« April 2008 | Main | June 2008 »

May 23, 2008

CoX: I12 as a Comic Book

This PDF download explains all about I12 -- and quite amusingly.

Posted by Dave at 10:56 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

May 20, 2008

CoX: I12 Patch Notes

Patch notes! Comments in italics.

---

 

The Midnight Squad story arcs (Hero and Villain)

For generations, the Midnight Squad has dedicated their lives to protect the world from worldly and dimensional threats. Now, they need the help of the Heroes of Paragon City and the Villains of the Rogue Isles to finally rid the world of Rikti. Heroes and Villains must cross through time and journey to an ancient land to find knowledge long forgotten and battle ancient foes. -- New content is always nice, though I'm not wildly ravenous to get to it. Margie's played a bit of it, considers it a "fun little set of stuff."

New Zone : Cimerora
Cimerora is a hub zone (like Ouroboros) with features such as:

• Task ForceContact : Imperious - who gives out the “Time’s Arrow” Task Force
• Atmosphere spawns around the perimeter and out-of-the-way areas so that players are not attacked while interacting with contacts
• Functional Contacts: store, trainer, notoriety contacts for Villains and Heroes
• Senator Aquila provides a simple introduction story arc and Marcus Valerius gives out repeatable missions

New Task Force : “Time’s Arrow”  

• Co-Op TaskForce (35-50)

Character Origin Missions (Hero and Villain)
Where did Origins come from? How are they connected? How long have they existed? -- Glad to hear we're getting something with Origins other than just different stores and trainee powers. 

Villain Epic Archetypes: -- more below on this. 

• Arachnos Soldier
• Arachnos Widow

Hollows Revamp
The Hollows has received a game-play upgrade including: -- Yay! Hooray! 

• Completely redesigned spawn encounters (ranging from city-sized spawns to hazard-sized spawns) -- Good. Easier soloing.
• Added Meg Mason, a new contact who gives out repeatable missions -- Thus letting folks do something other than the standard Wincott arc, though Margie says that's more interesting now.
• Added stores (one at either entrance) and a trainer (Foreshadow) -- Yay! No more running back to Atlas!
• Added a mobile hospital -- Yay! No more running back from Atlas!
• Did a complete mission-door revamp so most missions should have the neighborhood-appropriate doors to match -- No more running across the zone as a noob!
• Added some new Villain groups for variety and flavor

Loading Screen Tips 

• Loading screen tips will now appear on the loading screens for mission maps.
• There is an option to disable loading tips in the options window.

Powerset Proliferation  

While researching the energy strands that all super powered beings tap into, Dr. Brainstorm caused a massive release of energy that imbalanced the energy grid surrounding the powers nexus.

As a result, it appears that heroes and villains now have access to powers that previously were unavailable to them.

Blaster 

• New Primary - Psychic Blast -- Probably what I'll be playing with. Nice damage enhancement. Definitely not overpowered. Not a lot of AoE.
• New Secondary - Mental Manipulation -- PBAoE Confuse! Yay! But not as control-heavy as other blaster secondaries.

Brute 

• New Primary - Battle Axe
• New Primary - War Mace
• New Secondary - Super Reflexes

Controller 

• New Primary - Plant Control -- Margie really wanted to like this, but found it frustrating in a lot of ways (Mass Sleep + AoE Attacks = Huh?)
• New Secondary - Thermal Radiation -- Margie says a nice utility set.

Corruptor 

• New Primary - Electrical Blast
• New Secondary - Storm Summoning

Defender 

• New Primary - Cold Domination
• New Secondary - Ice Blast

Dominator 

• New Primary - Earth Control
• New Secondary - Electricity Assault

Mastermind 

• New Secondary - Storm Summoning -- Margie had a blast ... worked really well with Mercs. Great for soloing. Tank for your pets!

Scrapper 

• New Primary - Fiery Melee -- Margie opines this is *very* fun. Kind of blappy. A bit endurance-heavy.
• New Secondary - Fiery Aura

Stalker 

• New Primary - Electric Melee
• New Secondary - Electric Armor

Tanker 

• New Primary - Dark Armor -- Annoying. Better, maybe, with a team. Endurance pig. Very expensive self-heal.
• New Secondary - Dark Melee

Optional Character Slots Purchases -- This is nice. 

• Players can now purchase optional character slots on each server with a one-time fee, and not an addition to your monthly subscription fee.
• Players can have up to 36 slots perserver.
• Purchases of a single character slot may be allocated to any single server of your choice, subject to the maximum server limit. 
• Purchases of multiple slots may be allocated to any single server or split between multiple servers of your choice, subject to the maximum server limit.
• For a limited time, all accounts that log into the Live Servers will receive 2 free Character Slots. This is for a *Limited* time only. -- Yay!
• For every 12 month cumulative period that an account has been subscribed, players will receive1 free slot. -- Yay!

