Patch Notes for February 18th, 2020

[The Curator]

Cleaning Up

• This patch starts the Page 5 testing cycle; nothing new yet, just setting up the servers and preparing for the excitement to come. The beta server is now called Brainstorm and will be joined by Aeon once testing starts next week so we're able to ensure comparability with Homecoming's multi-shard live environment (remember when a patch caused character transfers to break everything? never again!).
• Cheats have been re-enabled. All characters on Brainstorm and Aeon will be granted badges to unlock Accolades, Epics, Incarnates, Ouroboros access and Vanguard merits; in addition, the Salvage ingredients have been removed from all recipes.
• Two Staging shards have also been brought online; they have temporary names at the moment, but after the next patch they will be known as Shadow and Reflection. They are intended for release candidate patches that are ready to go live, and should prevent bottlenecks where we have patches waiting for testing, but need to wait for fixes to go live first.
• The Safe Mode client is now gone from the Beta shards. If you are unable to play the game on the 32-Bit or 64-Bit clients, please post in the relevant support threads for it (Windows support thread, Mac support thread) as Safe Mode will no longer be available when Page 5 hits the live servers.
• This update also includes some behind-the-scenes changes for upcoming improvements to the costume editor. Please try editing costumes and editing / playing AE arcs with custom critters, and be sure to submit any crashes that you encounter!

Edited February 25, 2020 by The Curator

[Sovera]

43 minutes ago, The Curator said:

This update also includes some behind-the-scenes changes for upcoming improvements to the costume editor. Please try editing costumes and editing / playing AE arcs with custom critters, and be sure to submit any crashes that you encounter!

HYPE!

[csr]

The AE critter editor definitely does not like the critters copied over from live.  It causes a hard crash to the desktop when you try to edit them.  To be clear... that's critters copied over with my account, not some manual copy that I did.

 

I didn't have any troubles creating new critters however.  Neither in the editor or in a test mission.

Edited February 19, 2020 by csr

[Doc_Scorpion]

On 2/18/2020 at 5:18 AM, The Curator said:

Please try editing costumes and editing / playing AE arcs with custom critters, and be sure to submit any crashes that you encounter!

Selected an AE arc filled with custom critters, game locked up hard after selecting "standard rewards".

[Necate]

On 2/18/2020 at 2:18 PM, The Curator said:

Cleaning Up

• This update also includes some behind-the-scenes changes for upcoming improvements to the costume editor. 

What is this improvement ? New costume part ? 

[nicoliy]

No issues yet. Made a new mission with custom critters and jumped in to test. No Crashes.

[Vea]

Custom Critter AE arcs are causing crashes. Currently stuck in a loop of trying to play a character who started arc, crashes every time I attempt to load in.

[Gulbasaur]

On 2/19/2020 at 8:01 PM, Necate said:

What is this improvement ? New costume part ? 

Mandatory butt capes for everyone ❤️

[EmperorSteele]

On 2/19/2020 at 3:01 PM, Necate said:

What is this improvement ? New costume part ? 

Well, if it's backend/behind-the-scenes work, its probably less about new parts, and more about new ways to organize existing ones and putting them together. Some examples might be asymmetrical details (Like having different gloves for each hand without having to select a robot arm), overlapping chest details (So you can have a bandolier AND a symbol, or perhaps a symbol on your chest with another small symbol on your jacket), multiple auras, etc. This is probably why existing AE arcs are crashing, because instead of a critter only having 1 chest detail, they now have 2, but one of those fields is "null" (instead of "blank") and the game can't even with that.

I'd have to go look and test and see myself though.

[Replacement]

More likely an increased maximum number of costume parts.

 

@Vea did you ever have any luck recovering? How about reproducing on a different toon? 

Alternatively, can you say what arc this was on an we can try to repro?

[EmperorSteele]

I just submitted a crash report related to AE, but i erroneously stated that my custom critters all have Vanguard uniforms; this is not the case for that specific arc, please disregard that line. (The crash was when trying to edit an existing arc)

EDIT: I can't even edit an existing AE critter without a crash! In fact, it doesn't even show a preview of the critter when I select it on my list. I can't even move critters from one group to another; selecting a critter from the list expands the "detailed" field, but when it tries to load the critter's appearance, I get a crash to desktop.

 

EDIT2: I can create a new critter just fine, and I can place it into an existing group when I'm editing that specific critter, and I can play a new mission with that new critter, but right now it looks like old AE critters are incompatible with whatever new backend changes you've got in store!

