issue 26 Patch Notes for January 23rd, 2020 - Issue 26, Page 4

[Crysis]

48 minutes ago, Doc_Scorpion said:

Some of that is the change in the nature of online communication since the Snap.  Back then, forums were where the action was.  (In general, not just Cox.)  Forums are now considered to be...  outmoded and old fashioned.  Discord (deeply flawed as chat rooms are) and (to a lesser extent) social media are where the action is.

I'm old I guess.  I can't stand reading Discord.  Too immediate, hard to browse/search what I'm looking to find.  I don't even use our forum search tool, however, I tend to use Google to search the forums using the "site:" command.

 

But I think you are right.  The immediacy of communications is the social norm of today, whereas the post-and-playback approach was forums of yesterday.

[Abraxus]

1 hour ago, Doc_Scorpion said:

Some of that is the change in the nature of online communication since the Snap.  Back then, forums were where the action was.  (In general, not just Cox.)  Forums are now considered to be...  outmoded and old fashioned.  Discord (deeply flawed as chat rooms are) and (to a lesser extent) social media are where the action is.

They are considered that way, but only because folks (particularly younger folks) are always looking for that BBD (bigger, better deal).  Forums might be older tech, but for archival information, they beat the hell out of Discord, or any social media outlet I typically use.  Here, you "sticky" an important piece of information, and you never have to say it again.  Just point new folks to it when the same old questions come up.  I know Discord has the ability to pin some messages as well, but it's more limited.  Plus, the infinity scroll in Discord, means you probably miss out on some valuable conversations just because there is no telling how far you have to scroll up to find it.  Here, you can scan page by page, or jump a couple to get to what you want.  Take the monthly donations.  So many folks complain that they never know when it's happening, because they don't go to the two main places where it's posted.  The forum, and the HC Discord.  For some, apparently even the in-game pop-ups aren't enough, but there will always be a few of those. 

 

Bottom line, the scrolling nature of most other platforms means that the same questions keep getting asked by newcomers, and folks who have answered them hundreds of times, get tired of answering.  So, there are advantages to this "old" tech, even if it's not give the credit it's due for what it does better.  Their failure to recognize it's advantages does not invalidate them, but rather brings them into sharp relief when they complain about the lack of information. 😎

Edited January 27, 2020 by Abraxus

[VileTerror]

Kiiiiind of totally veering off course of this thread's intended subject . . . but I'd say don't discount the usefulness of forum-based communication.  This format has persisted for decades for some pretty solid reasons.  Other modes of communication may show up, but forums still provide meaningful and useful forms of idea expression.

[Abraxus]

2 minutes ago, VileTerror said:

Kiiiiind of totally veering off course of this thread's intended subject . . . but I'd say don't discount the usefulness of forum-based communication.  This format has persisted for decades for some pretty solid reasons.  Other modes of communication may show up, but forums still provide meaningful and useful forms of idea expression.

I agree on both points!  Now back to the business of patch/update discussion!🤓

[SwitchFade]

Further live testing:

 

Same 50 Water/SR sentinel And Whirlpool...

 

I cast and wait. After a few ticks of damage, every MOB freaks and moves out of the aoe.

 

I'm wondering if there's more at play with enemy "aversion to damage" as they are much more inclined to flee, even with no aggro auras, procs or stacked damage.

 

+4/8 various foes all flee Whirlpool, and Whirlpool is not nearly as high damage as other aoe dot.

Edited January 27, 2020 by SwitchFade

[SpacePioneer]

Much appreciated, thank you!

 

Miscellaneous

• Added a new command line parameter: -gfxreset
  • This will cause the game to reset all graphics settings and launch the game in windowed mode.
• Added some safety checks to game startup to ensure the game will not try to run borderless or on a monitor that's no longer connected.

[Myrmidon]

11 hours ago, Abraxus said:

*lol*

 

I have 5 or 6 toons in the AE fire farms beyond my prime/main, so one of them will still be after ya!

 

[Brutal Justice]

There was a controller in my team tonight.  I think I am actually ok with how the mobs are running a little more.  It made me appreciate the controller for the first time since live.  Leave the threat fleeing as it is now.  

