Jacke

I kind of remember that comment. I was thinking more along the way of having a TA Defender and a Kinetics/Elec Defender, so each could slot to their strengths. But unless you always team with a particular group of people (which has happened and will again), you depend on luck to get a match. Kinetics is popular and...let me check my Kinetics/Elec Defender in Mids. I don't think Mids handles the Purple Patch outside of adjusting base ToHit, so the -Rec and -End values will be lower for higher level enemy. In Mids, the build has Short Circuit with -133% Rec and -46% End, but that's with only 33% EndMod slotting (it's slotted more for damage). Even with ED-maxed EndMod, it only gets to just over -69% End. -40% Special from Acid Arrow will not push that to -100% End in one shot. Transference has -81% End with 47% EndMod slotting. Acid Arrow will push that to -100% End, but so would better EndMod slotting. But draining all End without flooring Recovery doesn't stop enemies. They get a sliver of Endurance and they attack. And with powers from two Buff sets, you need 2 Defenders/Corruptors/Controllers. It's why I went with Kinetics and Electrical Blast. Short Circuit to damage, floor enemy Recovery, and drain partway, Transference to finish draining and restore my Endurance. And it looks like Acid Arrow doesn't make it less than needing both powers. So it's down to Acid Arrow boosting the -Rec and -End making that Short Circuit+Transference 2-shot work against stronger targets. Problem is I think when enemies get -Rec and -End resistance, they get high values. And if Acid Arrow does help enough, so do more applications of Short Circuit and Transference. I can't remember how tough were the enemies I successfully sapped (it's been a long time), but I do remember some I needed more than 1 pair of power shots.

In a build, every power has to earn its keep. Will it be used and where? And every power has to be considered against what other powers could be included if that power is dropped and its extra slots used on other powers. And what is the loss and benefits from swapping to another power. Linked to this is if you take all 18 Primary and Secondary powers, you only have 6 free power picks for Pool and Epic powers. And those many powers, especially Primary and Secondary powers, often need extra slots to make them worthwhile. And some Primary/Secondary powers are very weak or very situational. Put those factors together and it's rare that I take every power from a powerset. And I look for powers to drop. Super Reflexes is one I know that I'll take all. Many sets I'll take 8. But I often need anywhere from 7 to 13 Pool and Epic powers to make the toon the way I want it. Because the changes are significant, on first pass, I'm planning to take all 9 Trick Arrow powers. But I know I'll likely drop at least one for another power I find more useful more often. For the new Trick Arrow, Acid Arrow is Number 1 on the taxiway to being dropped to make room. It has good features, but those features are definitely situation and some may not be significant enough. It also means on my planned TA/Archery Defender, I'm not planning to take it until level 49. Damning it with faint praise.

-Def is useful, but it would be more useful if it was coupled with another immediately useful debuff, like Radiation Emission's Radiation Infection, which has -Def and -ToHit together. Because it's so often you don't need -Def and then Acid Arrow is much less useful. Not all builds are high accuracy, but to be playable at +4x8 with any team makeup, you need to have significant +ToHit, Accuracy, and/or -Def in a build. But not depending on -Def simplifies what powers are needed and used. I set Mids to use 48% base ToHit, that against a +3 enemy (instead of the default 75%), then make sure the powers have 95% Accuracy or better. As I level a toon, I work towards that. I monitor Last Hit Chance to see how well I'm doing. If I start dropping below 95% too much and it starts affecting mission performance, I know I have to change something, either tactics and power use, the difficulty, or the build. As you say, Sappers have a high resistance against I believe both -End and -Rec. Even with the -Special in Acid Arrow, I'm not sure it would be enough to overwhelm them or similarly strongly resistant enemies, like AVs etc. I've run a Kinetics-Electric Blast Defender pre-2012 and am recreating him. I would use either 2 Short Circuits or later a Transference and a Short Circuit to drain End and flatten enemy Recover enough to leave them ineffective until I defeated them. Perhaps with an Acid Arrow, I could do that in one shot. But the problem with Acid Arrow improving debuffs is right now for the Trick Arrow toon, it only improves Flash Arrow (-ToHit) and Glue Arrow (-Speed -Recharge). And they often have enough. And when they don't have enough, it's against high debuff resistant enemy like AVs that even with just 1 Acid Arrow, won't have enough. I also thought of a Trick Arrow SuperTeam, like @TopDoc used to run. Stacking many Acid Arrow would be interesting. Would need to be a mixed SuperTeam as you'd need toons with -Regen (Rad Emission Lingering Radiation?) and -End and -Rec (Kinetics and Electric Blast?) to take full advantage of all of Acid Arrows features. When you read a cast time in the City client, don't forget to convert to ArcanaTime: https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/ArcanaTime I use a mini spreadsheet to help (screen capture in the spoiler). Example, if a cast time is listed between two values, say 0.924 and 1.056, I know its actual cast time is 1.188. I believe "Blinded" is when a PC or NPC has enough -Perception to floor it to the minimum. Players's minimum Perception is 0. Don't know what it is for NPCs, but it could be 0 too. EDIT: From what @KaizenSoze discovered with a Power Analyzer in the next post below, looks like the minimum -Perception is 0.05ft, likely low enough to be effectively zero without having a zero that might screw up formulas.