User Interface: 

• Character slots in the character selection screen can now be reorganized by dragging and dropping. The sort order is stored in a file on the client, but only if "Remember Account Name” is checked on the Log-in Screen. -- Sweet! Also, lurking somewhere, the ability to see when a character was last played.
• Added Hide Delete Recipe prompt option to Options window.
• Added option to display a rating from a Player Note above the players head in the options window. (Note: All ratings or notes you create about other players are only viewable by the writer. Others do not see them.)
• Added option to disable loading tips in the options window.
• The mouse scroll wheel will now affect scrollbars when the mouse is over a scrollable area. This can be disabled in the options window. -- Scrolling has always been a bitch. This may help.
• Missions’ headers now show the level of the mission. -- Yay!
• Auction house inventory now shows count of slots used / slots total.
• Kicking a member from supergroup or removing a global friend via button-click will present a confirmation dialog.
• Disable Camera Shake Option Added (found in options window)
• Contact List Improvements -- All of these are very nice.
  • Contacts can now be sorted by the contact’s name, name of the zone, and contact relationship. All contacts that are active will appear in the “active” tab.
  • Added Broker Tab for Villains and a Detective Tab for Heroes to Contact User Interface.
  • When sorting Contacts by Zone, contacts in the current zone will always appear at the top.
  • In all sorts, Contacts with missions you are currently on will always appear at the top.
• Fixed a rare bug that could cause the main "health bar" window to vanish.
• A couple small additions to help improve performance for dial-up users:
  • Added Option to disable combat numbers on power buff icons
  • Added Option to disable sending buff information altogether

Email 

• Added "Spam" Button to email window. It will ignore the sender as a spammer and delete the email. -- Yay!

Power Trays 

• Eight additional power trays added which can be accessed by clicking the “+” sign on the upper-right of the Power Tray Interface or via commands (/show tray1, /show tray2, show tray3, etc). -- Those who like that sort of thing will find it the sort of thing they like.
• These trays have no jelly to click on, but can be dragged about by clicking on non-occupied slots or dead space.
• These trays are deformable.
• Added command /clear_tray which will remove all non-macros from all power trays.
  

Player Notes: 

• You may now rate players and write notes about them. -- Not terribly meaningful for me, but ...
  • The notes are stored by global name.
  • The note list is stored locally on your computer and will bring up the same notes for any character you play with.
  • Only you will see the Player Notes that you write and ratings you give. Since these notes are stored locally on your computer, other players cannot see your notes and ratings. 
    
    Conversely, you will not be able to see any Player Notes or ratings that other players may have written about you.
  • It can be invoked by typing /playernote <name> or by clicking "Add Note" on context menus.
  • There is a new option to display the rating you've given a player above their name.
  • Additionally, you can enable private message logging to store private message logs on a per global name basis.

In-Depth Power Information 

Detailed Power Information is now available at Power Selection, Level up, Respec, and Enhancement placing screen as well as a new tab in the info window. This information shows the powers basic data along with every effect the power has. -- Folks who like numbers will love all this. 

• There is a slider to see the effect of the power across all levels.
• There is a class selector to see how the power would perform for each class.
• There is a PvP toggle to see how powers will change in PvP.
• Powers that spawn pets will show all powers the pets use and their effects.

Improved Character Creator 

Players may now select a costume set theme from the new “Costume Sets” drop down menu in the Character creation process and the Tailor (for Heroes) or Facemaker (for Villains). -- Very convenient to start with a "baseline" costume set. 

The Costume Sets revolve around existing and new Costume sets. Some Costume Sets are unlocked through gameplay achievements, Veteran Rewards (i.e. the Boxer set) or by Costume Pack purchase (i.e. the “Good Versus Evil” Justice and Sinister costumes or the Wedding Pack).

Local Settings 

Most user options can now be saved to file and loaded from file. If a default setting file is saved, all newly created characters will use the default file to set initial options. The options window has buttons added to save and load default files. Non-default files can be saved and loaded via slash commands. -- Yay! 

General Options 

• /option_save, /options_save_file<filename>
• /option_load, /option_load_file<filename>
• /option_set <optionname><value>
• /option_toggle <optionname>
• /option_list - Lists names allowed for /option_set and /option_toggle
• /bindload, /bindloadfile /bindsave /bindsavefile display confirmation messages
• /bindloadfilesilent and /bindsavefilesilent do not display confirmation messages

Window Configuration 

• Window names are now all exposed, and you can now see a list of valid names with the /window_names command
• Added commands /wdw_save and /wdw_save_file <filename> to save your current window configuration. -- Yay!
• Added commands /wdw_load and /wdw_load_file <filename> to load your window save file.

Chat Tab Configuration 

• /chat_save and /chat_save_file<filename> save chat settings locally
• /chat_load and /chat_load_file<filename> load chat settings on current character

Chat System Revamp 

Player Names are now clickable in the chat window, brings up a menu you can use to: -- This is *very* nice. A lot easier to do this stuff via the chat window than retyping names -- especially when there's a stray hyphen or period or apostrophe in them. 

• Chat
• Invite to Team
• Add Friend
• Get Global or Local name
• Ignore
• Ignore Spammer

Clicking the channel name of a global chat channel will give these options:

• Send Message
• List Members
• Set MotD (Message of the Day)
• Set Description
• Leave Channel
• Set Color - allows you to set yourglobal channel display colors.

Right-Clicking a players name in a global chat channel that you are a moderator of will give additional options:

• Silence/Unsilence
• Kick

Powers, Enhancements, Recipes, Inspirations, and Salvage are now linkable in chat

• You can drag/drop those items on to the chat window to create link
• You can type the name (if you know it)of an item inside a pair of square brackets, for example: [Luck]
• Clicking the link will bring up the info window for that item
• Many powers/items in the game have the same name, in those cases additional information is added to the link

Under the chat options section, there is new item "Individual Name Colors" which will display each name in the chat window its own color.

