Updates/2008-11-11

Deployment 14: 11/11/2008

Deployment 14 is on LIVE! It features new group encounters and missions, increased Bane aggression in Divide, bosses dropping Series 3 machine guns, purchasable tabs to add space to clan lock boxes, new load screens, better clan system behaviors, and more. Read on...

Maps and Missions

 * Torden: Incline: Raksha Robotics Factory (Instance) - new Wardenbot Control Point group encounter (called the Central Dispatch Unit) inside the instance. Control Point is recommended for squads of players between level 25-32 and is repeatable. Players have the option of using a teleporter to take their squad directly to the Control Point, circumventing the rest of the instance to allow for immediate access to the encounter for larger squads. CP Bosses have chance to drop new progressive weapons and armor sets. This CP is different than CPs found on shared maps. Gaining control of the CP will allow players to dispatch Wardenbots and Turrets to defend it.
 * New Mission Added - "War Machine" - New repeatable mission inside Raksha Robotics Factory offers prestige as a reward for squads to take the Wardenbot Control Point inside the instance. Mission is offered by NPC Control Point Commander Kearns inside Raksha Robotics Factory. Mission required players to be between levels 25-32, and is a level 27 mission.
 * "War Machine" mission is not required to participate in the Control Point encounter in Raksha Robotics Factory
 * Old Mission Removed - "Artificial Iniquity" - this mission and the associated encounter inside Raksha Robotics Factory have been removed and replaced with the new mission and the Wardenbot Control Point encounter mentioned above.
 * Concordia: Wilderness: AFS archeologists have unearthed an array of previously unknown Eloh Conduits at Twin Pillars Outpost. Construction is underway in the vicinity.
 * Mission: "A Mystery Unearthed" - new level 50 mission offered by NPC Archaeologist Wynne Topper at Twin Pillars on Concordia: Wilderness.
 * The non-mission lootable chests on the Plains and Mires maps have been changed in the following ways:
 * There are now many more lootable chests on Plains and Mires.
 * Looting some chests will bring the attention of the Bane, while other chests attract no extra attention. Be on your guard.
 * Some of the new chests are locked by default, and others are unlocked. All classes will be able to access at least some of the chests. The cipher tool works on the new locked chests, just like before.
 * The new chests use a variety of art as their container. Some are Bane chests, while others are AFS or Brann chests. Some chests might actually be lootable allied corpses.
 * Many of the chests are hidden or more difficult to see, so look around as you travel.
 * All of the new lootable chests have a chance to drop purple, blue, and green armors/weapons as well as consumable items. However the location and surroundings factor in to the loot chances. For example, the easiest chests to find and open will have only a very small rare chance for a purple item. Chests in areas farther away from AFS bases, or in more combat prone areas, will generally contain better items.
 * New spawners added to Divide:
 * The Bane forces are becoming more aggressive and responsive to the AFS presence in the field. Expect the unexpected as the Bane on Divide start gunning for receptives that wander into Bane territory attempting to skirt around or outflank base defenses and regular patrols of Thrax.
 * Dynamic Spawners are the first steps of a system of PVE improvements that add new and interesting combat scenarios to the already lush environments of TR. Dynamic spawners are additional reactive elements in the worlds of TR and specifically focus on the presence of players and fellow receptives.

Game Mechanics

 * Creatures will now only drop one type of junk loot item to help with player inventory space.
 * Player and creature resistances have been changed to allow for better scaling. Resistances will now have diminishing returns and will display a value rather then a percentage. In addition, Resistance Values have been adjusted for many skills and equipment modules. At Resistance Values of less than 50, the actual damage mitigation wi be higher than the value listed. At Resistance Values of greater than 50, the actual damage mitigation will be lower than the value listed. A quick breakdown is as follows:

Resist Value / Mitigation

10 16.67% 25 33.33% 50 50.00% 75 60.00% 100 66.67% 150 75.00% 200 80.00% 250 83.33%
 * The duration of the Resistance skill has been increased from 30 to 60 seconds.
 * The Polarity Field skill now debuffs resistance at -10 per pump, to -50 at Pump 5.
 * Resist modules on Weapons and Tools have been increased from 5 per rank to 10 per rank, such that a Rank 5 Weapon Resist module will provide 50 Resist Value.
 * The tool tips for all passive skills have been updated.
 * Clearer description of the function
 * Changed from roman numerals to english
 * Consistent layout of data on each pump
 * Consistent naming across abilities and skills
 * The Series 3 Machine Gun will drop off certain bosses in the game.

Interactions

 * In the LFS menu, Dueling has been replaced by 'PvP'
 * Clans are now able to purchase additional tabs within the clan lockbox interface, and each tab will be another panel of available inventory space. These tabs will be purchasable with prestige, giving clans something to spend their prestige on.
 * The clan lockbox will have one free tab and 4 available for purchase.
 * Functionality for these tabs is identical to the regular lockbox.
 * New tabs may be purchased by clan leaders or the 2nd rank of clan leadership.
 * New tabs are bought by spending prestige, not credits.
 * IMPORTANT - New tabs can only be purchased with prestige in the bank. Prestige on the clan leader is not available to make this purchase.
 * New tabs will follow the same permission rules as the free lockbox inventory tab.
 * The format and art style of all loading screens have been updated.

Framework and Tools

 * Clan system rewrite:
 * Complete rewrite of major clan functionality to eliminate long-standing issues with intermittent bugs and data integrity.
 * Behavior of clan features was not changed.
 * Affected features include:
 * Create/disband
 * Add/kick member
 * Promote/demote
 * Change leader
 * Change rank title
 * Invite/respond to invites
 * Leave clan
 * Clan feuds
 * Search for clan feuds
 * Features not impacted include:
 * Clan inventory (however, bugs where the inventory was not loaded at all should be fixed)
 * Clan chat.
 * Fixup of corrupted clan data wherever possible, or purge:
 * Preserved feud win/loss stats
 * Working clans should remain working, but broken clans may be fixed, or deleted.
 * In *very* rare cases, membership and/or leadership may be changed to comply with Pvp rules that had been violated because of bugs.
 * Bugs fixed:
 * Clan functionality unavailable (grouping server down).
 * Unable to see clan info on player.
 * Unable to access clan inventory.
 * Various clan data corruptions, forced to disband/reform.
 * A number of miscellanous clan bugs that generally degraded player enjoyment of the clan system
 * New feature! /clanleader is a new channel for clan officers

Misc Bug Fixes

 * Resist root will now display correctly when modifying an armor piece
 * Tooltip for adrenaline consumption rate using Sprint ability now matches functionality.
 * Help menu listings updated for Crafting and Command System
 * Rapidly switching weapons with different regen mods will no longer result in the player having a negative regen.
 * Players can now correctly retrieve bound items from their own footlocker.
 * Players can no longer pull a bound item out of a footlocker with a character other than the one bound to the item.
 * Bodies of water should now have correct camera collision

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