Hellgate: London v1.2 Patch Released

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Written by BuckGB on March 17th, 2008

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Hello everyone!

This patch is has some major skill changes, a few vital balance tweaks, some pesky bug fixes, and a highly-requested new feature.

First and foremost is the introduction of our in-game mail system. This is something that we know is of vital interest to our community, and is the foundation for our consignment / auction house system. Players can not only send and receive messages with anyone in the game, but they can also attach Palladium and items to their mail. This makes getting items from one character to another even your own much simpler and more convenient. And while you need to be in a Station to attach or receive items and Palladium, you can read your messages anywhere, anytime.

We're also rolling out the second of our major character class balance passes. In this patch, we've done a comprehensive balance pass on the Marksman. We focused on addressing a number of issues that have made the class vastly over-powered in comparison to the rest of the classes and the desired difficulty of the game. There are also numerous areas where we have increased the effectiveness of, or altered skills to give Marksman players a wider variety of builds and tactics.

Chief amongst these changes is addressing the notorious skill/weapon combinations involving Ricochet, Reflecting Shot, Multishot, Rapid Fire, Heightened Senses, Beacon, Dead Eye, and Hollow Points, while using a high rate of fire weapon, such as an Arclight Rifle. While we realize that making choices on skill, item, and mod combinations which complement each other is a fundamental design element most emphasized with the Marksman in particular, there should never be one combination of skills which completely outshines the rest.

We didn't want to entirely remove the most overpowered Marksman skill combinations altogether, however, and we also didn't want to leave other Marksman skill issues unaddressed. This would have been largely unfair to the Marksman players. As a result, you'll see a large number of changes to the skills - such as synergies to the Ballistics, Grenade, and Precision Strike skill groups - that should promote an increased variety of specialized builds and create a more diversified play experience overall. We've been doing a lot of balance and tweaking over the past few weeks in Test Center with these changes, and we're excited to roll them out to all of our players. Big thanks to everyone for all the great feedback!

We're also introducing our first (pets with abilities) in this patch. These pets can be found out in the Wild and offer more for brave adventurers than mere companionship. Keep an eye out for those Mysterious Eggs!

Finally, there are a MASSIVE amount of other fixes and additions in this patch, including adjusting the difficulty of the Nightmare end-game, making the big Moloch battle more interesting and challenging, adding a slew of new Unique items and challenges in the Wild, and much, MUCH more.

Thanks again to everyone for their great feedback and continued support of making Hellgate: London bigger and better.

See you online!

The Hellgate: London Team

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In-Game Mail
Characters can now send and receive mail from any other character, including characters within the same account. Mail consists of text messages, and one item of any size and any amount of Palladium can be attached for delivery. Here are some of the features of the mail system.

• Mail can be read anywhere in the game via the Mail panel. This can be accessed using the Z key or using the Mail icon located underneath the chat panel.
• Items and Palladium can only be attached or removed from mail while the character is in a Station.
• Mail can be sent to any player whose name is known, regardless of whether they are online or not. You can only send mail to one character at a time or to your entire guild.
• Mail is only stored for a certain amount of time. The mail panel shows how long each message has left before it is automatically deleted. Different types of mail (such as those with attachments or unread mail) may stay in your inbox for longer or shorter periods of time.
• While you can send mail to character in a different mode (Hardcore, Elite, and Hardcore Elite) you cannot attach items or Palladium in a cross-mode email. This follows the same rules as trading items.
• You can't mail quest items or non-tradable items (such as Dye Kits or a Skill Retrainer).

General

• Adjusted difficulty of the Nightmare endgame. Decreased the ramp of the damage penalty that players face against monsters higher than their level.
• Fields from different sources can now stack. Please note that the graphics from new fields still override those of previous fields.
• Players must now wait 5 seconds before they can re-enter a Hellrift.
• Fixed a bug which caused weapons to disappear when swapping weapon sets in the middle of performing certain skills.
• Fixed a bug which caused the /played command to display the incorrect amount of time played.
• If a player dies during (or just before) a cut-scene begins playing or the game begins loading, the re-spawn options menu will come up after the cut-scene or loading screen is completed.
• Vendor inventories in Nightmare difficulty should now be stocked with Nightmare-level items.
• The Shock effect now deals damage immediately when it's applied.
• Several character and monster animations have been improved.
• Fixed known Blueprint exploits.
• Fixed a bug which sometimes caused files to require unnecessary patching.
• Fixed a bug which caused the mini-game to become stuck if the player zoned to town or quit the game immediately after completing a round of the mini-game.

