Issue 20: Incarnates Ascend - Patch notes for build 2050.201106210214.1

Patch notes for build 2050.201106210214.1

Incarnate Trial: Keyes Island

Primal Earth heroes and their Resistance allies need to secure the Keyes Island Reactors in order to cripple Emperor Cole’s efforts to respond to their combined counterattack. Anti-Matter, ever seeking to prove his worth, has taken action by implementing the advanced weapon systems built into the reactor and locking it down.

The event takes place at the Keyes Island Reactor, accessible only via the Team Up Teleporter system. Players are tasked with gaining control over each reactor before they have a chance to confront Anti-Matter himself. Gaining control over each reactor requires re-establishment of the magnetic containment system that contains the antimatter reaction within, effectively nullifying the weapon, which is constantly active throughout the assault. This can only be done by acquiring power cells to install at terminals around the reactor. Anti-Matter’s guards have secured the cells on site, but acquiring enough will be no cakewalk. In addition, the Warworks guarding each terminal are equipped with a backup lockdown mechanism, and they must be controlled or defeated to access the terminals. Should Anti-Matter himself be present, he must be near the terminal as well so that players can use his biometric override commands to gain access.

Notes of Interest:

• Antimatter Pulse: The chief weapon of the Keyes Island Reactors, the Antimatter Pulse is an extremely damaging blast that pervades the area around Keyes Island and into the Underground. It is rumored that this pulse is controlled by Anti-Matter, who must devote most of his focus to maintaining it. Harming him may divert or weaken his focus, making the Pulse worse.
• Devastation Beam: Anti-Matter’s space station comes equipped with a powerful orbital cannon which he will use during the final battle. The first pulse of the beam will hold anyone caught in the targeting radius, while the second pulse deals heavy damage to all caught in the blast, even those who avoided the hold and ran back into the beam! Those who survive are stunned.
• Disintegration: Anti-Matter attempts to disintegrate a single target’s body. If the target dies for any reason while being disintegrated, the matter pulled from the body is returned to Anti-Matter, healing him significantly. If the target survives, the experience leaves them completely drained of endurance.
• Entanglement: All players acquire one of two auras which interact negatively with each other. Players who are Alpha Entangled must move 15’ from Beta Entangled players or suffer ill effects (and vice versa). Standing near those of the same entanglement has no effect. Opposing players deal damage and debuff defense, regeneration and recovery to each other. These effects stack, so the more players of the opposite alignment near you, the worse the effect becomes.
• Systemic Decay: Being in Anti-Matter’s presence causes innate decay of the matter in your body. Your body will become gradually more debilitated the longer you remain motionless while in his presence. Shaking off the decay is as simple as moving, however.
• Until the reactors have been fully brought under control, Anti-Matter is not your primary target! His suit has a failsafe mechanism that will cause a massive annihilative pulse to occur if he falls unconscious. That would be bad.
• Anti-Matter is immune to fly speed or run speed debuffs, even those flagged as unresistable.
• Power Cells acquired during a reactor stage during the Keyes Island trial will be removed from a character if that character leaves the map.

• Nightstar and other Praetorian Clockwork now properly animate while flying.

• Resolved an issue with the merit rewards in Lambda Sector that would prevent Merits from being rewarded when destroying all the caches or chambers. Merits should now award as expected.

• Participation metrics have been adjusted in each trial. Players should have an easier time earning Incarnate Component rewards.

• Incarnate XP and Incarnate Thread drops are now split evenly across the entire League which earns credit for the reward.

