Quoted from StormShade
Patch Notes September 18, 2009
(All Public Test patch notes should be considered incomplete and unfinalized.)
Sorry about the delay in getting these patch notes to you all. As you can see, it's an awful lot of changes. ~Stormshade
Please be aware that this patch contains a very large change to the economy. Make sure to read those notes, at the bottom of this post:
General
Fixed a bug where most guild transactions were accidentally locking the entire guild. Improved Player Bandwidth Usage.
Very small reduction in damage for all critters.
Items will no longer drop with a level requirement higher than 40.
Some changes to the naming filter.
Removed the "Bruce Error" Users will no longer see this message.
User Interface and Chat
Added an error message for users with a full mailbox.
Added a timeout to item mails that will remove the auction if the server does not get the confirmation within 30 seconds and the player is still on the server.
Moved tell/invite buttons to button bar in who UI.
Changed the text in the error pop up players receive when they try and pick up an item while not at a mailbox to properly direct them to a mailbox to retrieve their item.
The LFT checkbox now updates when command changes that status.
Fixed a bug where players in any super group would have their name colored in the target window as if they were in your super group.
Teams will now automatically stop looking for more members once their group is full.
The Correct date will now be displayed in Auction House Emails.
Auction searches which fail will now properly display an error message.
The PvP Queue Alert will no longer steal focus from the chat window.
The Social button has a new tooltip.
Added an "Are you sure?" prompt for retcon UI.
Team members health bars should now update as quickly as other health bar indicators.
Fonts used on items have been improved.
The Powers UI will no longer open other windows when it closes.
Names will again always appear over heads when selecting "Always" in the HUD options.
Added discard ability for overflow bag (via dragging off and via discard button).
Added Silver Starburst background texture to the GM overhead health bars to make them stand out more.
Updated all the HUD overhead health bars with new textures that match the target frame health bars.
Updated all the HUD overhead health bars background textures (Super Villiains, Nemesis, etc.) and created mip maps for them reducing shimmering at long distances.
Emotes that are actions now end in periods in the chat log.
Powers
Fixed a handful of bugs preventing travel power sounds from playing back or being distorted in some way.
Teleport: Teleport can no longer be used while held.
Costs for powers with a range of 50 reduced slightly.
Costs for non - melee point blank range powers (for example, Force Eruption) reduced slightly (any other power specific cost changes will likely overshadow these changes).
Intellect now interacts with Power Energy Cost in a slightly different way. As a result, effects that increase the cost of your powers, such as running multiple toggles with Power Armor, will be a bit more pronounced (and not offset as much by the effect of intellect).
Archery
Taser Arrow - Fixed stacking holds issue. It now has a chance to apply a strong hold; the chance scales as the power is charged. This hold does not stack, and applies diminishing returns as normal.
Darkness
Ebon Void: Now shows descriptions for ranks 2 and 3.
Ebon Void: Voracious Darkness: The damage reduction formula has been changed, such that the maximum damage reduction from this advantage has been lowered.
Electricity
Never Strikes Twice now deals +30% damage (down from +100%) to held targets.
Fire
Clinging Flames / Leaping Flames (applied effect) Damage increased by 20%.
Thermal Reverberation Energy return is now disconnected from energy max. This power now returns a flat amount of energy (that is increased based on the player's Presence, as before), instead of a percentage of the player's max. The effect of this is that players who do not have high Endurance will see significantly better energy return. This effect still can (still) only occur once every three seconds.
Pyre: Damage for the lingering fire patch reduced significantly.
Fire Strike: This power's description previously included functionality that was actually part of an advantage. This has been corrected. The following functionality has been added to this power: "Activating this power applies an instance of the Fiery Escalation buff to you, increasing the damage of your Fire Strike attacks by a small amount while it lasts. This buff has a very short duration, but stacks up to four times, and each application refreshes the stack."
Fire Breath: This power now operates on slightly different cost / performance model. This power's damage no longer escalates over time, but is significantly higher when first activated. The energy cost for this power is significantly higher for initial activation than it is while maintained. This power's chance to inflict the Clinging Flames condition is increased.
Flashfires - Damage significantly increased.
Gadgeteering
Particle Mine - (slightly) Reduced damage, increased cost.
