City of Heroes: Live Forum Archive

Current Badge Issues (updated 2-21-06)

Beef_Cake

By Beef_Cake,
Posted on: 2006-02-21 14:34 in Badges and Gladiators

 

Posted

Thank you to those who provided more info. Particularly for Spider Smasher and Mob Specialist.


Following from the model for the Archtype Issues threads, I've compiled all the Badge issues. This will also, hopefully, free up Positron's thread for badge questions and not bug chasing.
After the list of Bugs and Quality-of-Life issues, I've included a short list of items that the Developers have recently addressed, in the hopes of keeping this thread current and not degenerating into a repeat of larger issues that have their own threads.
Comments and additions are gladly welcomed. I will keep the master list up to date.
Note: I will only consider bugs to actually be fixed when they hit the Live servers. But it is still nice to know when they're on Test.


Recently fixed items: (Since patch notes omit badge changes.)
<ul type="square">[*]By observing the Surging fix, and other badges like Villain, it seems all Count style badges take 2 patches to fix them: 1 patch to start coutning, 1 patch to actually award the badge. So it makes sense that the Deathsurge fix is not complete yet, and that the Gunner and Demon Slayer fixes don't *appear* implemented although we were told they were.[*]Surging Badge now awards for defeating Deathsurge. If you defeated him since the Valentines Day content patch, you will get the badge, otherwise you need to defeat him again.[*]Artwork fixed for Moonfire and Shadow Shard TFs[*]Redcap Gladiator now awards for the Toothbreaker badge.[*]Snowbeast Gladiator now awards for the Toy Collector badge.[*]Man in Black/Woman in Black text fixed.[/list]
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Bugs preventing badge earning
<ul type="square">[*]Some kill badges do not give credit for mobs over level 29. The following are known to be on this list: Ancestor Spirits, Sorcerers, Mu Guardians. Suspected to be on this list: Lucent Legacy of Light, Ember Legacy of Flame.
[*]Banisher does not count Spirit Masks in the high level Portal Corp mission, although there is no noticable difference in the Masks themselves. People have been attributing to this to the Portal, but could it simply be another Over-29 bug? Consider that Fake Nemesis inside portals do count for Unvieler.
[*]Fortunata Gladiator is reported as bugged for Heroes. It is possible the Fortunata in Siren's Call have the over-29 bug? It is known that Villains get credit for over-29 Fortunata in their door missions. Would there be a difference between spawns in Siren's and in doors? (Can anyone offer more detailed experiences trying to get this badge?)
[*]Gunner does not award at all (Scheduled to be fixed in an upcoming patch. It is unknown whether previous kills will be counted.)
[*]PvP Patrol missions do not exist over level 25 (Scheduled to be fixed in an upcomming patch. Patrols in Recluse's Victory in Issue 7 will allow characters over level 40 to get this badge.)
[*]Howling Twilight and Elixer of Life do not give credit towards Healing badges. (Can anyone offer more details here?)
[*]Spider Smasher does not award for Heroes, even though the meter fills up.
[*]Demon Slayer not awarding for Villains, along with the Behemoth Overlord Gladiator (Scheduled to be fixed in an upcoming patch. It is unknown whether previous kills will be counted.) It is working OK for Heroes.
[*]Goon Squad not awarding (for Cage Consortium)
[*]Visionary not awarding for Villains. There are unconfirmed reports of this one, in which case this is an issue with the meter not tracking. Can anyone confirm with a) a screenshot of the badge and b) details on which of the two Rularuu missions you used? (One mission features ambush waves. Perhaps there is a difference similar to the RedCap/Red_Cap issues.)
[*]Grand Lanista sometimes requires more than 10 rated matches to award.
[*]Rocketman is occasionally not awarded after 10 launches. This is compounded by a lot of existing debate over its requirements. Possible causes would include if it's actually for 10 of one type of rocket (a simple confusion in requirements) or that the count resets if you zone. It's also possible there was a problem with the count resetting back when the 5-hour badges used to reset and people are trying to include old, forgotten launches in their current totals. In any case it would be useful to get a Dev's assurance that it's working OK from this point forward, and perhaps clarification on its requirements.
[*]Mob Specialist Gladiator has uncertain requirements. It seems to not be tied to Warden, but is for Lt and/or Boss prisoners. Or, it could turn out to be bugged. Perhaps a Dev would be so kind as to clarify this?
[*]"Missing" Gladiators: Perhaps a Dev could confirm these?
Arachnoid (Supposedly for 40+ content)
Crab Spider Longfang (Supposedly removed after Betatest)
Longbow Warden 1 (Supposedly removed after Betatest)
Tarantula Queen (Supposedly for 40+ content)
Wolf Spider Tac-Ops (Supposedly removed after Betatest)
[/list]-----------------------------------

