Release Notes for 19.20090918.4T2 - 9/28/09


AgentMountaineer

 

Posted

Release Notes for 1600.20090918.4T2

Monday, September 28, 2009

COMBINED

Rewards

  • Fixed bug was causing drop rates to be slightly too low.

CITY OF HEROES

Tasks

  • Katie Hannon Task Force - Fixed a bug that would sometimes cause Katie to stop following players.

CITY OF VILLAINS
  • None.


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Posted

"Rewards

  • Fixed bug was causing drop rates to be slightly too low."
w00t!
Edit: "Slightly"?


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mid_Forever View Post
"Rewards
  • Fixed bug was causing drop rates to be slightly too low."
w00t!
Edit: "Slightly"?
The slightly part is a bit worrisome.

Sounds like more testing is in order!


 

Posted

I'm disturbed that there is no mention of a fix for the Ernesto Hess TF. We were told that it was a simple error for Hess but that they would have to "take a look" at the Katie TF. Yet the Katie TF is getting fixed already.


Paragon City Search And Rescue
The Mentor Project

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ironblade View Post
I'm disturbed that there is no mention of a fix for the Ernesto Hess TF. We were told that it was a simple error for Hess but that they would have to "take a look" at the Katie TF. Yet the Katie TF is getting fixed already.
Uh... check the patch from 4 days ago, yo.


Trickshooter's Characters | @Trickshooter @Brightside

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ironblade View Post
I'm disturbed that there is no mention of a fix for the Ernesto Hess TF. We were told that it was a simple error for Hess but that they would have to "take a look" at the Katie TF. Yet the Katie TF is getting fixed already.

The Hess Task Force was fixed in the prior build (published to Training Room last Friday - 1600.20090918.3T)

"Tasks
  • Striga Isle: Fixed bug in Ernesto Hess Task Force that sometimes made the computers untargetable in missions 3, 4 and 5 or made them spawn inside geometry (walls)."


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mid_Forever View Post
"Rewards
  • Fixed bug was causing drop rates to be slightly too low."
w00t!
Edit: "Slightly"?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jetpack View Post
The slightly part is a bit worrisome.

Sounds like more testing is in order!
Sounds more like cautious, delicate, business-speak to me...

If it said:
"Fixed a bug that's been in since I9, but don't worry...
It only very recently (with I16's release) sent the drop rate through the basement - and only for some players not everyone.

And we're sorry
, But we can't explain why it was only affecting some players - or we'd be telling you too much about how drops are awarded, and people might figure out how to game the RNG or something..."

Yeah, see that would've sounded well - uhm, bad. So they didn't put it that way.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Arcanaville View Post
City of Heroes didn't fail, City of Heroes was killed. If a 747 dropped on your house, you'd say you were killed, not you failed to find a safer dwelling.
"The U.S. is in no more danger of coming under Sharia law than it is the rules of Fight Club." - Will McAvoy.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Avatea View Post

CITY OF VILLAINS
  • None.


@Blood Beret(2)Twitter
I am a bad speeler, use poorer grammar, and am a frequent typoist.
MA ArcID: 1197
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. Winston Churchill

 

Posted

Good news on the Katie TF and the Drops! Now push it live!


@Radmind - Justice Server
ClintarCOH - Twitter

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Posted

Live is coming on Wednesday - thats already been announced


Now by my cut and pasting

Combined patch notes are
====================================


COMBINED


Tasks
Level 54 Archvillains / Heroes should now appear in Task / Strike Forces again.
Added restrictions to prevent player difficulty from affecting Task / Strike Forces

Zone Events
Zombie Apocalypse: Fixed a bug that caused the zombies to be too fragile. They are now back to their old selves again
Badges
Corrected a typo in the Leader badge’s description.
The Demonic Accolade will now correctly grant to players who have the required badges.
Fixed a bug in the Celebrant badge that caused the description from another badge to be present in its description text.


General
Electrical Melee (all ATs) – Jacob’s Ladder should look correct on male, female, and huge models now
Fixes various issues with slide animations not playing consistently (includes sliding on snow/ice as well as Prestige Power Slide)
Archery (all ATs) - Snap Shot will play the attack animation again.
Flight animations should be reliably interrupted by attack animations.
The Day Job power Warden Baton should now play the correct draw animation consistently.



