Issue 26 Page 2

Issue 26

August 22nd, 2019

General

• Mac OS X 10.15, codename Catalina, removes support for 32-bit applications. We have been hard at work for the last couple of months upgrading the client and all server components to 64-bit, while @Manga has been working on a new version of Island Rum that uses the 64-bit version of Wine to run the game in Mac and Linux. This patch , fingers crossed, is the culmination of those efforts.
  • Mac users experience issues
• When launching Tequila, you will now be presented with three options:
  • Homecoming: new 32-bit client based on modern development tools; backwards compatible with Windows XP.
  • Homecoming (64-Bit): new 64-client, which is required for players running Mac OS Catalina and recommended for players running modern operating systems; players on older operating systems may need to install the Visual Studio Redistributable Package from Microsoft in order to launch this client.
  • Homecoming (Safe Mode): old 32-bit compiled with the old toolchain; you should only use this if you run into problems with the other two versions, and you should let us know what the problems were. Very old Mac OS versions need to use this client for the time being. This version will be removed once the other two are mature and working well on all systems.
• If you have a Mac, even if you're not currently running Catalina, please contact check out this post if you have problems with Island Rum. Since Mac users are a minority, we are going to need a lot of feedback to make sure things run smoothly for everyone.
• Linux users can still run the 32-bit client under Wine so they're less of a concern, but if you want to test the 64-bit client, be aware that it is dynamically linked and you will need to install the Visual Studio 64-bit runtime. The 32-bit version is statically linked to maximize compatibility.
• Because of the extensive code changes to both server and client with this patch, none of the data changes currently on the Beta servers are being published until we ensure that this patch is stable and will not require a rollback.

Social

• Added a roleplaying tag which will flag yourself as currently RPing.
  • This will change your character name to appear in purple as well as adding a "Roleplaying" title.
  • Use /roleplaying to toggle the flag on and off, or use the dropdown in the helper window (H by default).
• Increased Supergroup membership limit from 150 to 300.

Input

• The game no longer uses DirectInput due to incompatibility with Mac OS Catalina, and now uses standard Windows messages for input. For the most part you should not notice any difference, although players with international keyboard distributions may have issues entering non-English and special symbols.
• DirectInput Joystick support has been replaced replaced it with new Game Controller support.
  • Instead of a simple "Joystick Input Enabled" toggle, you can select which device to use from the options menu.
  • Native support for XBox controllers as well as other XInput compatible controllers. This is not available on Windows XP.
    • Controller vibration support for XInput devices:
    • Damage received
    • Environmental effects
  • Turn on vibration on the options menu, or you can choose to only enable vibration effects from one of the above sources.
• Raw Input handles non-XInput devices and replaces DirectInput.
• All DirectInput-compatible devices should be supported, including traditional joysticks.

Physics

• PhysX simulation is no longer frame-locked to the game. It now runs asynchronously, so if PhysX is processing too slowly to keep up, it should not slow down your framerate, but instead use larger simulation steps to compensate.
  • If it falls too far behind, the number of PhysX objects in the scene will be reduced by removing the oldest objects.
• When particle physics quality is set to "High" or above, mutual collision is enabled between all PhysX objects. This means that junk from Propel will stack up instead of passing through other debris, bullet casings, trash, and leaves will bounce off of and can even come to rest on it, etc. These objects also affect each other, so pushing leaves around causes other nearby objects to move (depending on their mass).
• When physics quality is set to "Very High", the simulation step resolution is increased by 50%, and the step rate is allowed to scale up to 120fps rather than being capped at 60fps.
• Large objects (i.e. gravity control) will always interact with all other objects, even on the Low physics setting.

Bug Fixes

• Characters that crash on the first login after creation and become corrupted will now be cleared out by the dbserver instead of staying in the character list.
• Fixed crash when clicking Accept on the SG Settings interface when no fields where editable.
• Make it somewhat less likely for defeated enemies to be twisted into pretzels:
  • Overhaul ragdoll parameters. The spring and dampen settings must have been different in older versions of PhysX, because the ones in NwRagdoll did almost nothing; which is why everything was so limp.
  • Fixed joints (for all bones that don't have a spherical or hinge joint with special parameters) are apparently not working correctly, so replace them with a hinge joint that has a very small range of motion.
  • This is still not perfect. As @Number Six put it, "Ragdoll is still broken, but it's broken in new and different ways."
• Fix enhancement tables not properly displaying % signs (and possibly crashing).
• Switching alignment with a completed mission will no longer abandon it. This was being exploited in order to repeatedly obtain the last mission of a story arc (delivery missions in particular) and obtain the merit rewards for the arc again and again. As a result, the mission will be stuck in your list until you switch to a compatible alignment and are able to call the contact again.

