Cobalt Arachne

I can only speak for myself, as each individual developer is different in how they prefer to do things, and some are more willing to weigh in while others prefer to read feedback silently and make their changes based on what they've read. Other times, I 100% intended to respond to a post, but then I got busy during the day, and 14 hours later when I actually have a spare moment I completely forgot I intended to respond. Another side-effect of being volunteers is simply that time gets away from us, since when we can put time into things loves to change on us without warning. In regards to specific things I was responsible for (Dr. Aeon Strike Force, Advanced Difficulty Modes, Aether Rewards) I have generally weighed in on feedback that warranted it, and have made changes based on the feedback when the points challenged the design goals in a valid way (the Aether costume badges were originally set over twice as high than the numbers they released at for example). Here is some insights, speaking to the players as a whole, in hopes people will approach feedback more constructively if they understand the best methods to make sure that their feedback is valuable to us, and thus more likely to impact development direction. My recommendations to everyone if you want your feedback to be heard, at least speaking from the context of my own developer experience: 1# - Ensure your feedback is actually challenging the specific reason behind a change Oftentimes a change is made with a specific reason in mind, take the starter zone AE building removals for example, which we stated in the first couple responses was to improve Atlas Park's zone performance and also ensure new players know how to change city zones before accessing power leveling. A lot of feedback on that change ended up focusing on tweaking power leveling speeds or AE rewards instead of removing the buildings, which topically related to AE, didn't actually address the original reason why we removed them. As a result, some players who wanted the AE building to stay in Atlas Park felt their feedback was ignored when in actuality it was due to their feedback not actually being related at all to the reason the change was made in the first place. If that feedback had also explained why/how tweaking power leveling speeds would have also fixed the zone performance/new player guidance without needing to remove the buildings it would have been far more usable to us. If somebody can't see the change's reason (speaking for my own projects at least), and they ask respectfully, I am pretty forthright behind a change's intended purpose. But I also miss things, as mentioned before, sometimes I see a post while I'm busy at work and intended to respond, but 14 hours later I have forgotten to come back and do it, but I try my best! That being said, too often unfortunately, after we've stated the design reason, many responses to it devolve into loud/disrespectful variants of "That reasons sucks! I hate it!" instead of more helpful things like "That reason has some major drawbacks. What if we addressed that reason with another approach like this?". The deeper a feedback thread devolves into an unproductive hate slinging contest (honestly, both sides are often at fault), the less likely we are to spend our very limited time reading responses in it and responding to them ourselves since there are, relative to the volume, less worthwhile responses worth looking for. This is why the GMs will often prune anything deemed non-constructive in those threads because those posts actively damage the potential for that thread to be useful to us. 2# - Get involved in testing earlier, not later There is a Discord server dedicated entirely to testing and discussing upcoming/perspective changes, I won't link it here since it's been linked in plenty of other places on the forums plenty of times, and if anybody asks, somebody will be able to provide a link. It's open-invite and participation is entirely voluntary. If you have a vested interest in the future of Homecoming's development this would be the best way to get involved and have your voice be heard during the earlier stages of the development process where broad direction can be challenged more easily. To dispel a common rumor: This has nothing to do with 'insider tester' circles that some players seem to pretend exist and everything to do with the fact Discord is just a better communication system than the forums for active in-the-moment brainstorming discussions about future ideas, details, and implementation. Forums have their own uses and we utilize them heavily later in the development process where they are most valuable for finding, fixing, and tracking bugs/issues, but at those later stages of development, massive changes are far less likely to be possible short-term. The only reason that the testing Discord is not more widely promoted is because of how many players previously joined only to get sneak peaks, saw extremely in-flux or experimental changes or discussions, and then complain/spread misinformation based on alpha-level builds of unconfirmed features that could change dramatically or even might not happen at all depending on how things go with this game's messy code. Both Discord and the forums are very different communication mediums and we leverage both extensively depending on whichever is more effective for the aspects our work at various stages. For example this post you're reading right now will endure and can be referenced easily in the future vs. a Discord message that would certainly be lost. There are always pros and cons to every tool at our disposal. If you absolutely refuse to use Discord than you are voluntarily putting yourself at a disadvantage in influencing Homecoming's future development direction, but you absolutely cannot say that's any kind of exclusion on Homecoming's part, as Discord is free to download on basically every smart device and the testing Discord is open-invite for anyone with an interest in joining it. 3# - Back feedback with testing & specific examples It is extremely obvious to us as developers when a player provides feedback who obviously did zero in-game testing. We literally created the subject matter of your feedback, there's no possible way to fool us into believing that you thoroughly tested our work when your feedback lacks the tiny details that would 100% be there if you had tested it in-game. Obviously this is sometimes more or less applicable depending on the nature of the change itself, but when I see a good feedback post and it includes specific examples backed by testing evidence it's always feedback I seriously review and consider. This kind of behavior is not something Homecoming would ever officially condone and if somebody on our staff was disrespectful towards you, I would strongly urge you to bring it up with a Lead Game Master here on the forums or Discord via a direct message and include the details so we can look into addressing it.

