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Patch Notes/2008-05-20

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5.20.08 Version 17.20080507.4T

Issue 12: Midnight Hour

“Now in the world’s hour of need, the clock strikes midnight. It’s the Midnight Hour.”

The Midnight Squad story arcs (Hero and Villain)

For generations, the Midnight Squad has dedicated their lives to protect the world from worldly and dimensional threats. Now, they need the help of the Heroes of Paragon City and the Villains of the Rogue Isles to finally rid the world of Rikti. Heroes and Villains must cross through time and journey to an ancient land to find knowledge long forgotten and battle ancient foes.

New Zone : Cimerora

Cimerora is a hub zone (like Ouroboros) with features such as:

  • Task Force Contact : Imperious - who gives out the “Time’s Arrow” Task Force
  • Atmosphere spawns around the perimeter and out-of-the-way areas so that players are not attacked while interacting with contacts
  • Functional Contacts: store, trainer, notoriety contacts for Villains and Heroes
  • Senator Decimus Aquila provides a simple introduction story arc and Marcus Valerius gives out repeatable missions

New Task Force : “Time’s Arrow”

  • Co-Op Task Force (35-50)

Character Origin Missions (Hero and Villain)

Where did Origins come from? How are they connected? How long have they existed?

Villain Epic Archetypes

Hollows Revamp

The Hollows has received a game-play upgrade including:

  • Completely redesigned spawn encounters (ranging from city-sized spawns to hazard-sized spawns)
  • Added Meg Mason, a new contact who gives out repeatable missions
  • Added stores (one at either entrance) and a trainer (Foreshadow)
  • Added a mobile hospital
  • Did a complete mission-door revamp so most missions should have the neighborhood-appropriate doors to match
  • Added some new Villain groups for variety and flavor

Loading Screen Tips

  • Loading screen tips will now appear on the loading screens for mission maps.
  • There is an option to disable loading tips in the options window.

Powerset Proliferation

While researching the energy strands that all super powered beings tap into, Dr. Brainstorm caused a massive release of energy that imbalanced the energy grid surrounding the powers nexus.

As a result, it appears that heroes and villains now have access to powers that previously were unavailable to them.

Blaster

Brute

Controller

Corruptor

Defender

Dominator

Mastermind

Scrapper

Stalker

Tanker

Optional Character Slots Purchases

  • Players can now purchase optional character slots on each server with a one-time fee, and not an addition to your monthly subscription fee.
  • Players can have up to 36 slots per server.
  • Purchases of a single character slot may be allocated to any single server of your choice, subject to the maximum server limit.
  • Purchases of multiple slots may be allocated to any single server or split between multiple servers of your choice, subject to the maximum server limit.
  • For a limited time, all accounts that log into the Live Servers will receive 2 free Character Slots. This is for a *Limited* time only.
  • For every 12 month cumulative period that an account has been subscribed, players will receive 1 free slot.

User Interface

  • Character slots in the character selection screen can now be reorganized by dragging and dropping. The sort order is stored in a file on the client, but only if “Remember Account Name” is checked on the Log-in Screen.
  • Added Hide Delete Recipe prompt option to Options window.
  • Added option to display a rating from a Player Note above the players head in the options window.
  • Added option to disable loading tips in the options window.
  • The mouse scroll wheel will now affect scrollbars when the mouse is over a scrollable area. This can be disabled in the options window.
  • Missions’ headers now show the level of the mission.
  • Auction house inventory now shows count of slots used/slots total.
  • Kicking a member from supergroup or removing a global friend via button-click will present a confirmation dialog.
  • Disable Camera Shake Option Added (found in options window)
  • Contact List Improvements
    • Contacts can now be sorted by the contact’s name, name of the zone, and contact relationship. All contacts that are active will appear in the “active” tab.
    • Added Broker Tab for Villains and a Detective Tab for Heroes to Contact User Interface.
    • When sorting Contacts by Zone, contacts in the current zone will always appear at the top.
    • In all sorts, Contacts with missions you are currently on will always appear at the top.
  • Fixed a rare bug that could cause the main "health bar" window to vanish.
  • A couple small additions to help improve performance for dial-up users:
    • Added Option to disable combat numbers on power buff icons
    • Added Option to disable sending buff information altogether

Email

  • Added "Spam" Button to email window. It will ignore the sender as a spammer and delete the email.

