Below are the notes for Update 45, scheduled to release on Thursday, July 13, 2006 at 4:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time (1100 hours GMT).

 

Featured Changes

The Matrix Online Story Continues in Episode 5.2!
The 5.2 Storyline missions and cinematic are now available in game.
The first 5.2 critical mission will be available as soon as the patch is live. The remaining four missions will roll out each following Thursday (7/20, 7/27, 8/4, 8/11)at 1:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time (0800 hours GMT).

Changes to Spy Tree abilities
The following Abilities have had these changes applied to improve balance (Note: Other effects for these Abilities still apply):

Neuro Dart
Sneak Movement downgrade: -50% (was -75%)
Invisibility Movement downgrade: -50% (was -75%)
Movement Speed downgrade: -50% (was -75%)
Force Combat downgrade: -10% for 30 seconds

Crippling Throw
Inner Strength cost: 20 (was 35)
Force Combat downgrade: -40% for 15 seconds

Deadly Throw
Inner Strength cost: 18 (was 25)
DPS: 44 (was 31)
Force Combat downgrade: -15% for 15 seconds

Throat Cutting Throw
Inner Strength cost: 15 (was 35)
Status Effect: 20% chance Dazed for 8 seconds
Status Effect: 20% chance Off-Balance for 8 seconds

Sever Artery
Force Combat downgrade: -10% for 30 seconds

Subduing Throw
Inner Strength cost: 15 (was 25)
Status Effect: 20% chance Staggered for 8 seconds
Status Effect: 20% chance Off-Balance for 8 seconds

Weapon Auto-Equipping Bug: Fixed
Your weapon will now automatically be equipped when used on the Free-Attack button. This also fixes the "rapid-fire" exploit.

Emailing Non-Tradable Items
Non-tradeable items can now be emailed to yourself. Attempting to mail a non-tradeable or singleton item to someone else will now fail with a popup rather than sending the message but leaving the item in your inventory.

The Mission Archives Are Online!
Players can now go to an Organization's Archivist to buy special items that will allow them to experience old story missions. Players will receive tokens for completing sets of missions; series of these tokens can be traded in at the Organization Collectors for special reward items.

Evade is Dead. Long Live Evade!
Gang NPCs will no longer go into the Evade state. They will still retreat in certain situations, to prevent players from dragging high-level NPCs into low-level areas.

Changes and Improvements

• Pugilist's Gloves now grant 9 points of base Ballistic Damage when triggered and have a minimum level requirement of 15. (The two older versions of the gloves have not been changed, but can no longer be acquired.)
  
• Male mission NPCs will no longer be named "Amy," and both male and female NPCs will no longer be named "Arizona."
  
• Tells sent to another player are now labeled "TellSent" in chat logs.
  
• The model used for the "book" mission item is now slightly more book-like.
  
• Large and small males with dreads no longer lose them when wearing hats.
  
• Blood Drunk boss NPCs have been expanded from levels 20-29 to levels 20-59. The enemies in phase two of the Coroner's first mission, "Knock Knock," now show up as the blood drinkers they were described as.
  
• The red pill in the mission "The Potential" can now be picked back up if dropped due to a full inventory.
  
• Mission contacts no longer say they have "no more work" for you, since this didn't make sense if you'd never worked for them.
  
• The follower in Yttri's second mission, "Free Music," is now level 5 instead of level 1.
  
• Removed some distracting NPC names (Tchaikovsky, Ilovebees, West Virginia, Puerto Rico, etc).
  
• The "letter" mission object now looks like a letter rather than a package.
  
• Restored missing Niobe and Lock sound clips in the introductory graduation mission, "Meet Niobe." (Nevermind that Niobe is currently trapped in a construct somewhere. *cough*)
  
• Removed a confusing reference to an ambush that doesn't always spawn at the beginning of Digger's third mission, "Safer Ground."
  
• Passive Code now has a 20-second duration and 90-second re-use timer. (Matches similar Abilities.)
  
