Focused Feedback: Travel Updates: Base Teleportation, Long Range Teleporter Accolade, Special TP Powers

[AboveTheChemist]

2 hours ago, UltraAlt said:

The Pocket D VIP Gold Club Member Badge was a perk for buying the Good versus Evil edition. 

This has never been on Homecoming.

Just to clarify, the Pocket D VIP Gold Club Member badge does exist on Homecoming. It was repurposed from the badge you mentioned to the badge that is granted for spending 1 hour in Pocket D. Earning this badge grants the Pocket D VIP Pass teleportation power (and as far as I know it also makes that power free in the P2W vendor).

[UltraAlt]

18 minutes ago, AboveTheChemist said:

Just to clarify, the Pocket D VIP Gold Club Member badge does exist on Homecoming. It was repurposed from the badge you mentioned to the badge that is granted for spending 1 hour in Pocket D. Earning this badge grants the Pocket D VIP Pass teleportation power (and as far as I know it also makes that power free in the P2W vendor).

So, as you are verifying, the Pocket D VIP Gold Club Member badge is what was the Pocket D VIP pass and not what the Pocket D VIP Gold Club Member badge was on-live before the Sunset.

[RogerWilco]

On 11/7/2020 at 9:44 PM, Faultline said:

Considering that /ah is available from anywhere in a static map, and LRT currently puts you 100yds from the Kings Row Wentworths and 146yds from the Cap au Diable Black Market if you need to physically go there for a Day Job, I don't see the point in complicating an already long menu with multiple locations on the same map.

I actually do use it occasionally to get around a map, for example, to get back to the main island in Talos Island after a mission near the edge.

I don't use it to access the AH, I use it to travel around the map I am already on.

But I won't miss it a lot, I can certainly live without it.

 

I really like all the improvements for Praetorians, as that was a pain, especially getting to a base. I was always disappointed that with the Trader badge you would get the Wentworths teleport power, but you could not use it as a Praetorian to go to the Trading House in Imperial City. Thanks for all the improvements. It will save a lot of Night Ward -> First Ward -> Underground Imperial -> Studio 55 -> Pocket D -> Base trips and the associated loading screens.

Edited November 10, 2020 by RogerWilco

[Wavicle]

7 hours ago, UltraAlt said:

I think you are confusing the Pocket D VIP pass with the Pocket D VIP Gold Club Member Badge.

 

The Pocket D VIP Gold Club Member Badge was a perk for buying the Good versus Evil edition. 

This has never been on Homecoming.

 

The Pocket D VIP pass (which is the icon that is used for the Pocket D teleporter here on Homecoming) which was always based on spending 1 hour in the Pocket D <-- this was never account wide.

You could purchase it from the P2W vendor.

Now it falls under the Long Range Teleport power (unlocking one exploration accolade unlocks this - just ran around in Atlas for the Atlas Tour Guide Accolade and it took about 5 minutes).

To gain the Pocket D teleport under the Long Range Teleporter, you only have to have one exploration badge in the Pocket D.

This is simply not hard to do. (I am not complaining and I'm working through my 70+ characters to unlock it on all of them in preparation for the change on live)

 

I also forgot to point out that they are not taking away the base teleport that can take you from your base directly to the Pocket D.

 

Check out my post :: UltraAlt's Guide to preparing for the removal of the base teleport macro

Getting the PD added to your LRTP is easy, yes.

 

 But unlocking the LRTP takes getting all the Atlas explorer badges on every character. Not unbelievably onerous, but irritating.

 

 That is what I am talking about.

[UltraAlt]

47 minutes ago, Wavicle said:

Getting the PD added to your LRTP is easy, yes.

 

 But unlocking the LRTP takes getting all the Atlas explorer badges on every character. Not unbelievably onerous, but irritating.

 

 That is what I am talking about.

Honestly, it isn't really needed other than to be able to slot the consolidated power window thing (quick menu, too tired to remember or go check) to clear  your tray off all the teleport option clutter.

There are tons of ways to get to a base with the new system, and it isn't that hard to add the Pocket D as a teleport option in a base or use someone else's base that has it equipped.

[Wavicle]

5 minutes ago, UltraAlt said:

Honestly, it isn't really needed other than to be able to slot the consolidated power window thing (quick menu, too tired to remember or go check) to clear  your tray off all the teleport option clutter.

There are tons of ways to get to a base with the new system, and it isn't that hard to add the Pocket D as a teleport option in a base or use someone else's base that has it equipped.