Orbital Cannon - Increased damage (particularly for ranks 2 and 3). Cost slightly changed.
Minimines - Drastically nerfed. This should not shock anyone.
Ice
The damage dealt when any created icy object is shattered (detonated) has been reduced.
Ice Burst - Initial damage reduced, knockback reduced.
Chill Effect - This effect has been rebuilt. It now is more effective versus non super speed travel powers, and has a stronger effect on the first application. However, the total degree to which this effect will slow a player and the duration have been reduced. Additionally, the Ice Cage effect now has a flat percentage to apply, instead of automatically applying when the player's speed drops below a threshold. Entities that are immune to knockback (including Super Villain and tougher ranked enemies) are now immune to the effects of this power. Our goal is to make this power slightly better for PvE, and not quite as dominating in PvP.
Munitions
Two Gun Mojo: Close the Gap: Updated description to state that the bonus caps at 30% and not 50%.
Sorcery
Bane - No longer interrupted by damage, cost slightly higher.
Summoning Circles - These powers are now called Rituals of Summoning. They look and function exactly as they used to, including creating a circle that the player must stay within for the creature to remain. However, they no longer empty your energy pool when activated, and may now be used in conjunction with Circles (of Power). Rituals of Summoning are still mutually exclusive with each other.
Circles of Power - No longer empty your energy pool when used. No longer mutually exclusive with Rituals of Summoning (formerly Circles of summoning).
Arcane (Unstable) Sigils, Ebon (Enervative) Sigils, Primal (Storm) Sigils - These powers are all slightly more expensive than before, but significantly more powerful. They also have slightly fewer hit points. The actual Sigils of the Sigils of Sanctuary and Enervative Sigils now create a slight amount of threat, and enemies will target them if other targets don't have their attention.
Supernatural
Condemn - Increased initial cost (cost to tap). Cost to charge unchanged. Hold effect does not stack.
Resurgence: Updated description to state that the heal scales with your Constitution.
Resurgence: Can now be used while held by default (without advantage).
Resurgence: Evanescent Emergence: Now helps you break free if you use while held. Still Enrages you if used while at less than 50% health.
Telepathy
Psionic Storm - Damage and Cost slightly increased, and the hold effect changed to a wrangle - type (starting off weak, but increasing strength the loner the victim is exposed to the effect).
Malevolent Manifestation - This advantage now transforms the power into a toggle that when activated leaves behind a persistent storm. The damage dealt by the persistent storm is the same as the unadvantaged version, and the cost to activate and maintain the effect is 20% greater. (Bear in mind that since this power functions as a toggle, you can use your energy builder while it's operating, which makes paying the upkeep effortless.)
Collective Will - Entities now do significantly more damage.
Telepathy: Ego Sprites: Slave Mentality: Each stack of the HOT provided by Slave Mentality will now do about 50% less healing, and is now capped at a maximum of 5 stacks, each target may only provide 1 stack.
Summon Nightmare: No longer summonable on inanimate objects.
Critters
The critter version of Shadow Embrace is now does significantly less damage. (The Hanging Judge's maintained attack is now merely very deadly, instead of instantly hollowing you out.)
Critter: Chimera: Attacks are no longer interruptable. Now has a 100ft range attack.
Devices
Several devices have changed functionality. Their new descriptions are as follows:
Qularr Mutagen: "Injecting yourself with a Qualarr mutagen will cause your body to temporarily mutate, integrating your own DNA with that of the Qualarr species. While in this state, your damage is increased, but all of your powers will cost more energy. You may maintain this form as a toggle for a total of 120 seconds."
Radioactive Miasma (Irradiate and Crafted version): "A concentrated biogen plasma that when injected will cause your body to expel a radioactive miasma. While you and your allies will not be damaged by this miasma, your enemies will become weakened and take progressive particle damage. For your own saftey, this item may only be used for short bursts every two minutes."
Trident of the Elemental Master Damage reduced very significantly, and the cooldown increased to 90 seconds (Base) from 30, and range is reduced to 50'. It now deals a bit more damage than a fully charged Tier 0 power. It still has no energy cost or drawback.
Cowboy Robot Lasso - no longer affects Super villains or higher ranked enemies.