 

EDIT 3: I tried to look through the crash reports I sent, see if maybe I could find a clue as to what was causing this, but I can't make heads or tails of the crash/error codes used in the crash description in the .report files, and I can't even read the .mdmp files, so... you guys are on your own, I guess!

Edited February 22, 2020 by EmperorSteele

[Vea]

@Replacement Nope the toon is stuck in a crash loop. I can't zone at all. The arc is my own custom arc with custom critters (minion LT Boss and AV) - all of which have no powersets! 

 

Just tried going onto Briggs S/L farm on a separate 50 and I have the same issue. 

[Doc_Scorpion]

On 2/19/2020 at 10:15 AM, Doc_Scorpion said:

Selected an AE arc filled with custom critters, game locked up hard after selecting "standard rewards".

Based on the other reports, I tried to load this character and crashed to the desktop after the zone loading screen.   Sent in a crash report.

[Necate]

On 2/21/2020 at 12:49 PM, EmperorSteele said:

Well, if it's backend/behind-the-scenes work, its probably less about new parts, and more about new ways to organize existing ones and putting them together. Some examples might be asymmetrical details (Like having different gloves for each hand without having to select a robot arm), overlapping chest details (So you can have a bandolier AND a symbol, or perhaps a symbol on your chest with another small symbol on your jacket), multiple auras, etc. This is probably why existing AE arcs are crashing, because instead of a critter only having 1 chest detail, they now have 2, but one of those fields is "null" (instead of "blank") and the game can't even with that.

I'd have to go look and test and see myself though.

So saaaaad....i wanna the possibility to wear my katana on my back 😞

[Wavicle]

Hoping for the ability to Lock individual parts on the costume screen, so Random and Match Colors doesn't randomize or match everything.

[Sovera]

3 hours ago, Necate said:

So saaaaad....i wanna the possibility to wear my katana on my back 😞

That would be lovely, but if CO showed me something is that while it looks daft that our katana shows out of nowhere when needed it looks just as daft to be swinging it while it still stands on our back. WoW manages to make the weapons appear and disappear from the back/waist but the system is there from scratch to allow it.

[BlastLord]

I would love to see an AE Incarnate Trial which would be cool

[Wavicle]

Just now, BlastLord said:

I would love to see an AE Incarnate Trial which would be cool

A what?

[ThunderCAP]

8 hours ago, Sovera said:

That would be lovely, but if CO showed me something is that while it looks daft that our katana shows out of nowhere when needed it looks just as daft to be swinging it while it still stands on our back. WoW manages to make the weapons appear and disappear from the back/waist but the system is there from scratch to allow it.

This can be resolved with costume parts that disappear on combat mode (like some auras activate only in combat mode). That way you could add weapons on the back that once you are in combat mode disappear from there, and of course you will see the usual animation to get the weapon in your hand when you enter combat mode so it will seem like you take it each time you prepare to fight.

[Wavicle]

Just now, ThunderCAP said:

This can be resolved with costume parts that disappear on combat mode (like some auras activate only in combat mode). That way you could add weapons on the back that once you are in combat mode disappear from there, and of course you will see the usual animation to get the weapon in your hand when you enter combat mode so it will seem like you take it each time you prepare to fight.

That is a pretty nifty idea. Nice one!

[EmperorSteele]

8 hours ago, Wavicle said:

A what?

An AE Incarnate Trial.

Basically, I think he wants to be able to make content in AE suited for Incarnates where a) incarnate level shifts would apply and b) we get an incarnate reward table at the end. Of course, it's not just about rewards. Incarnate critters have higher base accuracy and defenses, some have level shifts, and some have unique powers, too. Also, maybe he wants there to be more than 8 players on a map.

So yeah, there are a few things which incarnate content does differently from everything else, but otherwise I'm not sure what he really wants out of that.

[Gulbasaur]

18 hours ago, EmperorSteele said:

An AE Incarnate Trial.

My go-to for mega-difficult AE stuff is to give enemies a wide array of debuff powers - with so many supers running round with a hundred set bonuses and incarnate powers, stripping as much back as possible is a really good way of giving yourself some challenge. 

[Doc_Scorpion]

On 2/18/2020 at 5:18 AM, The Curator said:

Please try editing costumes and editing / playing AE arcs with custom critters, and be sure to submit any crashes that you encounter!

Not sure where else to put this...  In the Feb 18th patch I experienced both a hard lock up and a crash loop as detailed above.  This does not happen with the Feb 25th patch.