T#217-218 Patch Notes

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06-01-17, 16:01
Bifrost

T#217-218 Patch Notes
The patch level for the test server has been reset, so you must create a new test server installation. Please follow the instructions for creating a test client. The latest installer released on the download page is already patched to #212 to save time on patching.

Changes that were included in test server patches 213-216 are listed as (T#213)

New features
- Did you know? On the main menu you can now read info you may not know yet but might get handy.
- The appearance can be customised with the [HINTOFTHEDAY] section of the rpos.ini file. (See below)
- Added /local, /buddy, /team, /direct and /custom commands to activate the corresponding chat channels when provided with no further text.
- Added more options for the level designers regarding Wavespawns.
- Added RPOS sorting to the items an NPC is selling. Click on the column titles Description, Sell or Buy to sort by them ascending or descending.
- Added support for MBUTTON5 to 8 (If supported by the mouse and drivers)
Fixes
- Server and client stability fixes (T#213).
- ALT+TAB / ALT+F4 fixes while splash screens are active (T#213).
- RPOS: E-Mail count on effects list is now correct (T#213).
- Merged SoftUpdates from retail R#212.
- Fixed missing Master of Tradeskilling Drug on the Testserver.
- Fixed Viper King and Scorpion Queen item drops.
- Fixed a bug causing rpos.ini to be deleted.
- Fixed a problem with the view not correctly updating when dropping drone control.
- Fixed a problem with syncing which leads to infinite syncing with 0SL and no items.
- Fixed the despawn time of dead WAVESPAWN NPC's. You now have time to loot them.
- Fixed a possible crash on closing Neocron just before it was completely initialised.
- Fixed some server and client-side stability issues on handling resources.
- Fixed respawn for players after death in starter MC5 Hacknet sector.
- Fixed possible crash in maps with low bitdepth high resolution textures.
- Fixed NPC synchronisation. You should no longer receive damage without seeing the shot animation / projectiles.
Known issues
- Fire weapon animation for NPC's are not working.
- Configuring hardware from the launcher isn't working. The workaround is to hold down Shift when you click on "Play Neocron 2" button. Keep shift pressed until the hardware configuration screen comes up.
New RPOS.INI settings

Below are the new RPOS.ini Settings and their possible values in ranges [min..max] or listed as / separated options

Code:

[HINTOFTHEDAY] R=[0..255] G=[0..255] B=[0..255] A=[0..255] FontSize=[8..24] FixedBox=0/1 Font=.\fonts\fontname.tff Top=[0.0..1.0] Bottom=[0.0..1.0] Left=[0.0..1.0] Right=[0.0..1.0]

The default values for Hint of the day are:-

Code:

[HINTOFTHEDAY] R=180 G=240 B=200 A=255 FontSize=14 FixedBox=1 Font=.\fontsarialblk
06-01-17, 18:27
hudsonbeck

Lots of good stuff. Thank you and you guys are doing awesome! Keep it up!!
16-01-17, 00:37
wargolem

Sounds great, when are we looking at this going live?
16-01-17, 15:28
Bifrost

2 Attachment(s)

Quote:

Originally Posted by wargolem

Sounds great, when are we looking at this going live?

No ETA for the patch yet, but I'll give you all a heads up on what is happening.

The NST did release patch T#219 a few days ago with some new features, but during testing a few issues were discovered causing some stability issues. A lot of fixes were done to key binding code which was in a bit of a bad state, and that is causing the client to be unstable. I know Farril is working hard to shake out the bugs.

Once T#220 comes out I'll post a set of patch notes for T#219 and T#220 so you can have a proper test.

Just to give a teaser to what's in T#219

Loot rights

Players will be able to set loot rights for items - This can be set to yourself (The default), Team, Clan, Faction and everyone.

Attachment 12712

Options to set key bindings for loot rights will be in T#219

PvP flagging

I'll let the picture do the talking, and this is a work in progress so this will change.

Attachment 12713

The current implementation of PvP flagging (Which is currently turned off on the test server) will prevent the attacker from zoning for a set time. I am sure this feature will raise a few questions and we welcome any discussion on this point.
16-01-17, 17:01
DIS

Pvp flagging is interesting, would this also affect the ability to zone down at an op fight? If the player being shot at does not retaliate will he still be zone locked? Just thinking about ppus here...

