• Monthly Archives: February 2017

    Orcs Must Die! EU service transitioning to Robot Entertainment
    Dean
    8542

    Some important news for Orcs Must Die! Unchained players in the EU. It has been announced today that from March 14th GameForge will be transitioning Orcs Must Die EU services to Robot Entertainment. This means that on that date it will no longer be possible to play Orcs Must Die! Unchained on the EU client.

    Never fear, however, EU players will be back up and running from the 21st March on a new unified account with Orcs Must Die NA players, managed by Robot Entertainment. All players currently on the EU client will have the option to migrate from their Gameforge account to a new Robot Entertainment account from March 21st.

    Gameforge Producer, Andy Duthie comments:

    This has been a very difficult decision for us to make but we believe this is the best for the future of the game. Robot Entertainment have proved to be excellent partners in getting to this stage and with the game now coming into fruition it is best for them to continue shaping it moving forwards.

     

    What does this mean?

    For the community this means that the EU and NA player base will now be combined, growing a new single, unified community between these new regions. This not only includes the in-game player base but also community forums and such like. You’ll now be able to add friends in-game for all players between these regions. The new blog on the Orcs Must Die website indicates:

    We are still working out the specifics, but we fully intend to maintain EU and NA communities on the Orcs Must Die! website. Our goal is to foster one big, happy OMDU community as much as we can while still making sure we pay specific attention to regional communities.

    There will still be actual servers in the EU region, so there should not be an impact on network performance.

    Transferring your account purchases, account level etc

    The migration tool that launches on March 21st will guide players through the process of transitioning to a new Robot account. All in-game purchases, gold and account level will be transferred to your new account. Gold will be converted at the correct Robot Entertainment rate. Players will not be losing out on anything via this conversion in terms of purchases and game progress.

    However, unfortunately friends list and other social features cannot be transferred to your new Robot account. Additionally, if your username is already taken on the Robot account system, you will have to create a new one.

    Week long maintenance also brings new patch

    There will be one week long maintenance from when the EU servers close on the 14th until migration opens on the 21st March. This maintenance will enable Robot Entertainment and Gameforge to prepare for the upcoming account migrations. There is more good news to this maintenance, it will also see a new patch release for the game too. Mark the 21st in your calendar as a day to watch for new OMDU content and unified player-base!


    It’s been a good ride on the OMDU EU servers. We have much enjoyed the excellent streams from FaTeReLLa before her departure late last year. The community forums have been full of useful discussion from Siege through to Survival. Good times await the unified playerbase and community. Thank-you Gameforge for supporting the EU players for the last three years.

    To read more about this announcement be sure to check the new blog by Robot’s VP of Production, Chris Rippy on the link below:

    https://na.orcsmustdie.com/#!/en/blog/robot-global-publishing

    Temper Temper!
    Dean
    8535

    Temper is set to return to Orcs Must Die! Unchained after a very long break. The Order hero was last seen way back in phase 1 of the closed beta. Fans have long been awaiting his return and returning he is in patch 1.8 due out Tuesday 21st February! As with all returning heroes he has been given a full design re-work. Here is a look at Temper’s new skills:

    • Swing! Punch! Smash! (LMB): If used in quick succession, Temper anvil punches, swings his hammer, and delivers an uppercut, building his rage.
    • Exploding Hammer (RMB): Temper throws his hammer. On impact, it knocks back and damages enemies over time in its radius.
    • Happy Place (Q): Temper soothes himself, converting rage into health and a movement speed boost. Attacking cancels ability.
    • Hammer Slam (E): Temper brings both weapons down in front of him, setting the surrounding area on fire.
    • Bull Rush (Shift): Temper charges forward, knocking back enemies in his path.
    • Rage of the Forge (Passive): Temper gains strength as he builds rage, exploding at max rage and damaging and knocking back enemies.

    Rage

    Patch 1.8 is also introducing a new type of resource. In addition to mana there is now an additional resource called “rage”. Unlike mana which regenerates over time, rage will re-fill based on damaging enemy minions. Here is what Robot has to say about this interesting new mechanic:

    Rage is a new resource in OMD!U. Like mana, it is used to fuel abilities, but unlike mana, it is generated by damaging enemies and decays when heroes are out of combat. For Temper, we feel that rage more accurately fits our portrayal of him as a misunderstood minotaur who is trying to refocus his anger issues into something more positive–defeating the Unchained.

     

    Stinkeye

    Since the refocus of OMDU to Survival from Siege, one hero has struggled with his slightly confusing kit. Stinkeye has had alot of feedback that his set up was quite complicated and difficult for players to grasp. As of patch 1.8, Robot has listened to that feedback and things are changing. Here is what Robot have to say:

    We’ve received lots of feedback on Stinkeye’s new design and we decided to makes some sweeping changes. The new design is more active than before patch 1.6, but less complicated and overwhelming than he is currently. We believe we have found a happy medium. Below are the skills that have changed or have returned to their prior functionality.

    • Arcane Anomaly (RMB): Conjures an orb of arcane energy that charges and then detonates, dealing arcane damage in a radius.
    • Zephyr of Oasis (E): Summons a totem that increases the movement speed of allies and slows the movement speed of enemies. May be attacked to destroy the totem and stun nearby enemies for 3 seconds.  Note: The size of the totem has been increased significantly.
    • Wrath of Oasis (Q): Summons a totem that shoots nearby enemies. When shot with Prestidigitized Projectile, the totem shoots 3 projectiles at nearby enemies. Lasts 20 seconds. Note: The size of the totem has been increased significantly.
    • Shaman’s Blessing (Passive): After a totem expires, a mana orb appears at the totem’s previous location.

    Stinkeye Weaver changes:

    • Reduced Totem Testament’s additional projectiles to +1 (from +2).
    • Reworked Booming Benediction. It now replaces mana orbs that drop from totems with Tears of Oasis, which provide the benefit of three drops (Unchained, mana, and health) combined.
    • Reduced Arcane Awe’s stun duration to 1s (from 3s).

    In addition to Temper and the Stinkeye re-work the new patch brings 2 new maps, Orcatraz and Orcri-la for Survival and some existing maps are now making their way for Endless:

    • Baths (1-10)
    • Throne Room (11-25)
    • Crogon Keep (46-75)
    • The Wall (76-100)

    Steam achievements are also on the way, for those who enjoy achievement hunting! As always there is a whole lot more in the patch notes. Be sure to check them out. Also catch up on Insider Access below where Doug “ShadeDev” Houserman is on hand to delve through the patch notes!