Invention
Obliteration will now sell for the proper amount of influence/infamy during a respec.


Mission Architect
Custom Critters - Earth Assault now available for primary and secondary selection. Due to stance issues it utilizes versions of Stone Fist animations instead of hammer animations.
Clockwork Kingdom map can be used once again within Architect.
Custom Critters - Claws and Stone Armor are now mutually exclusive at character creation due to animation issues
Custom Critters - Kinetics - Transference and Transfusion have switched availability. Transference is now a minion - hard ability, and Transfusion is a LT - standard ability.



Powers Customization
Corrected orientation of the crystal theme’s Stone Mallet.
Made Sonic Dispersion’s Clarity completely tintable. (The continuing effect on the head was previously the default orange.)
The Sound effect for Gravity Control - Wormhole has been restored for the ‘Bright’ and ‘Dark’ versions of the customizable
Cold Domination - Snow Storm (All ATs) should properly play on the target now, instead of the caster.
Dark Armor now has a “No Fade or Pulse” theme, which will allow players customizable FX without the dark light pulses of various powers or transparency in Cloak of Darkness
Pain Domination has been revised to better reflect selected colors.
The brown ‘tints’ in customized Earth Control should now be gone.
Fixed the default Ice Weapon to call the default Ice Sword instead of the Greater Ice Sword. (Both swords are still options in all Ice Sword attacks.)
Effects on the default Ice Sword should now align properly.
The second Lava theme in the tailor’s dropdown menu should now be gone.
Plant Control’s customized Spore Burst for the Controller AT should now reference the correct, tintable continuing effect.
The default themes for Electrical Melee and Electrical Armor for Scrappers and Tankers now have a consistent and thematically appropriate color.
No FX themes now available for all versions of Super Reflexes, Regeneration, Willpower and Dull Pain.
The Metal Spines on the lower left leg for female players now fits properly on the model
Stalker - Spines - Impale hit FX should tint properly
Tanker - Dark Armor - Cloak of Darkness has an additional theme that no longer makes the character invisible.
Brute - Dark Armor - Cloak of Darkness has an additional theme that no longer makes the character invisible.
Scrapper - Dark Armor - Cloak of Darkness has an additional theme that no longer makes the character invisible.


PVP
Removed travel suppression from self buffing accolades. Including: Vanguard medal, Geas of the Kind Ones, Eye of the Magus, Demonic Aura, Megalomaniac, and Force of Nature.
Scrapper - Super Reflexes - Practiced Brawler’s protection versus debuff effects should last the full 120 second duration.
Stalker - Willpower - Mind over Body should no longer suppress resistances while in PVP zones.
Stalker - Electric Armor - Charged Armor should no longer suppress resistances in PVP zones.
Stalker - Electric Armor - Conductive Shield should no longer suppress resistances in PVP zones.


Tasks
Striga Isle: Fixed bug in Ernesto Hess Task Force that sometimes made the computers untargetable in missions 3, 4 and 5 or made them spawn inside geometry (walls).
Added teleport protection to the Mitochondria in the Lady Grey Task Force.

Rewards
Fixed bug was causing drop rates to be slightly too low.


CITY OF HEROES

Powers

Scrappers
Darkness Mastery - Night Fall: This power should no longer state it accepts To Hit Buff enhancement sets and should correctly accept To Hit Debuff and Accuracy To Hit Debuff sets.

Tasks
Striga Isle: Fixed bug in Ernesto Hess Task Force that sometimes made the computers untargetable in missions 3, 4 and 5 or made them spawn inside geometry (walls).
Katie Hannon Task Force - Fixed a bug that would sometimes cause Katie to stop following players.


CITY OF VILLAINS

Powers

Brutes
Claws - Swipe: Decreased this power’s damage scale from .89 to .83
Claws - Strike: Decreased this power’s damage scale from 1.35 to 1.24
Claws - Slash: Decreased this power’s damage scale from 1.64 to 1.48
Claws - Focus: Decreased this power’s damage scale from 1.66 to 1.51
Claws - Eviscerate: Decreased this power’s damage scale from 2.4 to 2.181
Claws - Shockwave: Decreased this power’s damage scale from 1.25 to 1.13
Electric Armor - This power set's description should no longer state that it doesn't have any healing powers.


