Priority Testing Request

[Booper]

All,

 

We are approaching the Release Candidate for Page 4. At this time, we would like focused testing on changes being made to Hard Mode ITF. Build 3 has introduced some new things to the task force that will require testing now so that fixes will be in for RC1 and hopefully won't require an RC2. In particular, we're looking for issues in the finale Romulus fight, any peculiarities with the hostless possessions in their potential release iteration, etc.

 

As a reminder, the changes introduced in Build 3 are listed below. 

 

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ADVANCED DIFFICULTY - GENERAL:

• The Incarnate merit rewards for Advanced Difficulty have been replaced with Reward Merits.
• See the full patch notes for the exact payout values.

ADVANCED DIFFICULTY - IMPERIOUS TASK FORCE

• The epic finale has been implemented for the Nictus Romulus encounter in Advanced Difficulty. Enjoy!
• All float text from Nictus events is now violet colored instead of red.

HOSTLESS NICTUS:

• Elite bosses now have a 30/33/36/40% chance to spawn hostless Nictus essence per star count which is 20% higher than the rate of normal bosses.
• Enhanced the hostless Nictus power chain, which now properly fails if mezzed when the counter hits 100%, and prevents the Level 1 Nictus clones that were appearing.
• The hostless Nictus essence float text now mentions who's being targeted for body hijacking to make it easier for allies to go find/rescue them.
• The body hijacking now teleports you immediately upon being caught, no longer delayed which led to some confusion on the timing on when you could run away, since the to-hit check was taking place before the animation played.
• The hostless Nictus essence percentile counter now includes wording making it easier to see amongst the damage numbers.

MISSION 2:

• The explosion on the Shadow Crystals now uses a Nictus explosion FX, deals mag 6 damage 50%/50% Negative Energy/Special damage, and no longer inflicts -DMG for 30 seconds.

MISSION 3:

• Aereus Colossi Laeva & Dextro are now MUCH harder to separate and fight individually.
• Aereus Colossi Laeva & Dextro now rotate 20% slower.
• Adjusted the bit calls of the Goliath Cutscene so that Lore pet critters using that sequencer type can't access it.
• To complete the objective with Vandal, you now only have to defeat him and not his minions.
• The zone that plays music in the back of the map is now labeled 'Vespillos Stronghold'.

MISSION 4:

• Nictus Romulus is now a standard AV for lives #1, #2, and #3 but a challenge AV for life #4.
• Nictus Romulus should no longer be prone to run all over the place while debuffed.
• The Nictus powers granted by Romulus consuming his Nictus Essences are now permanent in all difficulties rather than timed per his reduction to standard AV for the first three lives.
• Reduced the Emerald Barrier Nictus barrier's -Regen debuff down to 50% from 66% per his reduction to standard AV for the first three lives.
• Excluded Stuns from the Emerald Barrier Nictus as Stun is primarily found as a secondary on melee ATs rather than a primary on control ATs.
• The Emerald Barrier Nictus can now also be Confused to trigger his -regen effect while suppressing the invincibility on Romulus.
• The Nictus Barriers now only make Romulus immune to damage/mez while he is under their effect, meaning he can now be Taunted/Slowed while shielded.
• Nictus Essence #2's Portal power on hard mode no longer targets pets of any kind.
• When Romulus consumes Nictus Essence #2's Portal power, it loses the 10% chance to spawn a Nictus boss, and instead only has a 10% to spawn a Nictus lieutenant.
• Nictus Romulus' Void Mire is now Void Judgement, using the distinct Incarnate FX that's easier to identify has fired vs. the previous one that was often lost in the crowd of other Nictus FX.
• Increased delay on Void Judgement by 2.5 seconds to give slightly more reaction time to avoid it. Romulus also cannot move until after it fires, to prevent him from moving and making it harder to avoid.
• Romulus' Shadow Slip now only teleports players, sparing pets from any PBAoE death from his Whirling Sword or other AoE attacks.
• Nictus Romulus now uses no redraw broadsword PFX to help him not waste as much time redrawing between his many Nictus powers.
• Chill of the Night granted on Romulus by his Nictus Essence is now an auto power instead of a toggle since his Shield toggle's infinite duration was causing him not use Chill of the Night at all.
• Fixed the Valeria coastal cave not being present in ITF Mission 4's map and leaving a big gap in the mountain seen out of bounds.
• The zone that plays music where Romulus is fought is now labeled 'Castellum Plaza'.

