning or buffing while wielding a weapon. Fixer changes:  The Area Burst special attack has been added. Please feel free to give feedback and suggestions on this item.

As you may all know by now Anarchy Online was named MMORPG of the year for 2001 by PC Gamer US. In addition to the good news from last week, ign.com published a second look at Anarchy Online this weekend. "Anarchy Online comes highly recommended in its current state" says Ign.com, and with quotes like: "Anarchy Online now stands as one of the best MMORPGs currently available..." and "...you'd be a fool to pass over Anarchy Online" we feel confident we are on the right track. Head over to the article on IGN http://pc.ign.com/articles/324/324736p1.html - - - - - - Winning an award and receiving new "reviews" like this would have been impossible if it weren't for the fantastic base of loyal players we have, and the amount of great feedback we receive. To express our gratitude we want to reward that loyalty. During the rest of February we will award two months of free game time for every new player brought in by an existing player! All you need to do is join our "recruit-a-friend" program, and every friend you bring to Rubi-Ka who becomes a subscriber will be worth two months of game time added to your account. You can join our "recruit-a-friend" program at http://www.anarchyonline.com/content/shop/buddy/ - - - - - - The Advisors of Rubi-Ka (ARK) are proud to announce a redesigned, revamped, and more informative website. With a completely new and refreshing look, added information a more user-friendly structure, it's now easier than ever to find out all you want to know about the in-game shakers and makers. http://ark.anarchy-online.com/ As a part of the ARK redesign we have also introduced an own section for weddings on Rubi-Ka. This is a service available to all players. For more details and procedures on how to book a wedding, please go to: http://ark.anarchy-online.com/php/weddings.php - - - - - - Finally, more content is as always on its way to Rubi-Ka. To find out what you can expect in the next patch we have published some preliminary patch notes for 13.8. Among the highlights you will find yet another dungeon. The Smuggler's Den is a real challenge even for the best prepared, and along with several fixes, improvements and additions, we hope you will experience for yourself the dedication we put into making Anarchy Online the game of choice for every internet player. http://community.anarchy-online.com/content/game/inproduction/test/

This is the headline Sunday at AnarchyOnline, and they should be proud. What a comeback Funcom! Anarchy Online has been awarded Best Massively Multiplayer Game by PC Gamer in the March issue. This follows Best Multiplayer Game of Show at ECTS that Anarchy Online was awarded in September of 2001. "So why, you may wonder, would we reward the initially unstable and nearly impossible-to-play Anarchy Online... Our answer: Have you played AO lately?" said PC Gamer's editorial staff in the award issue. "In our original review of Anarchy Online we said that it would be the next great MMORPG, only some time in the future. Well, that future is here," the article read. We are sure that as fans, you are as pleased as we are that the media has seen the improvements in the game and we have already seen an increase in players from this article. We have scans of the articles from PC Gamer here and here, or buy the full magazine in stores on February 12.

The article posted on AnarchyOnline about soloing now has a conclusion, Gaute Godager, the Game Director, has added some more information for soloing and teaming. And gives a little insight to how professions are made. There is also a link to the first installment in the story. Read the entire article here.

Masked Commandos Cause Mayhem and Bloodshed Rubi-Ka Headline Services February 8. 29476 – 17:47 RST For the second day in a row, masked commandos – believed to be members of the terrorist organisation Dust Brigade – attacked Omni-Tek employees, clan-members, and neutral citizens across Rubi-Ka. There are still no reports of permanent injury or deaths resulting from the attacks, as all victims so far have been insured, but the apparently random attacks have been sudden and brutal, and Omni-Pol spokespeople fear that the violence may spread even further, and that all citizens are at risk. Omni-Pol promises to put all their resources into investigating the incidents, and to apprehend the terrorists as soon as possible, although internal sources claim there are few clues, and no one from the Dust Brigade has, as of yet, been captured alive or questioned.

