Updates/2008-07-23

Deployment 10 is on Live!

Highlights of this build include several ability changes to make combat even faster, our new Looking For Squad (LFS) system and our famous double and tri-barrel shot guns. Read all of the details in oue Deployment 10 Patch Notes below.

9 Months Veteran rewards

 * Emote /taichi
 * Headlamp
 * Pet - Lumin (Purple)
 * Title - "The Shadow"
 * XP Booster

Maps & Missions

 * Palisades: Eloh Temples - The mission requirements to enter Eloh Temples have changed. Players wishing to enter Eloh Temples should speak with Warden Brocail and complete the mission 'A Spiritual Pilgrimage'. You will then be expected to complete the temples in order of Raging, Proud, Bowed, Protector.
 * Palisades: Eloh Temples - The mission chains for Proving Commitment, Proving Justice, and Proving Conservation are no longer required to enter the Eloh Temples. These missions are still available for players.
 * Plateau: Velon Hollow - This instance is now open for players to experience, along with the new missions Village of the Damned, Ancient Mysteries, Deadly Silence, These Old Bones, Mountain Spring Toxins, Holy Vengeance, and The Better Half. These missions can be obtained at New Velon Village and Wedge Rock Outpost.
 * Boot Camp - Tutorial text now properly instructs player to press "T" to talk to NPCs instead of "F."
 * Boot Camp - Final mission "Deployment" now has an objective indicator to lead player to the dropship pad that transports them to Wilderness.

Avatars, Armors & Weapons

 * Reflective and Stealth armor optimization is complete. In the process of optimizing textures and meshes on these sets the art team has added minor refinements to the female versions to enhance their beauty.
 * Two new Incendiary shotgun types have been added:
 * Double-barrel shotguns appear at Level 23. These fire more slowly than standard shotguns, consume twice the ammo, and gain heat faster, but do more damage.
 * Tri-barrel shotguns appear at Level 34. These fire more slowly, consume triple the ammo, and gain heat faster than standard shotguns, but do more damage in a wider arc.

