Patch Notes for August 25th, 2019 (Release Candidate 2)

[Leandro]

General

• This is a Release Candidate. It means that we expect this patch to go to the live servers, unless we find a severe issue that blocks its release. Because this patch contains data files as they would go to the Live servers, several Justin features like all the Merit recipes being free and a bunch of badges being awarded at character creation are disabled. They will come back once we start the next round of experimental patches.
• Fix memory management library erroneously using SRW locks in the 32-bit built, which breaks Windows XP compatibility.
• Fix detection of more than 4GB of physical memory on 64-bit platforms.
• Be more aggressive about capturing the mouse pointer while in mouselook and camrotate mode.

• Fix the magical shrinking window on 64-bit.

  • Windows Vista and newer in 64-bit mode report system metrics for window frame size differently. Use a different method that is accurate on all supported operating systems.

Powers

• Energy Assault:
  • Attempt at preventing multiple Energy Releases back to back.
  • Eliminated Energy Release text spam from Bone Smasher.
  • Added an Energy Stored message upon successfully generating Energy Focus.
• Icy Assault:
  • Chilling Embrace should no longer inflict damage against sleeping enemies. Slightly lowered the speed movement debuff to compensate for the additions of -Dmg debuffing and Cold Damage ticks. Updated text description.

Edited August 25, 2019 by Leandro

[lobster]

Putting together an elec/ice to test now.   64 bit client

 

* There are no damage numbers for /icy  [edit: or any other set] - Clarification, there are no numbers below the line under 'effect area', above that there are the damage/activation/time etc.  Below that are a bunch of ValueTypeForDurationTarget/unresistable

* HUGE BUG. When I mouse over enhancements, instead of showing what they do it shows "string".

* When I sign out it says "disconnecting in TIME seconds"

* When I look at my character list it says : Slots used : USED/TOTAL  - tested on 64bit/classic/safe mode - it's there in all of them, so I'm guessing the other failed variable expansions are there as well.

* Player names are showing as PlayerName above their heads, but correctly in the targeting window.

 

 

Edited August 25, 2019 by lobster

[Leandro]

Ignore all the text errors for now, the problem is that one of the text translation files is using Linux-style endlines instead of Windows-style, and that broke a lot of things. Will fix shortly.

[lobster]

1 hour ago, Leandro said:

Ignore all the text errors for now, the problem is that one of the text translation files is using Linux-style endlines instead of Windows-style, and that broke a lot of things. Will fix shortly.

Gotcha.

 

OK, I can confirm that the Chilling Embrace lack of damage vs. sleeping enemies appears to be working correctly in standard scenarios.  I'm just wondering if this is the right kind of fix, because it makes it different from all the other damage auras.   For a sense of...I dunno, things working like you expect, I would prefer a solution that either involves the aura not doing damage, so it doesn't have to be this other edge case where one power works differently than expected, or just make it a damage aura and those of us who are frustrated by this change either won't play that combo anymore or will use CE differently?

I'll admit, I don't actually want option 2, but I would accept it if you guys feel that's the best place for damage to reside in the set - although I will say that I didn't notice a huge damage issue with icy in the non-bleeding edge build area.   Sure, it wasn't the highest, but it didn't feel weak.  With the buffs it's already gotten with this patch, it's only gotten better.  Those changes, plus the size increase and -dmg debuff in CE are really good overall and it might be worth just letting that sit to see how it does.

EDIT: Random debuff idea : what about a reverse power boost debuff?  So targets affected by it are affected by other debuffs at an increased rate?  Or maybe even an increased endurance usage debuff (reverse conserve power)?  It seems like both those might already be functional with the existing system, leaving some nice design space?

 

EDIT2: Energy focus mode on /energy assault does not appear to be working at all.  TF wasn't auto-triggering it, and it didn't seem to trigger off disorient hits like it was before.

EDIT4: The TF auto-focus is definitely broken.  But I am seeing it pop-up occasionally elsewhere when hitting a disoriented target.  When Power Burst is used in focus mode, I am not seeing a difference in the damage.  I was able to get TF to trigger it once by using it on an already stunned target.  I will say that without the auto-trigger from TF, the mechanic is a lot less engaging, as it's fairly uncommon.

Edited August 25, 2019 by lobster

[esotericist]

2 hours ago, Leandro said:

• Be more aggressive about capturing the mouse pointer while in mouselook and camrotate mode.

 

Oh, hey, awesome! This was the last thing keeping me from running the new client. I'll test this on my system shortly.

 

Edit: Okay, patching happened sooner than I thought.

 

At this point, mouselook and camrotate both behave pretty much exactly like they did on the old client. Like the old client it isn't perfect; the mouse sometimes is visible on the second monitor, but it is only for fleeting moments in time (a frame or two generally), and it never actually fails to function correctly (ultimately rendering the occasional cursor escapage cosmetic in nature).

 

Fantastic work.

 

Edit 2: I'm on mac os 10.14.5, not windows, in case that information is of value.

Edited August 25, 2019 by esotericist
additional details

[Teirusu]

20 hours ago, Leandro said:

• Be more aggressive about capturing the mouse pointer while in mouselook and camrotate mode.

I'm doubtful, but it be nice if this fixes the long time bug of accidentally having elements of the UI being clicked on when in mouse-look mode while using auto-run? 

 

It's certainly annoying to be panning the camera around, left clicking to auto-run and then suddenly finding your chat tabs switched or, worst yet, accidentally quiting your team.  (Which has happened to me a number of times, unfortunately.  Enough that I wish there was some prompt for team quiting like there is for TFs, haha.)