Stonehenge

Moloch

• The Necro Fall zone has an increased monster spawn density of approximately 25% and the monsters are now 2 levels higher than before.
• Moloch has been further increased in difficulty, as well as being more resistant to Ignite and Ignite Damage. Be sure you're well prepared before attempting to defeat him in Hardcore Elite Mode!
• Moloch now has a chance to drop the following additional, extra-rare loot for every player who defeats him:
  • 1% chance to drop an Attribute Retrainer. This item allows a character to (zero out) all points put into attributes (Accuracy, Strength, Stamina, and Willpower) and freely reassign them. These items are tradable between all players.
  • 5% chance to drop one of a new class of dye kits that have intrinsic properties. These properties scale with the level of the item, so one gained from Moloch at level 50 will be better than one gained from Moloch at level 30. These dye kits are tradable between subscribers. In order of least rare to most rare:
    • Earth Core Dye Kit: Health regeneration
    • Dark Vengeance Dye Kit: + to luck
    • Indigo Fire Dye Kit: Electricity (thorns damage) effect
    • Copper Sky Dye Kit: + to all Elemental special effect defense
    • Ivory Haze Dye Kit: + to Shields
    • Vanquish Dye Kit: +1 level of Sprint skill (this does not scale)
    • Cold Steel Dye Kit: + to Armor
    • Black Knight Dye Kit: + to all attributes

The Wild

• The Wild zone has a 20% higher monster spawn.
• The Foreboding Wild zone has a 30% higher monster spawn.
• The Deepest Wild zone has a 40% higher monster spawn.
• Even more champion monsters can be found in all the Wild zones
• Champion monsters in all Wild zones have a 1-in-250 chance to drop one of six new, Unique weapons. These weapons scale with the level of the champion dropping the weapon. These weapons are tradable between subscribers.
  • Convulsor a Sniper Rifle
  • The Exterminator a Heavy Rifle
  • Novastorm a Nova Gun
  • The Unyielding Moon a Sword
  • Slipnaught a Focus Item
  • Alucard's Continuum a Dart Pistol
• A new boss monster, The Desiccator, has a 25% chance of appearing in The Deepest Wild zone. He should be extremely hard to kill, particularly solo or in small parties. As his health constantly regenerates, there is no guarantee a party will ever be able to kill him.
• When defeated, The Desiccator has a 20% chance to drop a (Mysterious Egg.)
• When placed in the Transmogrifying Cube, a Mysterious Egg will hatch into one of three new (pets with abilities). These new pets and the Mysterious Egg are not tradable. These pets are:
  • Nautilus occasionally heals all friends in range
  • Revenant occasionally fires a spectral missile at enemies
  • Heap Raptor breaks all those pesky crates for you

General Stonehenge Updates

• Essences or Caste General Heads gathered in Normal and Nightmare difficulties may now be used in either difficulty setting.
• Players may no longer exploit the essence pedestals via trading.

Monsters

• Winged Imps now lose their invulnerability earlier.
• Fixed some cases where monsters would get stuck in the ground.
• Wurm no longer spawns maggots when it dies.
• Maggots summoned by Wurm will now automatically die upon Wurm's death.
• Fixed a bug which allowed the Wurm encounter to be exploited.
• The Lightning now looks like a giant robot as intended.

Quests

• Fixed a bug which sometimes caused collection side-quest counters to count down under certain conditions.
• Players can now drop the train part quest items for the (.All the Live Long Day) quest. Also players may no longer pick up these items if they do not have the quest active or if they already have the item.
• Any leftover blueprint items from the (Threshold) quest will now be removed.
• Players who have more than one of an un-droppable quest items now have the option to destroy all but one of these items.

User Interface / Controls

• Some UI panels have been improved.
• Fixed two bugs which caused the automap fog of war to be reset either when using a PRD or in levels with hellrifts.
• Added class and character level to the party member windows.
• Improved the /whisper and /reply interface.
• Shift-activation should now work for skills granted by items.
• The [Shift], [Ctrl], and [Alt] keys are now re-mappable, and may be set as key-modifiers.
• The [ACCEPT] button on the trade panel now greys out for 3 seconds after the trade terms are changed by either player.
• Fixed a bug which would omit some guild members in the guild member list for very large guilds.

Graphics

• Fixed an issue where backgrounds would flicker or disappear.
  Graphics (DX10 Only)
• Various distortion effects have been fixed.
• Fixed a Hellrift portal graphical issue in which the image would slide inappropriately.
• Translucent models now render properly against the background.
• Particles and translucent models are no longer out of focus with the depth-of-field effect.
• Depth-of-field blur amount has been reduced and is now more subtle.
• Fixed a resource/memory leak that showed as either Page File or Commit Size growth.

Skills
PLEASE READ the changes to skills carefully as many have changed. Some skills now have new names to represent their different effects or make more sense within the context of the character class.

Hunter

• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused grenades to not fire properly when the skill is being repeated.

