Eva Destruction
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Posts
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Joined
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I could never get used to having the third tray visible. I made do with two, with stuff like my base teleporter and pocket D pass (convenience powers) in my third tray that I'd pop up when needed, until they gave us the ability to reshape and move trays. Now I have tray 3 scrunched to 6x2 and placed beside 1 and 2, with all those convenience powers readily available.
Tray 4 is where tray 3 should be, and I keep it hidden. It's got my AE commlink, portable workbench, walk, and often a bunch of junk I didn't bother to remove after a respec.
Like a lot of people, I have my attacks on tray 1, and toggles and long-recharge clicks on tray 2. Pretty much all of tray 2 is bound to the F keys, a holdover from when toggles would shut off when you were mezzed. I have a system, so if I run out of room I can improvise pretty easily. -
Quote:This. Caltrops, and even more so Quicksand and Glue Grenade (since they have -fly, so you can't jetpack off them) would be far less annoying if they despawned when you defeated the caster. When all the enemies are dead, the slow patch does not present any tactical challenge whatsoever.Originally Posted by Grey Pilgrim
And I second the difference between "hard but fun" and just annoying. I despise Sappers and Malta, but they're more of a tactical challenge. KoA would be great fun if they didn't spam Cal Trops. They're not too bad if you're a Blaster at range, but every melee hero that faces them just gets annoyed... fast. The Cal Trops don't challenge them particularly (though they did put my SR Scrapper's health in danger at one point... there were THAT many of those things tossed out), they just slow them down to no purpose. -
Fine, get your butt in here and submit your group
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Quote:It also applies to Avalanche Shamans, MA custom critters, and players using Earthquake.Originally Posted by Sailboat
I think it's worse than that. My testing was with Possessed Scientists, but I'll bet the results apply to to Earth Thorn Casters using the same powers.
My tests showed that the defense debuff in Earthquake is not resisted by defense debuff resistance. My /SR scrapper has 95% DDR and the Earthquake's debuff has full effect in this screenie.
I don't think Quicksand's def debuff is unresistable, at least the player version wasn't last time I checked the power info for Earth Control. DDR scales with level though, so at Earth Thorn levels you're probably not capped, and everything Earth Thorns do debuffs defense.Quote:I wouldn't be the least surprised if Quicksand from Earth Thorns was also tagged "unresistable." I think it's a bug, and I bugged it, but never heard a resolution.
Oh, and yeah, that "no endurance for you" debuff that lasts five minutes and persists through death that those Vanguard bosses have is just pure cheating. Any enemy short of an AV that is designed around the player having a temp power available is poorly designed. -
Doesn't Player's Choice imply that the arcs are chosen by the players? Not by the authors? Aren't there better ways to eliminate arcs by inactive authors without also eliminating arcs by authors who just aren't active in these forums?
What if I don't have an arc with a custom group that I would like to enter? What if I think another author has created a wonderful custom group that should be recognized? Shouldn't I be able to give this author some kudos?
I would also suggest that screenshots of the custom group are far less important than actually playing through the arc in question and seeing how well-balanced and fun to fight the group is. -
Quote:Ok, so let's leave a substandard piece of content that nearly everyone goes through fairly early in their CoH career, then repeats on every character who wants a cape.Originally Posted by Clouded
Yes, yes it should when the resources are limited. Money and time aren't unlimited resources and have to be put to the most efficient and best use. Posi has stated this many time and most recenty at HeroCon.
So while a perfect scenario of revamping old content and getting new content would be best, you have to be realistic and understand your opinion matters little in the actual implementation of their design goals.
It's one mission. Mercedes Sheldon has 14 missions. How many times have you done the cape mission? How many times have you done Mercedes Sheldon's missions? Which would be a better return on investment? -
Quote:They should offer an additional cape mission for those of us that can't be bothered with zoning a bunch of times and running halfway across those zones. They can put all the info from the fed-exes in a door mission, and have all three door missions in the same zone,.Originally Posted by Clouded
I know right? They should offer an additional cape mission for those of us that can't be bothered with another mission. They should put it in AE and have it earned by farming.
