Patchnotes – December 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 December, we implemented the following features, events, etc.:

New Features

· New Map Backgrounds (x-5 to x-8)
After the implementation of the new backgrounds of the maps x-2 to x-4, we did the same for the maps x-5 to x-8 to make the whole company maps look prettier and to better match the game's overall renewed appearance.

· Forum Migration
In the beginning of December 2013, we migrated our game forum to a new software which is much more modern and provides a much more secure environment than the old one.​

Events

· Winterfest 2013
Winterfest was a global event that ran throughout the whole month of December. In addition to several event games, we offered special bonus boxes to the users as well as a Christmas calender with daily rewards. Daily special event quests with two different levels of difficulty diversified the daily routine and challenged players.

· Constitution Day (ES servers only)
The Spanish Constitution Day was celebrated on Friday, December 6th on all Spanish servers and featured some event games as well as special bonus boxes.​

· Immaculate Conception (IT servers only)
To celebrate the Immaculate Conception, we hosted a national event on all Italian servers on Sunday, December 8th. The event featured several event games as well as special bonus boxes.​

· DarkOrbit’s 7th Birthday
A newsletter with a voucher for a free Hades Gate was sent out to active players as a small present and thank-you to our loyal users to celebrate DarkOrbit’s 7th birthday which was on December 11th. Some users did not get this newsletter, but after identifying the affected user group, this was sorted out by the end of December and the newsletter was resent to those players.
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Improvements

· Website​

· After registration, the company with the lowest active user population will be pre-selected.​

· Game Client​

· Game Entry 2.0:

· The font size of the hint window text was increased.
· The tooltip for the Jump CPU is now more descriptive.
· Important information in mission texts is now highlighted.​

· Repair Bot: The Repair Bot is now able to repair ships while moving.

· Double-clicking a target which is currently under attack does not stop the attack anymore.

· The activation and deactivation of lasers now has a visual feedback displayed on its Quickslot bar icon.

· Jump CPU: The JP-1 CPU and the JP-2 CPU now have a cooldown of 10 seconds after being attacked by an NPC, while keeping the 20 seconds cooldown after a PvP attack. A PvP attack cooldown will override the NPC attack cooldown.

· P.E.T.: The Trade gear will no longer lose its cooldown display if the player performs a map jump while the cooldown is running
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Bug-fixes

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· Website

· Clan:

· If a player is already in a clan and visits the clan page of another clan he/she applied to earlier, he/she will no longer be notified that his/her application is pending.
· If you search for a clan without a company affiliation, the clan info will not show a company anymore.
· Clan messages in “Clan news” now format line breaks.
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· Achievements: The Achievement page opens again without any issues.

· Tech Center: Hitting the “Produce instantly” button several times before the page reloads now deducts Seprom as intended for the Tech for which it was built.

· Hangar: If a drone has reached level 6, there will be a 0 displayed in the drone points area.

· Auction: Players are not able to bid on mines anymore if their rocket cargo space is full and will get a corresponding error message if they try to place a bid.

· Pilot License: If a player is not a member of a clan, he/she will be listed as a “Free Agent”.
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· Game Client

· P.E.T.:

· After using Trade Gear, the P.E.T. no longer disappears and its control window will be greyed out.
· The Enemy Locator Gear now updates its NPC list in real time and, thus, considers recently spawned NPCs too.
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· Kappa Gate: The minimap now shows the Galaxy Gate’s name.

· Mission Control:

· The mission description for the mission “The Skylab” is not displayed anymore if the mission has already been successfully completed.
· Some quests which were not visible anymore due to changing a company are now visible and can be accepted again.
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· Settings: The players are able to change the hotkeys in the settings again.

· Advanced Jump CPU/Star System Map: The advanced jump options now show up directly in the star system map if you equip the Advanced Jump CPU while the client is open.
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We also carried out a number of additional bug-fixes, text corrections and other improvements.

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Regards,

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Your DarkOrbit team

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