Technical Updates & Bug Fixes

• A reproducible server crash has been fixed.
• Blueprints are now limited to 10 or fewer items.
• A new option has been added to the Hardware Configuration window, players can now select whether Neocron should run in multi-core mode or be assigned to a single processor core. Depending on your machine's specification, changing this option may result in a performance improvement.
• Dynamic lighting options in the Hardware Configuration window have been fixed. Changing them now actually has an effect!
• Restored the original resurrection animation from pre-R#186. Should you like to see it behaving differently, please tell us in the feedback thread!

Balancing Related Changes

• Fixed movement of drones by reverting to pre-R#186 movement values. The automagic balancing tool adjusted additional fields by mistake.
• Damage over Time (DoT) has been limited to a maximum of 10% of the total damage output of any given weapon.
• A bug causing PvE DoT corrections to be applied twice has been fixed.
• A boundary limiting the minimum DoT output for a given weapon has been removed. 
• Damage of NPC AoE weapons has been increased by a factor 2.

Further information on changes to how DoT now functions can be found below:

Removal of the lower boundary for DoT:

DoT was previously restricted by a lower boundary, preventing DoT ticks from causing less than 1.0 damage per tick. [u]This boundary existed as damage of less than 1.0 is not correctly shown to the player during combat[/u]. However, this had an unintended side-effect where some weapons - such as WoC Rifles modded for DoT - were stronger than they should have been. We have removed this lower boundary to prevent this from happening. We will revisit the damage composition of the affected weapons [url=http://forum.neocron-game.com/showthread.php?155785-Blog-Balancing-Phase-1-5-and-2]in Phase 1.5[/url].

As a side effect of this change you may notice weapons which are modified for DoT, do not show tick damage above an enemy's head while the DoT stack is in effect. Correcting issues in DoT's performance is a priority issue for us so we are delivering this change as is. The minor aesthetic glitch introduced with this change will remain present for the time being and will be tackled in one of the next patches which will introduce Balancing Phase 1.5. To confirm your weapons are working correctly, if you look closely (at the damage logs) you will see the damage is actually being applied to your target.

Limiting the maximum percentage of DoT to 10%:

We redistributed the damage dealt with weapons that cause instant damage and DoT together. The total amount of damage remains unchanged as well as the time a DoT stack lasts on the runner, the only thing changed is the damage proportion. This will ease some of the recent confusion about DoT and the Devourer problem: a significant portion of the damage is applied later than the initial hit making subsequent shots with the same weapon feel stronger than they are.

Another point to this is that many people think it is unfair to be able to die by DoT after one killed his/her opponent. However the truth is (keep in mind we tuned everything to have equal DPM on equal TL): if he would have used an instant damage weapon with the same damage-output instead, he still would have killed you! He would have killed you the moment he applied his last hit to you, instead of giving you a chance to kill him while his lethal stack ticked down on you.

TECHNICAL UPDATES & BUG FIXES

NETWORK SETTINGS

• Changed the use of USELOCALPORT in 'path/to/neocron/ini/updater.ini':
  • USELOCALPORT=0 now randomises the port on every client launch
  • USELOCALPORT=1 means using a predefined port via LOCALPORT=xxx
• The availability of port randomisation allows multiple clients to be launched (dual logging) without player intervention.

OUTPOST TURRETS

• Outpost Turrets are available for use and purchase once again.
• Outpost Turrets no longer move/slide when fired upon or damaged.
• Outpost Turrets can no longer be placed inside of each other.

NPCs

• Display of NPC dialogue when talking directly to an NPC has been revamped, this includes a new RPOS background image.
• CopBot AI has been updated to include previously deactivated and unused audio. CopBots use this audio when ending dialogues, pursuing players, killing players, and upon losing their target.
• Wandering NPCs with the PMAN AI now stop and face the player when talking or trading with them.
• Wandering NPCs with the PMAN AI now correctly greet runners.
• Wandering NPCs with the PMAN AI now only flee from players with weapons and not other NPCs such as CopBots.
• Static NPCs with the WAITER AI now correctly hide/duck to "evade" players with weapons.
• NPCs that use the WAITER and PMAN AI scripts will be introduced in future patches to increase atmosphere in the game-world.