Why yes, I am spoiled by the redside cape mission, why do you ask? -
CoT Spectral Demon Lords are easily the top of the list. Massive damage and to-hit debuffs at levels when your mitigation and accuracy sucks to begin with. Ruin Mages are also up there, but you don't run into them nearly as much. The Spectrals are everywhere, and seem to spawn proportionately to how much you rely on smash/lethal damage.
Rularuu eyeballs. Got defense? Doesn't matter.
Tarantula Mistresses and Queens. Got defense? Not anymore.
Longbow Nullifiers. It's the only Lieutenant they have, so there are tons of them. Stacking -res and stacking beanbags are not fun. Plus there is always one of them, no matter what, whether I have attacked yet or not, even if I'm still halfway across the room sometimes, that will turn and fire that beanbag at my Corruptor. Every. Single. Time. If I'm on a Corruptor and we're fighting Longbow (and when are you NOT fighting Longbow, redside?) I will spend the first part of every fight stunned. -
Quote:Numerous accounts of people getting 1- and 2- star votes ONLY when their arc is sitting at 5 stars would suggest that this is very likely. It happens for the exact reason the OP mentioned: Any 5-star arc is immediately more visible than a 4-star arc, and the easiest way to increase your own/your friend's arc's visibility is to get rid of any arc that is ahead of yours on the list.Originally Posted by Smash_Zone
Factor two is very unlikely, but someone could have just been griefing you. Again, this is highly unreasonable, and would be pretty silly to think so, but it is a small possibility.
Yes, some people might not like your arc, for whatever reason, and sitting at 5 stars might increase expectations and gives your arc visibility among players who never would have deliberately sought it out as something they would be interested in playing, possibly increasing the chances of lower ratings. That doesn't exclude the fact that some people are just jerks. -
Quote:*Raises hand*Originally Posted by Lazarus
I'll agree that there was no need to have an AE building in nearly every damn zone, even more so on the heroside with all the extra zones that they have which are often empty (who hangs out in IP instead of Talos anyway?)
Before the farm nerfs, a group of quad-boxed Spines/Darks used to hang out at the one in Talos. Even without a lot of people in the AE building, the higher population zones make my editor laggy. -
Quote:Do us all a favor and stick to Council farms then.Originally Posted by Shubbie
I know I wont do custom mobs till they give something decent, either in mine or ones im doing. And if I do one, I start by knocking 2 stars off for poor rewards. And yes I put that in the feedback, poor rewards.
Architects aren't idiots, we know customs give less of a reward. If you don't like arcs with reduced rewards, DON'T PLAY THEM. -
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Quote:Correct.Originally Posted by Strawberrycocoa
So, a tag-along NPC can have any power selections I want without reducing XP directly, but the more damage they do to a mob the less XP that particular mob gives?
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Another great choice. Dr. Aeon has yet to pick one I didn't like.
Gratz FemFury. -
Quote:Since when do people do the logical, efficient thing? The people motivated to do the logical, efficient thing are already bringing high-level characters, because they know that in a raid scenario, your own self-interest is best served by meeting the needs of the group.Originally Posted by PumBumbler
If people bring too many lowbees into a ship raid, at some point it will fail. If that does happen, most of those people won't bother attending the raid as a lowbee because they know that its not an efficient way for them to get ahead. The problem will tend to solve itself, but not necessarily in a smooth or desirable way.
But it will eliminate one problem. Just because you can't solve all the problems doesn't mean you should throw up your hands entirely, and solve no problems.Quote:I think there is a natural tension of public good vs. selfish motivations that comes about in any public raid setting. That won't be easy to fix even if you try to ban under 35s from RWZ. -
Quote:Yes.Originally Posted by Strawberrycocoa
1. At least 1 Minion, Lieutenant, and Boss in the custom group.
Yes. Keep in mind however, that many powersets include a lot of problematic powers on Hard or Extreme, such as Build Up and Power Sink. Your group will probably give more xp/min if you set some of those to Standard and have them give out 75% xp rather than full xp with the player needing to rest after every other fight.Quote:2. All powersets at Hard or Extreme.
