Updates/2008-04-28

==Patch Notes for 1.7==
*Rangers, Spies, and Snipers were given a respec due to ability changes listed below.
*Called Shot’s damage bonus was higher than intended and was decreased to reflect its original design. 
*Due to the new AI changes, all weapons have been increased 20% in damage excluding Chainguns and Torqueshell rifles. Chainguns were increased 10% and Torqueshell rifles were not increased as they were already dealing damage higher than intended.
==Avatars==
*Improved lighting in Character Selection & Character Creation windows. 
*We are working on the female avatars in an effort to make them more beautiful!
**Refined female stances on all weapon types.
**Refined female body shape on Motor Assist armor sets.
==Maps and Missions==
*Respawns: Palisades, Incline, and Plains have had their spawns significantly adjusted to better balance spawn across the full map. Divide and Wilderness have had spot adjustments to remove a few excessively tough areas. 
*Aggro adjustments: Bane and other aggressive mobs on Wilderness, Divide, Plains, Mires, Plateau, and Marshes have adjustments to their aggro groups. You will no longer be able to shoot a Bane in the back and expect that his buddies won't notice. Also, higher level mobs will react smarter and more violently than their lower level counterparts.
==Creatures==
*The Atta Queen will no longer dodge.
*All creatures are now more aggressive in entering combat and will typically return fire much quicker than previously witnessed. 
*Creatures will now consistently call for help from allied creatures within a short distance around them. This may make combat significant more challenging in some areas, please proceed with caution. 
*Most creatures capable of summoning additional creatures will not do so while under the direct influence or control of a player. 
*All humanoid NPCs should now display the correct turning animation when in combat. 
*Bane control point pistol and grenadier Thrax bosses now have a unique appearance.
==Classes & Combat==
===General Changes===
*Pets will now receive a damage bonus from the number of points their master places in their Mind attribute.
*Enemies will now have a chance to drop rare Healing Disks and Repair Tools.
===Ranger Class Changes===
*Stealth armor will now reduce the wearers radar signature in PvP duels. The distance that a player will show up will change depending on how many skill points they place in the skill and how many pieces of Stealth armor they are wearing.
*Fire Support (Replaces Carpet Bombing) - HQ has tactical weapons such as various bombs and ion cannons on hand and ready for a Ranger to call into use. By using micro-mech, the Ranger can flag areas or specific enemies with beacons to be the targets of these weapons. Once a beacon is in place, a delay occurs while the weapons are prepped and teleported through logos to the target.
**Rank 1 - This ability functions similar to how Carpet Bombing 1 did previously.
**Rank 2 - Ion Strike. The ranger can now call in a powerful laser that is centered on one target and does damage and has the chance to stun anyone with in a small radius around the target.
**Rank 3 - This ability functions similar to how Carpet Bombing 2 did previously.
**Rank 4 - Ion Strike 2. A more powerful version of Ion Strike, this ability has a larger radius, does more damage, and has a longer stun.
**Rank 5 - Napalm. The ranger can call down powerful napalm bombs to set an area ablaze; damaging any enemies within the area. 
*Spotter (Replaces Reinforcements) - Tap into the Waypoint Network and open a gate, bringing an ally on to the battlefield to provide combat support. Once the ability's energy is expended the ally will return to base. While active, this Spotter will enhance your Radar by negating the effects of enemy Stealth technologies. Spending more skill points will add to all spotters ability to see enemy stealthers.
*Tactical Evasion (Replaces Polarity Field) - The Ranger can utilize Logos to get themselves into and out of a fight while suffering minimal damage.
**Rank 1 - Mag Flash 1 - Nearby enemies will be unable to target for a short time.
**Rank 2 - Smoke Screen 1 - Creates a ring of smoke that interferes with enemy targeting; those with in the smoke screen will take less ranged damage for a short time.
**Rank 3 - Mag Flash 2 - More powerful version of Mag Flash 1
**Rank 4 - Smoke Screen 2 - More powerful version of Smoke Screen 2 that offers more damage mitigation.
**Rank 5 - Tactical Retreat - Creates a beacon that the Ranger will teleport back to after a short time.
===Spy Changes===
*Cloak Wave - The signature ability of the Spy now creates a light displacement field around the spy shrouding the player and nearby squad members in a bubble of limited invisibility. In PvE combat this will drop aggro of enemies and cause them to wander away. In PvP combat this will render the Spy and her squad invisible to enemy players unless they are very close to their target. Attacking, taking damage, or using abilities will break the invisibility though.
