issue 27 [Beta] Patch Notes for May 24th, 2021

[Jimmy]

Colour Key

• Most changes from the previous beta build are listed in green.
  • Green text will become white text in the next set of patch notes.
• Any changes or fixes that are only relevant to the beta builds (ie: fixes / tweaks to new features) are listed in blue.
  • Blue text will be deleted in the next set of patch notes as it is only relevant to highlight changes between beta builds, not changes from live.

Powers

•  Sorcery > Arcane Bolt / Arcane Power
  • Activating and deactivating toggles will no longer grant Arcane Power
    • This wasn't merged in yet
  • Removed the "...crackle at your fingertips" combat log message, this was mainly for testing purposes
  • Removed the "ARCANE POWER" floating message
    • With the VFX and yellow ring around Arcane Bolt, the added floating message was overkill as it kept triggering if you didn't make use of the proc
•  Inherent > Walk
  • Movement speed cap adjusted from 3.15mph to 3.25mph (to match NPC walking speed)
  • Jumping speed cap increased to 14.32mph (the base jumping speed)

Miscellaneous

• Removed Arachnos ambushes from delivery missions to Mercy Island in the Temple of the Waters SF
• Removed Malta ambush from delivery missions to Mercy Island in Vernun von Grun's story arc.
• Removed Crey ambush from door mission to Mercy Island in Operative Grillo's story arc.
• Renamed the Shopkeeper badge to Proprietor (as Shop Keeper already exists as a day job badge)

• The minimum level to start the Lady Grey TF has been changed back to 45 as it was on live

  • The Weakened Hamidon can now spawn from level 45 to 54

Pocket D

• DJ Zero has redirected some of the less popular entrances to the club
  • The Founder Falls entrance has been redirected to Atlas Park
  • The St. Martial entrance has been redirected to Mercy Island
  • A new entrance has been opened in Nova Preatoria, behind the Civic Center

Arena

• You can no longer begin observing an arena match if you had any combat activity in the past 10 seconds
• Arena Observer / Gladiator modes will now automatically kill all pets on entry (certain pets could still be summoned when entering an arena match)

Bug Fixes

• Firebase Zulu: Closed holes in the collision boundary of the zone
• The Chantry: Closed holes in the collision boundary of the zone
• Echo Plaza: Added a collision boundary around the zone to fix issues with teleportation powers
• Talos Island: A number of floating rocks and bushes have been brought back to the ground
  • The Paragon City Hall has issued its monthly statement reminding Gravity Control heroes that this isn't funny
• Cleaned up some unintended behaviour with the Fortunata Hypnosis proc

• Fixed the geometry of certain Goldbrickers NPCs that had a major hole in their neck

• Fixed the animation of Tech Generator objects inside missions using the tech base lair so it animates properly

• Fixed the Ally Revive script used in the Brickstown story arcs

• Fixed an issue with Cognitive and Spectral Interface Procs

  • This was a bug introduced last year when Interface DoT procs got fixed

  • It turned out that the procs were missing the tag needed to turn on the effect group

[Jimmy]

Brainstorm Only

Freebies Menu

• Updated to the latest version from @AboveTheChemist

Bug Fixes

These are untested fixes which might not make it into the next live build.

• Ambrosia and Essence of the Earth inspirations should now be usable even if the player is under Untouchable state
  • Henchmen in Untouchable state, if any, will still see no benefit from these inspirations
• EMP Arrow: Possibly fixed a bug that made procs use the unintended pseudopet formula instead of the original click formula

PvP Powers Changes

These changes will not be going live in this patch - they are for testing only. Please provide your feedback if you would or would not like to see these changes go live!

