Well, PVK has finally pumped out another beta, so it’s time for all of us to Go yonder and update.

The changes are a bit bigger an update than the 0.1 increment suggests, but there’s still no new classes, and like every update, it has it’s ups and downs.

Holy Grail mode is biggest new change. It’s replaced Booty Tag, opting for a game style with more blood. Object is, obviously, to get the grail – somewhat less intuitive is the idea that once you have the grail, you and your nearby teammates are supposed to get as many kills as possible while you still hold it. The grail holder gains regeneration up to +100hp, and a speed boost, while his nearby teammates gain a slower regeneration of up to +25. Any kill made by the grail holder or his nearby (glowing) teammates gains the team a point. The number of points needed to win a match varies with the number of players and server settings, as does the number of wins required to end the map.

Counterstrike has infected yet another beloved mod, in that PVK Deathmatch has been replaced with a Last Man Standing mode. Maximum round time is, mercifully, about 2 minutes (by default), after which the map spawns hazards to kill the remaining players. The new LMS map Chapel falls apart rather spectacularly, while the newly redesigned pvk_Arena (no longer a keg fest), simply spawns blood thirsty crows to finish any remaining contenders.

Random Nerfage has been dished out just about everywhere but where it belongs. The poor, papier-mâché archer’s special now does less damage than a normal arrow, unless all three arrows strike the same target (tis like firing toothpicks – yer better off using the normal arrow, unless you have multiple targets). Clearly this class is only for entertainment value – as it’s now too weak to be any real aid in winning most match types.

The Pirate Captain’s blunderbuss special now has to be loaded (by pressing the special key) before it can actually be fired. While many people were complaining that the Captain was overpowered, perhaps with his massive health, or his nasty cutlass, no one ever complained that his special was ever an issue (being much more likely to do himself in than his opponent). On a related side note: suicides now count as a kill for the last opponent to strike you – so if your Captain does kill himself with his, now, even more useless special - odds are your opponent will get the point.

Meanwhile, the Heavy Knight Mecha-Tank still enjoys his full powers as a fast moving juggernaut of death that can still take out any other class with two solid hits, coupled with a special that instantly slays anything within 10 feet. *sigh*

Minor Map Changes are scattered throughout. Both the booty maps (pvk_island and pvk_forgotten) are as slanted as ever, despite some minor attempts to un-screw the Knights. The whole concept of the Forgotten map needs to be reworked, as putting the Knights at the bottom of a pit in a huge base, and giving the Vikings a tiny area to defend where they pretty much spawn in sight of their easy choke points, just makes the balance issues impossible to fix by use of minor adjustments (such as making certain staircases harder to climb). Island’s attempts to unscrew the Knights were similarly lacking, as they still have two dark spiral staircases leading directly to their treasure chamber, and the addition of the gates sometimes works more against the Knights than for them.

Various changes to pvk_temple, on the other hand, make it much more intuitive and aesthetically pleasing, and even add a few more opportunities for comical deaths.

All in all this patch should bring your interest back for some time, but like the initial release, it’ll likely wear thin shortly, as there’s still just not that much to the game. The new maps and game modes help, but I really think what the team needs to concentrate on, rather than new classes, is getting some of the more complicated goal oriented maps back, such as pvk_colossus and pvk_ship. Multiple-point territorial control and mobile-point territorial control maps would add more to this game than any of the proposed changes I see coming down the pipe. Hopefully someone will come through with these, as thus far, all the custom PVK2 maps I’ve seen are utter crap.
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[i]Hides_with_Grail: “I’m staying in this dark corner – where no one will see me.â€

nice

this is source pvk?

PVK2 = PVK Source, yes.

It seems they've updated to 2.2 since my last review. I've not played since August, so I've no opinion of the new version yet... Oddly enough, I see no changelog about - pirates must have obsconded with it.

*sigh* That means I have to update our PVK2 server again... That did NOT go well last time. >_>
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[i]"It’s funny, how a call for democratic participation of the Palestinian people within the nation of Israel, repeatedly gets mis-quoted as a threat of nuclear annihilation by both parties - most often by McCain, but even, more recently, by Bill Maher. It’s especially ironic when Ahmadinejad is actually quoting a statement made by the Ayatollah, twenty years ago, that was then seen as a promising overture of peace. There is no such colloquialism as ‘wiped off the map’ in any Arabic language – all our translators have said this repeatedly. I also doubt this is a case of ‘accidental’ mistranslation, but rather yet another case of certain individuals hearing what they want to hear.â€