These are fairly huge patch notes for Vanguard's second game update, surprisingly called "Game Update 2"... or maybe not surprisingly! At any rate, the patch introduces quest a few new features to the game, as well as a plethora of class and zone changes, including Diplomacy being moved from a skill-based system to a level-based system - similar to how EverQuest II uses level-based systems for its crafting and guild leveling.
There are some technical issues with the patch including client crashes, so be warned. However, SOE is no doubt on the case and working on fixes for any issues that have cropped up due to this update.
And now, on to the patch notes!
Vanguard Build 1871 Patch Notes 08/16/2007
GAME UPDATE 2
- Guild Halls
- The Brotherhood System
- Bind on Equip
- LFG Improvements
- Rest Experience
- Level Based Diplomacy
- Diplomacy UI
- Deconstruction
- Item Level Requirements
- PVP Bug Fixes
- Crash Fixes & Optimizations
- Quest Journal & Quest Tracking
- Item UI
- Scrolling Combat Text
- Additional Patch Notes
1. Guild Halls
NOTE: Guild Halls will not be available until AFTER the server merges, to avoid plot conflicts.
Guild Hall quests are now available! They operate in a similar manner to regular housing in regards to overall construction but require new components. Building a Guild Hall will require efforts from all three spheres of Vanguard.
Guild Hall plots will not be available for purchase until after the server merge. But the quests will be live so you can begin acquiring the resources necessary to construct one. The server merge is expected to happen a week after GU2 goes live.
Crafters will need to learn brand new recipes for all three continents. There are new quests for different key parts of the Guild Hall structure, the majority which are for the mineralogist specialization. Other crafting trades will have some component recipes as well though.
Among the new recipes, a special mortar assembly recipe is introduced. This recipe requires components obtained from high level adventuring areas. Fetching these items will be very dangerous. You will want to bring a group.
Diplomats will now be needed to obtain permissions to purchase the Guild Hall plot. Without the correct documents obtained from the local government, the guild leader will not be allowed to purchase the plot. Obtaining this documentation will not be a simple task.
Finishing construction of a Guild Hall will take much more investment than building a smaller house due to the sheer size and space. However, once completed, they will be a great place for your guild to gather and store treasures, in addition to being a mark of pride for your group!
- Must be Guild Leader to purchase
- Must form a full group of guild members and have them be in the same zone. (6)
- Must have completed the diplomacy quest and have the diplomacy item in the Guild Leaders inventory.
- Purchasing the plot will expend the diplomacy item.
2. The Brotherhood System
NOTE: The Brotherhood System will not be available until AFTER the server merges.
Brotherhoods are a method for you and your friends to gain experience for each other, even when some of you are offline.
Brotherhoods will not be going live until after the server merge. The server merge is expected to happen a week after GU2 goes live.
Features
- All experience you earn is split amongst the members of the fellowship, even members who are offline.
- When you are in debt or have lost experience, your experience will be devoted to repaying your debt/loss before you resume contributing to the brotherhood.
- Brotherhoods are completely independent from groups; you can be a member of both at the same time.
Limitations
- Brotherhoods can have a maximum of six members.
- You must be within five levels of every member of the brotherhood in order to join.
- You must be within a few meters distance to invite a player to your brotherhood.
- If you leave your brotherhood or are removed, you may not join another one for four hours of online played time.
- Members who are offline do not receive their experience until they log on. (Be careful when using the system to level up rarely-played characters, as their skills will fall behind, thus they will be very weak for their levels!)
Getting Started
Interested in creating a brotherhood? Simply target your friend, right click your defensive target window, and select "Invite to Brotherhood." You may then administer the brotherhood from the social window (default key 'O') "Brotherhood" tab.
3. Bind on Equip
All equipable items that were bindable are now either bind on equip or bind on pickup, with the majority of the items being bind on equip. Here is a quick overview of the affected items:
- All equipable items that were bindable are now BOE or BOP
- All uncommon and common items are BOE
- All rare world loot items are BOE
- All rare (and higher) items that are not on world loot tables are BOP
- All containers are BOE
- Quest rewards will remain soulbound as they were before this change
- Any rare items already in the world, that would have become BoP and thus soulbound, will instead become BoE. All new items that drop will be BoP. This will prevent cases where characters could be stuck with items becoming Soulbound that they can’t use.
This change was made for a variety of reasons.
- Removes items from the functional trade economy after the item has been used once.
- Helps regulate economy as items are effectively removed from trade.
- Changes to the deconstruction system allows all players regardless of sphere to feel a “gain” even after they have upgraded items in a slot, we did not feel that binding an item to our customers and presenting them with nothing back for its value was worthwhile.
4. LFG Improvements
There is a new LFG button that is located in the group area of the UI (left side of the screen), which brings up the new looking for group and looking for more tabs of the social window. This will disappear once a player joins someone else’s group, but it will remain for group leaders until their group is full. It automatically brings up the LFG tab for non-grouped players, and the LFM tab for group leaders.
The looking for group tab allows players to set which dungeon(s) or quest(s) (from the list of quests that the player currently has in their journal) they would like to work on, and then see a list of other individual players or group leaders. Players and group leaders in the list will be sorted based on their level relationship to you and how closely their preferences match yours, so those that are near your level and are looking to do the same dungeon or quest will be sorted highest in the list. The LFG tab also includes the option to auto accept group invites. If the player doesn’t turn on that feature, they will see the name, level, and class of the group leader and the name, level and class of each of the current group’s members when they are sent a group invite, at which time they can choose to accept or deny the invite as normal. If a player selects a group leader in the search list, they will get the new option to send a request to join that leader’s group, at which point the group leader will see the name, level, and class of the player that is requesting to join the group and the leader can choose to deny the request, or to send a group invite to that player.
The looking for more tab works like the LFG tab, except that it lets a group leader select the archetype(s) and/or class(es) that the group is looking for, in addition to setting the dungeon(s) and/or quest(s) that the group would like to find more members to do.
Both the LFG and LFM lists show individuals looking for a group and group leaders looking for more members. Hovering the mouse over a player in the list will show more info about them, such as what dungeons or quests they prefer, and if it is a group leader the tooltip will also show what archetypes or classes the group prefers and a list of all of the current group members’ names, levels, and classes.