Custom critters must have at least the Standard powers in both their primary and secondary in order to give rewards. You can use the "custom" setting to add powers and still have the critter give rewards, but you can't take any away, even if you replace them with a stronger power.Quote:Is there anything I am missing, especially regarding customized power selections? I have a custom group I made with customized power choices, and when playtesting they gave zero XP. Trying to avoid that.
They reduce xp based on the amount of damage they do. A minion will be squished easily, which would be rather immersion-breaking if he's supposed to be the narrator. A Lieutenant with a defensive secondary will be more survivable, or better still, a boss with a control primary and a defensive secondary will survive pretty well but not kill-steal too much.Quote:Also, do escort/assisting NPCs negate XP gains entirely or just reduce it, and is there a way to have a non-person status NPC tag along without affecting the XP? (I want to use an NPC character who acts as the story's narrator but I think the idea of having him tag along without doing any fighting would look strange. I am planning to give him a Minion status with just a single low-level power choice from each set). -
There's the Shrouded map, which is the Kings Row instance with a cemetary at the end. It's one of the "residential" maps.
The Cimeroran maps in general can make good tombs. -
As far as getting people to not invite lowbies to raid teams...yeah, good luck getting people to do that. You can tell people "you shouldn't do that," all you want, but experience has shown time and time again that a lot of people are selfish jerks who will do whatever they feel like regardless of its impact on others. They don't care that everyone else is getting more lag and fewer merits, as long as they can PL their friend who will PL them in return at the next raid.
It doesn't matter how good your raid leadership is, how well most of the raid follows orders, how many bubblers you have, all it takes is a few wilfully ignorant jerks to ruin everyone else's good time. It happened with hami raids, and its happening again.
That said, removing all XP, inf and badge credit from Mothership Rikti for anyone below level 35 is preferrable to locking the zone again. That way you can still bring your level 33 friend on co-op missions, (nothing annoyed me more than getting that mission in Crey's at level 30 and having a level 29 on your team) but all incentive for lowbies to join mothership raids will be gone.
Oh and as for having stuff in every zone, I think we need stuff in more zones. I hate zoning and I hate lag. We also need a hospital in Striga, and a way to get to Cimerora redside that doesn't go anywhere near the Cap Black Market. -
They have to have the ranged attack. Too exploitable otherwise. Unless the ranged attack is in a powerset used as a secondary, and the critter already has a ranged primary, but will still throw ninja stars at you instead of pulling out its gun, that's just the devs being lazy.
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Custom-picked powers will only result in 0 xp if you remove any Standard powers.
Hard/Hard will give full xp, but most sets get stuff like Build Up or Power Sink on Hard, so even melee ATs get annihilated. -
Quote:Try running through the smooth cave or Cimeroran maps on a stormy. From time to time? If you're lucky.Originally Posted by Clave_Dark_5
From time to time I still manage to knock-back a foe into some non-Euclidean/Lovecraftian fold in space, leaving only his feet visible, rending him unattackable except by AoEs. Every time that happens, I recall about this "I wish to be able to construct my own maps" thing, and think "no you don't."
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I still leave bids up overnight or longer. They nearly always fill, except when I get cheap, bid just a teeny bit over some flipper's buy price, a flipper war breaks out, I log back in and find the price has gone up by a few million. If I hadn't been so cheap and bid just 100k more, I probably would have gotten my stuff before the flippers went over my price. Oh well. That's when I give up on that particular recipe for the week.
Actual incremental bid-creeping though? Only on expensive and rare stuff I want at less than maximum level, like BotZ -KB IOs. And even then, people's "buy it NAO" prices are usually so high I'm better off just placing a bunch of bids across a variety of levels and getting two for what I would have paid for one at "buy it NAO" prices. -
And now, for a very special episode of 1-50 in MA. Dawnrazor guest-stars on a TV show!