• We've expanded the Lore Incarnate Slot to provide additional suites of summonable pets to choose from.
  • Summoning these new pets requires crafting new Incarnate abilities.
  • The new pet choices are Arachnos, Carnival of Shadows, Cimeroran, Longbow, Nemesis, Phantoms, Polar Lights, Robotic Drones, Rularuu, Rikti, Storm Elementals, and Vanguard.
• Altered combat text to indicate which power is being used when a Lore pet is healing.
• Multiple balance changes to Lore pets to be more effective and better match the new trees:
  • Clockwork Builder Essence
    • Particle Blast Barrage recharge has been increased from 8 seconds to 9 seconds.
    • Particle Stunner recharge has been reduced from 20 seconds to 16 seconds.
  • Clockwork Dismantler Essence
    • Anti-Matter Beam recharge has been reduced from 30 seconds to 16 seconds.
    • Particle Burst has been replaced with Anti-Matter Ray, ensuring that their owners do not get reduced XP from enemies they help to defeat.
  • IDF Elite Ranger Essence
    • Plasma Blast recharge has been reduced from 4 seconds to 3 seconds.
    • Plasma Blast damage has been increased by 10%.
    • Plasma Burst damage has been increased by 24%.
  • IDF Commander Essence
    • Corrected an error in the attack chain AI of this pet.
    • Plasma Vortex recharge has been reduced from 14 seconds to 9 seconds.
    • Plasma Vortex damage has been increased by 20%.
    • Plasma Punch damage has been increased by 20%.
    • Plasma Blast damage has been increased by 10%.
  • IDF Battle Orb Essence
    • Deploy Stimulant recharge has been reduced from 16 seconds to 8 seconds.
  • Seer Seeker Essence
    • Soothe Mind recharge has been reduced from 8 seconds to 6 seconds.
  • Warworks Battle Orb Essence
    • Deploy Stimulant recharge has been reduced from 16 seconds to 8 seconds.

• Inf costs for Incarnate System conversions have been reduced
  • Notice of the Well Conversion now costs 12.5 mil
  • 10 Shards -> 10 Threads Conversion now costs 1 mil
  • 10 Shards -> 5 Threads Conversion now has no Inf cost
  • Incarnate XP Conversion now costs 1 mil
  • Incarnate Rare Conversion now costs 25 mil
  • Incarnate Very Rare Conversion now costs 100 mil

• Interface Procs as used in location targeted and toggle powers should once again be capable of applying their proc to all characters hit by the AOE when the Interface power is otherwise allowed to proc.
• Further improvements have been made to prevent Ion Judgment powers from striking the same target multiple times in the same activation.

• Prometheus will now discuss the Keyes Island trial in addition to the previous discussions about B.A.F. and Lambda Sector.
  Prometheus will now have new dialogue options for players who have completed at least one of the three trials.

• Open Leagues
  • Get more merits by joining an open League! Open Leagues that successfully complete an Incarnate Trial receive an additional Astral Merit upon completion.
  • If you join an open League, you also receive a new buff: the Warmth of Prometheus.
  • This buff increases damage and healing for those doing an Incarnate Trial and reduces the recharge time of most powers.
  • Open League members can also vote to remove League members, pending a majority vote.
• Closed Leagues
  • Create a private League just for trusted friends by creating a closed League. League leaders can now close a League, making the League exclusive so that uninvited characters cannot join it.
  • Closed Leagues cannot vote to remove a League member.
  • A closed League must still meet the minimum required number of characters in order to enter an Incarnate Trial.
• Invite In Progress:
  • League leaders can now invite eligible Level 50 characters into an Incarnate Trial in progress.
• A 5-minute timer will start from the moment an Open league has reached the minimum number of participants for any given Incarnate Trial.
  • This 5-minute delay will allow the Team-Up Teleporter system to look for more players queuing up for an Open League so there are potentially less players waiting in the queue after the start of the trial.
  • The Trial will start when the timer reaches 5 minutes after the minimum number of participants has been reached or when the maximum number of participants has been gathered.

