Zombie Man
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Bases aren't done.
Traditionally, an Issue will go Live even if there's more work to be done on an Issue. Only game breaking bugs stop the publish to Live. Historically, there's been a flurry of after-publish-to-Live patches -- I expect the same here. -
[u]Leveling Pact[u]
Leveling Pact is for friends and family and SuperGroup members who want to play together when sometimes one or more of them cant play at the same time as the others. The Leveling Pact keeps them in sync so that they never have to worry about sidekicking issues. It is not meant for random players to hook up in a Leveling Pact and somehow reap special benefits from it. Its for people who play together often over the course of many sessions. Here's how its supposed to work <ul type="square">
For now, Leveling Pacts are limited to two characters from two different accounts that are both Level 5 or lower. The two characters must be the same faction (no hero-villain pacts). Either character may break the Pact at any time. If they do, and one of the players is past Level 5, then the Pact can not be re-created. Even if you don't level up at a trainer, if have enough XP to be Level 6 or higher, you can't form a Pact. Both characters need to be online and in the same zone at the same time to start the pact. To create the Pact, right click on the potential pactmate and chose form a Leveling Pact from the menu, or, use the command, /leveling_pact <charactername>.
The two characters do not have to be on the same team or online at the same time once the pact has been formed. Their XP will always be shared and once their XP is equalized, theyll always have the same amount of XP compared to each other.
When characters are in a Pact, all the XP that members of the Pact earn goes into a 'pool' and then that pool is divided up among the members.
When a Level Pact is first made, any member who is a lower level than the others will get the XP first from the Pool until they are all equal, then it gets divided equally among all the members. This allows a level 5 to pact with a level 1 and get the level 1 caught up to level 5 after that, they'll level evenly with each other. Although, be aware that members of a pact can be out of sync for short periods when they're both the same level. For example, if a pact is formed by one player who is halfway through level 4 with another player who is level 3, then all the XP will go to the level 3 player until they hit level 4, and then the XP will be split. But since the first player is already halfway through level 4, that player will hit level 5 first, and then stop earning XP until the other player hits level 5. Then the XP will be split again and they'll be in sync with each other. Note that debt or patrol XP bonuses may throw a pact out of sync in the same way, but they'll catch up again at the beginning of the next level.
Influence and Infamy is evenly split among pact members at all times without regard to keeping them in sync (after all, if I spend inf, the leveling pact isn't going to give me more inf to make me even with my pactmate).
Nothing else is split among pactmates by the Leveling Pact: not Prestige and not any form of loot drops.
You do not see in the Rewards Channel the XP or Inf your Pactmate earns for you. However, if you're one or more levels higher than your Pactmate, you will receive a message that you are not receiving any XP until your Pactmate catches up to you. You can Monitor through the Combat Attributes window your XP, Debt, and Inf if you want to see the effects of the Leveling Pact from a Pactmate (you'll certainly see your XP bar move). It may sometimes take a while for the Pool to properly 'pay' you all the XP and inf due you. If the 'Pool' isn't working, you'll get a message that the 'statserver' is down.
When you form a Leveling Pact, you pactmate will show up in a new 'friends' window (accessible by clicking 'friends' at the top of the chat window and then choosing 'Leveling Pact' from the drop down menu. It's from this window that you can break the pact with a click of a button.[/list]
Leveling Pacts make it seem that this is a way to Power Level a character, however, since the Power Leveler is giving only half of their XP they generate go to their offline partner, its hardly any different than having a sidekicked teammate sit at the mission door. Sure this may make it slightly easier for a Power Leveler since no one has to move around or baby sit the character being Power Leveled; but its not so much easier that it needs to be worried about. Besides, the offline toon isnt getting any loot drops, so, theres a downside to Power Leveling in this manner.
Many have requested that Leveling Pacts be extended to characters past Level 5 or to more than two characters. Positron said that the Leveling Pact interacts with our reward system in a totally unique way. That said, we want to monitor (on the live servers) how the system plays out with the parameters as they are. If everything works like we expect it to (flawlessly, of course!) then we can explore upping the level maximum, and expanding it to more than 2 characters.
Note: It's "Pact" not "Pack"
Leveling Pact on ParagonWiki
[u]Merits[u]
Merits are a new reward system in Issue 13. (Dont confuse them with Vanguard Merits, a different currency.) Merits are gained from Task/Strike Forces, Trials, Raids, completion of arcs, and the Ouroboros pseudo-Task Force arcs and and Ouroboros badge missions.
Merit Vendors are available in almost all zones. They show up on the mini-map with the store icon. They have a blue ring on the ground around them and theyre dressed in burgundy and gold (why? <shrug>
.
So, how many Merits do you get for various tasks and how much do all the shinies cost in Merits? Phil 'Synapse' Zeleski (the other powers guy besides Castle) said,
<ul type="square">We determined the number of merits earned per task by taking the average time to complete these tasks and then awarding 1 merit for every 5 minutes of time. This value is then further modified by a task modifier. We then multiply this number by 1.0 if the task has met datamining requirements for number of times run, if there isn't sufficient data then the number of merits is multiplied by a lesser value. Next the value gets a small merit bonus for every hundred minutes of the average time. This way longer tasks will give greater rewards. Then some tasks received an artificial modifier to make sure they gave the rewards we wanted. In most cases this is an upward bump of 1-7 merits. This artificial modifier allows us to take things into consideration like difficulty and other miscellaneous factors. In very few cases are there any tasks with artificially reduced merit rewards.
Next, the Merit Reward cost of items on the merit vendor are a bit more complex. The factors that go into determining the costs are: rarity, the drop table they originally came from, set bonuses, and then a few modifiers like perceived value and whether they are unique or not. You end up with some really powerful enhancements like Numina's Convalescence: +Regen/+Recovery as being very expensive as you would imagine because, it's high level, has good set bonuses, has a high perceived value, and drops from a Task Force reward table. This particular recipe goes for 250 merits. Another set I've seen mentioned a number of times is Crushing Impact. Some players wonder why its so cheap, only going for 50 merits each. The reason this set is so much cheaper is: it's an uncommon drop (not rare), has good (but not amazing set bonuses), and its perceived value varies. They can get up there in cost on the Auction Houses, but they're no Numina's.
The plan is to periodically datamine and adjust the merit rewards for each task as well, so some tasks that have a penalty on them simply because we don't have enough data on them, we'll remove that penalty. So, there you have it. I hope this helps you all understand this a bit."[/list]
And on Diminishing Rewards for Merits:
<ul type="square">[Diminishing Rewards] is probably the most complex part of the Merit Reward system. Different types of tasks have different diminishing rates:
-Story Arcs do not have diminishing returns.
-Task Forces without a second reward option will have their rewards reduced by 50% each time the task is completed within 24 hours. So if a task force gives 50 merits the first time done within 24 hours, then the second time will give 25, the third time will give 12, the fourth time 6. This is reset after 24 hours. Also, I wanted to remind players that the 24 hour diminishing returns set up that we currently have may be subject to change.
-Task Forces and Trials with unique rewards (respecs or unique enhancements) grant full merit rewards for the first completion within 24 hours and 50% merit rewards for each subsequent completion. So if the first run through a task gives 50 merits, each subsequent run through will give 25.[/list]
Team size, level of mission difficulty, Ouroboros Flashback settings, or the level of the players make no difference in the amount of Merits awarded (though the devs are looking into adding that feature in the future).
For Task/Strike Forces which used to give the option of a SO or Rare Recipe reward, their reward window will no longer pop up. Instead, you will automatically be given Merits.
Dont worry, for a relatively inexpensive amount of Merits (20 for Pool C and 30 for Pood D), you can spin for a chance at a random recipe at your level (even though the level slider is active). Most Task/Strike Forces (except the super speedy ones done in under half an hour) give out at least that many Merits. You can even use the Merits to buy the SO of your choice.
Previously, a 20 minute TF and a 4 hour TF gave out the same reward. This led to the farming of the 20 minute TFs. Merits allow the reward to scale to time and effort (as best it can by datamining 'averages'). It was never intended that any TF should wind up so short, and most likely, someday, the 'speed' TFs will be altered to prevent the speed versions. While a speed version of a TF might now give out the equivalent of one third of a spin on a rare recipe, other TFs now give out two or three times the equivalent of a spin at a rare recipe -- so, there are some buffs being given as well as some nerfs.
All those highly sought-after special and unique and rare recipes can be specifically bought at the level you want for about 250 Merits. Other recipes are priced between 50 and 200, on average.
Other Forces, Trials, or Raids that have given out special rewards in the past, such as (Synthetic) Hamidon, Titan, or Hydra Origin Enhancements or Respecs, will still pop up a reward window so that you can chose that special reward or Merits.
Merits cannot be sold or traded or gifted. However, most of the things you can buy with Merits can be sold, traded, or gifted.
Purple recipes (ultra rare) are not for sale at Merit Vendors. Neither are the (Synthetic) Hami-Os, or Hydra-Os, or Titan-Os.
Unfortunately at this time, the Merit reward for a mission-arc is only rewarded to the mission holder. It will be awarded to other players if they have the same final mission of the arc and chose to have their mission completed by the the same final mission. It will be awarded to all team members if the arc is done through an Ouroboros Flashback Crystal since that puts everyone in the pseudo-TF mode, and everyone gets the same reward from a TF.
The current list of things that can be bought with Merits will most likely be expanded in the future to include other items, such as costumes, perhaps.
Merits on ParagonWiki
List of Cooperative Tasks that give Merit Rewards on Wiki
List of Heroic Tasks that give Merit Rewards on Wiki
List of Villainous Tasks that give Merit Rewards on Wiki
Table of Base Costs, Day Jobs, Merit Reward and Purchases by DJ_Jules [I13 Beta]
Guide To Merit Rewards for TFs, Arcs, et. al. by Catwhoorg, Leandro, Bionic Flea, et al. [I13 Beta]
Merit System Writeup by Neuronia [I13 Beta]
The Need For Speed (Running Fast TFs) by James_Donner [I13 Beta]
Merit Q&A with Synapse [I13 Beta]
[u]Bases[u]
Bases are in the process of a major overhaul. One of the main goals is to truly and really put in an extensive base raiding feature that includes the long troubled Cathedral of Pain SuperGroup Task Force which yields raidable Items of Power. But, first, PvP needed to be overhauled (see below). Second, there were bugs with the pathing of bases which allowed groups to block hallways and rooms, which would not be fair for raiding.
