Welcome to our run through of the improvements and additions in the
latest version that we intend to make available to everyone when the
Open Beta starts in the coming weeks.
Home Beta 1.0 is aimed at delivering a
stable base upon which to build the service over the coming months and
years and so please remember that this is not a game and it is not a
launch, this is a start of a journey.
Timings
Last night v1.0 went live in the beta and our existing testers are now up and running with it.
Today,
Friday 21st, over a hundred thousand invitations will be sent across the SCEE region and next Thursday the 27th another larger batch of invitations
will be sent.
If you are lucky enough to get an invitation then please note there will be load test event on each of the two evenings.
For everyone else Open Beta will not be far behind.
On with the Patch Notes:
Installation and the first visit
When
you run Home for the first time it will prompt you to reserve space on
your Hard Drive into which data can be downloaded now and in the
future. Home will occupy 3077MB of Space on your Hard Drive as before.
During the first log on to Home the process of viewing and accepting (or rejecting) the EULA has been greatly improved
Something
else new to those logging in for the first time is our simple,
interactive tutorial. This introduces many of the core aspects of Home
and is available whilst in your apartment. If you want to go through
the tutorial again there is an option to reset it in the new Menu Pad
Age limits and ratings
Home
itself is not a game and is therefore not Age Rated as such. However
each SCE Region will have its own Age Limit applied to it in accordance
with the regional managements plans. SCEE’s Age Limit for Home will be
16 and over from the start of the Open Beta. The Age Limit on the
Closed beta remains 18 and over.
Games within Home will be Age
Rated however, and their Age Rating will be displayed and enforced
where applicable with a new interface addition.
Menu Pad
The
vPSP has been replaced by our new Menu Pad. This has allowed us to
reorganise the menus so you should find the presentation and flow of
the options faster to navigate with key items being closer to hand.
Additionally
now that the dilemma of potentially having two XMB’s in Home is solved
by the removal of the vPSP we can now support In Game XMB throughout
Home.
Profanity filter
Following all of your
feedback we have completely replaced the bad word filter with something
far more adaptable, flexible and able to deal with languages in
isolation from each other.
European Language Spaces
In
the previous version the language groups within Europe were separated
into their own areas with no navigation between them. We have now
removed this and brought everyone back together. In the future we will
be adding language based areas for SCEE customers and a means of
navigating between them.
Background Downloading
When
you first visit a Space it will be downloaded to your PS3 but now you
will be offered the choice of downloading it in the background. This
can be used on multiple Spaces at the same time and when each download
is complete a message will appear to let you know and to ask if you
would like to go to that Space now.
Regional Travel
Some
of the old hands amongst the testers will remember the vPSP Menu option
to travel between US, European and Japanese spaces that was removed in
version 0.8.3 back in February. This just left the option to Go To a
Friend in another region or Invite them to you. The usage of this over
the last few months has allowed the Home management teams to gain
experience in understanding the complexities involved in regional
travel. Subjects like licensing and contracts, moderation, localisation
and regional business direction all have to be considered. Therefore,
on balance, we have taken the decision to limit Regional Travel to
Personal Spaces and Clubhouses.
Interface changes
When
you select Full Screen on something like a Video or a Poster it will
now ensure you have a clear view by making anyone standing in the way
invisible to you.
The information you see above someone’s Avatar
has changed and you should find this much more useful now. For example
if they are setting up a game launching session then the name of the
game and how many other people are in the group will be displayed.
The
Friends list has had a small change and now a small star will appear
next to a Friends name if they are in the place in Home as you.
Animations
We
have spent some time on the dances and you’ll find some of the old
favourites a little better now. Whilst we have also removed a few we
have added new dances and overall your dancing needs should be better
catered for.
You will also find you are now able to sit on the
floor just about anywhere you like; that option is under the “extra”
menu available by pressing R1. Some emotes are available whilst seated
on the floor.
Spaces
The Marketplace is now
called the Shopping Centre and you will find the shopping interface has
been rebuilt and now closely resembles the PlayStation Store interface.
The
Game Space has been renamed the Bowling Alley and many improvements
have been made to games within it. Pool has been overhauled and now
includes a strength gauge for your shots and bowling has had many
changes made to it including full animations for players whilst bowling.
Some
of the arcade games have been removed and some of those will return
once they have been updated into our scripting language of choice,
Lua. Two new games have arrived, echochrome and Ice breaker.
Although
not placed within the Bowling Alley Draughts/Checkers has been
rewritten in Lua and you should notice an improvement to its
presentation as well as the addition of a spectator mode and a queuing
system.
Rewards
Both echochrome and Ice
Breaker have our new system of Rewards applied to them. This is a means
of giving Home items as rewards for activities, trophies and other
accomplishments both within and outside of Home, right across the
PlayStation Network.
Grief types
The first proper
list of Grief Types is now live and replaces the old list completely.
These are the categories of Grief that you can report other users for
from within the “Submit a Report” function. Further types will be added
in the coming weeks.
Clubs and Clubhouses
Introducing our basic club support system within Home. Some facts on Clubs:
- A user can own 1 club
-
But be a member of a total of 5 clubs, which includes any self owned
club. So, own 1 club and be a member of 4 others or simply be a member
of 5 clubs owned by other people
- Each club has 1 leader (the owner) and up to 4 sub-leaders
- A club can have up to 32 members
- Each club name is unique
- Search through clubs
- Send requests to join a Club and leaders can send invitations
- Clubs created in Closed Beta will be deleted when Open Beta starts
A
Clubhouse is a personal space for the Club members to meet in and
persists even with the owner/leader offline. The first active feature
for Clubhouses is the bulletin Board where the leader and, optionally,
the sub-leaders can leave announcements for the whole club to read.
This is limited to four simultaneous announcements at the moment.
Over time new premium clubhouse designs will become available as will other tools and services to support your club
