Category: Resources & Rules

Wow. Just in time for my birthday …

1. Added new temporary attack powers to all low level characters. Which attack a character receives varies according to the Origin of the character. Once a character reaches level 10, the power is used up. An interesting thought (esp. for the origin side of things), but … hrm, I’d rather have travel powers appear at 10 rather than 14. I’ve gotten used to the whole back pack thing.
   Also, while it’s a nice gimme, fact is that most folks don’t have a lot of problems getting up through level 10 right now.
   Now, a string of temp powers tied to origin that evolves over each decade of SLs … that would be interesting.

2. “Glowies” that gave XP and Inf. in missions no longer give XP. The amount of Inf. they give has been doubled. Odd. Especially given the stealth nerf (below). It does mean no more arguing over who gets to click on the glowie, though.
3. You are no longer allowed to interact with mission objectives while you are stealthed or untouchable. Hmmm. Disliked it that Invis didn’t work alongside hostages one was rescuing (makes no sense, folks — team members can see each other in Invis, why not a hostage also in Invis? Why don’t hostages go Invis, anyway?). Adding it to glowies? Hrm.
4. Added new Contact for new villains. When talking to the Arachnos Pilot in Breakout, villains may choose to be sent to talk to Kalinda or a mercenary contact. Well, it adds a bit of variety to the CoV beginning game. Aside from that, shrug.

And so it goes.

Word has it that the next patch set will include a nerf such that glowies cannot be clicked on while stealthed or phased.
Hrm.
From a gameplay standpoint, that really screws up a lot of strategies (which seems to be the point, of course, making unfair to (everyone say it together) “get XP without risk.” (Never mind the number of higher level villains that see right through stealth.)
From a “reality” standpoint, it makes limited sense. The “I’m going to stand in the middle of all these guys and rifle this file cabinet and they don’t bat an eyelash” sort of scenario never made sense …
Though it also can depend on how one envisions the power sets as working. Is Stealth actually some sort of visual obscuring power (e.g., Steaming Cloud — though why at least the bad guys wouldn’t say, “Hey, what’s that cloud doing in the middle of the hallway?” is beyond me), or is it an abstraction of “I’m really sneaky/ninja-like”? Or, heck, “I’m actually a master of disguise and have made myself up to look like these bad guys so that they don’t notice me unless I get too close”? Something to make up for the fact that there’s no game mechanism to throw a rock over to the other side of the room and get everyone’s attention focused over there.
E.g. Honeygun didn’t really have a stealth cloak. She was just really good at sneaking around, like a trained sniper. Her ability to sneak up should be a bit different and have different parameters than other interpretations of the power.
From a “reality” standpoint, each of those different interpretatoins of Stealth should play differently.
On the other hand, since we can’t actually play those differences, the abstraction seems to work. And, really, the ability to Stealth through a mission only helps so much. It’s often more of a convenience (turning a given TF from 8 hours to 6 hours or something like that) than a must-have.
As for Phasing — well, that makes a measure of sense (though often there’s a sort of “I make my hands solid enough to be able to pick the safe” out in the comics).
I also haven’t heard how this is going to impact Invis. Given that, unlike Stealth, Group Invis is not a toggle, if I’m using GI does that means I have to wait until it wears off to click the glowie?
As with most nerfs, it’s workable around, with a bit of effort and a bit of (yes) extra risk. People get through missions without stealth powers all the time. But it’s another case of fixing a “problem” that I don’t agree exists. Unless the only way one can have a legitimate super-hero adventure is to duke things out all the time, being part of the (e.g.) Legion Espionage Squad should be as good a way to adventure in Paragon as any other. And I say that as someone whose Main uses Group Invis extensively, but who has a whole series of other heroes who wouldn’t dream of it.

Answers to the Ask Statesman! thread. Many follow-ups. Excellent.

A jet pack? A jet pack?
Yes, that’s what Miss Liberty is gifting everyone with this month (as of last night, in fact). And what Black Scorpion is stealing for all of his cronies, too.
The jet pack should automatically show up when you sign in — but be warned that (a) a bug has been reported that it will vanish again when you sign out (so don’t rush out there right away), and (b) I have no idea how long it will last.
This is, supposedly, on the “beginning” of fun holiday stuff.
Should be handiest for lowbie characters. Not sure that Al will trust such a contraption, though the Elizas will leap at the opportunity.

