Biostem

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I got one from "pkpkgliers", saying "Poor for living? Boring on leveling way? Come to [malformed URL deleted]. We are selling the cheap and fast infamy for you, and we promises the safety of your account on powerleveling. Thanks" (global name '@pkpkgsaera') They've been petitioned, /ignored, and /gignored... and I expect they'll be back as soon as they can create another account...

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There is OBVIOUSLY a GAP in what ZERO Tolerance means to them and what it means to me.

I get that same tell multiple times perday and I always petition it.. and Guess [censored] what... I get that tell from the same guy the next day and the next day and the [censored] next day.

Zero Tolerance means as soon as you get 1 petition from someone and they copy and paste the damn advertisiment you [censored] BAN the account.

You dont wait several days or never bother to get them ...

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I understand your frustration - I have received these tells as well. The thing you are missing is that, while there may be zero tolerance for such things, it still requires that they go through the petition process for review, and only when the account that was petitioned is found to be guilty, do they ban the account.

The problem is, you can get a free trial from numerous places, and the ones doing the in-game advertising are probably using random info to fill in the required account info.

In short, it's not something that can be stopped easily, and even if you ban 100's of accounts from these spammers, if they make any profit from their efforts, then it is worth it to them...

Perhaps what is needed is a process where, when someone you haven't sent or received a tell from before, tries to send you one, you get a prompt "so-and-so is sending you a tell. Accept once/Accept always/Decline once/Decline always?" And based upon your answer, you never have to read any message. Of course, for your friends you can choose "accept always" and only have to deal w/ the prompt once...

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A number of players have expressed their concern with the use of the Admin chat channel to announce Rikti zone invasions. We wanted to let you know that we are aware of the concerns and working to address it.

Thanks for your feedback and continued support!

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Putting this is SYSTEM guarantees it will be buried and those who want to see it and aren't lucky enough to be in the zone WILL miss it.

For example, every time a critter is defeated by you, your teammate, anyone in your vicinity there is a system message. Among other system messages. Try spotting invasion messages in THAT.

(There is a reason I don't even have system on my primary windows, and instead have it on another tab with "combat stuff". I tried adding it in preparation for the upcoming change that is on test just to see what it would be like and promptly removed it again within minutes.)

I understand the complaints of the people who don't like it being in ADMIN, even if I don't agree with them, there are enough of them that clearly there needs to be an adjustment to how this is handled.

This is a bad fix. Try another channel. Add another channel (yes, yes, I've heard you can't for programming reasons). Give us a sixth global channel then, and give the admin system speaker only priviliges. Something! This defeats the purpose.

Late Saturday night, when server population was low, I was only able to find one other player to help me defend Founders Falls against the Invasion. We both came to the zone for the event. Founders had two people in the zone at the time, one went into University, the other left the zone. (The resulting fight made for some interesting screenshots)

Don't turn Invasions into nonevents by making it impossible for those of us who want to come to know it's happening.

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There are systems in place to have civilians chat about something you or another character did. Could they be used to mention the invasion? For instance, what if the civilians would say things like "Kings Row is being invaded! Run for your life!"

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Would it be possible to filter out messages that contain the URLs from these spammers? Filtering out all URLs would, of course, be a big problem for SGs and other legitimate uses, but if there was a way to block messages that contained known RMT site links - most importantly, without letting the spammer know the message was blocked - it'd help out quite a bit.

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There is yet to be a filter created that is not easily circumvented by a spammer. Let's say you edited out 'www', people would just type 'w w w' or some other permutation. You'd see 'w w w;buyinf;com' or other mangled url's, but the message would still get across. It's the kind of thing that really requires human intervention to stop...

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here comes laggy hell in the form of a stupid move on the Game maker's part. THE SERVERS WILL LAGG TO ROTTEN! HEED ME! lol. Man they are screwing me out of 15 bucks a month with all this slow loading and lag.

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Step 1 - The admin message says zone X will be invaded.

Step 2 - You go to a different zone, thus avoiding the lag.

Step 3 - Profit!

Especially in CoH, there are at least 2 zones for every level range...

Resolving any or all travel power issues is a 2-step process:

1. Create a set of costume options associated w/ the various travel powers - we already have the graphics for piston boots, various wings, various jetpacks, and several tech/arcane looking belts. Expand upon them.

2. Create a special costume slot that works off of the current costume, but includes the pieces from part 1 above. When you trigger a travel power, the appropriate costume part appears on your character.

So, for instance, let's say my character flies. I go and select the raptor pack for his flight power. When I turn on hover or fly, the raptor pack appears on my character's back.

If I had chosen SJ instead, I can pick from the zero-G pack, piston boots, or maybe some belt option.