The seventh chapter of Prophet Without Honour has been posted on AnarchyOnline and WOW it was great! TO: KATHRYNS@NEWSDESK-INT.CNN.COM FROM: JLLOYD@ROAMING.CNN.COM SUBJECT: The big one! Kathy, We need this story live ASAP! We have exactly one hour lead-time on this, but I can’t for the life of me get access to a voice-line or broadband sat connection and I'll just have to hope and pray that this cell link doesn't go AWOL on me before the mail has been sent. Twenty-four minutes until the hourly update from Atlanta, and if you stamp this EXPRESS I ought to be watching Donna reading this at 8PM here in Beijing. My sources are ONE HUNDRED PERCENT reliable, and I'm counting on you, Kathy, so don't screw this up!! Okay, here we go: It's been twelve months since the first outbreak of the flu here in China, and in all that time the world's been holding its breath for the announcement that will put to rest the fear and the paranoia that's haunted us: A drug; a cure. Now that announcement is forthcoming. CNN has come across highly reliable information suggesting that at some point in the next few hours Farmatek, a Silicon Valley based biotechnology corporation, will reveal to the world a drug created using patented nanotechnology (Kathy: get some visual cues here, create a video link to some kind of generic archival footage of Farmatek's nanobots); a drug that will prevent infection of the type-X virus and halt the outbreak of the deadly influenza. Experts had feared that hundreds of millions of people would be infected by this virus in the next few years, and that Hong Kong, Beijing, and Bombay would have to remain under strict martial quarantine. Now there may be hope for an end to the deaths and for the eventual reopening of these cities to the world. There has yet to be an official statement from Farmatek or anyone else, but sources have confirmed to CNN that several batches of the drug have already been shipped out to high-risk areas where the disease has infected over 50% of the population. The development of the drug has been on an unprecedented fast-track, and the FDA has apparently granted the product approval after only a minimal trial period, but the use of nanotechnology does, according to experts (Kathy: get some experts in to say JUST THAT!), result in fewer potential problems and side-effects than with traditional drug research and development. We will follow this story very closely over the next few days, and we will provide updates as soon as we hear of any new developments. As we mentioned earlier, an official statement is expected before the end of the day, and it is believed that not only will Farmatek issue a statement to the media, but representatives for the governments of the United States, the European Union, China, and India will also hold press conferences. Stay tuned to CNN throughout the day...blah blah blah. Kathy: again, you know how big this is, so DON'T SCREW IT UP! I'll keep trying to secure a broadband line and do a live report, but failing that, I'll expect this on the air in FIFTEEN minutes! -jake

The Dust Brigade attack again. No lives were "permanently" lost says the Omni Herald today on AnarchyOnline. The Omni Herald February 7. 29476 - 18:58 RST A number of Omni-Tek employees and OT-held interests were targeted yesterday by uniformed and camouflaged soldiers claiming to be associated with the terrorist clan called the Dust Brigade. Image from an intercepted Dust Brigade transmission. While no lives were permanently lost in yesterday's unprovoked attacks, the Corporation is concerned about the probability of more violence in the near future, and intends to crack down with extreme prejudice on any and all persons and organisations affiliated with the Brigade or other radical militant clans. The Dust Brigade is known to have been behind the blast in Omni-1's entertainment district in December of last year, as well as a number of terrible attacks on citizens during the last civil war. Unconfirmed reports have also linked the Dust Brigade to possible sabotage on insurance databanks, as well as the illegal possession of life-force dissipaters and devices that are able to scramble suppression-gas receptors. Omni-Tek employees are advised to stay close to major cities and to travel in company - armed and protected, preferably with experienced fighters - as long as the current threat-level remains high and all OT forces remain on alert.

