Jacke

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.

Sounds (I did not mean that pun!) like the Pocket D AE needs a quiet Soundstage B for players wanting to work on their AE maps and arcs, like the other AE Buildings have. Perhaps you should make that as a suggestion, as you have the personal context and experience to really make a good and thorough suggestion.

I know enough about Storm Blast that I agree with @WindDemon21's analyses of the changes in Page 7. And those changes make me sad. Storm Blast is already a Blast powerset that has a few powers that need the toon to stay put much more than other powersets, as the pseudo-pets don't really move that fast. This stay-put boosting isn't just needed for major fights but all the time for Storm Blast. Because Storm Blast is already a meh powerset. At least making it slightly less meh is an improvement. Well, until the toon needs to move. Now there's a bigger demand that the player focus on using their Storm Blast powers so much, to the point of ignoring other powers. Herm.... Is is continuous intense focus that can't stand any interrupts? (Like old Brute's Rage.) Or is it tolerant to some interrupts? (Like current Brute's Rage.) Does intense use of feature move the toon from good to better? Or does it move the toon from meh to slightly less meh? I don't have numbers. But my best appreciation of what those numbers would be and their effect is that Storm Blast isn't where it should be. This should soon be apparent in the stats that the devs can gather. But hey, I played an AR/Dev Blaster from 2006 on as my main. I laugh when I play powersets with crappy performance. But I'm a bit tired from laughing so much, so I may be a bit slow to make a build for a Storm Blast toon and creating it. Perhaps when rested, the devs take another serious look at Storm Blast again? Once more! With feeling! (No Jazz Hands!!! 😺)

The changes in Page 7 converting Exploration Badges from giving an amount of immediate XP to now giving a greater amount of Patrol XP is an outright buff in all circumstances, for each individual toon and for a player's whole slate of alts. Like immediate XP, Patrol XP will immediately retire Debt on the toon at 1-for-1 exchange. Immediate XP retires 50% of its value in Debt, the other 50% added to toon's XP progress. While Patrol XP retires its entire value in Debt, clearing Debt faster. The retired Debt then contributes to the progress on the Debt Achievement Badges. Otherwise, the toon needs to defeat mobs to convert the Patrol XP to immediate XP at a 1-for-1 exchange. A given mob's defeat allowing the conversion of an amount of Patrol XP equal to 50% of the mob's defeat XP. Which means to use Patrol XP, either get Debt or defeat mobs. That is, play the toon. The whole point of City of Heroes. Under Page 6 and before, when you run out of Patrol XP on a toon, to continue the play session, you are then forced to either: Continue playing the toon without Patrol XP Use a charge of Experienced (if you have any) to get more Patrol XP. Or swap to another toon. If you swap or stop playing that toon when you want to play it more, that means the lack of Patrol XP is controlling which alt you play when. Under Page 7 and after, you now have another option: Get more Patrol XP by getting more Exploration Badges not yet unlocked on that toon. Consider the impact of the change from Page 6 to Page 7 on each toon. Under Page 6 and before, all the Exploration Badges not yet unlocked represented a reserve of immediate XP. Under Page 7 and after, all the Exploration Badges not yet unlocked represent a reserve of Patrol XP. GREATER than the reserve of immediate XP was on Page 6 and before. Patrol XP is used to either retire Debt or boost XP earned from defeating mobs by 50%. A given amount of Patrol XP is used 1-for-1 to retire Debt or earn that 50% boost of XP from mob defeat. Other earned XP doesn't benefit from Patrol XP but also doesn't use it up. That means each toon now gets more XP from Exploration Badges in the long run. The change encourages getting Exploration Badges on toons. Unlocking more Zones on the Long Range Teleport Power. Toons will also get more Reward Merits (5 RMs for each Zone Exploration Accolade). The Patrol XP that Exploration Badges give is under control of the player when to gain on a toon by when they take that toon out to get more Exploration Badges. I see no downside.

? Okay, I'm not quite getting this and I'd like to understand what you meant. A player defeats their own toon repeatedly to get Debt and eventually the Debt Achievement Badges as that Debt is retired. If they log out and leave the toon idle, when they log back in, there's more Patrol XP. Whenever Patrol XP is earned, whether logged out, getting new Exploration Badges, or using charges of Experienced, it will remove Debt. Players wanting the Debt Badges want this to happen (it's how the Badges are earned). The new Exploration Badges' Patrol XP is more than the previous XP the Badges granted. By defeating mobs, that Patrol XP turns into actual XP, but more than before the change. What's not for everyone to like? I saw what you said there. Remember, consider the original statement you adapted that from was made true in the Third Punic War. Which many Romans thought was the when they crossed a line that doomed them to Fated misery in conflicts that more and more pitted Roman against Roman, killing many Romans and causing much suffering and loss of the freedoms they cherished. Be careful what you wish for. I've got my eye on you! (And so does Regen!)

