Patch Notes for September 27th, 2019 - Issue 26, Page 3

[The Curator]

Issue 26, Page 3
As mentioned yesterday, we’re going to be releasing content in smaller chunks (Pages) which are bound together into larger collections / storylines (Issues). Pages 1 & 2 focused mainly on maintenance & quality of life updates, the new 64-bit client, and a sprinkling of base items and balance changes. Page 3, however, is our first major content release.

 

Please note that the existing experimental powers changes are still live on Pineapple, but they are not part of Page 3. As such, they will not go live with the rest of Page 3 and will remain on Pineapple for additional testing afterwards.

 

Halloween Event

• Trick-or-treating has been enabled in all city zones.
• Dr. Kane’s Mansion is available in the Holiday tab of the LFG window.
• Eternal night has fallen and the Deadly Apocalypse is upon us!
• The Halloween vendors (Malkiel in Atlas Park, Annah in Croatoa, Granny Beldam in Nerva Archipelago, Acantha in Imperial City) have stocked up with goodies to trade for your salvage.

 

Tasks

• The first two story arcs for Issue 26 are here! Both were written by @holymittens, a professional video game writer, and target the two “middle” alignments, with one story arc for Vigilantes and one for Rogues.

 

New Story Arc: Shauna Braun

• Characters of the Vigilante alignment between Security Levels 25 and 29 can find Shauna Braun in Independence Port, near the southern Police Station, or using the Contact Finder.
  • Shauna Braun is a young programmer from Paragon City. She was raised by her father in a tiny apartment in between Kings Row and Independence Port. Shauna moved out when she went to college, but her father - having sacrificed so much to give his daughter a good education - continued to live there until it burned down a year ago. The PPD closed the case, citing an accident as the cause of the fire, but Shauna doesn't buy the explanation. She wants to uncover the truth behind her father's death and bring the perpetrators to justice.
• This arc has two different endings, with a badge for each. The badge art was created by @Log.

 

New Story Arc: Bobby Curtin

• Characters of the Rogue alignment between Security Levels 25 and 29 can find Bobby Curtin in Crimson Cove, in front of the White Elephant building, or using the Contact Finder.
  • Bobby Curtin is a bouncer at the White Elephant in Crimson Cove, a private establishment which prides itself on being 'neutral ground' between the many warring factions in Nerva. Bobby is known by frequent patrons for being willing to step in and break up fights between anyone, be they Longbow, Arachnos, or mortal manifestation of an ancient god.
• This arc introduces true branching missions to City of Heroes; depending on your choices, you will be presented with a couple of entirely different missions, leading to several possible endings. There is only one badge for this arc.

 

Rikti Mothership Raid

• The Rikti Mothership raid can now be started from the LFG queue. Characters must be level 35 and have the Member of Vanguard badge to join the raid in this way.
  • If the league is not locked, a minimum of 16 players is required to start the raid this way.
  • All enemies inside the mission map are level 54, including the ones that are lower level in the zone. All players are bumped to combat level 50 for the duration of the raid.

 

Powers
New Origin Power Pool: Force of Will

• This power pool grants you access to various powers that allow you to manifest your own willpower and use it to harm your foes.
  • You can only have one Origin Power Pool (Sorcery or Force of Will) in your active build.
• Weaken Resolve: You overwhelm your foe with sheer strength of will, reducing their defense damage resistance, and chance to hit! Recharge: Long
• Project Will: You manifest your willpower into a blast and project it toward a distant foe, causing moderate psionic and smashing damage. Project Will has a fair chance to knock the target down. Damage: Moderate, Recharge: Fast
• Mighty Leap: While this power is active you're able to leap great distances and jump incredibly high. In addition, while this power is active you're able to use Takeoff, which will knockdown nearby foes and increases jump speed. Recharge: Moderate
  • Takeoff: You stomp your foot on the ground with tremendous force empowering your jump speed for a short time and shattering the earth beneath, knocking nearby foes off of their feet. Recharge: Long
• Wall of Force: You project an unfocused blast of sheer force at foes in a short wide cone in front of you, dealing moderate psionic and smashing damage and potentially knocking targets down. Wall of Force requires you to have two other powers from the Force of Will power pool. Damage: Moderate, Recharge: Slow
• Unleash Potential: Unleashing your potential, you grant yourself a moderate boost to defense, regeneration rate, and recovery for a short time. Unleash Potential requires you to have two other powers in the Force of Will power pool. Recharge: Very Long

 

Other Changes
Zones

• The Abandoned Sewers have received a minor atmospheric tweak to make them visually distinct from the standard Sewer Network.
• Bloody Bay, Siren’s Call, Warburg and Recluse’s Victory now have a full complement of 8 Exploration Badges and one Exploration Accolade.
  • The Exploration Accolade art was created by @Flashtoo.