I notice that the stores in CoV say “Tech Store,” “Mutation Store,” etc., rather than just “Store.”
I also noticed that if there’s a stack of icons on the map, hovering over them causes them to temporarily expand outward (like you had a magnifying glass) so you can see (or target) what’s there; it works both on city maps and on mission maps. It’s a little weird, but a decent solution.
Looking forward to both of these hitting CoH (the former, at least, hadn’t last time I looked).

And answers thereto. Many entries. Good stuff, starting with, “Will you please tell us, in all honesty, what the long-term goal is that ED is meant to accomplish?” …

Holy crap! David Wincott’s moved!
He’s now standing directly outside fence entrance to the Hollows, rather than being off to the side in the sandbag redoubt.
Not earthshattering, but …
I signed in on Katherine’s laptop, now that I’ve bumped it up to 1Gb RAM — graphics are fuzzy but decent — and brought in Al McGordo, trotted over to say hi to David … and he wasn’t there.
HE WASN’T THERE.
It was like the tram had gone missing or something. Three “Troll Task Force” members, but no Wincott. Was he off looking for his boy?
I looked around, and spotted him several feet away at his new position.
Weird. Not sure why they did it (were folks having problems finding him?).
Weird. And unsettling. What next — Ms Liberty joining the dancers under the Atlas statue?

Which is the lesson I need to learn. I need to start, with Mister Thorne, playing with the Boys as extensions of myself — being more directive about where they go, stay, etc.
Phred the Phantasm is simple. He follows. He shoots. (Follow-Aggressive is, I think, the MM combo here).
The Boys are not. I need to control them, and I even need to consider how to control them separately. And I need to be willing to sacrifice one (since they can be resummoned relatively quickly) for a worthy (scouting, aggro, etc.) cause.
Of course, that makes doing all that other stuff I do (debuffs, heals) a bit more complicated, too.
Some resources I’m reviewing.

• Fun henchmen tactics – Some lame, some interesting.
• The /petsay thread – I would like to do a little of this, but not the “traveling tour company” stuff that many posters seem enamored of.
• Master Zaprobo’s Guide – Requires further study, but looks very, very good.

Lots of ongoing discussion on the CoH boards about the “streak breaker” system. While a randomize to-hit system could lead to (in a perfectly randomized world) an endless chain of misses in the finite universe of, say, a battle, the streak breaker in the CoH/CoV code forces a hit to happen (for you) after X number of misses, X being determined by the lowest percent to-hit in your attack chain.
Bottom line, if you are going up against an even-level minion opponent, with no enhancements (i.e., 75% TH on each attack)), you cannot miss more than 3 times. On the fourth time you will hit, regardless of what you might have rolled.
Which is still awfully frustrating, but does actually give you an edge over the straight TH percentages.
It’s actually kind of fascinating stuff. Look in this thread for a more detailed explanation of how it works, and the different to-hit/max-misses ranks.

A new free costume respec will go live overnight. It will replace any that you presently have, so here’s your chance to experiment a bit …
Though, of course, bugs with the costume system (faces that change, etc.) are the reason for the (now that it’s fixed) respec, so …

Are damnably annoying. Since I6, various toggles drop at random when zoning between neighborhoods or into/out of missions. The latter is particularly annoying/dangerous, as if there are bad’uns just inside the door (or just outside of it), you may find yourself defenseless. Yikes.
I do hope this gets solved Really Soon Now.

I’ve managed to bypass the I6/CoV-era ATIOGLGL.DLL lock/crash problems on my notebook (ATI Mobility Fire GL T2 card) by adding the switch -useTexEnvCombine to the shortcut that invokes COHUPDATER.EXE. That makes for less complex graphics (I now watch Margie’s screen with envy), but it works, and it doesn’t look all that bad.
The cost is worth not having the machine crash three or four times on load …
CuppaJo comments on graphics.

Alongside the new Vidiotmaps, I’m pleased to note the new version of HeroStats is out. Features support for I6 and CoV. Yay!

Upgraded VidiotMaps material, including CoV zones! Huzzah!
Now if only CoH would make the little store icons transparent so that I could click on them (for guidance) but still see the underlying store type.
(via Doyce)

Brutes
Corruptors
Dominators
Masterminds
Stalkers
Some good stuff out there already.

