Cobalt Arachne

February 8

47 minutes ago, Cyclone Jack said:

I guess the only question I have is, why the hard push to marginalize the ATs into a single "role" so to speak, when its obvious that most of the ATs are much more diverse than that? I think that's the part I'm having a really hard time wrapping my head around, and I know I'm not the only one. And I'm not talking specific combos, because there are always outliers, but the core design of many of the ATs is to have the diversity to fill more than one role (Controller, Defender, Brute, Corruptor, Dominator, and Mastermind).

Simplicity and fairness primarily. One AT, one primary team role.

Example: Stalkers would only qualify for Melee Damage... No matter how creative you want to try and be with it, their main advantage involves using stealth to drop aggro at any time (opposite of a Tank's job), and doing critical melee attacks for massive damage.

How would it be fair to Stalkers that they get to just naturally earn less Prismatic Aether than everyone else?
Because other multi-role ATs would qualify for the bonus more often and thus earn more over time.

Since some ATs would only be able to qualify for a single role, for simplicity and fairness, we went with everyone's one primary role. (Not counting the Epic Archetypes.)
Fairness was weighted far more heavily in the design considerations earlier for the previous feature due to that reward involved.

February 8

Reiterating on what Jimmy said, this new feature is the response to the feedback.

There were concerns brought up that adding continual currency incentives to the team assembly process would pollute the inclusive spirit of City of Heroes where you can join almost any team and have no idea what will be on it, but can still complete the content without issues. To that end, we shifted to a reward that simply represents that you've done it once, instead of requiring on-going, continual team composition management to maximize your rewards.

Personally, this was the argument that resonated most with me, and prompted discussions on alternative solutions.

This feature originally arose from the added capability to run Lua scripts through the challenge settings feature automatically and we used it to write scripts that can check the team's composition, which wasn't previously possible as a criteria check for rewards.

AT Duplication was added as a foil to the AT Diversity.

While educating new players on team role dynamics was one of the goals of the previous feature, there were several issues with the reward delivery and incentive consistency that made us determine it would not be the best idea for the game.

We decided that it would be healthy to also establish that you can take a team of all duplicate archetypes and still clear most content.
This way all team configurations remain 'valid' in the eyes of the players as far as badges are concerned, and nobody loses out on rewards for prioritizing playing the game how they prefer over the team's composition.

February 7

2 minutes ago, ZamuelNow said:

As someone who wrote for AE a lot before shutdown, seeing map fixes is actually exciting. However, there's still glowies that aren't accessible on Smelting Cauldron. Two of them, one roughly at [-745.1 0.0 88.7] and the other [-755.5 0.0 28.1] on the floor, are inside the big boiler in the last room. The third is on a wall at roughly [-834.2 0.0 153.3] where you can't jump out. I think it's either inside a shipping container or there's an invisible ceiling. I found these by maxing out the number of collectibles and using the test setting to jump to objective. Also, I think the numbers are off since it said you could place 40+ of floor and wall objectives but the mission only had around 15 of each. Makes sense for the size of the map that there's not 40 of each but that might need adjusting in the mission settings if you can't actually set that many.

I'll look into these. Thanks!

February 7

3 hours ago, Britannic said:

Incidentally, could the Honoree (and Hero 1 in the Aeon Strike Force) get their Signature Power 'Aid from the Fae'? Nega-Pendragon has a version of it in the Magisterium Trial, though his is called 'Power of the Fae'.

Hero 1 has a power that is essentially that already, he even mentions the Fae with the power's activation dialog, it's just not explicitly called 'Aid from the Fae'. Could rename it though...

Honoree would not have access to that power as explained by their inability to wield Excalibur anymore after their transformation.

February 7

30 minutes ago, SaxyGuitar said:

Question on this wording. Does this mean you can't have anyone be a different Archetype, correct? So you can't go 7 Defenders and 1 tanker, and get the badge?

This is correct. The badge is for the entire team all being the same AT and having at least 4+ members on it.

7 Defenders and 1 Tanker on a team = does not qualify
7 Defenders on a team = qualifies

3 Defenders on a team = does not qualify

4 Defenders on a team = qualifies

January 28

Known issue with K'ong in Build 2. Syntax fumble with the Lua script; it will be fixed next build, please use /completetask 0 on Brainstorm to bypass that mission for now if you're testing the Advanced Mode of Lady Grey's Task Force.

Thanks to a hot fix, Lady Grey should be fully testable again on Brainstorm!

January 28

6 hours ago, Doc_Scorpion said:

The training dummies lights and con levels do not match. The lights are W, Y, O, R, P. The dummies con Y, O, R, P, P.

They're tuned for level 50 + Alpha Shift as that's the state that max level character's spend the majority of their tenure and how they would be running tests.

