Update 44 Cometh
Update 44 is scheduled to release on Thursday, May 25, pending QA approval. Since there are a lot of fixes and changes coming, I decided to spend today's article talking about some of the bigger issues.

Increased NPC Damage
This is the one that's going to be most immediately obvious while playing the game. Ever since the launch of Combat Revision 2.0, we've had some NPCs that weren't causing an appropriate amount of damage. For those of you who participated on the playtest server before CR2.0 release, you probably remember us having similar problems during testing.

While we were able to fix a majority of the issues, some still cropped up after release. The team has been going through the Carebear Stare sheet and figuring out where NPCs needed adjustment. They've completed this run through and you're going to see those changes when you jack in after Update 44.

As a general rule, you'll take more damage under CR2.0 than you did with the old combat system. This is because players and NPCs both hit more often-about 66% of the time in an even fight. However, because the system is designed to basically allow a single player to handle three even-con, single-chevron NPCs, each one should be doing somewhere around one-third the amount of damage a player would do.

So, if you've gotten used to rolling through groups of even-level NPCs, be warned that it may not be as easy as it was before.

Ability Tree Modification
We had a heck of a time fixing the Style stacking exploit, but finally found a workaround. Spy, Coder, and Hacker Styles will now have their own Abilities on the Ability tree. Now, the initial Abilities in each branch and the Styles will be across from each other when displayed on the tree. Each Style Ability also grants the appropriate Upgrade.

When Update 44 goes live, we'll run a script that will grant the new Style Abilities at the same level as each player's current initial Ability. For example, if you have Execute Program at level 20, you'll get Hacker Style at level 20 as well.

The memory and leveling costs for these separated Abilities have been divided between the two. So loading and leveling both with be the same as with the current, single Abilities.

We'll also be adding 20 additional spaces to everyone's Central Storage, to make up for the additional Abilities.

No More Double-Tap Rolling
Believe it or not, this has been a long time coming. As odd as it may seem, the double-tap roll has caused a lot of headaches for the team. In the past, it has caused several exploits and numerous bugs that were complicated to deal with. And, for all that, being able to roll doesn't have any gameplay effect whatsoever.

I know that this won't be a popular change with some of you, but it's going to reduce a significant number of problems on our side. Not having to worry about what rolling is going to break makes it easier for us to concentrate on more important things.

Data Node Changes
In our continuing desire to make Data Node Tapping worthwhile, we are increasing the $Information payout by quadrupling it. We've also made changes to keep them from spawning out of reach for top-level Data Miners. We'll be looking into possible other changes in the future. Stay tuned for more on that in the coming months.

Episode 2.0 Event Item Changes
As with many things, there were some complications created by the server merge regarding the event items given away in Episode 2.0. These items, "Merovingian's Boon", "Glimmer of the Source", and "Zion Hardware Requisition", grant percentage bonuses, based on which Organization "won" the event on that server. Once the servers merged, the "winners" were all mixed together.

Unlike poor Neurophyte, we were able to decide on a solution. After Update 44, all event items will grant a 10% bonus for players who posses them. While it would be nice to be able to sort players by the winning Orgs from each server, it's simply unrealistic. This way, the items are still useful and equitable across the board.

Episode 5.1 Begins
Finally, we've reached the beginning of a new era in the storyline. With Episode 5.1, cinematics will be displayed in WMV format within the game. In addition, new cinematics will be done in an animated "comic-noir" style that we've been talking about.

The Chapter 5 artwork for the cinematics is all done by Paul Chadwick, himself. Future cinematics will be storyboarded by Paul, but we'll have new artists doing the final work; somewhat similar to The Animatrix. We hope you enjoy the new style.

We also have a large number of bug fixes in Update 44. I'll be posting the full list on Monday, so check back on the forums sometime that day.

I'm glad so many of you enjoyed the E3 report. As always, it was good to show off the game to so many new people. I'm also looking forward to the new games we had at E3 this year (along with those we haven't announced yet ;) ).

See you all on the other side next week.

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