Patch Notes/2009-04-08

04.08.2009 Version 18.20090324.9T2

Issue 14: Architect

Architect Overview

Issue 14 takes City of Heroes® another giant step, allowing players to design their own missions and story arcs to share with the entire City of Heroes community across all of our live servers.

Using an intuitive interface, players can browse through other player created missions and create their own missions from the ground up. Players will determine details ranging from environments, mission objectives, and enemies, to written fiction and character dialogue; giving their stories nearly infinite depth and personalization.

Creators can pick from hundreds of maps and thousands of characters. They can use existing characters or create their own custom enemies. They can get even more detailed and create full enemy groups, giving each enemy unique costumes and powers.

Players can write all of the dialog for their story as well as decide on level of difficulty and enemy placement. Players have the ability to trigger one mission goal off of another, creating a chain of events within a single mission. Each story can have up to five chapters or missions and each mission can hold up to a maximum of 25 achievable goals. As people play content, they'll be able to rate that content from one to five stars. Creators will actually get in game benefits for making content that gets highly rated. We even offer a Dev Choice and Hall of Fame standing for the best of the best.

Create Stories - Present your story to other players in the game through the story title, description, and character dialogue. Stories can be as short as a single mission and as long as five.

Create Characters - Use existing characters from City of Heroes lore or create your own characters from scratch using the costume creator and a robust powers selection interface. Create individual characters which can be used as enemies, allies and contacts or create whole enemy groups to fill your missions.

Write Dialogue - Every character that you place into a story or mission has its own dialogue. Whether it's the contact that directs characters to their mission, the hostages that you rescue, or the enemies that you must defeat, they all speak through text bubbles at various points during your encounters.

Define Objectives - Defend, collect, defeat, destroy, rescue, and more. Mission architects can string objectives together making missions as simple or complex as desired, using up to a current maximum of 25 objectives per mission.

Use Advanced Options - For characters and missions select alignment, placement, difficulty, animations, behaviour and more. Every mission objective has multiple advanced options, allowing you to truly customize how you want your story to play out.

Test and Iterate Before Publishing - Take as much time as you want to create your content and test it by yourself or with others. Once your masterpiece is complete, you can Publish it for other players to enjoy and rate.

Find / Browse Other Stories

For people who just want to play the user created content, players have access to the mission browser that shows all the generated content. Players can sort these stories by name, highest rated, length and recently added. Players can also filter content to show only those with specific ratings, arcs they have or haven't played as well as the alignment of the story.

Sort Stories and Search for Key Criteria - Players can use the Mission Browser to sort published stories by rating, date, and length, or search for content using key words like the character who created them or the subject matter within the stories.

Hall of Fame - Stories that have achieved a critical combination of high player ratings and number of views will be elevated into Hall of Fame status and will be listed under the Hall of Fame section.

Developer's Choice - Stories that are hand-picked by the developer will be deemed Developer's Choice and listed within the Developer's Choice section.

Players create content in-game through a computer terminal within one of the Architect Entertainment buildings. Architect Entertainment is the name of the company that's developed this type of 'simulated experience' for heroes and villains of Paragon City and the Rogue Isles.

• Architect Entertainment Buildings are located at Atlas Park, Galaxy City, King's Row, Steel Canyon, Skyway City, Faultline, Talos Island, Independence Port, Founder's Falls, Brickstown, Peregrine Island, the Rikti War Zone, Mercy Island, Port Oakes, Cap au Diable, Sharkhead Isle, Nerva Archipelago, and St. Martial. All Architect Entertainment buildings have "AE" map icons.
• The Ticket award system: Each type of enemy has a chance to drop a small, medium and large number of tickets. Harder enemies will grant more tickets than weaker enemies. Also, enemies that you defeat that are higher level than you will drop more tickets than enemies that are lower level than you. (Example: Bosses drop more tickets than minions).
• Characters with pets will get credit for their pets' kills in architect missions.
• Player created Mission Architect missions are listed by a player's @Global Chat Handle as the "author".
• NCsoft will be granting a @Global Chat Handle rename token with the Issue 14 launch. To change your global chat handle, type /change_handle "Player Name" in the chat line or click on "Chat Handle (X)" from the drop down "Menu" option.
• Profanity filter works on all aspects of the Mission Architect. Please make use of the "report" function if you spot anything reprehensible.

