Zombie Man

Guide to Diminishing Returns in PvP by Arcanaville

[ QUOTE ]
thanks for the post btw... nice to have everything together since the wiki is a bit slow with updates

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, the wiki is written by players, like me. We tend not to put up beta info on the wiki because it's still so changeable. Information on the wiki is segregated into a lot of separate articles and trying to keep them all updated throughout beta changes isn't easy.

It's easier to have all the guides and a guide to guides on the forums and let the guide writers keep track of things and update things as we go. You'll see that once I13 goes live, just about all the data collected in the beta forums will wind up in their appropriate wiki articles. When that happens, my I13 Highlights guide will be edited down to bare bones stuff and just link to where the more detailed guides are, whether in the Player Guides Forum or the wiki articles.

---

Thanks Stupid_Fanboy for the link!

Good luck and peace, Alex!

[ QUOTE ]
It wasn't a bad article, was great either - and I'm really hoping there is more than the Mission Architect in I14 - like a bit more Power Proliferation - maybe something semi-straight forward somebody mentioned AR Defenders, or maybe something close to a long requested Powerset - like a variant of (MM Thugs') Pistols for Blasters/Corrupters maybe?

[/ QUOTE ]

To all those who've construed Posi's comment in the Boomtown article that the Mission Architect is going to be the only feature of I14, it has been made clear by GhostRaptor that the Mission Architect is the *main* feature of I14.

See here.

After all what do you think all the content writers and artists are going to be doing while the powers guys and the programmers are working on the Mission Architect?

And since the powers guys are going to be working on customizable bosses with a suite of customized powerset combos and AI scripts to make them work, they won't be able to work on Proliferation or new Powersets in I14.

Here's how defense can be balanced.

They really have hired more hard-core *programmers* who can make stuff like this happen through coding. And they're advertising for *more*.

Arcanaville, what are you going to fix next?

And my ability to edit the OPs is gone:

Patch Notes: Open Beta Issue 13 - Nov. 7th

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Misc

Castle says: “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.”

[/ QUOTE ]


Um,does this mean that you could only have,say,5 recharge bonuses from sets no matter their value?

[/ QUOTE ]
From the description, it sounds as if you can't have more than five "Large Recharge Bonus" effects, or more than five "Small Recharge Bonus" effects, or more than five "Minor Recharge Bonus" effects, but you could have five of each one, as opposed to being limited to five Recharge bonuses in toto.

I do wonder whether, given that "Large", "Small", and "Minor" appear to be numerically different values of set bonus in different sets, the back end is smart enough, should the situation occur, to take a case where a player had six Large bonuses for, say, 11%, 9%, 9%, 7%, 7%, 6%, and 5%, to drop the smallest of the Large bonuses, rather than it being random or in some arcane order not determinable from outside.

[/ QUOTE ]

If you look at this page, you'll see that each type of bonus has it's own chart of bonus values. Those bonus values come in seven steps which correspond to the names we see in the Combat Attributes of tiny, small, medium, supersized, jumbo, bellybuster, etc....

Those levels are color coded on this page so you can see the relative strength of the buff.

So, the base value of the recharge bonus is 2.5%. This means a set that gives a recharge bonus of 7.5% has a multiplier of 3, which would be a Level 5 buff, which is color coded red. So, if you go to Sting of the Manticore, you'll see it gives a red Recharge bonus. If you click on Sting of the Manticore, you'll see that it is indeed listed as a 7.5% buff, which I believe is 'huge.' If you slot Sting of the Manticore, or Knockback's Kinetic Crash, or Taunt's Mocking Beratement in any combination five times, you'll see that your Huge Recharge Bonus is 37.5% (5x7.5). If you slot five LotGs, you'll see a separate line for Luck of the Gambler for another 37.5%.

Blondeshell posted this on the closed forum as a rough guide to Recipe pricing:

<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>Merit Rewards
Pool A (u)--- 50 --- 55 (good) --- 125 (really good)
Pool A (r) - 125 -- 135 (good) --- 150 (unique)
Pool B ----- 150 -- 165 (good) --- 180 (unique) --- 200 (good unique)
Pool C ----- 200 -- 220 (good) --- 240 (unique) --- 250/265 (good unique)
Pool D ----- 250 -- 275 (good)</pre><hr />

[ QUOTE ]
Random question: Was the Midnighter Club map mouseovers fixed? Because when you enter the room with three doors, you can't tell which door goes to which zone exit/entrance.

With Mercedes Sheldon being specifically in the Steel Canyon side, knowing which door without having to try them all would be a good thing to have fixed.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't know off the top of my head, but I encourage you to go into Test and check for yourself, and if not fixed, send in a /bug/suggestion form. The more theses things get /bugged, the more the devs know it's problematic and will fix it.

