Cobalt Arachne
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Posts posted by Cobalt Arachne
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16 hours ago, Figurehead said:
This used to work
This was due to a bug with the Lua HasBadge() function that didn't work exactly as expected that was fixed a patch or two back, the only place that was checking a badge correctly was the one granting the lobby teleport accolade.
It was always intended to require the accolade, the white mote has it explicitly written there as a clue. -
19 hours ago, Glacier Peak said:
Should ol' Minotaur be able to damage Untouchable pets?
Yes or Phantom Army becomes the defacto best tank choice over actual tank players.
Only his breath attack hits through untouchable, but it makes sure Phantom Army is kept in check.
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1 hour ago, Figurehead said:
On Vanguard this morning, I had a character collect all seven motes (motes of greed, violence, despair, cowardice, jealousy, fury, apathy, verified by examining all seven icons in the buff bar) and teleport to an ally who could get into the true core of the labyrinth. However, standing before the altar at [184.7 -84.5 2664.5] failed to exchange the seven motes for the [mote of the gladiator] buff.
Of note: this character has never slain the minotaur.
You must have the Conqueror of the Labyrinth accolade to obtain Gladiator status, that clue is specified on the click text of the white mote.
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On 7/12/2024 at 10:32 AM, Glacier Peak said:
You fight her if you're a Villain. I think it was a St. Martial story arc if I remember correctly.
As far as I know, she's only available to be fought in a single one of Scirocco's Patron missions or randomly as the hero that spawns in Mayhem Missions if you get an AV-rank Hero.
EDIT: Apparently she also appears in Mr. G (Primal)'s arc; TIL!-
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6 minutes ago, Maelwys said:
Honestly? that's a real shame IMO.
The only change there is a patch note change, since so many people seemed to think that note meant the raid could be solo'd.
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6 hours ago, Mr. Apocalypse said:
-"It is intended this zone be tackled with a Team or League, but can be braved by determined solo players!"
This has been dropped from the patch note description since Build 2.
5 hours ago, Maelwys said:It's apparently on the Dev's radar to eliminate the pet level differences across ALL content, but we've not heard any updates on that aspiration recently (rebalancing is hard) so I'm not holding my breath for a magical fix any time soon.
That'd be the responsibility of the power team's devs; I'm not involved with that part of the game, I have no authority or ability to make any changes to any player powers.
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Just now, Unknown Magi said:
Thanks a bunch, looking forward to the change and will DM you if needed! 🙂
Most welcome!
It won't be the immediate next build, because we're changing the Minotaur's HP scaling to work dynamically based on the players in the zone and I'd like testers to have the beta playtest powers to make sure everything with that is functioning correctly and as-expected first, but the build after, they'll be disabled.
I'll also be announcing and leading a scheduled test raid myself open to anyone who can attend on Brainstorm once they're disabled.
It would be good to get at least one large-scale raid organized for close-to-live test data while it's in open beta if we can.-
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3 minutes ago, Unknown Magi said:
@Cobalt Arachne Feature request, would it be possible to reduce the Minotaur's respawn time in the Beta server, or otherwise give another way of speeding up its respawn, or creating private shards, or something? Ran with a group last night wanting to try out ideas for the minotaur fight, but it seemed to get gacked very quickly (unsure if using beta auto-execute power, or what), even by solos, and then we got to sit around for an hour waiting for a new minotaur and hoping that didn't happen again. The zone itself is interesting, although I don't feel like I"ve played it enough to have an educated opinion yet. Just wanted to voice this particular frustration which was shared by our whole group and see if there's anything to be done about it.
In an upcoming build, we're planning to disable the usage of beta playtester powers in the Labyrinth, which will help prevent people who are using them right now to insta-kill the Minotaur which is the main reason he's dead so much currently.
Otherwise, the zone can be manually rebooted by a GM or myself on Brainstorm, shoot me a DM when you plan to do testing and I can try and ensure the zone is in a fresh state for you.-
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6 minutes ago, lemming said:
Door at [-2865.0 -422.1 2029.9] leads to Door at [-2869.0 -422.1 1725.0] which is 101 yards away in a straight shot, same map. And looks like they both lead to each other.
Working as intended, that floor has a gimmick in the # shaped area where half the doors loop the hallway around.
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49 minutes ago, Tubalcain said:
Give us randomized events. Give us surprises and tension. The greater the level shift brought on by EB stomping the bigger and more severe the surprises. You could make this zone so that it's always challenging no matter how strong the group is. Right now it's just another run from one spawn to the other. It could be so much more.
Some surprise event suggestions.