@Cotswold , from reading your launcher.log, the install proceeded as usual up to the EULA, then would have opened up the main launcher window where you saw the progress bar. Again as normal, the launcher continued to download files from Homecoming until it then started getting a large number of errors in the downloaded files. The launcher keeps trying to download the files until they are all received without error. On your install, it kept trying but never gets to the point they all download and pass the test. it's been several hours. I'm going to suggest you try starting the Launcher again via its link and see what happens. If it works, then it was a transient issue either at Homecoming or on the Internet that has been resolved. If the old HC Launcher install is still failing, I'm going to suggest you now leave this install of the HC Launcher alone and try installing again from start, in case the problem although transient left issues with the old install. You will need at least about 6GB free before starting this. Download the installer fresh from https://manifest.cohhc.gg/launcher/hcinstall.exe Run the new installer but install to a new location on your computer, which I will refer to with <new City root>. This will be completely independent of the old install. You will need to access it by the new links it makes, which will refer to the new launcher at <new City root>\bin\win64\launcher.exe Reply back with what happens and if not good, a new launcher.log. The root cause producing errors in downloaded files could be on your computer, but that is unlikely as it would have had to come up exactly part way through the install without error before and then a high rate of errors after. It could be in the Internet between your computer and Homecoming, but I think you'd see other signs of that. It could be caused by a transient issue with Homecoming, which they should have detected and resolved, as I've just done a new test install on my computer and it completed normally. Anyhoo, hope this helps.

Logging into the launcher is mentioned in passing in @Number Six's Technical Deep Dive.

@Vanden, that's not the intent @Blackbird71 is referring to. He did not lie. This is the intent @Blackbird71 was referring to, from the original i27p1 patch notes and as clarified by @Captain Powerhouse. Emphasis added. Tactical Arrow just has self-buffs and ranged powers. There are no TA melee powers that need to be made more useful. With many indoor maps of small size, often there's little benefit to having greater range. But when we can use range, having similar ranges is vital in the current City of Heroes game. Most recently well explained by @Chris24601. He continues on to explain why these different ranges can't be easily fixed (see below) . Others in previous posts have pointed out the shear expense of trying to compensating for these changes, even if there's a free respec for i27p1. There will be consequences to introducing strongly significant changes to Tactical Arrow that its players do not considered justified and know will disrupt the play of their toons. Some will continue playing /TA Blasters they love. (I've played an Assault Rifle/Devices toon since 2006, so I know about loving toons the game doesn't love back.) But a lot will just park their toons and play something else until the Wheel turns again and addresses Tactical Arrow. Considering it took 14 years for another powerset, Trick Arrow, to finally have some love again is part of what drives this respectful pushback. I've planned an Archery/Tactical Arrow Blaster. With these changes to Tactical Arrow, that toon won't be created any time soon.