5. Rest Experience
Heroes may now rest in Vanguard! Resting increases the rate at which a hero will gain adventuring, crafting, or diplomacy experience. As the hero gains experience in a particular sphere, rest of that type is exhausted. Rest for each sphere is separate, and is designated by a blue bar on the character sheet of the corresponding sphere. For adventurers, rest is also displayed on the experience bar. Camping allows a hero to rest, occurring more rapidly at outposts. A hero may tell if he or she is at an outpost when a tower icon appears next to his or her class icon.
6. Level Based Diplomacy
Diplomacy is moving from a “skill-based” (1-500) system to a “level-based” (1-50) system. In this changeover, your skill will be automatically converted to level. For instance, if you were skill 120, you would now be level 12. If you were 123, then you would be level 12 with 6 bubbles filled. NPCs and items are also converted as well, as will be the difficulty of conversations. This move allows us to fit Diplomacy more easily into creating content for the game, greatly speeding up the way we make content and reducing the places in which bugs can crop up – while also increasing the opportunities for sphere interdependence.
7. Diplomacy UI
Several elements in the Diplomacy user interface have been made easier to understand and more intuitive. For instance:
- Double-clicking cards in your Diplomacy strategy during a parlay will now play them as if you selected the card and clicked the "Speak" button.
- Cards in your Diplomacy strategy are now dimmed when unusable because they are still refreshing.
8. Deconstruction
Deconstruction is no longer process oriented. Deconstruction kits will be sold by vendors for ten silver and each kit will have ten charges. Right-clicking the kit and then clicking on the item you wish to deconstruct will give you the option to convert the item to a resource or a dust.
- Common items should convert into attuning dusts or common resources
- Uncommon items should convert into resonance dusts, common resources and sometimes a rare resource
- Rare items should convert into focusing dusts, rare resources and sometimes ultra rare resources
- Anything above rare follows the same rules as rare
9. Item Level Requirements
The rules for who can equip items has been streamlined, equipment expertise was too confusing for many players. This puts a stronger emphasis on gaining levels to allow players to equip more powerful items. It also restores demand for items that were trivialized due to the varied range of Equipment Expertise per item type and slot.
- Items in Vanguard now have a minimum level required to equip.
- The minimum level required to equip items is now displayed on items, so players do not need to do math to figure it out.
- This only applies to items that are equipped on the adventuring, crafting, or diplomacy tabs of the character sheets. Mounts are excluded from this limitation.
- Equipment Expertise has been removed from the game.
- Any items you were wearing that are higher then 5 levels above you will not be removed until you remove them yourself.
- When GU2 goes live, crafting tools in your crafting tool bag will become soulbound when you use them in the crafting process. In the future, we will have a BOE confirmation when placing a crafting tool in an equipped crafting tool bag.
10. PvP Bug Fixes
We spent some time fixing some of the more egregious bugs regarding PvP – here are the highlights:
- Abomination grafts that produce a damaging effect has been reduced against players.
- Bards can no longer pulse an invis effect while in combat.
- See invis now functions properly – you can no longer see other players that are invis if you don’t have a see invis buff unless they are in your group.
- There is a new 40% damage cap on any single ability in PvP.
- Players may now rotate while rooted.
- Pets were previously hitting for full damage in PvP. They have now received a half-damage modifier to be in tune with the half-damage modifier applied to other damage types.
- You can now use abilities on pets in PvP. Previously, they would be immune to many types of abilities they shouldn’t have been immune to.
- In PvP, graft abilities for necromancer abomination pets only now do 33% of their previous damage.
- Bards can no longer pulse an invis effect while in combat. This change results in attackers not losing their target in PvP combat with a bard that is singing a song with an invis component.
- In PvP see invis now functions properly - you can no longer see other players that are invis if you don't have a see invis buff unless they are in your group.
- In PvP, any single ability can not exceed 40% of the target players maximum health.
- Players may now rotate while rooted. This change will also work for roots in PvE as well as PvP.
- Pets were previously hitting for full damage in PvP. They have now received a half-damage modifier to be in tune with the half-damage modifier applied to other damage types. This means that pet damage now does 50% of their previous damage against player targets in PvP.
- You can now use abilities on pets in PvP. Previously, they would be immune to many types of abilities they shouldn't have been immune to. This means that abilities that contain a stun, root, mez, ect will now affect a player's pet in Pvp.
11. Crash Fixes & Optimizations
We have put a lot of effort into both improving game performance and eliminating bugs that cause crashes. In addition to all the optimization notes in the patch notes below, highlights include:
- Reduced the frequency of garbage purges. They will now only occur once your client has under 100MB of system memory free, and there is more "stuff" to purge. This will reduce the amount of "hitching flashes" to only the times when you really need them to prevent the game from crashing.
- Textures should now take up a great deal less system memory, reducing the number of crashes from out of memory errors substantially.
12. Quest Journal & Quest Tracking
Some improvements have been made to the Quest Tracker. They include:
- The layout of the quest journal window has been changed to allow more info to be shown at once, your list of quests is on the left, and the info for the quest you have selected is on the right, making for less scrolling.
- The Work Orders and Locations tabs have also been changed to the new layout.
- A new button, "Auto-track" has also been added which brings up a new window to set options for the new auto quest tracker feature.
- Auto quest tracking is on by default and in its default state, quests that you accept or quests that are updated during your play session will appear automatically in the Quest Tracker, but will be removed from the Tracker after several minutes if you don’t do anything to progress that quest (complete quest objectives).
- There is now an option to have the Quest Tracker continuously list all of your quests at once
- There is an option to filter out quests that don’t have counters (such as kill X / X).
- You can still manually track quests as before, but the auto tracking options make the tracker a bit more useful now.
- You can now mouse over the name of a quest in the Quest Tracker to see a tooltip that shows the summary for the quest, allowing you to refresh your memory about a quest without having to open the quest journal.
- The details part of the quest under the quest name in the Tracker now get removed/collapsed once you complete a quest, which allows for more quests to be shown at once. Also note that the Quest Tracker display can be made larger in layout mode if you would like to have it show more quests at once.