Bugs with unearned badge placeholders
<ul type="square">[*]The following "count" badges have no placeholders at all:
Coldhearted
Grand Lanista
Hammerhead
Pirate
Spectral
PvP Kills
PvP Reputation
PvP Missions
PvP Zone 5-hour Timers (Irradiated, Siren's Song, Web Master)
Rocketman
Dimensional Warder (see below)
[*]All kill-count Gladiators have no placeholders (eg, Bladegrass, Ancestor Spirits, Fortunata) (Also reference Mob Specialist and Lucent Legacy issues. Having placeholders would help greatly there.)
[*]Should all badges have meters on their placeholders when possible? Badges currently with placeholders but no meters:
Influence/Infamy
Healing
Debt
[/list]-----------------------------------

Bugs with awarded badges
<ul type="square">[*]Text bugs
Cold Warrior has odd text for a Villain
Koalin Legacy of Earth has odd text for a Hero
Hammerhead appears to have placeholder text
[*]Some badges appear to have the wrong artwork:
Hero explore badges from PvP zones have the Villain explore artwork (Scheduled to be fixed in an upcomming patch)
Villain Respecs
[*]Players report earning Lanista and Grand Lanista at odd times (such as long after winning matches) and in some cases without meeting the requirements.
[/list]-----------------------------------

General badge Quality-of-Life issues
<ul type="square">[*]Badge fixes rarely show up on the Patch Notes lists. Can anything be done about those?
[*]Dimensional Warder could benefit from a meter in order to tell which targets you have not yet taken down, probably more in the style of a checklist instead of a progress bar. Similar checklists could be used for History badges and Accolades.
[*]Epic heal badges are almost impossible in light of Enhancement Diminishing Returns. Can the requirements be lowered?
[*]Epic Influence/Infamy badges are almost impossible if you are contributing to a Supergroup. Can the requirements be lowered? Or can Prestige contribute to this?
[*]Giant Monster spawn rates seem far too low for some monsters. Players frequently complain about the absence of: Kraken, Jack of Irons, Adamastor, Clockwork Paladin and the Ghost Ship (since the Ship require multiple events to earn the badge). Lusca seems far too high, considering a second sometimes spawns while the first is being fought, and the Ghost of Scrapyard has been known to spawn every 15 minutes. Perhaps all zone event spawn times need to be examined? (Do we have any real info on average times between spawns? I know some were given out when Sally was being fixed.)
[*]Can total badge count be easily readable somewhere? Preferably in Personal Info and on Kiosks.
[*]Lanista requires 1 match, rated or unrated. Grand Lanista requires rated matches. Why the inconsistency? Should Grand Lanista force players to have an Arena record just to earn a badge?
[*]Master of Olympus has been earned by some Villains in Warburg. Without explanation, the Kronos seems unable to spawn in that zone now. Why was this changed? Can this be changed back so other villains can gain the badge? If there's an issue with the triggered spawn, can Kronos be a zone event in Warburg to offer more villains a chance at this badge?
[*]Some groups provide no badge content, making them less interesting to fight. Including: Void Hunters, Luddites, Mooks, Spetsnaz, Wyvern, Axis America, and all the Rogues in Warburg. Any plans for badges for those?
[*]Awards from a Task Force (which include badges) are keyed to the last mission, not to the TF as a whole. This causes numerous problems.
[/list]-----------------------------------