Not going to overly weigh in on the weekly discussions, since the devs weren't the ones who were responsible for those, but will say something worth mentioning I think in the context of all Homecoming volunteers. The thing that players should keep in mind (that is specifically applicable to Homecoming) is that we are all unpaid volunteers doing this out of passion for the game, sacrificing our free time and energy to contribute in a sort of 'volunteer budget' that we donate to this game from our personal lives for no compensation, that obviously has to come with an inherent threshold of what we can realistically sacrifice before it begins to negatively impact our personal lives, which we cannot allow as this is an unpaid venture that none of us can afford to prioritize in that way. If we exceed our 'volunteer budget' and the game begins to take more away than it gives, then in that scenario there are basically only two options available: We have to adjust how we're managing our volunteer efforts so that the game isn't negatively impacting our personal lives. In the worst case scenario, step away from working on the game entirely because it's not worth sacrificing our personal lives for. When dealing with extremely hostile feedback/player interactions, that very rapidly diminishes the 'volunteer budget' we have available, and between options #1 and #2, we're more likely to go with option #1 which is to just not interact with those players as much, because all of us love this game and we don't want to stop working on it. Despite Homecoming's extraneous efforts to ensure we run the game at nearly-professional levels and quality standards, everyone should keep in mind we are NOT a professionally paid development team, and having to endure feedback laced with beratement and malice makes many of us stop reading almost immediately. If anyone feels like they aren't being heard or aren't being listened to, I would ask you reflect on the manner by which you are communicating your feedback to us. I can confidently say that everyone on our development team is very flexible and extremely accommodating to players who are being respectful and provide feedback out of genuine concern for the game's health and we've made many changes based on those kinds of concerns, sometimes even bending over backwards with extreme efforts and redoing huge amounts of work just to accommodate their desires simply because they communicated to us in a respectful manner. "Change Z is total crap and so is whoever thought that change should've been a thing. If you're trying to kill the game, you're doing a great job." Something like this is going to be almost immediately ignored by all of us reading through feedback. Not to imply that this player's concern and dissatisfaction is any less valid, but it's unpleasant and draining to deal with this kind of hostile interaction, which hurts that aforementioned 'volunteer budget'. How many volunteer workers are going to continue volunteering if the people they're working for spit in their faces? Before anybody replies with "Then just don't make bad changes." I'll insist you realize we don't ever make ANY changes with an intended goal to make the game WORSE, if a change we made has negative repercussions, you should express it to us like this: "Change Z has me concerned because it actually undermines Elements A, B, and C in the game, and that kind of marginalizes the players who really enjoyed those elements, what was the development goal behind Change Z? Can we explore alternative solutions that don't marginalize Elements ABC? What about trying my idea Change Y instead?" This is the kind of feedback from players we're super happy to accommodate, discuss, and explain why we did what we did and seek alternate solutions for if our first idea isn't hitting the right beats. Occasionally feedback is missed simply due to it being posted somewhere that we don't check often, but more frequently it gets discarded because the feedback itself is written in a hostile/rude/malicious tone and as unpaid volunteers working for free, we're not obligated to have extended interactions with anybody who's being unnecessarily disrespectful. We're not trying to ruin the game, but if you treat us like we are, that immediately compromises any kind of opportunity for meaningful discussion. You don't have to agree with our positions on changes, in-fact we welcome people challenging our changes, as it helps us refine, improve, and iterate, but that comes with a baseline expectation of it being a respectful interaction if you're hoping for your feedback to be heard and concerns addressed.