You still seem not to be responding to my actual point.

I'm not talking about getting to PD or getting to Bases. I'm not asking for it to be easier to get to those places.

I'm talking about unlocking the LRTP. That's all.

Edited November 10, 2020 by Wavicle

[zenblack]

2 hours ago, Wavicle said:

Getting the PD added to your LRTP is easy, yes.

 

 But unlocking the LRTP takes getting all the Atlas explorer badges on every character. Not unbelievably onerous, but irritating.

 

 That is what I am talking about.

Once you've done the Atlas explore runs once or twice you can hammer out the entire zone in 5 minutes. I often do it while waiting for a characters' badge DFB to form. This isn't even close to onerous.

[Wavicle]

2 minutes ago, zenblack said:

Once you've done the Atlas explore runs once or twice you can hammer out the entire zone in 5 minutes. I often do it while waiting for a characters' badge DFB to form. This isn't even close to onerous.

It is when you consider that I have over fifty toons and I’m sure many people have many more than that.

[Wavicle]

Heck, let’s just make ALL accolades account wide!

 

 I’m not kidding in the slightest.

[zenblack]

1 minute ago, Wavicle said:

It is when you consider that I have over fifty toons and I’m sure many people have many more than that.

If none of those toons have a single exploration accolade then I guess you've made your own bed.

[BurtHutt]

I just don't know why we can't keep our base/travel hub. It is, perhaps, one of the mist impactful things to happen to this game in a long time. Players no longer dread the missions/TFs etc that asked for time-sink run-arounds that were somewhat pointless and put in place to prolong a person's time they stayed logged on. 

 

CoH has so much to do, there is no need to resort to these time-sink tactics. Leave the player-made SG/travel hubs...please! 🙂

[Wavicle]

6 minutes ago, BurtHutt said:

I just don't know why we can't keep our base/travel hub. It is, perhaps, one of the mist impactful things to happen to this game in a long time. Players no longer dread the missions/TFs etc that asked for time-sink run-arounds that were somewhat pointless and put in place to prolong a person's time they stayed logged on. 

 

CoH has so much to do, there is no need to resort to these time-sink tactics. Leave the player-made SG/travel hubs...please! 🙂

They haven’t done anything with the player made travel hubs. Only put some very flexible limitations on accessing them.

In fact, they buffed them, they added many new portals.

Edited November 10, 2020 by Wavicle

[zenblack]

You are not losing your travel hub/base teleport abilities at all. You can always try to get on the beta and see for yourself. This seems to be a big thing that people wandering into this thread are misunderstanding/ignoring.

Edited November 10, 2020 by zenblack

[Blackbird71]

3 hours ago, zenblack said:

If none of those toons have a single exploration accolade then I guess you've made your own bed.

That callous and dismissive attitude is not going to gain any sympathy for your position.  Not everyone is a badge hound, and not everyone plays the same way as you.  Expecting or requiring them to do so in order to have access to what is in effect a QoL improvement is arrogant and absurd.

[DoctorDitko]

22 hours ago, zenblack said:

"hack" is negative and malicious

Tis a sad, sad thing, that what we old fogies would call "cracks" now get blessed with the label of "hacks."

 

That ghost-ship has sailed, but the old meaning of, "a clever, unexpected use of the tools provided" or "a nifty way to combine two things to achieve something new" or "a back door left unlocked" is now the secondary meaning of the word. And don't get me started on when "Tips from Heloise" became "lifehacks!"

 

Y2K was real, people! The only reason it fizzled is because a lot of folks worked very hard to make it so!

And get off my #%$&* lawn!

 

Whippersnappers!

Edited November 11, 2020 by DoctorDitko

[GadgetDon]

12 minutes ago, Blackbird71 said:

That callous and dismissive attitude is not going to gain any sympathy for your position.  Not everyone is a badge hound, and not everyone plays the same way as you.  Expecting or requiring them to do so in order to have access to what is in effect a QoL improvement is arrogant and absurd.

I think there's an assumption that everyone has the Vidiotmaps patch installed. When I was gaming on my Mac (thanks, Homecoming, for continuing to support that, BTW), I never could get it installed. If you've got the Vidiotmaps installed, getting the Atlas Park exploration accolade is easy. Without it - a lot less so.