• Group Area Buffs
  • To make buffing easier for Teams and Leagues, these buff powers now affect all the eligible characters within a 30-foot-radius around the targeted character.
  • Previously, you had to target and buff each individual character to use these powers.
    • Cold Domination (Defenders, Controllers, Corruptors): Ice Shield and Glacial Shield
    • Force Field (Defenders, Controllers, Masterminds): Deflection Shield and Insulation Shield
    • Kinetics (Defenders, Controllers, Corruptors): Increase Density and Speed Boost
• The status protection / resistance components of Increase Density remain single target. Only the damage resistance component has been made into an AOE effect.
  • Sonic Resonance (Defenders, Controllers, Corruptors): Sonic Barrier and Sonic Haven
  • Thermal Radiation (Controllers, Corruptors, Masterminds): Fire Shield and Plasma Shield

• An NPC has been added in Pocket D which allows players to select whether or not they are affected by the movement-affecting components of certain player powers. This setting can be changed at any time by visiting this NPC.
  • Affected powers are: Speed Boost, Increase Density, Inertial Reduction, Enforced Morale, and Accelerate Metabolism.
  • This NPC can also allow the player to select whether they wish to always accept Mystic Fortune or always reject Mystic Fortune.
  • This NPC can also display to the player which Praetorian Arch-Villains they have not defeated for the Dimensional Warder badge.
  • This NPC can also allow the player to select whether they wish to receive the benefits of Group Fly / Group Energy Flight or not.
  • This NPC can also allow the player to select whether they wish to receive the benefits of Team Teleport or not.

• If all the characters in a League have successfully completed an Incarnate Trial, the introductory cut scene for the Trial is automatically skipped so you can dive straight into the game action.
• Interstitial cut scenes (those in the middle of a Trial) are not skipped.

• Astral and Empyrean merit vendors are now stationed in Ouroboros.
  • They offer new in-game merit rewards in exchange for Astral Merits (less valuable) or Empyrean Merits (more valuable).
  • These rewards include Ascension Armor pieces, chest emblems, auras, social and costume change emotes, account rewards, and Invention Origin recipes.
  • Each costume piece, emote or aura you purchase is unlocked account-wide by means of certification delivered via the Global Email system.

• Emotes awarded from Praetorian Zone Events and Astral and Empyrean Merit Vendors are accessible via the quick chat menu.
• The default setting for the UI option to Hide or Show Unclaimable Account Items is now to Show. This means by default you will see Account Items which cannot be claimed on your current character in the Email window. You can change this setting at any time to hide those items from view – the option is now titled “Hide Un-claimable Account Items.”
• Added a UI option to disable the blinking of the Email alert when there is an available Account Item.
  • This option is titled “Blink Alert for Account Items.”
• A pop-up message will display whenever your Account Item list is updated
  • on logging a character,
  • on buying a new Account Item,
  • on creating a new character
  • There is an option to disable this pop-up, titled “Hide New Account Item Message.”
• Added a pop-up confirmation will display upon claiming a Voucher (as these items are single use, and we do not want you to claim them on the wrong characters than you intend).
  • There is an option to disable this confirmation, titled “Hide Voucher Confirmation.”

• Ascension Armor represents the pinnacle of becoming an Incarnate.
  • Each costume piece you purchase is unlocked account-wide in exchange for Astral or Empyrean merits but it can only worn by a character that has achieved Level 50.

• Select from exclusive new Astral and Empyrean merit reward designs.

• Astral and Empyrean Merit reward auras are now available
  • These include Binary, Pixels, Fairy Dust, Rainbow Path, Electric Patch, Clouds with Lightning Path, Frost Path Auras and many more.

• Select from exclusive new Astral and Empyrean merit reward social and costume change emotes.

• Purchase Super Inspirations with Astral merits that are more powerful and effective than normal Inspirations.

• Exchange Astral and Empyrean merits for vouchers, new account-bound rewards accessible by any character on your account.
• Vouchers cannot be traded, but they can be accessed in your global mail.
• These vouchers include Aura Unlock, Cape Unlock, Alpha Slot Unlock, Incarnate Shard, and Incarnate Thread Vouchers.
• Aura and Cape Vouchers let you to unlock auras and capes for your alts, even if they’re only Level 1.
• Alpha Slot Unlock Vouchers let you instantly unlock the Incarnate Alpha Slot for another of your Level 50 characters.
• Incarnate Thread and Shard Vouchers can be bought on one character and redeemed on another to send Incarnate Threads or Shards to any of your level 50 characters.

