[LIVE] Publish 60 - Age of the Infested - Teaser/Patchnotes (main post updated)

[GM NollKoll]

Ok, patch is rolling in as i speak.. *holds thumbs* *increased heartrate*
a few things i can tell..

-Alot of things will be a secret about this patch.. atleast a main deal of it.
But i will "host" a Q&A tomorrow saturday, answering SOME questions about it, not all ofcourse =P

-I hope my testers will "relax" a bit in the beginning, let all the other players try figure it out themself.

-In the time i waited for king kong to wake up, i managed to finish the superdye room, with walls and stuff like that which is needed for players that might run amock in GA ^^.. Should be in public gate --> donation,
will add a vendor shortly after patch. Prio is on the new area.

-The newbie dungeon tokens and vendorstones will take a few days to setup properly, so hang in there.

I added a quicklink for the orc invasion event journals below:
http://www.pandorauo.com/community/index.php/topic,11296.msg31903.html#msg31903









**********not so old post, but older then above********

Ok, released the name of the patch, and had a lil test with Des, Flint & Meph.
I wont give out much more about it, and hopefully neither will they!
Trying to push the deadline to july31 or before. Since King kong will have his dad visiting him on July 1st, so he might be a tad more busy then normal.. but things are looking pretty good!
Apart from the main content of the patch, ive done some bug finding and fixing, the amount of bug fixes done by both me and Vorspire.. well.. I havnt written them down, atleast not all of them.. (so many!)
And some ive tried, but failed, like shovels into toolbox, but might come later!
(The patch focus mostly on PvM, but opens up PvP in certain ways)

And the general thought from those 3 testies, (not in exact words, since i did not screenshot it, but they are welcome to explain furthur)
Des: Claimed that he wassnt into PvM in general, but loved it. (Probably saw the PvP potentionals in some of the areas of this patch)
Flint: Thought it was awesome
Mephala: Liked it alot, but needed some time to let it all sink in, since he/she was a traditional uo gamer.


(Those who remembers my Orc Dungeon invasion, and the very few that actually cared for the lore, yes this is from that event!, but..  more.. awesome :3.. feel free to pm me theories/what you think it will be about in forums/ingame, since i find it amusing =P )




***************old post****************

Ok, been writing on something really nice here. Thought i'd give everyone a teaser (not a spoiler)
And some other fixes/changes aswell!

The main and big deal:
I can't say more then, it will be a big game changer!
Alot of end-game and mid-game content, in a interactive and innovative way.
So those at top of the food chain, with little to nothing to do, you will look forward to this!
For those that noticed that i jumped straight to Publish 60, well.. This is how awesome it will be, it's so awesome it will just skip numbers! Just like WW5
As i mentioned, i wont describe much now, and not much after release. You will have to find out yourself!


Other changes/fixes done so far, that will be included in this patch:

-The Chaos elemental damage deeds will now retain the chaos damage, this patch plus some ingame commands will fix all the remaining deeds ingame permanently!

-Adding Newbie tokens, bear with me on this new token idea! They can only be gathered in the newbie dungeon, which will benifit new players, and easier transcendence into mid-gameplay. With those newbie tokens, new players can purchase gold checks, skill books, and better armor et.c. (Bringing back the glass city armors, which will be imbuable now!, infact, in this patch, all the glass city equipment will be imbuable)
So the newbie dungeon will be THE place to go, for a new player! (I made some tests with a random fully equipped player, a good player has no benifit on going there and getting those gold checks. It will be a steady income for a new player, not an experienced one!)

-Elemental crystals will now have a guaranteed drop, depending on the creatures max hits, but also a cap on how much crystals can be dropped. (meaning that a mob with over X thousands hp, will have a crystal drop for sure!)

-Combat threat will have a larger role now!

-Rough stones have a slight larger chance of being mined up, but just slight! And hopefully you can mine normal granite now with this patch. (confirmed, you can now mine regular granite.. took a while to figure it out.. Added a slight increase in chance of digging up all stones overall. (just to be kind ^^)

- Low-End runic tools wont give minus propertys now!