August 23rd, 2019

Input

• Fixed ability for the game to distinguish between the right shift and left shift keys
• Fixed Num Lock and Pause/Break being swapped in key bindings (Windows itself has this backwards for some reason)
• Added special handling to make bindings with Shift+Number Pad keys work (more fun legacy MS-DOS leftovers)
• Controllers in rawinput mode will now properly report D-Pad directions
• Added button debounce for rawinput mode to handle hardware with noisy button switches
• Reduced analog stick dead zone for XBox controllers in native (XInput) mode

Mission Architect

• Stability enhancements for searches of AE missions; should hopefully prevent the crashes that were happening yesterday

Rewards

• Fixed special enhancement rewards not dropping when exemplared (mostly affected Summer Blockbuster event and DfB)
• Fixed reward flags that were preventing merits and other rewards from dropping in some circumstances
• The reward fixes were applied as a hotfix yesterday, but may not have affected all outdoor zones until this morning's restart

August 27th, 2019

General

• Ambassador Kuhr'Rekt no longer requires the Native badge, which is unavailable to former Praetorians.
• The contact "Max" in Dark Astoria will no longer be stuck unable to give you any missions if you finished his arc using Ouroboros before running Dark Astoria normally. He should always, at the very least, offer the mission that introduces Praetor Duncan.
• Sentinels will now receive the Power of Scirocco clickie in the Barracuda SF.
• Fixed an issue that broke Windows XP compatibility with the 32-bit Client.
• Fix detection of more than 4GB of physical memory on 64-bit platforms.
• Be more aggressive about capturing the mouse pointer while in mouselook and camrotate mode.
• Fix the magical shrinking window on 64-bit; Windows Vista and newer in 64-bit mode report system metrics for window frame size differently.

Costumes

• Added the following costume patterns from Derek Brown: Chisel, Crosshair, Grid, Oculus, Tech Shield, Trident and Widget.
• Enabled the Malaise pattern for players.

Base Editor

• Added 676 items to the base editor. You can find them by searching for "New" in the Place Item view.
• The red and black floor grid should now be hidden outside of the base editor.
• Nature > Grass Valley has had its alignment corrected and should now be usable with other floor plate details (e.g. all the other grass).
  • Existing bases will not be modified. Simply moving any existing Valleys will update their position.
• The following details have had their selection box fixed:
  • Arcane Teleport > Carnival of Light Portal
  • Arcane Teleport > Magic Portal
  • Arcane Teleport > Summoning Portal
  • Arcane Teleport > Summoning Portal (Inactive)
  • Tech Teleport > Interdimensional Shard
  • Tech Teleport > Black Hole
  • Tech Teleport > White Hole
  • Tech Teleport > Small Portal
  • Bathroom > Bathtub Water

Peacebringer FX

• Peacebringer customizable FX have been updated in order to actually use the secondary color.
• The glowy eyes have been reined in:
  • All buff powers use the same eye glow VFX, so they will no longer stack.
  • Attacks still spawn extra glowy eyes when used. This will get fixed someday.
  • Conserve Energy will now have glowy eyes.
• The humming noise has been reined in:
  • It no longer plays when activating attacks.
  • It no longer plays when one VFX expires and transitions to another one.
  • Being mezzed with the toggle sheilds on will no longer blow out your speakers.
  • Inner Light now only plays it once instead of twice.
• Other stuff:
  • White Dwarf Step no longer uses Warshade graphics.
  • Quantum Shield's "No Bubble" setting no longer has fuzzy rings.

Powers: Snipes

• General Changes
  • ToHit is no longer required to achieve fast-snipe. Now, combat status determines if snipes are fast or slow, and ToHit buffs increase how much damage fast-snipe inflicts.
  • The snipe will be fast if you have attacked or been attacked in the last 8 seconds; this is the same time as Stalker's Hide.
  • Note that PvP scale is based only around the PvP damage formula. ToHit buffs and debuffs do not change quick snipe damage in PvP.
  • The following fast snipe animations have been synced with their FX, no cast time changes: Moonbeam, Zapp, Sniper Blast, Proton Volley (they all remain at their original 1.33 second duration.)
  • Added a new PVP IO Snipe set "Experienced Marksman"; includes proc that will always turn your Snipes into the fast version.
• Blaster/Defender/Corruptor Snipes
  • 12 second recharge and 14.352 end cost.
  • Base 2.28 scale damage in their "quick" form, down from 2.76 scale.
  • Every point of ToHit buffing the player has will increase or decrease this damage, up to a cap of 2.76 scale damage with +22% ToHit buff.
  • Slow form will do 4.5 scale damage.
• Dominator Snipes
  • 20 second recharge and 18.512 end cost.
  • Base 2.67 scale damage in their "quick" form, down from 3.56 scale.
  • Every point of ToHit buffing the player has will increase or decrease this damage, up to a cap of 3.56 scale damage with +22% ToHit buff.
  • Slow form will do 4.5 scale damage.
• Epic Snipes
  • Will now have a base 1.75 scale damage in their quick form.
  • Every point of ToHit buffing the player has will increase or decrease this damage, up to a cap of 2.3 scale damage with +22% ToHit buff.
  • Slow form will do 3.56 scale damage
  • Slow form crits will do 3.56 + 1.78 scale damage.
  • Scrappers should now properly crit 10% of the time, instead of using Stalker requirements.

