We wanted to take a quick look back at the following week, and all of the changes from the five patches this week. [b]Companions[/b] [list][*]Added a companion system. Companions come in two varieties. The first are summoned pets. Witches, and in the near future conjurers, will be able to summon pets. The second type are NPC companions, who will fight alongside you until they die. NPC companions are a part of the scenario, and can not be summoned via spell. [*] Added a companion version of the Commander, who will aid you in protecting the artifact. He wields a large flaming sword, and will assist you in battle, as well as verbally taunting enemies. [*]Witches now have the ability to summon skeletal pets. This ability requires bones as a component. Those can be purchased from vendors in limited quantities. They also drop from skeletons and shamans. Their pets will be stronger based on how many ranks they have trained the pet skill in. You also will gain additional active skeletal pets at a time based on the skill rank, maxing out at 4 pets at a time. If you try to summon more pets than your skill rank allows, it will replace the oldest pet with the newly summoned one.[/list] [b]Dungeons and Scenarios[/b] [list][*]Introduced a new system to support protecting objects from being destroyed. This is used in the Protect the Artifact scenario, on the artifact itself. It was designed to be reusable, for additional future scenarios. [*]Implemented a new wave spawner system, which can be reused in diferent scenarios. This system allows for scaling numbers of NPCs, modified also by difficulty settings, for scenarios such as the newly added one today. [*]Added a new scenario: Protect the Artifact. This scenario opens up after you complete Raiding Camp or Retrieve the Artifact. It sees the Hideout fall under enemy attack. The players will need to protect the artifact being housed there until the enemy retreats. This will involve enemy encounters of escalating difficulty. You can unlock this scenario by completing the Retrieve the Artifact scenario. [*]Completing Raid Camp or Retrieving the Artifact will now unlock the Protect the Artifact scenario. [*]Completing the Protect the Artifact scenario has become an alternate way to unlock the Sealing the Rift scenario. You must be level 35+ to unlock Sealing the Rift. [*]Added a Stash to the scenarios where the Commander spawns at the end. That includes the Cutting off the Head, Raid Camp, and Showdown scenarios. [*]You will now only lose 1% experience from deaths in the following scenarios: Cutting Off the Head, Showdown, and the soon to be released Protect the Artifact. You will still lose 2% in other scenarios, but in these three scenarios in particular, death is expected to be more common. And we don't want to punish players more than necessary for attempting the more difficult encounters. [*]Players should now start most scenarios near the commander, solving the need to locate them before getting started. The exception to this rule are cases where the Commander is spawned after the encounter. [*]Revamped the Show Scenario screen. You now see a small map and location drawn on it, and a description of each scenario. This allows you to receive details on the quest that you unlocked previously. Where previously you only had the name of the quest to remind you of it's goal beforehand. The new scenario screen will now automatically pick a random mission as the first highlighted quest when it pops up. Allowing you to simply accept the quest and get a random one from those you qualify for without any decision making, if you so choose. [*]Optimized The Hideout. [*]Improved generated stash placement. [*]Werewolves will no longer spawn in the daytime scenarios. They will fall back to a different NPC type in those scenarios. [*]Fixed a bug which was preventing the Rift implosion effects from playing for online clients. [*]Fixed a bug that was causing the Retrieve the Artifact quest to show up as "Unknown" when browsing multiplayer sessions.[/list] [b]Items and Loot[/b] [list][*]Increased Fire Staff damage radius. [*]Bones can now be purchased from shopkeepers and magic vendors, in limited quantities. [*]Skeletons, mages, and shaman now drop bones sometimes. Those can be used to summon skeletons using a new Witch/Mage ability which allows you to summon skeletal pets. [*]Socketed items now drop more commonly than was previously the case from destructible props, and treasure chests.