Rikit and zombie invasion events but in the fog. Zombie start popping up, rikti start teleporting in. The higher the level shift the stronger and more numerous they are.
Cut off the Well. The fog has temporarily severed your connection to the Well. The higher the level shift the more Incarnate powers are locked out and the longer they're locked out for.
Random defensive debuffs. The fog has poisoned you reducing Defense/resistance/healing by an amount based on the level shift. Target one defensive stat at a time to instigate groups needing more than one support type.
Random buffs for enemies.
Hunter spawns. Multiple spawns of enemies (number and strength based on shift) spawn in and start chasing after the players like the Minotaur. These could include AVs and even NPC versions of the players in these hunter spawns.
At higher level shifts you could have multiple events happening at once. Take the control from the players. Put pressure on them.
Don't include EBs in any of this so that, if it slows the players down, the level shift drops.
Increase exp and drop rates based on the level shifts to incentivize seeking out the challenge.
There are great ideas!
The Labyrinth of Fog, like the City of Heroes game as a whole, will continue to see tweaks, adjustments, and additions, moving forward.
I'll see what I can't do about adding some more flare to the zone later on! 🙂2 hours ago, BillyMailman said:I have a general complaint that the Gladiators are very unintuitive. Normal NPC behaviour is that they do stuff if you click on 'em.
This is a good suggestion, I'll look into adjusting the Gladiators so they're selectable and then activated by clicking on them instead of a proximity.
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3 minutes ago, burneden said:
Yeah that's my main thing, I don't mind it not being soloable in the traditional sense but its the wording really makes it seem like you can reasonably contribute to the effort even slowly solo, I mean I never expected to take mino solo but trying to even take one group on any toon is basically instant death regardless of level shift.
The idea was that solo players could find Malevolent Fogs and contribute; But the Malevolent Fogs are over-tuned when I made them chunkier so that Leagues didn't make them evaporate just by looking at them. Will look into a better balance here.
With solo-able Malevolent Fogs, their being worth Reward Merits, a Draught of Fog inspiration, and a zone-wide Level Shift, should allow solo players to contribute more and get rewards more reasonably for their time.-
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9 hours ago, Nutation said:
These are not easy solo targets
I'm thinking perhaps a scaling-HP solution for the Malevolent Fogs, so they're very chunky with a huge group, and reasonably lean if solo.
I want them to be doable solo, but they need to have enough thickness that they survive long enough for Leagues to get everyone in for credit.
I'll look into this.-
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16 minutes ago, burneden said:
if its said on the patch notes it can be braved solo
This was more intended to be 'You can explore the zone by yourself and find secrets without a team.', it was not meant to be read as 'the League raid mechanics are designed to be soloed', they're not... They're designed for a League, players will find them very dangerous solo.
Perhaps that patch note needs clarifying if it's being incorrectly read and people are taking it as the raid was meant to be soloed, which is entirely contradictory with it being a raid.-
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Separate from the True Core, there are seven secret '???' areas total, which includes the Endless Colonnade.
I don't expect them all to be found before we go live, they give no special rewards except the special views and the exploration for any and are, for the most part, more hidden than the motes.
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10 hours ago, Final Overlord said:
Note that there is currently no badge or reward for this
Check your prestige costumes... Looks like the unlock reward needs a bigger notification.
Also, well done on solving the Labyrinth so quickly! Very nice! 😄 -
6 hours ago, Nutation said:
Popped an inspiration in the colonnade and was disappointed at how little time that showed me the path (15 seconds?). Mapped my way through it afterwards, and I see I am not the first.
Just doubled the time that the hint displays for in response to this, hopefully that should make them more useful as hints.
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2 hours ago, gameboy1234 said:
- (you have this, in the form of the Fog insp; I feel there could be more though)
- Providing a sense of progression for players while still keeping some of the random elements would be ideal I think.
I'd be interested in discussing elements like this, it would be a question of how and what in a way that works well with City of Heroes gameplay.
At one point I debated a currency only found in the Labyrinth, that corresponds to a vendor with rewards and Labyrinth-only powers as a means of 'progress' but I don't imagine that's what you're meaning with your suggestion.
Thinking now, how deep could we go with Inspirations to simulate rogue-like elements? Hmm.
At this point, with how close Labyrinth is to release, most of this discussion is likely to be applied towards my next big project (Page 3 or 4 at the earliest) since it is a structured, more accessible game mode that is much more built to support rogue-like mechanics.-
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4 hours ago, Zhym said:
If it's that the map is 3D and it's impossible to make a map that's at all functional for that layout, that's a legitimate issue.
This is pretty much the case...