TECHNICAL

• Client.exe now has an appropriate icon, players who use Windowed Mode will be able to more readily identify the Neocron Client
• Added New configuration options to the Hardware Configuration window. Players can now control dynamic lighting of shots, casting of shadows and more!
• Decrease in dynamic light intensity with distance from the light source has been flattened. Dynamic lights now cast light over longer distances.
• Character stats updates should now be enforced right after synchronising.
• Due to the significant re-factoring of underlying code, some particle effects (weapon shots, explosions etc) now look slightly different.
• Calculation of the effective frequency for weapons in the item information window should be fixed.
• Root cause of common "Bad World Data" bug identified and fixed server-side. Existing temporary work around has been removed.
• Server health reporting services have been added server-side to assist with monitoring of the game server.
• World host tracking has been added server-side for better identification of sectors which run into difficulty.
• Taught the login server to reconnect to the account database in case the connection is lost.

MISCELLANEOUS

• When leaving a clan Runners will keep their own sympathy rating toward the faction, instead of inheriting the Clan sympathy rating.
• Locked messages for Gene Replicators, Venture Warps, Apartment Interfaces and Vendors have been updated.
• Players are no longer kicked for being AFK with a drone in flight. You will still be kicked for being AFK if the drone becomes idle.
• Behaviour of AoE weapons has been updated to prevent abuse by LE equipped players.
• Frequency values shown in weapon info windows have been fixed.
• Instant death after zoning out of HackNet should be fixed.
• The update rate of health and damage related packages has been increased to decrease the number of players dying due to heart attacks while hunting.

BALANCE PROJECT: PHASE ONE

ALL WEAPONS

• The frequency of weapons has been fixed for each weapon. Weapon frequency is no longer based on the player's skill point setup.
• Characteristics of weapons - frequency, shot count, handling, etc. - have been left untouched unless otherwise stated.
• Aggressive damage over time effects - contamination, fire, x-ray, poison and energy stacks - have been reworked and should now work as intended.
• Damage output of all weapons is now balanced according to Tech Level.
• Weapons with the same Tech Level from the same category - pistol, rifle, etc. - should now do the same amount of damage per minute/second, this is now independent of whether they do damage over time or instantly.
• Player vs Player damage has been lowered by a factor ~2
• Damage output (both PvP & PvE) of AoE weapons has been lowered by a factor of ~2
• Compared to the damage per minute/second of Heavy Combat Weapons:
  • Drones do 10% [b]less[/b] damage.
  • Melee Weapons do 7.5% [b]more[/b] damage
  • Pistols and Rifles do 10% [b]more[/b] damage
  • APU Spells do 15% [b]more[/b] damage
• All Weapons now receive an additional damage boost of at most 2.5% based on their aiming speed
• All Weapons now receive an additional damage boost of at most 2.5% based on the number of shots in a burst
• Damage types introduced by different weapon modifications have been equalized. Modified weapons deal the same amount of damage as unmodified weapons, the modification causes damage to be divided across damage types.

PISTOL, RIFLE & HEAVY COMBAT

• Beam weapons should now work exactly as burst weapons do.
• The behaviour of bursts have been fixed.
  • Instead of a monotonous pew, pew, pew, pew... burst weapons should now do a pew, pew, pew, wait, pew, pew, etc... again
• Clip size differences between 'Rare' and 'Normal' weapons have been removed.
• Disruptor burst lowered to 3 instead of 4 shots
• Reticule closing speed of the Disruptor has been lowered
• Removed the range effect from Devourer-like, Ray of God-like and Lightbringer-like weapons
• Fixed a bug in the damage balancing for shotguns

DRONE COMBAT

• Drones deal less damage (as above) as Droners do not need to engage in combat situations physically, they only engage in combat remotely via their drones.

MELEE COMBAT

• Aiming for Melee weapons has been changed to mirror APU damage calculations, see below for details.