City of Villains Badge Contacts Quality-of-Life issues
<ul type="square">[*]Can badge contacts be hinted at in-game? Since all other contacts in the game are referred, many players have no idea they can pick up contacts that they see around the zone. (They do not have to be directy referred by a contact, there is a delivery mission to Tarixus. Or somehow communicate to player that they should talk to anyone they see with a yellow circle under their feet.)
[*]Veluta Lunata has 2 arcs of 3 missions each. The first is levels 5-10, but requires killing level 10-12 ghosts to unlock it, further complicated by level 14-16 ghosts springing from traps. The second arc appears to be given out twice, one within the 10-15 limit, the second time with no upper limit but the mobs cap at level 15. (Scheduled to be addressed in an upcomming patch by greatly lowering the number of kills needed for the Pirate badge.)
[*]Doc Buzzsaw only really offers missions during 1 level, given the level 30 maximum and the usual level you acquire the Bling badge. This seems limiting, and can not be overcome since you can't really work at getting infamy the way you can work for kill badges. (Which begs the related question: is it fun to unlock a contact with a badge that's an inevitable by-product of leveling and not really an earned achievement?) Can the requirement be changed, or the level range shifted to 30-35?
[*]Slot Machine is unlocked by Marcone Family. Prior to level 35 (the Machine's maximum level) Family missions have non-Marcone bosses, which count for Untouchable and not Gangbuster. So the only way to unlock the Slot Machine is to hunt grey-con Marcone in Port Oakes. This is not a challenge, and not fun considering how many you need. Can the requirement be changed, or can the level range be shifted to 35-40?
[*]Arbiter Leery was previously bugged in that he only gave missions if you had earned but not used the first respec. Currently, he only gives missions if you have used the first respec. (Scheduled to be fixed in an upcomming patch so that either badge works.)
[/list]-----------------------------------
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The Not-a-Current-Issue list
This includes items that are not bugs, and issues that will not be discussed in this thread because the Devs have addressed them and we will not continue to debate them here unless new information arrises. Please take discussions about them to their specific threads. Currently unaddressed QoL issues are listed elsewhere in this document.
(Most of these are paraphased from the original Dev response for clarity.)
<ul type="square">
[*]Time badges for PvP zones only award when you log out and log in again while standing in that zone. Because this does not ultimately prevent badge awarding, it will likely not be patched any time soon. (Statesman)
[*]The badge window, while out of order, has a method to its madness based on a number of internal coding issues. Changes to this window will not be made at this time. (Positron)
[*]Low-level badge missions can be obtained by Exmplaring to a lower character. There are no current plans for a system to go back and do your own low-level missions. (Positron)
[*]There are no current plans for a way to go back and get the Isolator badge. However, Statesman has stated that that badges with only 1 opportunity to acquire them will never be included in Accolade power requirements.
[*]Some kill badge targets are almost impossible to find, but there are no specific* plans to make them more available. (Postiron) ( * Considering there are always plans for more missions with every expansion, one hopes these will turn up eventually in new content.) This affects...
- Villainous kill badges requiring farming of specific missions. (Unveiler, Weatherman, Banisher, Infiltrator, Zookeeper, Illusionist.)
- Badges only avaible thru the Valentines Event missions (Hero: Coldhearted, Weed Whacker, Hellfrost, Hordeling Lasher. Villain: Cap Buster)
- PvE Kill badges only available by hunting in PvP zones. (Hero: Arachnos-related badges, Man in Black. Villain: Monkeywrencher, Legionnaire.)
[*]Unlike Temp Powers, Accolade Powers are not always available when you exemplar. They are availble back to the level at which they were awarded. There are no plans to change this. (Positron)
[/list]-----------------------------------

Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
<ul type="square">[*]Bug-Hunter is awarded by the Devs for finding major, serious, gamebreaking bugs. There have been discussion about this badge being for Beta testers, that may still happen, or it may not. (Positron)
[*]Epic Debt Badges award for Debt, not for number of deaths. (CuppaJo)
[*]Passport is not obtainable yet. Though originally designed for server transfer, that design has been abandoned and there should be no expectations for how this badge will come to be used. (Positron)
[*]Time badges for PvP zones do not reset if you leave the zone - that was a bug at one time, but was fixed long ago. (Statesman)
[*]Wandering Giant Monsters award badges to anyone on a team that does 25% of the monster's HP in damage. (Note: it is uncertain how this accounts for people leaving a team, or joining a team late in the fight, or for HP regenerated by the Monster.) The Devs are satisfied with this system for now, and it is consistent with awarding kill credit for any other mob in the game. (Positron) This system will change from 25% to 10% in an upcomming patch.
[*]Monsters inside missions (such as Adamastor in the Portal Corp mission) do not award badges like their zone-event counterparts. This is by design. (Positron)
[*]The Holiday event from 2005 will likely repeat in 2006, for those who did not get Toy Collector. (Positron) (Note: There has been no comment one way or another on repeating the Halloween event, or about making Frozen Fury available again.)
[*]Caleb is the only Zone Event that can be spawned by players. (CuppaJo)[/list]-----------------------------------

 

Posted

Should Banisher be dropped off the "Hard to get" list?
Masks spawn in Bloody Bay now. Sure, it's a choice of 1 farmed mission or a PvP zone, but that's still an improvement.

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Heroes can only get the Serpent Red Ink Man gladiator (150 Blue Ink Men according to Vidiotmaps) in Siren's Call.

[/ QUOTE ]

Are you sure about this? I've seen quite a few Blue Ink Men in St. Martial.

