Adeon Hawkwood

Only Peacebringers are natural, Warshades are Science.

The VEATs are an interesting case. Personally my take on them is as follows. They are of Natural origin because they start as natural origin. Up until level 24 the initial Wolf Spider or Widow powers are essentially Natural representing the equivalent of Army training and equipment that, while decent, is not significantly better than what is commercially available. At level 24 this changes depending on what build options the player selects. Widows of both stripes start demonstrating psychic powers implying a Mutant origin. Spiders, meanwhile, are either Science for the Crab Spider (since the backpack is permanently attached I'd consider it science) or Technological for the Bane Spider (canonically Bane Spiders are also psychic but this doesn't manifest in their power selection).

However, when this happens their Origin remains natural for the simple reason that their origin was natural. Their power source might have changed but it was their will and determination that started them on the road to obtaining that power source (ok, technically Widows already had the ability inside them but without the training they received it would never have manifested).

The first one, heck if it only has one slot I'd probably just use a generic endurance reduction IO. The 0.78 end/sec cost is VERY steep.

And when both players exemplar back down to run Citadel Task Force, what then? Should the "buy every 5 levels player" go to the market and buy another set of level 30 Thunderstrikes to use on that Task Force?

It's been said numerous times both by myself and other people within this thread but I think it bears repeating

We don't care about the enhancements scaling up, that's the sort of convenience based boost that should be in the store. It's the enhancements scaling down that pisses us off.

Frankly I don't know, and don't particularly care (since I don't actually read superhero comics). The view from where I sit is that the devs wrote an arc killing off a a minor character and expect me to care. The gender of the character is largely irrelevant to that, I'm just irritated by them killing someone off and expecting me to care when they've given me no reason to care about the character in question. The emotional impact of the arc is roughly equivalent to Red Shirt #5 dieing in an episode of Star Trek.

The problem I have with this line of thought is that if it is true then the inverse has to also be accepted as true. If a male character exists only to be killed then is the writer guilty of misandry?

Having characters introduced solely for the purpose of being killed of is just poor story telling. The gender of the character is largely immaterial to it, women tend to be more common in this role because males are more common as protagonists but that is a separate issue. The real solution is to have more female protagonists in fiction as a whole.

I'd disagree (obviously). The problem is that this is why we have the Girls Need Role Models trope. Having characters exist solely to be killed off should be considered poor form regardless of their gender.

I agree. Making it co-op would be a nice start but unless the TFs and quest givers are changed to make them co-op as well it doesn't really accomplish much. The quest givers shouldn't be a problem, just say that the upswing in the Praetorian War means that the US military doesn't have enough troops to send to help them so they are willing to take whatever help they can get.

The TFs are a little trickier since they all involve missions in Paragon City. The simple solution there would be to change change the "door" for those missions to a portal inside of Firebase Zulu so instead of trekking back to Paragon City you get ported directly where you need to go. That being said, I'd advocate a full re-write of the TFs anyway to make them more enjoyable to run. The actual plots of the TFs are quite good, they just need to cut down on the number of filler missions.

For example, if I were going to re-write the Saga of Lanaru here is how I'd do it (in the style of things like the ITF and Apex TF):


Mission 1: Faathim tells you that you must prove yourself by clearing a cave of Rularuu. The "door' for this mission is a portal inside his death star thingy. This is a pretty standard cave map full of Rularuu. After completing this he gives you a small crystal that will allow him to communicate telepathically with you (i.e. his cell phone).

Mission 2: Ok, this mission is going to be the meat of the TF, it's a huge map with several stages and a bunch of AVs.

Faathim tells you that several forces are fighting to control the master of the Storm Palace and that you must prevent them from doing so and instead use the keys yourself to enter the Storm Palace and confront Lanaru.

The door for this mission is a either the Hortha vine leading from the Chantry to the Storm Palace or a nearby glowie teleport thing if that can't be done. The mission map itself is a reconstruction of the Storm Palace zone complete with gravity geysers (possibly split into multiple sub-maps if necessary due to size, if this is done the gravity geysers could function as "doors" moving you between map sections).

When you zone into the map you're greeted by General Hammond who has established a fire base and field hospital to help you out. He gives you a little pep talk to assure you that his men will help hold the areas you clear (ideally as you clear the monuments his party moves up lagging about one monument behind you, if not maybe put a teleporter at the hospital in the style of the Underground Trial).

The basic goal of the mission is to travel to each of the seven monuments in the Storm Palace, defeat the AV guarding it to get the key and then activate it. The areas in between the monuments will have some additional enemies. In general the areas between two monuments will consist of either forces loyal to the AVs at each monument or alternatively combats between two different forces, i.e. if Nemesis is at the Monument of Torment and Mother Mayhem is at the Monument of Malice then the area in between would have a mixture of IDF and Nemesis Soldiers with some groups fighting each other.

