issue 27 [Beta] Patch Notes for November 28th, 2020

[Jimmy]

Note: The Beta shards were wiped on Thursday, November 🦃 26th. You'll need to create or copy new characters.

 

New or updated changes are listed in green (these remain part of the patch notes)

 

Notes relevant to testing or changes from the previous build are listed in blue (these are deleted before the next build or before the live publish)

 

Winter Event

• The Winter event is now active
  • See the Wiki page for more info
• New for 2020: The Winter Forest, a special zone previously only accessible via Null the Gull, has been updated to be a seasonal hang-out spot
  • While the Winter event is active, it can be accessed from any TUNNEL portal or by using Long Range Teleporter
  • While the Winter event is active, several NPCs gather in the zone: Ms. Liberty (Trainer), an Icon Cosmetic Surgeon, The Candy Keeper, Shady Nick (Black Market), a P2W Winter Agent, a Last-Minute Gift Shop (Quartermaster), a Merit Vendor, several heroes and villains from around Paragon and the Rogue isles, and of course, Null the Gull himself
  • An invention table, a base portal, and a TUNNEL portal have also been added, and they remain at all times, even after the winter event ends
  • Several small geometry fixes have been made
  • A minimap and a special loading screen have been added

 

 

Long Range Teleporter

• Several updates have been made to the Long Range Teleporter destination list
  • Destinations are now categorized and coloured based on their location (Paragon City, Rogue Isles, Praetoria and Shadow Shard)
    • Category titles added
    • Villain zones are slightly rederer
    • Pocket D is in a special green category at the top with base access
    • Event zones are also listed at the top in their own unique colour
  • "Your Supergroup Base" is visible at the top of the list if you are in a Supergroup
  • "Enter Supergroup Passcode..." is visible at the top of the list at all times
  • Locked destinations are now listed
    • This makes it easier to see where you can and cannot go, and also keeps every destination in a consistent location regardless of how many you've unlocked
    • Zones that your current alignment cannot visit are not listed
      • Fixed all zones showing up for Praetorians
  • Shadow Shard zones moved to the bottom of the list
  • Hero zones re-ordered slightly, all co-op zones are now at the bottom of the Hero zone list
  • Zone levels have been removed in order to make the list easier to read
• A zone checker has been added to the Fast Travel Macro
  • A list allowing you to check which zones you have and haven't unlocked in LRT has been added to the fast travel macro
  • Unlocked zones can be clicked, doing so will activate LRT (you'll still need to select the destination in the LRT popup)
  • This is likely only a temporary solution, we'd like to add something more integrated with the power itself
  • Thanks to @AboveTheChemist and @Jacke for their assistance with this
  • NOTE: If you have manually downloaded an updated version of fasttravel.mnu, you need to delete it in order to see this update
• Long Range Teleporter can now be purchased from the P2W vendor
  • It costs 1,000,000 influence
  • It can be found under Prestige Powers > Travel > Long Range Teleporter
  • This only unlocks the power itself (with the default base access), exploration badges are still required to unlock each zone
• Long Range Teleporter's long and short descriptions now clearly state it allows you to access Supergroup bases
• Fixed Faultline not unlocking properly
  • Previously it would unlock if you owned any badge from Echo: Faultline, rather than Faultline proper

 

 

 

The Graveyard Shift

• Updates to spawns in the rave mission to reduce the chance for extreme psychological trauma
• Adjusted the Raverobber spawn to ensure that the spawn clears as complete as soon as Raverobber drops

• Reduced the potency of the viral cocktail, now only reduces endurance by 10 instead of 20

• Immune booster power corrected to run for 60s, not 30s, stacking

• Upgraded the Zoombie explosions: They move faster, hit harder, hit you AND enemies - and added knockback

 

General

• Trainers no longer lie to players about Supergroup Mode and Prestige
• Null the Gull no longer discusses the Dimensional Warder badge with Praetorians before they move over into Primal Earth properly
• The various prestige teleportation powers in the P2W store now have proper descriptions instead of just saying "Buy me!"
• Moved Prestige Sprints into the Travel category at the P2W vendor

 

Bug Fixes

• Fixed many powers having incorrect colour palettes for power customization
  • Many powers had their power customization options incorrectly assigned in i27 - this patch should resolve these issues
  • Please test and let us know if you see any problems!
• Fixed some text errors with the Auctioneer day job
• Fixed the Monitor Duty badge incorrectly referring to the Base Teleporter power (the old name for the Monitor Duty Teleporter power)
• Fixed the Visionary badge not awarding credit for Overseer bosses
  • These were still being tracked, they just weren't attached to the badge, so if you killed a bunch before this patch you may automatically earn the badge when you log in
• Fixed the Duray encounter failing during Admiral Sutter's TF
  • Please test:

Quote

The only thing testers need to attempt is: Defeat Duray, let the clone spawn, defeat the clone, and then wait to see if a SECOND clone spawns. Not sure if it it does or not. If a second clone spawns and you defeat him, you technically trigger the failsafe with Primal Duray still alive.

