Updates/2008-03-07 (test)

Public Test Server Patch Notes and Known Issues 7th March 2008
Version: 1.6.2.0
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Please note: In an effort to get patches to the players sooner so that we have time to fix bugs and make changes before sending a patch to live, the patch may have bugs or changes that will be adjusted or fixed before publishing to live. Some Patch Notes may also be incorrect or missing. Please review the Known Issues list before playing on the Test Server. Known Issues are found at the end of the Patch Notes. Please use /bug to report bugs or bring to our attention issues that you find with balance, performance, or any other issues you feel should be brought to the developer's attention. Again, the best way to do this is via /bug. We hope that together we can make better patches!
== Maps and Missions ==
* Adjusted assets and terrain to correct a stuck location in the Staal Junkyard. 
* Edited map area to prevent player escape on Valverde Marshes. 
* Granitours on Abyss will no longer stop spawning. 
* Rewrote briefing text for Abyss loading screen.
* Mires “Instant Messaging” will now remove the final mission item and complete properly. 
* Tahrendra Base “Break On Through,” if player set the explosives to seal the barracks, but runs inside before the doors seal, they will be killed by the explosion instead of being trapped in the sealed room. 
* Abyss “Double Agent” will now complete properly for both branching choices. 
* Mires “Prisoner Transfer” – Now with actual prisoners! 
* Completing “Mires Targets of Opportunity” will correctly award the title “Master Of Mires.” 
* Inside “Incurables Ward,” locked doors near boss “Atali” will now automatically unlock when Atali and all of his minions are defeated. 
* Inside “Incurables Ward,” locked doors near boss “Umank” will now automatically unlock when Umank and all of his minions are defeated.
* Torden Abyss: relocated Tampeii hospital to the underground section of Tampeii Settlement
* Torden Abyss: edited the cavern tunnel approaches to the Tampeii Cavern Point of Interest to make the approach more visually compelling.
* Ruins of Tampeii: improved Patch’s Lair; incorporated new props, lighting, destroyables, and VFX.
* Abandoning the mission "Release the Hounds" will no longer keep the NPCs following the player
* Added a new “flashpoint” mission on Incline called “Predator Hunt.” Flashpoints are dynamic missions that are offered to all players in a certain areas when specific conditions are met. They are repeatable and offer class-specific rewards for completion. Predator Hunt is the first of these types of missions to come online.
* "Release the Hounds" will now fail if the player dies
* "Release the Hounds" will now fail if the player moves too far from the escorted NPCs
* "Release the Hounds" will now fail if the player logs out or changes maps
* Escort objective for "Release the Hounds" is now on a timer.
* Credit for killing ambushers by pets will now be given properly for "House Calls"
* Killing any Bane Stalker on Mires will now give credit for "Restraining Order"
* Mission completer for "Discovery" now has a map indicator.
* Moved Demolitionist Trainer Orenj and Supply Clerk Books farther apart on Mires.
* Removed all melee Thrax from the Mires Battlefield.
* Ekash inside of Baylor Base no longer believes he is in Fort Haroun.
* Rendobar now will fire missiles properly on Mires.
* Magmonix Hooves will now drop in significantly higher quantities on Mires.
* Lasher Population has been increased on Mires.
* Energy Cell will now drop for all members of a group in "Darn Dirty Robots".
* Destroying storage tanks inside Turpis Refinery will now give credit for "Cost of Doing Business".
* Storage Tanks will no longer respawn when destroyed inside of Turpis Refinery.
* All pipes inside Turpis Refinery should now be destroyable.
* Pets should no longer keep "The Strongest Link" from completing.
* Pets should now attack the Linker boss properly inside Energy Weapons Center.
* Sgt Grim and Medic Rahish now escape their CP when it is captured by the Bane.
* Players will be given credit for killing more types of Thrax Soldiers for "Missing Persons: Samantha".
* Abyss “Robocrusty” – Robo escort will now despawn properly when mission fails or is abandoned.
* Mission: “Abyss Targets of Opportunity” (Torden: Abyss) – The “Complete all Story Missions” objective can now be completed. 