Powers: Dominator Assault Sets

• Earth Assault
  • Power Boost is now Power Up. (90s recharge, +34% damage, +75% str to other effects for 10 seconds.)
  • Stone Spears: Cast time reduced from 2.10 seconds to 1.00 second.
  • Tremor: Cast time reduced from 3.30 to 2.50 seconds.
  • Hurl Boulder: Cast time reduced from 2.50 seconds to 1.50 second. Recharge increased from 8 seconds to 12 seconds. Damage increased from 86.64 to 120.5 damage.
  • Heavy Mallet: Recharge increased from 12 to 14 seconds. Damage increased from 133.1 to 151.8 damage.
  • Mud Pots: Increased radius to 15ft. Lowered endurance cost slightly. Damage lowered from scale 0.18 per tick to 0.13 per tick
• Electricity Assault:
  • Thunder Strike: Cast time lowered to 2.5 seconds. Now knocks enemies down. ST and AoE Damage increased.
• Energy Assault
  • Power Boost is now Power Up. (90s recharge, +34% damage, +75% str to other effects for 10 seconds.)
  • Total Focus: Cast time shortened from 3.30 to 2.50 seconds.
  • Power Burst: Cast time shortened from 2.00 to 1.67 seconds.
  • New special mechanic. Most single target attacks have a 20% chance of granting Energy Focus mode. Hitting a foe with Total Focus will always grant Energy Focus mode.
  • While in this mode, Whirling Hands will inflict a large amount of bonus damage. Power Burst will do some bonus damage.
  • The mode will be removed if a power with bonus is used.
• Icy Assault
  • Power Boost is now Power Up. (90s recharge, +34% damage, +75% str to other effects for 10 seconds.)
  • Ice Bolt: Recharge increased from 4 seconds to 5 seconds. Damage increased from 52.9 to 61.3 damage.
  • Ice Sword: Recharge increased from 8 seconds to 10 seconds. Damage increased from 95.8 to 114.5 damage.
  • Ice Slash: Recharge increased from 10 to 17 seconds. Damage increased from 114.5 to 179.8 damage.
  • Chilling Embrace: increased radius to 15ft. Added -10% damage str to affected enemies. Power now deals cold damage every 2 seconds to foes that are not under the Sleep status effect. Slightly lowered the speed movement debuff.
• Martial Assault
  • Envenomed Blades: Fixed a bug where this power would sometimes proc more than once. Procs now ignores damage buffs and enhancements.
  • Thunder Kick: Recharge lowered from 8 seconds to 7 seconds. Damage lowered from 95.8 to 86.4 damage.
  • Trick Shot is now a proper chain attack, hits up to 5 targets. Damage lowered from scale 1.4 to scale 1.1
  • Spinning Kick: Recharge increased to 10 seconds. Target cap reduced to 5, same as all other melee cones. This power was also doing Single Target damage despite it being a cone. This has been fixed but recharge increase should keep damage decent.
  • Dragon's Tail: Recharge reduced from 20 seconds to 16. Damage scale from 1.1 to 0.8985.
  • Explosive Shuriken should no longer state it's an AoE, but still will do splash fire dot damage to foes around the main target.
• Psionic Assault
  • Psionic Dart: Cast time reduced from 1.33 to 0.83 seconds.
  • Telekinetic Thrust: Cast time reduced from 2.07 to 1.00 seconds. Recharge lowered from 8 seconds to 7 seconds. Damage lowerd from 95.8 to 86.4.
• Radioactive Assault
  • Contaiminated Strike: Recharge increased from 5 seconds to 8 seconds. Damage increased from 67.7 to 95.7 damage.
  • X-Ray Beam: Recharge from 10 seconds to 11 seconds. Damage increased from 103.5 to 112.0 damage.
  • Devastating Blow: Recharge 18 seconds to 20 seconds. Damage increased from 189.2 to 207.9
  • Devastating Blow and Atom Smasher now accept Dominator ATOs.
• Savage Assault
  • Vicious Slash: Recharge increased from 9 seconds to 11 seconds. Damage increased from 105.1 to 123.8 damage.
  • Call Hawk: Recharge increased from 12 seconds to 14 seconds. Damage increased accordingly (variable damage.)
  • Feral Charge: Target cap lowered to 5.
• Thorny Assault
  • Aim replaced with Build Up.
  • Thorny Darts: Recharge time increased from 3 to 4 seconds. Damage increased from 44.4 lethal to 52.8 lethal.
  • Skewer: Cast time reduced from 1.63 seconds to 0.83 seconds. Recharge time lowered from 10 seconds to 6 seconds. Damage lowered from 114.45 to 77.1 damage. Chance for DoT increased from 80% to 85%.
  • Impale: Cast time reduced from 2.43 seconds to 1.43 seconds. Recharge increased from 8 to 10 seconds. Damage increased from 86.6 to 103.5 damage.
  • Fling Thorns: Lowered recharge from 12 to 10 seconds. Damaged decreased from 47.55 lethal and 5.28 toxic damage over time to 40.9 lethal damage and 4.5 toxic damage over time.
  • Ripper: Recharge increased from 13 to 15 seconds, arc lowered from 90 degrees to 60 degrees. Damage increased from 113.87 to 136.5 lethal damage.
  • Thorn Barrage: Recharge time increased from 11 to 18 seconds. Damage increased to 42.8 lethal damage per tick.

