will homecoming be able to make new content?

[cparks70402]

I have no idea what the legal stuff of coh is as far as modifing the game. In the future will homecoming be able to make content such as new power sets, costume, zones etc? or do they not have the rights to do these things?

 

I would like to see psi shields some day!

[Lines]

They have done. There are new powersets, pool powers, story arcs and a task force, to name a few things.

 

The obstacle is not so much the legality (though things are forcasted to accelerate if that pulls through), but the tools and methods to create and add new assets to the game. At the moment, buildings, costume pieces and effects aren't very easy to add. Not to mention the time it would take to make them anyway.

 

There's still some behind the scenes stuff to happen.

Edited January 7, 2020 by Lines

[drdread]

The homecoming team has already made original content! Including (but not limited to):

 

• The Sentinel Archetype
• New missions
• New Badges
• A ton of fixes and improvements.

 

Check the patch notes page to see all the updates.

[Piyerus]

Most of the changes made so far have been backend stuff, behind the scenes changes that are harder to notice. However as noted there have been some balance changes and new content added as well. Some of the changes are even straight from the Suggestions forum, like the upcoming change to Illusions phantom army.

[romanflask2]

How do I find out what the changes will be?  Is there someplace they have to find out new and up coming content?

[boggo2300]

6 minutes ago, romanflask2 said:

How do I find out what the changes will be?  Is there someplace they have to find out new and up coming content?

the announcements thread on either this forum or the discord

 

[Outrider_01]

17 hours ago, drdread said:

The homecoming team has already made original content! Including (but not limited to):

 

• The Sentinel Archetype

HC made Sentinels or did they finish something from live that was never finished? Haven't really played them but was hard to believe that they would make a pure range with status protection and defense/resist AT.

[DR_Mechano]

5 minutes ago, Outrider_01 said:

HC made Sentinels or did they finish something from live that was never finished? Haven't really played them but was hard to believe that they would make a pure range with status protection and defense/resist AT.

Sentinels were basically 'in the code' on the beta test server before the game was sunset. The SCORE guys basically worked things out and added them into the game so they finished something that was incredibly barebones at the time.

However Sentinels are going to be looked at once the Mastermind changes (ranged pets nolonger run into melee) and maybe the Tanker Changes (whole host of changes) go through since currently they're considered kind of...meh...by the community in that they don't really fulfill a major needed role, at least in my personal opinion.

[boggo2300]

8 minutes ago, Outrider_01 said:

HC made Sentinels or did they finish something from live that was never finished? Haven't really played them but was hard to believe that they would make a pure range with status protection and defense/resist AT.

Sentinels were partially completed on i24 Beta, they were finished off and added the other two new AT's in the beta were pretty much scrapped before shutdown which is why the Guardian AT which was completed and tested is no longer here, it's not good, the Primalist? I think was basically completely scrapped with all assets completed for it turned into Savage Melee

[DR_Mechano]

3 minutes ago, boggo2300 said:

Sentinels were partially completed on i24 Beta, they were finished off and added the other two new AT's in the beta were pretty much scrapped before shutdown which is why the Guardian AT which was completed and tested is no longer here, it's not good, the Primalist? I think was basically completely scrapped with all assets completed for it turned into Savage Melee

With regards the Guardian I always thought it was unwise to scrap it since, apparently, it was fairly close to completion and it was basically only the original SCORE crew that decided "oh we don't like this..." and not the general populous we now have, especially since Rebirth is now in the process of testing it for an issue 24 server. Especially considering Sentinels didn't go down well in the current population and apparently they were deemed worthy enough to go in over Guardians.

Edited January 8, 2020 by DR_Mechano

[boggo2300]

1 minute ago, DR_Mechano said:

With regards the Guardian I always thought it was unwise to scrap it since, apparently, it was fairly close to completion and it was basically only the original SCORE crew that decided "oh we don't like this..." and not the general populous we now have, especially since Rebirth is now in the process of testing it for an issue 24 server.

it was a LONG way from complete, and it really really was awful to play

[DR_Mechano]

Just now, boggo2300 said:

it was a LONG way from complete, and it really really was awful to play

That's fair enough but still, I imagine a new iteration of melee/(de)buffs would be interesting, especially since the Tsoo with their MA/Kin options have been in the game since launch and people have wanted to be able to use that combo for quite some time. As mentioned Sentinels are currently the least played AT on HC and personally they suffer from a majority of problems, including certain powersets being anemic on them (assault rifle with its reduce AoEs and Cone sizes suffers massively) and certain secondaries also being rather anemic (Invuln is also pretty bleh) and an inherent that requires both the tier 1 and the tier 2 to use properly plus the problem of it often proccing on mobs just as their about to die causing you to waste it.

