Issue 9

This article contains information about a major update to Homecoming: City of Heroes/Villains. It is provided for historical purposes.

Overview

Issue 9, titled Breakthrough, was a major revision to City of Heroes and City of Villains released on Tuesday, May 1, 2007. The title is said to refer to invention "Breakthroughs", Hami breaking through into a new villain zone, and the heroes breaking through into the Rogue Isles via the new Statesman's Task Force.

General content

Major Features

Statesman's Task Force

Statesman's Task Force, the hero side equivalent of the Lord Recluse Strike Force as an alternate method for heroes to earn HOs. [1] Heroes will be "taking the fight to the Rogue Isles".

New Hamidon Encounter

A new Hamidon encounter is coming where villains will be able participate. Villains will get their own Hamidon zone named The Abyss. Preview of the Abyss currently on YouTube

Both hero and villain Hami Raids will require new tactics. According to Positron, the new encounter will require "Smaller raids, better tactics, and less potential for griefing". Hami rewards will be limited to once per 24 hour period, because of the ability for smaller groups to succeed (to prevent farming). Defeating Hami will also now give a reward pop-up, with a "Rare Recipe" as an option instead of an HO.

Invention System

The Invention System, where "Players will be able to craft Enhancements and Costume pieces for their characters using recipes, and salvage that they find while adventuring." [2] It has also been stated that the long-rumored "Legacy System", which would allow for additional improvements of level 50 characters, has evolved/been wrapped up into the Invention System. [3]

Auction Houses

Auction Houses for the new Invention Items. Wentworth's Fine Consignments will open its doors in Paragon City while the villains will do their bidding alongside "black-market" trucks placed throughout the Rogue Isles.

Quality of Life changes

Influence/Infamy Transfer Amount

The influence/infamy transfer amount will be raised from its current 99,999. There are enough character slots to account for transfers up to 9,999,999, but the new cap amount has not been announced yet. [4]

Tram Stops

More tram stops are being added, Green Line Monorail to appear in Skyway City just steps from the underpass to Faultline. Also, a new Green line stop in central Founder's Falls.

New stores

There are several enhancement stores added in Kings Row.

Flight Emotes

The alternate flight poses return as a series of emotes that can only be used while flying.

Enhancement Descriptions

Enhancements have now been given detailed story driven descriptions, For example, the Magic Origin SO for Hold Duration has been given a description where Hermes' forces the target to "mentally Fold a Road Map correctly." Other enhancements have been given similar descriptions.

New Trainer

A new Hero Trainer, Castle, has been added to Peregrine Island.

Patrols

Patrols in missions no longer run around in a hunched-back fashion.

Badges

Issue 9 brings a total of 74 badges: 72 badges for heroes, 70 Badges for villains. (This does not count the 8 vet badges). Most are earned by crafting under the Invention System, some earned by selling at consignment houses, and a few for the Statesman Task Force.

Full Release Notes

Issue 9: Breakthrough

For information about Known Issues with this release, please visit the Known Issues Page.

HEADLINES

• Invention System: The Invention System has come to Paragon City and the Rogue Isles. Players can now acquire Recipes and Salvage to build Invention Origin (IO) Enhancements that can never be out-leveled. With Inventions players can now also build Costume pieces and create Temporary Powers.

• Universities: These pillars of higher learning can be found throughout Paragon City and the Rogue Isles. They offer courses covering the use of the Invention System, and they provide access to Invention System Worktables that allow the construction of these technological breakthroughs!

• Consignment Markets: Where better to buy and sell all of these new items than in the new consignment markets? Wentworth’s Fine Consignments have sprung up throughout Paragon City while the villains prefer to do their bidding alongside “black-market” trucks in various shady places in the Rogue Isles.

• Statesman’s Task Force: Eight heroes team up in order to face and defeat Paragon’s greatest enemies! Completing this difficult challenge results in some of the game’s rarest rewards!

• New Hamidon Encounter: Villains finally get their own end-game raid encounter with the “Hamidon” and the new experience is also brought to the Heroic side! Players must use new tactics to bring down one of the “City of”s greatest threats.

