Patch Notes/2007-07-24

7.24.07 Version 15.20070703.6T2

Issue 10: INVASION!

The skies over Paragon City are filled with dark, grey thunderheads. It is the same in the Rogue Isles, Europe, and across the globe. Small ships dart through the heavy weather … and there are so very many of them.

The Rikti have returned.

HEADLINES

Rikti World Invasion: The Rikti have been fought off before. But now, prepare for a desperate battle to save Earth from the new Rikti Invasion Force! Aggressive Rikti forces can attack Paragon City and Rogue Isle areas at any time and with little warning!

Rikti War Zone: Heroes and villains are asked to put aside their differences and co-operate to assist Vanguard, the all volunteer force funded by the United Nations Security Council, to stem the flood of Rikti and their attempts to salvage their downed Mother Ship. Earn Vanguard Merits to obtain new costume items and other cool stuff!

Rikti Co-op Task Force Lady Grey, leader of Vanguard, has a series of missions for a proven team of superpowered individuals, security clearance 45 to 50, designed to take the fight to heart of the Rikti Invasion!

INVASION!

"The Rikti Return! The Vanguard needs YOU! All super powered beings are encouraged to join the effort! This isn’t about your history, but about OUR future. Join now."

• The Rikti have somehow found a way to bridge the dimensional gap between their world and ours once again and are staging raids on Paragon City and the Rogue Isles.
• When Zones within the cities are under attack, a world-wide alert will be issued by Vanguard. This alert will show up in your Chat window, warning you in which zone attack is imminent.
• While the invasion is occurring, players do not receive debt while outdoors in an invaded zone.
• Those in that zone that do not wish to be at risk of Rikti attack are asked to take shelter immediately. They can do so by leaving the zone, or moving inside buildings or under cover (overpasses, parking garages, etc.).
• Rikti bombs appear to be unstable and not 100% reliable. Some do not explode on impact and only embed themselves in the ground. These bombs have been noted to detonate after a time, so take caution when you see these. They can be disarmed or delayed by inflicting damage upon them.

Revamped Zone: Rikti Crash Site is now Rikti War Zone

The region previously known as the Crash Site has erupted into a War Zone! All non-combatants are advised to stay well clear of the area!

This zone is now co-operative, Heroes and Villains can both enter into the zone and team together while here. Heroes and Villains cannot fight against each other in this area. They will both arrive into the zone in the Vanguard Base that has been established there.

Entry points can be found in Vanguard Bases in the following zones:

• Paragon City:
  • Atlas Park
  • Founders Falls
  • Peregrine Island
• Rogue Isles:
  • Cap au Diable
  • St. Martial
  • Grandville

The SWAT entrance from Crey’s Folly is sealed.

• The zone is now scaled for levels 35 to 50.
• While in the Rikti War Zone, debt obtained will be 50% of normal.
• When you enter the zone, Levantera, one of the directors of Vanguard, will be auto-issued to you as a contact. Complete her missions to get a feel for the area, as well as be inducted as an honorary member of Vanguard and be able to obtain merits.
• Borea has repeatable missions for you in the Rikti War Zone.
• Other characters that have missions available are Gaussian, Dark Watcher, and Serpent Drummer. They can all be found in the Vanguard Base
• By joining Vanguard you will earn Vanguard Merits for defeating Rikti as well as completing missions for Vanguard. These Merits can be exchanged for Costume Pieces (of the Vanguard Armor), as well as some other cool stuff. The device for purchasing these items are special crafting tables located within the Vanguard base. Vanguard Merits can not be used at other crafting tables.
• You can view Vanguard Merits earned from the Salvage window under the Special Tab.

Rikti Co-op Task Force

The UNSC backs Vanguard for billions. With the second Rikti invasion bearing down upon us, the United Nations Security Council has essentially given Vanguard a blank check to cover the costs of fighting the Rikti, "We don’t have time to haggle over budgets," says a senior level official in the UNSC. "Vanguard has always been about defeating the Rikti, no matter what. We fully support Lady Grey and her team."

• Lady Grey gives out a Strike/Task Force for 8 super powered individuals with security clearance from 45 to 50. The mission attempts to stop the Rikti before they can get a foothold in our dimension. Be wary, the Rikti are single-minded in the pursuit of their objectives!

Take the fight to the crashed Rikti ship!

• The Rikti have erected energy pylons throughout the area surrounding their crashed ship in the Rikti War Zone. Vanguard engineers have discovered a way to detect Rikti Pylons. To view waypoints to these pylons, check the ‘Special’ option in your map display window.
• Destroying all pylons before the Rikti can replace them, will lower the shield on the Rikti Mother Ship in the zone.
• Heroes and Villains are asked to plant explosives inside the ventilation systems of the ship to cripple the Mother Ship repair effort the Rikti have in progress.
• Once enough bombs are planted, the Master at Arms will arrive to clear out non-Rikti interlopers!
• Characters that participate with this will be rewarded with Vanguard Merits.

Rikti Villain Group Revamp

• The Rikti Villain group has undergone an art and powers revamp.
• The new art vastly upgrades the look of the Rikti and now allows us to use more animations with the Rikti soldiers.
• One major change is the Rikti swords now have a ranged energy weapon in them, allowing them to use both melee and ranged attacks without switching weapons.

