Issue 16 goes Open Beta!

As you may know, Issue 16 is now Open on the test server. I gotta tell ya, this may be one of my favorite issues yet. The new Super-side-kicking option is freaking great. I can't wait for this one to go live. Here's the most recent patch notes so you can see what's going to be changed...

"Combined Release Notes for Issue 16
Wednesday, August 26, 2009

COMBINED

Animations

• Psychic Shockwave – Fixed minor error in particle scripts (Rings that emanate from character’s body weren’t moving towards the ground).
• Activating Willpower/Heightened Senses while flying should no longer play the Martial Arts/Dragon’s Tail animation.
• Devices/Targeting Drone now uses the wristband activation animation.

Arena

• Players may now use the Arena menu option or the /arenalist command to access the Arenas from any location.
• Added the ability to enable and disable inspirations by size class to the Arena.

• Fixed Sudden Death in Arenas. Now, instead of setting everyone to 1 health at the start of the sudden death, all participants' maximum health is slowly reduced over the one minute of Sudden Death.

Badges

• The Vanguard Recruit day job badge now requires the user to be level 35 or greater, to unlock this badge. NOTE: Players who already have this badge and are lower than level 35 will not lose the badge.

The following bages have had their requirements changed:

• Back From the Future: Reduced this badge’s requirements from taking over 1000 pillboxes to taking over 100 pillboxes.
  
• Coldhearted: Reduced this badge’s requirements from defeating 200 cold demons to 100 cold demons.
  
• Celebrity/Bling: Reduced this badge’s requirements from earning 1,000,000 influence/infamy to 500,000 influence/infamy.
  
• Confined: Reduced this badge’s requirements from being mezzed for 20 hours to being mezzed for 3 hours.
  
• Caged: Reduced this badge’s requirements from being mezzed for 40 hours to being mezzed for 6 hours.
  
• Deathless: Reduced the amount of required paid off XP debt to earn this badge from 1,200,000 to 400,000.
  
• Demolitionist: Reduced this badge’s required 25 bombs placed to 10 bombs placed.
  
• Electrician: Reduced the number of required 200 defeated Cap Au Diable Gremlins to 100 Gremlins.
  
• Empath: Reduced this badge’s requirements from healing others for 100,000,000 points of damage to 10,000,000.
  
• Entangled/Sleepy: Reduced this badge’s requirements from being mezzed for 120 minutes to being mezzed for 30 minutes
  
• Exalted: Reduced the amount of required paid off XP debt to earn this badge from 10,000,000 to 1,000,000.
  
• Fabricator: Reduced this badge’s requirements from 10,000 crafted enhancements to 2,000 crafted enhancements.
  
• Hero Slayer: Reduced this badge’s required defeats of 100 named Paragon Heroes to 25 defeats to be on par with the hero badge “Villain Disruptor”.
• Illusionist: This badge now requires the player to defeat 100 Illusionists and Phantasms summoned by the Carnival Master Illusionist. NOTE: Phantasm defeats were not tracked until this patch. Previous defeats of these enemies will not count toward the total defeats required for this badge. However, defeating summoned illusionists and phantasms going forward WILL earn credit toward this badge.
  
• Invulnerable: Reduced the amount of damage taken required to earn this badge from 500,000,000 to 50,000,000.
  
• Immortal: Reduced the amount of damage taken required to earn this badge from 1,000,000,000 to 100,000,000.
  
• Impounder: Reduced the number of destroyed cars necessary to unlock this badge from 200 to 100, updated progress bar text to match this.
  
• Imprisoned/Dazed and Confused: Reduced this badge’s requirements from being mezzed for 600 minutes to being mezzed for 60 minutes.
  
• Jailed: Reduced this badge’s requirements from being mezzed for 80 hours to being mezzed for 12 hours.
  
• Leader: Reduced this badge’s requirements from earning 2,000,000,000 influence/infamy to 500,000,000 influence/infamy.
  
• Medical Specialist: Reduced this badge’s requirements from healing others for 10,000,000 points of damage to 3,000,000.
  
• Medicine Man/Woman: Reduced this badge’s requirements from healing others for 50,000,000 points of damage to 5,000,000.
  