13. Item UI
Keeping in line with our efforts to make Vanguard easier to understand and more intuitive, we have made some improvements to item UI. They include:
- Items that contain an associated ability should now display the description of that ability, if a description is available.
- Items with offensive and defensive “Rating” modifiers, in addition to the actual Rating, will now display a percentage for that specific modifier against an equal level NPC. This addition will add some clarity to the previously confusing Rating system.
- Items will now display the actual percentage that an attached “Chance on Hit:” proc will activate.
14. Scrolling Combat Text
You can now switch on scrolling combat text in your Settings panel. There are many display options for the text, including:
- The Scrolling combat text will speed up and slow down depending on how fast text enters the world.
- New Slider bar to toggle transparency of the scrolling combat text. This will allow players to choose settings where the text is less obtrusive, while other players can chose a setting so they can achieve maximum visibility of the text.
- New option to use multiple layers of scrolling combat text (in order to place crits and more important text on one layer and less important information in another layer with a more transparent look).
- New option to use multi-column scrolling combat text. This will slow down the necessary movement of text (since more text can sit on one line). This setting will be very useful in raids when there is a lot of damage spam.
15. Additional Patch Notes
GAMEPLAY
GENERAL
- Group invites from players on your ignore list will now be automatically rejected. You will not see the group invite dialog for them.
- Crouch is now mapped by default to shift-X (for new users or people that have deleted their "user.ini" file in their bin directory), but existing users will need to map it manually by going into the settings window "Controls" tab, finding "Crouch" in the list and then clicking the button next to it in order to set the key bind. Crouch is useful for getting large races, such as the Lesser Giants, through smaller races' doorways.
- Player to player trades now check to make sure the amount of money being traded won't exceed the coin limit of the player receiving the money. If the amount being given does exceed the coin limit, both parties in the trade will receive an error stating that the coin limit would be exceeded and the players will be able to edit the amount of money being offered and try again.
- Level appropriate dungeons are now shown on the map, and display the level range after the name of the dungeon.
- Fixed quest tracker window so you can get tooltips by mousing over the quest names in the tracker. And the quest tracker is adjustable in layout mode again.
- You can now dismount from a flying mount (even while flying) by right-clicking your flying mount item as you would to dismount any other mount type.
- You can now rest and consume food while riding on a ship.
- Players may now turn while rooted.
- Counterspell reactions will now only display if the spell to counter is not immune to that type of counter.
- Throwing weapons now add their damage correctly.
- Shortened the camp timeout to 20 seconds.
- Outposts now act as a safe haven in which you may rest quicker. You will know you are in an outpost when you see a "tower" icon next to your class icon.
- You will now rest while offline. Your current level of rest is displayed on the experience bar (for adventuring) and on the character sheet as a blue bar. Rest increases the rate at which you gain experience. Rest accrues independently for each sphere.
- The LFG system has been revamped. It is our hope that the new system is easier to use and more useful. You can find it by clicking the new LFG button on the left hand side of the screen, or by opening the Social window. The /LFG and /LFM commands now open the new LFG and LFM tabs in the Social window.
- Corpses can no longer be unlocked to other players.
- Corpses will no longer unlock to everyone after their loot timer expires.
- Torches will now stay on when you chunk
- Fix to stun particles not going away
- Players can no longer see stealthed / invis players while not in a group, if they also don't have a see invisibility buff.
- Fix for rest exp messaging incorrect amount if the player had debt.
- Fix for incorrect message being displayed about "rest bonus" when the player had some debt recovery and some regular adventuring exp gain
- Fix for being able to refresh critical hits on DoTs by recasting the ability. Recasting a DoT will now overwrite the previous dot even if the previous version did more damage.
- Request to join group declines now show the name of the character that declined your request, instead of your own name.
- Fix for abilities which require an equipped reagent using unequipped versions of that reagent.
- If you are in a full group and try to invite another player, you will now get a message saying the group is full.
- If you accept an invite to a full group, it will now inform you that you can no longer join that group.
- Fix for Targetted AoEs checking line of sight from the caster to the secondary target rather than the primary target to the secondary target.
- Fix for cone AoE distance check. This will now only check the distance in the xy plane. The z coordinate will be checked to determine if the target's feet are below the caster's head + the cone radius or if the target's head is above the caster's feet - the cone radius.
- Accuracy was incorrectly capped with evasion at 40%. This means that debuffing a creature's accuracy more than 40% would have no additional effect. This has been remedied. Accuracy debuffs should now have the full intended effect.
- Curse of the Vampire should no longer persist on characters forever
- The effect of Curse of the Vampire has been modified
- The effect of Warrior of Light has been modified
- The price of Rank 4 tack has been decreased.
- Vulmane Racial Attribute Allocation has been fixed. They may now properly assign additional points to strength and dexterity as advertised in character creation. Vulmane that have applied more points to the previously erroneously set constitution maximum bonus and vitality maximum bonus will be affected by the new statistical cap upon gaining attribute points.
- Caster knockbacks will no longer fail if the target is too close.
ADVENTURING
- Healers - Reanimate, Revive, Awakening, and Tear of the Phoenix now have 10 minute refresh timers.
- Mid-Sized armor class buffs no longer stack with Large armor class buffs. Small armor class buffs stack with both medium, and large buffs. Note, this does not affect the other portions of these buffs, which stack as they always did.
- Pet Classes - Significantly reduced pet damage in PvP.
- Pet Classes - PC Pets no longer trigger movers (open doors) at all, they just walk through them now like they don't exist.
- Bard - Bard songs will no longer pulse the invisibility portion while they are in a PvP contest.
- Bard – Chants have had their costing issues corrected and the costrs have lowered significantly
- Bard – Irion’s Tune of Safety has appeared again. Please visit your trainers.
- Bard – Tynan’s snare components should now be more reliable.
- Bard - Instruments - Adjusted many instruments that had the incorrect level displayed. This has no affect on instrument power and only affects the level required to equip the item
- Bard – Hinder now does the appropriate damage (as opposed to none) and its cost was lowered to 30
- Bard – Hinder can no longer be used on yourself.
