Release notes/20130725

Hangar Pet Interface

 * For an overview, please see this Dev Blog: http://sto.perfectworld.com/news/?p=940251
 * All ships that possess at least one Hangar Bay will see a new UI element on their screen, as long as they have an item equipped in their Hangar Bay slot.
 * This UI element will display all hangar craft currently active from that bay.
 * The following stats are displayed on this UI:
 * Number of Active Pets, Hitpoints, Shields and Rank (details further below)
 * Each hangar bay may be activated using a button that has been placed on this UI, to summon a wing of pets.
 * This does not remove the option of hotkeying your Hangar Bay summons in your power tray.
 * Wing-specific Carrier Commands can also be accessed from this UI, allowing you send separate Carrier Commands to each hangar, if you have more than one Hangar Bay.
 * Duty Officers that required a specific Carrier Command to be active in order to function have been updated.
 * They will now activate if either Hangar Bay is issuing the necessary command.
 * NOTE: This may allow Carriers to benefit from two different Duty Officer active roster abilities simultaneously. However, the max number of Flight Deck Officers which may be equipped has not been altered, still 3 max.
 * Players may still utilize the buttons on their Weapon Tray to send Carrier Commands to both wings of pets at the same time.
 * For starships with only a single hangar, there is no functional difference between the new Carrier Command buttons and the existing ones.

Hangar Pet Ranks

 * All Hangar Craft are now capable of gaining up to 5 Ranks which will improve their performance over time.
 * These Ranks are slowly gained based upon the time they spend in combat without dying.
 * Reaching Rank 5 requires a total of 5 minutes of active Combat time.
 * Each time a Hangar Craft ranks up, it receives a 25% Hull HP heal, as well as gaining additional stat buffs:
 * +5/10/15/20/25% Maximum Hull HP
 * Tachyon Drones, Siphon Drones and Shield Repair Drones will instead gain +10/20/30/40/50% Max HP, due to their limited combat utility.
 * Runabouts, Delta Flyers and all Frigate Hangar Craft will instead only gain +2/4/6/8/10% Max HP, due to their higher starting base value.
 * +2/4/6/8/10% Damage Bonus
 * Non-Damaging Hangar Pets gain unique bonuses:
 * Tachyon Drones will drain -10 more shields per tick, per Rank.
 * Shield Repair Drones will repair 20% more shields per tick, per Rank.
 * Siphon Drones do not currently gain in effectiveness as they Rank Up, other than Max HP.

Additional Features

 * All Hangar Craft launch timers have been standardized.
 * For example, some ships used to wait 1 second between each pet summon, and others would wait up to 4 seconds.
 * All hangar pets will now linger for 1 second after death to aid in their replacement during combat.
 * The exception to this rule is any pet that uses Ramming Speed.
 * Though they will initiate Warp Core Breach after 1 second instead of the standard 6 seconds.
 * These have all been standardized to a 2 second interval between each pet summon.
 * Activating your Hangar Bay while pets are already summoned will no longer replace active pets, but will only fill in missing pets.
 * All Carrier Commands have had their descriptions updated to reflect their functionality.
 * Carrier Command : Recall has been improved:
 * Hangar Craft will still disengage from combat and return to their Carrier when put into Recall Mode.
 * After 15 seconds in Recall Mode, all active Hangar Craft will now attempt to dock with their Carrier.
 * When a Hangar Craft successfully docks, it will disappear from view but all of its applicable stats will remain (Shields, HPs, Ranks).
 * Docked Hangar Craft regenerate Hull HP at a highly accelerated rate.
 * Docked Hangar Craft cannot be affected by AOE abilities, or gain Ranks, as long as they remain Docked.
 * Docked Hangar Craft will immediately and automatically re-deploy upon receiving any Carrier Command other than Recall.
 * All Hangar Craft will now be far more likely to avoid the explosions caused by any Warp Core Breach.
 * This AI improvement also applies to other ship pets, such as MVAM and Saucer Separation.
 * Doubled the range at which Marauding Force shuttles will initiate their special ability to attack the target's subsystems.
 * Removed an incorrect power description from Fekihri Fighters that indicated their Ramming Speed would deal far less damage than it actually does.
 * Orion Slavers now have a better chance to raid enemy vessels during combat. However, their rewards have been decreased in order to keep the average value of goods approximately the same as it was before.
 * Updated the cooldowns on special abilities for carrier pets:
 * Delta Flyer: Tachyon Beam cooldowns reduced from 90sec to 30sec
 * Peregrine Fighter: Cannon Rapid Fire cooldowns reduced from 70sec to 30sec (Elite only) -
 * Shield Repair Drones: Repair Beam cooldowns reduced from 10sec to 5sec
 * Jem'Hadar Attack Ships: Beam Overload cooldowns reduced from 50sec to 30sec
 * Jem'Hadar Fighters: Directed Energy Modulation cooldowns reduced from 130sec to 90sec
 * Fer'Jai Frigates: Torpedo High Yield cooldowns reduced from 50sec to 30sec
 * To'Duj Fighters: Cannon Rapid Fire cooldowns reduced from 70sec to 30sec (Elite only)
 * Bird of Prey Raiders: Torpedo High Yield cooldowns reduced from 50sec to 30sec
 * Romulan Drone Ships: Beam Overload and Fire At Will cooldowns reduced from 50sec to 30sec
 * Scorpion Fighters: Torpedo High Yield cooldowns reduced from 70sec to 30sec (Elite only)
 * Elite Slavers: Resolved a typo in the description and added photon torpedoes to the short description.