 

PRESTIGE COSTUME REWARDS:

• Tier 2 Vintage Costumes will be made available/have their price set a few weeks after Page 4 launches to ensure they aren't overpriced relative to the average Aether earn rate.
• Tier 3 Deluxe Costumes will be made available/have their price set a few weeks after Page 4 launches to ensure they aren't overpriced relative to the average Aether earn rate.

 

POWER FIXES/CHANGES:

• Incarnate/Lore/Knives of Vengeance/Rallying Cry: Removed teleport protection which caused players to be unable to teleport by their own or ally's teleport powers. This power already gives 100% teleport resistance which makes players immune to enemy teleports.
• Incarnate/Lore/Banished Pantheon/Sentinel: Fixed a sequencer issue that was causing the Sentinel lore pet to jettison into space when recalled by the distance tether to their summoner after moving far away.
• Incarnate/Interface: Damage over Time effects should now only apply to enemies that are not asleep.
• Symphony Control/Hymn of Dissonance: Fixed a particle bug that was ignoring color tinting.
• Symphony Control/Enfeebling Lullaby: Will no longer apply damage on targets that are asleep.
• Symphony Control/Impassioned Serenade: Now does damage over time for up to 30 seconds, however the ticks of damage will only fire if the target is confused.
• Symphony Control/Confounding Chant: This power now can extend the duration of its DoT from 20 seconds to 30 seconds. However, over these extra 10 seconds, the ticks of damage will only fire if the target is stunned.
• Symphony Control/Reverberant: Significantly lowered the delay between the player activating a Symphony power and Reverberant being able to repeat it.
• Ice Control/Ice Slick: Damage will only apply to enemies that are not asleep.
• Ice Control/Flash Freeze: Fixed a bug where the sleep would sometimes not work as expected.  Now does 100% cold damage. Controller version now does Containment damage for 100% of base damage. Power no longer shows sleep attributes twice in the power info. Power icon fixed to be a proper sleep icon.
• Invulnerability/Unstoppable: Fixed the short help text to state this power does Res(All).
• Energy Aura/Energy Absorption: The defense changes noted in patch notes did not occur (increased upfront defense, lowered stacking defense). This has been corrected.
• All/Seismic Blast/Rock Shards (Enhanced): Power will now properly reduce the cooldown of its other Seismic Blast attacks (non-blasters lacked this)
• Blaster/Earth Manipulation/Beryl Crystals: Had two Res(Perception) effects. Removed the extra effect.

 

TOGGLE SUPPRESSION:

• Offensive Toggles now suppress for 5 seconds during and after being mezzed (down from 8s).

 

CUSTOM WEAPONS:

• Fixed misnamed draw FX for sheathed Carnival of Shadow Rapier that was causing it to not display on Male Broadsword.
• Fixed unsheathed Vahzilok Bonesaw and Vahzilok Butcher Knife models being reversed on Female Broadsword.
• Fixed sheathed Vahzilok Bonesaw pointing to the wrong draw FX on Female Broadsword.

 

COSTUMES:

• Male/Huge > Lower Body > Boots >  Sneakers: 'No Socks' option added.
• All > Upper Body > Chest/Gloves > Cybertech: Corrected a number of seam issues for Cybertech chests and gloves.

