2015-06-15 - 3.6 Patch notes - Random assignments

Spotlight features

New random assignment system

This patch features our new, truly random assignment system:

Random assignments are generated specifically for you when you request one, and the actual objectives will be determined randomly based on the assignment template, the request location, the assignment level, and the surrounding facilities.
Currently we have 27 different assignment templates in 8 categories.
The old Combat, Industrial, and Transport categories have been split up into more specific ones, so you won't face enemies in transport assignments, or have to search for artifacts in pure combat assignments anymore.
There is a fancy new window when you complete an assignment, detailing the outcome.
Note that random assignments are currently only available on the three Alpha 1 islands only (New Virginia, Attalica, and Daoden), from level 0 to 2. Other islands will follow soon.

Assignments in squads

You don't have to decide anymore whether you want to do an assignment in a squad or not. This happens automatically: if you are in a squad, the assignment will appear for all available squad members too.
The assignment owner/provider has to be online and present in order to do it. Otherwise the assignment will be put on hold and no objectives can be completed as long as this is the case.
Everyone present and in the squad can contribute to any objective and complete any assignment that is shared through the squad. Objectives that require multiple kills or multiple items can be cooperated on freely.
The new "Complex production" assignment category is specifically meant for squads as it features objectives which can be done in parallel. (Though this is also true for some of the other assignment templates.)

Field terminals

Scattered around the islands, these provide the following services:

Secure, permanent, private storage, just like in a base. Their contents are also visible through the "all items" tab of your private storage.
Re-equipping your robot right there on the terrain. You can use modules both from your cargo or the field terminal's own storage. Can only be used while all of your modules are turned off.
You can request new assignments from them (which will start near them), so no need to return to the main base after every assignment.

Return teleport

A 5-minute return teleport option is provided after every successfully completed assignment, which will put you right next to the main terminal or outpost of your choice, within the island. It expires immediately when you enter a base or teleport to another island. The return teleport is only provided after the new random assignments and the old training assignments.

Rework of teleport and highway networks

The main guidelines behind the rework are:

Speed up traffic between main terminals, outposts, and teleports, by providing uninterrupted highway routes.
Practically you don't have to step off a highway if you're travelling between islands and their terminals.
Where possible, route inter-island traffic through outposts, which are currently underused.

In this patch we have reworked the three Alpha 1 islands (New Virginia, Attalica, and Daoden), the other islands will follow soon.

Changes to NPC AI

Non-aggressive (orange) NPCs will now attack you if you attack another enemy NPC near them. (If you are within their sensor range.) Note that they will still disengage after a short time if you don't attack them.
Generally NPCs won't follow you anymore to the end of the world. This means that at a certain distance from their "home point", they will stop chasing you and head back to that point.
While moving back to their home point, NPCs will still attack you, if you are within range.
For roaming NPCs there are 2 main cases:

1. They are waiting at a location for one or more of their members to arrive. In this case the ones waiting will behave like normal (static) NPCs as explained above, their home point being the one they are waiting at.

2. If they are moving towards a point as a group, they will not chase you, but they will attack you if you are within range. This is practically the same behavior like when normal NPCs are heading back to their home point. And this is also true for roaming NPCs that are catching up to their waiting group.

Gameplay

New: Objective markers and waypoints in the landmarks list can now be doubleclicked to autopilot there.
New: Added rightclick "Autopilot here" option to the radar and the map.
Fix: Fixed the highway effect providing erratic speed bonuses. It now gives a straight +36kph bonus.

Robots and modules

Change: In the past ammo was just a number on the module and we had a few problems with disappearing ammo and weird things happening. Now modules store actual ammo items in them and this has the consequence that reloading can only work if it has room to unload the loaded ammo first.

Assignments

New: The display of assignment-related relation statuses and rewards has been multiplied by a factor of 100 to make it all more convenient. So faction relations will now go from 0 to 999, level limits are 100-200-300-etc, and rewards will be also higher than usual. NOTE: this is a pure display change, your actual relations did not change.

New: Completing assignments will now not only give positive relation gains towards the contracting megacorporation, but you will also suffer negative relation hits towards a competing megacorporation. The amount of negative relation is always 20% of the positive gains, and it can be reduced by up to 10% with the Diplomacy extension. Note that relations can only go down to 0, they will not turn negative.
New: Objective letter markings are now properly placed on and connected to NPCs and buildings, not just floating around somewhere near them.
New: Assignment NPCs and geoscanning targets now drop the required items into special separate blue-colored loot containers.
New: Your active assignment list has been split down from the assignment request window and the small assignment objectives window is now also available inside terminals. This, and the squad window button have been moved under a dropdown button, so it is now more consistent with how it works outside.
New: Added a deliver button into the assignment objectives window and into the right-click menu of assignment items in a storage or your cargo.
New: Assignment items can now be delivered directly from your cargo, no need to put them into terminal storages. When delivering, the server will check for items in the following order:

Near field terminals: robot cargo first, then field terminal storage

Inside bases: robot cargo first, then the root of your private storage (it intentionally does not check inside containers/folders, so you can't deliver anything from there)

New: Assignment bonuslevel increase is now also given for available squad members.
New: Added new lines into the assignment info windows: for combat missions it now shows the expected enemies' faction, and for transport missions it tells you the total volume that needs to be transported. (Note that this only works for the new random assignments.)
New: Assignment related toast messages now include the assignment's name and the squadmember's name who did something, where appropriate.

Extensions

Change: Assignment specialist extensions have been reworked a bit. The old Combat/Industrial/Transport combo changed to Combat (Combat, Combat exploration), Fieldcraft (Mining, Harvesting, Exploration), Transport, and a new extension for Production (Production, Complex production). They also do not provide a bonus to relation rewards anymore, only for NIC.
Change: Fixed the Contract negotiation extension, as previously it made negative bonuslevel bonuses even worse instead of reducing them. Increased the extension rank to 8. Reduced its prerequisite level in specialist extensions from 4 to 3. This and the specialist extensions have been reimbursed during the patch.
New: Brought back the Diplomacy extension. It now reduces the negative relation hit towards competing megacorporations and when aborting assignments. (And only that, it does not increase positive relation rewards like in the past.)
New: Added rightclick Install/Upgrade options to the extension requirements tab of item information windows.

Industry

New: Products per cycle is now shown in CTs and in the factory. This is useful for a number of item CTs which produce more than 1 item per manufacturing cycle, like ammunition.

Corporations

Fix: Fixed the corporation management member list not loading all members when opened for the first time.

Modular Private Colonies

Change: Deputy CEOs are now also able to change the "allow decontruction" setting for gamma terminals.
Fix: Red slope tiles should now properly update in the colony planner when terraforming.
Change: Increased the amount of energy in energy fields by another 50%.
Fix: The colony plan selection dropdown was constantly reset when opening the corporation management window.

GUI

New: Labels on the world map now appear based on the zoom level.
New: Added field terminals to the world map, and a checkbox filter for them.

General

Fix: Fixed the research log csv export not including the event itself.

Steam

Fix: The enter beta/gamma base Steam achievement was working inverted. (This doesn't affect already achieved achievements.)

Known issues

Some of the new assignment-related buildings are not properly placed yet.

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