Release Notes, October 5

trailturtle

Release notes for Champions Online, October 5.

Featured Fix: Fixed issue where players were unable to raise skill cap despite having met requirements.


Missions:
-Whiteout: Doors now properly allow players to progress as a team.
-Perfect Prey : Ambush Spawns correctly spawn and attack players.
-RP Instance: WCOC is correctly set to be a static instance.
-Resistance: Fixed issue that would cause rewards to only be granted to team leaders.
-Whiteout: Fixed issue that would prevent an entire team from being map moved when accessing door in Bunker #1


Items:
-Smoke Grenade is not being consumed when completing "Perfect Prey" mission.
-"Backup Devices" now have a shared 30 Minute Cooldown
-Restored players' missing lore items

Content/Critters:
-Dark Witchcraft should not summon excessive numbers of rifts.
-Shadow Destroyer (nemcon) should shift dimensions properly now.

Powers:
-Gadgeteering: Sonic Device: This power is no longer consumed by Energy Builders
-Toxic Nanites: This power is no longer consumed by Energy Builders
-Miniaturization Drive: This power is no longer consumed by Energy Builders

PvP:
-Justicar doesn't have a second Passive in pvp now. He matches Dread Metal.

Skills:
-Fixed issue where players were unable to raise skill cap despite having met requirements

lokikin

I'm sure the following posts will be peppered with objections that their specific bug was not addressed...

But let me be the first to say...

Sweeeeeet!

Some nice fixes there, guys!

monaahiru

trailturtle wrote: »

-Backup Devices" now have a shared 30 Minute Cooldown

So...

Now Backup Devices have shared cool down time. 30mins.
If you equipped 5 and use one, remaining 4 can't be used till 1st one finish recharge...

I understand you needed some kind of fix to this OP device, bust not few of us have already equipped several of them on one toon. And as those are bound, if someone have already equipped 5 backups, remaining 4 will be just useless scrap...

Please fix this not "bound" but "Tradeable" or "Bind on Account" like vehicle devices at least.

Plz care about huge resource and time we spent to get those super rare Devices. This is terrible fix for some of us.

jasinblaze

trailturtle wrote: »

Powers:
-Gadgeteering: Sonic Device: This power is no longer consumed by Energy Builders
-Toxic Nanites: This power is no longer consumed by Energy Builders
-Miniaturization Drive: This power is no longer consumed by Energy Builders

this is awesome

kallethen

I do feel there should be a shared cooldown on the Backup! devices and am glad to see it. However, I will agree that having the shared cooldown equal to the individual device cooldown isn't so nice. I would rather see a 10 or 15 minute shared cooldown.

monaahiru

kallethen wrote: »

I do feel there should be a shared cooldown on the Backup! devices and am glad to see it. However, I will agree that having the shared cooldown equal to the individual device cooldown isn't so nice. I would rather see a 10 or 15 minute shared cooldown.

Agreed. /signed. I think 10min be better.
Still awful for someone have already equipped 5 of them full slot... Still remaining 2 are just scrap. xD
Or... 30/5= 6min ? xD

sanmerci

Also very glad to see the influx of bug fixes. This is good news indeed. Out of curiosity, is there an ETA on fixing the skill nodes? (I noticed that the skill cap fix was in, but nothing was said about the nodes themselves, so I'm assuming not yet)

wimpazoid

There's a issue in Whiteout #5 where the weaker roninesh (those that pop up to ambush have different names IIRC) can pemanently stun you indefinitely (you can't break free) until they kill you. I was playing in elite mode and it is consistent with those weak mobs with slightly different names, something invader/vanguard. I had to kill them very quickly in a 1 second window with AOEs to escape being perma stunned. Is this fixed too?

serendipitynow

Also very glad to see the influx of bug fixes. This is good news indeed. Out of curiosity, is there an ETA on fixing the skill nodes? (I noticed that the skill cap fix was in, but nothing was said about the nodes themselves, so I'm assuming not yet)

The nodes are fixed on test, and an update was made with the fix to allowing skill cap increase being added to that (as well as other fixes etc) to test before adding to live in todays patch, so hopefully its just an ommission to the release notes and nodes will be fixed on live as well this patch

goodwillout

Although I'm slightly disheartened by the lack of new stuff (yeah, selfish I know but I just received my stipend!), I'm happy to see some bug fixes rolling out. I hope these ones stick, unlike previously when the forum post announcing a series of bug fixes was subsequently filled with posts saying that the bugs weren't fixed at all. It would be nice for you guys to have another look at A Bullet Bound For Biselle but it's good to see that you're making the adventure packs playable again.

theravenforce

Nice to see some good fixes going on ^_^.

