IT’S TIME TO INVADE INVASION: NEXUS
Welcome to INVASION: Nexus. The latest WildStar update is now live and comes with all the goodness you’ve been waiting for! We’ve been hard at work over the last few months to give you the kinds of changes you’ve been asking for, and we’re grateful for all of your valuable PTR feedback. Read on for the breakdown of the biggest changes your feedback inspired.
Highlighting the Highlights
HOLO-WARDROBE SYSTEM
Costume pieces are no longer items, but "looks" which can be stored in the new Holo-Wardrobe. Players can now store the appearance of each costume piece at the account level rather than require each character to acquire and equip specific items, and each costume piece can even be dyed a different color depending on the look for which you're using it. Best of all, players no longer need to interact with the Protostar Appearance Modificator to edit their costumes and can do it from anywhere on Nexus.
PROTOSTAR CONTRACTS
Protostar Contracts task players with the completion of various PvE or PvP activities all across Nexus. Players completing these Contracts earn progress on the reward track, where they can get powerful gear and other fabulous rewards. Level-50 players, you can find a Protostar Contract Dispenser in Thayd or Illium to learn more.
INITIALIZATION CORE Y-83 - NEW 20-PLAYER RAID
Initialization Core Y-83 is a single-boss, 20-player raid instance that has opened up within the Defile. This encounter also comes with an opt-in challenge mode that increases the encounter’s level of difficulty.
RED VS. BLUE SAME-FACTION BATTLEGROUNDS
Enjoy some good ol' battleground fun! Battleground queues can now pit groups of the same faction against each other.
VANITY PETS
Players can now collect and summon companion pets in WildStar. Accentuate your personal style with a pet rowsdower, pumera or even a cute little probebot!
STAR-COMM BASIN
Enter Star-Comm Basin, a new level-50 zone set in Levian Bay, and participate in dynamic, daily, event-driven content. The Caretaker has sent out a call for help after getting caught in the middle of a dust-up between the Exiles and the Dominion. Too bad the creepy cavalry includes Ikthians, Marauders, and the Strain. Ready to throw down?
Streamlining for the Masses
In an effort to streamline much of your gameplay experience we’ve also made some changes to questing and the UI while improving optimization. The most important of these changes are noted below.
LEVELS 3-6 ZONES
Levian Bay, Crimson Isle, Everstar Grove, and Northern Wilds have been streamlined to make quests easier to understand and to reduce travel times between zones.
QUEST SHARING FIXES, LEVELS 42-50
Quest sharing has been streamlined throughout Malgrave, Grimvault, Blighthaven and the Defile. Additionally, Blighthaven features a fast-travel destination from the capital cities at the Nursery Trading Post, and new soloable daily quests. The Defile’s Dominion and Exile suppliers have moved from their original homes in the Sonic Plaza to new locations at Final Light and Hope’s Dare in the Dread Traverse. These new locations feature a transmat terminal, crafting and engraving stations, and fast-travel destinations from the capital cities.
TAXI UNLOCK CHANGES
Taxi kiosks will now unlock automatically when players reach the minimum level for a zone’s content.
ARKSHIP UPDATES
The Destiny and The Gambler’s Ruin tutorial experiences have been streamlined.
"BIND ON PICKUP" ITEMS ARE TEMPORARILY TRADABLE
"Bind On Pickup" items can now be traded within two hours after the item is looted, but only with other characters that were eligible for the item when the item was looted.
ICCOMM REWRITE WORK IN USER/PARTY
ICComm now supports group and guild channels with better defined and more accessible limits for our WildStar addon developers.
OBJECTIVE TRACKER IMPROVEMENTS
A new interface has been added to better track quests, path missions, challenges and other content. This new tracker includes a lot of customization for players to decide how much content they want to see in the tracker.
OPTIMIZATION
We reduced some of the hard drive reads that happen while moving and looking around. We’ve also removed some massive frame rate drops that could occur if players were running on objects and into walls.
OPTIMIZED RAID FRAMES
Raid frames have received an optimization pass.
OVERHEAD ICONS FOR VENDOR VARIANTS
Vendors across Nexus will now have unique icons above their heads to better indicate their specialized wares.
Again, these are the most noticeable changes in this patch so download and hop in. For all the gritty details read our epic patch notes in the forums.
Don’t forget to read our Contracts, Customization, Initialization Core Y-83, Bay of Betrayal and Star-Comm Basin Deep Dives to learn more about some of the features that we brought to INVASION: Nexus.
Also, for all your WildStar news, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and remember to leave your valuable feedback on all things WildStar on our forums.