24 June 2004 - SoR Release Notes


What's new
---------
• The "use item power" action has been reviewed :
      > The description in the info window has been improved.
      > When the weapon in your right hand isn't enchanted, the action's icon is greyed.
      > You cannot compose this action yourself, but it's present in the Progression window (Fight skill-tree).
• Multi-target attacks (basically, area of effect attacks) won't give you as much XP as before.
• Progression for fighters and magicians should be 1.5 times longer from level 20 to level 50, and 2 times longer for the levels above.
• When casting a link spell, if it is partially resisted, the target will be affected for less time then if it fully landed on the target.
• The generic raw material (aka. "wonder mat") now has an average quality only in all stats.
• The new weather system will have an impact on your harvests.
• A new kind of raw material sources have been found, kitin larvas (giving you the kitin larva material).
• New stanzas and actions specific to "particle" materials (ex : Pilan Oil) have been implemented.


Camera system
---------
• The default rotation speed of the camera has been multiplied by 4.
• The latency between your mouse click and the activation of Free Look mode has been reduced.
• Click and hold the right mouse button to rotate both the camera and your character.
• Click and hold the left mouse button to rotate the camera only. NB : The orientation remains even when you release the button, but your character will turn his back to the camera as soon as you move again.
• Press "1" or "2" on the numpad to rotate the camera the same way as the left mouse button would do.
• Click the middle mouse button or press "." (numpad) to put the camera back behind your character.
• Press the left and right mouse buttons in the same time to walk forward (release them to stop walking).
• Note : all the features above work in 1st and 3rd person alike.
• Follow Mode : in 1st person view, the camera automatically faces your target, in 3rd person it doesn't.


Bug fixes
---------
• The position of the camera when you're in water has been modified.
• Using the Follow mode will now turn off the Auto-Run mode if it was on.
• In certain circumstances, to drag & drop items would cause the equipment slots to bug.
• Fixed a bug that caused your opponent to be inflicted enormous damages when he resisted your offensive spell.
• Some of the newest creatures lacked animations, they should now behave as intended.
• Fixed a critical bug in the auto-stacking of items, responsible for several server crashes.
• Actions comprising two stanzas of the same family (ex : hit rate + bleeding) will now work.
• Some ambient sounds happened to stop playing when you walked or teleported to a near place.
• A bug in the rewards system (for missions) has been fixed.
• Chat bubbles now appear only when the text they contain is loaded.
• Sometimes a player could own a mektoub without a mektoub ticket, which wasn't right.
• Area of effect attacks (weapon or spell) used on non-aggressive targets sometimes crashed the game.
• The text length in your ticket reports' description field shouldn't be limited anymore.


Known bugs
---------
• You might encounter a crash during patching, when the client tries to update nel_drv_direct3d_win_rd.dll or nel_drv_opengl_win_rd.dll while they are in use. Switching to the other display mode (OGL if you were in D3D, or D3D if you were in OGL) and back should let you complete the patching process.
• NPC / players names are invisible most of the time, you need to change any name-displaying option in the game settings in order to fix that (works in a range of 20 meters around you).
• Character Creation still mentions Self-Heal 1 in your character's actions (instead of Acid 1).

18 June 2004 - SoR Release Note

This patch is server-side only. We fixed some server instabilities due to the auto-stack system.

15 June 2004 - SoR Release Notes


Interface
---------
• Farewell, NeL Launcher... Connection / shards list / patching are implemented directly in the client !
• New, revamped support tools are now available (sending stats, bug reports, help requests...).
• The background rooms in Character Creation have been reviewed.
• A fame trend interface lets you visualize your personal, guild, and civilization fame.
• The colors used for system messages have been reviewed, for a better readability and visual coherence.
• The Action Progression window has been reviewed :
      > Characteristics and actions upgrades are displayed in a different tab than actual actions.
      > Actions which you haven't learned yet are greyed out.
      > Actions which you can't learn yet (missing required skills) are greyed out and tinted with red.
      > If you miss some skills required to learn an action, you can view them in that action's info window.
• When learning actions or trading raw materials with an NPC, the info window displays more details about the actions' stanzas and the raw materials' stats.
• To left-click an empty action slot in the Hands Bar will also display the "create new action" menu.
• Broadcast messages now appear centered on your screen, so that you don't miss them. :)
• [bug fix] The display interface for your current / cyclic / next action should work better now.
• [bug fix] The info window for raw materials was too narrow, their gauges were cut on their right end.
• [bug fix] The width of interface windows wasn't saved properly.