Here's some out of bounds shot of the zone from the map editor; It's a massive sprawling 3D assembly, it wouldn't be possible to make a singular map where all the players positions are correctly displayed in a way that would be helpful to anybody trying to locate them, especially with how the doors do not connect in any sensible manner.
Also for clarification; OP's map is just showing the Endless Colonnade secret area's puzzle solution.
That's not a map of the entire Labyrinth of Fog zone, that's just a single non-combat floor.
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41 minutes ago, Zhym said:
Or is there just a static map that will be "secret" until someone maps it out and posts it on the forums?
This is correct, the whole zone is static, the doors were seeded randomly once, then the zone assembled from the results.
If you enter the Yellow portal from the lobby, hang a left and take the elevator door, you'll always end up on the same Green Praetorian Lab floor.
It was never meant to be secret, and as you can see from this post, it won't be for very long... 😛
Players creating their own maps was something we did expect / didn't want to discourage, players who don't want maps, can ignore them and find the secrets on their own. -
33 minutes ago, Zhym said:
I'm a bit confused about why the labyrinth won't have a zone map.
Primarily two reasons:
1. The zone was concepted as an open raid zone.
This means the zone is consistent and a space shared by all players, it's not locked off unless the zone caps players.
This is a contrast from when a player owns an instance, they feel more secure within it, as it is their personal space to play around in and complete.
On the flip side, an open zone belongs to nobody, is more vast and unknowable, and that leads to a better fit for the 'vibe' of the zone, which is to encourage exploration and keep the anxiety of the Minotaur present, which is accomplished more when the zone is not owned by anybody, and you're venturing into the unknown blindly.
It also encourages players to team up, since you're in a maze together.
Why this matters is that open zones don't have any interior maps, they have a singular zone map (there was no logistical way to realistically draw/map 40+ floors onto a single image), so instead the zone was designed to be a liminal maze with no map, because...
2. Specific locations don't matter for the raiding.
Players are given a free teleport tool power that allows them to recall themselves to any target on their Team or League with a 1 second cool-down.
This means it's trivial to stay together with your group, and the raid's goals in the Labyrinth can be accomplished from anywhere within it.
There are Elite Boss mobs everywhere, so being in any specific place matters less for the raid, with the exception of those hunting for Malevolent Fog, which is a raid sub-task that will appeal to explorers, much akin to the way during Halloween leagues will often have a few scouts who go out and teleport the League to Eochai / Jack In Irons for Merit income.
Lastly, the Minotaur raid boss will come to you, so you don't need to go out and look for him, just prepare your raid to challenge him, then pick a spot and stand your ground.
For these reasons, the map wasn't required as the elbow of all organization, the idea was that players would actively play and stay with their groups while they're undergoing Labyrinth runs, this also plays into the Minotaur's mechanics, and they're more than happy to say hello to players who are going AFK while inside. -
6 minutes ago, Luminara said:
Duplicitous isn't a good badge name for completing 10 tips.
No problem; I have very little attachment to any badge names; If you have a better alternative, I'm happy to swap it out, a lot were first-thought placeholders that nobody commented on so they ended up going out as they were.
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6 hours ago, Andreah said:
I'm curious as to what the in-lore explanation for the Labyrinth is. It's suggestive to me of a connection via mythology of the well of the furies and etc.
Per an earlier suggestion in this thread, I wrote up a short intro to the zone, it will be included in the next set of patch notes.
That being said, there's a lot more lore to this zone to be discovered beyond this:SpoilerThe secret vault of the Midnight Club is a vast trove and holds countless artifacts, most kept locked away for the safety of the world.
One artifact the Midnighters have utilized for many years in the training of their new magicians: A pocket dimension contained within an ancient cube created by the Cimeroran inventor Daedalus known only as the Labyrinth of Fog.
This labyrinth was a place constructed by the tools of the divine, housing an endless maze filled with visages of nightmare, borne from the memories of those who entered, and hunted by a monstrous beast that roamed its endless halls. It was a place where intelligence, strength, and wit could be tested to ensure the Midnighters who make rank can control the vast magics they command.
However, with the whole of humanity's safety at risk, the Dream Doctor has vowed to strengthen Earth's defenders by any means, and to this end sought to see the Labyrinth of Fog opened to any powerful hero or villain, to allow them to test themselves against superior versions of their greatest foes with no risk of death, a metaphysical danger room sustained by the arcane.
This would be the most promising method they had in their arsenal towards quickly building champions who could defend their world, and the need had never been greater. Any risks pertaining to the Labyrinth's original purpose would have to be dismissed in favor of the benefits it could provide to the world's strongest, after all, the Dream Doctor had himself trained in this Labyrinth.
