14.4 - Preliminary patch notes

[___________Graukonig]

The Chaos Minions( edit: I mean LBs, never saw its more powerful cousin, chaos minion, there so I thought he was talking about LBs ) were one of the main reasons why the PM mines where fun place to hunt. Without them its just another boring no risk exp farm. At least put in some mutant patrols to breakup the monotony.

One thing that really needs to be changed is the Boss Room in team missions. Having the group zone up into the middle of a closed off room filled with monster is possibly the most unoriginal way to make the final area challenging.

[___________Bladefall]

Looks quite good. My only question is in regards to this:

"You no longer get a new first name + last name every time you use the nickname terminal, thus making it possible to type in a nickname that matches the first name + last name you have, if you choose to do so."

So this means that we are stuck with first and lastnames like "Hymen Flowers?" What is the bennefit of this to the players?

[_______________Vydas]

I don't get why any of the advent stuff is self only (well, the HP buff, ok). Is the rest of it so overpowering, like crits, that the use must be restricted?

[__________Windrunner]

I, too, am disappointed by the adventurer changes.

Class-balancing nanos like the 1he/pistol/MR/MM buffs boss loot only.. we all saw it coming, but it's still a dumb idea. Get real Funcom.

I like the new morph nanos, but I'd need more information before I make up my mind on them. And Nynx.. I think you're the only person who doesn't like polymorphing I love running around in Wolf form, but the night-vision blows, and I'm glad it's going.

Secondary damage shields may be nice.. I'll be interested to see them, but I will probably be dropping MC in favor of PM to get the new buffs instead. Unless the damage shields are huge, it's just not worth it.

Leet charms are stupid. I want to charm leets.. I think it's a -very- cool idea, but not being able to zone with them? Give me a break... let us zone with our damn pets since they're so useless!!! I want to see a leet in a mission with me cheering me on! "Yaaaa ur uber Kaneth!" Of course.. having these team-mission only are fine.

Breaking Pit Lizard instead of fixing it is the most lazy thing Funcom could possibly do. Don't take something away from us in our supposedly "big patch" damnit! Fix it properly... otherwise, if pit lizard can't fly, I want to be able to use it by level 90. It's just not worth it any higher.

The deflection and flurry of blows items sound good... but are you trying to eliminate the pistoleer adventurer?

Crowd control looks nice... though I'd rather have some sorts of roots and snares than mez nanos. And not in combat = only barely useful. A non-combat mez, to me, means that adventurers will suddenly be right up with NTs and Crats in the ease of blitzing missions...

Overall, I give a very unenthusiastic "DOH" to these notes for adventurers. Mine will sit in retirement, as I have much more fun with my MA.

Speaking of MAs.. THANK YOU for finally fixing kick animations!

[Xtremtech]

I'm happy to see what looks like a possibility of more high level hunting spots outdoors in SAV and Belial. If the OT Outpost being reclaimed in SAV has a save spot, it'll make my day! Outdoor hunting will be a godsend to many pet classes who can have a difficult time manoevring their pets round missions (particularly in laggy situations).

Only one question from the MP side regarding the Auto-Attack options.

We have implemented 4 new control options:

Auto-attack attacking monster with AGGDEF > 0. (Default ON)
Auto-target attacking monster when without target. (Default ON)
Auto-attack attacking player with AGGDEF > 0. (Default ON)
Auto-target attacking player when without target. (Default ON)

Right now, after 14.2 Attack pets and Mez pets who are in guard mode still seem to auto-attack mobs that are aggroing the owner/team. We can stop this by taking the pets out of guard mode, but it is sometimes a desired behaviour.

Will the auto-attack options also affect this pet behaviour when in guard mode? MPs (and other pet users) might reasonably not want to auto-attack themselves, but still want their pets to auto-attack... or more accurately auto-defend us.

X

[_____________Calenth]

The trader changes have been discussed a great deal already. Suffice to say, I was really hoping that Funcom would have enough sense to fix some of the problems with the trader class *before* they broke the trader's healing, so that traders would still have some functional role in groups.

They didn't. Have enough sense, that is. Why am I paying for this again?

Anyway, I think funcom will realize it's mistake once the player-base realizes that it's suddenly about three times as hard to find a healer to run missions with. The problem, of course, is that by the time they realize that, all the traders will have quit, so the problem won't be fixable via a patch.