Gameplay
---------
• NPC tribes can be attacked - but beware : to kill (or help to kill) an NPC will cause you to lose some fame with this NPC's faction.
• The self-heal skill tree has been replaced with (non-magic) powers ; it should work better than the previous system. They heal a big amount of points at once and can be used every 2 or 5 minutes. The former default Self-Heal spell has been replaced with an Acid 1 spell (it will probably be replaced with another spell later on).
• The dodge / parry table has been reviewed. As a result, you have a better chance to dodge / parry the NPCs' or creatures' attacks (this will make "opening after dodge / parry" stanzas more useful).
• Targetting has been improved. To select entities with the Space key isn't cyclic anymore ; you will select the entity which is the closest and the most in front of you (no more targetting in your back).
• New tasks (beginners' missions) have been added.
• Open PvP has been enabled in the Matis Arena.
• The maximum protection of armors and shields has been adjusted ; the difference from Light to Medium to Heavy is more noticeable and should make items of higher level worth the purchase.
• The rifle and bow-rifle weapons, as well as the pistol and bow-pistol, now belong to the same skill tree for Crafting and Combat (they still offer different stats).
• [bug fix] Actions with an area of effect (spells or ranged weapons) don't affect corpses anymore. :)
• [bug fix] Mektoub packers should work better (respawn, dismiss, go to stable, exchange, interface).
• [bug fix] The stanzas in some actions you learnt couldn't be reused to create custom actions.


XP / Progression
---------
• When crafting, the XP gain is now proportional to the quantity of raw materials required to craft the item.
• The progression rate in harvesting should be faster now.
• Various changes in the gameplay should make progression faster in melee combat, ranged combat and offensive magic.
• Solo progression should be closer to grouped progression in terms of effectiveness.
• We've set a limit in the number of "worthy" actions in the same fight. It means that during a fight, after a while each new action will give you a bit less XP than the previous one ; once you've done a certain number of actions, you won't get any further XP from that fight / mob.
• The System Info log now tells you the exact amount of XP you gain with your actions. This feature will probably be removed on release.


Combat
---------
• The result of dodging and parrying actions can now be partially successful (it affects the damage).
• Opening stanzas can be used with melee weapons only.
• The bleeding effect now lasts 30 seconds (instead of 10 seconds).
• Damages inflicted by the bleeding effect can't be affected by other stanzas. This means that if you create a "better damage + bleeding" action, your first hit will be more powerful but the bleeding damage will then be as usual (unaffected by the first hit bonus).
• All "aim at" stanzas now cost only 5 skill points to learn.
• "Autolauncher" weapons will use a different set of animations.
• [bug fix] A bug allowed you to use infinite ammo, it shouldn't happen now.
• [bug fix] Switching weapons during a fight disengages it (should prevent a few bugs and exploits).
• [bug fix] The staff was considered a two-handed weapon but it's actually a one-handed weapon.
• [bug fix] A few missing or bugged texts in combat stanzas / actions have been fixed.


Magic
---------
• All spells with an area of effect are temporarily disabled.
• The minimum skill level required to learn "dual effect" spells is now 100 instead of 50.
• [bug fix] The nasty bug which could make people die when healing them with an area of effect is gone.


Crafting / Harvesting
---------
• [bug fix] Some raw materials had a wrong color property, displaying "???" instead of the color.
• [bug fix] Sometimes you could confirm a crafting action whereas no plan or material was selected, causing the game to crash ; it shouldn't happen anymore.


What else is new
---------
• More sound FX.
• More animations.
• Areas polluted by the Goo in Zoraï Land are active again ; don't wander there !
• Some adjustments in the distribution of raw materials over the land.
• Officers wearing red have arrived among the Karavan people.
• Textual emotes are partly implemented ; they might lack a color or need a translation. The text shall also differ according to your avatar's gender.