• All travel power speed cap increases from Issue 27, Page 2 now also apply in PvP

• Modified the PvP diminishing return curves for travel speeds for testing purposes per a recommendation from Alouu

  • SpeedRunning set to 0.37, SpeedFlying set to 0.75, SpeedJumping set to 0.35

• Sorcery > Arcane Bolt / Arcane Power
  • Arcane Power can now trigger in PvP
  • Damage bonus in PvP is 50% of the base damage rather than 100%
• Fortunata Hypnosis (IO proc): PvP placate effect reduced from 5.336s to 4s
  • This puts it in line with the Presence pool's Pacify, which also does 8s PvE and 4s PvP

[Monos King]

26 minutes ago, Jimmy said:

• The Founder Falls entrance has been redirected to Atlas Park
• The St. Martial entrance has been redirected to Mercy Island

How about we not do this one though. There are already enough reasons to congregate at Atlas and Mercy, and some of us like going to those zones. Taking away even something like the pocket d entrance just ensures they'll be dead zones even more. Also I don't see any reason for this one to begin with, not everything needs to be accessible within seconds of making the character. If anything, just adding pocket d to mercy and atlas would be better, although wouldn't really fix the problem aforementioned. 

[Glacier Peak]

26 minutes ago, Monos King said:

How about we not do this one though. There are already enough reasons to congregate at Atlas and Mercy, and some of us like going to those zones. Taking away even something like the pocket d entrance just ensures they'll be dead zones even more. Also I don't see any reason for this one to begin with, not everything needs to be accessible within seconds of making the character. If anything, just adding pocket d to mercy and atlas would be better, although wouldn't really fix the problem aforementioned. 

I am somewhat for and against this on paper, so I will need to test out the change before I provide substantive feedback.

[Apparition]

Honestly, if there are going to be entrances added to Mercy Island and Atlas Park, and there must be entrances removed, then I'd rather see the Kings Row and Port Oakes entrances removed.  It makes little sense to have two lowbie entrances and remove the mid-level entrances.

[Macchiato]

57 minutes ago, Jimmy said:

Pocket D

• DJ Zero has redirected some of the less popular entrances to the club
  • The Founder Falls entrance has been redirected to Atlas Park
  • The St. Martial entrance has been redirected to Mercy Island

 

I'd like to think I'm usually a pretty level-headed person when it comes to giving feedback, I like to take into account edge cases and possible uses for changes that come up. But this is one time where I legitimately have absolutely nothing to work with.

 

This is probably one of the most arbitrary decisions to come up in recent memory, and I am literally reaching and failing to find what benefit this serves.

 

2 minutes ago, Apparition said:

Honestly, if there are going to be entrances added to Mercy Island and Atlas Park, and there must be entrances removed, then I'd rather see the Kings Row and Port Oakes entrances removed.  It makes little sense to have two lowbie entrances and remove the mid-level entrances.

 

And this is a big reason why it makes no sense; we have a lower level entrance, even if it's not perfectly convenient, and even if you were to replace one entrance with the other... Why not the lower level entrances? But it goes even further when you consider - Echo Plaza exists, that is a brand new zone; you're telling me that it's somehow absolutely necessary to remove QoL and entry/exit points to the Pocket D, because what? There's no space? Add another manhole, there should be literally no reason why that is impossible.

 

Also - I would peek into the beta build, but as it stands, it seems that there's a constant mismatch in the manifest. We can't access the beta build, we're stuck on the May 7th build as far as I've asked a handful of people and tried for myself.

[Apparition]

2 minutes ago, Macchiato said:

 

I'd like to think I'm usually a pretty level-headed person when it comes to giving feedback, I like to take into account edge cases and possible uses for changes that come up. But this is one time where I legitimately have absolutely nothing to work with.

 

This is probably one of the most arbitrary decisions to come up in recent memory, and I am literally reaching and failing to find what benefit this serves.

 

 

And this is a big reason why it makes no sense; we have a lower level entrance, even if it's not perfectly convenient, and even if you were to replace one entrance with the other... Why not the lower level entrances? But it goes even further when you consider - Echo Plaza exists, that is a brand new zone; you're telling me that it's somehow absolutely necessary to remove QoL and entry/exit points to the Pocket D, because what? There's no space? Add another manhole, there should be literally no reason why that is impossible.

 

Also - I would peek into the beta build, but as it stands, it seems that there's a constant mismatch in the manifest. We can't access the beta build, we're stuck on the May 7th build as far as I've asked a handful of people and tried for myself.

 

 

I'm pretty sure the reasoning is that Echo Plaza will only be available via LRT until the end of May.  Once June rolls around, the only way to get to Echo Plaza will be via Pocket D.  So they are adding entrances to Atlas and Mercy to make it easier for lowbies to get to Echo Plaza.  But it makes no sense IMO to have two low level entrances and no mid-level entrance.

