Game Update 4 notes (Live today)

Game Update 4

Publish Notes, May 27, 2008

Highlights:

• Commando, officer, and smuggler profession and expertise updates; new stackable damage over time effects; addition of a particle slider and other UI improvements.

Gameplay:

• Combat modifiers Block Chance, Dodge, Evasion Chance, Parry, Critical Hit and Strikethrough Chance are now under a diminishing return formula. This formula affects skill mods granted by jewelry sets, power ups, and skill-enhancing attachments; buffs and other bonuses granted through expertise are not affected.
• Commandos and bounty hunters share the same armor break debuff. Both professions can stack the debuff to 5. Armor break on players reduces based on a percentage, while armor break on non-players is a flat amount. See the profession notes below for more details.
• Debuff purge abilities decrements a debuff's stack. This means if you have a debuff with a stack of 3, and you use a debuff purge ability that will reduce/remove 2 debuffs, the stack is reduced to 1.
• New icons have been added for bleed damage over time abilities.
• Stasis can be used on beasts.

Commando:

• Commandos receive a free expertise respec upon logging in to Game Update 4.
• Commandos can apply stacks of a damage over time (DoT) effect up to an increment of 10. If two commandos are using the same elemental type weapon, they can both increment the DoT stack. If the owner of the buff stack switches weapons and applies a new stack of dots, the original stack will go away. If two commandos are using two different elemental weapons, both can have a stack of their respective elemental type.
• A new commando weapon has been added, the CC-V 'Legion' Cryo Projector. This is a cold elemental spray (flamethrower) heavy weapon.
• The Crusader M-XX Heavy Rifle elemental damage type has been changed to electricity.
• The C-M Frag Storm Heavy Shotgun elemental damage type has been changed to kinetic.
• Using heavy weapons with low action no longer give the +TOO TIRED+ message.
• The kill meter is incremented as the commando deals and receives damage.
• The ability Empowered Attack has been added to the profession wheel, which improved damage from rifles, carbines and pistols for a short duration. This ability consumes points from the commando kill meter.
• The ability First Aid Training has been added to the profession wheel, which improves healing effects for a short duration. This ability consumes points from the commando kill meter.
• The ability Double Time has been added to the profession wheel, which boosts the commando's run speed for a short duration. Activating Double Time cancels Position Secured if it's active. This ability consumes points from the commando kill meter.
• The Cluster Bomb expertise has been added in the Commando expertise tree. When used, this ability will throw a grenade which will then fracture into multiple smaller bomblets over a large area. This ability consumes points from the commando kill meter.
• The Killing Spree expertise has been added in the Commando tree. When used this ability, fires an additional attack at a nearby engaged enemy when the commando attacks. This ability consumes points from the commando kill meter.
• Modified Killing Grimace increases the number of additional attacks made during Killing Spree by 1 per point.
• Blow Them Away has been modified to increase the bomblet count of Cluster Bomb by 2 per point.
• The Remote Detonator debuff is a -100 Precision maximum from expertise instead of -50 Precision. Its cooldown has changed from 120 seconds to 20 seconds.  Its damage bonus maximum from expertise is now 100% instead of 60%. The action cost is zero.
• Remote Detonator can now be used when targeting something that is not in your line of sight.
• Armor Cracker's name has been changed to Armor Shredder. This is a new ability that works identically to Riddle Armor except that it reduces the armor of any enemies within 10m of your current target.
