Patch 18.5 notes and server merger hint

HellCaster

Taken from here:

Lots of cool but late changes with pets, logging back to a character select screen and the GMS. Server merger highlighted in red.

Login and Character Selection

• The Launcher Window has been streamlined and visually improved
• The Login Window now takes you to a visual Character Selection screen
• You may return to the Character Selection screen while in-game by using /camp or pressing CTRL+F10 (/quit and ALT+F4 will still attempt to quit the client)
• You will no longer receive a warning message when attempting to start multiple game clients
• The Character Creation field of view will no longer appear stretched on a widescreen monitor with a high resolution (1920 x 1080)
• We fixed an issue that caused horizontal artefacts on the Loading Screen, and the image will now display at the correct position

NEW Global Market Interface

Features:

• The items you buy will automatically be delivered to your in-game mail inbox. Please note that these delivery mails times out after 7 days, and normal mails after 14 days.
• You may access the new interface directly from the Market Terminals located within the main cities or with your Portable Market Terminal
• You can search for all tradable items
• You can trade across servers, allowing for more accessibility and a more unified economy in preparations for a server migration
• You can buy existing items directly, or create buy orders with your preferred price
• You can sell items directly to an existing buy order, or create sell orders with your preferred price
• You can sell and buy more than one of an item at a time
• You can sell and buy unique items
• A small fee will be deducted when creating a buy or a sell order and a small tax will be deducted from the seller when an item is bought to prevent players from abusing the system

Requirements:

• You don't need an organization to use the market!
• You need to be a subscriber to do transactions (Alien Invasion)
• Free players can browse the market

Item and Nano Formula Updates

• The Meta-Physicist's Pets and the Bureaucrat's Robotic Pets will no longer despawn unless dismissed by their owner. Social pets and Charmed pets are now the only Temporary Pets.
• Engineers' and Bureaucrats' AOE auras are now functioning like team auras instead of vicinity auras.
  This is an important change that will reduce the stress on the servers and increase the user's control over who gets the effect of this buff, meaning you will no longer be accidentally PvP-flagged by a random person in your vicinity while having this aura running and you will no longer buff your opponent when dueling them.
  The user's pets will be affected by these auras as well, and your team mate will get the effect of this buff even if they are not in your immediate vicinity.
• The lower tiers (1-5) of the Dust Brigade Bracer can now be used by lower level characters (starting from 175), while the higher tiers (6 and up) are for characters level 201 and higher. These items are still expansion content.
• The PvP-flag obtained by attacking or using actions against an already PvV flagged player has been lowered from 15 minutes to 5 minutes
• The PvP-flag obtained by doing specific daily missions will no longer cause an attacker to get the Land Control Tower flag, it's duration is still 15 minutes
• The PvP-flag obtained by the "I Fail" Button has been lowered to 5 minutes
• The PvP-flag obtained by attacking a Land Control Tower without having an organization has been lowered from 4 hours to 1 hour
• The NCU icon of the 5 minute PVP-flag has been adjusted to reflect the shorter duration
• Hydro Vehicles, Carrier Vehicles and The Mid may no longer be used in the Battle Station to prevent a client crash issue
• The MP Nano "Improved Instill with Malign Intent" now displays the appropriate buff value
• The Blackpack and other backpacks can no longer be placed on the ground
• The Nippy John Stiletto now drops a little more frequently, however, it is still meant to be fairly rare
• The drop rate on Jathos' Molybdenum Plate Helmet, Kegern's Molybdenum Plate Helmet, the Proactive Helmet and the Reactive Helmet has been altered to be more consistent with the rest of the armor pieces in these sets
• Buff nano formulas with zero duration are no longer "buffs" (this has no effect for you right now but has value behind the scenes)
• Low level fear nanos no longer fear the target permanently
• Taunt nanos no longer damage the target for 1 health point
• Nano based damage is now affected by the individual Damage Modifier stats
  This means that equipping gear with Damage Modifier stats will be beneficial for casting classes damage output.
  Some items and buffs containing the NanoDamageMultiplier stat have been adjusted to reflect this change.

New Items

• "Docaholic's Ring of Treatment" now drops from locations where other rings have a chance to drop
• New Social items will be given to reward those who report bugs via the Report a Bug/Exploit Forums

GUI Updates

• The Battlestation minimap should now display correctly across all resolutions
• The labels on the Social Wear tab no longer display on top of the gear icons
• The amount of Alien XP will now display correctly when you reach a new Alien Title, showing both in the status bar and the systems messages
• The Alien Perk help button now displays correctly when the player receives their first Alien Title
• The Nano Cost display in the Nano Description window will now take your Nano Cost reduction gear into consideration
• We fixed an issue where some tells were not logged depending on whether you were chatting in a chat box or in the chat window
• The LFT interface default values have been adjusted. By default the interface will now search for a character of any side, any profession, on Rubi-Ka (The old default values would search for a Neutral Soldier in the same playfield)
• We fixed a visual glitch where the pet's health bar would display incorrectly when being outside of your range
• The Time Exist counter will now correcty display on items you have equipped
• We improved the way damage and health values are displayed in the item tooltips
• The icon indicating recharge for Nano Formulas with Local Cooldown will now correctly display in the Nano Window

Code Updates

• Doing one of the following things on a PvP flagged player will now correctly trigger a temporary PvP flag on the user:
  - Casting a friendly OR hostile Nano Formula
  - Attacking with a pet
  - Using an item
• Auto Attack has been disabled
• /pet hunt command has been disabled
• The HTML parser now support wrapping the > character in quotation marks
• The IGNORED nameplate will no longer get cut off on some character name lengths
• NPC's "Give Item" window will now appear even when the player has a trade window open

Environment and Mission Updates

• The Dyna Boss camp "Malah Eadem" in north of Penumbra has now been made accessible, as it's location has been moved
• We fixed an issue where Unredeemed Roch would not always respond properly
• We improved two player cities in Three Craters. The ship should now land, and the aliens should locate the City Controller properly
• All inhabitants of the Smugglers' Den and the Mantis' Hive have had their spawn timers reduced significantly, and their spawn chances increased to 100%
• Mantis Tunnels can now be utilized as shortcuts inside this dungeon
• All Alien Regeneration Conduits (also known as snare towers) have been removed
• The grunt monsters in Arid Rift will now return to their original spawn location after chasing you for ~60 meters (they used to chase you for longer than that)
• Molokhs have been reduced in size and should no longer cause the camera to be inside the monster when fighting it
• The Scheol Progression Quest now offers the Adonis Meta-Water Repellent Suit even if you are level 129 or lower
• The reward buffs from various instances no longer stacks, this is to prevent people who enjoy pvp from depending on collecting all these buffs before engaging in pvp. These buffs have also been made visible in your target's NCU window.

• We fixed Various Typos
• We fixed Various Exploits

 

Such a shame that hey haven't delivered on the promised engine; I still miss this game but not enough to pay for it in it's current condition.

 

Bastillen

To me AO is the best game, partly because it was my first game. Kind of like with girlfriends. Try both need their ned graphics.