Patch Notes/2005-08-31

08/31/05 Patch Notes - Issue #5: Forest of Dread

New Zone : Croatoa

Croatoa is a three hour train ride upstate from Paragon City , and was once the favorite lakeside vacation spot for city dwellers. For the past three years, the train service has been closed due to the Rikti Invasion, but due to recent events the government have reopened the line.

• To get to Croatoa, heroes can take a train from any Green Line station.
• Locals are asking for heroes of security levels 25 to 34 to investigate recent strange goings on.

New Powers

• Sonic Attacks (Blaster Primary and Defender Secondary)
• Sonic Resonance (Defender Primary and Controller Secondary)
• Archery (Blaster Primary and Defender Secondary)
• Trick Arrow (Defender Primary and Controller Secondary)
• Electric Mastery (Blaster Ancillary Power Set)

Mission Customization

• Many existing missions have been updated with hostage escorts, friendly heroes who fight by your side, waves of attacking villains and more.

Updated Zone: The Shadow Shard

• Shadow Shard Maps show the location of each Jump Pad. A dotted line connects the Jump Pad with its end point.
• A teleporter on Firebase Zulu takes players to any of the other three zones in the Shadow Shard (works both ways).
• Dr. Scott Wachhorst, a prominent xenobiologist and Portal Corp. leader, willingly purchases Enhancements from heroes in Firebase Zulu.
• A renegade Brute, Kallarn, purchases Enhancements with the hope that he might gain enough power to overthrow Ruladak. It can be found in the Cascades.
• Slarrah, a Wisp who has been converted by Faathim the Kind, relieves heroes of excess Enhancements in the Chantry.
• The Nameless Mystic, an interdimensional being who feeds off the energy kicked off by the dreaded Lanaru, happily accepts Enhancements from heroes. Can be found lurking near the Storm Palace .

Updated Zone: Rikti Crash Site

• The military controls a teleporter in Peregrine Island that connects to one in the entrance of the Rikti Crash Site. Heroes can go back and forth from this point.
• Col. Barry Woodhouse works for Military Intelligence, gathering info on the Rikti activities. heroes can sell excess Enhancements to him.

Updated Zone: Club Zero

• There are now NPCs in the Paragon Dance Party who will sell Inspirations to heroes.

Updated Zone: Outbreak

• The tutorial has been modified.

New Badges

• In addition to new badges associated with Croatoa and the new Zone Events, many new Achievement badges have been added for those who have exceeded the existing ones.

Experience System Changes

• Heroes will not start receiving experience debt for defeats until level 10.
• Defeats in missions will only result in half the usual debt.
• Experience awards for defeating level 25+ enemies have been increased.

New Zone Events

• Steel Canyon : The Hellions are living up to their name and have taken to arson.
• Skyway City : The Trolls are starting raves (Troll-style) when they find a new supply of Superadine.

Game Balance

• We have made great efforts (as seen in the Powers changes below) to make sure that the ‘conning' system for how tough your enemies are still holds its meaning in the higher (level 25+) game. Enemies whose names appear in red or purple should present a legitimate challenge to heroes, both solo and in groups.
• Some heroes may find themselves having to fight things closer to their level now, so Experience rewards have been increased for those enemies to offset the increased difficulty of fighting higher level foes.
• Please note that you may need to vary your soloing and group tactics to account for this increase in difficulty.

Free Respec

• All heroes will be receiving a free respec due to these balance changes. This will be awarded 24 hours after Issue 5 is released. To use this simply type /respec – you will be able to reselect all your character's Powers and Enhancement slots.
• We strongly recommend that you spend some time playing with your current character in this new version of the game before using your free respec. You only get one free respec, so make sure that your character is exactly how you want them before you commit – our GMs are unable to grant additional respecs if you make a mistake.
• If in doubt, remember that you can copy your hero to the Test server to try out the respec command and see the results before using it on the Live servers. (See the Training Room message board for full details of how to set up and access the Test server.)
• Free respecs do not ‘stack'. If you already have one that you have not used, you will not receive an additional one. Free respecs are counted separately from the respecs granted for completing the Terra Volta trial.

