Not sure if everyone gets the newsletter, but if you don't:

Greetings to everyone who joined us in launching Global Agenda over the past couple weeks, and many thanks to the thousands of people that helped us alpha and beta test the game ahead of launch.
Because of your involvement and positive word of mouth, we've had a great launch, and seen much stronger than expected initial Global Agenda sales.

In fact, last week we were the #2 best selling game on Steam and the only game in the Steam Weekly Top Ten based on original/non-sequel IP. Thanks for supporting independent game development and battling sequel-itis! Thanks also for your patience with initial server tuning and Conquest adjustments.

MARCHING FORWARD
We view the release of Global Agenda as the start of the journey and we are already working hard to continue delivering improvements, new features, and new content based on your feedback.

To prove it to you, we are going to extend the free-play period for Global Agenda Conquest while continuing to deliver features and content enhancements.

We feel this is the best way to prove to you the value of a Global Agenda Conquest subscription, while also ensuring that as many people as possible are exposed to our unique and innovative Conquest gameplay.

All players will continue to be able to play the Conquest features for the rest of February and March without a monthly subscription fee.

In the very near future, here are some additional enhancements and improvements you can expect:

BY THE END OF FEBRUARY -
We will deliver a set of enhancements ASAP based on fairly unanimous community input. We currently plan to have the following items in production by the end of February:

Friend List/Ignore List - Steam has a Friends List, and we offer Agency Management as an alternate way to find your friends, but an in-game Friends List (and Ignore List) was a high requested feature that is being added.

Player Choice on PvP Queues - For initial release we consolidated gametypes within a single PvP queue. With no guarantee around number of players we would have, our top priority was to ensure the players got into matches quickly and to make sure our matchmaking system had a sufficiently large population to balance out sides. That said, we've heard how much players want to specify, or eliminate, certain match types. And we do have the population to support this request. So, we will be implementing player selections per PvP gametype so you can exclude or include each type as you wish.

Repair Kits - Non-visual Upgrades (of the Armor or Weapon variety) do increase stats for your character. And by the time you collect 16 of them they make a big difference. They also take time to craft and/or buy and, after all that time invested, having them wear away without any recourse was frustrating. Repair Kits are a new item type that will be available in-game and restore your Upgrades to full durability.

Additional AvA zones and AvA Reporting - We are introducing new AvA zones to support play during hours more convenient for those in other locales. We are adding:

Zone 6 - Oceania/Australia - 19:00 to 21:30 in Sydney, 16:00 to 18:30p in Singapore (3a to 5:30a US Eastern, Midnight to 2:30 US Pacific) [NOTE: Initially, will run on servers hosted in the US but be geared toward an Oceanic audience, or for night owls on the US West Coast].

Zone 8 - Europe - 14:00 to 16:30 GMT (9a to 11:30a Eastern)

We are also adding a few new Conquest screens to give Agencies reporting of historical combat events. And, we will continue to publish our game stats externally via web APIs so community sites can access the data and develop custom reports. And deliver a variety of bug fixes and other improvements.

BEYOND FEBRUARY -
Generally speaking, we intend to earn your subscription. Our entire Studio is focused on continued feature and content development for Conquest gameplay, including:

More PvP Content - New maps around a 4v4 arena gamestyle as well as a 10v10 pre-made queue.

More PvE Content - We've been pleased by the positive reception to our 'dungeon-crawl' style Infiltration PvE missions. That said, we want to offer additional variety both in setting and mission type. Imagine being able to step outside of the doors of Dome City and assist Bancroft by doing missions within a large open area, with additional loot available in that location. We are working toward delivering this content.

More AvA Content - New facility types and new game-styles for Conquest. Specifically we are developing a new 'No Facility' map based on Control style, a new Defensive Facility that grants protection to adjacent territories, and Resource Raid Missions based on Payload style. We also recognize that some of the game-board rules need to be looked at; we will continue to monitor those to ensure that AvA maintains the right balance between accessibility and significance.

Improved Crafting, Loot and Prestige Items

We thank you for support and look forward to building the Global Agenda world together.