[QuiJon]

On 1/26/2020 at 7:47 PM, Myrmidon said:

Hell, Paragon Studios rarely had live patches go as smoothly as this.🤣🤣🤣

I would just like to say for the record that if this was paragon studios that my attitude would have been way worse. I do believe that this was an unforeseen issue with the changes they made to the agro system and that the current devs are working to fix it. However part of the reason why it upsets me is that some of us, actually play firey armor characters in the real game not just for farming. So this problem kind of breaks that ability to use that character fully or efficiently. Think for a moment if this same thing happened to your main character, like if suddenly every controllers toggle dbuffs cause a mob to break apart and run to the hills in different directions. It would kind of upset you right? 

 

Like I said I believe this was an accident and I appreciate what the devs have done for us. However I also have to say that these are not professional devs. They are doing this on top of living their own lives, working full days, having family obligations etc. So where if this happened back in the live days I would know that a dev crew was being PAID to work on it as part of their job, it is a little not fair to expect that level of attention from a volunteer crew. 

 

And I would also like to add if this was the old paragon-devs frankly my attitude would have been worse because I would have expected that this was some last minute drop into the patch to stealth nerf a power like burn. Again I don't believe that is the case here, I would just like it fixed the quickest possible way and IMO it was more fair to expect a group of volunteers to remove the patch and continue to work on it and fix it at their leisure then it was to expect this to be a high priority in their lives to fix a broken power set in a game they willingly give their free time to work on. 

[Sovera]

4 minutes ago, QuiJon said:

I would just like to say for the record that if this was paragon studios that my attitude would have been way worse. I do believe that this was an unforeseen issue with the changes they made to the agro system and that the current devs are working to fix it. However part of the reason why it upsets me is that some of us, actually play firey armor characters in the real game not just for farming. So this problem kind of breaks that ability to use that character fully or efficiently. Think for a moment if this same thing happened to your main character, like if suddenly every controllers toggle dbuffs cause a mob to break apart and run to the hills in different directions. It would kind of upset you right? 

 

Like I said I believe this was an accident and I appreciate what the devs have done for us. However I also have to say that these are not professional devs. They are doing this on top of living their own lives, working full days, having family obligations etc. So where if this happened back in the live days I would know that a dev crew was being PAID to work on it as part of their job, it is a little not fair to expect that level of attention from a volunteer crew. 

 

And I would also like to add if this was the old paragon-devs frankly my attitude would have been worse because I would have expected that this was some last minute drop into the patch to stealth nerf a power like burn. Again I don't believe that is the case here, I would just like it fixed the quickest possible way and IMO it was more fair to expect a group of volunteers to remove the patch and continue to work on it and fix it at their leisure then it was to expect this to be a high priority in their lives to fix a broken power set in a game they willingly give their free time to work on. 

You musat live in a perfect world where patches don't break things. For the rest of us it's par de course that something may break on patch day. The real difference and gripe is on how LONG it takes to fix what was broken, and the devs already spotted the problem and fixed it, so the fix will be out soon.

 

Really, demanding a rollback because a patch broke one thing in the ocean of changes is a bit of a heh attitude.

[siolfir]

3 minutes ago, Sovera said:

You musat live in a perfect world where patches don't break things. For the rest of us it's par de course that something may break on patch day. The real difference and gripe is on how LONG it takes to fix what was broken, and the devs already spotted the problem and fixed it, so the fix will be out soon.

 

Really, demanding a rollback because a patch broke one thing in the ocean of changes is a bit of a heh attitude.

Sadly, reports are coming in that the fix either wasn't part of the release today or something else changed in the subsequent patches that occurred yesterday (version control merge issues?) to re-break it.

 

 

But this is fairly common for even professional teams, so I stand by my meme earlier.

[Myrmidon]

13 minutes ago, QuiJon said:

I would just like to say for the record that if this was paragon studios that my attitude would have been way worse. I do believe that this was an unforeseen issue with the changes they made to the agro system and that the current devs are working to fix it. However part of the reason why it upsets me is that some of us, actually play firey armor characters in the real game not just for farming. So this problem kind of breaks that ability to use that character fully or efficiently. Think for a moment if this same thing happened to your main character, like if suddenly every controllers toggle dbuffs cause a mob to break apart and run to the hills in different directions. It would kind of upset you right? 

Actually, one of my top 5 used characters is a Rad/Fire Brute that (while fully capable of farming if I wish), is designed for playing the actual game just like you mentioned. I can definitely see how it could be annoying, however, think of this as an opportunity to work on tanking skills in teams.

 

Keep trying it out and posting your results as they work on correcting it would be my advice.

[QuiJon]

14 minutes ago, Sovera said:

 The real difference and gripe is on how LONG it takes to fix what was broken, and the devs already spotted the problem and fixed it, so the fix will be out soon.