Powers - General

• All Archetypes will now be able to reach their Defense cap at sooner (was level 40, now level 20). Tankers now have a higher Defense cap than Scrappers and Kheldians. Scrappers and Kheldians have a higher Defense cap than all other archetypes.
  • This refers to the max Defense that a character can be buffed to. This cap increases as a character levels. Rather than waiting until level 40, the highest cap is now reached at level 20. Tankers, Scrappers and Kheldians now have a higher maximum Defense cap than other Archetypes.
• Set a maximum number of targets that can be affected by most offensive powers:
  AoE Debuffs, Ranged cones, and Melee AoE (PBAoE) are set to 10.
  Some Large PBAoE (like Nova) are set to 16.
  Ranged AoE damage powers are set to 16.
  All AoE crowd control powers are set to 16.
  Melee Cones are set to 5.
  Taunts (including Tanker inherent Taunt - 'PunchVoke') are set to 5.
  Buffs are unaffected.
  • This will limit the amount of 'herding' done by players to a more reasonable and realistic level.
• Powers and Inspirations that resurrect will now leave the target protected from XP Debt (duration dependent upon the power).
  • Change to make these powers more useable in combat.
• Travel powers will no longer be suppressed by toggle powers. Flyspeed of Fly, Speed Buff of Super Speed and JumpHeight/Distance buff of Super Leap will now only suppress if you use a ‘click' attack powers (toggles like Enervating Field and Invincibility will no longer cause Suppression).
  • The penalty was too great for players who rely on toggle powers to protect themselves.
• Using a power that completely drains your endurance (such as Nova, Thunderous Blast, Inferno, and so on) will now cause all toggle powers to drop.
  • These powers did not always drain 100% of endurance before, and with the addition of Stamina or other Endurance regen buffs, it was possible to maintain toggle powers through the endurance crash. This change makes these powers work as described.
• Cone Enhancements removed from the game. Increased Range Enhancements now have the same effect on Cone powers.
  • The difference between Cone enhancement and Range enhancement was confusing. Now one Enhancement works to increase the reach of all powers.
• Inherent Powers of Archetypes (such as the Scrapper's Critical Hit ability and the new Blaster and Controller Inherent Powers introduced in this Issue) now appear in a character's Powers menu.
  • Quality of life feature, making these powers and their effects more obvious to new players.
• Blasters have a new Inherent Ability called Defiance . As a Blaster's health falls, their damage begins to dramatically increase. The lower their health, the greater the damage boost. There is a new ‘Defiance Meter' below the Endurance bar on the User Interface to show this effect.
  • Makes the Blaster into a more comic-booky Archetype to play. As they begin to lose a battle, their power increases dramatically, giving them the edge they need to defeat powerful foes.
• Blaster hit points increased.
  • Overall increase in the survivability of Blasters.
• Blaster damage cap increased.
  • Overall increase in the damage output (and thus survivability) of Blasters. Blasters may need Buffs from other Archetypes in order to reach the new caps.
• Controllers have a new Inherent Ability called Containment. All Controllers will do double damage (+100% unenhanced base Damage) to a target (non pvp) that is Immobilized, Disoriented, Slept or Held.
  • Increasing the non-Pet damage potential of all Controllers. This change is intended to give them a more balanced and even game-play experience throughout all of their levels.
• Controller AoE Holds, Disorients and Sleeps (and a few others like Quicksand and Ice Slick) recharge times have been increased and duration reduced.
  AoE Immobilize and Phase Shift powers were not affected.
  Volcanic Gasses duration was not affected.
  • Game balance change due to the new increased damage of Controllers.
• Controller Pets, Dark Miasma/Dark Servant and Electrical Blast/Voltaic Sentinel can no longer ‘stack'. Reusing these summon powers before your pet has expired will remove the old pets and spawn new ones.
  Illusion Control/Phantasm can still summon multiple decoys.
  Fire Control/Fire Imps now always summons 3 Imps at your level.
  Illusion Control/Phantom Army now always summons 3 Decoys.
  • Pet powers were too strong with multiple instances out at once. Once a Controller or Defender had pets, their play style and balance completely changed. Pets remain a powerful tool for heroes, but are no longer class-defining. Due to the change in the powers, we removed the randomness in the number of pets you get with Fire Imps and Phantom Army.
• Significantly increased duration of Controller high level pets. They are effectively permanent until you zone, log out or are defeated.
  • Quality of life change.
• Gave Animate Stone resistance to KnockBack.
  • Improves the ability of the pet to tank.
• Reduced Singularity's damage resistance.
  • These pets were virtually indestructible. They remain quite tough after the change.
• Reduced Duration of Earth Control/Earthquake and Ice Control/Ice Slick.
