Patchnotes – November 2013

Hi Space Pilots,

We know that we post a lot of announcements about features and events, but that you cannot always see what we are doing to improve the game. These monthly patchnotes are intended as a way to keep you better informed.

In November, we implemented the following features, events, etc.:


New Features


· Game Entry 2.0
Following registration, players will no longer have to do the tutorial but will instead start on their company’s x-1 map. Newbies will be directed to Mission Control and provided with different starter missions in order to introduce them to DarkOrbit’s gameplay and core features. Mission rewards are now way better than before. But that’s not all: Game entry is story-driven, and thus more entertaining. We are confident that this will help improve the player's first impression of the game and lead to increased long-time motivation.

· Uridium Items to Credit Items
A couple of Uridium items were changed into Credit items, such as LF-2 lasers, G3N-6900 speed generators, SG3N-B01 and SG3N-A03 shield generators. Furthermore, we reduced the price of the repair bot 2.

· Background Graphics Exchange (x-2 to x-4 maps)
The background graphics in the x-2 to x-4 maps were exchanged to enhance the look of the maps and make them match the new client UI.

· Internal Homepage Rework
After giving the game client a new look, we will do the same for the internal homepage. It will get a more modern look and will feature an event calender announcing upcoming event games in the next days.


Events

· Hitac Lottery Presented by ROCCATTM
(global event from November 16th – December 1st)

Another round of our Hitac Lottery was run in cooperation with our partner ROCCATTM who provided fantastic hardware as lottery prizes. The winners will be notified throughout December.

· Independence Day
(PL servers only)

This one-day event took place on all Polish servers, providing special bonus boxes and several event games as well as fireworks in the Shop.

· Thanksgiving
(US East and West servers only)

A one-week event was held to celebrate Thanksgiving on all US East and West serversfrom November 25, 2013 to December 1, 2013. Additional event games and ammunition were offered as well as special bonus boxes in US design and turkey cargo boxes.



Improvements


· Website

· The Battleray's position is now marked on the minimap because of user complaints that it does not respawn or is not shown on the map while some players forced it into the labyrinth to farm Interceptors.

· Landing page: The game screenshots on the DarkOrbit landing page were replaced with new ones.

· Game Client
· Hall of Fame: Duplicate NPCs were combined into one entry in the “Your Rank” section of the Hall of Fame.

· Skylab: The default amount of Ore (Prometium, Endurium and Terbium) was increased to 150 each for new users.

· The client now starts automatically for new users as soon as they choose a company after registering.


Bug-fixes

· Website

· Auction: If you bid on a ship design which you already own, an error message will be shown to prevent you from purchasing the same item again.
· Hangar:

· The text for the allocate button is no longer in the wrong place.​

· The displayed prices for the P.E.T. Gear slots are now correct.​

· Shop: LGF and BK-100 special deals are now marked as elite items.


· Game Client

· Advanced Jump CPU: The countdown displayed on the star system now fits perfectly to all maps and is no longer in the wrong place.

· Background Music: Changing the volume while the background music is playing, no longer leads to inconsistent sound.

· The Chrome browser no longer identifies the game client as a Spanish website. As a result, it no longer offers to translate the website.

· Galaxy Gates:

· The prepared Galaxy Gates did not appear on the map for some players. This error was fixed and should longer be a problem.​

· Galaxy Gates no longer disappear if a player disconnects in between two NPC waves.​

· Group System:

· If a player is in a group while his/her P.E.T. is in guard mode, it will no longer attack targeted group members.​

· The correct icon for the Vengeance Corsair ship design is now displayed again in the group window.​

· Hangar: The displayed prices for P.E.T. Gear slots are now correct.

· Jackpot Arena: Major issues which caused the JPA to malfunction were fixed.

· Mission Control:

· Some mission descriptions were missing line breaks and overlapped onto the mission conditions. This problem was fixed.​

· Some visual issues were resolved.​

· Ore Refining/Update: Values will always be updated as a result of refinement or updating.

· Ore Trade Window: The Shop and Uridium buttons now lead to the correct page of the game’s website.

· Performing a ship warp no longer causes the client to freeze.

· P.E.T.: The cooldown display for trade gear is no longer lost if a player jumps to a map while the cooldown is still active.

· Pirate Maps:

· In some cases, ships got stuck on the 5-2 pirate map. This issues has been fixed so that this no longer happen.​

· Shipwrecks are now properly removed from maps, thereby improving the game’s performance on map 5-3.​

· Healing values at the pirate headquarters now increase again according to the number of captured relays.​

· Pressing the logout button again will now cancel the logout process.

· Quickslot Bar: A bug was fixed which stopped players from being able to use the quickslot bar after being killed or occassionally after using a jump gate.

· Some special characters were not displayed properly in the game client. This problem was fixed.

· The client no longer freezes if you sell a ship while the killscreen is displayed.

· The Diminisher’s ability to weaken shields cannot be stopped by an EMP anymore.

· The game client does not crash anymore if you press the TAB key while you are on the map.

· Lasers now properly match the Goliath Referee ship design.



We also carried out a number of additional bug-fixes, text corrections and other improvements.


Regards,

Your DarkOrbit team