 

Also, that's a Tequila issue ATM.  The patch loads if you use the Homecoming launcher.  They're working on Tequila.

[TaleFromYourPocket]

3 minutes ago, Apparition said:

Honestly, if there are going to be entrances added to Mercy Island and Atlas Park, and there must be entrances removed, then I'd rather see the Kings Row and Port Oakes entrances removed.  It makes little sense to have two lowbie entrances and remove the mid-level entrances.

Honestly though, the Kings Row and Port Oakes entrances do get used- and more than that, they spawn RP in the zone they're in. Same with the Founders one- I don't know about St. Martial, I don't go there. But if the entrances are removed from those zones, the RP scene will- well, wilt, at least a bit.

 

Frankly, I don't understand why the devs can't just- plop down a couple more manholes.

1 hour ago, Jimmy said:

The minimum level to start the Lady Grey TF has been changed back to 45 as it was on live

• The Weakened Hamidon can now spawn from level 45 to 54

This change really bugs me, as someone who's always enjoyed lingering in the mid-ranges. I know, I know, it's all about the rush to max level these days- but every time content gets pushed up behind another level lock, it's a smack in the face for all of us players who truly enjoy the mid-range content, who like knowing the world is a little bigger than our characters. Because- yeah, sure, Oroborous exists, but it's not even a little the same. Not really. There's a world of difference between running around the zone at level, slipping past mooks and mobs or stopping to fight them and possibly even losing, jumping from contact to contact to contact and experiencing every angle of the story at once, and just- talking to a crystal, getting the missions divorced from context, divorced from the other arcs you'd normally be playing concurrently.

It's a choice between getting to do one of the most fun task forces in the game, or getting to do stuff in Founders Falls, St. Martial, Croatoa, Brickstown, Crey's Folly, Eden, Nerva.

 

And, frankly- if the dev team goes through with intentions of removing Founders Fall club entrance, and the Saint Martial's club entrance- and bumps Lady Grey up to 45- that's three less reasons to ever be in the level thirty to forty range for longer than it takes to farm past them. Which will just further increase the utter drought of players in those areas, leaving them even more of ghost towns than they already are. Looking at it with that slightly widened perspective, it's... really disheartening, honestly.

 

This game isn't just about the level fifty content. Levels twenty through forty have some pretty neat writing, and it feels like we're not being encouraged to so much as stop to look at it. Which is a crying shame, because when you take the time to stop and smell the roses, we really do have a beautiful little environment here.

[Cinnder]

I'd like to echo the concerns about removing the higher-level entrances to Pocket D.  The one in StM is the one I use the most often when playing redside.

[Macchiato]

7 minutes ago, Apparition said:

Also, that's a Tequila issue ATM.  The patch loads if you use the Homecoming launcher.  They're working on Tequila.

Ah, thanks. Still using legacy launchers over here, good to know.

 

Also, even with Echo Plaza in mind, that's still very not worth the design issue here. Adding paths from Atlas, Mercy, and Nova - that's fantastic! But there's still absolutely no reason why they'd have to replace mid-level entry points, even if they plan on doing something IN THE FUTURE with said zones. Which is me pulling something out of my ass entirely and still admitting there's no real reason to institute a reductive change like this.

 

 

2 minutes ago, TaleFromYourPocket said:

And, frankly- if the dev team goes through with intentions of removing Founders Fall club entrance, and the Saint Martial's club entrance- and bumps Lady Grey up to 45- that's three less reasons to ever be in the level thirty to forty range for longer than it takes to farm past them. Which will just further increase the utter drought of players in those areas, leaving them even more of ghost towns than they already are. Looking at it with that slightly widened perspective, it's... really disheartening, honestly.

 

Bingo, it's very out of touch with the problems that City of Heroes just barely skirts out of the way of - point of fact, CoH was not built with the idea of endgame content until the end of its life, and as it is, a lot of people like the mid-level junction of stuff and zones. And like you said, the push to 50 has made ghost towns of plenty of places, there is no real reason to make them even more annoying to access on top of that.