* Map: (Energy Weapons Center) – added waypoint teleporter at the beginning of the map. 
* Map: (Raksha Robotics Facility) – added waypoint teleporter at the beginning of the map. 
* Map: (Chaukas Robotics Facility) – added waypoint teleporter at the beginning of the map. 
* Mission: “Operation Overlord” (Lamna Armoury) – Players can now acquire Logos: Distance if the mission has already been completed. 
* NPC: Kwel (Lamna Armoury) – The “Weaponsmith’s Key” dropped by boss “Kwel”, and used to progress through Lamna Armoury, can now be obtained without having to take the “Operation Overlord” mission. 
* Mission: “One Way Trip” (Maligo Base) – Fixed the “Speak to Demolitionist Maybauer” objective. NPC Maybauer will talk to players now and complete the objective, allowing players to progress through the mission.
* Mission: “One Way Trip” (Maligo Base) – Completing the “Locate the Wormhole” objective before completing the “Find out what happened…” objective will no longer break the mission and stop progression. 
* Mission: “Control the Brain” (Chaukus Robotics Facility) – The “Control the Brain” mission has been changed to an escort mission, so NPC Brian will follow the player to the “Brain”. A new objective was added to make the mission clearer. Before the updates to the mission the objectives were very confusing and NPC Brian did not follow players. This often halted or prevented progress through the mission. 
* Map: (Ruins of Tampeii) – consistency pass on usables/destroyables: removed unused usables, destroyables will no longer respawn. 
* Spawns: (Ruins of Tampeii) – added new spawns and patrols (Flaregashers, Elite Brann Soldiers, Wardenbots, and Reconstructor Bots). 
* Mission: “Open Says Me” (Ruins of Tampeii) – Added/edited dialogue, moved mission giver NPC, and modified existing objectives to coincide more smoothly with related missions for the map. 
* Mission: “Flaregasher Genocide” (Ruins of Tampeii) – Bomb now blows up a Brann generator and affects Flaregasher population on the map. Objective completers moved to prevent existing issues with backtracking. 
* Mission: “The Warhead” (Ruins of Tampeii) – Changed the mission to an escort mission (NPC Arizin will follow players), added new objectives and dialogue, and moved objective completers to prevent existing issues with backtracking.
* Mission: “Patches to Ashes” (Ruins of Tampeii) – Added destroyable “Patch” computer and Pylon assets to the map and integrated them into the mission/boss fight at the end of the map. Added a new objective to the mission to pro-long the boss fight and increase enjoyment and time spent on the map.
* Added props and new lights to Kardash Atta Colony.
* Added two new missions to Live Target Pens: "Very Important Prisoners" and "The Brann Plan".
* Added one new 'choice' mission to Kardash Atta Colony: "Bug Hugger".
== Creatures ==
* Miasmas are no longer resistant to electric damage. 
* Corrected an issue preventing Miasma under control (Bane or Infected) from phasing out correctly in combat. 
* The Director of Penumbra will now correctly display an armour bar when moused over. 
* Corrected an issue causing Warnet Soldiers to not drop loot in certain limited circumstances.
* The tooltip for the Atta Harvest Pheromone debuff now displays correctly when moused over. 
* Corrected an issue causing some shield drones to have stronger armour than intended. 
* Necromites summoned by Thrax Pistol Soldiers are now vulnerable to EMP damage. 
* Atta Soldiers will no longer spit acid at their enemies. 
* The acid spit from Atta Harvesters is now a virulent dot.
* Creatures will now use their turning animations correctly, even when in combat.
* Atta Soldier names will now scale up correctly with level:
** 1-27 Atta Soldier Conscript
** 28-30 Atta Soldier Guard 
** 31-33 Atta Soldier Grunt 
** 34-36 Atta Soldier Scout 
** 37-39 Atta Soldier Trooper 
** 40-41 Atta Soldier Fighter 
** 42-43 Atta Soldier Sapper
** 44-45 Atta Soldier Guerrilla
** 46-47 Atta Soldier Warrior
** 48-49 Atta Soldier Legionnaire
** 50+ Atta Solider Commando
* Kael now possess the ability to generate a focused shockwave attack. This new ability has a chance to stun the Kael's prey, making them vulnerable to the Kael's more dangerous melee attacks. 