 

This is personal bias mind you since my first experience with Sentinels was an AR/Invuln which just felt like I was pointless to have on the team with blasters and scrappers doing my job better. Great solo characters, very meh and pointless in teams it felt like.

[boggo2300]

Just now, DR_Mechano said:

That's fair enough but still, I imagine a new iteration of melee/(de)buffs would be interesting, especially since the Tsoo with their MA/Kin options have been in the game since launch and people have wanted to be able to use that combo for quite some time. As mentioned Sentinels are currently the least played AT on HC and personally they suffer from a majority of problems, including certain powersets being anemic on them (assault rifle with its reduce AoEs and Cone sizes suffers massively) and certain secondaries also being rather anemic (Invuln is also pretty bleh) and an inherent that requires both the tier 1 and the tier 2 to use properly plus the problem of it often proccing on mobs just as their about to die causing you to waste it.

 

This is personal bias mind you since my first experience with Sentinels was an AR/Invuln which just felt like I was pointless to have on the team with blasters and scrappers doing my job better. Great solo characters, very meh and pointless in teams it felt like.

well there are threads in the Suggestions sub forums for Melee/control AT's seemingly weekly, one of those sometime is going to hit on something that makes a dev think "that can work"

 

I'm not sure about Sentinels being broken, it could just be no-one has discovered what they are truly good at on a team yet, they sure can rock a map solo, which is what makes me think their special sauce just hasn't been found yet.

[DR_Mechano]

2 minutes ago, boggo2300 said:

well there are threads in the Suggestions sub forums for Melee/control AT's seemingly weekly, one of those sometime is going to hit on something that makes a dev think "that can work"

 

I'm not sure about Sentinels being broken, it could just be no-one has discovered what they are truly good at on a team yet, they sure can rock a map solo, which is what makes me think their special sauce just hasn't been found yet.

I wouldn't say their 'broken' just..lackluster. They do what they do just fine, it's just that other ATs can do what they do better. A fully IO'd blaster deals more damage and has defenses to match a Sentinel but Sentinels are much cheaper IOwise to reach said toughness. Scrappers deal more damage and have just as much defense (which is fair, they are in melee range after all). Stalkers beat them out at single target and boss assassination but then they beat the other two at that as well.

I mean Sentinels have been around for quite some time so you'd have thought someone would have found it by now. They're great solo characters just...meh...on teams, If I had to pick (which I normally don't, I take first come, first served approach) I would take either a scrapper, stalker or blaster over a sentinel.

[boggo2300]

1 minute ago, DR_Mechano said:

I wouldn't say their 'broken' just..lackluster. They do what they do just fine, it's just that other ATs can do what they do better. A fully IO'd blaster deals more damage and has defenses to match a Sentinel but Sentinels are much cheaper IOwise to reach said toughness. Scrappers deal more damage and have just as much defense (which is fair, they are in melee range after all). Stalkers beat them out at single target and boss assassination but then they beat the other two at that as well.

I mean Sentinels have been around for quite some time so you'd have thought someone would have found it by now. They're great solo characters just...meh...on teams, If I had to pick (which I normally don't, I take first come, first served approach) I would take either a scrapper, stalker or blaster over a sentinel.

Well except they don't get a lot of play 😄 and as a Solo toon they are pretty kick butt (and they should never come close to blaster damage levels, nothing should)

Sentinel tweaks are still happening I understand, they've just been moved behind the Tanker tweaks, we are still relying on a very small number of Devs, less than a 10th of what Paragon Studios had,  personally I'd rather see Kallisti Wharf populated and finished before too much more get's done on AT's (Except  the MM pet fixes on beta, we need those SO bad) hey I'm biased, sue me 😄

[Haijinx]

Unless you get hung up on the fact that the support classes are all ranged, I'm not sure what concept you can't pull off with the current mix available.

 

 

[boggo2300]

40 minutes ago, Haijinx said:

Unless you get hung up on the fact that the support classes are all ranged, I'm not sure what concept you can't pull off with the current mix available.

 

 

personally I think there are already too many AT's with to much overlap, but I don't see that being an argument I'll ever win, so I've pulled a frozen on it

[Shred Monkey]

1 hour ago, boggo2300 said:

personally I think there are already too many AT's with to much overlap, but I don't see that being an argument I'll ever win, so I've pulled a frozen on it

I agree... I mean, people saying we need a melee control AT, isn't that what Dominators are?

 

I think we have enough ATs.  I could see adding a powerset, but honestly, we have a lot of them already, just small tweaks to balance and we're good there.  Perhaps more alternate animations on the ones we have. 

 

More mission content would be great.  Granted we have a ton of mission content as well, but the way content has kept getting better and better over time, I think just adding more new content using those new tools would be great... preferably endgame playable, also.  The New Pretorian arc is perfect.  More please, thanks!