Posted last evening by the Rubi-Ka Headline Service via AnarchyOnline. Rubi-Ka Headline Services February 6. 29476 – 15:15 RST In a sudden, but not unexpected move, the Omni-Tek Corporation has announced an immediate end to the amnesty, and has terminated all communication with any clan-affiliated organisation - including the Council of Truth. The following statement was issued less than half an hour ago by OT spokespeople: "In response to the Council's continued unwillingness to cooperate with Omni-Tek to root out radical criminal elements on the clan side - as well as the illegal military actions against lawful Omni-Pol forces in Sabulum - the Omni-Tek Corporation has cancelled the amnesty, effective immediately, and terminated all contact with clan-affiliated organisations. Security will be increased at OT-owned interests across Rubi-Ka, and clan-members will not be welcome in any area under direct OT-control, as defined by the Tir Accord " Shortly after, the Council of Truth issued an official response: "Omni-Tek blames the Council of Truth for their decision to end the amnesty, and step up the conflict. The Council has attempted to accommodate Omni-Tek in any way possible, within reason, in the past few months, and expresses shock and concern over OT's decision to abandon all communication and future negotiations. It is our hope that we will once again be able to find common ground, and avert civil war. Our planet has suffered enough: it's up to the Omni-Tek Corporation to ensure that our children can grow up in peace and prosperity." There are already reports of violent confrontations between OT forces and clan-members, and all citizens - neutral, Omni-Tek, or clan - are advised to return to their own regions until the situation has stabilised.

