What's up? (August 8st 2003)

[Cz]

Got some leaks for you this Friday. The 15.0.1 update, which is scheduled to go live August 20th, is about to be moved to test-live so you all can have a look (and help us testing it, of course). The build notes are almost done, and though we won't be publishing them fully until we move it to test-live, I thought I'd post some of it here today.

Disclaimer: These are changes scheduled for the 15.0.1 update. They might not all be ready, or get completely done, even if they get to test-live, and are thus not 100% sure to make it to the live version on August 20th.
(Most - hopefully all - of them will. This is just to have somewhere to point you if you flame me later. )

So, without too much details...

- New GUI! Well, parts of it. You can still use the old one if you like.
- Parry and Riposte have been revamped.
- Sneak Attack has been adjusted a bit, and a new attack based on it is now available to Adventurers (and Shades, when SL launches).
- Rules for nano program stacking and over-writing have been changed.
- Nanos now display their nano line in the info window.
- The aggdef slider now has more effect on defensive skills.
- Switching combat target without ending an attack is now possible.
- Teams will always end up in the same dungeon, e.g. in Inner Sanctum. Exceptions exist.
- Players' pets are immune to fear.
- Pet selection hotkeys!
- MP "mezz" pet fixed.
- Crawling is re-enabled (been gone since beta, I believe).
- You can "relax in style" by using /lounge.
- The limit of missions you can have at one time is now 9 (increased from 3).
- Apartment item limit has been raised to 30. (Jobe luxury apartments will have more.)
- Several improvements to performance, especially indoor.
- Several nanos have had their special checks changed, e.g. the GA nukes now check for Grid Armor being worn, not the level of the AddAllDef stat.
- MP Infuses and interrupt modifier nanos have had their bugs fixed.
- MP Evocation nanos now last longer.
- Mobs will start using other special attacks then burst (damage is capped) and looking for "easy kills" when facing multiple enemies.
- "Max Beneficial Skill" now has effect on damage, not AR. Minimum attack and recharge also activated on some weapons and nanos.

Guess that's the most interesting stuff about the 15.0.1 update. It also contains a lot of things in preparation of Shadowlands launch, like all the textures and meshes (3d models) for everything people can bring from Shadowlands to Rubi-Ka, so other people can see it properly.

Apart from that, I really don't have that much. The bulletin board has been working good the last week. The forum database server closed for connections once, due to a full disk. This has been fixed, and hopefully we're not going to see any more trouble with it for a long time.

I leave you again with best wishes of a nice weekend. I'll be around both on beta and on live. But don't expect to recognize me, as I'll be on as my play characters, not as a Funcom employee.

[Cz]

Originally posted by Cz
- "Max Beneficial Skill" now has effect on damage, not AR.

Just to be more clear: "Max Beneficial Skill" (MBS) now has effect on damage, by capping the multiplier when your Attack Rating (AR) reaches MBS. We will still use the full AR to determine whether you hit or not.

More details in the build notes, soon to be made public.