Category: Resources & Rules

This time it’s Hero 1’s turn:

An Arc being placed in Dev Choice is not how additional content is unlocked for Architects. That’s handled through straight peer review. The better your Arcs, the more stuff you get to put in missions. The amount of stuff we lock on unlock is something we’re going to tweak as time goes on.

So your access to the editor, to make new mssions, becomes more robust and rich as you get whuffie from other players? Hmmm. On the one hand, cool. On the other hand, subject (it would seem) to a lot of abuse.

Dev Choice missions unlock full XP and Influence for an Arc.

Good.

Zombie Man pointed this out, but I feel it needs to be mentioned again. Voting is per account, not character. So, even if everyone in your SG group gives you five stars on an Arc, you still have the other hundred thousand plus players to balance it out.

True enough — but how many votes will it take for a mission to get whatever it is that you get? 

And, to be honest, I’d just as soon not start a new industry in people saying, “Hey, can you vote for my Story Arc?” on Broadcast, or in missions, or whatever.

Players are rewarded for playing, creating and rating Arcs.

Okay, that’s interesting — rewards for playing (beyond XP and inf?), creating (beyond better editing tools?), and rating Arcs? So there’s an incentive to play a lot of player-generated content and rate it (can you only rate it at mission completion?).

Players will be able to publish somewhere around half a dozen or so Arcs up to our Arc server. An Arc is anywhere from one to five missions.

Okay, useful numbers.

There are a number of different categories that created content will fall into.

• Quickplay, displays the highest rated content you haven’t played.
• Dev Choice, displays content that the devs feel best reflects what the Mission Architect can be.
• Hall of Fame, the best of the best voted entirely by the players.

Content that reaches the Hall of Fame level, and potentially even the Dev Choice section, will unlock additional Arc slots for those creators. This is an incentive to create content that the players and the devs enjoy.

Though that does raise the issue of how people find new content in the first place, as visibility of content rises as visibility of content rises.

At any point you can “unpublish” your Arc to free up an additional slot. Arcs that have reached the Hall of Fame or Dev Choice level will be locked, but you’ll have a new slot to create another super cool Arc.

Cut scenes will not be open at launch. As Positron says, “I wouldn’t wish that system on anyone.”

Fair enough.

Stories picked as Dev Choice, will not become canon in our game. If and I mean IF that ever were to happen, it would have to be a pretty big deal.

 I will be interested to see the disclaimers around this system (presumably all content created belongs to the Company).

Players will be able to place multiple objectives within a single mission (boss, defeat, rescue, pet, ambush, etc.). They’ll also be able to weave characters and story through out multiple missions in a single arc. They can even create multiple arcs that build upon each other. Hopefully, for most this is seen as something more than just the simple police/radio missions.

It sounds like it will, indeed, be more — or can be.

And now for the big one. Allowing players to add in their own characters is an obvious direction to take this feature. We’d be stupid not to give it to you guys. It is however non trivial to do so, especially when we start allowing those characters to use player picked powers. So, know that you will be able to do this. It just might not be at the launch of the feature.

Good enough. From what’s already described, there seem to be plenty of possibilities.

In the end, please know that the Mission Architect is designed to allow creative people to tell their stories, while also rewarding those who play these stories. This is the goal we push towards. In the end, it will never be everything to everyone, but it will hopefully be more than enough to more than a few.

Sounds pretty good to me!

Positron on the Mission Architect system (info as revealed at PAX):

Mission Architect is whatever text you enter, on the specific map you call (and we have over 1000 different maps in the game), with AT LEAST one objective, but more likely more, with the ability to have allied NPCs (you want to rescue Statesman in the beginning of the map and have him fight WITH you the rest of the way? Done). There are even some objective types going into mission maker that we didn’t even have access to AS DEVELOPERS until Issue 12. There are over 100 different things you can customize in the story arc, and most of those have multiple choices to pick from.

 

Well, it sounds somewhat multiple-choice, but with lots of areas to work with.

Yes, you will not be able to custom build a character and have them appear. Primarily this is because of the way the AI handles powers. Some powers simply don’t work when in the hands of the AI (Mastermind summoning is one example). One of our goals is to put the ability to take an existing Enemy Boss, and change their costume to one you design. Since those powers and AI have all been pre-programmed this can be done without involving ringing Castle up at 2am to debug the AI on the guy in your custom mission. While this is a stretch goal for launch, we want to get this ability into your hands as soon as possible.

 

Somewhat unfortunate, since one of the questions everyone was asking was whether they could put their own characters into adventures as NPCs. You will also be able to (per this) rename those Enemy Bosses.