• Nigh Indestructible: Reduced the amount of damage taken required to earn this badge from 100,000,000 to 25,000,000.
  
• Popular: Reduced this badge’s requirements from earning 1,000,000,000 influence/infamy to 250,000,000 influence/infamy.
  
• Protectorate/Devourer of Earth: Reduced this badge’s required 500 defeated Devouring Earth eminators to 100 defeated eminators.
  
• Restrained/Slacker: Reduced this badge’s requirements from being mezzed for 30 minutes to being mezzed for 10 minutes
  
• Sensation/Mr. Big/Ms. Big: Reduced this badge’s requirements from earning 10,000,000 influence/infamy to 2,500,000 influence/infamy.
  
• Superstar/Midas Touch: Reduced this badge’s requirements from earning 20,000,000 influence/infamy to 10,000,000 influence/infamy.
  
• Somewhere in Time: Reduced this badge’s requirements from taking over 100 pillboxes to taking over 50 pillboxes.
  
• The Unwavering/Punch Drunk: Reduced the amount of required paid off XP debt to earn this badge from 100,000 to 50,000.
  
• The Unyielding/Unbroken: Reduced the amount of required paid off XP debt to earn this badge from 400,000 to 100,000.
  
• The Unbroken Spirit/Relentless: Reduced the amount of required paid off XP debt to earn this badge from 800,000 to 200,000.
  
• Toy Collector: Reduced this badge’s requirements from opening 200 presents during the winter event to 100 presents.
  
• Trendsetter: Reduced this badge’s requirements from earning 100,000,000 influence/infamy to 50,000,000 influence/infamy.
• Undying: Reduced the amount of required paid off XP debt to earn this badge from 2,000,000 to 600,000.
• Untouchable: This badge now requires the player to defeat 100 Consiglieres and Underbosses.
• Venomous: Reduced this badge’s required 200 defeated Toxic Tarantulas to 50 Toxic Tarantulas.
  
  • Accolades
  • Born in Battle: This Villain Accolade now requires:
    
    • Earn the Iron Man badge (1,000,000 points of damage taken) instead of the Unbreakable badge (10,000,000 points of damage taken).
    • Earn the Hammer Down badge instead of the Raider badge.
    • No long requires the Lanista badge.
    • NOTE: Even though this badge’s requirements are changing, players who already have this Accolade should keep this Accolade even if they don’t have the Hammer Down badge.
    
    

Character Creation

• Returning to the Body Type screen at any time during the character creation process will no longer reset body scale changes made to the character
  

Zones

• The Minimum Entry Level has been removed from many Hazard and Trial Zones in order to support upgrades to the Sidekicking System.
  
  • Zones Affected:
    
    • Abandoned Sewers
      
    • Boomtown
      
    • Crey’s Folly
      
    • Dark Astoria
    • Eden
      
    • Perez Park
      
    • Shadow Shard – Cascade Archipelago
      
    • Shadow Shard – Firebase Zulu
      
    • Shadow Shard – The Chantry
      
    • Shadow Shard – The Storm Palace
    • Striga Isle
      
    • Terra Volta
    • The Hollows
      
    • The Sewers
      
    • The Tunnels

Co-Op Zones

• The Minimum Entry Level of the Rikti War Zone has been removed in order to support upgrades to the Sidekicking System

Email

• There is now an in-game email setting to block all email except from those on your friends list or in your supergroup.
  

Emotes

• Super Science Pack: The Drink Formula costume change emote (/cce <#> CCDrinkFormula) now behaves consistently (the flash and smoke animations used to be out of sync with each other depending on your character model).
  

Flashback

• Flashback Missions now use combat level instead of security level.

Graphics/FX

• Display issues with Stone Prison and Plasma Shield fixed.
  

Mission Architect

• Defender: Oil Slick Arrow no longer cons friendly and can again be targeted by player in a MA mission.
  

• The experience rewards for custom mobs in Mission Architect have been changed.

• Enemies created using the Standard setting will reward 75% of normal experience.
• Enemies created using the Hard and Extreme setting will reward 100% of normal experience.
• The total amount of experience an enemy is worth is split evenly between their two powerset choices. Their primary set adds an amount to the experience, and then the secondary set adds an amount.
  