• Altered the Unstoppable of the Honoree such that it does not push any resistances past 95% when active.
• Altered the Unstoppable / Liberty Belt powers of Ms. Liberty such that it does not push any resistances past 95% when active.
• Altered the Unstoppable of Marauder such that it does not push any resistances past 95% when active with just base resistances and Unstoppable.
• Altered the Unstoppable of Bobcat such that it does not push any resistances past 95% when active with just base resistances and Unstoppable.
• Altered the Unstoppable of Statesman such that it does not push any resistances past 95% when active.
• Altered the Moment of Glory of Valkyrie such that it does not push any resistances past 95% when active.
• Other instances of AVs which have the potential to reach past 95% resistance when using multiple powers are as intended.
• Occurrences where simply Unstoppable/Moment of Glory + automatic resistances would reach past 95% have been adjusted.

• Added Costume sets for Male, Huge and Female of both Victorian and Classic Steampunk.
• All Steampunk jackets now have sleeveless options

• Bowler hat is also available without pipes and gear
• Hair under both hats are now tintable
• Fixed Beard
• Added vest and jackets without shirts and ties
• Shirts/sleeves no longer have patterned texture
• Fixed Classic Steampunk sleeve with skin so it takes on color

• Added 2 tone for Victorian Hair
• Added choker without cameo
• Added extra hats
• Fixed clipping of bustier under jackets and trench coat
• Removed red lip color on Victorian face
• Added Sleeves to shirt category

• Faces are Higher Res
• All jackets are also sleeveless

• Added custom weapon animations for Steampunk jetpack jump
• Rifle and Pistol are color tintable

• The Apex Task Force now rewards players with a choice between 1 Astral Merit, 10 Incarnate Threads, or 1 Super Inspiration for completing it. This Astral Merit can only be earned once per day, while the Thread and Inspiration rewards may be claimed as many times as the TF is completed.

• The Tin Mage Task Force now rewards players with a choice between 1 Astral Merit, 10 Incarnate Threads, or 1 Super Inspiration for completing it. This Astral Merit can only be earned once per day, while the Thread and Inspiration rewards may be claimed as many times as the TF is completed.

• Rogues should no longer be able to get into a state where tips could stop dropping for them in Paragon City.
• Doc Quantum's Moral Quandary: Ravenstorm should no longer self-destruct when you confront Doc Quantum.
• Guilt-stricken Trail of Blood - All of Neville Hank's captors are now properly named and tortured spirits.

• Adjusted badge text for "Loyal Customer" to indicate it enables colored titles as well as its other features
• Corrected the hint text for Incarnate Slot Accolade badges.

• Group Fly no longer includes a To Hit penalty.
• Pets of all varieties should no longer attempt to buff Untouchable friends, teammates, or pets (this includes the Lore Protected Support pets).

• Group Energy Flight no longer includes a To Hit penalty.
  Luminous Blast / Glowing Touch range increased to 80 ft. to match other powers of this type.

• Umbral Aura / Nebulous Form activation time has been removed to match other powers of this type.

• Fiery Melee/Combustion: Fixed a bug that prevented a portion of this power's visual effects from being customizable.

• Group Fly no longer includes a To Hit penalty.

• Supremacy will now grant 2 Incarnate Shifts to Minion Pets and 1 Incarnate Shifts to Lieutenant Pets while participating in an Incarnate Trial. This means that Minion pets will be level 48+2 and Lieutenant Pets will be level 49+1. These Shifts will stack with any granted by Incarnate Abilities.
• The endurance cost of Mastermind upgrade powers has been halved.

• Resolved issue where Assassin's Strike would mysteriously fail on the destructible Portals during "Raid Portal Corp" mission.

• Warrior bosses now count towards the Legionnaire badge.

