FC.31.20150919.9 - Level-up Pack (+1)

ladygadfly · October 2015

Release Notes for FC.31.20150919.9
This build is available on PTS now, 10/9/2015

Level-up Pack (+1)
- Now available in the PTS store. This pack grants the player a single level of experience as well as a random piece of level appropriate gear.

Please format any bugs you find in the following format:
Bug
Where it happens
What happens

Please stay on topic in this PTS thread. We use bug reports from this thread to decide whether a PTS build is ready to go live, and so we need to make sure we're seeing everything in it. Please do discuss the changes, but if you find yourself writing about something that isn't specific to what's on PTS, then that should probably go here: http://forum.arcgames.com/championsonline/categories/gameplay-bugs1.

These player & moderator maintained threads are checked weekly by the development team:
- http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/championsonline/#/discussion/1203148/onslaught-bugs-and-balance-qol-concerns
- http://forum.arcgames.com/championsonline/discussion/1198089/known-power-bugs
- http://forum.arcgames.com/championsonline/discussion/1194284/champions-online-alerts-issues
- http://forum.arcgames.com/championsonline/discussion/1199083/costume-bug-list
- http://forum.arcgames.com/championsonline/discussion/1198119/compiled-list-of-bugs-issues-and-qol-concerns-version-2-0

eiledon · October 2015

@ladygadfly I was in the middle of responding on last thread when it was closed ;D anyway, given the event auras are being made Bind to Account, any chance you could revisit the recent Drifter store Auras and apply the same logic, given they are essentially a tertiary reward from lockboxes which are opened ultimately via a cash shop purchase, making these Bind To Character seems to go against previously established norms for auras related to a cash purchase.

crypticbuxom · October 2015

The most important part of such an item is the cost. So its 20-25 Zen a piece tops. Right?

notyuu · October 2015

I've got two things to say about this...

the first being, that the gear piece should be related to the chosen SS of the character, rather than completely random (a piece of ego gear is useless to a melee tank)

and secondly, if you plan on bringing these things out, you gotta make sure they are not priced stupidly (like the rank-up catalysts are, and the c-store XP boosters..if they gave double XP they would be good, but as is, are junk) I personally wouldn't suggest putting them in the c-store at anything more than 100 zen or they'll end up just wasting away (also, another emote pack wouldn't go too wrong, considering that pretty much everybody I've met on CO has bought the first emote pack)

flyingfinn · October 2015

1 Level of Experience Token?
I have never......

I'm sorry, but that sounds stupid.
Oh, this is for people that do Alerts only. I get it.
Ok, maybe people really need and want these.

pantagruel01 · October 2015

I can understand doing something like that for a high 30s character, the last couple levels can be a drag. However, it also has some application to testing.

zamuelpwe · October 2015

I actually do see the worth of one level at a time. It feels like this is supposed to be a small boost to get you over slower leveling branches, instead just a boost to 40. Plus, if priced properly, it makes a good impulse buy (which the game badly needs).

I'm unsure if brand new players should have access to these. Also, I'm incredibly mixed on the gearing. I mostly agree that these pieces should match your stats. However, there's worth in actually having more gear on the market. Of course, there lies the problem of trusting the market since a lot of people will probably just sell what they can't use to a vendor, if not simply discarding it. I'd suggest a piece of gear that's +Primary Super Stat and/or +Secondary Super Stat. There's also the idea of having Super Stat gear in addition to a purely random piece of gear.

magpieuk2014 · October 2015

IIRC The "go straight to level 30" token didn't work well, and this one does. Sounds OK if it's not too expensive. There are some builds which don't level up well, these could be of help (although I just use a Become for going from lvl6-lvl20...)

theravenforce · October 2015

Interesting...I could see myself purchasing a singular level up device especially if it was at a reasonable price and I was at that final hurdle to level 40

As for new player access...I think it should be restricted to:

"You must have at least one level 40 before being able to purchase this device".

Also please consider making the gear given specific to the super stats that the player has, like notyuu suggested above.

draogn · October 2015

crypticbuxom said:
The most important part of such an item is the cost. So its 20-25 Zen a piece tops. Right?