*Polarity Field (moved from the Ranger and replaces Mag Flash) - This ability exploits holes in the target's armor allowing specific damage types access to its most vulnerable areas. Each rank of Polarity Field adds a damage type and additional resistance reduction that gets added to the base. The more points players add into this ability the more powerful every rank becomes.
**Rank 1 - Electric Polarity Field
**Rank 2 - Photonic Polarity Field
**Rank 3 - Kinetic Polarity Field
**Rank 4 - Incendiary Polarity Field
**Rank 5 - Cryogenic Polarity Field
*Blades - Because of the greatly increased combat effectiveness of the Spy and Ranger abilities the damage of all swords has been reduced. 
*Polymorph - No changes were made.
==Interactions==
*Loading screen tips: Tips now appear at the bottom of the loading screen when you’re loading into a map. 
*Cool down timers: When you have a game effect on you, a green overlays appear over buffs and red overlays appear over debuffs. This overlay will decrease to show how long the buff/debuff will be on you. 
*Trade cancellation: When you send out a trade request, you now get a trade request status updater ping that you can click to cancel the request. 
*Map levels: When you look in the map tree view, you will now see level ranges of the maps. 
*Target Lock: the reticule has been updated to more clearly show that you have locked onto a target. Also, locked targets will now appear with a slight glow, and will appear as a lock symbol in your radar map.
==Bug fixes==
*Palisades Staging Point Vendor now sells appropriate level trauma kits. 
*Typos fixed in various Palisades missions. 
*Floating objects in Minos Caverns, Descent, and Bootcamp have been returned to the ground. 
*Plains Targets of Opportunity: The Phanin Collusion was erroneously giving credit for the Operations Completion objective. The correct mission is Kardash Key Information. 
*Bane Hunting Parties on Palisades have had their patrol paths changed so they no longer get hung up by the river. 
*Elder Quillas on Wilderness has been evicted from his tree hut and now resides further up the hillside path from his previous location. 
*Fixed several stuck locations on Palisades, Ashen Desert. 
*The Plains Security Threat mission will no longer drop two Phanin Research Facility Keycards. 
*Fixed bug that displayed HTML code in Bootcamp Last Stand mission. 
*Commander Zaita in Divide Foreas Base no longer floats above the ground. 
*Plains Targets of Opportunity mission no longer available at level 4. 
*Plains Rock and Rumble mission now gives level-appropriate treasure. 
*Mires “Targets of Opportunity” – “Complete All Operations” now completes for Energy Weapons Center with mission “The Strongest Link”. This previously would complete with the optional mission “Incursion Invasion,” sometimes breaking the ToO mission. 
*Plateau “Stainless Steel Bloodhound” – Dropped Modified Bane Sentinel escort down to level 30, to insure that it can be destroyed by attacking Bane. 
*Pravus Research “Pirate Radio” – Mission giver Info Specialist Johnson has be relocated to the pillbox area, right next to Lt. Perkins, to create better mission flow. Pre-requisite on “Pirate Radio” has also been removed. 
*Bane Constription Facility mission "What Makes Them Tick" now has indicator for completion. 
*Collision problems with trees in Palisades have been repaired. 
*Eloh Vale graveyard now appears with correct name. 
*Retread Caves Mad Bomber's bombs have been toughened up. 
*Fixed stuck and gap locations on Marshes, Pools, Howling Maw, and Descent. 
*Lasers will now kill Bane as well as humans in Purgas Station. 
*Corporal Barbeau on Palisades now has weaker regen.
*Crab mines will now acquire targets much faster then before.
*Fixed the visual error that when Polymorph is cast it skins both the creature and avatar mesh to the same skeleton. 
*Fixed a crafting bug that was preventing players from adding a fourth modification to blue or purple armor. 
*Fixed a bug that prevented vampiric and resistance reducing modifications on propellant guns from functioning. 
*There were roughly 70 mission rewards that previously gave out armor or tools with incorrect requirements. These items have been adjusted and now have the correct requirements. 
*All tools will now play reload sound effects. 
