Month: December 2023

Hotfix Patch 1.5.16b Notes

Bryan

Bug fixes and misc optimizations

  • The erroneous Consignment House item type filters produced by 1.5.15b’s item changes have been removed.
  • A bug that allowed affixes of Codex recipe-exclusive relics to spawn on other mods has been fixed.
    • A similar bug that affected Hexer’s Shroud has also been fixed.
  • The volume of Ken’s, Tester’s, and Ethan’s new voices was slightly increased.
  • A small typo in Tracy’s quest text has been fixed.
  • The Halloween event’s Treats! log text will now properly describe that Tough Hollow Gourds can be obtained anywhere in London.
  • The Fawkes event’s Uncovering the Plot log text will no longer inaccurately direct the player to Templar Base. It will now list the Gunpowder Plot’s ingredients and instruct the player to use it before reporting back.

Monster fixes and changes

  • Talox’s Lieutenants can no longer erroneously inherit the Indomitable affix from Talox.
  • The tutorial bosses will no longer get random affixes that can cause excessively difficult encounters in the early game.
  • Sekworm’s mod drops will now have a level boost of 1.
  • Sydonai has been changed in the following ways:
    • His HP, Armor, and Damage were moderately increased.
    • His Shields were considerably increased.
    • He acquired the Indomitable affix.
    • His loot was slightly reduced, as it will no longer roll an additional treasure class.

Item fixes and changes

  • The drop rates of all new items introduced in 1.5.15b have been adjusted to better align with conventional drop rates.
    • This only applies to global drop rates, and not to drop rates of dedicated monster sources.
  • A few Necropolis exclusives that were excluded from the regular drop pool (but not Belzor’s pool) will now drop normally.
  • Yio’s Sidearm had its Increases damage of Swordsmanship skills by (60-80%) affix changed. It will now offer Increases damage of Flying Blade and Duelist skills instead (30% each).
  • The drop rates of all global 2-handed Templar guns have been significantly decreased.
    • This does not apply to the Arcane Desolator, since it has a dedicated drop source.
  • The Explorer’s Notes quest item will no longer be tradeable or auctionable.
    • A very rare potential malfunction of this item has also been fixed.
  • All tutorial questline reward items will now only come with the maximum number of possible mod slots. In addition, the following among them were modified to become more useful when they’re acquired:
    • Teacher’s Nightblade had its minimum Damage increased. It acquired some base Poison Attack Strength, and a 100% Damage of Poison Effect.
    • Vicar’s Wardcleaver had its minimum Damage increased. Its minimum added Ignite Attack Strength roll was increased to 80, and it acquired some base Phase Attack Strength.
    • Miner’s Pickaxe acquired some base Ignite Attack Strength, and 10-12% Shield Penetration.
    • Miner’s Beehive acquired the Railed affix that grants 64-72% missile speed, and 10-12% Shield Penetration. Its Sfx Attack Strength affixes were also removed and their bonuses were relocated to the weapon’s base stats, which effectively reduced the weapon’s final feeds and allowed it to get up to 3 augments.
  • Harper’s Fury has had its Damage rebalanced to favor its Splash Damage component much more than its Field Damage component, and its affix that increased Weapon Energy Consumption will now decrease it instead. Its maximum Energy was also reduced to allow for energy consumption mods to benefit it more.
  • Divine Judgement has had its base Damage moderately increased.
    • These changes are not retroactive.

Codex PDA changes

  • The item type of all Unique PDAs will now be named “Unique Intercepted Comms”.
  • The 3rd PDA of each line will now be Common instead of Enhanced, and the 6th PDA of each line will now be Enhanced instead of Rare.
    • In effect, this means each line will have 3 Common, 3 Enhanced, and 2 Rare PDAs, better reflecting their grades’ rarity.
  • The first Codex PDA recipe will now require 3 Common and 3 Enhanced PDAs.
  • All Codex PDA recipes will now be visible in the Cube’s recipe list.
    • Since the first and second recipes’ outcomes are random, they will be described as “Random Scholar’s Relic” and “Random Scholar’s Weapon” respectively.

Level changes

  • Necropolis has been changed in the following ways:
    • Level 2 will now feature a 20% chance for a random miniboss spawn, Abgoth, in both difficulties.
    • Level 4 will now feature a 20% chance for a random miniboss spawn, Sine Nomine Alvus, in both difficulties.
    • Level 5 will now always feature a miniboss spawn, Bonevast, in both difficulties.
      • These minibosses will feature regular Champion loot across all kills.
    • Nightmare Difficulty Necropolis spawnclasses have had their densities increased. They have also been changed to feature more Zombie Summoners of different types, favoring quality over sheer quantity.

Skill and affix changes

  • Nanobots will no longer return to the player while they’re in their attacking state.
    • Since such skills do not traditionally note such behaviors, this change will not be reflected in the skill’s description.
  • Tempest will now only attack enemies while the caster is within 30m of it.
    • The skill’s description text has been updated to note this behavior.
  • The pair of Camouflage and Escape has been changed in the following ways:
    • Their shared cooldown has been lowered from 20 seconds to 10. This now allows cooldown reductions that bring Camouflage to below 20 seconds to apply normally.
    • Each skill will now prevent the use of the other while active.
      • The descriptions of these skills have been changed to outline this change. The shared cooldown will not be noted, however, as these are traditionally not noted on skills. The Engineer version of Escape will also not list the Camouflage interaction, as the class does not have access to this skill.
  • Escape has been further changed in the following ways:
    • For both classes, it will no longer belong to the Tactical or Boost skillgroups.
    • The Marksman version will now also have Sprint as a prohibiting state, the same as the Engineer version of the skill.
  • Escape Artist no longer belongs to the Boost skillgroup, and Elemental Beacon no longer belongs to the Curse skillgroup.
    • These changes are strictly cosmetic, as both of these skills are passive.
  • The new Damage calculation for all Novas has been readjusted, to have it scale more smoothly from lv1 and prevent early player deaths to enemies that featured Novas. Final Nova damage at lv50 should be slightly higher than before, and continue to scale linearly from that point on to strongly favor higher levels.
    • This does not revert the functionality of Nova affixes on armor, since it is not a reversion of the new formula to the old one.
  • The Morbid Fang Nova’s Damage has been slightly increased.

Notes and clarifications

  • The strings glitch where players would have their names or titles replaced by other strings of text should now be fixed, or at least far less frequent. This fix was applied on its own before the release of this hotfix.
  • Despite the initial 1.5.15b patch notes, Omerta’s memorial poster has remained in the rotation of station posters. Its removal was intended to coincide with the addition of a humorous memorial poster and signify progress, but player feedback had us reconsider this decision.
  • Since 1.5.15b, the in-game mail (“Z-mail”) panel no longer activates while any NPC dialogue is open. By extension, the “reroll” practice that was using it has also become impossible. This was a last-minute change that aimed to address a game-breaking exploit, unrelated to the “reroll” practice.