*** PLEASE READ THIS DOCUMENT IF YOU FIND SOMETHING OUT OF
THE ORDINARY IN PROJECT ENTROPIA! IT MIGHT PROVIDE THE INFO YOU NEED
BEFORE CONTACTING PROJECT ENTROPIA SUPPORT! ***

General Information

The Version Update 5.6 ("VU 5.6") for Project Entropia is a major step
in the development of Project Entropia. Information about the content
of the version update is located in this document.

Project Entropia Gold Member Smartcard Security System

The Project Entropia Gold Member security system goes live with VU 5.6.
Those who have acquired the Smartcard and Reader (through the Trade
Terminal Real Life Items section) should receive the equipment during
April, to the address supplied with the Project Entropia account. If
you need to update the info, please do it as soon as possible through
the Project Entropia Support Section.

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VERSION UPDATE FEATURES

Mentor & Disciple system
We are aware of
the great effort our participants put into helping newcomers to Calypso
and making them feel welcome. To show our appreciation for this we have
decided implemented a Mentor & Disciple system.

Being a mentor is about helping newcomers get a foothold in the new
universe. When you offer your help to a newcomer, and they accept, they
become your disciple and you become their mentor. As a mentor you
advice your disciples and support them in their advancement. When a
disciple reaches certain skill levels, the disciple is deemed to be
sufficiently trained to manage on her or his own. At this point the
mentor receives special surprise gifts as a reward for helping out.


Some details about the Mentor system:

* A mentor "Adds disciples" by right-clicking on the potential disciple.

* To be able to act as a mentor you need to at least have reached
the level "Unskilled" in any one professional standing (seen in the
left section of the Avatar Info interface).

* To be eligible as a disciple you must be "Newcomer" in all of your
professional standings (including Sweat Gatherer). This means as soon
as a Newcomer achieves the rank of "Inept" (the rank above "Newcomer")
in any professional standing, they may not be selected as a disciple.

* When the disciple reaches certain skill levels, the Mentor reward
kicks in. The Mentor has a progress rating on each disciple in his
training. The actual skill levels are shown in the Disciples interface.
The skill goal is quite high as the rewards are special items only
acquired through this means.

* A mentor can have a maximum of 100 disciples at once. The mentor can at any time contact a disciple.

* A disciple may only have one mentor. A disciple may be a mentor for others.

* Once a link is formed between a mentor and a disciple, the
disciple cannot leave it (a short "grace period" is given). A mentor
may kick a disciple at any time (but why would s/he? If the avatar has
stopped participating is one reason).

* When a disciple finishes his or her training the mentor gains
skill in the new "Mentor" skill (the advancement in the Mentor-skill is
somewhat different from ordinary skill advancement - you will probably
raise whole ranks each time you gain XP). The Mentor skill shows how
many successful disciples s/he has guided.

First person view of items and actions
You now
see the items your avatar is carrying in first person view. Weapons and
tools are shown, as well as mindforce powers. The "Z" key toggles
between FPV w/ items - FPV w/o items - 3rd PV behind - 3rd PV free.

Visual item update
Almost all weapons in
Project Entropia have received a visual overhaul, and are now displayed
with a much higher detail. This is a first in a series of grand visual
upgrades being done to Project Entropia over the coming months.

Monster visuals update
Almost every creature in
Project Entropia has been given a visual overhaul, meaning more
detailed graphics with higher clarity,

New drop functions
When dropping an item from
the inventory to the ground you may now determine the placement of the
item in detail. This is especially useful for indoor decorations and
furniture. You may even rotate items by holding down the right mouse
button and move the mouse right and left, and drop some specific items
on walls or in the ceiling.

New creatures

A lot of new creatures have been spotted by explorers. Someone stated a warning about being unwary in rocky terrain.

Updated robots
Several changes has been applied
to the robot population of Calypso, meaning changed behaviour, damage
done, and hit points. Also, the robots seems to have found new ways to
spread their terror.

Logoff delay update

An "Abort" button added to the Logoff delay interface, due to community demand.