[___________Feydrutha]

Preliminary Build Notes 14.4

....

NPC and Monster Changes:

• The team mission bosses now have more loot. The amount depends on the number of players in the team when accepting the mission.
  
• The number of additional NPCs in the team mission boss room has been tweaked. The challenge should now be more in line with the size and power of the group doing the mission. In some cases you will face less monsters than today, in others more.

Nice to have more loot. Hopefully the number of minions tweak will mean we will sometimes manage to do boss room without teleporting back downstairs several times (and leaving engi downstairs to summon back the people who die) in missions that give good exp.

Item Changes:

• Some new static missions have been introduced. The rewards for these missions are items that behave differently than all other items currently in the game. We will leave it up to the players to figure out how!
  
• ...
  

Nice.. havn't done any of them yet myself though

Playfield Changes:

• Lush Fields: chaos minions will not spawn at the NW mine anymore.
  Pity. Lifebleeders are what made hunting in NW mines a bit different, more fun than yet another mutie camp. I agree that bringing outdoors hunting back into the game at high levels is a priority, but it shouldn't be done by introducing more boring zero risk camps, but by having some nice challenging camps defeatable with good strategy and near enough to a save term to still be a viable exp choice. This seems like a step in the wrong direction: LBs were the fun/peculiar thing of NW caves, and OP is near enough you could usually save often enough that dying isn't that bad. Also the place is so camped i've often been able to just run until some random person attacked the mob and took agro off me.. oh and you can also zone into the cave.. all in all it's easy enough to be a fun newbie camp, nor eason to make it mindnumbingly easy.
  
• Some monsters have established new camps in Southern Artery Valley
  
• Different types of monsters in Andromeda have established small camps. Careful, they are being ruled by a strong leader.
  are you talking about the boss of a certain type of mob that appears if you hunt them for a lot etcetera that was mentioned as a possibility in one of those game design articles? or is this just a new outdoors boss?
  
• Profession-specific implant departments are now available in the basic supermarkets.
  ? what's it mean? so you only find clusters generally used by that profession? if so it's convenient.
  
• The clans have built a new outpost in Varmint Woods.
  
• Omni-Tek has reopened a base in Southern Artery Valley.
  
• Omni-Tek now has an operational save terminal in Southern Artery Valley.
  
• Suppression gas in Belail Forest and Southern Artery Valley has been increased to monster only.
  all these changes go in the general direction of making outdoor hunting an option at high levels. Nice. Hope these are fun camps, not too easy, but good exp.
  
• ...

Trader Changes:

• Trader change: Trader health transfers have been changed in the following manner:
  
• When the 50% PvP damage reduction was introduced, this lowered the damage inflicted upon the trader as well. This has been fixed, and trader's heal transfer nanos will inflict the correct amount of damage on the trader.
  
• When using a team health transfer nano, a 15 second damage-over-time nano will be placed on the trader. During these 15 seconds, the trader will not be able to use that same team health transfer nano again, but is able to use a different team health transfer nano. For example, using "Premium Delayed Health Payment" will mean that you cannot cast that nano for another 15 seconds, but you could use "Exceptional Delayed Health Payment" during that time (which would then mean that you could not use "Exceptional Delayed Health Payment" for 15 seconds). The damage-over-time nano associated with each of the team health transfers will hit you for damage 5 times. Be aware that the damage-over-time nanos associated with each of the different team health transfers will stack with each other, so using multiple team transfers will be risky.

Nothing new, read the thread. Not too happy about this myself, although at least as I can see you will be allowed to stack different versions.. but maybe the dots will be just too much to be able to survive that. The reason i do not like this (beside the idea in the back of my mind of twinking a trader) is that traders chain casting team heals was fun.. and far from riskless.. you chain cast heals, eventually run out of nano and get hit by the dot, just as everyone and his mother agroes on you because of the heals! risky and cool imo. I think fixing the pvp 50% damage would have been enough.

Fixer Changes:

• We are proud to introduce a new grid for the Fixers. They are the only ones able to use it, but in order to do so they must first solve a mission!
  
• Added a new item that enables the Fixer to "fix" better nano skills for themselves.
  
