Leandro

Double-click on Homecoming to play on the Live servers without downloading the Beta files.

JUST IN CASE... We're bringing up a new server in order to test some major database backend changes before they're published on the Live servers, and to gather feedback on a revamp of the Snipe powers. You can access this server by selecting the "Homecoming (BETA)" option in Tequila or whatever other patcher you're using, as long as you're pointing it to the right manifest URL: http://patch.savecoh.com/manifest.xml Since the server is being brought up just in case it breaks everyhing, we're calling it Justin. That is definitly the only reason, and nothing to do with any writers or podcast hosts, don't be silly. Because Justin got stuck repeating DFB over and over, I decided to give him a hand. Therefore, during this test, the following cheats are enabled just for Justin: Use the command /levelupxp 50 to instantly reach the level cap (or any other level.) Use the command /influence 2000000000 to instantly acquire MAXIMUM INFLUENCE (or any other amount.) Use the command /influence_add 9001 if you just want to get OVER NINE THOUSAND influence (or any other amount.) All Accolade powers are unlocked at character creation. All Incarnate slots are unlocked at character creation. All Incarnate powers are free to craft. All items in the Merit Vendor are free. In other words: PVP Weekend! GM Jimmy will be posting an announcement later on to organize some PVP events and award some prizes that you can carry back to the Live servers. It goes without saying, but Justin is a temporary server just for testing, and it will be wiped at the end of the test. SNIPER BETA? This patch contains a revamp for the Snipe powers, in Ranged, Assault and Epic versions. The main feature is that Snipe powers will now always be slow if you're out-of-combat (defined by not having attacked or been attacked in the last 15 seconds), and they will always be fast when in combat (defined as having attacked or having been attacked in the last 15 seconds). You no longer need to build up ToHit in order to benefit from Fast Snipe, it's just how the power operates now. I can already hear PVP players reaching for their keyboards to furiously tell me how this change is <bleep!> since combat in PVP is a lot faster and this stops them from using Fast Snipe as an opener. Put down your pitchforks for a second, I got something for you: Just slot one of these and all the Snipe powers in your character will never be slow. But don't discount Slow Snipes just yet! They are getting buffed significantly, their "wind up" time is being decreased from 3 to 2 seconds (6 to 3 for Epic versions) and the damage increased to Scale 4.5. Enemies hit by a Slow Snipe will flash "SNIPER SHOT!" above their heads while they ask for someone to write down the license plate of the truck that hit them. You can only use Slow Snipes once before being engaged in combat, so it better be worth it. Now, some actual patch notes! GENERAL Massive database backend changes. The servers now support both ODBC and LibPQ, the former being recommended for Microsoft SQL Server and the latter for PostgreSQL server. There are major improvements all over that we expect will greatly help the servers when they're under load. Added null pointer check to fix crash caused by enhancement getting moved before or during drag to the conversion window. Changed the login screen somewhat in order to make sure everybody remembers they're in the Beta server and they shouldn't get attached to any characters. BASE EDITOR There are over 200 new items under Vehicles and Nature; those are considered ready for Live on the next patch. There's also several hundred other items in new tabs which have not been fully tested, and a "TESTING" that which contains stuff that definitely is not ready to use. This patch is coming straight from the Alpha server, so those snuck in as an early preview. INVENTIONS New PVP IO Set: Experienced Marksman. The main feature is the "Fast Snipe" Unique enhancement. Art concept by MysticXurina, final art by Flashtoo. The art for the set Adjusted Targeting has been greatly improved by Flashtoo and is now actually visible. POWERS Pool > Leaping > Spring Attack: now does Containment damage when used by Controllers. Pool > Sorcery > Enflame: Should now do damage for Sentinels Kheldians: they should now see Sentinels the same way they see Blasters and Scrappers, for the purpose of their inherent powers. Sentinel's Chilling_Ray: Should now accept Slow enhancements. Dominator's Feral Charge: Fixed a bug where sometimes it would do no damage if executed from maximum distance. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Insta-snipe revisions ToHit is no longer required to achieve fast-snipe. Now, combat status determines if snipes are fast or slow. If engaged (having attacked or been attacked in the last 15 seconds.) Additionally, the snipe ring is now an indicator that you are engaged. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Blasters/Defenders/Corruptors Snipes: -Fast Snipe: -Base Range 80ft (except Psi snipes, as they get bonus range) -Base Damage scale 2.76 (this has not changed) -Recharge time 15 seconds (up from 12 seconds) -Endurance cost: 14.352 Slow Snipe: -Base Range: 150ft (this has not changed) -Base Damage Scale: 4.5 (Some sets may have special mechanic bonuses.) -Recharge time 15 seconds (up from 12 seconds) -Interrupt time is now 2 seconds (down from 3) -Endurance cost: 14.352 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dominator Snipes: -Fast Snipe: -Base Range 80ft (except Psi snipes, as they get bonus range) -Base Damage scale 2.28 (down from 3.56) -Recharge time 12 seconds (down from 20 seconds) -Endurance cost: 11.856 Slow Snipe: -Base Range: 150ft (this has not changed) -Base Damage Scale: 4.0 (Some sets may have special mechanic bonuses.) -Recharge time 12 seconds (down from 20 seconds) -Interrupt time is now 2 seconds (down from 3) -Endurance cost: 11.856 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Epic Pool Snipes: -Fast Snipe: -Base Range 80ft -Base Damage scale 2.3 (this has not changed) -Recharge time 24 seconds (this has not changed) -Endurance cost: 17.94 Slow Snipe: -Base Range: 150ft (this has not changed) -Base Damage Scale: 4.0 (Some sets may have special mechanic bonuses.) -Recharge time 24 seconds (this has not changed) -Interrupt time is now 3 seconds (down from 6) -Endurance cost: 17.94 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Misc Mu Mastery Epic Pool: Zap now uses Melee Damage Modifiers All versions of Beam Rifle's Penetrating Ray now has a 55% chance of spreading disintegration. All versions of Beam Rifle's Lancer Shot now has a 100% chance of spreading disintegration. Fixed a bug in the no-redraw version of fast-Archery's Snipe. Psionic Lance's quick FX was completely broken and out of sync. FX has been resync but this required a slightly slower animation (1.33 seconds.) The following fast snipe animations have been synced with their FX, no cast time changes: Moonbeam, Zapp, Sniper Blast, Proton Volley

