Jacke

I think those /linkinfo panels have some display bugs in certain contexts. One I know of is the "Show Detailed Info Here" in the Enhancement Management screen: it shows "<Recharge Value> (<Recharge Value without enhancement>)" but both values show are the same; really need to report that. I recreated your visual, which appears to be another "Show Detailed Info Here" in the Enhancement Management screen. That definitely has a display bug. Here's two ways to get a better view of that power with the 2 other ways to bring up a /linkinfo window. Enter this command: "/linkinfo Brawl" That shows the info on Brawl without enhancement (but it will have any buffs from having certain Fighting Pool powers). And sometimes gets the wrong variant power.... "5th Column Brawl" ?!? Seems to be the right values.... In the 3-column Powers display, scroll the right-hand column down to the Inherent section, right-click on Brawl, and select Info. Well damn, that one has display bugs too, maybe even worse. Just goes to show, "Them thar's bugs in them thar hills!" Gotta get to reporting these....

Oh, so it's a competition.... First to get all 6 Debt Badges wins!!! 😺 Finally, a use for bad PUG experiences. Nothing like having the Team recruit the mobs to voice their opinion. 😸

Ah, that's not the way -Res works. First, there's the Purple Patch. Even irresistible debuffs are changed by the Purple Patch (as @Captain Powerhouse once mentioned). For -Res, look at the Combat Modifier table and it's the strength of debuffs that changes, depending on the relative Levels between the toon and the target. For the common case of +4 non-Incarnate-content missions with Incarnated toons with a T3 or T4 Alpha boost, it's +3. So the value of the -Res will be reduced by a factor of 0.65. That means the Achilles Heel special will have its base 20% -Res reduced to 13% -Res in that case. And it's resistible -Res. Then you don't need to know the Resistances of the target. Because of way resistible -Res is resisted by Resistance to Damage: https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Resistance_(Mechanics)#Resistance_to_Resistance_Debuffs that 13% -Res (or whatever the -Res value is after Purple Patch) in all cases becomes 13% extra Damage outside of Damage Enhancement.

Blaster's AoE attacks are taunts. What do you think happens just before the Blaster's moto: Face-down and proud! I think having goals is admirable. I also think it's important to enjoy the journey, even focus on the journey, while heading towards those goals. Both are important. My experience is the opposite; I often hear these requests for help. This is also a game that can easily present obstacles. If players don't know how to reset a mission via swapping to another mission, or logging out, or for Task Forces the longer log out needed for reset, then it's very easy to have issues here. With the new auto-exemplar feature for old missions, it may become more common. And at least for general game missions, someone can get help by adding others to the Team. Not possible on Ouro arcs or Task Forces without restarting. Which is often the solution too. Excellent points! As @Troo noted, also so @tidge. 😺 The Blaster's moto: Face-down and proud! It's not just for Blasters, everyone can do it! Once you get the basics and intermediates of the game down pat, pushing the envelop in a smart way is how to test builds, test tactics, test your playing. And have fun! If it's not a no-defeat case like a no-defeat Master's run or other no-defeat, getting sent to the floor by the mobs is just your opportunity to say in Team chat: "Oops." 😺 At risk of being accused of treating the humour like pushing the marshmallow through the screen (gets through but something is lost in the process).... All the talk about "Wet" is from a feature that was added, then later dropped during Page 7's Open Beta. To boost the effects of some powers, a "Wet" status was added by using other powers. I imagine it was dropped due to just adding too much complexity and another fiddly thing to remember. Barely recall it. Except for all the "Wet" jokes. (Which goes back to at least "The Rocky Horror Show" and one of it's songs. 😺) You should have responded "A gentleman never tells. And should never acknowledge such impertinent questions. Good day, sir!"

