[2024] 7.6 Content PTS Updates and Known Issues

Hey everyone,

Slightly changing the purpose of this thread to not only host updates to the known issues list but also updates to PTS in general as well. We are preparing to release another iteration of the PTS, targeting tomorrow, October 24th. That means that the current PTS build has to be taken down. But don't worry! When the new iteration is back up and running, your Achievements and the progress you've made on your characters will remain.

What's happening right now?

Currently, PTS is down, but it will be back up later today. When we roll out the new iteration tomorrow, PTS will be taken down and brought back up with a new build that comes with bug fixes and Story Mode for the new lair boss!

If the timeline above changes, I'll update this thread.

Thanks!

 

Hey all, 

The Public Test Server is now open again! 

Thanks for your patience! 

Hey everyone, 

We're going to be bringing down the PTS shortly, so we can get ready to deploy the new build that contains the new lair boss (Story mode). I do not have an exact ETA of when the PTS will be brought back up, but I will update this thread when I have that info. 

Thanks! 

Hey everyone,

We're finalizing details on the lair boss, and fixing bugs and improving functionality for Dynamic Encounters, so we will be working toward re-opening PTS tomorrow, October 25th. I will keep you posted on any updated timelines in this thread.

Thanks!

Hi everyone, 

The PTS is open! The new lair boss, The Propagator Core XR-53 is now available for Story Mode. Please see the feedback thread here.

Additionally, we initially reported that Veteran Mode would target the week of October 28th. We are updating that timeline to the week of November 4th. This will be updated in the original PTS post. The original post will also be updated with info regarding the lair boss. 

Thanks! 

Hey everyone! 

Appreciate all the feedback that has been pouring in for the XR-53 (Story Mode). Below is a list of changes and adjustments that players can expect when we release a new build on PTS. These will be added to the OP as well. 
We’ve received a ton of feedback, so thank you all for spending some time with this early version of the boss. Here’s a rundown of the major issues we’ve seen and are already addressing:

• Biggest one first! Several HP values weren’t calibrated correctly for Story Mode. This had a major impact on the fight, making combat unreasonably long and making adds take too long to defeat. In the next iteration, HP for the Propagator Core itself and many of its minions (Imperfect Constructs and Prey Seekers) have been reduced significantly.
• The Propagator Core remained immobile for much longer than intended, spending too much time casting and making it difficult to reposition it. This made the fight frustrating for melee characters. In this update, it should be easier to move the boss to avoid the floor hazards. 
• The Mistaken Construct enemy was not tuned to serve its intended purposes: 1) as punishment for failing to have a player participate in Prime Directive and 2) as a soft enrage for the encounter after Prime Directive has occurred a set number of times. It will now be more obvious that this enemy is not intended to be killed, and instead signals that there was a failure to execute the mechanics or that the boss should be defeated by this point (lower boss HP should make this possible!).
• Several visual indicators and effects, such as additional targeting indicators for the Imperfect Constructs and Prey Seeker Droids, have been added or improved to clarify mechanics and give players time to react. This work will continue as we do a pass over each ability’s appearance and visual communication.
• This hits the highlights, but we’ve made many additional changes, so please read on to get all the details. If you’ve already tested the boss, we hope you’ll give it a try with these changes–nothing is more valuable to us than seeing you fight the boss and reading your feedback. We’ll continue to iterate and expect that things will be much closer to the intended Story Mode experience, but it’s likely we’ll still need to hone in on final balance, so stay tuned!

General

• Propagator Core XR-53’s health has been reduced to 51M (down from 86M).

Abilities

Digestive Enzyme

• Adjusted debuff duration to 20s (up from 15s).
• Digestive Enzyme’s damage type is now Internal.
• Digestive Enzyme’s per-stack ticking damage increased by 150%.

Acidic Rocketry

• Cast time reduced to 1s (down from 2s).
• Rocket travel time increased to 3s (up from 2s).
• Propagator Core XR-53 will now be immobilized for 1s after completing the Acidic Rocketry Cast (was 2.5s).
• Acidic Rocketry now only targets the four furthest players from the boss in the group, as opposed to all players.

