Homecoming Server Update (April 5th): Nemesis Plots, Contests and Progression

[Acroyear]

On 4/6/2020 at 7:30 PM, Maagic said:

THEN

 

DON'T 

 

USE

 

IT

 

You can still do it the current way, you just have the OPTION of upgrading if you want. Good lord people calm DOWN. 

Calm down? Who's the one screaming in capital letters? Yeah, that'd be you., so maybe you should take your own (unwanted) advice.

 

Have a good one.

[ScarySai]

And I thought I was HC's harshest critic.

 

This change is good, if you disagree you are wrong.

 

/thread. 🙂

[CyberWoLfman]

Absolutely LOVE the idea of being able to buy SOs from level five and up!  Although, this might also mean some players might not be doing the DfB as often, as some use it as a way of getting low-level SOs early on.  LOL

 

The enhancement upgrade is DEFINITELY appreciated, but, maybe it would help those who aren't well-heeled in the game if it was free the first time each character did it, as they might not be able to afford it and hadn't budgeted for it.

 

As for IOs, I generally don't purchase the generic ones until around level 32, based on the strength of them in comparison with the SOs of my characters' origins.  Made a Web page years back when the game was live (which people can find here: https://cyberwolfman.com/cov_coh_enhancements_city_of_villains_city_of_heroes_enhancement_comparison_guide.htm and there's no ads or anything for sale on that entire site), but, not 'mobile friendly' (except that it has a black background, un-like 'mobile friendly' Web pages which all have white backgrounds, where the RGB is cranked up to 100% (in the code it would be bgcolor="#ffffff" or similar), which would drain a device's battery faster), but, not certain if the values have remained the same.

 

Regardless, thank you, thank you, thank you!  :-)

[esotericist]

On 4/7/2020 at 11:21 AM, Doc_Scorpion said:

Agreed.  Back in the OG days, that's why there was a constant cry for more content, especially at the lower levels.  (Though deeply flawed in execution on a variety of levels, Praetoria was an excellent step in the right direction.)  Though muted, and focused more on the upper levels, folks are still asking for more content.

People want the game to be replayable.  And with it's vast array of potential powersets, CoX is uniquely suited to answering that want.

That's why I've been testing and spoken in favor of this change [to enhancements].  Revitalizing the lower level game is a key part of enhancing replayability.

 

want to take a moment to thank you verbally for all of your posts in this thread. i wholeheartedly agree with pretty much every point you've made.

 

semi-tangentially, i actually kinda want a "half xp rate" option at the P2W vendor, because turning on/off XP is tedious when pertinent

Edited April 10, 2020 by esotericist

[Saikochoro]

On 4/6/2020 at 2:26 AM, Peacemoon said:

Some interesting decisions regarding enhancements, and completely different to what I would have done, but I’m a bit confused as to how enhancements will now scale.

 

Previously if you exemplered down to 10 my understanding was your enhancements would scale down to DO level, no matter what you had slotted. Will this still be the case?

 

Regarding power creep and saying it’s not a big concern for you, I would absolutely think about power creep. We’ve just had a huge thread on the general forum about the game being too easy, and people’s opinions. The general consensus was that most people were happy with the 1-20 game. I would be really careful upsetting the low level difficulty because things are already pretty easy at that level.

 

Basically consider what you are trying to fix. If it’s about convenience, like enhancements expiring too quickly at rapid level increases, then focus on that. If changing the power levels of heroes at low levels is not something you want to change, then avoid messing with that. I don’t think it’s necessary collateral damage. 
 

Personally when we talk about convenience I would be more inclined to simply stop TO/DO/SOs from expiring. Let them still work as -2 to +3 levels relative as now, but stop them from going red and switching off altogether. To me that is a simpler fix, with a lot less unintended consequences to the early game which is largely enjoyed. (The low level game can already be very quickly skipped with double xp for those that wish). There would still be advantages to upgrading, but if you wanted to be lazy, like me, at least they would continue to work!