LFG Queue

• The LFG queue will now wait until you have the Recommended number of players for a Trial or Task Force before teleporting you to the contact or mission if the league is not locked.
  • If the league is locked, Trials and Task Forces will continue to ignore the minimum players and start even solo. You can invite more players into the League once the Trial starts, but not to a Task Force.
  • Incarnate and Holiday Trials continue to always require the minimum number of players, whether the league is locked or not.
  • Incarnate trials will no longer automatically fail if a locked league drops below the minimum players. They will still fail if they drop below the minimum players in an unlocked league.
  • This setup is an attempt to satisfy both players who want to start Trials and Task Forces solo or with small teams (lock the league) and those who want to use the LFG queue to find teams for Trials and Task Forces (don't lock the league).

 

Bug Fixes

• Many fixes to UI scaling for scrollbars, listviews, and compass elements.
• Fixed an issue preventing base item rotation in the 64-bit client.
• Implemented a workaround for a rare issue where the mapserver connection would get stuck while zoning into a map.

Edited September 27, 2019 by The Curator

[Waypoint]

Will there be any additional post made to locating the new PvP Zone badges or will it be "go, hunt, kill find badges?"

[Abraxus]

You had me a Halloween Event!  But, I'm reading on anyway! 😎

[Varkarrus]

Oh that LFG queue change is a gamechanger! I was really hoping for that!

Edited September 27, 2019 by Varkarrus

[Ry]

This is wonderful work guys! Thank you so much!

[Summerspark]

When will this be released on Live? More specifically, the halloween event.

[Widower]

18 minutes ago, Waypoint said:

Will there be any additional post made to locating the new PvP Zone badges or will it be "go, hunt, kill find badges?"

I believe Vidiotmaps already has the Bloody Bay and Siren's Call badge locations. The others, for the moment, are a secret to everyone. (Myself included, mostly.)

[Ibarra]

Definitely gonna want to try out those new story arcs.

[Glacier Peak]

Can't wait to test out the new content!

 

I'm excited to see there will be additional reasons for players to venture in to player versus player zones. This is a great opportunity to bring together two communities!

[raverbane]

Nice work!

[raverbane]

39 minutes ago, The Curator said:

 

Tasks

• The first two story arcs for Issue 26 are here! Both were written by Holymittens, a professional video game writer, and target the two “middle” alignments, with one story arc for Vigilantes and one for Rogues.

 

New Story Arc: Shauna Braun

• Characters of the Vigilante alignment between Security Levels 25 and 29 can find Shauna Braun in Independence Port, near the southern Police Station, or using the Contact Finder.
  • Shauna Braun is a young programmer from Paragon City. She was raised by her father in a tiny apartment in between Kings Row and Independence Port. Shauna moved out when she went to college, but her father - having sacrificed so much to give his daughter a good education - continued to live there until it burned down a year ago. The PPD closed the case, citing an accident as the cause of the fire, but Shauna doesn't buy the explanation. She wants to uncover the truth behind her father's death and bring the perpetrators to justice.
• This arc has two different endings, with a badge for each. The badge art was created by Poison.

 

New Story Arc: Bobby Curtin

• Characters of the Rogue alignment between Security Levels 25 and 29 can find Bobby Curtin in Crimson Cove, in front of the White Elephant building, or using the Contact Finder.
  • Bobby Curtin is a bouncer at the White Elephant in Crimson Cove, a private establishment which prides itself on being 'neutral ground' between the many warring factions in Nerva. Bobby is known by frequent patrons for being willing to step in and break up fights between anyone, be they Longbow, Arachnos, or mortal manifestation of an ancient god.
• This arc introduces true branching missions to City of Heroes; depending on your choices, you will be presented with a couple of entirely different missions, leading to several possible endings. There is only one badge for this arc.

 

Does this mean only characters from 25 to 29 can play these?  If so.  Will they be in the flashbacks menu?

[Eiko-chan]

41 minutes ago, The Curator said:

This arc has two different endings, with a badge for each. The badge art was created by Poison.

Are these badges mutually exclusive, or can you get both by repeating the arc in Ouroboros?

[Widower]

4 minutes ago, raverbane said:

Does this mean only characters from 25 to 29 can play these?  If so.  Will they be in the flashbacks menu?

Yes.

3 minutes ago, Eiko-chan said:

Are these badges mutually exclusive, or can you get both by repeating the arc in Ouroboros?

I believe you can get both.

[Jimmy]

5 minutes ago, raverbane said:

Does this mean only characters from 25 to 29 can play these?  If so.  Will they be in the flashbacks menu?

Yes, if you are the correct alignment.

5 minutes ago, Eiko-chan said:

Are these badges mutually exclusive, or can you get both by repeating the arc in Ouroboros?

You should be able to get both.