Ps good call on the loot rights.
16-01-17, 17:06
Bifrost

Quote:

Originally Posted by DIS

Pvp flagging is interesting, would this also affect the ability to zone down at an op fight? If the player being shot at does not retaliate will he still be zone locked? Just thinking about ppus here...

Ps good call on the loot rights.

Only the attacker is PvP flagged - the target, should he/she decide to flee the fight to another zone can do so. I've clarified that in the above post.

Should the "target" fight back then the target will also be PvP flagged.
16-01-17, 19:36
Celt

Oh dear, oh dearie me. Changing a core mechanic due to people who like to duel in the city complaining?
This is a bad sign, a very bad sign. Should be digging Neocron out of a hole rather than making it even more obtuse to anyone but those who love duelling in the city.
16-01-17, 20:11
DIS

Quote:

Originally Posted by Celt

Oh dear, oh dearie me. Changing a core mechanic due to people who like to duel in the city complaining?
This is a bad sign, a very bad sign. Should be digging Neocron out of a hole rather than making it even more obtuse to anyone but those who love duelling in the city.

I am not either for or against this, but it does resolve certain frustrating issues but will perhaps cause other problems hence why it is on the test server only for trialling.
In terms of the players who like to duel, removing safe zone status to clubs would resolve most issues in that area.
16-01-17, 20:17
Farril

Quote:

Originally Posted by Celt

Oh dear, oh dearie me. Changing a core mechanic due to people who like to duel in the city complaining?
This is a bad sign, a very bad sign. Should be digging Neocron out of a hole rather than making it even more obtuse to anyone but those who love duelling in the city.

Well, i think that having options is always better then being left with none.

This is giving us methods to adjust and we will be able to change the details and general settings by softpatches.

To get the best experience for all, we need the feedback of the community. We implement it on the testserver, so the community and we can test this out with an open result, whether or not and how to use this.

So, as you are having an opinion against, I would like to encourage you to detail the reasons. Where does this have unwanted influence on non dueling pvp or pve? What should we consider?
16-01-17, 21:30
DIS

I'll give you my thoughts about this at least.

For:
Stops players running into PP, shooting another player once and then zoning as soon as they are attacked. <- Happens more often than you would imagine.

Stops players getting away on a slither of HP that would have otherwise died.

Evens the field in OP wars where the Clan defending cannot zone down when under duress.

Against: May put some players off PVP that would otherwise engage.

PPU's still get an easy ride here.

Gankers will find it easier to kill PVE players if they fight back, I.E no easy way to escape.

Possible issue: People in a VHC engage in PVP... the driver is not attacking and can zone, the person manning the turret cannot zone, has this been tested?
16-01-17, 21:43
Farril

Quote:

Originally Posted by DIS

Evens the field in OP wars where the Clan defending cannot zone down when under duress.

Underground are separately configurable in this manner. It can be set to exclude the underground zonepoints.

Quote:

Possible issue: People in a VHC engage in PVP... the driver is not attacking and can zone, the person manning the turret cannot zone, has this been tested?

It's been thought off, but not tested yet. If the vehicle or drone doing damage is linked to a player, the player gets flagged. But yes, this prolly needs some tweaking right now.

Thank you for your pros and cons.
16-01-17, 21:57
DIS

Looking forward to testing this out, do let us know when you switch it on.

Also its good to have these options available even if they are not switched on right away.
16-01-17, 22:05
DIS

Sorry just another thing, if a player decides he wants to kill another player and shoots him, he cannot run through the zone line for limited time right? So that means you are no longer able to chase a player down who happens just to be running through, so when they zone you are stuck in the same zone until the timer expires, I can see that causing frustration.
16-01-17, 23:23
wargolem

I'm not sure how I feel about PvP flagging, It's an interesting idea but if it puts people off PvP then I'm massively against it and I feel that you as the dev team need to be ultra careful about putting players off the game in any way at the moment. The community in general (I think) is rooting for you guys to fix the game, add new content and make it look better, however gamers are fickle and lose interest easily, if there is a better product they will jump ship.