 

If we are going to make a change, it should be to better introduce and promote IOs to the playerbase. For example allow standard IOs to be bought from the shops from 25, for a premium, and add crafting stations to the shops encouraging people to craft their enhancements for a cheaper rate. High level SO shops used to be gated by missions. Maybe repurpose those to better introduce IOs. Unfortunately the university is not a place a lot of uninitiated players  bother visiting.

The game is as easy or as hard as you make it to be. This hardly constitutes as power creep. 

 

I personally hate the game sub level 20. It is a slog. So not everyone enjoys it. Having access to easier to manage SOs would boost the enjoyment of those levels enough that I may actually play them. 

 

I really don’t think SOs should be outright canned. People can and do play with SO only builds. I never touched IOs in all my time playing live. For the majority of my time on homecoming I played with SOs/common IOs.  IOs can add a layer of enjoyment to the game, but it should remain completely optional. 

[Saikochoro]

I think this is an awesome feature.  Thanks a million to the devs.
 

I find all the complaints about it somewhat comical. The two main ones I’ve seen have to do with powercreep and IOs. 

• Should only use IOs camp - hard no. IOs should always be optional. Furthermore, this change has no bearing on IOs. It doesn’t make them any more or less available to use. It nearly makes SOs more manageable. 
• Powercreep - if you think SOs are too powerful sub level 20, then don’t use them. SOs are already available from DFB so this doesn’t really change anything. It only makes keeping SOs updated more manageable. 
• Dont have to visit stores as much - still have to fill new slots. I think time sinks such as traveling to vendors or to Wentworth and whatnot are super annoying. That said, I still use stores to vendor trash and buy insp. Sure I could do it with AH, but I’m used to doing it with vendors. People can still freely roam about and socialize on teams. 

This update does not fundamentally alter the game for those who choose to use IOs. This game does not fundamentally pwoercreep the game as SOs were already available.  It only makes managing non IOs easier. It honestly should have been implemented long ago and I really appreciated the dev putting it together.

 

People should stop dictating how other play the game. If you don’t like the change, then don’t use it. 

Edited April 10, 2020 by Saikochoro

[dtj714]

Any idea when the upgrade and SOs at 5 changes will go live?  Was going to re-level some toons through story arcs and whatnot (usually just go the DFB - TF route), but if this is happening soon I’ll wait, as I think it will make that more viable/enjoyable. 

[Peerless Girl]

10 hours ago, esotericist said:

semi-tangentially, i actually kinda want a "half xp rate" option at the P2W vendor, because turning on/off XP is tedious when pertinent

 

That would actually be a great idea I'd support. Would be good for some of my RP characters I don't want to level too fast, or if I want to do more arcs.

 

17 minutes ago, dtj714 said:

Any idea when the upgrade and SOs at 5 changes will go live?  Was going to re-level some toons through story arcs and whatnot (usually just go the DFB - TF route), but if this is happening soon I’ll wait, as I think it will make that more viable/enjoyable. 

 

I'm gonna go out on a limb and post the age-old Dev answer: "When it's ready." It'll save Jimmy and Six the trouble. 😛 

[dtj714]

It’s already fully implemented on the beta server though isn’t it?

[Doc_Scorpion]

2 hours ago, dtj714 said:

Any idea when the upgrade and SOs at 5 changes will go live?  Was going to re-level some toons through story arcs and whatnot (usually just go the DFB - TF route), but if this is happening soon I’ll wait, as I think it will make that more viable/enjoyable. 

Right now, it's in the experimental phase.  It may never even make it to Live.

That being said, we won't know anything certain about a release date till it appears on the Staging servers.

[Myrmidon]

End Mod SOs at level 5? Dark Armor users everywhere thank you for your efforts.

[ScarySai]

2 hours ago, Myrmidon said:

End Mod SOs at level 5? Dark Armor users everywhere thank you for your efforts.

In fairness, it doesn't get real bad till dark regen. >.>

[Myrmidon]

3 hours ago, ScarySai said:

In fairness, it doesn't get real bad till dark regen. >.>

True, however, Tankers pick up Dark Regen at 8.