January 23

55 minutes ago, Doc_Scorpion said:

Happened to be topside in the RWZ on other business, and noted the leftmost dummy was not present. Waited over a minute (I timed it), and it did not respawn.

That's a little different, if they're not there that's due to players being nearby when the zone loads. They won't spawn in that situation until all players have moved far enough away to unload the spawn trigger. (This won't happen on live servers because all zones are loaded before players are allowed in)

If you destroy a living dummy/pylon it should re-spawn immediately once the spawn is set to active; If you just destroyed one and it doesn't respawn quickly (10 second timer), let me know.

January 23

32 minutes ago, UltraAlt said:

Dual Pistols>pistols

All of the pistols I've checked, except for the 6 Semi-auto ones, do a twirl when you draw before using a power.

The Semi-autos get the twirl on the other power, but the draw on pistols - the hands come up empty and the then pistols appear in the character's hands.

Which body type? Weapon FX are separate per body type so I'll have to look at the specific ones.

January 23

On 1/21/2024 at 5:16 PM, Lockely said:

With slightly higher than average Physique scales, many (but not all) of the holstered weapons heavily clip into the upper back. Chest and Shoulder scaling can alleviate or exacerbate this depending on how you fiddle with it.

This is currently a technical engine limitation, unfortunately.
Back items don't take scaling, so the weapons are not able to be aware of any body slider changes.

If that were to change in the future with code improvements, I'd redo all the weapons to take advantage of it, but at this moment not something that's doable.

January 22

32 minutes ago, ZorkNemesis said:

Do these changes apply to event Giant Monsters like Winter Lord or Halloween Eochai/Jack? I don't see them listed but I feel like they shouldn't be excluded, especially since I recall Winter Lord being exceptionally easy.

For balance changes, yes.

For pet recipes, no; Mostly because there is an existing pet that is basically a mini Winter Lord already.

January 22

20 minutes ago, Crimsanotic said:

I suppose this is the best time to perhaps ask for the huge model vanguard NPCs to have their boots fixed? Ever since their inception, the minions have had the boots with pad while all other variants have the boots without the pad, but it should be the reverse (as is the case with male and female NPCs).

I can look into this; You mentioned it's just the Minion-class Vanguard costumes that have this issue?

January 22

Just now, Marbing said:

Maybe to make it easier to achieve, require less. Like just 3 of the 5 roles?

What I'm reading is more that many players take issue with there being any kind of bias towards a defined team structure at all, not the requirements or rewards.

January 22

If the consensus here is that this change will be a negative for the game, we can simply remove the free bonus and drop this feature.

The sense I'm getting from reading feedback is that many feel like any attempts to influence the nature of team assembly is antithetical to the nature of City of Heroes.

January 22

6 minutes ago, Doc_Scorpion said:

I agree and disagree with this part.

I don't believe that the x2 Boosters are the ONLY cause of the imbalances, just one of the various factors, it's a complex game with many facets.
The team has been having on-going discussions regarding the difficulty of maintaining an SO build while leveling due to various factors.

A bit off-topic now, can't say much else yet because decisions about that aren't made, but we're absolutely aware of that Influence deficit and are looking for solutions.

January 22

3 minutes ago, Blackbird71 said:

There were already good suggestions made of simply requiring five different ATs in a group to get the bonus.

Disagree, that is not an alternative suggestion because it does not achieve the same goal. ATs are not roles.

Simply bringing 5 different ATs does not promote healthier team composition balance because all five could technically be the same one or two roles.

January 22

8 hours ago, Blackbird71 said:

Sorry for the double-post, but given the subject matter I thought this deserved to be kept separate from other thoughts:

I think that HC would do well to follow it's own rules and avoid "controversial political content." In modern political parlance, the words "diversity" and "inclusivity" both carry heavy political connotations primarily used by one side of the political spectrum as a positive, and by the other as a negative. These are "charged" words in the current environment, and if HC wants to truly avoid controversial subjects, they should be avoided. What's more, they are current "buzzwords," and are likely to fall out of fashion in time, and when that happens any reference using them will appear dated.

If you've got alternative suggestions on any names that communicate the bonus's goal and function, I'd love to hear them!

The name can be changed effortlessly, it's a single string to adjust; If somebody has a better sounding idea, please let me know. 🙂

January 22

3 minutes ago, Blackbird71 said:

I understand the intent, however I believe the execution is misguided. I think this system will actually cause more confusion for new players, reducing understanding of the various ATs, as it will lead them to believe each AT is pigeonholed into a specific role, when in fact most ATs can fill multiple roles depending on power sets/build.

That's fine, if you'd like to suggest an alternative solution to mine that would achieve the same design goals then go ahead I'd love to read it, otherwise I will disagree with you on your point.

I believe our players are smart enough to understand the context of the game and know through common-sense that the main roles one is expected to perform when joining a team of strangers does not equate to them being the only things a character can possibly contribute.