Classes, Combat & Creatures

 * Some abilities were not correctly receiving a damage bonus based off the caster's Mind attribute. This has been corrected and the complete list of abilities that receive a corrective damage bonus are:
 * Lightning
 * Shrapnel
 * Fire Support
 * Ruin
 * Rushing Blow
 * Force Blast
 * Vortex
 * Concussive Wave
 * Scatter bombs
 * Tectonic Strike
 * Explosive Wave
 * Corpse Explosion
 * Feedback
 * Scourge
 * Self Destruct
 * Explosive Nanites
 * Controlled Fission
 * Reconstruction (Ranks 1-4)
 * The following pets still receive a damage increase based off their master's Mind attribute. This is not a change, but stating what is already in the game and was communicated in a previous deployment.
 * Reanimation
 * Reanimation Wave
 * Clone
 * Trap
 * Turret
 * Bot Construction
 * Spotter
 * Reality Ripper
 * Crab mine
 * All ranks of the Engineer ability Trap now have the same casting time.
 * Renamed Force Blast Pump III from "Force Blast: Electromagnetic" to "Force Blast: EMP"
 * The Guardian ability Vortex will now do Electrical damage
 * The following creatures have had their VFX optimized for performance.
 * Bane Hunters
 * Bane Howlers
 * Bane Shield Drones
 * AFS Mech
 * Bane Stalkers
 * Bane Amoeboids
 * All versions of the Bane Caretaker; this includes the Regular, Holographic, and Polymorph version.
 * All versions of the Bane Technician; this includes the Regular, Holographic, and Polymorph version.
 * All version of the Bane Kael; this includes the Regular, Armored, and Polymorph version.
 * All ability tool tips have been changed and will no longer have adjectives to describe the amount of damage or healing done. In the process many tool tips have been cleaned up to make them easier to read and understand, but not all tool tips have been reformatted. This reformatting will be complete with the next patch.
 * 4 bosses previously were not dropping any junk loot or credits, only rare loot. This has been corrected.
 * Strider Master Thorq
 * Creeling
 * Stalker Overlord
 * and the Holographic Forean Elder inside Sanctus Grotto.
 * Upper face items, like sunglasses, can once again be dyed using armor paint.
 * The wind up on the Staff's ranged attack has been removed to fix certain bugs. This has increased the ranged attack speed of the Staff by more then 150% so the damage has been reduced to compensate for this. The average Damage Per Second of the weapon remains the same though.
 * The VFX for Feedback Rank 5 have been reduced when used against another player.
 * The Critical Hit icons for every damage type have been changed to match the icons used in the Player's Attribute tab.
 * A debuff Icon has been added for the Engineer ability Feedback.
 * The following abilities can now be cast while the player is moving.
 * Rage
 * Bio Augmentation
 * Shield Extender
 * Lighting
 * Cure
 * Reconstruction
 * Scourge
 * Controlled Fission
 * Explosive Nanites
 * Feedback
 * Sacrifice
 * Reflection
 * Disease
 * Resistance
 * Viral Conversion
 * Tactical Evasion
 * Hack
 * Shredder Ammo
 * Polarity Field
 * The following abilities have been altered and now have a longer duration. Because of this each ability's Micromech costs have been adjusted to reflect the longer duration.
 * Bio Augmentation
 * Bot Construction
 * Create Clone
 * Spotter
 * The following abilities have had their casting times decreased.
 * Viral Conversion
 * Tactical Evasion
 * Hack
 * Polarity Field
 * Ranks 2 and 5 of Cure have had their radius increased to 20 meters.
 * The bead time on all Rocket Launchers has been reduced.
 * The following abilities have been altered to use the Skill Proficiency System. The Skill Proficiency System is not new and players have already seen this with other abilities like Polarity Field and Spotter. Skill Proficiency is simply that as a player places more skill points into an ability every rank of the ability is improved. For example, with Polarity Field every time you place more skill points into the ability the debuff amount is increased for every rank.
 * Scatterbombs - the radius is increased for every rank as players place more skill points into the ability
 * Crab Mines - the amount of damage for every rank is increased as players place more skill points into the ability
 * Force Blast - the amount of damage for every rank is increased as players place more skill points into the ability
 * Explosive Nanites
 * This skill was altered to offer the Demolitionist more damage types and to take advantage of the Skill Proficiency system. Each rank will now offer a different damage type and the number of explosions will increase for every rank as players place more skill points into the ability.
 * Rank 1 - Sonic
 * Rank 2 - Laser
 * Rank 3 - Fire
 * Rank 4 - EMP
 * Rank 5 - Virulent
 * Torqueshell Rifles will now have an increased chance to hit their target when the Sniper has a full bead.
 * Certain bosses on mid to high level maps now have the chance to drop an enhanced incendiary shotgun.
 * The following Exobiologist abilities will now work in PvP combat on enemy corpses. These abilities will work in Squad and Clan PvP, but not duels.
 * Reanimation & Reanimation Wave - These two abilities will now create a clone of the enemy player and force the enemy to revive at the nearest hospital.
 * Cadaver Immolation - Like the PvE version this will cause the corpse to explode creating a large AOE explosion. Like in PvE combat there is a slight delay after the Exobiologist casts the ability and the explosion, but if the enemy player chooses to go to a hospital this will trigger the explosion early. Healing abilities though can cancel the explosion and resuscitate the effected player.
 * Hortimonculus - this ability will now convert an enemy player's corpse.