- Bard – Decreased the effectiveness of Cirel's energy regeneration components slightly
- Bard – Lowered the refresh of Singing Blade to 60 seconds.
- Bard – Chant of Winter now deals the appropriate amount of damage and costs the appropriate amount of energy
- Blood Mage - Increased the range of Cerebral Graft to 25m.
- Blood Mage - The armor class increase of Plated Symbiote no longer stacks with the armor class increase provided by Infusion of Spirit
- Blood Mage – The armor class provided by Serak's Mantle I no longer stacks with the armor class portion of Resolution.
- Disciple – Added the Knuckles weapon specialization.
- Disciple – Grace of the Crow is now group targeted as intended.
- Disciple – All dropped group buffs actually hit the whole group now.
- Disciple – The armor class increase of Favor of the Crow no longer stacks with the armor class increase provided by Resolution
- Dread Knight – Added the Thrown Hammer weapon specialization.
- Dread Knight – Shadowy Veil can now be used in and out of combat.
- Dread Knight – Lowered the refresh timer of Aphotic Shield to 15 minutes.
- Dread Knight – Backlash now lasts for 30 seconds or until you are hit.
- Dread Knight – Increased the damage of Bane.
- Dread Knight – Lowered the cast time of Bane to 4 seconds.
- Dread Knight – Increased the duration of Dark Bastion to 5 minutes.
- Dread Knight – Increased the duration of Shield of Fear to 5 minutes.
- Dread Knight – Slightly increased the effectiveness of Devour Strength and Devour Mind.
- Dread Knight – Dread Visage no longer triggers global recovery but does have a 2 second refresh.
- Dread Knight – Lowered the refresh timer of Hatred Incarnate to 30 minutes.
- Dread Knight – Increased the hate amount of Incite and Inflame.
- Dread Knight – Increased the damage of Ruin.
- Druid – Smockleaf now has a -5% energy cost buff component.
- Druid – Soothe now has an initial heal component followed by a heal over time.
- Druid – Increased the effectiveness of the damage shield portion of Barbwood Talisman.
- Druid – The armor class increase of Barbwood Talisman no longer stacks with the armor class increase provided by Infusion of Spirit
- Monk – Storm Dragon now does the appropriate amount of damage.
- Monk – Boundless Fist should now do the appropriate amount of damage when exploiting dazed.
- Monk – Secret of Transcendence now lasts for 60 sec and costs 8 jin.
- Monk – Lowered the refresh time of Secret of Transcendence to 5 minutes.
- Monk – Iron Hand now lasts an hour
- Necromancer - Necromancers can now see their abominations, even when their abomination has invisibility on it.
- Necromancer – Shadow Feast no longer grants a +0 CON buff when you log off while its effective.
- Necromancer – Adjusted cost and heal aspect of Blood Rite so that the tool tip is more accurate. The cost and heal should be relatively close to where they used to be.
- Necromancer – High level learned spells can now actually be learned.
- Necromancer – Zealots will now miss every attack that is not focused on an undead opponent.
- Paladin – Increased the damage of Sunburst
- Paladin – Lowered Retort’s refresh timer to 30 sec
- Paladin – The armor class increase of Courage no longer stacks with the armor class increase provided by Resolution
- Psionicist – Concentrations have been converted into forms and are no longer available as abilities. You get the same effect that you would have from the power by entering the form. Players who have not yet earned these will gain them by learning from the appropriate psionic gestalt.
- Psionicist – Vast Psyche and Acumen no longer stack. Vast Psyche was meant to replace Acumen at level 50. Mass Acumen has been removed from drop tables and will not be seen again.
- Psionicist – Vast Psyche and Mass Vast Psyche have been increased in effectiveness. Mass Vast Psyche is now slightly more common on drop tables.
- Psionicist – Compression Sphere VIII will now return energy when used with the Thought Thief concentration
- Ranger - Smockleaf now has a -5% energy cost buff component.
- Rogue – Vital Strikes now lasts for the appropriate amount of time. Extended the duration to 4 seconds.
- Rogue – Death Whirl 2 now does more damage than that first version
- Rogue – Returned the missing refresh timer to Shank IV
- Rogue – Lowered the recast time of Relentless to 10 minutes
- Rogue – Lowered the recast time on Quickblade to 10 minutes
- Rogue – Fixed an issue with escape not being able to be used if you were the focus of attacks. Escape will no longer automatically cause you to enter stalking mode. It will only clear all of your aggro.
- Rogue – Racial abilities will no longer break stalking.
- Rogue – Relentless now increases max endurance by 40 and regenerates 20 endurance every 2 seconds.
- Rogue – Increased the duration of Relentless to 30 seconds.
- Rogue – Clout now stuns for 6 seconds and does not break on hit.
- Rogue – Blindside’s functionality has changed. It now deals damage to the attacker of your defensive target and causes the offender to be weak to criticals for 4 sec.
- Rogue – Fixed an issue with the damage of some versions of Hemorrhage. Damage should be slightly increased.
- Rogue – Lowered the refresh time of eviscerate to 60 sec.
- Rogue – Ruin III now removes the correct amount of dmg.
- Rogue – Blackjack will now lull the target now, preventing assisting nearby allies or calling for help
- Rogue – Drub no longer incurs global recovery and costs no endurance. It now has a 6 second refresh time.
- Rogue – Removed the refresh timer from Impale
- Rogue – Altered the duration of the Keen Strike line of abilities. The duration for the different ranks are: 10, 12, 14, 16, 18
- Rogue – Last Ditch Strike has been removed from the game.
- Rogue - Added Particles to Ploy and made the description more clear.
- Rogue – Clarified the description for Quickblade and updated all applicable attacks with the correct text
- Rogue – Increased the cost of Quickblade and Relentless
- Rogue – Rogue’s Kiss has been removed from the game.
- Rogue – Smoke Trick now has a range of 10m
- Rogue – Lowered the cost of Trick attack slightly and increased the amount of hate added.
- Rogue – Shank and Shiv now cost the correct amount of endurance (10)
- Rogue – Altered combat text to enable better parsing.