Pet combat messages are now sent to the pet owner. Added channels Pet Damage Inflicted, Pet Combat, Pet Damage Received, Pet Healing Received, Pet Healing Delivered, and Pet Hit Rolls. Newly created Masterminds will have a "Pet Combat" tab added.

 

Global Chat Changes

Global Names and Local Server names are now transparent. The invisible wall between global and local identities has been removed, so that if you know another player’s Local Server Name, then you will be able to find out their Global name by using the following commands : -- These changes are all very interesting -- and the subject of much angst and worry from some parties on the board. Not something I worry about all that much. 

• /get_local_name <global name>
• /get_global_name <local name>

/hide and /ghide will now bring up an option dialog where you can separately choose to hide from Global Chat Channels, Global Friends, Server Friends, Supergroup, and Searches.
In addition there are commands to individually set each of these options:

• /hide_sg, /unhide_sg - Makes you appear offline in supergroup window
• /hide_search, /unhide_search - Prevents you from appearing in the looking for group window
• /hide_friends, /unhide_friends - Makes you appear offline to server friends
• /hide_gfriends, /unhide_gfriends -Makes you appear offline to global friends
• /hide_gchannels, /unhide_gchannels -Prevents you from appearing in global channel lists
• /hide_tell, /unhide_tell - You will still receive tells, but the sender will get error message as if you were offline
• /hide_invite, /unhide_invite - All invites will be blocked as if you were offline
• /hide_all, /unhide_all - Sets all hide options on or off

Changed /ignore and /gignore functionality. Using either command will ignore that user on all global channels as well as all local characters and any new characters they create.

Increased Max Friends to 200

Ignore list size had been increased to 200.

Players are now allowed to have 10 Global channels.

 

Zone Event System Message Channels 

• There are two separate Zone Event System channels, the Hero Zone Event Message and Villain Zone Event Message channel.
  • Warnings will appear in the appropriate event channels for the Clockwork Paladin, Giant Octopus, Ghost Ship, Croatoa Battle, Troll Rave, Hellion Fire, Miner’s Strike, Arachnos Flier, Caleb and Deathsurge zone events. -- Nice.

Inspiration Improvements 

You can now combine 3 inspirations of the same type and strength into a different inspiration of the same strength, this is accessible via the context menu for qualified inspirations. -- Not sure I'm inclined to do this, or to remember to do it, but a nice feature.
Also added slash commands for inspirations:

• /insp_delete <name>
• /insp_combine <sourceName><targetName>

Leveling Up Bonus 

Leveling up will refill health and endurance!

In addition to restoring the player to full health and endurance, leveling up will now greatly inspire the player. -- I.e., level up makes someone uber for a brief time ... which is kind of nice. 

 

Combat Attribute Window Improvements 

Added commands to add or remove attributes form the Attribute Monitor:

• /monitor_attribute <name>
• /stop_monitor_attribute <name>

Per player request, added new fields to the Combat Attribute Window.

• Experience to Next Level
• Current Experience Debt
• Last Hit Chance (from a click power)
• Endurance Consumption (total from active toggle powers)
• Influence
• Healing Bonus

Power Trays 

• Added command /clear_tray which will remove all non-macros from all power trays.

Trial Account Limitations 

Trial Accounts now have the following restrictions. Characters on Trial Accounts may not:

• Hold more than 50,000 Influence/Infamy
• Join a Supergroup
• Use any chat other than /local, /team,or /friend.
• Invite characters into a Team (although Trial Account characters can join a team)
• Use In-Game Mail
• Level up past level 14
• Enter any PVP Zone

Combined Notes 

User Interface 

• Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented selecting a shared mission
• Fixed a rare bug where the camera would always switch to first person mode when the player’s character entered a zone.

Powers
Accolades 

• Accolades - Reduced the To Hit bonus provided by the “Geas of the Kind Ones” and “Force of Nature” accolades from +200 to +25.
• Accolades \ Force of Nature – should now work when exemplared, like other accolade powers.

Attack Powers 

• Corrected Activation time for Whirling Hands and Spin. These times did not accurately reflect the duration of the rooted portion of the animation.
• Normalized attack times for PBAOE powers that share the twirl animation, such as Fire Sword Circle, Whirling Sword, and Whirling Axe.
• Fiery Melee / Scorch: This power now uses a shorter casting time to go along with its new shorter animation.
• Near ground attacks (like fossilize) will no longer be foiled by continuous jumping
• All versions of Lift, Propel, Levitate, Repulsion Bomb and Force Bolt now suppress properly versus players.

Defense Powers 

• Dark Armor/Death Shroud: Increased this power’s activation time from 1.17 seconds to 3.47 seconds. This was changed so that the power’s activation time matched its rooted time.