Prepare for Harvest

• Cast time reduced from 2s to 1s.
• Propagator Core XR-53 will now be immobilized for 1.25s after completing the Prepare for Harvest cast (was 2.5s).
• Prepare for Harvest projectile travel time reduced from 2s to 0.5s.

Extraneous Expulsion

• Cast time reduced to 2.5s (down from 4s).
• Fixed an issue where Extraneous Expulsion was dealing damage outside of its warning area.

Hungering Bite

• Cast time reduced to 3s (down from 4s).
• Fixed an issue where Hungering Bite was dealing damage outside of its warning area.

Lethal Strike

• Lethal Strike has been rebalanced. It now gives three different debuffs based on the role of the struck target, each called “Softened Up”. DPS and Healers afflicted with this debuff will now have a looping effect to indicate that they are afflicted with it.
• Tank: Lethal Strike deals 250% increased damage to the affected target. 45 second duration.
• Healer: All outgoing healing reduced by 75%. 1 minute duration.
• DPS: All outgoing damage reduced by 75%. 1 minute duration.

Prey Seekers

• Cast time reduced to 1s (down from 3s).
• Prey Seeker Droids will now indicate who they are going to jump towards before doing so in order to give players time to react.

Imperfect Fabrication

• Added a new buff called “Imperfect Fabrication” to the Propagator Core XR-53 with the following description: “The Propagator Core XR-53 is following its programming, but what it creates isn’t perfect…” to indicate that the boss is producing Imperfect Constructs.
• Imperfect Fabrication will now be inactive during the Prime Directive Phase of the encounter. Imperfect Fabrication will become active again after the Propagator Core XR-53 completes its Recovery Protocol.
• Decreased the frequency of Imperfect Construct spawns. They now appear once every 15 seconds (down from once every 10 seconds).
• Imperfect Constructs will now indicate who they are going to jump towards before doing so in order to give players time to react.

Prime Directive

• Changed the color of the Prime Directive warning from red to orange to indicate caution instead of danger, as players should be aware that one of them needs to stand inside of it to avoid summoning the Mistaken Construct.
• The Propagator Core XR-53 will now broadcast that it is looking for one final sample when it is casting its Prime Directive ability.

Adds

General

• All adds will now spawn in the center of the arena, which should ensure that they are more visible to players regardless of their location in the arena. 

Prey Seeker Droid

• HP pool reduced to 155k (down from 310k).
• A Prey Seeker Droid will now properly increase the Propagator Core XR-53's Harvested Materials count if its channel is successful. 

Powerful Construct

• Powerful Construct's Acidic Rocketry should no longer be reflectable.
• Powerful Construct’s Explosive Finality should no longer be reflectable. 

Imperfect Construct

• HP pool reduced to 155k (down from 543k).
• Fixed an issue where Imperfect Constructs would find multiple targets and jump to both instead of finding only one.
• Imperfect Construct’s Imperfect Explosion should no longer be reflectable.

Mistaken Construct

• HP pool increased to 30m (up from 552k).
• Volatile Output now properly applies a Digestive Enzyme stack to all players when they are struck by the Ability.
• Volatile Output now properly hits up to 8 targets instead of only hitting the closest 4.
• Volatile Output’s base damage has been doubled.
• Volatile Output should no longer be reflectable.
   

So now what? Next week, we will be releasing a new build on the PTS that will include all of the changes above. We want to continue to hone Story Mode before polishing Veteran Mode. Players can expect that VM will be released when we do our livestream, which is still targeting mid-November. 

I will keep you all updated on when the new build will go out next week! Please continue to keep an eye on this thread for further updates! 
 

Hey everyone! 

We will be bringing down the PTS to deploy a new build at 10am CT / 4pm UTC. Please keep in mind that this new build will include the above changes to the lair boss for Story Mode. Feel free to continue to leave feedback in this thread. 

As a reminder, Veteran Mode will be released when we host our livestream in mid-November. 

Thanks! 

Hi everyone, 

The PTS is now back up. We'll be keeping an eye on the feedback threads! 

Thank you! 

Good morning everyone, 

We will be taking down the PTS around 9am CT / 3pm UTC today to deploy a new PTS build which will contain Veteran Mode for the new lair boss. I'll update this post again when PTS is back open! 