• The specifics numbers for individual sets are as followed:
  

• Standard: 37.5%
• Hard/Extreme: 50%
• If you create a mob that has a standard primary and a hard secondary, they’ll be worth 87.5% of the normal experience (37.5% + 50%)
• A mob created with a hard primary and a hard secondary will be worth 100% experience (50% + 50%)

NPCs

• Fixed a bug where generic spawns of The Lost at level 30 or higher spawn as Rikti using The Lost animations. Level 30 or higher Lost spawns now spawn as Rikti with correct Rikti animations.
  

Powers

• Electric Melee (All versions) - Removed erroneous reference to Fury from Chain Inductions Long Help

• Reduced Endurance cost of Origin Based powers Apprentice Charm, Taser Dart, Tranq Dart, Throwing Knives, and Mutagen from 6.5 per activation to 2.08 per activation.
  
• The Inherent power Brawl no longer costs Endurance when used.
  
• All dismissable pets will now zone with you, but will lose their buffs.
  

PVP Powers

• Fixed PVP duration of Ninjitsu/Blinding Powder’s confuse.
• Powers with knockback and repel protection should no longer suppress knockback or repel protection when held, stunned, or slept.

oIncludes all Brute, Scrapper, Stalker, and Tanker versions of Entropy Shield, Unyielding, Active Defense, Rooted, Granite Armor, Integration, Wet Ice, and indomitable will. Acrobatics also will not suppress the knockback portion.



Rewards

Characters must be level 35 or greater to earn Vanguard Merits.
Merit Rewards – Merits awarded per task are receiving another update. The formula used to calculate the number of merits for Story Arcs has been changed from granting 40% of normal merits to 60% of normal merits. In short, many story arc tasks received a significant boost in merits awarded. Another notable item is that Villain Patron arcs now give 10 merits per arc instead of 5. Below is a list of story arcs that had their values changed. Arcs not listed didn't have their merits change:

Piercing the Veil
Old Total - 10
New Total - 16

Crossing Over
Old Total - 8
New Total - 12

Hatred's Hungry Heart
Old Total - 5
New Total - 7

The Origin of Power
Old Total - 3
New Total - 4

War of the Fir Bolg
Old Total - 7
New Total - 10

Eden Trial
Old Total - 6
New Total - 7

Flux the Outcast
Old Total - 7
New Total - 11

Julius the Kind Hearted Troll
Old Total - 4
New Total - 6

Cavern of Transcendence Trial
Old Total - 7
New Total - 8

The Heart of the Hollows
Old Total - 11
New Total - 18

Officer Wincott vs. the Trolls
Old Total - 2
New Total - 4

War and Peacebringers
Old Total - 8
New Total - 13

Warshades and Peace
Old Total - 7
New Total - 8

The Clockwork Captive
Old Total - 9
New Total - 13

The Peace Slayers
Old Total - 9
New Total - 14

The Council Cargo
Old Total - 4
New Total - 5

Bonefire
Old Total - 9
New Total - 14

Positron Taskforce
Old Total - 64
New Total - 66

The Vahzilok Pollutant Plot
Old Total - 13
New Total - 21

An Absence of Shadows
Old Total - 4
New Total - 7

The Mind of a King
Old Total - 10
New Total - 14

Shadow Science
Old Total - 8
New Total - 13

Synapse Taskforce
Old Total - 57
New Total - 58

Tsoo Shenanigans
Old Total - 12
New Total - 17

The Vahzilok Plague
Old Total - 8
New Total - 12

The Wheel of Destruction
Old Total - 9
New Total - 14

Hand of Iron
Old Total - 8
New Total - 14

The Sky Raider Secret
Old Total - 6
New Total - 9

The Tsoo Coup
Old Total - 9
New Total - 26

Ubelmann the Unknown
Old Total - 11
New Total - 17

The Scroll of Tielekku
Old Total - 9
New Total - 14

An Unnatural Order
Old Total - 10
New Total - 18

The Freaklympics
Old Total - 20
New Total - 34

Fear and Loathing on Striga Isle
Old Total - 11
New Total - 9

The Mysterious General Z
Old Total - 9
New Total - 15

The Rise Of the Vampyri
Old Total - 17
New Total - 25

The Library of Souls
Old Total - 10
New Total - 21

Corporate Culture
Old Total - 12
New Total - 17

The Unity Plague
Old Total - 10
New Total - 26

The Freakshow War
Old Total - 11
New Total - 33

Scary Monsters
Old Total - 7
New Total - 12

A Path into Darkness
Old Total - 16
New Total - 27

The Envoy of Shadow
Old Total - 9
New Total - 15

Revenant Hero Project
Old Total - 12
New Total - 16

The Terra Conspiracy
Old Total - 11
New Total - 19

The Nictus Alliance
Old Total - 7
New Total - 11

Mass Duplicity
Old Total - 18
New Total - 28

The Organ Grinders
Old Total - 20
New Total - 21

To Save a Soul
Old Total - 15
New Total - 37

On the Run
Old Total - 17
New Total - 31

The Nictus Insurrection
Old Total - 4
New Total - 8

Melvin and the Mysterious Malta Group
Old Total - 19
New Total - 35

The Eternal Nemesis
Old Total - 19
New Total - 29

The Praetorian War
Old Total - 29
New Total - 43

Division: Line
Old Total - 21
New Total - 33

Upon the Psychic Plane
Old Total - 27
New Total - 49

The Final Darkness
Old Total - 6
New Total - 13

Operation: World Wide Red
Old Total - 17
New Total - 30

To Save a Thousand Worlds
Old Total - 32
New Total - 43

Portal Corp Story Arc 2
Old Total - 4
New Total - 5

A Hero's Hero
Old Total - 24
New Total - 36

Statesman's Taskforce
Old Total - 38
New Total - 37

Sewer Trial
Old Total - 28
New Total - 29

The Origins of the Snakes
Old Total - 4
New Total - 6

Weird Science
Old Total - 4
New Total - 6

Earning Arachnos' Favor
Old Total - 2
New Total - 4

Snake Uprising
Old Total - 2
New Total - 5

The Vahzilok Conference
Old Total - 5
New Total - 7

Spy Hunt
Old Total - 10
New Total - 16

Midnight's Hand
Old Total - 5
New Total - 9

The Origin of Power
Old Total - 3
New Total - 5

Midas Touched
Old Total - 7
New Total - 11

Breaking Bows
Old Total - 2
New Total - 5

Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge
Old Total - 2
New Total - 5

