issue 27 Patch Notes for February 20th, 2024 - Issue 27, Page 7

[gameboy1234]

1 hour ago, gameboy1234 said:

Talos Island does this too.  A lot of the rocks that are placed around the shore area of the big island pop horribly. 

 

Just logged in to do some testing.  Yes, most of the rocks pop, there's no fade-in.  A few do fade in, it seems to be related to my movement speed.  At my current fly speed (64.6 mph) they pop a lot.  A /visscale 2 seems to improve this (as will setting World Detail to 200% on the Options dialog.)  A /visscale of 4 seems to eliminate any visual problems.

 

No setting I tried, World Detail, /visscale 20, or Character Detail from the Options dialog, had any effect on P2W.  (Character Detail might have but if so it was really slight.)

 

[Joonabug]

Not digging the changes to tips. I only got to play for a short while with the new patch, but having TIP RECEIVED! spam my screen constantly was not enjoyable.

[Perfidy]

2 hours ago, Jacke said:

What's not for everyone to like?

 

The primary thing I don't like about it is with it the way it was before - I got a system message telling me how much XP I gained. With this new method, if I have 1 bar to go to the next level, perhaps the few badges I got from exploring gave me a bar of patrol xp. Perhaps they gave me 1/2 a bar. I have no way of knowing. 

It's ultimately not that big of a deal, but it just makes me wonder - "If something isn't broken, why fix it?" 
It wasn't broken. At least, it wasn't in my experience. Worked just fine, especially when I'd be level 21 and just needed 1/2 bar to get 22 to slot my lotg 7.5%. Those explores came in quite handy. But now, if I'm in the same boat - I don't know if I should grab one badge, all 8, or if I have to go to yet another zone to top off. 

I could, I suppose, hover my mouse over the xp bar to tell me how much patrol XP I have, but, even then, it's going to change every level as it supposedly reduces the amount you can get as you get closer to 50. 

What was the point of it in the first place? It was perfectly okay before. 

Granted, this is just my opinion, it's meaningless. But they asked for feedback, did they not? 

[brass_eagle]

12 minutes ago, Perfidy said:

It's ultimately not that big of a deal, but it just makes me wonder - "If something isn't broken, why fix it?" 
It wasn't broken. At least, it wasn't in my experience. Worked just fine, especially when I'd be level 21 and just needed 1/2 bar to get 22 to slot my lotg 7.5%. Those explores came in quite handy. But now, if I'm in the same boat - I don't know if I should grab one badge, all 8, or if I have to go to yet another zone to top off. 
 

 

Things may not be broken, but you can improve upon them--especially when the original benefit is insignificant to a laughable degree. That is the question here. Is this an improvement? Personally, I think so. Was it necessary? Of course not but going down that road is a dangerous one.

 

For a long time I've actually thought about how stupid low the XP rewards were for badges. They were token and present, but not significant. Is this the right solution? I don't know. What I do know is that I won't miss the XP reward one iota, and I don't understand how anyone will. Wasn't that great at level 1 IIRC and was... 250 XP at 50??

[Night]

49 minutes ago, gameboy1234 said:

 

Just logged in to do some testing.  Yes, most of the rocks pop, there's no fade-in.  A few do fade in, it seems to be related to my movement speed.  At my current fly speed (64.6 mph) they pop a lot.  A /visscale 2 seems to improve this (as will setting World Detail to 200% on the Options dialog.)  A /visscale of 4 seems to eliminate any visual problems.

 

No setting I tried, World Detail, /visscale 20, or Character Detail from the Options dialog, had any effect on P2W.  (Character Detail might have but if so it was really slight.)

 

 

I usually run on /visscale 4 and the issues I described and screenies I posted were on that setting. The issue seems threefold:

1. The render distance seems to have been lowered, as objects (very visible on trees) will have their higher-detailed parts pop in instantly instead of the usual gradual fade-in that they always had, it seems to affect trees, rocks and cars in particular, but also details on building roofs.

2. The water texture is being rendered on top of every other visual map effect, causing such uncanny effects as in the screenshots instead of following the rule of fading out with the map level of detail fog.

3. The actual map fog is disabled. The fog effect is still active on ground and buildings, but not on water or the skybox itself. Normally you'd be able to see a blurring along the horizon that would meld the skybox and the map itself to give a nice effect, but now it's a clear, sharp line separating the map from the skybox itself.