COMBINED NOTES

The Invention System

• The Invention System is a new system coming to Paragon City and the Rogue Isles. Players will be able to earn and find common, uncommon and rare Invention Salvage drops that, when combined according to Recipes, create technological breakthroughs that can be used to evolve your character.

• • At level 10, characters can participate in the Invention system by undertaking a brief tutorial at Universities in Steel Canyon (for Heroes) and Cap Au Diable (for Villains).
  • If your character is higher than level 10 we encourage you to also participate in the Tutorial and learn this exciting new system!

• The Invention System has many facets to it:

Invention Salvage

• There is a new class of Salvage called “Invention Salvage” that drops off of NPC enemies, beginning at player level 4. Invention Salvage drops in addition to any Base Salvage.
• There are two classes of Invention Salvage: Science/Tech and Magic Salvage that drop from appropriately-themed enemies.
• There are three rarities of Invention salvage: Common, uncommon and rare. Each rarity is color-coded to denote the difference.
  • Common is White
  • Uncommon is Yellow
  • Rare is Orange
• Invention Salvage is tiered by level and not all salvage is available at all levels.
• You can click "Info" on any enemy to see the possible Invention Salvage rewards for defeating that enemy. If there is no list, then Invention Salvage can not be found on that enemy.

Recipes

• Recipes are used to make Invention Origin Enhancements, Costume Pieces, or Temporary Powers
  • Invention Origin Enhancements can be used by all characters, regardless of their chosen Origin
• Recipes can be dropped as rewards from NPC enemies you fight, bought from University Worktables, earned from Trials, Task Forces and Strike Forces or from completing ‘door missions’.
• The most basic types of Invention Origin Enhancement Recipes can be purchased from Worktables found in the Universities.
• Like Salvage, Recipes can be common, uncommon and rare and are color-coded to denote the rarity.
• To use a Recipe you need to find the Salvage ingredients on the Recipe list and go to a University or equipped Super Group base and use a Worktable (aka Crafting Station).

Worktables

• Worktables allow players to invent Enhancements, Costume Pieces or Temporary Powers if they have the appropriate Recipe, required Salvage and influence or infamy.
• Players can craft any item for which they have a Recipe and ingredients, and don’t need to be able to slot a high-level Enhancement to create it.
• Worktables are found inside Universities, and can also be placed inside a Supergroup Base.
• Players are able to summon a “Portable Workbench” after earning a Field Crafter Accolade badge. This allows players to craft without having to return to a University or Supergroup Worktable.

Enhancement Sets

• Uncommon and Rare recipes can form Enhancement Sets which grant special “set bonuses” when slotted into a single power.
• Set Enhancements can only be slotted into specific powers that fall within the type of powers that set is for.
  • Examples include Melee attacks, Ranged attacks, Holds, Pets, Flight, Teleport, etc.
• Enhancement Set Recipes are found by :
  • Defeating NPC enemies
  • The Reward Choice tables for the end of Trials and Task Forces have an option of selecting a random rare recipe from a select pool of recipes.
  • There is a small chance you will get a “rare” recipe when you complete missions. These recipes can only be found completing missions.
• Set Bonuses are not tied specifically to the power that the Invention Enhancement Set is slotted into. Set Bonuses will always persist, and will boost other powers (i.e. Damage and Accuracy) that your character has.
• Set Bonuses are temporarily disabled when a player exemplars below the level at which a power was gained, if the power is one that provides Bonuses from IO Sets being slotted. Bonuses are also disabled if a player exemps too far below the level of an Enhancement that triggers the Set Bonus. With the following exceptions:
  • The Power the enhancements are slotted into is unavailable for ANY reason (Exemplaring, shape shifting, Arena settings)
  • Your Exemplared level is below the minimum allowed slotting for that enhancement type. For example, the lowest possible version of the enhancement is level 25 and you are exemplared to level 24 -- you would not gain any set bonuses.
  • You are exemplared to a point more than 3 levels below the level of the slotted enhancement. For example, if you have a level 50 Aegis slotted, and exemplared to level 45, any set bonuses given by that enhancement would cease to function
• To clarify the use of Invention Enhancements, here are answers to a few common questions:
  • Can you mix IOs from different sets in one power? (yes)
  • Can you slot a specific IO from a set more than one time in a power? (no)
  • If you slot a few IOs from different sets, can you get bonuses from both sets? (yes)