That's what it should cost, but I'm guessing someplace between 1000 and 2000z. Anything over 100zen is overpriced.

thelastsonofzod · October 2015

Just a heads up, this patch isn't up yet.

roughbearmattach · October 2015

Please tell me the random piece of gear isn't the junk you get from the 5-level kits.

ealford1985 · October 2015

@ladygadfly

So this was added to LIVE and the Eye Patch Right was never mentioned in the release notes. However, both Male and Female versions are broken. I mentioned the Male version in PTS before it went live but nothing was said or done about it.

Bug: NEW Eye Patch (right) is invisible for (Male Toons)
Bug: NEW Eye Patch (right) eye clips through patch when blinking (Unable to check Male version but I imagine both clip eye patch)

photo Champions Online_2015-10-09_23-55-27.png

photo Champions Online_2015-10-09_23-55-36.png

I am not sure how to fix but it appears that this version of the patch goes deeper into the head model. Which is where the eye clipping issues seems to occur. That might be where the answer to the problem is.

draogn · October 2015

Well the random gear is blue, though the random stats are going to produce a lot of useless items. Though they're boe so they can be sold. It would still be nice if the gear would at least match one of the characters chosen stats.

soulforger · October 2015

The level up item gives gear for the level you were previously when you use the item. So if you use it at level 39 to go to 40, you get level 39 gear. This is kinda wrong.

circleofpsi · October 2015

bluegrassbeast said:
Price it reasonably - absolutely no higher than 100z or so - and I could see this being a regular purchase.

To wit, the less-than-successful boost-t0-30th was.. $20? So that came to $0.833333 USD a level, or at $25 (my memory fails) $1USD.

$1 USD = 100z.

No higher than that, or you needn't bother I'd expect.

theravenforce said:
Interesting...I could see myself purchasing a singular level up device especially if it was at a reasonable price and I was at that final hurdle to level 40

As for new player access...I think it should be restricted to:

"You must have at least one level 40 before being able to purchase this device".

Also please consider making the gear given specific to the super stats that the player has, like notyuu suggested above.

draogn said:

crypticbuxom said:
The most important part of such an item is the cost. So its 20-25 Zen a piece tops. Right?
That's what it should cost, but I'm guessing someplace between 1000 and 2000z. Anything over 100zen is overpriced.

notyuu said:
I've got two things to say about this...

the first being, that the gear piece should be related to the chosen SS of the character, rather than completely random (a piece of ego gear is useless to a melee tank)

and secondly, if you plan on bringing these things out, you gotta make sure they are not priced stupidly (like the rank-up catalysts are, and the c-store XP boosters..if they gave double XP they would be good, but as is, are junk) I personally wouldn't suggest putting them in the c-store at anything more than 100 zen or they'll end up just wasting away (also, another emote pack wouldn't go too wrong, considering that pretty much everybody I've met on CO has bought the first emote pack)

crypticbuxom said:
The most important part of such an item is the cost. So its 20-25 Zen a piece tops. Right?

I agree with everything people said here!, They are so right in so much ways, and if what said here is ignored, and you "Devs" put it up over 100-200Zen, that is clearly overpriced, this will prove my point that you Devs DO! NOT! CARE!. Also Restrict players who don't have level 40 toons!, Now onto details.

The way this, works, is each token/item, gives you one level at a time, so I assume 20-25Zen, per token, you guys are smart, I hope, so do your maths. On how this will work. However I whuold like it if the tokens whuold be in a bundle as well, for them more wallet pros. What do I mean by bundle?.

So meny odd tokens, in one bundle, that will reach about level 10 each, so maybe 10-20 tokens, and if used on a level say 20, it will make them 30, and then if another level 40. etc, you get the idea.

However the bundles will cost more then the per-token 20-25-100Zen, they will cost 1000Zen, for each one, as each token has 100 Tokens, or how meny is required to do so.