Corruptors
Trick Arrow - All powers in this set had their endurance cost decreased to correctly use Corruptor endurance cost modifiers instead of Mastermind costs.
Trick Arrow - Poison Gas Arrow: This power was incorrectly using melee tables, it will now correctly refer to ranged tables. The end result is that this power’s damage debuff effect was increased slightly.


Dominators
Earth Assault - Seismic Smash: This power’s hold effect is now enhanced by Domination. Corrected normal hold magnitude to 3.
Earth Assault - Fissure - This power’s hold effect is now enhanced by Domination.
Plant Control - Fly Trap summon should play its spawn animation.


Masterminds
Pain Domination - Suppress Pain will no longer root the player while activating.

Soldiers of Arachnos and Widows
Mace Mastery - Shatter Armor - Added generic Resist Debuff visual effects.

Stalkers
Electric Melee - the Stalker version of Lightning Rod received a moderate damage increase.

Badges
Credit for the Untouchable badge should now be correctly earned for defeating all levels of Family Consiglieres in the Rogue Isles.



@Catwhoorg "Rule of Three - Finale" Arc# 1984
@Mr Falkland Islands"A Nation Goes Rogue" Arc# 2369 "Toasters and Pop Tarts" Arc#116617

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Cardiff_Giant View Post
Sounds more like cautious, delicate, business-speak to me...

If it said:
"Fixed a bug that's been in since I9, but don't worry...
It only very recently (with I16's release) sent the drop rate through the basement - and only for some players not everyone.

And we're sorry
, But we can't explain why it was only affecting some players - or we'd be telling you too much about how drops are awarded, and people might figure out how to game the RNG or something..."

Yeah, see that would've sounded well - uhm, bad. So they didn't put it that way.
It's also not true.


Please try my custom mission arcs!
Legacy of a Rogue (ID 459586, Entry for Dr. Aeon's Third Challenge)
Death for Dollars! (ID 1050)
Dr. Duplicate's Dastardly Dare (ID 1218)
Win the Past, Own the Future (ID 1429)

 

Posted

I'm very disappointed that the TF change is apparently going live as-is.

I am in the process of patching to see if it still affects Ouroboros.


Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Liquid View Post
Yeah, I read that when he posted it.

But there's no way in hell they're gonna say "fixed a bug in the drop rate that's been in since I9 but only recently found - due to recent increased scrutiny... and we finally found it - but only after we called it just a "perception issue".

I was trying to be semi-nice about it, that's a long thread you linked to - and what it amounts to is there is apparently no way to know if it's been plaguing some people's characters' since day one of I9.

I just found it more than a little ironic that the patch note was worded:
Fixed bug was causing drop rates to be slightly too low.

When it was a HUGE "perceived" disparity in the drop rate (at least for some folks) that caused the countless man-hours of players gathering drop rate data via the custom made chatlog parser and whatnot - aka the "increased scrutiny" - to get the Devs to look deep enough to believe it wasn't just "all in our heads".

Seems like the understatement of the century (IMHO), so far as post-I9 CoX is concerned!
"Color me" (I16) uber-cynical if you like, its no skin off my nose.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Arcanaville View Post
City of Heroes didn't fail, City of Heroes was killed. If a 747 dropped on your house, you'd say you were killed, not you failed to find a safer dwelling.
"The U.S. is in no more danger of coming under Sharia law than it is the rules of Fight Club." - Will McAvoy.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by UberGuy View Post
I am in the process of patching to see if it still affects Ouroboros.
Good news. The settings work again in Ouro.


Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Avatea View Post
  • Fixed bug was causing drop rates to be slightly too low.
Just posted some test results on the Market : Notes on new difficulty settings thread. Looking good from the handful of missions I ran.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by UberGuy View Post
Good news. The settings work again in Ouro.
How about SFs?


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Cardiff_Giant View Post
Sounds more like cautious, delicate, business-speak to me...

If it said:
"Fixed a bug that's been in since I9, but don't worry...
It only very recently (with I16's release) sent the drop rate through the basement - and only for some players not everyone.

And we're sorry
, But we can't explain why it was only affecting some players - or we'd be telling you too much about how drops are awarded, and people might figure out how to game the RNG or something..."
Hey, the devs explained exactly what happened in a public forum. They're not hiding anything. They can and did explain why it happened to some players and not others. It just depended on what happened to be in the uninitialized variable. They couldn't predict which players it would affect, which was why it was so hard to track down.