Power Trays

  • Eight additional power trays added which can be accessed by clicking the “+” sign on the upper-right of the Power Tray Interface or via commands (/window show tray1, /window show tray2, /window show tray3, etc).
  • These trays have no jelly to click on, but can be dragged about by clicking on non-occupied slots or dead space.
  • These trays are deformable.
  • Added command /cleartray which will remove all non-macros from all power trays.

Player Notes

  • You may now rate players and write notes about them.
    • The notes are stored by global name.
    • The note list is stored locally on your computer and will bring up the same notes for any character you play with.
    • It can be invoked by typing /playernote <name> or by clicking "Add Note" on context menus.
    • There is a new option to display the rating you've given a player above their name.
    • Additionally, you can enable private message logging to store private message logs on a per global name basis.
    • Only you will see the Player Notes that you write and ratings you give. Since these notes are stored locally on your computer, other players cannot see your notes and ratings.
    • Conversely, you will not be able to see any Player Notes or ratings that other players may have written about you.

In-Depth Power Information

Detailed Power Information is now available at Power Selection, Level up, Respec, and Enhancement placing screen as well as a new tab in the info window. This information shows the powers basic data along with every effect the power has.

  • There is a slider to see the effect of the power across all levels.
  • There is a class selector to see how the power would perform for each class.
  • There is a PvP toggle to see how powers will change in PvP.
  • Powers that spawn pets will show all powers the pets use and their effects.

Improved Character Creator

Players may now select a costume set theme from the new “Costume Sets” drop down menu in the Character creation process, the Tailor (for Heroes) or Facemaker (for Villains). The Costume Sets revolve around existing and new Costume sets. Some Costume Sets are unlocked through gameplay achievements, Veteran Rewards (i.e. the Boxer set) or by Costume Pack purchase (i.e. the “Good Versus Evil” Justice and Sinister costumes or the Wedding Pack).

Local Settings

Most user options can now be saved to file and loaded from file. If a default setting file is saved, all newly created characters will use the default file to set initial options. The options window has buttons added to save and load default files. Non-default files can be saved and loaded via slash commands.

General Options

Window Configuration

  • Window names are now all exposed, and you can now see a list of valid names with the /window_names command
  • Added commands /wdw_save and /wdw_save_file <filename> to save your current window configuration.
  • Added commands /wdw_load and /wdw_load_file <filename> to load your window save file.

Chat Tab Configuration

Chat System Revamp

Player Names are now clickable in the chat window, brings up a menu you can use to:

  • Chat
  • Invite to Team
  • Add Friend
  • Get Global or Local name
  • Ignore
  • Ignore Spammer

Clicking the channel name of a global chat channel will give these options:

  • Send Message
  • List Members
  • Set MotD (Message of the Day)
  • Set Description
  • Leave Channel
  • Set Color - allows you to set your global channel display colors.

Right-Clicking a player's name in a global chat channel that you are a moderator of will give additional options:

  • Silence/Unsilence
  • Kick

Powers, Enhancements, Recipes, Inspirations, and Salvage are now linkable in chat

  • You can drag/drop those items on to the chat window to create link
  • You can type the name (if you know it) of an item inside a pair of square brackets, for example: [Luck]
  • Clicking the link will bring up the info window for that item
  • Many powers/items in the game have the same name, in those cases additional information is added to the link

Under the chat options section, there is new item "Individual Name Colors" which will display each name in the chat window its own color.

Pet combat messages are now sent to the pet owner. Added channels Pet Damage Inflicted, Pet Combat, Pet Damage Received, Pet Healing Received, Pet Healing Delivered, and Pet Hit Rolls. Newly created Masterminds will have a "Pet Combat" tab added.