I find the changes to Trick Arrow mostly welcome. I've planned in Mids Reborn a Trick Arrow/Archery Defender as I had back in 2012, as well as a Ninjas/Trick Arrow Mastermind. Unlike virtually all of my other builds, I do plan at least at first pass to take all the 9 Trick Arrow powers, as difficult as that can be with City of Hero's tight builds. At least I plan to skip 3 powers from Archery, but for Ninjas I plan to take 8, so the Mastermind build is uncommonly low for me in Pool and Epic powers with just 7. I think I can make that work for a Mastermind, but I'll have to play it to be sure. The weakest and most situational power is the new Acid Arrow. The damage is low, even with procs added in, The -Def is large but rarely needed in PvE. -Heal is usually not as good as just terminating the source of healing. The -Specials amplify other debuffs, with Trick Arrow toon usually only seeing Flash Arrow and Glue Arrow benefiting. I'm not sure what it effectively does will be worth a power pick and extra slots, especially considering fighting higher conning enemies with the Purple Patch reducing all debuffs. Reading the reports here seem to confirm my thoughts. The Defender won't take Acid Arrow until 49 as I consider other powers to be more important to have sooner. Beyond that, I'll have to play the toons to get a better feel for things.

I read through all 20 pages. Devices' Gun Drone. Love the power, love the added resistance. But the Gun Drone expires and blows up. It didn't used to do that. I see Malta has Gun Drones that don't blow up all by themselves, so why can't I? Do I have to join Malta to get a Gun Drone without a deadline? With a reasonable amount of recharge, a Gun Drone can be resummoned as soon as it expires. Having to resummon a Gun Drone that times out and isn't killed by enemy action is just administrative burden and an irritant. I see little benefit to the game for this expiration. (And the same applies to Traps' Force Field Generator and Dark Miasma/Darkness Affinity's Dark Servant.) Please remove the expiration timer on Gun Drone. I have to kill the Malta Gun Drones, make Malta have to kill mine. Darkness Manipulation. A signature of many Dark powersets is stealth. Enough of them to allow all Dark/Dark characters to have a primary or secondary power that provides stealth. But not for Dark/Dark Blasters and Dark/Dark Dominators. Adding stealth to Dark/Dark Dominators may be rather tricky. But let's talk Blasters here. Darkness Manipulation should have a stealth power. Dark powersets have gotten their stealth powers as their Tier 5 or 6 toggle. For Darkness Manipulation, that's Soul Drain and Touch of the Beyond, both click powers. For Darkness Manipulation, I think a better choice is adding 35ft of stealth to the toggle Death Shroud. And like the new Dynamo, when concealed, have the damage aura suppressed so stealth isn't broken. Power ranges. I was surprised at what I didn't know about mental powers. I was sure they had extra range, 100ft on a lot of them. And they do. On Defenders and Corruptors. And Mind Control's Mesmirize. But not Blaster's Mental Blast. Except for the snipe, Psionic Lance, long-ranged at 175ft. All the others are at most 80ft. Like any other Blaster blast powerset. In fact, many Defender, Corruptor, and Controller powers have better ranges than equivalent Blaster powers. Why? Are Blasters not supposed to be the best at delivering ranged damage? All four are squishy ATs. Different in many details, but should they not have the same ranges for similar powers? If Defender's Psychic Blast powers have 100ft ranges, so should Blaster's Psychic Blast powers. I think Blasters should have range equality with the other squishy ATs. This can't all get fixed in Issue 27 Page 1, as many of the underranged powersets aren't up for revamp. But a start can be made. So maybe Mental Manipulation's Subdual should have 100ft range, same as Defender's Psychic Blast's Subdue. And if a powerset is all self-buffs and ranged powers, like Tactical Arrow, with 6 ranged powers and no melee-ranged powers, isn't being ranged a feature of that powerset? Between Tactical Arrow and Trick Archery, 4 similar power pairs are already ranged the same, Flash Arrow (80ft), Glue Arrow (60ft), and ESD/EMP Arrows and the OSAs (70ft). Only ENA and Ice Arrow are underranged on Blasters at 60ft; they should be 80ft, same as for Trick Arrow's EA and Ice Arrow. Blaster's Primary Tier 1 and 2 powers and Secondary Tier 1 powers are good enough that they can use them even when mezzed. Shouldn't they be good enough to go at least as far as the equivalent Defender powers? I say all Blaster secondary Tier 1 powers that are ranged should get 80ft range. Mental Manipulation's 80ft ranged powers should get 100ft, but maybe that should be done when fixing Blaster Psychic Blast in the same way. Oh, one more thing. Howe about some powers having alternate customizations matching larger weapons in their blast powersets, Archery, Assault Rifle, and Beam Rifle. Some powers aren't up for this update (like Trap's Web Grenade and Mace Mastery's mace powers), but there's a few in Devices: Toxic Web Grenade, Taser, and Smoke Grenade. Maybe too much for this update, but would be cool sometime in the future.

