Category: Resources & Rules

I’m pretty certain I have this already on an alt (Velvet?), but just a note for future playing with: auto-Jump bind:

/bing J "powexec_toggleon Super Jump$$++autorun$$++up"

Actually, from what I recall, the main problem with this is that Paragon is full of annoying things to jump into and under, and Murphy’s Law of Super Jump states that given a choice, a toon will always be a few inches short of the rooftop, or will land in a fire-escape-thicketed alley, or just under a dockside.
Still, even though you have to watch and steer, it means less holding down of keys.

Click on the “thumbnail” for a full-sized photo of some unpleasant customers:

From left to right, front row:
– Mantid (player character, just under six feet) [and the person who put this together]
– Adamastor (found in Dark Astoria. Keeper Of Secrets badge.)
– Kraken (found in Perez Park. Unleasher badge.)
– Clockwork Paladin (found in Kings Row. Knight Errant badge obtained for preventing him from being built)
– Babbage (found wild in Boomtown and as an ambush in the Synapse TF. Clockstopper badge, awarded always for the wild version and only sometimes for the Synapse version.)
– Jack-in-Irons (found in Croatoa with hordes of redcaps. Giant Killer badge.)
– Jurassik (found wild in Crey’s Folly, and as the final boss in the Numina TF. The Solution badge, awarded always for the wild version and very rarely for the Numina version.)
– Head of the Hydra (found at the end of the Sewer Trial. Head of the Hydra exploration badge sitting underneath it.)
– Winter Lord (2005 Winter Holiday event only thus far. Frozen Fury badge.)
– Lanaru (found at the end of the last Shadow Shard TF. All three Aspects of Rularuu (Ruladak, Faathim, Lanaru) are the same size. No badge per se.)
– Eochai (found in Croatoa with hordes of Fir Bolg. Pumpkin King badge.)
– Kronos Titan (ambush in a 45-50 Malta story arc. Master of Olympus badge.)
– Lusca (found in Independence Port, along with eight tentacles. Devilfish badge.)
– Crystal Titan (found at the end of the Eden Trial. No badge per se.)
Back row:
– Hamidon (found in the middle of The Hive. Hamidon himself is the big round thing in the middle, while lots of other smaller round things surround him in the goo. Heart of the Hamidon exploration badge almost directly underneath it.)
– Rularuu the Ravager (not in game yet.)

Article from GameSpot, which gives more detail on (among other things) how the Recluse’s Victory PvP zone will work.
Sounds like it will be fun to watch.
(via CoH LJ)

CuppaJo on the resolution to the CoV costume thang:

1. The /cov command is being removed on Test today, Live tomorrow. More warnings about how it could screw your toon up to use it (though the Dev response was low-key enough that the risk seems small).
2. Until I7:
   

   For heroes that have a villain costume part OR villains that have a hero part: Those “rogue” costume parts will remain on your character until you visit the tailor again.
   When you visit the tailor your rogue costume parts will be replaced with “generic” costume items. You can then change them for a fee to normal costume items OR cancel out and leave your rogue costume items in place. Note – this means that if you want to keep your rogue costume items you cannot change anything on your costume. However – you can change other costumes that do not contain rogue items.

   Fair enough.

3. For I7 and beyond:
   

   In Issue 7 the costume creator and tailors will work like they do now if you own just CoV or just CoH – however, if you own BOTH you will have access to both sets of costumes for all of your characters. NOTE: You must have upgraded to a combined account to get access to this option.
   If you have a combined account and choose to wait until issue 7 to change your rogue costume – your rogue items will not be made generic.

   So … and I don’t recall this being spelled out before … you’ll have access to CoV costume parts in CoH only if you have accounts in both games. Interesting. Though somewhat controversial, since the CoV players already have access to nearly all CoH costume parts, but not vice-versa.

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UPDATE: Patch isn’t going in tonight. Extra costume tokens will also be going out (tacit recognition that folks may have screwed themselves up because of a screw-up by the devs). Nice.
Fazenda still looks good.

Positron chats on I7 and beyond. Some highlights …

… When we add newspaper-style missions for CoH, they will get their own versions of Mayhem Missions … “Going Rogue” is a huge undertaking on our part. Making sure Masterminds work in CoH, Defenders don’t “break” CoV, etc. We have a few other systems we want to get out of the way first before we tackle this can of worms [after I7], but we have been laying the groundwork for it for a while. … Masterminds are getting a “Thugs” set in Issue 7, as this was one of the most requested type of Henchmen. Thugs get dual weapons, shotguns, and the ability to call out a “Gang War” on your enemies. We did a lot of things with Thugs that set the groundwork for future stuff, like dual sidearms and trench coats. … Future updates will have more Epic Archetypes for both Heroes and Villains. Epic Archetypes add a lot to the game, so we don’t want to just slap some powers together and call it an EAT. We have big, big plans for Epic Archetypes in upcoming issues. … [Regarding Recluse’s Victory] Giant robots with Mastermind-style controls. I will leave you with that.