  • Changed to bring these powers more in line with other AoE control powers.
• Increased Recharge time of Ice Control/Shiver.
  • Change to bring this power more in line with other AoE control powers.
• Slightly decreased duration of Disorient from Gravity Control/Wormhole, but added a chance to Disorient Bosses to be consistent with similar powers. (Disorient duration for Wormhole is still higher than other Controller AoE Disorient powers.)
  • Change to make Wormhole more like other AE disorient powers.
• Fixed Gravity Control/Wormhole so the Disorient improves over level, like other Controller Disorient powers.
  • Bug fix.
• Animation time of Gravity Control/Crush decreased.
  • Power slightly rebalanced.
• Increased the Recharge time of Radiation Emmision/Lingering Radiation.
  • Change to bring this power in line with other AoE control powers.
• Reduced Hold Duration of Ice Blast/Freeze Ray, Ice Blast/Bitter Freeze Ray and Electrical Blast/Tesla Cage (to bring it into line with other non-controller single-target Hold powers).
  • These hold powers were stronger than other non-controller holds, so they were rebalanced to bring them in line.
• Scrapper damage increased for all powers.
  • Our goal is to increase the overall 'Scrappery' nature of Scrappers, making them melee combat masters, but without Tanker-level defense. This change counters some of the general reduction in defense that Scrappers are seeing with this update.
• Changed Regeneration/Instant Healing from a Toggle Power to a Click power. Gave it a new animation so it activates faster.
  • The power was simply too strong as a toggle that could be kept on all the time. Rather than further increase the end cost or decrease the healing ability of the power, we made it a click power to be used when really needed. As a click with a long recharge, its Endurance cost can remain low, and its Regeneration boost can stay high.
• Slightly reduced the non-enhanceable health regeneration buff of Regeneration/Integration.
  • The health regeneration component was slightly too high when combined with the other effects of the power.
• Broadsword/Parry animation time reduced.
  • Power slightly rebalanced.
• Reduced the Duration of the Fire Damage Boost for Fiery Aura/Fiery Embrace (it is now 20 seconds. Boost to other damage types is still 10 seconds).
  • Slight rebalancing of the power.
• Increased the recharge time of Fiery Aura/Burn. Decreased its damage.
  • Burn was one of the most damaging powers in the game. It is still quite strong after the change.
• All versions of Hibernate (Tanker/Ice Armor, Controller/Ancillary/Ice Mastery and Blaster/Ancillary/Cold Mastery) will no longer disable your toggle powers when activated. You cannot, however, activate new powers once Hibernate is on, and your powers will still not affect anyone else.
  Hibernate will now give you an Endurance Recovery boost.
  Hibernate will automatically switch off after 30 seconds.
  Hibernate will now activate instantly.
  • Faster activation makes the power much more useful as a defense. Not dropping toggles makes it more viable to turn the power off while still in combat. Endurance boost also makes it more useful. The duration the power can be maintained was lowered to help balance out some of the improvements.
• Ice Armor/Frozen Armor and Ice Armor/Wet Ice will no longer accept Damage Resistance Enhancements (This to help avoid confusion and prevent players from Slotting Enhancements sub-optimally).
  • These powers only give resistance to Fire and Cold attacks. Many players slotted these powers for resistance, thinking that they were getting a bonus against the same attacks the powers give Defense against.
• Slightly increased the Fire Damage Resistance of Ice Armor/Frozen Armor and Ice Armor/PermaFrost.
  • To compensate for the change to Frozen Armor and Wet Ice, above.
• Ice Armor/Permafrost now gives resistance to Slow.
  • Improvement to the power to make it more attractive.
• Ice Armor/Chilling Embrace now reduces the Damage of affected foes.
  • Improvement to the power to make it more attractive.
• Fixed Ice Armor/Energy Absorption so it no longer grants less Endurance and Slow protection if used against a higher level foe.
  • This is a Bug fix. When used against a higher level foe, your buff was lower than normal. Your Endurance Buff and Slow protection will now always be the same, regardless of what foe you use this power on.
• Increased Super Reflexes/Evasion Defense buff.
  • This will help Super Reflexes Scrappers against foes that tend to use AoE powers, like Bosses (who typically have a higher accuracy than minions).
• Slightly reduced end cost of the Dark Armor powers Dark Embrace, Murky Cloud and Obsidian Shield.
  • Change to help decrease Endurance problems with this power set.
• Reduced Dark Armor/Cloak of Fear's Accuracy Debuff.
  • With the previous changes to Fear effects, Cloak of Fear's Accuracy Debuff was too powerful.
• Movement penalty removed from Storm Summoning/Steamy Mist.
  • Power slightly rebalanced.
• Reduced Duration on Dark Miasma/Fearsome Stare. Increased its recharge time.
  • Originally, the recharge and duration of this power were balanced against the old Fear effect (run away). Fear is now more of a control power and much more effective (targets are essentially Held). As such the old recharge time and duration were too powerful for what is now essentially a ‘control' power.
• Reduced Duration on Dark Miasma/Petrifying Gaze and increased its recharge time. (Dark Servant version as well.)
  • This power was stronger than most Controller Hold powers, and thus too powerful for a Defender power.
• Reduced duration of Ancillary/Darkness Mastery/Petrifying Gaze to match changes made to the Defender version.
  • Change to assure that the Ancillary version of the power is not stronger than the original version.
• Added Psionic Defense to Force Field/Dispersion Bubble.
  • Improvement to the power to make it more attractive.
• Increased the recharge time and decreased the duration of Pool/Presence/Intimidate. It only affects Lieutenants on a Critical.
  • Originally, the recharge and duration of this power were balanced against the old Fear effect (run away). Fear is now more of a control power and much more effective (targets are essentially Held). As such the old recharge time and duration were too powerful for what is now essentially a ‘control' power.
• Increased the Recharge Time and decreased the Duration of Pool/Presence/Invoke Panic.
  • Originally, the recharge and duration of this power were balanced against the old Fear effect (run away). Fear is now more of a control power and much more effective (targets are essentially Held). As such the old recharge time and duration were too powerful for what is now essentially a ‘control' power.
• Pool/Medicine/Aid Self: now also grants you some resistance to Disorient.
  • Change to make this power more useful and attractive to take.
• Pool/Fitness/Health: now also grants you some resistance to Sleep.
  • Change to make this power more useful and attractive to take.
• Pool/Fighting/Weave: now also grants you some resistance to Immobilize.
  • Change to make this power more useful and attractive to take.
• Pool/Leadership/Assault: now also grants some resistance to Taunt (mostly for PvP).
  • Change to make this power more useful and attractive to take.
• Pool/Leadership/Vengeance: now also grants high resistance to Sleep, Hold, Disorient, Immobilize, Confuse, Taunt and Knockback.
  • Change to make this power more useful and attractive to take.
• Pool/Concealment/Phase Shift: Although still a Toggle power, Phase Shift will deactivate if you leave it on for more than 30 seconds. Increased its Recharge Time.
  • This power was rebalanced to limit its effectiveness in PvE and PvP.
• Pool/Flight/Air Superiority now accepts Recharge Reduction Enhancements.
  • Bug fix.
• Added an f/x to Regeneration/Moment of Glory when it expires to indicate your Regeneration is debuffed (this is a visual f/x change only).
  • Quality of Life feature.
• Added an f/x to Elude when it expires to indicate your Recovery is debuffed (this is a visual f/x change only).
  • Quality of Life feature.
• Fixed missing sticky f/x for Radiation Blast/Cosmic Burst Defense Debuff (visual f/x only, no power change).
  • Quality of Life feature.
• Accolade power icons changed.
  • Quality of life feature.
• Fixed Kheldian Dwarf-form healing powers to heal an appropriate amount of HP (were not healing enough).
  • Powers rebalanced.
• Fixed typo in Peacebringer/Cosmic Balance.
  • Bug fix.
• Fixed some help text for Empathy/Fortitude (text change only).
  • Bug fix.
• Kinetics/Fulcrum Shift Icon was displaying as Kinetic Transfer. Changed the name to the correct one in display
  • Bug fix.
• Kinetics/Siphon Power Icon now displays properly.
  • Bug fix.
• Removed Debuff Defense Enhancements from Spines/Impale (this power does not debuff Defense, so Debuff Defense Enhancements were not doing anything).
  • Bug fix.
• Removed Range Enhancements from Spines/Spine Burst (this power is a PBAoE and has no 'range' to increase, so Range Enhancements were not doing anything).
  • Bug fix.
• Scrapper/Spines: characters will no longer go through a ‘redraw' animation between attacks.
  • Bug fix.
• Fixed Warshade Stygian Circle so it no longer gives you less Endurance when you drain an enemy that is higher level than you. Also, it no longer accepts Accuracy Enhancements (they were unnecessary because Stygian Circle is an auto-hit power).
  • Bug fix.
• Marked Quicksand summonable to not show duplicate icon in the buff tray.
  • Bug fix.
• Fixed excessive long immobilization effect when casting or getting hit by Transfusion, Transference, Twilight Grasp, and Howling Twilight.
  • Bug fix.
• Updated Energy Blast/Power Burst help (text only, no power changes).
  • More accurately describes the power.
• Some Combat system chat message fixes for Spines powers (text only, no power changes).
  • More accurately describes what's going on.
• Fixed Hydra Travel Enhancement (Theta Exposure). It was not boosting travel speeds enough.
  • Bug fix.
• Fixed Giant Crystal Titans Travel Enhancement (Selenite Shard). It was not boosting travel speeds enough.
  • Bug fix.
• Fixed bug with minimap where ‘fog of war' would reset after returning to a level by an elevator.
  • Bug fix.

Powers – PVP

• Controller/Gravity Control/Lift now does extra damage in PvP.
  • Bug fix.
• Fixed Ice Blast/Frost Breath damage in PvP (it was set too low).
  • Bug fix.
• All Taunts (pool, Tanker and Scrapper) will now only be effective 50% of the time when used in PvP (not an accuracy decrease, so it cannot be modified with enhancements).
  • Taunt powers were too effective in PvP.

Powers - Global Defense Decrease

In order to facilitate a more balanced game for higher level characters (Level 25 and up), the defensive abilities of several powersets have been adjusted so that they are more in line with one another. Villains have had their To Hit values reduced accordingly to work with these defensive changes (see Powers – Villains, below).

• Reduced all Archetypes' base ability with Damage Resistance and Defense powers.
• Reduced Defense rating of Force Field powers (Deflection Shield, Insulation Shield and Dispersion Bubble).
• Reduced Defense bonus from Pool/Concealment/Stealth. Defense bonus is partially suppressed if you attack.
• Reduced Defense bonus from Pool/Flight/Hover (and Kheldian Combat Flight).
• Reduced Damage Resistance bonus from Pool/Fighting/Tough. Increased its Endurance Cost.
• Reduced Defense bonus from Pool/Fighting/Weave. Increased its Endurance Cost.
• Reduced Defense bonus from Pool/Leadership/Maneuvers.
• Reduced Defense bonus from Pool/Leaping/Combat Jumping.
• Pool/Speed/Hasten no longer buffs Defense.
• Reduced Ice Armor/Frozen Armor Defense Bonus.
• Reduced Ice Armor/Wet Ice Defense Bonus to around 1%. Removed the ability to slot Defense Enhancements into this power to prevent players from inefficiently slotting this power for Defense. Enhancements that are currently slotted into this power will continue to work until they are outlevelled.
• Reduced Ice Armor/Glacial Armor Defense Bonus.
• Reduced Ice Armor/Energy Absorption Defense Bonus and set its max number of affected targets to 14. Added an Endurance Buff to the Caster for each affected target.
• Reduced Invulnerability/Temporary Invulnerability Damage resistance bonus.
• Reduced Invulnerability/Resist Physical Damage resistance bonus.
• Reduced Invulnerability/Resist Elements Damage resistance bonus. Added resistance to Toxic.
• Reduced Invulnerability/Resist Energies Damage resistance bonus.
• Reduced Invulnerability/Unyielding Damage resistance bonus. Increased its Defense debuff.
• Reduced Invulnerability/Invincibility Defense and Accuracy bonus. Increased its max number of affected targets to 14.
• Reduced Invulnerability/Tough Hide Defense bonus.
• Reduced Stone Armor/Rock Armor Defense Bonus.
• Reduced Stone Armor/Brimstone Armor Damage Resistance.
• Reduced Stone Armor/Crystal Armor Defense Bonus.
• Reduced Stone Armor/Mineral Armor Defense Bonus.
• Reduced Dark Armor/Cloak of Darkness Defense bonus.
• Reduced Super Reflexes/Focused Fighting Defense bonus.
• Reduced Super Reflexes/Focused Senses Defense bonus.
• Reduced Super Reflexes/Dodge Defense bonus.
• Reduced Super Reflexes/Agile Defense bonus.
• Reduced Super Reflexes/Lucky Defense bonus.
• Reduced Dark Miasma/Shadow Fall defense bonus.
• Reduced Storm Summoning/Steamy Mist Defense Bonus.
• Set some of Illusion Control/Superior Invisibility Defense bonus to suppress if you attack. Reduced its overall Defense bonus.
• Reduced defense bonus of Illusion Control/Group Invisibility.
• Defense of Devices/Cloaking Device is partially suppressed if you attack.
• Increased Ancillary Pool/Force Mastery/Force of Nature recharge time.
• Reduced Ancillary Pool/Psionic Mastery/Mind Over Body Damage Resistance.
• Reduced Ancillary Pool/Electric Mastery/Charged Armor Damage Resistance.
• Reduced Ancillary Pool/Munitions Mastery/Body Armor Damage Resistance.
• Reduced Umbral Aura/Absorption Damage Resistance.
• Reduced Umbral Aura/Shadow Cloak Defense bonus.
• Reduced Luminous Aura/Incandescence damage resistance.
• Reduced Defense and Damage Resistance values of defensive Temporary Powers appropriately based on above changes.