The Monuments and AVs in order would be:

Monument of Anger: Preatorian IDF with Malaise as the AV
Monument of Malice: Preatorian IDF with Mother Mayhem as the AV
Monument of Torment: Nemesis with the "Nemesis?" Archvillain
Monument of Hatred: Nemesis with the "Nemesis?" Archvillain (yes, you'd fight him twice. Why? Because it's funny)
Monument of Fury: Rikti with Hro'Dtohz as the AV
Monument of Destruction: When you arrive here there is no AV but there is a group of Malta fighting the Rikti. Faathim contacts you telepathically and tells you that the Malta have recovered the key and retreated to Paragon City, however he can track them and will open a portal for you. The portal takes you to a small Malta Base style map where you find and defeat a Malta AV (either a new one or possibly a Kronos Titan if a suitable outdoors map style is used) to recover the key and then return to the main map to use it.
Monument of Madness: Once again you are to late finding only a group of Circle of Thorns guarding the Monument. Faathim again opens a portal to a graveyard in Paragon City where you defeat Baphomet to recover the last key.

Activating the final monument completes the mission. Exiting the mission on completion places you in the Storm Palace near the overland Monument of Madness (this was done in the Admiral Sutter TF, so apparently it's possible to have a special "mission complete" exit).


Mission 3: Faathim now tells you that the time has come to confront Lanaru the Mad. This mission is essentially identical to the final mission of the current TF. Go the the big room, fight the giant AV. Have tea and crumpets.


So yeah, that is how I'd do it. The basic story of the TF is actually pretty good, you have to stop a bunch of bad guys who a are trying to steal the keys to control the uber bad guy (who you then beat up). The problem is that this is spread accross 9 different door missions. Combining those 9 missions into one uber mission concentrates the AV fights (which are fun) while cutting out the amount of filler in between. Similarly reducing the number of kill all missions at the start from 3 to 1 reduces the filler there without really impacting the plot.

The problem is that avoiding tropes with a misogynistic bias is, itself, a misogynistic bias. Saying "oh we can't kill Miss Liberty because she's a woman" isn't really any better than saying "let's kill Miss Liberty because she's a woman".

Speaking for myself the problem I had with the story arc isn't so much the gender of Miss Liberty but the fact that I had been given little reason to care about her. She wasn't a character to me, she was piece of background lore.

How is that different from just buying the SBEs themselves? In fact it's worse since now I have to spend time and inf getting the IOs plus paragon points getting the boosters (and I believe I'd need a lot more paragon points to buy the boosters than to buy the SBEs). And no, using the Paragon Points from my sub does not make it "free" there is such a thing as opportunity cost.

I do remember. That doesn't mean I'm going to shut up.

I stand corrected .

I figure if they ever actually did this they would just implement it as different powersets. So you'd have Trick Arrow (Bow), Trick Shot (Dual Pistols) and Special Munitions (Assault Rifle). That avoids the whole weapon stance issue and allows each option to have different power names where appropriate (i.e. Ice Arrow becomes Cryonic Munitions).

Actually this is not the case. While Rikti Drones are vulnerable to AoE attacks Sands of Mu is, like most melee range AoE powers, actually tagged as a Melee power and not an AoE power for the purposes of defense so it will not have a better chance of hitting than any other melee attack (in fact it will be worse due to not having accuracy slotting).
http://tomax.cohtitan.com/data/power...nt_Sands_of_Mu

Defense tags are not 100% consistent but in general any PBAoE click power a range of 10 foot or less is tagged as melee and not AoE. PBAoEs with a larger radius (such as Short Circuit and Footstomp) are generally tagged as AoE as are the various damage auras.

Well unfortunately City of Data doesn't have Street Justice yet so I can't confirm but you are probably correct. Spinning Strike takes Targeted AoE IO sets so it is almost certainly tagged as an AoE attakc. Conversely Sweeping Cross takes PBAoE sets and as such is probably counted as a melee attack.

There aren't any sets that grant to hit bonuses (for the very good reason they would be horribly overpowered). A Brute has three options for picking up constant to hit bonuses:
1. Tactics in the Leadership pool
2. Focused Accuracy in Energy Mastery and Mace Mastery
3. Slot a Kismet: Accuracy in a defense Toggle/Auto-Power (despite the name this actually gives a +6% to hit bonus while the toggle is running).

Another option for intermittent to hit bonuses is to use yellow inspirations or build up (when I played melee characters i would often use yellows when fighting Rikti just to deal with the drones). This isn't a permanent bonus but it can be useful for dealing with specific enemies. Incidentally, Rikti Drones are vulnerable to Targeted AoE attacks so picking up a ranged AoE in your epic pool is also a viable option for them specifically.

This is very unlikely to happen. A single alignment merit has at least twice the purchasing power of 50 reward merits (depending on exactly what you buy). As such the 20 million inf cost is there to limit the extra wealth a character generates by converting Reward Merits to A-Merits.

