According to Sebastian, patch 1.70.00.29 was on the test server over the weekend as is looking good, so will likely be out this week.

A bunch of things in the the notes:

AI

• Town crier is now talking less often.
• You will now get damage reports from the new AI even if you take 0 damage.
• Fixed an issue that made it possible to have minus stats on towers.
• Added tribe rats.
• Fixed sockets for zombies/skeletons.
• Fixed issue where AI blocking wasn't correctly registered.
• Cleaned up things left behind by the old AI.
• Pets health will now also be saved in the receipt. Old receipts without health saved will create a pet at full health.
• The rules for when a pet gains loyalty has changed, you now need to be around the pet and have available pet points. If not the pet will not be able to gain loyalty even when fed.
• Fixed an issue where dynamic loot for weapons on AI might spawn more than one weapon.
• Fixed scale issue on tribe rats.
• Changed the amount of influence AI level has on loot.
• Fixed a couple of instances where AI would push things on the client.
• Improved the way AI reacts to getting hit in the face by siege weapons.
• You now get a message when your pets are being damaged.

• Tower warning now get sent from "Warning" to avoid issues with the chat.
• The blacklist has been completely rebuilt and now works as follows:
  List can be changed from any tower or keep by a guild member with at least rank 8.
  The list is global for every tower you have so they no longer have their own list.
  Currently the number of blacklisted players cannot exceed 50.
  Cities under a guild’s control will now also use their AOE to blacklist players. Since being blacklisted turns you grey the guards in the town will kill the player.
  Adding a player to the blacklist will cost your guild 200 PP.
• The blacklist changes should also solve the issues towers had where they would lose their names.

• The option to swap alt function has been re-added and somewhat changed, it now ONLY affects melee combat.
• Built a general phys manager to keep track of physics driven animation. There's a new option to control how many phys-driven actors that get to use phys in the settings menu.
• Fixed an issue where you had to re-log to right-click the book icon to stop reading books that you just started reading.
• Fixed a bug which forced you to re-log to submit a second GM petition.
• Added support for character and account-wide titles (select on paperdoll).
• Updated login and character selection with newer Awakening lighting.
• Added option to control maximum physics-powered animations in system preferences.
• Can no longer send empty chat messages.
• Fishing bait slot now properly shows as required.
• Added slider to fishing bar for depth control.
• Fixed and issue where chat tabs could load in reversed order.
• Skills window now indicates total number of points marked to decrease.
• Corrected some cases of mouse mode not toggling automatically.
• Fixed several instances of hover tool-tips remaining after windows close.
• You can now click the chat channel name when talking to change channels.
• Tabard/banner coloring reworked on dyed items.
• Added a couple more tips to the loading screen.

• Added support for cloaks.
• Added support for titles.
• Changed the prices of bags.
• Added the corny but oft requested pumpkin hat.
• Added new rewards system in the ESC menu. This is the precursor for veteran rewards.

• Somewhat nerfed dual strike damage.
• Increased the stamina drain of dual strike.
• Dual strike should now correctly play animations in third person.

• Added stat for stolen objects.

• Executing people in mercy mode should now correctly work again.

• Fixed typo in guild promotion.
• New guild members will no longer be set as level 10 in the UI.
• Guild leaders no longer have to relog between each guild promotion.
• Possible fix for wars that didn't show up in the guild-stone without relog.

• Increased server-sided check range-check when looting.
• Cleaned up player params a bit to improve node speed.

• Vendors that only buy specific items will no longer re-sell them again; they are selfish that way.

• Added a couple of new beginner swords.
• Added a new NPC in Tindrem to help soften the change for noobs from the tutorial to the real world. This person will trade simple weapons and armors for loot dropped in the graveyard.
• Added several signs to make it easier for players in Tindrem to find the graveyard.

• Rebalanced the amount of some carcass drops.
• Decreased amount of carcass on all creatures
• Increased the amount you get from a carcass when using just a skinning knife.

• Items traded from a bank will now auto-unbank before the trade.
• Fixed issues where sometimes newly added items such in bags or in pets would go invis.
• Fixed an issue where items in bags traded to other players sometimes would end up in the same spot or in a spot that couldn't be found.
• Fixed an issue where items that should be able to stack did not.
• Fixed rare issue where loot would sometimes not correctly show.
• Bags in banks should now work more as you would expect. You can open the bags while they are still banked if you have the bank window open.
• Fixed some general issues with bags and banks.
• Made it possible to use more things directly from the bank-window instead of having to move them to your inventory first.

• Placing workbenches in houses with the new UI should now work better.
• New objects (like campfires) could be dropped in the wrong place relative to AI.
• Fixed an issue where players couldn't properly loot destroyed houses.

• Built a better ground finding function for siege weapons to avoid them being inside the ground.
• Fixed the collision on catapults and their parts to make them better align with the ground.
• Static objects now have the ability to play death effects.
• Added death effect for catapults, it's not the most epic thing ever but better than nothing.

screenshot from the upcoming patch

I guess I just have to ask...

...why are they patching in a Halloween Pumpkin skin a week after Halloween is over?

Originally posted by Slapshot1188

I guess I just have to ask...

 

...why are they patching in a Halloween Pumpkin skin a week after Halloween is over?

 

I assumed he was joking, but given Starvaults track record its 50/50.