Powers: Devices

• Changed Web Grenade to Toxic Web Grenade, now deals scale 1 toxic DoT and can be slotted for damage
• Taser: Recharge reduced from 20 to 10 seconds, duration reduced from scale 10 to scale 5, damage increased from 0.25 to 1.96 (same damage as Energy Punch)
• Time Bomb: Animation is now 2.77 seconds, interrupt time removed, countdown reduced to 5 seconds, defiance values reduced to match (this only applies to this set, not to the Traps support set versions.)
• Trip Mine: Interrupt removed. Cast time is now 2.77 seconds. Recharge increased to 30 seconds.
• Targeting Drone now gives your first attack from out of combat a Built-Up effect (80% damage) and continues to provide a 20% damage buff while in combat.

Powers: Stealth

• All self-stealth toggles should now recharge in 2 seconds.
• Pools > Concealment > Stealth: No longer slows the user down.
• Pools > Concealment > Invisibility: Endurance cost lowered from 0.65 to 0.2275. You are now be able to attack while this power is active, but should you attack, all it's defense will suppress.
• Illusion Control > Superior Invisibility: Endurance cost lowered from 0.52 to 0.182.

Powers: Misc Changes & Bug Fixes

• Gravity Control > Propel: Adjusted physics parameters on objects to make them feel solid and not bounce around like rubber toys.
• Night Widow & Fortunata Vengeance: Now triggers on league members. The buff will still only apply to teammates.
• Beta Decay: FX now anchors on the player and not the world.
• Pool > Leaping > Spring Attack: now does Containment damage when used by Controllers.
• Pool > Sorcery > Enflame: Should now do damage for Sentinels
• Kheldians > Inherent: Should now see Sentinels the same way they see Blasters and Scrappers, for the purpose of their inherent powers.
• Controller > Ice Control > Flash Freeze: should be properly flagged as a Targeted AoE, not a Point Blank AoE.
• Stalker > Savage Melee > Shred: This power erroneously said it consumed Blood Frenzy stacks. The text has been corrected. This power generates one Blood Frenzy stacks instead. All other AT versions of the power had the correct text for Shred.
• Dominator > Feral Charge: Fixed a bug where sometimes it would do no damage if executed from maximum distance.
• Dominator > Savage Assault > Unkindness: This power erroneously said it consumed Blood Frenzy stacks. The text has been corrected. This power generates one Blood Frenzy stack, and it's DoT becomes stronger the more Blood Frenzy the caster has. This bonus to Unkindness makes up for the set's lack of Savage Leap and Hemorrage.
• Sentinel > Ice Blast > Chilling_Ray: Should now accept Slow enhancements.
• Sentinel > Regeneration > Dismiss Pain: Increased amount of MaxHP granted to 24% from 6%, should had not been that low to begin with.
• Beam Rifle > Disintegration: Should [hopefully] never linger after the target dies.
• Earth Control > Animate Stone: should no longer stop to reconsider it's life choices for about 6 seconds after using Hurl.
• Mu Mastery Epic Pool: Zap now uses Melee Damage Modifiers
• All versions of Beam Rifle's Penetrating Ray now has a 55% chance of spreading disintegration.
• All versions of Beam Rifle's Lancer Shot now has a 100% chance of spreading disintegration.
• Fixed a bug in the no-redraw version of fast-Archery's Snipe.
• Psionic Lance's quick FX was completely broken and out of sync. FX has been resync but this required a slightly slower animation (1.33 seconds.)