[/list] [b]NPCs[/b] [list]*]Some NPCs have a random chance to be stubborn when it comes to pursuing the player. These NPCs will continue to chase for much longer distances than others. [*]NPCs now have a way to override special cases to allow them to define more strict rules about when they spawn. The werewolf implementation below is an example of this. [*]Introduced a new Demon Raid Boss. This boss scales down lower than most demons, allowing it to be seen earlier on. He has a variety of special abilities, will taunt players, and can command reinforcements. [*]Introduced two new Werewolf NPCs. Werewolves are the first lycanthrope monster type. This is the first NPC type which can outrun players. They are more susceptible to magical or fire based damage, than physical damage. Their offense includes combination attacks and retaliations. You will begin to see Werewolves at level 7, with a stronger rank of them beginning at level 15. Both variations have multiple color variations. [*]Introduced new Barbarian Spearmen NPCs. These NPCs have a sword and shield. Heavy defensively, but slow moving. You'll begin to see them at level 5. [*]Fixed an issue with the Spider Leap timeline. [*]Fixed a bug which was causing some NPC armors or weapons to float in the air for a few seconds after they died. [*]Fixed a bug which was allowing Orc Legion to spawn when the group level was below level 5. They were intended to have been restricted to level 5+.[/list] [b]Skills and Abilities[/b] [list][*]Witches now have the ability to summon skeletal pets. This ability requires bones as a component. Those can be purchased from vendors in limited quantities. They also drop from skeletons and shamans. Their pets will be stronger based on how many ranks they have trained the pet skill in. You also will gain additional active skeletal pets at a time based on the skill rank, maxing out at 4 pets at a time. If you try to summon more pets than your skill rank allows, it will replace the oldest pet with the newly summoned one. [*]Hold Undead (Witch/Mage) is now a child of the Summon Skeleton ability in its tree. [*]Hold Undead (Witch/Mage) now receive +1 to it's damage bonus for every 2 ranks of Summon Skeleton trained. [*]Defensive Stance (Warrior/Guardian) is now a wispy full body effect that allows you to continue to see your characters body more easily, without being obscured by the barrier. [*]Flame Shield (Mage/Conjuration) no longer has the bubble around your character. This is replaced with a full body flaming appearance. [*]Berserk (Warior/Berserker) also received an aura appearance update. It removed the bubble effect in place of a glittery full body particle. [*]Continuing that same theme, Vampiric Draw (Mage/Witch) has a new dripping blood appearance when active, in place of the old bubble based aura. [*]Last but not least, Frost Winds (Mage/Wizard) got the aura improvement pass. It now has a full body frost effect in place of the old bubble method. Making it easier to see your character's features. [*]Increased Fireball (Wizard/Mage) damage radius. [*]Added new particle effects for stun, dizziness, or knockdowns.[/list] [b]Sounds[/b] [list][*]Added additional voice overs for the Commander. This includes quest dialogs, and combat taunts. [*]Added new NPC Taunt sounds.[/list] [b]Transmuting[/b] [list][*]Introduced a new crafting ingredient: Lycanthrope Fangs. These can drop from Werewolves, or in the future other lycanthropes. They are used in transmuting. [*]Introduced 17 new transmuting recipes which can upgrade some types of gear from magical to rare using lycanthrope fangs.[/list] [b]User Interface[/b] [list][*]Revamped the Show Scenario screen. You now see a small map and location drawn on it, and a description of each scenario. This allows you to receive details on the quest that you unlocked previously. Where previously you only had the name of the quest to remind you of it's goal beforehand. The new scenario screen will now automatically pick a random mission as the first highlighted quest when it pops up. Allowing you to simply accept the quest and get a random one from those you qualify for without any decision making, if you so choose. [*]You can now zoom the camera out to a further distance than was previously possible. [*]You can also now zoom in closer than before. [*]If you zoom in significantly, the camera will tilt forward.[/list] [b]Miscellaneous[/b] [list][*]You can now zoom the camera out to a further distance than was previously possible. [*]You can also now zoom in closer than before. [*]If you zoom in significantly, the camera will tilt forward. [*]Improved aggro switching system. [*]Networking optimizations. [*]Added an animation to when players are knocked back. [*]Animation optimizations. [*]Made some dwarf sizing and grounding adjustments. [*]Fixed a ragdoll related issue that could cause issues when destructible objects were destroyed.[/list]