Mission Architect Notes

• NCsoft reserves the right to ban or remove any mission at any time for any reason.
• The Mission Architect System is a "Global" System that links all servers in North America and Europe.
• The Mission Architect System may be brought offline for maintenance during server "up" time. During this time, "Unclaimed" tickets, Published missions and Unlocked Items may be inaccessible.
  • If a player is online when the Mission Architect Server is brought back into service, the player may need to log out and log back in to see any "unlocked" content from the Ticket Reward system.

Code of Conduct Reminders

• NCsoft has the right to ban any mission that violates the Rules of Conduct or User Agreement.
• Please click on the aforementioned links for full details.
• Parodies and derivative works are not allowed.
• NCsoft has the right to ban any mission that contains words that attempt to bypass the Profanity filter. Repeated violations by an "author" may result in account closure.
• NCsoft has the right to ban any mission and author that use the Mission Architect system for solicitation of business or advertisement of commercial services or activities.
• NCsoft reserves the right to ban any missions that contain any exploits that provide unintended statistical advantages. Players and/or "authors" that advertise exploitable missions through our forums, in-game chat system or through the Mission Architect system may be banned from the Mission Architect System or may have their game account closed.
• NCsoft reserves the right to remove or modify any item, NPC, Mission Map or any other element related to the Mission Architect system for any reason.
  • Mission Architect changes may invalidate "Published" mission, in which case the author should "edit" their Published mission to preserve its rating. "Unpublishing" an invalid mission will result in loss of any earned ratings.

Architect Reward System

Among other rewards, architects who create extraordinary content will garner acclaim and reputation. Community feedback will be paramount and some missions will elevate in status, unlocking new rewards and benefits for their creators.

• Account wide architect rewards have been implemented. You can buy tokens in the store which will unlock architect options for every character on your account.
• If the mission server is not running, you will not be able to access this content (you can tell the mission server is down if you cannot search for published missions or publish new missions).
• Random recipe drop rewards have been implemented and can be purchased from the Architect Ticket Vendors with Architect Tickets. These random rolls come in 3 categories:
  • Bronze Reward Roll: This random reward will award both uncommon and rare recipes that are normally dropped from defeating enemies. The likelihood of receiving an uncommon recipe is 8 times greater than that of a rare recipe. This is consistent with rewards granted from defeating enemies. This reward table does not include purple reward drops, nor does it include temporary powers or respec recipes. The Bronze Reward Roll is the least expensive of the three random reward categories.
  • Silver Reward Roll: This random reward will award both rare recipes that are normally dropped from defeating enemies and recipes earned upon completing missions. The likelihood of receiving a rare recipe is 50% greater than that of a mission complete recipe. This reward table does not include temporary powers or respec recipes. The Silver Reward Roll is the second most expensive of the three random reward categories.
  • Gold Reward Roll: This random reward will award recipes that were previously dropped by completing taskforces/trials, very rare boss drops, and recipes that are purchasable with merits. The Gold Reward Roll is the most expensive of the random reward categories as the rewards granted are very powerful.
• Note that ticket prices for awards from the ticket vendor are subject to change. These random reward tables are "weighted" differently than tables from defeating enemies and completing missions. Recipes that can be slotted into more powers and/or are slotted more often by players will have a greater chance of dropping. (Example: the Devastation ranged damage IO recipe set would be more likely to drop than the Trap of the Hunter immobilize IO recipe set. This is because Devastation can be slotted into a greater percentage of existing powers and is more often slotted by players than Trap of the Hunter.)
• Unlockable costume pieces and items are now available through ticket redemption at Architect Entertainment Vendors. Please Note that Unlocked content from the Architect Entertainment Vendors is solely for use within the Mission Architect system, and NOT for a Player's character's use.
• A pop up window should appear upon earning your first ticket. This window will explain what tickets are for.