Research away! If you want to spend time on figuring out these things, have at it. Some new knowledge could come from it. As for levelling not supporting the cost of adding SOs.... That one is also old. In the recent era, I've done a bit of testing and determined that using the "Upgrade" button on the Enhancement display is slightly more expensive than buying the SOs and slotting them or using to upgrade (with a chance of failure at times). But much more convenient. Which is the theme of options for slotting during levelling: a spectrum of options from inexpensive and time-consuming to expensive and convenient. I remember reading advice long ago on how to get through the TO and DO levels. That nearly the only TO worth slotting was Accuracy (especially before Beginner's Luck was added in Issue 12), rarely some of the others. And most TOs should be sold for Influence to save for later. (And Jack Emmert though players would stick with TOs into the L30s, which is why some stores sold them well into those levels. Another example of how the original devs largely didn't understand numbers in RPGs period.) Then it got more expensive once DOs were available, even though slotting got better. Once SOs were available at L22, keeping that slotting up got very expensive, especially into the L30s and L40s. I think that was part of the driver behind the changes to levelling done a long while ago across the late L30s and the L40s, to ease that burden and make that slog a bit easier. But as in the past, as it is now. To level toons and pay for the enhancements, it helps to have a L50 or another source of Influence. Currently the devs say it's intended for players to convert and sell some of the loot they gain while levelling, like Reward Merits, to support their toons' levelling. Once Invention was added to the game, it was one of the benefits of going with Common IOs: enhancements that didn't expire. Also added in some other benefits, higher values at later Levels and of course, the massive complex improvement of IO sets. Some players followed a minimal IO plan, example slotting some IOs at L22, then more at L32, then waited until L47 to slot L50 Common IOs and then IO sets. Other slotted some sets as they levelled. But crafting those IOs takes time, or costs buying them at the AH. Again, another trade off of convenience and cost versus time. Now we have come full circle. SOs are available from L2 up. But for levelling a toon, needs extra Influence to pay for those SOs. As was always the case.

I prefer the term "pre-Shutdown", others call it "Retail". Because we have Live Shards now, 5 of them. I don't think there were recent changes just before Shutdown, but from my recollection, going back further, there were many tweaks to the Levelling XP, especially in the L40's, to smooth out progress. From what I've heard, that's not likely at all. I have heard that 2XP and lesser XP boosts were available. There may have been some adjustments for some mobs, much as what was always happening pre-Shutdown and likely continues. Grinding is the past of City and is still very much present. And out-levelling contacts, I remember that from 2006. This is not something new. Out-levelling contacts has been a problem with City since long ago, only recently made easier to control with turning off XP. Way back many years before Shutdown, I found @RedTomax's site, with lots of information on City, the contacts, the arcs, and the powers, including the original City of Data. Best way to see it now is by this copy via the Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20140625145706/http://tomax.cohtitan.com/ @RedTomax, writing on how he gathered all that information, said he had to resort to massive accumulation of debt to avoid out-levelling contacts. Besides the common feelings of nostalgia and connection to the past, there can also be strong feelings of new, different, sometimes in an unsettling way. This can happen for all sorts of reasons. That the game is changing, evolving, improving, that's always going on. Yet wander through most zones and they've barely changed. Then compare Atlas Park to Echo: Atlas Park and the sense of WTF looms. There will always be these competing senses of good similarity to the past and good and not-so-good sense of change (as are our judgements of those changes as they happen). If there's a change in the XP rates and levelling, that's going to need good data from the past as well as recently to be certain about. Is it worth it, really? Or is it better to just enjoy the game.

