Let's start off with some clarifications about the Zen Master, Trojan Horse, and Citadel Coder: All of these Disciplines are in development and/or testing right now--they won't be seen in game for some time yet. In that regard, QA Test is a real sneak preview of the future of the game.

Also, these are Disciplines--not new trees. They branch from the current trees (Coder, Hacker, and Operative) and are currently planned as "stubs" without continuing paths; much like Data Miner or Sniper.

Focus Questions

I had a feeling last week's focus question was going to garner a lot of response. Thanks to everyone for your feedback. I'm gathering the results together for the team to review.

This week's focus question is going back to talking about Disciplines. Specifically, what Disciplines do you feel are the strongest in Player versus Player combat and which are strongest in Player versus Enemy combat? Feel free to talk about specific Disciplines or combinations that you've tried out.

You can find this week's focus question here.

Event Patches

I've seen many questions about the logic of patching the game just before or during a Live Event. You're correct if you think there's an element of risk in doing so, but it's a necessary risk.

Each of our Live Events so far has had elements that aren't part of the normal state of the game. We continue to build on our suite of tools that allows us to make more changes on the fly, but there are certain elements that we can't add until we need them for the event.

Event patches may sometimes include some non-event related changes, but we keep those to an absolute minimum. This reduces the chance a new version will introduce unforeseen problems, as we can focus all our testing on the event changes. While we don't always catch every possible "halo" effect, we do end up with fairly clean patches and continue to improve our results with each event.

This is also why you'll often see patches at the end of in-game events. These are "clean-up" patches that remove anything we can't simply shut off. Again, we're always working toward minimizing event-related items that require patches to remove, but there will likely always be some pieces of major events that will require patching.

Notes from QA Test

The full list of changes in the latest QA Test patch will be available later this week on Data Node One. In the meantime, I've got some highlights on items available for testing there now:

• Punishing Blows can now be activated both in or and out of Interlock combat.
• All Disguise Tools now list their required minimum levels.
• Stealth Countermeasures now only disrupts the stealth Abilities of hostile characters.
• Equations for opening locks and hacking computers have been adjusted to make raising those Abilities worthwhile.
• Backup NPCs now respond to alarms and security cameras.
• Players can now use /afk to mark themselves as away from their keyboards.
• Players now get a text message when their PvP flags are turned on or off.
• Ranged Combat Tactics no longer give a bonus to dodge rolls.
• PvP flags no longer turn off while the character is involved in combat.
• Antibiotics now work like a 90-second Negative Condition Sweep. Each has a percent chance to remove negative effects (including Stun and Pacify) that is checked every 5 seconds while active.
• Weapon loaded on the Close Combat shortcut button now always appears when the button is used to engage in combat.
• Characters successfully withdrawing from Interlock are now immune to being drawn back in for 5 seconds after withdrawing.
• Multi-on-one Interlock now works correctly with more than 3 players involved.
• Contacts now show whether they have available missions or not on the Contacts panel.

(Note: This is a very short list of all the changes in the patch on QA Test right now. Keep an eye on Data Node One later this week for a more complete list.

While there are only a certain amount of items that can be addressed by the team in a period of time, we're working constantly to improve game experience. The feedback you provide continues to help us focus our efforts. I'm hoping to be able to talk some more about where those efforts lie in the next few weeks.

See you on the Other Side of the Looking Glass.

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Posted by The Matrix Online Team