Buff / Debuff / Status Effect Powers 

• Boost Range - Removed stacking from all versions of Boost Range.
• Dark Armor / Soul Transfer, Set untouchable timer to 15 seconds. Removed a small delay before the untouchable portion of power activates, and added an “Untouchable” float text.
• Dark Melee / Soul Drain: The Tanker and Brute version of this power stated that it could be slotted with to-hit debuff enhancements. It has no to-hit debuff component. This has been corrected.
• Dark Miasma / Black Hole - should now see “Black Hole” Float text when target is made intangible.
• Fiery Aura / Rise of the Phoenix - Removed a small delay before the untouchable portion of power activates, and added an “Untouchable” float text.
• Force Field / Detention Field - Should now see “Detention Field” Float text when target is made untouchable.
• Gravity Control / Dimension Shift - should now see “Dimension Shift” Float text when a target is made intangible.
• Power Boost - Reduced strength of all versions of Power Boost by 33%, removed Knockback boost and removed stacking from the power.
• Radiation Emission / Choking Cloud: Increased this power’s activation time from 2.03 seconds to 3.47 seconds. This was changed so that the power’s activation time match its rooted time
• Radiation Emission / Fallout now targets only dead Teammates.
• Sonic Buff / Sonic Cage - Should now see “Sonic Cage” Float text when a target is made untouchable.
• Storm Summoning / O2 Boost - All versions of O2 Boost now grant a Perception bonus to the target.
• Thermal Radiation / Power of the Phoenix - Should now see an “Untouchable” float text when target is made untouchable.
• Normalized Debt protection in all rezzing powers in powersets to 90 seconds. Sets affected: Tanker and Scrapper Fire Aura, Willpower, Dark Armor, and Regen. Controller and Defender buff sets Empathy, Radiation, Dark and Thermal.
• Powers that do not cause aggro will no longer suppress stealth.
• Powers that could only affect players on the ground will now affect all players above them as well as standing on them. This is to fix a PVP exploit making ground based powers ineffective. Powers fixed: Tar Patch, Bonfire, Ice Patch, Ice slick, Quicksand, Caltrops, and Volcanic Gasses.
• Added an enforced 60 second period in which Phase Shift powers cannot be reactivated after a previous activation of the power.
• “Caging” powers (Sonic Cage, Black Hole, etc) now follow standard suppression rules in PVP.
• Added Phase suppression to the Phase Flight temporary power
• Knockback is now affected by suppression in PvP, in the same way as Hold, Sleep and Disorient. This change has been applied to many powers that can cause knockback. Any player affected by a knockback will become immune to further knockback attempts for 10 seconds. The affected powers have been noted in the appropriate detailed Archetype powers sections below.

Travel Powers 

• Leaping / Acrobatics - Reduced Knockback Protection of Acrobatics from 100 points to 9 points. Note that this means there are certain critters who will occasionally overcome the protection provided.
• Leaping / Acrobatics - Now accepts Knockback enhancements. These will increase the protection to knockback attacks, however only 2/9ths of the protection is enhanceable.
• Teleport / Teleport Self - Adjusted the target location code for Teleport Self to reduce the likelihood of getting a red failure reticle

Veteran Reward Powers 

• Decreased knockback on Prestige Nemesis Staff (from 9 to 4) -- Awwwww ....

Values Changes 

• ToHit was not actually being clamped to max class value and now is.

Status Effect Changes 

• Confused players will only be able to harm teammates.
• Repel resist in Break Free and Emerge inspirations improved
• Increased Disorient Magnitude on Awaken and Bounce Back inspirations to 5, in order to prevent it from causing Rest to fail in conjunction with villain epic archetypes’ status protection.

AI 

• Pets should no longer become terrifiedand run in terror when their owner’s Oil Slick power fades.

Arena 

• Changed timing between scheduled arena match rounds from 10 seconds to 120 seconds (where it was supposed to be).

Bases 

• Robo-Surgery will now attach to Base Reclaimator

Emotes 

• Added /emote ReadBook
• Fixed the Boombox emote animation for‘Beat’ so that it loops properly.

Game 

• Fixed a crash where pressing the Left/Right keyboard arrows or numeric keypad 4 and 6, while viewing the auction window, would cause the client to crash.

Graphical Effects and Animations 

• Fiery Aura / Blazing Aura - Activating Blazing Aura while moving will now transition properly into moving animations once the rooting period is complete.
• Fiery Melee / Scorch now has a different, slightly faster animation than Incinerate.
• Fiery Melee / Scorch: This power now uses a shorter casting time to go along with its new shorter animation.
• Fixed the rooting problem where certain buff toggles were activated before they were ready.
• Knockback animation should now play correctly on non-flying targets that use the male, female, or huge models.
• All of the projectiles in the Flares power Graphical Effects should be killed off at the proper time now.
• Knockback / Knockup animations will no longer play faster or slower based on the scale of the character.
• Knockback / Knockup animations for flight mode have been flagged similarly to non-flying versions
• Corrected error for all powers using the ‘ground summon’ animation. The duration of the portion of the animation flagged as ‘can’t move’ was significantly longer than the reported Activation Time.
• Modified Mitochondria visibility / targetability. Mitochondria should now be visible form a greater distance away during Hamidon Raids.

Inventions 

• Added suppression to Invention temppower Ethereal Shift.
• The debuff from Achilles Heel: Chance for Resistance Debuff will now properly fade after 10 seconds, rather than lingering until a player was defeated or zoned.
• Kismet: Increased Accuracy Invention Enhancement was giving a scaling bonus based on the level of your target. This has been corrected -- it now gives a flat bonus.

Rewards 

• Characters will no longer stop earning Influence when playing in Supergroup mode after level 34. Players level 29 and up will now earn 50% of the influence they would have received when in Supergroup mode. -- Good!
• Fixed a long-standing bug with Experience Point and Influence distribution in teams with a large range of levels.
• High Level Family entities have had their reward scale lowered to be commensurate with the risk involved in the encounter.
• Salvage drops changed to more closely match the villain groups.