Okay, more seriously. People are people. If you want better than what's the standard issue, then what's needed is: Better common schooling ('cause schooling is often effectively weak for a broad selection of reasons that often vary). Standard training designed for true competency (it works for all good Armed Forces around the world). Here at Muppet Labs Homecoming City of Heroes, we don't get either. So it's people are people, a lot of On-the-Job-Training (OJT), and strap in, 'cause it's going to be a bumpy ride! 😺 What's Past is Prologue. Some of my history that connects with the topic. Started playing City of Heroes in 2005. Been with Repeat Offenders since 2006. RO is good to great at learning the game, making the builds, and running Team content. I've learned a lot with them and become better at playing, making builds, even leading Teams. Since 2019 Apr 24th, RO repeated that here on Homecoming, mostly on the Everlasting Shard. Where also dwells and operates Everlasting TFs, with several players leading all sorts of content every day. They're fantastic at running large, complex, and hard content, guiding all sorts of players through them. My main Badging toon now has all Masters-of Badges on all content thanks to them. Thanks to this, I even understand my Nemesis now. Not the Prussian Prince of Automatons. The Keyes iTrial. Other large and complex content I eventually sort-of understood after a few runs. The Keyes iTrial confused the heck out of me despite being dragged through it several times. Then I went with Everlasting TFs on the Keyes. And the League Leader explained EVERYTHING before each part of the iTrial. Going through the iTrial, it all made sense to me now. I could even do critical roles successfully. OOOOOOOMMMMMMMMHHHHHHHHHH Enlightenment dawns. As in every human task, Leadership and Training is key. Failures are usually failures in Leadership, if only failure of Leadership to ensure proper Training. This is true but weakly applicable to City of Heroes. Playing City is very much supposed to be a social, informal, and relaxing gaming experience. This includes its Leadership and Training. What do I see in City play? The sames things as in Real Life but in the nature of City of Heroes: People are people. Everyone learns the most about City as OJT, soaking it all up during play. Takes a while, very variable. This includes how to lead Teams and Leagues in City content, also mostly OJT and very variable. This is very much social Leadership, more informal, less systematic. As is any Training. Some players take extra time to learn some things better. Also read and post on the Forums. Sometimes that pays off. A lot of City off-line conversation talks about making better builds and some better tactics, especially for harder content. The absolute "best" builds are not necessary. "Best" pursues some goals at the cost of weakening others, which can hurt them. "Best" is tricky and often a moving target due to City game changes. Builds good enough in critical ways makes play more enjoyable and reduces frustrations. Good harder-content Team and League pre-TF and in-TF chat talks about what to expect and vital tactics. The best Leaders of that harder content get most of those chats from a crafted Info Popmenu. The best Info Popmenus get improved from experience. That knowledge and better tactics delivered to the players is required for better experiences of the harder content. Some of the hardest content requires very careful knowledge, teaming, and tactics. Eventually needs coordinated balancing of Incarnate Destiny powers across the Team during most of the content. Going to play that content on a toon, extra Destiny powers to T3 and eventually T4 should be a long-term consideration. There's good players who sometimes figure they can push the envelop, split the Team, etc. Sometimes they judge it right. Sometimes they don't. The better players judge this correctly more often, especially when to slow down, team up, and be careful. A lot of the times on PUG Teams, I see a lot of low Endurance bars. Having a build with enough net recovery and adjusting play to aid recovery are basic core skills vital to good City play. Always have charges of Recovery Serum because most content allows temp powers. Have those issues solved in the build and tactics before playing the content not allowing temp powers. I wonder what other weaknesses the players and their toons' builds have. I've heard more bad PUG stories from my guild mates than I've personally experienced. All sorts of bad PUG stories. Including poor PUG Teams going for harder Notoriety than they can possibly handle. People are people. Accept that things will sometimes go wrong (it happens on the best of teams too). Perhaps gently make some helpful comments. Be prepared for them to be ignored. There's reasons why there was a focus on improving the New Player Experience in Page 7's changes. This is a game with multiple steep learning curves.

