FC.31.20121116.8 PTS Update

lordgar · December 2012

PTS update FC.31.20121116.8
This build is scheduled to hit PTS by 4:00pm Pacific on 12/7/12

Greetings!

We're updating PTS with the upcoming update build to test stability, as well as verifying a few bug fixes we addressed following the last live push.

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

Release Notes:

Winter Celebration

- The Winter Event is now enabled on PTS!
- Gather round the Christmas tree in Renaissance Center to open your gifts!
- Black Harlequin has returned and is up to no good! What new surprises lurk in Finkle Foundry?
- New rewards: Grandfather Winter Equipment Set & Steampunk Costume Set
- Holiday Become Critters are now available in the Questionite Store

Missions

- Fan with a Plan: Sapphire's keycard is now removed after you finish helping the Network Admin, instead of when you enter the building.

itsbrou · December 2012

Oh boy, oh boy!

megaskullmon · December 2012

Huh wow did they just fix an old bug? And clerence?! no not that stupid bear!!!

bwdares · December 2012

Cool, good to know we will have the Christmas Event. Nothing seems new, but I'll make due by getting my friends stuff.

keikomyst · December 2012

Anything actually new in Finkle Foundry?

Is the Grandfather Winter set updated for On Alert?

Are there new Steampunk costume things?

lordgar · December 2012

keikomyst wrote: »

Anything actually new in Finkle Foundry?

Is the Grandfather Winter set updated for On Alert?

Are there new Steampunk costume things?

Yes.
.........

bwdares · December 2012

lordgar wrote: »

Yes.
.........

Oh, so Brand new Steam Punk pieces that are different from the past years Events and Costume pack in the Z-Store???

Screw my friends I am going to be busy!

falchoin · December 2012

The crackers give pre-On Alert gear (tested green, blue and purple types).

skcark · December 2012

Is Clarence still insanely overpowered? He really needs less HP. Especially since when he was first made he had a set amount of HP with the 20 min timer, then last year some genius ups his hp to 6 or 9 million, i forgot which number, i think i recall making OVER NINE MILLION jokes about it.

So he really needs fixing, there was a lot of people raging last year about how impossible he was

l1ghtstar · December 2012

is snowball roll travel power coming back as well?

keikomyst · December 2012

falchoin wrote: »

The crackers give pre-On Alert gear (tested green, blue and purple types).

Does this include PERCEPTION GEAR?!

If so, don't touch 'em. kthx. Would log on to see but I'm preoccupied with other things.

canadascott · December 2012

skcark wrote: »

Is Clarence still insanely overpowered? He really needs less HP. Especially since when he was first made he had a set amount of HP with the 20 min timer, then last year some genius ups his hp to 6 or 9 million, i forgot which number, i think i recall making OVER NINE MILLION jokes about it.

So he really needs fixing, there was a lot of people raging last year about how impossible he was

I'm not sure, but even if he were, I'm willing to bet it's a lot easier, post On Alert, to bring him down. I did Finkle's Foundry a few months ago and it was nearly a cakewalk by comparison to last Christmas.

Even so, reducing Clarence's Health by 30-50% would not be a bad thing.

itsbrou · December 2012

Bug
Exploitable Holiday Gifts

Where it happens
Renaissance Center, Millennium City.

What happens
Auto-accept mission by entering Ren Center. Open your mission log. Begin interacting with the present under the tree. Select the mission and drop it from your log before interaction bar completes. You will spawn a lootable exclamation anyway with reward.

You may exit and re-enter the subzone to auto-accept the mission again and repeat the process infinitely.

xaogarrent · December 2012

skcark wrote: »

Is Clarence still insanely overpowered? He really needs less HP. Especially since when he was first made he had a set amount of HP with the 20 min timer, then last year some genius ups his hp to 6 or 9 million, i forgot which number, i think i recall making OVER NINE MILLION jokes about it.

So he really needs fixing, there was a lot of people raging last year about how impossible he was

Damage post On Alert is a good deal higher, as mentioned, the only thing that probably needs fixing at this point is him having that completely unfair to melee PBAoE knockback.

I'd suggest getting a bunch of people coordinated to test it, but the PTS crowd is hardly the people to present an accurate simulation of what to expect on live. Even those of us that run intentionally gimped builds for the purpose of theme tend to perform better than the random people who do the events on live. It's really hard to know for sure how things will go down until it's actually on live and available to the masses.

somebob · December 2012

The bigger issue with Clarence is that as the population doing the event drops, there gets a point where it just can't be finished anymore without X number of players attacking him.

