Patch v2.40 for Sacred 2: Fallen Angel- with new PhysX effects

Ascaron Entertainment has released a new v2.40 patch for Sacred 2: Fallen Angel, which introduces PhysX support, the ability to pause the game in single player, lots of bug fixes, and more.
nVidia®-PhysX TM Technology Implemented:

The display of two combats arts for each respective hero has been
enhanced with physical effects. Executing a combat art will now have
direct impact on the immediate environment (small stones, leaves, twigs).

The enhanced combat arts are:

* High Elf: Glacial Thorns and Incandescent Skin
* Temple Guardian: T-Energy Shroud and Untouchable Force
* Seraphim: Flaring Nova and Radiant Pillar
* Shadow Warrior: Nether Allegiance and Augmenting Guidon
* Inquisitor: Mortifying Pillory and Frenetic Fervor
* Dryad: Dust Devil and Edaphic Lances


Certain particle effects as well as different wind speeds are also vailable now. Leaves and stones may be moved by wind or by walking across them.


Pause Functionality:

In single player mode you may now pause the game any time by pressing [P].
The camera can still be moved around freely when the game is paused -
which is ideal for taking screenshots from various angles.

Control Your Minions:

This new functionality enables you to use your minions strategically. Order them to attack enemies as a group or individually ([-]) and determine how close they will stay to you ([#]). You can also order them to attack directly ([Shift] + [Left Mouse Button] on an opponent). Pressing [.] will display your minions' current order status.

The Achievement System:

Open your logbook [L] and click on the trophy to display the achievements that you have accomplished in game. If you are playing in Closed Net these results will also be published in the community network on www.sacred2.net

Character Display:

You are now able to turn your characters around for 360° in the selection screen.

Individualized Character Inventory Screen:

Each hero now has a different and individualized layout for equipped items.

Additional Features:

* The Crystal Planes now feature a new quest series as well as new opponents
* New items may drop
* Three new mini bosses. All mini bosses now have their own quests.
* The logbook now features a new graphical appearance.
* New options under Audio Settings to adjust the frequency of battle chat
* New death screams for all creatures even if battle chat has been set to Never under Audio Settings
* Added a tool tip display for the duration of purple and blue potions
* Incoming messages will now open the chat window. After seven seconds the window will close automatically
* New option under Audio Settings to switch acoustic notifications for chat messages on or off.

Bug Fixes:

* Several causes for crashes have been fixed.
* The Dryads' shrunken heads now work as intended, boosting the effectiveness of the combat arts Malicious Totem, Black Curse and Viperish Disease.
* The bonus Deadly Wounds does no longer stack. In extreme cases the overall hitpoints were reduced to 1 due to that issue.
* The bonus Deep Wound does no longer stack. In extreme cases the overall hitpoints were reduced to 1 due to that issue.
* Fixed an issue that dead horses could be mounted in certain situations.
* Fixed an issue that mounted heroes did not sustain damage when they touched a T-Energy pool.
* Heroes will now sustain the correct amount of damage when touching a T-Energy pool.
* Heroes will now sustain damage when they walk through the boss monster "Swirling Mist of Miasma" ("Fog Monster").
* The boss monster "Swirling Mist of Miasma" ("Fog Monster") now fires projectiles.
* The skill Alchemy now increases the amount of health replenished by healing potions.
* The modification Evade of the Inquisitor's combat art Reverse Polarity will now be displayed correctly in all parts of the interface.
* Damage over time did work properly for Elite Boar Riders. This has been fixed.
* The Divine Gift Kuan's Breath also effected opponents who were above the defined maximum opponent level. This has been fixed.
* Various fixes concerning Pierce.
* "Power leveling" using the the combat art Expulse Magic on the"Swirling Mist of Miasma" ("Fog Monster") is no longer possible.
* Fixed the faulty damage display of the boss monster "Facetteleon".
* When several boosts were active, the fist boost to terminate also ended all other boost graphics effects even if the remaining boosts
were still active. This has been fixed.
* The faulty damage of the modification Self Repair of the Temple Guardian's combat art Jolting Touch has been fixed.
* The faulty damage of the Seraphim's combat art Pelting Strikes has been fixed.
* Corrected several translation errors in English and French.
* Fixed wrongly saved values of the explored map.
* Amulets and rings have become distinctly different now. This will apply to all amulets including already existing ones.
* Pressing [Del] when the cursor is positioned at the start of a text field in the menu does no longer cause crashes.
* Fixed an issue that Blacksmith Arts could not be removed from forge slots if they had been placed there temporarily.
* The Closed Net player chest accessible for all characters was deleted when players logged in to the Open Net lobby for the first time. This has been fixed.
* Sometimes, items that we rearranged in the inventory were lost due to server lag. This has been fixed.
* Fixed an issue that made it impossible to open a server for diffculty levels gold or higher even if the character met the requirements.
* Fixed an issue that made it possible to switch from a hardcore game to a default game and vice versa via the Buddy list.
* The skill Toughness will no longer yield strange results in higher levels. Warning: Toughness did block high amounts of damage even while being broken. Since the fix, Toughness works more predictable, but might therefore be less effective in some situations.
* The mini boss Forest Guardian will now scale to the player's level who is close to him rather than that of the first player who entered the server.
* The unique spear Gronkor's Downfall does no longer carry a bonus for ranged weapons.
* All mounted opponents now fight and die as intended.
* The acoustic signal of the heartbeat sometimes did not end. Now, the heartbeat sound will play no longer than twelve seconds.
* The survival bonus will increase at a slower rate.
* The Dryad's combat art Malicious Totem will now have a stronger effect when the proper shrunken head is being used.
* The Temple Guardian's combat art Furious Emblazer is now more powerful.
* The Seraphim combat's art Divine Protection now has a slightly reduced duration per level.
* The amount of experience points per killed opponent will no longer be as drastically reduced on very high levels as before.
* The safe area (spawn protection) around resurrection monoliths has been extended; monsters will not attack players immediately anymore.
* Several side quests have been fixed
* Throwing daggers will now rely on dexterity rather than strength
* The skill Magic Staffs didn’t apply to two-handed mage staffs, this has been fixed
* Temple Guard combat art Battle Extension did not work correctly in combos, this has been fixed
* Seraphim combat art BeeEffGee is now capped at level 200; the tooltip has been fixed accordingly
* Shadow Warrior combat art Reflective Emanation reflected conditions such as blindness and stun and not just the damage, this has been fixed
* Several combos did not work correctly when combat arts with different targeting systems were combined, e.g. area spells first and direct damage such as flash second. This has been fixed
* Some descriptions for combat art modifications were misleading or wrong. They have been corrected.
* Bossmonster "Carnach" teleported one last time while dying, this has been removed.
* Unforging items at the blacksmith broke the forge slots in rare occasions, this has been fixed.
* Fixed an issue where OpenAL caused noisy sounds in the main menu after leaving a game session.
* Pressing [print] did not save screenshots when a dialog window was open. This window will only be seen in the screenshot when both [ctrl] and [print] are being pressed.
* Typing [% n] into the chat crashed the game, this has been fixed.
* The tooltip of special mounts had value discrepancies at a trader and in the inventory.
* Framerate drop caused by certain graphical effects has been lessened.
* Added more pictures for quest targets in the quest log.
* Fixed an issue in the MP server list that could cause players to join a different server than the one that had been selected
* The mastery of the skill Riding now unlocks the correct bonuses.
* Lore-skills increased the casting speed more efficiently than stated in the tool tip.
* Skill Spell resistance did not work in some cases, this has been fixed.

Note: all the server will be rebooted and prepared for the patch.
The download links for the patch will be online on our site soon as well.