You could just build on this idea, and the tech is essentially already in he game. We could have thrust coming out of our feet like the robotics pets have w/ group fly, we could add some new belts, boots, and back options for this purpose...

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Let's say I wanted to stalk someone - I can /gignore them, get their global handle, and then send them tells no matter who they are on as. If they are not aware of the chat-handle system, they may have very little recourse.

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Well, not really - the other person can /gignore you in turn, and the harassment ends there. Not only that, now THEY have YOUR global handle, which they can use to petition you for harassment if you press the issue further.

Mad props to NCSoft for being swift to address this issue. I'm not happy about what gold farmers do to the in-game economy, but I could overlook that. It's the constant spamming that was the irritating part in WoW.

For best results, mention the character name that sent the tell, the global handle, the server, and the time of day in your petition so they can pinpoint it in the chat logs.

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I understand what you're saying, and yes, you're right. However, if the stalkee wasn't aware of the slash commands, they'd be pretty screwed. That's why I say that...

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Then make use of the in game /petition command to let our Customer Support Team know of the activity so we can address it.

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could you elaborate on this, as to exactly what information you need the petition to contain, what petition topic to enter it under. also how do you globally ignore someone without knowing their global name ?

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I agree. Most of the time, all you get is their throwaway toon's name not their global.

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When you use the /gignore command, it will tell you the global name. Let's say, for instance, that you get a tell from asdfjkl. You can immediately
/ignore asdfjkl
It will tell you that asdfjkl is ignored. Now, you
/gignore asdfjkl
In your window, you should see it telling you that you have globally ignored @yaddayadda.
That's the global name that you can now include in your petition.

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While very useful for reporting offenders, I feel that being able to get anyone's global handle is a big security risk.

Let's say I wanted to stalk someone - I can /gignore them, get their global handle, and then send them tells no matter who they are on as. If they are not aware of the chat-handle system, they may have very little recourse.

Using it properly, though, that is a good method of getting their account name to put an end to their spamming...

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One problem I foresee is some of these spammers buying up all those $5 copies of CoH floating around on the internet somewhere. They activate the game and just use the first free month, do what they want, and even if they get banned, as long as at least 1 person decides to use the service, they made their money back.

Of course, there aren't an infinite number of copes sitting around, but there's quite a few...

Just as an aside, is is safe to assume that other forms of in-game advertising, such as using broadcast, request, help chat, or even having it in your character bio, are able to be petitioned, too?

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Other than echoing the lag issues (which i have gotten used to post release) and the admin messages that desperately need tweaking, I have to say the amount of merits dropped vs the price of the items is not the best trade off.

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Go on a pylon raid or two - your merit woes will disappear...

Don't quote me on this, but it "feels" like the rikti spawned form the mothership have close to a 100% chance to drop a merit, whereas normal rikti only have a 10% chance or so.

Also, do the vanguard story arcs - almost every one rewards merits upon mission completion.

Are there any plans to do something on the east coast? A local sci-fi con had a CoH player meet a few years ago, but nothing since. Is the price we pay for being part of a great, albeit relatively unknown game, to live in obscurity?

I tease, I tease! Best wishes!

6) Choose your fights - some enemies are weaker or stronger vs different types of attacks. Freakshow are weak vs energy, for instance.

7) Develop a steady pace - instead of having to stop, pull, pull, pull, it may actually be more effective to lower the diff a bit so you can just sweep through missions.

8) Coordinate your breaks - of course, those unexpected "potty emergencies" will happen, but if you can work things out w/ your teammates so you all break at the same time, it will cut down on wasted time.

9) Consideration only goes so far - sometimes, it's more considerate to let the team start w/o you, if you take long to load or travel. Work things out first, then decide if you are going to start when the minimum # of team members are in the mission, that you need to actually defeat the spawns.

10) When to train - sometimes those extra enh slots or power can really help the team, other times they don't do much for you. It may not be necessary that you go train every time you level.

11) Spread the wealth - instead of deleting that enrage or bf you may not need, drop it on the defender/controller/blaster - it might suit them better, and it may very well help them to avoid defeat or take out that mob a teensy bit faster. The same can be said for enh's.

12) 8 isn't always the best team size. There are times when adding more people just slows you down. A team can often do more as just 4 or 5 people. As an addition to this, keep the level spread tight. One person whose -4 to the rest of the team may not drag you down too much, but 3 or 4 that are very well may. XP is great, but sometimes that lower level character has to take the sk for the good of the group...

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Safeguards are easier, but really, shouldn't preventing a bank robbery be easier then entering enemy terrritory, evading their forces, and stealing their well guarded resources ?