- Shaman – Fixed a display issue with Skin of Rakurr II. It stated that it increased damage by 20%, but the ability only increased dmg by 15% (as stated in the buff tooltip). This also matches the dmg progression of the line (12%, 15%, 18%)
- Shaman – The armor class increase of Infusion will now stack properly with all mid and large sized armor class buffs
- Warrior – Form a Line now lasts for 8 seconds as stated in the ability description.
- Warrior – All lines of commands are now on separate timers.
- Warrior – All group commands now have a 45 sec refresh timer.
- Warrior – Increased the duration of Shout of Fury by 2 seconds per rank.
- Warrior – Added Bloodrage to trainers at level 12.
- Warrior – Warder’s Bulwark and Bastion of War now have a 5 minute refresh timer.
- Warrior – Increased the damage of Bastion of War and Warder’s Bulwark significantly.
CRAFTING
- Crafting XP curve has been modified
- Balanced Wood Shaft recipe will now show up in the proper recipe category.
- Outside crafting stations in many cities/towns have been removed/moved inside. This has been done to assist with performance in those areas.
- Master Karenda’s Band now properly increases reasoning when activated as the description states.
- Players can no longer have invis cast upon them while harvesting.
- Deconstruction is no longer process oriented. Deconstruction kits will be sold by vendors for ten silver and each kit will have ten charges.
- A number of crafting quests have had their faction rewards increased.
- You should now recipe bonus faction when getting grades better then C
- The drop rate for ultra rare hides has been increased.
- Journeyman tool upgrade recipes and journeyman cloth crafting gear upgrade recipes should now only need one resource for enhancement.
- Trainers at Thestran outposts will now want Thestran Artisan Faction to learn the Thestran Firegrass Basket.
- Fixed an issue with some higher level recipes causing them to return misshapen metal
- Fixed issue causing initiate tier stone focus items using the healing dispersion effect to use the painful dispersion effect.
- Two high level crafting quests are now available at the New Targonor docks.
- All Mundane equippable items should no longer have the bindable flag on them
- The effects attached to runes of reflection have been modified to work more reliably and give more feedback.
- Deconstruction tables have been cleaned up and restructured to coincide with the new deconstruction mechanic
- Chance to get ultra rare resource from rare has been increased slightly
- Deconstruction recipes have been removed from trainers
- Skinning tools have received a bump in power. They should now be equal to their various counterparts.
- Flawless work remedy tooltips have been corrected
- Smoke remedy tooltips have been corrected
- The remedy called Focus has had its tooltip adjusted
- Hasty work has had its tooltip corrected
- Tier 3 sandstone carving of water breathing has had its display name corrected
- Resonating powder of sorcery has had its description updated
- Evened Tooling has had its description updated
- Various items that were not showing endurance regen should be fixed now
- Tier 5 cloaks are now labeled properly
- Resonating Crystals of the Assassin list the proper tier now
- Thrown weapon damage should display properly now
- Careful Sculpting has had its tooltip fixed
- Touch of winds proc should now work properly
- The Lomshir Craftsman Gloves are now soulbound.
DIPLOMACY
- Diplomacy deconstruction has been turned off
- Diplomacy is moving from a Skill Based system to a Level Based system.
- Cards in your Diplomacy strategy are now dimmed when unusable because they are still refreshing.
- Double-clicking cards in your Diplomacy strategy during a parlay will now play them as if you selected the card and clicked the "Speak" button.
- Players can now purchase Titles of Land from House Bursars in New Targonor if they have declared allegiance. Each title will allow the player to create tax notices in a separate land to collect taxes on that land. See Margrave Thistle in New Targonor for more information on how to collect these taxes.
- 34 new Diplomacy cards have been placed as very rare drops on 52 sentient NPC races in the game. These cards can be right-clicked to learn a Diplomacy ability corresponding to the race. For instance, killing kobolds has a chance to drop "Kobold Calumny," a Flattery Comment. Many of these cards are double-edged, requiring skilled play to use well.
- Fix for diplomacy quests not updating their con color
- Fix for players being unable to camp when a city wide buff is applied to them
- You will now Ding! When you level in diplomacy.
- Bottom Line now has a 5-10 turn refresh timer.
- The Thestran Web Quests are now open for players to explore. Players may begin by speaking to Grom Vermach in Halgarad, Preceptor Indradi in Leth Nurae, War Master Trabrand Silvereye in Bordinar’s Cleft, or Investigator Trenkle in Tursh.
- Afrit Civic Diplomacy now sometimes drops as loot “Fire-Eaters’ Cards of Fate” instead of Information. These cards can be right-clicked for a chance to earn Searing Stones.
- Rezo Xylorn (dark elf slave in Afrit) now realizes he isn’t a Domestic, but an Outsider.
- Renton Keep Civic Diplomacy now correctly removes New Targonor Prestige Faction when you lose.
- A number of tier 4 Diplomacy items have had their Presence values adjusted, mostly upward.
- Patron Rod has had its Presence values adjusted upward.
- A new Bartender parley dialogue has been added to the pool of bartender parley dialogues. This dialogue is very short, and occurs very rarely.
- Eldor, in the Three Rivers chunk, now has an extremely long and challenging level 15 Diplomacy parley that is available to anyone. Learn Eldor’s secret to earn some rare tier 3 Diplomacy loot.
- Reeve Gromwell, the Royal Scribe, has appeared in the Temple in New Targonor to help characters wishing to declare their allegiance with a noble House in the city.
- House Bursars are now available for each of the ten Noble Houses of New Targonor. They can be found near each House leader. They currently offer special clothing, mount barding, new statements, and titles in trade for House Coin. Characters may only speak to the Bursar of the House they have declared allegiance with, and that house’s allies.
- All Diplomacy clothing has had skill requirements removed.
- All Diplomacy items have had skill requirements removed.
- All Diplomacy tier 1 items now have no level requirement.
- All Diplomacy tier 1 consumables now require Diplomacy level 5 to use.
- All Diplomacy tier 2 items now require Diplomacy level 5 to use.
- All Diplomacy tier 2 consumables now require Diplomacy level 10 to use.
- All Diplomacy tier 3 items now require Diplomacy level 15 to use.
