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

[Jacke]

3 hours ago, DoctorDitko said:

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.

 

As @Jimmy pointed out in the Zone Travel Updates topic, be careful putting files in the "<root>/data/" structure that replace stock resources.  If the stock resources change or improve, you don't see that unless you remove your replacements.  At least for popmenus in "<root>/data/text/English/menus/", better than replacing them, put in alternately named ones (the internal top "Menu <popmenu-name> {...}" names in the angle brackets) and use them.  As a bonus, that means you can put version numbers in the file names to make it easier to track what you have.

 

The Fast Travel Icon shouldn't have changed, it just invoked the power "popmenu FastTravel".  The stock FastTravel.mnu somewhere in the stock data is what got updated.

[Jimmy]

1 hour ago, Wavicle said:

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.

This actually had to be removed as it conflicted with the way that the second chance mechanic now works. If we change the way that works at some point, we can probably add this back in.

53 minutes ago, Jacke said:

@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'.

Reviewing all the other tram / helicopter / etc windows is on my to do list for page 2 🙂

[KeepDistance]

Can we make it possible to use LRT to teleport to your current zone? Currently that's locked out.

 

This would make it possible to return to a central location if you're far out in a zone, e.g. the edge of Talos. The most ocmmon use I have for this is returning to near a base so I can log out, but it's come up in a few other instances too.

[KeepDistance]

1 minute ago, KeepDistance said:

Can we make it possible to use LRT to teleport to your current zone? Currently that's locked out.

 

This would make it possible to return to a central location if you're far out in a zone, e.g. the edge of Talos. The most ocmmon use I have for this is returning to near a base so I can log out, but it's come up in a few other instances too.

I just realized this was asked and answered above.

 

I don't know what this "second chance" mechanic is, but it's a bummer to have a useful feature disabled for technical implementation reasons.

[Wavicle]

5 minutes ago, KeepDistance said:

I just realized this was asked and answered above.

 

I don't know what this "second chance" mechanic is, but it's a bummer to have a useful feature disabled for technical implementation reasons.

The second chance is Also a useful feature. It lets you still use the teleport even if you cancel out the first time.

[NewXToa]

I'd just like to pitch in on the other side, to say I'm glad it's at the P2W vendor for 1M. I'd still like to see a lower cooldown, but at least now I don't have to spend a few hours wandering around atlas over and over again to unlock it on all my alts.

 

1M seems appropriate for a power that is only accessible by you, and not by the rest of the team like TT and SG Portal are.

[Jacke]

17 minutes ago, Wavicle said:

The second chance is Also a useful feature. It lets you still use the teleport even if you cancel out the first time.

The Second Chance is shown on owned Travel powers that pop up a menu by putting a red ring around the power.  If you close the menu without selecting a destination or otherwise changing zone, the original Travel power can't figure it out due to limitation of the current UI which isn't easy to change.

 

So the original Travel power is held up from going on cooldown by Second Chance, another power triggered by the first use of the original Travel power.  Second Chance waits for a change in Zone or the cooldown time of the original Travel power to expire.  While that red ring is present, the original Travel power can be invoked again because it wasn't used the first time.

 

If the Zone changes, Second Chance puts the original Travel power on cooldown (for I believe the time left as it was keeping track)  and goes away.  If the cooldown time passes without a change of Zones, Second Chance goes away and leaves the original Travel power ready to use.

[Glacier Peak]

5 minutes ago, NewXToa said:

I'd just like to pitch in on the other side, to say I'm glad it's at the P2W vendor for 1M. I'd still like to see a lower cooldown, but at least now I don't have to spend a few hours wandering around atlas over and over again to unlock it on all my alts.

 

1M seems appropriate for a power that is only accessible by you, and not by the rest of the team like TT and SG Portal are.

Just to be clear on this change, the accolade itself is unlocked after paying the 1M influence, but the zones still need unlocked. Assuming you haven't collected any zone badges, the only place you will be teleporting to is your base, or the supergroup of your choice. 