GENERAL PSI

• High frequency spells should now work as intended
• PSI use has been changed to operate with a new calculation, see below for details.
• A minor bug in the calculation of the casting time for spells has been fixed

PASSIVE PSI

• PSI Shields have been rebalanced
• PSI Heals have been rebalanced
• Duration of single target, sanctum and group PSI Heals has halved (60 to 30 seconds).
  • With the move of anti-shielding spells from PPU back to APU, PPUs lost a lot of their workload.
• Removed the healing effect from all applicable tiers of the following spells:
  • Anti Contamination
  • Anti Energy
  • Anti Poison
  • Anti Fire
  • Anti X-Ray
  • Holy Catharsis
• All applicable tiers of the following spells are now classed as passive by NPCs and can be used in Safe Zones:
  • AntiPoison
  • AntiFire
  • AntiEnergy
  • AntiXray
  • AntiContamination
  • AntiParalyse
  • DamageBlocker
  • Holy Catharsis
  • Holy Exorcist

AGGRESSIVE PSI

• The frequency of several single target APU spells has been increased, primarily of those which previously had a very low frequency, like e.g. the holy lightning or the fire apocalypse
• Frequency of all APU spells has been raised
• APU aiming correction has been changed, see below for details.
• All applicable tiers of the following spells have been moved back to APU from PPU:
  • Anti Deflector
  • Anti Absorber
  • Anti Protector
  • Anti Heal
  • Holy Unprotector
• Casting time of the "Holy Unprotector" has been changed to 4 seconds
• Casting time of the "Anti Protector/Absorber/Deflector/Heal" spells have been changed to:
  • 3.5 seconds for the normal version
  • 3 seconds for the blessed version
  • 2 secondsfor the holy version

HACKNET SOFTWARE

• Duration of HackNet heal effects has also been halved (60 seconds instead of 120 seconds)
• HackNet weapons/shields/heals have been balanced according to the same rules as other weapons/shields/heals

NANITES & NANTIE TOOLS

• Nanite tools have been balanced according to the same rules as their PSI counterparts.
• Nanite and psi heals on the same tl should now be en par

NPC/MOB DAMAGE

• An additional damage boost given to NPCs/Mobs based on their level has been removed. This is now achieved by the Tech Level dependence of weapons.

ADDITIONAL BALANCE CHANGE INFORMATION

AoE Weapons

All AoE weapons (psi barrels, psi multi target bolts, rocket/grenade launchers, ray gun and fusion cannons) with the exceptions of Ball Blast Spells have been altered and rebalanced in line with their Tech Level. Ball Blast Spells have been excluded for now. We did that because AoE weapons are intended to hit multiple targets at the same time. Giving them the exact same dpm output on a single target basis would just not be fair, so we halved the AoE damage, therefore assuming to hit at least to targets with AoE weapons per shot.

Aiming Speed Correction

Aiming speed is now based on a multiplicative correction calculated as follows: [i]correction = 1 + 0.025f * ((highestAimSpeed - w.AimingSpeed) / aimingSpeedDifference)[/i], where aimingSpeedDifference denotes the aiming speed difference between the weapon with the highest aiming speed and the lowest and w.AimingSpeed denotes the aiming speed of the current weapon to be balanced.

APU Aiming Correction

Previously the APU did 65% of his intended damage by default if "his aim was closed less than 65%", if it was closed further he did more damage, up to 100% if it was fully closed. This had been implemented to compensate for the fact that compared to other weapons, the APU's casts would not miss their target. We have changed this as follows: the baseline damage output of the APU is now 90% instead of 65%. Depending on how much his reticule is closed when starting the cast, this will increase to 100% if the APU's aim is fully closed.

Melee Aiming Correction

Melee damage calculation now works the same as APU damage calculation. The actual damage now depends on the closure of the player's reticule and gets multiplied by a factor: 0.90f + 0.1f * max(min(ReticuleClosure * 0.01f, 1.0f), 0.0f), where ReticuleClosure is given in percent.

PSI Usage Calculation

PSI usage is now calculated using the following formula: techlevel*15.0f / frequency

Burst Correction

is a multiplicative correction calculated as follows: correction = 1 + 0.025f * ( 1 + (w.shotCount - highestBurstCount) / burstDifference), where an analogous naming convention has been used.

