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What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc
Release Notes 4/29/2021
kaiserin
Posts: 3,210 Cryptic Developer
Serial Story: Lemurian Intrigue
Rampages
Boss Tactics:
Lockbox
New Power Gamer Lockbox!
New in this lockbox:
Power Gamer Costume Box
Power Link Aura Box
ZEN
New Power Gamer Key Pack
Cost: 1800 ZEN
Recognition Vendor
- The final Serial mission has been added! Speak with Dr. Ka to start it.
Rampages
- New Rampage: Unknowable
- This Rampage will be replacing the Lemurian Invasion rampage.
- Added Seahorse Head, Seahorse Fins, Salamander Head, Salamander Fins, Sea Creature Tail as possible drops.
- This Rampage will also drop Petrified Scales and Questionite.
Boss Tactics:
- Starting at 90% health The Unknowable One will gain an aura that reflects back a portion of your damage. This amount increases every 10 seconds.
- Starting at 90% Dr. Ka will inform everyone that you'll be able to stop the effect by detonating magic infused bombs.
- You will have to lure Unknowable to these bombs in order to set them off. This can be done by having whoever has aggro lure him over, or if someone stands close to a bomb for too long.
- Only 1 bomb is active at a time.
- They can be damaged normally or Unknowable can damage them with its Lunge or Dark Torrent ability.
- Once detonated, Unknowable will lose the damage reflection effect for a period of time.
- Unknowable can start summoning minions and slipstreams as the fight progresses.
Lockbox
New Power Gamer Lockbox!
New in this lockbox:
- Power Gamer Costume Box
- Drink Tea Emote
- Tunneling Costume Transformation
- Zettabyte Sidekick
- Power Link Aura Box.
Power Gamer Costume Box
- Power Gamer Tights
- Power Gamer Eyepiece
- Power Gamer Headphones
- Power Gamer Sidepiece
- Power Gamer Tie 1
- Power Gamer Tie 2
- Power Gamer Suspenders 1
- Power Gamer Suspenders 2
- Power Gamer Bracers
- Power Gamer Gloves
- Power Gamer Belt
- Power Gamer Boots
- Power Gamer Blaster
- Power Gamer Pistol
Power Link Aura Box
- Power Link (Head)
- Power Link (Elbows)
- Power Link (Hands)
- Power Link (Knees)
- Power Link (Feet)
ZEN
New Power Gamer Key Pack
Cost: 1800 ZEN
- 20x Keys
- 1x Speakers Backpack Costume Item
- 25x Jack Fool's Mods.
- 3x Triumphant Recovery
- 5x Safeguard Catalysts
- 10x Healing Device Plus
- 10x Energy Surge Plus
Recognition Vendor
- Added King Arvad Bracers, Boots, Greaves and Trident to the store.
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Comments
Also a little concerned to see the Rampage out already. But assuming it's not too bug-ridden, it can't be any worse than Lemurian Invasion.
But at least its permanent Content and we nuked Lemurian Invansion!
and once again NO NEW ULTIMATE IN THE LOCKBOX
I love the new costume's aesthetics not having a new power to play with every 3 months doesn't cut it! And certainly the new Auras are not that attractive as you may sell them
What was that about 2021 being more focused on powerframes revamps and progression revamps?
500 SCR
250 GCR
10 Pertified Scales
Required Perk: Unknowable
Costumes which require 10 Rampage tokens... almost same prices with gear hmmm
What makes you think some of those costumes Deserve this price for what they offer?
I only got 3 Characters full Justice Gear set because of the horrible token drop rate, what makes you think I'm gonna farm 40 Pertified Scales now?
That's weird Mod choice! It doesn't blend with the theme of the Keypack neither the Lockbox's sidekick theme!
Teleios' Gadget would be more fitting
You're telling me you guys thought it was fair to charge the equivalent of a distinguished/virtuous gear + TEN scales...
...for bracers, boots, greaves, and a trident reskin?
Like, I would get it if they were actually really cool costume pieces, but... excuse me?!
If this is what you're asking for with this I can't WAIT to see what you guys put for Eidolon store prices. Sheesh!
Please fix! I got the Salamander Head (the only item I really wanted) and got the wrong unlock. *sadness*
Even the Boss of Lemurian Invansion is better than this
It would be cool if you introduced the ways you beat the Final Boss within the Story Missions so you can train players on the mechanics
BUG: THE RAMPAGE HAS NO MUSIC! Only the victory fanfare plays
and apparently the Skip Cutscene crystal doesnt even work
Yes, But first
The Final SERIES MISSION, a BIGGER BRIG, requires you to travel to Lemuria and speak to King Arvad who is inside the Mandragalore!