Might I just add incase you guys arent aware...it takes extreme DPS in Nemcon to take down Shadow Destroyer because:

- He has at least a 50k per 2 sec hp regen rate
- He is able to use the telepathic summon nightmare etherhounds
- His spheres sometimes become untargettable and thier regen to him + his own bugged regen make him extremely tough to kill.

Nemesis System:

- Prison Break is still broken as I cannot defeat Vengance because she is classed as "Not a Valid Target" Even after my nemesis speech.
- This problem applies to Green Dragon as well.

This is all I can think of bug wise today. But the 30 min shared CD is a bit much Is there any chance the Devs can reduce it to 10-15 instead? Summoning all Champs at once is awesome, All that needs to be done is a damage nerf for the devices at around 10% of their current value.

serendipitynow

Nemesis System:

- Prison Break is still broken as I cannot defeat Vengance because she is classed as "Not a Valid Target" Even after my nemesis speech.
- This problem applies to Green Dragon as well.

This is as said a known issue and has been broken for some time now, but heres a workaround

Some nemesis/lackys seem to work better as well, heres my tip

change nem to sorcery
minions to burning lackys with dark magic

***spoilers***
















clear first room, rescue guards and activate the prison cells before doing next room, disarming bomb, finishing all rest before talking to warden and activating halon system before going into room with nemesis etc...

In the cut scene there, if nemesis doesnt leave cell its bugged so exit and immediately re enter.

Using the above ive never had to repeat more than 3 times, usually 1st or 2nd works (done this on 3 chrs in last few weeks)

theravenforce

serendipitynow wrote: »

This is as said a known issue and has been broken for some time now, but heres a workaround

Some nemesis/lackys seem to work better as well, heres my tip

change nem to sorcery
minions to burning lackys with dark magic

***spoilers***

clear first room, rescue guards and activate the prison cells before doing next room, disarming bomb, finishing all rest before talking to warden and activating halon system before going into room with nemesis etc...

In the cut scene there, if nemesis doesnt leave cell its bugged so exit and immediately re enter.

Using the above ive never had to repeat more than 3 times, usually 1st or 2nd works (done this on 3 chrs in last few weeks)

ZOMG ty I've had this mission for 6 months now >_>"

EDIT: I love you. It worked and I can finally progress. Thanks so much ^_^

mholds1

Yes, please also adjust the Permanent Backup Device to be like the jets, account wide as I too have equipped 2 of these on 1 Toon which I might add I worked for 15 hours on the Destroid Event for.
I do not feel I should be punished for other people's complaints and therefore would like to be able to move them amongst my other Toons to not make them useless.
Having played throughout the Destroid Event and stuck through the numerous emergency patches, I am very annoyed by this.
This is a Dev mistake and maybe they should have been limited to 1 per toon from the start.
I would like to know if those who are complaining even participated in the Event or are just jealous because they didn't get Back Up Devices:mad:

malvou

Miniaturization Drive: This power is no longer consumed by Energy Builders

Oh, so you want me to not have my optimal giant growth build, is that it?
It's not like I bought this game because of that concept, and then later gave you guys $300 for a lifetime sub. Nope nope nope.

Lol I'm joking. I'll just find another way to get my big on.

neuraldamage

jasinblaze wrote: »

this is awesome

Totally disagree.

Nice siggy tho.

neuraldamage

mholds1 wrote: »

Yes, please also adjust the Permanent Backup Device to be like the jets, account wide as I too have equipped 2 of these on 1 Toon which I might add I worked for 15 hours on the Destroid Event for.
I do not feel I should be punished for other people's complaints and therefore would like to be able to move them amongst my other Toons to not make them useless.
Having played throughout the Destroid Event and stuck through the numerous emergency patches, I am very annoyed by this.
This is a Dev mistake and maybe they should have been limited to 1 per toon from the start.
I would like to know if those who are complaining even participated in the Event or are just jealous because they didn't get Back Up Devices:mad:

Yes I participated as long as you did and got diddly-squat. So STFU and suck it up.

Everyone gets spanked for other people complaints eventually, its what MMOGs do best. That said, why they don't sell unbind tokens in the Z-store continues to boggle my mind.

flyingfinn

And still no Dragon Helmet.....:mad:

trailturtle

theravenforce wrote: »

Might I just add incase you guys arent aware...it takes extreme DPS in Nemcon to take down Shadow Destroyer...