 

As to what I mean with point 3, here is a comparison of the horizon line of before and after the update (taken from the same spot and angle), I tried to get the screenshot roughly at the same time of day as I had originally but it was difficult to time, note how in the second screenshot there is a clear divide of the horizon as everything below is way brighter:

 

Edited February 21 by Night

[WindDemon21]

1 hour ago, Player-1 said:

 

You should try it out!

I did, was just referencing that now the set is even more heavily "storm blast powers only constant blasting versus being able to use your other primary/secondary sets which is/was one of storms biggest issues.

 

Also though, could we get sleep grenade put back to the ranged aoe instead of the location slow, unless the slow is brought to quicksand levels, kinda doesn't serve the purpose cause the slow is way too little, and the power worked much better as a targetted power that laid the patch afterwards, especially for the use to bring down flyers. Well aware of the command to cast at the target but there are just far too many inconsistencies with that with terrain bugs. Nitrogen, ice slick, and ice patch also still need to accept slow/kb ios/sets, that would also help, but yeah on sleep nade needs boosted for the slow or otherwise it works better as the targetted aoe that drops the patch.

[lemming]

Exploration badges now giving Patrol XP.

I had the same thought of sympathy toward Rudra, even if I don't agree with them.

 

What would be nice if we could actually see how much patrol XP we had in combat attributes.  I do tend to get exploration badges in large batches, and I might need to change that practice while leveling up just to prevent maxing it out for no benefit.  Pretty sure that we're still limited to 10 bars, meaning at the start, you'll max out your patrol XP at seven badges. (with a little waste)

 

I don't mind the change, just going to take a slight adjustment if I want to pay attention to it.

[Wavicle]

Just now, lemming said:

Exploration badges now giving Patrol XP.

I had the same thought of sympathy toward Rudra, even if I don't agree with them.

 

What would be nice if we could actually see how much patrol XP we had in combat attributes.  I do tend to get exploration badges in large batches, and I might need to change that practice while leveling up just to prevent maxing it out for no benefit.  Pretty sure that we're still limited to 10 bars, meaning at the start, you'll max out your patrol XP at seven badges. (with a little waste)

 

I don't mind the change, just going to take a slight adjustment if I want to pay attention to it.

You can see how much you have by mousing over it.

[lemming]

Just now, Wavicle said:

You can see how much you have by mousing over it.

I should have mentioned that. Thanks.

 

I still want it added to combat attributes along with all those other things you can mouse over to see.

[stonehd]

5 hours ago, CFIndustries said:

Am I the only one seeing inconsistent cooldown timer behavior? Like sometimes the timers show, then they will stop working for a bit mid-combat, only seeming to come back at random or after using a specific power?

 

I've seen some weirdness as well.  When I first logged on after the update, my cooldown timers were REALLY weird, especially with the PTW Veterans Rewards powers like Sands of Mu or the Nemesis staff.  The recharge rates were all over the place, sometimes showing longer recharges than the powers had, sometimes they were skipping numbers, and sometimes went backwards.  An example - used my Ghost Slaying Axe one time and the cooldown said 21 seconds (!), counted down to 18,  jumped to 11 or so, then back up to 16, bouncing like that before recharging.  They were too unpredictable to use in combat.  It was much better after I logged off and came back later that night, although it still feels off.  Inner Inspiration is still weird - twice since this update its countdown has ended and its icon returned to normal, but it wouldn't be clickable for 15-20 seconds or so.  But then again, I kinda feel like that was a problem before this update.

 

Also, I didn't catch it in the patch notes, but did those same Vet Reward Powers get a recharge change?  I don't remember 16 sec on Sands of Mu.  I suppose it could be an psychological illusion from seeing all the numbers on screen and seeing the time actually pass, but they feel slower.

 

D

 

[kelika2]

2 hours ago, WindDemon21 said:

Said the person that already admitted their 2 fire controllers were combined with the top 2 meta sets for each AT, kin on trollers, and psi on doms. This effectively makes your point moot. Of course the meta build only worried about damage is ok with the change. It's EVERYONE else that needs/uses it for control that is having the problem with this change.

Because I adapted and had plenty of fire controllers that didnt work.  had a fire/thermal and fire/emp.  even the dreaded fire/kin.  radi, trick and storm were just the ones that made it through to the end

[Perfidy]

1 hour ago, brass_eagle said:

 

Things may not be broken, but you can improve upon them--especially when the original benefit is insignificant to a laughable degree. That is the question here. Is this an improvement? Personally, I think so. Was it necessary? Of course not but going down that road is a dangerous one.

