Category: City of Heroes

“That’s usually not a good sign,” says Margie.

City of Heroes® is proud to announce that starting today character transfers between servers (within North American OR European server lists) will become free to all players and remain that way through the end of January 2010.

• Starts: Tuesday, December 15, 2009 at 8:59 a.m. PST (11:59 a.m. EST / 4:59 p.m. GMT / 17:59 Central European Time)
• Ends: Sunday, January 31, 2010 at 11:59 p.m. PST (2:59 a.m. EST / 11:59 p.m. GMT / 00:59 Central European Time)

Now you will have more freedom to fully enjoy the game and each other…but don’t go haphazardly jumping servers without knowing the Character Transfer limit and all the other facts. Visit our Knowledge Base to learn all the specifics so that you can make educated transfer decisions. Amongst other things to bear in mind:

• Transfers are not available between North American and European servers.
• You will be able to complete up to 6 transfers a week (7-day period) per account.
• Not all possessions will transfer over with your character so be sure to read the corresponding Knowledge Base article before you decide to transfer a character.
• Super-group affiliation, Prestige and access to your Supergroup base items will be lost.
• You may lose your character’s name when transferring from a server.

Then all you have to do is transfer away and enjoy the holiday server ride!

So I wonder what’s going on here?  Are paid transfers simply not being done?  Is this a prelude to server consolidation?

Some clarifications from the KB article:

Between December 15th, 2009 and January 31st, 2010, you will be able to complete up to 6 transfers a week per account. For example:

• You can transfer 1 of your characters to five different servers then back to his/her original server in the span of a week.
• You can choose to transfer 6 unique characters to a different server, or
• You can transfer 3 characters to a different server and back, etc.

[…]

With Character Transfers, when someone does use it, do they receive a warning that their name is already taken prior to the move?

No, there is no warning. However, there is now a Name Check feature included in the game. By using this feature, found at the character select screen when logging into a specific server, you can check if a name is available on the server you are currently logged on to prior to purchasing a rename token. Be sure you are logged into the correct server when you are checking names.

Please keep in mind that while a name check may come through as showing a name available, there is still no guarantee that someone might not choose that name just before you use your rename to obtain it. Therefore, there are no guarantees that any name will be available.

If you do go through with a Character Transfer and there is a name conflict on the destination server, the character’s name will be appended to have a numeral at the end and be issued a free rename token. When you next log that character in, you will be able to use the rename feature to obtain a new name. […]

Do all your possessions move with you when you do a character transfer?

Yes, including your auctions on the Consignment Market. Here is a list of things that do not move:

• Your non-global Friends list of players will no longer be valid.
• You will be removed from any Supergroup that character was in, and will lose access to any SG storage.
• You will also lose all Prestige accumulated within your Supergroup since you will be effectively leaving it (even if you are going to be re-creating the same Supergroup on your new destination server).
• Taskforces or Strikeforces that may be in progress will be abandoned.
• Kiosk stats will be preserved, but rating positions will likely change.
• We cannot guarantee that your character’s name will be available on the destination server you move to. Should there be a name conflict, your character will be issued a free character rename to change the name.

Still … can’t stop wondering what the metameaning behind all this is … The (non-conspiratorial) speculation is that it’s giving folks a chance to clear the decks for the “Going Rogue” expansion. But it still has that server-consolidation feel that some folks are so terrified about.

With I16 came some new items that either weren’t in the patch notes, or that people didn’t notice. But this forum thread did.

1. Status icons show up when “chance of” enhancements fire off.
2. Broken fire hydrants make noise.
3. Your level shows up in the HP bar.
4. “More freedom of movement of the ragdoll physics on the human skeleton’s arms and legs.”
5. “Some hostages now animate differently while captured, Vahz zombies now do the Frankenstein shuffle and mobs carrying orange body bags now toss them on the floor [more consistently] before attacking.”
6. No influence cost for difficulty changes (yay!)
7. Midnighter doors now have the map name above them. [This has been around for a bit, but it’s still nice.]
8. “When you enter the main building in Grandville, the statues of the four patrons now have their symbols on them (the ones that appear when you use their patron powers).”
9. Improved NPC street dialog.
10. “If you choose to have your Stacked Buffs display Numerically (like I do), the number now uses a larger, easier to see, easier to read font.”
11. “Spectral Knights now disappear on defeat, like Spectral Demons, rather than having the suit of armor hanging in space with their arms up in a screaming action.”
12. Corrected teleport animations.
13. Whatever costume slot you are in when you logout, that’s what shows up on the character selection screen next time. [Previously noted here.]
14. “Arctic Air (controller/dominator) now shows the purple dot effect on confused enemies. Very nice to know who’s on your side and who isn’t.”
15. “The Taunt for Dark Melee on Tanks now makes a Taunt sound. Also noticed while playing my Shield/Axe Tank that the Taunt sound is different and if you are holding both your shield and axe when taunting they make a metal on metal clanging sound.” “Mace and shield does the same thing, the character points their mace at the enemy then bangs it upon their shield.”