PVP, Clans & Control Points

 * Death Penalty Changes
 * Reduced the amount of time rez trauma is active. It is now active for only 2 minutes, 4 minutes and 6 minutes respectively. (It was active for 5, 10 and 15 minutes before.) 6 minutes is the largest amount of rez trauma time penalty, now. (The stat penalty stays the same at 20% per level of rez trauma with 60% being the largest penalty possible.)
 * Also, the reuse timer on rez trauma kits has been reduced to 60 seconds to aid in even faster removal of any rez trauma.
 * Clan Lockboxes
 * Clan lockboxes are now available in the game.
 * These lockboxes are only intractable if you are in a clan.
 * Clan lockboxes can be found in all persistent maps in towns designated as safety zones.
 * You can typically find them in front of barracks when one is present. If a barrack is not present, they can be found near player foot lockers in the town.
 * The lockboxes allow clans to:
 * Deposit and withdraw items
 * Deposit and withdraw credits
 * Deposit personal prestige which will permanently be stored as the clan's collective prestige. Prestige *cannot* be withdrawn once deposited.
 * Access rights for the lockbox are based on clan ranks:
 * Clan leaders and officers have full deposit/withdrawal rights.
 * All other ranks may only deposit into the lockbox.
 * A transaction log is available on the lockbox that shows the last 100 transactions that have occurred.
 * A filter is available to limit displayed transactions to a specified keyword (such as a player name)
 * Logout Timer
 * A logout timer has been implemented to prevent players from logging out to avoid death.
 * When logging out, you must wait for 10 seconds to elapse before your character can successfully log out of the world.
 * When quitting the game, you must wait for the 10 seconds to elapse, however, you may choose to quit immediately. Your character will still remain in the world until the 10 seconds have elapsed.
 * Grey Market Vendors
 * Be on the lookout for Grey Market Vendors! Reports have been coming from combatants that a select few vendors are now selling Grey Market items. Intel indicates that these vendors are staying under the radar by selling their goods in hidden locations on the following maps:
 * Divide
 * Palisades
 * Plains
 * Incline
 * Mires
 * Plateau
 * Pools
 * Marshes
 * Crucible
 * Ashen Desert
 * Thunderhead
 * Abyss
 * Descent
 * Howling Maw
 * Grey Market Vendors offer high quality Armor and Weapons that can be purchased using Prestige Points.
 * Be sure to check these vendors often. They are known to frequently resupply their available goods, randomizing the high quality equipment that can be purchased from them.

Interaction

 * Looking for Squad - By typing /lfs or using the radial menu you can now bring up options for creating or searching ads. You can either press the generic button which will do all the work for you, or open up the advanced options to enter the specific criteria of the group you would like to be a part of. Once you match with ads like yours via the search option, you can right click to bring down a menu to whisper, join or invite that group leader in order to merge your squads. If you wish to see in depth details about that squad and their ad, just left click the person to get more details.
 * Changed several icons in the overland map to make them more visible and better reflect what it is representing.