September 10th, 2019

General

• The 32-bit client should now work properly on Windows XP and old versions of MacOS; please let us know if you still need the Safe Mode client.
• Native High DPI Scaling mode. The game will now use the Windows UI Scaling setting for the monitor it is currently played on. You can disable Automatic UI Scaling from the Options (under the Windows tab) and change it manually. This slider can scale a lot more things than the old Window Scaling setting, which is still available via slash commands for individual windows.
• Added option under Windows tab to independently change the size of the names above players' / NPCs' heads.
• Added the ability to select Borderless Fullscreen mode in any monitor connected to the system.
• Corrected an issue that caused some billboards in the game to have swapped the colors blue and red in the 64-bit client.
• Fixed a crash on certain missions that spammed LOTS of chat bubbles (Confront Veles, Investigate Harvan's Lab).
• You can now move stacks of salvage out of the vault again.

Tasks

• Chernobog will now always spawn after the cutscene in Shauna Stockwell's storyarc.
• Omnicore can no longer be killed by her own robots and prevent her mission from being completed.
• Added a very obvious waypoint to Laura Lockhart's body in the mission "Defend the UNSF Base".

Zones

• Ghost of Scrapyard can now be spawned by defeating 100 Scrapyarders in Sharkhead Isle, and should no longer walk into the Black Market kill field.
• The AVs that spawned in Recluse's Victory were dependent on team size, resulting in some of them being rare. As of this patch, they will spawn regardless of team size in one of three pairs: Positron/Synapse, Back Alley Brawler/Manticore, or Ms. Liberty/Penny Yin. On the villain side, it'll be Black Scorpion+Mako, Ghost Widow+Scirocco, or Lord Recluse+Random patron.
• The cars in Kallisti Wharf will no longer get stuck in an intersection.
• Fixed the zone cap in The Hive, The Abyss and the Rikti War Zone to be 50 (this was accidentally changed in May - it should have always been 50).

Badges

• Eochai and Jack in Irons will now reward their badges on defeat regardless of how much damage the player does to them.
• Fixed the badge art for "Skip Tracer" and "Portal Hopper".

Base Items

• Added the Nemesis Horse as a base item, with and without FX.
• Fixed Bathtub Water collision bug.

Powers

• Fixed an issue where Psionic Assault > Psi Dart and Poison > Envenom would randomly execute a different animations.
• Fixed an issue where Beam Rifle Disintegration Spread would not need Disintegration effect on the target to be triggered.
• Fixed an issue where Pool > Concealment > Stealth was making players completely translucent.
• Fixed missing +Range buff in Blaster Quick Snipes.
• Fixed an issue where Pool > Concealment > Stealth was granting double Stealth
• Fixed an issue where Engagement mechanics was taking 10 seconds after attack, when it should had taken 8.
• Fixed an issue where Devices > Targeting Drone was taking 30 seconds out of combat, instead of 8, to increase it's damage buff.
• Fixed a bug where Illusion Control powers would not stack as expected.
• Fixed a bug where Illusion pets were ignoring enhancements.
• Fixed a bug where Stalker > Epic > Mu > Zapp would crit multiple times in a single activation. Also fixed timing issues with the FX in this power.
• Fixed a bug in Quick Sniper Blast (All versions) where the central energy orb would ignore color tinting.
• Fixed a bug where some snipes would not disable properly.
• Blaster Devices:
  • Targeting Drone and Field Operative were granting double buffs for some of their attributes since last patch. This has been fixed.
  • Gun Drone now taunts enemies it hits. In addition, enemies near the Turret should often prioritize attacking the Drone. This power now takes taunt and taunt set enhancements.
• Stalker:
  • Mace Master > Mace Beam: This power was doing double critical hits in some situations since last patch. This should now be fixed.
  • Savage Melee > Assassins Frenzy: This power should now grant 3 stacks of frenzy while used from hide.
• Concealment > Invisibility: the translucency effect should completely disappear if engaged in combat.
• Dominator > Radioactive Assault: Procs should no longer trigger off the special AoE triggered off hitting Contaminated targets.

External Links

• Issue 26, Page 2
• August 23rd, 2019
• August 27th, 2019
• September 10th, 2019