We're deploying this build to the PTS very shortly. I'll post again when the PTS is up and running. The patch notes for this build are below:

Multiple Character Support

This build has increased the number of characters supported on each account to three. You will notice an updated character selection and creation UI to support this new feature.

We are working to provide a website where you can consolidate your existing member accounts to a single account. However, the ETA on this new feature is not yet known.

Control Improvements

We have totally reworked our movement system to eliminate the persistent movement-lag that you have been experiencing. This change makes movement immediately responsive.

We’ve also modified how the game interprets using a skill when holding down a keyboard movement key. For example, in the last build, holding down “W” while trying to use a skill like Butcher would immediately interrupt the skill use. The game no longer does this. Your character will happily use a skill as directed and then go back to normal movement afterwards. If you want to interrupt your skill you’ll have to click the movement key again.

We’ve totally reworked the mouse-picking code in this build. This will allow you to more easily target monsters, players and items in the game world.

Membership Required Worlds

We have added the notion of members-only worlds. These worlds are clearly marked on the world selection screen. Only members can access members-only worlds.

Relics

We’ve added a new relic-collection meta-game to Dungeon Runners. You’ll see new relic chests appearing in the dungeons. These chests have a chance to generate sweet relics that you can turn in for cash or King’s Coins. They also contain other surprises that you’ll have to see for yourself!

Shrines

We’ve added random shrines to the dungeons as well! You’ll know these when you see them. Simply click on the shrine to get a special buff to help increase your power!

PvP Worlds

We have added PvP worlds to the game. These worlds are clearly marked on the world selection screen. There are several differences with PvP worlds that you need to be aware of:

Balance Changes

Level difference does not modify hit rate, critical hit chance or resistances during PvP battles.

Knockdown effects don’t work against players during PvP battles. They are replaced with a knockback and five second movement rate debuff.

Players under the effect of fear gain fear immunity for five times the duration of the fear effect once it wears off. This fear immunity is called “Bravery” and it will last through death.

Melee critical hit chance is reduced by 50% during PvP.

Ranged critical hit chance is reduced by 66% during PvP.

Magic damage resistance is reduced by 75% during PvP.

Stun resistance is reduced by 66% during PvP.

Damage reflection is reduced by 80% during PvP battles.

Each player in a PvP battle has their health increased by 100%.

You cannot use potions during PvP battles.

Holy Roller now has a 2 second immobilization period added to it. So, once you hit your target, they won’t be able to move for at least 2 seconds. They can still attack and use skills, however.

You cannot use “/stuck” during PvP battles.

No PvE Dungeons

PvP Worlds do not provide access to PvE (i.e. monster killing) dungeons. You can only enter into PvP matches or practice areas on a PvP World.

Townston is Pwnston

The bright and cheery Townston that you know and love has been replaced with a darker PvP form called Pwnston. Pwnston provides bank access, skill trainers and vendors as well as two PvP access points.

Practice Matches

You can find a new zone teleporter in Pwnston where group practice PvP matches can take place. These un-scored matches are not timed and allow you and your group to fight each other for fun. Simply run into the practice dungeon to begin fighting.

Respawning after death in the practice match will place you at a random spawn point in the practice dungeon. You also get full health and mana.

Group vs. Group Deathmatch

Clicking on the Pwnston L33tinent will present you with the ability to “Enter the Queue!” for group vs. group deathmatch sessions. Only the group leader can enter the queue. A single player is also a “group” for this match type.

Chat Restrictions

You cannot use world chat or zone chat during a deathmatch session.

Grouping Restrictions

You cannot invite other players to your group while in a deathmatch session. You also cannot use the “goto” feature during PvP. Finally, you cannot remove a player from your group during PvP.

Team Assignments

When a suitable match is found, your group will be automatically teleported to the arena to begin the battle. Each group is assigned to either the Red Team or the Blue Team. You will know which team you are on by the color of the swirling indicator beneath your character’s feet.

Setup

The battle begins with a 30 second setup period. During the setup period, all cool-downs are automatically reset and your health and mana refill continuously. Use this time to arrange your skills and buff up for the coming battle. You will also notice that you are blocked from entering the main arena by a magical gate.

Battle!

After the setup period, the battle begins and the magical gate that blocks your way is opened. Run out and start pwning! The battle lasts 7 minutes.

Scoring

For each kill that your team achieves you will get points. The number of points you get depends on the strength of the opponent killed. Click on the “Show PvP Score” button at the lower-right corner of the screen at any time to see the current score for each group. The score display will be automatically displayed at the end of the match.

Winning

The team with the highest score at the end of the match wins. Players that are not in the zone when the win is tallied will not be credited with a win. You can see how many PvP wins you have on your character sheet. You can also see how many PvP wins another player has by looking at their tooltip.

Don’t Be a Yellow Belly!

If you leave an active deathmatch session for any reason, you will be marked as a “Yellow Belly” for 7 minutes. “Yellow Belly” players have all of their attributes reduced by 90%, show as yellow to other players and are reduced in size by 30%. This applies to disconnects as well as deliberately leaving a match.

Once you leave a match, you may not re-enter it.

Leaving the Battle

You can leave the battle at any time by right-clicking on your name and choosing the appropriate option. While combat is active, you can only “Surrender”. Surrendering will teleport you back to Pwnston and give you the “Yellow Belly” modifier. Once the battle is over you can choose the “Exit PvP Match” to leave at any time. You can also choose “Leave Battle” on the PvP Score window after the match is completed.

Forfeit!

If all the players on a team leave the match, they will forfeit the match. Forfeiting a match will reduce that team’s score by 50% before deciding which team wins. If the forfeiting team wins the match, that’s a terrible ego blow to the losers… but the forfeiting team still does not receive credit for the win.

New Skills

Teleport

This is a level 50 skill that allows the caster to teleport a short distance as long as the destination is within line-of-sight. The caster cannot teleport over chasms. 30 second cool-down.

Heal Self, not Other

When your potions just don’t cut it, use this self-healing skill. Introduced at level 3, this skill allows you to heal yourself every 80 seconds. Rank the skill up to improve the heal rate and percentage. This skill is very useful in PvP sessions! Please keep in mind that taking damage while healing with this skill will likely interrupt the healing.

Spontaneous Re-generation

This skill is similar to “Heal Self, not Other”, but for your mana instead of health. Introduced at level 3, this skill allows you to regenerate your mana every 180 seconds. Rank the skill up to improve the regeneration rate and percentage. This skill is quite handy in PvP! Regeneration from this skill is not interrupted by taking damage.

Blue Screen of Life

Are you sick of your paper mage getting owned? Get Blue Screen of Life! This skill will transfer health damage to your mana pool. Rank this skill up to increase the percentage of health damage that is transferred.

Awesome Cleavage

This passive skill improves the warrior’s cleave ability. When equipped, it adds a percentage chance to increase your cleave ability’s damage. Rank this skill up to increase the damage bonus.

Balance Changes

Most AoE skills have been modified to have a maximum number of targets instead of being unlimited.

Most bolt skills have been significantly increased in speed. Also, an issue with bolts not always hitting moving targets has been fixed.

Spirit of the Hare now has a 50% chance to be interrupted when taking damage. You also get slowed down more when running through monsters while using this skill.

Particle Enhancements

We’ve added all-new particle effects for many spells. These new particles look a ton better than the older ones. We’ve also optimized particle rendering to reduce the load on your CPU.

Loot Filter

We’ve added a loot filter option to the General section of the options screen. This will allow you to set the minimum quality level of an item to be displayed when you use the show loot key. Gold and quest items are always shown.

Fighting the Townston Lag!

We’ve reduced the total number of players that can be in a single instance of Townston to 20 (it used to be 50).

You can no longer use skills while in Townston (or any other town-like shared space).

A terrible bug that caused up to 30% frame-rate loss in Townston has been fixed.

New Quests

Over 70 new quests have been added to the game this build.

New Items

Two full new armor sets have been added to the game.

Many new mythic items have been added to the game.

Several new rings have been added to the game.

