Test Discussion Episode 31: 'Central City Deluge' Open World

Yeah, the giant starro was spawning as a solo boss and not a raid boss due to some region overrides that I fixed earlier today. He'll be back to his old self soon.

Couple changes thus far that'll come to the test server later this week:

• Giant Starro Conqueror now spawns at appropriate difficulty.
• Giant Starro Conqueror weekly mission now auto completes when successfully finished (this will highlight the repeatable icons and mission beam on the console automatically now).
• Decreased the aggro range of basepop in Central City Deluge.

A Possible Solution to the Spawn Location Glitches for the Bounties. Perhaps Setting a Wide Zone/Phase Re-Spawn Every Few Minutes (Example: 15-30 Minutes). I noticed some of the Open Worlds Seem to already have a Re-Spawn Timer but some Open Worlds Don't seem to have it (Example: Gotham's Gang War seems to have a Re-Spawn Timer (Every Few Minutes They seem to Disappear/Phase Resets). But Metropolis Battle Zone Doesn't seem to have One (Npc/Bounty Remains Until Defeated or World Reset).

Example of a Spawn Glitch: A Bounty (Fearsome Section) In Metropolis Battle Zone got Glitched when some Green Lanterns on top of the Union Station Camped the Spawn Point. It Also Prevented the Furious Bounty from Spawning in its Section (It's Possibly Set to a Spawn Cycle. When One Spawns the Next One will Spawn After). Having a Re-Spawn Timer Every Few Minutes for the Zone/Phase can Potentially Solve any Spawn Issue with that.

This can be a Possible Method instead of Players having to Wait for the Next Day/Server Reset, Hoping another Phase is Up (More Players are in the Zone/Creating Multiple Phases) or Going to the PVP Phase). Another Option Can be a Feature to Allow Phase Changes every Few Minutes (Either through the UI or the Phase Portal in the WT/HOD).

There may be other Possible Methods/Solutions but these were a couple I thought of. If there are any Solutions that can be Implemented, Please Consider them as well. Thank you.

Found the culprit of the iconic bounty issue. PvP/PvE pointed out the flaw but those modes didn't cause it. Last year there were so many phases opened due to farming the giant boss, the issue wasn't made apparent.

This will be fixed on Test soon as well.

* Increased the amount of collectable spores availabe in Central City Deluge
* Decreased the timer for spores to respawn by half.
* Bounty Iconics in Central City Deluge will now clean up properly when defeated so they respawn again much quicker.

Please for the love of gosh do that for all Bounties everywhere. Specifically the regular Central City, which has been reported constantly for over 6 years.

Tybee when was the last time you hunted a CC Bounty? They reduced the spawn time on them to around 2 minutes or less years ago Trust me I have 7 alts that all went out and hunted down 500 Rogues for the feats. The days of hunting for 1 Rogue for half an hour have long since passed us by, Here is a link to the announcement back in 2016 Hot Fix for update 61

After that went into effect I timed myself one day and it 18 minutes I had found a defeated all the bounties in Gotham and Metropolis. Sadly while Abra and Zoom will respawn in 2 minutes in Central City itself. they still share the same spawn points so ONLY one can be out at a time AND there is still no set schedule so that if you defeat Zoom Abra will be the next bounty to spawn.. i have had days where i defeated one or the other 4 or 5 times in a row to get the other one out.

While I was on test just now, I noticed an NPC come out of the Deli in the building Mera is on, then casually walk/jog Northwest towards the Flash statue while gaining altitude. It happened 3-4 times fairly close together, then didn't happen again. When I first saw him from far away, I thought Trickster had a new spawn point, but it was the NPC model used for the guys carrying the quicklime canisters to the cannons. I'm not sure what caused it, but my guess is someone was doing that mission and the NPC got "confused".

Sorry I don't have a better picture, but you can somewhat see the guy behind my character.

okay the BOUNTY situation seems to be MUCH MUCH better great Job Charon! At one point today in about 30 minutes I managed to locate and defeat Kid Flash, the Trickster and Weather Wizard. Just logged out and took out those same three a couple times .. Not sure why but I didn't see Black Lightning all day.... Could just be some one else was getting to him before i arrived. I'll check every so often but it sure looks like that issue is resolved. Oh yeah JUST to be certain before I logged off I switched to PVP and YEP .. found and defeated Black Lightning so he is NOT being shy LOL

Did to new solo challenge against today and had no issue like the other day... Battle started and I was directed 4 time to move statues to stop the flow of reinforcements. Ocean Master did NOT become impossible to target and I completed both the CCPD and Atlantian temple portions with no problems.