More weapons

Over 50 new weapons added.

More armor

New armor sets added.

House decorations

Someone saw indistinguishable creatures stealing rare paintings, tables, and lamps from a cargo shuttle.

Society templates

Two new society templates added based on community input - the "Mystic" and the "Basic".

Society ranks shown


You may now view the various ranks associated with a society template.

Society Leaderboard update

Pending societies are no longer eligible for Leaderboard positions.

Increased chance of success in crafting

The chance of success is increased on lower levels of crafting.

Octagons

Several new Octagon Boxing / Training areas added all over Eudoria.

Hadesheim Marketplace update

Added a storage terminal to the Hadesheim marketplace.

Skills renamed
The skill "Ranged Critical Hit"
and "Melee Critical Hit" are renamed to the more appropriate "Inflict
Ranged Damage" and "Inflict Melee Damage", as that is what the skills
actually influence. No rule mechanics have changed though - the name
change is a cosmetic one to avoid confusion as the term "Critical hit"
can suggest a range of effects.

Avatar animation updates
Many avatar animations
have been polished, among others the infamous grip on some of the BLP
rifles (no more holding the rifle in you're stomach).

Item rebalance
The infamous Improved A-3
Justifier Mk.III is rebalanced, after community feedback. The new stats
are acquired by repairing the weapon.

Server upgrades
A server crash issue has been
eliminated. The entire Project Entropia universe server park is
upgraded with new hardware to meet the ever-increasing number of
Project Entropia participants. The new system will reduce "lag" and
latency issues, as well as some disconnect issues.

Client upgrades

Several fixes have been applied to the client, to reduce the rate of disconnects and Crash-to-desktop ("CTD") issues.

Item/houses streaming optimization
The way
buildings and items are streamed to your Project Entropia client has
been optimized to reduce the "lag" felt when entering/exiting buildings.

Fixed issue with floors in hangars

Fixed an issue that meant you could fall through the floors in a hangar.

Fixed issue when sitting down

Fixed an issue with sitting down and becoming difficult to hit.

Fixed issue with long range gathering of items

Fixed an issue that meant you could pick up items from far away.

Fixed issue with avatar position after server crash

Fixed an issue with the avatar position not being saved when a server crashed.

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KNOWN ISSUES/MISSING FEATURES

All tailored clothes shown as "Uncolored" in the auction, even if they are colored.

Currently, the virtual companies on the Exchange do not offer any shares.

You can't repair a weapon with attachments attached to it. You have to detach them prior to repairing.

The Team chat is not always initiated when the Team Leader invites the first member.

_____________

Regards

-Marco Behrmann


-Director of Community Relations

-MindArk PE AB

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Mini Patches

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Several minor updates has been applied to PE VU 5.6 the last few days. Some of the issues corrected are:


New - General stability upgrades

New - Double the item limit allowed in estates.

New - Shopkeeper issues updated

Laser sight alignment updated

The Allophyl and Snablesnot is now much easier to loot

The Allophyl has received its skin once again


Ghosts may no longer pick up stuff

Some graphics issues in the Society and Mentor interface fixed

Fixed the use of ALT+TAB and other keyboard key usage

Corrected a pesky server crash issue

Updated the login server to accept participants with more eagerness

Miscellaneous items got polished (like getting the correct description, etc.)


And many of other minor issues...

A clairifaction about the disciples - a disciple is deemed finished once at least one of the skill levels is attained.

The Cache system (in the Options interface) handles how graphics,
models and textures are cached (stored for easy and fast access to the
client). This affects the speed while manipulating the inventory, as
well as when meeting creatures and other avatars. Once the graphics has
streamed from the hard drive it is kept in RAM, allowing for smoother
operations. The slider is set dynamically by Project Entropia at start
up, depending on your system memory. Up to 1 Gb RAM is used for cache.
If you want to allocate more, please move the slider more to the right,
in the red area. Beware, that setting the slider too high will result
in less performance, as a lack of RAM means the computer slows down as
the hard drive is used as virtual RAM.