[Beta] Patch Notes for October 2nd, 2022

[Faultline]

Halloween Event 2022

Trick-or-Treat Updates

• Five new elite boss enemies have been added to the enemy roster when Trick-or-Treating above Level 25:
  • Ancient Vampires
  • Spectral Werewolves
  • Arisen Mummies
  • Crone Matriarchs
  • Hollow Reapers
• These new elite bosses reward five times the influence and experience when defeated.
• These new elite bosses defeats give credit for the new and old event defeat badges for their enemy type groups.
• Spectral Werewolf defeats count as both a werewolf and a ghost defeat.
• Halloween Werewolf enemies will throw coffins using their Hurl power instead of boulders.
• All new Tier 1 prestige costume appearances have had Halloween temporary power versions added that drop from the event and are also sold by the Halloween salvage vendors.
• Using a permanent prestige costume will count for all Halloween event criteria that requires you to be wearing a costume such as receiving the Whispered Rumor tip or earning the Tricked Out badge.
• Halloween costume temporary powers have had 'Halloween' removed from their power names to make them easier to read in the power menu.
• Halloween salvage vendors have began offering the Fir Bolg prestige costume reward for 10 Prismatic Aether Particles and 50 of each Halloween salvage type. This costume will be available each year for the duration of October.

 

New Badges

• Five new Event badges added for defeating each of the new Trick-or-Treat Elite Boss types:
  • Vampiric Heritage - Defeat 5 Ancient Vampires from the Halloween Event to earn this badge.
  • Spectral Anomaly - Defeat 5 Spectral Werewolves from the Halloween Event to earn this badge.
  • Mummy's Curse - Defeat 5 Arisen Mummies from the Halloween Event to earn this badge.
  • Unholy Cabal - Defeat 5 Crone Matriarchs from the Halloween Event to earn this badge.
  • Reaper of Souls - Defeat 5 Hollow Reapers from the Halloween Event to earn this badge.
• Each of the five badges above will also reward 2 Prismatic Aether Particle salvage when earned.

 

Dr. Kane's House of Horror Trial

• The Bored Guy and Bored Gal in the Dr. Kane's House of Horror trial have been given updated looks of their own.

[ScarySai]

It's spookin' time.

[Lazarillo]

Not super thrilled about the idea of EBs spawning in randomly when Trick-or-Treating.  Some of my characters aren't really built for that.

[Cobalt Arachne]

12 minutes ago, Lazarillo said:

Not super thrilled about the idea of EBs spawning in randomly when Trick-or-Treating.  Some of my characters aren't really built for that.

These elite bosses will only spawn if you are above level 25. If you do get one solo and don't want to fight it, you can simply run away and they will despawn automatically after 60 seconds.
Trick-or-Treat enemies have a 3-second safety window after they spawn before they can do anything, giving you ample time to escape if it's not a fight you want to take.

This addition was meant to make Trick-or-Treating in teams or leagues more engaging/lucrative/rewarding.

[Lazarillo]

6 minutes ago, Cobalt Arachne said:

If you do get one solo and don't want to fight it, you can simply run away and they will despawn automatically after 60 seconds.

I'm not really sure I like the idea of running into someones leftover ToT EB, either.  If anything, I've seen people miffed in past years about ToT "leftovers" that were just the normal classes of enemies.

[Cobalt Arachne]

38 minutes ago, Lazarillo said:

I'm not really sure I like the idea of running into someones leftover ToT EB, either.  If anything, I've seen people miffed in past years about ToT "leftovers" that were just the normal classes of enemies.

Those leftover Trick-or-Treat mobs can only exist idle for a brief 60 seconds while also only spawning within that zone's possible level ranges.
If a player runs into somebody else's mobs, in a zone where they are a threat to them, the only possible way they can be a danger is if they intentionally stop traveling to fight them by choice like any other zone mob spawn.

Unless you're far below the level of the zone you entered, which is a choice a player made accepting the risks, there's not a realistic threat of getting killed by these leftovers.

City zones are also enormous, numerous, and every one contains hundreds of mission doors to choose from to use for Trick-or-Treating.

Zones are public spaces and everyone is allowed to use them however they'd like as long as they're not being disruptive per Homecoming's Code of Conduct.

If one player doesn't like seeing evidence of others in a zone enjoying a seasonal event, that player is free to move to a less populated zone or server where they're less likely to encounter others. Expecting us to restrict or remove options from other players instead isn't realistic.

[Bionic_Flea]

But Cobalt, why can't everyone play the way I like to play?

[PeregrineFalcon]

1 hour ago, Cobalt Arachne said:

If one player doesn't like seeing evidence of others in a zone enjoying a seasonal event, that player is free to move to a less populated zone or server where they're less likely to encounter others. Expecting us to restrict or remove options from other players instead isn't realistic.

Thank you for that!  