And so, for now, base raiding has been turned off and pathing rules have been relaxed. This allows those who want non-raiding bases to go wild in base design.
The current plan to bring back base raiding is to finish the overhaul of PvP and to eventually allow SuperGroups to 'flip a switch' to flag their base as raidable. The problem of pathing will most likely be fixed by allowing raiders to destroy all items so that nothing will actually block paths. But, that's for the future...
Part of the overhaul of bases is to reduce the cost of base building so that large, decorative bases are more affordable and the rent on them is now negligible, i.e., easily covered if you have a few active members. In fact, inviting one of your alts (by way of a friend who temporarily joins your SG to invite your alt) to a solo super group grants 15,000 prestige, which is enough to pay "maxed" rent for about 42 weeks. All bases pre-existing Issue 13 will receive a Prestige kickback based on the discounted cost of the items and plot size of their base. Someone has to enter the base to initiate the kickback.
Rent is now charged on a few specific base items: <ul type="square">[*]Storage Item (any) 100[*]Advanced Worktable 100[*]Expert Worktable 100[*]Radiation Emulator 100[*]Linear Accelerator 200[*]Supercollider 300[*]Enchanting Crucible 100[*]Robotic Fabricator 100[*]Robo-Surgery 100[*]Auto Doc 100[/list]
Another big change is making Base Salvage obsolete. From now on, Invention Salvage is all that will be needed to craft base items and empowerment station buffs. Base Salvage should only be needed in recipes that convert base salvage to invention salvage by way of Brain Storms. Brainstorms (named after the infamous Dr. Brainstorm, most likely) are the results of studying the items your supergroup has gathered up to now. Consider these to be insights into how the universe operates. Each of these bits of research can, through the powers of diligent effort (i.e. converting them at the Invention Workbench) either alone or combined with other Brainstorms, be turned into a wide array of standard Invention Salvage. However, the process is not very predictable, just like Dr. Brainstorm's experiments. So you can only narrow down what you can make from them in specific random ways.
In other words: Brainstorms is the conversion process to make current Base Salvage into Invention Salvage. Here's what you can convert brain storms into, for those wondering:<ul type="square">[*] 1 -> random common salvage[*] 2 -> arcane common salvage[*] 2 -> tech common salvage[*] 5 -> random uncommon salvage[*] 10 -> arcane uncommon salvage[*] 10 -> tech uncommon salvage[*] 20 -> random rare salvage[*] 40 -> arcane rare salvage[*] 40 -> tech rare salvage[/list]
The salvage you need to craft base items is not difficult to get -- e.g., for the Arcane Telepad you need four salvage pieces, none of them rare, and you have three recipes to chose from. The Tech Telepad has 3 sets as well, different than the Arcane Telepads.
Another big and controversial change to bases is that storage racks can now hold Invention Salvage -- that's the good news. But the bad news is that the cap to the number of items any rack or base storage item can hold has been lowered from 2500 to 30; and, you can only have up to 18 storage items or racks in your base. However, you won't need as many pieces of salvage as you did before. Racks with more than 30 pieces will still hold the hundreds of items they did before, but you'll only be able to remove items and not put any back in until the number goes below 30. Also, rent will be based partially on the number of racks in your base. While no Dev has specifically said why the clamp down on storage, it certainly does seem to be a anti-hoarding measure and/or pruning of the database issue.
New item: Added Teleporter Beacon for Pocket D. Added SG badge to access Pocket D beacon -- all you need is the Big Time badge, located in PD proper, in the couches above the fight cage. Neither Trucker nor Cage Match are needed for this beacon.
Table of Base Costs, Day Jobs, Merit Reward and Purchases by DJ_Jules [I13 Beta]
Guide to New Super/VillainGroup Base Costs by PlasmaStream
[u]NPCs and Zones[u]
New villain Respec Contact --- Arbiter Sawyer in Port Oakes
Linda Summers, Kings Row contact is no longer on the far side of Kings Row by Galaxy, now she is over by Blue Steel! Paula Dempsey also got moved to the plaza at the Yellow Line ramp.
Two basic stores added in Striga Isle. Smuggler Jimmie is on the docks in Port Noble and Smuggler Freddie is near Ernesto Hess. Both will sell basic inspirations and buy back enhancements, recipes, and salvage.
Added elevator markers to Grandville in similar fashion to Faultline
There is a Reconnaissance Officer at the entrance to or just inside most hazard zones: Firebase Zulu; just inside the Hollows; at the Steel Canyon gate in Perez Park; in the Hive; Boomtown; in the Sewers; the RWZ base by the portal to the zone. The Recon Officers give you a rundown of the zone including history, known hostiles, and amenities (hospital, trainers, etc )
There's also a jetpack temp power vendor in all the Shadow Shard zones and Grandville.
Port Oakes got itself a Black Market.
There is a new Abandoned Lab (rows of IO crafting stations) in Port Oakes and St. Martial. Previously villains only had two places to craft: The Cap au Diable University or if they had a crafting table in their base. Getting to the University as a lowbie was never easy, now, they have Port Oakes in which to craft.
RWZ now has IO crafting tables off to the side of Lady Grey (for villains and heroes).
A base portal has been added to Pocket D. Trina the Seamstress (a tailor) is now in Pocket D VIP Lounge.
Contacts that are unlocked (through getting a badge or reaching a certain level, e.g.) automatically give you a pop-up box letting you know theyve been unlocked and are added to your active contact list.
[u]Costumes[u]
New Save and Load options: Save you costumes to a .costume file that you can overlay onto your other or new characters, or, switch out these saved costumes with the ones youre using if youve used up all five costume slots and still want more ensembles! These files can even be shared with other players. However, note that they can be shared only among characters of the same body type (male, female, huge). And unfortunately, if the receiving character does not have one of the costume pieces listed in the saved file unlocked, then it wont load the saved costume at all.
There have been some changes to the Supergroup costume color system. Most notably, each costume now has its own set of Supergroup colors. We can bid a fond farewell to the days when changing your costume required entry to the Supergroup color picker to repair the damage. Additionally, the Supergroup color picker has been merged with the tailor screen, solving the problems associated with applying Supergroup colors to wings.
There are new Aura placement options that place the same aura on two different body parts at the same time, e.g., "Hands and Eyes." And if you bought the Cyborg Super Booster Pack, the Combat Auras will be available starting at Level 1.
To go along with the Day Jobs concept there are some new non-supers clothing items including a Police Officer costume set and a variety of civilian suits. None of these need to unlocked, they are available from Level 1.
New costumes on the female model by HochroterDrache
[u]PvP[u]
Issue 13 sees the beginning of a major overhaul of PvP (Player v. Player) combat. The first thing is that powers have been coded to work differently in PvP so that they can have different effects than in PvE (Player v. the Environment). This allows PvP to be balanced apart from PvE. Note that only the effects of powers (how much damage they do, type of damage, effects of buffs and debuffs, etc ) can be changed apart from PvE; while, on the other hand, the casting parameters of powers (animations, animation times, recharge, range, etc ) cant be changed in PvP without also changing it for PvE.
A full list of PvP changes can be found in the Patch Notes. The main changes include:<ul type="square">
[*][u] Speed Suppression[u]: Attacks, being attacked, and using certain other powers will cause suppression of Fly, Jump, and Run speeds (and a complete shut down of self Teleport powers) for about 2-5 seconds. The longer the range of the attack, the more the attacker's speed is suppressed. This was to encourage actual combat and discourage kiting and escaping such that a runner almost never gets killed. If you're in an Arena or PvP zone, you fight, not constantly escape.
[*][u]Melee v. Ranged[u]. The speed suppression mention above is supposed to help melee characters v. ranged characters. And in that regard, Taunt powers now debuff the target's range of Ranged Attacks. And melee characters have a higher resistance to movement debuffs. Melee characters also get more resistance to all debuffs and a higher buff cap. Also, Melee range was increased 2 feet.
[*][u]Diminishing Returns[u]: Many ATs (especially the heroic ones) were built to be specialists in PvE. They could often get 'off the charts' stats in some game mechanic attributes. This was fine for PvE, but not PvP. Those with super high Defense or Resistance or Regeneration or Heals became nigh unkillable -- unless pitted against someone with super high Accuracy who never missed, or someone with super buffed Damage bonus who two-shotted other characters. And so Diminishing Returns were introduced for most of a character's stats so that they could not achieve such game breaking attributes. Regen is reduced under suppression. Heals are subject to Diminishing Returns except certain self heals, especially those Melee Defense Sets.
Guide to Diminishing Returns in PvP by Arcanaville
[*][u]Base Defense and Resistance[u]: All ATs except Tankers and Masterminds got a PvP buff of a baseline Defense and Resistance stats so that 'squishy' ATs were not so quickly killed (as in two-shotted).
[*][u]Damage[u]: Damage has been readjusted to activation time -- the longer the activation, the more damage it does. Base damage for all has been increased (and thus Containment bonus has been decreased).
[*][u]Mez Protection converted to Mez Resistance[u]: Mez Protection meant you were mezzed or not. Some builds were able to stack enough Mez Protection to completely negate some ATs' Mez powers; while other types of Mezzes, such as Fear, had so little protection available, that it became king of the mezzes. And so, all Mez Protection has been converted to Mez Resistance which does not stop the Mez from happening, but shortens its duration. Therefore all Mezzes now 'work' (though, there is still a period of Mez suppression so that no one is continually chain mezzed), but their duration is short (2-4 seconds), and Mez Resistance will make it even shorter.
[*][u]Faster Deployment[u]: Defensive toggles don't drop when mezzed, in fact, you continue to get all their benefits while mezzed. Masterminds can apply their upgrade powers to all their pets at once.
[*][u]PvP Rewards[u]: PvP successes will now grant Influence/Infamy, inspirations, and rarely salvage (but not XP).[/list]
Castles original PvP power changes post
Blue Steel says: "All protective power sets have had their protective qualities reduced in PvP. Defense and Resistance have diminishing returns, healing has healing suppression and Regen is weakened while you're suppressed (read, in combat). This is still being balanced."
Castle says: We're aware of the problems with [arena system matches]. When we do the arena kiosk update, they'll either be fixed or be extinct."
Speaking of Arenas, maps are now selectable via the /search function and come with a suggested number of players.
