[R#199] T236, 237 & 238 Patch Notes

[Trivaldi]

Sorry for the delay folks, two of these patches were released to Vedeena last week. We chose not to release the notes prior to the test event, to get honest feedback of balance without knowledge of changes affecting judgement. We've also now released a patch to cover changes made since the event brought about by feedback received from the community.

There's a number of very cool changes in here which I am sure will be appreciated.

Gameworld & NPCs

• NPCs to mimic player characters implemented for testing;
• New Support NPC type added, this NPC will heal nearby allies;
• Decrypt Terminal NPCs from all Hacknet Faction DNS locations to fix Mr Jones mission compatability;
• Mob damage factor reduced;
• New high resolution cabinet models and textures for Plaza & Tech Haven apartments;
• Third variant high resolution cabinet model and texture available from furniture vendors.

Balance & Weapons

• Ruleset changes for balancing;
• SECOND LOVE shot effect tweaks - different ammo types now has different shot colours;
• Ionic Crossbow Pistol fixed, ammo has been renamed to clarify it belongs to pistol;
• Tank armour made less efficient;
• Class based resistance tweaks;
• Automatic Pistol ammo has been renamed to clarify it belongs to automatic pistol;
• SWAT Backup Gun damage raised (now very close to slasher in DPS);
• New test weapon for balancing introduced;
• APU damage reduced a bit overall, further damage reduction for Halo, Lance, Ball, Bolt and Barrel modules;
• IAR and CAR rifles damage increased a bit;
• Plasma Cannon damage reduced;
• Raygun Rifle damage reduced;
• Flamethrower damage reduced;
• SECOND LOVE damage reduced;
• Tank armor efficiency has been scaled down;
• Stamina use of all melee weapons reduced by 10%;
• Psi energy consumption for psi modules and stamina use for melee weapons now scale down with TL;
• Aiming Speed for all pistols has been increased (now fastest aiming weapon class);
• A new weapon for testing has been added, at 100% it deals 100 damage and has several useful ammo mods (heal, anti, db);
• Stun effect has been scaled down;
• Damageboost code recieved a complete overhaul, now works across all techlevels and variants;
• Further reduction of foreign cast shield efficiency.

Gameplay Updates

• Soul Clusters fixed;
• Automatic Soul Light regeneration has been reactivated;
  
  • Remember, several new missions were implemented and updated to help you gain larger amounts of soul light and faction sympathy too.
• Leg damage now correctly slows down runners again, intensity has been adjusted;
• PPU self cast detection is now referencing skill values instead of character class/profession;
• Drones have been reactivated for testing.

Misc

• Player numbers are now shown as integer values instead of percentages on the server selection menu.

Known issues

• New characters may not start with compatible ammo for their weapons.

[Drake6k]

Passive SL regen is the best thing ever, thank you so much. I left myself afk for a while and got back 1 SL already.

I went to the jailhouse and found a mission to kill 10 anarchy breed harassers. I took the nearby city exit and outside I found anarchy breed hooligans... and they kicked my melee tanks ass. Soooo I gave up. Could you list any particular new SL or symp missions to test out? At this point I'd just afk in my apartment every night to regen symp/SL.


I also made a new droner, choosing the droner job. The skillpoint choices for jobs really needs a revamp. It gave me a small amount of barter and a small amount of repair. Since most knowledgeable players specialize and don't just dabble in "a little barter skill" I think this probably sends the wrong message to new players on where to spend their points.

I tried the starter drones and they just miss every single shot, plus the reticle wouldn't close unless I was almost touching the scorpions in mc5.

Drones are unfortunately the quickest way to level a spy or pe to dex woc. On Titan we just level to 25 dex or so using pistols or TL 150 research missions or whatever (since noob drones don't work), then it's down to the cheaty El Farid roof to grind our eyes out. I wish so much that leveling with guns was more viable. I also wish there was more reason to leave El Farid / Regants. Most new players I encounter don't make it to endgame, including the ones we teach how to farm El Farid early on. They are all excited and leveling efficiently, but after a few days they just never login again.

