The production team and closed Beta testers have been working to finalize new system specs for the upcoming 1.31 update. We had anticipated publishing these specs this week but because we are waiting some final code check-ins we have decided to wait until more testing can be done.

We know that many of our players are anxiously awaiting the new specs in order to begin budgeting and building new rigs in order to play 1.31 in all its glory. We will make the new specs available prior to the beginning of open Beta which is our last testing cycle before the update goes live.

We are also working on producing a build guide with a full list of hardware and pricing for those of you wanting to click-and-buy a new computer that's ready for 1.31. We've even got Motormouth beating the bushes to get a discount coupon offer from one of the online retailers.

1.31 is one of our biggest updates in the game's history and CRS has always taken great pains to ensure that no one gets left behind, so to speak, but the facts are, that to bring this game up to modern day standards, we had to make some big changes. These changes are not only to stay competitive in today's MMO market, but to also to make the game you know and love a whole lot more fun and exciting.

If you want a jump-start on what to expect from the new system specs, read what Gophur had to say in one of his past production updates.

It’s not particularly drastic but let me go over a couple of the must haves:

SSE2 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSE2)

SSE2 has been a standard since the Pentium 4 was introduced and includes chips back to the Athalon 64. These will now be the minimum requirement to play. 99% of you will be unaffected by this requirement change. We will however also be using this time to upgrade our recommended processor. We haven’t got a final decision and we’ll need your help testing to determine what is best but we are certainly thinking something in the Core 2 Duo range at 2.4 GHz or better.

Shader 3.0 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_shader")

Video card minimum specs will also be taking a jump to requiring Shader Model 3.0. This includes cards from the GsForce 6600GT and Radeon X1600 series on up. However, these are minimum cards and we would strongly recommend players to use cards from the Shader Model 4.0 family.

To read his entire article click here

We will continue testing beta client builds and with the help of our testers, we will finalize the new specs as soon as possible.