Discussion: Issue 22: Death Incarnate - March 20, 2012 [Live] Patch Notes

Aha! I knew I wasn't hallucinating when I saw that!
For those that don't know, there is a way to see Steam's Content Description Records online, though I don't know the site off-hand, and I'm not sure if I'll be allowed to post a link to the tools to see it yourself. Recently added were two trailers for CoH Freedom, and one new game without a description called "COH LIVE". Good to see that this will actually happen!

What BS! The Vigilante and Rogue Alignments get screwed AGAIN!
10 Converters for 1 Alignment Token? Really? WTF?!
Look at the damn comparison! So freaking unfair to people who stay in the grey.. but, hey wtf cares right?

Rest of the patch looks ok tho, however [Haunt] The shades will also not attack when a foe is held. You guys fixed the [Umbra Beast], would be nice to fix [Haunt] too.

The grays already get access to all areas of the game

Wait what. You are saying that 1: They are discouraging people from doing a variety of content by 2: Limiting the rewards for doing the exact same bit of content over and over.

I don't like your intrusively weird obsession with the idea that the devs are out to 'get' the playerbase.

My guess is that they've done research and have found that people who tend to do just one thing burn out on the game more quickly and don't subscribe as long. I know that if all I did was play one character I wouldn't have lasted more than a few months. Similarly, if all I did was grind one fire farm solo I wouldn't last a week.

Most people also tend to desire human contact, so promoting team activities encourages players to have a wider circle of friends and provides more "social inertia," making it more likely that people will stay because the people they know are still playing. Players seem more likely to quit when all their acquaintances drop out, and the smaller your circle of friends, the more likely you are to quit as well.

You may in fact be different. But you're the exception: most people need variety to avoid burnout, and are bound by social interactions.

If you want to do nothing but grind the same thing over and over, you can still do so and reap maximum rewards by making multiple alts and grind the same thing out on each of them in turn. Yes, it will take you more time to accomplish the same thing. But that's the entire point of these exercises: to keep us subscribing.

Posi's post doesn't include the extra cost in converting Merits to Alignment Merits. There is a marked increase in INF cost (20 Million more if you look at the cost of 10 Converters in the table in the link below) to use Alignment Merits, so, there's no free ride there in simple conversion. Grey alignments theoretically have access to getting more Merits by playing the TF/SFs of both sides.

See here for actual costs: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Converters

This change is indeed intended and was an inadvertently missed note. We'll correct it ASAP.

For those concerned, there should be a confirmation window that notifies you that claiming this from your mail will activate the booster. I do understand concerns about changing the way this works, however the fact that you had to search through your mail, claim it, then search through your powers list and drag it to your bar, AND THEN activate it was determined to be a suboptimal user experience.

If you previously claimed boosters, they will still be in your powers and able to be activated in the legacy manner.

Thanks!

-Z

There actually is an in-game way to see the WST now, but it's a little obscure. In the LFG tab, the WST (or both WSTs for Vig/Rogue) will be highlighted purple and will have an extra bit of pop-up text when you mouse over to say that completing them the first time in the week will earn additional rewards.

The trouble is:
1. How many people use the LFG for stuff like this? Seems if it isn't mandatory for it, it's ignored.
2. If you're not up to the required level for the WST it won't show, which makes sense, except it makes people even more likely to miss this functionality.
3. It still doesn't tell you whether a particular character has already earned the bonus for the week.

I understand why the previous user experience was sub-optimal, but I feel the new experience is "more sub-optimal". Under the old method, even though it was tedious, I could pre-load the power onto my quickbar so I could start it when I wanted, often right at the instant before a long TF would start fighting, and make best use of it with minimal effort and fuss, at a moment when keeping that effort and fuss to a minimum is important to me. As I see it, you've decreased the total amount of fussing about the UI to start the power, but moved it to a point in my user experience where the impact on my play experience is worse.

Please consider restoring the previous method.

The best solution would be to create powers that have charges that are cross-character. So, if I log into a brand new character, and I have 50 XP boosters in my email, I see an XP boost power with 50 charges. If I use one, then change characters, they ALSO have an XP boost power which now has 49 charges.

I'd also like a sort of "vault" for store-bought enhancements so I don't have to gleemail them around one at a time, and I'd like a new inspiration tray so, again, I can click account-wide inspirations to activate them.

(The inspiration issue is far worse of a problem than the XP booster problem was, but claiming them from email would make the cure worse than the disease.)

Speaking of all this - can we PLEASE, PLEASE have a way to make the top half of the email pane larger? It is really frustrating trying to scroll when I can only see 4-5 in the pane but I have hundreds of emails. (And yes, I do have hundreds of Character emails.)

