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Difference between revisions of "Soft Loading"

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== What is soft loading? ==
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{{historical}}
  
'''Soft loading''' is a way to make [[Task Force]]s in City of Heroes and strike forces in City of Villains a great deal easier by fooling the server into thinking only one team member is online; this is done by having all but one person on the team log off while the remaining person enters the mission.
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== Overview ==
  
The procedure can be used for any instanced, or "door", mission in a task/strike force, and will cause all bosses (except specifically coded-in ones like elite bosses or some named bosses) to disappear, as well as most of the minions.
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'''Soft loading''' used to be a way to make [[Task Force]]s in City of Heroes and [[Strike Force]]s in City of Villains a great deal easier by fooling the server into thinking only one team member was online; this was done by having all but one person on the team log off while the remaining person entered the mission. This technique was rendered obsolete due to changes made in the [[Patch Notes/2008-03-05|May 3, 2008 patch]], which causes Task Forces to spawn based on team size regardless of whether the team members are logged in or not.
  
Soft loading will not decrease the level of the enemies, nor will it make the end battle with the [[Archvillain]] any easier; it will only allow the team to speed through "clear all" missions by decimating the total amount of enemies.
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The procedure could be used for any instanced ("door") mission in a task/strike force, and would cause all bosses (except specifically coded-in ones like elite bosses and some named bosses) to disappear, as well as most of the minions.
  
Some task forces can be cleared in under 90 minutes if all missions are soft loaded successfully.
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Soft loading did not decrease the level of the enemies, nor did it make the end battle with the [[Archvillain]] any easier; it merely allowed the team to speed through "clear all" missions by decimating the total amount of enemies.
  
== Procedure ==
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Some task forces could be cleared in under 90 minutes if all missions were soft loaded successfully.
  
1. Everyone except one team member (one with some form of [[Concealment#Invisibility|Invisibility]] or [[Stealth]] if the mission has several floors) logs out of CoH for around 5 minutes.  Stalkers are great for this.
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== Procedure ==
  
2. The lone member visits every floor in the mission before the others log on.
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While it is no longer possible to soft load, here is the procedure that was typically used when it was possible.
  
'''This is very important.'''  The server checks the size of the team every time a new floor is visited for the first time.  So, if the other members log on too soon, the second floor on up will spawn the full amount of enemies.
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1. Everyone except one team member (one with some form of [[Concealment#Invisibility|Invisibility]] or [[Stealth]] if the mission has several floors) logged out of the game for around 5 minutes.
  
3. The other members log in, now that the mission is explored, and the mission can be cleared in a much shorter time.
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2. The remaining stealthy team member visits every floor in the mission before the others log back on. As the server checked the team size every time a new floor was visited for the first time, it was important for all floors to be visited by the single team member before the rest of the team logged in.
  
== UPDATE ==
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3. The other members logged in and were able to clear a sparsely spawned map.
  
Recent patches to the game servers will prevent {{PAGENAME}} during Task Forces. There is still some debate about the final rules that will be in place. The short version is that the enemy spawns will at least contain the number of foes proportional to the number of Task Force members, whether those members are logged in or not. There may be another lower limit, keep an eye on the Training Room boards.
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In the current version of the game, all floors will be spawned with the same number of enemies regardless of whether team members are logged in or not.
  
 
[[Category:Definition]]
 
[[Category:Definition]]

Latest revision as of 23:13, 31 May 2008

Badge time.png This article or section contains information that no longer applies to the current version of City of Heroes Freedom. It is provided for historical purposes.

Overview

Soft loading used to be a way to make Task Forces in City of Heroes and Strike Forces in City of Villains a great deal easier by fooling the server into thinking only one team member was online; this was done by having all but one person on the team log off while the remaining person entered the mission. This technique was rendered obsolete due to changes made in the May 3, 2008 patch, which causes Task Forces to spawn based on team size regardless of whether the team members are logged in or not.

The procedure could be used for any instanced ("door") mission in a task/strike force, and would cause all bosses (except specifically coded-in ones like elite bosses and some named bosses) to disappear, as well as most of the minions.

Soft loading did not decrease the level of the enemies, nor did it make the end battle with the Archvillain any easier; it merely allowed the team to speed through "clear all" missions by decimating the total amount of enemies.

Some task forces could be cleared in under 90 minutes if all missions were soft loaded successfully.

Procedure

While it is no longer possible to soft load, here is the procedure that was typically used when it was possible.

1. Everyone except one team member (one with some form of Invisibility or Stealth if the mission has several floors) logged out of the game for around 5 minutes.

2. The remaining stealthy team member visits every floor in the mission before the others log back on. As the server checked the team size every time a new floor was visited for the first time, it was important for all floors to be visited by the single team member before the rest of the team logged in.

3. The other members logged in and were able to clear a sparsely spawned map.

In the current version of the game, all floors will be spawned with the same number of enemies regardless of whether team members are logged in or not.