Powers

Added support for villain archtypes for Kheldian inherent bonus powers. Here is the new help text:

• Kheldians naturally thrive off the energy and essence of their teammates. Warshades’ absorbing nature allows them to draw on the power of their teammates’ power to increase their own. Your Damage Resistance will increase for each nearby Tanker, Mastermind, Corruptor or Defender teammate. Your Damage will increase for each nearby Scrapper, Stalker, Brute or Blaster teammate. Finally each nearby Controller or Dominator teammate will grant you limited Protection from Control effects. You cannot put Enhancements in this power.
• Kheldians naturally thrive off the energy and essence of their teammates. Peacebringers’ metamorphic nature allows them to bring balance to their team. Your Damage will increase for each nearby Tanker, Mastermind, Corruptor or Defender teammate. Your Damage Resistance will increase for each nearby Scrapper, Brute, Stalker or Blaster teammate. Finally each nearby Controller or Dominator teammate will grant you limited Protection from Control effects. You cannot put Enhancements in this power.
• Jack Frost pets and Animated Stone pets should be more willing to engage in melee combat due to a change to their AI values.
• Crey Juggernauts will turn off their Personal Force Field after 15 seconds rather than leaving it on indefinitely.
• Bitter Ice Freeze Ray’s attack time has been shortened from 3.7 seconds to 2.5 seconds for both Blasters and Corruptors.

Critter Powers

• Critters with area of effect Confuse powers have had the duration of those powers greatly reduced.

Power Effects

• Graphical Effects for Ice Armor powers have been modified to improve performance by reducing redundant effects.
• Corrected an issue with Piston Boots steam effects so that they no longer pick up incorrect tinting from the costume piece.
• Stone Melee/Hurl Boulder and Super Strength/Hurl – slight tweak to improve performance.
• Minor camera shake added to some Super Strength hit effects.
• New Geometry and effects for the Blackwand temporary/veteran power.
• New graphical effects for Sonic Resonance.
• "Place Trap" animation will now play while flying. Animation also plays a bit faster, reducing the amount of time the player is rooted while activating.

Costumes

• New "Stealth" costume set available
• New "Exo Proto" costume set available
• New Vanguard costume set available for purchase with merits
• 39 month Veteran Reward added: Boxing costume items
• Miniskirt 1 tweaked a little
• Reorganized skirts and added new Pencil Skirt and Leather Versions.
• Female Dragon wings sized up a little
• Female Burned wings moved up and in a little
• Female cap reweighted to reduce clipping
• "Small padded glove" for females have a pad on both hands
• Masks fixed for full helms/Chitin \\
• Neck on full helmets reweighted to reduce clipping
• Peg leg and pirate hook now available for females
• Tech Sleek boots available in more categories
• New Female Boot called high heel available.
• Greek letters unified and PI added
• New Bunny tail costume piece available.
• Female Hellenic Sandals Reweighted to fix clipping issues.
• Santa boots and heart patterns are once again available at the Tailor.
• Tin Crown hat added
• Fabo Hair style added
• Formal Hair style added
• V neck & V deep pattern added to female skin tops
• Eye Tendrils added to Tendrils/Head Costume Aura for Female models.
• Whiskers added to face detail option.
• Rocket Boots color mask improved
• Samurai belts shouldn’t disappear underwater
• Female Burned wings moved up and in a little.
• "Small padded glove" added to jackets for female.

City Zones

• Siren’s Call: Fixed hole in the ground that allowed players to get under the map.
• Recluse’s Victory – Fixed bug that allowed some players to get outside the map.

Badges

• There are a number of new badges
• Coralax Gladiator badge should now correctly count all Coralax bosses toward badge progression
• Supergroup Fusion Generator badge is no longer given for time spent in PvP zones; it is now given for 750 PvP kills while in supergroup mode.

Rewards

• Costume Piece Recipes have been moved into their own drop pool and the chance of getting one has been increased. Costume Piece Recipes will ONLY drop off of Minion-level entities. Lieutenants and higher have no chance of giving out a costume recipe.

Auction House

• Fixed bug that sometimes prevented the highest bid from winning an auction, or prevented the lowest offer from being sold first.

User Interface

• Added commas to Trade windows (so 1000 now appears as 1,000)
• Added commas to numeric displays of experience and influence/infamy when a critter is overcome.
• Trades are now limited to 9,999,999 influence or infamy.

Game

• Improved Arena stability.

Supergroup Bases

• There are now teleport beacons that can be obtained to travel to the Rikti War Zone.

Inventions

• The price of Invention Enhancements, when sold through the process of a respec is now based on memorized prices, not the normal build price.
• Impervium Armor: Psionic Resistance - no longer causes a character to have a "Psi Aura" when slotted.
• Impervious Skin: Status Resistance - value reduced from 30% to 7.5% and unique status removed. Players can now slot this enhancement up to 5 times for the bonus.

CITY OF HEROES

Power Effects

• Peacebringer effects are updated to improve performance
• Kheldians in Dwarf or Nova form should no longer repeatedly play the boost animation when receiving a buff from an empowerment station.

Powers

• Blaster Charged Brawl now accepts Sleep Enhancements and Sleep IO Sets.

Tasks

• Founder’s Falls – Angus McQueen no longer gives missions to fight Rikti in the Rikti Crash Site. These missions have been updated and now count Rikti defeated in the Rikti War Zone.
• Major Richard Flagg, a NPC Terra Volta Respecification Trial contact (level 44+) has been moved out of the Rikti Crash Site (now the Rikti War Zone) and has been moved to Peregrine Island near the Portal Corp. building.

City Zones

• Faultline – Fixed hole in the ground. More gophers!

CITY OF VILLAINS

Powers

• Fixed an issue with Brute Energy Punch which could cause it to generate Fury much faster than designed.
• Corruptor Sonic Resonance Liquefy now accepts damage enhancements and, as a result, may now be slotted with Targeted AoE Sets.

City Zones

• Breakout – Fixed bug that allowed some players to get past the fence into the area where Longbow and Arachnos are fighting.

Graphical Effects

• Drain Psyche effect altered slightly to improve performance.