The Hit List
Old Total - 4
New Total - 5

An Arachnos Ghost Story
Old Total - 3
New Total - 5

Power of the Spirit
Old Total - 4
New Total - 5

Lost and Found
Old Total - 4
New Total - 8

Give 'em Hellion!
Old Total - 5
New Total - 8

Family War
Old Total - 7
New Total - 9

The Book and the Burning
Old Total - 4
New Total - 1

Retrieve the Loa Bone
Old Total - 1
New Total - 2

Hurt the Traitorous Vendetti
Old Total - 1
New Total - 1

Beast of the Mountain Strikeforce
Old Total - 12
New Total - 13

Echo Down the Aeons
Old Total - 3
New Total - 9

The Aeon Conspiracy
Old Total - 7
New Total - 10

High-Tech Gold
Old Total - 4
New Total - 10

Breakout at the Zig
Old Total - 8
New Total - 11

Master of Destruction
Old Total - 5
New Total - 8

There's a Sucker Born Every Minute
Old Total - 12
New Total - 17

Rumblings of the Past
Old Total - 4
New Total - 5

I Lost my Daddy!
Old Total - 4
New Total - 6

Choose Your Own Adventure
Old Total - 1
New Total - 3

Oh, Wretched Man!
Old Total - 6
New Total - 8

Ouroboros Initiation
Old Total - 4
New Total - 7

Ouroboros Initiation
Old Total - 3
New Total - 6

A Faultline in the Sands of Time
Old Total - 10
New Total - 15

The Buried Past
Old Total - 3
New Total - 6

If At First You Don't Succeed
Old Total - 1
New Total - 2

Pirates of the Skies Strikeforce
Old Total - 38
New Total - 42

Iron Widow
Old Total - 4
New Total - 6

Kings of the Sky
Old Total - 4
New Total - 6

Operation Skyhook
Old Total - 4
New Total - 7

Coral Bonanza
Old Total - 3
New Total - 5

Breaking the Cage
Old Total - 4
New Total - 6

Any Body Will Do
Old Total - 2
New Total - 3

Disturbing the Dead
Old Total - 3
New Total - 5

Carpe Diem
Old Total - 3
New Total - 5

A Web of Intrigue
Old Total - 9
New Total - 11

Crown of Glory
Old Total - 9
New Total - 4

Dirge of Chaos
Old Total - 7
New Total - 4

The Magic Man
Old Total - 7
New Total - 3

The Miracle River
Old Total - 1
New Total - 2

Aurora Fades
Old Total - 1
New Total - 3

Power Mine
Old Total - 3
New Total - 4

Sabotage!
Old Total - 4
New Total - 7

Trust and Betrayal
Old Total - 5
New Total - 7

Zag Breakout!
Old Total - 3
New Total - 7

First Respec Trial
Old Total - 15
New Total - 14

Forging the Blackwand
Old Total - 8
New Total - 11

Midnight Draws Near
Old Total - 6
New Total - 10

Die by the Freak!
Old Total - 4
New Total - 7

Heavy Metal Doctoring
Old Total - 3
New Total - 7

The Cult of the Shaper
Old Total - 5
New Total - 8

On the Trail of the Leviathan
Old Total - 2
New Total - 5

Temple of the Waters Strikeforce
Old Total - 22
New Total - 24

Smoke and Mirrors
Old Total - 3
New Total - 7

The Spider Weaves His Web
Old Total - 4
New Total - 8

Taming the Tigress
Old Total - 3
New Total - 4

Brawling with the Big Boys
Old Total - 3
New Total - 4

Snuffing the Light
Old Total - 4
New Total - 6

Into Valhalla
Old Total - 7
New Total - 9

Nictus Dissection
Old Total - 2
New Total - 4

Psimon Sez
Old Total - 5
New Total - 11

Strange Memories
Old Total - 4
New Total - 6

Lost and Found
Old Total - 5
New Total - 12

Breaking the Streak
Old Total - 3
New Total - 4

Silver-Tongued Devil
Old Total - 3
New Total - 5

Sold for a Song
Old Total - 7
New Total - 12

Miss Fortune's Wheel
Old Total - 2
New Total - 3

High Roller's Last Gamble
Old Total - 4
New Total - 5

Chaos Unbound
Old Total - 5
New Total - 8

The 5th Column Overthrow
Old Total - 6
New Total - 10

The Dead Man's Deck
Old Total - 5
New Total - 2

Second Respec Trial
Old Total - 15
New Total - 14

Crystal of Seraphina Strikeforce
Old Total - 25
New Total - 26

No One Gets It
Old Total - 3
New Total - 4

Crossfire
Old Total - 3
New Total - 4

A Traitorous History
Old Total - 2
New Total - 3

The Secret of the Circle
Old Total - 6
New Total - 12

Bravo for the Shadow Shard
Old Total - 5
New Total - 7

Automatic Villainy
Old Total - 5
New Total - 7

Blurring the Lines
Old Total - 3
New Total - 4

The Strange Case of Benjamin A. Decker
Old Total - 2
New Total - 3

Welcome to the Vanguard
Old Total - 5
New Total - 9

Fat Cat City
Old Total - 4
New Total - 5

Pied Piper
Old Total - 2
New Total - 3

Chaos Affair
Old Total - 5
New Total - 8

The Missing Maidens
Old Total - 3
New Total - 4

Johnny's Squeeze
Old Total - 3
New Total - 4

Devil May Care
