Busy Busy Busy! Wow. We're about to release. Talk about scary. Being an online game developer has always had a certain amount of freedom that came with its restrictions. Sure we had to release when "management" told us to and do some things "their way", but we never had to deal with getting the game to the customer. We just made the code, levels, art, and then something magic happened and then people were playing. We've come to learn that something magic is in fact, PAIN. But we're just about through it all. The Limited Edition CDs are in hand and they look really cool. You can see scans of the front and back below. They're a cool new type of CD that is only metal on the inner 3" and the rest is clear plastic. So when you look at it in the case, it looks like it's just a clear plastic disc. Now that the CDs are done we'll be putting up a fun little feature on how we got from concept to final product, but that will have to wait until YOU are in game playing! Expect these Limited Edition CDs to be on sale sometime tomorrow. Be sure to look for a mailing announcement and news on our website and fan websites. We're doing our best to get them on sale and everything is just about in place. Remember these are limited to only one thousand for sale in the United States and Canada. International customers may purchase Pre-Launch Gameplay Accounts for the same price with a limit of a total of one hundred international accounts being sold. This was done in response to player requests that international customers can play during the Pre-Launch period without paying absurd shipping costs. More details on the Limited Edition CDs and the Pre-Launch can be found in last week's newsletter. Of course we're incredibly happy to have made it as far as we have. All of us here would once again like to thank the fans. The support for bringing back Meridian 59 has been keeping us going during the most trying of times. Although we've been in testing and playing the game with fans for a while now, there's something a little more real about looking at a HUGE stack of CDs and shipping supplies that is just a little more validating. We're aiming to get these CDs in your hands by next week and launching the game by Thursday the 14th. Thanks again for making Meridian 59 your favorite online game.
	Brian's Bug Bashing Fixed bug that prevented players from casting spells on monsters in towns. Fixed bug that prevented black daggers from attacking in "no combat" areas. Made Detect Good and Detect Evil available at character creation. Fixed bug that made both good and evil creatures flash when detecting either good or evil. Improved descriptions for Detect Good and Detect Evil. Increased bonus defense from Magic Shield at the high end. Hopefully fixed the problem of bodies disappearing too quickly. Put in code to kill "flashing", where a player logs on and off again quickly to reset the logoff ghost penalty timer. The new system keeps track of your "penalty time" on the User object. Reduced weight rainbow ferns and solagh. Added 5 second post-cast timer on Shatter spell. Character cannot attack or cast another spell for 5 seconds after casting Shatter. Rebalanced treasure drops for Tusked and Daemon skeletons. Less scimitars, more variety magical items. Reduced the reagent taken to make a potion with Distill. Changed it so that new players will spawn with the reagents appropriate for their spells. Created characters and characters that go through the newbie portal start with 5x the reagents they need to cast their spells if they haven't suicided "recently". Changed it so that random treasure items can no longer have the "shimmers insubstantially" attribute. Changed Second Wind to not kick in if character is holding a token to prevent abuse. Made monster damage condition messages bold red. Doubled the amount of space available in storage vaults. Made most armor more potent. However, reduced leather strength a bit. Lowered reagent costs for many of the new attack spells and bumped up damage. Bumped up the damage on Shal'illebane and Qorbane. Added a system to control monster spawn rates. Reduced wait for monster spawns if there are multiple players in the room, up to a maximum. Raised absolute damage cap to 30 (from 25). Fixed text descriptions for the news globes. Increased prizes awarded from quests given by NPCs. Adjusted treasure tables to add in new resist rings. Made gauntlets mendable. Made gauntlets able to take about 50% more damage than before. Added designer's globe to Ko'catan inn. Doubled unsafe logoff penalties for people that have attacked another player recently. Fixed various text misspellings and errors.
	"The real question is... will you remember all those quotes you said belong in the newsletter." -Chris Ellis

Source: Near Death Studios - Info@NearDeathStudios.com