@Sapphire Lotus, there's been several updates recently to the installer and Launcher. While I don't think any of them address this specific issue (assuming it wasn't just some network temporary situation), they do fix several issues and I think it might be better if you started from scratch. Here's what I suggest you try. I go into a lot of detail you may already just to be sure. I also include screen captures to assist in the spoilers. Please follow this procedure step by step until you encounter an issue. Try to get a screencapture and write a few notes about exactly what happens. Then please reply. Include any screencaptures by dragging the file to the bar at the bottom of the reply editor, then position the cursor where you want the picture, then click the '+' symbol on the bar image's lower left. Best of luck with getting back onto City! Move the existing default install location C:\Games\Homecoming\ to another place on your computer. If you're sure you have nothing worth saving in it, you can delete it. Delete any previous installers 'hcinstall.exe'. Download a fresh copy of 'hcinstall.exe' from here: https://manifest.cohhc.gg/launcher/hcinstall.exe Run 'hcinstall.exe'. Have it install to the default location C:\Games\Homecoming\. As you reformatted your computer, there shouldn't be an old Tequila install to find to copy. If it asks to copy (!), say no. The installer will download some initial files, then put up the EULA window. After the EULA window goes away, the full HC Launcher window should come up still downloading. Let the Launcher finish. To launcher the Homecoming Live City client program, click on the right-pointing arrow. Let it load. Put in your Game Account Name and Account Password and click Log In. You can get them from here on the Homecoming website. On logging in, you'll see the User Agreement screen. After the User Agreement, you'll see the Shard selection screen. Search the Shards to find a character you created before, then log in on that character.

The bugs causing the install crash, as encountered by @blueEmpathy, @CaptainLupis, and @Voltor, appear to have been tracked down by @Number Six and fixed. Partial installs that crashed and didn't finish should be deleted. The install program hcinstall.exe should be downloaded again (version should be '1.0.3236.32' or later).

After I wrote the OP, I then remembered the crash directory from your technical deep dive. I've emailed the 3 users reporting this issue asking them to do a clean test and look for the crash directory and reply with its contents. I'll add you into the email. I can provide both 32-bit and 64-bit crashhandler.exe from my HC Launcher install to the 3 users. How could they shim that into an install? Hmmm. Would this work? Run a test up until the EULA window comes up. Copy in both crashhandler.exe to bin/win32 and bin/win64. Click "Accept" and then wait a short time. Is it alright if I rename crashhandler.exe to: bin/win32/crashhandler32.exe bin/win64/crashhandler64.exe so they're easy to tell apart?

Thanks, @blueEmpathy, for your log file. Your log is similar to @CaptainLupis and @Voltor. And after working with all of you and pondering some more, I am now sure what I thought was the problem, security software blocking access to manifest.cohhc.gg, is wrong. Reading the log files, each failed installer run downloads several times, including from manifest.cohhc.gg, successfully. In all failed runs, launcher.exe after presenting the EULA and you clicking "Accept", the next 3 downloads appear to start. Then launcher.exe fails silently, as logging stops. I've created a bug report here hoping this helps.

