Happy Winterfest!

This write up refers to an in-game event that sadly did not make it into the game this year but is still fascinating to read about. It was originally posted on the official site in 2012.

FROM THE DESK OF PHINEAS T. ROTOSTAR

Hello there! I'm Phineas T. Rotostar. Here at the Protostar Corporation, we understand that the holidays are a special time for everyone, full of celebration, good cheer, and a healthy lack of financial inhibition. Many of you may also be making the long journey to the mysterious planet Nexus, where you will be surrounded by strange individuals with unfamiliar holiday traditions that might be unsettlingly different from your own. So in order to create a festive, multi-cultural environment that promotes peace and profitability through the spirited exchange of reasonably priced and questionably useful gifts, Protostar now proudly presents:

PROTOSTAR'S GALA WINTERFEST EXTRAVANGA by PROTOSTAR!

That's right! During Protostar's Gala Winterfest Extravaganza by Protostar, you are guaranteed a pleasantly vague and non-threatening holiday event that is sure to meet an acceptable percentage of your expectations! What's it all about? We don't care in the slightest! Just so long as it involves mirth, merriment, and a steady, profitable stream of gift purchases for those you may or may not hold near and dear. It's all about fellowship! Peace! Goodwill! And amazingly low prices you won't believe on some of Protostar's most popular gift items!

 For the Granok mercenary in your life, why not pick them up a bottle of Protostar Brand "Executive's Choice" Quintuple-Strength Stain-Removing Lager? Nothing is harder to get out of a hard-working Granok's stony skin than bloodstains - and with our product, your special someone can get suitably inebriated at the same time!
 Shopping for the Aurin who has everything? Be sure to stock up on a case of Uncle Phineas's Old Tyme Aurin Tail Freshener, coming to you courtesy of Protostar's Heavy Weapons and Fragrances division. Every Aurin wants his or her tail to be at its freshest this holiday season, so consider giving this gift a few days early!
 Humans are never easy to shop for, with their confusingly diverse opinions on everything from intergalactic politics to personal hygiene. That's why Protostar suggests officially-licensed, universally-accepted Protostar Brand Gift Cards - suitable for purchasing any item manufactured by the Protostar Corporation! And fully refundable in the case of death!
But that's not all! As Protostar's Gala Winterfest Extravaganza by Protostar goes into full swing, you will be able to participate in fun-filled corporate-sponsored celebrations across Nexus - each guaranteed to nominally resemble many beloved holiday traditions from throughout the galaxy. And at Protostar, we bring winter to you! Using our patented Sno-Blo technology, Protostar will transform any community into a magical wintery wonderland - providing endless hours of holiday mirth and mayhem. And don't forget: a friendly, highly-trained, and moderately knowledgeable Protostar salesperson will never be more than a few steps away, ready to sell you the perfect gift at an almost imperceptibly inflated price.

So do yourself a favor! Forget all of those stressful holiday traditions that are inevitably weighed down with cultural and emotional baggage. Instead, come and celebrate with us at Protostar's Gala Winterfest Extravaganza by Protostar...where your disposable income will help reveal the true spirit of this special season!

That's Protostar - making all your holiday wishes come true. For money!

Originally published at WildStar-Online.com

Carbine spreads the holiday cheer with twelve days of Boom Boxes

Community Manager, Tony Rey, went to the official forums to surprise players who have logged in between December 1st and 15th with a dozen Boom Boxes. Boom Boxes can be opened daily and have the potential to gift the player with anything from crafting materials to unique costumes or even a mounts.

Tony's full post is below.

Our Bi-Weekly Patch to our live servers has just passed and all realms are now live.  However, this patch has a little something special!  Carbine wanted to wish everyone a Happy Holiday and spread some cheer by giving out 12 Days of Boom Boxes!  Everyone that has logged into WildStar during the month of December (12/1-12/15) will receive these sweet little bundles of potential.

Again, we hope you all are enjoying your adventure in Nexus and are excited about what’s to come (check the PTR). Happy Holidays from everyone at Carbine!

Game Update for 12/16/14

Last week's patch notes were followed by a promise of a larger update, which is posted below.

Please leave all feedback regarding these notes here.