And a prospective change:

A user posted that two devs they chatted with at PAX a couple of weeks ago confirmed that there will be an enhancement that when you’re down to 10% of enemies left in a map, or 10% of required glowies are left, they’ll show up on your map. That will be SO good for kill-all missions, and those redside “plant the bomb” missions. The devs didn’t say when that will go live, only that it’s in the works.

Woot!

With all the CO-love around here, I haven’t done much CoX writing (or playing). But let’s not let this new issue pass by:

First off, we have Power Customization. Though you’re still in fixed frameworks (in CO-speak), I find the CoX color-choosing setup to be much more useful than CO’s color choices — if nothing else, it allows white and black and light and dark, not to mention being able to see how the power looks being fired off. In some ways, it’s more convenient (to see the look) than CO’s Powerhouse, with it’s Power-Up / Try / Respec cycle.

Note also it’s not just colors, but animations and themes.

New Themes of Spines and Thorny Assault available, including themes of Thorns, Metal Spines, Crystal Spines, and Slate Spines.

New Animation Themes for Super Strength and Martial Arts.Huge variety of customizable powersets, including Cold Domination, Dark Armor, Dark Blast, Dark Melee, Dark Miasma, Devices, Earth Control, Earth Melee, Electric Armor, Electric Assault, Electric Blast, Electric Melee, Electricity Manipulation, Empathy, Energy Assault, Energy Aura, Energy Blast, Energy Manipulation, Energy Melee, Fiery Aura, Fire Assault, Fire Blast, Fire Control, Fire Manipulation, Fire Melee, Force Field, Gravity Control, Ice Armor, Ice Assault, Ice Blast, Ice Control, Ice Manipulation, Ice Melee, Illusion, Invulnerability, Kinetics, Mental Manipulation, Mind Control, Necromancy, Plant Control, Psionic Assault, Psychic Blast, Radiation Blast, Radiation Emission, Regeneration, Sonic Resonance, Sonic Blast, Spines, Stone Armor, Storm Summoning, Super Reflexes, Thermal Radiation, Thorny Assault, Traps, and Willpower.

As far as costs (if you’re talking about going to the Tailor rather than during character creation):

• Characters created before Issue 16 will no longer need to change a costume piece in order for customized power changes to update
• Adjusted tailor costs for powers customization changes.
• The cost for changing each individual power’s theme is 1/9th the cost of changing your upper or lower body.
• There is a Power Fee for changing powers customization. It is the same amount as the Tailor Fee for changing costume pieces.
• Changing the primary or secondary color for a power charges 1/10th the Powers Fee for each power changed. This is only charged once per power, instead of once for each color.

The second biggie is the new power proliferation sets:

Archetype – Blasters 

• Radiation Blast

Archetype – Brutes 

• Claws

Archetype – Controllers 

• Cold Domination

Archetype – Corruptors 

• Archery
• Trick Arrow

Archetype – Defenders 

• Assault Rifle
• Traps

Archetype – Dominators 

• Earth Assault

Archetype -Masterminds 

• Thermal Radiation

Archetype -Scrappers 

• Electric Melee
• Electric Armor

Archetype -Tankers 

• Electric Melee
• Electric Armor

Archetype -Stalkers 

• Broadsword

Nice.

The full patch notes are here. Some noteworthy notes …

• Lots of badge requirements reduced.
• Improvements to the sidekicking system has removed the minimal entry level for most hazard zones.
• “There is now an in-game email setting to block all email except from those on your friends list or in your supergroup.” HUZZAH!
• More tweaking (nerfing) of experience for unbalanced custom opponents in the Mission Architect.
• “All dismissable pets will now zone with you, but will lose their buffs.” HUZZAH!
• Brawl now costs no Endurance. The intial origin powers cost reduced End.
• Faster advancing (due to increased XP rewards) at levels 5-24. Which is … nice, but that’s not the area that most folks complain about, grind-wise.
• The costume you log out in is what shows up on the character selection screen.