- All Diplomacy tier 4 items now require Diplomacy level 25 to use.
- All Diplomacy tier 5 items now require Diplomacy level 35 to use.
- Quests in New Targonor for the following Noble Houses have been updated: House Remniol, House Hilthorn, House Heartsworn.
- The King of New Targonor now offers a Diplomacy quest to acquire a Commission of Occupation to build a Thestran guild hall. This quest requires a large amount of Information of varying rarities and quality to complete. Oh, and baubles. Lots of baubles.
- The Sultan of Ahgram now offers a Diplomacy quest to acquire a Guarantee of Occupation to build a Qalian guild hall. This quest requires a large amount of Information of varying rarities and quality to complete. Oh, and baubles. Lots of baubles.
- Ji Ki the Teacher, Most Trusted of the Emperor of the Kojani, now offers a Diplomacy quest to acquire a Sanction of Occupation to build a Kojani guild hall. This quest requires a large amount of Information of varying rarities and quality to complete. Oh, and baubles. Lots of baubles.
- The Afrit Civic Diplomacy benefit Sand Running no longer produces text over and over in your chat window.
- Tier 4 Diplomacy Clothing is now available across all 3 continents. Informants of the Lamplighters will now take your “Vital” Evidence, Rumors, and Hearsay and exchange them for tier 4 clothing, including cloaks. Enjoy the god* and demi-god-themed clothing!
- Smelly Cat’s Loot Table has been slightly altered to drop new cards.
- Eldor’s Parley Loot Table has been slightly altered to drop more cards.
- Diplomacy cash loot (with the exception of Edson's Home Brew) now has no weight.
- Edson’s Home Brew (cash loot from the Three Rivers quest “Legend of the Blue Boar”) can now be placed in your house as a small keg.
- Writ Facets now have a stack size of 100, and no weight.
- Ruby Druse and Topaz Shank Facets are no longer earring items.
- Facets are now level 20 rare items.
- Diplomacy cards now will give an error message if you already possess the ability they grant.
- Diplomacy Assertions and Comments are now item level 15, required level 1.
- Diplomacy Evaluations, Repeals, and Rebuttals are now item level 25, required level 1.
- Diplomacy “House Cards” are now item level 35, required level 25.
- All Diplomacy cards can now be sold to vendors, including soul-bound ones.
- Kafus Thunderaxe is now a Clergy through and through. No more Noble predilections.
- Kafus Thunderaxe now has an updated deck, with a hint to secret alliances hidden inside.
- In Bordinar’s Cleft, the Academic Interview “Sage Words” now gives a 5% Ingenuity buff to Crafters.
NPCs
- Adjusted the collision for treants so quest bangs no longer show inside of their heads.
- Fix to problem where some flying NPC's play turn animations while moving causing animation hitching.
- Fix to NPC's on mounts constantly replaying their death animations.
- Fixed an issue where grouped NPC's would not properly leash because they would continuously chain agro each other.
ITEMS
- Procs will no longer apply spirit link damage/healing.
- Procs will no longer receive the benefit of healing mod. This fixes the issue where spirit link (which is classified as a proc) would gain healing mod
- Fixed an issue where you could recharge items by placing them in a housing chest.
- Added new item rarity "Fabled" that is between "Legendary" and "Heroic". Text color on the item name is purple.
- Cash loot items will now cost the appropriate amount of money to send.
- Rare items will now cost more than Mundane, Common and Uncommon items to send in the mail.
- Fix for double-stat removal when an item was deleted from inventory.
- Arazmus, Xiphos of Slaughter now has the proper description text
- All Heroic versions of Arazmus are now unsellable
- The item “Juggernaut War Drums” has had its drop rate slightly increased.
- The Rahz Inkur Legendary helms have been raised to level 50
PLAYER HOUSING
- You should now be able to inspect and interact with your building/plot for anywhere in the building or outside of it.
- Fixed permission issues with Moving and Picking up of fixtures
- Housing Escrow Merchant. Made it so the drag and drop and item select is no longer an option for this window. The current functionality of right clicking to purchase the items is what should be used.
PVP
- PvP abilities are now capped to a percentage of the target's maximum health.
- PvP - Players can now use abilities on PC pets.
WORLD POPULATION
- Cragwind Ridge - Additional feedback has been added to the Lesser shrines events in Cragwind Ridge
- Cragwind Ridge - Zarglax is Cragwind Ridge now tells people that he will trade a Dull Mistral Shard for Pulsating Chunks Of Mistral
- Gorgalog Swamp – Serene Leaf armor will now correctly display as “Serene Leaf” within the assembly recipes window instead of “Fae Blessed”.
- Gorgalog Swamp - Serene Leaf Wristguards now correctly require Forest Essence Wristguards within the assembly recipe.
- Gorgalog Swamp - Swamp Shaman Wristguards now correctly require Patchwork Chitin Wristguards within the assembly recipe.
- Gorgalog Swamp – Lord Faladrian of the Flordiel civilization will now drop the chest-armor components required with the Ichtakhtan civilization.
- Gorgalog Swamp – Tishra of the Gorgalok civilization will now drop the chest-armor components required with the Flordiel civilization.
- Gorgalog Swamp – Queen Vixxaeva of the Ichtakhta civilization will now drop the chest-armor components required with the Gorgalok civilization.
- Gorgalog Swamp – The quest “Patchwork Chitin: Tunic” now correctly requires “Flordiel Tree Pulp” instead of “Torn Gorgalok Skin”
- Gorgalog Swamp – Shadowmantis armor now requires the correct components in order to complete the assembly recipe.
- Gorgalog Swamp – Grove Mothers, Flordiel Explorers, Flordiel Swampwalkers, Savage Tree Landstalkers, Savage Tree Spiritists, and Savage Tree Wanderers now have a chance to drop waist and wrist components necessary for the Ichtakhta-aligned armor quests.
- Gorgalog Swamp – Arch Magus Hegnerianis now leashed to his chamber.
- Gorgalog Swamp – Modified skinnable NPCs within the dungeon of Gorgaluk to have an increased chance to drop Supple Hides. Skin away!
