Pre-Patch Update,

Hello everyone in preparation for the monthly update on Thursday we are publishing a pre-patch today.

This is both a server update and a client update, which you will need to update in Steam to get the full functionality.

NOTE: this update contains new combat abilities, but some of them are still being balanced or getting polished animations. Please wait until Thursday for the final version.

As part of this pre-patch the following changes will rollout:

• Improved combat ability selection on the action bar,

• New combat abilities for various weapons, including multi-target abilities (full description coming on Thursday),

• Updated combat damage calculations,

• Fixed an issue where the enemy ai would become slower over time,

• If you mute a player they won’t be allowed to send you trade or duel requests,

• The emperor crown is a heavy burden, you can now take it off (visually) if you want to,

• Storage buildings keep activity logs for who stored/withdrew items,

• Combat audio update,

• Combat visual vfx update for weapons and abilities,

• Fixed passengers of a deployable bugging out after going through a portal,

• Updated enemy nameplate colors (white - idle, yellow - aware, light red - in combat, deep red - aggroed),

• Auto target when attacked if no target is set,

• Disallow entering a portal while in combat,

• Prevent watchtower placement too close to a settlement totem,

• Market place order items will go to recovery when the parent settlement totem is destroyed,

• Fixed stats given by buffs disappearing prematurely sometimes,

• Getting up after dying only restores 10 hp,

• Added option to report building names/sign posts/empire names,

• Fix claim upkeep calculation for certain cases