You can't outlevel him, he goes to level 50.

Not WAI. Looks like I need to modify the class definition tables to allow the kExperienceGain attribute to go over +100%, that was the default cap. I missed this because I only tested above level 10, since it was supposed to be unchanged until then. Assuming that's the problem, fix will be on the next patch.

Moved to Echo: Atlas in a library inside City Hall, if I recall correctly.

Honestly I don't like the idea of the scaling XP nerf for DFB, I don't have it by default on the i26 build I send to other servers, and I don't want to extend it to other content. The issue with DFB is that it runs using the LFG queue / Turnstile server, which was designed for end game content where everyone would be level 50. Therefore there is no mission "owner" and no way for the mission to scale to the player real levels or their difficulty settings. My preferred way to "fix" DFB would have been to let the enemies inside scale all the way to 20 instead of forcing players to a lower level, rather than mess around with the XP scaling. But the only way to do that with the current way things work would be to turn DFB into a door mission. The other option would to use level-less critters for the whole thing, but that would penalize low level characters, which is the exact opposite of what DFB is about.

I'd like to see an answer to this as well. I've seen other MMOs which required you to re-accept the EULA whenever they pushed a client update or when the text of the EULA changed, but never one which required you to re-accept it every single time you start the client, even if nothing has changed since the last time you accepted it. I literally just re-enabled the EULA handling code that COH had for years. ShouldShowEULA() in uiLogin.c if you want to check the source at OuroDev.

That's very strange. I'll take a look.

The extra physics effects are on by default, you don't need to enable PhysX hardware support. That's the bit that requires a .dll upgrade that I don't want to do as long as we're sharing the game folder with other servers. Go run into a dumpster or mailbox and you should see junk flying out.

Yes, that's going to continue to happen until I start digitally signing the .exe with a code certificate and they build enough "trust" with the AV companies. The code cert was requested a couple of weeks ago but it's still in the process of being issued, since Homecoming LLC is a new entity they are being extra demanding. I wasn't planning to patch until I had a cert, but it's been two weeks already, so unsigned .exe it is.