Item Linking

You can now link items in chat! Simply press CTRL while left clicking on an item to add a clickable link to your chat entry box. When you see a clickable link for an item, simply click it to display a movable tooltip for that item on your screen. Sharing the items you have found couldn’t be easier!

New Dungeon

A brand new dungeon has been added for level 75+ players. This dungeon has many new quests, several new types of monsters and an all-new boss! You’ll notice some major improvements to the behaviors of the monsters in this dungeon. Enjoy!

Monster Difficulty Tweaks

We’ve changed the tooltip of monsters to show their current difficulty settings. You’ll now see if a monster has inflated health, damage or loot on their tooltip. This shows any increase from your group leader’s difficulty setting as well as the increase for being in a group.

Monster damage and health at normal difficulty has been increased by 10%.

Being in a group now increases the damage of monsters more aggressively. However, their health does not increase as much as it did before. This should make for faster group play with a greater chance of being killed without a tank present (or using some other means of distracting the monsters).

AI Changes

Several adjustments to monster AI have been made. Most notable is a bug fix that caused monsters to stupidly walk on top of the player in some cases.

Hey, if you don't have the PTS client, get it here:

FTP Link For The PTS Setup!

Be sure to choose "Install a new instance of this application" when prompted. You certainly don't want to install the PTS version over your normal version. This will end up installing a second version of the client for you to enjoy.

After the PTS version is installed, you'll see a new Dungeon Runners(PTS) in the launcher. Run that one and have fun!

steve

Yay!!! Thanks a bunch!!

I have to work another 4 hours ... think I am coming down with something ... COUGH COUGH!!

im going bowling in 1 hour omg why tonite!!!!!!!!!!!!!

bowling??? On PTS day???

yes i know its horrible its terrible its pure torture then im told that i have to have some quality time after nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

ZOMG, takes me 1 hour to download, and it's not loading correctly. Anyone help me

im downloaded and patched but the servers aint up :P

Home from work in about 6 hours. Can't wait!

Ahrghhh.... Cant wait... much longer... Must... play... PvP...

In PTS we login with the main srv acc?and we have the char we have in main?

And when this build will add to the main server

Same here get the same message I got earlier before the announcment

We've gotten the live character database copied over to the PTS, but are still in the process of making the schema changes necessary to support multiple characters. ETA 1 hour.

steve

Yay! You guys are good at building the anticipation of these updates!

-Goya

W000t notice the world selection screen now!

yeah but no worlds yet

F.I.N.A.L.L.Y

It's up!

steve

It doesn't work =./

What is up?

When you will add this build in mail client?

Loot Filter
Multiple Characters
More Quests
Relics

These are the best improvements for me.
TY, TY, TY, TY!

I cant seem to get it to work, I am being thrown to the login screen as soon as the game is connecting to the world...

EDIT: Problem seems to be fixed, working like a charm.



Edited by AngelOfTheOdd (08/21/07 04:42 PM)

Me two

Oh noes!

I'm exactly 1,168 miles from my gaming rig in a house with three Mac's and no PC's in sight.

I fly home Thursday so I've got 48 long hours to wait.

Oh no ... my fellow philadelphian out of town ... how could you!!

ZOMFG at all the new goodies coming!

I LOVE THIS GAME WOOT!

AVG detects the setup as a backdoor trojan, so you need to deactivate AVG to install. WOrks fine after that.

Better Graphics!
Nicer item pictures!
PVP!
New Quests!
New Spells!
A bunch of stuff I haven't seen yet!
Now fix the bank so I don't have to scroll through all the quests just to access the bank! (Nothings perfect)

Good job guys, keep up the good work!

We're deploying this build to the PTS very shortly. I'll post again when the PTS is up and running. You can view the patch notes for build 0.88 at the beginning of this thread, and Stephen covered the differences between 0.90 and 0.88 here

(Stephen is on vacation right now, and MarkT just went home, so I guess I'm doing this )

Also, between build 89 and 90, a bug where Fear could be permanently imparted to a target (until they died) has been fixed, another matchmaking bug has been fixed, and maybe a few other things too.