Inventories

• Characters have a limited Invention Salvage Inventory which grows as they gain levels.
• You must have free Invention Inventory slots in order to receive more Invention Salvage rewards.
• Characters also have a limited Recipe Inventory which works the same way.
• Characters can unlock Invention Salvage Inventory slots by earning badges.
• Players have access to external storage areas known as Vaults. (see Vault section below)

Inventory Table

Level	Invention Salvage Size	Recipe Slots
1	3	1
2	4	1
3	8	1
4	15	1
5	30	1
6	30	4
7	30	4
8	30	4
9	30	4
10	30	8
11	30	10
12	30	10
13	30	10
14	30	10
15	30	10
16	30	11
17	30	11
18	30	11
19	30	11
20	30	12
21	30	12
22	30	12
23	30	12
24	30	12
25	30	12
26	30	13
27	30	13
28	30	13
29	30	13
30	30	13
31	30	13
32	30	13
33	30	13
34	30	13
35	30	14
36	32	14
37	34	14
38	36	14
39	38	14
40	40	14
41	40	16
42	40	18
43	40	20
44	40	20
45	50	20
46	50	20
47	50	20
48	50	20
49	50	20
50	50	20

Universities

• Universities are located in Paragon City and the Rogue Isles and teach players how to use the new Invention System and build their technological breakthroughs at Worktables.

• • Universities are located in Steel Canyon, Croatoa and Founder’s Falls (Heroes)
  • There is a University in Cap au Diable (Villains)
  • The Invention Tutorial can only be accessed in Steel Canyon and Cap Au Diable.

Auction Houses

Wentworth’s Consignment House (Heroes)/The Black Market (Villains)

• In Atlas Park, Kings Row, Steel Canyon, and Talos Island there is a Wentworth’s Consignment House (marked on your minimap with a W icon.) This is an “Consignment Market” for players to buy, sell, and trade anything they could normally trade in the game, including Invention Salvage, Recipes, and created Enhancements from the Invention System.

• Villains have a similar “Consignment Market” in the Black Market located in Mercy Isle, Cap au Diable, Sharkhead Isle, and St. Martial. The Black Market is marked with a dark grey $ on your minimap.

• In order to prevent possible griefing, there is a region found in and around every Wentworth’s and Black Market location that will instantly defeat any enemy that enters it, granting no rewards to anyone.

• Secret Bid System (Buying and Selling) – Buyers cannot see the price sellers are asking for their items.Sellers can not see what buyers are willing to pay. This is intentional to make sure that sellers get what they deserve, and buyers pay what they feel is appropriate.

• • A seller sets the price of whatever he is selling. This is the minimum that they will take for that item.
  • There is a non-refundable listing fee to put any item up for sale.
  • A buyer bids the price of whatever he is willing to pay for that item. If that price meets or exceeds the seller’s price, the buyer “wins” the item, and pays out what they bid.
  • The seller then receives what the buyer bid, minus the Transaction Fees appropriate to the sale. Since the buyer didn’t know what the seller was asking, he could get practically any amount over what he was originally asking. For example, a seller could put a recipe up for 1,000 inf, and a buyer bids 250,000 inf for it. The seller would sell that recipe to that buyer, and end up almost 250,000 inf richer for it.
  • So if you really want to move your product quickly, set low prices on it. Your stuff will move first if it’s the lowest price. However, you run the risk of someone bidding low, and you being the only qualifying price.
  • If you really want to make sure you get an item that is for sale, bid as much as you are willing to spend on that item. Ask yourself how much is it really worth to you, because what you bid will literally be what you spend.
  • Characters can buy or sell Enhancements, Inspirations, Salvage and Recipes.

o Combined Enhancements (with pluses) cannot be put into the Consignment Markets. They can still be sold to stores, stored, or traded between players normally.