• The door for "Blow up Council Generators" will now properly appear in Sharkhead Isle.

• Aaron Walker's Story Arc - When shown a memento from his past in the mission "Meet once more with James Noble", Noble Savage will actually attack the player instead of the dialog tree merely saying that he does.

• Praetor Sinclair's Story Arc: Mission 2 - Praetor Sinclair is no longer erroneously referred to as Praetor White.
• Luke Larson's story arc - The "Lots of High Explosives" is no longer a floating red orb.

Leaves out the Loyalists who went Primal, as well...

Primal Antag-- erm

Primal defenders and Praetorian émigrés?

Plus, ah, I don't think Siege and NS... ah, parts match any longer. Different scales of integration?

My only complaint so far (aside from the merit costs of some of the cosmetic items, but that's been brought up elsehwere at length):

Ok, first off I want to clarify that I LOVE 20.5.

However...(this is me, you knew it was coming)

However;
1) The delay between claiming vouchers is still there. Why? I assumed it was to stop the servers overloading in Beta with lots of people testing at one time.

2) 1 Emp merit for 1 Astral merit? Excuse me? Pardon? I...yeah. Fix this, please.

3) The big one. Keyes Reactor Trial.

Ho boy. Hooo boy. The pain and suffering we went through for this one. This is like the trilogy finale of games and films, where they throw away what works and shove as many damn gimmicks in to make it 'cool' while forgetting that, sometimes, less is more.

The Anti-Matter pulse is INSANELY annoying. As an MM who hated the Lamda for making me feel useless in the tunnels, the WHOLE of Keyes makes me feel useless. I get splatted by Victorias in two shots, defences be damned. I get pummeled by the Pulse for an ungodly ammount of HP. And bodyguard does nothing, because I have it turned off. Why? Because doing damage to Anti-matter is BAD.

Fortunately, in an almost apologetic way it gave me my first ever Rare drop on Alpha, so I could make my second Ilevel boost and finally fight at +3, making BAF and Lambda my Plat de Jour from now on.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

Is it my imagination/lack of reading comprehension, or are we missing a patchnote?

Because it seemed very much like the "Hide Useful Salvage Warning" setting actually WORKED for me, even after I zoned.

I even squeed a little...

I've also noticed my Praetorians have lost their repeatable mission contacts after level 20..

Yeah, that's another point. They REALLY need to make it obvious, in seven foot high letters, that Null exists, he is the NPC you need to talk to, and WHERE he is.

The fact that me and someone else in Beta spent about 15 minutes looking for him should have made it clear this would be a problem.
People were likely too busy making sure KIR was in a playable st-

Owait...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

Just offering feedback as I go:

Since I have little interest in the Ascension pieces (they don't fit the concepts of any of my current Incarnate characters), I've dipped into some of the other stuff offered by Astral Christy and Empyrean Michael.
-Despite my negative feelings toward offering generic emotes as rewards for these things, I thought Ultimate Power was cool looking, and Swoon and Collapse are comically fun.
-I also purchased the Ice Block costume change emote, and I am unfortunately disappointed with it. I expected an animation similar to Hibernate in appearance, which is far from it. The gray coloring is very nondescript and boring, the extreme translucency contributes to the former adjectives, and the shape is very odd, reminding me of an overgrown "Fossilize" animation.

While I haven't seen the animation for the Stone Block costume change emote, I am assuming it is the more opaque version of Ice Block, similar to the difference between the "Crystal" and "Slate(?)" customization options for the Spines power set. I would have preferred a bigger difference between animations, but as it is, any way we could add a little more opacity and a little more color to "Ice Block," to not only differentiate it but also make it look more ice-like?

Hopefully more feedback to come later, once I unlock auras and such.

Typo Nitpick = it's Lorenz Ansaldo not Lorenz Ansald_ ...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville 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.

This is seriously an incredible update for being mid-Issue. I am very impressed by the effort Paragon Studios is putting forth with the game. Keep up the good work guys and gals!