The devs are actively working on this one -- one of the things they tried didn't work, so they're going back to the drawing board on fixing this.

sanmerci wrote: »

Also very glad to see the influx of bug fixes. This is good news indeed. Out of curiosity, is there an ETA on fixing the skill nodes? (I noticed that the skill cap fix was in, but nothing was said about the nodes themselves, so I'm assuming not yet)

I... honestly don't know. I only skimmed the patch notes, so I didn't catch that it was the cap that changed, rather than the nodes issue. I *think* I remember the devs saying that the nodes were fixed, but I'm honestly not sure.

flyingfinn wrote: »

And still no Dragon Helmet.....:mad:

Hrm. I'm pretty sure I remember the devs saying that it was fixed in time for Hi-Pan... I'd check it out in-game, it might be fixed. That's the helm you get from the Hi-Pan alert, right?

crypticbuxom

I agree the Backups need to be looked into further for people who put all of them on their toons, only to find out that you can only use one at a time ever. Account-wide was what I was hoping for since I even heard about them existing on the PTS.

Really like that more ONH powers aren't consumed by EB. Too bad Imbue will never get this treatment.

shytala

trailturtle wrote: »

Missions:
-Whiteout: Doors now properly allow players to progress as a team.
-Perfect Prey : Ambush Spawns correctly spawn and attack players.
-RP Instance: WCOC is correctly set to be a static instance.
-Resistance: Fixed issue that would cause rewards to only be granted to team leaders.
-Whitehout: Fixed issue that would prevent an entire team from being map moved when accessing door in Bunker #1

Great that you fixed missions....BUT....for the Resistance Mission,did you also fix the bug where it doesn't register that you finished it at all and thus you can not turn it in to Defender??

ayonachan

trailturtle wrote: »

Items:
-Fixed costume item reward in Hi-Pan to now grant appropriate helmet piece

It gives the wrong dragon armor helmet...Though at least I got one of the two that I lost back so eh...

To be more exact it gives you Dragon Helmet.

unitzeta

While I don't like the Champions devices at all (I would have preferred longer-lasting, lower-leveled sidekicks), I DO agree that imposing the cooldown is unfair to those who (even maliciously) bound all of theirs to one account.

The Champions devices need to be at least bound-to-account, not character. A free trade would be better, allowing those who didn't get one but want one to have a higher chance of getting one.

Look at it from their point of view: They bought a product, expecting a specific outcome, so they bound it to their character, making them useful to only that character, and now most of the reason they did so has become moot. It's a bad business transaction for them because the product morphed on them.

It would be like buying an Xbox, getting the Xbox out of the case, and then a week later, you find it turned into a Virtual Boy. You don't do that.

So please, make the items at least account-bound. This isn't a plea out of selfishness; I sold all my permanents. It's a plea from one seller to another, based on business ethics.


EDITED to improve the flow of the text

lordwolfy

trailturtle wrote: »

I... honestly don't know. I only skimmed the patch notes, so I didn't catch that it was the cap that changed, rather than the nodes issue. I *think* I remember the devs saying that the nodes were fixed, but I'm honestly not sure.

I decided to hop in game on both the PTS and live and it seems that the nodes have once again become broken as none of them are giving any skill up in any way. They were fixed on PTS not to long ago but now are broken once more. Live still does not give any skill ups either.

taintedmess

trailturtle wrote: »

Powers:
-Gadgeteering: Sonic Device: This power is no longer consumed by Energy Builders
-Toxic Nanites: This power is no longer consumed by Energy Builders
-Miniaturization Drive: This power is no longer consumed by Energy Builders

Oh bugger it

-Edit-

Slightly more constructive could we get a zero point advantage that returns these to there old can be consumed by energy builder mode?

cyjonpw

Lore is back...sort of. I checked three of my characters. Dr. Destroyer lore appears to be completely back on all three. Two of them had no lore in other categories. The third had 2-3 pieces each of "Aliens On Earth" and "Mechanon" but far less than I would have gathered, and nothing in the other sections.

serendipitynow

I agree that they should have made them 30 min cooldown with no cooldown reduction effecting them, but the shared cooldown was excessive, made having more than 1 pointless and ruined the fun of trying to collect the full set.

At most they should have made it the 30 min cooldown unaffected by reduction, and using one placing a 5 min shared cooldown on the others, that way all 6 still have some use.

slowecsl4pwe

The skill nodes aren't working for me as well. I have a level 40 character with only a skill level of 45 and I just flew through the desert opening arms nodes to see if they would give skill points and they still don't.

arcolf

The Hi-Pan Dragon Armor Helmet appears to be missing from the game entirely.