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I think the problem is that there is no penalty to NOT protecting Paragon, in safeguards. What if failing to prevent vandals cost you a min or 2? What if the outside spawns for side missions were only there for a certain period of time, then they'd actually do the arson? When you're doing a mayhem, YOU initiate the action and the AI LB react to it. When you do a safeguard, you both trigger the event & react to it. That arson isn't going to even begin until you defeat the outside spawn, yet in a mayhem the ambushes start coming just by you approaching the bank. The ambushes shouldn't start coming until AFTER you actually attack the vault...

Black is dark and so it the maroon of the CoV forums, so the contrast is poor and it's hard to see.

Other than 2 accs & 3 damage in quills, what else do you need? You can put the "chance for lethal" proc into quills as the 6th slot.

Just a quick note - you may want to stay away from using black in your guides - it is hard to read if you're logged into the CoV forum.

I'd also like to add that when I experimented w/ the "chance for lethal" proc in chilling embrace on my ice/sm tanker, I found it a waste since it didn't help much. I understand you are going for AoE damage, but CoF is costly to run, and a low base acc.

I'm currently leveling a spine/regen scrapper, and one thing you may want to look into is if quills can take the "chance for lethal" proc from one of the slow sets.

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Do either of Sands of Mu or the Ghost Slaying Axe interact with a Brute's Fury? (My initial fiddling implies they don't, but that could be bad testing on my part.)

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I recall being told "no" before (but by who I'm not sure -- possibly a guildie in game), but my own personal observations with the ghost slaying axe says that it is factoring in fury.

At least, vs some mobs in the same mission I saw numbers in the 20s early on when I used it with every other attack recharging (so some, but low, fury) while I was still building fury and by the end with my bar rockin' I was seeing 50s/hit.

I didn't go back and do any testing on it, so can't say for sure. Sorry!

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The vet temp powers do NOT benefit from any damage bonuses, short of dmg resist debuffs. They DO, however, benefit from acc/tohit buffs.

To-date, I have found the ghost slaying axe to do tremendous damage to the following enemies:

CoT ghosts
BP husks & chambers
Tsoo ancestor spirits

I have yet to test it on the pirate ghosts, spectral passengers, Croatoa ghosts, ghosts from some of the portal missions, BP masks/totems, or Ghost Widow.

It does what it advertises, and it does it well. For all other uses, it is only mediocre. It does come "pre-slotted" for damage - and does about the same damage as your entry level attack w/ 2 dmg SOs. If you have any powers that can boost your acc/tohit, it can be handy as a filler until your main powers recharge.

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You forgot Ninja.... LOL!

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Sniff... I'm sorry! Please believe me.. I only wanted to help! *weeps*

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Here's my go...

PRIMARIES:

Necro - a mix of very good melee and moderate ranged damage. Exotic damage types is a plus. Extra pet is a plus. Very squishy 1st tier pets is a minus. Requires extensive use of the goto command to make the most out of your pets' damage potential.

Bots - good burst damage. 2nd tier pets heal other pets & provide +def buffs. Exotic damage types. Best if used at range. Lower firing rate & some long attack animations is a minus.

Mercs - high firing rate, some AoE control powers, decent resistances. 3rd tier 1 pet heals & stims, but has a short range on his attack & dies easily. Does mostly s/l damage.

Thugs - high firing rate. No inherent resistances. Your tier 2 pets provide +def, +dmg, +acc to your pets, so that shortcoming is made up there. Your 3rd tier 1 pet is essentially a fire-corruptor - his damage output is quite good, but he tends to draw a lot of enemy aggro. Your tier 3 pet is a brute; he's a melee pet, but he has hurl & handclap, which can work against his melee nature.

SECONDARIES:

Dark: dark is what I'd call the "active" secondary. It gives you the only AoE heal, but more importantly, it provides excellent tools to increase your damage, reduce incoming damage, control the enemy, and gives you another pet.

Poison: this is a highly concentrated, mainly single target, debuff set. You will also be very active with this one, but you have to be a bit more picky about which power you use and on what enemy. It has one of the few powers that can actually reduce the enemy's ability to use their powers as well. Plus it has a debuff you can place on one of your pets, to have it affect the enemy - this works best for melee pets.

FF - this is a double edged sword of a set. You do 2 things, and you do them well - provide +def and do kb/repel. One of the big draws of ff is that it can give you and your pets status protection. You will have a bit more setup time, though, as it can take a lot of end to double-bubble all your pets. Prioritizing who gets what buff is key. PFF prevents you from issuing pet commands.