*Sonic pistols will display correctly and no longer exactly like physical pistols. 
*The alternate attack for Blades now correctly does physical damage regardless of the type of blade used. 
*The tool tip for Rushing Blow has been cleaned up to be less confusing. 
*The debuff icon for Called Shot Rank 1 now matches the tool tip. 
*Physical Rifles will now play a reload sound effect. 
*Item Repair costs now display correctly based on video resolution and screen size.
*Fixed a bug that cause a weapon's ammunition to be reduced when placed into a footlocker.
*Fixed an issue with text not lining up for buttons in low resolutions.
*Fixed an issue that caused characters to appear online in lists if other player quits the client.
*New intro video added to Plateau.
*Some tooltip errors have been corrected.
*Server population is now marked with an icon instead of a label
*Some default icons have been replaced
*Various sound bugs have been fixed
*Several new sounds have been added
*Some usability updates to the UI have been made to make the UI more informative.
*Radial and Conical Heal and Repair tools have been combined and replaced with ‘Area’ heal tools. Using the main attack button for the Direct tool will heal your targeted ally, but not having a target will result in no action taking place. Using the alternate attack button will result in the user being targeted and healed. The radial and conical tools have been combined into one area of effect tool for ease of use. Using the main attack button on the new Area tool will heal allies in a radius around the user. Using the alt attack button will heal allies in a cone in front of the user. 
*The turrets an Engineer can summon have had their health and damage reduced because of an improvement to their AI.
*Characters now receive a message upon logging in if they need to make room in their inventory for special rewards.
*"Release the Hounds" missions is now removed from the Mires Targets of Opportunity "Complete All Story Missions" Objective due to completion problems with groups.
*"You're The Guy" & "Confidential Delivery" missions have both been removed from the Mires Targets of Opportunity "Complete All Story Missions" objective. These were removed because players that chose an alternate mission course would not be able to complete the requirement.
*In the Abyss mission, "Keys to the City" you are no longer able lock the rest of the instance after resetting.
*The mobs in Ruins of Tampeii should now drop better loot.
*Fixed an issue that caused performance problems on several maps.
*Changes were made to the Bring-A-Friend code that would limit aggro on mobs not in an aggro group. This prevents lone mobs from aggroing several aggro groups at once.
*Armor dye schematics are now dropping from mobs Level 4+.
==Fixed Known Issues==
*Fixed an issue if you are running the client in full screen mode and alt tab during a loading screen, the game may crash.
*Mission: Control the Brain (Chaukas) is now completable. 
*Fixed Turpis Refinery: Exit Dropship was too high off the dropship pad and caused issues when exiting.
*Mission: Provision Procurement: Eloh Vale, Palisades Instance: Mission Objectives now share for squads. 
*RPG/Grenades now receive the proper damage increase from item rarity. This is true for every level, and damage type of RPG launcher.
*Fixed an issue when ducking behind cover to sometimes decrease the amount of damage the player does. 
*Fixed an issue that prevented a player from adding a 4th modification to a blue or purple item though the crafting station.
==Known Issues==
*ATI 9800 Radeon Pro AGP card users may have sky distortion when graphics settings are on low. 
*Some Exobiologist skills do not work correctly in PvP. 
*Ranger Reinforcements are not doing melee damage. 
*Line of Sight targeting/Cover has some bugs that we are working to resolve. 
*ATI 9800 Radeon Pro AGP card users may have sky disortion when graphics settings are on low.
*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.
*If you attempt to use one of the Personal Waypoints, but move your character to interrupt it being used, the graphic will still appear in front of the character.
*Missions: Crucible: Refusing to help the AWOLs completes the Other Side of the Coin mission, and fails the Stray Cats mission. This should be the opposite.
*Tooltips for health/armor/buffs disappear when taking damage If you are attempting to mouse over your health bar to get the number read out for example, while a player is shooting you. The tool tip will appear and then disappear rapidly.
*When selecting different locations to travel to through the dropship menu on the Planet Areki will often tell a player they are going to the wrong location. You go to the right place, the menu is just incorrect.
*There is a global sound bug where different sounds will fade in and out or stop playing all together after longer periods of time and/or intense, large scale battles. You may notice that you will hear one sound while another player does not. We're working to resolve this issue.
-Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa, [Patch Notes]