Framework and Tools
Changes to video settings within the predefined modes to optimize performance:
 * Light triaging code (used with non-deferred lighting only) was optimized and now uses around 66% less CPU than before. This helps increase performance in "Low" and "Normal" modes.
 * Terrain rendering code was optimized and now uses around 80% less CPU than before, and GPU performance has been optimized as well. Terrain rendering is now faster all the way around, increasing performance across the board. This does not affect the possible stall that single-core machines may see when terrain updates — that is a separate issue and discussed below.
 * Terrain tessellation code was optimized and is now over twice as fast. This is the code that runs in a background thread and re-tessellates the terrain geometry approximately every 20m that the camera moves. It is the code that can cause a stall or hitch on single-core machines every few seconds while running around; this optimization helps minimize this stall on single-core machines. If you are still seeing a stall when terrain updates, go into Custom mode and set terrain quality to the minimum setting; this should drastically reduce or eliminate most stalls seen due to terrain updating. If you still experience a stall every time the terrain updates, start bringing in the view distance as well until it goes away. We will continue to optimize this as necessary to make single-core performance smoother.
 * The "bubble" system mentioned on the website is now online — see "Partial Map Loading". This system reduces system memory and video memory usage of the client.
 * Added "Client.Audio.UpdatePeriodMilliseconds" parameter to the client.cfg file. This lets users override the default time (in milliseconds) between updating positional audio sound data. The default value provides a good balance between CPU utilization and audio accuracy. Lowering the value of this parameter will utilize more CPU but give smoother updating of positional audio sounds.
 * Updated the notes section within the client.cfg file to give more information regarding the file and how to use it.
 * Clean-up and modifications made to the Options screen in the Video tab.
 * Added a new section labeled "Performance". Some new options are here and some existing options were moved here.
 * View distance can now be modified in any mode (not just while in "Custom" mode)
 * Added new option for "Preload Map Geometry" (see partial map loading).
 * Partial Map Loading: Implemented partial map loading on client to save system and video memory. Instead of loading entire map into memory, only the area around camera is loaded.
 * Map geometry is loaded and unloaded on demand based on camera location.
 * Map loads faster; however, increased loading may be noticed when teleporting because client forces a synchronous load of geometry in the immediate area of the new location.
 * If desired, new system can be disabled so the entire map is loaded into memory as before (increases system and video memory usage, but will reduce geometry loading while playing). In the Options screen, in the Video tab, there is a check box labeled "Preload Map Geometry". By default, this check box is not enabled, resulting in the new system being active. Checking this box will revert to the previous behavior and load the entire map up front during the map load screen.
 * Changes to Auto-Configure: More systems will auto-configure lower than before, prioritizing performance over visuals. Mostly systems that auto-configured "Video *Quality" to High or Very High will now go to Normal.
 * Low - No Changes
 * Normal - Terrain Quality is set to lowest value (improvement for single core machines)
 * High - Terrain Quality is set to lowest value (improvement for single core machines)
 * Very High - Terrain Quality is set to 50%, and software anti-aliasing is disabled (Note: Hardware AA is not compatible with rendering engine)
 * Ultra - Software anti-aliasing is disabled (Note: Hardware AA is not compatible with rendering engine)
 * Maximum - No changes

Known Issues

 * There are several Bane weapon attacks that appear to pass through Force Fields and Walls, such as the Caretaker ranged attack or the Thrax pistol soldier's bullet. Players often experience this at a Control Point where they will attack from the outside, and then quickly run behind the force field. These attacks do not actually pass through walls. What is occurring is that the server calculates the damage the instant the enemy fires but the VFX are slow and don't "hit" the player until after they are behind the force field. The C&C team will be conducting an audit, and will be changing these VFX to be less confusing.
 * Ranger Reinforcements are not doing melee damage.
 * When using a cartridge ammo based pistol (with a clip of 20) if you hold down the mouse button and use the auto-fire the gun will eventually stop working and you will have to release the mouse button and reclick it to restart the auto-fire.
 * Some tools are appearing with weapon mods on them. However those mods are not active.
 * UI: RQS: Slider bar for setting frame rate does not display framerate selections
 * Once clan leader has been inactive for 21 days, the clan leadership will be transferred to the longest standing officer in the clan. The Leader is demoted to officer. Once the new clan leader has been inactive for 21 days, the clan leadership will be transferred to the previous clan leader as he is now the ranking officer with the longest history in the clan This is a task for Core and they have been notified.
 * Ability: Polymorph (Spy): Switching directions while initiating certain abilities (while polymorphed) may cause avatars to be rooted in place
 * Wargame status window/results window do not appear if a party of 1 surrenders-
 * Inviting a player into your squad while you are in an instance will not initially allow the invited player to join the same instance as the squad leader. The invited player will not enter the same instance as the squad leader once they accept the squad invite and enter the instance. However, after the squad leader exits and re-enters the instance, he will be placed in the same instance as the invited character.
 * Players have reported random client crashes in Howling Maw near -715, 195, -583.
 * Military Surplus: You may not be able to purchase any items from the Military Surplus.
 * Grey Market Vendor: Armor with no mods can be purchased.
 * Grey Market Vendor: Items in Divide exceed the level range designed for that area.
 * Certain conditions may cause clan chat to break.
 * Ability: Ranger: Tactical Evasion cast time has not decreased.
 * Ability: Grenadier: Scatterbombs rank 4 and 5 do not have explosion visual FX.
 * Mission: Your Part of the Bargain: Cannot complete "collect energy matrix" objective.
 * There have been some compatibility issues with Vista 64 and NVidia 8000 and up series video cards.