Sound 

• Fiery Aura - Fire Shield & Plasma Shield. Looping sounds will now fade out after a short period of time.

Store 

• Adjusted price on Rez inspirations to equal 3 regular inspirations.

Tailor  

• Unlockable weapons for some weapon-based powersets have been added to the game. 
• Users can nowchoose to pay with influence or free costume token at the Tailor.
• Standard Head -> Detail1 -> English Monocle added to male, female and huge characters.
• Many new chest details have beenintroduced:
  • Alien 1
  • Alien 2
  • BullsEye 2
  • Cyber Eye
  • Health
  • Lion
  • Mantis
  • Nuke
  • Power On
  • Question Mark
  • Recycle
  • Skull 3
  • Star 10
  • Star 11
  • Star 12
  • Star 13
  • Star 14
  • Swirl 3
  • Symbol 8
  • Symbol 9
  • Symbol 10
  • Tech Hole
  • Trash
• New Body Patterns sets
  • Arctic
  • Perplex
  • Thorn
  • Vandal

Tasks 

• Flashback missions that do not allow players to leave immediately on completion will no longer fade to sepia upon completion.

CITY of HEROES 

Powers 

Accolades 

• Decreased Geas of the Kind ones and Force of Nature defense debuff from 20% to 10%

Blaster 

• Blaster / Archery / Explosive Arrow now deals full damage to players.
• Blaster / Archery / Blazing Arrow: Removed text in the long help stating that this power is less accurate than other Archery attacks. Blazing Arrow has the same accuracy bonus that the other Archery powers have.
• Blaster / Cold Mastery / Hibernate - Changed short help to indicate this power is a self hold, not a foe hold.
• Blaster / Devices / Auto Turret - Auto Turret for Blasters is now ‘Gun Drone’ -- it will fly, follow you around and fight at your side, much like Voltaic Sentinel. Note that enemies who use Auto Turrets have upgraded as well. - Ruh-roh!
• Blaster / Devices / Cloaking Device - Removed the +DMG from the short help for this power. It offers no damage boost.
• Blaster / Devices / Smoke Grenade - Added combat spam text for both the attacker and victim.
• Blaster / Electric Manipulation wasmissing knockback suppression on several powers. Added to bring in linewith powers available to other archetypes.
  • Havoc Punch
  • Lightning Clap
  • Thunder Strike
• Blaster / Energy Blast / Nova: AddedKnockback suppression vs players.
• Blaster / Energy Manipulation / TotalFocus: corrected to do smashing damage vs players.
• Blaster / Ice Manipulation / Chilblainunresistible damage was activating far too often. Changed to a normal 2seconds.
• Blaster / Ice Manipulation / Ice Patch - Increased this power’s activation time from 2.03 seconds to 3.47 seconds. This was changed so that the power’s activation time match its rooted time.
• Blaster / Ice Manipulation / Shiver - was generating Defiance per target hit. This has been corrected and it now gives a Defiance buff only once per usage.

Controllers  

• Controllers have always had a 20% chance for a critical hold. Now Critical Holds will now display a pop up combat message of “Overpower” to let you know they happened.
• Controller / Force Field / Force bubble - Added Knockback suppression for players.
• Controller / Ice Mastery / Hibernate - Changed short help to indicate this power is a self hold, not a foe hold.
• Controller / Sonic Debuff / Sonic Repulsion - Added Knockback suppression for players.

Defender 

• Defenders level 2 to 49 were using an incorrect multiplier for Damage and Defense Debuff powers. The base value for these effects should now be 25% greater than previously experienced.
• Defender / Archery / Blazing Arrow - Removed text in the long help stating that this power is less accurate than other Archery attacks. Blazing Arrow has the same accuracy bonus that the other Archery powers have.
• Defender /Archery / Explosive Arrow - Added knockback suppression vs. players.
• Defender /Dark Blast / Torrent - Added knockback suppression vs. players.
• Defender /Energy Blast / Nova - Added knockback suppression vs. players.
• Defender / Force Field / Force Bolt - AddedKnockback suppression vs players.
• Defender / Force Field / Force Bubble -Added Knockback suppression for players.
• Defender /Radiation Blast / Electron Haze - Added knockback suppression vs players.
• Defender /Sonic Attack / Shockwave - Added knockback suppression vs. players.
• Defender / Sonic Debuff / SonicRepulsion - Added Knockback suppression for players. Defender / StormSummoning / Gale - Added Knockback suppression vs players.

Peacebringers 

• Peacebringer / Luminous Blast / Bright Nova / Bright Nova Blast: Added PvP knockback suppression into this power.
• Peacebringer / Luminous Blast / Bright Nova / Bright Nova Detonation: Added PvP knockback suppression into this power.
• Peacebringer / Luminous Aura / Restore Essence: Increased the Debt Protection from 60 to 90 seconds.
• Peacebringer / Quantum Flight - Removed the escalating Endurance cost from Peacebringers’ “Quantum Flight” and added the 30 second timer common to other Phase Shift type powers.
• Peacebringer / Quantum Flight - QuantumFlight’s 30 second Phase Shift’s cut off has been changed. The Flightaspect of this power will continue, and only the Phase Shift aspect cutsoff after 30 seconds.

Scrappers 

• Scrapper / Broadsword - Attack times for the Broadsword powerset have been normalized to eliminate pauses between attacks.

