Issue 18

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

Overview

Issue 18, Shades of Gray, was a major revision to City of Heroes and City of Villains, which accompanied the Going Rogue expansion. The title references the blurring of the lines between hero and villain in the new Alignment system.

This article summarizes some of the major features in Issue 18. For more complete details, see the release date's patch notes.

• Closed Beta testing on the Training Room for Issue 18/Going Rogue started on April 2, 2010.
• Loyalist Program Closed Beta testing on the Training Room for Issue 18/Going Rogue started on July 26, 2010.
• Going Rogue pre-purchase Closed Beta access for Issue 18/Going Rogue was opened on August 10, 2010.
• Issue 18 was released to the Live Servers on August 16, 2010.
• Going Rogue was released to the Live Servers on August 16, 2010, for pre-purchasers, and officially launched August 17, 2010.

Alignment System

Having Going Rogue enabled is necessary for Heroes and Villains to 'switch sides'. Issue 18 allows City of Heroes accounts without Going Rogue to play the content from the Tip Alignment Missions; however, they can not gain Alignment Points nor switch their alignment. These Legacy accounts can team with Tourists visiting from the 'other side.'

Tips System

The Tips System gives players a new way to find missions. During play, once your character is Level 20+, foes Level 20+ may drop notes or clues, or offer information called Tips, even if these foes con grey to you. These Tips start new mission arcs, allowing characters to face new opponents and challenges.

For each level bracket 20-29, 30-39, and 40-50, there are anywhere from 10-17 Tip Alignment Missions per side, each giving the player a choice between two different ways to play out the Tip, for a total of 166 missions. There are several stories woven into the Tip missions telling the tales of in-game characters that fall from grace or are redeemed.

Tips are limited to five Fame slots where each slot is on a 20-hour cool down before another Tip Alignment Mission can be completed for alignment credit. Tips and the Fame Slots can be found in the Contact Window under the new "Tips" tab.

Search Results

Opposing Alignment players will show up in Co-Op zones in the same pale blue that same-alignment players do--that means they're able to invited to your team. If they're an opposing alignment player in a Co-Op zone that you're not currently in, they will show up as orange to indicate you can't team with them until you enter the zone they're in.

Alignment Lounges

The Fort Trident Base in Atlas Park and The Crucible in Cap au Diable are lounges for pure Heroes and Villains. Their main purpose is to house the Alignment Vendors for which only those who've purchased Going Rogue can make use of. However, they do provide teleporters to the main Task and Strike Forces and contain some other amenities (e.g., Trident has a respec contact).

Alignment Interface

• Alignment Info Tab: Available in the /info and /infoself windows for characters Level 20+: By looking at the info window of yourself or another player, you'll see a list of that toon's history of alignment missions.
• Alignment Health Window Icon: A round alignment icon has been added to the Health window to show one's alignment: Hero; Vigilante; Rogue; Villain; Praetorian (tutorial); Resistance; Loyalist.
• Alignment Portrait Background: When you look at a portrait of yourself in the info window, or look at a contact's portrait, Heroes, Vigilantes, and Resistance see blue; Villains, Rogues, and Loyalists see red.

Arena

• Fixed a bug where rated Gladiator matches could not be started.
• Fixed a bug that caused the Swiss Draw Arena option to be unselectable.
• Fixed the bug where the Arena scoreboard didn't update while open during an Arena match.
• You can no longer claim global email attachments while in an Arena match.

Badges

See: Issue 18 Badges

• While most of the badges of this Issue are geared to things that can only be accomplished by purchasing Going Rogue there still are badges to be obtained by those who have not purchased the expansion. E.g., the defeat badge for Praetorian Clockwork can be accomplished through the newly revised Tina Macintyre and Maria Jenkins arcs.
• Closest to Completion Tab: There is a new tab in the Badges Window which lists uncompleted badges in order of closest to completion (ranked in descending order by percent complete). So, for example, if you only need to defeat one more Skull for the Kill Skuls Badge (99.8% complete), it will likely be listed first under this tab.