I do juggle several alts. It is not a net loss when playing that way. All those Exploration Badges a given toon hasn't got yet? They're a VAST reserve of untapped Patrol XP. That YOU control for each toon when to tap. You play a given toon for an extended period (happens quite often), oh well, out of Patrol XP. Don't want to stop playing this toon, really in the groove. Also out of charges of Experienced, or not wanting to use them. Really wish this toon had more Patrol XP. So go get some Patrol XP NOAW!!! Go through a Zone and get all the Exploration Badges! With various guides, takes a few minutes. Now you have more Patrol XP! (And 5 Reward Merits too!!!) Yes, there will be times, like in the middle of a Task Force, you can't grab more Exploration Badges for more Patrol XP. THAT'S when you use Experienced to get more Patrol XP. For EVERY OTHER TIME for EVERY OTHER TOON, all those Exploration Badges not yet taken are Patrol XP on tap. That can be tapped at will when needed. EDIT: It take 240 hours logged out for a toon to maximize its Patrol XP to 10 Bubbles, a Bubble every 24 hours. So the above even applies over successive days' play sessions. A toon played often will eventually drain its Patrol XP completely and only get it back slowly. All those Exploration Badges not yet unlocked are more Patrol XP that can be accessed at will when needed and replenish Patrol XP a lot faster than logging out. EDIT: Also, more exactly, Patrol XP gives a 50% bonus to mob defeat XP only. Other XP doesn't benefit from Patrol XP but also doesn't use it up.

For those not liking the loss of XP for Exploration Badges, THE CHANGE WAS AN OUTRIGHT BUFF. Before, Exploration Badges gave a bit of XP. Okay, mostly meh most the time. Now, Exploration Badges give more but as Patrol XP. WOW!!! Patrol XP means 50% more XP as you defeat mobs and complete missions! Besides applications of the Experienced Power Which every toon gets 5 charges of every year. And more come in Super Packs. THIS IS THE ONLY WAY TO GET MORE Patrol XP WITHOUT LOGGING OUT AND LEAVING YOUR TOON IDLE. In other words, use a trickle of getting new Exploration Badges as you play to keep your stock of Patrol XP up and getting 50% more XP for longer!!! EDIT: More exactly, Patrol XP gives a 50% bonus to mob defeat XP only. Other XP doesn't benefit from Patrol XP but also doesn't use it up.

After the Hotfix earlier tonight, tried the Homecoming (Diag) client again, trying to load Everlasting Shard, second time Indomitable Shard, which has only ever had 1 anchor toon. Both times client crashed out immediately when told to load a Shard, similar to the 2 crashes before the Hotfix; sent 2 more memory dump crash reports. Regular Homecoming client still working okay. 4 total memory dump crash reports on the Diag client, @Number Six, 2 before the Hotfix, 2 after.

The Homecoming (Diag) client on Page 7 is crashing when I tried to connect to Shard Everlasting and load my characters. Sent in 2 memory dump crash reports. Regular client appears to be working fine.

I kind of enjoy the City of Heroes comics too. Maybe someday we'll see them again.. But beyond that...? Let's look at the example of Dungeons and Dragons, who's first edition was released in 1974. Its foundations were connected to the 1971 miniatures wargame rules Chainmail and its fantasy supplement. It took 50 years to get finally a good D&D film finally, last year's Dungeons & Dragon: Honor Among Thieves (2023). Although there have been many other comic book movies, many of them are of...variable quality. So, following D&D's example, we should see a good City of Hero's film some time in the 2050's. I sure hope I'm still playing City (should have at least a few more L50's 😺). But if I'm alive, I'll be in my 90's. 🙀

|| Character Creation Guidance || Origin selection guidance text updated to clarify that it's primarily a narrative choice with minimal gameplay significance. Perhaps also note that the Origin, the Archetype, and the Primary and Secondary Powerset choices are fixed for this particular character. (I have rerolled a toon just to change their Origin. Also to change the other 3, but they have more impact on the toon's play. But yes, that Origin mattered enough that wanting it to be different, I had to change it and thus reroll.) || Access to Travel || New characters are given 30 minutes of the LKT-1700 Rocket Pack when training to level 2. The description informs players how to get more. || Swapped from Sky Raiders Jet Pack to LKT-1700 Rocket Pack. Damn. With all those LKT-1700's runnin', going to sound like a flight of Hueys right out of Vietnam. 😺