• Added a new line of heal-over-time nanos. These have a longer duration than your existing line (between 15 and 30 minutes), and stack with the existing line of HoT nanos. They heal less often than the existing line, but heal for more and with a tighter range.
  
• The NCU cost on your existing HoT (Heal over time) buffs has been decreased.
  
• The damage penalty associated with the run speed buffs has been removed.
  
• Added team versions of the run speed buffs. These are slightly less effective than the single-target versions.
  
• Added a line of team NCU buffs. These range from +20 at the lowest level to +250 at the highest. Note that these buffs are level limited - both for the Fixer executing the nano and the members of the team receiving the buff.
  
• The "Minor Suppressor" line has been extended. There is now a line of SMG + burst combo buffs. They are self-only and executable only by Fixers.
  
• The items summoned with the "Smuggler's Shipment", "Bootleg Blades'n Blunts" and "Bootlet Beamers'n Bolters" will now exist for 12 hours, rather than two. Additionally, the credit cost of summoning these items has been lowered dramatically.

good for fixers.


Adventurer Changes:

• Added three new lines of nano buffs. The first buffs 1h-edged weapon skill. The second buffs pistol skill. The third buffs both multi-melee and multi-range skills. All are self-only buffs. Check out the team mission boss monsters, they may drop one of these new nanos.
  
• A number of nanos have been added. They are only possible to execute when in polymorph form.
  
• Wolf form: a series of team auras (90sec refresh) that increase damage and evade skills. They are more effective on people also in wolf form. A series of large perception buffs (and minor evasion buffs) that can be run on others provided the target is also in wolf form.
  
• Sabre tooth form: self-only short duration damage buffs that also increase attack and defensive skills and boost agg/def. These have a cool-down period of 2 or 3 minutes. A line of self-only instant-cast heals that can be used every 30sec or so.
  
• Pit lizard: a couple of nukes. A single-target nuke that can be used every minute; an AoE (area of effect) nuke that can be used every two minutes; and an AoE DoT (damage over time) that can be used every five minutes. Note that during the cool down period of one of these nukes you cannot use another. And finally a self-only massive HP boost + HoT, that can be used every 20 minutes.
  
• Added a series of secondary damage shield nanos. These stack with the normal damage shield nanos, increasing the amount of damage inflicted upon the attacker. You will need a damage shield of sufficient power up and running before you can run one of these damage shield upgrade nanos. Check out the boss monsters, they may drop one of these nanos.
  
• Added a line of leet charms that are only useable when you are polymorphed into leet form. This line is purely for fun - and will allow you to charm a leet, eleet, leetas and finally a soleet. The charm is "permanent" (it lasts 12 hours), but the leet will not zone with you. Check out the boss monsters, they may drop one of the "Leet Friend" nanos.
  
• The night vision effect from the adventurer's wolf and pit lizard polymorph has been removed.
  
• Fly mode has been disabled from the pit lizard polymorphs, as it isn't working properly. The primary purpose of the pit lizard polymorphs is combat, and this was stopping it from being used in combat correctly.
  
• The adventurers have gotten new deflection shield items usable only by them, which recycle faster than the normal ones. They have also received a "Flurry of Blows" look-alike item that recycles quicker. These are found in various places, and can be produced through trade-skill processes by kind friends of the Adventurer.
  
• The adventurer now has some crowd control. It is a line of mesmerise nanos that can only be executed on the monster when the monster is not in combat mode. There is also a single area-affect version that can only be executed when outdoors (and will only affect monsters not in combat mode).

wow lots of stuff. no adv chars myself so i dunno.. As a sidenote: why is everyone getting some crowd control (mas too)? i thought this was against the "encourage cooperation" policy of the latest patches.. the ma one seems to be mostly useful to make a tank out of an MA, this one i dunno..

Other Changes:

• ...
  
• We have implemented 4 new control options:
  
• Auto-attack attacking monster with AGGDEF > 0. (Default ON)
  
• Auto-target attacking monster when without target. (Default ON)
  
• Auto-attack attacking player with AGGDEF > 0. (Default ON)
  
• Auto-target attacking player when without target. (Default ON)
  

Very good. My MP was constantly keeping agg/def below 0, even though i am hardly ever being agroed by mobs in teams (usually the last one to die), just to avoid autoattack. Although i just got a real weapon in, so by the time patch hits i will probably not want to turn that option off anymore.

