f13.net

Invention system in issue 9:

http://boards.polycount.net/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=175299&an=0&page=0#Post175299

Hey, those screens look really nice!

It's nice to see what I SHOULD be seeing, now it's gonna be interesting to see whether I see anything close to that nice with my antiquated Raedon 9000 vid card.  I really need to go shoppin' around for an AGP card that has at least 128 meg of RAM.

So Superman can finally knit his own capes?  I can't wait to see Ironman and Dr.Doom fighting over the forge.

Actually, it sounds like nifty stuff beyond just costume pieces.  Take, for example, enhancements that add extra effects to powers.  Nifty!

ETA -- So more like Iron Man modding his glove blasters to also nullify mutants' powers or something.

I loved the argument in that link about whether the villian black market is in fact Optimus Prime.

It's just a red truck.

Derrr.

Well, to be fair? Much of Mercy Island and early Port Oakes are these warren-like shantytowns.

Which is perfectly fitting their role in the Rogue Isles but a real PITA to navigate.

--GF

I less-than-three my Jump Pack. Go go RMT!

Dude. He's tired of being stuck in cities. In City of Heroes.

The lucky thing is the amount of non-city area in the game imo.

I've heard rumblings of a "Pasture of Heros" or "Field of Villains" expansion on the horizon. 

So I dinged a villain to 10 today and the level up text at the arbiter told me to go to Port au Diable and see about the invention system.  Needless to say, it almost faked me out.

Obviously, your villain was the victim of some superhero's temporal powers.  "Set the time machine for Issue 9, Robin!"

Positron had an interview about Inventions on MMORPG.com:

Positron sez that Invented enhancements aren't vital to playing CoH/V (put I bet they will sure help); also new Hamidon raids for both sides and the Statesman Task Force (http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/gameId/3/setView/features/loadFeature/1117)

In short (and also taking in info posted on the official forums) - mobs drop recipies that you combine with the correct salvage to get your reward (enhancement, temp power or costume piece). Certain sets of Invention Enhancements exist that give extra bonuses to your character at the overall level eg more resistance, higher hitpoints, higher recharge. Invention Enhancements are fixed, so they do not degrade as you level as currently happens with other Enhancements.

Although not 100% original, Cryptic appear to have created a loot system that fits in nicely with CoH/V's powers system and will generally work well in the background as you play. Still of concern: how rare is rare?

I'm guessing it's LAWLERCAEKS-type rare.

Based on the rarity of other rare salvage events and so on, I'm guessing 'rare enough that you aren't getting what you need without a whole bunch of trading'.


On a similar note, I spent too many minutes trying to get into the first new and shiny auction house I spotted in the last patch (not knowing what it was).

Leaks that would make that little Dutch boy turn around and go home. (http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=Issue9&Number=7636905)

The first post is bad enough, but scroll down the page until you get to Iakona's.

Gwah.

--GF

Man, I just hope this waits till after March 1.

Something tells me I'll be spending many a late night huntin for salvage.

It's halfway through February and it hasn't hit test yet.  I assure you, this patch won't be up before March 1.

I didn't realize there were whole sets of these.  That makes it interesting.

This may be loot-like enough to sate the people who've been asking for that, but it's friendly enough that it sounds alright to me, as long as the drop rate is good.

How long until the first 'uber template' of mixed enhancements and special power effects hits the forums making everyone who uses it unstoppable?

I doubt that, seems like these are about 3% bonuses on the high end.  They stack, but only to a point.

Better, sure, but unstoppable seems like a stretch.

As Cryptic can balance the existing power system to within tolerable limits, they can sure as hell balance this.

Actually the bonuses on the high end are topping out at around 10%, though that'll probably change during testing since the bonuses are stackable.

Nah, they've implemented Set Bonus Diversification.

No, I'm not kidding. Every stat has three levels of boosting under a set bonus, (let's say that stun resist has +2.5%, +5%, and +10% just for the sake of argument) and you can only benefit from the first three boosts at any level.

So, your stun resist hard caps at 52.5%.