Missions / Environments
Desert Crisis
The Uranium Strapped Irradiates in the Desert Crisis correctly re-enter combat after a player leaves the combat radius and a new or same player enters the combat radius while the first bomb is still counting down.
Mission: Doomsday Clock's objectives should be more clear now.
Desert
Deadbeat now correctly responds to players that are outside his level range.
Lemuria
Welderbots in Lemuria Crisis should not be getting stuck as often.
Nemesis
Fixed the white screen effect on the "Hot of the wire" nemesis mission.
Mission: Violent Majority: The bug with the open mission not updating properly when the player destroys the door debris before freeing the receptionist has been fixed.
Fixed the bug with the Nemesis being attackable in the Death Ray mini during the battle with the giant lava beast.
Nemesis Minions should no longer linger in the gameworld if the player that spawned them logs out or leaves the map. This should greatly reduce the chance of players being ganked by unattended Nemesis Minions.
Spontaneous Nemesis ambushes now spawn weak versions of your Nemesis's minions, making surviving the ambushes much easier.
Millenium City
Open Mission: Destroids Rise Again: Fixed a bug that caused the Mega-Destroid not to attack players.
Open Mission: Destroid Rise Again: Fix a bug where the mission wouldn't end properly if the timer expired.
A Bullet Bound For Biselle: Changed Viper-X boss from Tough to Normal. Should be scaled to the proper difficulty now.
Jailbreak Open Mission: 7 Fingers will no longer respawn before mission reset. Changed named prisoner AI so they cannot be pulled too far from jail while in combat.
Mission: Downtown Dustoff: Fixed a bug that could prevent Captain Hapah from respawning.
Power House
Fixed a crash that would occur when trying to retcon with the powers window open.
Fixed a bug that would cause the trainer window to open the incorrect powers window under certain conditions.
Fixed a bug where the powers window would not close when all points were spent.
Fixed a bug that made it impossible to purchase powers when you had the owned powers window open at the same time as the purchase screen.
Costume Creator/Tailor
Updated names of unlocked melee weapons in the Tailor to better clarify weapon type.
Crafting
Crafting UI now has correct indicator of skill up chance (ONLY when you are at a crafting table):
orange: high change of skill-up
yellow: medium change of skill-up
white: low change of skill-up
grey: not valid (should never show while at a crafting table)
Experiments now put items into an overflow bag instead of directly into your inventory. This bag can be opened at any time from the inventory area (or from the experiment UI).
Hero Games (PvP)
Hero Games: Stronghold. Fixed a bug that caused players to receive incorrect XP and Acclaim rewards in Stronghold Apocalypse. The correct XP rewards should be between 1/4 and 3/4 a typical mission reward at your current level.
Hero Games: Stronghold Apocalypse. Fixed a bug where the scoreboard would record all kills, including destruction of objects, as NPC defeats. Now, only named NPC heroes/villains are recorded as NPC defeats.
Hero Games: Stronghold UI. Fix a math bug calculating the total score on the Stronghold end-of-game report. This was purely a UI bug, and didn't affect Acclaim or XP rewards.
Economy Changes
Resources from Missions
Significantly increased at all levels. Previously, an average level 20 mission had a resource reward value of 1 National, and 85 Local (185). The new value is 4 National and 50 Local (450). The mission reward curve has been adjusted, and as such, not all missions at all levels will be changed by this exact ratio, but this example is representative of the overall improvement.
Resources from defeating Critters
Significantly increased for all ranks at all levels. Previously, a level 20 Villain would grant 23 Local resources when defeated. The new value is 64 Local. The critter reward curve has been adjusted, and as such, not all critters at all ranks or levels will be changed by this exact ratio, but this example is representative of the overall improvement.
Resources from selling items to vendors
The sale value of items has been significantly changed. Weaker class items (Whites and Yellows) have a significantly higher increase in their vendor sale value than powerful items. In other words, even when you "graduate out" of those color class of items, they will still be valuable to you to pick up and sell for resources. The previous sale value of a level 30 White Primary slot item was 64 Local Resources. It is now 5 National, 72 Local (572). The item value curve has been adjusted, and as such, not all items at all color classes or levels will be changed by this exact ratio, but this example is representative of the overall improvement.