- Gorgalog Swamp – Vibrant Petal Robe is now imbued with magical energy of the Flordiel, allowing the wearer to transform into a fairy and increasing their party members’ combat and healing effectiveness.
- Gorgalog Swamp – Feral Leaf Tunic is now imbued with magical energy of the Flordiel, allowing the wearer to seek the aid of a brownie assassin during combat.
- Gorgalog Swamp – Serene Leaf Tunic is now imbued with magical energy of the Flordiel, allowing the wearer to transform into a wisp, increasing spell and melee critical strike chance of their party members as well as endurance and energy regeneration.
- Gorgalog Swamp – Fae Blessed Breastplate is now imbued with magical energy of the Flordiel, allowing the wearer to call forth an ancient treant to grant its spells and abilities in or out of combat.
- Gorgalog Swamp – Shimmering Silverbark Breastplate is now imbued with magical energy of the Flordiel, allowing the wearer to take on the shape of a treant, greatly increasing their combat effectiveness.
- Gorgalog Swamp – Fireweave Robe is now imbued with magical energy of the Gorgalok, allowing the wearer to conjure forth a blast of flame to affect all nearby opponents.
- Gorgalog Swamp – Flare Totem Tunic is now imbued with magical energy of the Gorgalok, allowing the wearer to bolster their endurance and increase their combat effectiveness.
- Gorgalog Swamp – Swamp Shaman Tunic is now imbued with magical energy of the Gorgalok, allowing the wearer to unleash healing flame on an ally which will damage all enemies surrounding the affected ally over time.
- Gorgalog Swamp – Palladium Breastplate is now imbued with magical energy of the Gorgalok, allowing the wearer to ignite their soul and increasing spiritual damage while receiving a percentage of damage done back as health. It also regenerates party members’ energy through offensive direct spell damage of the wearer.
- Gorgalog Swamp – Skull Plated Breastplate is now imbued with magical energy of the Gorgalok, allowing the wearer to become infuriated, greatly increasing their damage output.
- Gorgalog Swamp – Phytotoxinous Robe is now imbued with magical energy of the Ichtakhta, allowing the wearer to burrow deep into the ground and seek sanctuary from all hostile actions.
- Gorgalog Swamp – Shadowmantis Tunic is now imbued with magical energy of the Ichtakhta, allowing the wearer to inject their opponent with damaging and debilitating parasites.
- Gorgalog Swamp – Reverberating Sap Tunic is now imbued with magical energy of the Ichtakhta, allowing the wearer to incubate an Ichtakhtan egg which contains young possessing healing and energizing capabilities.
- Gorgalog Swamp – Biochitinous Breastplate is now imbued with magical energy of the Ichtakhta, allowing the wearer to be surrounded by cocooning tendrils, increasing the wearer’s energy regeneration.
- Gorgalog Swamp – Impervious Chitin Breastplate is now imbued with magical energy of the Ichtakhta, allowing the wearer to transform into an Ichtakhtan and gaining increased hit points.
- Gorgalog Swamp – Stockpiler Gelmitz now has the title of “(Ichtakhta Quartermaster)” to signify him being the source of the Ichtakhtan armor quests
- Gorgalog Swamp – Stockpiler Gelmitz is no longer attackable
- Gorgalog Swamp – Telnia now has the title of “(Flordiel Quartermaster)” to signify her being the source of the Flordiel armor quests
- Gorgalog Swamp – Telnia is no longer attackable
- Gorgalog Swamp – The quest “Treated Sap Gloves” has been renamed to “Strident Sap Gloves”
- Gorgalog Swamp – The quest “Hardened Wood Breastplate” has been renamed to “Mantidae Forged Breastplate”
- Gorgalog Swamp – The quest “Hardened Wood Gloves” has been renamed to “Mantidae Forged Gauntlets”
- Gorgalog Swamp – The quest “Formed Leaf Cuffs” has been renamed to “Stasis Threaded Cuffs”
- Gorgalog Swamp – Fixed typos in the ability name and description for the Biochitinous Breastplate
- Gorgalog Swamp – Fixed a typo in the ability description for the Reverberating Sap Tunic
- Gorgalog Swamp – Fixed a grammatical error in the ability description for the Shimmering Silverbark Breastplate
- Gorgalog Swamp – Factionally aligned chest-armor quests are now flagged as a “Group” quest rather than “Raid”
- Gorgalog Swamp – All factionally aligned medium “fighter” quests are now available to medium “healers” (except Clerics) for those players who choose a more melee approach for their character.
- Gorgalog Swamp – All factionally aligned heavy “fighter” quests are now available to Clerics for those players who choose a more melee approach for their character. Note that Clerics who still wish to obtain the specialized Cleric-only armor will need to continue with the medium “healer” armor and upgrade it to the plate version afterwards.
- Gorgalog Swamp – Paladins are no longer listed as a usable class for Biochitinous, Palladium, or the Fae Blessed set of armor.
- Gorgalog Swamp – Players are now able to see the factionally aligned armor sets in the assembly window after completing the introductory quest or any armor quest for a civilization.
- Gorgalog Swamp – The dropped armor components for all factionally aligned armor quests now only list the classes whom may use the end result after completing the quest.
- Gorgalog Swamp – Special wording has been added to all dropped armor components for the medium “healer” armor quests to signify that clerics will need to take that avenue of questing in order to achieve their specialized armor.
- Gorgalog Swamp – Skull Plate Breastplate’s ability “Infuriate” has been modified to increase melee and ranged critical strike by 4% and accuracy by 10% in addition to its previous effect.
- Gorgalog Swamp – Biochitinous Breastplate’s ability “Cocooning Tendrils” has had its effectiveness increased to regenerate 1020 energy over 6 seconds rather than its previous 600 energy.
- Gorgalog Swamp – Impervious Chitin Breastplate’s ability “Form of the Ichtakhta” has had its effectiveness increased to increase maximum hit points by 950 rather than its previous 750 hit points. It will also now instantly heal 950 hit points upon use to close the gap on the new addition of hit points.
- Gorgalog Swamp – Arch Magus Hegnerian is now immune to Fear, Stun, Mesmerize, Slow, Charm, Snare, Silence and Killing Blow attacks.