State of HackNet

According to the few reports we have so far received, HackNet is rather messed up. Please tell us what is messed up so we can fix it as soon is possible. We apologize to all runners who love the HackNet and who frequently use it, we will do our best to get it sorted out as soon as possible.

Balancing Project: Phase Two

Phase two will be delivered faster than phase one. Balancing patches as well as patches in general will move to smaller sizes in the future, so we can iterate more often! This is due to the ground work we have put in place during this extended development period and time we have invested in the production of our tool set. Thank you very much for patience and all your support throughout the last few weeks and months! We really appreciate it! [B]Now get onto Titan and rock![/B] Sincerely, Your Neocron Support Team

Technical

• Fonts are now configurable, see fonts.ini inside your Neocron client's ini subfolder
• Reworked state synchronization of weapons, this should fix issues like e.g. a different number of hits registering on the server- and client-side

Faction Warzones

• This feature is to be considered an ALPHA release.
• Faction warzones are a new feature which allows whole factions to work as a team, capturing sectors of the gameworld to reap the benefits.
• Dome of York Sector 10 is now a Faction Warzone.

Rare Parts

• Un-researched Rare Parts will now stack as L, T and E parts, regardless of what part they will become once researched.
• Un-researched MC5 Parts will now stack in a single independent stack, regardless of what part they will become once researched.

Interface

• Added a legend to the sector map.

Gameplay

• Re-enabled automatic faction sympathy gain
• The reticule is now being reset after switching weapons
• After shooting you will have to wait at least 'shot-time' before being able to switch weapons
• Several errors in the calculation of the line of sight for weapons have been fixed which should improve beam weapons
• Standing up from a chair now correctly holsters the weapon

Game World

• Several sector names have been adjusted to bring them into line with existing standards and changes to Faction Names.

Plaza District

• Name corrected for 'Plaza / Mainstreet' apartment complex in Plaza Sector 1.
• Name corrected for 'Plaza / Center' apartment complex in Plaza Sector 1.
• Name corrected for 'Plaza / Comfy Cubicle' apartment complex in Plaza Sector 2.
• Nexus Tower sign post typo corrected in Plaza Sector 2.

Pepper Park District

• The 'Black Dragon' apartment complex has been renamed to 'Trancium Block' in Pepper Park Sector 3.
• New Black Dragon Runners now start with the correct, smaller, Pepper Park apartment.
• New Tsunami Syndicate Runners now start with the correct, smaller, Pepper Park apartment.
• CopBots have been removed from the Pepper Park Subway Station.
• Hogan Dunfield has moved to an alternative location in Pepper Park Sector 3.
• Recreation Units in Pepper Park Clan Apartments now function correctly

Outzone District

• New Brotherhood of Crahn Runners now start their lives in the Outzone.
• New Brotherhood of Crahn Clans will now find their apartments in the Outzone.
• Beds in Outzone Starter Apartments now function as Recreation Units providing a healing facility for new Brotherhood of Crahn Runners

Canyon Facility

• New Twilight Guardian Runners now start their lives in the Canyon Facility.
• Canyon Apartment areas have been renamed to the Montag and Rodriguez Barracks, in memory of the late Nicole 'Chenoa' Montag.
• Canyon apartment access interfaces/locations have been renamed accordingly.
• Twilight Guardian have now secured supply routes to provide low to medium level equipment from rebel operated supply depots within the Canyon Facility.
• Construction work in the Canyon Facility has reopened several sealed caves creating levelling locations for low level Runners.
• Canyon Facility Caves have been renamed to Canyon Caves Lvl 1, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 12 to reflect new mob load outs.
• Mob selection, distribution and density have been modified for the Canyon Facility Caves.
• Canyon Facility's look and feel has received an overhaul.
• A Wasteland Trader/Junk Dealer (All Buyer) has moved into the Facility with his traveling companion. He can be found at Yager's Inn to purchase all unwanted items.

Tech Haven

• Tech Haven apartment access interfaces have been renamed from 'TechTown' to 'Tech Haven'.

Area MC5 (Tutorial Zone)'

• Bright n Clean' personnel have been moved to prevent issues with their spawn location.
• The Nomad Trader camp has been moved to prevent issues with their spawn location.