What else has been fixed
---------
• A lot of work on server stability and potential crashes.
• Sometimes a player would be invisible to anyone after a respawn, it shouldn't happen anymore.
• Several Direct3D bugs have been fixed (teleport FX, holes in objects, mipmaps, scrolling textures...).
• The trail on some swords (like the ones used by guards) should be visible again.
• Fog will work properly even when some textures are missing.
• To equip / unequip items sometimes made them invisible or mixed up, this should be fixed.
• Diadems have been fixed ; your head shouldn't disappear when you equip them. :)
• A possible speed hack has been fixed.
• Fixed a critical memory bug which affected Pentium processors using hyperthreading.
• Texts in the stand-alone SoR configuration utility are now properly localized in Windows 98.
• The player's collision box has been made taller, in order to prevent you from being stuck in some places.
• A network bug sometimes disconnected people on the Character Creation screen, it should be fixed.
• The "splash" sound when you were in water wasn't looping correctly.


Known bugs
---------
• We are in the process of tuning "water edge" combat.
• Some NPCs title / name will not display properly.
• We are still having some issues with mektoubs.
• Some missions will not grant you fame whereas they should.
• The mobs "robust raspal" are lacking some animations.
• If you click "Connect" without selecting a shard, the game will crash. :(

9 June 2004 - SoR Release Notes


What's new
---------
• The Tryker civilization is now available ! Enjoy the floating villages and beautiful lagoons...
• A whole lot of new creatures have been implemented - check them out ! =)
• The layout of fauna on all territories has been reviewed.

19 May 2004 - SoR Release Note


This patch is server-side only.


Bug fixes
---------
• Prices of materials from NPCs shouldn't fluctuate anymore. They have been lowered though.
• Casting many spells with area of effects could crash the server.

18 May 2004 - Emergency Patch


• We have fixed an issue where players were getting too much experience on kills.

18 May 2004 - SoR Release Notes

Edit : Added a couple fixes

Important in this patch : we've done a complete reset of the actions you've learned ; of course, all your SP and default actions are given back so you can learn again from the trainers. =)


Combat
---------
• The range of melee weapons is now taken into account. Here is how it works :
      > Melee weapons range does not depend on the space between you and your target.
      > It is calculated as a malus in the attacks of the opponent who has the shortest range.
      > This calculation happens only when both you and your enemy are engaged against each other.
• A few further examples of melee weapons range :
      > Player with a sword vs. yubo = malus on the yubo's attacks
      > Player with a dagger vs. kipee = malus on the dagger (shorter range)
      > Player with a dagger vs. sleeping kipee = no malus on the dagger (until the kipee strikes back :• )
      > Player with a mace vs. player with a spear = malus on the mace
• When composing a combat action, you can see the category of weapons which it is compatible with.
• The "bleeding" effect stanza can be used only with slashing weapons (swords and axes).
• New effect stanzas :
      > "Ignore armor" cancels your target's armor protection (piercing weapons only).
      > "Slow" can make your opponent's attacks up to 50% slower (blunting weapons only).
      > "Feint" simulates an attack (no damage) which lets you then use an "opening after feint" action.
• New credit stanzas :
      > "Opening after feint" ; works in combination with a "feint" action.
      > "Wear" uses your weapon a bit more in order to do a bit more damage.
• New powers :
      > "Berserk" lets you inflict more damage, but has a "damage over time" effect on your HP.
      > "Balance" averages out the amount of HP among your team (proportionally) in a 10m range.
• New aura "war cry" makes your team's attacks 30% stronger in a 10m range.
• Players and mobs should be dodging and parrying a little more.


What else is new
---------
• Complete reset of the actions you've learned, but all your SP and default actions are given back.
• The Inventory window has been revamped.
• Your character's gauges have been revamped and are more detailed now.
• Progression in offensive magic, melee and range combat has been reviewed.
• Crafting : the color property of raw materials and crafted items has been implemented.
• The "consider" system now has 12 levels of accuracy :
      > level 0 = black
      > level 1 to 20 = light green
      > level 21 to 50 = dark green
      > level 51 to 70 = light blue
      > level 71 to 100 = dark blue
      > level 101 to 120 = light yellow
      > level 121 to 150 = dark yellow
      > level 151 to 170 = light orange
      > level 171 to 200 = dark orange
      > level 201 to 220 = light red
      > level 221 to 250 = dark red
      > level 251 or more = violet
• Optimizations in the server code should let it handle up to 5000 players with more efficiency.