Traps: "the thinking man's secondary" - this set has a lot of very useful tools, but the require you pay special attention to your surroundings. Many of your best powers are immobile and/or require an enemy to trigger them. You don't get a direct heal, but you do get a triage beacon that can provide better levels of +regen than a regen scrapper/stalker (integration). Acid mortar allows you to debuff def and resistance, thus making enemies easier to hit and take more damage. FF gen provides some +def and grants status protection. The beauty of the set is poison trap. It causes an irresistable "puking" animation, and a hold afterwards (the choking animation).

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Interesting premise.

Some caveats though.. I have an AoE Focused Fire/Fire Tank that's been streetsweeping for, oh, about 12 hours continuously so far in Talos Island. No costume drops, nada. Some rare salvage, but nothing of note and he's taking down sizable groups of foes.

It's better odds to streetsweep, but it's not magic. You still need to grind and have plenty of luck besides.

Thanks for posting the info though.

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There is a sort of "sweet spot" for getting costume drops between levels 10 and 14. The reason is that the pool of available recipes is smaller, but still contains the costume recipes. You mentioned you were in Talos - well that's in the 20's, and the pool is bigger...

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We got most of our costume drops After level 15 in CoV. I really do believe its Street Sweeping at all levels, while mixing in some papers and mayhems/safeguards.. and a few normal contact missions.

Your talking Talos.. Talos doesnt have the huge mobs you need like the Hazard Zones.

PP for example has groups of 10 to 15 foes in every group and when you herd 2 or 3 groups together you have promise for ultimate awesomeness.

Creys Folly is also an AWESOME place for drops. As long as you kill fast.

IMO, for Heroside the regular zones are not the best for street sweeping.. Maybe try DA < They have huge grups as well, and easy to herd.

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The thing is, it's not street sweeping that's causing this to happen - it's the fact that you can pick and choose large spawns of lower level mobs to defeat quickly. Since it doesn't matter if the enemies are +4 or -4, you can wipe out large groups easily w/ an AoE build...

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Interesting premise.

Some caveats though.. I have an AoE Focused Fire/Fire Tank that's been streetsweeping for, oh, about 12 hours continuously so far in Talos Island. No costume drops, nada. Some rare salvage, but nothing of note and he's taking down sizable groups of foes.

It's better odds to streetsweep, but it's not magic. You still need to grind and have plenty of luck besides.

Thanks for posting the info though.

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There is a sort of "sweet spot" for getting costume drops between levels 10 and 14. The reason is that the pool of available recipes is smaller, but still contains the costume recipes. You mentioned you were in Talos - well that's in the 20's, and the pool is bigger...

Isn't that why the shivan temp power was changed to an EB? It used to summon a boss-level shivan, but he was stuck at 25...

As to the PI scanners, they should have rikti, malta, freakshow, DE, nemesis, as well as some of the alternate-dimesion groups, (who would turn down an Axis America scanner mish?). There are also high level family, as seen in a CoV mission for TV. You coudl also have the odd Rularuu scanner mish, shadow-shard reflection mish, etc...

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What's the emote to hold a glowing cube?

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Thats: /em invent

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This whole thread is making me lmao.

Why would you even do Hami now?

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Because the path of least resistance isn't always the most enjoyable for everybody? God, imagine that! Finding large group event raids in an MMO to be fun... For many of us, the item at the end of the raid is just icing. It's the actual fight that's the fun part.

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Well you have fun wasting your money that way and ill waste my money actully lvling a toon, not just getting more debt and wasting time. But hay all the power to you. I just think you all are going to be supprised and disapointed. But have fun none the less

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As long as you are having fun, it's not a waste of money. To play this game for any reason other than to have fun, is a waste. That is, afterall, the purpose of a videogame, right?

The problem is that this game is too general. You can have a fire/ice blaster - what would their strength/weakness be?

The thing is, someoen like iceman is actually an uce blaster/controller/tanker all rolled into one. Even with the APPs, we can't approach that level of performance (due to lower modifiers, longer recharges, etc).

One the same note, you have characters like Jubilee that have like just the tier 1 energy blast power AND NOTHING ELSE.

A good middle ground would be to give blasters, for instance, some passive resists based upon their primary and/or secondary, and call it a day. You're an ice/fire blaster, here's an 8% resist to ice and a 5% reisst to fire. Not game breaking, but a little touch for thematic reasons. You're an earth/rad controller here's 8% s/l resist and 5% energy resist. A bs/regen scrapper - here's 8% s/l resist & 5% toxic resist.

Just little thematic touches. These reisst would NOT be enhanceable, but would provide just a little something.

Ah! Good to know.

On a related note, is there a way to bind a quick reply to a key, such that when someone sends you a tell, you can hit a key and send a message such as "I'm fghting, gimme a sec..."?

Thanks!