-The Weapon "Maul" will have proper weapon abilties, as according to OSI

-Reduced "bad streak of luck" in Doom Gauntlet (Note: This is not a artifact increase chance, just the bad streaks will be shortened!)

-Tracking can be gained up to 120%
edit7: along with hiding and tracking (i hope)

-Universal repair deed - Unsure where which npc or stone should sell it, but its for gold. Act as a small goldsink, repairs one single item, anywhere, anytime. Clothing, armor, weapon n shields! 25-50k as price, if you want it lower, or even higher, tell me!

-Glassblowing weapons will req. alot less sand!

-Vampiric Embrace will now use same mana to cast as according to osi!

-Some friggin awesome help from Vorspire, regarding all that super advanced magic i cannot even grasp, memory leaks, crashes, added a few SA attributes to the working state (which i will introduce in new equipments in this patch). And helped me with something that is still a secret to reveal, but was a major pain in...But yea, about that massive help, if something was bugged before, its probably fixed lol.. so yea, a friggin big apploud and thanks to Vorspire!.
(I know this is just a few meanings about it, but i cannot go trough all his scripts, its so massive.. so this explanation is pure concentrated awesomeness!
****************************************************************
-Superdyes
Can proudly say, that i got a really nice color system going! Will be avaiable after patch, need some time to fix the area etc. But to explain the system, there will be an "empty super dye" item, which can be bought for p-bucks. They come in different varietys, 1,3 and 10 charges. costs 9,8 and 7 bucks per charge. These will litteraly dye any item in your backpack! OOOR.. On your person.. So that includes your backpack!

Ofc, there are a few rules, no dying of gold, pbucks, tokens etc or rubys (dont wanna scam players with fake white rubys as pandora bucks) and ofc. no dyetubs or tots =P... And the next exception is more awesomeness. There is a limit on the stack you can dye.. maximum of 20 items in a stack! (Those who want to build flags, deco etc, great option!, as i said.. will dye any item!)

Ok, i made you tempted so far.. Well.. Lets say that almost all 3000 hues are avalaible!.. Some players i have brought to the hue couldrons of Green Acres, well, thats where you will get the hues! (Some hues will be removed since they are A) glitchy matrixy, sorry lads! or B) Black/unused by osi so far.

How it works?
Well you purchase a dye, d-click it and target a hue couldron. Then dye any item you want. Bought a 10 charge and feeling you want another hue? Dont worry, just target the dye itself and it will reset!

But how will that hue fit me ?.. Well.. just double click a hue couldron and you will get the same effect as in tokuno pigment library! You will be colored from top to bottom, including your mount (if your riding it) in that hue for 6 seconds!

edit7: This includes shrunk pets, ethys.. And crylana also pointed out she wanted to dye boats.. well.. i tried with a small boat, dyed the deed and viola.. you got yourself a colored boat!
****************************************************

Also been working ALOT on new properties, sadly i got only one of the main 3 i wanted working flawlessly!

-Ranged Parry Bonus (Kinda self explanatory, but.. a shield with 100% ranged parry bonus, will result in you parrying ranged attacks twice as often!. IE. if you got 30% chance to parry a blow, you will have 60% vs ranged. Will mainly be on shields with alot of int. requirements, ie for mages. [Working]

-Calm Mind (Aint working alas, might get it working for patch, or after patch.. who knows.. But feel like i want to explain. Its a percentage property, but no chances. if you got 5% Calm Mind property, and your current intelligence is 400, you wont get your spells disturbed if you take 20 or less damage. ((CalmMind*Your Int)/100)

-Resonance, yes this is a SA property, but its a hell to get working (feels like if i get any of these last 2 working, i get the other working aswell)

-Along with some other SA properties thats been hidden under the rug, or semi broken... These properties have eaten alot of my time, and yes, i easily hoovering away from my main goal to make my main goal even more awesome.. Well.. Hope youll enjoy it nonetheless ^^




Other changes that i might include if  time allows, and works scripts-wise.