Sound fair?, No?, then that proves my point.

eiledon · October 2015

I am pretty sure Devs have nothing to do with setting pricing. Just an FYI. you want to direct your ire towards the bean counters

ealford1985 · October 2015

Cryneting, I'm pretty sure it's they don't care about you. I think it's a conspiracy against you and hideouts. You should talk with a lawyer.

raighn · October 2015

eiledon wrote: »

I am pretty sure Devs have nothing to do with setting pricing. Just an FYI. you want to direct your ire towards the bean counters

Dear Bean Counters,
If you really want us to spend more money, you have to stop pricing things absurdly... Many of us want to buy things to support the game, however the prices you've been setting on everything turn us away. Please, for the love of money price these things reasonably.
Signed, a concerned customer.

I can totally see this device working out as long as once again, as everyone already said, the price is right. We are perfectly aware that CO isn't bringing in the money ya'll expected any more. However, pricing things at $10-$30 a pop is not the way to go about it. The F2P model thrives off small purchases. $0.25-$5.00 purchases are where the money comes from in the F2P market. You fill your shop with stuff in that price range and you will have people opening their wallets for this or that constantly.

wingedkagouti · October 2015

The main issue I see with the PWE model of F2P is not the price of the various purchases available, but rather that you have to first buy Zen with real money, then you can make your purchase. That added step only makes it harder to pull the trigger for an impulse purchase, especially since Zen is bought in bulk and the items available to purchase rarely align with the amount of Zen you can get.

A $0.25-0.5 purchase is not something you pull out your wallet for if the minimum amount of money you can spend is $5.

raighn · October 2015

wingedkagouti wrote: »

The main issue I see with the PWE model of F2P is not the price of the various purchases available, but rather that you have to first buy Zen with real money, then you can make your purchase. That added step only makes it harder to pull the trigger for an impulse purchase, especially since Zen is bought in bulk and the items available to purchase rarely align with the amount of Zen you can get.

A $0.25-0.5 purchase is not something you pull out your wallet for if the minimum amount of money you can spend is $5.

You do realize that nearly every F2P game out there has you buy their special cash-shop currency before you can buy anything... and the majority of them have a minimum purchase of $5 to get their currency... it's only when you go to mobile games that you start to see an abundance of "just pay with real cash" cash shops... when it comes to F2P PC games however it's incredibly rare to see an option to just pay with cash, you almost always have to buy $5+ worth of their currency first...

And it's been well proven that people will spend $5-$10 on cash shop currency to get bulk purchases for $0.25-$5.00 each... and quite often too... however people are much less likely to make the purchase if they are spending $5-$10 per item and highly reluctant to the point of loathing to spend $10+ on cash shop purchases...

avianos · October 2015

Knowing CO's History with Overpricing Z-store items, this will end up Hilariously (sad)

Also for this PTS update...

More Onslaught Bug fixes? yes? hello?

notyuu · October 2015

avianos said:
Knowing CO's History with Overpricing Z-store items, this will end up Hilariously (sad)

Also for this PTS update...

More Onslaught Bug fixes? yes? hello?

that is exactly how I feel every time an update comes out without re-adding the power-replacers in some way (I mean come on, they are sitting in the code, just bung em in the q-store to update it)

roughbearmattach · October 2015

soulforger said:
The level up item gives gear for the level you were previously when you use the item. So if you use it at level 39 to go to 40, you get level 39 gear. This is kinda wrong.

This is just poor design. The random item needs to be of the character's new level.

itsbrou · October 2015

The items probably needs to spawn a gear cache that you open after you become the level.

soulforger · October 2015

someguywhoplaysgames said:
The items probably needs to spawn a gear cache that you open after you become the level.

Yeah, that would be the best fix.

chaelk · October 2015

yes I know this is live BUT
Onslaught villain near Kodiak,
onslaught%203a_zpsm1f9sjkv.png

Notice turret despite being able to see a fighting villain, well within it's range. Is NOT attacking.
The small triangle is about the size and placement of where the villain has to be , to set it off.
onslaught%203b_zpstxqhbvmj.png

crypticbuxom · October 2015

You have to damage the turret for it to go off. This patch solution isn't going to fix it. The Police station needs to be hollowed out, the spawn needs to be inside and if any villain goes through the door they die. Problem solved.

wingedkagouti · October 2015

chaelk said:
yes I know this is live BUT

Onslaught villain near Kodiak,

As a villain you can stand on top of, on front of, behind, to the side of the turret and fight newly spawned heroes as long as you don't damage the turret in any way.