[esotericist]

On 4/10/2020 at 2:02 PM, Peerless Girl said:

That would actually be a great idea I'd support. Would be good for some of my RP characters I don't want to level too fast, or if I want to do more arcs.

 

doing more arcs is pretty much my motivation. flashbacks are misery.

Edited April 14, 2020 by esotericist

[carroto]

31 minutes ago, esotericist said:

flashbacks are misery.

Why is that?

[esotericist]

Just now, carroto said:

Why is that?

i am both physically and cognitively disabled. on a bad day, it can take me literally hours to get through a single mission sometimes, and that means it can potentially take me multiple days to get through even a small story arc even with multiple hours per day of play time. consequently, i pretty much 'have' to solo most of the time, and it doesn't make sense to ask a friend to devote a character slot to the flashback arc in advance if they're not going to be there the whole time (and odds are they probably won't because my schedule is not their schedule).

 

but what this means is, if I end up needing help on a specific mission for some reason, I can't actually get someone else to show up; i'm in a task force, so i can't add somebody new mid-stream.

 

also since it's a task force, i can't switch to another arc if i decide I want to do something else for a little while, then come back later.

 

the task force model makes it an activity trap for me; i frequently need to task switch in order to manage energy and attention. being locked into "i have to keep doing this one thing or i have to start over later" is extremely frustrating. 

[kenlon]

On 4/10/2020 at 3:56 PM, Doc_Scorpion said:

Right now, it's in the experimental phase.  It may never even make it to Live.

Dear god, what a horrible thought. 

[Harangue]

This is a nice idea, but it fixes a problem that is largely ignored because IO's have proven to be better/cost effective.

 

If I recall, the cost of one IO without owning the recipe/badge, will cost you about 3-4x the cost of the DO/SO, but you can upgrade it when you can without it breaking.  This makes them not only cheaper to upgrade every 5 levels than manually upgrading DO/SO, it also means you can upgrade slower at a much lower cost without breaking.

 

This means one of the following:

1) prices on SO/DO need to go down - this has the side-effect of lowering sale value (to vendors) and puts less inf into the economy

2) prices on IOs need to go up due to zero-maintenance

3) SO/DO need more than slightly better value scaling during a leveling process that GM's admit doesn't last long.  Perhaps instead of breaking, they maintain a minimum value that can be balanced against IO values - something to justify the cost.

Edited April 14, 2020 by Harangue
removed math, values off.

[esotericist]

the quick-upgrade is expensive but convenient.

dealing with IOs is a hassle for many players, especially early on.

 

this is a valid tradeoff. there is no need to substantially cheapen the costs of the DO/SO, beyond potentially increasing the income rate of low level new players (which is covered by making DOs drop instead of TOs, and possibly by the hypothetical that Faultline proposed of adding a "free brainstorm -> rare salvage -> AH" step to the invention tutorial).

[Redlynne]

On 4/5/2020 at 1:23 PM, Jimmy said:

Nemesis Invasions - Ending April 15th
Nemesis will be remaining in Paragon City and The Rogue Isles for another week, and will be leaving during server maintenance on Tuesday the 15th of April.

TUESDAY the 15th ...?

[Noyjitat]

Did nemesis end a day early? Still had like 3 characters that need the badge 😞

[justicebeliever]

17 minutes ago, Redlynne said:

TUESDAY the 15th ...?

Looks like it was today, the 14th, because Tuesday is when the regularly scheduled maintenance occurs...

[Redlynne]

Except ... Nemesis invasions just happened on Everlasting (didn't get the badge again).

[justicebeliever]

Just now, Redlynne said:

Except ... Nemesis invasions just happened on Everlasting (didn't get the badge again).

Well that's confusing then...

[Jimmy]

I made a mistake with the date and we didn't realise until today! The 15th is most certainly not a Tuesday, so we're leaving it active until tomorrow, Wednesday the 15th 🙂