issue 26 Patch Notes for May 16th, 2019

[Leandro]

GENERAL

• Halcyon has been renamed to Reunion (EU).
  
• For the next week each account will be given 20 transfer tokens every 3 days to allow for easier migration.
  
• The XP Boosters in Super Packs have been replaced with charges of the Experienced power (which grants Patrol XP).
  
• Moved the Respec Recipe from the Merit Vendor (formerly 50 Reward Merits) to P2W (10 million influence).
  
• Completing a Morality Mission now rewards 30 merits regardless of whether the player switched, reinforced, or double-reinforced their alignment.
  
• The costume change delay timer has been lowered to 15 seconds.

 

CUSTOM XP RATES

• The base XP rate on all shards is now back to 100% (AE rewards still halved outside of Dev Choice content).
  
• You can now acquire +25%, +50%, and +100% XP boosters for free from the P2W Vendor (or the Transact 4 Victory vendor in Praetoria).
  
• These boosters will reduce your inf income by the same amount they boost your XP gain.
  
• The boosters last for 1 hour of in-game time, but you can acquire up to 8 hours at a time.
  
• The boosters stop working immediately at level 50 - Veteran Levels must be earned normally.
  
• The boosters can be deleted from the Powers window (right click > Delete Power).
  
• Please note that this is an experimental feature, it may be altered or removed without notice.
  
• Jimmy cheats.

 

POWERS

• Beta Decay (Tanker, Scrapper, Brute, Blaster): the "first target" 10% recharge buff should no longer erroneously stack for all foes in range. The 2.5% per target recharge buff will continue to stack as expected. Max recharge buff with 10 targets should be +35%.
  
• Beta Decay (Blaster): Will now require a target for it's "first target" 10% recharge buff to be applied.
  
• Bio Armor > Evolving Armor: Fixed a bug where the stacking portion of the buff was overlapping 50% of the time.
  
• Frost Bite: Fixed a bug with the damage scale for this power which caused it to heal targets.
  
• Paragon Police > Call for Backup: this power will no longer endlessly summon PPD reinforcements. It previously attempted to limit itself to 3 uses by doing weird things with Stealth which didn't work; it now uses the Meter attribute.
  
• AV Purple Triangles now provide protection against OnlyAffectsSelf.

 

BUG FIXES

• The PPD in Kings Row will no longer infinitely multiply using the "Call for Backup" power.
  
• Patrol XP should now work again. It was not compatible with server-wide XP buffs.

 

[Healix]

[ZaBoink]

Since the server populartion levels have seemingly become more balanced, and the servers performance has become infinitely more stable from the initial launch (and AE nerf), is there a reason as to why AE farms are still being nerfed when XP bonuses are now a free option for normal PVE content???

 

I had understood the reason to nerf AE was because of the traffic and the stess it caused on the servers (back when servers had issues) ... now that everything seems to be running smoothly, is there really a need to limit farmers in AE?  Seems to me like the added free custom XP option makes it just as easy to run mission farms and still causes the same ammount of instances being opened on the map server.  What is the difference of killing packs of mobs in AE for XP versus killing packs of mobs in a mission and resetting?

[Impact]

Enormous, if you've ever been in one of popular AE farm maps.  Multiple packs of several dozen mobs each are wandering around using patrol AI, and there are often ambushes as well.  The server load per farm is much, much higher than on a mission map, where fewer mobs spawn and most of them have idle AI, not patrol.

[Vanden]

Are we going to see a reduction in the incarnate materials awarded for veteran levels? Right now, the rewards for earning veteran levels are so good they pretty much obviate the need to run incarnate trials, unless you want a full suite of Very Rare abilities, which will be bad for the health of raid content in the long-term.

[ZaBoink]

Enormous, if you've ever been in one of popular AE farm maps.  Multiple packs of several dozen mobs each are wandering around using patrol AI, and there are often ambushes as well.  The server load per farm is much, much higher than on a mission map, where fewer mobs spawn and most of them have idle AI, not patrol.