A lot of the appeal of Neocron has always been "red = dead" so if you find someone you will shoot them and chase them through countless zones just for being red.

I would really like to see some easy to fix things brought in like vehicles and devourer having their damage reduced to bring them back into line in the near future.

I must however say that it's nice that new stuff is coming, the sooner the better!
17-01-17, 11:06
Farril

Quote:

Originally Posted by wargolem

I'm not sure how I feel about PvP flagging, It's an interesting idea but if it puts people off PvP then I'm massively against it and I feel that you as the dev team need to be ultra careful about putting players off the game in any way at the moment.

I agree on not denying runners their way to play. Well that is basically the reason, why i personally do not like the simple looking solution to remove Safezones alltogether. This has for my opinion impact on too many aspects of the game.
I am personally not a zoneline-PvPer. Never got fun out of this, however i found my way through and around such zones. So my opinion will not play much of a role on the outcome of the changes.

The goal of these changes is to reduce frustrations and encourage participation in this game.

Quote:

Originally Posted by wargolem

A lot of the appeal of Neocron has always been "red = dead" so if you find someone you will shoot them and chase them through countless zones just for being red.

This can be defined quite fine. It is perfectly possible with the changes to just deny zoning into safe-zones or even zoning into or outfrom specially marked zones only. In this case I think we have a good granularity to adjust player experience tendencies at focused points.[/quote]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wargolem

I would really like to see some easy to fix things brought in like vehicles and devourer having their damage reduced to bring them back into line in the near future.

That's a different resource. Not all of us are good for every job. And I am humble enough to say, I shouldn't do balancing :-P
However, I am willing to give those who are the tools they need
17-01-17, 19:35
Drake6k

Safe zones in Pepper Park and "zone whoring" are two different issues.

I have no clue why the clubs in Pepper Park (and Bum Asylum, and the BD Faction office) are still safe zones. Seriously, why?? It only affects PvPers.

Regular "zone whoring" doesn't bother me. I play with friends and use teamwork. If someone is going in and out of the sewer over and over, we have one guy go down in the sewer, while another waits up top. If I'm chasing someone alone, they're more likely to get away, and I'm fine with that.

If you add a PvP flag that prevents zoning then I'm going to bait people into fights while my friends wait in the nearby sewer. They'll attack, get flagged, then we'll all zone up and wreck them while they can't zone away. Actually, could even use a noob alt as bait and let them die and then get a rez each time. I think people should be allowed to run from fights.

About Loot Rights: Fuck yeah!! Whenever we PvE as a group and do DoY tunnels or warbots the main damage dealers are not usually the hackers, so they always have to wait to hack. Loot rights is a fantastic improvement to the game.
17-01-17, 19:55
Zoltan

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drake6k

Safe zones in Pepper Park and "zone whoring" are two different issues.

I have no clue why the clubs in Pepper Park (and Bum Asylum, and the BD Faction office) are still safe zones. Seriously, why?? It only affects PvPers.

fixed.
22-01-17, 01:59
Michael Myers

as posted in game and in discord, RIP casual PVP. the removal of the safe zones in pepper park clubs has pretty much killed off any decent PVP excluding op fights.

Another part of the game not worth logging in for now, standing around the P1/P3 zone line with the copbots.... no thanks.
22-01-17, 02:11
Zoltan

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zoltan

fixed.

Changes reverted but the faction HQs & office are still "non-SafeZone".
22-01-17, 03:32
wargolem

Just a quick thanks to Farril for a detailed reply on my post,

Out of interest I have heard Aesir (SP?) is in charge of balance? He/She doesnt seem to use the Discord, how is it that one can contact him/her?
22-01-17, 08:48
bmurph101

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael Myers

as posted in game and in discord, RIP casual PVP. the removal of the safe zones in pepper park clubs has pretty much killed off any decent PVP excluding op fights.

Another part of the game not worth logging in for now, standing around the P1/P3 zone line with the copbots.... no thanks.

The fuck?

The removal of club safe zones makes PP 1000x more enjoyable.