Phase Grenade

• Fixed a bug which caused the Phase Grenade to not receive the proper Attack Rating from the user. This caused the Phase Grenade to do less damage than intended against armored targets (but did not affect damage done to Shields).

Tactical Stance

• Now also gives a base Firing Accuracy bonus of 50.
• Changed the Critical Chance bonus effect (3% at rank 1 and 1% per additional rank) to a damage bonus of 15% at rank 1 and 5% per additional rank.

Escape

• Escape now provides 1 second of invulnerability when it is activated.
• Escape should now prevent enemy players in PVP from seeing the user.
• The cool-down for this skill now starts when the skill is used, not when it is cleared.
• The cool-down for this skill has been increased to 30 seconds.
• The duration for this skill has been decreased from 6 seconds to 3 seconds at rank 1, increasing by 1 second per additional rank.
• The rank cap on this skill has been increased from 5 to 7.
• Escape now clears all other speed boost effects while it is active, including Adrenaline Pills and Sprint. Using any skill or item that boosts speed will clear Escape, including Sprint.

Precision Strikes

• Precision Strikes now have direct synergies with all other Precision Strikes.
• Precision Strikes no longer have skill prerequisites
• Decreased the shared cool-down of all Precision Strikes from 20 seconds to 12 seconds.

Napalm Strike

• Increased base Damage by roughly 300%.
• Ranks in Napalm Strike now increase the Duration of all Precision Strikes by 50%.
• Decreased base radius by 50%.

Smackdown

• Ranks in Smackdown now increase the Elemental Attack Strengths of all Precision Strikes by 25%.
• Increased base damage by roughly 300%.
• Decreased base radius by 50%.

Shock and Awe

• Decreased base Damage by roughly 25%.
• Ranks in Shock and Awe now increase the Radius of all Precision Strikes by 15%.
• Decreased base radius by 75%.

Marksman
Rebounder Rounds (formerly Ricochet)
(The Marksman uses modified ammunition that has a chance to ricochet off enemies and walls.)

• This skill is now an Active skill. You must use this skill in order to gain the effect and functions similarly to how (fire both weapons) works.
• There is no power cost for using this skill.
• This skill has a chance to proc its effect (based on the skill and increasing based on the rank of the skill) for each individual firing of the skill. Since its effect is no longer dependent upon landing a critical hit, the effect of this skills will be seen much more commonly at all skill ranks and character levels.
• This skill has indirect synergies with the other skills in the (Ballistics) line. Each rank in Rebounder Rounds has a chance (albeit smaller) to proc when either Ravager Rounds or Concussion Rounds are used.
  • EXAMPLE: The first rank of Rebounder Rounds gives a 10% chance for shots to ricochet while using Rebounder Rounds. Due to skill synergy, Ravager Rounds and Concussion Rounds have a 7% chance for this effect to occur while using either of those skills.

Ravager Rounds (formerly Reflected Shot)
(The Marksman uses modified ammunition that has a chance to blow through and subsequently retarget additional enemies.)

• This skill is now an Active skill. You must use this skill in order to gain the effect and functions similarly to how (fire both weapons) works.
• There is no power cost for using this skill.
• This skill has a chance to proc its effect (based on the skill and increasing based on the rank of the skill) for each individual firing of the skill. Since its effect is no longer dependent upon landing a critical hit, the effect of this skills will be seen much more commonly at all skill ranks and character levels.
• This skill has indirect synergies with the other skills in the (Ballistics) line. Each rank in Ravager Rounds has a chance (albeit smaller) to proc when either Rebounder Rounds or Concussion Rounds are used.
  • EXAMPLE: The first rank of Ravager Rounds gives a 3% chance for shots to blow through and re-target a new enemy while using Ravager Rounds. Due to skill synergy, Rebounder Rounds and Concussion Rounds have a 2% chance for this effect to occur while using either of those skills.

Concussion Rounds (replaces Homing Shot)
(The Marksman uses modified ammunition designed for maximum impact.)

• This skill is now an Active skill. You must use this skill in order to gain the effect and functions similarly to how (fire both weapons) works.
• There is no power cost for using this skill.
• This skill increases the Interrupt Strength (indirect chance to proc) of the Marksman's weapons (based on the skill and increasing based on the rank of the skill) while the skill is used.
• This skill has indirect synergies with the other skills in the (Ballistics) line. Each rank in Concussion Rounds increases Interrupt Strength (albeit by lesser amount) when either Ravager Rounds or Rebounder Rounds are used.
  • EXAMPLE: The first rank of Concussion Rounds gives a 12% increased Interrupt Strength for shots fired while using Concussion Rounds. Due to skill synergy, Ravager Rounds and Rebounder Rounds have a 8% increased Interrupt Strength when using either of those skills.

Weapon Master (formerly Hollow Points)

• Increased the Critical Damage bonus of this skill from 20% at rank 1 and 10% per additional rank, to a flat 30% bonus per rank.