Dual Pistols have not been added to the Holstered Weapon System yet; At present, the only power sets weapons that have access to them are Assault Rifles, Arachnos Soldier Assault Rifles, Munitions Mastery Rifles, and Mercenary Mastermind Assault Rifles. Holstered support for other ranged weapon sets will be added in a future update, as they were more complex to add than anticipated and we weren't able to get them all done for Issue 27, Page 5's release.

Fixed on our end. It was a mix-up when Uuralur the Mirror was added; The fix won't be in tomorrow's patch, but will be in the one after.

I'm being misquoted to the entirely wrong effect here... Please include my entire post so you aren't misleading people: The issue I'm referring to is that maxed-out Level 50's have nothing to do once they've reached that point. We have no problems with how fast people reach max, it's more that once they've gotten there, there's almost nothing to do with them if you aren't interested in collecting badges. If the new reward system was trying to do anything to address progression, it's doing a terrible job, since aether is used exclusively for vanity cosmetics, which have absolutely nothing to do with character growth. The recent changes are aimed towards giving maxed out 50 characters some things they can be used towards with regularity that's worth the time, either because you like costumes or you like the influence that people who like costumes will pay for your aether.

Ah okay, yes, the power previewer doesn't handle the weapons right so that's not unexpected; If you can confirm in the zone when using a power on a target, everything should work properly.

Trying to reproduce this, but am not seeing it to on a new Mercenary Mastermind on Brainstorm; Can you provide more details? Was this a transfer character? What body type? What powersets did they have?

This can happen when multiple people are trick-or-treating in an area. If they can, Tricks will try to default to the nearest already open door instead of opening a new door, which can lead to multiple tricks worth of mobs all spilling out of that single nearest open door if there is one, instead of spawning from the door that was was actually clicked. People who've done a lot of motel monster mashing have probably noticed this phenomenon.

The system is explicitly NOT hardcore min-maxers only, if it were, we would have made the Aether account-bound and/or hard mode exclusive. Instead, we designed it to be a commodity, purchasable from others with the influence, the currency that that is commonly mentioned as being over-abundant and without enough uses, to create an ecosystem where those with an excess of influence can buy the herd income Aether from those who need influence more than costumes (under-geared and new players), which helps the entire playerbase thrive. For this reason, we added smaller easy income methods to non-difficult content, and yes while hard mode does give more, why shouldn't it? It's much more involved/difficult content than spending 30 minutes to run the WST or join a quick iTrial. Nobody should forget that the Aether is NOT market seeded, the only available stock to be purchased has to be put on the AH by those earning it. It's also a bit strange seeing the various posts who's stance could be boiled down to: "It's unfair that players who play more and at a higher level have an advantage over those who play less and more casually." ...Huh? If somebody spends an enormous amount of time playing City of Heroes, they're naturally going to have more currency, resources, and 50's than somebody who plays less or very casually? Was there going to be any other result to playing more? Is that inherently unfair? Isn't it more unfair that somebody who puts in that larger effort isn't allowed to have anything (even just something entirely cosmetic) to show for it? 99% of the Aether costumes are extremely reasonable to obtain. People should be viewing the 1500-Aether costumes (if the costumes even interest them in the first place) the same way badgers view the 1500-badge collected badge. Tier 4 rewards are less about what you're getting visually and more about being an accomplishment, hence why the more widely desirable rewards like Mini Mode were moved down in price by nearly 500%. It's an achievement, something that isn't just granted. It's a journey, not a short-term destination. You won't get Tier 4 costumes in a few days, but you can easily monitor your progress as you're saving up Aether over time, and you can decide how to tackle the Aether from many different angles (using influence to buy it on the AH, doing the WST on your 50's, joining any random quick iTrials, doing hard mode content at any level), and when you finally get there, it's something that shows you actually put in the work, it wasn't just handed to you like almost every power-related growth is. Some of the responses in this thread have shown that for goal-chasers, this change has made the game substantially more enjoyable for them. Some players need goals to work towards to keep their gameplay time focused and is key for them to enjoy the game long-term, this change was aimed at giving those goal-chasers something to work on. There are a huge number of types of players in this game... Roleplayers, powers number-crunchers, AH economists, AE writers, SG base builders, PvPers, costume contest runners, and many more. We aim to give everyone who plays City of Heroes additions to enhance their favored gameplay experience, but some player types were extremely marginalized, specifically, challenge-seekers and goal-chasers. So we aimed to enhance and improve those aspects of the game with recent feature additions. This game can have something for all type of players, and those who advocate for unconditional and instant accessibility be mandatory in every single element of the game (even non-gameplay impacting elements like vanity cosmetics) are doing so at the expense of those other player types, and that isn't a stance we agree with on the developer team, despite agreeing that the game should be as accessible as possible in all gameplay content elements. Perspective: being a maxed Tier 4 incarnate on full superior Invention Origin enhancements isn't even an achievement today, rather, it's become the baseline for what is commonly considered to be a functional high-level character by many players. On live, very few players ever had this without spending an insane amount of time and/or money in the game. It's all about providing options and variety; Just because a game is extremely accessible to play doesn't mean that it can't accommodate more invested player type styles too, and again, Aether rewards will only ever be used for cosmetic vanity items. If you view Influence as one of the designed and intended methods to obtain Aether via the AH, nearly all content in the game can be played toward earning Aether.

In the past for my characters I've managed this by slotting a Celerity: Stealth IO (costs ~mil or less inf on the AH), and then slotting it into one of the prestige sprints set to 'MinFx' in the power customization for toggle transparency on any character.

As Six mentioned, the game suffers from an issue where players can reasonably get to maxed out very quickly. For veterans, new maxed characters can be a done in matter of *hours*, but then these built-out characters have nothing to do and have nothing to work towards. The higher tier rewards are aimed at giving a long-term goal to the players who hate having nothing to work towards, but have otherwise have completed everything there is to complete in this game.

In a matter of speaking, they are kind of a wombo combo of sorts. Costume: Undefined Mode changes your head, chest, gloves, hips, and boots to green blobby textures, adds the unique aura effect, and then inherits certain extra costume parts from your normal costume that it can fit on-top. Buying it also gives you Costume: Undefined Mini Mode as a bonus for free, which does all of the above + Mini Mode proportions. Tier 4 is meant to serve as a currency sink for the people with too much aether, and to show off something weird.

The T3 price points are due to the offerings being customization options that wouldn't be ideal to have on every character easily and be an abundantly common thing but low enough that somebody who really wants them can get them. For every individual person who's ultra psyched about mini mode characters, there's another who hates how they look at doesn't want to see them everywhere. It ensures they are limited to people who actually want them to facilitate character ideas and not abundantly used for reasons like throw away meme characters or to bother people. For the Effect toggles, which are essentially cosmetic armors, we have to be conservative with large-scale particle density access, this ensures they don't become something everyone uses constantly simply because they have easy access to it.

Correct, at lower rate (2% chance per EB, per mob rolled, with a cap of one EB possible per door). We originally wanted them to only spawn when the team was above a certain size, but unfortunately after we dug into it, we learned that the code is wonky and it made team-size dependent mob-exclusions not possible with the current system. The way the trick-or-treat mobs works currently is a series of continuous dice rolls, spawning mobs with weights until a certain weight threshold is met depending on the trick-or-treater's team's size, but the ability to exclude mobs from the table it uses wasn't possible with the way they originally coded the trick-or-treat's spawn code. It'll require rewriting that code, which we didn't have time for before the Halloween event had already begun. The best we could do with the time we had was to limit them to levels 25+ by adding a second level-dependent table. We aim have it working the way we'd originally intended by next year's Halloween.

Those leftover Trick-or-Treat mobs can only exist idle for a brief 60 seconds while also only spawning within that zone's possible level ranges. If a player runs into somebody else's mobs, in a zone where they are a threat to them, the only possible way they can be a danger is if they intentionally stop traveling to fight them by choice like any other zone mob spawn. Unless you're far below the level of the zone you entered, which is a choice a player made accepting the risks, there's not a realistic threat of getting killed by these leftovers. City zones are also enormous, numerous, and every one contains hundreds of mission doors to choose from to use for Trick-or-Treating. Zones are public spaces and everyone is allowed to use them however they'd like as long as they're not being disruptive per Homecoming's Code of Conduct. If one player doesn't like seeing evidence of others in a zone enjoying a seasonal event, that player is free to move to a less populated zone or server where they're less likely to encounter others. Expecting us to restrict or remove options from other players instead isn't realistic.

These elite bosses will only spawn if you are above level 25. If you do get one solo and don't want to fight it, you can simply run away and they will despawn automatically after 60 seconds. Trick-or-Treat enemies have a 3-second safety window after they spawn before they can do anything, giving you ample time to escape if it's not a fight you want to take. This addition was meant to make Trick-or-Treating in teams or leagues more engaging/lucrative/rewarding.

An autumn's October greetings to all you do-gooders or evil-doers out there! It's that time of year again! ...what time you might ask? Spooky time! Oh yes! 🎃 It's almost time for the Homecoming: City of Heroes Halloween Event 2022! 🎃 October 4th - November 1st I spy some familiar and not-so-familiar faces... So, what new things does this year's Halloween event bring? I'm glad you asked! Each year, the fallen fae of the Unseelie Court attempt to invade our world by opening rifts when the spirit realm and the mortal realm are at their closest during the spooky Halloween season. Fortunately for us, they have been thwarted every year by the valiant efforts of Heroes and Villains who stop these spooky beings in their tracks! However, this year they've decided they will need to bolster their ranks if their attempts at world scaring are to succeed. The Unseelie Court's Hollow Reapers have devised a method to bring new levels of frightening to our world! These reapers have used their spectral scythes to widen the rifts, allowing even more powerful creatures of the night to invade when somebody is tricked whilst Trick-or-Treating! This can't be good... What does this mean for our brave Heroes and sinister Villains? 🎃 What's New in Halloween Event 2022? 🎃 New Trick-or-Treating Enemies! Five new Elite Boss enemies that can now spawn while Trick-or-Treating above Level 25! Ancient Vampires Spectral Werewolves Arisen Mummies Crone Matriarchs Hollow Reapers These spooky new Elite Bosses will reward five-fold experience and influence for each one defeated! Have any alts that still need some levels? Haven't tried out Symphony Control? Want to build a character for Advanced Difficulty modes? This would be a great opportunity to find some time to go Trick-or-Treating! Each of these new Elite Boss mobs also count for the older defeat badges. Spectral Werewolves count as both werewolf and ghost defeats. These new mobs spawn at a lower rate than other Trick-or-Treat enemies and were designed to be tough. For the best results, try Trick-or-Treating with a group! Looking for an efficient Trick-or-Treating spot? Might I recommend the motel near the hospital in Peregrine Island? 👀 Ouch! Best be careful, these spooky Elite Bosses are looking for unsuspecting victims to scare! New Halloween Event Badges! + Aether Rewards?! Five new badges for defeating each of the new Trick-or-Treat Elite Boss types: Vampiric Heritage - Defeat 5 Ancient Vampires from the Halloween Event to earn this badge. Spectral Anomaly - Defeat 5 Spectral Werewolves from the Halloween Event to earn this badge. Mummy's Curse - Defeat 5 Arisen Mummies from the Halloween Event to earn this badge. Unholy Cabal - Defeat 5 Crone Matriarchs from the Halloween Event to earn this badge. Reaper of Souls - Defeat 5 Hollow Reapers from the Halloween Event to earn this badge. Not only that! But each of these new badges also rewards 2 Prismatic Aether Particle salvage as a bonus, for a grand total of 10 possible on each character! Wow! Ten whole Prismatic Aether Particles that you can earn on every character! Costume Goodies! Fancy any of those Halloween costumes and wish you could keep them permanently? If you earn all five of this year's new Halloween event badges, you'll have enough Prismatic Aether currency to purchase one permanent Tier 1 Prestige Costume of your choosing from any of the BenevoLabs vendors found at Vault Reserve locations! Nice! The Halloween Salvage vendors are also offering a new limited-time Fir Bolg Prestige Costume, which will be available for the entirety of the month of October each year! The Fir Bolg prestige costume costs 10 Prismatic Aether Particles + 50 of each Halloween salvage type. All Tier 1 appearances have been added to the Halloween costume temporary power rewards pool, this year should certainly be diverse! The 'Halloween' in the Halloween costume temporary power names has been removed to make them easier to read in the power menu. Other Adjustments The Bored Guy and Bored Gal in the Dr. Kane's House of Horror trial have been given updated looks of their own. Trick-or-Treat Werewolves now throw coffins instead of rocks when using their Hurl power. 