General

 * Veteran rewards are now available to Romulan players that qualify.
 * More details can be found in this Dev Blog: http://sto.perfectworld.com/news/?p=943251
 * Summer Event
 * Added mail services to the consoles in the resort.
 * The dance party now includes VO callouts for start, end, and various dance moves.
 * All instances of the word corvette that refer to the Risian corvette have had the capitalization of the letter “C” removed.
 * Fixed an issue where a ship's current shield values would not display properly on the character sheet while the player is in sector space.
 * Added a dropdown to the Character Tailor, to allow players to choose different lighting configurations that mimic those of key locations within the game.
 * Available options at this time: Default Tailor, Earth Spacedock, Qo'noS, New Romulus.
 * The drop down can be found in the lower right corner, below the Character Turn buttons.
 * The Transwarp window no longer shows transwarp destinations marked as Elite or Vice Admiral.
 * Bridge Officers that are in the overflow bag may now be retrieved.
 * The windowed mode, windowed full screen mode, and full screen mode have been optimized.
 * Updated bar music/crowd noise for rom area of drozana station
 * Updated the animations on the Romulan Embassy guards so they no longer equip and unequip their weapons.
 * Chin strike will now more reliably play its hit audio.
 * The backend of the Gateway has been optimized.
 * Chat room features will now work properly with characters like '&' in the name.
 * Resolved an issue with injuries that prevented some players from receiving another injury after gaining 3 total.
 * The Aquarius pet should more reliably use it's quad cannons.
 * A Personal Shield Mark II [Cap][Reg] that was marked as Mark III had its display text updated.
 * The Peghqu' Destroyer will now properly animate while in sector space

Foundry

 * Added the following NPC Contacts to the Foundry:
 * Jem'Hadar Battleship
 * Squirrels
 * Eppohs
 * Nanovs
 * Armored Hatham
 * Hortas
 * Cast of Klingon Hamlet
 * Changed display names of comets in the Foundry to Comet. (They no longer think they are asteroids.)

Missions

 * War Games
 * When the U.S.S. Athens is disabled in the Draylon system, it now properly becomes a neutral target.
 * Test of Mettle
 * Enemy groups now scale to player level.
 * Khellian System Patrol
 * Added waypoints for the enemy groups, and the satellites that the player needs to repair.
 * Romulan Tutorial
 * Added a tip to teach players how to sprint.
 * Colony Rescue
 * Players can no longer simultaneously rescue the same NPC for credit.
 * KDF allied Romulans now have access to the missions associated with the nebula fighting areas surrounding Omega Leonis.
 * KDF allied Romulans can now accept the PvP scenarios missions.
 * Klingon Academy lore missions are now available to KDF characters starting at level 10, instead of level 21.
 * The mission "Terradome" has been removed.