• Riddle Armor and Armor Shredder apply the armor break debuff. Armor break may have up to 5 applications per stack and reduces NPC armor by 400 per application. Armor break reduces Player armor by 4% of player total per application.
• The base cooldown on Riddle Armor/Armor Shredder has been lowered from 30 seconds to 13 seconds.
• Improved Riddle Armor reduces cooldown on Riddle Armor/Armor Shredder by 2 seconds per point.
• Keen Eye only works with ranged weapons, including heavy weapons.
• When a commando activates Mirror Armor, any NPC enemy aggressiveness towards him is cut in half once.
• Diagnostic Armor has been modified to a 1 point expertise.
• Marksman is a new 3 point Tier 5 expertise connected to Heavy Ammunition. Each point spent reduces action cost by 4% for the commando if they are using a rifle or carbine.
• Heavy Ammunition now affects carbines.
• The expertise Suppressing Fire also suppresses movement speed towards the commando by afflicted targets.
• The expertise Improved Suppressing Fire increases glancing blow vulnerability of the target, movement suppression of the target, and cone width of the attack.
• Position Secured has been modified to grant 200 Strength in addition to existing functionality.
• Position Secured can no longer be removed by the player by right clicking.
• Improved Position Secured is a new 3 point expertise. Commando action cost reduced by 10% per point while in Position Secured.
• Base of Operations has been modified to grant 1000 armor and 5 critical chance to the commando and his or her group.
• Base of Operations can only be used while the commando is in Position Secured. This is no longer a standalone ability, but is applied automatically to the group if the commando enters Position Secured.
• Short Fuse is a new expertise below Packed Explosives. This is 1 point expertise that decreases the fuse time on the commando's grenades by 1 second.
• Enhanced Luck is a new 2 point expertise added to the bottom of the Assault tree. Each point spent grants the commando 25 Luck.
• Added Special Lethal Beam special attacks purchasable in the Heavy Weapons expertise line.
• Added Special Focused Beam special attacks purchasable in the Heavy Weapons expertise line.
• Added Tibanna Gas to Heavy Weapons expertise, which increases heavy weapon damage by 2% per point, 4 points maximum.
• Added Enhanced Fuel Canisters to Heavy Weapons expertise. This expertise reduces the action cost of specials with heavy weapons by 5% per point as well as increasing chance to apply a DoT effect passively by 1% per point, 4 points maximum.
• A new ability, Stand Fast, is a one point expertise. Damage against the commando is reduced by 60% while Stand Fast is in effect. Stand Fast lasts for 12 seconds and is on a 10 minute cooldown.
• Improved Stand Fast is a three point expertise. Each point spent improves Stand Fast by 5% damage reduction, increases duration by 2 seconds, and lowers the cooldown by 2 minutes.
• Lowered the volume of the Plasma Mine explosion.
• Increased minimum damage range on Devastation bonus; maximum damage range remains the same.
• Fixed issue with Enhanced Devastation skill modifiers granting 1:1 ratio instead of 10:1.
• Diagnostic Armor now reduces dot damage by the full 25 percent.
• Burst Fire: Devastation chance percent fixed to actually give 5/10% instead of .5/1 % increase.
• Suppressing Fire is now a single target attack.
• Improved Explosives is now a 75% bonus instead of 50% bonus per point spent.
• The Juggernaut heroic jewelry set cooldown has been altered from 15 seconds to 4 seconds.
• The Frontman commando jewelry set effects have been adjusted. The enrage ability cost has been lowered to 5000 health and the cooldown to 90 seconds, as opposed to 7500 health and 140 seconds.
• The Frontman jewelry set description now displays the correct Block Chance value.