 

The clone spawns at least 2 other invisible actors to check the status of Prae Duray, which attach to the spawn originally designed for two positions. When the tangible jerks die, either the invisible guys don't despawn properly OR the spawndef gets confused because now it recognizes other enemies that must be defeated to clear it.

 

There's now a failsafe script running that counts how many Durays you kill, the same script that is used for defeating WEB cables in the STF 😄

That script is set to count kills on PraeDuray, PriDuray, and PraeClone Duray. Total kills needed: 3.

 

So you can see why I'm interested in making sure only one clone spawns

 

[SuperPlyx]

2 hours ago, Jimmy said:

A zone checker has been added to the Fast Travel Macro

• A list allowing you to check which zones you have and haven't unlocked in LRT has been added to the fast travel macro
• Unlocked zones can be clicked, doing so will activate LRT (you'll still need to select the destination in the LRT popup)
• This is likely only a temporary solution, we'd like to add something more integrated with the power itself

Thanks for this, it may not be the perfect solution but I like it.

Also the colors are nice and helpful.

[Glacier Peak]

I love the new LRT window. The highlighted background accent colors help distinguish the alignment or zone characteristic. The colors for each are perfect and shouldn't be changed IMO. As for the top of the list, I would recommend adding a star (or some such icon) to a zone like the Winter Forest for events (kind of like how there is a yellow circle icon for a mission I have in the RWZ) to encourage players to check it out. If that is beyond the means of the HC volunteers or if it doesn't meet the intent of the power, I am okay with that the current layout. Lastly, perhaps the Enter Supergroup Passcode line may need to be even more distinguished, maybe it's own subsection or distinguishing characteristic?

 

 

 

One last thing, the Long Range TP Zone Check section at the bottom of the Fast Travel Menu looks straightforward and it is a nice alternative to using the LRT power outright. I think I would continue to use the LRT menu as it takes you to that anyways, but this is a nice alternative.

Edited November 28, 2020 by Glacier Peak

[Glacier Peak]

I dig the Ms. Lib outfit, if this is a new change from the HC volunteers, props! I would recommend putting her inside the gazebo, she would be easier to see and appreciate!

 

Spoiler

 

Small, tiny, little itty bitty nit pick... these crafting tables are kind of hard to access. 

 

Spoiler

 

[DoctorDitko]

Er, having played with several of the nifty variant fast travel menus, it seems I needed to clear out fast* from my menus folder before everything worked.

 

My fault entirely, but I wanted to mention it in case anyone else has the same issue. I also removed the old fast travel icon from my tray and installed a fresh one, but I unscientificly did both at once, so I'm not entirely sure which fixed the issue.

 

That said, I really like the new fast travel setup, well done!

 

And thanks especially for the description updates, that will help greatly those folks who don't read the fora.

Edited November 28, 2020 by DoctorDitko

[Bopper]

4 hours ago, Jimmy said:

Long Range Teleporter can now be purchased from the P2W vendor

• It costs 1,000,000 influence
• It can be found under Prestige Powers > Travel > Long Range Teleporter

I would rather this not be included in P2W, or if it is going to be included make it 10M. The access to getting LRTP is already trivial enough, but for the usefulness of the power it should have a cost that atleast reflects its worth.

[Cobalt Arachne]

59 minutes ago, Bopper said:

I would rather this not be included in P2W, or if it is going to be included make it 10M. The access to getting LRTP is already trivial enough, but for the usefulness of the power it should have a cost that atleast reflects its worth.

Just checked and buying it outright doesn't give you any of the zones; So you will still have to run around grabbing badges in each zone you want to unlock for the LRTP; So for 1mil inf you aren't getting much of a skip, saves you like the couple minutes it takes to grab all the Atlas/Mercy/Nova badges?

Seems okay for the minimal functionality of having it with no zones is, hell, having it with no zones unlocked with the current system still encourages exploration so I am okay with that. I would prefer not to see any further buy-out options (such as a buy-out that unlocks all the zones) as that would diminish the value in collecting the exploration badges.

I understand the desire of people with lots of alts to have this be accessible as possible as fast as possible, and finding the right balance is crucial, just my two cents... Grabbing a single exploration badge in any zone to be able to instantly travel there again is generous for that minimal investment; I'm sure future accessibility improvements are a constant on the dev team's mind as well.

[Faultline]

The patch notes aren't explicit enough that it's just the power, no zone unlocks and no Passport badge.

[csr]

1 hour ago, Bopper said:

I would rather this not be included in P2W, or if it is going to be included make it 10M. The access to getting LRTP is already trivial enough, but for the usefulness of the power it should have a cost that atleast reflects its worth.