Juggernaut Facility

• Static Warbots in the Juggernaut Facility are no longer inside out.

Wasteland Sector E 12 (Canyon)

• A pod of Arachnid Mutants have moved into the sector.
• Moved most high level monsters off of roads. It is possible for these mobs to spawn in these locations but not as often.
• Increased the number of low/mid/high level monsters in the sector.
• High level monsters no longer spawn inside one another or on cliff faces.
• Improved the placement of numerous static actors in the sector.
• Spawn locations for all monsters have been adjusted.
• More monsters now spawn in more locations (alone and in groups) within the zone. Runners who frequent this zone should take care until they familiarise themselves with the new mob load out.

Wasteland Sector E 13 (Canyon)

• Moved most high level monsters off of roads. It is possible for these mobs to spawn in these locations but not as often.
• High level monsters no longer spawn inside one another or on cliff faces.
• Added additional Twilight Guardian presence to the sector. Enemy runners will be shot on approach.
• Added a mutant camp to assist with levelling low-mid level runners.
• Added a cloister of Reaper Spiders to assist with levelling mid-level runners (Canyon Facility's equivalent of MB Bunker).
• Improved the placement of numerous static actors in the sector.
• Spawn locations for all monsters have been adjusted. More monsters now spawn in more locations (alone and in groups) within the zone. Runners who frequent this zone should take care until they familiarise themselves with the new mob load out.

Wasteland Sector F 12 (Canyon)

• Increased the number of low/mid/high level monsters in the sector.
• Moved most high level monsters off of roads. It is possible for these mobs to spawn in these locations but not as often.
• High level monsters no longer spawn inside one another or on cliff faces.
• Improved the placement of numerous static actors in the sector.
• Added a Twilight Guardian presence to the sector. Enemy runners will be shot on approach.
• Spawn locations for all monsters have been adjusted. More monsters now spawn in more locations (alone and in groups) within the zone. Runners who frequent this zone should take care until they familiarise themselves with the new mob load out.

Wasteland Sector G 13 (Canyon)

• Increased the number of low/mid/high level monsters in the sector.
• Moved most high level monsters off of roads. It is possible for these mobs to spawn in these locations but not as often.
• High level monsters no longer spawn inside one another or on cliff faces.
• Improved the placement of numerous static actors in the sector.Added a Twilight Guardian presence to the sector. Enemy runners will be shot on approach.
• Spawn locations for all monsters have been adjusted. More monsters now spawn in more locations (alone and in groups) within the zone. Runners who frequent this zone should take care until they familiarise themselves with the new mob load out.

Missions (NPC Driven)

• Mutant Giant Veskulus has been removed from the unused Crystal Cave 1, to prevent interference with the Brotherhood of Crahn Epic Mission.
• Dragon's Wrath guards no longer spawn in the Outzone Sector 1 part of the quest "Reza's Calling".
• Further tweaks have been made to the Mission "Reza's Calling", bringing the German and French versions up to date.
• Issues with the Twilight Guardian Epic have been fixed.
• Issues with the NeXT Epic have been fixed.
• The Tiki Quest has been updated.

Missions (CityCom)

• A number of visual tweaks have been made to the Mission Selection section of the CityCom. Some cosmetic changes have been made in advance of further changes in a future patch.
• It is no longer possible to search for Trader Union or Anarchy Breed missions.
• The Mission system now downloads 6 missions per page, twice the previous amount. This change should ease the frustration of finding suitable missions. Changes in a future patch will further improve this process.
• Twilight Guardian VERY EASY and EASY CityCom Missions have been adjusted to reflect new mob availability in the Canyon Facility Caves.