Edited November 11, 2020 by GadgetDon

[Jimmy]

11 minutes ago, GadgetDon said:

I think there's an assumption that everyone has the Vidiotmaps patch installed. When I was gaming on my Mac (thanks, Homecoming, for continuing to support that, BTW), I never could get it installed. If you've got the Vidiotmaps installed, getting the Atlas Park exploration accolade is easy. Without it - a lot less so.

This is an important consideration and one we've been conscious of - it's why you're also able to unlock LRT by spending an hour in Pocket D.

 

The Tour Guide idea mentioned earlier in the thread is also an interesting idea, but definitely not something that we can fit into Page 1.

 

If you have a bunch of existing characters that you want to have LRT pre-unlocked for, just go get the Pocker D teleporter now. It'll turn into LRT when i27 drops.

[zenblack]

1 hour ago, Blackbird71 said:

That callous and dismissive attitude is not going to gain any sympathy for your position.  Not everyone is a badge hound, and not everyone plays the same way as you.  Expecting or requiring them to do so in order to have access to what is in effect a QoL improvement is arrogant and absurd.

What is arrogant and absurd is the absolute ease of which it takes to get the accolade (as Jimmy stated) is too much for people to do and it must be further catered to whatever YOUR play-style or lack of getting badges is. HC has bent over backwards to make the teleport/enterbasefrompasscode transition as painless as possible in all ways. Yet there are still people who are unsatisfied and if you don't agree it's "callous", which again, is absurd.

Edited November 11, 2020 by zenblack
Missing words

[csr]

18 hours ago, zenblack said:

What is arrogant and absurd is the absolute ease of which it takes the accolade (as Jimmy stated) is too much for people to do and it must be further catered to whatever YOUR play-style or lack of getting badges is. HC has bent over backwards to make the teleport/enterbasefrompasscode transition as painless as possible in all ways. Yet there are still people who are unsatisfied and if you don't agree it's "callous", which again, is absurd.

It is quite easy to unlock the LRTP.  Using Jimmy's prescription I'd just have to have my 170 alts sit in Pocket D for 1 hour each.  That'll only take a little over a week at 24 hrs a day.  Assuming I check in every hour to change toons, of course.  No problem.

 

Sarcasm aside... the LRTP unlock isn't really trivial.  Trivial would be if any explore badge unlocked it.  Fortunately for me, probably over half my alts have the AP explores.  So I'll only have to spend maybe 6 hrs total unlocking the LRTP on the others by running around and getting zone explores on 70 or so toons that don't yet have it.  So, basically 5 or 6 minutes of "maintenance" each on toons I log in that don't have it.  Spread out over of the 3 months or so I go before completing a cycle of alts that's maybe 5 minutes a day of my CoH play lost.  Minor, but not trivial.

 

My suggestion is to simply put an unlock in the P2W Vendor store for whatever price is deemed appropriate.

Edited November 11, 2020 by csr

[thunderforce]

For myself, I am delighted to see the base teleportation situation change; I certainly don't expect this to happen but I think it would be better if the various 10-minute cooldowns were longer, perhaps half an hour like the current base teleporter. No, really.

 

Mind you, I'd put a cooldown on the TUNNEL system. No, really.

13 minutes ago, csr said:

So I'll only have to spend maybe 6 hrs total unlocking the LRTP on the others by running around and getting zone explores on 70 or so toons that don't yet have it.  So, basically 5 or 6 minutes of "maintenance" each on toons I log in that don't have it.  Spread out of the 3 months or so I go before completing a cycle of alts that's maybe 5 minutes a day of my CoH play lost.  Minor, but not trivial.

To be fair, it sounds to me like a rather unusual situation you are in, in that you have 70 or so alts all of which you play regularly, but each of which you only play for a day or perhaps two at a time. It seems unlikely to me this reflects the average impact per player. For example - while I don't suppose I am the typical player either - I have 10 characters who I have played in the last half-year, at least seven of which already have explore accolades or have spent an hour in Pocket D. To unlock LRTP on the remaining three will take 15 minutes, or 5 _seconds_ per day over the next half-year... and the impact of that does depend on whether  I regard the time spent taken getting those accolades as entirely wasted or as something I'd probably do for fun at some point anyway and might as well do now.

 

However, the suggestion of making it an (expensive?) unlock in the P2W Vendor seems basically harmless; it's an inf sink and it gives people who do have a huge stable of alts a getout, and being able to spend P2W money to shortcut the process of getting a teleporation effect is not unprecedented. This seems like a sensible proposal that's similar to how things work now.