Architect Custom Critter Creation

• Custom Critters' Toggle powers should suppress when Held, Stunned, or Slept, exactly the same as player powers.
• Defense/Resist and other aspects of powers suppress. Status protection aspects of powers do not.
• Mastermind pets to mastermind sets: When an Mastermind NPC that has access to Mastermind pets is attacked, their Mastermind pets are immediately summoned.
• Minion Masterminds Summon 1 minion at -1 level, LT masterminds summon 2 minions at -1, and a LT at -1. Boss Masterminds and above summon all henchmen as normal.
• Controllers summon pets when attacked.

Arena

New Arena Features

• Swiss Draw: An 8 to 64 player tournament that will have players duking it out 1 vs 1 until the top 8 combatants are chosen. After this point there will be three rounds of single elimination to determine the winner of the tournament.
• Pre-Match Buffing Period: Upon entering an arena map a "Waiting for Players" period will begin. It will wait until all players are on the map or until 1 minute has passed, whatever happens first. After this there is a brief "Buff Players" phase which allows players to turn on their toggles and buff themselves and their teammates. During this phase all players can only affect and be affected by their allies.
• Improved Respawn: Arena matches now have a 15 second global respawn timer. When that timer is up, all defeated players respawn at the same time. After respawning players will be phased out and can only affect and be affected by friendly players, just like during the Buff Players period. In addition to this all teams have a static spawn location. This means that each time a team member is defeated they will respawn at the same location.

Improved Victory Conditions

Two new types of victory conditions have been added:

• Individual Kills: Each player has a number of times they must defeat another player. The first player to reach this set number of kills is declared the winner.
• Individual Lives: Each individual entering this type of Arena Match will be assigned a specified number of "Lives". The match ends when all but one player or team has had their lives depleted. The player or team with the most kills is declared the winner.

New Arena Matches

• Villain Pentad: This match is much like the Hero Pentad; however it instead allows two teams of villains consisting of 1 member from each core archetype (Brute, Corruptor, Dominator, Mastermind and Stalker.)
• Villain Septad: The Villain Septad match is just like the Villain Pentad except that it requires each team to have 7 members. One of each archetype villain side including members of the Villain Epic Archetypes (Arachnos Soldiers and Widows).
• Hero Septad: This match is similar to the Hero Pentad except that it now requires each team to have 7 members. One of each archetype hero side including members of the Epic Archetypes (Warshades and Peacebringers).
• Versus Pentad/Septad: These matches will have 2 teams: the first consisting of 1 member of each hero archetype the second consisting of 1 member of each villain archetype. The Versus Pentad match will have 5 members on each side, 1 member for each core archetype. The Septad match will have 7 members on each side, 1 member for each archetype including epic archetypes.
• Scheduled Matches: These matches have had their start requirements clarified. These matches require a minimum of 8 players to start. Mousing over the number of players for each match will display the number of players needed to begin the match. Once the minimum number of players has been met all players will be moved into a waiting room for two minutes while it waits for more players to join the match.

In addition to these features there have been a number of Arena bug fixes as well:

• Fixed the bug where players weren't always being dropped from their Arena teams when leaving an Arena match.
• Fixed the bug where players weren't always being dropped from their normal teams when entering an Arena match.
• Improved the Arena teaming code to group players on the same side into the fewest teams possible, maximizing the size of any team before starting a new team.
• Fixed the bug where arena matches that lasted 30 minutes didn't display their timers in the nav window.
• Altered the arena list User Interface to default to displaying "Best Fit" matches instead of "Eligible" matches.
• Added more stat tracking under the hood to keep track of unrated wins, losses, and draws. Later issues will take advantage of this data.