Faction Names

• To improve faction naming continuity, some changes have been made:
• CityAdmin becomes City Administration
• BioTech become BioTech Systems
• N.E.X.T becomes NExT
• CityMercs becomes City Mercs
• The Crahn Sect becomes Brotherhood of Crahn
• The Fallen Angels becomes Fallen Angels

Miscellaneous

• 'Apartment Access Code If' objects have been renamed to 'Apartment Access Interface'.
• 'Blessed Absorber Sanctum' now has the correct description.
• Mutant bedding in underground labs is less obstructive.
• Reassigned the Terror Leaper to a more suitable group of monsters.
• Increased the spawn chance of the Terror Leaper
• Terror Leapers now drop suitable loot. Rare Parts have the same drop rate as found on Warbots.
• All varieties of Cave Crawler are now physically smaller.
• Removed the "jumping" when applying passive effects to players. Meaning: no more falling down mountains while being buffed
• Several fixes have been made in the Dialogue of Master Hunters.
• Added appropriate dialogue to replace place holder 'Damn! Locked!' messages related to SL changes.
• Fixed a bug which caused players to hold weapons in the wrong pose.
• Character Creation now correctly lists 'Canyon Facility' as the starting location of Twilight Guardian.
• Character Creation now correctly lists 'Outzone' as the starting location of Brotherhood of Crahn.

Hotfix R185

• Fixed server stability issues encountered throughout the last days
• Fixed missing textures
• Lowered hack difficulty of faction warzone terminals to the same level as outposts

Soul Light System

• Access to the Gene Replication Network now requires Runners to have -31 Soul Light or higher.
• Access to the Venture Warp Network now requires Runners to have -31 Soul Light or higher.
• Access to vendors in safe zones requires Runners to have -31 Soul Light or higher.
• Access to Apartment Access Interfaces in safe zones requires Runners to have -31 Soul Light or higher.
• Automatic Soul Light regeneration has been disabled.

Weapon Balance

• Damage output of the TL115 Disruptor lowered by 25% to compensate for aggressive burst bonus.
• Damage output of the TL113 Ceres Assault Rifle CAR-47 and the TL108 Infiltration Assault Rifle IAR-47 lowered by 20% to compensate for aggressive burst bonus.
• Speed malus when equipping a heavy weapon has been reduced from 20% to 10%.
• Switching weapons while reloading has been disabled.

New Features

• New hit box colouring has been added to more easily identify clan mates. (Customise BBClanMate in rposcolor.ini)
• Gamemasters are now able to set zones to safezones while the server is running.
• Gamemasters are now able to set zones to automatically log out players after a certain time of idling.
• Gamemasters are now able to set zones to spawn players at the reset point after logging out.

LAW ENFORCER

• City Administration have re-enabled the Law Enforcer tax in order to raise funds to increase the security of the Inner City (cash gain reduction). Due to the extra computational strain on the Law Enforcer, Runners may experience a sensation of light headedness while engaging in mentally stimulating activities (XP reduction)
  
  
• A malus has been activated reducing the amount of experience and money earned by players with a Law Enforcer.
• A reduction in earned experience becomes active once a runner reaches a base rank of /30, beyond this level the reduction increases to a maximum of 25% at a base rank of /60 and above.
• A reduction in earned cash becomes active once a Runner reaches a combat rank of 30/, beyond this level the reduction increases to 50% at a combat rank of 60 and above

GAMEWORLD

• ALL SECTORS
  
  • Snow has been removed from all weather patterns. Missing weather patterns, such as thunder storms, have been restored.
• PLAZA DISTRICT
  
  • Additional CopBots have been stationed at zone lines and in other important locations in Plaza Sector 1, 2, 3 & 4
  • A STORMbot is now on duty in Plaza 3 at the zone line to Pepper Park.
  • City Administration guards are stationed outside of City Administration HQ. Enemy runners will be shot on sight.
  • Windows in Archer & Wesson in Plaza Sector 2 are now solid.
  • Preventative measures have been installed to prevent CopBots falling into the pool in Plaza Sector 2.
• PEPPER PARK DISTRICT
  
  • CopBots have been removed from Pepper Park Sectors 1, 2 & 3. At the request of NExT, CopBots in the Subway entrances will stay at their posts a little while longer.
  • Apartment smuggler's position has been fixed.
• OUTZONE DISTRICT
  
  • Duplicate epic NPCs have been removed from Outzone Sector 8.
  • Position of some NPCs have been improved/fixed in Outzone Sector 8.

MISC CHANGES

• New replacement sound effects have been added for Laser Cannons, Plasma Cannons, Ionic Rifles and Apartment Access Interfaces.
• A new RPOS color scheme is available with /set gfx_hudcolor 10
• Further additional changes were made to assist with the implementation of new features in the future.