[Jacke]

3 hours ago, Apparition said:

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.

 

Having the LRT power unlock in P2W means that there's reasonable alternatives for players, especially those with many alts who just happened not to get a single Exploration Accolade or the Pocket D Time-in-Zone Achievement Badge.  Or players with more Inf than time who just prefer to do it that way.  I see this as a Quality-of-Life option that doesn't have a significant drawback.

 

I'm unlikely to buy the unlock from P2W because I'm in the habit of getting a lot of Badges including some Exploration Accolades on all of my alts, primarily to get those sweet sweet 5 Reward Merits per Zone.  I'm already going to run around Atlas Park and get all 8 Badges and read the 7 Plaques--or the equivalent on Mercy Island or in Nova Praetoria--because that's how I play the game. 🙂

 

4 hours ago, Nayreia / Karonax said:

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?

Getting all the Nova Badges is kind of challenging, as it needs two burns of the Jump Pack with a ledge rest to get to the "Ambitious" Badge, or spending the Inf to buy a Prestige or Temp flying power.  The other Zone Accolades have their tricky bits too, especially for a new player without the knowledge of where the Badges are nor the tools to help like Vidiot Maps (which I do like, but I also understand why they are not stock as well).

 

But at least getting 1 Badge per Zone isn't that hard and often happens just with regular play.  Example, because the return point from Ouroboros in Talos Island is on top of the hill just north of the Monorail Station, I bet most toons that use Ouro blueside have the "Last Stand" Badge and thus will unlock Talos Island.  Or can happen with a bit of knowledge.  Go to Pocket D, visit the Rikti Monkey Fight Club and go upstairs and wander the tables a bit. 🙂

 

 

4 hours ago, Nayreia / Karonax said:

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.

 

This I agree with.  Many, like me, get a lot of Badges on all their alts, certainly close or better than at least 1 per Zone entered.  Other players may not plan it but get a number of Zone singleton Badges by shear happenstance, as I mentioned above.

 

I don't see a need to add more Zone unlocks to P2W that would outweigh the trivialization of part of the game, exploring the worlds of Paragon City, the Rogue Isles, and Praetoria.  Especially considering reversing a previous trivialization was a big part of doing the i27p1 Travel changes in the way that they were done.

 

[Blackfeather]

3 hours 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.

If it's anything, I'm pretty sure the Pocket D VIP pass was something available in the P2W store for the same price - given that said power was subsumed into LRT, I think it makes sense, so long as it just unlocks LRT and doesn't open up all the teleportation locations at once.

[Jacke]

2 minutes ago, Blackfeather said:

If it's anything, I'm pretty sure the Pocket D VIP pass was something available in the P2W store for the same price - given that said power was subsumed into LRT, I think it makes sense, so long as it just unlocks LRT and doesn't open up all the teleportation locations at once.

The Pocket D VIP pass was originally part of the Good Versus Evil Release of City of Heroes in 2006.

https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Good_Versus_Evil_Edition

 

The extra features of the release could be bought by existing players as a digital addon, which is what I and many others did at the time.

[Jacke]

4 hours ago, csr said:

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.

 

3 hours ago, csr said:

I currently have 175 [alts].  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.

 

"I'm Hans, this is my brother Franz, and we're going to--PUMP--you up!  First, get out there and run those laps!!!  Six hours should do for a start!" 🙂

 

The P2W price that the LRT unlock should cost is more tricky.  Right now, if it's done by getting an Exploration Accolade, that also gives the toon 5 Reward Merits.  5 Merits can be used to buy Salvage, like Enhancement Converters, that can easily sell on the Auction House for about 2.1million Inf.  Or now also spend some Inf at the P2W vendor.  How much?  @csr is right, the price should be set higher so that any later change would be to reduce it.

 

Consider that purchasing LRT at the P2W vendor gives a power that is equivalent to the other Prestige power Base Transporter, because from P2W it only comes with the ability to teleport the toon to a Base.  All other functions require extra effort, the Pocket D Time-in-Zone Acheivement Badge or a single Exploration Badge per Zone.  So pricing it the same as Base Transporter, 1 million Inf, sounds good.  At most it should be twice that, 2 million Inf, giving a charge for the expansion opportunities.