Global Chat Changes

Global Names and Local Server names are now transparent. The invisible wall between global and local identities has been removed, so that if you know another player’s Local Server Name, then you will be able to find out their Global name by using the following commands :

/hide and /ghide will now bring up an option dialog where you can separately choose to hide from Global Chat Channels, Global Friends, Server Friends, Supergroup, and Searches.

In addition there are commands to individually set each of these options:

Changed /ignore and /gignore functionality. Using either command will ignore that user on all global channels as well as all local characters and any new characters they create.

Increased Max Friends to 200

Ignore list size had been increased to 200.

Players are now allowed to have 10 Global channels.

Zone Event System Message Channels

Inspiration Improvements

You can now combine 3 inspirations of the same type and strength into a different inspiration of the same strength, this is accessible via the context menu for qualified inspirations.

Also added slash commands for inspirations:

Leveling Up Bonus

Leveling up will refill health and endurance!

In addition to restoring the player to full health and endurance, leveling up will now greatly inspire the player.

Combat Attribute Window Improvements

Added commands to add or remove attributes from the Attribute Monitor:

Per player request, added new fields to the Combat Attribute Window.

Power Trays

  • Added command /cleartray which will remove all non-macros from all power trays.

Trial Account Limitations

Trial Accounts now have the following restrictions. Characters on Trial Accounts may not:

  • Hold more than 50,000 Influence/Infamy
  • Join a Supergroup
  • Use any chat other than /local, /team, or /friend.
  • Invite characters into a Team (although Trial Account characters can join a team)
  • Use In-Game Mail
  • Level up past level 14
  • Enter any PVP Zone

Combined Notes

User Interface

  • Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented selecting a shared mission
  • Fixed a rare bug where the camera would always switch to first person mode when the player’s character entered a zone.

Powers

Accolades

  • Accolades - Reduced the To Hit bonus provided by the “Geas of the Kind Ones” and “Force of Nature” accolades from +200 to +25.
  • Accolades \ Force of Nature – should now work when exemplared, like other accolade powers.

Attack Powers

Defense Powers

  • Dark Armor/Death Shroud: Increased this power’s activation time from 1.17 seconds to 3.47 seconds. This was changed so that the power’s activation time matched its rooted time.

Buff / Debuff / Status Effect Powers

  • Boost Range - Removed stacking from all versions of Boost Range.
  • Dark Armor / Soul Transfer, Set untouchable timer to 15 seconds. Removed a small delay before the untouchable portion of power activates, and added an “Untouchable” float text.
  • Dark Melee / Soul Drain: The Tanker and Brute version of this power stated that it could be slotted with to-hit debuff enhancements. It has no to-hit debuff component. This has been corrected.
  • Dark Miasma / Black Hole - should now see “Black Hole” Float text when target is made intangible.
  • Fiery Aura / Rise of the Phoenix - Removed a small delay before the untouchable portion of power activates, and added an “Untouchable” float text.
  • Force Field / Detention Field - Should now see “Detention Field” Float text when target is made untouchable.
  • Gravity Control / Dimension Shift - should now see “Dimension Shift” Float text when a target is made intangible.
  • Power Boost - Reduced strength of all versions of Power Boost by 33%, removed Knockback boost and removed stacking from the power.
  • Radiation Emission / Choking Cloud: Increased this power’s activation time from 2.03 seconds to 3.47 seconds. This was changed so that the power’s activation time match its rooted time
  • Radiation Emission / Fallout now targets only dead Teammates.
  • Sonic Buff / Sonic Cage - Should now see “Sonic Cage” Float text when a target is made untouchable.
  • Storm Summoning / O2 Boost - All versions of O2 Boost now grant a Perception bonus to the target.
  • Thermal Radiation / Power of the Phoenix - Should now see an “Untouchable” float text when target is made untouchable.
  • Normalized Debt protection in all rezzing powers in powersets to 90 seconds. Sets affected: Tanker and Scrapper Fire Aura, Willpower, Dark Armor, and Regen. Controller and Defender buff sets Empathy, Radiation, Dark and Thermal.
  • Powers that do not cause aggro will no longer suppress stealth.
  • Powers that could only affect players on the ground will now affect all players above them as well as standing on them. This is to fix a PVP exploit making ground based powers ineffective. Powers fixed: Tar Patch, Bonfire, Ice Patch, Ice slick, Quicksand, Caltrops, and Volcanic Gasses.
  • Added an enforced 60 second period in which Phase Shift powers cannot be reactivated after a previous activation of the power.
  • “Caging” powers (Sonic Cage, Black Hole, etc.) now follow standard suppression rules in PVP.
  • Added Phase suppression to the Phase Flight temporary power
  • Knockback is now affected by suppression in PvP, in the same way as Hold, Sleep and Disorient. This change has been applied to many powers that can cause knockback. Any player affected by a knockback will become immune to further knockback attempts for 10 seconds. The affected powers have been noted in the appropriate detailed Archetype powers sections below.