There’s a new Enhanced Difficulty System. I liked the old one, but regardless, this remains a good differentiator from CO. (On the other hand, in CO you an easily choose missions above your level). The difficulty settings are done via Hero Corps and Fateweavers, as before:

• Choose to fight monsters between a -1 to +4 level difference from the player’s level.
• Choose to set your personal team size (1-8).
• Choose if you want bosses to scale down to Lieutenants when soloing or not
• Choose to have AVs scale down to EBs.

The difficulty settings of the mission owner dictate how the mission is handled. Actual team size overrides any difficulty setting, so you will always get Arch-Villains if the team has 6 or more members. The difficulty setting is per task, so personal team member sizes do not add together.

There is also, as noted above, a new Sidekicking system. The main difference is that a single player can SK/Exemp as many (to a full team size of 8) as they want. No more fumbling around for a match of equal high/low toons.

• Each player in the group’s level is set to the level of the owner of the active team task. If no team task is selected, everyone in the group’s level will be set to the level of the team leader.
• When the team level changes, players will be notified via a dialog and have the option to quit the team or immediately accept. The dialog will time out after 30 seconds at which point acceptance is implied.
• While in the pending state, players cannot receive rewards and any critters they damage will be worth no experience.
• Players can choose to auto-accept team level changes 0 to 50 levels above or below their current level.
• Exemplars will now earn XP and a level capped person will get XP converted into influence like exemplars used to.

Power-wise:

Blasters 

• Radiation Blast – All AoE powers in this set will no longer give a damage bonus per target hit. Like other Blaster AoE powers, only a single damage buff will be granted per use of the power
• Radiation Blast/Neutrino Bolt – This power now has a 4 second recharge, which increases base damage from scale 0.6 to scale 1.0 and increases endurance cost from 3.12 to 5.2
• Radiation Blast/X-Ray Beam – This power now has an 8 second recharge, which increases base damage from scale 1.0 to scale 1.64 and increases endurance cost from 5.2 to 8.53
• Electricity Manipulation – Power Sink: This power should no longer have a lingering icy effect on the caster.

Controllers 

• Kinetics/Fulcrum Shift: This power will now correctly use Controller buff modifiers instead of Defender buff modifiers, resulting in a 20% damage buff per target and a 40% damage buff on self, instead of a 25% damage buff per target and a 50% damage buff on self.
• Cold Domination: All of these powers should now accept the correct IO Sets.

Defenders 

• Traps – Trip mine – Fixed repeating animation

Peacebringers and Warshades 

• Players in White or Black Dwarf form will now play the updated version of the AlakazamReact emote

Scrappers 

• Electric Melee – Removed the ability to slot powers within this set with Taunt enhancements as these powers do not have a taunt component.
• Electric Armor – Lightning Field: Removed the ability to slot this power with Taunt enhancements as this power does not have a taunt component.
• Electric Armor/ Power Sink: This power should no longer accept taunt enhancements.
• Spines – Ripper: Removed extraneous sound effect from Barb Swipe.
• Electric Melee – Chain Induction correctly jumps to additional targets when slotted with proc IOs.
• Spines – Quills. The body spines will now appear when this toggle is activated. However, they will go away if the player enters and then exits spines combat mode while the toggle is on.

Tankers
 

• Electric Armor – Lightning Field: This power will no longer accept Taunt IO sets to be consistent with other taunt auras.
• Electric Melee – Chain Induction correctly jumps to additional targets when slotted with proc IOs.
• Invulnerability – Invincibility no longer accepts Taunt IO sets. This makes it match similar powers available to other ATs.
• Electric Melee – Fixed Gauntlet for Charged Brawl, Havoc Punch, and Chain induction to not allow procing on all nearby targets.

Brutes
 

• Claws – Corrected a decimal shift error in the Recharge Time of Slash. Now recharges in 6.4 seconds, not 0.64 seconds.
• Claws/Slash – Slightly increased this power’s damage to be in line with its recharge time
• Claws – Eviscerate: Corrected this power\ss long help, it erroneously stated that this power had a chance to critically hit, which it does not
• Claws – Powers in this set are now slottable for Taunt enhancements and Taunt IO sets.
• Claws and Stone Armor are now mutually exclusive at character creation due to animation issues.
• Electrical Melee – Jacob’s Ladder: Re-enabled FX for this power.
• Electric Melee – Chain Induction correctly jumps to additional targets when slotted with proc IOs.

