Jacke

March 7

3 minutes ago, Lockely said:

The issue initially cropped up as part of data gathering for the issue of enhancement slotting in the New Player Experience. @Super Atom did some combat testing and determined that Inf rates were not sustainable for the cost of slotting and maintaining vendor enhancements into a character as they leveled. (At levels 24->25 you can afford exactly 2 SOs on minion drop budget) In that same test, we saw what looked like a discrepancy with XP rates and what the wiki showed.

Is a whole table necessary? Well, yes, for analytical purposes to determine if other things need adjusted. It'd be nice to know the Inf drop calculation too.

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.

March 7

11 hours ago, AboveTheChemist said:

I have no idea if the Reward Scale values were used on Live or not, but if so I don't see anything in the (admittedly small) dataset I gathered that leads me to think that XP awards are different on HC compared to Live.

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.

11 hours ago, Lockely said:

@Rudra also said it was "already known" that SCORE had increased XP and Inf rates back when the server was private to let people get up to where they were on Live a bit faster.

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.

11 hours ago, Lockely said:

I'm happy to be wrong if the data proves otherwise, It's weird that it doesn't match up to the (albeit limited) testing done earlier, nor our collective experiences leveling on Live versus leveling via HC. Even without 2x XP, you regularly out-level contacts on HC in nearly every single zone and back on Live it would often require a significant amount of Paper/Radio missions between contacts because you would finish them and not gain enough levels for the next set. Leveling on Live required significant grinding that isn't really present on HC.

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.

11 hours ago, Lockely said:

*Something* is different, seems like we need to do some testing to figure out where the incongruence is.

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.

March 4

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.

March 4

33 minutes ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

I'm not a dev either, but if I were, my fear in mucking around with the /AH code and breaking it would be paramount.

Exactly the problem with a complex system like the AH.

33 minutes ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

My suggestion on that would be that they build an entirely new /AH from scratch with solid database code without dismantling the current one. Let them run concurrently for some time, get people to move items to the new one, then stop support for the legacy code.

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, B~~ACK 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!

March 4

21 minutes ago, Bionic_Flea said:

Pugs are Batman karma at work. You don't get the pug experience you deserve, you get the pug experience you need.

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

March 4

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.

On 3/1/2024 at 8:05 PM, macskull said:

Devs: introduce a bug fix to reduce instances of blank/incorrect price histories

Game: makes blank/incorrect price histories happen more often

Devs:

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?

March 4

1 hour ago, The Curator said:

User Interface

Adjust the tooltip delay slider to show the actual number of milliseconds rather than an ambiguous percentage.

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.

March 2

On 2/29/2024 at 9:17 PM, Scarlet Shocker said:

Super Twats Actually Really Terrible

....

Oh, myyy. 😺

March 1

1 minute ago, GM Crumpet said:

Off topic but it's RTD so I imagine it's got a bigger thing coming up. Or it better have as it's really annoying.

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.

Just now, GM Crumpet said:

And it's always fun when there is a new patch as things get moved about. As those of you who have seen GM's in action know, we use ingame avatars. After a patch it's always fun to see what we will log in as. Once I appeared in atlas as a massive space ship that was so big I couldn't scroll back far enough to get a screen shot, another time I appeared as a door 🙂

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. 😺

March 1

On 2/26/2024 at 1:54 PM, Crysis said:

[ I ] was extremely happy to find not only that COD has been rebuilt entirely by so many thoughtful and knowledgeable players, but also that it's like totally updated for recent changes.

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.

February 27

On 2/6/2024 at 6:19 PM, Lockely said:

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.

February 27

6 hours ago, Black_Assassin said:

Looks suspiciously like the Crazy 88s

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.

February 27

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.

February 27

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

February 25

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.

February 25

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.

February 23

8 hours ago, borgking001a said:

Is the Silent Sentinel badge in the same place in Echo:AP?

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.

February 23

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. 😺

February 22

On 2/21/2024 at 8:29 PM, SnoBahr said:

When you get the chance, can you put the badge locations back in for the Praetorian Underground maps? They were there a couple of months ago, but weren't there last week or the week before (I don't remember when I'd looked).

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.

February 22

On 2/20/2024 at 9:06 PM, Luminara said:

Pineapple pizza?

Pineapple?

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! 😺

February 21

13 minutes ago, Lockely said:

The existing quiet rooms need TLC before we even think about adding one to Pocket D. They're inconvenient to use since they don't have a mission contact / entryway.

A ton of AE work is iterative. You push a small change, test it as fast as you can, drop the mission, and jump back into the editor. The quiet rooms add extra unnecessary movement and doorway phasing that you need to do on both sides.

The normal AE buildings are fine and literally hurting nothing.

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.

February 21

1 hour ago, Lockely said:

Absolutely not! Do you know how difficult it is to focus on AE when you're working on it in Pocket D? It's fine as a transport location, but trying to write and focus on story-based missions with all the powers going off around you, music blaring, and local chats spiraling by is doing AE creation on masochism mode.

I shouldn't have to mute my game volume and disable screen shake (that I will need to turn up to test my missions) every time I want to work on a story.

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.

February 21

20 minutes ago, WindDemon21 said:

So just getting this straight, storm brewing, means more chances as you attack more, meaning the already CRAZY amount of spamming of storm powers and ignoring your other power sets that storm already was, is now.. even more heavily leaned into to have to storm blast only to make it work and ignore your other primary/secondary set?...

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!!! 😺)

February 21

31 minutes ago, Blackbird71 said:

It doesn't work that way for me. I have so many alts to choose from, that I'm never short of someone with Patrol XP. Adding more Patrol XP to one character I'm playing means that I'm not switching to a different character that already has accumulated max Patrol XP, so it's not using up that banked XP and therefore is in fact a net loss.

Contrast this with the XP granted immediately on exploration, which does not add to the time needed to play a character in order to use the Patrol XP, and therefore does not take away from time that could be spent using the Patrol XP on another alt.

You're more then welcome to like and appreciate this change, but it is not an "outright buff" in every case and condition.

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.

February 21

32 minutes ago, Grouchybeast said:

The only thing I could think of whenever I saw that change in the patch notes was the person who absolutely hates Patrol XP and every time they play they kill their character repeatedly until the Patrol XP is wiped out. I imagine the next time they log in they're going to feel like the devs are targeting them personally.

?

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?

32 minutes ago, Grouchybeast said:

Regeneratio delenda est!

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!)

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