Steel is the door along the same wall as the Cimeroran Crystal.

http://www.vidiotmaps.com/maps_po.ph...idnighter_club Choose the print out version from the pull down menu.

[ QUOTE ]
DEVs, there have been many voices raised here in this forum asking you to please communicate with us about these changes. I implore you to please contact some of the "leaders" of the base building community (PlasmaStream, MadScientist, Hellgaurd, Snow_Globe, Robo_Knight just to name a few off the top of my head) and listen to their concerns about the new system. The changes to say the least are very very unpopular.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is a Guide in the Bases forum.

If you want to give feedback to the Devs, you should go to the forum: Issue 13 Feedback &amp; Discussion. I doubt they're reading this here.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Misc

Castle says: “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.”

[/ QUOTE ]


Um,does this mean that you could only have,say,5 recharge bonuses from sets no matter their value?

[/ QUOTE ]

It depends how they are named.

E.g., the 7.5% recharge that comes from Luck of the Gamble special IO has one particular name and the 7.5% recharge that comes from three other various IO Set bonuses has a different name. Thus, you can have eight 7.5% recharge bonuses: from from slotting 5 LoTGs and three from the other sets.

When we were told that it was certain values that couldn't be stacked more than 5 times, the devs were being imprecise and probably didn't consider the case of the LotGs. The engine excludes stacking more than 5 of a kind based on the name of the bonus, not its value.

[ QUOTE ]
I'm not sure if i should ask this here, but has any info been released on the various costume sets/parts that were supposed to be unlocked within the Day Jobs system? Or hasn't there been enough time for anyone to unlock them?

[/ QUOTE ]

The are no unlockable costumes related to Day Jobs. The new costumes related to Day Jobs (civilian clothing) is free and unlocked and available to every toon starting at level 1.

The only unlockables this issue are certain new shields (Rularuu, Vanguard, Roman).

[ QUOTE ]
Wow. Amazing post btw. Yeah more explanation about the auras could be hand, and there is one tidbit that I couldn`t grasp completely.

You can have in fact more than 5 costumes without having to pay a vendor fee by using the .costume files???

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes and no.

You can create and store dozens of different costumes while in the costume window at no cost. Changing the costume in one of your slots into one of those saved costume sets and then wearing it into the game counts as a costume change, and that you have to pay for or use a token.

So, let's say I use up my four slots for various costume styles and I keep my fifth slot as my 'Holiday Costume'. I can then create a Winter, Valentine, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Beach Party costumes in the .costume files. And then when each event comes around, I switch my fifth slot into the occasional costume.

Making the five occasional costumes costs nothing. Switching into them as each event comes around during the year will cost me.

I'll rephrase that to be more specific.

I13 Beta Guide updated, thanks, PlasmaStream.

(see sig.)

[u]Level Pact[u]

Level Pact is for friends and family and SuperGroup members who want to play together when sometimes one or more of them can’t play at the same time as the others. The Level Pact keeps them in synch so that they never have to worry about sidekicking issues. It is not meant for random players to hook up in a Level Pact and somehow reap special benefits from it. It’s for people who play together often over the course of many sessions.


There are reports that the Level Pact is still very buggy as of Nov 1. Check it out after another patch. Until then, this is how it’s supposed to work…<ul type="square">
Characters can be linked in a ‘Level Pact’ which shares their XP between those characters and keeps the two characters in synch with each other so that they’re always the same level.


For now, Level 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. Both characters need to be online at the same time to start the pact. 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, they’ll 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. So, what about debt or double XP, how does that figure in?


If someone has debt, half the XP they earn goes to pay their debt, then the other half goes into the Pact Pool. Then the Pool pays the members of the Pact. When the Pool pays the member of the Pact who has debt, that Pool Payment is not halved (again). This keeps the person with debt in synch with the other members of the pact. Simply put, the person in debt is earning less for their Pact.


In the same way, if someone is earning double XP (double XP weekend, patrol XP) then that XP is doubled and paid to the pool. Then the pool pays the members of the pact and that amount is not again doubled if a member of the Pact is earning double XP.


When a Level Pact is first made, any member who is a lower level than the others will get the XP first 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.[/list]
Level 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, it’s 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 it’s not so much easier that it needs to be worried about. Besides, the offline toon isn’t getting any Influence/Infamy or loot drops, so, there’s a downside to Power Leveling in this manner.


What about expanding Level Pacts to character past Level 5 or to more than two characters? Positron said that the Level 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.”




[u]Merits[u]

Merits are a new reward system in Issue 13. (Don’t 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 badge missions.


Merit Vendors are available in almost all zones. They show up on the mini-map with the store icon. They have blue ring on the ground around them and they’re dressed in burgundy and gold (why? &lt;shrug&gt.


