Issue 13 split in twain

[Nevermore]

Positron announced that in order to keep Issue 13 from being pushed back to January/February of next year, the devs will be pulling the Mission Architect portion of the update out of I13 and publishing it on its own as Issue 14, in January/February of next year.  Everything else in I13 will be released within the next month or two.

Edit:

Oh, they're adding some other new things to I13 as well:

    * Leveling Pact
    * Multi-Builds
    * PvE & PvP Powers rebalancing
    * Villain Patron Power Respec
    * Supergroup Base Repricing

[Signe]

I wonder how bad the "PvE & PvP Powers rebalancing" will bugger us up?

[Hutch]

Positron announced that in order to keep Issue 13 from being pushed back to January/February of next year, the devs will be pulling the Mission Architect portion of the update out of I13 and publishing it on its own as Issue 14, in January/February of next year.  Everything else in I13 will be released within the next month or two.

Edit:

Oh, they're adding some other new things to I13 as well:

    * Leveling Pact
    * Multi-Builds
    * PvE & PvP Powers rebalancing
    * Villain Patron Power Respec
    * Supergroup Base Repricing

Oh, I like multi-builds. Great idea.

[Horik]

I REALLY like the levelling pact idea. This ought to get a few more spouses/kids playing with family members, never a bad thing. I hope it gets copied to other games as well, especially the ones without sidekicking (I'm looking at you WoW).

[Trippy]

Oh, I like multi-builds. Great idea.

That's going to drive prices through the roof. It'll be a good time for speculators, though.

[Trippy]

I REALLY like the levelling pact idea. This ought to get a few more spouses/kids playing with family members, never a bad thing. I hope it gets copied to other games as well, especially the ones without sidekicking (I'm looking at you WoW).

Vanguard had something like that.

[eldaec]

What the hell is a multi-build?

[Trippy]

Your character can have two different "specs" (power selection and enhancement loadouts) and you can switch between them at will at a trainer.

Edit: fixed

[UnSub]

Oh, I like multi-builds. Great idea.

That's going to drive prices through the roof. It'll be a good time for speculators, though.

Also impacting on the market: merits (which will probably drive prices down) and the replacement of all base salvage with invention salvage (which will drive prices up).

It's a nice move by NC^2. CoH/V players get an issue this year, but they hold their strongest cards for just before ChampO launches. There is a lot of nice thinking in these new game systems.

[Jimbo]

Wow, I never thought they would throw pvp a bone, but that might be awesome to have something besides, stalkers vs scrappers.

[Lantyssa]

Also impacting on the market: merits (which will probably drive prices down) and the replacement of all base salvage with invention salvage (which will drive prices up).

Are they going to up the amount of salvage characters can hold because of this?  I don't mind limits, but it's already tough to hold on to my frequently used salavage and keep slots open for getting more.

[DaZog]

Wow, I never thought they would throw pvp a bone, but that might be awesome to have something besides, stalkers vs scrappers.

Stalkers vs scrappers? Right now, melee is the weakest link in PvP. Although, I'm echoing what a lot of folks in CoX are saying: 'lol, pvp'.

Interested what these changes will do, though.

[Signe]

Even though I can't play at the moment, I've gone and read the press release and the description (if you can call it that) of I13.  There's really barely any content in this issue.  I'm surprised they have the nuts to call it an issue at all.  It doesn't look like you can even share IOs for the multi-build , if you're even interested in a multi-build.  Meh.  I'm also not interested in leveling up some lazy fuck who never plays - wonder how long THAT would take?   It'll get people to sub longer, I suppose.  The re-balancing is a little worrisome.  I predict a bit of disaster in that respect.  Anyway, this issue doesn't do much for me.  It doesn't give me much of anything at all.  The villain side of CoX needs tons of content and we get, well, what really?  Anyway, I'm still somewhat interested in I14 - who knows when it'll really be out - but I13 doesn't excite me even a little.  Thumbs down, NCSoft!

[Jimbo]

Well:
"Issue 13: Power and Responsibility
Issue 13: Power and Responsibility will contain the bulk of features we've announced previously, including:

    * Shield and Pain Domination powersets
    * Merit Reward system
    * Day Jobs (that include a suite of new costume pieces)
    * Additional Cimerora and Midnight Squad mission arcs

In addition, we have some other new exciting features to reveal that will be included in Issue 13: Power and Responsibility. These include:

    * Leveling Pact
    * Multi-Builds
    * PvE & PvP Powers rebalancing
    * Villain Patron Power Respec
    * Supergroup Base Repricing"

Singe, I know more maps would be awesome and more critters, and I wish they would have a time where CoV gets a ton of content, but getting more Cimerora and Midnight Squad should be fun.  My son will be happy as I will link his account, he usually ends up lagging behind about 5 to 10 levels, so at least one of his characters will be the same as mine.  But like ya said, if ya don't have family it is kinda *meh* or more a way to powerlevel friends (lol now I can see us powerleveling F13'ers), that and the day jobs are going where not a lot of other MMOG's have gone (Eve for day jobs, I don't remember any sidekicking and sharing exp even off...WoW has something but you have to be on line and in a group).

Shield power set!  I've been waiting for this since the game came out 4+ years ago, I can't wait to make my Capt America Themed Scrapper.

The PvP is a shock, as they really haven't done much for PvP, they like the idea, it has been hard to balance and get more people involved.  I mean it is natural for Hero's and Villians to want to square off and fight each other over objectives, but right now the stalkers and scrappers are the most versatile (most tools for pvp), with corrupter and blasters being decent, then unless you are a certain build being cannon fodder for those 4.  Plus a pvp build ends up not being that good for PvE.  So if they pull it off, it will be a lot more in the zone's than the usually 50 or so (combined for both sides).