EMOTES:

• Fixed ledgesit emotes on female characters being sunk too low into the ground.
• Added legacy '/em ledgesit5' (female version of ledgesit1 with knees together).
• Added legacy '/em ledgesit6' (female version of ledgesit4 with knees together).

SUPER GROUP BASES:

• Removed '(new)' tag from previously released items from Page 3.
• Added 8 previously unreleased kitchen items from Page 3:
  • Ice Box 1
  • Ice Box 2
  • Washing Machine 1
  • Washing Machine 2
  • Clothes Dryer 1
  • Clothes Dryer 2
  • Refrigerator 1
  • Gas Stove 1

ENEMY GROUPS:

• Tarantula Mistresses and Tarantula Queens now have a toxic visual FX on their melee attacks.
• Fixed a file exclusion that was causing Regent Korol's new claws to display a blank texture.
• Fixed two Rogue Isles Police enemies that were using the wrong costume definition.
• Fixed the Council Ascendant's Shield power so it now always properly animates.

 

ARCHITECT ENTERTAINMENT

• The Architect Entertainment tutorial NPCs and mission arc that were formerly found in Atlas Park & Mercy Atlas have been moved to Port Oakes & King's Row AE buildings.
• Dark Dwarf Alpha and Dark Nova Alpha added to the Nictus AE enemy group.

 

BLACKBEARD'S PUB:

• A tavern shanty has been added Blackbeard's Pub for atmospheric music.
• A Facemaker Nurse has been added to the backroom in Blackbeard's Pub to facilitate costume changes.
• Adjusted the seagull sounds so they cannot be heard while within Blackbeard's Pub.

THE CRUCIBLE:

• The Facemaker Contractor has been given a Vahzilok Meat Doctor costume.

 

BLOODY BAY:

• Fixes the wrong texture swap on a planter wall in Bloody Bay that was causing it to render transparent.

 

GAME CLIENT ADJUSTMENT:

• At character creation, player Archetypes are now sorted alphabetically, followed by EATs.

 

[Troo]

approved

[Bionic_Flea]

Sooooo . . . does anyone want to get together on Brainstorm to run some ITFs this week?

[Spaghetti Betty]

  On 8/2/2022 at 1:16 PM, Bionic_Flea said:

Sooooo . . . does anyone want to get together on Brainstorm to run some ITFs this week?

Expand  

Sure, as long as it's after 12 AM CST.

 

My schedule is weird.

[Marbing]

  On 8/2/2022 at 1:16 PM, Bionic_Flea said:

Sooooo . . . does anyone want to get together on Brainstorm to run some ITFs this week?

Expand  

What time? I might be able to help out.

[Booper]

We can use some more feedback on Symphony Control's Reverberant. Last build this pet had its AI reconfigured to prefer range, so we need confirmation that it's working as intended or if there are some bugs/behaviors that still need to be addressed.

[Bionic_Flea]

Something funky is going on with the Rev and Lullaby.  He won't use it at range, only at melee distance of about 11 feet or so.  Everything else he will shoot at range.  If the only power he has is lullaby and he is 18 feet or more away, he will just float there and look musical.

 

But hey, at least he isn't running into melee range needlessly!

Edited August 5, 2022 by Bionic_Flea

[hexadecimalwtf]

Was able to spend about 45 minutes testing Reverberant and will hopefully get more time in later. I haven't tried Symphonic Control or not and not familiar with pet classes so not sure what is normal and to be expected.

 

One thing I did notice is Rev seemed to use Hymn of Dissonance twice whenever I used it once.

[Arcadio]

  On 8/5/2022 at 3:15 PM, Booper said:

We can use some more feedback on Symphony Control's Reverberant. Last build this pet had its AI reconfigured to prefer range, so we need confirmation that it's working as intended or if there are some bugs/behaviors that still need to be addressed.

Expand  

It looks like the confuse is still using the full recharge. I had 100% recharge reduction and was consistently casting 2 confuses for reverberant's 1.