You WILL get XP and Inf. during Mission Architect missions. I don’t believe we ever said you wouldn’t. We only said that you won’t get it at the same rate as normal-developer-designed content. Why? Well we have all sorts of COOL stuff coming for you in upcoming issues that doesn’t involve Mission Architect and we’d like you to try that out too (rewarding you for doing so).

 

So XP and Inf, but at a lower rate. That’s a shame, though understandable to avoid farming missions.

You get to choose what contact gives out your Story Arc, picking from a list of all the available contacts in the game. Eventually you’ll have the same “customization” options as the custom bosses.

 

Ah. So I infer that when you go to a contact, s/he will have an option for user-designed content.

As for your limited number of Story Arcs. You will have a limited number of PUBLISHED Arcs, you can have TONS of unpublished arcs you are working on, that are not ready for prime-time. If one of your arcs gets enough positive feedback to get into the Hall of Fame, it “graduates” from being one of your published arcs, freeing up that slot for you to put something else in.

 

So you can create missions as part of a “Story Arc” — with a limit on how many of these arcs you can be building — but if it gets into the “Hall of Fame,” that frees up that slot. Interesting. And per this, one-off missions count as a (one mission) arc.

I’ll confess that one of my concerns over the Hall of Fame is that it’s as likely to be a popularity contest (SG members get an advantage) as anything else.

We are WELL AWARE of the customer service issues involved in the content of the missions. We have all seen the Spore Creature Creator, and we know the TTD ratio on player created content in measured in nanoseconds. We have thought of a LOT of the angles already. Publishing a mission, getting a high rating, then pulling it down and changing the text to something inappropriate is something we take VERY seriously.

 

The question is, how strongly will they monitor it?

Good stuff, though. I think everyone will be playing with this.

 

Commentary / items related:

1. How about a Zookeeper Mastermind … including Rikti Monkey pets!

2. Some hardcore RPers are upset over the “Day Job” I13 feature. “How dare you force my character to be an X when I sign off at Y That’s completely out of character!” Um … okay, so ignore it. Or sign off at a “I’m on Patrol” place.

3. People are speculating about the home-grown Mission stuff for I13, too. How will the Mission Builder be accessed? More importantly, how will the missions themselves be accessed. (My guess for the latter — all those near-useless kiosks out there. At least on the Hero side.)

Via Greppo, it’s the I13 sneak peak! Hightlights:

Mission Architect: design your own missions and story arcs. Very spiffy (and, I suspect, a lot harder to make something interesting than it will seem). On the other hand, on a low level, this now means an unlimited pool of new (user-rated) content.

Day Jobs: While you’re offline, depending on where you park, you go to your “day job” — e.g., if you park in City Hall, you work as a City Official, which earns you extra influence; if you log out in a University, you’re working as a Scholar, which earns you salvage. Keep doing it, and Day Job Badges and Titles result in a higher “salary,” etc. 

This is CoX’s version of other games which give you “stuff” even while you’re not on with your toon, which is kind of nice.

Power Sets: Shields! Pain Domination! The former is open to both sides; the latter is only for Villains (the opposite of Empathy).

More Cimerora Missions. That reminds me — we need to run some.

Merit Rewards: Okay, this sounds interesting:

A new game system that allows players to earn tokens by completing Trials, Task Forces, Strike Forces, Raids, etc. The most challenging and time consuming tasks grant the most reward tokens, which can be redeemed throughout Hero and Villain zones for recipes, enhancements, salvage, costume pieces, badges, inspirations and other game items.

 

Hmmm. And how is that going to differ from Influence? And if there is a distinct difference, is that fair to folks who solo/duo and never run in Trials/TFs/SFs/,etc?

Etc.: New IO sets, Costume sets, Patron Power respec, Zone Refinements, and more.

Nothing earth-shattering, but a nice release. The boards have it that it may not go live until after the Winter Event kicks in, but they are trying to make it still happen in 2008.

Doyce points to a cool article on “phasing” content in MMOs. The idea is to strike a balance between a static world and a heavily instanced one.

Brack gives the example of a quest where a player needs to rescue villagers from a Scourge-infested town. Players who complete the quest will see the villagers they’ve rescued back at the quest hub whereas players who haven’t done the quest will not. WoW Insider’s Alex Ziebart experienced the same after doing a series of quests involving the Wind Serpent Goddess, who appeared for him in town after completing her quests. She was there only for him and wasn’t visible to other players (who presumably haven’t done the quest series). It’s a new way to bring a new experience to players without having to load anything (such as in instances).