Systems

 * Traits
 * Leadership
 * Multiple copies of this power no longer replace each others' buffs, allowing players to benefit from both their own copy of Leadership as well as from Bridge Officers' copies of Leadership.
 * Subterfuge
 * Mind Drain can no longer be used from cloak without breaking cloak.
 * The Elachi group no longer drops rewards less often than intended on ground.
 * The Damage Resistance debuff proc on Disruptor weapons no longer is increased by damage bonuses or decreased by damage penalties.
 * It is still affected by the target's resistance buffs and debuffs.
 * Resolved an issue that caused the Destablized Plasma Torpedo to fly much slower than intended.
 * Resolved an issue with the Explosives Expert Duty Officer power which enhances Chroniton Mine Barrier.
 * It can no longer cause the user's weapons to go offline when activating Mine Barrier.
 * Directed Energy Modulation will now correctly damage targets, instead of the user, when used with Phaser/Disruptor Point Defense System.
 * Metreon Gas Canisters can now be equipped on the Mirror Star Cruiser.
 * Smoke grenades can now be used on friendly targets in RPG mode.
 * Separated saucers and starship components, and launched small craft, will now attempt to avoid core breaches if they are near a ship when it is defeated and a core breach starts.
 * Orbital Strike (All Ranks) for Romulan Republic officers now deals plasma damage, has an appropriate plasma visual and has secondary plasma effects.
 * The power's tool tips have been updated to reflect these changes.
 * Updated the description of [SST] enhancements on Warp Cores.
 * Clarified the text of the [SSR] enhancement on singularity cores, removing a duplicate tooltip.
 * Corrected the text displayed number of the Slipstream Recharge bonus to be more accurate.
 * This is a text change only.
 * The [Res] enhancement on singularity cores now works properly with Quantum Absorption.
 * Players may now purchase up to 100 Small or Large Auxiliary Batteries, Shield Batteries, Weapons Batteries, Engine Batteries, Power Cells, Shield Charges, Major or Minor Components, Major or Minor Regenerators in a single transaction.
 * Updated the tooltip for Go Down Fighting to indicate that it cannot be used unless the user's Hull is below 50%.
 * Clarified the tooltips for the two piece T'varo console set.
 * Orbital Strike: Fixed a bug that would prevent this power's reticule effect from playing for Federation and Federation allied Romulan characters.
 * The Scimitar's secondary shielding should now function as designed and display correctly in the HUD.
 * Resolved an issue with Nukara Web Mines causing them to gain more damage than intended from skill points in Starship Weapons and Starship Projectiles.

Costumes

 * The Reman Headgear has been adjusted to prevent clipping.
 * Updated the color palate on the Reman variants of the Romulan Republic uniforms.

UI

 * The fly-in message regarding a full duty officer reserve roster will now reference duty officers instead of bridge officers.
 * Added red alert mode to the Federation Classic, Klingon Classic and Romulan Classic color palettes.
 * If you do not wish to have your UI change colors during red alert mode, it can be disabled through a new checkbox on the "Basic" tab of the options menu this works for any color scheme.
 * The camera has been backed away from their face of department head portraits.
 * The correct ship name will now be displayed in the ship health status in Temporal Ambassador while flying the U.S.S. Enterprise.
 * Nonequippable items in the inventory are now dimmed when the status window is open.
 * Pressing L will now properly open your log.
 * Fleet website URLs can no longer contain profanity.
 * The "Put on Active Duty" and "Remove from Active Duty" buttons will now swap the selected duty officers when there are no free duty officer slots available in the active or reserve rosters.

Known Issue

 * All qualities of the following pets are still replacing active pets if launched while all hangar wings are full:
 * Tholian Mesh Weavers
 * Jem'Hadar Attack Ships
 * Fer'jai Frigates
 * Bird of Prey Raiders
 * Marauding Force
 * Stalker Fighters