Old Total - 10
New Total - 14

Future Threat
Old Total - 7
New Total - 5

Power from the Past
Old Total - 2
New Total - 2

Stolen Power
Old Total - 2
New Total - 2

Breaking Knives
Old Total - 4
New Total - 9

Absolute Vengeance
Old Total - 2
New Total - 4

The Arachnoid Cure
Old Total - 2
New Total - 4

Arachnoid Appetizers
Old Total - 2
New Total - 3

Building a Better Vermin
Old Total - 5
New Total - 8

Project Fury
Old Total - 2
New Total - 3

Countess Coup
Old Total - 3
New Total - 4

Kuhr'Rekt Diplomacy
Old Total - 3
New Total - 6

Kuhr'Rekt Revenge
Old Total - 3
New Total - 5

Apt Pupil
Old Total - 5
New Total - 9

Miss Francine the Freakshow teacher
Old Total - 3
New Total - 5

The Rebels
Old Total - 2
New Total - 4

The Bane of the Heart
Old Total - 5
New Total - 10

Shucking Souls
Old Total - 4
New Total - 6

The Hunt
Old Total - 5
New Total - 7

The Circle's Plot
Old Total - 6
New Total - 9

Dreams of Peace and Acts of War
Old Total - 10
New Total - 9

Sara Moore Taskforce
Old Total - 63
New Total - 64

Dr. Quaterfield Taskforce
Old Total - 111
New Total -122

Politics, Cimeroran Style
Old Total - 8
New Total - 5

Trading Places
Old Total - 10
New Total - 14

Trading Places
Old Total - 6
New Total - 10

Time's Arrow
Old Total - 28
New Total - 26

Vindication
Old Total - 3
New Total - 5

Light and Darkness
Old Total - 2
New Total - 3

Ancient History
Old Total - 2
New Total - 3

Escaped!
Old Total - 2
New Total - 3

Snake Fest
Old Total - 6
New Total - 9

Alone in the Darque
Old Total - 3
New Total - 5

Indigo Hunt
Old Total - 3
New Total - 4

Crimson Hunt
Old Total - 2
New Total - 4

The Code Merlin
Old Total - 4
New Total - 6

Vigilante Justice
Old Total - 4
New Total - 7

The TV Report
Old Total - 5
New Total - 7

The TV Invasion
Old Total - 3
New Total - 7

The Conference of Evil
Old Total - 8
New Total - 13

Von Grun's science
Old Total - 3
New Total - 4

The Great Grun Gathering
Old Total - 3
New Total - 5

Von Grun's Lament
Old Total - 2
New Total -3

Von Grun's Redemption
Old Total - 7
New Total - 12

The Red and the Black
Old Total - 7
New Total - 14

Lady Grey Taskforce
Old Total - 39
New Total - 37

The Horror of War
Old Total - 8
New Total - 18

Justin Augustine Taskforce
Old Total - 24
New Total - 42

Ernesto Hess Taskforce
Old Total - 19
New Total -19

Hear and Now
Old Total - 10
New Total - 16

A Madman's Council
Old Total - 5
New Total - 8

Moonfire Taskforce
Old Total - 31
New Total - 32

Ring of Peebles
Old Total - 10
New Total - 15

Return to Vampyr Mountain
Old Total - 9
New Total - 13

Terra Volta Respec Trial 1
Old Total - 27
New Total - 28

All Villain Patron Arcs
Old Total - 5
New Total - 10

Sidekicks/Exemplars

• Players exemplared for any reason (teaming, flashbacks, zone, arenas) will now be able to use powers gained up to 5 levels above the exemplar level.
  • Example: A 20 exemplared to 1 will have their first 5 power choices instead of 2.
  • Example: A 50 exemplared to 45 will have access to all their powers.
    

Rewards

• Characters must be level 35 or greater to earn Vanguard Merits.

User Interface

• Removed "Suppress Extra Player FX" option. It wasn’t actually doing anything

• Fixed a bug that would cause players to sometimes lose their Global Friends list.
  
• Items in the Options Menu have been slightly reorganized and contain tool tip buttons.
  
• On the login screen, players will see their current costume instead of costume 1.
  

XP Curve Adjustment

• To go along with our new changes to sidekicking and exemplaring, we've made some adjustments to the experience awarded from minions, lieutenants and bosses in the level 5 to 24 range. In short these enemies are on average receiving a 20% experience and influence increase. This will slightly speed up the pace at which heroes and villains advance through the 5 to 24 range

City of Heroes

Powers

Controllers

• Kinetics/Fulcrum Shift: This power will now correctly use Controller buff modifiers instead of Defender buff modifiers, resulting in a 20% damage buff per target and a 40% damage buff on self, instead of a 25% damage buff per target and a 50% damage buff on self.
  
• Cold Domination: All of these powers should now accept the correct IO Sets.
  