 

It’s an interesting idea to fight an age-old problem in MMOs — how do players know that they are having an impact? Taking CoX as an example, no matter what I do as a hero (or villain), the only thing that really changes is myself. Yes, I get passers-by discussing my virtues/vices, and, yes, the contacts may mention something based on the last mission I fought. But, really, the world around me and the NPCs I interact with don’t really change one whit no matter what I do.

The previous alternative to this was to deal with instances. This could be small-scale — in CoX, something that happens at the end of a mission — or it could be large-scale — the wholesale change in the world in LotRO when you complete initial half-dozen levels (the best example of which is the one for humans/hobbits, where the town is now recovering from the fires and bloodshed of the brigand raid).

Phasing, instead, “simply” tailors what characters see and hear based on stuff they’ve done. A simple example in CoX (were this implemented there) would be if, after the Ernesto Hess TF, the big central “mountain” on Striga was a broken-topped smoking ruin … for you. For someone who hadn’t done the TF, it would still look intact.

That points out the key problem with phasing, which is that two players, side by side, might experience very different things.  If I’m teaming with some folks who haven’t done the Hess TF, and make reference to that cool smoking ruin, they’d think I was nuts. It would (further) strain the suspension of belief for doing the TF a second time (either while at level, or mentored down).

I can imagine it being used in more subtle ways, though, that would be less jarring. Perhaps a “Thank You, Captain Ultra” banner over a building (that each person might see with their own name). Maybe if you’ve gotten certain hunt badges, the text that those hunted groups use in dialog with you changes. Or perhaps a mission that changes how you (graphically) see certain bad guys (or good guys) — as more or less menacing — in future encounters.

Anything that helps tailor the MMO experience more to the individual, while still maintaining that “mass” community, is a good thing.

 

 

Current rules on what sort of powers will root (keep you from doing other things during activation) and which ones won’t:

Toggle Powers:

• Any toggle that damages, debuffs, or applies a status effect to an enemy is considered an attack and will root the player while activating. (Toggles that only Taunt will not root)
• Any toggle that affects yourself and/or allies will not root you while activating.
• Any toggle that only affects yourself will not cause you to be rooted while activating.

Toggle powers that root should all only root for 45 frames (1.5 seconds), after which the animation should be interruptible by movement or other power animations.

Click Powers:

• Any click power that damages, debuffs, applies a status effect, or taunts an enemy is considered an attack and will root the player while activating.
• Any click power that is a PBAOE ally buff, single target ally buff, or single target ally heal will root the player while activating.
• Any click power that is an PBAOE ally heal will not root.
• Any click power that is a self only buff or self only heal will not root.
• Any click power that is a ‘placed’ effect (pet summon, Teleport, Rain of Fire, etc) will root while activating.
• Any click power that is a ‘tier 9’ power (Unstoppable, Moment of Glory, Elude, etc) will root the player while activating. These powers should only root for 45 frames before being interruptible.

There can be exceptions to any of the above rules as deemed necessary.

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

Patch notes! Comments in italics.

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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.

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).

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.

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

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

Hmmm. Testing out “swimming underwater” technology.  Wonder why that might be important …?

Yes, Margie was part of the closed beta.

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

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.

As Arty points out in the previous comments, Positron also mentioned the following in his 4th Anniversary Message (bolding ine):

I can’t tell you how excited I am for our game’s future, and although we have some major announcements yet to be made, one of the things I can talk about is a feature that we are planning. Similar in concept to our character creator, it allows you, the players, to create missions and story arcs for your characters and others to participate in. You’ll be able to pick the map, villain group, and objectives, as well as write the dialog and any clues needed for the missions. When you are satisfied with it, you can upload it and have other players across all servers play it and rate it. Fame will come to the players whose stories rate the best overall. It is features like these that we never dreamed of including when we first shipped, but are excited to be able to offer players very soon.

 

Wow. That’s … pretty cool.

I’ll be curious to see what level of editorial control they exercise (or can exercise). It might also point out, depending on the features available, how “cookie cutter” some of the CoX missions are. On the other hand it could be damn fun to play — or write one myself.

Hmmm. 

1. The guide I found on Dual Blades / Willpower Scrapper is here.

2. I’ve found a different character builder: Mid’s Hero Designer. Not wildly different from the other ones I’ve used — but at least it’s up to date, and can support DB and WP. Alas, no import facility from other builder programs.

