issue 27 [Beta] Patch Notes for November 29th, 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)

 

Beta Only

• Updated the freebies menu with the latest version from @AboveTheChemist

Winter Event

• The Winter event is now active
  • See the Wiki page for more info
• New for 2020: Snowbound badge
  • Awarded for logging in during the event
  • Grants you the Holiday Spirit (debt protection) and Holiday Cheer (1 gift for another player) temporary powers
• 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
    • Todogut has been moved slightly
  • 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
    • A few more invention tables have been added
  • Several small geometry fixes have been made
    • It's now much easier to jump in and out of the cabin
    • Fixed the interior lighting inside the cabin
  • 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)
  • "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
  • 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
• Long Range Teleporter now uses a long interruptible animation when used inside a mission with Temporary Powers disabled (eg: in Master Of runs)
• Fixed Faultline not unlocking properly
  • Previously it would unlock if you owned any badge from Echo: Faultline, rather than Faultline proper

 

 

 

New Story Arcs

• 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

    • MM pets now also get the Viral Cocktail

  • 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

  • Disclaimers added to Pathogen and Cortex missions to bring friends

• The Freakish Lab of Dr. Vahzilok

  • Doc Buzzsaw contact updated to remove the HREF store link which would cause the contact to crash if clicked while running the arc via Ouroboros

  • Unkillable enemies getting onto the other side of the fence in the Zig should be less of a problem

    • Wardens using Gale were the issue, and that spawndef simply stops spawning bosses for Longbow now

• Cortex (Both arcs)

  • Heroside version

    • Rise to the challenge and wasting disease removed from him

  • Redside version

    • Psychic Scream removed fromdecaying version

    • Also has no confuse power still, intended

  • Mind Stab: 20s rech (was 4s), 1.24 damage scale (was 1.64)

  • Subdue: 3s rech (was 8s), .6 damage scale (was 1.0)

  • Telekinetic Blast: 6s rech (was 8s), damage for Smash/Psi now .63/.34, was 1/.64

  • Mesmerize: 3s rech (was 6s), sleep duration reduced from 30 to 18, damage reduced

  • Dominate: 5s rech (was 8s), .70 damage scale (was 1.0)

  • Greater Psi Blade: 30s rech (was 15s), lethal damage removed, psionic damage at 1.7 scale

  • Confuse added back into his power kit, recharge increased to 20s, mag increased from mag3 to mag4, duration cut to 10s from 20s

  • Updated the Cortex Illusion Spawns to be less painful in quantity

General

• Added a new Supergroup Registrar for Praetorians
  • They are located in front of the Civic Center in Nova Praetoria (-4369.0 34.0 -256.0)
  • They use a fancy new Powers Division Supergroup registration form
• 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 a bug that with the Supergroup registration screen; it was showing the wrong alignment very often
• 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

 

[EmperorSteele]

"Disclaimers added to Pathogen and Cortex missions to bring friends"

Shouldn't this be under "Graveyard Shift"?

[Lockpick]

The freebie Menu to unlock locations in LRT is not working.

[Aberrant]

Any reason the auto enhancement slotting feature of the freebies pop menu has been removed? Found it very useful to quickly spin up a character to test a mission and actually have the stats to complete it, without spending ages dragging Acc/Dam/End enhancements to every power.

[Faultline]

58 minutes ago, Aberrant said:

Any reason the auto enhancement slotting feature of the freebies pop menu has been removed? Found it very useful to quickly spin up a character to test a mission and actually have the stats to complete it, without spending ages dragging Acc/Dam/End enhancements to every power.

That's a question for @AboveTheChemist - I just grabbed his updated file and put it on the patch.

[LQT]

Could the Freebies menu be reverted in some way to include the "unlock all" options for accolades and other effects? Even just for all the Incarnate badges/slots at once rather than having to unlock them through the menu one at a time. After months of having that option changing it to now require 6 times more decisions for the same effect seems pointless and only designed as a timesink in a situation where said timesinks are going to hamper/slow down testing in the first place.

Also Pyrolicious' bio has a typo: Conscience is missing the second "c".