Officer:

• Officers receive a free expertise respec upon logging in to Game Update 4.
• Officers can toggle Tactics, Focus Fire, and Pistol Drillmaster group buffs on (instead of being on a timer). The first toggled skill mod is granted to an officer at level 7; more toggled buffs can be obtained by purchasing the Leadership expertise.
• Leadership expertise can only be purchased up to 2 points now. Officers still receive the +30 buff duration when both points are purchased.
• Level 90 officers can create two types of rally points; one is offensive and one is defensive. Rally points must now be placed at least 15m from the officer and no more than 100m away. Group members who stand in this area (indicated by the red or blue particle) receive a combat buff. Rally Point abilities are affected by the same action and cooldown modifiers as all other group buffs.
• A group system message command, /sysgroup, has been added for officers only, beginning at level 18. Officers can send system messages to all group members with this command. When an officer types %TT in the /sysgroup message, the target's name is inserted into the message. The default colors for the message are light blue for the officer's name and red for the officer's text. The officer can change the color of the text by inserting hex color combination before the message; for ex: #00ff00 Move out!
• Added group waypoints. This ability allows officers to set waypoints for their group members. /groupWaypoint allows the officer to type the slash command and drop a waypoint at their feet. The waypoints clear themselves in 10 minutes unless the group member logs out or server goes down. This ability is granted at level 18. In addition to the slash command dropping the group waypoint at the officer's feet, officers can use the ability in the toolbar to ground target where it will be placed.
• Normalized officer expertise damage modifiers to 3% per point spent.
• A new expertise tree, Misdirected Anger, has been added in third column of the Squad Command expertise. This expertise is a skill to transfer hate from the officer to a group mate, up to 25% of hate when all points are spent in the expertise.
• The White Phosphorous Grenade ability has been changed Dioxis Grenade; this poison DoT can be stacked up to an increment of 2.
• Advanced Paint Target now has a default maximum range of 64m with any weapon.
• Paint Target determines range based on weapon equipped.
• Fixed an issue with Advanced Paint Target's particle effect not lasting through the entire debuff life.
• Identify Weakness and Advanced Paint Target are now linked.
• Removed pistol action reduction expertise boxes.
• Officer strength expertise is now named "Sturdiness" instead of "Close Combat".
• Moved Side Arm Accuracy up to tier 2.
• Moved Dire Strikes up to tier 3. 
• Moved Drillmaster into Squad Command expertise, under Advanced Tactics.  
• Drillmaster now gives everyone using pistols an extra 5% damage on top of other bonuses.
• Dire Strikes now gives the player up to +8 range for pistols.
• Dire Strikes expertise is now 2 points, allowing up to +10 critical bonus (while retaining its range bonuses).  
• The Target Selection expertise has been reduced to 2 points and moved into the Identify Weakness tree. This expertise now grants a 10% action cost reduction per point spent, up to 2 points.
• Base Supply Drop has been modified to take the officer's level into account. There is a mid-ranged version of items starting at 45 and a higher ranged version of items starting at 75.
• De-coupled melee line expertise from 1-hand weapons.
• Fixed descriptions of Vortex and Decapitate to no longer say requires 1-hand weapons.
• Moved all bonuses from Initiative into Leadership expertise box.
• Moved Advanced Tactics to a tier 2 expertise, along with Focus Fire.  
• Added new pistol attack Pistol Burn where Drillmaster used to be. This is a pistol attack that does 1.5 times normal damage plus an additional 1365. This special has a chance to apply a bleed DoT to your target.
• Added inspired action proc chances to Pistol Burn (starting at level 74), Pistol Overcharge (starting at level 74), and rally points.  
• Added Pistol Overcharge, a double damage attack.
• Environmental Purge now will remove half the stack of DoTs on you. If you only have one DoT with a stack of 1, it will remove the DoT. It will also prevent any additional DoTs from being reapplied while it is active.
• Increased Environmental Purge's DoT immunity to 10 seconds.
• The Officer Kinetic Expertise Armor increase now displays in the combat section of the skill mods UI.
• Focus Fire, Scatter, and Last Words have been moved one column over in the expertise window.  
• Sniper Techniques has been removed from the officer description at character creation.
• Officer group buffs apply to all beasts.
• The General jewelry set increases the duration of Rally Point.
• Hellstorm jewelry set descriptions have been updated to reflect the new grenade name.

Smuggler:

• Smugglers receive a free expertise respec upon logging in to Game Update 4.
• Sly Lie, Fast Talk, Half Truth, Fake ID, Innocent Cargo, Underworld Boss, Long Odds expertise bonuses for the smuggling system have been moved to the profession wheel and are now free.
• Sly Lie and Fast Talk cooldowns have been lowered to 10 minutes and 5 minutes respectively.
• Underworld Boss now displays the exact overridable armor value based on the smuggler's smuggling rank in the character modifications summary.
• Commands moved to the profession wheel now reflect the correct level they're gained at. Fan Shot 5 and Brawler Swipe 5 are gained at level 74 instead of level 78.
• Gun Oil and Elbow Grease have had their abilities moved to the profession wheel. Gun Oil now reduces action costs by 5% if the smuggler is wielding a pistol.  Elbow Grease now reduces action costs by 5% if the smuggler is wielding a melee weapon.
• Corrected an issue with Spot a Sucker; the damage reduction chance is random, but the average was getting worse the more points that were spent. This fix allows the damage reduction to increase, based on points spent.
• Spot a Sucker supporting expertise have had their percentages increased.
• Spot a Sucker now displays all its stats from expertise in its debuff mouseover information.
• Lucky Break and Feeling Lucky debuff cooldowns have been reduced so they can occur possibly more than once per fight.
• The Off the Books cooldown has been reduced to one minute.
• Off the Books no longer allows more than one junk dealer to be called at a time.
• Off the Books buff now properly shows its bonuses, depending on which expertise have been purchased.
• Impossible Odds and Nerf Herder should have separate cooldowns. 
• The Modify Pistol reload animation should now play for anyone observing the smuggler.
• The description of Wretched Fate has been updated.
• Pistol damage has been increased by 50% on special actions that can use a pistol.
• Break the Deal expertise now grants the "Gunslinger" title; Bad Odds expertise now grants the "Swashbuckler" title.
• Overridable armor bonuses are now 1475 per point spent in expertise. Underworld Boss is now overridable armor instead of innate armor.
• Double Deal now has a maximum 20% chance (10% per point spent) to reset Off the Cuff's cooldown, instead of dealing damage to two targets.
• Fake Goods now decreases False Hope's delay by 1 second per point spent (minimum 1 second delay).
• Smuggling missions for PvP should double the Improved Pistol Modules for the reward.
• Improved Pistol Modification (IPM) buffs cannot be overridden by another IPM buff.  The buffs must be cancelled to be able to re-apply an IPM.  Making the buff require cancellation protects the smuggler from accidentally consuming a Pistol Modification Module. 
• Added Skullduggery, a new debuff that increases the chance for an affected target to miss and is affected by the smuggler's Luck.
• Added Skullduggery and Impossible Odds support expertise stats to the character summary.
• Added Eat Dirt support expertise, which increases the chance of Skullduggery.
• Added Blindside support expertise, which increases the duration of Skullduggery.
• Added Impossible Odds, a new debuff that increases the chance for an affected target to be hit and is affected by the smuggler's Luck.
• Added Sleight of Hand support expertise, which increases the hit chance of Impossible Odds.
• Added Loaded Chance Dice support expertise, which increases the duration of Impossible Odds.
• Added Pistol Whip, which is a new line of attacks that do damage with a pistol or melee weapon.
• Added Beat Down support expertise, which increases the duration of Pistol Whip's stun debuff.
• Added Flying Tackle support expertise, which adds a percentage chance to stun a target hit by Pistol Whip.
• Added Blaster At Your Side expertise, which adds a flat damage bonus to all attacks based on the smuggler's level.
• Added Shoot First, which is a new line of attacks that do damage with a pistol or melee weapon. Shoot First has a side-effect of putting a bounty hunter into combat, if that bounty hunter has the smuggler as a bounty target.
• Added Nerf Herder, which is a new buff that allows a target to be rooted the next time it is critically hit by the smuggler through a special action. Nerf Herder does not require a target so it can buff the smuggler using it.
• Switcheroo glance defense should be for all defender melee weapons and not attacker melee weapons.
• Pistol Critical Chance bonus from Precise Bead is no longer affected by diminishing returns.
• Weapon range increase and weapon damage increase from skills and smuggling rank now properly display in the character summary.
• Updated descriptions for smuggling system; bonuses with range and damage should be in the stat description in expertise and in the profession wheel (profession wheel was missing).
• Illicit Broker level 5 conversation with an NPC fixed to remove the grammatical error "Thanks you" and instead display "Thank you".
• Improper grammar in smuggler PvP set item description corrected.