Tankers 

• Tanker / Battle Axe / Gash and Beheader – Animations and Graphical Effects for Gash and Beheader have been exchanged.
• Tanker / Battle Axe – Attack times for the Battleaxe powerset have been normalized to eliminate pauses between attacks.
• Tanker / Fiery Aura / Blazing Aura – Activating Blazing Aura while moving will now transition properly into moving animations once the rooting period is complete.
• Tanker / Ice Melee / Ice Patch: Increased this power’s activation time from 2.03 seconds to 3.47 seconds. This was changed so that the power’s activation time matched its rooted time.

Warshade 

• Warshade / Umbral Aura / Orbiting Death - Increased this power’s activation time from 1.17 seconds to 2.03 seconds. This was changed so that the power’s activation time matches its rooted time.
• Warshade / Umbral Aura / Shadow Cloak - Was missing defense to Area of Effect attacks. This has been added.
• Warshade / Umbral Aura / Stygian Return - Increased the Debt Protection from 60 to 90 seconds.
• Warshade / Umbral Aura / Stygian Return- Set untouchable timer to 15 seconds, Removed a small delay before the untouchableportion of power activates, and added an ‘”Untouchable” float text.
• Warshade / Umbral Blast / Gravity Well - Adjusted damage and frequency of damage tick of Gravity well to match Peacebringer / Incandescent Strike, and reduced damage tick time.
• Warshade / Umbral Blast / Quasar -Added PvP knockback suppression to this power.

Powers Text Changes  

Note: All Heroes’ Powers text underwent scrutiny and many changed to correct typos, and to reflect consistency and accuracy. The power effects, duration and recharge have not changed, only the description and combat log messaging has been updated. All secondary Knockback, Stun, or other status affects will now be noted in combat logs when the effect occurs for all powers.

NPCs 

• Fixed an issue which would cause Blue Wisps in Croatoa to run out of endurance
• Chimera from the Praetorian villain group should no longer auto-hit players with his bow.
• Reduced Duration and strength ofCaptain Mako’s ‘Elude’ power.

Tasks 

• Cut scenes have been added to the Frostfire and Dr. Vazhilok story arcs
• Dr. Vazhilok must now be defeated to complete the Vahzilok Plague story arc.

Trial 

• The Sewer Trial, “Descent to the Hydra” now functions like a Task Force where all high level party members (41+) will exemplar down to the Level 40 Trial cap.
  • Mairenn MacGregor is the NEW Sewer Trial contact and is located in Atlas Park next to the Sewers. The Rikti kill task for Mairenn MacGregor has been lowered.
  • The OLD Trial contact, Maren MacGregor (in Founder’s Falls) will complete any old Sewer Trial missions, but will not give out any new ones.

Zone Events 

• Trolls in Skyway will now disappear after their party is over.
• Waypoints will appear on the zone maps for the Troll Rave and Hellion Fire events.
  

CITY of VILLAINS 

Giant Monsters 

• Only one Deathsurge will appear at a time.

Zones
Grandville 

• Arachnos workers who fall off the web will not be stunned into not moving.

Powers
Brutes 

• Bonus Fury generation for Brutes whenfighting in PVP or against Archvillain or Giant Monster class critters nowworks properly.
• Brute / Dark Armor / Death Shroud: Increased this power’s activation time from 1.17 seconds to 3.47 seconds. This was changed so that the power’s activation time matched its rooted time.
• Brute / Dark Armor / Soul Transfer -The target after being revived should be truly invulnerable for 15 seconds. Additionally text should pop over the revived target stating thatthey’re untouchable.
• Brute / Dual Blades – Added PvP knockdown suppression to all powers and combinations that had a knock down effect.
• Brute / Electric Armor / Power Surge -When this power’s hold effect is triggered when the Power Surge wears off the hold effect should show up in both the user and the target’s chat log.
• Brute / Electrical Melee / Jacob’s Ladder - Will now drain endurance from player targets as well as NPCs. Removed erroneous negative energy message from the sleep portion of this power.
• Brute / Electrical Melee / Thunder Strike - Added an endurance draining component to this power.
• Brute / Fiery Aura / Fiery Embrace - Allowed this power to improve toxic damage the user deals.
• Brute / Fiery Aura / Rise of the Phoenix - The targetafter being revived should be truly invulnerable for 15 seconds.Additionally text should pop over the revived target stating that they’re untouchable.
• Brute / Super Strength / Hurl was not set to allow Knockback Invention Sets. This has been corrected.
• Brute / Super Reflexes / Evasion - Added radius to Evasion allowing its taunt effect to draw the attention of nearby foes.

Corruptor: 

• Corruptor / Assault Rifle / M30 Grenade: Added PvP knockback suppression for this power.
• Corruptor / Cold Domination / Benumb: This power was previously granting endurance to a target in PvP instead of reducing it. This power should now correctly drain the target’s endurance.
• Corruptor / Dark Blast / Torrent: Added PvP knockback suppression to this power.
• Corruptor / Energy Blast / Nova: Added pvp knockback suppression into this power. 
• Corruptor / Radiation Blast / Electron Haze: Added PvP knockback suppression to this power.
• Corruptor / Radiation Blast / Atomic Blast: Added PvP Hold suppression to this power.
• Corruptor / Radiation Emission / Choking Cloud: Increased this power’s activation time from 2.03 seconds to 3.47 seconds. This was changed so that the power’s activation time matched its rooted time.
• Corruptors / Sonic Blast / Shockwave: Added 10 second PvP suppression to this power like all knockback powers.
• Corruptor / Sonic Resonance / Sonic Repulsion: Added PvP knockback suppression to this power.
• Corruptor / Storm Summoning / Gale - Gale: Added 10 second PvP suppression to this power like all knockback powers.
• Corruptor / Storm Summoning / Hurricane – This power’s repel effect is no longer irresistible.
• Corruptor / Thermal Radiation / Powerof the Phoenix:The target after being revived should be truly invulnerable for 15seconds. Additionally text should pop over the revived target stating thatthey’re untouchable.
• Corruptor / Traps / Poison Trap: Decreased the frequency in which the hold portion of this power was being triggered from once every quarter of a second to once every second, but increased the chance the effect would actually trigger slightly.

