Faultline

No, that is too simplistic a view because it assumes the code is looking at badges directly, which is isn't. The requirements are a string which is basically a list of functions and parameters. For example, if the requirements are "onMissionMap? VanguardEnabled owned? &&", the evaluator code would: - Run the "onMissionMap?" function and get a result of 1 or 0. - Run the "owned?" function with the "VanguardEnabled" parameter and return 1 or 0. - AND both values together to get a final result of 1 or 0. The "owned?" function is the one that would check for a badge, but that's not something the evaluator knows, it just goes through the list of functions and gets results. And more critically, if the Requires text doesn't have any calls to "owned?", then the code that checks for a badge is never called at all for that evaluation.

The reward side doesn't look at what badges you have got at all. Rewards can have requirements that go through a general evaluator which can check badges, the enemy group you defeated (Vanguard Merits use both), what powers you have (Windfall uses this), whether you are in a zone or mission map (Tour Guide tips), whether the map is Arena or Architect (used to disable things like Candy Canes in those) and a lot of other things. But the rewards code just hands off that list of requirements to the evaluator (which is just a line of text, like "VanguardEnabled owned? onMissionMap? && Loot_Booster ownPower? &&"), it doesn't look at anything directly, and the evaluator doesn't look at badges unless the requirements passed explicitly ask for it. No rewards check for any veteran badges. The same evaluator is used *everywhere* for many things, so any bug on it would be instantly and very obvious.

Are you willing to take the harsh diminishing returns that the PvP versions have for it?

This is planned but not before page4, page3 will add the remaining Tour Guides for the 15ish zones that have exploration accolades but no tour guides. The mission team is working on other content for page3 that has priority over the historian badges.

PvP Powers Changes These changes will not be going live in this patch - they are for testing only. Please provide your feedback if you would or would not like to see these changes go live! All travel power speed cap increases from Issue 27, Page 2 now also apply in PvP Modified the PvP diminishing return curves for travel speeds for testing purposes SpeedRunning set to 0.45, SpeedFlying set to 0.60, SpeedJumping set to 0.45 Sorcery > Arcane Bolt / Arcane Power Arcane Power can now trigger in PvP Damage bonus in PvP is 50% of the base damage rather than 100% Fortunata Hypnosis (IO proc): PvP placate effect reduced from 5.336s to 4s This puts it in line with the Presence pool's Pacify, which also does 8s PvE and 4s PvP Electrical Affinity: Rejuvenating Circuit: Increased the Main Target heal to do an extra 0.41 scale in PvP only. This makes the main target get the equivalent of a 1.96 scale heal (same as Heal Other from Empathy). The chain heal still works off of the 1.55 scale heal, so no change for the healing of secondary targets. Faraday Cage: Increased the duration of PvP-only effects to 20s (up from 5s). This includes mez protection, mez resistance, kb protection and repel protection. The other effects (PvE and Both) still use 5s. This increase in duration is to allow PvPers to have more time outside of the faraday cage bubble before wearing off. Faraday Cage: Decreased the activation period from 1 second to 0.2 second. The faster rate should allow for the Faraday Cage buffs to apply more quickly/reliably when moving through the Faraday Cage bubble. Note: This does not affect Static build up, that will still use a 5s activation period. Super Reflexes PvP tweaks (All ATs): Lowered the activation period of powers with scaling resistance from 2s to 0.5s (all ATs) Increased PvP Elusivity in Focused Fighting, Focused Senses and Evasion to 20%. Reverted scaling resistance and scaling elusivity changes from last patch. Added Toxic Resistance to all scaling resistance powers (all ATs) Bug Fix: Corrected Brute's Evasion elusivity duration. It was set to 0.75s when it was supposed to be 2.25s. This resulted in AoE elusivity dropping out between each 2s tick application. EMP Arrow PvP tweaks: Increased the duration of all PvP effects to 20s (up from 0.65s). This will allow players to buff themselves inside the EMP field, then exit for up to 20s of protection. These effects only include the following: Resistance to Mez, Teleport Protection to Mez, Knock, and Repel Power Surge and Unstoppable PvP tweaks (All ATs): Removed the HP crash Added Psionic Resistance (2.45 scale). The amount of psionic resistance is 35% of what the T9 typically gives to other damage types. Granite Armor PvP tweaks (All ATs): Added Psionic Resistance (1.75 scale). The amount of psionic resistance is 35% of what Granite Armor gives to other damage types.

