Update news for 2013-11-05 - New assignment system

Spotlight features

New assignment system

Welcome to the first stage of our extensive assignment system rework. In this patch we change how you can request assignments, abandoning the "look for a mission on a long list"-method in favor of a more random system. Assignments are now provided with the help of boxes that are arranged by category and level, so you can choose what type and difficulty you would like to do, but not specific assignments. We have also added a bonus system on top of this, that should motivate you to complete assignments one after the other by giving higher reward multipliers, but also give penalties if you fail to complete them. You can read further details below, or in our relevant blog post.

Gameplay

  • Fix: Player robots remained on the terrain indefinitely if they got locked after an instant logout.
  • Fix: Appearance of objects on the terrain should be processed much faster now, this should solve the detector module freeze issues and also freezes when undocking to a dense gamma zone.
  • Change: Terraformer beacons can't be charged now while players are standing in the affected area. The client is now showing this area with a red overlay.
  • New: The server will now try to automatically activate an existing robot after spark teleporting.
  • Fix: The server will search for existing Arkhes in storage containers and robot cargos too when requesting a new one, and deny the request when it finds any.

Extensions

  • New: We have 2 new extensions in the relations category: Contract negotiation and Reputation management. They are both tied to the new assignment bonus system and (more or less) replace the old Diplomacy and Headhunter bonus extensions.
  • Change: The Parallel assignments extension has been removed. The only limit to do more assignments at once is basically the limit of how many assignment boxes you can activate around Nia. Together with the above two extensions these have been reimbursed (EP+NIC).

Industry

  • Change: Epriton has been removed from gamma islands and can be found only on beta islands from now on.
  • Fix: Scanning for a mineral that does not exist on an island returned a server error.

Modular Private Colonies

  • Fix: The blocking space of the High-tech repair node was wrong.

Assignments

  • Change: Your relation towards NPC corporations has been averaged to have only relation towards the 3 NPC megacorporations.
  • Change: NPC relations panel has been removed from the Agent profile, megacorporation relation values are now available on the top of the assignments window.
  • Change: Relation limits for available assignments are now more straightforward: level1s are available with 1.00 relation, level2s with 2.00 and so on. Training and level0s are available regardless of relation.
  • Change: Awarding relation rewards is now very strict: you'll only get relation rewards for a level0 mission up until you reach 1.00 relation, for a level1 mission up until you reach 2.00 and so on.
  • New: Training assignments now also provide relation rewards.
  • New: The mission information window now shows the final rewards (ie. with bonuses) for both NIC and relation as well as the % value of the bonus. Corporation tax and squad share are NOT calculated in here.
  • New: The bonus system: assignment bonus levels are displayed in the bottom right of the category boxes, they can be positive (green) or negative (red). Bonus will increase if you successfully complete assignments from the same box and decrease if you abort them or they expire. When the box has a positive bonus level and you fail a mission from it, the bonus level will immediatelly disappear. Likewise, if the box has a negative bonus level and you complete a mission from it, the negative bonus will immediatelly disappear. Bonus levels add a multiplier to the rewards of the next requested mission which ranges from 0-100-200% (level -5, 0, +5). The multiplier affects NIC and relation rewards only.
  • Change: Removed the "6/10 rule", but it would be a bit hard to reach this limit in the new system anyway.
  • Change: No "All assignments" tab anymore, you can remotely check the availability of assignments on the map by right-click infoing the terminals.
  • Change: All mission objectives are now always visible in the assignment info window from the start so you can prepare better. The exceptions are hidden objectives that are specially marked as such. The terrain/radar/landmarks/etc still only show the actual objectives like before.
  • New: Implemented optional objectives which are marked with a blue icon. These objectives don't have to be completed in order to finish a mission. An example for this is the first two scanning objectives in the General training III missions.
  • Change: Deliver button is now only shown for missions which require something to deliver.
  • Change: Sparks that can be unlocked via relation now require relation towards the 3 megacorporations. Sparks that have been unlocked will stay unlocked even if you don't have the required relation after the averaging.

GUI

  • New: Changed the layout of the assignment info window in order to see more details without the need for scrolling.
  • New: Artifact scanning result list is now sorted by distance.

General

  • New: You can now select all items in a container by double-clicking on empty space.
  • Fix: The support tickets link in the help menu was broken.

Known issues

  • Closed gamma teleports can not be opened due to a bug.
  • Trying to mine a mineral that does not exist on the island returns a server error.

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