• • Characters cannot buy or sell Temporary Powers or Costume Pieces through the Consignment system to other players, however, players may buy and sell the recipes.
  • Consignment Market Teleporter:
    • For convenience, all Consignment Markets now sell a one-time use Temporary Teleporter power that will allow a character to teleport themselves instantly to Wentworth’s or the Black Market.
  • Added a new chat channel for the Consignment Market. Messages relating to the consignment market will be sent there, similar to the "rewards" channel.
  • Drag and Drop User Interface :
    • To do anything with the Consignment Market, you just need to drag and drop the items in question to or from your inventories to your transaction inventory slots.
    • If you are moving a stack of items, you will see a slider asking how much you want to move. Only Recipes and Salvage can be bought or sold in stacks.

Transaction Inventory

• Characters have a limited number of Transaction Inventory Slots that grows as the character levels up. These inventory slots can be used for the following:

Selling an item or stack of Salvage

• You set a minimum price you want to receive for an item or for each piece of Salvage in a stack of Salvage. Buyers will not see your minimum “sell price”, but if any buyers bid over your price, AND you are the lowest qualifying seller, your item will sell to that character for the price the buyer offered (minus any transaction fees).

Buying an item

• You can bid on any item that can possibly be listed for sale.
• If your bid meets the minimum price of at least one item, then you will automatically buy that item.
• If your bid fails to meet the minimum price of all items being sold (or if no units of that item are for sale), this will create a “Buy Order” instead.
• A slider is available to place multiple Buy Orders for the same piece of salvage or recipe.
• Buy Orders: If someone puts up the exact item you are looking for at your Buy Order price or less, you will immediately buy it, even if you are not on-line.

Storing an item

• You can simply store items in your Transaction inventory slots, without placing them for sale, if you wish.
• A single stack of Recipes or Salvage will take only one Transaction Slot.

Level Transaction Slots

1 1

2 2

3 3

4 4

5 6

6 7

7 8

8 9

9 9

10 10

11 10

12 11

13 11

14 12

15 12

16 13

17 13

18 14

19 14

20 15

21 15

22 15

23 15

24 15

25 15

26 15

27 15

28 15

29 15

30 15

31 15

32 15

33 15

34 15

35 15

36 15

37 15

38 15

39 15

40 16

41 16

42 16

43 16

44 16

45 16

46 16

47 16

48 16

49 16

50 16

Vault Reserve

• Characters can now store a limited amount of Invention Salvage at the Vault Reserve. These independent shops are set up near Wentworth’s and the Black Markets as well as a branch inside Pocket D.

• • These areas allow you to access a personal storage locker to store more Invention Salvage.
  • Base Salvage, Inspirations and Enhancements cannot be put into the Vault Reserve.
  • Supergroups can place a Personal Storage Object in their base that ties in directly to the Vault Reserve storage (it’s simply another way to access the Vault Reserve storage for characters).

Level Off-Character Storage Size

1 3

2 4

3 8

4 15

5 30

6 30

7 30

8 30

9 30

10 30

11 30

12 30

13 30

14 30

15 30

16 30

17 30

18 30

19 30

20 30

21 30

22 30

23 30

24 30

25 30

26 30

27 30

28 30

29 30

30 30

31 30

32 30

33 30

34 30

35 30

36 32

37 34

38 36

39 38

40 40

41 40

42 40

43 40

44 40

45 50

46 50

47 50

48 50

49 50

50 50

Badges

• Issue 9 brings with it over 60 new badges, most of which are Invention or Consignment Market related.

• • Some badges have rewards such as increased Inventory sizes for the various Invention related Inventories.

• • Other badges allow you to “memorize” recipes so that you no longer need to buy them from the Worktable (or have a copy of the recipe on you) in order to make those Enhancements.

• • An Invention System Accolade exists as well that allows field crafting.

• • For Memorization badges, you must craft one half of the requisite IOs at the lower level listed for that badge, and half at the higher level. For example, you must craft an equal number of level 45 and level 50 IOs to receive the Level 45/50 badge in one category.