Badges

• Badges earned through Mission Architect that are granted to all characters on the same account will state this in their badge description.
• Number of required kills for the final badge in the Virtual Victor line of badges while in test mode: 50000.
• Number of story arcs a player must play in order to earn the Gamer line of badges: 1, 10, 25, 50 and 100.
• Number of tickets a player must earn to obtain the Ticket Taker line of badges: 100, 500, 1,000, 5,000 and 25000.
• Number of times a player must play an author's content in order to earn the Author line of badges: 10, 25, 50, 100 and 250.
• Number of clickable mission objectives a player must interact with to earn the Poor Impulse Control Badge: 10, 25, 50, 100 and 250.
• Number of overflow tickets a player must earn to obtain the Virtual Ticket Taker line of badges: 10, 50, 100, 250 and 1000.
• Number of non-required mission objectives required to earn the Workaholic line of badges: 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100.
• Number of rescue/kidnappings required for the Extractor/Kidnapper line of badges: 1, 5, 10, 25 and 50.
• Number of destructible objects required for the Destructive line of badges: 1, 5, 10, 25 and 50.
• Number of custom enemy defeats required for the Eliminator line of badges: 50, 100, 500, 1000 and 5000.
• The Energized Badge now requires 500 inspirations.

Bases

In an effort to bring more supergroup management powers to players, we have recently developed a new Super Group Rank #6, named 'Super Leader'.

Here is a list of what Super Leader can do:

• Super Leader has all permissions available to leaders.
• Super Leader can modify permissions of leaders, and can demote or promote any rank.
• Super Leader can promote another leader to their position, and self demote themselves back to Leader rank.
• Super Leader position can be named to be in line with SG/VG tastes and motif.
• Super Leader position will always be filled by an active user and Rank 5 leaders will no longer be demoted unless the SL designates.
• Super Leader will be auto-demoted if inactivity period set by permissions is reached.
• The highest ranking member with the most recent log-in time will be auto-promoted once Super Leader position is vacated.
• Super Leader can pass leadership to a Rank 5 Leader at any time as long they are online, this transfer of leadership occurs in the SG/VG screen.
• There is a confirmation screen before this transaction occurs to eliminate errors.
• Customer Service can promote any on-line player to the Super Leader position, if the petition warrants such action
• There is only one Super Leader.

We understand there may be some general concern over this new rank, how leaders will be selected, and how and what our Customer Supports role is within the SG/VG setting. Due to these concerns we are announcing this feature now and will be giving some advanced notice to the community on the launch date for Issue 14: Architect.

Just like any shared leader position, the SG/VG as a group can determine how this position should be used and what rules apply, outside of permissions. That way if the current player in the position violates those rules, they can voluntarily give the rank to someone else, or the case can be made to CS to resolve as needed.

The position is affected by auto demotion, and it is the only rank now affected by this design. When that occurs, it will pass to the next highest rank member that has logged in most recently. Any player that has been logged out for longer then the auto demotion time is not eligible to be promoted, regardless of rank.

Also note, there has been a change to the auto-promotion process:

• The Last leader to log out will be promoted when I14 goes live.
• There is a 24 hour tie-breaker, if multiple leaders log out at the same time.
• If multiple leaders log out within 24 hours of each other, the leader with the earliest join date will be promoted.

This allows players to better choose which leader will get promoted. We will give advance notice of the approximate live date for I14, in order for SG members to determine which leader should log in before that time.

If the wrong person does get promoted, there are 2 options: The current super-leader can promote the correct person using the Super Group Screen and they will then be moved back to leader rank. Otherwise, petition a GM. They can review the case and take appropriate actions to resolve and possibly put the correct player in the position.

Black Market / Wentworth's Consignment House

• Characters (on active accounts) who have inventories, bids or items for sale in the Black Market or in Wentworth's Consignment House will no longer have to log into the game within 60 days to avoid item or influence/infamy expiration.
• In-game Black Market and Wentworth employees will still give their friendly reminder, however if your account is "active", they won't take your "stuff".

Day Jobs

• The Architect and Experienced Architect Day Job powers should be granting additional time by logging out in an Architect Entertainment Building.

Gameplay

• Added new Loading Screen Tips

Help Command

• The /help command will now bring up the in-game Help Menu System. This essentially replicates choosing "Help" from the drop down Menu option. We found that many players did not know that we had an in-game Help system.
• Players wishing to chat on the server wide "Help Channel" will now have to type in /hc

Invention

• Please refer to the "PVP Origin Enhancements" section below for a list and description of the new PVP Origin Enhancements introduced with Issue 14.
• Enhancement: Touch of the Nictus: Chance for Negative Energy Damage - Fixed a bug where this enhancement would cause damage to the player and his allies.
• Fixed a bug that would cause the Achilles Heel proc to show the resist buff continuing effects instead of the resistance debuff continuing effects.
• Recharge Intensive Pet Invention Origin sets will now correctly boost the damage of Tornado and Phantom Army.