Assuming Sunrise uses Tequila-compatible manifests, it is located at https://patch.savecoh.com/manifest.xml for the live servers and https://patch.savecoh.com/beta.xml for the beta servers.

This is not always the case - each Paladin Construction site is actually composed of many "Heap" spawn locations and one "PaladinEvent" spawn location. When the "PaladinEvent" spawn triggers, it spawns gear piles or waves of clockwork in the "Heap" spawn locations, and those spawns created by the event script will follow the Paladin when he is finished building. But those "Heap" locations can, and will, spawn either gear piles or clockwork defenders on their own, without the event being active, and those spawns, generated by the normal spawn mechanics of the game, will not follow the Paladin once its built. Note that currently, each spawn location is set to wait a random number between 0.001 and 36 hours before spawning the Paladin. If the event is too rare I can easily lower the maximum time, but that's what it was set during the entire lifetime of the game and I saw the event relatively often.

I'm tiptoing here because, again, I don't want to appear to attack the Ascension sysadmin, but citing a DDoS attack as a reason doesn't make sense. All OVH services include their Anti-DDoS solution. This is one of the things they explicitly, actively work to mitigate.

Don't worry. OVH doesn't generally suspend accounts for no reason. I don't want to speculate on what the reasons are because the could be construed as an attack on Ascension's sysadmin, but even if OVH were to actually suspend HC out of nowhere for no reason and delete everything in our servers, it'd only take us a couple of days to find a new host and restore from off-site backups. The worst case scenario is not a server death for us, because we have contingency plans in place. This does, once again, highlight the importance of backups. It's been two months since all the data on Sanctuary was lost, that should have been a big incentive to back up Ascension off-site every single day, from the start. Why they were operating without off-site backups after the giant wake-up call two months ago is beyond me.

Closing poll since this is getting patched to live now. To those suggesting changes to the event: noting those down for when the event gets revamped, but the whole point of this patch was to not have to spend development time on the event right now.

Here:

Again: the level is a check on the story arc, not the contact. It doesn't matter if the metacontact will talk to you 1-50 when the story arc is what prevents you from joining. In order for the second contact to give you the "expanded level" TF, then a copy of the TF file would need to be made that works for those levels, and I am not willing to have two copies of the same TF that need to be kept track of separately in any future changes for this.

They are a solution in search of a problem. They won't do what you want here, because again, even if you skip the checks on the contact, the story arc has its own requirements that are checked for the whole team. Changing the contact that gives you the story arc won't remove those requirements from the story arc. Positron is pretty much the only situation in the game where a metacontact remotely makes sense, because a Task Force contact can only ever give their one and only Task Force. The metacontact is a layer on top that makes the Positron standing in Steel not give you a Task Force, but instead give one of two other contacts, each with a different Task Force to give.

Task Force contacts are never introduced by other contacts, that would create all sorts of problems. You can certainly add additional checks (for everyone to have a badge for example) but I don't see how that's relevant since the point here is to reduce requirements, not add more. Check on the contact, not story arc, as described before. Positron in particular is messy, because it's three contacts, not one: when you talk to it, you get a "metacontact" which checks the requirements for two other contacts, and when you click on either of the two options at the bottom you're talking to a different contact, internally. The Positron that stands in Steel Canyon is Positron_2, which has a level range of 10-16 (but as a metacontact this is meaningless and not checked) and it links to the contact Positron_2_Task1 if you're 8-15, and to the contact Positron_2_Task2 if you're 11-16 and have the PositronRevampPart1 badge. There aren't many metacontacts in the game, in fact I think Positron is the only one remaining. That should not be a problem. I do not think there are any Rikti critters that are 45+ only, but I could be wrong.