Scrappers

• Electric Melee - Removed the ability to slot powers within this set with Taunt enhancements as these powers do not have a taunt component.
  
• Electric Armor - Lightning Field: Removed the ability to slot this power with Taunt enhancements as this power does not have a taunt component.
• Electric Armor/ Power Sink: This power should no longer accept taunt enhancements.

Tankers

• Invulnerability - Invincibility no longer accepts Taunt IO sets. This makes it match similar powers available to other ATs.
  
• Electric Armor/Lighting Field: This power will now accept Taunt enhancements and Taunt IO sets.
• Electric Melee - Fixed Gauntlet for Charged Brawl, Havoc Punch, and Chain induction to not allow procing on all nearby targets.
  

City of Villains

General

• Fixed a bug that would prevent a Villain from being able to trade with other Villains after a respec.
  

Powers

Brutes

• Claws - Corrected a decimal shift error in the Recharge Time of Slash. Now recharges in 6.4 seconds, not 0.64 seconds.
• Claws/Slash - Slightly increased this power’s damage to be in line with its recharge time
• Claws - Eviscerate: Corrected this power’s long help, it erroneously stated that this power had a chance to critically hit, which it does not
• Claws - Powers in this set are now slottable for Taunt enhancements and Taunt IO sets.

Corruptors

• Archery/Rain of Arrows – This power will now correctly Scourge enemies allowing for critical hits on enemies with low health
  
• Kinetics/Fulcrum Shift: This power will now correctly use Corruptor buff modifiers instead of Defender buff modifiers, resulting in a 20% damage buff per target and a 40% damage buff on self, instead of a 25% damage buff per target and a 50% damage buff on self.
  
• Trick Arrow/Acid Arrow - Fixed a bug that caused this power to deal additional damage to immobilized, held, or disoriented targets

• Pain Domination - Soothing Aura is properly suppressed when the recipient is mezzed.

Dominators

• Earth Assault/Mud Pots - This power’s long help will no longer get cut off at the end
• Earth Assault/Fissure - This power’s long help will no longer get cut off at the end
• Earth Assault - Tremor, Slightly reduced chance of knockdown.
• Earth Assault - Fissure, Adjusted damage, recharge, and endurance cost down moderately. Slightly reduced chance of knockdown and stun.

Masterminds

• Dark Miasma - Removed erroneous Jump Speed slow effect from Shadow Fall.
  
• Pets will now zone with their Mastermind owner and will keep their buffs
• Necromancy - Zombies, Skeletons and Lich should use the selected custom colors for their enchanted and empowered particle effects.
• Thugs/Gang War now summons the Posse correctly
• Pain Domination - Soothing Aura is properly suppressed when the recipient is mezzed."

Batman & Sons

I gotta admit. When I first saw the premise of this web comic I was all "WTF?"... But after reading a few (especially check out "The Rivalry") I was hooked. The damn thing is brilliant.

It's Break Time

Super-Sidekicking in Issue 16

As per this forum post by Positron:

"I am pleased to tell you that in Issue 16: Power Spectrum we have two new features that are made to better facilitate the game experience by streamlining many processes that players spend time setting up.

The first of these is the new difficulty settings. A lot of in-game Broadcasts are powerful characters looking for “pads” so they can artificially increase their team-size to provide more of a challenge for greater rewards. With the new difficulty settings, these players can set their team size without having to bother other players with their Broadcasts. If they want to be treated as a team of 8, even when solo, they can.

The second feature is what we have come to call “Super-Sidekicking” but actually applies to all types of Sidekicking: Exemplaring, Lackeying, and Malefactoring as well. With this system, everyone in the team will find themselves automatically level adjusted to the level of the owner of the Mission that is currently selected. If there is no mission that is currently active, then the level is set to the leader of the Team.

If you are below the level you are getting set to, you are automatically sidekicked up to one level below the owner’s level, just as if you had sidekicked to them. If you are above the level, then you will be lowered to the level of the owner, just as if you exemplared down.

The players don’t need to do anything for this to happen, it all happens automatically. This means that no matter what level ranges you have in your group, you can ALWAYS play together and you can ALWAYS get XP. Yes, we are even changing the way exemplaring works so that you get XP while you are fighting at a lower level. There will be an option of having the “old way” of exemplaring, and earning extra Inf. instead, for those players who want to earn some more Inf. instead of levels.