 

For a long time I've actually thought about how stupid low the XP rewards were for badges. They were token and present, but not significant. Is this the right solution? I don't know. What I do know is that I won't miss the XP reward one iota, and I don't understand how anyone will. Wasn't that great at level 1 IIRC and was... 250 XP at 50??

Actually, we didn't get any xp at level 1, but at level 2, we did. 
I have recent memories of being level 9, wanting to slap the ATOs in, but couldn't. A quick trip to Kings Row and Boomtown for the explores, and I was there. The xp wasn't so over the top, but it was enough to notice. But, that's just this one guy's opinion. 

[Wavicle]

3 minutes ago, Perfidy said:

Actually, we didn't get any xp at level 1, but at level 2, we did. 
I have recent memories of being level 9, wanting to slap the ATOs in, but couldn't. A quick trip to Kings Row and Boomtown for the explores, and I was there. The xp wasn't so over the top, but it was enough to notice. But, that's just this one guy's opinion. 

now the same amount of leveling that got you Not to 10 will do so because of the extra patrol xp 

[BlackSpectre]

RE: Gamma. VERY GLAD to see the changes to gamma correction and the new slider! Great work. Is there or will there be a slash command to adjust that?

 

And a suggestion for improved graphics... HDR. The slash commands /useHDR and /useFP do work, but I suspect they're not up to modern specs (and really drag down the system when used). Just something to think about for the future....

 

RE: Opacity Slider. The other Window Dim options come into conflict with the new Opacity slider (which I love). If Dim all Windows is enabled, for example, the Opacity slider will wigg-out. This is because the Dim option is attempting to set the opacity to 30% persistently, so it fights with the slider. I'd recommend adding a line to the Opacity slider that disables the Dim All Windows option if the slider is touched/moved.

 

The Dim options themselves are a little wonky. If enabled, they dim to 30%. If then disabled, they stay at 30% and will not return to 100% opacity. My previous workaround for this was to use the /window_color command to re-color all my windows. Now I can use the Opacity slider to restore opacity (which is much better than messing with the window colors). However, the Dim options really should just go back to 100% opacity when disabled. 

 

I hope this is the right place to write these comments, and I hope they get to a dev. 

 

 

P.S. After a little thinking about the whole opacity window thing, I realized that the Dim options are very badly implemented. They should really just be deleted. All of them.

 

In their place should be options to set the opacity of individual windows that just uses the same mechanism the Opacity Slider uses. List the main ones in the Options window (Nav, Target, Tray, Chat, Status, map, pet, and maybe custom window), but when disabled make sure they go back to 100% opacity. 

 

The hoped for future Opacity slash command would hopefully have the ability to set the opacity of any individual window by name. For example, /window_opacity Chat 0.3 (30%). That would set the chat window at 30% opacity. If we wanted to change the opacity of all windows we could have a separate slash command. So 2 slash commands... one for adjusting individual windows and another of adjusting all windows.  /window_opacity Nav 0.3  and  /window_opacity_all 0.3. Much of the code for the /window_opacity command can probably be found in the /window_scale command, and the most of the code for the /window_opacity_all command could be found in the /window_color command. Copy and paste! 🙂

 

P.P.S. As long as we're dealing with opacity and colors, how about a slash command to color INDIVIDIUAL windows? I've been wanting that since I started playing COH in 2005!  Change the name of /window_color to /window_color_all  and then name the new command /window_color. Alternately, leave the /window_color command alone, and name the new command /window_color_name.

 

Edited February 28 by BlackSpectre

[Grouchybeast]

4 hours ago, Jacke said:

Okay, I'm not quite getting this and I'd like to understand what you meant.

 

For someone who just doesn't like patrol XP as a concept,, adding more Patrol XP is really the exact opposite of a buff.

[gameboy1234]

13 minutes ago, Wavicle said:

now the same amount of leveling that got you Not to 10 will do so because of the extra patrol xp 

 

I'm thinking about this, you're not wrong.  But I'm also remembering what I know about game design and cognitive psychology; "doing something different" to get a reward is often a very good, even necessary thing.  Before, Perfidy could defeat enemies, for an XP reward, or hunt badges for an XP reward.  Both give the reward, but they're very different activities.

 

Now, Perfidy can hunt badges but still has to defeat enemies to get the reward.  It's basically the same activity, there's fewer ways to get XP now.  I'm starting to slide over to the side that seems to think something was lost here, that an "outlet" consisting of different game play while still getting a reward was removed, and the result is not as good.

 

[ThunderCAP]

Quote

Shield Defense

• Fixed Taunt when paired with Shield using beatchest sfx instead of normal taunt sfx.