==========
BI-WEEKLY UPDATE 12/16/2014

General

• Canceling out of Two Factor Authentication will no longer remove the account's email address from the login screen if the "Remember Account Name" button is checked.
• Changing the tier status of many different abilities before committing the change will no longer cause a server disconnect.

Character

• Items
• Crafted gear can now be correctly upgraded in Rune Slots.
• Fixed an issue where Superior Technician's Helmet and Superior Practitioner's Helmet were rolling 1 less rune slot than intended.

Classes

• Combat
• Previously, a number of absorption shield effects in raid and dungeon encounters were being modified by Healing Reduction effects, such as Phlebotomize. This was adversely affecting encounter difficulty tuning by requiring us to either overtune the absorb shield with the expectation that these effects would be used or, allow players to trivialize mechanics by cleverly using these abilities. We now have the ability to ignore healing reduction effects and have adjusted many of the existing absorb shield mechanics to now ignore these modifiers. We do understand that players are accustomed to the current tuning of these encounters with the healing modifiers being applied and as such have chosen to apply minor reductions to many of the absorption effects.
• Esper
• Fixed a bug that caused the Companion pet for the Esper to turn hostile towards allies.
• Abilities
• Pyrokinetic Flame
• Now displays a friend telegraph to allies in the same group. Additionally the heal should now heal the correct amount of targets.
• Telekinetic Storm
• Now properly procs the AMPs The Power!, Slow It Down, and No Remorse.
• AMPs
• Cheat Death
• CC Breaks will no longer allow the Esper to move while Cheat Death is active.
• Figment
• Now attacks every 1 second for the duration as intended.
• Medic
• Abilities
• Annihilation
• T1+ will now properly apply effects to targets that enter the field after the initial placement
• AMPs
• Entrapment
• Debuff is now properly applied via Restrictor and Magnetic Lockdown (No debuff icon).
• Spellslinger
• Abilities
• Void Slip
• Should no longer receive an error message when holding down a multi-tap ability like Void Slip with HoldToCast enabled.
• Warrior
• Abilities
• Expulsion
• Players will no longer receive a blank buff icon after a successful cleanse.
• Polarity Field
• Fixed the tier tooltips to show the proper increase in Endurance Drain.
• Relentless Strikes
• Fixed an issue with the ability that prevented it from gaining benefits from the Sure Shot AMP.

Content

• The transports to Grimvault in Illium and Thayd should now (once again) properly transport players to the first true hub in Grimvault if they've completed the initial quests.
• Completing World Story - Omnicore instance will now award bonus cash and Renown upon completion.
• Achievements
• The PvP kill achievement descriptions now refer to PvP, excluding Arenas. These will increment when players kill other players in Open World PvP, Battlegrounds, and Warplots.
• The achievement 'Geist Muster' will no longer display, tantalizing players of what could have been.
• The achievement "Security Expert" in Algoroc should now be given upon the completion of the event associated with the quest "Breaching Security."
• "Redmoons and Gold Doubloons" episode completion in Whitevale no longer requires the Missing Migisi breadcrumb quest.
• While in Celestion…
• Players should now get the achievement "Weapons Free!" when using an Inferno Reaper during the event "A Ravenous Rescue."
• Players who complete the event "A Ravenous Rescue" should now get the achievement "Lend a Helping Ham."
• Deradune
• Parked Grimvoid Speeders for the challenge Owanee Speedway can no longer be damaged by exploding Fuel Drums nearby.
• Galeras
• Warden Ranix can no longer be spawned multiple times, the poison visual will clean up properly, and Ranix will no longer become invisible on the quest "The Warden".
• Grimvault
• "Biophage Illusions" and their mimic compatriots in Southern Grimvault now despawn after leaving combat with the player, have a tether to their original spawn points, and remove the "Infected" spell from the player upon leaving combat and/or being tethered.
• OMNICore-1
• The Avatus Projection at the first firewall of the Circuit Buster event will no longer reset to full health if it is killed quickly after spawning.
• It is no longer possible to kite the Memory Core boss out of the room, which could potentially have resulted in blocked progression
• The Defile
• Exiles are now rewarded for completing the Defile's daily quest "Ale's Cold in Love and War" under the time limit in the optional objective, too!
• The "Buzz Swatter" item imbuement quest in the Defile has been replaced with "How Hard Can It Bee?" item imbuement quest! BZZZZZZZZ!
• The Entropic Behemoth will now properly display a cast bar when casting the spell Entropic Storm during the Defense of the Lightspire event in the Defile.
• Updated nameplates/quest icons/public event icons on dimensional rifts.
• More than one player can use the sticky ball of spider silk during "Eight-Legged Heel Turn" in the Defile at the same time.
• Keg'Nazzo, Conductor of Vice will no longer evade and reset when his target breaks line of sight while in combat with him in 'Cradel of the Archfiends'.
• The sit-rep step for the "Siege of the Lightpsire" daily quest in the Defile is now optional, so players accidentally skipping it before heading into the event and killing the Dreadwatcher will receive the appropriate credit.
• The quest called "A Gargantuan Task" is now a daily quest, as intended.