3. Interesting trivia from Posi on CoX’s 4th Anniversary:

Since City of Heroes launched:

• More than 32 million characters created – that’s 4 times the population of New York City!
• Players have spent a combined 292 centuries playing City of Heroes and City of Villains
• More than 100 million items have been traded through the consignment (auction) houses since they were launched in 2007

 

Additional items of interest include:

Most Popular Origins
Mutant (25%)
Magic (24%)
Natural (21%)

Most Popular Archetypes
Hero: Blaster
Villain: Mastermind

Most Popular Travel Powers
Fly (34%)
Super Jump (30%)

Most Traded Item (via Consignment House)
Base Salvage: Alien Tech Salvage

Most Wealthy Archetypes
Heroes: Scrappers
Villains: Brutes

 

So I resisted the whole Auction House thing for a long time as a horrible time sink, coupled with general irk at the high prices of all the funkadelic invention sets.

Well, some gentle guidance from Margie, plus a few useful guides, has got me doing at least some of this. I still don’t like going through elaborate IO set planning and purchasing (pricing remains irksome, and the whole mix-and-match ingredients and influence and recipes and geographic hopping about and the crappy interface make it tiresome). But I am spending some chunks of time with characters at the Auction Houses dealing with all the salvage and recipes that do show up in my tray, which means I might as well make some use of the time to make some added money.

Note: This is all purely optional. As far as I can tell, you can live a long, happy, fulfilling life as a hero or villain simply selling all the salvage and recipes you get at any local store and taking the money to buy the normal TO/DO/SO stuff. But I find it weighs on my mind, though, that I might be selling something for 250 that is on the market for 12,000 (or analogous higher stakes stuff). As long as the store prices are out of whack with the auction prices, it will bug me — but it will also provide the basis for what follows.

At any rate — this is what I’m doing these days. Non-obligatory, and only as much as I want to do.

Making easy money 

The following procedure can be done by anyone with minimal time (or as much time as you want to sink into it).

Much of this is predicated on the proposition that many players are lazy. Or, rather, they have better things to do with their time than figure out the prices of what they are putting things up for bid, or to run off to a store to sell stuff there. Whic,h, if yiou look at the pricing on Invention Salvage, opens up doors for profit (if not fun):

1. White (common) invention salvage sells for 250 at the store. You can find white invention salvage for action for 10-50. Net profit: 200 each.
2. Yellow (uncommon) sells for 1,000 at the store. You can easily buy gobs of it for 200-500. Net profit: 500 each.
3. Orange (uncommon) sells for 5,000 at the store. Some uncommon can often be found for 1,000-2,000. Net profit: 3,000 each.

The math is pretty simple. Buy low, sell high. The risk is zero — you don’t pay for what you don’t get. 

(Is this “farming”? It’s certainly “gaming the system” — but no more than anyone on Wall Street does it. If the Devs wanted, they could set the store price for anything as a dynamic calculation of the running average of sale prices over the last three weeks — which would then stabilize prices immediately and stop the speculation. Alternately, they could do the same thing with a 10% discount, so as to encourage a bit of trading. They don’t, so there it is.)

The “good” things to buy aren’t always the same, as the market ebbs and flows. It’s a matter of running through the Invention Salvage list, starting at the top of the color you can afford to buy in lots of 10, and seeing where the current bargains seem to be In general, the bargains will be better for tech salvage than arcane, and for stuff toward the top of each list rather than stuff at the bottom (though see below).

Once you buy something cheap, pick it up and zip over to the closest store to sell it dear. Ch-ching. Return to the auction house, rinse, repeat for as long as you have time or interest. Pick up some pocket change, or grind out a small fortune. The decision is yours.

In some cases, you’ll start immediately seeing purchases being made In other cases, they may be slower. But sale prices are like a bell curve — almost any price will eventually come back around again. If you can, be patient — come back to it tomorrow. If you run a lot of alts, this works great, as it may be a few days (or more) before you come back. Things will eventually be buyable at that price, unless it’s utterly absurd.

Which brings up another lesson, if you’re following this advice: leave your money working for you. Having 50,000 influence burning a hole in your pocket when you sign out isn’t doing you any good. Having that 50,000 bidding for stuff while you sleep means you’ll get something for it when you get back on.

As an aside, I have a chat window tab that just has Consignment House dialog. That lets me monitor what’s up with my bids while I’m off doing Real Hero Work.

