Updates/2008-10-15

Deployment 13.4: 10/15/2008

Deployment 13 is on Live! It features the new Crafting System, our Series 3 Laser Pistols, purchasable tabs for your AFS Footlocker, the new map and radar style, and much much more. But see for yourselves below!

Maps and Missions

 * Added a new logos obelisk to the Concordia Divide map, near the entrance to the Corman Tunnel.
 * Certain parts of Torden Plains have had to be rebuilt due to Bane activity.
 * Atta grubs have begun spawning in the Avernus Outpost instance.

Game Mechanics

 * Ability tooltips have been updated:
 * Clearer description of the function,
 * Changed from roman numerals to english,
 * Consistent layout of data on each pump,
 * Consistent naming across all abilities and skills.
 * The Prestige cost of items at the Grey Market Vendors has been adjusted. Greens and Blues have had their costs lowered significantly. Purples have also seen minor adjustments at lower levels. The current Prestige Values are
 * Listed as Item Level (Green/Blue/Purple):
 * Lv 11 to 14 (70/400/1250)
 * Lv 15 to 19 (90/500/1500)
 * Lv 20 to 24 (110/600/1750)
 * Lv 25 to 29 (130/700/2100)
 * Lv 30 to 34 (150/850/2500)
 * Lv 35 to 39 (180/1000/3000)
 * Lv 40 to 44 (210/1200/3500)
 * Lv 45 to 49 (250/1400/4200)
 * Lv 50 (300/1750/5000)
 * The Caretaker's Noxious Burst will now only do virulent damage.
 * Series 3 Laser Pistols: AFS personnel are now authorized to dual wield a modified version of the Series 2 laser pistol. Each pistol contains a clip of 30 rounds, and these weapons are fired in alternating sequence to allow an extended firing pattern before needing to reload. (These items may be found rarely on bosses throughout the game world.)
 * Series 2 and 3 Fire Shotguns: Corrected a timing issue which was causing a much faster rate of fire than originally intended. At this time, each shot from a progressive shotgun will still do the same damage as it previously did, however the pace at which these weapons fire has been slowed.
 * Additional item sets have been added which will drop off all creatures in the game. Some creatures have a higher drop chance then others.
 * Drop rates on most creatures have been adjusted to be more consistent.
 * Players will now have access to a basic suite of commands for Bot Construction, Clone, and Spotter. These will be assigned by default to the function keys, or players can use the new /cmd. We encourage everyone to try these out on PTS and submit feedback on their functionality. The commands are:
 * Go
 * Subordinate will move to the location idicated by its owner's reticule.
 * Stay
 * /cmd stay
 * Subordinate will stop following or moving to a location and use the current location as a home position.
 * Follow Me
 * /cmd follow
 * Subordinate will follow its owner.
 * Follow Target
 * /cmd follow
 * Subordinate will follow the specified player.
 * Target Me
 * /cmd target
 * Subordinate will target its owner.
 * Target
 * /cmd target
 * Subordinate will target the specified player.
 * Assist Me
 * /cmd assist
 * Subordinate will assist its owner.
 * Assist Target
 * /cmd assist
 * Subordinate will assist the specified player.
 * /cmd passive|defensive|aggressive
 * Subordinate will assume the specified temperament.
 * Multiple commands may be issued at the same time.
 * For example: /cmd follow assist defensive

Interactions

 * All maps and radars have been transitioned to the new art style.
 * 'Show helmet' is now available on the character attribute screen in the top right corner.
 * In order to make keeping track of armor damage easier, durability for equipped armor will now appear to the left of the icon on the character attribute screen. The color of this text will change to reflect the state of the equipped item.
 * Players may now increase the amount of space available in AFS footlockers by purchasing more space.
 * 4 additional tabs are available for purchase
 * Tab 1 free
 * Tab 2 100000 credits
 * Tab 3 1000000 credits
 * Tab 4 10000000 credits
 * Tab 5 100000000 credits
 * Items may be moved between tabs or from the backpack by dragging the item over a purchased tab slot, which will then open that tab after a brief pause.

Crafting

 * Old crafting system item changes:
 * Modification Recipes no longer function in the new crafting system
 * These items can now be salvaged in the New Crafting System to produce Mimeomech
 * If a stack of these items is placed in the Crafting Station, the entire stack will be salvaged in one operation
 * Military Surplus changes
 * Item Category Changes:
 * Individual armor types no longer have "Upper Face" and "Lower Face" categories
 * There is a new subcategory under Armor named "Accessories" that has "Upper Face" and "Lower Face" subcategories
 * All existing and future sale offers for goggles and other Upper Face items should now appear in the new category
 * The Schematics category has been deleted
 * A new Crafting category now has four new subcategories:
 * Mimeomech (the only item appearing here is Mimeomech)
 * Salvage - a category for items that can only be salvaged for Mimeomech:
 * Modification recipes from the old crafting system
 * Junk Loot
 * Schematics - contains all Fabrication Recipes (armor paint, consumables, etc.)
 * Modules - for trading extracted Weapon, Tool, and Armor modules. Modules that have been extracted from equipment can now be sold on the Military Surplus
 * Right-click of a module item now correctly adds the module to the second slot if appropriate, or swaps out the existing module if one is already in the main slot.
 * Prestige vendors no longer sell module upgrade schematics.
 * Modification schematics no longer drop as loot
 * The four Engineering skills have been deleted
 * Any item or recipe that had them as a skill requirement no longer have that requirement
 * Any character skill points spent on those skills have been refunded
 * Healing Discs and Repair Tools are no longer considered valid targets for modules that list their target as "Tools up to Level 50"
 * Mimeomech now has its own icon and does not use the default cube icon
 * All extracted module items now have unique icons and none use the default cube icon any longer
 * Some extractable module types showed [+] in the item tooltip; that should no longer be the case
 * The 'Salvage" button will no longer be visible after performing a Salvage action and there is no longer an item in the input slot
 * The Upgrade page now shows the correct item quality color for the upgraded module
 * The left input slot on the crafting window now shows the correct item name, quality color, and modules
 * Right-hand input slot on the crafting window is now labeled "Insert Module"
 * The "Unknown Module" line item in the Integration and Extraction crafting submenus now displays a proper icon
 * Mimeogel has been renamed to Mimeomech
 * Many high end junk loot items are now salvageable for mimeomech. Items should say in the tooltip if it is salvageable.

Framework and Tools

 * Added "Software Antialiasing" back to the graphics options. This is the previous method where a blur filter is applied to the image in an attempt to smooth jagged edges. This method may be faster than hardware antialiasing, especially the emulated hardware antialiasing under deferred lighting. This option is mutually exclusive to the "Hardware Antialiasing" option. Unlike before, "Software Antialiasing" is now available for all modes including deferred and non-deferred.
 * Optimized terrain code so building terrain data is faster and causes less hitching.
 * Added "Active Shadows" slider in video options. This controls how many lights within a single frame can cast a shadow. This will only make a significant difference in areas where many shadow casting lights are in vicinity of each other. This situation is most likely to occur in outpost areas or interior spaces; Kardash Colony is a good example where this setting can make a difference in performance.
 * All creature special fx have been optimized. Creature attacks and abilities have had the colors changed to better reflect the damage type that they are dealing.

Known Issues

 * Mission: Decent: Refuge: Race to the Finish: Timer does not sync for all party members.
 * Mission: Open Says Me: Abyss: Ruins of Tampeii: Restarting the mission after failing will result in Danaher giving you the "Mission Completed" text and reward after you restart.
 * Squads: 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.
 * Ability: Demolitionist: Explosive Nanites: pump 1, 2, & 5 do not show damage type vfx.
 * Spy: Ability: Polymorph: Player can not enter AFS/blue force field when polymorph wears off or is turned off.
 * Ability: Sapper: Crab Mines: Does not attack neutral-turned-hostile creatures.
 * PVP: Ability: Spy: Traitor: Traitor does not work when you shoot the caster at the exact same time as when he starts casting.
 * UI: Physical Crit Hit text is displaying and Error 23 in the debuff information.
 * Crafting modifiers do not show the proper level, instead they show plus signs.
 * Tools: Rare tools are able to have weapon mods placed on them.
 * UI: RQS: Slider bar for setting frame rate does not display frame rate selections.
 * Wilderness ToO: Progressing past level 10 without completing 'Getting it in Gear' will result in being unable to obtain the Wilderness ToO mission. (This will be obtainable in D14)
 * Tooltip: The tooltip for the Sprint ability incorrectly lists the adrenaline cost. The cost listed is actually roughly half of the actual cost.
 * Bootcamp: It is possible to become stuck in Bootcamp by abandoning the final mission after clearing the dropship pad. Workaround - get the mission again and fail it normally (let the bomb blow up), this will cause the ship to respawn.
 * Enabling anti-aliasing emulation with some video cards can cause minor video anomalies. The background will not be visible on the Attributes screen, and the rotating planet will be missing from the top right corner of the mapview screen.
 * The new subordinate commands are in, and the terminology used in the commands may not match exact expected behaviors. Please check the help section for exact details on current functionality. (There may still be some tweaks coming to this system)
 * Salvage tools and tissue extractors are still available for sale, but are unusable due to the changes from the new crafting system. These can be sold back to vendors, and will be removed in the next deployment.

D13.3

 * Grey Market Vendor: Green level 11-14 items are now correctly priced (70 prestige.)
 * Mission: Base Invaders (Plains) can now be shared with squad mates.
 * The Juggernaut's black hole ability will no longer freeze players in place.
 * The trainer in the Irendas Penal Colony is no longer named "Error 23".
 * Crafting modules no longer use the default icon when displayed in the Military Surplus.

D13.4

 * Ranks for crafting mods on items will now display correctly as numbers and not +
 * Mission: Chaos Theory: All objects required for this mission will now display the correct glow effect
 * Nitroglazer Ice attack will now use the correct animation
 * Debuff icon for a physical crit hit now displays properly
 * Mission: Artificial Iniquity: Objective text will now display properly
 * Commands for subordinates are now be functioning properly
 * Added extensive entries to the help menu for the new subordinate command functionality. *A tutorial will appear that links to the overview the first time a Spotter, Clone, or *Bot ability is used. Detailed information on the various ways to give commands to your subordinates can be found in this area
 * Several tweaks have been made to crafting in response to feedback
 * Strength 5 modules can no longer be extracted from an item
 * Before integrating a strength 5 module into an item, there is a warning that you will not be able to extract it again
 * Doubled all Mimeomech received when salvaging legacy modifier schematics and legacy extracted components
 * Detonator recipes have been removed from all vendors.

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