Update 2009-07-02

[Acaos]

- All characters will receive 50% bonus experience for the weekend through Monday July 6th.
- If you use HG Enhanced, you should update to the latest version with the HGE Updater or by visiting HGWiki.
- Added a rarity bonus to all containers in secret areas. The most difficult containers now have a better than even chance of spawning a BUR if you are at least level 60.
- Hotpatch rollup:
-- Respawn times and loot have been further improved in the Elemental Planes. In addition, many creatures there now drop ingredients which can be brewed by the Alchemist into potions.
-- One piece of loot has been added to the Myconid Depths.
-- The drop rate for ingredients in the Feywild has been increased significantly.
-- The Ssithrak B'ssgir will no longer cast an area-effect Mordenkainen's Disjunction when casting Time Stop, as long as there are no characters over level 50 in the area.
-- Monster Concentration skills have been rescaled in legendary areas, making Taunt/Bluff DC more level-appropriate. DCs have increased somewhat in the Hells and decreased significantly in lower-level areas.
-- Damage resistance and immunities in the Drow areas have been adjusted to be much more reasonable for their levels.
- New changes to creatures:
-- A portion of the elemental immunities possessed by creatures in the Hells has been transformed into physical damage immunities. This change reduces the damage discrepancy between Str and Dex tanks and also reduces the amount of bow swapping required of AAs.
-- Most visual effect creatures (e.g. Pyrexic Fumes) have been given more geometry to make them easier to target.
- Ability and spell changes:
-- Trap makers no longer charge gold for making traps (the descriptions may still say they do, but the charge is disabled).
-- Shifting now adds demigod and artifact bonuses to shifted Strength and Dexterity.
-- Some shifted damage abilities can now receive up to a 100% damage boost from the Animal Empathy skill. See your journal for details.
-- Shifter Harpy Curse Song now scales up to bard level 50.
-- Many damage spells can now receive up to a 200% damage boost (up to 3x normal) from the Lore skill. See your journal for details.
-- You can use the !count loreboost SIMTools command to see the maximum damage gain in an area from Lore.
-- Many damage spells have been rescaled, cleaned up, and tweaked. See your journal for details. In addition, a few schools have changed:
--- Blade Barrier is now Conjuration.
--- Burning Hands is now Evocation.
--- Combust is now Transmutation (to match Corrosive Grasp and Shocking Grasp).
--- Mass Blindness/Deafness is now Enchantment (to match Blindness/Deafness).
-- A number of new spells have been added for users of HG Enhanced. You will need to update your HG Enhanced to select or use these spells.
--- Cleric level 5: Blistering Radiance (V)
--- Wiz/Sorc level 1: Corrosive Grasp (T), Lesser Orb of * (C), Shocking Grasp (T)
--- Wiz/Sorc level 2: Flurry of Fumes (C), Snowball Swarm (C)
--- Wiz/Sorc level 4: Orb of * (C)
--- Wiz/Sorc level 5: Vitriolic Sphere (C)
--- Wiz/Sorc level 6: Freezing Sphere (V)
--- Wiz/Sorc level 7: Greater Orb of * (C)
--- Wiz/Sorc level 8: Greater Spell Breach (A), Polar Ray (V)
-- The Spells Pedestal in the Docks has been unlocked for Bards and Sorcerers.
-- Rogues must rest before they will be resistant to skill penalties in the Hells.
-- After successfully Mortal Striking a target, assassins must wait until the next round to make additional Mortal Strike attempts.
- Extra attack rebalance:
-- The engine bug which prevented characters from getting proper offhand attacks on double weapons has been fixed (through use of Shapestrong Rage to change size to medium for barbarians). The bonus two attacks for equipping one of these weapons have been removed.
-- The extra attacks from the Clockwork Boots and the Boots of the Wanderer no longer stack with extra attacks granted by Divine Wrath or Shadow Evade. Characters using the Boots of the Wanderer in combination with Divine Wrath or Shadow Evade will still receive a single bonus attack for a total of two.
-- The net effect of the above changes is to reduce the damage of double weapon users from ~165% to ~135% of single weapon users.
- Bug, exploit, lag, and documentation fixes.

[FunkySwerve]

Known Issues: It appears that an engine hack related to infliction abilities like the Lash's is malfunctioning. We'll fix it as soon as possible, though it may be a few days.

Funky

[Acaos]

The Lash issue should be fixed next reset. It's not related to the CoT IWW issue, however, so I'll have to look at that separately.

Acaos

[Acaos]

2009-07-06 hotpatch notes:

- Bonus experience has ended.
- Ingredients in the Feywild and the Elemental Planes now drop into the inventory of a random party member in-area and will automatically stack with other ingredients of the same type, to cut down on the pain of loot splits.
- The AB calculation for focus-AB spells (e.g. Bigby's Clenched Fist, Evards, Blade Barrier, and the Orb spells) has changed slightly to take caster modifier into account. The general calculation is now CL + (caster modifier / 2) + (focus feats * 3).
- Evards Black Tentacles and Blade Barrier can now miss due to concealment.
- The Orb spells now have damage reduction similar to Bigby's Clenched Fist based on enemy concealment.
- Ethereal Visage is no longer a Dwarven Warchanter spell. Displacement is now a Dwarven Warchanter spell, and grants Ethereal Visage concealment when cast upon oneself, as long as the Warchanter is wearing light armor or robes.
- You should now be able to swap shields while wearing the bardic Displacement armors.
- Bug, exploit, lag, and documentation fixes.


Note that we may rework Blade Barrier again in the future, to make it a bit more distinct from Evards.