 

 

Martial Arts Taunt paired with Shield still "growls" to me, the same happens probably with any other power (apart from Psy Melee, which changes the taunt, that was the only exception).
It's growling like a Lion both with animation effect and sound effect, it's the same as if you choose Savage melee but it doesn't make sense. Why would all shield users roar? Cap.America doesn't roar ^^.

From the quote it seems like you fixed an error to make it the "normal taunt" it should be, but I don't think that you choose a growling sound and cat animation as normal taunt, right?

[BlackSpectre]

10 minutes ago, gameboy1234 said:

 

I'm thinking about this, you're not wrong.  But I'm also remembering what I know about game design and cognitive psychology; "doing something different" to get a reward is often a very good, even necessary thing.  Before, Perfidy could defeat enemies, for an XP reward, or hunt badges for an XP reward.  Both give the reward, but they're very different activities.

 

Now, Perfidy can hunt badges but still has to defeat enemies to get the reward.  It's basically the same activity, there's fewer ways to get XP now.  I'm starting to slide over to the side that seems to think something was lost here, that an "outlet" consisting of different game play while still getting a reward was removed, and the result is not as good.

 

Agreed. But the real problem is Patrol XP itself and how little it matters. The entire Patrol XP system needs to be revamped and improved so that it actually gives us something fun and worthwhile to do.

 

Ooooo!  After thinking about this for a sec, patrolling (superheroes moving around looking for trouble to stop) could be a lot of fun if designed properly. It would be something different than just missions to do and could reward the player with all kinds of things, badges, real XP, unlocking special abilities, influence (reputation), etc.  

Edited February 21 by BlackSpectre

[Display Name]

I have an Illusion/Kinetic Controller and changed her Tough (Fighting) power effect to "Flex" because...  Boobies.  Anyway, her body has a glow while flexing which disappears soon after the power is activated.  My other toons don't seem to do this.  It seemed to start happening after the patch.

 

Is this a setting?  Or something unique to my power combo/AT?

 

Or maybe it's...  (dun, dun DUN!!!) ...a glitch?  🙂

 

Thanks!

 

EDIT: I reloaded the toon and it doesn't do it anymore.

 

EDIT, EDIT: It does it when I switch the Sybil costume.

Edited February 21 by Display Name

[brass_eagle]

1 hour ago, Perfidy said:

Actually, we didn't get any xp at level 1, but at level 2, we did. 
I have recent memories of being level 9, wanting to slap the ATOs in, but couldn't. A quick trip to Kings Row and Boomtown for the explores, and I was there. The xp wasn't so over the top, but it was enough to notice. But, that's just this one guy's opinion. 

 

Fair enough. I just think XP worth one or two minions (maybe even less) should not have everyone grabbing pitchforks. Is it because it feels like a "net negative" for some individuals? When that negative is less than a thorn prick? Definitely a hill I wouldn't want to die on. There are bigger fish. Like having the pirate hook option for both hands. We can already do two peglegs! I need my pirate characters to look like they have seen some metaphorical exrcement.

 

Oh, and wind control puh-lease.

[Doc Hornet]

 

 

This really should have been implemented the other way around, keeping classic COH bindings as default and having those wanting a "modernized" UI actively select for it.

 

Regardless, reverting the UI change to classic as described does not seem to work for me. Maybe it works if you've not altered the standard keybinds.txt, but I cannot get my old customized mouse/look keybinds to work. 

 

The Classic dropdown doesn't seem to change things back to my old default keybinds.txt settings. In fact, it doesn't seem to do much at all. I can go in try to manually bind my mouse/look settings, but they don't seem to hold. They don't stay persistent. I either lose +mouse_look or I lose +camrotate or I lose mouse steering. And then things seem to revert back to the new modern after a few minutes anyway no matter what I do. Loading the default keybind.txt file doesn't seem to help, either.

 

Perhaps if the patch notes listed in detail what slash commands Page 7 had changed and what changes are necessary to revert to classic it might help me fix my problem.

 

FWI, my customized classic bind settings (from my keybinds.txt file) that seem to conflict with the new changes:

 

MBUTTON "target_enemy_near"
RBUTTON "+mouse_look"
MouseChord "+camrotate"
X "camreset"
Y "++autorun"
Z "+camrotate"

 

(yes, I have two +camrotate options for reasons etc.)

[gameboy1234]

2 hours ago, BlackSpectre said:

Ooooo!  After thinking about this for a sec, patrolling (superheroes moving around looking for trouble to stop) could be a lot of fun if designed properly. It would be something different than just missions to do and could reward the player with all kinds of things, badges, real XP, unlocking special abilities, influence (reputation), etc.  