Turrets are just plain broken as a "spawn camping" deterrent these days.

kyastral · October 2015

Hmm... since it doesn't take long to level from 6-20, I suggest that this token should be limited to level 20+ . This game is still an MMO after all, and there is always some form of level grinding involved. I also think that the amount of tokens available for purchase should be limited as well; tokens should be limited to 10 per character. If this token is given an unlimited amount of purchases then players will just pay their way to level 40 and skip past most the game content, similar to what the alerts offer level 10 characters.

In my humble opinion, if a player needs more than 10 level up tokens for their character something is wrong...

tfavsb10 · October 2015

my question is what will the price on these single level of xp packs be?

draogn · October 2015

kyastral said:
Hmm... since it doesn't take long to level from 6-20, I suggest that this token should be limited to level 20+ . This game is still an MMO after all, and there is always some form of level grinding involved. I also think that the amount of tokens available for purchase should be limited as well; tokens should be limited to 10 per character. If this token is given an unlimited amount of purchases then players will just pay their way to level 40 and skip past most the game content, similar to what the alerts offer level 10 characters.

In my humble opinion, if a player needs more than 10 level up tokens for their character something is wrong...

I don't see any problem with people skipping things they may not enjoy or may have already done 10+ times. Why would you be concerned with what someone else does with their character?

Limiting this to level 20 (or any level) would be a mistake, because as you just said it doesn't take long to get to 20. If priced right this is a perfect impulse buy, and it doesn't bind when bought so someone could place them on the AH/give to a friend.

itsbrou · October 2015

tfavsb10 said:
my question is what will the price on these single level of xp packs be?

Over 22 zen. Otherwise people would pop 34 of them to gain free character slots via "Icon" perk rather than playing or buying slots.

soulforger · October 2015

someguywhoplaysgames said:

tfavsb10 said:
my question is what will the price on these single level of xp packs be?
Over 22 zen. Otherwise people would pop 34 of them to gain free character slots via "Icon" perk rather than playing or buying slots.

Yep, this is the truth of the minimum price. Simply put, the price total for leveling a level 6 to 40 (34 tokens) would have to be equal to, or greater than a character slot.

pantagruel01 · October 2015

soulforger said:
Yep, this is the truth of the minimum price. Simply put, the price total for leveling a level 6 to 40 (34 tokens) would have to be equal to, or greater than a character slot.

Only gold players get a free slot on leveling a toon to 40, and I'm not sure how often gold players buy new slots.

roughbearmattach · October 2015

On the other hand, 22 Zen is an extremely low price.

Something like 100 or 200 Zen would be perfect for impulse buys.

Imagine at 100 Zen, it could be the choice to spend Zen between new lockboxes, once keys have lost their shine.

deadman20 · October 2015

Reiterating what I posted in the live patch notes...

I vote that the Westside Respawn Turret be placed in the back of Kodiak's truck, similarly to a Technical. Have it risen up so that it covers the area around it, and for Turrets to be updated so that they instantly aggro to the nearest Onslaught Villain and have a explicit tell to Onslaught Villains that venture too close to them instead of "BANG BANG, You're dead!".

Ever play Borderlands 2? Some areas have giant tower turrets that determine the boundaries of the map and if you start to venture too far from it, they'll send you to respawn in an instant. They will warn you when you start to venture too far before doing this. I want our turrets to be like that, warning villains that wander nearby before removing them from existence should they continue to encroach.

spinnytop · October 2015

I still say that turrets and until defenders and all the things that normally kill OVs super fast should instead just knock them super far, or teleport them, or something.

People are actually abusing these items by turning into OVs, letting players tag them, and then getting killed super fast to help people farm guardian tokens faster than intended. End the exploitation!

soulforger · October 2015

pantagruel01 said:

soulforger said:
Yep, this is the truth of the minimum price. Simply put, the price total for leveling a level 6 to 40 (34 tokens) would have to be equal to, or greater than a character slot.
Only gold players get a free slot on leveling a toon to 40, and I'm not sure how often gold players buy new slots.