Chat

• You should no longer see the message "You can now receive global emails from any player not on your ignore list” spamming your chat. It’s still true, though.
• The channel admin command /chan_timeout <channel name> <duration>” is working correctly now. The minimum time that can be set for timeout has been increased from 7 days to 30 days. Channels that have already been set to a timeout period of less than 30 days will be unchanged.
• If you send a tell to a player with a Trial account, an auto-reply will be sent explaining that players with Trial accounts cannot send tells.

Costumes

• Combat Mode Auras: Players now have the ability to set all Auras to “Combat Mode”. Combat Mode Only versions of all auras have been added to the Tailor and Facemaker. These auras will only turn on when your character engages in combat. They are selectable from Aura -> Effect menu. (Note: The option for persistent Auras (always on) is still available.)
• There are no new costume sets for Issue 18 (there are 7 costume sets that unlocked with Going Rogue).

Critters

• Changed descriptions for Anti-Matter, Battle Maiden, Black Swan, Bobcat, Chimera, Marauder, Mother Mayhem, Neuron, Nightstar, Siege and Tyrant.
• New Critters in established factions: (created by Castle (Developer))

• Girlfriend From Hell: Hellion Boss, Demon Summoner (new NPC model)
• Chi Master: Tsoo Lieutenant, Kinetic Melee
• Super Stunner: Freakshow Boss, Electric Control (new NPC model)
• Diseased Abomination: Vahzilok, Wasting Disease aura

• New Factions: While these factions are primarily found in Praetoria, characters in the 'Cities' may find them certain interdimensional missions.

• Praetorian Police
• T.E.S.T.
• Praetorian Clockwork
• Ghouls
• Seers
• Destroyers
• The Syndicate

City Zones

• Recluse's Victory - Arachnos Heavy in Recluses Victory will once again have endurance
• Pocket D – The Tiki Room - Trina the Body Sculptress has looked into a mirror and didn't like what she saw. She's undergone a fabulous makeover.

Economies Merged

Consignment Houses Merged

• Players of all alignments, whether they are Heroes, Villains, Vigilantes, or Rogues, can now use any Wentworth's Consignment House or Black Market venue. The Consignment House will also be linked the Praetorian Trading House.
• At the time of merging, all pending transactions were canceled and all listing fees refunded.

Trading and Emailing Between Alignments

• Heroes and Villains can now trade just about anything in co-op zones. Players can even email most items to their own or other player's characters using the global email system irrespective of alignment (including to and from Praetorians).

INF

See main article: Inf

• Influence, Infamy, and the new Praetorian Information are now equivalent to each other and completely interchangeable. The only difference will be what each 'side' calls it. Inf will be the standard reference for that 'currency' -- it will now show up that way on character ID cards.

Missions and Story Content

Cathedral of Pain

See main article: Cathedral of Pain Trial

• This Supergroup Trial is back after a long absence when it was originally pulled for severe bugs. The Trial is no longer tied to base raiding, nor to Supergroup rewards. It does, however, require a Supergroup Base to launch the raid with ideally three full teams; and it does give out personal rewards to the participants.

Legacy Arcs with Praetorians

• Tina Macintyre's missions (Hero) that involve Praetorians have been updated, story-wise, to make more sense to characters with more knowledge of Praetoria and its politics [called The Instant Army]. The old Story Arc (The Praetorian War), and the new one, are accessible through Ouroboros, level 40-45.
• Maria Jenkins’ missions that involve Praetorians have been updated, story-wise, to make more sense to characters with more knowledge of Praetoria and its politics. The old Story Arc (Hero’s Hero) is accessible through Ouroboros.
  • Known issue: Both the old and new version are currently displayed in Ouroboros with the same name. This will be corrected. For now, the top one is the new one.

Other

• Steel Canyon – Montague Castanella: During the “Craft Lost cure” mission, the temp power ‘The Lost Cure’ will continue to work if temp powers are disabled in the mission, making it able to be completed..