Gone are the days of having to play “Mentor Tetris” (as we’ve come to call it) to make sure everyone in the team is SK’ed/EX’ed to the right person so that everyone is receiving XP, or having to tell your friend that they can’t join your team because you don’t have enough people to make sure everyone is SK’ed and earning rewards.

One of the other advantages to this system is that the level adjustments take place no matter where you are in the game. No more “My sidekick is out of range” messages. If you are about to undergo a large level shift, you will have a dialog box pop-up giving you warning and the ability to leave the team (handy if you are in combat at the time and don’t want to suddenly be fighting at a lower level). The range of levels that this dialog pops up is adjustable in the Options screen.

Now we are aware of a couple things that this system doesn’t do so well, and we are attempting to address most of them in the coming weeks. The first of this is the fact that you lose access to powers, especially the most-recently earned ones, when you Exemplar down. We are looking into some sort of fix for this.

Next is the fact that sometimes you just want to un-exemplar and kick some butt, especially when things look bad for the team. If you leave the team you will automatically start fighting at your superior level. This will enable you to save your team’s bacon at the cost of eating up any of the rewards they might have earned for those guys you defeat.

Badge hunters in the closed beta have pointed out that some badges are simply favorable to get once you outlevel the content where they are given. Since Super-Sidekicking makes manipulating the levels more difficult, we’re going to re-examine the requirements on some badges, and lower them where appropriate. Mentor badge credit is still given whenever you are the Mission Owner, and someone is auto-sidekicked to you.

Now one thing that is getting removed by this new system that is not going to be fixed is the ability to “bridge”. Bridging is the practice of sidekicking a low level character to JUST the right level to cap their XP earning on each entity defeated by the group. This was a side effect of how the Sidekicking system worked. While we have made adjustments to the Sidekicking system many times over the course of the life of the game to combat this, Super-Sidekicking eliminates bridging completely, since all rewards will be in parity.

Before we went and removed this playstyle completely from City of Heroes we wanted to make sure we were doing the right thing. We did extensive datamines to see how many accounts were actually participating in a “bridge” team, and were surprised to see just how low of a percentage it actually was. This may be a case where it is possible that the “advertising” in /broadcasts for bridge teams actually made the practice seem more pervasive than it really was.

With the ability to bridge removed, we should see an end to those Broadcasts, in addition to /tells to characters who are in the right level range for being a bridge. To us cutting down on annoying spam only makes your game experience better. (Which reminds me, we’ve added new features to the in-game Email system to either shut it off entirely, or only receive emails from people on your friends list and/or people in your Supergroup. Another step in the battle against annoying in-game spam.)

With both the new difficulty levels and Super-Sidekicking, players can use the difficulty slider to increase the level of the entities in the mission so that they can earn more rewards. But this, at least, comes with the risk inherent with fighting higher level entities and larger spawns. As for low level characters missing out on accelerated leveling speeds, we are increasing the rewards they earn from level 1 to 20 (about 20% across the board) so that every player can get through the lower levels faster, not just those that know “the tricks”.

(These changes are currently being tested in the Closed Beta for Issue 16, and may be changed/modified by the time they reach the Live servers)"


Edit for coolness, Q&A by Positron:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mysterious_J Now just tell me you'll eliminate the Security Level requirements on hazard zones, so that teams don't have to avoid arcs that send you into them because there are SKs present...

Yup, but the requirements still exist on the Hamidon zones and the PVP zones.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chaos_Creator How does this affect a player who out-levels their own mission?

They outlevel it, just like normal. Super-Sidekicking cares about the level of the mission OWNER, not the level of the mission.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AquaJAWS Wait...so we can get into the RWZ to team with villains in the AE at level 1 now?

You bet!

Quote:

Originally Posted by bAss_ackwards Hey I just realized something: With the abolition of the level restrictions for hazard zones, this means that the ability to get a jetpack temp power at level 1 is no longer exclusive to Villains. Rejoice! You can go to the Shadow Shard at level 1 and procure a jetpack of your very own soon! This is huge for the folks on the Hero side that want to put off getting a travel power or forgo it altogether!