Now, with the doors to this ancient dungeon opened to all, the Midnighters are providing support to those who are willing to face the worst of themselves and humanity's nightmares. Much hope was placed on those entering the Labyrinth of Fog and conquering its dangers that they might emerge as great champions.
"Imagine the birth of an army of heroes... Where each carried the individual strength of Perseus, amongst history's mightiest. Earth would be secure."
"...If you truly believe that the benefits outweigh the risks, then let us test humanity's champions of today."-
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57 minutes ago, Ukase said:
I only say that because I'm thinking of the badge. Anecdotally, I've had poor luck getting the option to fight them. I might rethink that if they spawn at 54+10 while I'm 50+1.
Gladiators ignore combat mods, so they always fight you at +0, no matter how many shifts are in the zone.
There's also a secret that can be discovered (more a solo player discovery) that will cause 100% of the Gladiators to become hostile to you every time, that's a trigger you can set with every trip to the zone.
It involves the motes.-
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18 hours ago, Sanguinesun said:
I get there is also this admitted testing the waters so to speak with "its pioneering a lot of new approaches to things"; and it would be interesting if the community as a whole were more aware of where that may be transparently heading...
I like pioneering new tech (primarily Lua right now) so we have a wider variety of methods and tricks we can use to create better content. There's no 'sinister master plan' here with new tech other than it's more interesting for me to work on personally, and it pays higher dividends to the team over time with the tech I come up with they can re-use and adapt later.
There's not much room for actual conversation if you so heavily taint your response with layers of bias and mistrust. We're not evil people trying to ruin the game.18 hours ago, Sanguinesun said:The backhanded "some prefer less complex experiences" was a pretty similar denunciation
18 hours ago, Sanguinesun said:Asking them "what sort of things would interest you enough to try them on a beta"
We as individual developers pitch our projects to the whole team and then we approve them based on their individual merit after discussion, and if approved, the pitching developer is responsible for seeing their project to completion.
I have a passion for content that forces Teams to actually work together as teams and pay attention, that's how the game HAD to be played when I got into City of Heroes as a kid in early 2005, and it's the style of gameplay that crashed and died the hardest when IO's and Incarnates were introduced later on and then, bizarrely, people started attacking the notion that this game could be one that had content where you had to actively play.
So yes, I have a personal interest in making sure the style of content I enjoy actually exists in the game somewhere.
I've been working on the Labyrinth of Fog (by myself, it was a personal dev project that didn't pull anyone else on the team away from anything else) since August 2023, and it started as an experiment on liminal space maps.
It will likely total over 12-months of work before the Labyrinth sees release. The Aeon Strike Force took me 10 months.
I'm not paid to do this, I work on what interests me because I'm donating thousands of volunteer hours using my personal free time to strive to create production-quality content.
If at any point, we start to hate our work, then we slow down or stop working. The only compensation we get for our work is the appreciation of fans of our content, and we do have fans, I've had people send me personal messages thanking me for the Advanced Mode content because it got them to join an active super group and it helped them meet a bunch of their current friends they play the game with. This is the core reward for me, seeing people have fun and make new friends.
The above reason is exactly why I do this content, and it's been a success in that, even if niche.
I've spent a large amount of time adding enormous breadth and span of content that benefits all kinds of players, not just Advanced Mode players.
The game had thousands of missions worth of easy content, but very little for those who want to actually engage with the game in a meaningful capacity.
We aren't just robots who work on whatever we're told, we're driven creative individuals with our own focuses, interests, and ways of enjoying the game and we hope to pass that passion on with the content we create.
I hope people can understand that at the end of the day I consider myself a servant of the game and the players who enjoy my work, I barely find time to play the game because that time ends up going to development work instead 9 times out of 10.
I'm also not the only developer, sure Cobalt projects end up favoring certain things, but there are a dozen other developers all adding things to the game and deliver completely different stuff from my own style of content.18 hours ago, Sanguinesun said:Story/lore shouldn't have to be "snuck in".
I don't disagree, and that's why it was a priority to ensure it was here in the Labyrinth. If you have alternative ideas on how to implement narrative/story elements into an open raid zone with no contact or story arc text, I'm open to suggestions and other ideas.
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Unable to get [Mote of the Gladiator]
in [Closed Beta] Bug Reports
Posted
That's not the white mote, that's the conceptual core of the Labyrinth. Motes have a physical glowing anchor ring around the cube.
The white mote is at the end of the Endless Colonnade and says something like 'First, Conquer the Labyrinth', it's not veiled meaning or meant to be misleading.