Travel Powers

  • Leaping / Acrobatics - Reduced Knockback Protection of Acrobatics from 100 points to 9 points. Note that this means there are certain critters who will occasionally overcome the protection provided.
  • Leaping / Acrobatics - Now accepts Knockback enhancements. These will increase the protection to knockback attacks, however only 2/9ths of the protection is enhanceable.
  • Teleport / Teleport Self - Adjusted the target location code for Teleport Self to reduce the likelihood of getting a red failure reticle

Veteran Reward Powers

Values Changes

Status Effect Changes

  • Confused players will only be able to harm teammates.
  • Repel resist in Break Free and Emerge inspirations improved
  • Increased Disorient Magnitude on Awaken and Bounce Back inspirations to 5, in order to prevent it from causing Rest to fail in conjunction with villain epic archetypes’ status protection.

AI

  • Pets should no longer become terrified and run in terror when their owner’s Oil Slick power fades.

Arena

  • Changed timing between scheduled arena match rounds from 10 seconds to 120 seconds (where it was supposed to be).

Bases

Emotes

  • Added /emote ReadBook
  • Fixed the Boombox emote animation for‘Beat’ so that it loops properly.

Game

  • Fixed a crash where pressing the Left/Right keyboard arrows or numeric keypad 4 and 6, while viewing the auction window, would cause the client to crash.

Graphical Effects and Animations

  • Fiery Aura / Blazing Aura - Activating Blazing Aura while moving will now transition properly into moving animations once the rooting period is complete.
  • Fiery Melee / Scorch now has a different, slightly faster animation than Incinerate.
  • Fiery Melee / Scorch: This power now uses a shorter casting time to go along with its new shorter animation.
  • Fixed the rooting problem where certain buff toggles were activated before they were ready.
  • Knockback animation should now play correctly on non-flying targets that use the male, female, or huge models.
  • All of the projectiles in the Flares power Graphical Effects should be killed off at the proper time now.
  • Knockback / Knockup animations will no longer play faster or slower based on the scale of the character.
  • Knockback / Knockup animations for flight mode have been flagged similarly to non-flying versions
  • Corrected error for all powers using the ‘ground summon’ animation. The duration of the portion of the animation flagged as ‘can’t move’ was significantly longer than the reported Activation Time.
  • Modified Mitochondria visibility/targetability. Mitochondria should now be visible form a greater distance away during Hamidon Raids.

Inventions

Rewards

  • Characters will no longer stop earning inf when playing in Supergroup mode after level 34. Players level 29 and up will now earn 50% of the influence they would have received when in Supergroup mode.
  • Fixed a long-standing bug with Experience Point and Influence distribution in teams with a large range of levels.
  • High Level Family entities have had their reward scale lowered to be commensurate with the risk involved in the encounter.
  • Salvage drops changed to more closely match the villain groups.

Sound

Store

  • Adjusted price on Rez inspirations to equal 3 regular inspirations.

