Patchnotes - September 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 September we implemented the following features, events, etc.:

New Features

Direct Bot Banning
We feel that we have given enough lead time to users and demonstrated that we are serious about getting rid of the bots. As of September 2013, any user detected using bots will be banned upon first detection. There will no longer be a 3-day final warning suspension.

Real-Time Pushing System
The pushing system was updated and now uses diminishing returns. If a player kills another player more than 5 times a day (00:00-23:59 local server time) the Honor and XP rewards will diminish until it reaches a value of 0. All further kills of the respective player on the respective day will not give out any Honor, XP and kill points for rankings.

Free Ship Repairs
Free ship repairs at the home base have been implemented for all players. If a player owns a Premium account all ship repair options are free of charge.

Client UI Milestone 2
This feature not only gives a fresh, consistent look to the UI but also adds new configuration options. Location based buttons like 'Jump' have been moved onto the map to clear up space in the UI.

Home Base Rework
The home bases have been split up into individual modules for each of their function (Ore Trade, Hangar, etc.). These are also reflected on the minimap to show players where they need to go.

New Default Landing page
Together with the reworked home bases which have a more specific focus on the factions, the default landing page has been changed to deliver a more consistent look and better first impressions of the game after registration.

Improvements

In-game detection for players with performance issues using Google Pepper will show how to activate Adobe Flash and increase frame rate.

Selling an LF-2 laser will now award more Credits than a weaker MP-1 Laser.

Repair Bots have been buffed and now restore fractions rather than fixed values (e.g. Repair Bot 4 restores your ship's hull in 90 seconds, regardless of the total amount of Hitpoints it has). In the best case you will be able to repair your ship within 38 seconds (Repair Bot 4 with fully developed Skylab and repair booster), which is much faster than before.

If certain ammunition is depleted it will now switch to the next best kind available (assuming that "Change laser/rocket ammo automatically" is checked in the client settings window):

For Lasers the order is X-4 -> X-3 -> X-2 -> X-1. If there is no "next best ammo", because the player has ran out of X-1, the auto-switching will not loop around to X-4, rather it will find the next ammo up from X-1 (X-2, or if none X-3, etc.).
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Low Ammo Warning: If a player is running out of ammunition the respective button will start to blink red and when the ammo supply is exhausted it will stay red.

Bug-fixes

Website

User Account Center: Email addresses can only be verified once per global account. Creating an account on a new server does not enable another verification.
Fixed a bug that would display the wrong or no clan logo at all in the clan search.
The mission "Wormhole research" now creates a logbook entry that shows the rewards.
Auction: If Players want to overbid their current highest bid, the Credits from the current bid will be taken into consideration for the new bid.
Shop: Button texts are no longer cut off.​

Game Client

Fixed a bug that allowed for Singularity to be used on protected players.

Hades Gate: All rewards will now be granted when Emperor NPCs are killed.
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We also carried out quite a few additional bug-fixes, text corrections and other improvements.


Regards,

Your DarkOrbit team

Originally posted 16.10.13