Torn City Newsletter - Winter 2018

[Torn - Online RPG game - Free text based games]() Volume 25 / WINTER 2018 Christmas Town, Raiding & Giveaways Hey {NAME}, Winter is coming. So said Harry Potter in Lord of the Rings. But in Torn City, Winter is Coming.........soon. Over the festive period and the months of spring, we'll be hitting you hard with updates so fresh they'll feel like snowballs to the face, including Christmas Town, Raiding and Poker 2.0. So let's waste no more time faffing about and meet the ghosts of Torn past, Torn present and Torn future. [Winter in Torn] In this edition #1 [Christmas Town](#section1) #2 [Dirty Bombs-away!](#section2) #3 [Raiding](#section3) #4 [Poker 2.0](#section4) #5 [Duke's Giveaway](#section5) #6 [Scrooge is Back!](#section6) #7 [Competitions](#section7) #8 [Community Manager Update](#section8) #9 [Social Media](#section9) #10 [Winter Racing Event Coming Soon](#section10) #11 [Dog Tag Record Broken](#section11) #12 [Notable patch notes](#section12) #13 [This quarter's freebie](#section13) #14 [In Other News](#section14) [] Christmas Town Earlier this month some gremlins entered our systems and accidentally released Christmas Town several weeks early. Those gremlins have now been shot and skinned for their hides. The full release of CT will take place on the 18th of December, and Christmas Town's lead designer Alice the Christmas Witch had this to say on the development process so far. Wishing you a very merry Christmas Town! When Chedburn told me I could take a break from figuring out how to send you all to hospital in Crimes 2.0 and play with snow, I threw my almost completed draft out of the window with gay abandon and started building a winter wonderland fitting for the denizens of Torn City. After many s****y paint drawings, some legal marijuana, and several Die Hard marathons, the original design for CT2017 was born. You liked it enough that, instead of sending the feds to my house while I was sleeping, our beloved overlord Chedburn has allowed me to play the Christmas Fairy once more. This year, our amazing dev team have overhauled the build features and added new build tools, animations, a fantastic blocking system and a buttload of wonderful art, which have made this year's build a joy. Special thanks go to Elena & Jane, whose art makes Christmas Town more beautiful every year, to Sugarvalves, for his hilarious comment parameters, and to Ched, for giving me a reason not to take international flights during the holidays. Next year, everyone will get a chance to create their own winter wonderland. I hope you all have as much fun with it as I have. Merry Christmastown to all! Alice the Christmas BWitch As Alice mentions, Christmas Town 2019 will be accompanied by the release of a map editor, enabling players to create their own custom CT worlds using all of the objects and materials we use to build ours. This editor should be available for use around October next year, with maps made playable sometime in December. All manner of areas, storylines, buildings, features and mazes can be created within the editor, and we look forward to seeing what kind of insane worlds Torn players might come up with. We shudder to think how many different options MarlonBrando's map will have. If we were to guess, we'd say trillions. [2018 Christmas Town] [] Dirty Bombs-away! There are currently 64 Dirty Bombs in circulation in Torn City, and before long, you may find your skin has a green luminescent tinge to it as one or more are released within the confines of Torn City. For those of you who are new to our fair city, a Dirty Bomb is a devastating weapon which can be built by factions and used to assault their rivals. A single DB can wreak great destruction upon even the largest faction, eliminating many of their upgrades in a matter of moments. And for smaller factions, specifically those under 73,000 respect, a direct hit will result in their complete and total annihilation. The tactical usage of Dirty Bombs has been significantly revamped ahead of their reactivation. A faction and its members will be crippled for a number of days following a Dirty Bomb strike, significantly weakening them against those who wish to take over their territory. And thanks to the effects of fallout, ordinary citizens who happen to be online at the time may be caught in the blast too. Crippling hospital time awaits those who experience a Dirty Bomb Strike, with the associated radiation poisoning also capable of passively reducing your stats the longer you are exposed. You can protect yourself from radiation by equipping a Hazmat Suit, and you can also counter its effects through the use of Neumune Tablets. Alternatively, you could just fly abroad and spend Christmas in a foreign land. All players should prepare themselves for a nuclear strike as soon as possible, since Dirty Bomb activation