Test Server Update - Episode 41: House of Legends

Episode 41: House of Legends

New Feature: The House of Legends!
A new social hub for players to explore. Because this hub is still in development, we’re looking to get focus on a few new features as follows:

• Layout – Explore the new hub and report visual or map issues
• Tour Mission – Accept the new tour mission from the Monitor and test out the flow
• Orrery Teleporter – Test out and use our new teleporter tech to travel to other open worlds
• New Style Vendors – We have new vendors that sell styles of episode gear, we’d like to hear your feedback on them
• Chang Tzu in the House of Legends now sells all Tiers of Combat Pets
• Iconic Weapon styles now drop as rare collectibles throughout the game
• Safehouse teleportation hub now shows House of Legends instead of Watchtower or Hall of Doom.

Save the Universe
Release 1 of 3 (Superman Content)

• This content up-levels classic content so it can be enjoyed at end-game levels.
• Visit Rip Hunter and his Time Sphere in the House of Legends for a Weekly Mission
• Elite versions have been made for instances that did not have Elite previously
• Lower level players will be able to run the leveling version of the instances for partial Save the Universe currency

Allies

• Allies Tutorial mission can now be started and completed from Cyborg in the House of Legends
• The Flash, Professor Zoom, Oracle-Bot and Calculator-Bot are available to level up and try out from the PC Test Vendor
• Get resources to upgrade your Allies on PC Test from the PC Test Vendor in the Test Server PvE Currency box

End Game

• End-Game Tiers have been reconfigured. There are now 6 Tiers, and all On Duty-accessed content has been organized into those Tiers.  In order to access content within these Tiers, players need to have a Combat Rating (Gear Score) of:
  • Tier 1: CR 30
  • Tier 2: CR 60
  • Tier 3: CR 100
  • Tier 4: CR 150
  • Tier 5: CR 210
  • Tier 6: Episodes 38, 39, and 40 content maintains existing CR requirements.

Scaling

• Skill Points, Artifacts, Augments, League Hall Mods, Generator Mods, (future) applicable Allies/passives, and certain Movement Mode and Iconic Abilities’ stats are now calculated after players are scaled to the level of content, with diminished effect.
  • This means that as you continue to improve your character, you will continue to become (at least a little bit) stronger even in scaled content.
• Early End-Game On Duty and Open World content (content not part of the latest three episodes) is now set up to scale players who are outside the range of the content
  • Players below the Combat Rating of the content are scaled up to a ‘floor.’
  • Players that are at the Combat Rating of the content are not scaled 
  • Players that are above the Combat Rating of the content are scaled down, to a ‘ceiling’ 
• League Buffs, Skill Points, Artifacts, Allies, etc. do improve you beyond scaled stat values and have a proportional return so that you still receive a worthy benefit from those
• Players receive a passive buff when in Normal Mode Early End-Game Instanced content (not Elite Modes)
• Unbalanced groups in Alerts/4-Player Operations no longer receive the “Roleless Buff” in Early End-Game Instanced content
• The “Roleless Buff” is still applied in the latest three episodes 4-Player content and also now in Open Worlds for those three episodes
• Players scaled up to the floor of the content receive the biggest buff, players that are at-level receive a lesser buff, and players that are scaled to the ceiling of the content receive the smallest buff
• Missions in the Mission Journal have had their Combat Ratings/Levels updated to correspond to the new Tiers
• Missions that point players to different episodes’ instances and open worlds are now granted by new Missions (those are currently disabled)
• Therefore, currently, players won’t receive these ‘pointer’ missions for Early End-Game content at this time.
• There are no longer Alerts available to players who are below level 30
  • The two Alerts which didn’t have a “Hard Mode” (Level 30+) version are now set up as Early End-Game alerts
• There are no longer “Novice” Raids
  • Existing feats and collections which were accessible in the sub-level 30 instances should still be accessible in these Early End-Game instances.
• Certain Alerts have been streamlined, whereby the objective counts within them have been reduced, so they don’t take as long
  • These include “Bludhaven,” “Gorilla Island,” and “Area 51”
• Early End-Game content that spawns in Metropolis and Gotham has been adjusted so that it’s complete-able by players as soon as players are able to get the missions which lead to them
  • This includes missions entitled “Threat in South Gotham,” “Deconstruction,” “South Gotham Agenda,” “Uncivil Engineering,” which are all now playable by CR 30+ players, and “Virtues and Vices,” which is now playable by CR 60+ players 
• Similarly, Episode 6 (Home Turf) open world content that goes to Arkham Asylum, Stryker’s Pentitentary, Steelworks, and Ace Chemicals, have been adjusted to be complete-able by CR 60+ players
• Existing Teleporters in the Watchtower and Hall of Doom, which allow access to different locations associated with different Early End-Game episodes now have CR requirements corresponding to the Tier updates
• Urgent Warfront Mods similarly have been updated.
• Mechanical Gear Vendor has been removed from all Safehouses, the Watchtower, and the Hall of Doom 
• Instead, players will be able to get what they need to advance through the Early End-Game from Tempus Fuginaut in the House of Legends
• Loot Locks have been removed from the Early End-Game instanced content (content accessed via the On Duty menu that isn’t part of the latest three episodes)
• All Early End-Game On Duty and Open World content will reward Source Marks (regardless of CR), and offer choice loot including Scaling Gear that will help players progress from CR 30 all the way the CR needed to access the latest Episode
• Changed Open World Bosses to be more in line with scaled stat values. Raid and Group bosses have been set down to a lower rank where applicable which is intended to make them easier to defeat with fewer people.

On-Duty Menu
Introducing the New On Duty Menu with improved graphics!

• The New On Duty Menu allows players to queue and play through some of the most important content available in the game including Latest Episodes, Save The Universe, Early End Game, and more!
• Clicking on any Quick Play options brings the player to the Quick Play Screen allowing them to see more details including the possible Runs available and rewards they can earn.
• Starting a Queue here will queue the player and their group for all of the Runs the group is eligible for and join the first one available.
• In addition, players can now quickly and easily change their Role at any time from the Main Menu rather than waiting until they are in queue.
• The Old On Duty Menu is still available through the “Custom Play” button in the Main Menu allowing players to manually queue for any content they desire.

Known Issues: Still under construction, and some buttons are not yet functional.

General

• Iconic Weapon styles now drop as rare collectibles throughout the game
• Source Mark Rewards removed from episodes 38, 39, and 40
• New scaling gear boxes with max level 280 added to Early Endgame instance boss rewards
• Nth Metal drops consolidated from too many down to just three: Raw, Processed, and Flawless
• Icons for these items have had their tic marks removed, and their colors shifted to green, blue, and purple respectively
• Vault and Stabilizer instances removed from On Duty Menu
• Vault tickets no longer drop anywhere in game
• Vault tickets can now be used to simulate a vault run, putting vault loot directly into your inventory
• Members now receive approximately 1.5x the amount of Nth Metal Drops as free/premium players