InstantAction Blog

Huge Legions Update - It's Coming

It's that time of the month when we shut down InstantAction so we can add some new updates to the site.  This time the updates are heavily focused around Legions and these will include customizable armor and voices for your character.  In addition to the different custom helmets, skins, and voices here are some of the other highlight you'll find in Legions.

General Gameplay
-player collision damage added

-added several new loadouts for each class
-added observer mode
-added a fix for the hot-swap exploit

Missions
-added new forgotten mission

Laser Rifle
-laser rifle no longer needs to be charged, but instead drains all energy when firing
-damage is now based on energy used to fire
-players can now jet while using the laser rifle

Rocket Launcher
-specialist no longer has remote detonation
-specialist rockets can now be triggered to accelerate by holding the trigger

Chat
-enabled flood protection
-added new quick chat voices

Systems
-added player customization options for skin and helmet

-Added a second "small-map" dedicated server to all regions

-Added a "middle-sized" map server to all regions which includes Mirage, Core, Zenith, and Forgotten.

For the full rundown of the Legions update please click the link.  Finally, everyone has been wanting to know how much all the content was going to cost.  Here's a breakdown of the Action Token price per item:

New Voice Packs: 250 ActionTokens/item

New Helmets: 225 ActionTokens/item

New Skins: 275 ActionTokens/item

-Dr Wiley

Facebook and Legions

 

Facebook Photo Contest

Isn't Ralph adorable

We've recently re-created the InstantAction fan page on Facebook and want everyone to become fans.  So to encourage this we thought we'd kick off a photo contest.  Read the rules and take a look at the above photo from a previous photo contest.

The rules are simple.

1. Take a photo of someone or something playing a game on InstantAction or really anything InstantAction related.

2. Post the photo on the InstantAction fan page. 

3. We'll pick our 3 favorite photos posted and the winners will each receive 1000 ActionTokens. 

See.  Simple.  So get your cameras out, put your creative caps on, start snapping photos and post 'em on the InstantAction fan page.

-Dr Wiley

Twitter Avatar Giveaway is Live

These could be yours

The twitter avatar giveaway is now live.  All you need to do is follow InstantAction on twitter and check out the most recent post.  Follow the instructions and you'll receive a promo code to unlock yours.  Quick, easy and best of all free.  Enjoy!

-Dr Wiley

What's New on InstantAction

As you most likely know InstantAction is down for a scheduled update.  Within this update you'll find the following.

New Features:

Lore: Implement Mav Lab Free Trial

Bug Fixes:

messaging about the full-screen options have been improved
when you remove an online friend from your friends list, the number of online friends will now decrease
Fixed a bug where some users are getting quick joined into ghost parties
Fixed an issue where some ads on FF3 in Vista are causing scroll bars to appear
Import Contacts Function Does Not Support AOL Mail
Messages sent should now appear in the "Sent" tab in the Inbox
The Browser compatibility screen does not list all compatible browsers

Pre-roll Ads are Coming

We wanted to give you, our favored users, a heads up about a change coming to InstantAction in our next release.

Beginning 5/26, you may be asked to view a video advertisement before a game and after you have played for a certain amount of time.  Adding video ads allows us to keep InstantAction free while working to continue to develop what you've been asking for: more features, dedicated servers, more game content, and, of course, more games.  We encourage you to support our sponsors by clicking on a video ad now and then to get a closer look at what they are offering.

In addition to the release of these new ads we are working hard to make the advertisements on InstantAction appropriate and relevant to what you guys would be interested in.  We've heard several stories from the forums about ads that don't necessarily fit within InstantAction and are working to correct this so that everyone isn't bombarded with ads that are constantly flashing and emitting random noises.  We apologize for some of the horrible ads that have made it to the site, but expect those to be gone soon.

If you have questions, please ask them in the forums here and we'll get back to you as fast as we can.  Your feedback is invaluable, as usual, so we want to hear it.

Personally, I'm hoping to see some more of those Swedish Fish ads.  I liked those.

-Dr Wiley

Twitter Giveaway

Next week we'll be giving away some sweet, or should I say tweet, limited edition avatars.  You want them after looking at them I know that to be certain.  But the only way you can get them is to follow the InstantAction Twitter which you can get to by clicking the previous link. 

So make sure you are following InstantAction on twitter for the details on how these tweet-tacular avatars can be yours.  Wow this post is full of cheesy goodness.

-Dr Wiley

How to Become A Featured User

So you want to know how to become the featured user in the community tab eh?

Well in the case of Neolight as indicated in the community tab, you'll see that we chose him becasue he's a very dedicated and friendly user.  He's also got some pretty sweet concept art which you can view by checking out 'Neolight's sketchbook'.  

Otherwise what are we looking for?  Well we want to feature users that are active and friendly on the site.  Whether this means you like to help out new players to IA or are constantly posting constructive comments on the forums is up to you.  We're always looking out for people who stand out from the crowd to give them some sort of recognition on the blog, podcast, or this new Featured User section of the community tab.  

So in short, be nice, be helpful, be active, do something that will make us notice you in a positive way.  Start a game tournament, start a fan page, do anything else you can think of and let us know.

The following is a list of links that could help you get ideas:

Helping out new players
Legions Newblood PUGs
How to Guides
Rokkitball PUGs

Feel free to leave a comment about what you've done around the site to help out!

-Dr Wiley

NetWar NetWar NetWar

NetWar was a lot of fun over in Nebraska.  But I must say it's extremely exhausting when you're up for 34 hour marathons.  So for this post I've decided to put less text and present to you the LAN in image form.

 
It was 90 degrees in Nebraska when we landed


A lovely view from the hotel room


Slapping the decals on the LAN boxes


The boxes have been decaled


A view from our booth


Derek announces the tournament


The lucky winners


7 hours in the Denver airport and ready to go home

It was a great time for us at the LAN and we hope that everyone there enjoyed Legions, you should be seeing some new users around the site as well.  Check out the legions blog for some stats from the LAN.

-Dr Wiley

Huge Update Today!

We've been waiting to introduce this to you guys for quite a while and the time has finally come.  We are very excited to announce the community tab!  Here you'll be able to see featured users, blog updates, and other events that you might be interested in. 

Check often as we'll be finding the best of the best on IA and bringing it all to you via the community tab.

In addition to this we are now officially supporting Chrome and Internet Explorer 8!  So for those that wanted Chrome and IE8 support.  You are very welcome.  Head to the forums for discussion about these topics.

Full release notes are coming soon.

-Dr Wiley