Macintosh Version

• [Architect Missions - Known Issue] Mac players may not being able to see their Architect missions immediately after publishing them. While looking for a permanent solution, we have added a 'Refresh' button to the mission search window. Using it will cause your missions to appear without having to log out and back in.

Merit Vendor

• Random Large Inspirations are purchasable from levels 5 to 50.

Powers

• Flight: Made adjustments to Hover and Flight powers. The minimum speed for these powers is now higher. This includes Kheldian Flight powers.
• Plant Control / Carrion Creepers - Now properly affected by enhancements.
• Pet Powers Change:
  • Recharge times on pet attack powers will no longer be affected by any outside source. This includes buffs and debuffs. What this means is that pets can no longer have the recharge time on their powers increased by player buffs (like Speed Boost) or their recharge time decreased by player or NPC debuffs. This change was made to allow pets to correctly cycle through their attacks instead of getting locked on using the same attack over and over and neglecting to use other available powers.

PVP Changes

PVP Phase Changes: -Any player in a phased state, including Phase shifted or Dimension shifted, can be attacked by other phased players. Hibernate and Cage effects are still impenetrable, since they do not phase the player.

Powers that can be used to attack other phased players include:

• Phase Shift
• Dimension Shift
• Quantum Flight
• Nebulous Form
• Black Hole
• Manifold Resonator
• Hyper Phase
• Phase Flight
• Ethereal Shift
• Players under the Ghost effects of Spirit Potions can only attack other players under the effects of Spirit Potions.
• PVP Elusivity bonus: The elusivity bonus on Melee Defense Armors and Personal Force field has been reduced slightly. We are adjusting this carefully since the elusivity bonus is intended to keep Aim, Build-up, or To-hit bonus from negating defense armors. Overall, Defense armors are performing well when compared to Resist based armors, and the intention is to keep them a strong contender in PVP.
• Melee AT Ranged Attacks: Melee archetypes (Tankers, Brutes, Scrappers and Stalkers) had their ranged attacks in their primary, secondary and Epic (Hero Ancillary/Villain Patron power) pools reduced slightly. Since Melee archetypes use ranged attacks that are set on the melee damage table, they do much more damage then they should with ranged attacks. We're reducing this slightly, but overall we're comfortable with the range attacks being very useful.

Additional PvP Changes

• Teleportation Resistance was being affected by Diminishing Returns in PVP. This was an oversight and has been corrected.
• Fixed Nectar Temp power in PVP, now only has a 2 second duration.
• Adding a forced respawn to players in pvp zones after two minutes have passed from when they died.
• Arachnos Widows and Arachnos Soldiers PVP damage on all powers slightly reduced to correct for it using an incorrect high modifier.
• Tanker, Brute, and Scrapper versions of taunt now display a message when the taunt portion of the power misses in PVP. Stalker taunt is unchanged.

PVP Origin Enhancements

PVP Invention Origin Enhancement recipes have a small chance to be earned in all PvP Zones and Arena matches by defeating another player. Once a PVP IO recipe has been earned, there is a 10 minute timer before the player that earned the recipe can have a chance at earning another recipe. PvP Invention Origin Enhancements have two groups of set bonuses PvE bonuses and PvP bonuses. In a PvE zone/area the player will not benefit from set bonuses marked with (PvP). While in a PvP zone or arena match the player will benefit from both PvE and PvP set bonuses. Below is a list of the new IO sets being introduced by this feature:

• Fury of the Gladiator (Melee AoE Set) (Recipe Level Range 10-50)
• Javelin Volley (Ranged AoE Set) (Recipe Level Range 10-50)
• Gladiator's Armor (Resistance Buff Set) (Recipe Level Range 10-50)
• Gladiator's Javelin (Ranged Damage Set) (Recipe Level Range 10-50)
• Gladiator's Net (Hold Set) (Recipe Level Range 10-50)
• Gladiator's Strike (Melee Damage Set) (Recipe Level Range 10-50)
• Panacea (Healing Set) (Recipe Level Range 10-50)
• Shield Wall (Defense Buff Set) (Recipe Level Range 10-50)