[Coyotedancer]

It's kinder to "bus your beasts", so to speak... Go T-o-Ting near an AE, ferry or train station and just lead the thing to a drone if you're on a character who has trouble with EBs. There are several good locations like that. 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 2, 2022 by Coyotedancer

[PeregrineFalcon]

This just won't be a problem.

 

Join us on MY ISLAND for the Treat-Or-Treat league! It'll be fun. You'll get all of the badges and you won't have to worry about fighting those EB's that you're not built for.  :D

[EmperorSteele]

I cannot find Falcon island =(

[Bionic_Flea]

1 hour ago, EmperorSteele said:

I cannot find Falcon island =(

Allow me to help.

 

FALCON PUNCH!

 

 

 

Edited October 2, 2022 by Bionic_Flea

[Dispari]

Do the EBs just spawn randomly alongside other spawns (at 25+)? I feel it would make more sense if it was context-dependent. Like you don't get the beefy EB spawns during zombie invasions if you're by yourself.

[Bionic_Flea]

It's not supposed to spawn EBs solo.

[Cobalt Arachne]

57 minutes ago, Dispari said:

Do the EBs just spawn randomly alongside other spawns (at 25+)? I feel it would make more sense if it was context-dependent. Like you don't get the beefy EB spawns during zombie invasions if you're by yourself.

Correct, at lower rate (2% chance per EB, per mob rolled, with a cap of one EB possible per door).

 

18 minutes ago, Bionic_Flea said:

It's not supposed to spawn EBs solo.

We originally wanted them to only spawn when the team was above a certain size, but unfortunately after we dug into it, we learned that the code is wonky and it made team-size dependent mob-exclusions not possible with the current system.

The way the trick-or-treat mobs works currently is a series of continuous dice rolls, spawning mobs with weights until a certain weight threshold is met depending on the trick-or-treater's team's size, but the ability to exclude mobs from the table it uses wasn't possible with the way they originally coded the trick-or-treat's spawn code.

 

It'll require rewriting that code, which we didn't have time for before the Halloween event had already begun. The best we could do with the time we had was to limit them to levels 25+ by adding a second level-dependent table.

We aim have it working the way we'd originally intended by next year's Halloween.

[laudwic]

Honestly, with the safety window to run away if an EB spawns and you cannot handle it, I really like that I'm going to have the opportunity to fight the EBs while solo.  My playing time is generally limited and I have trouble setting aside time for team events.  If they were limited to teams, I would miss out on a lot of them, or have to join something like the PI Horror Hotel, and I've never really enjoyed that.

 

Plus, I like the idea that you may get a surprise/trick when you do a door.  Plus, the worst that can happen is a little xp debt, it isn't a big deal and the patrol xp alone makes up for that many times over.  The potential award of x5 xp for defeating one of the new EBs more than makes up for the risk.

 

Thanks for all you do, but, to me, this is a feature not a bug.  Honestly, I would prefer it stays the way you currently have it set up, and you spend the time you would need to spend 'fixing' the code on other fun and exciting things.  

Edited October 3, 2022 by laudwic
added about the ED xp bonus

[Luminara]

19 hours ago, EmperorSteele said:

I cannot find Falcon island =(

 

It's just north of here.

[BrandX]

Did they get rid of the freebie menu with this beta?

[Astralock]

5 minutes ago, BrandX said:

Did they get rid of the freebie menu with this beta?

Generally, when a patch on Brainstorm is near release, the freebies menu is temporarily removed.

[termyt]

I, for one, will appreciate the ability to fight the EB's solo. 

[Jacke]

2 hours ago, BrandX said:

Did they get rid of the freebie menu with this beta?

 

It's working right now off of the Quick Chat button.  For easier use, I have '[' bound to "viewattribute" and ']' bound to 'popmenu freebiesmenu' and both work.

 

/bind [ viewattributes
/bind ] popmenu freebiesmenu

 

Edited October 3, 2022 by Jacke

[Jacke]

It is a pain that I can't be logged into both a Homecoming Live Shard and the Beta Shard Brainstorm at the same time.

[EmperorSteele]

1 hour ago, Jacke said:

It is a pain that I can't be logged into both a Homecoming Live Shard and the Beta Shard Brainstorm at the same time.

 

I mean, you could make an alt account...

 

But no, been there done that, cheeses me off, too. Also, alt accounts wouldn't work for character transfer, you'd have to remake them to test changes to your existing characters.

 

But still, it's an idea.

[BrandX]

2 hours ago, Jacke said:

 

It's working right now off of the Quick Chat button.  For easier use, I have '[' bound to "viewattribute" and ']' bound to 'popmenu freebiesmenu' and both work.

 

/bind [ viewattributes
/bind ] popmenu freebiesmenu

 

 

After you said that, I got an update to Beta and it worked!  Yay!  I like to use Beta to get a test of sets 🙂

[ScarySai]

I can't be the only one fine with solo eb spawns, makes things more interesting if nothing else.