Statesman’s Task Force

• Marcus Cole (Statesman) himself now stands aboard a Freedom Corps ship in Independence Port. If you have 8 level 45 to 50 Heroes, you can start the Statesman Task Force and undertake a mission that is of vital importance to the fate of the entire planet.

• • Your reward for this can be either a Synthetic Hamidon Enhancement (courtesy of Positron) or a random rare Recipe for use in the Invention system.
  • Each of these rewards can be given out only once every 24 hours.

Villain Hamidon Encounter

• The Hamidon has invaded the Rogue Isles in a zone known only as “The Abyss” which is accessed through Grandville.

• • New tactics are called for requiring better team coordination and fewer raiders.

• • The Abyss will now create a new instance when approximately 50 players have entered
  • Hamidon himself is now spawned via player actions and is no longer on a timer. In Paragon City will also see the revamped Hamidon in the Hive zone which will also be capped at 50 players.
  • Defeating Hamidon will earn a Hamidon Enhancement or a rare Recipe for use in the Invention System. Each of these rewards can be given out only once every 24 hours.

Powers – Players

• • The description text for many powers have been corrected and updated, these changes did not affect the in game results.
• Controller: Fixed an issue with Stone Cages which caused its cast time to be too long.
• Mastermind/Corruptor: Poison Trap can now only be used while in contact with the ground.
• Spines’ Throw Spines animation will no longer pitch to target
• Fixed an issue with several 'cage' powers which gave them longer than intended durations in PvP. Detention Field, Sonic Cage and Black Hole are affected by this change.
• Many powers with regeneration debuff effects are now resistible by non-player entities. Powers effected are:
  • Radiation Emissions 'Lingering Radiation' and 'EM Pulse'
  • Poisons 'Envenom'
  • Robotics Assault Bot 'Plasma Blast' and 'Dual Plasma Blast'
  • Electric Armor 'Power Surge'
  • Trick Arrow 'EMP Arrow'
  • Electrical Master 'EM Pulse'
• Added Fear and Confuse Protection to Thermal Radiation "Thaw"
• Added Fear and Confuse Protection to Poison "Antidote"
• Reduced the hit points of Inferno’s Altar. Additionally, in missions where Infernal himself is an Elite Boss, the Altar should have even fewer hp.
• Assault Rifle Corruptors 'Scourge' effects in PvP were not marked as 'irresistible'. This has been corrected.
• Any toggle that affects only yourself and/or allies should not root you while activating, such as: Leadership, Shadow Fall, Dispersion Bubble, etc. Additionally, Shadowfall and Group Fly powers should no longer root.
• Kuji-in Sha now properly follows the rule that self heals do not root your character while activating.
• Sonic Resonance power, Disruption Field no longer generates agro when using the power.

Powers - Critters

• Archvillain(Hero) and Giant Monster class entities have had their global debuff resistances reduced. This should offset the changes made to -Regen powers and lead to more diverse team composition for certain encounters.
• You can now pick up escort hostages while stealthed or when you have a Stealth Invention Origin Enhancement slotted. Everyone around the hostage will receive a stealth debuff when it is acquired. The debuff to stealth powers will remove when you exit the mission map.
  • Note: The purpose of this change is to allow players to not be penalized by new Stealth Invented Enhancement.
  • The perception bonus has been affected, however any defense buff associated with a stealth power is still maintained.
• Archvillain(Hero) and Monster class critters should now be more courageous when faced with Caltrops or similar powers.