10.3

 * Fixed an error with the logos door in Howling Maw.
 * Fixed an error where Holograms in the Temple of the Proud Patriarch despawn after killing a player that fails the mission.
 * Fixed an error in the Temple of the Proud Patriarch where dying and failing still allows you to complete the mission.
 * Corrected an issue with Missing Merchandise that removed player flags when abandoned or failed.
 * Armor Shard pieces were not dropping of creatures in the mission "A Little Charity", this should be fixed.

10.5

 * Scatterbombs - The initial implementation of Proficiency to Scatterbombs did not offer the flavor and uniqueness that a Tier 4 skill should have. We have responded to this by changing Proficiencies implementation. Scatterbombs now increase the chance to critical hit on a per-pump basis. This adds unique value to the skill that similar skills in previous tiers lack. Other attributes of this skill have been rebalanced to accommodate this mechanic. We will be watching this skill to make sure that is delivers a fun and new gameplay experience to our Grenadiers.
 * Explosive Nanites: Damage scale is now consistent with other Skill Proficiency abilities.
 * Static map geometry (trees, rocks, architecture, etc.) no longer fades when first seen.
 * Fixed shader issue that caused a very small subset of systems to error out when launching the game.
 * Fixed bug with on-the-fly map loading (preloading map geometry disabled) that caused attached lights and collision volumes to sometimes load at the origin instead of being properly attached to the geometry.
 * Changed logout timer from 30 to 10 seconds.
 * Mission: Climbing the Corporate Ladder briefing no longer references the wrong NPC for completion.
 * Mission: Twisted Metal: players now receive credit for both Neobot Wardens and Neobot Reconstructors.
 * Mission: Missing Merchandise: Player flags now removed on when abandoning or failing a mission.
 * Fixed an issue in the CELLAR Arena that allowed players to jump into the arena.
 * Fixed an issue in the PvP Wargame Map that allow players to get in inaccessible areas.
 * Map: Eloh Temples - Players will now only be able to access the Hospital point for the section of Eloh Temples they are currently in.
 * Mission: Saving the Herd Patriarch: Objective for bringing a healing disc to Wohlgemuth will now complete properly.

PTS Only

 * Abyss: Dybukkar Garrison (PTS) - A new instance map, "Dybukkar Garrison," is available on the Public Test Server along with new missions: "Dybukkar Stops Here!", "The Dybukkar Investigation", "Weak Side Blitz", "Destroy, Destruct, Demoralize", and "The Drug War". Dybukkar Garrison is designed for level 50 and is accessible from the Dybukkar Underground area of Torden Abyss. These missions can be obtained at Archeron Outopost on Abyss, and inside Dybukkar Garrison.
 * Wargame Map changes:
 * A death effect has been added
 * Changed team staging area
 * The staging area is no longer in tower, but a small corridor space
 * Made medics unkillable and respawnable
 * Footlockers have been added
 * A very tough forcefield has been added
 * Removed high fence from staging area for easier viewing
 * The staging area sign now tells people which team needs help (does not enforce, just helps balance)
 * Now, only combatants get teleported to staging on a win instead of everyone on the map
 * More money is now given by the level up NPC
 * Now only players can go through team teleporters
 * Vendors will no longer be perma-killed
 * Implemented a prototype solution for circumventing base defenses.
 * Base defenses have been beefed up, but put on much longer respawns

-Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa, [Patch Notes]