[Lockpick]

I checked to see if the Winter IOs were on sale and they were not.  Is that sale being brought back this year?

[AboveTheChemist]

I have not had a chance to look at the version of the freebies menu that is now the built-in version (and I won't be able to until later today), but I assume it is the one I posted here.

 

The problem is that the version I posted (linked above) was an update of r0y's last published version of the freebies menu, and at some point in the not too distant past I think the built-in freebies menu and r0y's version diverged in form slightly. That's why stuff has gone missing. When I posted that menu, I didn't intend for it to replace the built-in menu, only to be installed alongside as a supplemental version. I had a brief exhange with Jimmy a few days ago in this thread and my takeaway from that is that he wanted me to eventually take the built-in version of the freebies menu and fold in the relevant updates from the version I posted (which I am happy to do). But I have not done any work to that effect yet, as I assumed that prior to doing any work I'd have a conversation with Jimmy or someone from the dev team about exactly what would be updated.

 

Sorry for the confusion/miscommunication! If this is something that should be updated sooner rather than later, I can carve out some time in the next few days to take a look at the original built-in freebies menu and see what it needs to make it current. I know it needs to have the Artillery set added, and to have the LRT unlocks added, but I am not sure if there is anything else that needs to be done to make it current.

 

Edit: I mistakenly said that Annihilation needed to be added, when I meant Artillery, so that has been corrected. If anyone is curious, it looks like r0y's version of the freebies menu began to differ from NobleKangaroo's freebies menu (which became the built-in freebies menu) sometime between Aug 2019 and March 2020, likely much closer to the latter date.

Edited November 30, 2020 by AboveTheChemist
typos, added edit note

[Aberrant]

@AboveTheChemist Hehe, I doubt there's any rush, I only asked out of my own selfish convenience. I'll just have to slot my own enhancements, like a caveman 🤢

[Jimmy]

@Aberrant /autoenhanceio /autoenhance /autoenhanceset (or sets) are the commands you want 🙂
 

@AboveTheChemist Let us know if you need a copy of the previous version of the menu to work from

[Aberrant]

Just now, Jimmy said:

@Aberrant /autoenhanceio /autoenhance /autoenhanceset (or sets) are the commands you want 🙂

Cheers!

 

[AboveTheChemist]

5 minutes ago, Jimmy said:

Let us know if you need a copy of the previous version of the menu to work from

Thanks Jimmy! I actually updated my 'archive' copy of the Beta piggs just last week, so I pulled what I am fairly confident is the original version of the built-in freebies menu from those piggs.

 

I have attached it here (zipped), if anyone wants to install it to regain the functionality of the built-in menu. I renamed it 'freebiesorig'. Just unzip it and plunk it in <CoH Root Folder>\data\texts\English\menus and open it one of the following ways:

 

from chat: /popmenu freebiesorig
via keybind: /bind <your_key> "popmenu freebiesorig"
via macro: /macro <macro_name> "popmenu freebiesorig"

I'll look into updating it as per my previous post as soon as I can!

freebiesorig.zip

[AboveTheChemist]

Also if anyone has any requests/suggestions for minor improvements to the freebies menu, please let me know. I do not plan to make any grand/sweeping changes, but I am happy to tweak things here and there, pending approval of the dev team of course!

[Chaos Ex Machina]

 

Quote

 

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

 

 

 

This is redundant with the menu listing and adds clutter and annoyance if one would prefer to have limited size of popup by simply not obtaining badges in some zones.

 

Many of the zones are only of interest for extreme completionists, and even then on only a minority of characters.

 

I certainly don't want, for example, Boomtown listed on most characters.

 

The popmenu accomplishes everything while out of the way.

Edited November 30, 2020 by Chaos Ex Machina

[Soyuz]

On 11/29/2020 at 7:35 PM, Jimmy said:

Fixed Faultline not unlocking properly

• Previously it would unlock if you owned any badge from Echo: Faultline, rather than Faultline proper

 

This explains a lot!

 

I'm probably the last person to realise this, aren't I? Oh well.

[AboveTheChemist]

I've made the first pass at updating the freebies menu, and have posted some info about changes, along with a couple of questions about features to add/remove, in the thread below.