is imminent. Our goal is to have them ready for detonation before the end of December, with early January being the very latest. Either way, Torn City will start the new year with a bang, and another bang, and another bang, and another bang... []Raiding On the same day that Dirty Bombs are activated, Torn's factions will also see Raiding enabled between factions. Simply put, raiding is a faction vs faction war mode which allows the attacker to eliminate the respect of the defending faction. No respect or rewards will be gained by the attacking faction through the use of Raiding, with this feature intended solely as a means of wreaking vengeance and destruction upon one's enemies. Pretty cruel, right? The defending faction's respect losses will increase from 25% to 100%. In extreme cases, where the attacker puts a huge amount of time and energy into the raid, the defending faction can be killed if their respect total is zeroed. The faction won't be destroyed in the traditional sense. Instead, its members will be kicked, all upgrades lost, its inventory passed to the leader, and where once your family's emblem stood proud, a red skull will now appear to signify the faction's demise. The death of a faction in this manner is expected to be fairly uncommon, but when it does happen, it will be big news. []Poker 2.0 Poker 2.0 has been in closed beta for 4 months now, and our team of testers have had a jolly old time hunting bugs and stealing each other's play money on our brand new array of tables. All functionality appears to be running very well, and the current priority is to implement the views for all other devices. Proxima is one of our legion of poker testers, and in a prelude to his forthcoming article on how Poker 1.0 has been improved upon, he offered up the following comments as to what he thinks of Poker 2.0 thus far: "Overall I think the poker 2.0 beta went really very well. The new engine came to us in a state that was, while impressive, by no means perfect. A decent group of us sat down and played for a few nights to break it in, and immediately noticed both some game-breaking bugs as well as some less obvious aesthetic improvements. Over the last couple of months we've all sent countless requests, test updates and bug reports for new features that Ched, ashev and dmitriy have worked tirelessly with us to get right." "It was clear from the start that Ched had his own vision for how he wanted poker 2.0 to turn out; importantly despite that it's been really great to be involved in a process that overall feels more like conversation and a discussion of ideas with him and his team, than a one-sided dialogue. I think everyone involved who actively participated in working out each and every kink will agree that it was an enjoyable process, one that we're glad to have been given the opportunity to partake in." The main changes which Poker 2.0 will bring are intended to mirror the way external poker sites look and feel. Tables now exist permanently rather than being created or destroyed. A new slider will allow players to raise their bet by predetermined incremental amounts. Idle players will automatically miss a hand rather than being kicked, with this option also available as an active choice during the game. And finally, several measures aimed at enforcing true poker etiquette have been implemented, including the removal of the ability to protect your winnings by leaving a table with a huge pot and returning with less money - a practice known as Ratholing. Proxima's article will go into more detail about the changes we've made when it is released early next year. It is our aim to release Poker 2.0 for open beta in early February, by which point it should be in a fully completed state with all required functionality. In the meantime, here are a couple of the new tables we've designed to whet your appetite. And if you don't like them, don't worry, you can turn the backgrounds off! But why would you want to do something like that? [New Poker Tables 1] [New Poker Tables 2] []Duke's Giveaway On Friday the 14th of December Duke began his annual twelve days of Christmas giveaway, with Poison Mistletoe, Beer Kegs and Books of Carols just some of items he's handed out so far. But if you've not been lucky enough to grab any of these items yet, don't worry, because the really good stuff is yet to come! [Duke Xmas Giveaway] Every day up to and including Christmas Day, Duke will drop a number of high value or exclusive items into the dump, watching with glee as Torn's citizens scramble around in the garbage looking for free stuff. Each day will see a different item thrown into the trash, and of the twelve days of the giveaway, five will be marked by the release of a brand new item created especially for Christmas 2018. If you don't fancy getting yourself dirty, there will be a limited number of