Dominator 

• Increased Target cap for AoE control powers for Dominators from 10 to 16 to be comparable to controllers.
• Domination - PvP targets will now build domination at the appropriate rate. Previously powers in this set wouldn’t generate additional domination when fighting PvP targets.
• Dominator / Energy Assault / PowerBoost - This power no longer enhances knockback, knock up and repelpowers.
• Dominator / Energy Assault / PowerBoost - Power Boost will no longer be able to stack with itself.
• Dominator / Energy Assault / PowerBoost - The overall potency of this power was reduced from offering a+100% bonus to all secondary effects to granting a +66% bonus to theseeffects.
• Dominator / Fiery Assault / Flares - Increased this power’s range from 60 to 80.
• Dominator / Fiery Assault / Fiery Embrace - Allowed this power to improve toxic damage the user deals.
• Dominator / Fire Control / Smoke - Added combat spam text for both the attacker and victim.
• Dominator / Icy Assault / Power Boost - This power no longer enhances knockback, knock up and repel powers.
• Dominator / Icy Assault / Power Boost - Power Boost will no longer be able to stack with itself.
• Dominator / Icy Assault / Power Boost - The overall potency of this power was reduced from offering a +100% bonus to all secondary effects to granting a +66% bonus to these effects.
• Dominator / Mind Control / Telekinesis – Removed the ability to repel players in PvP with this power.
• Dominator / Plant Control / Carrion Creepers - This power’s effects will affect targets that are not on the ground, but within the radius of the power’s effect.
• Dominator / Thorny Assault / Ripper -Added PvP knockback suppression for this power.
• Dominator / Thorny Assault / Thorntrops - This power’s effects will affect targets that are not on the ground, but within the radius of the power’s effect.

Masterminds 

• Mastermind pets made pushable. Masterminds will no longer be blocked by their pets. Players on the same side as the mastermind will be able to move pets out of the way significantly faster. Enemies’ ability to push pets has remained unchanged. -- Oh, yeah!
• Mastermind / Mercenaries - All pet powers that inflicted a status effect should now have PvP suppression.
• Mastermind / Ninjas / Call Genin – Henchmen’s Crane Kick power: Added PvP knockback suppression to thispower.
• Mastermind / Ninjas / Call Jounin - Henchmen’s Soaring Dragon power: Added PvP knockback suppression to thispower
• Mastermind / Ninjas / Call Jounin – Henchmen’s Golden Dragonfly power: Added PvP knockback suppression to thispower
• Mastermind / Ninjas / Call Jounin – Henchmen’s Blinding Powder power: Added PvP confuse suppression to thispower.
• Mastermind / Thugs / Call Thugs - Power no longer accepts Defense Debuff sets. The thugs’ powers did not actually debuff their targets Defense in any way, so this was purely an extraneous entry.
• Mastermind / Thugs / Call Thugs - This power will now be able to slot for knockback and knockback sets.
• Mastermind / Thugs / Dual Wield - Added PvP knockdown suppression to this power.
• Mastermind / Thugs - All pet powers that inflicted a status effect should now have PvP suppression.
• Mastermind / Robotics / Pulse Rifle Blast - Removed the ability to slot this power with knockback enhancements, it doesn’t have a knockback component.

Stalkers 

• Placate - All versions of this power should no longer suppress hide.
• Placate in weapon based sets will now play the correct animations, which include drawing the weapon if not already in hand.
• Stalker / Claws / Focus – Added PvP mez and knockdown suppression
• Stalker / Claws / Shockwave – Added PvP mez and knockdown suppression
• Stalker / Dark Armor / Soul Transfer: The target after being revived should be truly invulnerable for 15 seconds. Additionally text should pop over the revived target stating that they’re untouchable.
• Stalker / Dual Blades - Knockdown PVP Suppression - Added PvP knockdown suppression to all powers and combinations that had knockdown effects.

Patron Powers.

• Patron Power Pools: Added PvP suppression for all powers that inflicted a status effect. Several powers previously didn’t have these attributes.
• Mace Mastery: Arachnobot Blaster’s Energy Blast was previously dealing smashing damage, and will now correctly deal energy damage

Accolades 

• Force of Nature accolade should now work when malefactored, like other accolade powers.

Graphical Effects 

• Brute / Invulnerability / Invincibility now uses the correct Graphical Effects
• Customized Arachnos Assault Rifles should no longer load the default texture, then change to the color-tintable version every time they’re drawn. Also note that the 1 and 2 have been swapped.

Powers Text Changes  

Note: All Villains Powers text underwent scrutiny and many changed to correct typos, and to reflect consistency and accuracy. The power effects, duration and recharge have not changed, only the description and combat log messaging has been updated. All secondary Knockback, Stun, or other status affects will now be noted in combat logs when the effect occurs for all powers.