 

I can 100% disagree with this.  As a person who farms content from time-to-time, I know that the most popular farms are the Bad farm and other similar farms which I will not mention.  Without getting into too much with the working with AE, the structure of the most popular farms is Elite Boss spawns at lvl 1 or Bosses at lvl 1.  Most of the farms were max number of Elite bosses and set to around 26-46 per map.  So ... you didn't have giant spawns of mobs, instead you had maybe 46 individual spawns of Elite Bosses and maybe some Buff allys.  The Warriors farm had larger groups, but still nothing compared to a Long Bow mission I just did last night on Red Side that was maxed to + anything x8.  There were the same number of groups, each with about 15-20 mobs per group.  So really, in the most current AE farms, even the space crater farms (with large mobs), AE farms are about the same as a mission farm or actually a LOT less than the mission farms.  I would say 46 elite bosses cause way less strain than 46 groups of 20 mobs.

[Obsidius]

Enormous, if you've ever been in one of popular AE farm maps.  Multiple packs of several dozen mobs each are wandering around using patrol AI, and there are often ambushes as well.  The server load per farm is much, much higher than on a mission map, where fewer mobs spawn and most of them have idle AI, not patrol.

 

I can 100% disagree with this.  As a person who farms content from time-to-time, I know that the most popular farms are the Bad farm and other similar farms which I will not mention.  Without getting into too much with the working with AE, the structure of the most popular farms is Elite Boss spawns at lvl 1 or Bosses at lvl 1.  Most of the farms were max number of Elite bosses and set to around 26-46 per map.  So ... you didn't have giant spawns of mobs, instead you had maybe 46 individual spawns of Elite Bosses and maybe some Buff allys.  The Warriors farm had larger groups, but still nothing compared to a Long Bow mission I just did last night on Red Side that was maxed to + anything x8.  There were the same number of groups, each with about 15-20 mobs per group.  So really, the most current AE farms, even the space crater farms (with large mobs) are about the same as a mission farm or actually a LOT less than the mission farms.  I would say 46 elite bosses cause way less strain then 46 groups of 20 mobs.

 

You can disagree, and site specific missions, but that fact is that in general patrol and ambush AI causes more strain on the mapserver than standard idle AI (especially when multiplied across dozens of AE farms going simultaneously, presumably). Leandro has already stated as much several announcements ago:

 

If Indom is the PvP server can you guys at least revert the AE XP on Indom and keep it nerfed on the other servers since it seems PvPers prefer to lvl as fast as possible while PvErs want a slow grind to enjoy the experience?

 

Zone and mission maps for all servers run all together in the same hardware (the ones described as "mapserver hosts"); so there's no such thing as running AE for "just one server" without affecting the rest. The AE farms trigger a lot of ambushes or AI-enabled patrols which use a lot of CPU power and cause increase lag and instability for everyone.

 

The goal here is to get the servers to a point where they don't need a restart every few hours.

 

 

 

Wait, so I'm confused. Is the AE server a separate piece of software/hardware?

 

 

The missionserver, as its called, is a separate piece of software that stores the mission data as created by players. It does use some resources, but that part is not a big deal. Once you start an AE mission, it's loaded in a mapserver, like any other mission. They are not treated any differently.

 

 

The problem is that players can build missions that are a lot more resource-intensive than normal missions from the game. When enemies spawn in normal missions, most of them have their AI in an "idle" state until they are aggroed, which doesn't require much processing power. But most AE farms rely heavily on ambushes or patrols, which spawn the critters with fully active AI. And that's the problem.

 

 

Missions are run on 9 servers with a total of 224 cores. For the most part you can run lots of zones and missions on a single core without a problem; but AE farms tend to max out a core all for themselves. If there's just 100 AE AI-intensive farms running, that eats half of the mapserver processing power for all 4 shards.

[Samsupra]

Could you please provide more information like:

 

WHERE the P2W vendors are in game and their specific name on map?

 

As usual, when the game is down and questions can't be asked there, Discord would rather reply multiple times insulting your questions than answering it. I'd appreciated more information from official forums and notes if possible which "Google searches" for eternity unlike Discord. This P2W conversion crap the game went through wasn't in the game back when I played it.

 

Thanks.