Corruptors
 

• Archery/Rain of Arrows – This power will now correctly Scourge enemies allowing for critical hits on enemies with low health
• Kinetics/Fulcrum Shift: This power will now correctly use Corruptor buff modifiers instead of Defender buff modifiers, resulting in a 20% damage buff per target and a 40% damage buff on self, instead of a 25% damage buff per target and a 50% damage buff on self.
• Trick Arrow/Acid Arrow – Fixed a bug that caused this power to deal additional damage to immobilized, held, or disoriented targets
• Pain Domination – Soothing Aura is properly suppressed when the recipient is mezzed.
• Trick Arrow – Glue Arrow: This power’s ground based glue effect will no longer fade once the initial target is defeated, instead it will last its full intended duration.

Dominators
 

• Earth Assault/Mud Pots – This power’s long help will no longer get cut off at the end
• Earth Assault/Fissure – This power’s long help will no longer get cut off at the end
• Earth Assault – Tremor, Slightly reduced chance of knockdown.
• Earth Assault – Fissure, Adjusted damage, recharge, and endurance cost down moderately. Slightly reduced chance of knockdown and stun.
• Earth Assault – Fissure: This power’s disorient effect is now enhanced by Domination.
• Earth Assault – Seismic Smash – Corrected normal hold magnitude to 3, and the hold is now affected by Domination

Masterminds
 

• Dark Miasma – Removed erroneous Jump Speed slow effect from Shadow Fall.
• Mastermind Pets now correctly keep their level 6 and level 32 upgrade power buffs when zoning
• Pets will now zone with their Mastermind owner and will keep their buffs
• Necromancy – Zombies, Skeletons and Lich should use the selected custom colors for their enchanted and empowered particle effects.
• Pain Domination – Soothing Aura is properly suppressed when the recipient is mezzed.
• Thugs/Gang War now summons the Posse correctly
• Trick Arrow – Glue Arrow: This power’s ground based glue effect will no longer fade once the initial target is defeated, instead it will last its full intended duration.

Soldiers of Arachnos and Widows
 

• Mace Mastery – Focused Accuracy: This power was replaced with a new power called Shatter Armor.
• Mace Mastery – Shatter Armor (NEW): This power has replaced Focused Accuracy in the Villain Epic Archetype Mace Mastery epic power set. Shatter Armor is a heavy hitting melee Arachnos Melee attack that reduces the target’s damage resistance.

Stalkers
 

• Electric Melee – Chain Induction correctly jumps to additional targets when slotted with proc IOs.
• Stalker Melee/Broad Sword/Head Splitter – Fixed a bug that caused this power to have a 100% chance to critically hit while hidden. This power will now critically hit 50% of the time

Let me just note with joy that Mastermind pets now zone.

The EPPs/VEAPS have been changed to have 5 powers instead of 4.

All in all, a very solid Issue, even if there’s no content to go with it. Well done, Paragon!

After the initial horrific farming experiences in MA, and the discovery that Sturgeon was correct when it comes to user-designed content, I’ve just never spent much time there with any characters — especially since, well, it’s one more layer of unreality than my brain is willing to suspend disbelief for. 

That said, think this is an excellent idea:

Popular user-generated content system attracts industry and comic book notables to try their hands at mission design NCsoft and Paragon Studios™ today announced the Guest Author program for the Mission Architect user-generated content system in City of Heroes. This program invites influential writers and aspiring game or story designers to collaborate with the team behind the City of Heroes MMORPG and publish custom missions directly into the City of Heroes game using the revolutionary Mission Architect system. Participants in the Guest Author program will be announced on a rolling basis. The first participants of this program comprise notable industry veterans from the gaming and online comic industry:

• Rooster Teeth (www.roosterteeth.com): The machinima producers that brought the gaming world the Red vs. Blue series and created a series of live-action shorts for City of Heroes and Mission Architect (starring Barenaked Ladies’ front man, Ed Robertson, as Captain Dynamic) is ready to put their designer skills to the test. Rooster Teeth plans to bring Captain Dynamic and his nemesis, The Great Face, from YouTube to City of Heroes.
• Scott Kurtz (www.pvponline.com): The creator of the popular PvP web comic has already begun collaborating with the City of Heroes team on bringing LolBat to life within Mission Architect.

My only concern here is that we’re talking about humor / satire as the basis for MA missions, which makes them even less realistic (though ostensibly well-done). I will be curious to see how this turns out, though. More news should come out from PAX.

NO! NOT AN OPEN BETA! NOT AN OPEN BETA! FOR THE LOVE OF —

Oh, it’s for CoX. That’s okay then.

(I won’t actually be doing the open beta for I16 because, well, I think downloading a separate version of the software to test stuff when there’s a perfectly usable I15 sitting there for play with characters that will actually advance from my investment in time is silly. But I couldn’t resist.)