21 Jun 2010

The 11.2.0 Release Notes contains information on the new Vehicle system and, below that, information on general improvements and fixed issues in this release. Additionally, some information on the upcoming expansion of the Vehicle system is included last.

VEHICLES

They are fast and they are awesome - vehicles are now available in Entropia Universe!

Take your friends on a road trip, cruising through the varied landscapes of the different planetary systems. Take a joyride along the coast or through the inland, quickly reaching remote locations. Drive through PvP zones, sneak up on opponents in a pimped military car, and crush all resistance.

With this new Vehicle system, the whole community now has the opportunity to build vehicles. Some basic functions and features in this system are described here, but there are several others that you can find when you start exploring the system.

For information on upcoming expansion of this system, see the section Coming Updates of the Vehicle System last in these release notes.

Commissioning a Vehicle

All vehicles have to be commissioned before they can be spawned.

The commissioning feature is planned to be developed further in the future, including designing vehicles by attaching various parts.

Commission a vehicle by using a Vehicle Commissioning Terminal. Such terminals can be found in selected cities, villages and outposts.

Customize Vehicle

The vehicle can be colored and texturized using the current coloring and texturizing system.

Spawn Vehicle

When the vehicle is commissioned it is possible to use the vehicle in the terrain (spawn it).

Spawn the vehicle for driving by right clicking the vehicle in your Inventory and selecting Spawn vehicle. Then place it on the terrain.

Pick Up Vehicle

Only the participant that has spawned the vehicle can pick it up. That way it will be returned to your Inventory. If you leave the vehicle out of sight for more than 10 minutes it will automatically be moved to the Storage Facility.

Use the Pick up action to return a specific vehicle you have spawned to your Inventory.

Use the Recall All Vehicles action, to return all vehicles you have spawned to a Storage Facility.

A vehicle in storage can be fetched from a Storage Facility through a Storage Terminal.

Grant Access to Vehicle

The participant that has spawned the vehicle, or has the right to spawn it, can grant friends different levels of access rights through the Vehicle Guests UI.

Edit access rights by right clicking the vehicle and selecting Open Vehicle Guests UI, which opens the Vehicle Guests UI.

Add a guest by dragging and dropping desired friends from your Friend List to the Vehicle Guests UI. It is also possible to drag and drop directly from an avatar's status bar (the green avatar symbol) to the Vehicle Guests UI.

Enter Vehicle

Enter the vehicle by right clicking the vehicle and selecting Operate.

Switch between seats in the vehicle by using the action Next vehicle seat.

Drive Vehicle

Vehicle steering is controlled with the regular movement keys.

To drive a vehicle, you need to fill the tank with oil, which is used as fuel.

The vehicle does not deteriorate from driving or collisions.

The vehicle will be submerged if driving it into deep waters. To be able to use it again, pick it up and place it on safe ground.

If trying to drive indoors the vehicle will automatically be picked up.

Add fuel by dragging and dropping oil from your Inventory to the spawned vehicle.

Damage to and from Vehicle

The vehicle will deteriorate when taking damage from attacking creatures, avatars attacking with weapons and Mindforce, and other vehicles attacking with mounted weapons.

As a subset to deterioration the vehicle is affected by its Structural Integrity (SI). The SI for a vehicle will be reduced by the same type of attacks as when deterioration occur.

When the SI has reached critical limit, passengers are automatically removed from the vehicle, which cannot be used until the SI has been increased again.

The vehicle absorbs hit points inflicted on avatars from creatures or from area damage. However, with a regular direct hit weapon, the avatar takes the damage if targeted directly, while the vehicle absorbs the damage if it was targeted.

Increase the SI of the vehicle by stepping out of the vehicle and using the Structural Integrity Toolkit on the vehicle.

Shooting from Vehicle

While positioned in the vehicle gun turret, a gunner can mount a mountable weapon. Shooting with mounted weapons can cause damage to other vehicles and avatars in PvP zones.

Passengers in a vehicle can cause aggression from creatures.

While in gun turret, mount a weapon by equipping it.