Exactly the problem with a complex system like the AH. I think that actually can't quite be done that way, as that's like running two middlewares talking to a backend SQL database (the front-end of the AH can only be part of the problem in its comms with the middlewares) which needs both middlewares to be carefully monitored and the SQL database to take commands from both and talk back without things going wrong. Would need a lot of stuff to work together. Things could go wrong without knowing why or was it the old or the new middleware going wrong. Or go right but not really give a confident feeling that the final system is good and an improvement. What I think needs to be done is below. This is the full process to do changing the AH code as safely as possible. Problem is such an exercise takes months minimum and all this testing could stretch this out longer than Page 7's development of 9 months. And that's not including the time it would take to specify and implement proper AH code. Though if and when we see new AH code in release, I think it will have gone through at least a skeleton of this process. 😺 Do not touch the existing AH code at all. Needs a Tiger Team of HC's good volunteer devs covering the needed skills to shepherd this from proper start to proper conclusion. SPECIFY THE HECK out of what the Auction House is supposed to do for its functions and processes to complete correctly. CAREFUL IMPLEMENT THAT SPECIFICATION in completely new AH code. MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE RANCH in the rest of the City code base: Complete the current considered foundation changes. Like moving more of the code to use the very good RNG code. Completed, bug checked in release, and hotfixed as necessary. The rest of City should be a truly solid foundation for a major change like the AH code. TEST THAT IMPLEMENTATION from scratch starting with an empty AH database. Likely a Closed Alpha test with a copy of the current Closed Beta with new AH code and an empty AH database. TEST THAT IMPLEMENTATION AGAIN but on an existing AH database that was run under the OLD AH CODE. Likely an Open Beta test with the new AH code and a copy of the current Live Shards Cluster AH database. FINAL CONFIRMATION PRODUCTION RELEASE and TESTING of the new AH code on the Closed Beta Shard and its existing AH database. Closed Beta has a smaller player population and AH database, so simpler bug-fixing and compensation by manual admin actions. ROLL OUT new AH code on Live Shard Cluster for production release. DUCK AND COVER Find bugs, fix bugs, compensate, etc. Hopeful just a few, even better if none. Hopeful all the Tiger Team devs survived the process. Month off!

It sure ain't the PUG experience we want! 😺

I am not a dev. At times in the past, I have seen really really bad code. Once or twice, I made sense of it. I was lucky to get away with but scars. I have heard tales of the Auction House. Unnamed Dev: "So it seems we (apparently inadvertently?) fixed one bug while causing another. This game, man." Our only hope is these same, brave Devs venturing out into the Shite Storm of Bad Code to see what is possible and attempt what they can. Not all of them return. Some return, but...changed by the experience. I hear some of them are looking forward to a calming river excursion. Up the Congo River. Or was it the Mekong?

There are a lot of sliders all over the UI where we: Don't know what the value is that is being set (like the body sliders in the Character creation screens, example the height of the toon, etc.). Can't easily fine-adjust those sliders (the amount of time I've spent on Options window's tabs' sliders getting them to be a particular value, say 50, not 49, not 51). Know it's UI work and it's a bit of a challenge retrofitting changes to that. But improving these would be a massive QoL improvement.

.... Oh, myyy. 😺

Oh yes indeed, it's annoying. And alas, I think RTD isn't as good now as he was 20 years ago. Will have to see what he's done with the new series when it comes out, but after those specials being a mixed bag, my expectations are rather muted. So, your Avatars are sort-of like the up-to 10 pointers that make up the Attributes Monitor Window. What they point at often gets changed in a major release. Much hilarity ensues. 😺

EDIT: I'd forgotten the details of others' support of City of Data 2, as @UberGuy details in the next post. What @UberGuy does do himself is continually refine that City of Data 2 website to serve up that data in a way we can use to better understand the fiddly bits of the various powers. There's a lot of feedback and suggestions from a number of devs and many other users of CoD2, but @UberGuy is the one who puts them into the website. Didn't do it all alone, but it's still an amazing achievement. 😺 Without @UberGuy, we wouldn't have this vital tool.

I thought all that "mavity" stuff was just idiotic. "Gravity" defined as the attraction of matter to other matter had been in place well before Newton.

And we all know how they ended up, in pieces. 😺 I make most of my Influence at the moment by Marketing. I'm patient and know things. 😺 Any attempt to upset or corner the Market is likely to pass and leave things much as they were, certainly in enough time. I wait until the prices seem to be good for making Influence again. There are long term changes, but I adapt to them.