--GF

So is there a way to pick up a resistance to all (including psychic) that is on all the time?  I know most of the tanks would kill for at least some sort of resistance to that, since it is been made to be the tankers (and heck dang near everyone else {besides DA, Dark Defender}) achillies heal.  At least villians brutes have two sets with resistance and defense to everything.

Ya, It is complex It is nasty and I hope it don't mean shit for PvE. PvP is a given i would guess. As we can see it (subject to change of course) It could make a 10 to 20 percent difference in a game where if your on top of your enhancements your 100 percent or so (so). So its meaningful if less than game breaking.

Not sure what you just said but...

These will work in PvE.  And they're meant to make players better in PvE.  There are currently no plans to buff up mobs to compensate, these things are the reason mobs have been buffed up so much lately.

It's also been theorised that while current mob groups won't be buffed to compenstate for Inventions, future mobs will be.

It will be an interesting state of affairs.

I9 is now open to the public, after about a month of the test server doing the closed beta thing.

Will have summaries of the current state of invention after I get back from class.

--GF

Okay, here comes the spiel.

When you take out an enemy, it has a chance to drop a piece of invention salvage on someone in the team. Invention salvage comes in three pools: 4-25, 26-40, 41-50. Each pool has 36 items of salvage in it - 12 common, 12 uncommon, 12 rare. 18 are arcane, 18 are technological, split evenly among the commonalities. An enemy can drop any tech piece, any arcane piece, or any salvage - when you check their info window there's a tab that shows you what they drop. Enemies under level 4 don't drop any salvage.

You can only get salvage from an enemy if you'd get a reward for that enemy. This includes anything you reap the rewards for while under the effect of sidekick/lackey/malefactor/exemplar. You get the enemy's reward, not a reward appropriate for your level.

Recipes also drop from enemies, if they're at least level 10, and come in common, uncommon, and rare varieties. Common recipes require common salvage, uncommon require at least one piece of uncommon, rare require at least one rare and one uncommon. "Set IOs" are uncommons and rares. Ordinary IOs are common, as are temp powers and costume parts like jet boots and butterfly wings. Apparently, you get common and uncommon recipes at whatever level you're fighting at, but rare recipes are keyed to your actual level.

Recipes are one-use. Every recipe requires a specific mix of salvage parts from a pool appropriate to its level, in addition to a level-dependent amount of influence. You can buy common IO recipes from a worktable, but that essentially doubles the cost of crafting. Common IO recipes can also be "memorized" - craft a certain number of IOs from a particular category and you get a badge that lets you craft from that category without recipes and for half the cost. There are 5 memorization badges for each category, one for each band of 10 levels.

Common IOs give a fixed percentage which does not change with level, but otherwise work like normal enhancements. Set IOs give a fixed percentage, optionally lesser and to multiple attributes, and synergize as has been discussed. Every set of IOs has a theme - PBAoE, ranged damage, stun, et cetera, and every power lists its "themes" in addition to the attributes that can be enhanced. IO sets can only be put in a power with a matching theme.

Enemy defeats all draw recipes from one reward pool. Three other reward pools exist. One has a 10% chance of firing on completion of any door mission (checked once for every member of the team.) One always rewards on completion of a task force, the other always rewards on completion of a trial. All the IOs in the other three pools are at least uncommon if not rare.

Wentworth's and the Black Market (which now looks like RID Scourge - Optimus is parked around back of some of the Wentworth's) offer a place to sell salvage, recipes, enhancements, and inspirations. Everybody has an auction inventory and can drag objects into it at any time. You can list these objects for a 24-hour period at a given price by paying 1/20th of the price up front. This is only refunded if the item sells. You can fill up your auction inventory and never actually sell anything, if you really want to. You can also place buy orders for items, each of which will also tie up an auction inventory slot. Unfortunately buy orders are limited to a specific level of enhancement, which makes them somewhat less useful than they might otherwise be. Buy orders require you to plunk down the entire amount of the buy order up front - if you buy the item the house takes off 10% and gives the rest to the seller; if not, you can pick up your cash after 24 hours.