Unless he has a reward well worth farming over and over and over and over again, like Tako (and the Ultra-Ds during the bugged two day Anniversary).

falchoin · December 2012

Smokestacks shoulder pieces cannot be selected when the "Both" radio button is selected.

Smokestacks shoulder pieces clip severly with eachother when using the heroic stance on females. As seen HERE.

EDIT: With regards to Clarence difficulty, he was killed by 5 players with about 8-9 minutes to spare despite him having nearly 10 million health. Combatlog parse

Oh, and Clarence doesn't actually heal nearly 1k hps, that's due to my Sentinel Mastery which is seen as the mob healing those hitting it.

theravenforce · December 2012

BUG: Vigil and other Bloodmoon bosses are still undead and kicking...

gamehobo · December 2012

Sad Kontrol..

Very.. Very Sad. Splosions... man what's the T?

theravenforce · December 2012

Sort of in agreement with Kaizerin. I doubt telepathy will be LIVE before this event hits LIVE so interrupts currently arent that much of an issue.

With regards to interrupts vs Clarence...%chance to interrupt should be enforced perhaps vs cosmics? Then again it finally gives controllers like me some sense of power.

But in no way shape or form should my telepath be able to solo clarence...even without interrupts it's fairly easy to out heal the damage...

So to sum up:

Interrupts vs Cosmics: They should NOT be immune, but should have % chances to work on them.

Perhaps reduce Clarences HP and increase damage?

gamehobo · December 2012

theravenforce wrote: »

Sort of in agreement with Kaizerin. I doubt telepathy will be LIVE before this event hits LIVE so interrupts currently arent that much of an issue.

With regards to interrupts vs Clarence...%chance to interrupt should be enforced perhaps vs cosmics? Then again it finally gives controllers like me some sense of power.

But in no way shape or form should my telepath be able to solo clarence...even without interrupts it's fairly easy to out heal the damage...

So to sum up:

Interrupts vs Cosmics: They should NOT be immune, but should have % chances to work on them.

Perhaps reduce Clarences HP and increase damage?

Or just make more click attacks for all cosmics. Way easier and more effective than removing an entire mechanic.

I still advocate for % chance with all inturrupts but do NOT advocate special "anti-inturrupt" mechanics be made for cosmic enemies.

itsbrou · December 2012

Or the interrupt can force the enemy to finish charging early, firing a weakened schtick.

theravenforce · December 2012

gamehobo wrote: »

Or just make more click attacks for all cosmics. Way easier and more effective than removing an entire mechanic.

I still advocate for % chance with all inturrupts but do NOT advocate special "anti-inturrupt" mechanics be made for cosmic enemies.

^ True.

I also back the idea that chance to interrupt should be lowered for non Manipulation users. (with regard either all interrupts or just telepathy ones)

gamehobo · December 2012

Depending on what goes live first.. I am doubting, with extreme sincerity, that any inturrupts are available when the winter event goes live outside Chain Swing and Backhand Chop.

theravenforce · December 2012

gamehobo wrote: »

Depending on what goes live first.. I am doubting, with extreme sincerity, that any inturrupts are available when the winter event goes live outside Chain Swing and Backhand Chop.

Exactly. There hasnt been anything to suggest that Telepathy will go LIVE before this event. I actually am starting to believe Telepathy Additions will be tied in with the crowd control revamp as a double update instead of two single updates.

I doubt everyone will be using interrupts for this battle. So far some of the powers available on LIVE which are:

Backhand Chop, Iron Chain, Power Gauntlet and perhaps one or two others which as far as I can tell don't work on cosmics, I know they work on players though sometimes.

Interrupts are counteractable via more click attacks on boss as Clarence only has a Vipers Fang style attack out side of charge attacks.

Also I'm not sure if this is intended or a new feature...but Clarence uses smoke bomb and a backwards jump turning invisible and then firing electricity from a range...is that intended?

stoopidme · December 2012

Holiday Crackers from under the tree give out pre-Alert gear.

Also it would be nice if all these random item generators worked from inside the inventory now like lock-boxes, etc do.

Clarence has some crazy range on his electrical attack

This won't be a problem if he's targeting the right people on live, but may be worth looking at.

