Version 0.8.0

Version History
	0.8.0 May 20, 2011	0.8.1 → January 1, 2011

Patch notes

These are the official patch notes for version 0.8.0 released by Grinding Gear Games.

Features

• Added Act Two. It's low on quests for now.
• Enabled the Duelist, our Str/Dex character class
• Enabled the fourth difficulty level (Merciless)
• New character selection/creation scene
• A hardcore league has been enabled
• Added portals on currency items and as a skill gem
• Added Endurance, Frenzy and Power charges
• Added new skills: Frenzy, Blood Rage, Flicker Strike, Sweep, Dual Strike, Double Strike
• Flasks can now have mods
• /online command now shows who is online
• Waypoints, doors and exits now stand out on the minimap
• Revamped passive skill tree to have 450+ skills
• Antialiasing support added
• Added grass technology
• Nearby players and NPCs are now shown on the minimap
• Chat box now supports multiple chat types more easily
• Ghosts in Merveil's Lair are now purple
• Tar Zombies added to the Coves
• Monkeys can come down from trees in Act Two
• Substantial improvements to the quality and volume of sounds
• Environmental effect improvements in many world areas
• Many spells now have "surge" effects
• Flasks can now have quality
• Rhoas can charge at you
• Shields can now block
• Passive skill screen now shows the total of each attribute
• Passive skill screen now allows you to see your player in the middle
• We now support dragging items in addition to clicking twice
• Chat text is now more readable against light backgrounds
• Scavengers now throw rocks rather than sand
• The area's monster level is now shown on the minimap
• Substantially increased the amount of random variations of world areas
• Item images are shown next to full ground descriptions again
• Condensed requirements on items to be more concise
• Chaos damage effects added
• The Flooded Depths side area now has an entrance in the middle of its room
• Added a setting to control corpse targeting behaviour
• Waypoint screen now hides acts/difficulties you haven't been to yet
• Entities don't continue to accumulate arrows past 10 now
• The name of the current difficulty is now displayed in town (if higher than the first difficulty)
• When holding a two handed weapon, a transparent copy is shown in off-hand
• Now enters game immediately after creating a new character
• Assets are unloaded intelligently to conserve memory
• Players can now walk through each other in towns

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug that could cause multiple mods of the same family to be generated on an item
• Sand spitters no longer get stuck doing nothing
• Fixed problems with shadows disappearing as the character moves around
• Fixed issues spawning non-equipment items sometimes
• Boss monsters now grant bonus experience correctly
• Item links can now not be partially backspaced
• Prevented many skills from damaging monsters on the other side of walls
• Merveil's second form will now attack you properly
• Shield Crabs no longer turn into Sand Spitters called "Shield Crab"
• Shield Crabs don't drop items when they transform into Sand Spitters
• First acquired skill now binds to right mouse button rather than middle
• Fixed bug where sand spitters would not bleed
• Fixed re-enabling of items that have been disabled due to requirements changing between versions
• Experience bar now has 20 sections rather than 21
• Dungeon chest rotation fixed
• Gems in inventory now have background colours showing whether their requirements are met
• Other players using skills nearby now have their mana predicted correctly (so the spells don't fail)

Balance

• Refunded all passive skills because of the new tree
• Made monsters twice as easy in lower difficulties. Harder in higher difficulties
• Boss monsters are now substantially more dangerous
• Rebalanced most skills
• Changed how monsters get accuracy and critical strike rating to be flatter
• Biased base attributes slightly towards Life (Str), Mana (Int) and Accuracy (Dex)
• Overhaul of boss mods to make them all proportional to the monster's base values
• Gems now have level requirements in addition to attribute requirements
• Reduced drop rate of rares and uniques by 25%
• Added bow-wielding Skeletons and Bandits to some areas
• Changed the levels of most items and mods
• Rebalanced areas to accommodate Act Two and the fourth difficulty. Level 50 is the highest world area now.
• Elemental hit now picks one element type randomly per hit
• Increased the number of Weapons and Armours in various categories with placeholder art
• Several new prenamed boss monsters added to certain areas
• Detonate Dead is now unaffected by increase in monster life due to additional players in the area
• Cold Snap now freezes for a longer duration than normal ice damage
• Cold Snap now freezes 50% of the time (chilling the rest) rather than always
• Changed player cap for non-town areas to six
• Reduced Fireball splash radius
• Rares are now biased towards spawning with four mods
• Rare monsters are now limited to four mods
• It's now slightly more likely to generate an off-colour socket