Making the big bucks 

The above scenarios — playing low sellers against the fixed buyer (store) price — is perfectly safe and easy. But the big money (which you’ll eventually want and need) comes with speculation — buying low and hopefully selling high(er), which does have risks (and is a bit less easy). There’s two ways of doing this:

1. Look for Invention Salvage that has an array of prices in the history, low and high. Bid for some at the low price, then sell it at the higher. You’ll take a bit of a hit from the Consignment House’s fee (i.e., it takes money to make money, The risk is that the market will change, and what you just bought for 10,001 is all of a sudden selling for 6,000. Plus, if you pull stuff off the market and set it at a lower price, you have to pay the CH fee again. That said, there’s a big possibility for big money here — some Invention Salvage goes for millions — which means making a few percent can mean a substantial profit.
2. Make a lowball bid. Something selling pretty regularly for 25,000? Put in a bid for 15,001. There might be some lower offerings out there (see “people are lazy” above), or there might be again soon. It’s like Christmas in April when this sort of thing comes through. You can go even lower, but remember you’re out on the fringes of the bell curve the lower you go. Then, once bought, sell it for the “normal” price you’ve been seeing. Same risks apply as above — and realize that once someone (yoiu) have bought something for 15,001, following bidders will come in at that level for a while, which makes selling it for 25,000 a scosh tougher. Assuming that price wasn’t an anomoly, however (sometimes a big assumption), the price should eventually go back up.

Both of the above apply to anything for sale — not just salvage, but recipes, crafted enhancements, normal enhancements, etc. It also holds true both for playing the market and just plain ol’ buying stuff that you want — if you have the time to wait on a lowball bid for that one ingredient you need for that recipe you reeeeaaly want to build.

One thing to consider if you get a great bargain price on something (or have it drop on you for free during a mission) — you might want to sock it away into the Vault, so that you have it on hand for some future invention you want to build. On the plus side, a future effort might be quicker, easier, and much cheaper. On the down side, you’ve now locked that “money” away where it isn’t doing anything for you. It’s also one more thing to remember and place to visit (“Wait, do I have one of those in the Vault?”).

A note on pricing: When buying, always add a little to the current asking price. If things are selling for 200, bid 201. You’ll win the bidding sooner, for a trivial incremental cost. If things are selling for 20,000, sell it for 19,999 — yours will be the cheaper price, and so be bought sooner. You can also do some other incremental price increases, if you’re relatively flush — 211 instead of 200, or 18,999 instead of 20,000. The opportunity cost of time makes it worthwhile.

As another aside — check out the “Buying/Selling” numbers. High buyers vs low sellers (a seller’s market)  makes it less likely a lowball bid is going to work. Low buyers vs high sellers is a much better situation. Conversely, low buyers vs high sellers also makes it more difficult to auction off something for a high(er) price.

Which raises an interesting issue. In theory, you could also make money by offering up stuff for higher than the current asking price. And sometimes that works — Captain Money-Pants is filthy rich and really wants that Human Blood Sample and so bids 5,000 for its so that he doesn’t have to wait. (Sometimes it works when people key in an extra zero, too.) But, in general, people will tend to bid around current asking prices. Conversely, sellers, unless they have lots of time or are speculating themselves, tend to set a low price, too, since they want it to move. It’s easier to buy cheap and sell at the going rate than to buy at the going rate and sell expensive. I’m all about the easy.

Places 

If all you are doing is buying and selling stuff on the market, all you need is a Consignment House and a nearby store (or known contact). Atlas isn’t bad as you’re running back and forth between the Hollows and Kings Row, and Kings Row is much better now that (huzzah!) there are vendors up on the plaza by Blue Shield. Steel Canyon and Talos are both excellent for this sort of thing, as they have both contacts next to the Consignment House and they have easily reachable stores (esp. with travel powers). Similarly, the Black Market in Sharkhead and Cap Au Diable both have available vendors to turn around those cheap purchases.

If you’re doing actual inventing in this cycle, things get a little more annoying, unless you have a base with workbenches for crafting. Steel Canyon remains excellent (as the University is across the street from the Consignment House, albeit over a cliff). The Black Market in Cap Au has a University nearby (albeit with some danger to get to and from at lower levels); the lack of public education in the Rogue Islands, though, takes its toll here. Talos is more problematic, though it has a base portal nearby and a train station to Founders which — if you can fly high — isn’t too bad to get to the Uni (you can also fly back to Steel’s campus, but that’s annoying).

Summing up 

I spend more time doing this sort of thing than I used to — and it’s easy for it to become an end on its own (“I have X money now — but if I reinvest it, then tomorrow I’ll have Y money –” and meanwhile our enhancements turn yellow and red with neglect). The most important things to remember about the whole auctioning and crafting thing:

1. You don’t have to do it.
2. You don’t have to do it any more than you want to.
3. You don’t have to do it at all if you don’t want to.

But if you do want to do it — the above techniques are working pretty well for me.