The badge or token check is on the contact, not the Task Force. When the check happens, it's no different to you talking to any of the contacts in your list, so no requirements are checked on your team. When the Task Force starts, there are checks on the story arc (task forces and story arcs are the same in this context) and those do check your team for requirements. For a player it's hard to differentiate the two since it all happens on the same window, but from this side there's a clear distinction on the checks that happen just when you talk to a contact, and the ones that happen when you try to start a story arc. Ouroboros is similar in that you can consider the crystal interface to be a contact that displays every arc in the game; it has its own set of checks (have you completed the arc before or are you above its max level or are you at the level cap), then it checks if any contact would offer the arc to you personally (this is what stops you from seeing EAT story arcs on a normal character), then it checks the story arc requirements. Ouroboros doesn't allow you to skip existing requirements, it just adds more of its own on top. I did look into reducing the whole arc to 35, but the Weakened Hamidon is only part of the issue. There are several enemies that only spawn above 40, some of which only appear on the TF and should be no problem to reduce (Dra'gon, Honoree, the Horsemen Four) but others are part of the normal Rikti faction (such as Mesmerist boss) and reducing them would cause them to start spawning on level 35 missions where they never spawned before. At that point it becomes a balance concern I'm not ready to deal with, since I know some of the late game Rikti can be pretty brutal and introducing them to lower level missions could be a problem.

Those sets were introduced last year to be used in damage powers such as Electrical attacks. The inclusion of damage and accuracy on them is by design, not a bug, and won't be changed. Relevant patch notes: Synapse's Shock (Endurance Modification, Rare, 21-50) The first of two new Endurance Modification sets with a damage focus, designed to be useful in endurance-draining attack powers. Enhancements: Endurance Modification Damage / Recharge Endurance Modification / Recharge Damage / Recharge / Accuracy Damage / Accuracy / Endurance Reduction UNIQUE: Endurance Modification / 15% Increased Run Speed Set Bonuses: 2: 7.5% Movement Speed 3: 10% Slow Resistance 4: 8% Regeneration 5: 6.25% Recharge 6: 4.5% Energy / Negative Resistance + 7.5% Mez Resistance Power Transfer (Endurance Modification, Rare, 21-50) The second damage-focused Endurance Modification set. Enhancements: Endurance Modification Damage / Recharge Endurance Modification / Damage Damage / Accuracy / Endurance Reduction Damage / Recharge / Accuracy / Endurance Reduction Chance to Heal Self (3 PPM) Set Bonuses: 2: 6% Regeneration 3: 1.35% Max Endurance 4: 1.875% Max Health 5: 9% Accuracy 6: 7.5% Recharge

Can you cite an example of a Task Force that works this way? As far as I know, this is not possible. All members in a Task Force must meet the minimum level to start it.

I can reduce the TimeToHeroSuccess to 10 minutes, but that's pretty much it for tweaks - the event runs on the original COH scripthook+spawndefs system which is not very pleasant to work with, and I don't want to waste a lot of time on it. When the event is properly redone it will be using a different scripting system that we have been expanding recently, but that won't be patched to Live until Page 3 for use in the [redacted], and it's unlikely the Paladin event will be looked at before Page 4.

I have no idea. That's a question for @Captain Powerhouse or maybe @UberGuy or @Bopper know. I'm not a powers person.

Take it with @Jimmy, he likes the trucks and wants an interdimensional van network.

All mobs in the TF should spawn based on the team leader's level and difficulty settings; a level 45 leader set to +1 should result in level 46 enemies, including Hamidon, its mitos and the resulting buds.

Brainstorm Only Paladin Event Reverted the Paladin Event to the pre-Issue 24 version; you have to prevent the Paladin from being built by defeating waves of Clockwork. The event runs the same as it did on Issue 23, with the only change being that the Clockwork ambush mobs are level-less in order to reward XP and drops. This may or may not make it to Live based on player feedback. The current version of the event is pretty buggy and requires Kings Row to be set to a very low player cap on the live servers in order to work around its issues by allowing players to open multiple instances of Kings Row to run the event in before it glitches. It is also not particularly great, as it requires players to hunt down bosses spread all over Hide Park before defeating Paladin, which rewards the badge. The old version of the event does not get stuck and will allow the player cap in Kings Row to be set to normal, but it is a random timed spawn with no way for the players to trigger it; you just have to watch for it. Once it does trigger, it consists of many waves of clockwork that must be defeated while preventing the Paladin from being built. After all the waves are defeated, destroying the Paladin construction site rewards the badge. If the Paladin is built, it will not reward the badge even if defeated. Revamping this event has been on my to-do list for a long while, but it is unlikely anything will be ready before Page 4. This thread and poll is to discuss which version of the event do players prefer to keep until then.