Changes text 13.6 Mission Changes: • On certain settings (Bad/Money) you would occasionally get only 2 missions to choose from instead of 5. This should now be fixed. GUI Changes: • A new help menu has been added. If you type /help you will now open a new window with an overview of all the different help menus available. Here, you will find information about the basics of the game, and how to use the different commands. Item Changes: • All Hacked Symbio-Grafts should now work. • Trimmers: The feedback in the chat window when using trimmers on robot pets has been corrected. • Added a new taunt item, Da Taunter! • All Omni-Med Uniform pieces should now give the bonus listed in the item description. Hellooooo Nurse! • Attack of the Snake should now work properly, even when the item has a Quality Level over 100. • "Rubi-Ka World Collectables" now use their proper icons. • Reflect Bracelets should now work. The reason they didn't work was a missing stat. • Tank Armours will no longer turn black/brown/worn after zoning - They will keep their original colours. • Auto Targeting Computers (for Ranged Weapon Tradeskills) were in the incorrect booth. They've been moved from the Melee parts booth to the Ranged booth. Lazy shopkeepers! • New deflection shields are available! • The damage type of the Stigma Rifle has been changed from projectile to poison, to reflect the description it has had all along, "The Stigma Rifle is a well-known rifle, as it is outlawed in most areas of the galaxy. It fires a small stream of poisonous gas, flaring up on impact." • Ring of Luck - Defensive now adds to your defensive skill (it added to offensive instead). • There are more kinds of backpacks now! -w00t!- • The "Kalinkalov Mz-99" had "brawl" as a requirement. We don't have support for brawling with ranged weapons, so we've removed "brawl" from this Assault Rifle. • The description on damage increasing items has been fixed. Previously it stated that this was a % increased, which was wrong. It is a straight increase, not a %. Be aware that this is not a nerf as the way the items operate has not changed in any manner, only the description of the item was fixed. Chat Changes: • JAPANESE CHAT- INFORMATION >From patch 13.6 there is support for Japanese characters and input methods in the in- game chat. First and foremost it supports Windows 98, 2k and XP. This adds several new elements to the user interface for Japanese users. There are two new hotkeys that are used to toggle between Japanese and English input. To switch from English to Japanese, you hit CTRL-I. To toggle between Hiragana and Katakana conversion mode you hit CTRL-K. There are some restrictions however: In public channels (vicinity, shopping, seeking team, OOC clan, Omni, Neutral) you MUST tick the check box to be able to both receive and send Japanese messages. If you do NOT tick this box, which can be found in the Misc options menu, you will neither receive nor be able to send Japanese text messages. The reason for this is to avoid "spamming" to English speaking players who can't understand the character-set. The Japanese channel only works within the playfield you're in, for further distances you must still use /tell. You cannot use Japanese characters in names The font, which is used by the chat-window, is now user-configurable. This allows Japanese players to select a font that supports Japanese characters (the default font does NOT). As an added feature for all languages, it allows all players to change both the font and the font-size in the chat-window. The font can be configured from the settings- panel in the launcher. NOTE: I.e. /tell, /me, /macro etc. must still be written in English, the message afterwards can be written in Japanese. If you are not allowed to write Japanese, you will receive an error message. • Chat will no longer be spammed when leaving the Grid. • You can now set the colours of chat channels in a text file (this only affects what you see) • Grid Terminals will now let you know when you do not meet the skill requirements. • You will now get an appropriate message when trying to trade with a character already in trade. Nano Changes: • Adjusted how NPCs react to "Healing over Time" nano programs. This change should make the life of Doctors a little easier. • It is now possible to upload the nano program "Aggressive Captivation." • Size problems with the Ruse of Taren lines have been fixed • Several Nano Programs with stunning effects did not work properly, they now do: o Curse of Chronos o Neural Stunner (NT) o Tight Embrace (BC) o Living Embalmment (BC) o Flash Coma (BC) o Confining Bonds (BC) o Chains of Iron (BC) o Death's Gaze (AG) The stun segments of the following direct-damage nanos were also fixed: o Thunderous Blow (NT) o Furious Assault (NT) o Electrifying Containment (NT) • The "Thought Juggler" nano is now possible to execute. • Bureaucrat Fix: The remainder of the bureaucrat's speech nanos have been added. • Projectile Magnet nano program has been fixed: The crystal and nano had different skills and requirements. • Team Terrain Knowledge and Team Free Movement had a problem and now affect all members in the team as intended. • Team Skill Wrangler (Superior) didn't process the buff aspect at all, now it does. • Engineer: Trap Artifice will now stack with Crowbar Subtlety. • Personal Grid Beacon nano was missing the nano points cost stat. • The duration of Quivering Wreck was too short. It has now been set to 29 seconds. • Engineer's buff and debuff auras were in the same stacking line. This has been changed so that the engineer can have 1 buff and 1 debuff aura going at the same time. • The Martial Artist’s controlled destruction nanos (Crash of Thunder, etc) no longer debuff nano skills for 2 minutes. They now debuff for 15 or 20 seconds. The recharge delay on these nanos was also reduced accordingly. They have also been drastically reduced in nano point cost and NCU requirements. Playfield Changes: • One new static dungeon: Camelot Castle! • Fixed a Reclaim Terminal in Andromeda. • Some trees in Clondyke were floating in mid-air. They are now firmly placed on the ground, as trees usually are. • Carbon rich rocks can now be found in certain playfields. • All mission dungeons in the “Brown Cave” style have been upgraded. This will improve pet pathing a great deal. • The exit points for Rome and Omni HQ have been switched in the Grid, to correspond better with the two cities’ level range. • We have made the exit points in the Grid a bit smaller, to prevent players from triggering them accidentally. General Changes: • Fixed a number of spelling errors. • Slightly changed the way the stationary automated surgery clinic places the treatment buff on you. It now does this as a hostile nano (both so you cannot remove it manually and also so it does not take any NCU space). The effect still only lasts for 5 minutes, and is still removed when you zone. This was done to once and for all stop the ability to stack the treatment buff by cheating. The way it works has not changed in any other way. • Also fixed a bug where if you used the clinic with exactly 300 credits it wasn't working correctly. • Adventurers in Sabre Tooth and Wolf form can now go through doorways without a problem. • Large pets such as Slayerdroids can now fit through doorways. • We have had to increase the hitpoints on several NPCs that are meant for missions. These were giving too much experience compared to the risk involved. Scooplets have been removed from missions.