- Gorgalog Swamp – Euralon the Timeweaver is now immune to Fear, Stun, Mesmerize, Slow, Charm, Snare, Silence, and Killing Blow attacks.
- Gorgalog Swamp – Myrdicos the Binder is now immune to Fear, Stun, Mesmerize, Slow, Charm, Snare, Silence, and Killing Blow attacks.
- Gorgalog Swamp – Raea the Phage is now immune to Fear, Stun, Mesmerize, Slow, Charm, Snare, Silence, and Killing Blow attacks.
- Gorgalog Swamp – Raea the Phage, Myrdicos the Binder, and Euralon the Timeweaver have placed a spell of banishment around Hegnerian’s Temple. Anyone attempting to bypass their seal will instantly be banished from Hegnerian’s Temple. This will also affect players who log out within the walls of the temple or attempt to confront Hegnerian if the guardians are alive. Defeat the guardians and the seal is broken.
- Khal - Wadj Peheb at the Bayside Outpost near Khal is now a general goods vendor.
- NPC - Dammar Harami has been reduced in difficulty to be in line with the difficulty of the camp in which he is found and the quality of loot he drops.
- NPC - Angry Puny Scorpions have now been assigned a non-aggro faction. This will cause them to have a yellow name rather than white.
- Nusibe Necropolis – Traps will now do more damage. Beware!
- Quests - The quest “Confronting Hegnerian” should now give you proper credit when Hegnerian is killed.
- Quests - The Quest “When in Gorgalok:Trust” has been tweaked a bit. ( this will allow players that were previously gated to be able to complete the quest)
- Tehatamani Empire - The waves in the beacon events in Tehatamani empire should all spawn 3 minutes apart now.
- The dungeon “Tricksters Haven” located in Razad has had its population tweaked as well as quest pass. Trickster’s Haven:
“I think this is it, Master,” whispered Bakijar, “the lost palace you have sought out for so long.” Bakijar was barely able to contain his excitement, perhaps because his master had vowed not to feed him until the palace’s treasure was discovered.
“Keep your voice down,” Azzad shushed. “We do not yet know what we have stumbled upon...” Azzad continued under his breath, “…or what may be waiting for us within.”
Azzad shook the thought from his mind and motioned to the sandstone structure hidden just beneath the dunes. “I entrusted Alaqua to find worthy people to help us excavate. They should be here by morning at the latest.” Azzad knelt to examine the few carvings that were visible, and blew some dust away for a clearer look.
Azzad traced the symbols with his finger. ”But by the looks of it, I fear that this is not the lost palace at all.” His brows knit in concentration as he struggled to translate the ancient symbols. “This may be, instead, a place that is said to exist only in legends.”
Azzad rose to his feet, dusting off his hands and knees. “Tell me, Bakijar, are you familiar with the tragic tale of Kall’Raa, the Muse?”
“No, Master?” Bakijar’s voice rose with curiosity.
“Well,” Azzad smiled, “It is said to have started when Finch, the god of Mischief….”
“Master,” interrupted Bakijar, ”someone is coming!”
Azzad turned to look in the direction Bakijar was pointing, and squinted into the night. “It is surely a worker Alaqua hired to help us excavate. It seems you will have to hear the tale of Kall’Raa some other time.”
Can Azzad and Bakijar trust Alaqua? What has been discovered in Razad? What is the story of Kall’Raa? Player’s level 41-45 can to find the answers to these questions in the village of Razad
CODING
CLIENT
- The name of the owner of a ship now displays under the name of the ship.
- Fix for players losing their titles after chunking long distances or recalling to another chunk.
- Fixed some issues with how the client determines how much memory is free, which means that it will now try to free up memory (delete levels, and other things, and then garbage collect) BEFORE it runs out of memory.
- More adjustments to reduce hitching when viewing characters.
ENGINE
- Performance should see a significant boost, especially for computers with less than 2GB of memory. The client will now use a great deal less memory from textures. This option will be enabled by default without requiring the user to wipe their vgclient.ini. It will be enabled for all configurations.
SERVER
- Multiple uncommon chunk crashes fixed.
- Players will no longer see the "Stuck!!!" text above NPC's heads.
- Fixed a bug where when you removed money from the mailbox that would put you over the money cap it would be deleted.
- When building a guild hall all nearby players will be moved to the "For Sale" sign to avoid characters becoming stuck.
- Fixed a bug that was causing players to stop driving their ship each time they chunked.
- Beneficial buffs are no longer removed at the end of a duel.
- You can no longer turn in work orders while trading with another player.
- Fixed a bug where the player would come into the game crouched.
- Fix for Goblins and Orcs dying upon character create and crashing
- Additional collision issues fixed with NPC's that are scaled to different heights.
- Hit animations now have a delay before the next one is played so that other animations can be seen.
UI
- Changed to the group window to add and remove members by handle instead of index.
- The layout of the quest journal window has been changed to allow more information to be shown at once. A new button "Auto-track" has been added which brings up a new window to set options for the new auto quest tracker feature.
- Fix to saddlebags to display slots.
- The group window should once again only show the players in your group and not go above 5 additional players.
- The combat text options in the settings window now have appropriate tooltips.
- Added a "Two Handed" slot search on brokers.
- EfficientTextures is now a toggle in the Video Performance section of the Settings menu.
- Fixed an issue with the market window not properly displaying items that had more then 99 charges.
- Ratings on items will now, in addition to the current/previous Rating numbers, display the percentage bonus versus an opponent of a level equal to you (ie, 2.03% vs Lvl 50).
- Items will now show the percentage chance to fire for items with 'Chance on Hit:' abilities.
- Items will now display the ability description of On Equip, Activated and Attached abilities 'IF' such a description exists.
- Removed Weight and Item Level from the tooltip.
- XML errors in various windows have been fixed.
- XML Schema updated to reflect recently added UI functionality.
- Removed the "Hide My Helm" checkbox in the video settings since we can't show helms anyway.
- Widened the reuse text field on parlay cards so large numbers won't be cut off.
- Enlarged the text field on item names to show 3 lines as well as extend to the new size of the item examine window.
- More general memory leak fixes with the UI.
~The Vanguard Team