Castle says: "Since I'm talking about the Kiosk, I may as well mention it now. The "Old School" options for Arena won't make it into I13. That would be things like "No Travel Suppression". We're still planning on doing it, it just isn't going to be ready in time for I13.
With regard to PvP possible rewards and events, Castle says:
[ QUOTE ]
So, the "plan" is to handle things in stages. Caveat: Plans beyond the next update are subject to change and/or approval from those in charge of such things.
Next update, you guys will see the first stage of rewards. Defeating another player will give a tiny bit of influence/infamy, some prestige, a chance for an inspiration to drop and, I think, a chance for random salvage to drop. That would be awarded to a team member as for a normal PVE kill, so buffers have as much chance of the drop as DPS types.
Later on, we'll have PVP specific recipes. These recipes will be slightly less effective than an equivalent PVE drop recipe in PVE. In PVP, however, they will provide a far greater variety and number of Set Bonuses. Those may be on a drop % chance, or given as rewards for winning "events" -- that's still undertermined.
As for "events", we hope to implement some new minigames to the arena kiosks; things like CTF, King of the Hill and (hopefully) a game Jonathan and I came up with called "Traitors" which starts off as a free for all, and ends up as a team on team battle...but only one player is the winner.
[/ QUOTE ]
[u]Misc[u]
In the user interface text may be highlighted with the cursor and, where appropriate, be cut, copy, and pasted with the CTRL-X, CTRL-C, AND CTRL-V shortcut commands. Those shortcuts can not be bound to other functions.
Castle said in Closed I13 Beta: The [IO Set Bonus] rule [of 5] is based on the NAME of the bonus, not the numeric effect. If you use the Combat Monitor, you can see the name of each bonus.
Around the same time of I13, NCSoft is making CoH available on the Mac platform.
During I13 Beta, the main City of Heroes website was redesigned
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UPDATES AND CORRECTIONS WELCOME. PLEASE GIVE REACTIONS AND FEEDBACK TO THESE ITEMS IN THEIR APPROPRIATE FORUMS AND THREADS. THANKS.
Tinyurl for this thread to share, especially in the in-game chat: http://tinyurl.com/5r2a4n
Issue 13 Patch Notes
[u]Issue 13 Known Issues[u]
- Travel powers can no longer be toggled on or off while other powers are activated or queued. This was an unintended consequence of some other change and the Devs are working to revert this.
[u]Issue 13 Features Background Articles[u]<ul type="square">
[*]Official Issue 13 Overview
[*]Positron on the Open Beta of Issue 13
[*]Matt Positron Miller I13 Interview at GameZone [*]Forum Discussion
[*]Floyd Castle Grubb I13 Interview at Massively[*]Forum Discussion
[*]Floyd Castle Grubb I13 Interview at Woot Studio (recording):[*]Forum Discussion (includes summary of recording)
[*]Boomtown interview with Positron
[*]JoyStiq interview with Positron[*]Discussion here and here.
[*]Official Screenshots of I13
[*]I13 Preview Fan Video by Samuraiko/Dark_Respite (Choose Multimedia > Videos > and search for "Choices"
[*]Fan Trailer for Issue 13 - Power and Responsibility (Hi quality) by Samuraiko/Dark_Respite (Choose Multimedia > Videos > and search for "What's Past is Prologue" Or YouTube Version in low or medium quality.[/list]
[u]Day Jobs and On Patrol[u]<ul type="square">
Day Jobs is a mini-game and role-playing feature that allows you to give your super hero or villain a secret identity or simply an ordinary profession in addition to their usual acts of heroism or villainy. The mini-game aspect allows for the accumulation of character bonuses, badges, and XP bonus multiplier while offline. Just log off your characters in certain areas of the game in which a Day Job Icon is showing, and you will earn time toward that day job while offline. (If two Day Job Icons are showing, you'll only supposed to get credit toward one, so, move the character around so just the one you want is showing. There are a few places where you actually can get two at once, but, the Devs have been removing those cases wherever found, so, don't count on that bug to last long.)
Day Jobs has been slightly controversial among those who feel the desire to get every possible badge or power in that it will take a long time to collect all these badges and powers (21 days logged out per badge for a particular character (used to be 30 days!)). However, the time need not be consecutive and the game counts time offline down to the second. Additionally, those who want all those badges and powers as soon as possible feel they're being penalized for playing their characters since there is no earning of Day Job bonuses and badges while playing that character. However, those who play their characters will still eventually get all the badges and bonuses as long as they're not playing the same character 24/7. Also, while playing one character, all of the player's alternative characters are earning Day Job time credit.
The bonuses that come from Day Jobs are temporary -- they either only last a few hours of game time or have charges that are spent with each usage. Logging back out in the same Day Job 'place' will replenish the bonus power. Getting the badge for a particular Day Job grants more power or faster replenishment.
Some pairs of combinations of Day Jobs grant an Accolade Badge and an extra bonus power.
[*]Phil Zeleskis Dev Diary on Day Jobs
[*]There's a Day Job Recruiter in AP Town Hall
[*]List of Day Jobs and Badges by BeefCake
[*]ParagonWiki on Day Jobs
[*][u]Being On Patrol[u] (aka, Rested XP): When your character is not logged in, they start earning On Patrol XP, which isn't actually real XP, it's a bonus power that grants you an extra 50% bonus XP for a set period of time as you start playing that character again.
For every 24 hours of being logged out, the character earns a 'bar' (aka, a 'bubble' or 1/10 of a level) of On Patrol XP. You can earn a max of 10 bars' (one full level's) worth of On Patrol XP. So, if your character is logged out for 10 days and you start playing that character again, as you gain enough XP to go up one level, you'll also be earning an extra half-level's worth of XP. (Time logged out is measured in seconds and is cumulative and can be non-consecutive.)
On Patrol XP shows up in your XP bar as a blue shaded addition to your pink XP bar (like debt shows up in the XP bar, too). As long as you have some rested XP left showing in your XP bar, any XP reward (excluding mission complete bonuses) you get is worth an extra 50% more. If you have Debt, the Debt mechanic takes place first with Debt being paid off with 1/2 of XP gained and the other 1/2 going toward real XP. Once Debt is paid off, then the On Patrol mechanic kicks in and any new XP gains garner the 50% bonus XP.
[u]Shutting off XP gains completely[u]: In response to those who felt that this one and a half extra XP bonus was forcing them to level too quickly, a quality of life feature was added: The ability to toggle off gaining any XP completely. Go to Menu > Options for the toggle.
During [u]Double XP Weekends[u], On Patrol XP benefits are suspended.[/list]
[u]Badges[u]<ul type="square">
[*]Badges are now sorted into more categories in the badge window. There is a tooltip explanation for most badges with a running count and total needed for that badge.
[*]The Epic Healing Badge was reduced from 1,000,000,00 to 100,000,000 hit points healed.
[*]Force of Justice (for having all Safeguard side mission badges) is now awarding.[/list]
[u]Missions[u]
Bruce Harlicks Dev Diary on designing the new missions
Mercedes Sheldon, Steel Canyon Midnighter Club Library (and yes, villains have access)<ul type="square">[*] Crown of Glory, Hero, 20-25[*] The Dirge of Chaos, Hero, 20-25[*] The Magic Man, Hero, 20-25[*] The Dead Mans Deck, Villain, 30-35[/list]
Daedalus, Cimerora<ul type="square">[*] Future Threat, Hero, 40-50[*] Stolen Power, Hero, 40-50[/list]
Sister Airlia, Cimerora<ul type="square">[*] Power from the Past, Villain, 35-50[*] Politics, Cimerora Stle, Villain, 35-50[/list]
[u]New Powersets[u]<ul type="square">
Video of Pain Domination and Shields
[*]Shields (Defense Set Category) for the melee ArcheTypes of Scrappers, Tankers, and Brutes. (Sorry, Stalkers, no Shields for you, at least for now, since it would require a lot of massaging to make it fit with your AT.) There are plenty of customizable (and unlockable) shields with the ability to tint and overlay designs on most of them. See the Paragon Wiki for details.
http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Shields
http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Shield_Customization
BackAlleyBrawler knows that there will be continual clipping issues with Shields and some large gloves, huge and maxed out builds, and shoulder pieces. Its unavoidable given the constraints of the current engine.
Activating a Shield power puts in you combat mode. This will activate combat mode auras and deactivate emotes by design. Sipping tea with a shield strapped to your arm can cause headaches.
[*]Pain Domination (Buff Set Category) for MasterMinds and Corruptors. This is the villainous answer to heroes Empathy Set. Not exactly the same, but providing a lot of overlap with Empathy with a villainous twist.
http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Pain_Domination[/list]
[u]Power Alterations (PvE)[u]
<ul type="square"> Many powers were altered in the way they work for PvP only (see PvP section below). There were other alterations which affect PvE as well as PvP:
[u]MasterMinds[u] can now upgrade and enhance their pets with one click! If the pets are close enough to the pet you're targeting, then all your other upgradable pets will receive that same buff all at once. This means that if you have six pets out, they can all be given their first and second tier upgrades with just two clicks instead of twelve. The endurance cost of the upgrades were significantly increased to compensate. With careful slotting, six pets can be spawned and fully upgraded on just half a bar of Endurance. Only the targeted pet goes through the upgrade animation (while sad not to see the animation, it's a boon in that the other pets aren't rooted through the upgrade).
[u]Kheldians[u] received a bunch of buffs, most notably having Cosmic Balance and Dark Sustenance work in all forms and the ability to switch forms when mezzed. See patch notes for more details.
[u]The Patron and Epic Power Pools[u] has a lot of powers in were switched to another power during Beta. This was because there were certain powers that were hardly being chosen by players, while other powers were so much better than others, that they were being taken by almost everyone. Switches were made to make all sets and powers more balanced. However, due to player feedback, the Devs decided not to replace powers, but instead add new ones in, so that the third tier of almost all the PPP/EPPs have an additional, optional power. Those that don't are slated to get one in the future. See the patch notes for what powers were added to which pools.
Part of the changes to the PPP/EPPs was to balance hero v. villain pools. To further this balance, once a villain has unlocked any Patron Power Pool, then can chose to take any one of the four Patron Pools for their AT. When villains respec, they can chose a different pool freely. In other words, once one is unlocked, they're all unlocked. Respecking to an alternate PPP does not change the character's patron badge nor allow access to the epic arcs of the other patrons.