[ZaBoink]

Enormous, if you've ever been in one of popular AE farm maps.  Multiple packs of several dozen mobs each are wandering around using patrol AI, and there are often ambushes as well.  The server load per farm is much, much higher than on a mission map, where fewer mobs spawn and most of them have idle AI, not patrol.

 

I can 100% disagree with this.  As a person who farms content from time-to-time, I know that the most popular farms are the Bad farm and other similar farms which I will not mention.  Without getting into too much with the working with AE, the structure of the most popular farms is Elite Boss spawns at lvl 1 or Bosses at lvl 1.  Most of the farms were max number of Elite bosses and set to around 26-46 per map.  So ... you didn't have giant spawns of mobs, instead you had maybe 46 individual spawns of Elite Bosses and maybe some Buff allys.  The Warriors farm had larger groups, but still nothing compared to a Long Bow mission I just did last night on Red Side that was maxed to + anything x8.  There were the same number of groups, each with about 15-20 mobs per group.  So really, the most current AE farms, even the space crater farms (with large mobs) are about the same as a mission farm or actually a LOT less than the mission farms.  I would say 46 elite bosses cause way less strain then 46 groups of 20 mobs.

You can disagree, and site specific missions, but that fact is that in general patrol and ambush AI causes more strain on the mapserver than standard idle AI. Leandro has already stated as much several announcements ago:

 

If Indom is the PvP server can you guys at least revert the AE XP on Indom and keep it nerfed on the other servers since it seems PvPers prefer to lvl as fast as possible while PvErs want a slow grind to enjoy the experience?

 

Zone and mission maps for all servers run all together in the same hardware (the ones described as "mapserver hosts"); so there's no such thing as running AE for "just one server" without affecting the rest. The AE farms trigger a lot of ambushes or AI-enabled patrols which use a lot of CPU power and cause increase lag and instability for everyone.

 

The goal here is to get the servers to a point where they don't need a restart every few hours.

 

The Bad Farm and the Warrior farm, as well as most of the other popular farms, didn't run a single instance of a "Patrol"  or "Ambush" AI.  My guess is that the Dev choice missions, the ones that were more story driven and promoted as better for the community, had lots of patrol and ambush AI.  I know the farm missions didn't use patrol or ambush AI because I made some of them and recreted some for testing.  So, although Leandro posted something regarding AE, it doesn't really apply to the most farmed missions.  It would rather apply to the other more PVE story driven content.

[Adeon Hawkwood]

WHERE the P2W vendors are in game and their specific name on map?

They are literally called P2W Vendors. There's one in Atlas Park and each of the other starting zones. There are a few more in other zones (including FBZ) but I don't have a full list.

[vidiotdragon]

I can't help notice that some of my characters are gone once the server transfer happened. I didn't delete them. They're just gone.

[Inflated Donkey]

The inf received from AE right now is depressingly low.  +4 boss with xp turned off gives 89k inf.  Pretty sure they were giving more than that with XP on before.

[QuiJon]

You can disagree, and site specific missions, but that fact is that in general patrol and ambush AI causes more strain on the mapserver than standard idle AI (especially when multiplied across dozens of AE farms going simultaneously, presumably). Leandro has already stated as much several announcements ago:

 

I am sorry I have to agree with the other poster. I get the idea that these things CAN have an effect on the server. But if you figure that every team that would be farming in a AE mission is now just farming a normal mission really the question is why can the other servers handle the load and the AE one can not. And I would have to imagine the answer to that is how much power they devote to running the AE server vs the normal mission servers. If it was truly an issue of the abilities in the AE to create game breaking missions then frankly disable or limit that ability. Limit to only 1-2 ambushes is that is the case. limit to how many patrols you can put into a mission. Limit how many helper bots you can put in a mission. Etc. But frankly in most of the AE farms I have been in there is absolutely no difference between the amount of mobs that have spawned or how many have spawned in the group between the AE farm which is considered bad, and a farmable AV mission at portal corp. A freak farm or BM farm is just as densely populated with enemies as the Bad farms were.