 

Really, demanding a rollback because a patch broke one thing in the ocean of changes is a bit of a heh attitude.

First of all that was my point in how long this would take. Like I said in my post, I am trying to keep my expectations of a volunteer dev team in check with their reality. So expecting a patch to break something last week and suddenly be fixed in the same amount of time as a professionally managed game might be is kind of unfair to them. Which is why IMO it is more fair and in no way "attitude" to say I would rather the devs take their time and roll back the patch and fix it properly at a pace that their lives find comfortable for their time. 

 

On top of that they are no professionally being paid to manage the game, they also are learning this game and code as they go, and has been cited already the latest patch also had problems fixing this issue. So even when they know what is wrong, they seem to have issues trying to fix it correctly which is why I say roll off the patch at least as it pertains to the changes to agro management and taunts. I don't see why that isn't a valid option or unfair to expect to be done while they figure out what is happening at a pace that they are comfortable with and not hurried that might create future issues. 

[Abraxus]

Consider, perhaps, the possibility that rolling back is a harder option for them than continuing their attempts to fix.  If we assume good intentions, which since the game is no longer profit driven...I do; it is logical to assume that any actions they take are done with the intent of improving the game, and making the players happy.  Not, screwing up the game, and making them unhappy.  So, I wouldn't take their reticence to just roll-back to a previous version as any kind of disregard for yours, or anyone else's enjoyment of the game, and that there are likely other reasons why they proceed as they do.  I empathize with your dilemma, but a little patience will very likely be rewarded soon.

Edited January 28, 2020 by Abraxus

[Captain Powerhouse]

Just a heads up: the taunt fix helped but not completely, there are still some odd timing issues that causes it to not work. Working on a fix for that right now. This side of the bug also happens to affect Tankers, but its also a lot more random.

[Mystic_Cross]

I noticed a bit of this aggro loss thing on my Invul/Em last week, but it was intermittent and I didn't want to jump the gun without testing it more. Unfortunately won't be able to get on again until this weekend, but along with the brute issue, it would seem this has something to do with the global taunt proc changes. Pure speculation but that would account for it affecting both tanks and brutes, no? The fact that I have no kind of damage auras (or even AoE in general) on my tank makes it seem more plausible to me anyway. 

 

In any case, many thanks to the devs for all your work and looking into this issue.

[siolfir]

11 minutes ago, Mystic_Cross said:

I noticed a bit of this aggro loss thing on my Invul/Em last week, but it was intermittent and I didn't want to jump the gun without testing it more. Unfortunately won't be able to get on again until this weekend, but along with the brute issue, it would seem this has something to do with the global taunt proc changes. Pure speculation but that would account for it affecting both tanks and brutes, no? The fact that I have no kind of damage auras (or even AoE in general) on my tank makes it seem more plausible to me anyway. 

 

In any case, many thanks to the devs for all your work and looking into this issue.

No need to speculate, it's confirmed as affecting Tankers as well as Brutes:

 

But you shouldn't run into (as many) problems with Invulnerability since it doesn't rely solely on the proc:

 

[agentx5]

On 1/27/2020 at 2:50 PM, Number Six said:

I keep hearing people say Doooooooooom, but since concurrent player count during peak times has steadily been going up since the first of the year... 🤷‍♂️

 

Number of active accounts has held remarkably stable for quite a few months and doesn't correlate strongly with concurrency, which suggests that the conventional wisdom of a somewhat more adult-centered player base who doesn't have as much time to play games around the holiday season was probably correct.

 

As expected, once the initial shiny and excitement wore off, some with shorter attention spans drifted off (mostly by the end of the summer), while a healthy number settled back into pre-sunset routines and play a couple nights a week, but are not online every waking hour or even every day.

Take myself as an example, I've only been playing CoH for a few months.  Literally.  Ever.  I think back when CoH was live I was into competitive TF2 league play (as medic & heavy primarily).  I was brought here via referral of some other long-time friends who were already here.  And then I can say I've encountered at least 4 or 6 other uniquely new players to CoH (not just returning players from when it was Live).  So yeah, that's good news, no?

[SlimPickens]

quick question on the tanker changes- Does the max target cap and radius modifiers affect primary powers that do damage as well? i.e. Burn, shield charge etc? I only see melee secondary powers listed in the notes, so want to be clear what to expect if I have a powerset primary that includes a damage dealing aoe power.

 

And if they do not benefit from the buff, why not?