[Ninj00]

BLKAJGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


" Fly mode has been disabled from the pit lizard polymorphs, as it isn't working properly. The primary purpose of the pit lizard polymorphs is combat, and this was stopping it from being used in combat correctly. "


So...... adventureres are ...... NOT ment to adventure? I thought we got "vehicle" nanos, like the parrot nano that gave us 1k run speed, that replaces our need for cars, I'm lvl 52 and was VERY looking forward to being able to fly. I can understand why the pit lizard cant fly, but make us be able to fly with somthing esle then ! Give us some kind of flying thing ! I dont want to save up 16,000,000 credits to buy a half decent jet. I think every adventurer can agree with me, we should get SOME kind of flying nano.

[________________Wigz]

Fixer Grid = Fixer only Grid plz...

I don't want a repeat of the Fixer shop... (everybody and their mother with icc cloaks on... sparkle plates... useless AoE burst bullets)

It's not enough that agents could have pets, now they want to access our one little gift? ( will it be that much more useful than the current grid...)

[_______________Bunny]

Check out the team mission boss monsters, they may drop one of these new nanos.

WHY???? I only have a few hours to spare when I play, I don't have time to get into teams. I also just prefer to solo. Every team I have joined had ninja looters and had people who can't heal and I always die. So now I just solo. Being boss only is difficult for those of us who prefer to solo. Also those of us who do not have a lot of credits can not afford to buy them off players and also most of us don't have the time to sit and wait to see if they pop up on the shopping chat channel. I understand you are trying to encourage grouping, but that hurts those of us who just prefer to solo.

PLEASE don't make them boss only drop.

You no longer get a new first name + last name every time you use the nickname terminal, thus making it possible to type in a nickname that matches the first name + last name you have, if you choose to do so

Does this mean we can have just a nickname and are no longer required to have a first and last name when we create new characters?

[_____________Mr Bean]

My feelings on the subject
http://forums.anarchy-online.com/sho...threadid=31102

[Daenis]

well...
just for saying that i am a soloer, because i dont have a lot of time in row when i'm playing, (i play usually for one mission then i log out) so i guess i cant have access to a lot of stuff.
Playing with a team need a huge amount of free time.
just sad about that.
AO is definitively a Hardcore gamer's game.

[______________Ampris]

Originally posted by thrax

It's not enough that agents could have pets, now they want to access our one little gift? ( will it be that much more useful than the current grid...)

The Anarchy Online Fixer web site has some work in progress pictures of what might possibly be the new Fixer only Grid.

I couldn't find the article that goes with it any longer.

I recall that they were sent from Funcom a while back, so the picture may not be accurate.

EDIT: I think they were posted sometime in March, 2002.

[Darkbane]

Originally posted by Feydrutha
[BPlayfield Changes:

[list][*]Lush Fields: chaos minions will not spawn at the NW mine anymore.
Pity. Lifebleeders are what made hunting in NW mines a bit different, more fun than yet another mutie camp. I agree that bringing outdoors hunting back into the game at high levels is a priority, but it shouldn't be done by introducing more boring zero risk camps, but by having some nice challenging camps defeatable with good strategy and near enough to a save term to still be a viable exp choice. This seems like a step in the wrong direction: LBs were the fun/peculiar thing of NW caves, and OP is near enough you could usually save often enough that dying isn't that bad. Also the place is so camped i've often been able to just run until some random person attacked the mob and took agro off me.. oh and you can also zone into the cave.. all in all it's easy enough to be a fun newbie camp, nor eason to make it mindnumbingly easy.
[/B]

Err, it says Chaos Minions, not Lifebleeders, or Fatestealers. Just the ones that are capable of wiping out half the players in the area at the level they usually are...

[____________Meligant]

Ok I don't know where to start so I will start on a positive note.

Patch Notes look good.

With that being said I would like to add the following for you (FC) to think about.

1. Right now you are expanding the "Boss Mob Loot" tag. You seem to be searching for a reason to add it to any content to be adding to the game. Other games have fallen into ruts like this and have paid the price. AC for 3 patches in a row added a blitz of NO DROP items. The result was the ability to set up a toon with a sword, armor, and all the items he needs and drop nothing but spell comps when he died! Moral of the story? Don't get stuck in a RUT. Mix it up. More later.