* Powerful Kael can now leap long distances in pursuit of their target. They do not utilize this at close range, but will do so to prevent their enemies from escaping. 
* AFS forces have now been trained to respond appropriately to Bane Shield Drone defensive technology. 
* Barb ticks have had their hitpoints reduced significantly.
* Several Kael bosses in Devil's Den have been changed to non-boss versions.
* The player abilities Shield Extender, Reinforcements and Bot Construction no longer have a cooldown timer based on when the ability was activated. They now have a reuse delay which begins when the skill effect or pet expires. 
* The area of effect of the Necromite corpse explosion has been reduced. 
* Start of added contentThe damage of the Necromite corpse explosion has been slightly increased. 
* Start of added contentThe hitpoints of the summoned Necromite have been reduced.
== Framework ==
* Improved video memory performance.
* Screen saver is disabled while client is running in full screen mode.
* Bug Fix: Gamma settings are restored upon client startup
== Classes and Combat ==
=== General Changes ===
* Res-Trauma Kits now have requirements. This will help players know which kits they should be using.
* We got some PAUs from HQ’s R&D but they are still a long way from being considered combat ready.
=== Skills Pass ===
* We evaluated all of our skills and looked for places to make them be more responsive and fun to use. 
* Reconstruction: Updated for balance purposes,pump levels were rearranged, and tool tips corrected to fit.
* Rushing Blow: Incrementally reduced recovery time on pumps 3-5, adds value to the higher pump levels being used in close combat, and tool tips corrected to fit.
* Rage: Slightly reduced casting & recovery time.
* Scourge: Slightly reduced recovery time.
* Self Destruct: Reduced casting time.
* Sacrifice: Dramatically reduced casting time
* Scatter Bombs: Reduced casting time
* Vortex: Slightly Reduced Recover
* Carpet Bombing: Slightly reduced cast and recovery time
* Crab Mines: Reduced casting & recovery time
* Shredder Ammo: Dramatically reduced casting time
=== Experience Changes ===
* The kill streak multiplier has been updated to make leveling easier at higher levels. Before the same multiplier was available to everyone regardless of their level and players could only reach a maximum of plus 250%.
* The multiplier has changed to a whole number and the maximum multiplier increases as players go up in level.
** Up to Level 9, maximum multiplier is x2
** From 10 to 19, maximum multiplier is x3
** From 20 to 29, maximum multiplier is x4
** From 30 to 39, maximum multiplier is x5
** From 40 onward, maximum multiplier is x6
* There is now an Experience Booster purchasable at every Control Point with the new Global CP Tokens. This item will allow the player to gain 50% more experience for 30 minutes. This booster does work in conjunction with other experience multipliers in the game; like the kill streak multiplier.
* Players now earn 50% more experience for killing creatures inside of operations.
* We have updated the UI to communicate the Group XP bonus to players. The actual bonus is not a new feature though; it was just not communicated clearly previously.
* Group bonuses work as follows:
** XP for each kill is divided by group size 
** XP is then increased based on group size:
*** 2 members: +84% 
*** 3 members: +154% 
*** 4 members: +204% 
*** 5 members: + 240% 
*** 6 members: +260%
** All group members in range receive the XP for the kill.
=== UI Changes ===
* In order to better communicate XP gains and various XP bonuses to the player, the UI now offers more information to the player: 
* The tooltip for the XP bar along the bottom of the UI now reports Kill Streak and Group Bonuses
* The chat messages for XP gain now show the total XP gain, and any XP bonuses the player currently has.