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Heroes can only get the Serpent Red Ink Man gladiator (150 Blue Ink Men according to Vidiotmaps) in Siren's Call.

[/ QUOTE ]

Are you sure about this? I've seen quite a few Blue Ink Men in St. Martial.

[/ QUOTE ]

Notice he said heroes, the ones who can't get to St. Marial

My Characters
Hammers of Justice SG

 

Posted

Mad Scientist, great job on the list again, and thank you for tagging in my suggestion on the Epic Inf badges.

"Null is as much an argument "for removing the cottage rule" as the moon being round is for buying tennis shoes." -Memphis Bill

 

Posted

125 Blue Ink Men and they also spawn in Steel Canyon and Talos Island rarely.

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Notice he said heroes, the ones who can't get to St. Marial

[/ QUOTE ]

My bad. Sometimes I just forget that people still play heroes, heh. And of course I can't be bothered to read completely through a long post; my time is much too valuable.

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]

* Caleb is the only Zone Event that can be spawned by players. (CuppaJo)

[/ QUOTE ]

Can we get a link to the post where she said this?

Because I have redname confirmation through PM that you can summon Deathsurge, too.

Current Badge Hunter: Plot Device (Rad/Thermal/Dark) - 1,268 Xbox Live: Friggin Taser

King of Electricity, Lead Inmate running the Carl and Sons asylum, the "Man" behind the Establishment, Given Honor in Hat Form By Paragon City (Favorite Forum Poster 2006!), Master of Ceremonies of the Fair Use Law podcast

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Mob Specialist Gladiator has uncertain requirements. It seems to not be tied to Warden, but is for Lt and/or Boss prisoners. Or, it could turn out to be bugged. Perhaps a Dev would be so kind as to clarify this?

[/ QUOTE ]

Its Boss Prisoners, I got the Warden without getting the glad and after killing a few bosses I got the glad

 

Posted

Yeah, I've never seen Blue Ink Men outside of Siren's Call. If I recall correctly, they're usually accompanied by an assassin's strike and a /tell stating "lol rp is [censored] n00b!11"

There are no words for what this community, and the friends I have made here mean to me. Please know that I care for all of you, yes, even you. If you Twitter, I'm MrThan. If you're Unleashed, I'm dumps. I'll try and get registered on the Titan Forums as well. Peace, and thanks for the best nine years anyone could ever ask for.

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Rocketman is occasionally not awarded after 10 launches. This is compounded by a lot of existing debate over its requirements. Possible causes would include if it's actually for 10 of one type of rocket (a simple confusion in requirements) or that the count resets if you zone. It's also possible there was a problem with the count resetting back when the 5-hour badges used to reset and people are trying to include old, forgotten launches in their current totals. In any case it would be useful to get a Dev's assurance that it's working OK from this point forward, and perhaps clarification on its requirements.

[/ QUOTE ]

Just picked up Rocketman the other day after launching 5 rockets (2 one week, 3 about a week and a half later). The badge was not awarded right away but I petitioned after launching the 5th and had a GM award it to me as I was leaving the zone.

San

lvl 50 Ice/Storm
facebook.com/sanbient
gplus.to/sanbient

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Rocketman is occasionally not awarded after 10 launches. This is compounded by a lot of existing debate over its requirements. Possible causes would include if it's actually for 10 of one type of rocket (a simple confusion in requirements) or that the count resets if you zone. It's also possible there was a problem with the count resetting back when the 5-hour badges used to reset and people are trying to include old, forgotten launches in their current totals. In any case it would be useful to get a Dev's assurance that it's working OK from this point forward, and perhaps clarification on its requirements.

[/ QUOTE ]

Just picked up Rocketman the other day after launching 5 rockets (2 one week, 3 about a week and a half later). The badge was not awarded right away but I petitioned after launching the 5th and had a GM award it to me as I was leaving the zone.

San

[/ QUOTE ]

Woah. You got a GM to award a badge you rightfully earned?

I hate to sound so cynical and sarcastic, but it really is an achievement after the glut of "It's a bug, wait for it to be fixed and do it again"s.

Never surrender! Never give up!
Help keep Paragon City alive with the unofficial City of Heroes Tabletop Role Playing Game!

 

Posted

Just a note, as of this morning, Patrol Missions were available in Sirens and Warburg...

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

* Caleb is the only Zone Event that can be spawned by players. (CuppaJo)

[/ QUOTE ]

Can we get a link to the post where she said this?

Because I have redname confirmation through PM that you can summon Deathsurge, too.

[/ QUOTE ]

That was over a month ago, when Caleb was bugged, long before he was fixed. I think it's gone.