Bounty Hunter:

• Ambush now applies the Armor Break debuff. Armor Break may have up to 5 applications per stack and reduces NPC armor by 400 per application. Armor Break reduces player armor by 4% of player total per application.
• Added Advanced Armor Break expertise, which adds 10% critical hit bonus to Ambush line of attacks and 2% damage bonus. Bounty hunters still apply a crit vulnerability debuff when they hit with the new Armor Break.
• Changed bounty hunter expertise icon that grants Ambush Mark 3 thru 8 to look the same as the commando Riddle Armor icon as they fire the same debuff.
• Flawless Strike no longer applies Flawless Bead. The three Flawless set bonuses have a 10% chance to apply Flawless Bead 1-3. Flawless Bead reduces the target's defenses against your next special attack.  Flawless Bead will be removed by the next special attack.
  • Flawless Bead 1: Reduce Dodge, Block, Glancing and Parry by 25%.
  • Flawless Bead 2: Reduce Dodge, Block, Glancing and Parry by 50%.
  • Flawless Bead 3: Reduce Dodge, Block, Glancing and Parry by 100%.
• Flawless Strike now grants a 6 second buff which increases the Flawless Bead proc chance by 15%.
• Flawless Bead now has a new icon so it will not be mistaken for the new Flawless Strike buff.
• The Master Crafted EE3 bolt is now red and the sound when firing has been changed to the EE3 carbine sound.
• Bounty Check fugitives will now only give collection credit to the bounty hunter that found the fugitive.
• Enforcer jewelry set buff now removes 1 second cooldown from Assault.

Medic:

• Reduced the value of Enhance Block from combat block chance 100 to combat block chance 50.
• Medics can now perform beneficial actions through stasis.
• Cure Affliction will remove up to 5 stacks of all DoT effects.

Spy:

• Fixed an issue with decoys not respecting /showbackpack and /showhelmet.
• Fixed an issue with decoys coming out with stealth buff.
• Run Its Course removes all stacks of poison, disease, or bleeding DoT effects on the spy.  
• Run Its Course makes the spy immune to further applications for the duration of the effect.
• Run Its Course no longer causes damage to the spy.  
• Added 75% evasion chance to Avoid Damage.
• Reduced cooldown on Avoid Damage to 3 minutes.

Jedi:

• Hermetic Touch is a separate command and is no longer linked to the self heal.
• For the Jedi Cloak Collection Statue NPCs, the debuff from a failed attempt now has a duration of 15 minutes and continues to count down even when offline.

Beast Master:

• Healing a fully healed beast should no longer start a cooldown and take an action cost.

User Interface:

• There is now a particle slider option located in the Graphics tab of your Options menu. This slider will limit the number of non-essential (i.e. not weapon fire related) particles you will render. This option will not affect mesh particles like holograms or holo-emotes.
• The Quest Helper can now be hidden or shown via the Options menu in the Interface tab.
• Image design terminals will no longer show your helmet/backpack if you have those options turned off.
• Added flytext for entering combat; this text can be turned off via the Options menu in the Combat tab.
• When firing a heavy weapon using auto-aim, the weapon will now correctly fire at the intended target even when the mouse cursor is moved over a HUD window like the chat window.
• Emotes will now use your intended target (if in auto aim mode) or your look at target (if in manual aim mode).
• Typing %TT in spatial chat and /sysgroup will now give you the name of your look-at target while in manual target mode, and your intended target while in auto-target mode.
• Fixed an issue where screenshot files could be overwritten. Screenshots are now placed in the <Star Wars Galaxies Install Path>/screenshot folder.

Space:

• The Krayt Gunship Control Device in datapads should now be displayed as a gunship instead of a heavy fighter. This only applies to new ships and not existing ships.
• An issue with the ARC-170 that caused the screen to shake has been corrected.

Collections:  

• IG-88 and stormtrooper dowels have had their punctuation fixed for their item descriptions.
• Players can now turn in their completed collection "Reconstructed Crystals" to the Tatooine Collector and receive their reward.

Heroic Encounters:

• Each boss in heroic instances has a chance to drop a limited draft schematic of the new CC-V 'Legion' Cryo Projector. This can be taken to a Munitions Trader to create the actual weapon.