So, how many Merits do you get for various tasks and how much do all the shinies cost in Merits? Phil, the other powers guy besides Castle, said,

[ QUOTE ]
“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 it’s 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."

[/ QUOTE ]

Team size, level of mission difficulty, Ouroboros Flashback settings, or the level of the players make no difference in the amount of Merits awarded.

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.

Don’t worry, for a relatively inexpensive amount of Merits (about 25), 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.

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.

Guide To Merit Rewards for TFs, Arcs, et. al. by Catwhoorg, Leandro, Bionic Flea, et al.

Merit System Writeup by Neuronia

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.




[u]Bases[u]

Added Teleporter Beacon for Pocket D. Added SG badge to access Pocket D beacon.



Removed all base salvage from base item recipes. 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 perdictable, just like Dr. Brainstorm's experiments. So you can only narrow down what you can make from them in specific random ways.

Here's what you can convert brain storms into, for those wondering:

1 -&gt; random common salvage
2 -&gt; arcane common salvage
2 -&gt; tech common salvage
5 -&gt; random uncommon salvage
10 -&gt; arcane uncommon salvage
10 -&gt; tech uncommon salvage
20 -&gt; random rare salvage
40 -&gt; arcane rare salvage
40 -&gt; tech rare salvage


An example of what you can make using Invention Salvage: For the Arcane Telepad you need…<ul type="square">[*]clockwork winder, temporal sands, simple chemical, psionic manifestation; OR,[*]ruby, destiny, silver, Hami goo; OR,[*]another set of four[/list]
The Tech Telepad has 3 sets as well, different than the Arcane Telepads.


All Supergroup Base room prices and Prestige costs have been rebalanced. Prestige costs for everything will go down: plots, items, rent. There will be no automatic kickback for items purchased previously. You could sell everything and then re-buy it all back to gain a profit, but, no one is being forced to. From here on out, everything new will be cheaper for everyone. (Although, consider that upgrading a plot -- which are now cheaper than ever before -- is a sell-off and re-buy type of transaction, which can recoup huge amounts of prestige. So, even if selling off and re-buying everything in the base would be burdensome, just doing a plot upgrade is an easy way to get back a lot prestige.)


Guide to New Super/VillainGroup Base Costs by PlasmaStream


Right now, as of the 10/31 Patch, base building is a bit buggy because all bases are being flagged as non-raidable. This is to stop pathing checks necessary for a ‘fair raid’ to make sure players haven’t used items in the base to unfairly limit enemy movement to block off a section of the base. Most likely, Issue 13 will go live with (instant) raiding turned off. When the time comes to implement base raiding again, Supergroups will be given the option to turn on the ‘raidable’ flag and then they will have to edit their bases to conform to pathing parameters. Those who don’t want to raid can continue to ‘float’ and ‘stack’ objects all they want now without fear of having to undo it (at least, not for a long while… nothing’s for ever!).


However, with pathing turned off, all sort of other checks have turned off, too. E.g., you can move items into rooms they don’t belong, and then can’t move them back. Or delete a room and leave certain items out in ‘limbo.’ Be careful. Poshyb posted that a limited form of pathing will be reinstated next patch to prevent such problems.



[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


St. Martial now has a blue sky (bug maybe).


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 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.


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 they’ve 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 you’re using if you’ve 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 won’t 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 ‘combinations’ that are now available which put a selected Aura on different parts of the body simultaneously, for example, eyes and hands. 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.


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…) can’t be changed in PvP without also changing it for PvE.


Castle’s original PvP power changes post


Blue Shield 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 your suppressed (read, in combat). This is still being balanced."


Coming Soon: Buffing an ally will no longer cause Travel Suppression (unless the buff also includes a Heal effect.)


Mechanics of Movement suppression:

Run Speed (SS + Sprint) 58.38mph reduces to 31.83mph
Fly Speed (Hoverpack) 29.36mph reduces to 21.14mph
Jump Speed (Combat Jumping + Sprint + Hurdle) 38.24mph reduces to 31.11mph
Jump Height 19.83ft is unaffected due to beling below the suppressed cap already. Using Super Jump, 90.79ft reduces to 72ft max.


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]

Castle says: “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.”

UPDATES AND CORRECTIONS WELCOME. PLEASE GIVE REACTIONS AND FEEDBACK TO THESE ITEMS IN THEIR APPROPRIATE FORUMS AND THREADS. THANKS.



Issue 13 Beta Patch Notes



[u]Issue 13 Beta Known Issues[u]

On their way.