Beacon

• Decreased the power cost by 33%.
• Increased the per-rank bonus to 7% from 5%.
• Decreased the base effect to 21% from 45%.
• Duration is now fixed at 6 seconds.
• Beacon may now be used on targets who already have the Beacon effect to refresh the timer.
• The Multi Beacon and Beacon effects no longer stack.

Elemental Beacon

• Now also decreases the target's Elemental Attack Strengths.
• Gives increasing Elemental Attack and Defense penalties per rank that scales with the character's level.

Multi Beacon

• Fixed a bug which caused increasing ranks in Multi Beacon to not provide any bonuses.
• Increased the cooldown to 12 seconds from 2 seconds.
• Duration is now fixed at 6 seconds.
• The Multi Beacon and Beacon effects no longer stack.

Sniper

• Is now available at level 5.
• No longer forces the Marksman to crouch and stop moving when used. The character now moves at 50% speed while the skill is active (in addition to the Armor and Weapon Energy Consumption penalties).
• Weapon Accuracy, Range, and Missile Velocity bonuses are now fixed at 60%, 60%, and 25%, respectively.
• Damage bonus has been decreased from 200% to 150%.
• Rank progression now decreases its rate of use and rate of fire penalties by 3% per rank, beginning at a 50% penalty at rank 1 and ending at a 23% penalty at rank 10.

Master Sniper

• Now provides a 1% Critical Chance bonus per rank, in addition to its previous 20% Critical Damage bonus.

Rapid Fire

• Now clears Multishot when used.

Multishot

• This skill has been moved under Weapon Master in the skill tree. It required two points in Weapon Master to unlock, thus requiring fewer total points to unlock than before.

Overshield

• Increased the Shields bonus per additional rank from 33% to 100%.
• Overshield now grants Shields in a fixed ratio: the Marksman's current Shields Percentage will not change when the skill is activated or deactivated.

Escape Artist

• The Movement Speed bonus has been increased to 25% per rank.
• The rank cap on this skill has been increased from 5 to 7.

Grenades

• Grenades now have direct synergies with all other Grenades.
• Increased the damage of all Grenade skills by roughly 70% in addition to individual Grenade skill damage changes.
• Increased the cool-down of all Grenade skills from 5 to 6 seconds.

Explosive Grenade

• Explosive Grenades now explode on impact with monsters (but not objects) and have a 2 second fuse.
• Decreased base Damage by 23%.
• Decreased base Ignite Attack Strength by 33%.
• Ranks in Explosive Grenade now increase the Damage of all grenades by 12%.

Phase Grenade

• Increased base Damage by 6%.
• Ranks in Phase Grenade now increase the Elemental Attack Strengths of all grenades by 30%.

Toxic Grenade

• Toxic Grenades now bounce off of objects (ignoring monsters) before exploding after 1.5 seconds.
• Toxic Grenades now create a field that lasts for 4 seconds, dealing field damage.
• Decreased base Poison Attack Strength by 50%.
• Ranks in Toxic Grenade now increase the splash or field radius of all grenades by 10%.

Flashcrasher Grenade

• Increased base Damage by 12%.
• Decreased base Stun Attack Strength by 50%.
• Ranks in Flashcracker Grenade now grant and increase the Shield Penetration of all grenades by 10%.

Engineer

• Engineer Drones now properly receive Armor bonuses from Armor affixes.
• Fixed bugs that caused Engineer Drones to receive more than twice as much Armor than intended.
• Fixed a bug that prevented the effects of Medpak Retrofit and Shield Generator Retrofit to properly scale up with additional levels.
• Engineers should no longer erroneously receive bonuses from items which grant the Overshield skill.
• Summoned pets should no longer fail to spawn when summoned.

Beacon

• Decreased the base effect to 15% from 25%.

Templar

Guardian

Aura of Thorns

• Aura of Thorns should now properly increase Thorns damage from items.
• Aura of Thorns has been rebalanced to fit the standard Aura progression model.

Blademaster

Crosscutter

• Crosscutter now requires a target in order to use the skill.

Whirlwind

• Fixed a bug which caused Whirlwind to immediately cancel itself.

Cabalist

Brom's Curse

• Fixed description for Brom's Curse to match the actual health gained.

Summoner

Hand of Nostrum

• Hand of Nostrum should now properly increase the number of healing beams used by the Witch Doctor.

Evoker

Hellfire

• Hellfire can now be aimed as long as the skill trigger is held down, and fires once the trigger is released.

Lightning Field

• The skill description has been corrected to match the actual increase in radius per rank.

Items

• New Mutentacles have been improved, with higher base Damage and Elemental Attack Strengths bonus.
• Id Pulsar weapons should now ignore friendly targets.

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