What else has been fixed
---------
• The harvesting exploit consisting on starting extractions repeatedly should be gone.
• Light and medium armors had a defense value of 0 (zero), it has been corrected.
• Once you reached level 250 in a skill, you would gain 10 SP every time you gained some XP in that skill.
• Sometimes a creature or NPC happened to "freeze" and stop fighting.
• Some attacks, like bleeding actions, had an effect on the target even when the hit was dodged.
• The "stench" power used by some creatures happened to crash the game.
• Target selection sometimes "lagged" or required that you reselect your target.
• There shouldn't be "undead" creatures anymore.
• The cost of crafting paterns from role masters has been tuned down.
• The caster armour has been removed and replaced. There are now robes as an alternative to trousers in light armor.

11 May 2004 - SoR Release Note


This is a client-side and server-side patch as well. No new features this time, but several crash fixes should improve stability.

7 May 2004 - SoR Release Note


This patch is server-side only.


Bug fixes
---------
• Universe channel is not operational anymore besides for GMs.
• Beware of mobs agro !.
• You should have your respawn back.

7 May 2004 - SoR Release Note


This patch is client-side only ; a server-side patch will follow later.


Bug fixes
---------
• You can play in Direct3D + windowed mode again.
• We removed the web browser pop up when you quit the game.
• A specific crash with Direct3D has been fixed.

6 May 2004 - SoR Release Note


Magic
----------
• We have made several modifications to stanzas in order to avoid some exploits. It affects all "self" stanzas. You might then notice that some actions, which you created and were based on "self" stanzas, have disappeared from your Hands bar. It does not necessarily mean that you were exploiting, but that your action was based on a stanza which could allow an exploit.
• The "range" stanza can't credit more than 1/3 of your current level's best stanza.
• As well, the "casting time" stanza can't credit more than 2/3 of your current level's best stanza.


Combat
----------
• To use the "stamina" credit stanza costs you 2 times less stamina than before.
• To use the "life" credit stanza costs you 3 times less life than before.
• Armor malus now affects the way you fight (ex : you will need more stamina if you wear a heavy armor).
• [known bug] A combat animation is lacking (when using a shield and a dagger).


Crafting
---------
• The Crafting actions you've learned besides character creation are gone ; you're given the corresponding SP back so you can learn them again.
• Crafting bonuses (HP, sap, etc) have been implemented.
• The word "pattern" has been added to all Crafting actions names, to avoid mistakes with actual items.
• You won't get a new "cloned" crafting tool anymore when you speak to the Crafting trainer.
• You need to be level 50 or more in Crafting in order to craft heavy range weapons.
• [known bug] The "How to craft" help still needs to be translated.
• [known bug] Crafters cannot learn the "heal" action, even if they have the right amount of SP.


Missions
---------
• You should meet new NPCs all over Atys ; most of them are missions givers, but not only. Some of them are wanderers, some are not.
• [known bug] Raw materials needed to fulfill new missions are not always layed out correctly ; as a result, some missions should be harder to complete than they should.
• [known bug] You cannot successfully deliver the items in deliver missions.
• [known bug] Sometimes, the message letting you know that you finished a mission is not displayed.


What else is new
---------
• The 3 playable civilizations now have their own territory to grow on.
• The Prime Roots territory is now live.
• There is now a cap on the amount of XP (per skill) you can gain from a creature, in order to avoid exploits. For now the cap is 50% of your skill level.
• The "consider" system is accurate ; the color code indicates an absolute level (NOT relative to you) :
      > black = player (or any entity of level 0)
      > green = level 1 to 20
      > blue = level 21 to 50
      > white = level 51 to 100
      > yellow = level 101 to 150
      > orange = level 151 to 200
      > red = level 201 to 250
      > violet = level 251 or more
• Actions in your Action Book are now layed out by levels, for a better readability.
• We made some adjustment to the raw materials that you can buy from vendors. You'll get better materials by harvesting / foraging than buying them.
• You won't gain any XP by fighting too weak a creature.
• The progression rate up to level 20 should be twice faster now.
• Anything said in "Shout" chat is heard in the whole region you're in.
• Fighters begin with a generic wooden dagger ; a dagger from your own civilization needs to be crafted.
• Because you engage a duel, doesn't necessarily mean that you will win...
• We removed the delay for quartering.
• The area effect of autolaunchers has been widened.