Posted by Dave at 6:02 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

CoX: I12 is Alive

That seems like a really short open beta. 

Big announcement post with lots of links.

I'd post more (and may later), but I have an internet filter blocking my going to the CoX site (though not to the boards, oddly enough).

Posted by Dave at 3:13 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

May 19, 2008

CoX - Merging servers?

There's a vocal set of CoX community members that continue to push for consolidation of some of the CoX servers. Enrollment has been in slow decline, and on some servers there's a sense that tumbleweeds tumbling down the roads of Paragon and the Mercy Islands might be a believable graphic to see,

Unfortunately, the threads -- even where they get Dev response -- seem to disappear from the servers. I get an RSS feed, so I get those Dev comments, but more than once when I've clicked through the thread has been deleted.

So, for example, last week there was this thread about the CoX subscription numbers. The block in italics are from Back Alley Brawler (who's in charge of Animation and Visual Effects, so it's not precisely his cuppa):

So, it's the lowest we've been since '04's 4Q. Disappointing.

 

It's the same pattern every MMO follows. Rapid ascent, peak, steady decline. There are of course exceptions, like WoW.

We're actually a lot steadier than most MMOs would be at this point in their life cycle. So this is actually better than normal.

 

Actually, there are a number of MMOs that don't follow that 'typical' pattern. Asides from WoW, there are games like Dofus, EVE Online, Tibia, Second Life, and Runescape. Those may be more a-typical, but it at least provides precedent that it is possible for an MMO to continue to grow its user base long past their launch date.

We're very optimistic about being able to do the same with CoH/CoV and there are some interesting plans that you guys will be hearing more about soon.

 

Thread was deleted by the time I got to it.

That was followed up over the weekend by a discussion on server consolidation. Some folks have been pushing for the lower-population servers to be merged together (dealing with the name contention in some fashion) so as to increase the pool of folks to play with in any given instance.

Again, the quote below in italics is from BAB:

Looking at the numbers listed here, we see that the highest concurrent users online during the last quarter was 16,311. Now, figure this was during a 2xp weekend. Be conservative and figure that at regular times, we only get about 80% of that, that's only about 900 per server...except that all servers aren't equal. If you account for Freedom and Virtue having many more players than the rest, you can figure that, during peak times, there are only 700 people per server for the rest, and remember that's lowballing the amount of people that come for 2XP.

Now split those numbers between heroes and villains...say 70/30 and then divide them amongst level ranges and zones. Even if they were divided as evenly as possible, you can see that the potential number of grouping partners is very low, even when you factor in the ability to sidekick up.

The fact is, that even some of the middle population servers need merged and the lower ones definitely do.

Place all rants about how I'm full of [censored] and how you luvz your low population server and how you can find groups just by rolling out of bed in the morning and even when you're not logged on below.

 

That number is actually not exactly accurate. The highest concurrent users reported there is only from the last month of the quarter...which in this case did not include the double XP weekend. 

Some folks are very reluctant to do the server merge thing because, I think, it smacks of failure. "We're shrinking -- we're dooooomed!" Failure to act, though, degrades gameplay, which in turn reduces subscriptions.

I have alts across all servers -- but, quite honestly, I've been avoiding some simply because the characters I have there aren't soloists, and I simply cannot find anyone to team with except in rare occasions. Whereas in other servers (Freedom and Virtue), I have to beat them off with a stick if I send a LFT broadcast. Which is nice for Lady Zebra, not so much for Miss Crackle. 

If I were creating any new alts right now, I'd definitely be doing so on those servers. If server migrations were free, I'd be shifting to them (and I think we'd see a further falling out of some servers). 

There's been regular talk about a "super server" or "server-less" type of arrangement -- essentially server consolidation in name, if not in hardware. Is that in the offing?

We'll see what "interesting plans" BAB is discussing in the hopefully-not-too-distant future.

Posted by Dave at 8:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

May 17, 2008

CoX: Midnight Hour video

Over at MMORPG.COM -- all about the Midnight Squad.

Meanwhile -- somewhat integrated voice chat is coming - though with more questions than answers.

Posted by Dave at 9:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

May 14, 2008

I'm not dead, simply AFK ...

Between my sports injury and some un-ergonomic hunching in front of the computer crunching numbers, my arm is exceedingly sore in the evening, leading to a dearth of gameplay of any sort. Good for my DVD watching, not so good for my gaming blog. My apologies.

Posted by Dave at 10:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay , True Life

May 7, 2008

CoX: Water, water everywhere

Hmmm. Testing out "swimming underwater" technology.  Wonder why that might be important ...?

Posted by Dave at 7:24 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

May 6, 2008

CoX: Now it can be told

Yes, Margie was part of the closed beta.

Yes, I12 will rock. The new content is okay -- but the QoL features simply rock.

Posted by Dave at 10:16 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

May 5, 2008

CoX: I12 Open Beta

Coming soon.

As we announced previously on the 4 Year Anniversary Calendar we will be launching the Open Beta of Issue 12: Midnight Hour on Tuesday, May 6th. As for timing, we are currently planning to start the open beta at 12 Noon Pacific (3 PM Eastern).

I don't expect I'll be doing it (don't want to load a Test download on my machine), but I'm jazzed that the actual release is getting closer.

Posted by Dave at 4:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules