[Jennifer]

I know I'm not answering what you actually asked, but I would like to share my view on this update and what I think should be done.

As far as I can see, the reason some of us (myself included) have been playing Regnum for more than two years is quite simple: it's a good game, we like the way it works (or did). Now even some of the old school have left or are planning to. To my mind, this is not down to just this one rather annoying update but NGD's whole vision.

As many people have pointed out, recent updates have not corrected very simple 'bugs' or inconsistencies, rather they have introduced major changes to gameplay as well as more bugs. NGD is a relatively small team, with far fewer resources than some of the competition and yet they managed to create a great game. What has slowly ruined it is patch after patch in an effort to make it just like every other shoddy 'point-and-click' MMO out there in order to grab the market. It is obviously a complicated program with complicated systems, and it has become so convoluted that any programmer would know it is more cost effective to start from scratch than continue to patch it: thus the new engine, graphics, etc. Good plan, but...

The player is not concerned about the technology or the code, they are concerned entirely about how it works and how much fun it is. It was just fine the way it was four months ago. Or six. But there's no point going backward.

May I make the simple suggestion to NGD that instead of working with the absolutely ruined combat system as it exists now, they create one from scratch based on what real archers, warriors and mages would be capable of. An archer could fire while running (with decreased accuracy), a warrior would not run around blindly trying to attack an archer behind his back - he would simply turn about and swing. Consider automatic rotation to face the enemy for warriors. Mages that could do as much damage as warlocks do with Sultar... I mean, even Gandalf would have trouble with that. lol. Consider making them harder to train instead of nerfing their abilities.

Also, the whole spell system should be as it once was, with a little tweak. It makes sense that spells are 'dropped' instantly (in other words you are not frozen for the cast time of the spell), and they each have a cast time. I.e. a player could stop, cast instantly on an enemy and then keep running but the spell would take its allocated cast time to 'hit' or take effect.

This is all I have to offer. I welcome comments. See you in-game!