In order to debug that kind of crash, I need to collect memory dumps of the crash when it happens; to do that, I need to include a file in the COH directory, crashrpt.dll, which would collect those memory dumps and send them to the Homecoming servers. The problem is that a lot of people are using the same COH install folder for multiple servers, so if the file is added, memory dumps from other servers would start being sent to the Homecoming servers, which is a massive can of worms. So for now, I'm not including the file, which makes debugging that kind of crash pretty difficult. Once the Sunrise patcher is done, it will give each server its own folder to place DLL files on, and then I can put crashrpt.dll in there and start collecting crash dumps, as well as including the updated physxcore.dll for "proper" PhysX hardware support. Messing with the files in the install folder that is shared by multiple servers would be disrespecful at best, reckless for sure, and malicious at worst.

SCORE and Homecoming are two separate entities. Fundamentally, think of it as a developer/distributor relationship. SCORE produces patches and provides documentation and implementation advice, Homecoming maintains the server and provides support and comunity management.

Right-click on your chat window, select "Edit Tab" and add "NPC dialog" to your list of active channels.

Most of the graphical changes listed above are from Flashtoo, who kindly offered their work after posting on the Future Volunteer Recruitment: Art thread. Here are some example images to illustrate the changes. Click on the images to enlarge them. The rest of this post comes straight from Flashtoo. Particles and Effects Emblems and Symbols Faces and Hair Clothing and Color Masks