BD suggested I actually post this as an actual post, rather than buried in a comment. Regarding the “/cov” undocumented command for enabling CoV costume parts in CoH, CuppaJo warns:

We will be fixing this issue very soon with a patch. This command was never meant to be used and thus has never been through the QA process. Using this command could cause your character to become corrupt and thus the devs advise that you do NOT use this command or encourage others to do so.

Fazenda still exists, though it did cause me to crash during parts browing. You’ve been warned (and I’m going to eschew further use of it).
And, further:

This command was created for use by Devs/QA only during CoV beta. It just so happens that this command was set to be available to everyone instead of just Devs/QA on accident at some point. Thus – it was never tested by QA in the same way they test commands intended for players.
The command changes more than just your costume options – as people have noted it also changes your ID screen among other things. Also – there are problems when you access CoV costumes this way – some faces are messed up – some costumes are not there. It was never intended for player use – it’s not a “controlled leak” or anything like that.
At this time we advise changing your costume to a complete hero costume. You can do this by zoning to another zone. When you return to icon your tailor screen should be back to normal and you should be able to change your costume back to what it was. I have no info on whether or not we will offer free tailor sessions to compensate for this. I wouldn’t count on it.
We are working on a fix – but spending extra time testing to make sure it is done right. All I know about the fix for sure is that it will remove this slash command from the game for players. As of yet I do NOT know if the fix will remove any CoV costumes on heroes or anything else. We are still investigating the best solution.

Hmmmmm.

Hildy and Torchy were at Icon tonight, getting their capes.
As I was exiting, I noticed someone with a local tell, “Type /cov 1 for cov costume parts.”
And Margie went back in, typed that command (“/cov 1”), clicked on Icon … and had access to villainous costume parts.
Interesting …
(There are, we note, some very cool Villain capes. Including “Feathers,” which Avo should very much look into.)

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UPDATE: Why, yes, that is Fazenda with real fishnet stockings. And a top hat. Yay!

Issue 7 will include various and sundry base enhancements.
I’d be much more excited if I were more excited about bases. I mean, it seems to be de rigeur for SGs these days, but I’m not feeling the Huge Need for Base Goodness.
Still, it will be nice to have some storage lockers for Salvage, Enhancements, and Inspriations. And it will be pretty to be able to put super=logos on “banners, tables, holograms, and other items.”
Actually, rewind there a second.

Tired of not being able to store those special Inspirations you’ve been lugging around for months? Do you wish you could leave your Salvage and Enhancements in your cozy citadel for you and your compatriots to use later? With the new Storage Items you will be able to create Inspiration receptacles, Enhancements containers, and bins to keep all your Salvage in a convenient spot for all to share!

Really? Okay, that’s pretty keen. Heck, it would be nice to be able to stash away some Enhancements that I can’t use … yet … for when I can.

Dev Castle seems insistent on providing (gasp) actual numbers behind powers. Doesn’t he realize That’s Not Fun?!

base accuracy (for most powers, there is variation within the set)
Broadsword 1.05
Claws 1.00
Dark Melee 1.00
Katana 1.05
Martial Arts 1.05
Spines 1.00

I.e., Katana, Broadsword, and Martial Arts have an intrinsically slightly higher chance to hit. (Balanced, ostensibly, by other things.)
(And, of course, I’m kidding about it Not Being Fun. As long as there’s a measure of balance, seeing numbers doesn’t spoil things, at least for me. If it were just numbers? That would be unfun. But having the numbers available to provide the feedback that RL experience would provide in a way that gameplay experience doesn’t? That’s just fine by me.)

The devs are soliciting player opinions about upcoming zones.

The City of Heroes and City of Villains universe is expanding and we want to hear from you about it! As we contemplate where your heroes and villains might venture next, we want to know what excites you the most.
Below is a list of 11 themes we are currently looking at! Tell us what you think by selecting your top 2 choices.
Let your imagination run wild and picture how these themes might fit into the existing CoH and CoV world.