It's also too bad we don't have the original assertion (from Positron, I believe) that no zone events were summoned at all. Since that original post, we've now gotten two exceptions to the rule, apparently from 2 different sources, and no cross-referencing between them. And people claim to be summoning Eochai and Jack, but I've never heard of an official post that would make them exceptions to the initial official posts of nothing summoned. And every monster with an odd spawn rate always raises the question if there's a trigger event people are unaware of.

This is starting to get confusing, and I'm not here to write a zone event guide. I think I'll just move the whole issue into the QoL section asking for some clarifications.
It would be really nice if there was a complete source on these covering all of them at once - not some deleted original post and scattered addendums. Could your RedName source provide that? Or should we start a thread collecting Zone Event times and triggers (maybe get some good info on what should be labeled "too rare") and then get a RedName to look at our analysis and give us an OK?

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Should Banisher be dropped off the "Hard to get" list?
Masks spawn in Bloody Bay now. Sure, it's a choice of 1 farmed mission or a PvP zone, but that's still an improvement.

[/ QUOTE ]

You can also get BP masks in Potters Field (Sharkshead Isle).

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Master of Olympus has been earned by some Villains in Warburg. Without explanation, the Kronos seems unable to spawn in that zone now. Why was this changed? Can this be changed back so other villains can gain the badge? If there's an issue with the triggered spawn, can Kronos be a zone event in Warburg to offer more villains a chance at this badge?

[/ QUOTE ]

Have heard of force spawning him in Warburg if you get a team to complete the pre-requisit mission while you are in Warburg. Then his ambush comes to you in Warburg so villians can get the badge. I am close to my Kronos and plan to test this on my own, will keep you updated

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Rocketman is occasionally not awarded after 10 launches. This is compounded by a lot of existing debate over its requirements. Possible causes would include if it's actually for 10 of one type of rocket (a simple confusion in requirements) or that the count resets if you zone. It's also possible there was a problem with the count resetting back when the 5-hour badges used to reset and people are trying to include old, forgotten launches in their current totals. In any case it would be useful to get a Dev's assurance that it's working OK from this point forward, and perhaps clarification on its requirements.

[/ QUOTE ]

As far as I can tell, the counter for this badge was reset, and it is now given correctly for 5 rocket launches. I will try and test this again. For my villain, my total rocket launch count is about 14, 5 of which came after the patch that fixed the timed badges.

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]

It's also too bad we don't have the original assertion (from Positron, I believe) that no zone events were summoned at all. Since that original post, we've now gotten two exceptions to the rule, apparently from 2 different sources, and no cross-referencing between them. And people claim to be summoning Eochai and Jack, but I've never heard of an official post that would make them exceptions to the initial official posts of nothing summoned. And every monster with an odd spawn rate always raises the question if there's a trigger event people are unaware of.


[/ QUOTE ]

It's not clear to me that Positron's statement included CoV - it was made a while ago. I do believe that CoH zone events are not triggered. Jack and Eochai are part of a multi-stage wave battle, which *begins* at random but once it starts it's sort of player triggered in the sense that the leftovers from a wave can be cleared to make the event continue.

At this point it really looks like all 3 CoV zone monsters are triggered by kill counts. That sounds like a design decision to me.

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

* Caleb is the only Zone Event that can be spawned by players. (CuppaJo)

[/ QUOTE ]

Can we get a link to the post where she said this?

Because I have redname confirmation through PM that you can summon Deathsurge, too.

[/ QUOTE ]

Let's see it. Copy and Paste.

 

Posted

So if you're claiming Ghost of Scrapyard is triggered, what's the trigger?

Do we have details on the Deathsurge trigger? Someone said 100 Gremlins, is there a timeframe for that?

 

Posted

Killing X number of Scrapyarders supposedly.

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
So if you're claiming Ghost of Scrapyard is triggered, what's the trigger?

Do we have details on the Deathsurge trigger? Someone said 100 Gremlins, is there a timeframe for that?

[/ QUOTE ]

I haven't tested Scrapyard. Some have claimed it's 100 Scrapyarders anywhere in Sharkhead. He certainly seems to be up most of the time. It doesn't look like multiple copies are possible (unlike Deathsurge, where 2 copies are commonly observed).

Testing on the test server spawned one Deathsurge in an empty zone after about 120 gremlins and a second Deathsurge after about 120 more. There's conflict between the 100 vs. 120 numbers but the second Deathsurge showed up right on schedule. We were going for a third but the server went down for a patch - it's really time-consuming to wait for gremlin respawns at the limited number of sites so I haven't gone back to try again.