Having the BadgeReporter Popmenu helps me a lot to quickly check the Day Jobs section for what Badges a toon has earned and needs to earn. BTW, I also maintain BadgeReporter and there's a new version just released for Issue 27 Page 7. See my signature below for the link to the post. Or here. 😺 https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/25091-theunnamedones-badgereporter-popmenu-version-20240220a/ Anyhoo, here's what I do to start new toons down the lightweight Badging path I send all of them on, starting with the Day Job Badges and a few others. I have a field in my toon LibreOffice spreadsheet to note where they're parked on logout to help track Day Job earning. I also note the day (UTC, 'cause that's the time on the City servers 😺) by entering in =TODAY()-DATEVALUE("YYYY-MM-DD") which then shows a value of how many days since I logged out that toon. Just have to update "YYYY-MM-DD" to today's date when I log in a toon. This was very important in the past when it took 21 days to earn each Day Job Badge and...10? days to charge a Day Job Accolade power. Now Day Job Badges only take 100 hours (4 days 4 hours) to earn, but still close to the same amount to charge the powers. Like @Psyonico, I normally go through the Day Jobs for Hospital (often starting in Outbreak Hospital when I park a toon after creation but don't have the time to finish including the Isolator Badge) then University then Midnighter's then park back in a Hospital to charge both the Revive Ally and Vitalize powers. Early on with a new toon, I normally take them to see Null the Gull in Pocket D. Push the conversation to get the Gullible Badge, turn off the Travel popup tray, and always accept Mystic Fortune, then rotate through all Alignments to get most of the Alignment Achievement Badges. Then go Vigilante and pop out Redside to get the "Grass is Meaner::Grass is Greener" Alignment Achievement Badge. Back to the Gull and change to Hero Alignment for the next 10 days to earn the first of the remaining 4 Aliignment Achievement Badges. With Page 7, I will add in quick trips to Studio 55 and the Paragon Dance Party to quickly get the "Party Animal" Badge too (except on Goldside toons, who will have to wait for PDP). Then I normally earn the next 2 Day Jobs at Vault Reserve then either Wentworths or the Black Market if Redside (the Auction House in Imperial City if Goldside). At this point, the toon has likely earned the "Heard the Call" Badge for 10 days as a Hero and the "Fearsome" Badge for 10 days as a Vigilante. So, with the base 5 Day Job Badges (Hospital, University, Midnighter, Vault, Market), some of which are on Accolades with the 6 Redside Day Job Badges, it's off to the Rogue Isles to rotate through them, as well rotate them through the "Frenzied" Badge for 10 days as a Villain and the "Trickster" Badge for 10 days as a Rogue. After the toon gets all 6 Redside Day Job Badges and is now a Rogue, it's back to the Gull to go Vigilante, then to Paragon City to earn the 6 Blueside Day Job Badges. Part way through this, if the toon is on my active play list, I'll play it in a few bursts to get enough Patrol XP to unlock the "Patroller::Criminal" Badge. Gettimg Patrol XP from Exploration Badges will make that easier. At this point, the only Day Job Badges left are accessible to both Blueside and Redside toons, so I then rotate the toon through getting them and charging the various Day Job Accolade powers. I may not use many of them, but all my toons have them, just in case.

New version of the BadgeReporter popmenu now released! Download it here! Change notes in the 2nd post of this thread. Installation and usage covered in the 3rd post of this thread. Version 20240220a release for Homecoming i27p7, 2024 Feb 20 Tue BadgeReporter.20240220a.mnu

I reported this error and this topic on the Gold Standard Testers Discord. It's being looked into by a dev. Please keep posting examples here giving the Contact, the Mission name, your toon's Level and Notoriety settings, and screenshots showing the up-levelled mobs. All that info will help.

It almost sounds like the Bosses are getting levelled to the maximum they can be (max level of the contact + 1), like a Signature Task Force. And with auto-exemplaring now in Page 7, no work-arounds.

The current location of the Silent Sentinel Badge is now in its original location as it was long ago in OG Atlas Park, which is what is appropriate for Echo: Atlas Park. I vaguely remembered where that was, but even with the /loc took me a bit to find it. When you get near the correct building, it's on the lowest of the ledges on the North side of the building.