Dungeons

• Sanctuary of the Swordmaiden
• Players should once again be able to enter normal Sanctuary of the Swordmaiden at level 47. Note that Sanctuary of the Swordmaiden is still not available via the groupfinder until level 50.
• Stormtalon's Lair
• Overseer Drift-Catcher
• Now absorbs 20% less damage.
• Storm Shield
• Now ignores healing reduction modifiers.

Raids

• Players are now unable to initiate a realm transfer if they have an active raid lockout for the week.
• Datascape
• Avatus
• Holo Cannons' Absorption Shield now ignores healing reduction modifiers.
• Added a delay on the phase transition event that should prevent players from being pulled into Obliteration Beam upon transitioning phases.
• Fixed an issue that prevented a player from exiting the Danger Room due to not all their Core Essence Fragments spawning correctly.
• Fixed a number of issues with Phase Punch that prevented it from phasing players consistently.
• Will now consistently cast Invalidate when appropriate.
• Excessive Force Protocol
• Will now wait a few moments after becoming active before beginning to cast Annihilation.
• Will no longer be able to spawn multiple sets of Augmentation Clones at the start of the encounter.
• Fixed several issues with the timing and tracking of the Augmentation Clone spawns.
• Augmentation Clones
• Increased the cooldown on Stalker Clones' Catastrophic Collapse.
• Should no longer be able to get stuck in broken AI states.
• No longer despawn on exiting combat (or other random times).
• Holo Hands
• Holo Hands now have Infinite Interrupt armor while not casting Crushing Blow.
• Holo Hands individual abilities are somewhat more threatening, but they should now be significantly easier to control, position, and execute against.
• Crushing Blow now reduces Armor by 100% (up from 25%) and no longer stacks. Its duration has been reduced to 20 seconds.
• Strikethrough now ignores 100% of the target's resistances.
• Now have a brief grace period before casting Ground and Pound when they are near each other.
• No longer cast Clobbering Assault.
• Auto-attack damage has been increased by 288%.
• Strikethrough damage increased by 38%.
• Strikethrough cooldown reduced slightly.
• Crushing Blow damage has been increased by 38%.
• Earthen Biomes
• Fissures should now activate and deactivate more reliably.
• Rockhordlings now spawn at a rate of 2 every ~8-10 seconds. (slower)
• Fissures now have a static count and spawn locations.
• Added an ~8s delay to spawning the Rockhordlings when a fissure is opened.
• Fissures now despawn when closed or upon exiting combat.
• Rockhordlings now despawn more reliably.
• Fully Optimized Canimid
• Terra Form
• Now ignores healing reduction modifiers.
• Now absorbs 4.5m damage.
• Elemental Pairs
• All nine pairs have had their HP values and enrage timers adjusted to be much more accurate to the mechanics of that pairing.
• Aileron
• These changes affect all three Aileron encounters.
• Wall of Wind cooldown and duration are now ~25s (up from ~20).
• Wall of Wind now has a telegraph on the corresponding side of the wall.
• Wall of Wind can now only be active on one side at a time.
• Walls of Wind now has a cast time, bar, and animation, and is no longer an infinite-ticking proxy. Also increased delay before shield becomes active to 2s.
• Hydroflux
• Strength of the Deep now ignores healing reduction modifiers.
• Hydroflux's 'Strength of the Deep' now absorbs 4m damage (up from 1.5m damage).
• Hydroflux and Aileron
• Glacial Icestorm now displays a telegraph.
• Hydroflux will now always cast Tsunami from the center of the room.
• The Hydroflux and Aileron encounter has seen a significant rework.
• Hydroflux and Aileron are both actively contributing to the encounter for the entire duration.
• Aileron no longer casts 'Eye of the Storm'. The hit detection for this mechanic wasn't living up to our gameplay standards and introduced a number of timing and movement-related bugs. As such, we've decided to remove the mechanic entirely and shelve the idea for use in a future encounter where it won't compromise our gameplay requirements.
• Hydroflux now features prominently as the Tsunami event replaces all occurrences of Eye of the Storm.
• Adjusted the timing and cooldowns on the following abilties for Hydroflux - Geyser, Raging Rapid, Watery Grave, Sinkhole
• Adjusted the timing and cooldowns on the following abilties for Aileron - Walls of Wind, Surging Winds, Twirl, Tempest
• Hydroflux and Mnemesis
• Logic Wall health reduced to 700k (down from 1m).
• Implemented fixes to allow Logic Wall nameplates to show; however, nameplate occlusion options can still cause these nameplates to not display (in some cases).
