Public Test Server: Defiance 3.0 - Alcatraz comes to PTS

Dedicated PTS Players!

We have released an early, incomplete, but still playable version of our next Defiance update to our Public Test Servers today - Alcatraz. Here is a summary of some of the changes, and a partial list of bug fixes included in this patch.

Source: http://forums.defiance.com/showthread.php?200551-Defiance-3.000-Alcatraz-comes-to-PTS

Expeditions Revealed!

Expeditions are a new kind of co-op content coming to Defiance with the Alcatraz update. Expeditions challenge players to face increasingly tough enemies in order to gain ever-increasing rewards.

Expeditions currently drop loop at a much higher than intended rate than what will be on live. This is to make it easier to test. The bounty will not be this fruitful on live!

More details on Expeditions will be coming in a future blog post.

Hunter Requisitions

Expeditions are not to be undertaken lightly. Joining an Expedition costs a Hunter Requisitions (though we may disable this on PTS). Once an ark hunter has joined an expedition, they will not need to spend another hunter req unless they extract or allow their current expedition to expire between rounds back at Alcatraz.

Hunter Reqs are provided to bay area ark hunters at the rate of one per week, but they are also provided to Paradise Patrons at the rate of one per day. Additional Hunter Reqs are available in exchange for Bits in the "Consumables" section of the Defiance Store.

More details on Hunter reqs will be coming in a future blog post.

Woot Loot

Woot loot is the term for the items that a player spews out to everyone around them when they gain EGO ratings, level up weapons, vehicles, etc. It's a fun idea, sharing the celebration of success, but presents some problems when trying to get a handle on the balance of the game economy and it is also not tied to the skill or success of the player gaining the loot. It's just about being in the right place at the right time.

The Alcatraz update will remove woot loot and shift those rewards to what you get for high scores in events, increasing them by roughly 25%. This keeps the currency income rate about what it is now, but makes it more consistent and puts it in the hands of the players, rewarding them more for doing well in events instead of just being lucky.

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Cyber Rigs

Cyber Rigs are a new type of gear that augments the physical capabilities of its user, however they are currently disabled on PTS (though you will still see some UI portions of them). We will update this thread once they are enabled.

More Boosts

The Defiance Store now has boosts that increase the maximum charges on consumables and your ammo reserve for various weapon types. Patron Pass owners on PTS gain a 25% boost to both, which stacks.

Special Notes

• We have turned on all weekly and daily contracts (Paradise, Soleptor, Top Notch & Von Bach) to make testing easier. This change will not go to live.
• If you log out of a character in Alcatraz and immediately log in on as another character outside Alcatraz, that new character will be disarmed with no way to draw their weapon without traveling to and then back from Alcatraz. Hilariously, this persists into instances, which adds an unwanted level of challenge to the game
• The Alcatraz Concierge is saying “Defiance Store not available.”, which is a problem specific to PTS.
• The Hellbug bosses in expeditions are placeholder

Patch Notes

These notes are not final, nor are they complete. Notes could be missing, or incorrect. We felt the benefit of getting Alcatraz to PTS for the players to try out in advance outweighed the downside of potentially incorrect or missing patch notes. Please keep this in mind if you think something important changed!

This is not the final Alcatraz build. There are more changes coming, and we could potentially hold back some of the changes currently in this build when we go live.

• Enhanced the functionality of mute
  
  • Players you mute are no longer able to send invites to you
  • You are no longer able to send invites to players that you have muted
  • Mute status now persists across gameplay sessions
  • The group matchmaking process will no longer put you in groups with people you have muted, nor will it match you with people who have you muted.

• Top performing players may no longer mute themselves from the scoreboard (Yes, this was a bug that could occur!)
• Added featured item and purchase ability to the loading screen (when you are in a widescreen resolution)
• Resolution setting changes are now respected if you apply changes to both resolution and quality
• Corrected the number of chat messages received when an item is sent to claim items
• Added a new trade chat channel
• Increased the rewards given out for score, and correspondingly removed woot loot. See this article for more details.
• The scroll position of the inventory and claim item list now stays fixed to the same place when viewing an item in the inventory or claiming/salvaging an item in the claim item list.
• Fix for a very rare client crash when spawning a vehicle.
• Fix for the combat text relating to triggered perks, weapon bonuses, synergies & masteries not always appearing.
• Added the ability to perform salvage matrix operations on the inventory screen. Right-click or press right trigger to access the in-line salvage operations.
• You can now purchase resources and bits from within the regular Salvage Matrix or the in-line Salvage Matrix
• Fix for a PS3-specific client crash when claiming items
• Crash fix that could occur when the camera gets into an invalid location
• Potential fix for a disappearing ammo crate at Serenity Academy (as mentioned in this thread)
• Server crash fix that could occur when combat starts
• Server crash fix for when a player switches phases
• Fixed some inaccurate weapon descriptions
• Added support for additional boost types
• Credit fixes for invasion based pursuits when successfully repelling an initial invasion
• Fix for the 3rd and 4th bonuses of the Scavenger synergy, which did not previously determine “out of combat” correctly.
• Reduced camera shake on the Crimefighter
• Potential fix to prevent afflicted from spawning in walls for the Diablo Vaccine Sythesizer event (as mentioned in this post)
• Fixed several cases where emergencies could trigger enemies to spawn inside collisions
• Some special weapon pick-ups were not scaling properly to the player’s rating. They will now be more useful for high level players in high threat level encounters.
• Resolved an issue that was sometimes causing clan mates to not be able to see messages from each other
• Fixed an issue that was allowing non-officers to select (but not communicate in) officer chat
• Fixed a spelling mistake with the Defiant Few contracts.
• Prevented several situations where purchased consumable refills would be unintentionally salvaged
• Item tiers in settings drop-downs are now color coded

• Group votes to kick members are now tabulated and announced to all members of the group
• Group members who have a vote-kick initiated against them are no longer asked to vote. That was silly.
• The Soleptor Daily mission “Minor Disruption” has had its name changed for consistency, merit, aptitude and overall awesomeness.
• Raider Tankers now apply their armor plates to damage received on their backpacks. Remember to soften them up with bio damage or bypass their armor with radiation damage.
• Inventory boosts should no longer be hidden by other UI elements
• Inventory Stack boosts now apply immediately upon purchase, instead of at login
• Boostable currencies coming from daily / weekly reward lockboxes now benefit from boosts!
• Silicon Valley – Hellfire Invasion – Pacifica Temple Location - Hellbugs should no longer spawn underground
• Play-time-based inventory boosts now count down correctly
• Inventory boost window now scrolls smoothly with the mouse wheel
• Resized threat indicator so it is no longer cut off
• Fixed a crash that could occur when switching from an empty loadout to a non-empty one
• Extraction point added to Silicon Valley Water Temple