• The advanced graphic parameter "WR_PrefabLODEnable" can be disabled by setting it to zero in useropts.cfg. This will cause the game to render buildings at full model detail, regardless of distance. Setting this parameter to zero may degrade game performance, and is not supported by Technical Support.(In other words: You break it, you bought it.)
  
• The team has a new toy for events: An admin-only object that will automatically flip player PvP flags "on" in a certain radius, creating a "Hostile Zone".
  
• The Fly Virus Immunity now protects against the Assassin's Mask corruption pulse.
  
• Additional poster-sized ads added around the following hardlines: Midian Park (East), Tabor Park (East), Rogers Way (Central), Kaede (Central), Sai Kung (Central), Center Park (North), Tabor Park (West), Camon Heights (Central), and Historic District (South).
  
• Episode 5.2 begins! Cinematic and missions, blah blah.
  
• Text can now be pasted into email from the Windows clipboard by using the Insert key.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a typo in NPC dialog in the second phase of Rickshaw's first mission, "Mistaken Identity."
  
• Rifle Butt smash is now proerly set to deal Ballistic Damage.
  
• The ambush in the third phase of the Coroner's fourth mission ("The Plan") no longer spawns inappropriate NPC types.
  
• The description for Artillerist Upgrade now acurrately states how it works.
  
• Fixed "promiss" typo in standard mission text.
  
• Fixed "this it the" typo in standard missions.
  
• Fixed "existance" typo in standard mission text.
  
• Added description text to the Fly Virus Immunity item.
  
• Made the controller and operator text in Cerulean's fourth mission, "Stakeout", explain the employee situation at Greene's warehouse a little more clearly, and fixed a gender-specific reference made by a bluepill to a random-gender Exile menacing her. (Thanks PhroG for pointing out the confusion here).
  
• Fixed a typo in Cerulean's text in the second phase of her first mission, "A Short Walk."
  
• Removed references to "casting" abilities. (It may look like magic, but it ain't.)
  
• Fixed a split infinitive in the descriptions of Revive Abilities. (Players generally don't have "a high re-use time".)
  
• Paralyzing throw now roots correctly.
  
• The guy who tells you where the target is in Assassination missions no longer says "[message_misc_done]."
  
• Fixed a typo in the contact's dialog in phase one of the Coroner's fifth mission.
  
• The random bluepill comments "Check out Club Sphinx in the Sai Kung neighborhood" and "Would you prepared if gravity reversed itself?" have been corrected.
  
• Dialog at the start of the second phase of Hypatia's first mission, "Past Due," is now correctly written as being spoken by Hypatia rather than by the operator.
  
• Find Weakness has been changed to a base 25-point bonus before Influences are applied.
  
• The computers in the Bartender's second mission now give the number of the correct warehouse.
  
• The bootlegger in the Bartender's first mission no longer refers to the Bartender as a man.
  
• Fixed the typo "reaveal" in standard mission NPC dialog.
  
• You're no longer told you can't perform an "interctive" emote when an interactive emote fails.
  
• Your operator no longer calls a standard mission kill "comfirmed."
  
• Bug that caused Guard Breaker to not work against armed opponents has been fixed.
  
• Bug that allowed players to enter Sneak by using the Shield Jamming has been fixed. (Fixes exploit.)
  
• Bug that cause the Network Hacker Upgrade to not persist through hardline teleportation has been fixed.
  
• Ignore Pain is no longer listed in the Coder recipe list. (The Ability was replaced in CR2.0.)
  
• The Ability Tree now has a label for the branch going from the Gunslinger Discipline to the Duelist Discipline.
  
• The effect for Drain Code now uses the correct Ability icon.
  
• Initiative Bonuses are now properly applied to Desperation.
  
• The Coding and Vendor costs for Sixth Sense and Suplex have been increased to match other Abilities with the same complexity levels.
  
• The Coding and Vendor costs for Leg Sweep have been reduced to match other Abilities with the same complexity levels.
  
• Bug that caused the Hide unusable objects funtion to still display some items of the incorrect gender has been fixed.
  
• Combat chat now lists the effects caused by Overhand Smash.
  
• SMG Specialist Upgrade is now listed in the SMG Specialist category on the Action panel.