 

[Haijinx]

2 hours ago, boggo2300 said:

personally I think there are already too many AT's with to much overlap, but I don't see that being an argument I'll ever win, so I've pulled a frozen on it

Yeah.  That's kind of what happens when you smash two games together.  

[Chris24601]

As long as each AT has something distinctive about it; I’ve got no problem with adding an AT.

 

To me this means more than just mashing together power sets though. We ended up with ATs in the first place because of how just combining any two sets worked (or didn’t as the case might be).

 

No, I mean a theme and a mechanic behind the AT. Blaster has All Damage All The Time and it’s defiance mechanic and sustain powers. Masterminds have a truly unique and AT defining primary.

 

Right now I’d rather see more focus on our ATs that overlap a bit much (Corruptor/Defender and Tank/Brute/sorta-Scrapper) and making each of those feel distinctive before we even think about adding new ones.

 

In terms of the Tsoo concepts mentioned up thread; I think something similar could be accomplished instead via a new power set (that thankfully has most of the FX we’d need already in the game); call it Kinetic Armor and have it run entirely on buffing your defenses and other traits by targeting enemies.

 

It’d be a rather rollercoaster experience as you’d need a steady stream of enemies to peel energy from to keep your personal buffs going, but that’s kinda the point.

 

I could see a drain damage to boost your resistance, drain speed to boost your defense, drain regen and recovery to boost yours, drain their to-hit to increase yours, maybe inflict a very low mag disorient on several targets for a short duration to give you mez protection for a few minutes. The tier-9 could be an big AoE multi-effect debuff that boosts everything for a couple minutes.

 

There’s the frame for six of the nine powers right there. The key bits would be to scale the debuffs to the ATs scale AND make them personal rather than team buffs.

[Coyote]

6 hours ago, DR_Mechano said:

currently they're considered kind of...meh...by the community in that they don't really fulfill a major needed role, at least in my personal opinion.

 

I think that Sentinels were considered as fulfilling a major needed role for PLAYERS, not for TEAMS. Basically, the idea of having a character who is armored/tough AND ranged, like Iron Man is a standard hero/comic book archetype, and this allows players to play that archetype.

[Lines]

*quietly mains a Sentinel*

 

🙂

[Chris24601]

Since it’s been discussed; if I were to do a Sentinel archetype I think I’d take a cue from the Dominator secondaries (i.e. a mix of melee and ranged attacks) and build their power sets as hybrids.

 

In place of straight melee attacks, I’d make one set a mix of melee attacks and defense (some defense/resist and say mag 2-3 mez protection). Then I’d make their other set buff/debuff with the mix being at the set choice level; i.e. empathy is pure buff, trick arrow is pure debuff, dark is a mix.

 

As an AT feature I’d do something where using your buffs/debuffs improves the range of your melee/armor set attacks for a short time (either stacking buffs to range akin to a Blaster’s defiance or something you build up to then activate like domination). Basically, the more you buff, the further your reach.

[Coyotedancer]

53 minutes ago, Lines said:

*quietly mains a Sentinel*

 

🙂

I'm really fond of them as-is, too. 

They're excellent solo characters, and *not* useless with a group. At all.

 

You don't have to be "the best" at something to have a role with a team. You don't have to be a rock star to be useful and to contribute. I off-tank with my Dark/Bio/Dark. I blast the crap out of things with Fire/Ice.  I make a moderate mess with my Psi/Bio, too. They're good fun to play and that alone makes them worth having on my character list.

 

I've also read the proposed "improvements" to the AT with something between horror and wariness. I'm really worried that the intended direction of the so-called fixes will end up basically altering the way they play so much that we might as well have just had another archetype completely.  o_0

 

Edited January 8, 2020 by Coyotedancer

[Chris24601]

I tried a Sentinel for a bit and the main changes I think it needs are

 

A) buff/reduce the nerf on AoEs

B) fix their AT mechanic so you can control its triggering without resorting to the t1-2 attacks (perhaps something closer to the Domination button that you can hold once charged up).

 

Other than that I don’t think there’s that much of a problem with them. They don’t especially stand out on teams, but they’re another source of damage and another pool of relatively resistant hit points that makes the team stronger than they’d be if that slot weren’t filled.

 

They’re kinda the Jack-of-All-Trades (i.e. second best at everything) which means they don’t shine individually in a group the way the best do (i.e. blasters nuking whole spawns, tanks soaking hits from entire spawns), but they’re adding a bit to everything (damage dealt, hits soaked) that adds up overall.

 

Has anyone tested what the performance of an all Sentinel team looks like relative to say, one of all blasters, all tanks and a well mixed team? I’d be curious about, say, their clear times for some of the common TFs relative to each other.