[u]IO Set Bonuses[u] which grant a typed defense will be paired up with another type of typed defense and give the same amount of bonus for both typed defenses. Each pair of typed defense is being further paired with a positional defense to give an extra 50% Defense Bonus to it's paired partner. The pairings are: Smashing/Lethal with Melee; Energy/Negative Energy with Ranged; and, Cold/Fire with AoE. So, if an IO Set gave a 6% Bonus to Smashing, it now gives 6% to both Smashing and Lethal and 3% to Melee. Or, if an IO Set gave 4% Defense to Area of Effect Defense, it will now also give 2% to Cold and Fire Defense. Toxic and Psi are left alone in this change.
New List of Defense Values Offered by IO Sets by Stupid_Fanboy
[u]Toggles[u] which are not 'offensive toggles' (i.e., they don't damage or debuff a foe) no longer drop when mezzed. Unlike PvP, where you still get all the benefits of a toggle, even while mezzed, in PvE, only the Mez Resistance and Mez Protection portions of the toggle remain active while all other buffs, including Damage Defense and Resistances, are lost. Also, the Fly portions of toggles do not suppress (although, if the mez has a -Fly component to it, you will fall).
Now, because it is the powers of the toggle that are flagged to be suppressed when the target is mezzed, this means that if you are enjoying the buffs of a teammate's toggle and you yourself become mezzed, then you lose the buffs that are flagged to be suppressed. So, e.g., if you're mezzed, you lose the +Def buff of your teammates' Maneuvers toggle. The Devs are looking for a way to work around this, but, it will take coding changes. Until then, here is a list of toggles with Damage Defense and Resistances that will be suppressed if you're mezzed:
* Leadership - Maneuvers (including VEAT versions)
* Cold Domination - Arctic Fog
* Dark Miasma - Shadow Fall
* Forcefield - Dispersion Bubble
* Sonic Resonance - Sonic Dispersion
* Storm Summoning - Steamy Mist
* Traps - Forcefield Generator
* Shields - Grant Cover
Note that some of these toggled protections provide mez protection, making it less likely you'll be mezzed and thus lose the damage defense and resistance.
Note that click buffs are never lost when you're mezzed. You'll still have the Defense and Resistance buffs of powers such as Fortitude and Vengeance even when you are mezzed.[/list]
[u]Multiple Builds[u]
Your character now has two builds (the set of power choices from your Primary, Secondary, and optional Pool Powersets and your enhancement slotting). You can go to any trainer and choose which of your two builds to play. There is a 15 minute cool down in switching builds (though all powers recharge when you switch builds).
If you havent built your second build yet, the first time you choose the second build, your trainer will ask if you wish to train up that build to the next level. Both builds have the same amount of XP. Future XP gained is not divided between the builds -- XP earned while on one build is the same XP for the other build. If you level up on one build, the other build can also level up (and will have to be leveled up separately).
Your second build will not have any access to your enhancements from your main build. Enhancements are intentionally not duped in this way in order to prevent abuse (imagine duping a build filled with all purple ultra-rare enhancements and then selling them!). You will have to outfit your second build with enhancements through other, normal means.
Note though, that you can respec your main build, and as you respec, you can put up to ten of your enhancements in your enhancement tray to be saved. Those enhancements can then be transferred to your second build. If you have enough respecs you can theoretically transfer all your enhancements out of your main build and move them to your second build (or sell/trade/gift them). A respec only respecs one build. Info on respecs.
So, why a Dual Build?<ul type="square">[*]PvP v. PvE builds.[*] Solo v. team player builds.[*]A build with IO Sets with bonuses that work at high levels v. a build with Set Bonuses active at a low level (for low level PvP zones or exemping for flashback missions or task/strike forces).[*] Change of playstyle builds: Blaster v. Blapper; Bane Soldier v. Crab Soldier; Single form Kheldian v. Multi-form; etc [*] Builds that use different Power Pools (including the heroic Epic Power Pools and the villainous Patron Power Pools).[/list] When a villain does the first arc for a Patron, they get that Patrons badge and then they have unlocked all four Patron Power Pools (unlocking all four is new to I13). They can choose from any one of the four. The second build can also choose one of those four pools, even a different one from the first. A respec on either build can allow a villain to choose a different (or no) PPP.
Note: It's Dual Build, not Duel Build. (And respec, not respect.)
Multiple Builds on ParagonWiki
[u]New IO Sets and Recipes[u]<ul type="square">
See Patch Notes for a list of new IO Sets. New IO Set categories, too.
Note that the new Universal Travel Set cannot be slotted into Sprint or the five other Prestige Sprints. This is presumably to prevent an unintended stacking of the set that would only be available to Veterans with the Prestige Reward and might be overpowered considering the set gives a nice positional defense and knockback protection bonuses. Though, it's still possible to stack five of these sets using other travel powers.
New recipe temporary power: Power Analyzer Mark I, II, III. These temp powers allow you see an enemys stats.[/list] -
[ QUOTE ]
I understand diminishing returns is 50% of the previous award cummulative from the first instance of a TF and reset after 24 hours.
[/ QUOTE ]
And another 50% discount for the third time, and another 50% discount for the fourth time, etc.... The 24 hour wait period resets the diminishing returns algorithm.
[ QUOTE ]
If I do say Positron TF, I would get the full merit award; but say after Positron I go to Synapse; will my Synapse merit award be subject to a diminishing return? or if I was to repeat Positron a second time within 24 hours, it would be subject to diminishing returns?
[/ QUOTE ]
Your Synapse will not be subject to DR but another Positron will. DR only apply to the same exact TF. -
[ QUOTE ]
(more of a Quick reply than reply to Poster)
If everyone gets the reward on Flashback, why cant that be changed for story arcs as well?
[/ QUOTE ]
With a regular arc, a soloist can run through it and then, for the final mission, invite seven others in. This would mean seven people got an arc reward for doing only one mission, that is why only the mission holder gets the reward.
With a Ouroboros arc run in pseudo-TF mode, you can't start it solo and then invite seven people in for the last mission because the pseudo-TF mode won't allow it. Even if the seven people log out while a soloist runs the missions, the missions will still spawn for eight people making the soloist do a lot of work and slow the soloist down, making exploiting the arc reward very difficult. -
Thanks Dysmal and Cende, your friendly amendments were most welcome!
Cende, I fudged the list of salvage needed to craft a telepad into vagaries. Once someone updates the Wiki with all the recipes, I'll just point there. -
[u]Leveling Pact[u]
Leveling Pact is for friends and family and SuperGroup members who want to play together when sometimes one or more of them cant play at the same time as the others. The Leveling Pact keeps them in sync so that they never have to worry about sidekicking issues. It is not meant for random players to hook up in a Leveling Pact and somehow reap special benefits from it. Its for people who play together often over the course of many sessions. Here's how its supposed to work <ul type="square">
For now, Leveling Pacts are limited to two characters from two different accounts that are both Level 5 or lower. The two characters must be the same faction (no hero-villain pacts). Either character may break the Pact at any time. If they do, and one of the players is past Level 5, then the Pact can not be re-created. Even if you don't level up at a trainer, if have enough XP to be Level 6 or higher, you can't form a Pact. Both characters need to be online and in the same zone at the same time to start the pact. To create the Pact, right click on the potential pactmate and chose form a Leveling Pact from the menu, or, use the command, /leveling_pact <charactername>.
The two characters do not have to be on the same team or online at the same time once the pact has been formed. Their XP will always be shared and once their XP is equalized, theyll always have the same amount of XP compared to each other.
When characters are in a Pact, all the XP that members of the Pact earn goes into a 'pool' and then that pool is divided up among the members.
When a Level Pact is first made, any member who is a lower level than the others will get the XP first from the Pool until they are all equal, then it gets divided equally among all the members. This allows a level 5 to pact with a level 1 and get the level 1 caught up to level 5 after that, they'll level evenly with each other. Although, be aware that members of a pact can be out of sync for short periods when they're both the same level. For example, if a pact is formed by one player who is halfway through level 4 with another player who is level 3, then all the XP will go to the level 3 player until they hit level 4, and then the XP will be split. But since the first player is already halfway through level 4, that player will hit level 5 first, and then stop earning XP until the other player hits level 5. Then the XP will be split again and they'll be in sync with each other. Note that debt or patrol XP bonuses may throw a pact out of sync in the same way, but they'll catch up again at the beginning of the next level.
Influence and Infamy is evenly split among pact members at all times without regard to keeping them in sync (after all, if I spend inf, the leveling pact isn't going to give me more inf to make me even with my pactmate).
Nothing else is split among pactmates by the Leveling Pact: not Prestige and not any form of loot drops.
You do not see in the Rewards Channel the XP or Inf your Pactmate earns for you. However, if you're one or more levels higher than your Pactmate, you will receive a message that you are not receiving any XP until your Pactmate catches up to you. You can Monitor through the Combat Attributes window your XP, Debt, and Inf if you want to see the effects of the Leveling Pact from a Pactmate (you'll certainly see your XP bar move). It may sometimes take a while for the Pool to properly 'pay' you all the XP and inf due you. If the 'Pool' isn't working, you'll get a message that the 'statserver' is down.
When you form a Leveling Pact, you pactmate will show up in a new 'friends' window (accessible by clicking 'friends' at the top of the chat window and then choosing 'Leveling Pact' from the drop down menu. It's from this window that you can break the pact with a click of a button.[/list]
Leveling Pacts make it seem that this is a way to Power Level a character, however, since the Power Leveler is giving only half of their XP they generate go to their offline partner, its hardly any different than having a sidekicked teammate sit at the mission door. Sure this may make it slightly easier for a Power Leveler since no one has to move around or baby sit the character being Power Leveled; but its not so much easier that it needs to be worried about. Besides, the offline toon isnt getting any loot drops, so, theres a downside to Power Leveling in this manner.
Many have requested that Leveling Pacts be extended to characters past Level 5 or to more than two characters. Positron said that the Leveling Pact interacts with our reward system in a totally unique way. That said, we want to monitor (on the live servers) how the system plays out with the parameters as they are. If everything works like we expect it to (flawlessly, of course!) then we can explore upping the level maximum, and expanding it to more than 2 characters.
Note: It's "Pact" not "Pack"
Leveling Pact on ParagonWiki
[u]Merits[u]
Merits are a new reward system in Issue 13. (Dont confuse them with Vanguard Merits, a different currency.) Merits are gained from Task/Strike Forces, Trials, Raids, completion of arcs, and the Ouroboros pseudo-Task Force arcs and and Ouroboros badge missions.