Santa still has Defender's description

Floating giftbox in westside near entrance of Purple Reign

theravenforce · December 2012

BUG: Having and Activating Amazing Grace Device places a 12 second CD on Masterful Dodge.

A few concerns:

Clarence seems to have access to smoke bomb and evasive maneuvers of some kind...is this intended?

Also Takofanes and his crew are still up...

skcark · December 2012

somebob wrote: »

The bigger issue with Clarence is that as the population doing the event drops, there gets a point where it just can't be finished anymore without X number of players attacking him.

Unless he has a reward well worth farming over and over and over and over again, like Tako (and the Ultra-Ds during the bugged two day Anniversary).

That's pretty much my point. His HP is too high for the low population. of players. As every zone would be begging people to join theirs to help kill clarence and still losing. as well as the lag factor. I don't believe you should design content to have an entire zone to take it down if the game can not handle it.

falchoin · December 2012

skcark wrote: »

That's pretty much my point. His HP is too high for the low population. of players. As every zone would be begging people to join theirs to help kill clarence and still losing. as well as the lag factor. I don't believe you should design content to have an entire zone to take it down if the game can not handle it.

As I said earlier, five players beat him with plenty of time to spare. His HP should not be an issue.

embracemysword · December 2012

skcark wrote: »

Is Clarence still insanely overpowered? He really needs less HP. Especially since when he was first made he had a set amount of HP with the 20 min timer, then last year some genius ups his hp to 6 or 9 million, i forgot which number, i think i recall making OVER NINE MILLION jokes about it.

So he really needs fixing, there was a lot of people raging last year about how impossible he was

No worries, we have much better equipment than last year + backup devices.

theravenforce · December 2012

Perhaps if everyone was put in the know about this event? I mean we have some new players (CoH vets included) who might be in the vicinity of Harlequin and may just attack and trigger then massive teddy.

I know for a fact that since none of my chars are powerful enough to do well..anything (and yes they are level 40s

) I'll need more that four more people to scratch that 9mill HP.

Having said that, during the Anniversary Event there seemed to be enough coordination for alot of zones to pass the event.

nazaca · December 2012

theravenforce wrote: »

Perhaps if everyone was put in the know about this event? I mean we have some new players (CoH vets included) who might be in the vicinity of Harlequin and may just attack and trigger then massive teddy.

I know for a fact that since none of my chars are powerful enough to do well..anything (and yes they are level 40s ) I'll need more that four more people to scratch that 9mill HP.

Having said that, during the Anniversary Event there seemed to be enough coordination for alot of zones to pass the event.

Assuming a generic level-40 that can do around 1000~ sustained damage-per-second, it'd take a team of five generic level-40s roughly thirty minutes to eat through nine~ million health.

Ten of those generic level-40s would take roughly fifteen minutes. Twenty would take roughly eight minutes. Etc.

If the timer is twenty minutes? Ten people should be able to do so within the time limit even if they have sub-1k sustained. Its' not hard to get ten people interested in beating on a seasonal event named. :biggrin:

xaogarrent · December 2012

falchoin wrote: »

As I said earlier, five players beat him with plenty of time to spare. His HP should not be an issue.

And as I said earlier, the PTS crowd is not an accurate representation of what's going to happen when this thing goes live. You and whoever is above you is actually doing around 5K DPS. That's so far above average, I don't even think I can call it above average.

I've got parsers from various Nemcon Q runs I did recently on Zack, who outputs about 3K easily just by pushing down TGM, where even when being the primary target and being forced to block often and not attack to my full potential I end up doing double or significantly more than most if not all of the other 40s on the team.

I think any Clarence *we* do on any of our half decent characters is bound to succeed. But until this thing goes live, there's no way to tell how it's going to work out in the hands of the population at large. We've seen this happen repeatedly for years, I'm surprised people still don't get this.

Don't forget this event isn't just for level 40s. It's an open zone event, so not gated in any manner, meaning you're gonna have people in greens on level 20 characters who are barely out of picking up their superstat tree joining in. They're going to be using sub par power setups for maximizing early game damage, because their goal isn't min maxing. There are going to be times when they may be your only allies.

Making zone wide events that anyone can participate in is difficult due to how wildly varying people's performance can be.