Edited May 24, 2021 by Macchiato

[TaleFromYourPocket]

4 minutes ago, Macchiato said:

But there's still absolutely no reason why they'd have to replace mid-level entry points, even if they plan on doing something IN THE FUTURE with said zones.

 Precisely! It's just less incentive not to power level to level fifty as fast as you physically can.

[Apparition]

3 minutes ago, TaleFromYourPocket said:

 Precisely! It's just less incentive not to power level to level fifty as fast as you physically can.

 

 

The LGTF was changed back to level 45+ because many, many players who had no idea that the Weakened Hamidon was level 50 would start the LGTF below level 45, and run into a complete brick wall and be unable to complete the LGTF.  It's a waste of time for everyone on the TF, and was in essence a trap.  It's not really about locking out those in the mid-level range so much as as preventing newbies and those who don't read the Homecoming Wiki from becoming stuck.  It's a TF that was intentionally designed for level 45+, and was never intended for levels 35 - 44.

Edited May 24, 2021 by Apparition

[The Bobby Llama]

29 minutes ago, Apparition said:

Honestly, if there are going to be entrances added to Mercy Island and Atlas Park, and there must be entrances removed, then I'd rather see the Kings Row and Port Oakes entrances removed.  It makes little sense to have two lowbie entrances and remove the mid-level entrances.

Yeah, this.  We don't need Pocket D entrances in consecutive lowbie zones.

 

I like to use FF as a 'hub' zone for my blueside characters because it has a university and RWZ entrance.  Losing the ability to pop into Pocket D from there would be a bummer.

[Macchiato]

When it comes to Founders, it's also the case that it has access to TUNNEL, Paragon University (for Cimerora access), and the RWZ. But that is a thing distinct to Founders, and clearly if it's considered an "unpopular exit" (somehow? Compared to Talos?) people weren't that aware of the multiple access points.

 

But again, I ask; why is it necessary to remove entrances at all - let alone to mid-level zones. Hell, as it is, I'd rather have no door to Atlas and Mercy versus getting rid of doors to Founders and St. Martial. (Which - by the way, the latter can be a pain in the ass at relevant levels to navigate given the ferry position in the zone is tucked in the corner away from basically all contacts and content, whereas the Pocket D entrance is in a reasonably accessible place.)

 

8 minutes ago, Apparition said:

The LGTF was changed back to level 45+ because many, many players who had no idea that the Weakened Hamidon was level 50 would start the LGTF below level 45,

 

Also, fair point - it's part of why I'm not terribly too-too angry about it, but there is still a relevant impact to the above.

Edited May 24, 2021 by Macchiato

[TaleFromYourPocket]

2 minutes ago, Apparition said:

It's not really about locking out those in the mid-level range so much as as preventing newbies and those who don't read the Homecoming Wiki from becoming stuck. 

Alright, that's legitimately fair- but at the same time, it coming with removing the mid-level entries to the club, it still is an unpleasant combination of factors that I can't see it not aggravating already existing problems. On it's own, in a vacuum, the change is fine- but it's not in a vacuum, even in the beta.

[ApatheticWizard]

Why do you want to change the Pocket D entrances? What actual purpose does it serve? Why replace those two zones? It’s so arbitrary and pointless.

[Replacement]

1 hour ago, Jimmy said:

DJ Zero has redirected some of the less popular entrances to the club

• The Founder Falls entrance has been redirected to Atlas Park
• The St. Martial entrance has been redirected to Mercy Island
• A new entrance has been opened in Nova Preatoria, behind the Civic Center

 

Love the Gold inclusion.

 

I think it says a lot that even I, lover of change for the sake of itself, do not want to see this change to the other zones. I have no context for redside, but I strongly dislike the Founders->Atlas change.

[TemporalVileTerror]

I can't speak to the popularity of Founders' Falls' Pocket D exit, but I do use the St. Martial access point as a Redsider.

Adding Pocket D access for Mercy and Atlas is nice and appreciated, but maybe bringing Mercy's TUNNEL away from the Ferry and in to Upper Mercy, and adding Pocket D to TUNNEL's list of destinations may be the wiser adjustment.  After all, TUNNEL has access right next to Ferries in Grandville and Cap au Diable anyway.