 

Fact is this has always been about farming in the AE. always. Even back when the game was live it was about that. The problem is that they have given us nothing to make up for the xp. I mean fine cut the xp everyone just went and farms dfb now I don't see how that is any different. But how about then upping the ticket rewards. Cause there are people that actually do like running the missions players create in the Ae. At least if my xp is going to be limited for wanting to take a break and play something new to me rather then a story I have played 100 times or a radio mission I have done a thousand times, maybe I should get like x3 tickets for it. Or x2 tickets and influence for it to compensate for the lower xp. But the fact they give us nothing only punishment shows that they consider AE farming to be an issue that they don't want to have any reward for in any way. Yet I can go from 1 to 30 doing a sewer trial and for some reason that is considered playing the game properly using only 4 powers for 30 levels.

[infernaldisturbance]

You can disagree, and site specific missions, but that fact is that in general patrol and ambush AI causes more strain on the mapserver than standard idle AI (especially when multiplied across dozens of AE farms going simultaneously, presumably). Leandro has already stated as much several announcements ago:

 

I am sorry I have to agree with the other poster. I get the idea that these things CAN have an effect on the server. But if you figure that every team that would be farming in a AE mission is now just farming a normal mission really the question is why can the other servers handle the load and the AE one can not. And I would have to imagine the answer to that is how much power they devote to running the AE server vs the normal mission servers. If it was truly an issue of the abilities in the AE to create game breaking missions then frankly disable or limit that ability. Limit to only 1-2 ambushes is that is the case. limit to how many patrols you can put into a mission. Limit how many helper bots you can put in a mission. Etc. But frankly in most of the AE farms I have been in there is absolutely no difference between the amount of mobs that have spawned or how many have spawned in the group between the AE farm which is considered bad, and a farmable AV mission at portal corp. A freak farm or BM farm is just as densely populated with enemies as the Bad farms were.

 

Fact is this has always been about farming in the AE. always. Even back when the game was live it was about that. The problem is that they have given us nothing to make up for the xp. I mean fine cut the xp everyone just went and farms dfb now I don't see how that is any different. But how about then upping the ticket rewards. Cause there are people that actually do like running the missions players create in the Ae. At least if my xp is going to be limited for wanting to take a break and play something new to me rather then a story I have played 100 times or a radio mission I have done a thousand times, maybe I should get like x3 tickets for it. Or x2 tickets and influence for it to compensate for the lower xp. But the fact they give us nothing only punishment shows that they consider AE farming to be an issue that they don't want to have any reward for in any way. Yet I can go from 1 to 30 doing a sewer trial and for some reason that is considered playing the game properly using only 4 powers for 30 levels.

 

 

 

well for a single reason thats considered normal, the entire point of DFB being added to live was literally as an easy palce to power level. also the AE missions that are marked dev choice, are the ones that are actual story and therefor your not punished for playing them.. its almost as if complaining without looking

[Coyotedancer]

Are we going to see a reduction in the incarnate materials awarded for veteran levels? Right now, the rewards for earning veteran levels are so good they pretty much obviate the need to run incarnate trials, unless you want a full suite of Very Rare abilities, which will be bad for the health of raid content in the long-term.

 

I hope not. I got sick to death of having to run those things over-and-over-and-over-and-dammit-OVER-AGAIN back in the day. It's refreshing *not* to have that grind ahead of me here.

[HelenCarnate]

Question on the math with XP boosts and AE.  Base is 100% the xp boosts up to +100%.  So is AE x.5 xp or is it -50%?  The first will get the end results at regular XP for AE but no money, the second will have a net result of 150% xp.

[Obsidius]

well for a single reason thats considered normal, the entire point of DFB being added to live was literally as an easy palce to power level. also the AE missions that are marked dev choice, are the ones that are actual story and therefor your not punished for playing them.. its almost as if complaining without looking

 

 

... Could somebody tell me what a DFB is? I see them all the time on the LFT channel. I'm old, so help me out :P

[Obsidius]

The Bad Farm and the Warrior farm, as well as most of the other popular farms, didn't run a single instance of a "Patrol"  or "Ambush" AI.  My guess is that the Dev choice missions, the ones that were more story driven and promoted as better for the community, had lots of patrol and ambush AI.  I know the farm missions didn't use patrol or ambush AI because I made some of them and recreted some for testing.  So, although Leandro posted something regarding AE, it doesn't really apply to the most farmed missions.  It would rather apply to the other more PVE story driven content.