Retconning
Previously, retconning a single power at level 20, when all of your other points were spent, would have cost you 29 National and 73 Local (2973) Resources. The new cost is 28 National and 92 Local (2892).
Notice that while the new cost is nearly identical, in comparison to the amount of resources you are receiving, it is actually much, much more affordable. In the old model, it would require approximately 16 mission, or 129 villains defeats, or the sale of 47 white items to pay for retconning one power. With the new resource rates, however, it would instead take 6 and a half missions, 45 villains, or the sale of 5 white colored primaries to afford the cost.
Please note that the retcon cost curve has been adjusted, and as such, the actual cost of retcon at any given level might be slightly higher or slightly lower than it was previously. At all levels, however, it will be drastically more affordable relative to the Resources your hero will earn, and this example is representative of the overall improvement.
Cost of Devices
The cost of devices (one shot healing items, etc.) has been significantly increased in absolute terms, but has remained approximately the same in terms of cost relative to income.
Drop Rates
Henchmen
The drop rate of henchmen has gone down, from an average of ~19% to 6% chance of a drop per defeat. The tables of what henchmen drop have also been significantly rebalanced; while the actual distribution changes at each level, on average, 88.45% of a Henchman's drops will be White items. Please note that, as explained above, white items are now an excellent source of Resources, as well as 8 important vitamins and minerals, and are a part of this complete breakfast.
Villains
The drop rate of Villain class enemies has gone down very slightly, from an average of ~14.5% to 13.8% chance of a drop per defeat. The tables of what villains drop have also been significantly rebalanced; while the actual distribution changes at each level, on average, only 57.74% of a Henchman's drops will be White items. Further, the chance for higher level Villains to drop Green and Blue items are both significantly higher than previously. (peaking at a 6.9% chance to drop a Green at level 40 now, compared to a 5.8% chance previously).
Master Villains
The drop rate of Master Villain class enemies has been significantly increased, from an average of ~11.6% to 23.3% chance of a drop per defeat. The tables of what Master Villains drop have also been significantly rebalanced; while the actual distribution changes at each level, on average, only 42.9% of a Master Villain's drops will be White items. This ratio drops steadily against higher level enemies, and Master Villains of level 38 or higher will only drop Yellow items or better. Additionally, the chance for higher level Master Villains to drop Blue and Purple items are both significantly higher than previously. (peaking at a 1.3% chance to drop a Blue at level 40 now, compared to a 0.07% chance previously).
Super Villains
The drop rate of Super Villain class enemies has been moderately reduced, from an average of ~46.6% to 30% chance of a drop per defeat. However, please note that the tables of what Super Villains drop have been significantly rebalanced; while the actual distribution changes at each level, on average, only 35.1% of a Super Villain's drops will be White items. This ratio drops steadily against higher level enemies, and Super Villains of level 35 or higher will only drop Yellow items or better. Additionally, the chance for higher level Super Villains to drop Blue and Purple items are both significantly higher than previously. (peaking at a 9.96% chance to drop a Blue at level 40 now, compared to a 0.27% chance previously).
The net effect of these changes is that while the NUMBER of drops should remain fairly comparable to what it is now, the overall value of items from drops, both economically and usage - wise, should rise substantially.
Enemies of Legendary and Cosmic class always use custom drop tables, and are not affected by this change.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Patch Notes September 18, 2009
A new build has made it into PTR. Some notable changes have been made. Teleport no longer usable during holds and Mini Mines nerf. Also the new economy changes are loaded as well. More resources for everyone!!!
Friday, September 18, 2009
Stronghold, Apocalypse and PTR
I hear a few legit complaints about XP/Acclaim:
1) Some kills give negative points/kill counts are lower than they should be
2) Rewards for PvP are lower than rewards for PvE play
3) Games take a long time, and rewards aren't any greater for long games
4) The dev team hates the players and wants them to suffer
#1 is purely a UI bug. When you seem to be getting few kills or negative kills, it's just a display bug. Doesn't affect your score for reward purposes. Fix is already in, and will probably make it in the next patch.
Let's solve #2 and #3 together, shall we? How about this: let's make games give bonus XP when they run longer. The best XP/hour earning will still be to win games quickly, but a bonus for long games will increase how much Acclaim you're getting overall (yay!) and also reward you for sticking out those long Stronghold matches (yay!). This will also increase Acclaim for Hero Games across the board, including UTC and BASH (yay!).