Technical

• Fixed several exploits
• Used an approach similar to splines to smooth interpolation
• Several further tweaks to the interpolation
• Fixed rubberband bug
• Fixed hacknet mobs not dealing damage
• Fixed parsing of default options for several NPCs
• Fixed a buffer overflow when updating world actors
• Raised Neocron's bandwidth limitations
• Fixed several reasons for invisible damage
• Fixed an error which lead to items dropping from the trade window back into the player's inventory
• Music should now play independent of the windows compatibility mode setting
• The damage of beam weapons should now be calculated correctly
• Fixed beams not showing on several weapons

Gameplay

• Added the techlevel of the item to construct to blueprints
• Law enforced players are now buffable by non law enforced players, but not vice versa!
• The existing speed cap has been adjusted so speed tapers off more dramatically at higher livels of agility and athletics. Players with extreme speed setups will see a reduction of speed.

Technical

• Reworked netcode (see known issues)
• Window mode now supports very high resolutions as well (numbers must be multiples of two)
• Fixed a number of exploits and critical security issues
• Fixed a number of bad world data causes
• Fixed an issue with the loginserver
• Fixed a number of gameserver crashes
• Fixed incorrect team money distribution
• Team money distribution is now calculated at once instead of receiving all money first, then paying a share to teammates
• Fixed a bug that caused NPCs to retreat from combat
• NPCs now use a line of sight for targeting that is comparable to that of player characters
• Fixed drones not launching in a number of situations
• Reduced wait time between drone launches, in case a launch failed
• Appartment passwords may now contain the ' char
• Account passwords may now contain the chars . and #
• Slightly tweaked/increased overall performance

Content

• High level Plasma Pistols can now be obtained from the Canyon Smuggler.
• Misc. smaller fixes

Known Issues

• Netcode/Clipping: The reworked netcode is much more accurate than any previous version. While this is great in many ways and will reward good movement in PvP, it also introduces a problem: With player movement not being the soft pulp it used to be, the uncapped Evol 2.2 runspeeds can now make it very difficult to keep lock on your target. We feel that it may be benefitial for PvP to tone down ultra fast runspeeds even before we get to the greater balancing. Of course, we appreciate constructive feedback regarding the matter and will continue to observe how things pan out on retail.
• Server stability: The patch introduced a number of new issues of which we have contained many, but not all. Naturally, a fix for the known issues will be provided at the soonest possibility.

Patch R177

Technical

• Fixed a number of exploits
• Fixed a number of server and client crashes
• Fixed a bug that could lead to damaged chardata
• Interpolation (clipping) fix redone from the ground up
• Fixed an issue preventing players from activating Gene Replicators inside appartments
• Fixed the combat rank of droners being lower than expected in certain cases
• Fixed the CR being too low when changing zones inside a vehicle
• Fixed the respawn behaviour of several container types (containers spawning quest items, e.g. Grim's ID cube, as well as hacknet code fragments)
• Fixed the buy/sell window covertly resetting the amount to a value of 1 when clicking buy/sell. Now it properly retains the previous value
• Fixed item count not corresponding with the entered amount when moving stacks of items

Gameplay

• Fixed drone AoE damage, LEd droners now damage themselves as well as their drones
• Fixed CR being too high inside hacknet

Missions

• Fixed Fallen Angels CityCom missions

Game World

• Outzone Sewer Sec-1 now uses the correct world
• Added Outzone and Pepper Park apartment key smuggler to Pepper Park Sec-1
• Black Dragon contacts have been sighted outside of the Pussy Club
• Fixed a number of gameworld bugs and missing objects in Via Rosso Sectors 1, 2 and 3.
• Fixed a number of gameworld bugs and missing objects in Pepper Park Sectors 1, 2 and 3 including the Crahn Church
• The Snack-A-Tack shop in Pepper Park Sec-3 went out of business
• Removed OOC advertisment in Pepper Park Sec-1 and Via Rosso Sec-2
• New vendors have moved into Battle Dome
• Arrested the thief of the sign post in the newbie Area MC5 and returned the sign safely to its home
• Overhaul of H14 and the H14 Command Unit
• Replanted several trees in J 04
• Fixed several floating objects in H 15 and fixed the hole in the fence near MC5

Miscellaneous

• Female vendors now have the correct skin
• Significantly increased rare part drop chances for Warbots and a number of related techmobs.
• Fixed GenRep costs for Crahn, Black Dragon, Tsunami Syndicate, Fallen Angels and Twilight Guardian HQs to reflect their post-DoY locations.