 

Edit: rude

[macskull]

While I understand the experimental powers changes will not be going live with Page 3, will the bugfixes be pushed to live along with this?

[heywoods1230c]

Quote

Powers
New Origin Power Pool: Force of Will

• This power pool grants you access to various powers that allow you to manifest your own willpower and use it to harm your foes.
  • You can only have one Origin Power Pool (Sorcery or Force of Will) in your active build.
• Weaken Resolve: You overwhelm your foe with sheer strength of will, reducing their defense damage resistance, and chance to hit! Recharge: Long
• Project Will: You manifest your willpower into a blast and project it toward a distant foe, causing moderate psionic and smashing damage. Project Will has a fair chance to knock the target down. Damage: Moderate, Recharge: Fast
• Mighty Leap: While this power is active you're able to leap great distances and jump incredibly high. In addition, while this power is active you're able to use Takeoff, which will knockdown nearby foes and increases jump speed. Recharge: Moderate
  • Takeoff: You stomp your foot on the ground with tremendous force empowering your jump speed for a short time and shattering the earth beneath, knocking nearby foes off of their feet. Recharge: Long
• Wall of Force: You project an unfocused blast of sheer force at foes in a short wide cone in front of you, dealing moderate psionic and smashing damage and potentially knocking targets down. Wall of Force requires you to have two other powers from the Force of Will power pool. Damage: Moderate, Recharge: Slow
• Unleash Potential: Unleashing your potential, you grant yourself a moderate boost to defense, regeneration rate, and recovery for a short time. Unleash Potential requires you to have two other powers in the Force of Will power pool. Recharge: Very Long

 

ANSWERED: it's on pineapple right now. it wasn't clear to me what the post meant by "Please note that the existing experimental powers changes are still live on Pineapple, but they are not part of Page 3."

 

When will this power set be live? I don't see the power pool as being available on any of my toons when I went to respec them just now. I tried on both a hero and a villain. Something I'm missing?

Edited September 27, 2019 by heywoods1230c

[Demon Shell]

I can't believe any character will be able to get a fairly short cooldown, 90 degree, 40 ft range cone.

 

Wow.

 

Edit: I was kinda hoping Takeoff would allow a Granite Armor to jump.

Edited September 27, 2019 by Demon Shell

[Meruk]

Quote

 

LFG Queue

• The LFG queue will now wait until you have the Recommended number of players for a Trial or Task Force before teleporting you to the contact or mission if the league is not locked.
  • If the league is locked, Trials and Task Forces will continue to ignore the minimum players and start even solo. You can invite more players into the League once the Trial starts, but not to a Task Force.
  • Incarnate and Holiday Trials continue to always require the minimum number of players, whether the league is locked or not.
  • Incarnate trials will no longer automatically fail if a locked league drops below the minimum players. They will still fail if they drop below the minimum players in an unlocked league.
  • This setup is an attempt to satisfy both players who want to start Trials and Task Forces solo or with small teams (lock the league) and those who want to use the LFG queue to find teams for Trials and Task Forces (don't lock the league).

 

 

 

Loved this, are there any implemented filters on it? Or could it end up with 8 Blasters in a "public" group?

Edited September 27, 2019 by lucaslsr94

[Shadowfane]

8 minutes ago, heywoods1230c said:

When will this power set be live? I don't see the power pool as being available on any of my toons when I went to respec them just now. I tried on both a hero and a villain. Something I'm missing?

It's live *on the test server* for testing.

 

I imagine it won't be on live for a little while.

[Auroxis]

Why does Weaken Resolve not accept Accurate ToHit Debuff sets while it accepts ToHit Debuff sets and Accurate Defense Debuff sets? Makes it lose out on a proc.

[Keleko]

There's a bug on pineapple that autocast powers do not stick.  The autocast effect drops off the power after some amount of time passes.  I noticed this when applying it to Hasten.

[TheAdjustor]

Wooo Hoo and thank you. Everything reads GREAT can't wait to see it on test.

[Player2]

Force of Will -> Weaken Resolve

 

The power text description reads:  You overwhelm your foe with sheer strength of will, reducing their defense damage resistance, and chance to hit!  Recharge: Long

 

There should be a comma after the word defense.

[Marfal]

The desk object in the first mission of Shauna's arc is clipped through the wall. You can still click it but may want to fix that

[nihilii]

3 hours ago, The Curator said:

• Incarnate trials will no longer automatically fail if a locked league drops below the minimum players. They will still fail if they drop below the minimum players in an unlocked league.
• This setup is an attempt to satisfy both players who want to start Trials and Task Forces solo or with small teams (lock the league) and those who want to use the LFG queue to find teams for Trials and Task Forces (don't lock the league).

Unbelievably cool. I got to say, the dev team's efforts to include all perspectives whenever possible really shows commitment to Homecoming's "play your way" mantra. :)