Here it puts you on a complete different version of the Lair for the mission
THEN after the Cutscene plays with Arvad looking like FABIO Now and he is being a Dick to you as a surface dweler
the mission tells you to queue for the Rampage, yes you travel all the way there just to confirm you have to queue for the rampage
Crime Computer doesn't exist 10/10 design! I traveled all the way there just for this
Yet no skate board or gamer chair travel powers. No new hair. I don't get what tunnel transformation has to do with gamers? Interesting how the little hexagons on the rights remind me of the last aura from the last lockbox that was oddly placed.
bug:
-skip cutscene is not working properly, seems like some few people get the interaction prompt
-when alert starts, if someone attacks the shark, and if there's still people in the bubble, they get locked inside, contrary to getting teleported like in gravitar and fire&ice alerts
-sometimes when bombs are killed early, as in before reflection stacks appear, it won't appear again until the hp of the unknowable one lowers again to another stack threshold
This is a big journey, so far if you're reading this, wish you a good day
In more important areas, anyone found the Easter egg in the new mission yet?
Also, I was surprised how quick the Rampage timer is to kick you out. I barely had time to listen to Ladyhawke's end dialogue, I didn't have time to find wherever the reward circle was. Luckily that's only a problem the first time I do it, heh.
Bug: killing a bomb before the Unknowable One starts reflecting damage causes no more bombs to spawn for the duration of the Ramp.
Bug?: the slipstreams/tornados completely ignore blocking as well as a majority of defense or damage reduction, obliterating DPSes and supports and forcing tanks to continually spin the Unknowable One, which understandably isn't good due to the Cosmic AoE spam design of the fight. The massive PBAoE bubble that the Unknowable One puts out also seems to share this complete bypassing of blocks, if only in damage (the knock effect can be almost entirely blocked.)
Bug: the Unknowable One very frequently skips attack animations, and its animations often come slightly ahead of the damage received (or well ahead of the damage received in the case of its ranged attack.)
Bug: the Unknowable One's aggro seems to jump around drastically whenever being forced to move (namely during bomb runs,) and will bite and generally instakill people who get close to it at random (playing the bite animation to go with) despite visually appearing to still be focused on the tank according to the UI.
Bug: the "skip cutscene" interactable seems to only be able to be used/interacted with after the fight is over. It cannot be interacted with before killing the Unknowable One.
Complaint: the Unknowable One has Gravitar's health combined with extreme damage reduction on par with if not exceeding that of Eidolon's, or Kenina and Frosticus for a more Rampage-centric comparison. This, combined with the poor design of the Unknowable One as a fight, makes it an un-fun slog to play through. A private queue can push somewhat faster, as can people bringing Cosmic meta builds, but each run seems to take anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes "optimally," and longer suboptimally, with a standard queue of 8 people of mixed roles.
Complaint: Cosmic-brand "everything is cone AoEs" and movement-based mechanics do not work well together at all. Especially combined with the slipstream/tornado bug(?) that forces movement so as to not melt anyone standing still, this means that people are forced into the kill-zones in front of and behind the Unknowable One very quickly, or if not there, forced to run into each-other, overlapping multiple slipstreams/tornados as well as the trash mobs. It's almost like if Teleiosaurus had Qwyjibo's lava-patches... or perhaps more accurately, if Teleiosaurus had Resistance Shadow Destroyer's Ebon Rifts, but they were somehow capable of moving as well as ignoring blocking and dealing damage scaling with max health. This wouldn't be quite as bad if it wasn't for the fact that Ramp teams have been bugged for ages, and don't let the auras and buffs the two teams each have spill over to the other. So RIP all the squishies who don't get lucky enough to get teamed with the AoRP support, because that age-old bug makes this way harder than it needs to be.
Complaint: endless waves of trash mobs are un-fun. Between Save The Earth, the majority if not the entirety of Therakiel's Temple, Andrithal, and numerous other places in the game, it's readily apparent that outside of interesting mechanics like Therakiel himself, Eidolon and the likes, respawning trash mobs are a wholly negative experience. The endless waves of Lemurians in the Unknowable One fight fall into the category of negative. They're strong enough to be annoying and a distraction, forcing and knockbacking+knocktowarding squishies into the slipstreams and the Unknowable One's kill-zones but pose no real threat on their own, and don't add anything interesting to the fight. In short, it punishes you for having to run and rerun the fight, which is expected, given how I've gotten in twelve or so Unknowable One runs so far, encountered all of these issues, and haven't seen one person get a costume drop of any kind.
