Auto Assault: In Testing

In Testing - Fixes/Updates being tested by Quality Assurance for an upcoming patch - Updated 3/28/06:

• Bound items can't be memorized.
  [li]Crafted items now have the crafter's name on them.
  [li]Items crafted by other people cannot be reverse engineered or memorized.
  [li]Items crafted from memory cannot be memorized again, but can be reverse engineeered and experimented on.
  [li]Stores can now specifically sell ornaments.
  [li]Chassis keys now take up a 2x2 space in inventory.
  [li]Limits to number of disciplines someone can learn are now based on disicpline tier, not player level.
  [li]A trade cannot be accepted if the items do not fit in recipient's inventory.
  [li]You are no longer able to access inventory while in an arena. There will be a window covering it up, with a small statement on it. You will be unable to unequip equipment you already had on you.
  [li]If you're starting a new character, you'll notice an abundance of new "First-Time Hints" that should help you with the features of the game. If you never turned them off with your current characters, you may find a couple of new ones here and there as well.
  [li]Inventory changed to maximum of 4 slots in cargo and locker - any additional inventory will be compensated to character in the form of sell value credits.
  [li]There is a new button on the inventory window which will combine all stacks in your inventory for you! It will combine them all into one of the existing stacks, so you may wish to use one of the sort buttons afterward.
  [li]The skills window has undergone a makeover and should explain a little bit more about its layout. The Faction/Skills tabs have been moved inside the window instead of underneath since they are really two parts of the same window.
  [li]Outposts/Obelisks now have their own specific Minimap icons. They also don't have the "off the map" arrow icons since there are so many that it just became a perpetual jumble.
  [li]QuickBar skills will turn red if you are unable to use them for any specific reason (out of range, invalid target, too many summons, etc.).
  [li]If you are in a convoy, it adds the word "Convoy" to the text "Killing Spree!" to help communicate that killing sprees are shared across all convoy members.
  [li]Human Commando skills have all been updated with improved descriptions which should make them much easier to understand.
  [li]A number of vendor balancing passes have been made.
  [li]A number of missions have been fixed to properly display in the mission journal.
  [li]Enhancement and Gadget bonuses related to refire rate, bonus damage, bonus armor, bonus resistance, extended range and tac arc were marginally decreased for balance reasons.
  [li]Fixed issue with enhancements on gadgets changing level requirement.
  [li]Fixed an issue with critial hit being calculated incorrectly.

• General
  • Fixing bugs.
    [li]Improving game performance.
    [li]Particle limiter for lower end machines.
    [li]Veteran rewards - more news on this soon.
    [li]Add over 850 new chassis variants of existing vehicles.
    [li]Make all oil droppers work as expected - causing vehicles to spin out if they drive through them and try to turn.
    [li]Remove the class restrictions on all Medium weapons, making more weapons available to more players.
    [li]Formulate a new loot generator variance %, which will decrease the overall variance of player weapons from their base, resulting in more level appropriate weapons.
• UI
  • Improve clan and convoy UI.
    [li]Skill descriptions to make skills easier to understand.
    [li]AI vehicle tuning and better creature movement.
    [li]AI vehicles as drivable mission rewards.
    [li]Improve vehicle physics and drivability, including motorcycles and tanks.
    [li]Improve collision with ragdolls.
    [li]Loot link.
    [li]Language filter for text and names (player, vehicle, clan).
    [li]UI visual touchups.
    [li]Interface sounds.
    [li]Showing "live" skill data on active skill rollovers, for example number of charges left.
    [li]Obelisk/Outpost icons in Ground Zero.
• Balancing/Skills
  [ul]
  [li]Balance work on classes, skills, XP, rewards, economy, and stores.
  [li]Balanced reinforcement (pets) and damage skills to be consistent across race/classes.
  [li]Complete balance pass on skill costs, ranks, ranges, power consumption, and several other factors.
  [li]Add new defense and repair skills to make support classes more valuable in groups and PvP.
  [li]Increase and adjust loot drops across all races and all regions to be consistent and balanced.
  [li]Balance the overall mission XP payout across Race and Region.
  [li]Balance the overall mission Clink payout across Race and Region.
  [li]Balance the overall Experience Point requirements per level based on level, mission XP payout, race, and leveling philosophy.

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[li]Crafting
[ul]
[li]There will be an auction house (after release) making things easier.
[li]Continuing to balance the drop rates on salvaged commodities towards the goal of making crafting challenging, but not impossible to get through.
[li]Drops are also being balanced to increase the amount of player interaction through trade.
[li]Comparing and adjusting the amount of destructible objects of each commodity group type between the races for balance, and bringing the object counts into parity by changing assignments for areas of inconsistency.
[li]Addition of rare drop commodities to item recipes for higher rarity objects. Items that are more rare also tend to have better stats and the recipes will be adjusted to reflect this.
[li]Making some items drop only broken and never drop broken. As a reward to crafters, some items will be flagged to always drop a broken version and will have their stats adjusted upwards slightly.
[li]We will be taking some objects and removing the recipes, enhancement slots and gadget slots from them so they never drop broken. For example, a high level Xeno weapon that we do this to, may have its overall DPS increased to 35 from 25. This will make a very usable and desirable weapon drop into the world, but since it can't be experimented on or gadgeted it won't ever be the best item.
[li]Changing memorization: Memorization is becoming patenting. Instead of being able to create endless amounts of items when an item is memorized, the players will now get a limited patent from INC with the ability to reproduce an amount of copies equal to 10 plus their rank in the memorization skill (minimum 11 max 20).
[li]Reverse engineering: Players will no longer be able to reverse engineer anything that has been crafted by another player. For example, when an item is repaired via a broken item kit or created through memory the item will be tagged with a "patented by <name>". This means that no one else will be able to reverse engineer that specific item except for the person it is patented to. This change will stop item spidering and players undercutting each other, giving the players the feeling of really being able to create a one of a kind item. This change will also lessen the impact of an uber items' effect on the game play.
[li]We are changing the rarity on the more powerful enhancements. This is especially the case for enhancements that increase skill levels.
[li]Enhancements that have no recipe on them will make the item unable to be reverse engineered. This stops people from getting enhancements on items for free through crafting.
[li]We are revisiting the enhancement group breakdowns and adjusting the recipe groups to be smaller so the random experimentation is less severe. We are also revisiting the recipes in general on enhancements as some of the lower level ones are too difficult.
[li]The algorithm for tinkering success is being revamped so that an increase in the skill is more rewarding. Right now 1 point added to tinkering may only increase your success chance by 1 or 2%.
[li]More passes are being done on the crafting disciplines to identify and eliminate holes in the progression through the disciplines.
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