Hmmm. The choices are:

1. The Moon – Blasted landscapes and futuristic moonbases. Sounds like wandering through Boomtown. On the other hand, imagine 1/6 gravity (leaping! knockback!) and vacuum issues.
2. Mars – Lower gravity and atmo problems, too, but some cool alien landscapes and hidden civilizations could be cool.
3. Space Station – Sort of like the Moon crossed with the Shadow Shard. Hrm. Never mind.
4. Rikti Home World – City of Rikti! Has possibilities (especially if we expand the number of types of Rikti we see). I want to see Rikti civilians and cops running around in fear at heroic presences.
5. Arctic – Not that interesting per se; it would depend on what’s hiding out there in the ice and snow. Though the extreme weather bits could be interesting (slow reduction in endurance, health, speed, except for folks with cold resistance).
6. Desert – As the Arctic.
7. Underwater – Slowed movement, breathing issues, and “flight” for all. Could be fun.
8. Post-apocalyptic – I can visit there via Portal Corp any time.
9. Jungle – Oh, boy! Perez Park II. Bleah.
10. Circus/Carnival – City of Carnies. Oooookay. Whatever. I guess it could be pretty.
11. Gothic Horror – As opposed to Dark Astoria? Again, could be pretty.

So a fair number of interesting possibilities, but aside from the environmental threats and prettiness, the key will be what sort of story, critters, threats, and backstory is going on there.
That said, I think I’ll vote for the Moon and Underwater.

As of I7, at least, according to Castle:

Some folks took one of my posts to mean that Claws sets for Heroes and Villains were being reduced in DPS. This is not true! The statement was along the lines of “My changes made it TOO good, so I have to tone them down a bit.”
Here are the major changes coming in I7:
Swipe: Changed animation to a Two Hit swipe. Cast Time reduced to 1.5
Strike: New Animation, basically a stab to the midsection. Cast Time is 1.17 seconds.
Slash: Uses Strike’s old animation. Cast Time 1.33 seconds.

Better times and no more face-scratching animation. Excellent. I would create a new claws scrapper — except that I suspect everyone else will, too.

Some nice AT icons (just for heroes) here.

Interview with Mark Miller, a/k/a Positron, on upcoming CoX stuff. Some highlights …

Q) Are there any plans to ‘upgrade’ some of the older CoH zones to include things that can be seen in some of the newer CoH zones and CoV, like mob patrols or mobs damaging each other? If so, which zones are going to see the facelifts first?
Yeah, we are starting with the lower end zones first. Atlas Park, Galaxy City, and Kings Row are getting the old “wave and walk” cops removed from them, and we are adding in patrolling Paragon Police officers.
War Witch has also gone in and created a lot of environmental dialog to liven up those zones. In addition the textures and graphics in the CoH zones will be brought up to the quality seen in CoV over the next couple issues.

Which all sounds very spiffy, except for the CoV graphics coming to CoH, to the degree that they impact performance.

Q) Another big talking point are trenchcoats. What are the current state of trenchcoats in CoH/V? When can players expect to see them implemented?
NPCs are getting them in issue 7. The Thugs in the Thug Mastermind powerset will have them, as will some of the new Paragon Police. Players will get them this year, but they will be a “prestige” piece that you have to earn in some way.

So looking forward to a trenchcoat. I think Mr. Azure would look stunning in one.

Q) There are some differences between the powersets available to heroes and villains in the CoH/V world. What are the plans to allow this difference in available powersets to be reduced? Are there any powersets that are seen to be hero- or villain-exclusive? Will Plant Control remain a villains-only power because plants are naturally evil?
I wouldn’t say that plants are naturally evil, but weeds on the other hand… What’s the difference between a plant and a weed? A plant dies when you try to keep it alive, and a weed lives when you try to kill it.
That being said, Geko and I discussed just the other day how we are going to get some of the CoV powersets over to the CoH Archetypes. Stay tuned.

It’s a tough one. I think it’s good that there are differences between CoV and CoH — but, by the same token, it would be great to have power X over in game Y …

Q) On a personal note, I just have to ask: is a Dual Pistols powerset anywhere in terms of new powers that will be introduced to CoH/V or is it something that doesn’t even appear on the dev whiteboard?
I own the Criterion Collection versions of both The Killer and Hard Boiled… you can safely assume it’s on MY whiteboard.

I see a flurry of trenchcoated pistol-wielders coming on. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

Details here.
Nothing all that radical. Just plan on the download before you get on.

Today’s trivia item:

1. To buy a level 45 SO Healing from Crimson (a normal contact on PI) costs 108K. To buy it from Ghost Falcon (the “store” contact on PI) costs only 54K, a 50% savings. Buying from GF makes sense.
2. Selling a level 53 SO EndRed to Ghost Falcon will net you 14.5K. Selling the same SO to a “real” store on Talos will net you 22.3K, a 50% (or so) benefit. Selling to GF makes no sense. (Unless, of course, you count in the marginal convenience factor — you can sell everything to GF, but going from him to, say, 3 stores on Talos, will take you an extra 5 minutes or so).