What else has been fixed
---------
• Many corrections in the Help system ; more will come.
• OpenGL compatibility with ATI hardware has been improved :
      > No more corrupted clouds on loading a new zone.
      > No corrupted graphics (flashy textures etc.) on Radeon 9500 and over.
      > Dynamic lights are now working properly.
      > Better performance, especially on Radeon 8500 / 9000 / 9200.
• Several fixes in Direct3D mode :
      > The mouse cursor should not disappear anymore.
      > Lights shoud now work fine (ex : you won't be in the dark during character creation).
      > Various FX were missing, you can see them now.
      > A few other "polish" matters have been improved.
• The selling price of ammunition has been lowered.
• You can no more dodge / parry hits during a magic, harvesting or crafting action.
• Correction of the latency in NPCs' and creatures' range attacks.
• The Universe chat channel is now restricted to SGMs and GMs only.
• If you learn from a trainer and then lose connection, the stanzas or actions you've learned won't disappear on next launch.
• If you remove from your Hands bar an action that came with your starting "action pack", this action won't come back on next launch.
• You can see all the members of your guild in the guild list, even those who are offline.


Other known bugs
---------
• Sometimes, in order to do an action or to activate the next mission step, you need to untarget the NPC / PC and target him again.
• NPCs display their HP gauge instead of their titles.
• The message telling you that you successfully sold an item is missing.
• When crafting or buying items, your character will unequip part of his equipment.
• It can happen that when you die, clicking on the respawn map won't respawn you. In such cases, relogging should fix the issue.
• The respawn map may not be properly displayed with some ATI cards.
• Radeon 8500 / 9000 / 9200 users playing in windowed OpenGL mode shouldn't use Alt+Tab, as it's likely to crash the game.

27 April 2004 - SoR Release Note


In order to get Live Chat Support out game, make sure you download the appropriate chat software. All you need then is to enter your game login and password. You can expect to meet other players in the chat as well as GMs and Guides.

French chat is here.
German chat is here.
Euro English chat is here.
North American chat is here.


What's new
----------
- We added the /afk command. In order to activate it, just type /afk . In order to remove it, you just need to perform any action or move your character .
- Typing /who GM will now display all Senior Game Masters (SGM), Game Masters (GM), Senior Guides (SG) and Guides (G) currently online.
- SGM, GM, SG and G commands, as Customer Support Representants (CSR), are getting live so they can give you a better support.
- SGM, GM, SG and G now have a different color name to other players for a better identification.
- You can now right click on a player and select "info". This will show you the name of the player and the title he has chosen, and will also provide with a list of the stanzas that someone with this title must know.
- Tutorials on refugee land are complete, and going through a debug phase at the moment. You have access to them. Make sure you check the known bugs issue about them ! Be aware that some missions require you to be Fyros in order to initiate them.
- The Action Book has been revamped, it now works as a progression window :
> It shows not only the actions you've learned, but also the actions you CAN learn.
> You can now create new actions ONLY with a right-click in the Hands bar.
> Stanzas upgrades aren't handled as actions anymore (they're marked as upgrades).
> It shows the requirements (SP cost, skills lvl) of each stanza you may want to learn.
- Crafting :
> Progression has been reviewed and is now 5 times faster.
> The SP cost for Crafting stanzas has been reviewed.
> You cannot craft all items as soon as you start a new character anymore.
- Extracting :
> Source Care actions are now faster.
> The quality of extracted resources should match your Quality stanza better.
> When a source is being extracted, the quality & quantity extracted are now displayed above it.
- Raw materials infos have been revamped.
- You can clone an action in your Hands bar (press CTRL and drag it on to a free slot).
- Creatures inflict 33% less damage now (ex : 30 instead of 45).
- Refugee Land : merchant NPCs now sell only 3 types of melee weapons + 1 type of shield.
- Main Land : no more jewelry merchants, some range weapons aren't available anymore.
- The pad has been improved .


Bug fixes
---------
- Considering your feedback, kamic wrath is being reviewed.
- You can't be killed during "post-teleportation" loading times anymore.
- Guard attacks with an area of effect now damage only the creatures, not players.
- Some animations of the Karavan NPCs have been corrected.
- Added some missing rolemasters in Pyr.
- Some NPCs orientation bugs have been corrected.
- Fixed a bug that could make you spawn invisible when logging or when using Kami teleportation.


Known bugs
---------
- Sometimes the clouds look wrong, with letters on them.
- Selling or crafting items can make your character unequip his/her armor.
- Editing a macro can make your game crash, try to avoid that.
- Emotes are still being reviewed and thus still deactivated.
- A few missions still have some French text (it's not an unknown dialect from Atys underground tribes).
- Delivery mission is lacking the info of where to deliver.