Hotfix R178

• Fixed several server side crashes
• Fixed a problem with the patcher
• TL92 Pulselaser Pistol is back in stock
• Staff Sergeant Van Dyk has moved
• Turrets in Tech Haven's Energy Core 2 now return fire

Known Issues

• Sometimes after zoning the screen becomes grey/blue/etc, to fix it press alt+e twice
• Wildcard search inside citycom still not reenabled

Patch R175

Technical

• Dropped support for DirectX 7
• Changed FoV angle, therefore players seem to move slower
• Fixed numerous exploits and vulnerabilities
• Fixed several possible server crashes
• Fixed a bug that stopped Neocron from launching when certain applications are open ("Chrome Bug")
• Fixed a crash on alt+tab in wastelands in full screen mode
• Fixed the main menu going black on alt+tab in full screen mode
• Fixed a crash caused by neocron.ini not being writable
• Changed the way interpolation is handled ("clipping fix")
• Tweaked the net code to always include y updates and update more frequently
• Fixed a bug that caused the HUD not being rendered on screenshots
• Screenshots are now saved as .jpg
• Fixed a bug that caused the HUD to reset to default state after a crash
• Removed legacy elements from the HUD (e.g.: recover backpack)
• Fixed misalignment of world map at widescreen resolutions (full screen mode)
• Fixed culling problems with widescreen resolutions (full screen mode)
• Fixed misaligned outpost signs
• Added widescreen resolutions to the launcher configuration panel
• Added Anisotropic Filtering, configurable via the launcher configuration panel
• Fixed truncation of entries inside error.log
• Added timestamps to the damage log

Gameplay

• Fixed an issue with team XP calculation
• Fixed combat rank not always being updated
• Fixed a bug that allowed overcasting of stronger shields.
• Fixed low level drones being very hard to use
• Reduced the intensity of visual interference when Drones are being damaged
• Fixed several issues and exploits concerning casting
• Changed the way combat ranks are being calculated
• Fixed AI not being able to target drones in special cases
• Fixed a reloading bug

Missions

• Fixed drop rate of fragment from Tacholytium Titan Warbot for Crahn Epic mission #4. Now always drops for those with the mission.
• Fixed spawn of Malfunctioning Warbot Prototype in the MIRL-600 Warhammer Mission
• Fixed spawn of Heff in TG Canyon.
• Fixed a conflict between Reza's Calling & Regant's Faith Missions

Game World

• Turned around the CopBot staring at the wall in Plaza Sector 1 (after 8 years, the wall wins)
• Added permanent spawn for the Outzone Sector 2 High Tech Cannon Smuggler
• Added permanent entrance to the Drone Racetrack in Tech Haven Sector 2
• Fixed position and alignment for a large number of static objects and NPCs
• Fixed a large number of wrong object types (e.g.: CityComs being tagged as chairs)
• Fixed many more miscellaneous game world issues
• Removed OOC advertisement from the Plaza area
• Replaced Outzone Station ambient sound
• Added RN Terminals to Crahn HQ

Miscellaneous

• Temporarily removed outpost turrets
• Added TL63 Gatlin Cannon to high level low tech cannon vendor
• Added a new loading screen
• Fixed Venture Warp returning players to apartment

Hotfix Patch R176

Technical

• Implemented a fallback inside the D3D9 driver, older cards should work again
• Enlarged horizontal field of view to 110 degrees
• Fixed several possible reasons for server crashes
• Fixed issues with the netcode causing packet loss

Gameplay

• Fixed issues with terminal missions in several HQs

Known Issues

• Entering wildcards in the player search does not work anymore
• Sometimes after zoning the screen becomes grey/blue/etc, to fix it press alt+e twice