🎃 New to Halloween in City of Heroes? Check out the legacy spooky activities! 🎃 https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Halloween_Event Badges, Badges, Badges! There are a ton of event badges to be earned during the Halloween Event each year! Here's a list of all the badges up for grabs! https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Halloween_Event/Badges Zone Trick-or-Treating! https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Halloween_Event/Trick_or_Treat Go to any zone appropriate to your level range, click any mission door, and you'll be surprised with either a Treat reward or a Trick spook! Treats will reward a variety of things: Halloween costume temporary powers, these come in many flavors! Collecting many rewards badges! Halloween salvage that can be redeemed for an extra costume slot, a spider vanity pet, and more! Talk to the Halloween salvage vendor appropriate for you: Heroes: Annah in Croatoa Villains: Granny Beldam in Nerva Archipelago Praetorians: Acantha in Imperial City If you are wearing a costume power (Halloween or Prestige) while trick-or-treating, you can receive a Whispered Rumor tip mission that allows earning up to six badges! https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Mission:Tip_-_Whispered_Rumor Inspirations! Sometimes though, all you get is a rock... Tricks will spawn Halloween enemies! Worry not, as these enemies can be defeated for badges! Zone Giant Monster Hunts! https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Halloween_Event/Giant_Monsters For the duration of the Halloween Event, you can find the giant monsters, Eochai and Jack-in-Irons, randomly throughout standard zones! The pair are worth an exclusive badge for the first time defeating each, but every time they're defeated grants 6 Reward Merits to everyone who participated! After being defeated, a new Eochai or Jack will respawn somewhere in the same zone shortly afterward, so if you search the zone, they can be defeated many times repeatedly for lots of Reward Merits! Eochai is glad to get out of Croatoa for once! Zombie Apocalypse Zone Invasions! https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Zombie_Apocalypse Keep an eye on the Zone Event channels! Frequently during the Halloween Event's runtime, zones will be attacked by a Zombie Apocalypse! During this event, waves of zombies will spawn anywhere there are players and can be defeated for badges and experience! Group up somewhere with a lot of allies and mow down zombies for rewards! Don't stand too close to Police Drones though! Deadly Apocalypse Zone Events! https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Deadly_Apocalypse Keep an eye on the Zone Event channels! If a spooky fog and four banners roll in, it's time for a Deadly Apocalypse! In this event, players must coordinate to defeat enemies simultaneously at all four Banner locations marked on the map. As the Banner's defenders are defeated simultaneously at all four locations, the protection on the Banners will gradually weaken. Remember if there aren't people at all four banners fighting, you won't be able to make any progress! Eventually, the Banners will become vulnerable, and players can destroy each one for a total of four badges! Once all four Banners have been destroyed, a Greater Mystic Aspect giant monster will spawn somewhere in the zone! If defeated they will reward players with another badge and choice of a temporary power! Dr. Kane's House of Horrors Trial! https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Dr._Kane's_House_of_Horror Grab four allies and queue for the Dr. Kane's House of Horrors Trial from the Looking For Group (LFG) tab on your chat window! Face lots of spooky enemies and earn plenty of badges in this short trial that's only available during the Halloween Event! Tip: Prestige costumes also count for the 'Tricked Out' badge criteria! Atlas Park Zone Makeover! https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Atlas_Park_Seasonal_Changes#Halloween During the Halloween Event, Atlas Park will get a spooky makeover! Enjoy the change of scenery while it lasts! Eternal Night! For the last two weeks of the Halloween Event, starting on October 22nd, most zones will be covered by an eternal night! If you're interested in hunting for enemies that only spawn at certain times of the day like the ghosts in Croatoa! This is a great chance to get those badges! That's everything for Halloween this year! We hope everyone has a grand & spooky time playing City of Heroes! 🎃 Thanks Homecoming for being such awesome players! 🎃

I'll check on it, that is odd.