When you list an item and there are outstanding buy orders, the largest bid gets the item at the price they bid for it, assuming it's greater than your asking price. If not, the first person to place a buy order over your asking price gets the item. When you place a buy order and there are outstanding items listed, you buy the item which was offered at the lowest price, assuming it was less than your buy order price - you still pay the full amount of your buy order. If no items are listed at low enough prices, the first person to list an item with a price under your buy order sells to you.

Overview done.

--GF

So are the enhanced Fly animations in?

The flying animation emotes are in.  I didn't check them out but I did see them in the training room patch notes.  I'd paste them and give the link but, for some reason, I can't get to the forum at the moment.  I've been in the I9 beta for several weeks but, unfortunately, I haven't made up my mind whether or not I even ike the whole invention thing.  I'm always up for auction house play, though.   :-)  I'm sure there's loads more tweaking and polishing to come so maybe I'll start enjoying it a bit more then.  Or maybe it'll grow on me. 

But I can finally change the way my toon looks when she uses Fly? Awesome.

Also, my account is Still active, though I haven't been playing. I might be getting close to the 15-month Vet Reward now.  :-)

Thank you so much for the write-up Glazius.  I'm playing CoH a lot lately and I'm looking forward to messing with this. 

Any f13 people still playing?  If so, which server?  I've been playing an ice/ice blaster and a necro/poison MM on Pinnacle.

I might have a Tanker on Pinnacle, but I can't be sure. I'm going to install CoV...eventually.

(Free box from work  :-D   )

I still have my villains on Virtue and my heroes on Victory.  My global name is Signe.  I haven't played much at all on the regular servers for the last few weeks or so, just the test server, because I don't want to miss the new goodies from story arcs. 

I've been playing both heroes and villains on Victory. 

I'm still hovering below 50 on my main, but I'm really waiting for another double xp weekend to get over the final hump to 50....so I can make a Kheldian and do it all over again!

Something else I might add is that the auto-exemplar nature of the PvP zones makes Bloody Bay the only place to street-sweep for Pool 1 (4-25) salvage and recipe drops, and Siren's Call and Warburg (20-30 and 30-38) the only places to street-sweep for Pool 2 (26-40) drops. Once you're at 50, that is.

At least if you want to try that 'soloing' thing all the kids these days are so hot about.

I forsee either a grand board explosion or a whole bunch of not caring.

--GF

If you are 50, wouldn't you just farm infamy/influence for like ten minutes, and then buy any lowbie parts you need from Woolworths or Optimus Prime?

I mean, once they inevitably fix the auction house design flaw where junk can only be on sale for 24 hours.

24 hours across the entire playerbase (though heroes still sell to heroes and villains to villains, but that may change once Wentworth's skims off that extra couple years of banked inf from the heroside) doesn't seem too far off-kilter.

--GF

excuse me. Are you saying wentworth is cross server?

All my chars are on Pinnacle and I've been considering resubscribing.  The invention systems looks interesting, but I'm not sure it will be enough to keep me for long.

Pretty sure they are, but only on the same side (ie hero and villain). So Defenders can't buy stuff off Masterminds, but you've got a lot of players to potentially sell to.

The fly animations are an emote, so you'll have to set it after you commence flying and then hit autorun to keep that emote active.

Presumably stuff like my auto-power firing (hasten), or a strafe would knock the fly emote off? Or does the emote stick around longer than typical emote?

A strafe would.

Hasten, however, is a click-activated self-buff and as such its animation cycle currently has lowest priority. You can rehasten while running and you'll just keep running.

--GF

True, but if I'm going something like a newspaper emote, hasten still kills it, would this not be the same?

And does anyone know if I can do something like a macro or bind to trigger the emote everytime I move forward or activate fly?

Well, the emote overrides the fly animation. I'll have to see how it works on a character with fly and hasten.

/em flypose1 through 4, you can bind them onto the end of either your forward key or your fly key by chaining $$em flypose1 or whatever onto the end of the command string.

--GF