For example, in the following code:

Code:
1:	struct struct1 c;
2:	int	a, b;

3:	sub1(&c);

4:	b = a;
the assignment in line 4 will cause most compilers to flag a warning to the effect that the variable "a" was used without being initialized. Similarly, the call in line 3 should also generate the same warning (this is basically the situation described by the devs).

My copy of the Microsoft C compiler correctly flags the error on line 4, but lets the call on line 3 go by without a warning even on the maximum warning level.

The devs working on this code now probably didn't write the original code that had the problem, and probably didn't select the suite of tools used to develop the code.

The lesson I take away from this is that a huge project like this should be run through a hyper-sensitive version of LINT on a regular basis to catch bugs like this.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by UberGuy View Post
Good news. The settings work again in Ouro.
Good.

Any word on when a proper fix is coming for TF/SFs or are we stuck with mind-numbingly dull TF/SFs where you get to kill enemies by looking at them funny indefinitely?


Be well, people of CoH.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Cardiff_Giant View Post
Yeah, I read that when he posted it.

But there's no way in hell they're gonna say "fixed a bug in the drop rate that's been in since I9 but only recently found - due to recent increased scrutiny... and we finally found it - but only after we called it just a "perception issue".

I was trying to be semi-nice about it, that's a long thread you linked to - and what it amounts to is there is apparently no way to know if it's been plaguing some people's characters' since day one of I9.

I just found it more than a little ironic that the patch note was worded:
Fixed bug was causing drop rates to be slightly too low.

When it was a HUGE "perceived" disparity in the drop rate (at least for some folks) that caused the countless man-hours of players gathering drop rate data via the custom made chatlog parser and whatnot - aka the "increased scrutiny" - to get the Devs to look deep enough to believe it wasn't just "all in our heads".

Seems like the understatement of the century (IMHO), so far as post-I9 CoX is concerned!
"Color me" (I16) uber-cynical if you like, its no skin off my nose.
I second this guys opinion. I too was kinda peeved by the cynicism of synapse saying all was fine, its all in your heads also. Just imagine if people had'nt have went to all that effort...we would still be sucking for drops. I myself quit playing quite abit because of that and the fact that the markets have went to crap since I16.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by The_Coming_Storm View Post
How about SFs?
Are you suggesting that TFs and SFs would behave differently from one another?

If not, the answer is in the patch notes.


Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by UberGuy View Post
Are you suggesting that TFs and SFs would behave differently from one another?

If not, the answer is in the patch notes.
Well if YOU would read the patch notes, it mentions both SFs and TFs *grumble.* Just wanted to know if they allowed higher difficulty on SFs now. I'm a villain player so I avoid saying "TF."


 

Posted

Additional testing. I was able to summon an Ouroboros portal even when exemplared from level 50 to level 29.

I was still unable to summon a Shivan while exemplared. Or rather, nothing appeared when I cast the summons. I then dropped the Ouro TF I was using to force my level down, and the Shivan popped out of the ground at the spot where I'd summoned it, just as if I'd only summoned it just then.

I'm not concerned about Shivans specifically. They just are an example for a problem that seems to affect multiple pet-summoning temporary powers.


Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA

 

Posted

Dear Devs, can we please have some numbers on what the drop rates should be, just so we can actually test how drops are actually acting.


CHAMPION!

 

Posted

Salvage
Underling: never
Minion: 8%
Lieutenant/Sniper: 10.64%
Boss/Elite Boss: 25%
Archvillain: either never or 43.22%, depending on the AV

Recipe
Minion 2.666667%
Lieutenant/Sniper 5.333333%
Boss/Elite Boss 7.999999%
Archvillain either 100% or 0%, depending on the AV



@Catwhoorg "Rule of Three - Finale" Arc# 1984
@Mr Falkland Islands"A Nation Goes Rogue" Arc# 2369 "Toasters and Pop Tarts" Arc#116617

 

Posted

Guess I was unlucky.

Tested my Electric Armor Brute vs. 6-man, +2 level mobs. Killed roughly 6 dozen baddies and got lots of salvage, some inspirations, one level 51 Natural SO and zero recipes.

Take out Kryos mission. Sighs lol, I'll test more later.


Thank you, City of Heroes, for giving me a superhero social network combined with amazingly smooth game play. Petitions signed with realistic expectations.