January 22

15 minutes ago, Blackbird71 said:

So what?

As the designer, I spent the time creating the recipes, the mini pets models, and the drop system for the purpose of supporting the Giant Monster system and making it more rewarding for those who like fighting Giant Monsters, ending with it giving them a unique sourced drop they can market to other players.

If you can get these rewards by doing non-Giant Monster content, that throws the entire purpose of this feature out the window.

21 minutes ago, Blackbird71 said:

If you want to encourage people to do content, make that content enjoyable.

Giant Monsters are already one of the most popular activities in the game, despite the fact they reward very little for the relative time spent; So that doesn't really apply here.

January 22

9 hours ago, Doc_Scorpion said:

that low level SOs are too [bleeping] expensive for new players and low level characters to obtain.

Not a simple problem to solve due, one of the primary reasons that low level players are so poor is that Double Experience Boosters turns off their Influence gains and so, as a result, they have no money to buy SOs.

Changing boosters is a very complicated/touchy affair, as they're already quite the controversial topic to begin with.

We could suggest players not default to using the Double Experience Boosters if they want to earn Influence, but we sort of know how that goes because we're having the Influence problem in the first place.

January 22

I've added a level 50 dummy to the level ranged area, and also added dividers so that it's not possible to accidentally hit more than one with AoEs.

January 22

So let me explain the reasoning behind this free bonus:
In most MMOs on the market, they function with the holy trinity of Tank / DPS / Healer. However, City of Heroes does not function this way, and rather has a more diverse set of roles that players take while playing on a team together.

This new bonus is to help guide players who are unfamiliar with City of Heroes to the basic fundamentals of team building and archetype roles, and then giving a small reward to teams that are inclusive and bring every type of player role. Perhaps the name of the reward should be changed to 'Role Inclusivity Bonus'?

From experience, chasing rewards can oftentimes work better than tutorials for guiding players to more natural success in their gameplay, so that's why this was decided.

Lastly, it puts a little more Prismatic Aether into everyone's pocket for minimal effort, which helps new players by virtue of being able to convert it to influence on the AH which also stimulates the player economy and also teaches new players to utilize the AH while working on their characters.
For a new player, a single Prismatic Aether could potentially fund their entire build on SO enhancements; Extremely valuable for somebody just starting out.

FAQ:

The roles were chosen so that the full classic team of all five Hero or Villain archetypes would complete the free bonus; This is reflected in the challenge icon.
One role per AT for simplicity & fairness; There are too many ATs that would count for more and others that would count for less.
Epic ATs count for three roles because their inherent powers all deal with teams, so this makes them extremely appealing for team invites and is in-line with their design goal.
Corruptors are listed as Damage because their Inherent power, Scourge, only deals with doing more damage, not support.
This free bonus was not in any way an attempt to sway or influence Advanced Mode team compositions; This free bonus reward is far too low to have any kind of impact on regular runners of that content.
This free bonus is not an attempt to disrupt the City of Heroes element of 'any team can work', because while that's always been true...
'any team can work well' has never been a guarantee and there have been plenty of teams I've joined that have been rough experiences because the composition just wasn't considered while forming the team. While lopsided teams can always work, they shouldn't be considered the ideal or baseline experience to strive for giving our new players.

January 22

1 hour ago, Blackbird71 said:

why not just drop 1 Prismatic Aether and tweaking the drop rate slightly, and using Prismatic Aether to purchase these pets?

This would not work because it would mean that people who have amassed lots of Prismatic Aether in the past could simply buy hundreds of new pet recipes the moment the patch goes live instead of actually participating in defeating any of the newly re-tuned Giant Monsters.

The point is to promote the new content, if people who have amassed currency from the past doing other activities can simply buy-in to new rewards without participating in the new content, that defeats the purpose of the incentive.

January 22

16 minutes ago, Sovera said:

I was testing a character on the dummies and they work, but I can see it being a nuisance if more than one person wants to test, and the whole thing of how long does it take for a dummy to respawn.

Would it be feasible to have an instance we could go with pylons so we could just go in and out?

Or, hold on, what about a dummy with the same HP that we can place in our base?

That's a fair concern!

The dummies and training pylons are set to respawn within a few seconds; Let me know if they're not immediately respawning upon defeat.

Instanced dummies...

That's something we can look into but won't be Page 7.

January 22

8 minutes ago, Killerhawk said:

Is there any chance a static level-50 dummy could be added as well? Reason: Testing with MMs and level shifted pets has always been thrown off by them conning even to the pylons. A straight level 50 pylon would be more accurate for those cases.

There shouldn't be much difficulty in adding that; I'll look into it.

Sign In

Profiles

Forums

Events

Store

Articles

Patch Notes

Posts posted by Cobalt Arachne