Stuff that's happened:

• Storm services are now 100% Latency Based Records, so you will be connecting to the closest set of Storm servers.
• We have hired 2 new tech artists and we're ramping up a UI/Gameplay programmer.  Still interviewing other candidates.
• We've got some back-end fixes and improvements to the tools systems - so much faster now.
• Build servers are up, and we're able to build new stuff reliably
• We've created all-new documentation and issue tracking servers, and we've been migrating over what's current.
• We elected to drop the Atlantic region.
• Weapon adjustments will require some other changes to how weapons are configured, so that sort of balance will have to wait for future patches.

Stuff happening soon:

• Halloween Spooky ghost repair drone event - complete 7 matches over the weekend and you'll get 7 days of the spooky drone.
• We're getting up to speed on how the UI code works - the previous devs have been quite helpful.  Some good guys there.
• Our new art guys are going to start looking into how mechs and maps are constructed.  We're also going to be reviewing how they're set up in code.  We've got some designs that need to be evaluated from a technical perspective now.  It's mostly back-end stuff still.
• We'll be setting up another environment for testing out more drastic changes.
• We are working on some deeper Storm-level changes that allow for updates to authentication systems
• We want to test out Storm performance in more remote locations relative to the data layer endpoints.

I'd characterize the past few weeks as pivotal in development.  It's been long-awaited, but we now have significant development action.  The two artists that started each have 14 or more years of experience in the industry, and they've worked on everything ranging from mobile games to Tomb Raider on console, Star Wars games on PC, and Nintendo 3ds projects; it's been a pleasure getting to know them and see them start to tackle stuff.  I'm excited.

Test Drives: Raider, Sharpshooter, Grenadier

Here's a pic of the spooky ghost repair drone, because no post is complete without pictures: