Release notes/20100429

Difficulty Settings
By popular demand, we have added the ability to scale difficulty in instanced missions so that you can customize the combat challenges to your liking. The difficult you have been playing on is the default which is considered “Normal”. If you would like more of a challenge, you can adjust this via the Options screen or the Episodes tab on your mission journal.

The available settings are:
 * Normal – The default combat settings prior to this update with no injuries as a result of defeat.
 * Advanced – Increases combat difficulty and introduces injuries as a result of defeat.
 * Elite – Significantly increases combat difficulty with an increased chance of injury as a result of defeat.

As an added incentive to the additional risks, there is greater frequency and quality of rewards from defeating enemies on higher difficulty setting. Mission rewards are not impacted by difficulty settings.

Things to note about difficulty settings:


 * When teamed, the Team Leader’s difficulty setting prior to entering the system determines the difficulty of the mission.
 * Difficulty settings do not apply to Fleet Actions, PVP, Social Maps, or Deepspace Encounters (or any other non-instance map)
 * We have disabled difficulty settings for Special Task Forces temporarily while we adjust the system to work with the increased difficulty of these special missions.
 * You cannot modify difficulty once you have entered a mission map. All settings must be set or modified prior to entering the mission. If you want to change the difficult of a mission you are currently on, all players must exit the mission and wait 15 minutes for the mission to cooldown before your new difficulty settings can be applied.

Injury System
In conjunction with the new Difficulty Settings, we are introducing an injury system that adds added risks to playing on higher difficulties. Depending on the type and severity of the injury sustained, you will notice a decrease in related performance until treated. Federation players will receive a mission that sends you a contact on Earth Space Dock which will explain more about injuries.

Here’s How It Works


 * If your captain, your bridge officers, or your ship is defeated, there is a chance they will receive one injury. This occurs at the time you are defeated, regardless of whether or not you respawn or are resuscitated. Injuries cause various de-buffs depending on the type and severity.
 * If you receive an injury, the severity of that injury is determined by chance, modified by the existence of any untreated injuries already on that character/ship. For example, the chance of receiving a Major or Critical injury is increased if the character/ship has an untreated injury already.
 * Injuries do not occur below level 5 on any difficulty setting and there is a maximum of 50 total injuries each character/ship can sustain at any given time.

Type of Injuries


 * Minor – The negative effect of minor injuries is small enough that it would take several minor injuries before most players would notice any difference in performance.
 * Major – These injuries feel significant, but the character/ship can continue to function with only slight performance decreases. Sustaining more than one major injury of the same type (which modifies the same stat) will begin to cause noticeable performance impacts.
 * Critical – These injuries will cause noticeable performance impacts. A character/ship may still continue on in a mission (and succeed) with more than one critical injury, but each additional critical injury will prove costly to treat and will put the character/ship below the expected potency curve.

How to Treat an Injury


 * Visit a medic/engineer in your faction’s major social hub and pay them energy credits to remove the injuries. Use an injury pack to remove the item yourself.
 * Regenerators treat personnel injuries – Components treat ship “injuries” (damage)
 * Each pack comes in 3 versions that correspond to the severity of the injury.
 * Injury packs are not available in replicators, but some packs are available stores.
 * There’s a chance of finding some types of injury packs as a reward drop.
 * Your medical/engineering staff will automatically treat each Minor Injury 30 minutes after each injury was sustained.

Important Power Updates
Several key powers are being updated with this release in order to address concerns and bring their functionality in line with expected design goals.

Feedback Pulse
Goal: This ability can be used to augment DPS by reflecting your opponents directed energy attacks, as well as a deterrent in PvP if currently the main target of a group.

Changes:


 * Now reflects all directed energy types (beams, cannons, turrets)
 * Feedback Pulse is now an energy type, buffed and resisted similar to other damage types
 * Damage reflected by Feedback Pulse hits shields first, but does have 50% shield penetration
 * Overall reflected damage has been reduced for each version. Version 1 damage is about 60%, version 2 about 80%, and version 3 nearly 100%.

Countered by: Subnucleonic Beam removes buff; Projectile Weapon or Indirect Damage ignores it.

Subnucleonic Beam
Goal: This ability removes buffs and slows performance of targeted enemy. Counters abilities such as Feedback Pulse, Reverse Shield Polarity, Attack Pattern Alpha, by removing the applied buff.

Changes:


 * This does not put abilities into recharge, but instead slows the recharge time for bridge officer abilities and weapons systems over its duration.
 * Removes currently applied buffs from target at activation time. Buffs can be later applied while subnucleonic beam is active.

Countered By: Science Team applied while SNB active removes the debuff; Photonic Officer helps to offset slow recharge

Viral Matrix
Goal: Cripples target, but target has the chance to remove debuff or continue to fight at a disadvantage.

Changes:


 * This is no longer a hold, but instead takes three of a ship's subsystems offline.
 * Shields subsystems are unaffected, but weapons, engines, and auxiliary will go offline in a random order (each time it is used) over the course of the duration. As the systems go offline in a staggered method, the target has some time to react and does not have all three systems disabled for the entire duration.
 * The best case duration for a subsystem being offline is approx 7.2, 9.6, and 12 seconds for ver 1, 2, and 3 respectively.

Countered By: Engineering Team now restores all subsystems; Emergency Power to (system) will restore that particular subsystem.

Commodity Missions
Based on feedback with Federation “Aid the Planet” missions, we’ve made changes so these exploration missions are more viable.


 * Federation players will now receive some basic information about what commodities might be useful in the nearby Star Cluster as well as a few commodities to get you started.
 * Unknown Systems within Star Cluster previously were in need of up to 5 different types of commodities, which meant that if you wanted to be prepared, you had to haul around a cargo hold’s worth of goods. We’ve reduced this to 3 types that could possibly be needed.
 * If you didn’t have the commodities needed on board, you had to exit the system and find a trader who would sell them to you. This is where most players would drop the mission. Now, you have the option to replicate the necessary commodities on the spot. Be warned that the cost of doing this is at a premium.
 * If you are looking for better prices on commodities other than your replicator or via trade ships, you can hover over a commodities tooltip to learn which system sells the commodity at the lowest price.
 * As a reward for taking the time to deliver these commodities, the planet you are aiding will now offer you a gift as an additional reward. These gifts could be anything, so open them up and see what you get!

Exchange Improvements
If you’ve ever used the exchange to look for an item, you’d noticed it was a bit messy. This update introduces changes to help clean the exchange up and makes some general improvements.


 * When searching for an item, results are now returned in a sorted list by either price or item name
 * Items you place on the exchange will now expire after 1 week if no buyer is found. The item will be returned to you via an attachment using in-game mail.
 * Once this update goes live – many (if not all) items on the exchange will be returned as they are long overdue to expire.
 * To aid in comparison price purchasing, you can now drag and drop an item on the search field to look for similar items

Team Mission Tracker
When you are teamed, your mission journal will now show you which missions your team mates are currently working on to aid in team mission planning.

Space Auto-fire Improvements
By popular demand (and to save your fingers) we’ve opened up the ability to set all ship weapons to auto-fire. Simply right click a weapon (notice the green outline) to toggle auto-fire. Weapons auto-fire in the order they are placed in the Weapon’s Tray. Keep in mind that having all weapons on auto-fire can lead to danger if you are frequently switching targets.

Store Inventory Changes
Mark (Valor, Honor, and Exploration) Stores now sell a variety of equipment and weapon damage types. You’re no longer limited to Anti-Proton damage when searching for Rear Admiral Gear.

Female TOS/Mirror Universe Costume Updates
Many of you who received these costumes as part of your purchase bundle were underwhelmed with what you received. While there was some miscommunication as to what was initially available, we are happy to announce that female TOS and Mirror Universe costume updates are now available to those who have them unlocked on their account.

Playable Joined Trill of the Klingon Faction
For those who purchased a bundle pack which offered you the ability to play as a Joined Trill, you may have been bummed that you could not create a Joined Trill that was aligned with the Klingon Faction. Well Jack promised it, and here it is. If you have Joined Trill unlocked on your account, you can now make a Joined Trill of the Klingon Faction.

Inventory Stacking Improvements
We’ve made a first pass at making things stack better in your inventory as well as when purchasing items in bulk. Let us know what you think!

Fleet Mail
Fleet Leaders can now send messages to their entire fleet at once per day

General Updates

 * Your starship will now look for a clear path and adjust heading prior to warping out so that it doesn't warp through the center of a planet
 * Adjusted the stuck message to remove the suggestion use /killme if stuck doesn't work
 * Updated the details about what changes with a “short name” rename
 * Fixed bug that prevented players from continuing to respec once they'd pressed the "Accept" button unless they pressed the "Reset" button
 * The in-game camera will no longer pass through ship geometry when zooming in all the way
 * Nearly all Tribble descriptions have been updated
 * The camera will now attempt to avoid obstacles when playing the beam out cutscene
 * Updated French and German localized text
 * Klingon Faction players now have their own replicator menu
 * Klingon Faction players can now set ground weapons to auto-fire
 * Fixed a crash that would occur when inviting others to your Fleet
 * Fixed a crash that would occur while trying to take a screenshot in certain circumstances
 * Fixed a crash that would occur when a player attempted to enter a private queue that was full
 * Fixed a crash that would occur when dismissing or training certain bridge officers
 * Fixed a crash that would occur when attempting to mail certain item
 * Fixed a crash that would occur when inviting players from an enemy faction
 * Fixed a bug with renaming that could occur if your captain’s name was the same as any of the other officers in your crew
 * Fixed a bug where some items attached via mail could not be viewed
 * Add a LFG option for teams either at the player’s difficulty level or any difficulty level.

PVP

 * Scaling PvP rewards are now in. Players will now be rewarded for the time spend in a pvp match, making longer matches now just as viable as short ones.
 * Added the ability to request to “Join New Game” in the PvP Queue window. The join button is now a drop-down. When clicked, this displays two options: "Join New Game" or "Join Any Game"
 * Updated the look and feel for the PvP Queue
 * Personal scores in the PvP score window are now in columns to take up less space
 * The current team is now indicated with an icon in PvP
 * Personal missions are no longer shown on PvP maps, only Open Missions, so the PvP scoreboard should no longer be hidden by the mission tracker UI
 * Corrected a mistake in the Area Control reporting which was showing incorrect winning conditions
 * Adjusted the “Show Queues” drop down so it now only shows queues
 * Added a join time limit for the various queue types. This prevents players from queuing up for a pvp game and entering a map that is well into the game. Arena Maps: 2 minute time limit, Everything else: 4 minute time limit
 * Fixed a bug which prevented players from seeing their open mission while on a PvP map
 * Fixed the issue where players would spawning inside of geo in PvP area control maps
 * Fixed an issue with the second Federation base in PvP FvF Area control
 * Added defensive turrets to protect player spawn-points on PvP area control maps.
 * The map logic has been updated on PvP KvK Assault for both ground and space versions
 * Abort Mission and Beam to Ship buttons are now disabled on all PvP maps in anticipation of a quitting penalty for PvP
 * PvP Assault Report now shows appropriate team names instead of Red and Blue.
 * Fixed an issue with the Assault Scoreboard score values

UI

 * Restored the missing "Base Defense" (AccuracyMiss) ship stat in the status window
 * Eliminated duplicate instances of combat maneuvers, starship strategy, and starship attack vectors in the ship status window
 * Fixed bug where additional stats were sometimes being displayed on tooltips for weapons linked in chat
 * Players are now able to search Fleet Bank log activity by category
 * Removed unnecessary spacing from item and power tooltip and inspect descriptions
 * Added the pips background to the Klingon Team List and made Klingons use Klingon pips
 * Fixed issue with all trait/power descriptions displaying twice
 * Fixed bug where item stack counts were not being shown for items in the Exchange
 * Updated the Fleet Management Roster button bar
 * Updated the Friends Tab with backgrounds for rank pip icons
 * Tooltips were added to LFG icons and abbreviations
 * The "Friends" tab in the social window has been upgraded:
 * Added an "Accept Request" button
 * Changed the name of the team invite button from "Invite" to "Team Invite" for clarity
 * Moved the "Add Friend" button to the bottom right
 * Added a "Remove Friend" button
 * Now show "Decline Request" instead of "Remove Friend" if the currently selected character sent a friend request
 * Added a confirm dialog when attempting to remove a friend or decline a request
 * Improvements to the "Ignored" tab in the social window
 * Added a "Remove Ignore" button
 * Moved the "Add Ignore" button to the bottom right of the window
 * Added a remove confirm dialog when attempting to remove an ignore
 * Reorganized the buttons in the "Find Team" and "Search" tabs of the social window. Buttons that affect elements in the player list are on the left ("Tell", "Invite"). Other buttons are on the right ("Set Status", "LFG", Visibility").
 * The Skill Picker and Skill Respec "Accept" button is now disabled if no net change has actually been made. Added a 5 second cooldown on the "Reset" button to prevent server spamming
 * Implemented new UI for privacy options in the social UI. Added a privacy button which replaces the (confusing) visibility button. This opens up a menu with allowed chat members and visibility options.
 * Updated the PVP icons to denote which status you're in - Queue, Ready, Invited or Snooze for Fed and Klingon
 * Bridge officer status windows will now display correctly while on a ground map
 * Tweaked the mouse filtering default settings to reduce enormous delay at the highest value
 * Fixed some issues with the options screen:
 * Mouse filtering option wasn't saving properly.
 * Restore defaults wouldn't properly reset shield FX setting.
 * Moved game-specific settings to the top of the options list.
 * Added a setting to HUD options that will allow the user to enable or disable "critical status" information on reticules. If enabled, this will show indicators when a sub-system goes down or when the entity's life is low.
 * Rolled fleet invite, team invite, interior invites into a single invite approved list.
 * Added a check so blacklisted players cannot be invited to fleets, teams, or interiors.
 * The UI will now properly display that a free respec is no longer available.
 * If the user cannot afford a stack of items when buying in bulk, there is now UI that tells the player "You do not have enough ".
 * Fixed bug where some skills in the skillpicker would show +0% modifiers.
 * The clear button will now clear all the fields in the player search window
 * Fixed the fisheye text problem in the "Regions" filter.
 * All Buff/Debuff trays now use the new function that combines buffs, debuffs, injuries, status and DoTs into one list
 * Fixed an issue where landmark icons in sector space would go offscreen
 * Fixed a waypoint icon scaling bug
 * Fixed bug where "Expose Attack" or "Exploit Attack" was being displayed multiple times for a single power on the power's tooltip or inspect description.
 * Added some missing powers to tooltip displays
 * The power transfer rate of your ship will now be displayed as a percentage in your status screen
 * Fore weapons are mapped to keys 1,2,3 and aft 4,5,6. This adjusts based on how many weapon slots you actually have.

Powers and Skills

 * Special Antiproton ground weapons that have a bonus proc vs. Borg can now be given to your bridge officers.
 * Fixed the Tribble of Borg buff from stacking in certain situations
 * Updated the Borg tactical Cube: They were given more beams, their cannon firing arc is increased to 90 degrees, their recharge timer has been reduced on cannons, and the recharge time on their shield neutralizer has been increased.
 * The reverse shield polarity tooltip now displays the three skills that modify the magnitude/duration. Feedback Pulse has been updated: It now works against all direct energy weapons, not just beams. Reduced reflected damage for each version (Version 1~ 60%, Version 2 ~ 80%, Version 3 ~ 100% ). Reflected damage hits the enemy shield but with 50% penetration to the hull instead of 100%.
 * Viral Matrix has been updated: Instead of a hold, Viral Matrix now takes three subsystems offline in a staggered duration. The best case duration for a subsystem being offline is approx 7.2, 9.6, and 12 seconds for versions I, II,III respectively. The subsystems affected are Weapons, Engines, and Auxiliary. The order that the subsystems go offline is determined randomly upon each use. Engineering Team will repair subsystems that are offline.
 * Subnucleonic Beam has been updated: Instead of adding a recharge to all abilities, subnucleonic beam now removes currently active buffs and slows bridge officer recharge timers. Science Team will remove subnucleonic beam
 * Photonic Officer has been updated: Photonic Officer now accelerates the recharge time of all bridge officer powers over its duration. Best case the speed of the recharge is improved by 30%, 40%, 50% for versions I, II, III respectively. Accuracy and Defense modifiers should now show up as a percentage
 * Power Level Changes: Turn rate improvement has been moved from the auxiliary power level to the engine power level. Updated Evasive Maneuvers to use the engine power level as the modifier to turn rate, instead of auxiliary. Increasing power to shields now increases shield damage resistance to any damage. The formula is shield power level divided by 500, so 100% shield power would impart 20% damage resistance.
 * Plasma Grenade now delivers more damage on impact and is comparable to other grenade attacks
 * The short hold that occasionally procs on Palm Strike and Rifle Butt no longer affects players. It will still affect enemies
 * Fixed a display icon error that would generate a white square rather than the icon for Dampening Field.
 * Increased Donotra’s Scimitar resistances
 * Battleships and Dreadnoughts now have some innate resistance to some control powers - like subsystems offline, or jam sensors or scramble sensors, and viral matrix. The resistance reduces the effective duration of such abilities when used against these targets
 * Fixed an issue in the tooltip for Nadion Inversion. The power is unchanged
 * Confuse debuffs will no longer persist after a map change to prevent griefing and NPC killing
 * Fixed a bug that would allow multiple copies of viral matrix to apply in a single attack. This issue also prevented Engineering Team from cleanly removing Viral Matrix.

Audio

 * The Big Dig map ambient audio has been updated.
 * Missing sound FX for the Undine orbital cannon explosion has been added, as well as toning down the loud blast audio from the orbiting cannon arrays.
 * The transwarp to Sol Starbase and transwarp to Qonos sound is no longer cut off by the loading screen

FX and Animation

 * Players will now see a targeting ring that indicates where a grenade is going to drop.
 * The screens of players affected by stun grenade will go from bright white to normal lighting throughout the duration of the effect.
 * The screens of players affected by smoke grenade will be occluded by smoke while they are in the smoke grenades cloud.
 * Smoke Grenade effect has been thinned out.
 * Removed the tricorder light FX to fix the issue with it not turning off.

Missions and Environments

 * Fixed the race condition that sometimes kept the Borg Tactical Cube from spawning by the gate in Infected.
 * Fixed an environment issue with the Boarding Party side-action that allowed players to get stuck in the warp core.
 * Removed some bad spawn point maps in the Federation and Klingon star clusters.
 * NPC ships fighting outside of the U.S.S. Saratoga in the “State of Q” mission are now more era appropriate.
 * Updated hostiles in Sector Space so they have no collision once they turn into Deep Space Encounters.
 * Star Cluster missions are no longer showing their logical names in the mission text.
 * Updated the “Suspect” mission reward to contain new Science console choices.
 * Commodities have become more exclusive to different social hubs, with different prices at different places.
 * Updated the On Ship Replicator to include all the commodities, albeit expensive versions of them.
 * Rator III mission is now more clear on how to progress. This should help make it less likely that the mission appears stuck or confusing.
 * Updated mission logic for the Big Dig to fix issues with stages stalling at 19/20.
 * The Cerin's Fire mission is no longer gated.
 * The Borg geometry has been returned to “The Cure” ground.
 * Fixed a problem during the Khitomer Accord STF where players would not be able to drop shields on the power nodes, thereby halting progress.
 * Fixed a bad mission location of the War Games episode.
 * Fixed DS9 Fleet Action from restarting in a broken condition that would sometimes make it get stuck at 7/8 force fields.
 * Fixed an LOD issue with Epsilon Satellites

Ships

 * Added a new set of pylons to DSSV Science ship called "N Modified" to allow the player to straighten out the nacelles like in the C-Store Picture. This new set is available to all players and when used on other hull types will allow nacelles to be angled up.
 * All window types should now show up on C-Store Federation Ships

Characters and Costumes

 * Players can now create Fleet Uniforms from a saved costume file
 * Fixed several bugs with Cardassian textures in Alien creation
 * Fixed several bugs with Trill spots not always showing correctly
 * Updated combadges to work on more costumes
 * Anyone with a skirt can now choose to have a stockings material applied over the legs. Trill spots now go all the way down.
 * TOS Female costume has been updated:
 * Upper - Starfleet, the original series – loose neck variation
 * Lower: Skirt TOS Split
 * Feet: Boots – High TOS style
 * Head Attach Tech: Earpiece
 * Mirror Universe Female Option is now available to those who have it unlocked.
 * Upper: Terran TOS Mirror Universe tanktop
 * Badge: Mirror universe badge
 * Belt: Sash with cloth
 * Lower: Skirt Short Angled
 * Feet: Boots – Knee High
 * Head Attach Tech: Earpiece

Known Issues

 * The “learn about commodities” mission will not complete properly if your inventory is full at the time you receive your free commodities. Make sure you have at least one space available to prevent this issue.
 * Tooltips for high end ground shields and weapons have vastly incorrect values for some attributes (while the actual items are themselves correct) and state that they are bind on pickup when they are bind one equip.