EDIT: Root cause of this issue appears to have been fixed. Partial installs not finished due to crashing during the install should be deleted. Please try again after downloading hcinstall.exe again (version should be '1.0.3236.32' or later). @Number Six, @GM Tahquitz, I'm hoping you or someone else can help here. @CaptainLupis, @blueEmpathy, and @Voltor have all reported their attempts at installing the HC Launcher getting to the EULA, them clicking "Accept", then nothing happening. They have all provided launcher.log files, which I included along with the launcher.log of me having a successful install for comparison. 20201107a.CaptainLupis.launcher.log 20201107a.blueEmpathy.launcher.log 20201107a.Voltor.launcher.log 20201107a.success.Jacke.launcher.log Looking at the log files, all failed runs of the installer are similar. They downloaded several files successfully from manifest.cohhc.gg and later cdn.homecomingservers.com. The installations get to the EULA acceptance and download the EULA successfully. Then present the EULA to the user, which each user clicks "Accept" as it is logged. Then the next 3 downloads from manifest.cohhc.gg appear to start but never complete, and the logging ends, apparently at the same progress point. @CaptainLupis's launcher.log is easiest to understand because it is only one installer run, like my log. @blueEmpathy and @Voltor are trickier because they both contain several installer runs one after another, separated by about a minute, in the same log file. But all the runs fail in the same way that @CaptainLupis's did. So I believe their cases are connected. I think the root cause can't be a general blocking of Internet connection by either software on the users' computers or between their computers and the Homecoming domains because on all failed runs, several files are successfully downloaded before the silent failure, which hits at the same progress point. All users have also searched for such obstructions and tested with security software disabled, with the install tests still failing in the same way. I suspect it is something peculiar about what is going on in the launcher when those 3 downloads are starting that may be the root cause. However, I can't determine why the installs should fail then, especially fail silently. I hope this helps track down a frustrating issue with the HC Launcher.

Thanks for being thorough, @CaptainLupis. Best of luck on the firewall as it is the most likely suspect. I'll PM you some advice and try to find time to help you further. I do think the security software is the most likely suspect, @Voltor. How to proceed really depends on the details of AVG and Malwarebytes. They are complex and it depends on how old they are, what version and products you have. You can very carefully try disabling any resident protections temporarily and see if another run of hcinstall.exe does any better. You can PM me with the details and I'll try to find the time to help you further.

Those changes weren't addressing the root cause, that software on your computer is blocking hcinstall.exe and launcher.exe from accessing those Internet addresses. Your security software may track the browser loads and open up access to the Internet addresses. Please try it one more time. It may fail, but it may succeed. @Voltor, thanks for trying one more time. @CaptainLupis, @Voltor, your computers can access the Internet addresses, but hcinstall.exe and launcher.exe are being blocked. There will be a way to remove those blocks, but it will be particular to whatever software is blocking. You need to determine which security software on your computer is active.

That's what my browser said too. To get that error, the browser used the link, got a connection, downloaded the page, found the security certificate it can't handle, then gave up. If HC Launcher can do that, it'll be able to proceed. Try running hcinstall.exe again.

@Voltor, @CaptainLupis, an external firewall could be letting through the ICMP pings but silently blocking the HTTP connections the launcher is trying, but that's a very unlikely configuration. It's more likely security software or a software firewall on your computers are putting the installer and the launcher in a state where it is silently blocking HTTP (AKA web) connections to manifest.cohhc.gg. But it lets through connections to cdn.homecomingservers.com. Likely because has whitelisted HTTP to *.homecomingservers.com due to your browser using it. (Else none of your reading and posting here would work.) Absolutely last thing to try. In your browser, try loading these 3 links, paying very close attention to what happens. http://manifest.cohhc.gg/profile/live.json http://manifest.cohhc.gg/profile/pre.json http://manifest.cohhc.gg/profile/beta.json In my browser, it downloads them (they're special text), identifies them as .json files, then complains about them because the browser can't handle the security certificate at the start (which HC Launcher requires). You're looking to see what complains about them, what is blocking them, and how to whitelist the whole website so the HC Launcher can access it. If those pages load as they did for me with no other software speaking up--or you found what software levers to push to open things up--try running hcinstall.exe again and see if things get farther. If that doesn't work, then you need to engage someone you know locally who can help you with this issue which is squirrelled away on your computers. As it is very unlikely I can help you find the problem.

I've seen strange issues fixed by rebooting and updating, even recently. May help. Try the ping test I posted above and see what you get. Then perhaps move to a PM.