Merit Vendors are available in almost all zones. They show up on the mini-map with the store icon. They have a blue ring on the ground around them and theyre dressed in burgundy and gold (why? <shrug>.
So, how many Merits do you get for various tasks and how much do all the shinies cost in Merits? Phil 'Synapse' Zeleski (the other powers guy besides Castle) said,
<ul type="square">We determined the number of merits earned per task by taking the average time to complete these tasks and then awarding 1 merit for every 5 minutes of time. This value is then further modified by a task modifier. We then multiply this number by 1.0 if the task has met datamining requirements for number of times run, if there isn't sufficient data then the number of merits is multiplied by a lesser value. Next the value gets a small merit bonus for every hundred minutes of the average time. This way longer tasks will give greater rewards. Then some tasks received an artificial modifier to make sure they gave the rewards we wanted. In most cases this is an upward bump of 1-7 merits. This artificial modifier allows us to take things into consideration like difficulty and other miscellaneous factors. In very few cases are there any tasks with artificially reduced merit rewards.
Next, the Merit Reward cost of items on the merit vendor are a bit more complex. The factors that go into determining the costs are: rarity, the drop table they originally came from, set bonuses, and then a few modifiers like perceived value and whether they are unique or not. You end up with some really powerful enhancements like Numina's Convalescence: +Regen/+Recovery as being very expensive as you would imagine because, it's high level, has good set bonuses, has a high perceived value, and drops from a Task Force reward table. This particular recipe goes for 250 merits. Another set I've seen mentioned a number of times is Crushing Impact. Some players wonder why its so cheap, only going for 50 merits each. The reason this set is so much cheaper is: it's an uncommon drop (not rare), has good (but not amazing set bonuses), and its perceived value varies. They can get up there in cost on the Auction Houses, but they're no Numina's.
The plan is to periodically datamine and adjust the merit rewards for each task as well, so some tasks that have a penalty on them simply because we don't have enough data on them, we'll remove that penalty. So, there you have it. I hope this helps you all understand this a bit."[/list]
And on Diminishing Rewards for Merits:
<ul type="square">[Diminishing Rewards] is probably the most complex part of the Merit Reward system. Different types of tasks have different diminishing rates:
-Story Arcs do not have diminishing returns.
-Task Forces without a second reward option will have their rewards reduced by 50% each time the task is completed within 24 hours. So if a task force gives 50 merits the first time done within 24 hours, then the second time will give 25, the third time will give 12, the fourth time 6. This is reset after 24 hours. Also, I wanted to remind players that the 24 hour diminishing returns set up that we currently have may be subject to change.
-Task Forces and Trials with unique rewards (respecs or unique enhancements) grant full merit rewards for the first completion within 24 hours and 50% merit rewards for each subsequent completion. So if the first run through a task gives 50 merits, each subsequent run through will give 25.[/list]
Team size, level of mission difficulty, Ouroboros Flashback settings, or the level of the players make no difference in the amount of Merits awarded (though the devs are looking into adding that feature in the future).
For Task/Strike Forces which used to give the option of a SO or Rare Recipe reward, their reward window will no longer pop up. Instead, you will automatically be given Merits.
Dont worry, for a relatively inexpensive amount of Merits (20 for Pool C and 30 for Pood D), you can spin for a chance at a random recipe at the level of your choice (which makes it easier to get specially targeted rare recipes which are outside your level range or the level range of the TF). Most Task/Strike Forces (except the super speedy ones done in under half an hour) give out at least that many Merits. You can even use the Merits to buy the SO of your choice.
Previously, a 20 minute TF and a 4 hour TF gave out the same reward. This led to the farming of the 20 minute TFs. Merits allow the reward to scale to time and effort (as best it can by datamining 'averages'). It was never intended that any TF should wind up so short, and most likely, someday, the 'speed' TFs will be altered to prevent the speed versions. While a speed version of a TF might now give out the equivalent of one third of a spin on a rare recipe, other TFs now give out two or three times the equivalent of a spin at a rare recipe -- so, there are some buffs being given as well as some nerfs.
All those highly sought-after special and unique and rare recipes can be specifically bought at the level you want for about 250 Merits. Other recipes are priced between 50 and 200, on average.
Other Forces, Trials, or Raids that have given out special rewards in the past, such as (Synthetic) Hamidon, Titan, or Hydra Origin Enhancements or Respecs, will still pop up a reward window so that you can chose that special reward or Merits.
Merits cannot be sold or traded or gifted. However, most of the things you can buy with Merits can be sold, traded, or gifted.
Purple recipes (ultra rare) are not for sale at Merit Vendors. Neither are the (Synthetic) Hami-Os, or Hydra-Os, or Titan-Os.
Unfortunately at this time, the Merit reward for a mission-arc is only rewarded to the mission holder. It will be awarded to other players if they have the same final mission of the arc and chose to have their mission completed by the the same final mission. It will be awarded to all team members if the arc is done through an Ouroboros Flashback Crystal since that puts everyone in the pseudo-TF mode, and everyone gets the same reward from a TF.
The current list of things that can be bought with Merits will most likely be expanded in the future to include other items, such as costumes, perhaps.
Merits on ParagonWiki
List of Cooperative Tasks that give Merit Rewards on Wiki
List of Heroic Tasks that give Merit Rewards on Wiki
List of Villainous Tasks that give Merit Rewards on Wiki
Table of Base Costs, Day Jobs, Merit Reward and Purchases by DJ_Jules [I13 Beta]
Guide To Merit Rewards for TFs, Arcs, et. al. by Catwhoorg, Leandro, Bionic Flea, et al.
Merit System Writeup by Neuronia
Merit Q&A with Synapse
[u]Bases[u]
Bases are in the process of a major overhaul. One of the main goals is to truly and really put in an extensive base raiding feature that includes the long troubled Cathedral of Pain SuperGroup Task Force which yields raidable Items of Power. But, first, PvP needed to be overhauled (see below). Second, there were bugs with the pathing of bases which allowed groups to block hallways and rooms, which would not be fair for raiding.
And so, for now, base raiding has been turned off and pathing rules have been relaxed. This allows those who want non-raiding bases to go wild in base design.
The current plan to bring back base raiding is to finish the overhaul of PvP and to eventually allow SuperGroups to 'flip a switch' to flag their base as raidable. The problem of pathing will most likely be fixed by allowing raiders to destroy all items so that nothing will actually block paths. But, that's for the future...
Part of the overhaul of bases is to reduce the cost of base building so that large, decorative bases are more affordable and the rent on them is now negligible, i.e., easily covered if you have a few active members. In fact, inviting one of your alts (by way of a friend who temporarily joins your SG to invite your alt) to a solo super group grants 15,000 prestige, which is enough to pay "maxed" rent for about 42 weeks. All bases pre-existing Issue 13 will receive a Prestige kickback based on the discounted cost of the items and plot size of their base. Someone has to enter the base to initiate the kickback.
Rent is now charged on a few specific base items: <ul type="square">[*]Storage Item (any) 100[*]Advanced Worktable 100[*]Expert Worktable 100[*]Radiation Emulator 100[*]Linear Accelerator 200[*]Supercollider 300[*]Enchanting Crucible 100[*]Robotic Fabricator 100[*]Robo-Surgery 100[*]Auto Doc 100[/list]
Another big change is making Base Salvage obsolete. From now on, Invention Salvage is all that will be needed to craft base items and empowerment station buffs. Base Salvage should only be needed in recipes that convert base salvage to invention salvage by way of Brain Storms. Brainstorms (named after the infamous Dr. Brainstorm, most likely) are the results of studying the items your supergroup has gathered up to now. Consider these to be insights into how the universe operates. Each of these bits of research can, through the powers of diligent effort (i.e. converting them at the Invention Workbench) either alone or combined with other Brainstorms, be turned into a wide array of standard Invention Salvage. However, the process is not very predictable, just like Dr. Brainstorm's experiments. So you can only narrow down what you can make from them in specific random ways.
In other words: Brainstorms is the conversion process to make current Base Salvage into Invention Salvage. Here's what you can convert brain storms into, for those wondering:<ul type="square">[*] 1 -> random common salvage[*] 2 -> arcane common salvage[*] 2 -> tech common salvage[*] 5 -> random uncommon salvage[*] 10 -> arcane uncommon salvage[*] 10 -> tech uncommon salvage[*] 20 -> random rare salvage[*] 40 -> arcane rare salvage[*] 40 -> tech rare salvage[/list]
The salvage you need to craft base items is not difficult to get -- e.g., for the Arcane Telepad you need four salvage pieces, none of them rare, and you have three recipes to chose from. The Tech Telepad has 3 sets as well, different than the Arcane Telepads.
Another big and controversial change to bases is that storage racks can now hold Invention Salvage -- that's the good news. But the bad news is that the cap to the number of items any rack or base storage item can hold has been lowered from 2500 to 30; and, you can only have up to 18 storage items or racks in your base. However, you won't need as many pieces of salvage as you did before. Racks with more than 30 pieces will still hold the hundreds of items they did before, but you'll only be able to remove items and not put any back in until the number goes below 30. Also, rent will be based partially on the number of racks in your base. While no Dev has specifically said why the clamp down on storage, it certainly does seem to be a anti-hoarding measure and/or pruning of the database issue.
New item: Added Teleporter Beacon for Pocket D. Added SG badge to access Pocket D beacon -- all you need is the Big Time badge, located in PD proper, in the couches above the fight cage. Neither Trucker nor Cage Match are needed for this beacon.
Table of Base Costs, Day Jobs, Merit Reward and Purchases by DJ_Jules [I13 Beta]
Guide to New Super/VillainGroup Base Costs by PlasmaStream
[u]NPCs and Zones[u]
New villain Respec Contact --- Arbiter Sawyer in Port Oakes
Linda Summers, Kings Row contact is no longer on the far side of Kings Row by Galaxy, now she is over by Blue Steel! Paula Dempsey also got moved to the plaza at the Yellow Line ramp.
Two basic stores added in Striga Isle. Smuggler Jimmie is on the docks in Port Noble and Smuggler Freddie is near Ernesto Hess. Both will sell basic inspirations and buy back enhancements, recipes, and salvage.