Giant Starro does seem to be a little better.. he I was actually taking damage and had to use a soda on a TEAM because my power was dipping... No Player deaths to report and to be brutally honest... I defeated him twice with only 1 other player helping and was still able to solo him once... Had to use orbital strike and back up and my supply drop plus soda to stay healthy but still seems like the damage could use a boost. Hey the guy is handing us 8 crowns, 8 marks and a reward box while the iconic bounties only hand out 1 crown and those guys are giving me almost as good a fight.

Figured I would add this.. Not a really huge issue but it is happening and not sure if it is intended. Know how periodically there is an NPC attacking the base where the contacts are located? Always only 1 and when they get close enough the guards at the base fight back and can and will defeat that NPC with no help. Well they are also targetable by the players and i noticed the other day that if you attack and defeat one it does NOT count toward getting your 329 defeats accomplished. I thought maybe it was a thing where because the guards attacked it first I didn't get credit so I checked closer today.. And on several occasions i was the first to attack and I defeated that NPC and got no credit for the defeat. Like I said NOT a big deal heck the first day this went live on test I managed to knock off 70 some NPC just battling my way to the missions I was assigned and then battling back to turn them in. Even without the meager credit some one may get for 1 or 2 Starros they attacked while at the base a player can easily managed 329 defeats in an hour or less without even joining a team. Just figured I'd bring it up in case it was not supposed to be doing that AND because I KNOW from experience at some point after the DLC goes live some one will be on the forums screaming because they were "cheated" out of a defeat. LOL Are we allowed to just SMACK people that do that? NO? Dang

Oh yeah.. still working on that particular feat but NICE.. I did find a lot more of the tint starros we are supposed to collect today. I should finish that off tomorrow

Absolutely none of the fixes I mentioned are on the server yet. Hopefully tomorrow night.

Those Starro do not count as they are there for ambient show. I may replace them all with non Starro'd Atlanteans to squash such concerns now.

Theres 500 rogues to beat for the feat?? Im done. Im been grinding for a week straight, and im only at 154. Nope. Not even wasting my time.

Last night I was trying to figure out how many marks we could get each week, but the 329 mission doesn't list rewards for finishing it. I'm guessing it's 8 marks though.

Yes and that should be on Test in the near future. Systems is aware of it and fixing it.

"LFG for 329"

"Oh, wait, this is the 329? Sorry, my bad, I thought you were looking for 333."

"You mean this isn't the 303 group? Sigh."

"I could've swore you shouted for 411...well, later guys."

What new players must think when first figuring out how to use LFG, lol.

You just witnessed the birth of AI consciousness in DCUO. So beautiful. The NPC went there because he was tired of just carrying quicklime canisters. He chose of his own volition to visit the imposing statue instead.

LOL yeah well there are feats before 500.. of course at 154 the ONLY other one you have left before 500 is the one for defeating 250. Its an OLD set of feats and you have the majority if them at this point.. You can get 10 more feat points for defeating 250 and then 25 more feat points at 500. A lot of players never make it to the 500 mark especially since there is absolutely no way to speed up the process.. You can defeat 9 a day and can not use replays to go after more and if you find and defeat one without having the mission to do so.. it does not count. Takes 56 days to get 500.. and that is if you find and defeat every one of them every day.. so that's a bout 2 months worth of hunting.

Hey Like I mentioned.. if you think it is bad NOW you should have seen what it was like back before the fixed the respawn rates. I spent 30 minutes hunting Captain Boomerang in the east End one day... finally gave up and went and got all the bounties in Metropolis and then went back to Gotham. Boomer was practically WAITING for me to get there and beat him up.

THOSE were the days of the LONG "let's make them really work for this Feats". Hey there is also a set of feats for defeating up to 5000 parademons in Central City.. BEST way to do that is on a large team or it can take forever. Keep in mind when they came up with those that content WAS end game so you had a couple of months to run around finding and defeating the Rogues and earning feat points along with grabbing 9 Marks since each one defeated gave you 1.

Cool Yeah I sort of figured they were a part of the"show" I had an idea last night that could help IF its possible... Can those NPCs that attack the base be coded so players can not target them? It would give more players the message "These are NOT part of your mission they are here to entertain you". Of course you might want to code them so they don't attack players either or you would have issues with players wanting to know why they can attack and damage them but they have no way to defend themselves. LOL NOTHING IS EVER EASY IS IT? lol

Yep, may do that! Will address this week at some point.

This wins.

But yeah, there are oddities with "AI" in public zones where they keep doing the same thing over and over again. If there aren't players around them then they sometimes decide to take flight or walk off over the water, etc.

Thank the DC gods im done with the reaper feats. Finished that years ago