Powers

For a full listing of changes, see: Issue 18 Patch Notes

Noteworthy Changes

• Archery/Trick Arrow: Many animations were shortened
• Brute Fury: Upper end Fury generation made more difficult to achieve, however, the loss of Fury at the lower ends was slowed down so that the Brute was more likely to keep some amount of Fury up. Higher rank foes help generate more Fury.
• Fiery Aura/Burn: Removed Fear, adjusted damage
• Fiery Embrace: After using this attack, all subsequent attacks for 20 seconds will do extra fire damage.
• Fly powers: Base flight speed increased to 33%
  • NOTE: Flight speed was actually increased to 50%, which was initially filed as a bug but was subsequently accepted as correct
• Martial Arts: Many adjustments to the set.
• Mystic Fortune: Can't be cast on a subject that already has the buff on them.
• Shield Charge: Reduced over all damage, made damage differential against near v. farther foes more significant
• Sprint buff: Sprint (and all Prestige sprints) now add an additional 50% unenhanceable run buff.
• Tanker Inherents
  • New Inherent: Bruising -- When a Tanker uses a Secondary Tier 1 power, a Bruising effect occurs which is a 20% resistible damage resistance debuff which lasts for 10 seconds. Note: only one application of this effect on a given target is possible at a time.
  • Maximum Health: Increased Tanker Maximum Health multiplier from 2 to 2.2. At level 50, this means a Tanker's maximum health when buffed increases from 3213 to 3534.

Epic Power Pool Proliferation

See: Epic Power Set Proliferation

• Villains now automatically receive access to modified 'heroic' Ancillary Power Pools starting at Level 41. Heroes, however, do not get access to the Patron Power Pools since they need to be unlocked by a Badge that comes from doing an Arachnos Patron's first arc.

• Note that those who have purchased Going Rogue can have their Heroes turn Villain and permanently unlock the Patron Power Pools. And Villains who unlock the PPPs can turn other alignments and still have access to the PPPs.

Emotes

• For those with the Mutant Pack unlocked, they changed the slash command of the Energy Morph costume change emote from “/cce # CCpodperson” to “/cce # CCenergymorph”.
• Re-organized quickchat menu with more sub categories for people with low resolution screens (the overly tall menus went past the screen edge).
• Quickchat menu has become 'smart' in that emotes which are not unlocked to the character are now greyed out.
• Note: All new emotes in this Issue are locked to purchasing Going Rogue.

Invention

• Smoothed the inf. cost by level: Previous instances where a recipe cost more to create than a recipe of the same enhancement at higher level have been corrected by reducing the outlying costs. All Set IO creation costs should only now increase with level.
• Proc120 Special IOs: Previously, when the 'Proc120' Special IOs were slotted into toggles, they would continue to 'work' for 120 seconds after the toggle was turned off. Now, they shut off immediately when the toggle is turned off. This is considered a fix to the way they were intended to work. They still work for 120 seconds in a click power and they still remain always on in a working passive power. The Proc120 IOs are the Stealth IOs, Kismet's +6% ToHit, and the three Healing Set +Recovery and +Regeneration IOs.

Mission Architect

Custom Critters XP Costs

• fixed several small errors in the amount of XP weight certain powers were awarding in the custom XP calculations.

Doppelgangers Added

• Doppelgangers can be added to mission with a variety of preset costume changes (or random power selection) including...
  • Shadow / Inverse / BlackAndWhite
  • Demon / Angel
  • Reverse
  • RandomPower

New Designated Helper

See main article: Mission Architect Designated Helper

New rules for how buffing NPC allies operate in Mission Architect were put in place.

PVP

• Tanker and Scrapper versions of Fiery Embrace were set to cause Travel Suppression in PVP, while Brute and Dominator versions were not. The Tanker and Scrapper versions have had the Travel Suppression flag removed.
• Corruptor Trick Arrows Entangling Arrow and Freezing Arrow PVP durations set to the correct value.
• Widow Indomitable Will Immobilize protection will no longer suppress in PVP.
• Ancillary version of Telekinesis now behaves the same in PVP as non-ancillary versions.
• (Dominators) Electricity Control/Paralyzing Blast now has a hold duration when used in PVP
• (Dominators) Electricity Control/Static Field now has a sleep duration when used in PVP
• Electricity Control/Jolting Chain will now attempt to knockdown player targets in PVP
• Teleportation Resistance is no longer subject to Diminishing Returns in PVP.