[Captain Powerhouse]

No pet get either change regardless what set the pet comes from.
Only powers in melee sets, and not all powers, get the target cap increase.

Burn’s up-front AoE is not a pet and benefits from that radius buff.

Edited February 2, 2020 by Captain Powerhouse

[SlimPickens]

2 hours ago, Captain Powerhouse said:

No pet get either change regardless what set the pet comes from.
Only powers in melee sets, and not all powers, get the target cap increase.

Burn’s up-front AoE is not a pet and benefits from that radius buff.

thanks for the reply Captain P.

 

what is the increased radius on the up front burn aoe? (8 feet, 5 target max still shows in description) Im not noticing any difference in how far it hits mobs on my fire/fire tank Ive been testing the changes on.

[VortexMaster]

On 1/23/2020 at 8:49 AM, The Curator said:

A number of pets have been classified as "Ranged Only" pets. The AI for these pets will no longer change position in order to use melee powers such as Brawl. They still possess these powers and will use them opportunistically if a target is in range, but will not move in order to do so.

This! This is amazing, I have wanted this since day one of playing City of Villains, I would have even been happy with losing brawl, but this is absolutely a dream come true!

[SweetTorment]

I have deliberately avoided posting again until long after the issue finally was resolved because I did not want to offend anyone or cause any controversy. But now that enough time has passed I feel like it should be safe to post this follow through.

 

For the record, I am honestly annoyed at several people in this thread.

 

Back when Burn first got bugged Jimmy stated that the problem was the toggles alone because they were failing to taunt and it was fixed in house. I proceeded to state that this was incorrect and that Burn was actively deaggroing aka placating. I then gave a step by step way of proving this. Steps that I had tested before ever posting.

 

Rather than testing it for themselves, multiple people decided to take offense that I was daring to question a developer and stated that of course he would know better than I. Further these people claimed that I was being rude just for pointing out how my play tests proved that it was not the toggles alone causing the problem.

 

So what did the facts in hindsight prove?

 

Did the first fix patch attempt solve the problem like Jimmy said? No.

 

In fact the first patch made the problem worse. Prior to the first patch they ran but it usually took a few seconds. After the first patch "fixing toggles" they ran the instant burn was applied.

 

Just like my initial post stated I feared would happen. It took a second patch to fix the problem. ... And to be honest I am not entirely sure even now if it is truly "fully" fixed. In its current form Burn appears un-bugged on the surface, but if I actively use a specific chain of powers in a certain order and specific timing I can still recreate the run effects despite the fixes. But, it is at least fixed enough now to make the skill usable once again when not actively forcing those specific conditions. However, the fact that I can still force the running effect though makes me wonder if this bug will one day again rear its ugly head... Regardless, it is fixed enough for now.

 

Do I see the code that the developers do? Of course not. But actual field testing can spot issues. It is not like I made statements and gave no corroborating evidence or ways of copying my results. I stated specifically everything I tested and what the results were. And I even repeated my tests multiple times before bringing it up publicly for my peers to see and test for themselves. Aka scientific experimentation methods. It would have been easy to attempt to verify for themselves my claims.

 

So the fact that people decided to just trash any dissenting voice; without even taking the time to test for themselves first. Well, let me just say that annoys me. I am somewhat used to it since people act like that all of the time to dissenting voices. But it is still annoying how quick humans are to judge without first verifying.

 

For the record, I did not want to be right. I stated to my friends at the time that I hoped Jimmy's patch would prove me wrong. Then the patch came out and made it worse instead of fixing the problem, exactly like I suspected would be the case. But even then I did not strut around trying to lord it over everyone or make any claims to being smarter than anyone else. And even in my initial post stating that I feared he was mistaken I never insulted him or any other developer. I just wish my fellow players had afforded me that same courtesy.

 

I am not sure what I am trying to accomplish by posting this. I doubt any of the people who posted against me will suddenly change and in the future stop long enough to verify a claim someone makes before jumping to disclaim it untested. In fact I suspect I am going to if anything gain at least one or two enemies for having the temerity to point out their errors in this matter. And even in my best case scenario I suspect that my post will be reported by someone just for daring to post this. But I am still posting this just in the hopes that at least a single person will learn from this incident and first verify before jumping to take sides when a dispute arises.

[EyeLuvBooks]

The changes are mind-boggling (in a good way)! I used to skip many of the 7' cone powers on Tanks but now they have a reason to be there. The MM changes are SO appreciated! Immediately noticed the difference on the gun-related MM pets (Thugs and Mercs). THANK YOU!