-Spell Penetration, move into Beta phase (Remove extra spell dmg from weapons from High Int. players, but add special effects to buffs, debuffs and spells!

-Tried getting a "pro" version of interior decorating working, still some flaws i can't allow ingame atm!
(Basicly it can allow players to move an item sideways, but as its working now, it can move an item outside of your house, and it gets "stuck" there. Im going to see if i can make a fix for it!)

Ofcourse there might be other fixes/changes.

And to summarize it, The main big deal focus on End game content, but some mid game. The Newbie tokens focus on early-on-content. So its an overall nice patch in my view ^^


edit: The ETA will hopefully be in a few weeks from now, this add-on is something i find really awesome, so scripting it is something i really want done! But do mind i got a really hectic rl. But i shall try squeesh in as much scripting time as possible!

edit2: forgot about this one, if time allows as always, a super repair deed. Craftable, and will repair any equipment, anywhere.. As a small small gold sink


edit3:added regular granite fix.

edit4: universal repair deed added to list, aswell as change of mana usage on vampiric embrace (to osi original) and crafting cost of glass equipments (not as osi, but much much much lower)

edit5: added more info, mostly regarding the amazing work from Vorspire

edit6: added info about superdyes, and properties

edit7: see above, about skillgains and superdye clarifcation

[Des Sanct]

Well done. Looking forward to it. Now if we could put some pvp tweaks into the future, to make it more enjoyable and more enticing for others. Right now, the battles and dailypvp are basically dead. Field pvp is non existant. Pvp coins don't get much attention, due to the rewards. The old system in [pvpstats  would be an entertaining thought. Different levels to gain bonuses? Would encourage people to get involved so they could receive something that cannot be bought through in game currency or donations. Just some thoughts....I know you are busy. I'm not expecting an overnight miracle. I am very thankful for the level of interest put into updated content. Thanks! -Des

[SapoJax]

Any word on bringing back Mystic Arc for boomerang?

I know it was removed because it kept making the boomerangs disappear, and I took a small break and when I came back they had disabled the ability.

As for the elemental deeds, will they work as we thought they would? For example if I have a weapon that already has 50 % fire become 100 fire if i use another 50% deed. Cuz I was quite bummed at the effect one had where it reverted a weap to physical damage.

However this update sounds like it will be great.

[GM NollKoll]

Any word on bringing back Mystic Arc for boomerang?

I know it was removed because it kept making the boomerangs disappear, and I took a small break and when I came back they had disabled the ability.

As for the elemental deeds, will they work as we thought they would? For example if I have a weapon that already has 50 % fire become 100 fire if i use another 50% deed. Cuz I was quite bummed at the effect one had where it reverted a weap to physical damage.

However this update sounds like it will be great.

The damage is not additive! You might have purchased a chaos deed that was faulty. *will be getting to you ingame after i write this!*
If you want a 100% fire weapon, you need to use a 100% fire elemental deed.

[zaxarus]

This sounds very interesting...^^

*putting in a random and generalizing phrase to show my interest and excitement for no other phrase could phrase it in a better way*

[The Winter]

-Spell Penetration, move into Beta phase (Remove extra spell dmg from weapons from High Int. players, but add special effects to buffs, debuffs and spells!

The only thing giving "mages" a chance was the spell penetration procs on weapons by spiking INT and giving up dex and str.

If this change is made, PLEASE consider focus casting and freedom of movement while casting. At least freedom of movement..I can live with having to use the Protection spell and will take the FC penalty if I can move while casting.

I dont think that's asking for alot seeing that a HUGE advantage of spiking INT is about to be removed.

[GM NollKoll]

-Spell Penetration, move into Beta phase (Remove extra spell dmg from weapons from High Int. players, but add special effects to buffs, debuffs and spells!