2. Agent FP: This ability seems to have scared you. At release, an agent could FP and cast ANY nano of the other Profs he wanted (if he was able) except attack pets. It seems since then every new nano you add you tag it Prof = xx instead of visual prof = xx. Why are you so scared? I could understand if you wanted to reserve some of the highest QL nanos in a line (like you did with heal pets) but I don't see the need to prevent agents from being able to use the new Multi Wield buffs or a solider's "Minor SMG Mastery" or some such. I ask you to think hard on this topic and not continue to add things to the game and scrap off agent FP because you are afraid of it.

3. The SOLO GAME. You (FC) need to spend some time on the solo game. Right now it evaporates at level 80. Teaming becomes 7 TIMES faster to level !! Now it will be the only method to get MANY of the new nanos for you profession or to get a new weapon made just for your profession. Think hard on this please. Many of these nano's are considered "fixes" to a profession and not just additions to one that is fine. The fun of doing a solo mission is slipping away (especially if you have teamed and seen the difference). There are no SOLO TRIAL quests, NO SOLO ONLY TESTS of Progression or ANYTHING. If you can do it solo you can do it with a team better! Hello? Can you see the need for Profession specific missions/quests here?

4. Team missions are a little messed up. Right now everyone has reason to kill the boss mob, however if you take a mission that will give you "good exp" then you end up with a Boss mob that requires an Air strike from a fighter wing to take out. SO the "team missions" are either...

A) take a low level one and kill a slew of greens, greys, yellows, and maybe some oranges and when you get to the end take out the boss as the challenge.
OR..
b) take a higher level team mission and get good exp the whole time as you kill 60-80 high yielding exp mobs along the way. When you get to the boss room, you blitz it because your team could never take on the boss and even if you tried you'd probably lose at least 1-2 people and they would lose a few million exp unless the whole team went to go save first.

Not sure how to fix this but maybe the boss room could have 2 rooms, one for the lackies and one for the boss. Just and idea.

**got a few million other things floating around my head but need to get back to work. Hope this spurs some thought.

[_______________Gurra]

Originally posted by HidaReign
everyone got love but ENGI's and enforcers. Shame .. he he thank god I play a MA now.

I´m not here to whine but I didnt notice any Crat changes in these patch notes, or maybe the whole profession is being removed? 14.4 looks good for most parts, as did 14.2 <--- Good Job FunCom!

Nice to see that you Norwegian guys have got yourself together after failing to qualify for Korea/Japan Football WC =b Hmmm... fading away from the subject here.

When are you guys planning to fix Crat charms (the psy check, I believe you´ve heard of it) Implemanting briefcase and paperwork tradeskills? <--- Was removed with everything else from envisioned a while back.

Last thing, Implement Snus (snuff) please!

[Tboo]

As Sredni points out the Ranged Energy change is already in the game. Clearly it was a bug that the skill description and the attributes that actually contribute to the skill weren't in sync, however the way it should have been fixed is by changing the description, rather than the skill itself. For soldiers, particularly Atrox soldiers this came out seeming like an annoying, pointless stealth nerf.

Please change the skill back to be the way it was before, and just change the description to coincide.

Other than that though, it looks like you are making a lot of small friendly changes in 14.4 of the type that will enhance the playing experience. Good on you.

- Tboo

[Sgtsmile]

Over all, this looks very cool. One thing disappoints me though: I was hoping to see something for soldiers - a bug fix does not impress LOL. sigh.

However, if the profession changes are going to be spread over 14.4 and 14.6, perhaps the soldiers will have some treats then.

On the topic of the different fixer grid, it makes me want to play one! I have always liked the fixer for some reason....


sgt

[_______________Tiran]

Not mentioned in patch notes, but finally there:

You can now buy a Broken Shores map crystal. (260 Map Nav)

No Wailing Wastes, though.

Profession Specific Implants are basic store only.

14.4.0.2 is now on Testlive, soooo... it may not be all that long before it goes live.... If you're planning on doing a complete IPR, time to think about doing it.

[______________Wahoo.]

Very cool .. thx