Since the arrival of I6 graphics (first detected during the CoV Beta period), I’m having a problem where the game hangs for the first 2-4 times I try to load it, or when I first zone in from selecting a character. After that I’m fine, but it’s sort of frustrating.
Reading the boards for advice. The error points to a DLL associated with my ATI Mobility Fire GL T2 card on the notebook, though I can’t find that DLL mentioned on the boards. I’ve updated to the latest version of the driver that IBM/Lenovo admits to knowing about, but CoH continues to chide me for having an “old” driver. I’m reluctant to download the latest-greatest beyond what my manufacturer is supporting, but may give it a try nonetheless at some point.

Various bits from the boards that I’ve missed over the past days:

1. A mini-FAQ on Prestige and Bases. The various Alliance groups were quite busy building and chatting about them yesterday, so I suppose the CoJ needs to gets its act online. That said — paying monthly rent? In person? Yeesh. The more I look at this, the more annoying bases (even if you don’t make them raidable) become.
   Various red-name responses follow further down. Individual/personal bases (apartments) are coming, evidently. And the claim from poz is that Infamy (Influence) tapers down in favor of Prestige when in SG mode until you hit 35 or so when it goes to 0 — but that doesn’t fit what I saw with Psi-clone last night. Hrm.

2. Statesman on ED and how it tested out. Yes, things are supposed to be more difficult and require more teaming (for AVs, at least) and active participation, at least in the (affected) 25+ world (States says it only really affects SOs), and to ensure that Controller/Defender buffs are always valuable. Numerous follow-on messages. “There’s a problem if folks are making large teams and then abandoning them after entering missions just to increase spawn size.” Also coming up — a way to abandon missions (once “newspaper” technology gets introduced to CoH).
3. AI limits on herding. The magic number is 17, period.
4. You can cash in Influence for Prestige, at a rate of 500:1.
5. Suggestions on soloing with Brutes. Scroll to the top. Accuracy and Rest are your friends, evidently — though Rest and Smash seem incompatible.
6. A new Brute power, as previewed in the “trailer” movie for CoV …

Quoth Statesman:

To be clear: the code for sharing costume pieces between City of Heroes and City of Villains is NOT yet in…heck, it isn’t even written yet. BUT we’ll do it after release – hopefully very soon after release. Then heroes can have access to the new options.

To be honest, this idea came specifically from this thread. Since people wanted the new costume options, I checked with Software – who said it could be done. Just wanted to let you know that yes, we do take suggestions!
It sems so obvious, I’m shocked it wasn’t one of the plans already. But, still, good to know.

FYI – for those who don’t like the idea because villains should look different than heroes – remember that villains already have hero options. They can create a character identical to one that exists in City of Heroes.
True. Of course, that’s just a sign of their desceptive treachery …

The patch notes for the Test release:

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Now Testing in the Training Room – 10/20/05
Issue 6: Along Came a Spider
New events in the far off Rogue Isles are beginning to have an effect on Paragon City.
[…]
PvP Zones:
The contested zones of Bloody Bay, Siren’s Call, and Warburg are open for exploration by Heroes on the Training Room. There are a number of new missions available in these zones. Eventually, both Heroes and Villains will have access to these zones and be able to compete for the prizes they offer. These are PvP zones. If you enter these zones, you will be subject to attack by other players, except for small safe zones.
I find it interesting that these zones are not just for PvP, but PvE as well. I don’t know if that makes it better (less Arena-like) or worse (if there’s content there and there’s PvP, then some folks will get their jollies gacking people trying to get to the content).
Supergroups:
* Characters in Supergroup mode can now gain Prestige and Salvage. These will be useful to players who own both City of Heroes and City of Villains in base building.
* There are new Badges that can be earned by Supergroups.
* Newly expanded Supergroup ranks and Supergroup permissions.
* Supergroup Leaders can change the colors and emblem of the Supergroup after creation.
* Players can now choose to hide their Supergroup emblem when in Supergroup mode.
These last two are critical, esp. tied to the first two. SGs can earn badges and base-buying/building stuff, but only when their members are in SG mode, which some folks hate because of the colors and insignia. Which now can be better tailored or ignored. Nice. So, for low and mid-range characters, there’s no reason *not* to go into SG mode.
Graphics:
* More levels of graphical detail available.
* Character texture quality and world texture quality can be set separately now.
New refresh rate and vertical sync options.
* New graphics options to enable Depth of Field and Bloom visual effects on supported video cards.
UI
* New Options window with many newly available player options.
If this is the same as on CoV, it’s a nice improvement.
* The confirmation screens for adding and deleting enhancements can be now be disabled.
Huzzah!
* New Pet window available from the Options window that displays the health of your pets, and grants the ability to unsummon specific pets.
Oh, yes, huzzah!!
* Macros can now be edited directly from the power tray.
Hot diggity dog!
* You can now give inspirations to teammates by dragging them on to the team window.
W007!
* New targeting commands: /target_custom_near, /target_custom_far, /target_custom_next and /target_custom_prev. To get a list of parameters, type the command without any parameters.
Interesting. I’ll have to look these up.
* UI changes to Trade Window. You can now trade salvage and type in the amount of influence to be traded.
But it’s still limited to 99,999. Which sucks.
Powers:
* Fixed a bug in the Thunder Clap power. It was Auto Hit, meaning Defense based characters had less chance of mitigating its effects than intended. This change affects Defenders and Controllers Storm Summoning sets, Banished Pantheon Witch Doctors, Circle of Thorns Air Casters, one of the Heroes Captured by the Devouring Earth and Skyfall from the Tsoo.
* Super Reflexes Auto powers now add some minor damage resistance that improves as the caster loses HP.
* Reduced the Endurance cost of Dark Melee/Siphon Life and Dark Blast/Life Drain.
* Pool powers: Stealth, Grant Invisibility, Invisibility, Combat Flight, Weave, Maneuvers, Vengeance, and Combat Jumping now Buff Defense to ALL attacks. This change was also made to all Primary and Secondary Stealth and Invisibility powers (including, but not limited to, Cloak or Shadows, Cloaking Device, Superior Indivisibility, and Group Invisibility). All Defense powers should now stack properly with each other. All powers short and long Help Text was updated to indicate this change.
* Improved Damage DeBuff of Tanker/Ice Armor/Chilling Embrace.
* Defender/Controller Empathy Resurrect Powers Endurance cost reduced.
* The Lightning Storm pet was generating Detoggle messages erroneously.
* Sonic Repulsion and Sonic Dispersion:
* * Sonic Buff/Clarity and Sonic Dispersion powers have been switched in the order in which they can be chosen. This change affects Defenders and Controllers.
* Glue Arrow should no longer fade when the target dies.
* Poison Gas Arrow should no longer fade when the target dies.
* Disruption Arrow no longer accepts Damage Resist Enhancements. They were extraneous and had no effect.
* Flash Arrow should have Debuff FX more visible throughout the duration now.
* Changed Long and Short Help of Moment of Glory to clarify which Defenses it offers.
* Martial Arts/Eagles Claw critical hit now properly does smashing instead of lethal damage.
* Fixed bad short help text in Spines/Taunt. It said it was an AoE, but it is a Single Targeted Taunt.
* Fixed Teleport animation from animating twice.
* Fixed Dark Miasma/Tar Patch cat animation from sometimes locking you into an animation loop.
* Fixed Empathy/Adrenaline Boost animation from activating before the power was recharged.
* Removed Resist Damage Enhancements from Acid Arrow.
* Some Electrical Blast, Electrical Melee and Electrical Mastery powers now have a chance to return some of the endurance they drain back to the caster.
* Force Field/Insulation Field now also buffs defense to AoE Attacks. Dispersion Bubble now also buffs defense to Melee and Ranged attacks. This will all Force Field powers to better stack with all defensive powers, even Super Reflexes, and even with multiple shields from multiple allies.
* Slightly Modified some Scrapper Martial Arts damage scales, end costs and recharge times.
* Reduced the Terrorize duration of Dark Melee/Touch of Fear.
Those of the above I recognize are all good, if not spectacular.
Stores:
Most stores and contacts that only sold 10 types of Enhancements of a given type will now sell all Enhancements of that type. (In other words, we fixed key stores that were selling just the Power 10 to sell all Enhancements of that type).
Huzzah!!!!
Debt Cap:
We have cut in half the amount of Debt you can carry at a maximum at any given time. Previously it was set at 10 defeats worth of Debt, it is now set at 5 defeats. (Defeats inside a mission map count as ½ a defeat since they generate only ½ the Debt). If your character has more Debt than the current cap when they log in, they will have their Debt lowered to that of the current cap.
Never reached this, but I think it’s good.

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Discussion of ED, prevously posted, omitted, though it’s worth reading.

Well, sort of. Transfer from US to Europe servers, or vice-versa, is coming soon.