Complaint: the Unknowable One gets stuck on the bombs. There isn't anything particularly fancy about this; it just gets stuck sometimes, which makes pulling it away for the melee DPS to reach the bomb more easily impossible, which is annoying. That's about it, really.
Complaint: recycled Negalodon. The issues with the Unknowable One fight are that it's basically just the Negalodon, but where the Negalodon itself, as we saw during this year's April Fools, performed quite well as a Cosmic fight, with lots of people to deal with trash mobs, kite and lead slipstreams/tornados and the likes, there just aren't enough people in a Rampage, just eight to ten instead of 25+, to pull off what the fight clearly had in mind. Honestly, I'm disappointed that this is how the Negalodon was used, when it would've been a lot more fun to have it be a proper Cosmic with its own SCR+GCR rewards, set in Lemuria so that there's actually a reason to go there for more than two minutes for people who aren't masochists.
Complaint: there's something wrong with the exit portal leading into the Unknowable One fight. I haven't tried changing my settings to see just yet (though I might later,) but with how many people seem to be incapable of finding the exit portal, my suspicion is that it's not that the portal blends in, being green and blue on green and blue, but that it might be completely invisible on lower graphics settings. I've seen way too many people just float in circles trying to find an exit that was right in front of them, even passing right next to it. I list this as a complaint instead of a bug because I'm not totally sure, and is it really a bug if a visual effect doesn't render unless you turn your settings higher than "potato?" Not a bug by that standard, but definitely something that warrants looking into.
Compliment: faster underwater travel. Seriously. Honestly, in my opinion it could stand to be slightly slower, but this is the sort of speed that a massive, open instance with very little to do like Lemuria needs, especially since vehicles were ruined last year. Normal travel in Lemuria is like having to run all the way from one world border of Millennium City to the other with R1 Acrobatics/Athletics, and after having to experience that for any length of time, the relief of actually being able to (move) underwater is immense.
Compliment: excluding the Unknowable One having either way too much health (or) way too much defense, the Unknowable rampage is very to-the-point. Both Lemurian Invasion and Sky Command have an immense issue that both Gravitar and Fire & Ice don't, and that is IMMENSE amounts of padding. Mandatory "kill a heaping mountain of trash mobs" or "turn your IQ to below room temperature and kill endlessly respawning waves of trash mobs while waiting for a timer to tick down" is many things, but fun isn't it. Fortunately, outside of the aforementioned health/defense issues, and the cutscene dragging on a bit too long (which will hopefully be fixed with the fixing of the skip-cutscene interactable) the Unknowable One fight takes after Gravitar and Fire & Ice in immediately jumping into the action, with very little padding, ensuring progression isn't based on waiting for an arbitrary timer to tick down, or running from place to place repeatedly so that the game decides you're allowed to progress, but instead solely on the performance of your heroes. Which, admittedly, is a double-edged sword in a public queue, but hey, it's easier than Rampage Therakiel, who hilariously bodies everyone whenever he shows up despite being so much easier than his TT counterpart.
Compliment: the defining mechanic of the fight is braindead simple. Now, I know this might sound bad at first, but I say this from the perspective of someone who prefers pub-queuing with randos over joining an insular group of "hue hue hue look at all those stupid idiots who don't calculate the optimal approach vector of each Cosmic based on server tick speed, also use all R9s or you're trash and shouldn't have been born you actual waste of human flesh" ego-heavy types. As such, I frequently encounter the kind of people that need a straightforward mechanic to be able to succeed, the sorts that spend an hour bashing their heads against Rampage Therakiel before cussing everyone out (and teaching me a few new profanities in the process) before closing out the game completely, not even leaving the instance but just closing out. So braindead simple mechanics? A middle-ground between baby's first Ao'Quephoth and the Therakiel's Temple running extravaganza that helps serve as people dipping their toes into the water of having to actually do things that aren't just mash the 2 and 3 keys on the keyboard to win, without being too jarring? That's a definite yes from me. Though I only had Dr. Ka's text explanation regarding the bombs only pop up once; I'm not sure if that's a bug or if the text explanation only shows up if you're in render range of Dr. Ka (who's inside the bubble) when the Unknowable One hits around 90% health. I feel it'd be good to have said explanation pop up as soon as the cutscene ends, while everybody's still in render range, as opposed to when they're a third of the way across Lemuria tangling with the Unknowable One already and can't hear the explanation. (Because honestly, it wasn't until run #9 that I even noticed Dr. Ka and Ladyhawke had chat bubbles above them, and that was only from outside of the bubble/barrier you leave to start the fight, folks habitually rush hard in this game which means that sort of stuff's likely to be missed.)