 

Well... you can always to to get those arcs on Dev's Choice :)

 

 

Edit: and before you say that the admins would never make a farm a Dev's Choice, I bet if it were well-written with some sort of narrative, even a short one (Smash TV, The Running Man, etc.) it could actually have a shot.

[Leandro]

The inf received from AE right now is depressingly low.  +4 boss with xp turned off gives 89k inf.  Pretty sure they were giving more than that with XP on before.

 

Prior to this patch, the server was running with the configuration setting "XPScale" set to 2 (or 1.5 or whatever it was; I didn't set it) which affected both experience and influence. AE missions used a separate XPScale set to 0.5 which halved the experience, but influence was still being multiplied by the XPScale. Meaning, AE was running at 50% XP, 200% inf (or 150% inf or whatever it was).

 

This patch the XPScale (and thus influence gain in all content) goes back to 1x, while the XP gain in AE is still 0.5.

 

Question on the math with XP boosts and AE.  Base is 100% the xp boosts up to +100%.  So is AE x.5 xp or is it -50%?  The first will get the end results at regular XP for AE but no money, the second will have a net result of 150% xp.

 

There's two separate things; the server XPScale, and the character attribute kExperienceGain; both default to 1. The XP to be earned is first multiplied by one, then the other. A 50% XP booster sets kExperienceGain to 1.5; so 1000 XP * 0.5 * 1.5 = 750XP. A double XP booster gets you the base XP rate in AE.

[Dr. Gemini]

... Could somebody tell me what a DFB is? I see them all the time on the LFT channel. I'm old, so help me out :P

 

DFB = Death From Below. Its a sewer-like trial they added near the end of the game's life.

[HelenCarnate]

Question on the math with XP boosts and AE.  Base is 100% the xp boosts up to +100%.  So is AE x.5 xp or is it -50%?  The first will get the end results at regular XP for AE but no money, the second will have a net result of 150% xp.

 

There's two separate things; the server XPScale, and the character attribute kExperienceGain; both default to 1. The XP to be earned is first multiplied by one, then the other. A 50% XP booster sets kExperienceGain to 1.5; so 1000 XP * 0.5 * 1.5 = 750XP. A double XP booster gets you the base XP rate in AE.

 

Thank you for the clarification.

[KoolVirus]

Bio Armor - Hardened Carapace is not working as intended in pvp zones. It's not providing resists in pvp.

[Leandro]

Bio Armor - Hardened Carapace is not working as intended in pvp zones. It's not providing resists in pvp.

 

Noted. Fix will be in the next patch.

[Vanden]

Are we going to see a reduction in the incarnate materials awarded for veteran levels? Right now, the rewards for earning veteran levels are so good they pretty much obviate the need to run incarnate trials, unless you want a full suite of Very Rare abilities, which will be bad for the health of raid content in the long-term.

 

I hope not. I got sick to death of having to run those things over-and-over-and-over-and-dammit-OVER-AGAIN back in the day. It's refreshing *not* to have that grind ahead of me here.

 

I don't think we should remove incarnate rewards for vet levels completely, but right now the rewards for trials pale in comparison to them. They're very front-loaded, so just evening them out through the vet levels would help a lot.

[Inflated Donkey]

The inf received from AE right now is depressingly low.  +4 boss with xp turned off gives 89k inf.  Pretty sure they were giving more than that with XP on before.

 

Prior to this patch, the server was running with the configuration setting "XPScale" set to 2 (or 1.5 or whatever it was; I didn't set it) which affected both experience and influence. AE missions used a separate XPScale set to 0.5 which halved the experience, but influence was still being multiplied by the XPScale. Meaning, AE was running at 50% XP, 200% inf (or 150% inf or whatever it was).

 

This patch the XPScale (and thus influence gain in all content) goes back to 1x, while the XP gain in AE is still 0.5.

 

Well that explains it but man, that is sad.