Trial Accounts

• Trial accounts are no longer allowed to create supergroups or talk to super group registrars.
• Trial accounts have access to the Demon Summoning, Dual Pistols, Electricity Control and Kinetic Melee power sets
• Trial accounts from now on will have access to Going Rogue. When they update to the full game, they will be updating to Going Rogue unless they specifically upgrade to a full account by purchasing one of the older editions that pre-date Going Rogue.
• If you send a tell to a player with a Trial account, an auto-reply will be sent explaining that players with Trial accounts cannot send tells.

UI & Settings

• 3D Sound: The 3D Sound option has been removed for Windows Vista and Windows 7 -- Microsoft does not support Direct 3D audio in Vista+ operating systems
• Alienware Lighting Support: There is a new AlienFX section under Menu -> Options -> Graphics and Audio.
  • AlienFX support is defaulted to “on” so any player with the AlienFX Command Center and appropriate hardware will instantly see color changes.
  • In City of Heroes / City of Villains, the lights will change as a player’s character changes their alignment from Hero to Vigilante to Villain to Rogue.
  • In Praetoria the lights will change as players make moral choices between Resistance or Loyalist.
• Auction House:
  • You can now tab forward and back (shift-tab) through stored items. The price text gets reset when you move to a new item.
  • You can tab forward and back through the search field, min level, max level, bid price and bid quantity fields. Their text auto-selects so you can type to replace it. Similarly the bid price and quantity auto-select when you click on them (the others already did).
• Client Skin: If you want that golden Going Rogue skin when you log on and have Tyrant, Desdemona, and Maelstrom greet you, the tag for the client's command line is: -uiskin 2
• Loading Screens: Loading screen maps are no longer stretched for wide screens. Noble Savage (Developer) has mentioned on the Live boards that he will be running a player contest to create new UM loading screens.... soon.
• Mini-Map Options: With new icons come new options to click on or off in the mini-map drop-down menu
  • MissionObjective: When given a mission that has an outdoor objective, this option will show up in the pull down menu of the mini-map. Enabling it will show markers on your map for the Mission Objectives.
  • Lounge: If you want Marchand's Loyalist lounge in Nova Praetoria or Studio 55 in Imperial City to show up on the mini-map, then enable this on the mini-map drop down menu.
  • Precinct: If you want to see the Praetorian police stations, enable this.
  • Trading House: For the Praetorian Trading House
• Global Channels > Praetorian Zone Events: To complement the Hero and Villain Zone Event channels. Although, there have been no Praetorian zone events yet.
• Search Color Coded
  • Jade green: Same team as you
  • Red: They have 'not looking for group' set
  • Yellow: They can't be invited to team with you because they're on a mission map or in an arena match
  • Orange: They're the opposite faction to you and not on a mixed team, so you have to go to their map to team with them
  • Violet: They're the leader of a team with less than 8 people on it
  • Pale blue: They're not on a team and you can invite them
  • Green/grey: They're on a team but not the leader, so you can't invite them and they can't invite you
• Title Change Availability: Before, changing one's titles were limited to specific levels (or anytime at level 50). Now, you can change titles, once you become eligible for them, anytime at a trainer or by issuing the /title_change command which pops up the same interface one sees at a trainer.
• User Interface Fix: Fixed a bug that was causing the color and position of in-game windows to reset when logging in.
• Alignment Indicator: The Status Window now includes an icon showing the character's current alignment.
• Contact Dialogue Window Opacity: The window opacity setting in the options menu now affects the contact dialog window.

Bug! This opacity setting never worked throughout all of Beta. The contact dialog window is transparent and remains transparent regardless of any settings.

External Links

• Official Feature Update
• Important System Improvements on the Official Forums
• Market Merge FAQ on the Official Forums