I also like the idea of adding sewer-style entry points to bump Redside up to 4 access zones, on par with Blueside's.  Yes, yes.  Blueside has more zones total, but that's not Redside players' fault.

 

But if the decision is hard-set on maintaining the 4/3 split on entrances, and not touching TUNNEL, then I'll echo that yeah . . . Kings Row and Port Oakes are the most popular access points -because- they're the low-level ones (also pretty conveniently placed due to proximity to Tram/Ferry).  

And to assist returning players, I'd also ask that St. Martial and Founders' Falls' (or Port Oakes and Kings Row's) doors still access Pocket D for a few months, but exits lead to Mercy and Atlas.

[Macchiato]

1 minute ago, TemporalVileTerror said:

Adding Pocket D access for Mercy and Atlas is nice and appreciated, but maybe bringing Mercy's TUNNEL away from the Ferry and in to Upper Mercy, and adding Pocket D to TUNNEL's list of destinations may be the wiser adjustment.  After all, TUNNEL has access right next to Ferries in Grandville and Cap au Diable anyway.

 

This is as close to the idea I was trying to come up with. The starter zone accessibility (a non-issue at best) can be answered by not touching Pocket D at all and instead having the access come from TUNNEL - most of the things on that list are clearly level-marked anyway.

[Bionic_Flea]

Adding my voice to those opposed to eliminating Pocket D entrances.  If you want to add others, that's fine and good. 

 

I am also opposed to upping the level requirement of the LGTF back up to 45.  As I stated in the other thread on this issues, you should restore the "bug" and make it a feature.

Quote

On 5/17/2021 at 11:14 AM, AboveTheChemist said:

"Any character over level 35 can join the TF as long as they are sidekicked to an effective combat level of 45 or greater." *(Quoting archived Wiki)

This seems to be the answer.  If it was doable before, it should be doable again.  Team leader at least 45, then 35+ can join.

 

Edited May 24, 2021 by Bionic_Flea

[TemporalVileTerror]

Or, hell . . . just drop Weakened Hamidon down to level 35 too.  The rest of the Task Force is already there anyway.  

Bargain compromise of Level 40!  Lowest I'm willing to haggle!

[AboveTheChemist]

11 minutes ago, Bionic_Flea said:

As I stated in the other thread on this issues, you should restore the "bug" and make it a feature.

Just to be crystal clear, the quote of mine that you posted isn't my statement. I was quoting a historic bug note from the LGTF wiki page. I just don't want folks to think I said something that I did not.

 

EDIT: Here's what I said in my original post, for context:

 

On 13-Aug-2007, a bug note was added to the LGTF wiki page stating "Any character over level 35 can join the TF as long as they are sidekicked to an effective combat level of 45 or greater."

Edited May 24, 2021 by AboveTheChemist
added context

[siolfir]

4 hours ago, Bionic_Flea said:

I am also opposed to upping the level requirement of the LGTF back up to 45. 

4 hours ago, Bionic_Flea said:

This seems to be the answer.  If it was doable before, it should be doable again.  Team leader at least 45, then 35+ can join.

 

Haven't had a chance to test, but I believe that is what they did: the patch notes say "The minimum level to start the Lady Grey TF has been changed back to 45 as it was on live" (emphasis added). Sounds like you just need to have a 45+ begin it and everyone else can be 35+.

 

Edit: nm, was tested later on and it's 45+ for all. 😞 

Edited May 24, 2021 by siolfir

[Replacement]

Uh, sorry to be that guy but I'm actually explicitly against connecting the starting zones to Pocket D.

 

I like the LRTP changes because they added qol and a reward to taking an extra moment while zipping through zones.

This is the opposite - removing reasons to ever break out of the AE to 50 pipeline.

[Bionic_Flea]

1 minute ago, siolfir said:

Haven't had a chance to test, but I believe that is what they did: the patch notes say "The minimum level to start the Lady Grey TF has been changed back to 45 as it was on live" (emphasis added). Sounds like you just need to have a 45+ begin it and everyone else can be 35+.

If that's the case, I withdraw my objection.  Anyone have a few minutes to check it out?