To me it is all yah!!!, but I do see where if you were waiting for most missions and stuff for CoV, it is like meh...

[Signe]

It's not all bad or anything and I'm looking forward to the shield stuff, too.  At some point they really do need to develop CoV, though.  Maybe I'll be able to get into the PvP with this change.  We'll see.  I haven't like PvP at all in CoX.  I know this isn't really the place for it, but I'm SO hoping Champions will be good.  I need a change of game but I love the whole superhero/dress-up dolly thing.

[Nevermore]

Castle has previewed the major I13 changes to powers in PvE here.  It's not full patch notes (which would likely change in I13 beta anyway) and it only touches on major changes.  One changes that's going to affect gameplay significantly:

Toggle Powers

One important additional piece of development to mention, that is especially relevant to Kheldians and their toggle powers is: in Issue 13, Toggles are no longer shut off due to Hold, Sleep or Disorient effects. This is a major gameplay change, and it is not restricted to Kheldians, but instead applies to all non-offensive player toggles. As part of changes in Issue 13, when a player is affected by a hold, sleep or stun, any toggle power they are running will continue and will still draw endurance from the character. However, some or all of its effects may be suppressed until such time as the hold, sleep or stun is removed. For example, if you are held while in Black Dwarf form, all of your Damage Resistance values, your recovery bonus and knockback protection are suppressed, while your hold, stun, sleep, immobilize and confuse protections remain in effect. Monitoring your stats with the "Real Numbers" tool is a good way to check which aspects of a toggle are suppressed and which are not.

Not having to retoggle a whole bunch of powers after being mezzed is going to be wonderful!

[Ingmar]

Wow that toggle change is huge and awesome and like years overdue. OMG DUMBING DOWN TANKING 

[Valmorian]

Wow that toggle change is huge and awesome and like years overdue. OMG DUMBING DOWN TANKING 

I guess.  If you consider re-activating your toggles after each sleep/stun/hold to be indicative of "intelligence".  I'm not sure it's anything other than just reducing drudgery.

[Ingmar]

I don't believe in green text or I would have put that second part in it.

[Lantyssa]

Small, but nice changes to Invicinbility and Energy Melee, too.  (The defense debuff of Unyielding was one of my personal big annoyances.)  Those will be nice to have when I return.

[Signe]

So, I13 is up on TS for beta. 

[Nevermore]

The UK CoX site has information on day jobs.  It's not on the US CoX site yet, but I imagine it will be soon.

[UnSub]

It's up now.

10 days and 30 days of offline time is too long for Day Jobs. Half that amount of time would seem more reasonable.

Also, CoH/V getting rested XP bonuses is a nice touch.

[UnSub]

41 variations on Shields for the powerset. And that's before you pick the colours for them.

Some of them look incredibly good. You'll have to look through the thread though, or fire up the Test version of CoH/V to look.

[Nevermore]

Open Beta has started for I13 for anyone interested.  Patch notes should be up somewhere on the live boards.

[UnSub]

Here's Positron's (the lead dev) coverage of I13 Open Beta.

Things currently setting the boards on fire:

 - Changes to PvP (expected and monotonous)

 - Removal of random rare recipe option for completing a TF / SF; now you get merits instead that you can save up to buy the recipe you want

 - I13 isn't ready for open beta (opinion of some; I don't care until it hits live - of course, the dev team promised to get this issue out this year and only really have until the end of November for it to go live so they can spend December fixing bugs before they go on holidays)

 - Patron power pools have been changed which upsets people despite years of people requesting they be changed; so have the Hero side ancilliary pools

The vast irony is that it appears changing PvP took up a lot of dev time so a number of things haven't been fixed - so, if ever there was a case of PvP impacting on PvE in CoH/V, this is it.

 - Pathing is bases is broken due to changes in the raiding systems, which means players can screw up their bases with item positioning

[Trippy]

The more I read about I13 the more I don't like it. It's great that the CoH/CoV team, free from the shackles of Cryptic, are being ambitious in updating the game but I think they are significantly changing too many of the major subsystems at once, especially since many of the changes seem poorly thought out.

[UnSub]

The more I read about I13 the more I don't like it. It's great that the CoH/CoV team, free from the shackles of Cryptic, are being ambitious in updating the game but I think they are significantly changing too many of the major subsystems at once, especially since many of the changes seem poorly thought out.

The irony appears to be that the CoH/V team did their best work while starved of resources and now are having a rush of blood to the head as the resources return.

Also, to be heretical about it, some of the team have been on the game too long. PvP is a perfect example of this: Castle is making the CoH/V game mechanic into how he would have done it if he'd been in charge of CoH/V development (or: Positron and Castle are). I'm not saying that some of the changes won't make things better, but CoH/V is re-writing combat mechanics post-launch, which has never worked out well with existing players. It is the kind of thing you do when you go "Here's something I always wanted to do..." and have exhausted your new ideas.

IMO, CoH/V should be releasing new powerset after new powerset (Shields and Pain Domination are nice, but new sets for all basic ATs) and building on its lore / PvE, not tinkering around with PvP when most players have long abandoned it.

... we're also still waiting to hear about the PS3 / new MMO development that was rumoured to be coming out of NC^2 ...

[Nebu]

Any idea when I13 is going live?  I've been looking at the forums but don't seem to be able to find a date.  With WAR taking a dump, this is my new time sink of choice and I'm excited about trying a shield scrapper. 

[Nevermore]

At a guess, I'd say they either push it out this week or they'll wait until the week after Thanksgiving.

[UnSub]

Still a lot of bugs in open beta, afaik.

However, it has to launch in the next 2 weeks - the studio typically shuts around Xmas and they want to leave a few weeks for squashing any bugs in live that appear.