Hello everyone!

After a whirlwind amount of work, both coding, and testing, this new version is now being released. It contains even more code rewriting than the client rewrite, by far, as it was a complete server port/rewrite. Huge thanks to everyone that helped test and provide bug reports and feedback! I especially want to thank RistVaLL for going above and beyond with his help testing and spearheading various groups in continued testing of specific elements. That said, there are numerous client updates in this release as well, including some long-standing bug fixes.

With most of these balancing tweaks, new players will find it considerably easier to play the game, especially up to mid-MQ point.

Since this is a complete rewrite, below is only some of the more prominent and important changes to the user side of things:

• Ladder Slasher now supports and uses secure websockets (wss)
  
• You can now edit your market item cost until the item expires instead of the previous 2 hour limit
  
• Scaling of catacomb size now starts at 5x5 increasing to the same max of 40x25. This is a change from the starting size of 10x10. Scaling still reaches the maximum size around level 74/75.
  
• Magic Luck can now create an "overspawn" item
  
• Item drop calculations significantly overhauled to drop more for harder monsters
  
• Item drop chances now carry over for each monster, to create a more eventual "guaranteed drop" algorithm
  
• You can now level up from doing skills (fishing, cooking, glyphing, transmuting, suffusencing)
  
• Suffusencing random click events now occur approximately 15% more often which makes this skill slightly easier to get higher values and more proficiency
  
• /find players no longer returns yourself if applicable
  
• Added a new command to toggle single player "easy mode": /set easy [1|0]
  
  • This feature determines how many monsters spawn when you are playing solo. In easy mode, only 1-2 regular monsters will spawn, and only 1 evil presence at a time. Regular mode is 1-3 monsters or evil presences. This feature is enabled by default until you complete your first Master Quest of the current season.
    
  • To see your current single player mode: /set easy
    
  • To enable: /set easy 1
    
  • To disable: /set easy 0
    
  • This does not save between character changes/logouts. You must re-issue this command as desired if you change characters or logout.
  
  
• Abilities Twohitback, Doublestrike and Doublecast are fixed and will not hit one monster twice, but hit two targets as stated
  
• Made Bits and Pieces objective easier to spawn
  
• Quick Draw now decreases the next attack time by 75% (from 50%)
  
• Life Steal mechanics changed and buffed as per https://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=79061200&f=272&p=533899834
  
• Certain monsters can no longer have life stolen from them
  
• Recipient Heal Mastery now adds into the bonus to the amount healed if someone else heals you
  
• Jubilance now gives +Experience every time you hit a monster, calculated as roughly Jubilance * Monster Difficulty %
  
• Evil Wells now have a chance to disintegrate when used and the evil monster spawn is defeated
  
• Evil Presences have a higher chance to drop at least one item
  
• Client: The mini-map on maps is now drawn in a darker color (near black) instead of white
  
• Added a flood control error warning for actions that otherwise were silently dropped by the server before
  
• Client bug fixed: When inserting a rod into the fishing rod box, then removing it (ctrl-click) and fished, the client would think it was still there and if you failed the fishing would incorrectly state your rod broke and shadow remove the item from your inventory. On refresh it was still there. Fixed, the client now correctly knows you're no longer using a fishing rod.
  
• Maps can now spawn with +Evil Wells
  
• Increased drop rate of heavy weapons
  
• Client: Fixed a 3d maze rendering bug where the nearest front facing walls would not show up in 3 or 4 way intersections if you were facing east or west
  
• Fixed a bug that would allow monsters that could double strike to double kill you
  
• Azapnid now hides a little better when he uses the Illusion ability
  
• Decreased Heavy Weapon attack speed from 2 seconds to 1.8 seconds
  
• Client: Gold amount in upper right corner is now properly capped at two decimal places
  
• Mirror Maze: The dopplegangers will now always mimic your gear
  
• Level one maps now spawn the correct map size
  
• Using a heal charm no longer takes up mana if the target is already fully healed
  
• Increased chance for Ambush! objective to spawn
  
• Market items will now be permanently deleted if not collected after 6 months
  
• Added a will be deleted line on profile market items if an item is expired to indicate when it will be deleted

Thanks again to everyone that took so much time to help test this in the beta phase, especially phase 1 where we climbed to MQ in "ironman" mode. I hope you all enjoyed it, and enjoy the new release, and releases to come!

For more historical information, you can read here https://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=79061200&f=272 and here https://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=79186498&f=272

--Paul