Additional PVP IO Notes

• Gladiator's Armor: +Defense and Teleport Resist now has a 20% chance to grant immunity to teleportation for 10 seconds instead of always on total immunity.
• Shield Wall: +Resistance and Teleport Resist now has a 20% chance to grant immunity to teleportation for 10 seconds instead of always on total immunity.
• Panacea: Chance for Heal/Endurance: This enhancement will function normally in PvE zones, however in PvP zones this power will grant a regeneration bonus much like Numina's Convalescence: +Regen/Recovery. This was done to prevent healing suppression from being triggered by this effect.

Tasks

• Fixed the case where in the final fight in the second mission of Lady Grey's Task Force (Four Horsemen), the Famine rider spawns stuck in the geometry.

Tailor

• Added Waist Capes for Female Arachnos Widow costumes.
• Many gloves now have an offset value associated with them to allow shields to fit better with them and have fewer clipping issues.
• With the "City of Heroes Mac Special Edition" version or the "City of Heroes Mac Special Edition In-Game Item Pack" purchased - Valkyrie Swords will now be available to Archetypes with the Dual Blades powerset.

Trial Account Restrictions

• Players using Trial Accounts may not access Mission Architect terminals. Trial Account users can be invited to teams that are using the Mission Architect Missions, but cannot create, rate or start any published Mission Architect Missions until they "upgrade" their account with either:
  • an online serial code purchased from the online NCsoft store,
  • an NCsoft Game Card (purchased from a participating retailer) or
  • a serial code from a City of Heroes / Villains boxed retail product.

CITY of HEROES

Powers

Blasters

• Psychic Blast/Telekinetic Blast: Corrected a bug that would cause this power's damage to ignore resistance in PvP.
• Electrical Mastery/EM Pulse: Fixed a bug that would display that this power could be slotted with Hold IO sets

Controllers

• Illusion Control - Superior Invisibility no longer detoggles when player is held.
• Sonic Resonance - Sonic Dispersion no longer detoggles when player is held.
• Fixed a minor issue with Illusion Control Phantasm which could cause it to spend time toggling on a power which has no effect.

Defenders

• Cold Domination / Arctic Fog : Volume of looping sound effect will now fade.
• Dark Mastery/Soul Drain: Increased this power's recharge from 120 to 240 seconds.

Tankers

• Pyre Mastery / Char: Damage Vs NPCs increased slightly, and damage in PVP decreased slightly. This is a bug fix rather than a deliberate rebalancing of the power (part of the damage that was supposed to be applied in PVE only was being applied in PVP).

Warshades

• Umbral Aura / Orbiting Death does not detoggle when mezzed.

Rewards

• "The Break Up the Clockwork and the Skulls" mission had its rewards reduced from 4 to 2 merits.

CITY of VILLAINS

Powers

Arachnos Soldiers

• Wolf Spider / Single Shot - This power's short help will now state that it has a -Defense component.

Dominators

• Soul Mastery/Soul Drain: Increased this power's recharge from 120 to 240 seconds.

Mastermind

• Mastermind/Thugs/Call Bruiser: The Bruiser's Hand Clap power was using the wrong table for Knockdown, so it was still doing Knockback. This has been corrected, and he should always do Knock 'DOWN'.
• Ninjas / Call of Jonin - Jonin henchmen, when fully upgraded, are now always in Hide, except for immediately after attacking.
• Mercenaries / Spec-Ops - Spec-Ops henchmen, when fully upgraded, are now always stealthed, except for immediately after attacking.

Stalkers

• Stalker/Dual Blades/Thousand Cuts: Increased this power's range from 7 to 10.

Widows

• Widow Training - Strike incorrectly had a X2 damage multiplier on its stealth critical in both PvP and PvE. Now fixed.

PVP

• Brute Practiced Brawler now correctly grants status resistance instead of status protection in PvP.

Badges

• Fixed a bug that allowed villains to get a progress bar for the Spellbinding badge