Thanks! 

Below are the updates/fixes players will see with the XR-53 encounter. 

General

• Enabled Veteran mode.
• Propagator Core XR-53’s Story mode health pool has been reduced to 34M (was 51M)
• Increased the damage of the Propagator Core XR-53’s flurry attack by 10%.
• Digestive Enzyme and Electrify will now properly be dispelled from all players when the Propagator Core XR-53 is defeated or reset.
• Added spawn in animation for the Propagator Core XR-53 as well as each of the adds present in the encounter.
• Fixed an issue where all pools were giving Digestive Enzyme stacks outside of their ground borders. 
• Added additional spawn locations for each of the adds. Now instead of always spawning in the center of the room, they will now spawn either in the center or in front of one of the four tanks in each corner of the room, whichever is closest to the Propagator Core XR-53’s location. 
• There have been a number of general VFX improvements made throughout the fight.

Abilities
Lethal Strike

• Lethal Strike will now properly have a 30s cooldown. 
• Tank debuff duration of Lethal Strike increased to 50s (was 45s).
• Adjusted the priority of Lethal Strike casts. This should serve to make the Propagator Core XR-53 use Lethal Strike at a more consistent cadence, and also make the Propagator Core XR-53 easier to move a significant distance if required.
• The Propagator Core XR-53 should no longer cast other abilities while airborne after casting Lethal Strike.

Hungering Bite

• Hungering Bite’s warning cone is now orange instead of red.

Prey Seekers

• Ability rebalanced.
• Total channel time adjusted to 20s (was 60s).
• No longer grants the Propagator Core XR-53 an additional stack of “Harvested Materials” if the channel completes. Instead, deals significant damage in a small AoE around the Prey Seeker’s location if the channel completes. If the Prey Seeker is defeated before the channel is complete, nothing happens.
   

Hi everyone!

We're opening the PTS back up! Please continue to use the below feedback threads to provide feedback for the team! 

• Dynamic Encounters feedback thread
• XR-53 Story Mode feedback thread
• XR-53 Veteran Mode feedback thread

Here is a list of updates/changes made to the XR-53 Encounter. 

And more details about the new augments! 

Thanks! 

Hey everyone! 

We’re getting ready to deploy a new build on the PTS! 

Here’s a snapshot of the changes that players will see when the server comes back up. 

Character modernization:  

• Before hopping onto the PTS, please read Eric’s Character Modernization Status forum post! 
• In this iteration of PTS, players will see a fix applied to the shader change that impacted character models. Please leave feedback here.  

Steam launcher

• If connecting to the PTS via Steam, players should no longer see the EULA box pop up after accepting the terms and conditions once. 
• The launcher carousel design now matches the SWTOR launcher.  

Propagator Core XR-53 Changes

Boss Changes

• Made general adjustments to the flow of the Propagator Core XR-53’s abilities in order to space them more regularly. This should help create a more predictable cast cadence, and allow movement to be smoother.

Extraneous Expulsion

• Should now properly drop pools in all cases.
• Now acquires targets in a rectangular shape (Was a cone).

Hungering Bite

• Should now properly find targets inside its warning.
• Now acquires targets in a rectangular shape (Was a cone).

Lethal Strike

• No longer completely blocked by certain mitigation abilities, e.g. Sonic Rebounders.
• The Propagator Core XR-53 should no longer begin casting abilities while airborne.

Story Changes

Powerful Construct

• Added a 50% absorb shield to the Propagator Core XR-53 while the Powerful Construct has not yet cast Explosive Finality or been defeated.

Veteran Changes

• Increased Propagator Core XR-53’s damage by 5%.
• Added visible debuffs on the Propagator Core XR-53 that indicate which role has been sampled by the Prime Directive so far. One each for Tank, Healer, and DPS.

Lethal Strike

• Lethal Strike will no longer be mitigateable from the second stack onwards.