Added elevator markers to Grandville in similar fashion to Faultline
There is a Reconnaissance Officer at the entrance to or just inside most hazard zones: Firebase Zulu; just inside the Hollows; at the Steel Canyon gate in Perez Park; in the Hive; Boomtown; in the Sewers; the RWZ base by the portal to the zone. The Recon Officers give you a rundown of the zone including history, known hostiles, and amenities (hospital, trainers, etc )
There's also a jetpack temp power vendor in all the Shadow Shard zones and Grandville.
Port Oakes got itself a Black Market.
There is a new Abandoned Lab (rows of IO crafting stations) in Port Oakes and St. Martial. Previously villains only had two places to craft: The Cap au Diable University or if they had a crafting table in their base. Getting to the University as a lowbie was never easy, now, they have Port Oakes in which to craft.
RWZ now has IO crafting tables off to the side of Lady Grey (for villains and heroes).
A base portal has been added to Pocket D. Trina the Seamstress (a tailor) is now in Pocket D VIP Lounge.
Contacts that are unlocked (through getting a badge or reaching a certain level, e.g.) automatically give you a pop-up box letting you know theyve been unlocked and are added to your active contact list.
[u]Costumes[u]
New Save and Load options: Save you costumes to a .costume file that you can overlay onto your other or new characters, or, switch out these saved costumes with the ones youre using if youve used up all five costume slots and still want more ensembles! These files can even be shared with other players. However, note that they can be shared only among characters of the same body type (male, female, huge). And unfortunately, if the receiving character does not have one of the costume pieces listed in the saved file unlocked, then it wont load the saved costume at all.
There have been some changes to the Supergroup costume color system. Most notably, each costume now has its own set of Supergroup colors. We can bid a fond farewell to the days when changing your costume required entry to the Supergroup color picker to repair the damage. Additionally, the Supergroup color picker has been merged with the tailor screen, solving the problems associated with applying Supergroup colors to wings.
There are new Aura placement options that place the same aura on two different body parts at the same time, e.g., "Hands and Eyes." And if you bought the Cyborg Super Booster Pack, the Combat Auras will be available starting at Level 1.
To go along with the Day Jobs concept there are some new non-supers clothing items including a Police Officer costume set and a variety of civilian suits. None of these need to unlocked, they are available from Level 1.
New costumes on the female model by HochroterDrache
[u]PvP[u]
Issue 13 sees the beginning of a major overhaul of PvP (Player v. Player) combat. The first thing is that powers have been coded to work differently in PvP so that they can have different effects than in PvE (Player v. the Environment). This allows PvP to be balanced apart from PvE. Note that only the effects of powers (how much damage they do, type of damage, effects of buffs and debuffs, etc ) can be changed apart from PvE; while, on the other hand, the casting parameters of powers (animations, animation times, recharge, range, etc ) cant be changed in PvP without also changing it for PvE.
A full list of PvP changes can be found in the Patch Notes. The main changes include:<ul type="square">
[*][u] Speed Suppression[u]: Attacks, being attacked, and using certain other powers will cause suppression of Fly, Jump, and Run speeds (and a complete shut down of self Teleport powers) for about 2-5 seconds. The longer the range of the attack, the more the attacker's speed is suppressed. This was to encourage actual combat and discourage kiting and escaping such that a runner almost never gets killed. If you're in an Arena or PvP zone, you fight, not constantly escape.
[*][u]Melee v. Ranged[u]. The speed suppression mention above is supposed to help melee characters v. ranged characters. And in that regard, Taunt powers now debuff the target's range of Ranged Attacks. And melee characters have a higher resistance to movement debuffs. Melee characters also get more resistance to all debuffs and a higher buff cap.
[*][u]Diminishing Returns[u]: Many ATs (especially the heroic ones) were built to be specialists in PvE. They could often get 'off the charts' stats in some game mechanic attributes. This was fine for PvE, but not PvP. Those with super high Defense or Resistance or Regeneration or Heals became nigh unkillable -- unless pitted against someone with super high Accuracy who never missed, or someone with super buffed Damage bonus who two-shotted other characters. And so Diminishing Returns were introduced for most of a character's stats so that they could not achieve such game breaking attributes. Regen is reduced under suppression. Heals are subject to Diminishing Returns except certain self heals, especially those Melee Defense Sets.
Guide to Diminishing Returns in PvP by Arcanaville
[*][u]Base Defense and Resistance[u]: All ATs except Tankers and Masterminds got a PvP buff of a baseline Defense and Resistance stats so that 'squishy' ATs were not so quickly killed (as in two-shotted).
[*][u]Damage[u]: Damage has been readjusted to activation time -- the longer the activation, the more damage it does. Base damage for all has been increased (and thus Containment bonus has been decreased).
[*][u]Mez Protection converted to Mez Resistance[u]: Mez Protection meant you were mezzed or not. Some builds were able to stack enough Mez Protection to completely negate some ATs' Mez powers; while other types of Mezzes, such as Fear, had so little protection available, that it became king of the mezzes. And so, all Mez Protection has been converted to Mez Resistance which does not stop the Mez from happening, but shortens its duration. Therefore all Mezzes now 'work' (though, there is still a period of Mez suppression so that no one is continually chain mezzed), but their duration is short (2-4 seconds), and Mez Resistance will make it even shorter.
[*][u]Faster Deployment[u]: Defensive toggles don't drop when mezzed, in fact, you continue to get all their benefits while mezzed. Masterminds can apply their upgrade powers to all their pets at once.
[*][u]PvP Rewards[u]: PvP successes will now grant Influence/Infamy, inspirations, and rarely salvage (but not XP).[/list]
Castles original PvP power changes post
Blue Steel says: "All protective power sets have had their protective qualities reduced in PvP. Defense and Resistance have diminishing returns, healing has healing suppression and Regen is weakened while you're suppressed (read, in combat). This is still being balanced."
Castle says: We're aware of the problems with [arena system matches]. When we do the arena kiosk update, they'll either be fixed or be extinct."
Speaking of Arenas, maps are now selectable via the /search function and come with a suggested number of players.
Castle says: "Since I'm talking about the Kiosk, I may as well mention it now. The "Old School" options for Arena won't make it into I13. That would be things like "No Travel Suppression". We're still planning on doing it, it just isn't going to be ready in time for I13.
With regard to PvP possible rewards and events, Castle says:
[ QUOTE ]
So, the "plan" is to handle things in stages. Caveat: Plans beyond the next update are subject to change and/or approval from those in charge of such things.
Next update, you guys will see the first stage of rewards. Defeating another player will give a tiny bit of influence/infamy, some prestige, a chance for an inspiration to drop and, I think, a chance for random salvage to drop. That would be awarded to a team member as for a normal PVE kill, so buffers have as much chance of the drop as DPS types.
Later on, we'll have PVP specific recipes. These recipes will be slightly less effective than an equivalent PVE drop recipe in PVE. In PVP, however, they will provide a far greater variety and number of Set Bonuses. Those may be on a drop % chance, or given as rewards for winning "events" -- that's still undertermined.
As for "events", we hope to implement some new minigames to the arena kiosks; things like CTF, King of the Hill and (hopefully) a game Jonathan and I came up with called "Traitors" which starts off as a free for all, and ends up as a team on team battle...but only one player is the winner.
[/ QUOTE ]
[u]Misc[u]
In the user interface text may be highlighted with the cursor and, where appropriate, be cut, copy, and pasted with the CTRL-X, CTRL-C, AND CTRL-V shortcut commands. Those shortcuts can not be bound to other functions.
Castle said in Closed I13 Beta: The [IO Set Bonus] rule [of 5] is based on the NAME of the bonus, not the numeric effect. If you use the Combat Monitor, you can see the name of each bonus.
Around the same time of I13, NCSoft is making CoH available on the Mac platform.
During I13 Beta, the main City of Heroes website was redesigned -
This is an update to the first two posts of this thread. Getting it ready for Live, which I'm guessing will be this Tuesday! UPDATES AND CORRECTIONS WELCOME. PLEASE GIVE REACTIONS AND FEEDBACK TO THESE ITEMS IN THEIR APPROPRIATE FORUMS AND THREADS. THANKS.
Issue 13 Patch Notes
[u]Issue 13 Beta Known Issues[u]
On their way.
[u]Issue 13 Features Background Articles[u]<ul type="square">
[*]Official Issue 13 Overview
[*]Positron on the Open Beta of Issue 13
[*]Matt Positron Miller I13 Interview at GameZone [*]Forum Discussion
[*]Floyd Castle Grubb I13 Interview at Massively[*]Forum Discussion
[*]Floyd Castle Grubb I13 Interview at Woot Studio (recording):[*]Forum Discussion (includes summary of recording)
[*]Boomtown interview with Positron
[*]Screenshots of I13[/list]
[u]Day Jobs and On Patrol[u]<ul type="square">
Day Jobs is a mini-game and role-playing feature that allows you to give your super hero or villain a secret identity or simply an ordinary profession in addition to their usual acts of heroism or villainy. The mini-game aspect allows for the accumulation of character bonuses, badges, and XP bonus multiplier while offline. Just log off your characters in certain areas of the game in which a Day Job Icon is showing, and you will earn time toward that day job while offline. (If two Day Job Icons are showing, you'll only get credit toward one, so, move the character around so just the one you want is showing.)
Day Jobs has been slightly controversial among those who feel the desire to get every possible badge or power in that it will take a long time to collect all these badges and powers (21 days logged out per badge for a particular character (used to be 30 days!)). However, the time need not be consecutive and the game counts time offline down to the second. Additionally, those who want all those badges and powers as soon as possible feel they're being penalized for playing their characters since there is no earning of Day Job bonuses and badges while playing that character. However, those who play their characters will still eventually get all the badges and bonuses as long as they're not playing the same character 24/7. Also, while playing one character, all of the player's alternative characters are earning Day Job time credit.
The bonuses that come from Day Jobs are temporary -- they either only last a few hours of game time or have charges that are spent with each usage. Logging back out in the same Day Job 'place' will replenish the bonus power. Getting the badge for a particular Day Job grants more power or faster replenishment.
Some pairs of combinations of Day Jobs grant an Accolade Badge and an extra bonus power.
[*]Phil Zeleskis Dev Diary on Day Jobs
[*]There's a Day Job Recruiter in AP Town Hall
[*]List of Day Jobs and Badges by BeefCake
[*]ParagonWiki on Day Jobs
[*]Being On Patrol (aka, Rested XP): As long as you have some rested XP left showing in you XP bar, any XP reward you get is worth an extra 50% more.
