Shard is currently up, kinda. Webserver is having issues, broadband should be working on it tomorrow. This is a brand new physical server that was built yesterday for the shard, so it's mostly just being unhappy before it gets settled in.
If the patcher fails you, go here to download the patch.
If you haven't, remember to check the daily patch changelog, which will detail all updates for this month, located here
I'd like to officially announce the new patch, as well as detail some of the changes here. The patch will go live monday evening server time (server is in colorado).
I would also like to officially announce that the new color of the year is
pink, and demonstrating the color of the year is our admin BroadBand!
This patch is such a huge deviation from the past system that it starts the fourth age of obsidian. As such, one of the first things you'll notice is a spiffy new client. Hopefully this will cut down on many client related issues, and will probably be upgraded in future smaller patches as well, if need arises. There were MANY changes to the server portion of the shard, most of which you'll only notice as time goes on through the fact that things work better. So if the patch seems a little small at first, realize most of the benefit is still to come.
I'll point out a disclaimer that not all of the patch is functional yet, as we are slowly bringing parts of it online as we verify that the others are working properly.
However here is what we believe is and is not functioning, as well as some new things you might notice. This list will be updated as more of the patch is brought online.
Sheep Shearing - now works proplerly. The chance to kill while shearing is now based on animal lore, and the chance to spook a sheep is now based on taming. Needless to say, if you know nothing of animals, then taking care of them probably isn't for you now. Range to shear has also been increased.
Fishing - has gotten some adjustments, with many more to come over the next few days. Expect new fish.
Healing - Bandage healing has gotten a substantial upgrade and rebalancing. New features include:
Healing a poisoned target now halves the amount of hp you can heal, regardless of whether you cure the poison.
Healing a poisoned target adds to healing delay.
If you fail to cure poison, you still heal damage.
Fails are no longer based off of hunger level, instead hunger adds to healing delay.
Potion Timers - A new potion timer system has been implemented.
There are currently 5 classes of potions, more to be added later. Each class of potion has it's own timer, so you can use one potion from one class and one from another without the delays hurting each other.
Each potion also has it's own cooldown value, so some potions take longer after use than others.
These changes only affect potions made AFTER the patch. Any potion made before the patch will automatically have a delay of 5 seconds and be put in potion class 5.
Anatomy - Anatomy now has a chance to gain skill through normal combat.
Races - Races have been re-implemented and have been altered somewhat.
New Ice Elf, Wood Elf, and Warlock characters can be made through the race stone once the new one is installed. Vampires will be added in a future(soon) patch. Dark elves currently have no plans to be re-added at this time, but old characters will still work.
Old characters who are of a nonhuman race will get a choice upon login whether or not they want to keep their race or convert to human.
Race classes have been removed.
Race skill limitations have been implemented. Please check the skill lists posted here(SOON) to decide whether or not you want to keep your race.
These skill limitations balance out the races other benefits, such that it is no longer an easy decision on whether or not to play a human character, or a racial character.
Magery Spells - ALL magery spells have been enabled. This is a temporary measure while we test some new versions we've made of the disabled spells. Please post your experiences with them in bugs/suggestions, and we'll decide what, if any, need to be re-disabled.
New Player Commands - The following new commands have been added for players:
.sortpack - This will arrange the items in your pack in a somewhat ordered fashion.
.bandageself - This will attempt to heal yourself.
.bandagelast - This will attempt to heal the last person/animal you tried to bandage, excluding yourself.
Now, things that are NOT WORKING or are PROBABLY BUGGY:
Poisoning - Poisoning is getting an overhaul, but most of the old poisoning system is still in the game. Expect it to be a little buggy, and if it isn't, then good.
Monsters and Vendor loot - We're using a slightly new loot organization system, so some monsters might drop weird loot, or vendors might have their prices wrong. Please post in bugs of anything you find out of the ordinary.
Monsters - Most monsters have been rebalanced, so if you notice some monsters not working right or not spawning. Or even monsters that shoudln't be there, please post in the bugs forum.
Weapons - The previous damage patch that rebalanced weapons has been removed, mostly on accident. Sorry. It will get put in over the next day or two, promise.
Damage over head - This patch was removed because the damage shown was not as accurate as we'd have preferred, and a new one is being written. Expect it in the next day or two.
Account Creation - Don't expect account creation to work reliably for a few days. Other parts of the system need to be tested first before we put in the new account system.
Tamed Animals - Any mounted horses that you logged out on probably did not survive and will hate you when you login. Likewise other animals might behave a bit strange due to the upgrades in how the animal system works.
Please note that this list will be updated as more of the patch is brought online.
Now, rules for the beta month:
As voted earlier by players, you wanted this patch to be brought into an open beta. But this means certain rules will be in effect for the month that this occurs.
If a sufficiently large and unbalancing bug is found, then there risks being a rollback. The rollback may be to the release of the patch, or may only be hours or days. It depends on how bad the bug is and if anyone has abused it. If no one abuses bugs and reports them all, then we shouldn't have any rollbacks.
The bugs and suggestions forum has been cleared because of how large this patch is. If you see anything that you think is a bug, post it there, and staff will respond as soon as possible with whether it is a bug, and if it is will try to fix it. Any behavior out of the ordinary should be posted. This will help us in our jobs.
But you got out voted lol. Anyway im sure staff will fix things or do a roll back or something. Which brings me to another point. This is beta testing so im pretty sure we will have a roll back or 2. Just give theam time to get it all lined out 