Todd Harris
Global Agenda, Executive Producer

Thanks Brooklyn...

I just got done taking screen shots out of my email to post here then noticed you beat me to it

This is good info!!!

Wow this is great news from the devs!

Hopefully they can fix this crashing problem many people seem to have. 4v4 Arena sounds kick ass

More news posted this past weekend: http://forum.globalagendagame.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=142&t=14897&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

We would like to thank everyone for both the participation and feedback of the Global Agenda Conquest game.

We sent out a couple of surveys recently, we received significant feedback on the type of features our players would like to see to the overall game world and most specifically around subscriptions.

Our intentions are to release the following before the end of March so players can get a feel for some the the ongoing MMO type of content to be expected in the future.

MMO changes:
The single most significant change we are planning to release is a 'open world' type of PvE gameplay located around Dome City. The missions are based on helping Dome City stay intact against enemies, sabotage, and maintaining support infrastructure.

The key features for this zone are the following:

* A large area that has a number of different repeatable PvE type missions given out by NPCs

* Missions will be available for different size groups (ranging from Solo to 10 person teams)

* Different PvE Objective types (like defending an area against waves of enemies)

* Multiple groups/players playing in the same zone (we are trying to find a good balance of how many currently)

* Zone will have safe and unsafe spots (unsafe meaning other players can damage/kill you)

* Players can come in/out of area easily and be in Queue for regular PvP, PvE, and AvA missions while in the zone

Loot and Crafting

* New crafting and loot will be available for creating Rare and Epic weapons and devices

If all goes well, we would like to release an additional open zone before the end of April which will have even more interesting game play.


Specific to Conquest, this is what our player base told us they would like to see in Conquest (ranked by importance - large sample set of thousands of players):

1. Make it easier for smaller agencies to compete
2. Give better rewards for playing in AvA
3. Add additional get modes in AvA
4. Add additional maps and content
5. Add more to do while your strike team waits for an AvA mission
6. Make it easier for solo players to engage in AvA
7. Provide more flexibility on when your agency can attack/defend territories
8. Add additional zones for Europe and Oceania
9. Better tutorials and info

Based on this feedback, but also on our own experience, observations and data mining, we plan on making the following additions and changes to AvA. These are currently targeted to be completed by the end of Feb and playable early in March.

AvA Changes:

* New Mission type: Resource Raids
Resource raids will allow players to form a strike force and attack a territory to steal the resources being produced. These missions use the Payload game type with (2 or 3 new maps). This should allow for more action in the AvA zones and make it more difficult for groups to own very large territories without worrying about defending them. It's has a lower risk/reward for both attackers and defenders and allows more players to participate in AvA.

* New Hex type: Defense Facility
Defense Facilities have no direct production of any type. Defense facilities automatically provide protection to territories around them (but not against resource raids). The current defenses consist of missile barrages that will kill/slow down enemy players when active. While it's possible (but harder) to take over a territory near a Defense facility, it is advisable to bring down the Defense facility first. Defense facilities use a domination map type with multiple capture points.

* Unbuilt Hexes
A new map type using the Control game play type was added.

* New Hex type: Upgrade Production Facility
This new facility will allow agencies to create components used for personal armor and weapon upgrades (like Rusty Plates, etc). This will allow agencies that are less interested in the 'win' condition to create personal rewards sooner.

* Increase in AVA production
It's more fun to have more of the AvA specific items while fighting in the AvA maps, so all production will be increased.

* Public Chat Channel to support LFG
A new chat channel will work across all public areas in order to help players more easily find other players to group with.

* HQ closing
Agencies will close the HQ locations for two days a week (days of their choice). All other areas will still be open to attack/defend. This should allow smaller groups to defend at least one territory with less of a time commitment each week.

* New Qs
In addition to AvA changes new Qs will be available for 4v4 and 10v10 premade teams. In the future more functionality will be added to those Qs for arena/ladder type reporting and rewards.



Please remember that we are working hard, but the timelines are not guaranteed. If we see that the timelines to delivering some of the core features extend too far past our estimates then we will let the community know and may extend some of the subscription policy.

Open world areas sound kinda interesting.