In response to those who felt that this one and a half extra XP bonus was forcing them to level too quickly, a quality of life feature was added: The ability to toggle off gaining any XP completely.
During double XP weekends, Patrol XP benefits are suspended.[/list]
[u]Badges[u]<ul type="square">
[*]Badges are now sorted into more categories in the badge window. There is a tooltip explanation for most badges with a running count and total needed for that badge.
[*]The Epic Healing Badge was reduced from 1,000,000,00 to 100,000,000 hit points healed.
[*]Force of Justice (for having all Safeguard side mission badges) is now awarding.[/list]
[u]Missions[u]
Bruce Harlicks Dev Diary on designing the new missions
Mercedes Sheldon, Steel Canyon Midnighter Club Library (and yes, villains have access)<ul type="square">[*] Crown of Glory, Hero, 20-25[*] The Dirge of Chaos, Hero, 20-25[*] The Magic Man, Hero, 20-25[*] The Dead Mans Deck, Villain, 30-35[/list]
Daedalus, Cimerora<ul type="square">[*] Future Threat, Hero, 40-50[*] Stolen Power, Hero, 40-50[/list]
Sister Airlia, Cimerora<ul type="square">[*] Power from the Past, Villain, 35-50[*] Politics, Cimerora Stle, Villain, 35-50[/list]
[u]New Powersets[u]<ul type="square">
Video of Pain Domination and Shields
[*]Shields (Defense Set Category) for the melee ArcheTypes of Scrappers, Tankers, and Brutes. (Sorry, Stalkers, no Shields for you, at least for now, since it would require a lot of massaging to make it fit with your AT.) There are plenty of customizable (and unlockable) shields with the ability to tint and overlay designs on most of them. See the Paragon Wiki for details.
http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Shields
http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Shield_Customization
BackAlleyBrawler knows that there will be continual clipping issues with Shields and some large gloves, huge and maxed out builds, and shoulder pieces. Its unavoidable given the constraints of the current engine.
Activating a Shield power puts in you combat mode. This will activate combat mode auras and deactivate emotes by design. Sipping tea with a shield strapped to your arm can cause headaches.
[*]Pain Domination (Buff Set Category) for MasterMinds and Corruptors. This is the villainous answer to heroes Empathy Set. Not exactly the same, but providing a lot of overlap with Empathy with a villainous twist.
http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Pain_Domination[/list]
[u]Power Alterations (PvE)[u]
<ul type="square"> Many powers were altered in the way they work for PvP only (see PvP section below). There were other alterations which affect PvE as well as PvP:
[u]MasterMinds[u] can now upgrade and enhance their pets with one click! If the pets are close enough to the pet you're targeting, then all your other upgradable pets will receive that same buff all at once. This means that if you have six pets out, they can all be given their first and second tier upgrades with just two clicks instead of twelve. The endurance cost of the upgrades were significantly increased to compensate. With careful slotting, six pets can be spawned and fully upgraded on just half a bar of Endurance. Only the targeted pet goes through the upgrade animation (while sad not to see the animation, it's a boon in that the other pets aren't rooted through the upgrade).
[u]Kheldians[u] received a bunch of buffs, most notably having Cosmic Balance and Dark Sustenance work in all forms and the ability to switch forms when mezzed. See patch notes for more details.
[u]The Patron and Epic Power Pools[u] has a lot of powers in were switched to another power during Beta. This was because there were certain powers that were hardly being chosen by players, while other powers were so much better than others, that they were being taken by almost everyone. Switches were made to make all sets and powers more balanced. However, due to player feedback, the Devs decided not to replace powers, but instead add new ones in, so that the third tier of almost all the PPP/EPPs have an additional, optional power. Those that don't are slated to get one in the future. See the patch notes for what powers were added to which pools.
Part of the changes to the PPP/EPPs was to balance hero v. villain pools. To further this balance, once a villain has unlocked any Patron Power Pool, then can chose to take any one of the four Patron Pools for their AT. When villains respec, they can chose a different pool freely. In other words, once one is unlocked, they're all unlocked. Respecking to an alternate PPP does not change the character's patron badge nor allow access to the epic arcs of the other patrons.
[u]IO Set Bonuses[u] which grant a typed defense will be paired up with another type of typed defense and give the same amount of bonus for both typed defenses. Each pair of typed defense is being further paired with a positional defense to give an extra 50% Defense Bonus to it's paired partner. The pairings are: Smashing/Lethal with Melee; Energy/Negative Energy with Ranged; and, Cold/Fire with AoE. So, if an IO Set gave a 6% Bonus to Smashing, it now gives 6% to both Smashing and Lethal and 3% to Melee. Or, if an IO Set gave 4% Defense to Area of Effect Defense, it will now also give 2% to Cold and Fire Defense. Toxic and Psi are left alone in this change.
New List of Defense Values Offered by IO Sets by Stupid_Fanboy
[u]Toggles[u] which are not 'offensive toggles' (i.e., they don't damage or debuff a foe) no longer drop when mezzed. Unlike PvP, where you still get all the benefits of a toggle, even while mezzed, in PvE, only the Mez Resistance and Mez Protection portions of the toggle remain active while all other buffs, including Damage Defense and Resistances, are lost. Also, the Fly portions of toggles do not suppress (although, if the mez has a -Fly component to it, you will fall).
Now, because it is the powers of the toggle that are flagged to be suppressed when the target is mezzed, this means that if you are enjoying the buffs of a teammate's toggle and you yourself become mezzed, then you lose the buffs that are flagged to be suppressed. So, e.g., if you're mezzed, you lose the +Def buff of your teammates' Maneuvers toggle. The Devs are looking for a way to work around this, but, it will take coding changes. Until then, here is a list of toggles with Damage Defense and Resistances that will be suppressed if you're mezzed:
* Leadership - Maneuvers (including VEAT versions)
* Cold Domination - Arctic Fog
* Dark Miasma - Shadow Fall
* Forcefield - Dispersion Bubble
* Sonic Resonance - Sonic Dispersion
* Storm Summoning - Steamy Mist
* Traps - Forcefield Generator
* Shields - Grant Cover
Note that some of these toggled protections provide mez protection, making it less likely you'll be mezzed and thus lose the damage defense and resistance.
Note that click buffs are never lost when you're mezzed. You'll still have the Defense and Resistance buffs of powers such as Fortitude and Vengeance even when you are mezzed.[/list]
[u]Multiple Builds[u]
Your character now has two builds (the set of power choices from your Primary, Secondary, and optional Pool Powersets and your enhancement slotting). You can go to any trainer and choose which of your two builds to play. There is a 15 minute cool down in switching builds (though all powers recharge when you switch builds).
If you havent built your second build yet, the first time you choose the second build, your trainer will ask if you wish to train up that build to the next level. Both builds have the same amount of XP. Future XP gained is not divided between the builds -- XP earned while on one build is the same XP for the other build. If you level up on one build, the other build can also level up (and will have to be leveled up separately).
Your second build will not have any access to your enhancements from your main build. Enhancements are intentionally not duped in this way in order to prevent abuse (imagine duping a build filled with all purple ultra-rare enhancements and then selling them!). You will have to outfit your second build with enhancements through other, normal means.
Note though, that you can respec your main build, and as you respec, you can put up to ten of your enhancements in your enhancement tray to be saved. Those enhancements can then be transferred to your second build. If you have enough respecs you can theoretically transfer all your enhancements out of your main build and move them to your second build (or sell/trade/gift them). A respec only respecs one build. Info on respecs.
So, why a Dual Build?<ul type="square">[*]PvP v. PvE builds.[*] Solo v. team player builds.[*]A build with IO Sets with bonuses that work at high levels v. a build with Set Bonuses active at a low level (for low level PvP zones or exemping for flashback missions or task/strike forces).[*] Change of playstyle builds: Blaster v. Blapper; Bane Soldier v. Crab Soldier; Single form Kheldian v. Multi-form; etc [*] Builds that use different Power Pools (including the heroic Epic Power Pools and the villainous Patron Power Pools).[/list] When a villain does the first arc for a Patron, they get that Patrons badge and then they have unlocked all four Patron Power Pools (unlocking all four is new to I13). They can choose from any one of the four. The second build can also choose one of those four pools, even a different one from the first. A respec on either build can allow a villain to choose a different (or no) PPP.
Note: It's Dual Build, not Duel Build. (And respec, not respect.)
Multiple Builds on ParagonWiki
[u]New IO Sets and Recipes[u]<ul type="square">
See Patch Notes for a list of new IO Sets. New IO Set categories, too.
Note that the new Universal Travel Set cannot be slotted into Sprint or the five other Prestige Sprints. This is presumably to prevent an unintended stacking of the set that would only be available to Veterans with the Prestige Reward and might be overpowered considering the set gives a nice positional defense and knockback protection bonuses. Though, it's still possible to stack five of these sets using other travel powers.
New recipe temporary power: Power Analyzer Mark I, II, III. These temp powers allow you see an enemys stats.[/list] -
[ QUOTE ]
In my sg, we've had a few members drop the game unexpectedly, but they put donations from last year's events into the base salvage racks right away.
[/ QUOTE ]
And just how many drop so unexpectedly that they can't simply trade off all their event salvage to another Group Mate before they go?
Anyway, the Devs need to make a game economy decision here: Is event salvage meant to be a marketable commodity where there is hoarding or not? If they allow personal hording, then they should allow for base hoarding. And eventually put in a new type of storage. If they don't want hoarding, then there should be a cap on how much a player can hold (say, about 100 for canes and 4 each for costumes) so that players will fill the market. I find that allowing player hoarding but not allowing base hoarding is illogical.
Besides, though a dev has never said so, I'm guessing that having rack after rack of salvage with 999 in each rack was a database issue, similar to the problems of having too many items in the Market DB (which all loads at once to a player's computer); and is also a problem for the costume editor for the same reason. I don't think the devs would be amenable to unlimited storage containers. Again, just a guess on my part. -
[ QUOTE ]
ONE, just ONE of those IOs is 50 candy canes. The other two are 40 each.
Are you seriously telling me that a single salvage rack should hold less than the parts needed to craft a single enhancement?