I really feel that the leveling process needs to be revamped. Not leveling all your attributes naturally is an issue. Getting woc 3 on a tank before capping con is an issue. Monk and spy INT levels too slowly. PE woc is pointlessly harder to obtain. Pistols can't snipe and mini rocketlauncher AoE is nowhere near as efficient as grenade launchers. PEs are forced to level HC or they will never cap con. Leveling melee is a complete joke and I see new players trying to do it all the time; they refuse to level heavy and just blame the game (and quit). Many endgame mobs hit too hard. Kill missions like "black roach" and "radiated roach" are bullshit and confuse new players. "Where can I find mutant corporals?" I don't know, just do aggie capt missions in p2 like the rest of us. Kill missions also don't give enough money. New players are broke and I can make 1 million nc per hour in El Farid holding my mouse button down while I watch TV and completely ignore NC.

[Zoltan]

Thank you for the feedback. I agree to a revamp of the level experience but let us rollout the current update first. I cant wait the day when the current changes hit the retail server finally to return to a more frequent update rollout process.

[Baldur]

Could you list any particular new SL or symp missions to test out?
.

Here we go :

New repeatable mission "NeoCare in the Community":

A low and high level version of this longer mission is available, allowing runners to re-gain a larger amount of Soul Light. These missions start in the new medical area of Outzone 8 (Jailhouse).
Talk to Dr. Alonzo Gates for the low level version and to Dr. John McIntyre for the highlevel version.
This longer mission/run grants you +20 SL.


New repeatable mission, "Jailhouse Good Guys":

A low (level 30-44), mid (45-54) and high level (55+) version of this mission is available, allowing Runners to gain Soul Light. These missions start in the bar area of Club Jailhouse within Outzone 8.
The high level mission currently uses the Anarchy Breed Camps from the Tech Haven Corporate Contact missions (AB-Harrasser and Aggressors). This will be changed / these camps will be reworked and new camps will be added in a future patch.


These missions are already on Titan aswell.

[Celt]

Excellent patchnotes, really appreciate the work you guys are putting in.

[Drake6k]

I can't get on the test server, it's stuck at "Sending version request."

I'm nervous about pve balancing and this patch. People are going to want to farm the new rares and if pve is unbalanced then everyone will get discouraged. Will pve be addressed before the patch hits Titan? If so, please let us know what to test. I was going to take the Beam of Hell (nice range, love it) and try firemobs and warbots.

I did test one of the SL missions (on Titan), but I didn't have the 500k required I found it particularly discouraging as there are so many people with hundreds of millions of nc that they got through... illegitimate means; that's why we almost always do trades in unidentified techs.

[Bifrost]

I can't get on the test server, it's stuck at "Sending version request."

I've just checked, and it's working fine. Make sure you start the game using the launcher, and wait for the launcher to fully load.

Also make sure that you do have "Test Server" selected.

[Drake6k]

I've just checked, and it's working fine. Make sure you start the game using the launcher, and wait for the launcher to fully load.

Also make sure that you do have "Test Server" selected.

Fixed, thanks. The wrong server was selected.

Shot some fire mobs and was able to take them down, but it took forever. Grims still 2 shot me (just like on Titan). I compared Aggressor Captain damage taken from similar Judge PEs on Vedeena vs Titan and on Vedeena they took roughly 3x longer to kill. I already think pve is somewhat overly punishing on Titan currently, with mobs hitting very hard, many bosses and grims being un-tankable even with a capped ppu and capped tank.

Edit: People would "exploit" pve a lot less if it was easier too. Elfarid would be a lot more fun if the roofs were blocked off and the mobs were actually tankable. Melee and pistols wouldn't be so crap, although I think they deserve some compensation for not having aoe (rocket pistols count, but they suck.)

If pve is addressed before the patch hits. Maybe a Vedeena pve spawn event? Get feedback on all kinds of mobs. See just how brutal the bass commander health pool is and how hard some of the dungeon bosses hit.