FYI.

Evidently some Valentine’s Day activities related to the new Pocket D and mixed hero/villain team bits are kicking off for the next few weeks in CoH/CoV. This is evidently in turn related to the new Toga costumes that are now available via the Heart of Light/Darkness Accolades that everyone’s getting.
Weird.

New patch today.

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Pocket D:
– Fixed dance cages so characters cannot get stuck inside them.
Game:
– Improved game stability.

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Presumably the dance cage issue has become a “griefing” problem in Pocket D.

Patch notes [And my notes]:

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COMBINED NOTES
Powers:
* Updated Kinetics/Increase Density text and buff Icon. The Mez protection of Increase Density will stack, but the damage resistance and the slow debuff will not stack.
* Targeted AoE powers now properly hit moving primary targets; this includes most Tanker attacks. [Yay!]
* Fixed bug that caused power animations on some teleports to play twice [Yay!]
Training Room:
* Character transfers will now transfer Influence/Infamy to the Training Room.
Arena:
* Fixed awards for Scheduled Tournaments. It is no longer possible to actually lose ranking by winning a Tournament.
* Rated Gladiator matches now award points correctly to the match victor.
Paragon Dance Party:
* DJ Zero’s transdimensional dance club has been renovated and expanded.
Rewards:
* XP earned for defeating Archvillains/Heroes has been doubled. [Yay!!]
* Defeating an Archvillain/Hero will result in a random SO Enhancement 3 levels higher than the level of the AV being awarded to everyone who received XP (if you have inventory space). [Yay!!]
* Defeating an Archvillain/Hero will result in a random Large Inspiration being awarded to everyone who received XP (if you have inventory space). [Yay!!]
* Defeating an Archvillain/Hero while in Supergroup mode will award you a piece of Salvage 100% of the time. [Yay!!]
UI:
* Improve movement in “Free Camera” mode: Pressing up will now move the player towards the top of the screen, instead of the last direction of movement. Rotate will now rotate the player and the camera instead of just the player in. Click to move no longer cancels autorun.
Bases:
* Fixed bugs with Move Room function that allowed players to create rooms that are impossible to get to.
* Fixed several bugs with Base data not updating properly when a new Item of Power Mount is added to the base.
* Characters will no longer be able to rez to Base Reclaimators from the Tutorial Zones. Characters who did this and then used base telepads to enter city zones would not be given any level 1 contacts.
Miscellaneous:
* Fixed issue where the DE Eminator would sometimes not spawn. [It will be interesting to see how Eden plays now …]
CITY OF HEROES
Powers:
* Modified Blaster/Energy Manipulation/Bone Smasher. Increased its energy Damage, decreased its smashing damage (no net change). Increased its unresistable damage in PvP to its proper 30% .
City Zones:
* Independence Port and Talos Island: fixed bug that where the Ghost ship would sometimes get stuck in one location. [Boo! [Ha!] ]
CITY OF VILLAINS
Powers
* Gamblers Cut for Ninja Blade was inadvertently giving double the critical damage. This has been corrected.
* Fixed some Combat text for Mastermind/Mercenaries Player Assault Rifle. [Hopefully including the spelling “Safety” properly.]
* Fixed Mastermind/Mercenaries/Commando Grenade Launcher range. [Hopefully increasing them. 🙂 ]
* Freedom Corps Sonic Grenades no longer have an irresistible hold.
Tasks
* In Hardcase missions, wave attacks properly spawn after protection OR destruction of obelisk. Mission can now complete in either instance.
* Caleb is fixed and should spawn now. Bring on the madness!
Tailor
* Arachnos Cape unlocked by buying the Special Edition DVD for City of Villains now appears correctly in costume selection.

A review of the Defender bug list with comments by _Castle_ about how it’s being or has been fixed (or else explanations — in far too many cases — of why it’s not going to get fixed, like Endurance costs for Rez if not accepted). Too long to quote, but required reading for Defenders.

Quoth Statesman:

As several have noted, I7 features content mostly for City of Villains (levels 41 to 50, in fact). This is exactly what we did for CoH. City of Heroes will receive a cool graphics upgrade, new base items (Empowerment stations!) and access to Recluses’ Victory. It’s true that CoV received more attention, but that’s mainly because we needed to fill out the levels. I had the option of releasing I7 or waiting until we could fill out the City of Heroes content. Obviously, I chose the former. New content should get out there when it’s ready. We’ll be focusing equally as much as possible on each product moving into the future…

For those who have speculated that Newspaper missions are coming to City of Heroes, they aren’t…yet. That’s coming a little later in the year. I’d like to add something different to the CoH system…