Vehicle Inventory

Each vehicle has a Vehicle Inventory, where items can be stored.

• Compensation for reinserting Mindforce implant from before 10.0 is handed out. If you are affected you will receive a message when logging in.
• Compensation for inactive hangars will be handed out. If you are affected you will receive a message when logging in. 

Movement Changes

• Removed indoor speed limit restrictions.

Attachment Parameter Changes

• Skill Bonus on Attachments . The skill modification effect now have a clarifying tool tip. The attachment gives a bonus to the user's hit ability and it has full effect when the target is on maximum weapon range. When the target comes closer the effect decreases and it reaches its minimum effect when the target is in the immediate vicinity. Since the effect is variable the hit ability parameter display is not affected by the skill modification.
• New Parameter on Attachments . A new parameter has been introduced on laser sights and scopes. This new parameter gives the user a skill increase bonus when the attachment is attached to the tool. The skill increase bonus of the attachment will affect the skill that the tool affect. The number does not indicate an actual increase rate percentage but a higher number is better than a lower.

General - UI and Visual Changes

• Improved textures on small items.
• In the settings medium or less, the vegetation bending at touch is disabled.
• Minor adjustments to field of view when moving from 3rd to 1st person view. 
• Improved frame rate at log-in UI.
• Improved terrain loading.
• Fixed issue that placed the window borders outside screen when changing screen resolution. 
• Fixed issue with black login screen when using Windows Vista and Windows 7 with UAC enabled.
• Added message at successful claim regarding an estate.
• Corrected information in Society UI Help text.
• Added up and down buttons to the scroll bars in MAP UI.
• Added progress bar when opening Bank UI.
• Other avatars' healthbar is removed when they die.
• Added "sit on" desktop icon to default setting.
• Improved some tree animations.
• Fixed issue with invisible hair for certain hair styles.
• Improved Molisk Tooth icon.
• Corrected the appearance of the Mist Plant.
• At auto reach target, improved animation when avatar rotates towards target.
• Reimplemented the animations when an avatar is killed by mobs, fire arms and heavy weapons, or Mindforce attacks.
• Fixed issue with twitching when aiming in first person.
• Reimplemented correct animations for gun turrets.
• Fixed issue with faulty viewing of an avatar sitting down.

CharDef - UI and Visual Changes

• Fixed issue with character leaning outside UI, while modifying face and hair.
• Emotes are shown when changing outfit.
• Clicking Escape shows exit dialog with options.

Objects - Visual Changes

• Fixed issue with Berycled Statue below floor level.
• Corrected the rotation of the Gothica Wall Lamp.
• Corrected the rotation of hanging book case.
• Corrected the placement of the 1st Place He-Man Diploma when placed on wall.

• Fixed issue with not being able to place items on Red Marble Block Table.
• Improved lamp appearances.

Installer - UI and Visual Changes

• Reduced flicker in the installer progress bar.

Client Loader - UI and Visual Changes

• The Launch button is disabled when the servers are down for maintenance.
• Added message about resuming download, if aborting download.
• Improved error message when failing to download due to connection problems.

Quest and Mission Changes

• Fixed issue with the Quest/Mission List icons in Quest/Mission Log.
• Added default action key to open the Quest/Mission Log, for new users or if keyboard settings are reset, . 
• Fixed issue with problems related to receiving skill reward.

Miscellaneous Changes

• Increased spawn density.
• Fixed issue with not being able to remove enhancers on limited armor when armor has 0 in TT value.
• Adjusted Autoaim to get slower as you close in on your target. Also, it is not triggered if angular movement is too high.
• Fixed issue with merging stacks at the refine procedure, after first having tried with a stack with too few items in it.
• Added warning message when any equipped item, clothing or armor reaches its minimum condition and is broken.
• Improved formulations in chat when healing yourself and others and when being healed by others.
• Added new professions for mounted weapons: Mounted Grenadier (Hit) and Mounted BLP (Hit).
• In Auction UI, corrected elapsed time since last placed bid.
• Reimplemented knocking sound when requesting interaction with other player.
• Increased client stability.