Update news for 2011-06-17

Gameplay

  • New: Added roaming NPCs to new alpha and beta islands.
  • Change: Reduced the number of EW NPCs in non-assignment related spawns on alpha islands.
  • New: Change all ammo function: when changing ammo in modules while on the terrain, holding the shift key while clicking on the desired ammo will now change it in all applicable modules.
  • Change: Reduced the signal masking value of the practice target, so it's visible from further away too.
  • Change: Removed the "Show after upload" checkbox from the geoscanner window and added a second Upload&show button which will upload the scanresult and automatically show it on the map and the terrain (the latter only in case of tile-based results of course).
  • Fix: Lag shouldn't interrupt autorun now (please report if it still does).
  • Fix: The demobilizer effect tooltip didn't calculate demobilizer resistances into the speed reduction display.
  • New: Added delete folder (and everything in it) option for geoscan result folders.
  • Change: Reduced the spawning chance of observer artifacts.
  • Change: Level II artifacts will now always contain at least 3 items, and level III artifacts at least 5 items.
  • New: NPCs can now use their sensor suppressors.

Robots and modules

  • Change: Optimal range of medium ballistic missiles has been reduced by 10%.
  • Change: Increased base speed of light combat robots and their Mk2 variants.
  • Change: Increased base speed of light industrial robots and their Mk2 variants.
  • Change: Increased base speed and mass of assault combat robots and their Mk2 variants.
  • Change: Signal masker modules are now using energy over time, which means that the basic activation AP cost is really low, but the effect itself drains AP every 2 seconds. The basic AP usage is multiplied by the hit surface size of your robot. AP drain lasts while the effect is active, and the effect will drop if there is not enough AP to drain.
  • Change: ECCM modules gained an active ability, additionally to their current passive sensor strengthening. Their active effect is also using energy over time like the signal masker above (AP usage * hit surface, every 2 sec). Active ECCM has a 2 minute cycle time and its effect lasts only for 20 seconds, but it instantly removes every negative effect from your robot (target marker, demobilizer , sensor suppressor), and provides a huge ammount of demobilizer resistance and sensor strength for those 20 seconds. Additionally it also gives a certain amount of lock resistance, which means that every 3 seconds every other enemy or friendly robot has a chance to drop their lock on you. Lock resistance works similarly to how ECM/ECCM modules work, by comparing the enemy robot's sensor strength to your lock resistance.
  • Change: ECCMs are now unique modules (one per robot).
  • Change: Increased CPU usage of ECCMs.
  • Change: Reduced the mass of Niani industrial tunings.
  • Fix: Range extenders had no effect on interference modules.
  • Change: The energy gained from ERP modules is now calculated with a sine curve instead of linearly: they reach their peak (100%) performance at 50% accumulator charge, and will only return 50% energy at both ends (0% and 100% accumulator charge).

Graphics

  • Change: Geoscanner result cubes are now more transparent.

Extensions

  • Change: Renamed "Armor repair" to "Accelerated armor repair".
  • New: Added Improved armor repair which raises the repaired amount (HP) of armor repairers and remote armor repairers by an additional 2% per level.
  • New: Added Long range engineering which raises the optimal range of engineering equipment by an additional 3% per level.
  • New: Added Improved energy drain which raises the amount of drained energy by energy drainers by an additional 2% per level.
  • New: Added Improved energy neutralization which raises the amount of neutralized energy by energy neutralizers by an additional 2% per level.

Industry

  • New: Remote production processes are now listed (in grey) under the monitoring tabs of facilities. This addition also brings the possibility to remotely cancel productions.
  • Change: Lowered the minimum terrain height where triandlus and helioptris can grow.
  • Change: Increased the mineral limit in triandlus and helioptris plants to 50 on alpha and 100 on beta islands.
  • Fix: When a remote manufacturing process finished, the local list of production lines updated incorrectly and displayed the remote lines.

Assignments

  • Change: Transport and retrieval assignment items are now called SynSec containers, and other destroy&recover type items retain their Data console designation, but now got their own icon.
  • Fix: Assignment reward was not properly distributed in a squad where the members were in a corporation with 100% tax rate.

GUI

  • Fix: Some of the small tactical effect icons didn't disappear even after the effect stopped (drainers, ECMs, etc).

Sound

  • Fix: The annoying burst of soundeffects when leaving a terminal or teleporting should be fixed now.

General

  • New: Added a new "Career tips" tab into the ingame help menu, which provides some advice for the new players who'd like to have a quick summary of their career possibilities.
  • New: URLs in chat will now be automatically linkified.
  • New: Added a technical support button on the login screen.
  • New: Added optional toast message when receiving new private chat messages.
  • New: Added a popup warning when teleporting to beta (PvP) islands.
  • New: Added a "Reset hidden warnings" button to the Options/Gameplay panel, which will reset all "Don't show again" settings.

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