I'm a LTSer, and I maxed out my buyable slots.

squirrelloid · October 2015

spinnytop said:
I still say that turrets and until defenders and all the things that normally kill OVs super fast should instead just knock them super far, or teleport them, or something.

People are actually abusing these items by turning into OVs, letting players tag them, and then getting killed super fast to help people farm guardian tokens faster than intended. End the exploitation!

Oh noes? The horrors. You can get up to 50 guardian tokens a little faster than intended by one person deciding to be nice when they want to end their device early. (Note: there's no way to stop players from choosing to stand there as an OV and let players beat them to death, so we're literally talking about a minute or two increase in speed).

And UNTIL defenders can't knock OVs super far, because you have to kill 3 of them for the quest. Derp.

jennymachx · October 2015

100Z for each level up pack makes sense. If using the $20 price of the previous level-to-30 item and dividing 30 by the number of level ups and pricing each level up at 100Z, the total price would be a little over 2000Z (2400). The most I'd see being as a reasonable price would probably be 120Z, in my opinion.

That's of course, assuming that the amount of XP required for each level, especially for the later levels 30 and over, has no bearing on how they decide to price it, and that they won't use the highest estimation possible and apply that to the price.

spinnytop · October 2015

squirrelloid said:

spinnytop said:
I still say that turrets and until defenders and all the things that normally kill OVs super fast should instead just knock them super far, or teleport them, or something.

People are actually abusing these items by turning into OVs, letting players tag them, and then getting killed super fast to help people farm guardian tokens faster than intended. End the exploitation!
Oh noes? The horrors. You can get up to 50 guardian tokens a little faster than intended by one person deciding to be nice when they want to end their device early. (Note: there's no way to stop players from choosing to stand there as an OV and let players beat them to death, so we're literally talking about a minute or two increase in speed).

And UNTIL defenders can't knock OVs super far, because you have to kill 3 of them for the quest. Derp.

But if OVs team up or spawn camp to get their tokens faster, people are in an uproar. A bit one-sided aren't we? o3o

Fine, if any players have damaged an OV in the last 20 seconds, then the OVs get 99% damage resistence to the defender's attacks. OVs have to fight unkillable player builds, there's no reason non-OVs should get easy tokens.

spinnytop · October 2015

Oooh! Great idea.

OVs are only worth tokens if they have recently defeated players, AND the more players an OV defeats the more tokens they are worth

draogn · October 2015

spinnytop said:

squirrelloid said:

spinnytop said:
I still say that turrets and until defenders and all the things that normally kill OVs super fast should instead just knock them super far, or teleport them, or something.

People are actually abusing these items by turning into OVs, letting players tag them, and then getting killed super fast to help people farm guardian tokens faster than intended. End the exploitation!
Oh noes? The horrors. You can get up to 50 guardian tokens a little faster than intended by one person deciding to be nice when they want to end their device early. (Note: there's no way to stop players from choosing to stand there as an OV and let players beat them to death, so we're literally talking about a minute or two increase in speed).

And UNTIL defenders can't knock OVs super far, because you have to kill 3 of them for the quest. Derp.
But if OVs team up or spawn camp to get their tokens faster, people are in an uproar. A bit one-sided aren't we? o3o

Fine, if any players have damaged an OV in the last 20 seconds, then the OVs get 99% damage resistence to the defender's attacks. OVs have to fight unkillable player builds, there's no reason non-OVs should get easy tokens.

It's not one-sided, OVs aren't meant to team up, that's why they can hurt each other. Though it is perfectly fine for them to do so. There is also nothing wrong with a player choosing to reward those who fought against them by running into a turret. That encourages players to keep playing, spawn camping encourages players to leave the area and ignore the content.

Repeatedly killing people who still have the 60 sec defeated debuff doesn't benefit anyone, other then those who get enjoyment out of irritating others. Heroes also have to fight OVs who are using exploits.

squirrelloid · October 2015

spinnytop said:
Oooh! Great idea.