The downside is that I may have to up the price on some of the high-end PvP items to match the increased Acclaim. Hopefully we can pair this with an item overhaul, so the items will have better stats. They're supposed to be hard to get, but they're also supposed to be worth it. And naturally, there's a 1-2 week delay as changes run through QA.
#4 is absolutely true, by the way. We ran out of kittens in the office, so we're stuck abusing players by nerfing Champs. I figure we'll add perma-death next.*
*We're not going to add perma-death.(source)
Okay.
The negative kills thing is a UI bug; it doesn't affect your scoring. Fix is already on its way.
A fix to increase Stronghold XP (and, in fact, all PvP XP! Yay!) is in the pipeline as well. You may need to be patient while it goes through QA.(source)
Just an FYI in case you're trying to get into Public Test - it's getting a big whopping patch that will help address a lot of issues that you may be having on live. It will be back up within a few hours. At that point, I encourage our community to test out this patch. If we can get 1000 players testing it, we can push it to live sooner or fix the issues that crop up.
Champion's Onlines reviews post in the last week
Maintenance Scheduled: September 18, 2009
Maintenance Scheduled: September 18, 2009
Posted by WishStone
We will be bringing down Champions Online on Friday the 18th of September from 3am PST to 5am PST, in order to perform maintenance, and apply a new patch. We will update this thread once this maintenance has been completed. The latest patch notes and known issues can be found here. Thank you, The Champions Online Team
(source)
Chronomancer announces new retcons and economy changes
Retcon of Retcon and Economy
Greetings, Heroes!
There has been an outcry for a change in retcon pricing, so I wanted to take a few minutes to express why we specifically haven’t reduced the costs. In a nutshell, it all comes down to the economy.
We’ve been analyzing the overall economy of the game. The huge challenge here is that we’ve only been up for 17 days and we needed a reasonable amount of time to pull post-launch, Live Shard data on global resource flow. This then means we have to work with ratios of these numbers and address the relationship of those economic ratios between synergistic and disparate systems. As with any economic model, it’s far more complex than you would first imagine. So, during the past couple of weeks we’ve been working on tuning the entire economy of the game, but we haven’t pushed any changes into the live environment.
Why didn’t we just drop the price of retcon while we figured this out? The concern was that we’d then have to change the pricing back upward after the economy changes were made, and this would only make players mad. So we’ve worked hard and fast and now have solid data and solutions to present.
The concerns that we simply weren’t giving out enough resources to meet the requirements of certain areas of the game were confirmed. We’re attacking this on multiple fronts and are pushing a new economy model to internal QA test tonight and (if all goes well) onto our Public Test Shard this weekend.
So, what’s changing?
We’re increasing the number of white upgrade drops in the world by a substantial amount – close to double of what you’re seeing now. We’re also flattening out the curve on resources gained for selling upgrades to stores, meaning that you’ll get a lot more for white primaries, a little less at the highest end (blues and purples). This equates to distributing about the same overall potential resources while skewing gains to the lower end. We had originally considered just simply increasing the amount of resources you earned from selling all items to “fix” the economy. However, this would have broken crafting – hence the shifting of primary and secondary upgrade values that maintain a net balance of total resources you have coming in from selling upgrades.
We’re also increasing the amount of resources you get for defeating all enemies. This means not only will you naturally get more for doing missions, but you’ll also get more by helping others on their missions or by sweeping the streets. We’re also increasing the resources you get for mission rewards specifically.
The retcon pricing curve is going to be much gentler so that players can undo more decisions at any time. It’s important to note that although we’re tuning the overall costing model of retcon during this phase, a substantial retcon will still have a high price. The heroic, thematic nature of the game doesn't support letting players constantly change their fundamental character concept. But at the same time we want to make it possible for them to completely retcon their character if it’s their goal.
These economy changes will greatly improve the ability for players to retcon their characters, as well as address some longer-term issues we saw on the horizon.
Finally, we’ll be issuing a free retcon for all heroes when the economy changes go Live since it will take a little time for the effects of the new economy to allow players to build up a retcon bankroll.
Remember, we’re pushing the economy change to the Public Test Realm this weekend, so sign up and help us test! (source)
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