I suggested that it be added to the P2W during testing, but wasn't sure what it should cost. 1M seemed too low to me so I didn't suggest that, but 10M seems too high, so I didn't suggest that either.   In my opinion the idea that these sorts of things should be either 1M or 10M needs to be abandoned.  2.5M or perhaps 5M seemed more appropriate to me.

 

Honestly though, I've found that with my toons that don't have it yet, it's often easier to just leg it to base portals than to take the time to get the LRTP.  The reason being that those toons often don't have many locations that would be opened up by taking the time to explore a zone and would really need to then run around zones getting more zones added for it to really be worthwhile.  So maybe 1M is the right price.

 

Still, better to start with it too high than too low to avoid negative feedback if it changes.

[Cobalt Arachne]

19 minutes ago, csr said:

So maybe 1M is the right price.

Seems perfectly fine for what is, functionally, a directory of zones you can visit with no teleportation included. 🤔

[Scendera]

Could I request Show levels be a checkbox option, please? I agree it looks cleaner without it, but sometimes "We're X level, where do we want to go?" would benefit from being able to see it easily.

[Wavicle]

I think it would be reasonable and fair to add the functionality of allowing LRT to port you directly to the Base Portal in the zone you are currently in. I think it was like this early in beta, iirc.

Here's my rationale:

Right now, for example, if I am in Indy Port standing at the gate to Terra Volta, I cannot use LRT to port back to the base portal. But if I just step a few feet south and click into TV I can then port directly to the IP base portal. Seems silly. Just let us use it to port to the portal.

[Faultline]

7 minutes ago, Scendera said:

Could I request Show levels be a checkbox option, please?

Can't be at the moment, it's hardcoded in monorails.def. Can investigate options after the December break.

[Apparition]

2 hours ago, Bopper said:

I would rather this not be included in P2W, or if it is going to be included make it 10M. The access to getting LRTP is already trivial enough, but for the usefulness of the power it should have a cost that atleast reflects its worth.

 

Yeah.  Honestly, I'm not a fan of LRT being included in P2W.  There's already far too much stuff there as is.  Considering LRT takes either five minutes to get (zone exploration accolade badge), or a hour of standing around Pocket D while crafting or doing whatever, that's more than enough IMO.

[Wavicle]

2 minutes ago, Apparition said:

 

Yeah.  Honestly, I'm not a fan of LRT being included in P2W.  There's already far too much stuff there as is.  Considering LRT takes either five minutes to get (zone exploration accolade badge), or a hour of standing around Pocket D while crafting or doing whatever, that's more than enough IMO.

It took several hours to unlock on all my alts. Is that a lot? Not much? I’m not sure.

[Apparition]

5 minutes ago, Wavicle said:

It took several hours to unlock on all my alts. Is that a lot? Not much? I’m not sure.

 

Depending on how many alts you have, that sounds perfectly reasonable to me.

[Wavicle]

12 minutes ago, Apparition said:

 

Depending on how many alts you have, that sounds perfectly reasonable to me.

I have about 50.

[Apparition]

1 minute ago, Wavicle said:

I have about 50.

 

Sounds about right then, IMO.

[Wavicle]

Just now, Apparition said:

 

Sounds about right then, IMO.

Perhaps. But since Influence is gained by spending time in the game, I’m not really sure what’s lost by letting people exchange influence to save themselves time.

[csr]

5 minutes ago, Wavicle said:

I have about 50.

I currently have 175.  About 65 of which will need it unlocked.  I'll pay the 65M in a heartbeat rather than spend about 6 hrs doing nothing but laps of AP.

[Aberrant]

With regards to the Winter Event, are the Festive login badge, Holiday Spirit and Holiday Cheer temp powers supposed to be granting, as none of my test characters have received them. Or are these awarded via a different method when the real event starts like the Super Packs discount? If these are due to be granted, are they still one time per character powers no matter how many winter events you login at?

[Troo]

44 minutes ago, Wavicle said:

It took several hours to unlock on all my alts. Is that a lot? Not much? I’m not sure.

Could a new player do it with such ease? I think not.

Maybe you merely meant unlocked the LRT.. not all of the destinations.

 

Edited November 28, 2020 by Troo

[Jacke]

@Jimmy, can the order of Skyway City and Steel Canyon be swapped around so Steel Canyon come first, to match their order on the other Zone listings, like for the PTA Monorail.  And Skyway is really levels 10 to 19 (check the mobs at the south end of the Zone), same as Steel Canyon and 'Boomtown'.

 

[Wavicle]

2 minutes ago, Troo said:

Could a new player do it with such ease? I think not.

Maybe you merely meant unlocked the LRT.. not all of the destinations.

 

Yes, that is exactly what I meant. I did not get all the destinations.

[DoctorDitko]

Even a bare-bones base can give you all the destinations. All you need to do is enter it, and there are now plenty of ways to do that.