=== Weapons Pass ===
* Rocket Launcher: Damage has been re-balanced
* Torque Shell Rifle: Adjustments were made to this weapon and we are still playtesting the changes. Please provide feedback as we might make further adjustments to this weapon. The current changes are:
** Removed weapon 'charging' before you fire. 
** Added 'recoil' - when you fire the weapon kicks, requiring you to reacquire a bead on your target before the next shot to do full damage. You can fire again without doing this, but you will not do as much damage as the original shot. 
** The optimal range for the TSR is now 60m and beyond. Before it was 80m. The range finder may be misleading, when it is blue is when it is in optimal range, not yellow.
=== Interruptible Reload ===
* Reloading a weapon or Tool is now interruptible.
* You may interrupt a weapon/tool reload by:
** Using an ability (including a consumable)
** Interacting with an NPC or a usable
** Switching between weapons/tool on the weapon tray
** Switching between a weapon/tool on the weapon tray and one from your backpack
** Using a consumable from the backpack
** Being the victim of a knockback
** Performing an alt attack
** Holstering your weapon/tool
** Performing nearly any other action in the game, including simple /emotes
* Whenever a reload is interrupted, the text "INTERRUPT" floats from the avatar. 
* The only circumstance where you cannot interrupt a reload is when you manually reload a weapon that still has some ammo left in it.
== Interaction ==
* Messages from AFS command – The community team now has the ability to send messages to players via a status alert. When a new message is sent, a player will get a status alert, but they are not present with that same message each time they log in. They get new alerts when community sends a new message. 
* When you left click a player name in chat you will get a pull down menu that will allow you to whisper, invite to squad, invite to clan, or ignore the player you click. 
* In your reticule menu, you are now able to whisper a player in addition to the other options such as invite to squad, invite to clan, etc. 
* Trial account changes – There are some new restrictions and chat channels for trial account members. 
* Fixed and added error message audio cues. You should now have cues playing for the following things:
** You’re inventory is full. 
** Trying to get a trade item when your inventory is full. 
** Footlocker is full 
** Out of ammo 
** Not enough power 
** Now enough adrenaline 
** You can't hit the target due to LOS issue 
** You can't hit the target due to range. 
** Your weapon is jammed 
** The usable is locked. 
** You can't use an ability. 
** You can't do an action on a friendly target 
** You can't do an action on a hostile target 
** You can't do this action while swimming 
** You can't do this action because you don't have a target. 
** You can't do this action on a dead target. 
** You can't do this action on a living target. 
** You cannot do this action now. 
** You can't do this because your target is invalid.
* Player names and clan names will now be displayed by default for new users. We suggest turning this on if you would like to more easily identify trial users. 
* Introduced over 100 new icons for junk loot.
== PVP, Clans and Control Points ==
* Control Points have been revamped to have their Assault and Defence tokens be global instead of CP specific. You will find your tokens converted into this new global form.
* Missions associated with the assault and defence tokens at CP’s have been removed. In place of the mission NPC’s, you will find Assault and Defence vendors that take these tokens in exchange for items you will not find elsewhere.
* Two of these special items are Respec tokens; one for skills and another for attributes. Schematics are being added to these vendors as well. This is also where you can get XP bonus tokens.
* Safety Zone Buff is now implemented. Now when you respawn at a safety zone during PvP wargames, you will have a buff applied to you that protects you from opposing players. This buff will be removed when you leave the safety zone or let the buff’s timer run out (whichever comes first).
== Bug Fixes: ==
* Knockback has been cleaned up. It should feel much less frustrating to get knockbacked.
* Graviton Armour was bugged and getting too high of a resist to KB and Stun
* One-Way Personal Waypoints have had their tool tip changed. They in fact do not persist in Operations.
* The Armour Penetration on Injector Guns now functions closer to the intended design.
* Weapons with armour piercing modules will now shut down an enemies’ armour when the armour reaches 0.
* Reconstruction now deals virulent damage instead of physical.
* You are no longer able to cast Cure rank 3 on a live target.
* Ammo will not be used when attempting to resuscitate a friendly NPC that can not be resuscitated.
* Using the different ranks of Reconstruction will no longer instantly kill large Bane Mechanicals.