OVs are only worth tokens if they have recently defeated players, AND the more players an OV defeats the more tokens they are worth

spinnytop said:

But if OVs team up or spawn camp to get their tokens faster, people are in an uproar. A bit one-sided aren't we? o3o

Fine, if any players have damaged an OV in the last 20 seconds, then the OVs get 99% damage resistence to the defender's attacks. OVs have to fight unkillable player builds, there's no reason non-OVs should get easy tokens.

Spinnytop apparently wants no one to play Onslaught.

1. OVs choosing to allow players to kill them is not an exploit
2. Why don't we fix actual exploits, like OVs using devices. Or removing the OV device from their tray early to deny guardian tokens to players (like by actually implementing the penalty the Onslaught FAQ says there is).
3. Why don't we fix things that make Onslaught a pain for players to fight, like their ability to move like they have R1 superspeed and R3 superjump without any travel power activated, so melee can't fight them?
4. Once we've fixed all the actual stupid, then maybe we can consider a reward metric that rewards time fighting (for both sides!) rather than kills. As long as we're only rewarding kills, turret/target diving is completely valid, because nice OV players make sure heroes who have been fighting them get tokens.

Its not a competition - neither side is rewarded for surviving. Consider it a social contract. Heroes spend time fighting an OV and giving them tokens have a reasonable expectation of getting tokens for doing so.

raighn · October 2015

squirrelloid wrote: »

Its not a competition - neither side is rewarded for surviving. Consider it a social contract. Heroes spend time fighting an OV and giving them tokens have a reasonable expectation of getting tokens for doing so.

If we are to consider it a social contract then players should likewise enter into Onslaught fights and allow themselves to be killed at least once by the OV... Everytime I try to do Onslaught as an OV I find myself surrounded by a dozen unkillable player builds and 1 killable target... of couse I can only kill that target once every 60 seconds... this results in getting very few tokens as an OV. To make matters worse the 1 killable target will frequently get killed by an AoE while still affected by the Defeated buff thus denying me any tokens... it is entirely possible to wind up with only 10 tokens as an OV by the time your defeated.

There do need to be some changes implemented to make Onslaught more worthwhile to both parties... Tokens on kill only for both sides just isn't working...

pantagruel01 · October 2015

raighn said:
If we are to consider it a social contract then players should likewise enter into Onslaught fights and allow themselves to be killed at least once by the OV...

I disagree. The big thing that's missing is that players need to be required to actually attack. Give credit for damage done (rather than credit for being nearby when other people do damage), and people will bring killable builds, because doing damage and being unkillable don't combine well, and won't sit on the turrets, since you can't really do damage while sitting on a spawn point.

squirrelloid · October 2015

raighn said:

If we are to consider it a social contract then players should likewise enter into Onslaught fights and allow themselves to be killed at least once by the OV... Everytime I try to do Onslaught as an OV I find myself surrounded by a dozen unkillable player builds and 1 killable target... of couse I can only kill that target once every 60 seconds... this results in getting very few tokens as an OV. To make matters worse the 1 killable target will frequently get killed by an AoE while still affected by the Defeated buff thus denying me any tokens... it is entirely possible to wind up with only 10 tokens as an OV by the time your defeated.

There do need to be some changes implemented to make Onslaught more worthwhile to both parties... Tokens on kill only for both sides just isn't working...

When i find a villain fighting alone and who is willing to fight without jumping around like a jackrabbit, i'll gladly suicide into them repeatedly. Villains who fight in massive groups and/or jump around like crazy compel me to hop in my vehicle - its simply impossible to play otherwise.

Also, activating your form turns off the 'recently killed' flag. It's a useful way to let villains farm you faster. Pretty sure i've contributed 50+ villain tokens in each of several fights.

But i agree, heroes should be willing to die, repeatedly, and villains should stand and fight, eat damage, and commit suicide if necessary before the device runs out.

But as an OV i have gone to farming 10 targets for my quest. It is a lot less hassle, and no chance of leaving me short on villain tokens earned.

FC.31.20150919.9 - Level-up Pack (+1)

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