Patch Notes for 2012-05-10

General Game Changes

 * Increased the health of the MPU on the mission "A River Runs Through It".
 * Increased the health of the thumper by ~50%.
 * Blackwater Harvester will now start at 24 players instead of 30.
 * NPCs should no longer be afraid their souls will be removed when going through friendly forcefields.
 * Multiple navigation changes to NPCs to prevent some of the more egregious issues with wandering people.
 * Modifications to NPC creature behaviors to hopefully be a little more dynamic.
 * Aranha will now be less likely to stick inside their own homes.
 * Whiptail Threshers have had their hit points reduced slightly.
 * Another battle won by Red 5 in the never-ending war of frames per second.
 * Removed the steam particles shooting out of the smokestacks on Point A in Orbital Comm Tower as they were reducing framerate.
 * Reduced the overall size of the downloaded client by moving more textures into virtual textures that are streamed the first time you see them.
 * You can control your streaming texture settings in the Network options dialog.
 * Setting the network speed will only affect the prioritization of streaming textures.
 * The iron sights on the Assault Rifle no longer shimmer while looking at water.
 * Hacking the Orbital Comm Tower terminal should now be a bit more consistent.
 * Rocks and shrubbery have had their combat abilities reduced.

UI Changes

 * Changed the fonts used in multiple UI components to be more readable.
 * Multiple organizational changes to UI code and files (FYI to all you LUA hackers).
 * Unread notifications will now pulse on the UI to let you know you need to give them attention.
 * Changed keybind icons to use images instead of just a letter.
 * You can now tell if someone is mentally ignoring your whispers. We now notify you if the player is offline or AFK.

Combat Changes

 * Battleframe energy is now set to 0 when switching between frames. Recharge should begin immediately.
 * Slightly reduced unsquadded non-critical assist XP.
 * The Recon Sniper rifle now takes 500ms to reach perfect accuracy when changing between unscoped and scoped.
 * This is being done to prevent perfectly accurate quick-scoping shots.
 * The Recon Marksman rifle will lose accuracy the more rapidly you fire it while in unscoped mode.
 * The Marksman rifle is still perfectly accurate in scoped mode.
 * The Recon ability Cryo Shot will now remove double damage from an opponent on impact.
 * Engineer deployable Repair Station Tier II upgraded to tech II and III now properly give nearby allies ammunition.
 * Abilities with knockback again actually knock back instead of up.

Crafting and Item Changes

 * All refining research has a new prerequisite of the previous refining process.
 * The original refining process will be returned after researching the new process.
 * Changed crit chance of gear nanoprints to 15% for uncommon, 10% for rare (removed level scaling for crit chance).
 * Reduced Rare Refining (Brimstone) times by ~30%.
 * Adjusted costs on most nanoprints
 * Refined resources are required in lower level gear.
 * Generally gear items cost fewer resources
 * Module items cost a bit more resources.
 * Decreased coralite received from static deposits by ~50%.
 * It was more efficient to use sonic detonators than a thumper.
 * Increased overall drop rates by 100%.
 * Level 9,12 and 15 encrypted nanoprint decryption prices have been reduced significantly.
 * New rare Level 15 decrypted nanoprints have been added to vendors for players who are willing to pay more to know the type of item they are getting.
 * Uncommon encrypted nanoprints have been added to the encrypted nanoprint vendors. They cost a fraction of the crystite compared to Rare prints.

Bug Fixes

 * Fixed issues with the TAB screen remaining after leaving a PvP match.
 * Fixed a bug where squads would get split onto opposite teams in PvP.
 * Fixed the NavWheel Invite Squad option so that it properly fills the chat box with the command needed.
 * Fixed issues with the wrong resolutions being used when selecting resolutions in the Video Options.
 * Fixed loot info cards getting stuck on the screen.
 * Fixed the scoreboard breaking if you used reloadui during the middle of a match.
 * Fixed an issue with match countdown not matching up with the actual match start.
 * Fixed issues with the reticle sometimes disappearing.
 * Fix for video settings getting reset after logging out.
 * Fix for UI clumping text at the tops & bottoms of text widgets when scrolling quickly.


 * These are posted before everything is fully tested in the final environment. Patch notes might change.