Tailor

  • Unlockable Weapons for some weapon-based powersets have been added to the game.
  • Users can now choose to pay with influence or free costume token at the Tailor.
  • Standard Head -> Detail1 -> English Monocle added to male, female and huge characters.
  • Many new chest details have been introduced:
    • Alien 1
    • Alien 2
    • Bulls Eye 2
    • Cyber Eye
    • Health
    • Lion
    • Mantis
    • Nuke
    • Power On
    • Question Mark
    • Recycle
    • Skull 3
    • Star 10
    • Star 11
    • Star 12
    • Star 13
    • Star 14
    • Swirl 3
    • Symbol 8
    • Symbol 9
    • Symbol 10
    • Tech Hole
    • Trash
  • New Body Patterns sets
    • Arctic
    • Perplex
    • Thorn
    • Vandal

Tasks

  • Flashback missions that do not allow players to leave immediately on completion will no longer fade to sepia upon completion.

CITY of HEROES

Powers

Accolades

Blaster

Controllers

Defender

Peacebringers

Scrappers

  • Scrapper / Broadsword - Attack times for the Broadsword powerset have been normalized to eliminate pauses between attacks.

Tankers

  • Tanker / Battle Axe / Gash and Beheader – Animations and Graphical Effects for Gash and Beheader have been exchanged.
  • Tanker / Battle Axe – Attack times for the Battleaxe powerset have been normalized to eliminate pauses between attacks.
  • Tanker / Fiery Aura / Blazing Aura – Activating Blazing Aura while moving will now transition properly into moving animations once the rooting period is complete.
  • Tanker / Ice Melee / Ice Patch: Increased this power’s activation time from 2.03 seconds to 3.47 seconds. This was changed so that the power’s activation time matched its rooted time.

Warshade

Powers Text Changes

Note: All Heroes’ Powers text underwent scrutiny and many changed to correct typos, and to reflect consistency and accuracy. The power effects, duration and recharge have not changed, only the description and combat log messaging has been updated. All secondary Knockback, Stun, or other status affects will now be noted in combat logs when the effect occurs for all powers. NPCs

Tasks

Trial

  • The Sewer Trial, “Descent to the Hydra” now functions like a Task Force where all high level party members (41+) will exemplar down to the Level 40 Trial cap.
    • Mairenn MacGregor is the NEW Sewer Trial contact and is located in Atlas Park next to the Sewers.
    • The Rikti kill task for Mairenn MacGregor has been lowered.
    • The OLD Trial contact, Maren MacGregor (in Founder’s Falls) will complete any old Sewer Trial missions, but will not give out any new ones.

Zone Events

CITY of VILLAINS

Giant Monsters

Zones

Grandville

  • Arachnos workers who fall off the web will not be stunned into not moving.

Powers

Brutes

Corruptor

Dominator

Masterminds

Stalkers

  • Placate - All versions of this power should no longer suppress hide.
  • Placate in weapon based sets will now play the correct animations, which include drawing the weapon if not already in hand.
  • Stalker / Claws / Focus – Added PvP mez and knockdown suppression
  • Stalker / Claws / Shockwave – Added PvPmez and knockdown suppression
  • Stalker / Dark Armor / Soul Transfer:The target after being revived should be truly invulnerable for 15 seconds. Additionally text should pop over the revived target stating that they’re untouchable.
  • Stalker / Dual Blades - Knockdown PVP Suppression - Added PvP knockdown suppression to all powers and combinations that had knockdown effects.
  • Stalker / Super Reflexes / Evasion - Added radius to Evasion allowing its taunt effect to draw the attention of nearby foes.

Patron Powers

  • Patron Power Pools: Added PvP suppression for all powers that inflicted a status effect. Several powers previously didn’t have these attributes.
  • Mace Mastery: Arachnobot Blaster's Energy Blast was previously dealing smashing damage, and will now correctly deal energy damage

Accolades

Graphical Effects

Powers Text Changes

Note: All Villains Powers text underwent scrutiny and many changed to correct typos, and to reflect consistency and accuracy. The power effects, duration and recharge have not changed, only the description and combat log messaging has been updated. All secondary Knockback, Stun, or other status affects will now be noted in combat logs when the effect occurs for all powers.