Imperfect Construct

• Health increased to 388k (was 310k)

Prey Seeker Droid

• Health increased to 388k (was 155k)

Defender Construct

• Health increased to 4M (was 1.5M)

Supplicant Construct

• Health increased to 3.1M (was 1.5M)

Rampaging Construct

• Health increased to 3.1M (was 1.5M)
• The Rampage buff will now properly state that it increases damage by 25%, not 10%.
• Rampage should no longer be reflectable.

Dynamic Encounters

• General bug fixes
• Various improvements to all Dynamic Encounters which include new steps and/or functionality
• The Conquest Objective "Missions: Dynamic Encounters Infinite" now requires 1 Dynamic Encounter to complete (down from 5) and rewards 1650 Conquest Points (down from 6900)

Leave feedback for Dynamic Encounters here! 

Leave feedback for the lair boss (Story Mode) here! 

Leave feedback for the lair boss (Veteran  Mode) here! 

Leave feedback for character modernization here! 

If you're using Steam, you can download the PTS here!

I will update this thread again when the PTS is back online. 

Thanks!
 

Hello again, 

The PTS is now open! 

Thanks all! 

For those who want to check out the updates to the new augments, please read Bryant's post here. These changes are live and went out with today's build! 

Hey everyone!

We have taken down the PTS, and will be working on one final PTS build that will be released later this morning! Please read this post in its entirety so you know what to expect for this build. 

There will be final polish for Dynamic Encounters and the Story and Veteran Modes for the XR-53 Encounter. Note that the final art for the boss itself will not be seen until 7.6 goes live. 

Character Modernization

There are some adjustments going into this PTS build that players will notice: 

• Character model bodies appeared to have softened muscle definition. This has been fixed. 
• Wrinkles under eyes were more pronounced when the “low shader” setting was applied. Players will see in this PTS build that the wrinkles in that area will be significantly lessened.
• Wrinkles have been adjusted for characters seen during gameplay to appear in parity with characters shown in cinematics.  
• Scar customizations have been updated to appear more in line with the character's skin color.  

Character Modernization Known Issues:

• Chiss skin looks patchy. 
• Some characters’ teeth have the same color/texture as the character model skin. 
• When hueing is applied to skin textures, some character models appear more orange or red.
• Dark Side complexions look way more pronounced. 
• Nose shapes look wider and more square. 
• There is a thin seam that appears between the neck and torso on male characters. 

PTS Steam Launcher

With our recent PTS iterations, we rolled out an upgraded Steam launcher to keep parity between it and the non-Steam launcher. As reported in this thread, the launcher will not work on a Steam Deck. Note that we must continue testing the Steam launcher on the PTS, however, this will continue to block players who are currently using a Steam Deck to check out content on the PTS. Reiterating my previous post in the above linked thread, that we are having discussions around how to resolve this issue. Should this still be an issue when we approach 7.6 launch, we will not roll out the upgraded Steam launcher and will continue our investigations. When we have an update to share further details about this issue, we will communicate it out. 

Please note that this build will be the final iteration of PTS. We will be taking down PTS on December 2nd, so be sure to get your Achievements done before then if you want the incentives! 

I’ll update this thread again when PTS is back up! 
 

Hi again!

The PTS is now open again. 

Thanks all! 

Hello once more!

Wanted to follow up on the Steam launcher issue not launching on a Steam Deck that was raised in this thread. 

What’s happening with the launcher on PTS?  We’ve been upgrading our launcher and patching tech over the last few years, as the old launcher tech is outdated and rapidly becoming unsupportable. 

With our recent PTS iterations, we rolled out an upgraded Steam launcher to keep parity between it and the non-Steam launcher. As reported in the thread linked above, this launcher does not work on a Steam Deck. 

Now what? 
In the immediate future, we must continue testing the Steam launcher on the PTS. This will unfortunately block PTS players who are currently using a Steam Deck to check out content.  As a result, we will not roll out this launcher change with the 7.6 Game Update.

That’s the plan as of now. We’ll keep you all updated on changes and timelines as we continue to work on this project. 

Thanks all!  
 

Hey everyone!

We're taking PTS down in approximately 15 minutes. To reiterate this was the final iteration of PTS. Though we are taking the server down, I do want to let you all know that we will be making some follow up posts in the near future, so keep an eye on the Dev Tracker.

Thanks!