EDIT: Here's a rather funny example of this. http://i4.minus.com/ixlEhDMBPvFHU.jpg

It's not the most drastic in terms of raw damage difference that I've pulled from an Alert... But it was taken from Phantom when he was still leveling, and there's a level 40 on that team who actually posts here on the forums. There's more of an amusing story behind that, too, but I'm not gonna go into it or say who it is.

falchoin · December 2012

I agree Xao that generally speaking players on PTS have better builds than those on live. And you're right, until it goes live we won't know for sure.

On the other hand, I'd hate to see Clarence get a large HP reduction. If he's killed too quickly then some people may miss out on the mission after Clarence which gives out the new steampunk pieces.

I do know after this goes live I plan to turn on zone chat in MC (which I leave off 99% of the time) so I can look for callouts to fight Clarence. I'm guessing I won't be the only one either.

canadascott · December 2012

falchoin wrote: »

I agree Xao that generally speaking players on PTS have better builds than those on live. And you're right, until it goes live we won't know for sure.

On the other hand, I'd hate to see Clarence get a large HP reduction. If he's killed too quickly then some people may miss out on the mission after Clarence which gives out the new steampunk pieces.

I do know after this goes live I plan to turn on zone chat in MC (which I leave off 99% of the time) so I can look for callouts to fight Clarence. I'm guessing I won't be the only one either.

I imagine the old Clarence channel will see use again.

crypticbuxom · December 2012

Can Red, Green and Light Blue Aura Devices be added to Clarence drops? Tis the season.

sparhawk · December 2012

canadascott wrote: »

I imagine the old Clarence channel will see use again.

Yep, I'm planning on checking it anyway.

gamehobo · December 2012

Is there a general "Holiday" channel? Finding a group of Elite players for Harlequin (especially RPers) is gonna be hard for me.. Holidays kill off my friends' playtime. I'll likely have a hard time finding players to play with until January.

Here's hoping telepathy makes it out before the holidays. Since I won't be seeing family, that may be the only gift I receive.. Should I be depressed that I plan to spend my holidays in an MMO?

skcark · December 2012

I still think Clarence should lose about 500k-1 million HP, after rreading the previous posts, yes, okay, maybe on alert has made everyone stonger. so maybe restoring him hit ogirinal HP would be overkill, even if i think clarence would just be ignored like before since he drops only junk, even last year he had no value which is why it was so tough, but if new items are in, then there could be more people. but one thing, cryptic either need to extend the timer by 10 minutes, so clarence is 30 minutes to kill, or chip off 500k to 1m HP, maybe closer to 500k because that was always the worst part, spend 20 minutes chasing a boss that turns invisible because of a large crowd showing up making him hard to see, and then losing because you're just short of about 300k damage etc.

gamehobo wrote: »

Is there a general "Holiday" channel? Finding a group of Elite players for Harlequin (especially RPers) is gonna be hard for me.. Holidays kill off my friends' playtime. I'll likely have a hard time finding players to play with until January.

Here's hoping telepathy makes it out before the holidays. Since I won't be seeing family, that may be the only gift I receive.. Should I be depressed that I plan to spend my holidays in an MMO?

It's okay, you're not alone, let's both do Therakiel's Temple to hear his grinch line "I require only your *presents"

*Aware it's actually Presence but the way he says it, always amuses me <.<

theravenforce · December 2012

gamehobo wrote: »

Is there a general "Holiday" channel? Finding a group of Elite players for Harlequin (especially RPers) is gonna be hard for me.. Holidays kill off my friends' playtime. I'll likely have a hard time finding players to play with until January.

Here's hoping telepathy makes it out before the holidays. Since I won't be seeing family, that may be the only gift I receive.. Should I be depressed that I plan to spend my holidays in an MMO?

I too am in CO for holidays..here's hoping Mentella isn't stuck in psychic dampeners for any longer. I am dying to play her!

skcark wrote: »

I still think Clarence should lose about 500k-1 million HP, after rreading the previous posts, yes, okay, maybe on alert has made everyone stonger. so maybe restoring him hit ogirinal HP would be overkill, even if i think clarence would just be ignored like before since he drops only junk, even last year he had no value which is why it was so tough, but if new items are in, then there could be more people. but one thing, cryptic either need to extend the timer by 10 minutes, so clarence is 30 minutes to kill, or chip off 500k to 1m HP, maybe closer to 500k because that was always the worst part, spend 20 minutes chasing a boss that turns invisible because of a large crowd showing up making him hard to see, and then losing because you're just short of about 300k damage etc.