Just now on the Homecoming Diag client, I could log in, connect to Everlasting, and select and load a character, as normal. Don't know if anything changes in the client. Version shows now for both it and the regular HC client as "27.7.5894.1". I did upgrade my Vidiotmaps install to the current version for Page 7, which now instead of being a bunch of files in "<CoH Root Folder>/data/" (all old Vidiotmaps files and directories removed) is now a single file "hc_vidiotmaps.20240221.1449.pigg" in "<CoH Root Folder>/assets/mods/" (I add the date-time stamp to the .pigg filename) with the client informed of that with a launch option of "-assetpath assets/mods" on all entries in the HC Launcher. Whatever fixed it, the Diag client is now good for me. 😺

Hey @SnoBahr, I've successfully upgraded to the latest Vidiotmaps for HC Issue 27 Page 7, dated 2024 Feb 21 Wed. I went to check all 3 Praetorian Underground maps. Like @Lunar Ronin and @AboveTheChemist, I found Vidiotmap Badges and Plaque markers in all 3 Underground maps. I have 3 suggestions to help you resolve your issues with Vidiotmaps: #1 in all cases. #2 if you installed Vidiotmaps via the City Mod Installer. #3 if you installed Vidiotmaps manually. #1 In all cases, clean up any extra files left over from old Vidiotmaps installs. Exit all City client programs. Go to the first post of this topic: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/37216-vidiotmaps-for-homecoming/ Carefully follow the instructions in the spoilers labelled "Removing/Deleting Old Installations" and "Outdated Files". #2 If you installed Vidiotmaps via the City Mod Installer, I'd suggest you do these steps: Exit all City client programs. In City Mod Installer, remove Vidiotmaps. Start the City client program, log in, and confirm there is no Vidiotmaps Badge and Plaque markers where you previously saw them. Log out and exit the client program. In City Mod Installer, reinstall Vidiotmaps. Start the City client program, log in, and confirm that Vidiotmaps Badge and Plaque markers are back where you previously saw them. Go to the Praetorian Underground zones and see if you can see Vidiotmaps Badge and Plaque markers in all 3 of them. #3 If you installed Vidiotmaps manually, I'd suggest you do these steps. Exit all City client programs. Go to the first post of this topic: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/37216-vidiotmaps-for-homecoming/ Carefully follow the instructions in the spoilers labelled "Installation" including: Re-download the "hc_vidiotmaps.pigg" file. In the install location "<CoH Root Folder>\assets\mods\": Delete any "hc_vidiotmaps.pigg" found there. Copy the "hc_vidiotmaps.pigg" file you just downloaded to this locatioin. In your Launcher for the City client programs, either Tequila or the HC Launcher: Add this game launch parameter to tell the game to check your "<CoH Root Folder>\assets\mods\" folder for mods: -assetpath assets\mods ...by following the instructions in this post by @Michiyo which are very detailed: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/38272-city-mod-installer-released/?do=findComment&comment=510815 Start the City client program, log in, and confirm that Vidiotmaps Badge and Plaque markers are back where you previously saw them. Go to the Praetorian Underground zones and see if you can see Vidiotmaps Badge and Plaque markers in all 3 of them. If you continue having issues, please report back what happened so we can give further advice.

Here I thought you were reasonable, liking lemons. I love lemons. Cut them open and eat the pulp. I also ate pizza today. With pineapple. I love pineapple on the right pizzas (many of them). I am also trained in defence against fresh fruit. I am prepared for your worst! 😺

I'm used to that iterative process as it's kind of what happens when I'm making IOs to market. Or tweaking a Popmenu, which when changed requires me to exit the game and relaunch the client to get the new Popmenu loaded to see if the changes did what I wanted them to. I think you have a lot of personal experience in actually using AE to make AE maps and arcs. Which is exactly what's needed for a good detailed suggestion on how to improve the current Soundstage B rooms and add an improved one to the Pocket D AE. I can think of 1 improvements for Soundstage B rooms: Make them complete by adding subdued contact holograms and a mission portal so all work to make an AE map and arc can be done without leaving.