 

Other games have the concept of a "point of interest."  It a detailed and interesting piece of scenery that makes players go there to check it out.  Once there the players usually find something interesting to do (although some POI scenes are just pretty to look at).  I don't think CoX really has this.  Even something simple as a gang fight in Kings Row, just some dudes duking it out in a rundown neighborhood yard, can be a POI.  I've bumped these in KR, fought it out, and it just turns into a bunch of random dudes to fight.  If it lead to something more, that would be much more engaging.  The design of the gang fight was interesting enough to make me check it out. 

 

But I think you have to put the POI there first, for players to feel that they found something and did the content.  Otherwise random street sweeping is just too random and the players don't feel engaged enough in the content they're discovering.

 

[nightchrome]

I dunno if it's just poorly thought out design or an actual bug, but the fact that Liquid Nitrogen doesn't do any damage at all unless the enemy falls down AND it has an accuracy check pretty much means that in low-middle levels when you don't have a lot of acc and at endgame where most unoptimized people don't have enough acc vs +4 foes means that it basically never does any damage at all. Not to mention that bosses/EB/AV will have status protection and almost never fall down, plus then the acc check, so it will never damage them. Why couldn't this just be Ice Slick but with a different animation?

On a +4/8 leveling team from 1-20 last night with half the team being arse control, liquid nitrogen did a grand total of zero damage that I could see. A far cry from the large amount the power says it does and what shows in mids.

Edited February 22 by nightchrome

[Denariusjay]

we don't deserve these devs  ty for the continuing updates to a 20 year old game!

[Sovera]

7 hours ago, Jacke said:

I see no downside.

 

There aren't. The ones who do not like it are niche cases (dozens of alts played frequently rotated so they build a lot of rested XP), dislikers of the concept of rested XP, and some X-treme min-maxing who felt they should now save their badging for level 50 so it would help them get vet levels more efficiently. Not to downplay their issues but it's pretty subjective.

 

As a whole it's a better system, in my opinion.

 

 

6 hours ago, Jacke said:

 

 

I know enough about Storm Blast that I agree with @WindDemon21's analyses of the changes in Page 7.  And those changes make me sad.

 

Storm Blast is already a Blast powerset that has a few powers that need the toon to stay put much more than other powersets, as the pseudo-pets don't really move that fast.  This stay-put boosting isn't just needed for major fights but all the time for Storm Blast.  Because Storm Blast is already a meh powerset.  At least making it slightly less meh is an improvement.  Well, until the toon needs to move.

 

Now there's a bigger demand that the player focus on using their Storm Blast powers so much, to the point of ignoring other powers.  Herm....

 

Is is continuous intense focus that can't stand any interrupts?  (Like old Brute's Rage.)  Or is it tolerant to some interrupts?  (Like current Brute's Rage.)

 

Does intense use of feature move the toon from good to better?  Or does it move the toon from meh to slightly less meh?

 

I don't have numbers.  But my best appreciation of what those numbers would be and their effect is that Storm Blast isn't where it should be.  This should soon be apparent in the stats that the devs can gather.

 

But hey, I played an AR/Dev Blaster from 2006 on as my main.  I laugh when I play powersets with crappy performance.  But I'm a bit tired from laughing so much, so I may be a bit slow to make a build for a Storm Blast toon and creating it.

 

Perhaps when rested, the devs take another serious look at Storm Blast again?  Once more!  With feeling!  (No Jazz Hands!!! 😺)

 

Might be funny considering how Sentinels are sneered at but would I be wrong in saying that it feels like Storm Blast was tailored for them? Every other AT who gets Storm Blasting has to juggle their secondary, be it throwing melee attacks, or spraying buffs/debuffs. In the meanwhile the Sentinel is pewpewing with no shits given and focused solely pn their primary.

 

But, regarding 'Is is continuous intense focus that can't stand any interrupts?  (Like old Brute's Rage.)  Or is it tolerant to some interrupts?  (Like current Brute's Rage.)' the lightning procs from Storm Cell and Cat 5 have a 2 second ICD which makes it seem like that the intention is to throw a Storm Blast power, throw a buff, throw a Storm Blast power, throw an attack from the secondary, etc.

 

Viable, maybe, but intensive with intensive secondaries. But that's the sort of thinking done when creating a character. A Forcefield buffer will have plenty of time to throw their Storm powers, but a Kin might want something they can be more chill about.