• Logic Walls are now immune to all CC effects.
• Logic Walls now retain their current health when they are frozen.
• Improved the hit detection on Hydroflux's Raging Rapid spell.
• Mnemesis' Defragment should no longer target Logical Walls.
• Mnemesis now features prominently in the new event phase which replaces the old Tsunami event phase.
• No longer 'tag out' and are both actively contributing to the encounter for the entire duration.
• Keep your eyes open, this encounter has seen a significant rework.
• Mnemesis now has 400 interrupt armor.
• New mechanic: Data Disruptors - These balls of frozen logic should assist players in breaking through Mnemesis's massive interrupt armor barrier. Caution to the user: Beware of Memory Leaks!
• Adjusted the timing for the following abilities: Hydroflux - Geyser, Raging Rapid, Watery Grave
• Adjusted the timing for the following abilities: Mnemesis - Imprison, Defragment
• Hydroflux and Pyrobane
• Players are no longer valid targets for Entombed in Ice while they have Heat Stroke or Hypothermia.
• Megalith and Aileron
• Megalith no longer casts Erupt (thus removing Rock Pillars and Rock Tornadoes from the encounter).
• Megalith now has infinite interrupt armor.
• Overcharged now removes a stack of Momentum instead of interrupt armor.
• Megalith now gains 5 stacks of Momentum every 10 seconds.
• Megalith now gains 10 stacks of Momentum at the beginning of Raw Power's cast.
• Fractured Crust now triggers when the last stack of Momentum is removed while casting Raw Power.
• Fierce Swipe, Rocks Fall, and Superquake are now enabled at the lowest tier of Momentum stacks.
• Fixed issue with Megalith being able to gain multiple speed stacks at once.
• Megalith and Mnemesis
• Cloud Computing now correctly stacks +damage buffs on Mnemesis.
• Megalith and Pyrobane
• Removed GTAEs from Eruption.
• Onyx Golems now start using their telegraph after a timer instead of HP threshold.
• Pillars/Golems are now spawned every ~14 seconds.
• Added override preventing cast of Rocks Fall while Megalith is under the lava floor.
• After Ragnarok ends, Pyrobane will cast lava mines 3 times in a row, and Megalith will pause for 3 seconds.
• Increased cooldown between standard lava mine casts from 5-6s to 8-10s.
• Eruption is now a cone telegraph that tracks the primary threat.
• Golem spawns are now frontloaded before pillar spawns.
• There are now 6 Pillar/Golems before each Ragnarok phase.
• The number of pillars now decreases by 2 per cycle.
• Only one pillar can now be selected at a time as dangerous during Ragnarok.
• Added a 3s knockdown prevention to Rocks Fall, so players can't be chain CC'd.
• Reduced Rocks Fall impact speed at higher tiers.
• Increased Lava Mine trigger delay from 1.5s to 2.5s.
• Fixed issue with players being able to get hit by multiple tornadoes and have multiple instances of Overcharged.
• Visceralus and Aileron
• The Twirl and Brambles mechanic now initially triggers in the first phase of the fight.
• There is now a 2s cast time before players are affect by Twirl or Brambles.
• Twirl no longer knocks players down.
• Lightning Strike now has vFX on the tracked target.
• Annihilation Orbs now all deal the same amount of damage, and that damage has been slightly increased.
• Visceralus and Mnemesis
• This pair now each have a new buff: Logic Barrier.
• Visceralus and Pyrobane
• Deathtouch Scrab will now follow the correct target, and the target will have a debuff on them.
• Limbo Infomatrix
• Event should now reset immediately when the group wipes.
• Maelstrom Authority
• Boss now reinitiates the Shatter phase if there are any players on other platforms when the phase ends.
• Increased height for Shifting Currents' hitbox.
• No longer has the possibility of re-triggering the Shatter phase when it ends.
• Condensed Tempest
• Now ignores healing reduction modifiers.
• Now absorbs 12m damage.
• Obsidian Wastes
• Warmongers will now clear the Hazardous Fires from the protection bubbles upon resetting.
• Genetic Archives
• Fleshmonger Vratorg
• Protected Vitals
• Now ignores healing reduction modifiers.
• Now absorbs 1.35m damage.
• Kuralak the Defiler
• Fixed an edge case that could cause Chromosome Corruption to not spread when a Corrupted player died.
• Chromosome Corruption now increases damage and healing done by 100% instead of increasing Assault and Support Power by 200%. This is a buff to effect, and the latter is affected by diminishing returns.
• Phagetech Prototypes
• Fixed an issue that was allowing the Phagetech Protector's Pulse-A-Tron Waves to deal damage multiple times in rapid succession.