Brainstorm Only Freebies Menu Updated to the latest version from @AboveTheChemist Paladin Event Reverted the Paladin Event to the pre-Issue 24 version; you have to prevent the Paladin from being built by defeating waves of Clockwork. The event runs the same as it did on Issue 23, with the only change being that the Clockwork ambush mobs are level-less in order to reward XP and drops. This may or may not make it to Live based on player feedback. Use this Focused Feedback thread to discuss and vote on this change. PvP Powers Changes These changes will not be going live in this patch - they are for testing only. Please provide your feedback if you would or would not like to see these changes go live! All travel power speed cap increases from Issue 27, Page 2 now also apply in PvP Modified the PvP diminishing return curves for travel speeds for testing purposes per a recommendation from Alouu SpeedRunning set to 0.37, SpeedFlying set to 0.75, SpeedJumping set to 0.35 Sorcery > Arcane Bolt / Arcane Power Arcane Power can now trigger in PvP Damage bonus in PvP is 50% of the base damage rather than 100% Fortunata Hypnosis (IO proc): PvP placate effect reduced from 5.336s to 4s This puts it in line with the Presence pool's Pacify, which also does 8s PvE and 4s PvP Electrical Affinity: PvP Only - Change to Rejuvenating Circuit and Faraday Cage Increased the Main Target heal for Rejuvenating to do an extra 0.41 scale in PvP only. This makes the main target get the equivalent of a 1.96 scale heal (same as Heal Other from Empathy). The chain heal still works off of the 1.55 scale heal, so no change for the healing of secondary targets. Increased the duration of PvP-only effects to 20s (up from 5s). This includes mez protection, mez resistance, kb protection and repel protection. The other effects (PvE and Both) still use 5s. This increase in duration is to allow PvPers to have more time outside of the faraday cage bubble before wearing off. Super Reflexes PvP tweaks Scrapper, Brutes, and Tankers: adjustments to Agile, Dodge, and Lucky - Lowered Activation Period from 2s to 0.5s (provides faster updates for scaling resistances) - Lowered duration of effects from 2.5s to 0.75s (in response to the faster activation rate) - Separated scaling resistance effects for PvE and PvP - PvE scaling resistance is unchanged - PvP scaling resistance begins at 75% HP instead of 60% HP. The rate of scaling resistance is unchanged (1% res for every 3% HP lost). This will make the 3 auto powers total 75% damage resistance at 0% Health (up from 60%). - PvP now includes Toxic scaling resistance (still no Psionic resistance) Stalker: adjustments to Agile and Dodge - Lowered Activation Period from 2s to 0.5s (provides faster updates for scaling resistances) - Lowered duration of effects from 2.5s to 0.75s (in response to the faster activation rate) - Separated scaling resistance effects for PvE and PvP - PvE scaling resistance is unchanged - PvP scaling resistance begins at 75% HP instead of 60% HP. The rate of scaling resistance is unchanged (1.25% res for every 3% HP lost). This will make the 2 auto powers total 62.5% damage resistance at 0% Health (up from 50%). - PvP now includes Toxic scaling resistance (still no Psionic resistance) Sentinel: adjustments to Agile, Dodge, and Enduring - Lowered Activation Period from 2s to 0.5s (provides faster updates for scaling resistances) - Lowered duration of effects from 2.5s to 0.75s (in response to the faster activation rate) - Separated scaling resistance effects for PvE and PvP - PvE scaling resistance is unchanged - PvP scaling resistance begins at 75% HP instead of 60% HP. The rate of scaling resistance is decreased (from 1.25% res per 3% HP to 1% res per 3% HP). This will make the 3 auto powers still total 75% damage resistance at 0% Health (unchanged), but the scaling resistance will kick in sooner. - PvP now includes Toxic scaling resistance (still no Psionic resistance) Additional Super Reflexes changes to PvP (Brainstorm only) Added scaling elusivity to auto powers. Starting at 75% HP, the elusivity for that power's attack type (Melee, Ranged, or AoE) will increasing linearly, capping at 15% at 0% HP. For Stalkers and Sentinels, they do not have an auto AoE defense power (Lucky), so the AoE scaling elusivity was added to Evasion. Changed Elusivity's duration for PvP defense to 0.75s (down from 2.25s). Hopefully this has no impact on FX. EMP Arrow tweaks for PvP (Brainstorm only) Increased the duration of all PvP effects to 20s (up from 0.65s). This will allow players to buff themselves inside the EMP field, then exit for up to 20s of protection. These effects only include the follow: - Resistance to Mez - Resistance to Teleport - Protection to Mez - Protection to Knock and Repel