[/ QUOTE ]
I regard the whole Halloween and Winter Event storage problems a trumped up canard. Players can hold, what? 999 of each? From your own Candy Cane storage, buy the recipe, craft the IO, and drop that in storage -- one space taken instead of 40. How many Halloween pieces does it take to unlock a costume slot? 4. Hold onto them on one toon and fill your SGs storage as needed -- maybe two sets of each at a time. When do your SG members suddenly need to make 20 new costume slots? -
[u]Update on Merits[u]:
According to Phil Synapse Zeleski:<ul type="square">
[Diminishing Rewards] is probably the most complex part of the Merit Reward system. Different types of tasks have different diminishing rates:
-Story Arcs do not have diminishing returns.
-Task Forces without a second reward option will have their rewards reduced by 50% each time the task is completed within 24 hours. So if a task force gives 50 merits the first time done within 24 hours, then the second time will give 25, the third time will give 12, the fourth time 6. This is reset after 24 hours. Also, I wanted to remind players that the 24 hour diminishing returns set up that we currently have may be subject to change.
-Task Forces and Trials with unique rewards (respecs or unique enhancements) grant full merit rewards for the first completion within 24 hours and 50% merit rewards for each subsequent completion. So if the first run through a task gives 50 merits, each subsequent run through will give 25.[/list]
The DR for Giant Monsters is still unknown. -
[ QUOTE ]
Poster: Zombie_Man
Q: Play test has indicated that the Diminishing Returns of Merit rewards is 50% for attempting the same Trial twice in a row.
Is that right?
Would a third attempt also be at 50% or does the DR get more diminishing? And if yes, what are the stats?
Is the DR rate the same for TFs, Trials, and Arc-Completions?
A: This is probably the most complex part of the Merit Reward system. Different types of tasks have different diminishing rates.
-Story Arcs do not have diminishing returns.
-Task Forces without a second reward option will have their rewards reduced by 50% each time the task is completed within 24 hours. So if a task force gives 50 merits the first time done within 24 hours, then the second time will give 25, the third time will give 12, the fourth time 6. This is reset after 24 hours. Also, I wanted to remind players that the 24 hour diminishing returns set up that we currently have may be subject to change.
-Task Forces and Trials with unique rewards (respecs or unique enhancements) grant full merit rewards for the first completion within 24 hours and 50% merit rewards for each subsequent completion. So if the first run through a task gives 50 merits, each subsequent run through will give 25.
[/ QUOTE ]
Thanks for the answer: New Question...
What are the diminishing rewards, if any, for Giant Monsters? -
[ QUOTE ]
I'm confused. If the leveling Pact is splitting XP equally, how could one character get ahead of the other? The way you have it written, it almost sounds like you have to have your partner log in every time you level, or your character is stuck and unable to advance.
[/ QUOTE ]
Yeah, I should have mentioned that the equalizing is more so for when the Pact is formed. If I'm halfway through level 4 and Pact with you who are at level 3, I won't get XP until you ding 4. From that point on, XP will be split. But since I'm halfway through level 4 and you're at the beginning of level 4, the split XP will cause me to hit level 5 first. At that point, I stop getting XP again. Then when you hit level 5, the XP is split again and we're in sync forever (unless we temporarily break the Pact). -
[u]Leveling Pact Update:[u]
Leveling Pact keeps XP synched. If one member is one or more levels higher than other Pactmates, they receive no XP until the other member catches up. Once they're the same level, XP is divided between them (they may not be exactly the same XP if both are within the same level, but eventually the lower one catches up when the higher-XP member levels and stops getting XP until the lower-XP member catches up again).
Leveling Pact splits Influence/Infamy between Pactmates. There is no attempt to sync Inf amounts. Just an even split at all times.
Leveling Pact does not split Prestige. Members of a pact do not receive any loot drops from Pactmate's accomplishments (they may receive the regular loot drops if their Pactmate is on their team and they are in the same zone or instance together -- just as they would without being in a Pact).
Even if you don't level up at a trainer, if have enough XP to be Level 6 or higher, you can't form a Pact.
You do not see in the Rewards Channel the XP or Inf your Pactmate earns for you. However, if you're one or more levels higher than your Pactmate, you will receive a message that you are not receiving any XP until your Pactmate catches up to you. You can Monitor through the Combat Attributes window your XP, Debt, and Inf if you want to see the effects of the Leveling Pact from a Pactmate (you'll certainly see your XP and Debt bars move). -
(Just a tip -- Player Questions is the forum to use to ask questions. Player The nomenclature can be misleading: Player Guides is the storage of written guides; not a bunch of guides waiting to answer questions. )
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[u]QUESTION:[u] Since Base Salvage will no longer be dropping and Invention Salvage will be doing double duty, will the drop rate of Invention Salvage be increased? If yes, what's the percentage rolls now?
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NEW QUESTION:
Play test has indicated that the Diminishing Returns of Merit rewards is 50% for attempting the same Trial twice in a row.
Is that right?
Would a third attempt also be at 50% or does the DR get more diminishing? And if yes, what are the stats?
Is the DR rate the same for TFs, Trials, and Arc-Completions? -
[ QUOTE ]
Poster: Paradox1
Q: The Story Arc merit system seems to encourage us to solo non-TF missions, as running other people's story arcs earns 0 merits (unless we happen to have the same arc open). Is this really the way you want to encourage us to play the game?
A: While only offering Merits upon story arc completion to the owner of the story arc is consistent with our original reward system (only the mission owner earns the bonus story arc XP and gets to choose the SO enhancement) we understand that there is certainly room for improvement upon this. We will evaluate our options on how we can improve the rewards for party members along for the ride on a story arc.
Poster: macskull
Q: What is the intent and purpose of the merit system? Originally it seemed intended to be an alternate, additional, avenue for those who did not wish to use the market, or for a deterministic way to get a recipe you wanted. Now it seems like it's replacing the current system instead of adding onto it.
A: The basic intent for the Merit Reward system is to more accurately reward players for their time invested doing missions. Ultimately, what it came down to is that not all Task Forces and Strike Forces were created equal. Some take 30 minutes, some can take upwards of 10 hours. The fact that all of these Task Forces had been granting the same reward made us realize we needed to incorporate time into the reward equation. Thats essentially where Merits came in.
Poster: Tempest_56
Q: How much a reduction are we going to see in future changes to merit awards, given that it's been shown that speed-runs of all the rewarding content can be (and will be) run? See: the 25 minute ITF. What failsafes are in place should the rewards for all available content drop to ridiculously low levels, thereby effectively locking out those of us who don't do TF speed runs four-plus times a day?
A: Were aware that there are Task Forces out there that can be completed far faster than they were intended. There will always be groups of players who will maximize their rewards for the amount of time they invest. Any increases or reductions to merits granted will only be done along with ample data supporting this decision. Let me give an example: Currently we show an average completion time of the Positrons taskforce of 235 minutes. If we saw this average completion time, not the fastest times mind you, drop to say 120 or 90 minutes, then wed look into how this is being done. What we could do mission side to fix this, and consider toning down merit rewards if necessary. On the up side, if we see a task that simply isnt giving enough rewards for the time required, well bump that up.
Poster: OfficerZap
Q: Are there any major, easy, exploits that would mean awarding merits to all team members upon completion would not be possible? If not, could you please explain the reasoning for the limitation, and also the impact you think this may/may not have on group vs solo play?
A: The reasoning behind not initially having group members, that are not the mission owner, receiving Merit Rewards is that the original reward system didnt give mission helpers rewards either. However, we understand how some players might perceive this as a penalty for not being the mission owner and we will consider our options on how to best address this issue.
Poster: Zombie_Man
Q: Why were Merits not put in Pool A or B drops so that the rule of 1 Merit for every 5 minutes could be normalized to actual play rather than racing toward the end of a multi-part task bypassing content?
A: The 1 merit for every 5 minute rule is for Task Forces and Strike Forces, not for Story Arcs. Story Arcs award players with roughly 4-6 merits per hour (of average completion time) instead of the 12 merits per hour (of average completion time) that Task Forces give. We will be evaluating options of putting merits through alternate means for the future.
[/ QUOTE ]
Thanks for your answers, Synapse and Dev crew!
We all know that if players are looking for a certain reward, they'll put in work to get that reward. And if need be, do the same task over and over again, i.e., they'll grind/Farm for it. And, if the reward is very great or the work is very tedious and laborious, then players will find the most efficient way to farm.
When the Devs put big time rewards for the *completion* of a TF or the *completion* of an arc, then there is now that incentive to farm *completions* of TFs and Arcs. This is why players "Speed Run" TFs.
And that is why I'm suggesting to reduce the reward of the completion of the TF and add Merits to Pool A and B drops. You can still make the percentage of the roll table for Pool A and B so that players get less than 5 Merits/min, and when you add in the guaranteed Pool C/D drop, it comes to 5 Merits/min. This rewards the teams that plays through content rather than race to completion (they're also rewarded with the other drops they bypass when they bypass fighting). This will also lower the penalty for the casual or non-optimized team that's behind the average completion time or doesn't know the TF 'shortcuts.'
With the addition of Pool A/B drops for everyone on the team, then you can lower Arc completion reward. Your responses above seem to indicate that the Devs are realizing that there's a problem with Arc-completion rewards being just for the mission holder (and I realize how it can be exploited if you give a big reward to everyone who was present at the last mission of an arc). When the reward was an SO, it was no big deal. With all the influence in the game, SO costs are trivial for most players. But Merits are a big reward and giving it only to the mission holder is a bad reward system since it penalizes teammates who were present for the whole arc. If Arcs gave out just one Merit for each of the players and there were Pool A and B Merit rewards, then teammates are rewarded and not just the mission holder.
If you want to reward time investment, Pool A and B is where you should put the rewards in addition to back ending the rewards. While I realize you may not be able to change this before I13 goes Live, I hope you keep it in mind (especially when you see all the TFs' average times collapsing in on themselves.
).
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Welcome!
Might want to shift to White Dwarf form before fielding base and powers questions.
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Welcome!
Hope you're as used to MMO forums as you are MMOs. A propos of your avatar, they've made you into a lightning rod.
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Table of Base Costs, Day Jobs, Merit Reward and Purchases by DJ_Jules [I13 Beta]
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[u]Update for Merits[u]:
The diminishing rewards for TFs or Trials repeated before the 24 hour timer is up seems to be 50% of the usual Merit reward for the first repeat. It has been tested yet what kind of reward would be given for a third or fourth repeat.