PVP

• The Prestige cost of Level 10-49 PvP gear has been cut in half.The 1500 Rating Gadgets have had their cost reduced from 1600 Prestige to 1000 Prestige.
• Arenas
• 5v5 Arena Team rosters will only display each player once.
• Battlegrounds
• Daggerstone Pass
• Fixed an issue with the Time Bomb that prevented damage from happening to players in the outside ring.
• The bomb in Sabotage will no longer do more damage to the generator based on how many players are in the blast radius.

Adventures

• The Malgrave Trail
• Reaching "Rusty's Scrapyard" with 100 water no longer causes the caravan to get stuck.
• The spiders on the route between Thirsty Creek and Greenleaf Ridge will now attack the Caravan more consistently.
• Braithwait can now be killed in the rare chance that he is the only caravan member left when breaking camp

Paths

• Settler
• The Protostar Building Assistant will no longer get buried by the construction project at the Exanite Refinery in Western Grimvault.
• Soldier
• Fixed an issue that caused some holdouts to end when Tactical Retreat or Void Slip were used.

Housing

• Fixed decor items in the 'Crate' window disappearing when trying to delete one and failing to delete the item.
• Housing harvesting plugs should now spawn nodes of the appropriate tier.
• Fixed all server crashes resulting from interactions when harvesting or repairing any plugs.

Economy

• Auction House/Commodity Exchange
• Housing items have been moved back into the Auction House (from Commodity Exchange).
• Runecrafting
• Fixed an issue that was causing the items for 'Crafting Your First Rune' to have a randomized Rune slot, making the quest impossible to complete.
• Focused Surge Rune of Moxie - Logic should now be available in the Runecrafting window.

User Interface

• French and German clients can now see MOTDs
• The following slash commands on the Client have been updated to support last names in character names:
• Circles: /cinvite /cpromote /cdemote /ckick /cmaster
• Groups: /promote /kick /votekick /psetinvite /psetkick /psetroledps /psetrolehealer /psetroletank /psetraidassistant /psetmaintank /psetmainassist /psetrolelocked /psetcanmark
• Custom Chat Channels: /chkick /chowner /chmoderate /chmute
• Changed the error message players receive when attempting to sell a damaged item.
• Added the a section to the Vendor UI that shows the total cost of repairing all of the player's equipment.
• Fixed a lua error in the unit frames that could occur if a stalker had clones.
• Fixed an issue where Reputation amounts were not appearing correctly in the UI.
• The Group Tool now properly refers to Warplots as 30 vs. 30.
• Addons
• Removed calls to Rover from addon code.

Creatures

• Fixed a bug that could cause a creature's displayed health to not update until it died if a large number of players were attacking it.