Colour Key Most changes from the previous beta build are listed in green. Green text will become white text in the next set of patch notes. Any changes or fixes that are only relevant to the beta builds (ie: fixes / tweaks to new features) are listed in blue. Blue text will be deleted in the next set of patch notes as it is only relevant to highlight changes between beta builds, not changes from live. Powers Sorcery > Arcane Bolt / Arcane Power Activating and deactivating toggles will no longer grant Arcane Power Removed the "...crackle at your fingertips" combat log message, this was mainly for testing purposes Removed the "ARCANE POWER" floating message With the VFX and yellow ring around Arcane Bolt, the added floating message was overkill as it kept triggering if you didn't make use of the proc Inherent > Walk Movement speed cap adjusted from 3.15mph to 3.25mph (to match NPC walking speed) Jumping speed cap increased to 14.32mph (the base jumping speed) Miscellaneous Removed Arachnos ambushes from delivery missions to Mercy Island in the Temple of the Waters SF Removed Malta ambush from delivery missions to Mercy Island in Vernun von Grun's story arc. Removed Crey ambush from door mission to Mercy Island in Operative Grillo's story arc. Renamed the Shopkeeper badge to Proprietor (as Shop Keeper already exists as a day job badge) The minimum level to start the Lady Grey TF has been changed back to 45 as it was on live The Weakened Hamidon can now spawn from level 45 to 54 Weakened Hamidon buds now spawn down to level 45 Arena You can no longer begin observing an arena match if you had any combat activity in the past 10 seconds Arena Observer / Gladiator modes will now automatically kill all pets on entry (certain pets could still be summoned when entering an arena match) Pocket D DJ Zero has added some additional entrances to the club An Atlas Park entrance has been added to the Hero-side lobby Mercy Island and Nova Praetoria entrances have been added to the Villain-side lobby The minimap has been updated to reflect these changes (and also include the Tiki Lounge, Monkey Fight Club and Architect Entertainment areas) Bug Fixes Firebase Zulu: Closed holes in the collision boundary of the zone The Chantry: Closed holes in the collision boundary of the zone Echo Plaza: Added a collision boundary around the zone to fix issues with teleportation powers Talos Island: A number of floating rocks and bushes have been brought back to the ground The Paragon City Hall has issued its monthly statement reminding Gravity Control heroes that this isn't funny Cleaned up some unintended behaviour with the Fortunata Hypnosis proc Fixed the geometry of certain Goldbrickers NPCs that had a major hole in their neck Fixed the animation of Tech Generator objects inside missions using the tech base lair so it animates properly Fixed the Ally Revive script used in the Brickstown story arcs Fixed an issue with Cognitive and Spectral Interface Procs This was a bug introduced last year when Interface DoT procs got fixed It turned out that the procs were missing the tag needed to turn on the effect group Ambrosia and Essence of the Earth inspirations should now be usable even if the player is under Untouchable state Henchmen in Untouchable state, if any, will still see no benefit from these inspirations EMP Arrow: Possibly fixed a bug that made procs use the unintended pseudopet formula instead of the original click formula Fixed a bug that would cause Orbital Lance (from War Walkers) to never fire.

The "under cover" check is done by casting a ray directly upwards from the player and checking if it hits any geometry. It's not a flag that can be applied to an area.