* The tool tip for the specialist Tools ability has been corrected and is now clearer.
* Rocket Launchers will now receive the correct the amount of bonus damage from item rarity.
* Tools can no longer be used after they have been jammed by Amoeboids.
* Torqueshell Rifles now have unique icons.
* Fixed bug allowing players to scale a wall into White Oasis Post in Ashen Desert.
* Updated Plains TOO to appear correctly when an operations mission is completed.
* Fixed Plains TOO Operations objective to appear before player zones, not after.
* Fixed region name transition in Kardash Research Outpost Delta.
* Fixed region names in Runi Valley.
* Fixed punctuation error in Divide: Stolen History mission.
* Fixed punctuation error in Divide: Traitor Run mission.
* Fixed PVS and terrain errors in Divide.
* Fixed stuck locations and mesh errors in Kardash Atta Colony.
* Creatures no longer spawn inside rocks in Timora Mines.
* Treeback Camp forcefield now labelled correctly.
* Fixed Palisades: Pincer Power to incomplete objective if pincers are destroyed.
* Fixed Palisade Hunting Parties to stop getting stuck.
* Blocked being able to enter Conscription Garrison on Ashen Desert by bypassing forcefield
* Pravus: Means of Production no longer requires being in range for "Obtain Level 1 Keypass" objective.
* Purgas: changed giant lasers to kill Bane as well as Humans.
* Added location reminder to Bane Conscription Facility: What Makes Them Tick mission
* Fixed buff effect from Temple of Raging Patriarch mission to take effect once players are back on Palisades.
* Fixed Divide: Traitor Run mission so moral choice is shared across team members
* Fixed Marshes: Beware Buried Gas Lines to only allow players to use bomb receptacles once while on mission.
* Fixed Mires TOO so that completing story missions automatically completes objective
* Fixed Howling Maw: Infection Connection so that abandoning it won't cause Surgical Strike to be unequipable later.
* Added indicator and more information to Plains: Rock and Rumble mission.
* Fixed Treeback spawners on Wilderness so that Treebacks don't fall out of trees.
* Adjusted respawn timer for Plains: Operation Termination GPS beacon.
* Fixed portable at beginning of Minos Caverns map.
* Fixed Avernus Outpost mission so that the armour can't be acquired multiple times.
* Added indicator and more info for Treeback Camp: Cut off the Head mission.
* Added indicator for Avernus Outpost: God Save the Queen mission.
* Fixed Wilderness: Childhood's End so that it no longer matters who kills the Xanx, just that they are killed.
* Fixed Palisades Pieces of Puzzle mission to update without requiring player to zone.
* Fixed exploit where players can jump to end of Sanctus Grotto instance from beginning.
* Fixed Palisades: Grim Duty so that Corporal Barbeau can actually be killed.
* Added working portable wormhole waypoints to Crater Lake Research Facility, Pravus Research Facility, Avernus Outpost, Warnet Caverns, Outpost Inferno, Live Target Pens, Refuge.
* Fixed stuck location in Kardash Atta colony.
* Fixed Descent Merricks Mercenaries to respawn.
* Updated Plains: Periodicals of Questionable Morality to have better indicators and information.
* Fixed Plains: Rock and Rumble mission item to go into correct inventory slot.
* Fixed Descent: Raging Inferno to delete the correct number of spawns when abandoned.
* Fixed reward levels in Pravus Research.
* Updated Wilderness: Sacs and Violence to give group credit when destroying egg sacs.
* Fixed Treeback Camp's Lieutenant Galloway to respawn if players leave the instance and return.
* Moved the Predator at Wilderness Upper Pinhole Falls so that he doesn't get hung up in the stream.
* Fixed Wilderness TOO to give credit for all six bosses killed.
* Fixed Ashen Desert TOO to give credit for completion of Bane Conscription Facility.
* Fixed Avernus Outpost: Overly Sensitive to not allow secret research to be destroyed before mission objective is active.
* Fixed Mires mob Deddarlik so that he respawns.
* Fixed bug that awarded pre-order items as certain mission rewards.