@CaptainLupis, perhaps we should move this to a PM. The launcher tries to get files from manifest.cohhc.gg but doesn't get any reply. Can you ping the Internet address? Like this. ping manifest.cohhc.gg Pinging manifest.cohhc.gg [167.114.191.20] with 32 bytes of data: Reply from 167.114.191.20: bytes=32 time=71ms TTL=54 Reply from 167.114.191.20: bytes=32 time=70ms TTL=54 Reply from 167.114.191.20: bytes=32 time=70ms TTL=54 Reply from 167.114.191.20: bytes=32 time=70ms TTL=54 Ping statistics for 167.114.191.20: Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss), Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds: Minimum = 70ms, Maximum = 71ms, Average = 70ms

@blueEmpathy, can you reply with the log file launcher.log? <City file root>\logs\launcher\launcher.log Like the others, I think the problem is something, security software or firewall, is blocking Internet address manifest.cohhc.gg. I'd need the log file to be sure.

@GruntledDave, as I mentioned before, that security alert is almost certainly a false alert, which do happen. You might be able to fix things by either telling the security software about the false alert or telling it to whitelist the Internet address manifest.cohhc.gg.

Thanks! I think the crash log from Windows XP means it can't run the installer, hcinstall.exe. Reading your launcher.log from Windows 7, the installer grabs its initial files from http://cdn.homecomingservers.com/.... It eventually switches to the launcher.exe. Which fails to get more files from http://manifest.cohhc.gg/.... Several times. It doesn't even get a reply to the Internet connection requests. My test install running about the same time got those files (as you can see in my launcher.log), so the server is up and delivering out files when requested. @Voltor and @CaptainLupis, in both your cases, something is blocking access to the Internet address manifest.cohhc.gg , either security software or a firewall. You'll have to find it and change its configuration to be able to install the HC Launcher.

It's important that when you post a log file or a crash report, you include the file, not quote all or part of it. It gets hard to figure things out when there's only part of the information. I've attached the launcher.log file from another test install (completed okay) of the HC Launcher on my computer as an example. launcher.log When you're replying, look down and you'll see a bar at the bottom of the reply box that say's "Drag files here to attach..." On your computer, drag the log file or crash report to the bar so it's uploaded to the Homecoming forums. Once it's uploaded, click the "+" at the right end of the bar to insert the file into the body of your reply. To be sure, I'd need to see all of the log file, but comparing it to mine, the installer is handing off to the launcher, but the launcher can't contact the Homecoming servers to get files for the next steps. Something is blocking access to those Internet addresses, likely your security software or a firewall, either software or hardware. I need the whole crash file. I also need the log file if you can find it. If the installer gets to the "Accept" screen, it should have written a log file somewhere. Try searching for "launcher.log" if you can't find it here. <City file root>\CityHC\logs\launcher\launcher.log

Here's three things to check. <City file root> is where you told the installer to put the HC Launcher. 1. Log file here in case the HC Launcher is dying in the background before it opens its window. If you find the log file, post it here. <City file root>\logs\launcher\launcher.log 2. Run the hcinstall.exe again but say "No" to copying files from Tequila. Then it's only the installer and HC Launcher involved. 3. After #2, look for the log file in #1 again, wherever you told the installer in #2 to put the new files. 4. What security software do you have? There's a chance that despite whitelisting the programs, your security software is silently blocking the vital step of hcinstall.exe starting up launcher.exe. You should have better results with Windows 7 than with Windows XP. And it is highly unlikely that the presence of Tequila is the root cause of this issue.

No, you shouldn't have to remove Tequila. The HC Launcher install is completely independent of Tequila, which is why it goes in a new empty location on you computer. If the installer detects a Tequila install by looking in the Registry, it will ask if it can copy files from there, stock ones it checks and your own configuration, just to speed things up and give you the same City customization as before. If this is the same issue you mentioned before, that after clicking "Accept" the install doesn't proceed, then it's likely something to do with the switchover from the installer program to it starting the actual HC Launcher to continue downloading its City install. Can you whitelist the launcher programs in your security software? Take a look at the post I wrote just before yours, 2 back from here. If that doesn't work, try launching the HC Launcher directly yourself. You should have a desktop link to it. If that doesn't work, then it's one of these: <City file root>\bin\win32\launcher.exe <City file root>\bin\win64\launcher.exe where <City file root> is where you told the installer to put the HC Launcher install. If you have a 64-bit Windows, try the win64 program. If you have a 32-bit Windows, or the 64-bit launcher.exe doesn't work, try the win32 program.