Issue 26 Page 3

October 1st, 2019

Check out this news post for details on the Halloween Event and more information about this update.

Tasks

• The first two story arcs for Issue 26 are here! Both were written by @holymittens, a professional video game writer, and target the two “middle” alignments, with one story arc for Vigilantes and one for Rogues.

New Story Arc: Shauna Braun

• Characters of the Vigilante alignment between Security Levels 25 and 29 can find Shauna Braun in Independence Port, near the southern Police Station, or using the Contact Finder.
  • Shauna Braun is a young programmer from Paragon City. She was raised by her father in a tiny apartment in between Kings Row and Independence Port. Shauna moved out when she went to college, but her father - having sacrificed so much to give his daughter a good education - continued to live there until it burned down a year ago. The PPD closed the case, citing an accident as the cause of the fire, but Shauna doesn't buy the explanation. She wants to uncover the truth behind her father's death and bring the perpetrators to justice.
• This arc has two different endings, with a badge for each. The badge art was created by @Log.

New Story Arc: Bobby Curtin

• Characters of the Rogue alignment between Security Levels 25 and 29 can find Bobby Curtin in Crimson Cove, in front of the White Elephant building, or using the Contact Finder.
  • Bobby Curtin is a bouncer at the White Elephant in Crimson Cove, a private establishment which prides itself on being 'neutral ground' between the many warring factions in Nerva. Bobby is known by frequent patrons for being willing to step in and break up fights between anyone, be they Longbow, Arachnos, or mortal manifestation of an ancient god.
• This arc introduces true branching missions to City of Heroes; depending on your choices, you will be presented with a couple of entirely different missions, leading to several possible endings. There is only one badge for this arc, with art created by @Log.

Rikti Mothership Raid

• The Rikti Mothership raid can now be started from the LFG queue. Characters must be level 35 and have the Member of Vanguard badge to join the raid in this way.
  • If the league is not locked, a minimum of 16 players is required to start the raid this way.
  • All enemies inside the mission map are level 54, including the ones that are lower level in the zone. All players are bumped to combat level 50 for the duration of the raid.

Powers

New Origin Power Pool: Force of Will

• This power pool grants you access to various powers that allow you to manifest your own willpower and use it to harm your foes.
  • You can only have one Origin Power Pool (Sorcery or Force of Will) in your active build.
• Weaken Resolve: You overwhelm your foe with sheer strength of will, reducing their defense damage resistance, and chance to hit! Recharge: Long
• Project Will: You manifest your willpower into a blast and project it toward a distant foe, causing moderate psionic and smashing damage. Project Will has a fair chance to knock the target down. Damage: Moderate, Recharge: Fast
• Mighty Leap: While this power is active you're able to leap great distances and jump incredibly high. In addition, while this power is active you're able to use Takeoff, which will knockdown nearby foes and increases jump speed. Recharge: Moderate
  • Takeoff: You stomp your foot on the ground with tremendous force empowering your jump speed for a short time and shattering the earth beneath, knocking nearby foes off of their feet. Recharge: Long
• Wall of Force: You project an unfocused blast of sheer force at foes in a short wide cone in front of you, dealing moderate psionic and smashing damage and potentially knocking targets down. Wall of Force requires you to have two other powers from the Force of Will power pool. Damage: Moderate, Recharge: Slow
• Unleash Potential: Unleashing your potential, you grant yourself a moderate boost to defense, regeneration rate, and recovery for a short time. Unleash Potential requires you to have two other powers in the Force of Will power pool. Recharge: Very Long

Other Changes

Zones

• The Abandoned Sewers have received a minor atmospheric tweak to make them visually distinct from the standard Sewer Network.
• Bloody Bay, Siren’s Call, Warburg and Recluse’s Victory now have a full complement of 8 Exploration Badges and one Exploration Accolade.
  • The Exploration Accolade art was created by @Flashtoo.

LFG Queue

• The LFG queue will now wait until you have the Recommended number of players for a Trial or Task Force before teleporting you to the contact or mission if the league is not locked.
  • If the league is locked, Trials and Task Forces will continue to ignore the minimum players and start even solo. You can invite more players into the League once the Trial starts, but not to a Task Force.
  • Incarnate and Holiday Trials continue to always require the minimum number of players, whether the league is locked or not.
  • Incarnate trials will no longer automatically fail if a locked league drops below the minimum players. They will still fail if they drop below the minimum players in an unlocked league.
  • This setup is an attempt to satisfy both players who want to start Trials and Task Forces solo or with small teams (lock the league) and those who want to use the LFG queue to find teams for Trials and Task Forces (don't lock the league).

Bug Fixes

• The five Enhancement Sets from the Lords of Winter Super Pack (Avalanche, Blistering Cold, Entomb, Frozen Blast and Winter's Bite) are no longer incorrectly grouped with their Superior versions in the auction house.
• Many fixes to UI scaling for scrollbars, listviews, and compass elements.
• Fixed an issue preventing base item rotation in the 64-bit client.
• Implemented a workaround for a rare issue where the mapserver connection would get stuck while zoning into a map.