GENERAL Added power cooldown indicators as a WIP option, accessible through Options > Window > Beta Settings. Fixed a couple of issues with the Cathedral of Pain that could cause it to get stuck if all the Obelisks were destroyed or the Aspect of Rularuu was defeated right when the Willforges respawned. Replaced the Jetpack Suppliers in the Shadow Shard with P2W Field Agents. Some unused Pandora's Box SSA contacts were being introduced by other contacts; this should no longer happen. Fixed a server crash when a player in the final stage of character creation disconnected from the queue server during an unusually long SQL wait queue. Fixed a client crash when putting an enhancement in the Auction House (OuroDev PR #66 & #70). Fixed a client crash seen during activities with many active power effects, such as the Rikti mothership and Hamidon raids, by switching to 64-bit FX/Sequencer handles. Fixed a client crash in the UI drawing code if a pet has a creator but no owner. Connections from the client to the QueueServer were not encrypted; they now are. In addition, encryption keys have been upgraded from 512 to 4096 bits. BASE EDITOR "Apply to Room" and "Apply to Base" will now work to fill an entire block floor-to-ceiling. Added an experimental option to use outdoor lighting in supergroup bases. It is recommended you try it with different skies to find one suitable for your base style. Outdoor lighting disables the dynamic lighting used in base rooms and from base items; there's (at the moment) no way to have both. Replaced the "Exit" buttons with an "Options" menu with options for Default Sky, Lighting Type, Grid Size, Angle Snap, Room Clipping and Hidden Markers. The hotkeys and slash commands still work, this is just for ease of discovery of the new features. Yes, new items are coming, they just weren't ready for this patch. GRAPHICS Offloaded all the hardware-only physics effects to the CPU. This results in the same physics quality as enabling PhysX hardware, as has been requested, without having to actually update the PhysX libraries. The reason it's being done this way is because updating the libraries would break the game client for other servers that share the same game files. The impact on the CPU is negligible on modern hardware. Modified the Glacier FX so it can be looked at from below. Improved particle effects for Burst Of Speed power in Blaster/Martial Manipulation secondary. Improved the Ki Push FX from Martial Combat. Lowered the saturation of the reflection cubemap used in the tailor, to better display colors while in the costume creator. General improvements to many chest emblems, chest details and supergroup emblems: cleaned edges, reduced compression, standardized resolution. Added a second color on many chest and shield emblems that previously only took a single color. Repairs/improvements to Face textures to help with skin tone matching and reduction of uncanny valley. The Medusa face was missing the entire blue channel in its diffuse map, this has been reconstructed based on clues in the other parts of this face. Improvements to the Makeup color masks for female heads; mostly blurs the edges of the lipstick so it blends better and fits onto the lips more fully when the player chooses heads with different shaped features. Fixed a glitch with the Buckled Leather top and alpha channels on chest emblems. POWERS Immobilize Powers in Controller and Dominator primary power sets should no longer make their targets immune to KnockUp. KnockBack will be converted to KnockDown. This helps sets like Ice and Earth, as their AOE Immobilize power will no longer make their AOE Knockback power useless. Cold Domination for Controllers and Masterminds now have a Minimal FX option, just as Defenders and Corruptors do. Archery animations should now work properly. No more floor kick animation when trying to fire an Acid Arrow, among other things. Rain of Arrows animation has been reduced from 4 to 2 seconds. Base recharge time has been increased 5 seconds to compensate. Bio Armor > Hard Carapace: This power should now offer damage resistance in PvP. Stalker's Ice Melee should now crit on PvP. Flash Freeze should now affect flying enemies. Glacier should now be usable while flying. Fixed an error that allowed players to create Shield Defense characters with Claws, Dual Blades, Ninja Sword, Spines or Staff Fighting primaries. These characters always were broken and unplayable. Scrapper's Shinobi-Iri should now be able to accept Jump enhancement sets. Sentinel's Beam Rifle > Refractor Beam should now accept Defense Debuff sets. Doppelgangers from players with the following powersets will no longer spawn without any powers: Blaster Support > Ninja Training Blaster Support > Plant Manipulation Blaster Support > Radiation Manipulation Brute Defense > Radiation Armor Brute Melee > Radiation Melee Dominator Assault > Radioactive Assault Mastermind Buff > Cold Domination Scrapper Defense > Radiation Armor Scrapper Melee > Radiation Melee Sentinel Defense > Bio Organic Armor Sentinel Defense > Radiation Armor Sentinel Defense > Super Reflexes Sentinel Ranged > Beam Rifle Sentinel Ranged > Water Blast Stalker Defense > Radiation Armor Stalker Melee > Radiation Melee Stalker Melee > Staff Fighting Tanker Defense > Radiation Armor Tanker Melee > Radiation Melee Tanker Melee > Spines REWARDS Patrol XP can now be consumed in Architect Rewards mode and/or with a bonus XP multiplier. It will always add 50% to the base XP earned. The conversion rate from Vanguard Merits to Reward Merits has been increased from 10:1 to 30:1. The intent of the conversion rate is for a Mothership raid to award between 30 and 50 Reward Merits, with Hamidon rewarding 80 Reward Merits as it requires a lot more setup and coordination. The initial ratio of 10:1 was set on a small server, and it is entirely too good for the kind of population that Homecoming supports. Rikti War Zone pylons now drop 3 Vanguard Merits when destroyed, for a total of 60 Vanguard Merits for all 20 pylons. Rikti Drop Ships and Patrol Ships now drop 6 Reward Merits and 10 Vanguard Merits when destroyed. Fixed an issue with Morality Missions not resetting the mission owner's alignment points on completion in some cases. This does not apply to teammates, only the mission owner. Increased the reward for completing a Morality Mission to 40 Reward Merits. Originally this was lowered from 50 to 20 based on datamined times it took to receive a new Morality Mission after completing one, but that time was skewed by the above bug allowing players to run Morality Missions back to back. The reward table at the end of the Statesman Miss Liberty Task Force and Lord Recluse Task Force stated that the Synthetic Hamidon could be picked once every 24 hours, and if you had ran the Task Force before the 24 hours were up it granted a Single Origin enhancement instead. However, the timer on the reward table itself was 18 hours, leaving a window of 6 hours in which you thought you would get a SHO, but got a SO instead. This has been fixed by lowering the 24-hour check to 18 hours. Death From Below will now gradually grant less Experience Points after level 10. The effect is based on the experience points required for each level, so it has a built-in curve that starts with a very minor decrease and ramps up until level 20. Please see GM Jimmy's post below for more details on this change. Jimmy nerfs.

Heh. If we're going with Bombardment the proc would probably make more sense being smashing, I think. I was fishing for something cold-themed, but Smashing proc can do.