Had it from the first time around, and it is nowhere to be found.

In addition, the Dragon Armor Helmet Unlock is treated as a "new" unlock(Blue Mask in the upper-right).

neuraldamage

taintedmess wrote: »

Slightly more constructive could we get a zero point advantage that returns these to there old can be consumed by energy builder mode?

Yes. Please.

merleburger

"Skills:
-Fixed issue where players were unable to raise skill cap despite having met requirements"

How about the issue of the glowing things no longer granting skill points? I'm pretty sure that's what a majority of the crafting-based complaints, and the one responded to by another dev, was referring to. In other words, meeting the requirements now means 5-15 times more farming and hoping that the combination actually grants a skill point.

trailturtle

merleburger wrote: »

"Skills:
-Fixed issue where players were unable to raise skill cap despite having met requirements"

How about the issue of the glowing things no longer granting skill points? I'm pretty sure that's what a majority of the crafting-based complaints, and the one responded to by another dev, was referring to. In other words, meeting the requirements now means 5-15 times more farming and hoping that the combination actually grants a skill point.

I know this is impacting a lot of players, but unfortunately, it's going to be a bit before we can fix that. The issue is deeper in the code than expected, and we need to be sure that any change we make won't negatively impact anything else.

trailturtle

Note: Unfortunately, one of the fixes didn't hold. Players are being granted a helm from Hi-Pan, but it is not showing up in the Tailor.

serendipitynow

I know this is impacting a lot of players, but unfortunately, it's going to be a bit before we can fix that. The issue is deeper in the code than expected, and we need to be sure that any change we make won't negatively impact anything else.

Nodes giving skillups was fixed on test when i tried it a cple days ago, what did you do to unbreak it again so fast?

merleburger

I can start characters and take them through West Side only so much, though. Crafting used to be something you could take or leave (I left), but today without upgrades your lvl 20-40 characters are operating at a severe disadvantage.

chalupaoffury

serendipitynow wrote: »

Nodes giving skillups was fixed on test when i tried it a cple days ago, what did you do to unbreak it again so fast?

Different code base from pts to live, is my guess.

Still, some great fixes. Did we ever get the turrets in stronghold looked at? You guys are making my favorite pvp playable again. I could hug the devs right now.

serendipitynow

Different code base from pts to live, is my guess.

nodes giving skillups was fixed on test, then a day or 2 later they updated test to also fix being able to increase skill caps, and that aparently broke the nodes giving skill ups on test (i havent checked myself but thats whats being said) and that is what went live today, so we can increase our skill caps now but not the skills themselves! If they left it the other way round people could at least have increased their skills to current cap, but this is just another useless fix, like the bullets for biselle 'fix' that fixed something about it that wasnt even broken, leaving it still broken in the same way it has been for months...

drannic

We originally fixed the crafting nodes with a change on how the Skill-ups were being awarded, resolving the original issue as seen on PTS. But after further investigation, we found that this fix could potentially cause more problems or bugs in the future. Because of this we have removed the fix we had made to the nodes, so we can go back and resolve the issue in a different way.

This new fix for the nodes is still in the works, and currently does not have an ETA of when it will arrive on LIVE.

I would also like to include, that the fix to the skill cap upgrades has also resolved the issue with Gold Members not being able to purchase additional Bank Slots for their characters, since this issue was also caused by the same bug.

serendipitynow

Thanks for the update, thats good to hear !

thebrainstem

trailturtle wrote: »

-Restored players' missing lore items

It appears that Dr Destroyer has taken credit for, uh, everything that had gone missing in my Lore.



Unless he and Foxbat have teamed up... along with everyone else.

Most of the other tabs had no content. Mechanon, Teleios, The Crowns of Krim, etc.

ashensnow

The changes to how On-Next-Hit powers interact with Energy Builders is unfortunate.

Players who did not want to trigger their ONH with their EB already had that as an option. Now those wanting to use their ONH with their EB are out of luck.

Taking something away from player A in order to give player B more of what he already had seems questionable.

cyjonpw

thebrainstem wrote: »

It appears that Dr Destroyer has taken credit for, uh, everything that had gone missing in my Lore.

Oh, that's what happened. I reported previously that Destroyer lore was back but not others, but you're right. It's there just all bunched up under him. In that case, I have only 45 items which doesn't seem like anywhere near enough to be all the lore my level 40 has discovered. These appear to be only the "end of arc" lores. I have none of the various people's thoughts on Mechanon, fragments about the Kings of Edom, VIPER (oops I mean SERPENT) comic books, etc.. I *do* have those on the character I created after the Great Lore Holocaust.