It's okay, you're not alone, let's both do Therakiel's Temple to hear his grinch line "I require only your *presents"

*Aware it's actually Presence but the way he says it, always amuses me <.<

Count me in! Hmm...maybe Clarence should drop summon Clarence Devices?

:biggrin:

He should drop the following:

- [Back Up! Clarence!]
- Legion Gear
- Salvage and quite a bit of it. (Perhaps make this a daily mission?)
- Silver Champion Recognition

The last two IMO should drop from Clarence AND get given to players from mission contact namely Drifter/Defender.

So The mission would be Champions Holiday On Alert or Patrol and would be to check all the vendors are ok and then inevitably one would be attacked and then defeat Clarence to gain 15 salvage and then finish off the work of Harlequin in Finkle Foundry and then come and get your reward of 30 Salvage and a SCR kit. I think being in the top 10? Perhaps should give a chance to grant Legion Gear? Nothing like the BM events where being first granted stupid green gear and comming second to last grants purple loot. I would have to be regulated properly so people actually get what the deserve.

skcark · December 2012

Agreed, legion gear drops from clarence would def be a great gift and make clarence worth fighting,

thesoulstar · December 2012

Do i hear votes for possibility of legion gear drops forming from Clarence?

*THROWS IN HIS VOTE LIKE A BOSS*

gandales · December 2012

Clarence and Harlequin drops could be tricky. I would say it would be nice a variety of drops boe, which foster trades.

I agree that giving some preference to top performers is interesting, it should not be neglected the rest of the participants. For instance, it could be peak rewards for top people but tokens, Qs, etc for the rest of participants

mainscrizz · December 2012

gandales wrote: »

Clarence and Harlequin drops could be tricky. I would say it would be nice a variety of drops boe, which foster trades.

I agree that giving some preference to top performers is interesting, it should not be neglected the rest of the participants. For instance, it could be peak rewards for top people but tokens, Qs, etc for the rest of participants

yeah, placing first in tako more than 10 times and never seeing a Dark Aura is BS. :mad:

Hope Clarence gives out a good amount of globals too. :biggrin:

crypticbuxom · December 2012

I support everyone who participates in an open event to get a chance at the best rewards. Otherwise they would be exclusive to the 5 players who top the chart every run.

crosschan · December 2012

Wait, do I see a request for more Backups? <shoots idea on principle>
Now maybe if they want to remove the shared CD Timers and cut their DPS down closer to
things like Fireflight or the sidekick pets(so you can use multiples for giggles and a "little" assistance then it could work)...but if Backup Clarence comes out looking like Ironclad then no....no no no no nonono. :eek:

titotito333999 · December 2012

The one thing I want for Xmas is to make sure that event bosses actually get hit by people's attacks. I really hated the last Halloween's Tako because after a large number of players attack him the rest of us would not get all of our attacks to register, making the tank/first attacker/agro holder the winner of the event by default because all his attacks were actually counted. And yeah no uber drops like Legion Gear or Backups please... an equal chance for all loot with added G's/Q/Recognition for top spots.

jasinblaze · December 2012

im curious to what the grandfather gear looks like

theapygoos · December 2012

theravenforce wrote: »

BUG: Having and Activating Amazing Grace Device places a 12 second CD on Masterful Dodge.

A few concerns:

Clarence seems to have access to smoke bomb and evasive maneuvers of some kind...is this intended?

Also Takofanes and his crew are still up...

thats not a bug, thats working as intended. people were complaining some time ago that people could activate AG, then a little bit later masterful dodge, thus a never endnig circle

theapygoos · December 2012

thesoulstar wrote: »

do I Hear Votes For Possibility Of Legion Gear Drops Forming From Clarence?

*throws In His Vote Like A Boss*

i Shall Vote For This As Well

It wil lmake clarence actualyl worth it again

bwdares · December 2012

jasinblaze wrote: »

im curious to what the grandfather gear looks like

The ones from last year were lower bonuses but they affect more-all stats. They also had Candy cane weapons, but I cant remember if they were "Grandfather" items or not. But the Candycane sword was pretty neat.

mijjestic · December 2012

thesoulstar wrote: »

Do i hear votes for possibility of legion gear drops forming from Clarence?

*THROWS IN HIS VOTE LIKE A BOSS*

Hear, hear!

It's kind of annoying having the Legion carrot dangled in our face and then functionally phased out. Having additional opportunities would be healthy.

FC.31.20121116.8 PTS Update

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