The only thing giving "mages" a chance was the spell penetration procs on weapons by spiking INT and giving up dex and str.

If this change is made, PLEASE consider focus casting and freedom of movement while casting. At least freedom of movement..I can live with having to use the Protection spell and will take the FC penalty if I can move while casting.

I dont think that's asking for alot seeing that a HUGE advantage of spiking INT is about to be removed.

You have learned one way of being a mage hybrid, and stuck on sticking to it. I have told you, focus casting will be ingame later on, perhaps on my big patch.  and "at least freedom of movement", please, that would make it really unbalanced. And you have no idea what i will do with the buffs/debuffs... they might get their power from debuffs and cunning combos?


on another note, might have frozen the server.. totally the wrong command.. have notified kon about it *sigh* sorry

[The Winter]

I think the end game plans for vet players is AWESOME! Great way to keep people interested.

[GM NollKoll]

I think the end game plans for vet players is AWESOME! Great way to keep people interested.

You have no idea what those plans are =P everything is just a teaser atm! But i think the whole plan, might be revelead by players.. doing the maths, checking their history etc

[The Winter]

-Spell Penetration, move into Beta phase (Remove extra spell dmg from weapons from High Int. players, but add special effects to buffs, debuffs and spells!

The only thing giving "mages" a chance was the spell penetration procs on weapons by spiking INT and giving up dex and str.

If this change is made, PLEASE consider focus casting and freedom of movement while casting. At least freedom of movement..I can live with having to use the Protection spell and will take the FC penalty if I can move while casting.

I dont think that's asking for alot seeing that a HUGE advantage of spiking INT is about to be removed.

You have learned one way of being a mage hybrid, and stuck on sticking to it. I have told you, focus casting will be ingame later on, perhaps on my big patch.  and "at least freedom of movement", please, that would make it really unbalanced. And you have no idea what i will do with the buffs/debuffs... they might get their power from debuffs and cunning combos?


on another note, might have frozen the server.. totally the wrong command.. have notified kon about it *sigh* sorry

Yes, I did learn one way of being a mage hybrid and was still fighting an uphill battle, but it was fun  It was the one thing that made being a "mage" bearable, even though I was still only a dexxer with high INT.

Which comes back to my point...to be able to be a PURE mage, something will need to be done regarding focus casting and movement. Dexxers and can move about freely with 2 sec bandies and dish out huge amounts of damage.

I'm only asking that mages be given the freedom to move about freely...we'll still have 5.65 sec bandies and have to rely on casting times of spells. The advantage will still be in the dexxer's favor, but at least playing a mage and casting will be fun as we wont have to simply stand in one spot all the time.

Wait, I've already made a perfectly logical argument for this. I'll shutup and just convert back to a dexxer 

[The Winter]

I think the end game plans for vet players is AWESOME! Great way to keep people interested.

You have no idea what those plans are =P everything is just a teaser atm! But i think the whole plan, might be revelead by players.. doing the maths, checking their history etc

True. I should have said it differently.

The IDEA of doing something to keep vets from being bored and giving more endgame content in awesome.

[Keeblerboy]

Looking forward to the new content. Keep us posted Noll and thx.

[King Kong]

Nollkoll wanted me to post on record that I liked his idea instantly... Which I did and that's a rare thing... You know the bad wolf King Kong likes to challenge things. Nice work NollKoll.



Maybe I should change my name from King Kon to King Kong.

[Miki McNaughty]

So looking forward to Publish 60! On a side note, a small reminder about the inability to chop any trophy deco, animal, monster or fishing and return to deed. Maybe for a future publish. Again, thank you for all you do and for keeping Pandora fun.

[GM NollKoll]

I like it that Noone cared that I jumped a few publish numbers.. Well.. I guess....is that..... I HAVE SPOKEN...

Edit: if I find the cause, I'll try fix it aswell. Trying to sort out some bug fixes aswell