items made available via the forums every day. However, you should be forewarned that Duke will require you to complete some rather interesting tasks to get your hands on his stash, so you may find it preferable to dive in the dump instead. []Scrooge is Back! Ever wanted to kick an elderly man to pieces and steal his stuff? Of course you have. And now you can thanks to the return of our [curmudgeonly NPC Scrooge](. By joining in with a gang attack against the crusty old geezer, you'll stand a chance of looting him for one of several fabulous unique items, including Scrooge's Top Hat, a Diamond Icicle or the highly-prized Snow Cannon. If you're feeling suitably swole, hench, stacked or all three, [take a shot at Scrooge right now](. Because once he goes back to his hovel, you won't see him again for another twelve months! []Competitions We've run a huge number of new Community Events this year, ranging from the [St Patrick's Day Drunken Regrets]( thread and the [Good Friday Memes]( contest through to more artful competitions like the [Elimination Team Signature Contest]( and [Torn's Got Talent](. Thank you to everyone who has entered, run, won or trolled these events. You lot are far more talented than we ever gave you credit for! And if you're yet to take first prize in one of our community competitions, then get your entries in to one of our many Christmas themed contests which are running right now! [Grif's Christmas Display Competition]( [HavokGDI's Christmas Town Adventures Competition]( [Duke's Christmas Carol Competition]( [Leslie's Cracker Joke Competition]( [Kate's Best Dressed Christmas Pet Competition]( [Poptop's Christmas Baking Competition]( [Kate's Photoshop / Decorate a Property Competition]( [Forgey's Guess the number of Candy Competition]( [Dexter's MS Paint Competition]( []Community Manager Update Our new Community Manager, [Trainee]( has been in the role for just under two months now, and we're already very happy with our choice for this prestigious and important position. A full interview with the CM will be published in the newspaper early next year once their identity has been revealed. But in the meantime, here are Trainee's thoughts on their experience of the role thus far: So far it's been extremely enjoyable, the staff team we have have been nothing but welcoming and helpful and I can't wait to start getting more stuck in with extra jobs as they come up! There are a few things that have come up already I wouldn't have even imagined myself trying to figure out, such as specifying what constitutes a "terrorist organisation" under Torn's social guidelines for example, seeing people try and guess who I am has been great fun (I've been keeping a tally - so far REDACTED is in the lead), all will be revealed on January 7th though and I imagine a lot of people will be surprised. []Social Media If you aren't signed up to any of Torn's social media channels then you're missing out on a whole heap of hilarious content exclusive announcements free stuff. For example, our Facebook page has given out billions of dollars this year to players who submitted pictures of their hairy avatars, true stories of real life personal poverty, and their suggestions of a secret Duke might have paid to keep quiet. [Tweet] We run these Facebook-exclusive competitions at least once a month, and when we remember, we post them to Twitter too, even though we hate Twitter and wish it would go away and die. We're also going to start posting your competition entries and our own little contests on Torn's brand new Instagram page - because obviously a text-based game needs a presence on an exclusively image-based platform. Duh. So if you want to see Duke's real nude selfies and Ched's holiday hotdog legs before anyone else, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using the links below. [FACEBOOK]( [TWITTER]( [INSTAGRAM]( CLUB PENGUIN []Winter Racing Event Coming Soon [Last Summer's Ultimate Racing Tournament]( proved to be a resounding success, as after hundreds of racers were whittled down to a final 36, we witnessed a number of absolute ding-dong battles between the drivers as they fought to qualify from the group stage. After a nerve-wracking set of Semi Finals, Lindy_Lyson emerged as the deserved victor; but who will be victorious in the Winter URT? This event will take place mid-January and will be run by a number of experienced racers working alongside Sugarvalves. Details regarding qualification for the event will be released in early January, and as ever, the rare Bugatti Veyron will be on offer for the tournament's winner. [iOS] []Dog Tag Record Broken November's Dog Tags tournament was notable for a number of reasons, not least the fact that participation increased again on last year's event, mirroring an upwards trend seen across many of Torn's major competitions. The winner of the past