So this fix is certainly a welcome step in the right direction, but not complete.

testsubject13

trailturtle wrote: »

Release notes for Champions Online, October 5.

Featured Fix:

......

Items:
-Smoke Grenade is not being consumed when completing "Perfect Prey" mission.
-?Backup Devices" now have a shared 30 Minute Cooldown
-Restored players' missing lore items
-Fixed costume item reward in Hi-Pan to now grant appropriate helmet piece
......

Well well, I just bought the dragon helmet in AH, and went to look at it at the tailor, guess what no fricking helmet anywhere in the menus or when searching?! :mad:

Edit: Just saw that the fix did not hold, dam wished I read the forum before I bought the helmet..

skcark

neuraldamage wrote: »

Yes I participated as long as you did and got diddly-squat. So STFU and suck it up.

Everyone gets spanked for other people complaints eventually, its what MMOGs do best. That said, why they don't sell unbind tokens in the Z-store continues to boggle my mind.

So it's fair to mock people who got something you didn't? Take your own advice, suck it up. there's no reason to campaign against those with the items you were after. They were broken from the start and cryptic haven't even fixed it, the complain was being overpwoered, so they add more cooldown time, when that wouldn't even affect the fights they are used in and dish out high damage, all it's done is make people have to wait longer to use an overpowered device. So it's fair to still have people who wasted time on a broken event to get a broken set of devices, only to be broken further and then become virtually useless for them try to appeal to have it fixed.

chalupaoffury

skcark wrote: »

So it's fair to mock people who got something you didn't? Take your own advice, suck it up. there's no reason to campaign against those with the items you were after. They were broken from the start and cryptic haven't even fixed it, the complain was being overpwoered, so they add more cooldown time, when that wouldn't even affect the fights they are used in and dish out high damage, all it's done is make people have to wait longer to use an overpowered device. So it's fair to still have people who wasted time on a broken event to get a broken set of devices, only to be broken further and then become virtually useless for them try to appeal to have it fixed.

You have a point. Scaling back the power is a better idea than nerfing the cooldown. I mean, the champions in game aren't that high level, and pretty much suck for most missions they join you with. Why should a device behave any differently? These always struck me as super-sidekicks. I'd rather see em have more hp, useable as normal sidekicks, until they die. THEN trigger the cooldown. "Defender took too much damage, and has to go repair his armor", etc...

alricnarccus720

Whiteout is still broken, was just running it with a few friends of mine and we can't leave the building in issue 3. :mad:

vendince

alricnarccus720 wrote: »

Whiteout is still broken, was just running it with a few friends of mine and we can't leave the building in issue 3. :mad:

Same here, in issue 2 we can't progress due to the doors. I'm getting annoyed. In fact, I just retried solo, and that one particular door (the one just before Lt David) breaks so thoroughly it's inaccessible even solo.

It seems that the popup about the heart thing comes just as you're next to the door, and when that pops up, it becomes inaccessible.

theravenforce

alricnarccus720 wrote: »

Whiteout is still broken, was just running it with a few friends of mine and we can't leave the building in issue 3. :mad:

vendince wrote: »

Same here, in issue 2 we can't progress due to the doors. I'm getting annoyed. In fact, I just retried solo, and that one particular door (the one just before Lt David) breaks so thoroughly it's inaccessible even solo.

It seems that the popup about the heart thing comes just as you're next to the door, and when that pops up, it becomes inaccessible.

Since when?

I ran it a few days ago, on Friday and I was able to complete everything...

theravenforce

ashensnow wrote: »

The changes to how On-Next-Hit powers interact with Energy Builders is unfortunate.

Players who did not want to trigger their ONH with their EB already had that as an option. Now those wanting to use their ONH with their EB are out of luck.

Taking something away from player A in order to give player B more of what he already had seems questionable.

I guess its because some energy builders when put on auto would fire a little when trying to switch to an ONH + another power, I know as Inventor AT this was very irritating and I had to manually switch it off and on again.

I for one welcome the change, but I see what you mean.

vendince

theravenforce wrote: »

Since when?

I ran it a few days ago, on Friday and I was able to complete everything...

Ran it today.

misterjust

That door in Whiteout is a very old bug. If you faceplant into the door, the game thinks you are already in the room and triggers the next phase of the mission which makes the door uninteractive. Workaround - approach the door carefully and open it without crashing into it.