Roughly speaking an A-Merit is worth about 70 million Inf while a Reward Merit is probably closer to 0.6 Million Inf. Converting 50 reward merits to an alignment merit is more than doubling the value of your merits (from 30 million Inf to 70 million Inf). The 20 million inf conversion cost reduces that gain from 40million Inf to a more reasonable 20 million. It also serves as a nice inf sink removing some of the excess inf from the economy.

From a technical point of view I think your definition of pay-to-win is probably more correct than mine. To be honest I dislike using the term pay-to-win because it has so many loaded connotations. My viewpoint on "pay to win" is that I dislike any items that provide a noticeable and permanent in-game advantage and aren't available in game.

To me the exemplaring impact of SBEs is a noticeable and permanent advantage. It means that I can make an exemplar-friendly build without having to do one of the following:
1. Make myself less powerful at 50 by using level 30 IOs (which are frustrating to accquire)
2. Use two builds which represents a not insignificant expenditure of inf when you factor in two sets of things like LotGs and Purple sets.

Now a compromise solution (even if they don't want to make all IOs scale like SBEs) would be to introduce the ability in-game to convert a regular IO to an SBE. The idea would be getting an item (perhaps purchased with Astral Merits?) which can be used on a standard set IO of any level and turns it into a SBE style IO. If they introduced that I'd be fine with it. I'd even accept logical limitations such as can only use it on an IO that is already in the store and doing so makes the IO account-bound.

In many ways I think this would actually be a very nice option. It would eliminate the complaints from people like myself, it would help provide IOs for leveling characters (equivalent to Heirloom items form the MMO that shall not be named) and if the cost was reasonably low (say a single Astral per IO) even the msot hard-core soloist could accumulate a reasonable quantity just by running the SSAs.

Yeah, I can see the argument. From the point of view of the game as a whole I'm pretty sure you're right about the reasons not to put purples in the store. It's just that speaking for myself I don't really mind. My general attitude is: I already have purples and as such would not buy any form the store, other people being able to does not affect me in any negative way (they aren't making people more powerful than me) so I don't really care. To me purples in the store just means more purples for the rest of us.

I can see some valid uses for controlling creatures of the deep:


Honestly, I was expecting people to complain about the fact that Spiderman is from the wrong universe.

It's a dev tool to catch exploits:
http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/MARTy

The solution I take is that there is no point to a secret identity. When heroes are a dime a dozen kidnapping friends and family becomes much less useful as a tactic. Kidnapping Lois Lane to keep Superman busy while you rob a bank makes sense if Superman is the only one who can stop you. But if Batman, Spiderman, Wonder Woman and Aquaman are all in town for a convention then kidnapping Lois Lane to keep Superman busy while you rob a bank doesn't really help much, they'll foil the robbery while Superman rescues Lois Lane.

Alternatively play a Traps Defender and get the best of both worlds. You're tough enough to lead from the front and have plenty of debuffs to help with hard fights. In particular PGT guarantees that your team will have no issues with the AV at the end. Just remember the code of the Trapper: if the Tanker wants to be first into the spawn, he should have taken super speed

Time, Radiation and Dark are also good options for a lead from the front defender although personally I prefer having mez protection on an agressive Defender and of the sets with Mez protection I find that Traps is the best. That being said, any of those sets will work pretty well (Time is light on the regen debuffs though so it isn't as strong against an AV).

EDIT: I guess if you really want to you could take one of those sets on a Controller and combine aggressive leadership with a bit more protection. I just like Defenders .

I think you're misunderstanding my position. For the record, yes I am an ebil marketeer, but that is not the cause of my complaint. I believe that the impact of this move on the actual market prices will be negligible, so I'm not concerned about the devs stealing my (metaphorical) lunch. My objection is purely that the IOs being sold are better than the ones obtainable in game.

This is always a tricky line to walk in F2P games. There will always be people who are willing to pay to be "uber" and as such there is an advantage to the devs in catering to them. However a perception that the game hs become "pay to win" will drive off players. If changes were made to bring parity between store bought IOs and regular IOs then the SBEs become simply a matter of trading money for time and I have zero problems with that. If SBEs and regular IOs behave the same then the devs can add any IOs they want (including purple and PvPIOs) to the store and I will not care in the least (disclaimer: I will complain if they add store exclusive IOs).

Until that happens I will continue to ***** and moan every time a new IO is added.

I've worked Crushing Impacts from time to time. It isn't a bad set but it's also not wildly popular. Most melee characters focus on defense before recharge so it tends to be more of a filler set. Given that and the relatively low market price I'd be surprised if many.

The other side of it is that having a character with only a few scaling sets isn't that great unless the sets themselves are really good. Having a full set of scaling IOs is not currently possible (or at least it isn't possible with useful sets) which limits the appeal of the sets overall. After all if you're going to spend the money, you want a full set of sets. Now Thunderstrike I can see might be selling well, the value for a blaster/defneder/corruptor in having a couple of ranged defense bonuses at low levels is pretty big.

To be honest my problem isn't with selling IOs it's with the fact that the IOs being sold are superior. If they were identical to regular IOs I'd be perfectly fine with it.