Compliment: excluding the issue that the slipstreams/tornados plus trash mobs pose together, the raw damage output of the Unknowable One isn't that severe. It's reminiscent of Snake Gulch Mechanon, albeit with slower, easier to rely on if wholly un-telegraphed attacks, allowing time for tanks to attack between hits and block consistently, and (small) openings that, thanks to the enhanced underwater speed, particularly gutsy squishies are capable of taking advantage of to skirt both in front of and behind the Unknowable One briefly to avoid the slipstream/tornado and trash mob mess. It feels like training wheels for Cosmics in a good way, since there's very little outside of the still-admittedly-very-easy non-Snake-Gulch events that prepare people for the idea of Cosmics as a whole. What with the Unknowable One being a weaker Negalodon, this is to be expected, but it's still good, and as this is part of the serial questline, I suspect that, unlike something like the TT alerts, this is definitely here to stay, rather than showing up once in a blue moon.
All in all, while I like a lot of what this fight has going for it, I also feel it needs a lot of touch-ups to really be comfortably playable with any level of consistency. I've only run a dozen or so of these, absolutely toasted on post-six-filling-at-the-dentist exhaustion, and I already feel like every fiber of my being craves the sweet release of death. Or that might just be the exhaustion talking, I'm not sure. Or a mix! Ah well, don't mind me.
This is my cry for help
So, rushing the Rampage now, and on top lining in the rampage rotation, for a serial mission chain, which at first you need to get past by an already dead Open Mission, now a rampage that comes around every few weeks as well. The Costume I kinda got used to spreading the parts as much possible since you removed sets back then. But the Suspenders 1 as example I mean really? That is the best design? We already have such, and now you add even thinner one as a big costume piece?
I mean sure other parts are fine but, it feels like you make pieces for the sake of having pieces with this to keep the RNG table of the boxes balance, number wise to other boxes. Then you also hide new pieces behind GCR for high prices as well again? The big boss reveal is just a re-skin.
Also, the many other things people pointed out already here and on PTS.
You really hit the lowest update with this one I say. I still like to know what is up in the background, because I am honestly scared you pull the plug on us one day and just release such to make it seem it gets some attentions still.
I dare say today update and content wise it can be more bad than in the long time span we have not had updates in years back then. Furthermore, I love new powers and costumes, love the variety, but I can't say I like the road this game seems to take again.
The main thing is, I had fun running the rampage today and I'll always be more willing to run it than LI and that makes me a very happy player.
But my god those GCR store prices on the new costumes are inexcusable.
PS: now that the serial is done we can get power revamps now, right?
The Rampage is the worst offender if you ask me. I mean it was already disappointing to have this whole Serial Story start with the investigation of the Cobra Lords, which made it seem as though this content was taking more grounded, street-level approach, but it didn't take long for to fall into another magic subplot the moment the biker gang popped up enchanted gauntlets and spell-casting. Now after having completed the Rampage it makes me look back and say..."What was the point of any of that?"
Ladyhawke, I feel, overstays her welcome throughout the entirety of the Serial Missions. It would've been more fun to have Nighthawk in her place since we only see him during the 1001th attempt(s) Franklin Stone tries to frame him for the same series of crimes every year. Having this random NPC, and I do mean random since her first and only appearance in the game is as a randomly generated hero in the Bunker Buster nemesis mission, gets to be a drag real quick. She also adds nothing, but useless commentary, again had this been Nighthawk it would actually be far more amusing.
Lastly is the "Unknowable One". C'mon, Ghost/Astral Megalodon? This honestly felt like a Season long story arc to a TV show only to have a lackluster season finale. With how much Lovecraftian elements the Champions Universe incorporates into it's lore, its kind of a kick in the behind to have a naming scheme as enigmatic as "The Unknowable One" be confined to a previously broken Ghost version of a massive Shark for us to fight after traveling to the depths of Lemuria only to talk to an NPC who essentially insults the player then tells them: "Yeah go ahead and apprehend Zorran."
All-in-all, this felt like a waste to an NPC character that you guys, kinda-sorta-but-not-really, hyped for having not been previously featured or mentioned in-game at all. I honestly feel as though the Unknowable One was supposed be something more grandiose, but it was realized that idea or thought that was had in mind couldn't be created, so you applied the name and this "lore" to a ghost shark and called it a day. Seriously, what was all the stuff in the book store regarding aliens and moon-men even being aware of "The Unknowable One" if he's a being/creature of the sea? Ugh, like I said, this was the equivalent of a season long story arc with an underwhelming season finale. But thats my rant for the evening.
