Monthly Development Update - February 2015 (The Storm)
Hello everyone - I hope you have all had a great February!
18.7 on Testlive
Over the past month, a few iterations of 18.7 has been deployed onto Testlive; patch notes can be found here. There are a few more rounds of changes planned, but overall, I am happy with how things are taking shape. Thank you to everyone who has been visiting Testlive and providing feedback!
From what has already been done, and available to experience on Testlive, here are a few excerpts!
General Changes:
- New characters will be sent to an entirely new location for their first steps on Rubi-Ka.
- ICC's Rubi-Ka headquarters has been redesigned to become a major city hub.
- Pre-made implants go up to QL 125 in the ICC general store.
- Parry has been renamed to Deflect. Deflect is a defensive stat that and not a melee special. Deflect increases the chance that incoming attacks become Glancing Hits.
- A new stat called heal reactivity has been added. This stat controls how well a player receives healing. The higher your heal reactivity, the more you get healed by a healing nano.
- Whompahs have been given a new look, and should be easier to locate.
- Victory Point shops have been moved to the Unicorn Defense Hub (Battlestation signup area).
- Fast access to Temple of Three Winds and Inner Sanctum has been moved to ICC.
- New vendors have been created to offer higher quality level weapons, armor, and implants.
- Grafts will no longer appear in missions, but can be purchased from a new NPC.
- Initiative debuffs have been moved into a single nanoline.
- Added additional modifiers to Syndicate Brain symbiants.
Profession/Breed Changes:
- Breed Genome perks have been reviewed and rebalanced.
- Adventurer
- Morphs are mostly all unique to the Adventurer; as a result, they have all been improved.
- Morphs have similarly been given stronger identities, having modifiers that better represent the form.
- Morphs have powerful nanos to further compliment the individual forms.
- Invocation of the Phoenix now acts as a Complete Heal.
- Agent
- Perks now execute more quickly and are easier to land.
- The Repressor can be used to completely shrug off attackers, when not under a False Profession.
- Escape nanos have been enhanced, and have a greater effect when not under a False Profession.
- Ruse of Taren nanos no longer shrink the Agent, but instead provide the Cloaking Device effect.
- Bureaucrat
- Removed some of the various "Red Tape" initiative debuffs, in-line with the overall Init Debuff consolidation.
- Updated some former "Red Tape" buffs to affect other stats of targets.
- Added 2 lines of single initiative debuffs.
- Doctors
- Complete Heal nanos heal the target for 100% of their health.
- Malpractice can be used on monsters.
- Removed casting caps and shortened casting time on several DoTs.
- Enforcer
- Received a Charge! nano program.
- Added a melee "Element" buff, and made the others easier to maintain.
- Enforcers receive more healing when under the effect of a Mongo health buff.
- Enigneer
- Added a level 150 dog pet.
- Lowered pet buff requirements.
- Increased Special blocker amount/frequency for self auras, while lowering amount of blockers for Team aura.
- Fixer
- Evade debuffs also lower the target's max NCU.
- Added new Fixer-only meeps with shorter cooldowns.
- Fixers can summon boxes of ammo, Cluster Bullets, and Permorpha Bullets.
- Keeper
- Added Melee Energy support.
- Separated Ward nanos into their own line.
- Added a "Get over here!" player pull nano.
- Improved several Perks' chance to land on targets.
- Martial Artist
- Added "Zazen Stance" which raises the healing capabilities of MAs to new levels, at the cost of damage.
- Anvil Fists will now override the damage type.
- Certain Martial Arts attacks will land more easily.
- Added an upgrade to the Blades of Boltar: X1-R4 Viral Force-Blades.
- Meta-Physicist
- Damage can be shared with pets; increased stats on pets to compensate.
- Improved Creation weapons and made the creation process less painful.
- Full access to Blunt Mastery and Ranger perklines.
- Added a snare proc for combat pets.
- Nano Technician
- Improved "Garuk's Improved Viral Assault" to be easier to use and inflict more damage.
- Triple nanos have been replaced with a delayed nuke.
- Nanobot Guard now behaves the same regardless of breed.
- Cyberdecks can be used as normal weapons.
- Shade
- Added Smoke Bomb nano to break combat of hostile targets, as well as forcing the user into Sneak.
- Created a lower-level Sneaking Health Drain nano.
- Concealment modifiers added to Evasion buffs.
- Damage procs siphon health from the target; DoT procs siphon a small amount of nano from the target.
- Soldier
- Total/Augmented Mirror Shield buffs no longer remove the ability to cast nanos.
- One More Hit Healing is now "Don't Fear the Reaper," which heals the soldier for 30% of their life.
- Adrenaline Rush nano added, which heals the soldier for for 3% every 2 seconds.
- Trader
- Various debuffs are faster and easier to cast in quick succession.
- Added a TL5 mezz, "Sudden Diversion," similar "Cosmic Relaxation."
- Added upgrade t oDiamondine Kick Pistol: the Perfected Diamondine Kick Pistol.
The above are just excerpts from what has been done so far, with many more changes to come. With the upcoming patches, further issues and feedback will be addressed, in addition to finishing the list of intended changes. Each patch does bring us closer to delivering 18.7 to Live, which I eagerly await. A very short list of some of the more "general," profession non-specific goals I ideally would like to reach before 18.7 goes live would be:
- Lost Eden perk adjustments - A number of LE perks will need to be changed to reflect how their related nanos now perform.
- Tweaking/Removal of innate nano resistances held by bosses throughout the game, such as Initiative and Trader debuffs.
- Improving profession starting equipment, as well as what is acquired in the new tutorial area.
As we continue moving forward throughout March, I invite you to come visit Testlive and explore what has been changed. Each update should bring changes to various professions and encounters throughout the game, and this will continue until 18.7 is ready for its Live launch.
That's All for Now
As always, I invite you to visit Testlive, review the patch notes, read the Profession forums, go to http://tl.aoitems.com/history/, and whatever else you choose to do to see what has been going on over the past few weeks. It has been a very long set of weeks and months, but the goal is in sight and we're sprinting towards it. Thank you everyone, once again, and I hope you have a wonderful March! :)