three tournaments, Kniv, was absent this year, and so a new victor was guaranteed. In the end it was Hildegarde who triumphed over his opponents, securing his title with a record points haul of 36,440 in what was his first attempt at the competition. In second position was ShuKa with 30,602, and in third came Riverninny on 16,061 points. There were a number of notable achievements outside the top three too. Drizella and L0rne were just 226 and 89 days old respectively when they finished the tournament in 10th and 15th position - an incredible achievement for such young players, which just goes to prove that these events are accessible to players of all levels of ability. Elsewhere, Bodybagger's 17th place finish means he has never placed outside of the top 25 in the entire history of Dog Tags - a remarkable display of consistency from Torn's strongest player. And speaking of consistency, congratulations must also go to the faction Relentless, who supplied no fewer than nine players in the top 25 tagging positions. Dekloren made us include that last part. He promised to return our pets unharmed if we did. []Notable patch notes We pluck out some of the most interesting patch notes over the last three months out of the hundreds of updates and fixes. - Rebalanced weapon accuracy - Changed weapon accuracy visible values to be more intuitive The way weapon accuracy works has been adjusted for balancing purposes. The accuracy value which appears alongside the weapon is now a representation of the hit-chance modifier rather than an arbitrary value. - Changed chaining incremental bonus hits to fixed amounts of respect - Changed respect loss from 10% to 25% The big faction bonus hits are now set values which are always the same no matter who the target it. The respect lost by factions receiving attacks from other factions has been increased from 10% to 25%. - Released Hairstyles and Backdrops in the Token Shop There's now more reason to participate in Torn's competitions, as tokens can now be spent on rare hairstyles, beards, moustaches and backdrops for profiles. - Added visible position changes in the Hall of Fame The Hall of Fame now features monthly position changes on every player / faction. Hovering over them shows how many positions they've increased or decreased by. - Added freeze bonus, emasculate bonus and spray bonus We're continuing implementation of special bonuses on weapons. While using these weapons, their bonuses produce unique and interesting effects during the attack. - Added 'Crimes' tab to the faction news panel for organised crime news This year we've spent a lot of time implementing dozens of simple community suggestions. This one for example clears the organised crime spam from the main faction news. - Added "Rehabilitations" and "Rehabilitation fees" to personal stats Interested in how much you've spent on your drug habit? Data since September 2015 has been added, and you can now you can track your future addiction on the personal stats page. - Added Halloween basket event A two-day Halloween mini-event which was either loved or hated. - Added faction member balances system This system gives factions the ability to track a balance of funds moving to and from members. Useful especially to those who wish to make use of faction banking. - Added organised crime re-planning Another community suggestion, those in charge of organised crimes can now immediately replan the crime once completed, with the same members if they're available. - Added the first batch of special bets under specific sports in Bookie 2.0 The bookie is one system we're still focusing on. We recently enabled special betting on some sporting types, for example Handicaps. - Removed weapons and armor with ungenerated stats from bazaars/display For a long time now, weapons and armor with ungenerated stats were still appearing stacked in bazaars and display cases. After receiving many bug reports, we finally gave in and forcibly removed them. [] This quarter's freebie [Take freebie]( As with all our quarterly newsletters, we like to give you all a little treat for being part of the best online RPG community in the world. Click above to claim it! [] In other news [Z_Junior Reacts To Insurgency Alliance]( by Champion [Insurgency... from the Source]( by Meanmike [The Black Friday Dollar Sale Event]( by Kata [How Old Are You?]( by Krastinov [The Old Mansion](threads&f=13&t=16064179&b=0&a=0) by Louis_de_Pointe [Donator Pack Giveaway](p=threads&f=13&t=16072069&b=0&a=0) by Perplex- [Hopslam's Wacky Elimination Game](p=threads&f=13&t=16069586&b=0&a=0) by Hopslam ["Secret" Santa](p=threads&f=13&t=16068884&b=0&a=0) by Hcom3 [Huge Slots Jackpot](threads&f=16&t=16070835&b=0&a=0) by Dexter You're receiving this newsletter because you registered at [www.Torn.com](). Not interested anymore? [Unsubscribe here](. [Facebook]([Twitter](