Edit: the ONLY reason this isn't a completely horrible change is because alphabetically "XP booster" is last and that makes them easy to find in the character email window. If it was named something like "Increased XP power" and I had to scroll through my email in that tiny 5-line window through hundreds of emails, I would be really, really irritated. As someone who still has like 150 of these in my email, I vote for a revert. (Implement my totally awesome suggestion of a cross-character power that automatically appears and has shared charges instead!)

And the theoretical advantages provided by that access outweigh the practical ones by a pretty wide margin.

Could we get a checkbox or some other tool that would help us to find costume pieces we haven't already purchased (other than just randomly running across them in the creator, or getting lucky and noticing when a new piece shows up in the store)?

The new way is worse, FYI.

It would be REALLY nice if we had a command that would claim an item from mail (designated by item name as a variable in the command) for things like this and other fairly generic items that must be claimed from in game email. Then when we find ourselves claiming a type of item repeatedly, we could build a macro or keybind to the effect of

/claim_character_item XP Booster (or Windfall, or Reward Merits, or Double Inspirations, or whatever)

or more advanced binders could try something like

[key] +up$$+down$$claimcharacteritem xp booster$$dialogyes

On a similar note, I'm not sure if this is already incorporated, but is there a timer or other safety measure in place to guarantee that you cannot claim a self-activating non-stacking item?

/agreed.

Just because it could be confusing to people doesn't mean you should remove the complete convenience of being able to choose when to use it. You want to make it less confusing? Then make a note of where it goes when you claim it. And no, I don't believe leaving it unclaimed is an option of 'when to use it', at least not until you make it an option to turn off the blinky alert for unclaimed items.

"You are about to claim a temporary power. This will move to your Powers list where you can add it to your power tray" is all you need to add.

Honestly, this sounds like a great idea for the outdated info terminals. ... and a redside equivalent I've yet to think of.

LOVE this idea!

Does Taskmaster Gabriel keep track of how many Empyreans merits you are due? For example; if you repeat all the arcs each week for four weeks in a row without seeing him or claiming any, can you then claim all eight Empyrean merits from him in one go?

This is a bad change and I really would like it to be reverted. I presume it also applies to the Windfall and prestige powers?

Yes, I think there was a confirmation window. It was about then tenth or fifteenth confirmation window that came up in getting my new character set up. There are too many confirmation windows in the game, a confirmation window is often the sign that you neglected to provide a way to cancel something (like all the power claiming options).

Just thought of something - there was talk in a UStream Chat about a smart temp powers bar that would pop up. These single-use temp powers would seem to be a great fit for this. Or maybe just need some method.

Generally speaking, the mark of a good UI is consistency. Since the launch of Freedom, claiming items has had consistent results - the time goes into the appropriate list/storage. There already were complaints when Catalysts got bound to the character when claimed, that should have raised red flags that activation was going to be a problem.

Yes, you have to go into the powers list once you've claimed the powers. Just like Experienced, just like restore (from the Superpacks), just like nemesis staff/blackwand/sands of mu/ghost slaying axe/mission teleporter/mission transporter/etc./etc./etc. A simpler solution would be for newly claimed powers to automatically appear in the trays (and by now - shouldn't we start with the power trays expanded to show all three rows, with row 1-2-3 - how many people really stay with just one row in the power tray?).

Ideally, the whole claiming system needs a revamp and moved away from email. It was a reasonably elegant shortcut to get things launched, but as more and more items are being added to the claimable items, it's no longer working well. One possible suggestion - steal the design from the "Collect" tab in navigation. You can then add categories - Account items, all character items, inspirations, salvage, enhancements, powers.

Is this a experience-killing change? Fortunately, I've got a fair number of XP boosters, so the loss of one isn't bad. If I'd been down to just a couple boosters and one was eaten like this, I'd be a lot angry. But it's a bad change. It's not just inconsistent with prior behavior, it's inconsistent with anything else you claim. It's a change for the worse.

I doubt it. When you talk to him in-game, he just gives you a list of the arcs you haven't done yet.

I suspect that he just holds a "1" or "0" for each, and when all 6 are set to "1" he gives you the merits the next time you talk to him. Then at the appropriate time next week, he resets them all to "0".

Thanks Roderick, That's too bad, I just hate having to remember to check things like this - just because you are old and forgetful like me doesn’t mean you should miss out on getting awards for things you have completed

This is a TERRIBLE change!

I was claiming 2 charges at a time on one character, then using one right as a TF (or whatever) started. I'd glance at my powers bar every now and then, and as soon as the first wore off, the second would go from grayed out to usable, and I'd hit it.

If I thought the second would run out while I was still well into something, I'd claim a third and stick it into my power bar, for the same result. Now, I'll have to look for the small XP booster icon in my buff bar to see if it's still going, and spend time fishing another out of my email if it's worn off.