[JAMMan0000]

Ok I've spent quite a bit of time working with the new teleport powers and have developed a set of custom binds and modifications to the new Fast Travel menu that automatically optimizes power/charge usage. Its not for the faint of heart, or new players. But, I love CoHs key bind macro language and thought you might find it interesting too. At the very least it demonstrates the flexibility CoHs macro language can provide. Oh and I have actually implemented and tested all of these. They do work as described. Im not just hypothesizing. 🙂 So here you go...

 

Example of Custom Key Binds and FastTravel Popmenu to Promote Portal Sharing and Optimize Teleport Powers

 

Custom Key Bind Description: Creates 3 key binds F10 - Auction House (AH), F11 - Long Range Teleport, F12 - Base Teleport that will automatically
promote sharing of portals and optimize use of teleport powers and charges. F10 eliminates need to travel to the Auction House
by bring up the Auction House window in your current location without teleporting. F11 and F12 will automatically first try to
teleport to your favorite base if an existing base portal is already available rather than use one of your teleport powers or its charges.
If there is not an existing portal available, F11 will execute your LRTP power as usual and allow you to teleport to any destination you have unlocked. 
If there is not an existing portal available, F12 will cycle through P2W Supergroup Portal, P2W Base Transporter, DJ Rapid Response Portal, and 
DJ Monitor Duty Teleporter powers. It automatically cycles through with first preference to use P2W and portal creating powers, and second
preference for Day Job and portal producing powers. By using this order of preference, it automatically promotes the use and creation of
portals for you and everyone elses use while at the same time using DJ powers with limited charges only when other portals or portal powers
aren't available. Basically if everyone in an area was using these binds, everyone would be taking turns with only one person at a time
creating a portal with their P2W power, and everyone else would be using it for free without even thinking about it. Just press F12 and either
you create a portal that you and everyone else who presses F12 after can use for free without using their own teleport powers or charges.
Or if someone else presses F12 before you, you get free use of their portal without using your own teleport powers or charges. So with out any
thought at all, just pressing F12 gets you and everybody in the area to their base in the most power/charge effective manner.

 

Custom FastTravel Popmenu Description: Adds a new 'Use Existing Portal' option to use any existing base portal, and it modifies the existing LRTP, Base Teleport
and Base Portal options to automatically first try to use an existing base portal rather than use your teleport powers and charges. If there
isn't an existing base portal available, the regular Base Teleport or Base Portal power executes as usual. Again adding the option and automatic
priority to to use existing base portals will help optimize use of your powers and charges.

 

Special Note: These customizations as written redefine the F10 key and use the players $Battlecry text to identify the SG Passcode to use when
teleporting to a base. Therefore the F10 key and $Battlecry variable will not be available for other purposes. This was done to make defining
the SG Passcode easier for users. If you use the $Battlecry variable for other purposes and still want to use these customizations, you can
replace the $Battlecry variable in the examples below with your desired SG Passcode.

Setup Details:

Spoiler

 

Setup Steps:

1. Use Menu/I.D option (shortcut keys \D) to set your Battlecry to your favorite SG Passcode. 

 

2. Create a 'binds' subfolder inside the City of Heros main folder and create following 4 files in the binds folder.
BaseTP1.txt:
F12 "powexeclocation me Supergroup Portal$$enterbasefrompasscode $Battlecry$$bindloadfilesilent ".\binds\BaseTP2.txt""
BaseTP2.txt:
F12 "powexecname Base Transporter$$enterbasefrompasscode $Battlecry$$bindloadfilesilent ".\binds\BaseTP3.txt""
BaseTP3.txt:
F12 "powexeclocation me Rapid Response Portal$$enterbasefrompasscode $Battlecry$$bindloadfilesilent ".\binds\BaseTP4.txt""
BaseTP4.txt:
F12 "powexecname Monitor Duty Teleporter$$enterbasefrompasscode $Battlecry$$bindloadfilesilent ".\binds\BaseTP1.txt""

 