[u]Issue 13 Features Background Articles[u]<ul type="square">
[*]Positron on the Open Beta of Issue 13
[*]Official Issue 13 Overview
[*]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)
[*]Screenshots of I13[/list]



[u]Day Jobs and On Patrol[u]<ul type="square">

[*]Phil Zeleski’s Dev Diary on Day Jobs
[*]Day Job recruiter in AP Town Hall
[*]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.
[*]Day Jobs and Badges by BeefCake[/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 Harlick’s 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 Man’s Deck, Villain, 30-35[/list]
Daedalus, Cimerora<ul type="square">[*] Future Threat, Hero, 40-50[*] Stolen Power, Hero, 45-50[/list]
Sister Airlia, Cimerora<ul type="square">[*] Power from the Past, Villain, 40-50[*] Politics, Cimerora Stle, Villain, 45-50[/list]



[u]New Powersets[u]<ul type="square">
[*]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. It’s unavoidable given the constraints of the current engine.

Activating a Shield power puts in you ‘combat mode.’ This will active combat mode auras and deactivate emotes… by design.

[*]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
Video of Pain Domination
[*]Closed Beta already had three ‘Level Bumps’ that pushed Shields and Pain Domination characters to 50. It’s unlikely, though not impossible, they’ll do that again in Open Beta.[/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.


MasterMinds 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).

Toggles which are not 'offensive toggles' no longer drop when mezzed.

Kheldians received a bunch of buffs, see patch notes.

A lot of powers in the Patron and Epic Pools were switched to another power. There were certain powers that were hardly being chosen by players. Other powers were so much better than others, that they were being taken by almost everyone. Switches were make to make all sets and powers more balanced. See the patch notes for what powers were switched.

Developer Jonathan Courney on the new Power Pools

As of Nov 5, a decision has been made based on feedback which was mostly negative about the changes that the new APP/PPP powers will be added as an extra choice rather than swapping out original powers:

[ QUOTE ]
Hey all,

I'd like you all to know that I've been reading everyones feedback since closed beta, and have heard all the good, the bad and the ugly.

Just a heads up, but we'll be adding the extra powers in as an extra level 43 power, and keeping the existing powers exactly where they are.

We are doing this because of the constructive feedback we got during closed (and now open) beta.

We're in serious crunch mode to get this done though, so I'll skip writing more info until we're done tonight.

Jonathan

[/ QUOTE ][/list]

[u]Dual Builds[u]

Your character now has two ‘builds’ (the set of power choices from your Primary, Secondary, and 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. If you haven’t 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, and the XP 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.

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 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. Mult-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 Patron’s 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. Switching PPPs does not change your Patron Badge nor open up the other Patron arcs nor allow your villain to Flashback to a different Patron’s arc. You are free to choose from the PPPs, but not the Patron Arcs – you can only still have one of those.

Note: It's Dual Build, not Duel Build. (And respec, not respect.)



[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’ in the base empowerment station: Power Analyzer Mark I, II, III. These temp powers allow you see an enemy’s stats.[/list]

[ QUOTE ]
... I would MUCH rather have seen the resources be put into a technology refresh than deployment to another platform...

[/ QUOTE ]

Do you hear that, JLove?! Stop recoding the entire game in Mac language and get back to work on PC-compliant costume pieces!! You, too, Ex Libris!!

[ QUOTE ]
How will bind files work?
Currently I use the /bind_load_file command to map my binds
I have to to do /bind_load_file c:/coh/reset.txt to load my speed on demand binds.

On mac this command won't work.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm sure the different clients will handle default file directories appropriately. If not, this is what the Mac Beta is for... to find those inconsistencies and fix them.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
LH,

Seems that the purchasable "Mac Version" is simply another Game Edition (like GvE or the Game Card or the Collector's Edition). So, can a PC user just simply purchase this edition, add the code to their current account and enjoy the free month and in-game goodies?

[/ QUOTE ]

That is what I am thinking also. Confirmation would be nice, but we will hear eventually I imagine.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm working on clarification on that front. Likely, it will come when we do the follow up article with the specifics and screenshots of what the extras for the Mac version consist of.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, if my scenario isn't the case, then for people who buy the "Mac Version", they'll never be able to add the Collector Edition codes to their account and pick up those in-game goodies (nor the GvE or Game Card editions). So, please pass along that it would probably be wise to allow the stacking in order to prevent creating 'Mac Orphan' accounts that are cut off from accessing the other editions.

LH,

Seems that the purchasable "Mac Version" is simply another Game Edition (like GvE or the Game Card or the Collector's Edition). So, can a PC user just simply purchase this edition, add the code to their current account and enjoy the free month and in-game goodies?

In fact several of us just got all the 2008 info nicely organized: http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Halloween_Event_2008

And pics for everything.

Learn to code Wiki and join us!

Well, gather some more feedback and when you're ready for the final form, make a new thread. Consider this beta.