 

Edited November 29, 2020 by Jacke

[Mystic Fortune]

So do you have to be within 45" of a supergroup portal for the Enter Supergroup Passcode option on the LRT to function?

[Jimmy]

Just now, Mystic Fortune said:

So do you have to be within 45" of a supergroup portal for the Enter Supergroup Passcode option on the LRT to function?

Nope. LRT always allowed you to enter your base or any other base, including with /ebfp. It was just very poorly telegraphed before.

[Mystic Fortune]

1 minute ago, Jimmy said:

Nope. LRT always allowed you to enter your base or any other base, including with /ebfp. It was just very poorly telegraphed before.

...and does that work in a mission?

[Wavicle]

Just now, Mystic Fortune said:

...and does that work in a mission?

Yes.

[Jimmy]

Just now, Mystic Fortune said:

...and does that work in a mission?

Yep.

[Jacke]

2 hours ago, Jimmy said:

Reviewing all the other tram / helicopter / etc windows is on my to do list for page 2 🙂

Can the order of Skyway City and Steel Canyon in the LRT menu be swapped around so Steel Canyon come first, in a pre-i27p2 patch, so all the menus are order matched for now?  Thanks!

[Mystic Fortune]

Final question... and then you'll see where I'm going with this... Since it is technically an Accolade, does Long Range Teleporter and its 'Supergroup passcode' function work on 'Master of' challenge TFs?

[Jimmy]

4 minutes ago, Mystic Fortune said:

Final question... and then you'll see where I'm going with this... Since it is technically an Accolade, does Long Range Teleporter and its 'Supergroup passcode' function work on 'Master of' challenge TFs?

The power can't be used with the Master Of conditions active.

 

Or rather, it shouldn't be able to be. If it does, that's a bug.

[Keen]

12 hours ago, Jimmy said:

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!

Tested this and here are my findings:

• Current colors didn't get auto-fixed: they were still showing as white after I logged in.
• While in the Tailor, I had to "nudge" every power to pick up the color I set for them. Strangely, if I don't do that, the color boxes wouldn't show at all. I didn't need to actually change the colors themselves (the previous values were preserved).
• When I saved the costume again in the tailor, the colors were applied correctly.

[Apparition]

2 minutes ago, Jimmy said:

The power can't be used with the Master Of conditions active.

 

Or rather, it shouldn't be able to be. If it does, that's a bug.

 

I attempted a Master of Lord Recluse SF a couple of days ago, and IIRC Long Range Teleport wasn't available.  The only travel power available was the Ouroboros Portal.  Granted, I'm going by memory.  I will test again in a few hours.

[Bopper]

8 hours ago, Faultline said:

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

Perhaps it should have the old P2W cost of the Pocket D teleporter, and if you get LRTP from P2W, it comes preloaded with Pocket D as a destination so it has a use right away.

[Mystic Fortune]

21 minutes ago, Bopper said:

Perhaps it should have the old P2W cost of the Pocket D teleporter, and if you get LRTP from P2W, it comes preloaded with Pocket D as a destination so it has a use right away.

 

I mean, according to Jimmy and a few others, LRT is the new Pocket D VIP pass so it makes sense for Pocket D to be unlocked automatically by default...

[Faultline]

2 hours ago, Bopper said:

Perhaps it should have the old P2W cost of the Pocket D teleporter, and if you get LRTP from P2W, it comes preloaded with Pocket D as a destination so it has a use right away.

I think it already costs the same. Preloading it was discussed but I don't want to do it until we gather usage data on its current iteration. It does have the Winter Forest unlocked by default during the Winter Event, so there is no reason to rush that decision.

 

Right now the reason this unlock exists is /ebfp -- two million inf lets you use /ebfp twice every 10 minutes. Remember that we *like* players using bases as travel hubs, community sharing player created stuff is good.