3. Create the following custom 'FastTravel.mnu' file in the 'data\texts\english\menus' subfolder inside the City of Heroes main folder.
FastTravel.mnu:
Menu "FastTravel"
{
    Title "Fast Travel"
    LockedOption
    {
        DisplayName "&Long Range Teleporter"
        Command "powexecname Long Range Teleporter$$enterbasefrompasscode $Battlecry"
        Icon "Accolade_LongRangeTeleport"
        PowerReady "Temporary_Powers.Accolades.Long_Range_Teleport"
    }
    LockedOption
    {
        DisplayName "&Ouroboros Portal"
        Command "powexeclocation forward:7 Ouroboros Portal"
        Icon "Teleportation_Ouroboros"
        PowerReady "Temporary_Powers.Temporary_Powers.OurPortalHero"
    }
    Divider
    LockedOption
    {
        DisplayName "&Use Existing Portal"
        Command "enterbasefrompasscode $Battlecry"
        Icon "Veteran_TeleportBase"
    }
    LockedOption
    {
        DisplayName "&Base Transporter"
        Command "powexecname Base Transporter$$enterbasefrompasscode $Battlecry"
        Icon "Veteran_TeleportBase"
        PowerReady "Prestige.Prestige_Travel.prestige_Base_Teleport"
    }
    LockedOption
    {
        DisplayName "&Supergroup Portal"
        Command "powexeclocation forward:7 Supergroup Portal$$enterbasefrompasscode $Battlecry"
        Icon "Prestige_BasePortal"
        PowerReady "Prestige.Prestige_Travel.prestige_Base_Portal"
    }
    LockedOption
    {
        DisplayName "Monitor &Duty Teleporter"
        Command "powexecname Monitor Duty Teleporter$$enterbasefrompasscode $Battlecry"
        Icon "DayJob_Teleport"
        PowerReady "Temporary_Powers.Day_Job_Powers.Rapid_Response_Member_Teleport"
    }
    LockedOption
    {
        DisplayName "&Rapid Response Portal"
        Command "powexeclocation forward:7 Rapid Response Portal$$enterbasefrompasscode $Battlecry"
        Icon "DayJob_BasePortal"
        PowerReady "Temporary_Powers.Day_Job_Powers.Rapid_Response_Member_Portal"
    }
    Divider
    LockedOption
    {
        DisplayName "&Mission Transporter"
        Command "powexecname Mission Transporter"
        Icon "MissionTeleporter"
        PowerReady "Prestige.Prestige_Travel.prestige_Mission_Teleport"
    }
    LockedOption
    {
        DisplayName "&Team Transporter"
        Command "powexeclocation forward:7 Team Transporter"
        Icon "Veteran_TeamTransport"
        PowerReady "Prestige.Prestige_Travel.Team_Transporter"
    }
    LockedOption
    {
        DisplayName "&Assemble the Team"
        Command "powexeclocation forward:7 Assemble the Team"
        Icon "Veteran_TargetAoETeleportTeamToCaster"
        PowerReady "Prestige.Prestige_Travel.prestige_Team_Recall"
    }
}

 

4. Enter following binds in chat.
/bind F10 "ah"
/bind F11 "powexecname Long Range Teleporter$$enterbasefrompasscode $Battlecry$$bindloadfilesilent ".\binds\BaseTP1.txt""
/bind F12 "powexecname Base Transporter$$enterbasefrompasscode $Battlecry$$bindloadfilesilent ".\binds\BaseTP2.txt""
 

5. Press F12 !!! 🙂

 

 

 

 

Edited November 12, 2020 by JAMMan0000

[Wavicle]

Wow @JAMMan0000 that’s a lot but very impressive!

[dwgemster]

On 11/8/2020 at 12:14 AM, dwgemster said:

I think pretty much all the proposed changes in this issue are awesome. This one, however:

 

The GM-only command /enterbasefrompasscode is no longer available for players to use unconditionally, and can now only be used:

 

is horrible. I really enjoy this super convenient access to all the zones. No amount of partial replacement to this option will be as good or convenient. Two thumbs down on this feature being removed.  Just my two cents.

Okay, I moved a character over to the test server to really check this out, my previous comments were based on the idea of losing this ability. Unfortunately I really do hate the change. I don't use any exploits, hacks whatever, having this super convenient method of moving around the complex series of maps that makes up CoH is a huge thing for me. The proposed changes to travel help somewhat, but means more tedium, therefore less fun. This of course is just my opinion. 

[Healix]

A lot of people feel this way, me included. 

[UltraAlt]

21 hours ago, Wavicle said:

You still seem not to be responding to my actual point.

I'm not talking about getting to PD or getting to Bases. I'm not asking for it to be easier to get to those places.

I'm talking about unlocking the LRTP. That's all.

Okay, then.

I said this before, but I didn't ask  you why, so...

 

We don't get to unlock any other power just because we unlock it on another character.

Why should we be able to unlock this one without doing the work to get it?