Rewards

• Enhancement drop rates have changed and been decreased as you level up. Players at higher levels will no longer receive enhancements that are of no use to a character at that level. Following is the composition of Enhancement drops by level:

• • 1 to 12 100% Training Origin Enhancements
  • 13 to 21 50% Training, 50% Dual Origin
  • 22 to 31 50% Dual Origin, 50% Single Origin
  • 32 to 40 25% Dual Origin, 75% Single Origin
  • 41 to 50 100% Single Origin

• You should still receive optimal enhancement drops at near, or sometimes faster than the rate you received them in previously.
  • For example, if, at level 45, you previously got an SO 25% of the time you got an enhancement drop, you now should receive enhancements 75% less often, but they will be an SO 100% of the time.
• When the game gives you a reward it will check your free inventory slots and not allow you to choose something if that inventory is full. For example, if you wanted an Enhancement, but your 10 enhancement inventory slots were already full, you would be notified that that inventory is full, and you can not select that reward. Deleting something to free up space will immediately refresh the reward window and allow you to make the choice.
• Respec Trials, The Statesman Task Force and Lord Recluse Strike Force have a “once every 24 hours” limiter on their rare recipe rewards.
• For all other Task Forces, Strike Forces or Trial missions, characters can only obtain the recipe reward from finishing such missions every 4 hours, regardless of the level of Task Force they complete.
• If you are grouped with a higher level person and receive no xp for overcoming foes, then you also will not receive any invention, salvage, recipe or inspiration drops.

City Zones

King’s Row

• King's Row now has Superpowered Field Trainers (NPC Stores)

Green Line Tram

• The Green line now runs to Skyway City and Founders' Falls

Peregrine Island

• The zone now has a Trainer: Castle.

Monster Island

• A submarine in Grandville will take Villains to some isolated islands where very big Devouring Earth Monsters can be found.

Siren’s Call

• Fixed a hole that allowed players to teleport outside the world boundaries

Mercy Island

• General cleanup of many minor graphical problems in the zone.

Grandville and Recluse’s Victory

• Reduced texture/shader usage on recluse statues in Grandville and Recluse’s Victory

Emotes

• New Emotes Added!

• • Emote Binoculars
  • Emote Camera
  • Emote Cellphone
  • Emote Clipboard
  • Emote Crouch
  • Emote Drum
  • Emote DrumLow
  • Emote Fishing
  • Emote FlippingCoin
  • Emote FloatBooks
  • Emote Howl
  • Emote Talk
  • Emote Waiting
  • Emote Wounded

Custom Flying Animation Emotes

(These will only interrupt the flying forward animations)

• Emote FlyPose1
• Emote FlyPose2
• Emote FlyPose3
• Emote FlyPose4

• Emotes should more reliably interrupt certain combat cycles, particularly post-attack cycles and combat ready cycles (triggered by some toggles, such as Tough)
• All emotes should now work while flight is on.
• Many emotes that did not look correct on the Kheldian Dwarf have been disabled.

Graphics Effects

• Minor tweaks to Endurance Buff continuing graphics effects for performance issues.
• Minor changes to the graphical effects for Darkest Night and Damage Buff/Debuff continuing effects to improve performance.
• Minor changes to Tar Patch graphics effects for performance.
• Continuing graphic effects now have a lifespan added to them. This should help to ensure that effects stop playing in case the client fails to stop them for some reason. This includes all generic buff and debuff effects (damage, defense, to-hit, etc) as well as the continuing effects for Freezing Rain and Tar Patch.

Animations

• Undead Slaying Axe veteran power now has a unique animation. It's identical to the original 'uppercut' attack animation, but with proper hand placement for all 3 body types. This should also resolve the issue with this power and various emotes causing the wrong animation sequences to play.
• Flurry, Shadow Maul, Sands of Mu, and other similar powers should play the correct attack animation more consistently rather than the hit animation.
• Added flying versions of the two-handed overhand smash animation used by Stone Melee's Stone Mallet attacks and Gabriel's Hammer temporary power.
• The medical animation (shared by stimulant, aid other, and the ore extracting power in Bloody Bay) should now play more reliably.

Trading

• The Trade Interface now allows for much larger amounts.

Game

• Arenas and Base raiding should boot players out less frequently.

References

Lady_Athyna posted this list on the CoH forums.

A good portion of the info contained in this article was pulled from these sources.

• Warcry Teaser - I9
• MMOSITE.com teaser

Dev posts about I9 - US

• Positron explains rewards in inventions

Mod posts about I9 - US

• Lighthouse explains timeframe of test to live.

Posts about I9 - EU

• Probably no new villain group.
• New base items possible.
• Universities