Its currently 2:30 in the morning as I type this and directly after having completed the Rampage for a second time. Had to spit this out while it was all still fresh on my mind
“I put a 'Glitch' in your system!”
In the opening cutscene, Zorran's voice actor says "stupid" while the subtitle reads "foolish".
^ Confirming this. A bomb was destroyed before the reflection phase, and no more spawned for the remainder of the fight, even when new reflect thresholds should have been reached.
The Rampage teamup is still broken, as it has been for years. You only see your own team. This is a problem for healers trying to support players on the other team.
The hitbox of The Unknowable One's FOOM attack (Slashing Teeth, I think) is visually difficult to judge. No wireframe, and it looks like a frontal bite; but it seems to be a cone with a broad angle. Whether it would hit me often felt...unknowable.
Visual Bug: In the unskippable cut scene, there are 2 Ladyhawkes, one in scuba gear and one in normal gear
- Burst alert seeing another player twice and not all 5.
- Resistance dialogue cutting of too early (example, Dr. Destroyer vs Shadow Destroyer).
- Bank Robbery Alert or similar with characters like Black Talon, their dialogue box is out of sight.
- Same goes for to big or to small Nemesis's, dialogue bubble out of place, I know we go for a comic style but by now they should use subtitles in such scenes like in other places.
- Also, Aftershock with its comic panels being in the way of the dialogue or viewpoint, they used to move up, down, left right, depending on position on who was talking to see the talking ones.
- Several other cases like missing voice-overs or cutting of too soon (example, Kevin Poe in Poewned in the severs)
@panthrax77 and yes a lot of things are good still, i like most of the costume still, but the way it often gets implied is still bad by now, and half the costume not fits the thematic as others pointed out like the transformation or the key pack.
Character Consistency? What's that? This is NOT the same character!
Why do i feel that you are going to turn zorran into an regular Alert Boss
Oh Right, she is indeed one of the Random Super Heroes/Villains that can appear in the Bunker Buster! I actually forgot about her!
https://championsonline.fandom.com/wiki/Ladyhawke
and since I don't do Nemesis Missions anymore, especially Bunker Buster which gets bugged all the time, yeah...
Personally I don't mind Lady Mustard hawke, she plays her role fine except of several parts where she tells me to go back and froth from Westside to Downtown
Nighthawk wouldn't change a Thing! He would be written the same way, rambling the same exposition
The WCOC quest in which we get the visor aura for Dr.Ka is level 35 and the aura is bind on turn in. You telling me I have to make a new toon and force it to level 35 for me to get that aura?
It's such a baby quest by the way. That quest is so soft it reminds me of the episode of the office when Darrel told Michael he lived a safe soft shelter life.
You know, the teleport in UNITY exists.
My first few times I had no clue what was happening. Because it's Lemuria too I feel that the 3D fighting is actually a hindrance
Finally I really liked that when we failed we were put back in the queue space to try again. This greatly improved the social morale of the players who wanted to offer help instead of rage-quit and blaming fault.
Poor DPS guy who was tanking-holding agro of the shark couldn't even get my and other healer's Aura Boost because he was on the second Team Up which we couldn't even see, and the PUG teamed up 3 healers in the same group...
This bug where you queue the PUG, the alert window pops up ASAP but it's greyed out and then the Alert puts you in no team and then kicks you out of the map when it starts still exists! It's rare but it's there, i experienced it twice
The best part is the 3D aspect. One of the reasons why I like Lemuria is that it forces me to think more about the verticality of the environment.
> Well I for one would like to thank CO Dev team for lately making Loot boxes that aren't addictive or desirable. I feel zero desire to collect almost anything in this latest box and that's not the sort of thing other companies are doing.
I agree. This was the first time I collected all I wanted in a box from 50-100g so early in release. The other over priced stuff I see no reason to make the extra effort till the price drops.
There is usable stuff but it's not stuff we don't have already. Like do we really need another robot eye thingy now? Plain shoes? A TIE! SUSPENDERS! Are you kidding me. We already have those!
As a tech guy I don't find it useless. Combine hex aura with gamer tights cosmic head get a good combo. But the halfas boxes got to stop. No reason they couldn't make hair for this new sidekick.
Is a problem CO have when we getting 50 variants of dog head and nothing like elephant head for example. No new animal tights or animal pattern clothing. Its just the same old just keep the lights on routine.
Most of the good releases so far has been player suggestions. Co devs/CEO take note. Please please please make player suggested stuff.