Also, do you have any name suggestions? Name guides the art. I'm using the thesaurus no other Targeted AOE names (Detonation, Ragnarok, Volley) and coming up with things like Extinction, Cannnonade, Bombardment, and I don't like any of them. If the proc is going to be Cold, maybe something cold related? Hmm.

Okay, going by ParagonWiki https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Obliteration Obliteration: Damage Obliteration: Accuracy/Recharge Obliteration: Damage/Recharge Obliteration: Accuracy/Damage/Recharge Obliteration: Accuracy/Damage/Recharge/Endurance Obliteration: Chance for Smashing Damage Two enhancements reduces the duration of Stun effects on you by 2.2%. Three enhancements improves the Damage of all your powers by 3%. Four enhancements improves the Accuracy of all your powers by 9%. Five enhancements improves the Recharge of all your powers by 5%. Six enhancements increases Melee Defense by 3.75%. Six enhancements increases Smashing and Lethal Defense by 1.875%. Obviously making an exact clone in a different power category is... boring, at least. What would you change to make it a new Targeted AOE worth slotting?

Okay, so let's say there's a new Targeted AOE set introduced. What enhancements and bonuses would make it desirable without making it too good?

Bluntly, a lot of the calls for "transparency" are to stir drama up and cry how things "aren't being done" just because they are not happening fast enough. No, they're not going to give you daily updates on how every single aspect of the LLC is run. They got better things to do with their time, like actually run the servers. A lot of posters who complain about "transparency" are just trying to hold Homecoming to impossible standards to seed FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) on players. If you don't like that Homecoming LLC is running the servers as a professional operation which requires them to comply with applicable laws, there are other servers out there that don't care and will happily violate COPPA in order to avoid having an EULA. Disclaimer: again, I am not part of Homecoming LLC. This is just common sense.

Yes, and it was used both for the extended stay at DO for an extra week due to PayPal locking up funds, and for a code signing certificate in order to start having less issues with antivirus software. As far as I know they have spent more money than they've taken in. It is my understanding that exact expenses will become published on each donation thread. Again, disclaimer; neither I nor anyone associated with SCORE is part of the Homecoming LLC.

From what I have been told, applying for non-profit status takes months, and as long as the LLC keeps track of all the money they got and where it went, this will be taken into account and not be an issue. I don't live in the US though so I have not researched this, but it's the reason why they are not taking more money that they can legitimately use to support the servers. Re: money, if you seriously think anyone is making a profit out of this you have no idea what it takes to run servers at this scale. Stop believing people who claimed you could host a server for 1000 people on a Ryzen in your basement. Disclaimer: I am not part of the Homecoming LLC, I am not a lawyer and I don't live in the US, this is just the facts as I've been told them.

I'm going to come out of lurking to say this. Uh.. What? Please elaborate. None of the owners of copyrights, trademarks or other intellectual property have filed any cease and desist orders of any kind. They have also (to my knowledge) not licensed it for use. They are definitely aware that the servers exist and are "in talks". Until we know one way or the other, it's a legal grey area. If they send a cease and desist it's illegal, if they sign an agreement is legal. Disclaimer: I am not part of the Homecoming LLC and I am not a lawyer, this is just my interpretation of "grey area".

I'm going to address this because it keeps being brought up, and it is intentionally not being "fixed" right now. Reason #1: if you bump your Particle Physics to "Very High", you get the same amount of particle physics as if you had a PhysX card. This happens on the CPU, not the GPU, but for modern computers this barely registers. Reason #2: the "fix" involves upgrading the PhysX libraries (the DLLs in your game folder) to a newer version. So if we do that we are no longer compatible with the libraries shipped with Issue 24 Beta. This is a problem because it breaks the original client, as well as the client of any server that doesn't implement this "fix". It's a really bad idea to mess with the DLLs as long as multiple servers are sharing a COH install. A similar problem would happen if we were to enable the error reporting DLL (crashrpt.dll) in order to collect crash logs; as soon as we put that DLL in there, we start getting crash reports from every server, not just Homecoming. Bad idea. The solution is the Sunrise patcher, which will keep server-specific files on their own folders. At that point we can certainly start upgrading DLLs and adding our own features. But as long as all the servers are sharing a COH install folder, messing with the DLLs is irresponsible at best, malicious at worst.