Powers - Villains

• Reduced Lt. base Accuracy to 57.5%.
  Reduced Boss base Accuracy to 65%
  Reduced Elite Boss base Accuracy.
  Reduced ArchVillain base Accuracy from 90% to 75%
  Reduced Giant Monster base Accuracy from 90% to 75%
  Reduced Minion level Turret base Accuracy from 75% to 58%
  Reduced Lieutenant level Turret base Accuracy from 94% to 65%
  Reduced Boss level Turret base Accuracy from 113% to 75%
  Reduced Sniper base Accuracy from 75% to 65%
  Reduced Monument Minion base Accuracy from 75% to 58%
  Reduced Rularuu Boss bas Accuracy from 90% to 75%
  • This is to limit the severity of defensive adjustments made to some powersets.
• There is a new low level Circle of Thorns minion, The Guardian.
  • Power sets for CoT minions slightly redesigned.
• Higher level Circle of Thorns Minions should no longer repeatedly cast the same debuffs over and over, nor should they stack them on top of already existing Debuffs of that type.
  • Bug fix.
• Some higher level Circle of Thorns minions are exhibiting new powers.
  • Power sets for CoT minions slightly redesigned.
• Banished Pantheon Summoned Husks no longer give experience when defeated. The Death Shaman has been given a slight increase in experience reward to offset this somewhat.
  • Fix to prevent farming of Summoned Husks.
• Devouring Earth Herders should summon fewer Swarms now.
  • Villain slightly rebalanced.

AI

• Fixed issue where Controller pets were not aggroing on villains unless the villains were already attacking.
• Pets will now follow their master through elevators. Pets cannot follow through zone or mission doors.
• Adjusted the way Confusion powers work with pets. Confused villains will no longer attack a player pet. Confused player pets may now attack players.
• Enemies may chase players through elevators.
• Enemy AI will now be more aware of dangerous areas, such as a Burn patch, and will do their best to avoid them.

Tasks

• Moved spawns on many mission maps (especially Warehouse maps) to decrease the chance of stacked spawns (two or three groups of enemies spawning in the same place).
• All Task Forces now award badges upon completion.
• Any character above the maximum level for a Task Force will be automatically exemplared to the maximum level of that Task Force when they join, and will remain exemplared until they leave the Task Force.
• Eliminated the ‘Grace' level of the following task forces: Positron, Synapse, Sister Psyche, Citadel, and Manticore. With the new ability to Auto-Exemplar yourself to Task Forces, the ability to join the Task Force one level after you "passed" it is no longer needed. (For example, you used to be able to join Synapse's Task Force up until Level 21, now that you can join it at any time, you can join it after level 20 and be auto-Exemplared to level 20)

UI

• Contact names now appear a different color from other NPC names.
• There is now a new option to disable dragging powers around in the power tray.
• Options window now allows you to specify additional texture quality options, including Anisotropic filtering.
• Improved ‘World Detail' slider in the options window. It no longer requires a restart of the game to apply
• Right-clicking on a character's status bars will bring up an information window showing current totals for health, endurance, experience and debt.
• Improved text editing on Character ID screen.
• Options menu rearranged slightly for ease of use.
• The name of the player controlling a pet now appears below the pet's name.
• JPEG screenshots are now automatically tagged with information regarding the location of the image and the members of your team. This is done using IPTC headers.
• New slash commands:
  /reply - replies to the last person who sent you a /tell.
  /tell_last or /tl - sends a tell to the last player you sent a /tell to.
  /texAniso - sets the anisotropic filtering level.
  /release_pets - unsummons all of your pets.

Game

• Players can now push aside a pet, hostage or friendly NPC that blocks their way in a mission.