User Interface Improvements The power recharge timer now defaults to on (Center). When centered, the recharge timer slightly increases in size as it approaches 0, and has an extra animation when the power is recharged. Icons of recharging powers no longer shrink when the recharge timer is enabled, to make them easier to see behind the number. New settings added to control power tray animations and add more customization options (format options, color coding, opacity) for the recharge timer. Kudos to whoever thought of these changes. I just popped onto Brainstorm to check these new settings out. Located under Menu > Options > Options window > Windows tab > Powers section about midway down Having the recharging powers icons no longer shrink but just grey-out is a good change. I still think "Top" is better than "Center" or "Bottom". Out of the way of the tray slot numbers and above the centre of the icon, making the icons of recharging powers easier to make out. I prefer these settings: Power Tray Animations Enabled Power Recharge Timer Top Recharge Timer Format Minutes & Seconds w/ fractions Recharge Timer Color Enabled Recharge Timer Opacity 100%

Power Bug Fixes .... Miscellaneous .... Radiation Emission - Enervating Field power icon exchanged with Radiation Infection's OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG Someone inform the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Age of Miracles has returned. A bug since launch. Now finally fixed. 😺 (I noticed it on the RC1 patch notes just as RC2 was being rolled out.) Confirmed on my Rad/Rad Defender on Brainstorm.

I'm not a dev nor a member of the support staff. I'm a player of City. But I'd like to speak up for the devs and support staff at this time. I've done jobs very similar to theirs. I understand a lot of the issues they face. It's good that when you noticed things were wrong, you submitted a support ticket. That's one of the ways we as users of this game, players in our City, help contribute to helping the devs and support staff find the problems and fix things now and in the future. First, a safety note: While playing in City, when you change something on your toon and have finished changing it, change ZONES. That makes a backup. Change your Supergroup Base, leave it and let it be unloaded and backed up. These backups can help solve many issues. Now, back to our City. Our City is what's called a legacy system. That means it's large, complex, and has been around for a long time. It's not so much jury-rigged as adapted several times to changing circumstances and hardware. It bears the imprint of every dev, full-time, part-time, and contract, that ever worked on it. And as I learned in my working past, many times the work that was done before now, further in the past, it wasn't necessarily the best work or the most appropriate. Often those working back then were working to deadlines. And when things were seen to be complete, tested to be good enough, well, that was it. Release it and let the players benefit. Most times that was good enough. But there's also a long history of some parts that aren't as good as they should be. The devs and support staff we have now are a much better group of computer craft workers than are usually seen. All of them are volunteers that are doing what they do out of love for our City. They've got a lot of legacy system to maintain and keep running. Not just the game as players see it. All those admin tasks the support staff do. All the work on the plumbing underneath that the devs do. That plumbing that makes the game go and makes work all the pretty possibilities we can play with. Identifying what to review in that plumbing, how to change it, when to change it, and finally go about changing it, all by that crew of volunteer devs backed up by a crew of volunteer support staff. Even with enough warm bodies supporting a legacy system , changing it for the better can only be done so fast. Our City we play in is that legacy system. Anything persistent is stored in a database. There are many databases in City. Anytime something changes, or things interact, there's code pulling items out of those databases into memory, working with them, transforming them, then storing them back into the databases. And at times, backups are made of things in the databases. It's all part of the design of that legacy system that is our City. What happened on Monday is that for some reasons, internal and not really useful to those who don't have to work on the plumbing, the workings of City that had to change some of those items from the databases, then store them back into those databases, for those reasons, they mangled some of the items. That was identified in good time, then the emergency maintenance done to stop the things going wrong and resolve those reasons for things going wrong. There still seems to be some issues, but that can come from using items mangled earlier that are still in the databases. It's up to us as users to report when things aren't right. When reported, those issues can be resolved, from a backup or in some cases carefully fixing what's broken. I have full confidence in the devs and support staff running our City. Fixing the problems and making our gaming home how it should be. 😺

I believe I've found a misplaced line and some typos in the Open Beta RC1 Patch notes for Mind Control Telekinesis and Levitate, copied below. I think this line should be under Telekinesis. "Endurance cost reduced from 3.12 per second to 1.04 per second." Two instances of Levitate and two of Telekinesis not spelled with an initial capital in the line starting with: "When your Telekinesis is active...." Lines in the patch notes sometimes end with periods, sometimes don't. Way too many to edit them all now. But perhaps at least remove the periods from the 3 lines originally under Levitate so they match those under Telekinesis. Mind Control/Telekinesis: No longer holds Now Immobilizes Target cap increased to 16 Radius increased to 20' Recharge increased from 60s to 120s Will now keep the targets between 40 and 60 feet from the player Will group enemies close to the main target (i.e. "reverse repel" or "pull towards"). Toggle now lasts a max of 30s before auto-shutdown Mind Control/Levitate: When your Telekinesis is active, your use of levitate on a telekinesis-anchored foe will cause your levitate to hit in an AoE and your telekinesis power will be deactivated. Endurance cost reduced from 3.12 per second to 1.04 per second. Power can now be used on the primary target of Telekinesis regardless if the target is dead or alive.

Posted these Patron Pool changes typos in the Open Beta RC 1 topic. Copying here so they don't get missed.