Does it work if you jump inside the cube? I believe that was changed to be a 'be inside the cube and jump' to make it less accident prone, since if I recall, when moving quickly the FX doesn't actually start playing fast enough and you could enter the exit zone before you could see it.

You aren't wrong, part of the thinking was with repeat content you'll be exposed to it more, but it can certainly be difficult to fully absorb all the details while on a team. Adding a 'story difficulty' option to TFs is something that's been on our radar, just another feature we have to iron the details out for and find time to implement.

Ah! I totally misread, my apologies on that! 😨

About the Dr. Aeon's Strike Force's length... There are two main reasons for that, one more simple and one more complex: First: The simpler, is that story in the Dr. Aeon's Strike Force was not written as a two-parter narrative and was meant to be a lore dense piece of content, but that should be expected for content that is the capstone finale of an existing story. The strike force was always meant to be the finale moment to the original Gold Bricker's story in Cap Au Diable, which never got a proper conclusion and the players never got to tango with big bad King Midas himself, despite numerous arcs about him and involving him. As a result, this means that for full enjoyment of the Dr. Aeon SF's story, it is best to have played all the Cap Au Diable mission arcs about/involving the Gold Brickers and have some familiarity with those stories since it obviously plays a big role in whether you can follow along and understand what is happening during Aeon's wacky inter-dimensional romp to settle the score. Second: The more complex, is that in City of Heroes there's always been a stigma that 'long content = bad content', and while older player availability as adults may be a factor certainly, that's a bit heavy-handed as the only reason when people use it with so much objectivity. I don't necessarily see longer content as an objectively bad thing; It allows for more build-up and anticipation on the way to the finale showdown with the mastermind, it often lets the player feel like they're part of something more epic, and let's us really flesh out the characters, locations, and story. Penny Yin's TF typically being a 15-30 minute romp makes me feel like I'm on a chore during lunch, not thwarting a major scheme of a villainous organization bent on my city's destruction; That is obviously a very subjective take, and I've run and enjoyed my fair share of Penny Yin's, but it was never the type of experience the Dr. Aeon's SF was aimed to be. Dr. Aeon's Strike Force was designed from the beginning to be a longer, more elaborate piece of content. Variety is the spice of life, and players already had lots of shorter content choices already. If a player wanted to pick a piece of longer content, they generally had to look at the oldest team content in the catalogue which is infamous for obvious reasons... (Looking at you, Dr. Quarterfield!) The real question is how & why bad longer content is actually bad: Older long content that has coined this infamy mostly achieved its length with frustrating/slow mission objectives: Lots of 'kill all' missions, 'glowie needle in a haystack' missions, 'rescue & escort' missions. I believe the real reason people don't play the older longer content as often is because the objectives can be very dull, they can't really be streamlined much, and they often contain copious amounts of padding to make the content bulkier when it doesn't make it any more interesting. All of those things mentioned are completely absent in the Dr. Aeon's SF, which is longer content by virtue of it's content richness, variety, and scope. With many considerations also taken to allow the team play the content to speed it up or slow it down as they desire, it is a very flexible piece of content, with speed PUG teams finishing it regularly in 30 minutes, and other teams taking longer by their choice, not by force, which I believe is the key difference.

This is exactly the case.

Because we wanted players to actually have new incentives to play the game and earn the costume rewards (or spend a lot of influence) instead of just logging in for 15 minutes to buy everything new immediately after Page 4 went live with massive stockpiles of existing currency and then go back to being 'caught up with nothing to do or work towards'.

Looks like the child FX for the Arachnos Soldier AR weapon FX were missed for the disjointed firing point fix. Just fixed it, so expect that to go out next patch.