Talos Vice
#338380
**Disclaimer: soundtrack not included with arc.**
PLACE: Talos Island
CONTACT: Detective Croquette, in a Ferrari to match his suit.
TIME: Must be the '80s.
"Her name is Rio and she dances on the sand..." I hate Duran Duran. Time to take out my annoyance on a Troll drug ring. But first...I need to go slip into something less comfortable.
One trip to Icon for a powder blue suit later, I arrive at the warehouse. The police are already on the scene, and it's not going well for them. Someone must have tipped the trolls off to the raid. Not going well for the Troll leader either...apparently too much 'dyne kills your fashion sense as well as your brain. On his lawyer's advice, he sings like a canary; someone did indeed tip them off, and now we know where to find him.
"If you fall I will catch you/I'll be waiting..."
PLACE: A seedy nighclub.
TIME: Still the '80s.
"How does it feel/To treat me like you do..." Ahh, that's better. At least the music is decent, even if the place is full of low-lifes and scumbags.
The acid-washed jeans alone are cause for arrest...
Then they start shooting. The usual assortment of single moms and college students working as scantily-clad dancers are far more forthcoming with the information....aw man. Nothing more despicable than a crooked cop.
PLACE: Paragon Bay.
TIME: For the requisite chase scene.
"Once I ran to you/Now I run from you/This tainted love you've given..." I take a speedboat to the Family docks, rather disappointed that nobody tries to shoot me on the way, and I don't have to dive from the exploading boat and roll onto the dock...Here we go, the big score. And the big shoot-out...just like the Family to bring guns to a swordfight. The villain of the episode falls, cursing my name. Cut to commercial.
THE PLACE: Courtroom.
TIME: For the episode wrap-up.
VILLAIN: I'll be back, Dawnrazor.
ME: I'll be waiting.
Fade to black, cue end credits.
Overall: The most fun I've had in MA in a long time. The script format, the bad outfits, the homages, the scene descriptions...everything. It all comes together to make a truly excellent and unique arc. It also goes to show that you don't necessarily need five missions to tell a complete and well-rounded story.
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I have one arc left in the list before level 15, and I don't think it'll be enough to get me there. I'm going to need at least one more, or I'll have to throw Dawnrazor to the mercy of the Random button. -
IN A WORLD where Dawnrazor is going from 1-50 in MA, her next arc is....
Bricked Electronics
#2180
Level range: 8-20, 1-20, 1-20, 8-20, 8-20....what's up with that? A holdover from an earlier time, like stirrup pants and sweatshirts with shoulder pads? Looks just as bad...
My contact is Mark Freeman, who, as it turns out, is a mutant who can talk to computers. He's found a "ghost" in a cell phone and wants me to check it out. Oh, and while we're at it, he wants me to help test his new system for digitizing case files. I get a nice clue to this effect, with some gibberish at the end, and head off to find out who sold this cell phone.
Well I don't find the owner or anybody else, but I do find some goldbrickers in the middle of a crime spree. Not much useful out of them either, but I do get some leads. I find out where the shop is getting their used cell phones, for one thing, so I run off to check it out.
It's full of clockwork, along with some mysterious robots made out of scrap electronics, and charging stations made out of the same. I do find some old cell phones, but rather than being taken apart by the clockwork, they've been repaired. Even weirder, they appear to be taking orders from a teenage girl. Oh, that's why they're not taking stuff apart. Ok.
The phones I found still don't give Mark anything definite, but now we know where they came from, so I head to the source to try to find more of them. Huh, why would someone just drop garbage into a Council base? "If you kids don't cut that out I'll turn on the gas!" You know, you really shouldn't be holding Nemesis up as a role model, might as well aspire to be the bad guy in a Saturday morning cartoon. And kid...when I find you I am going to slap you.
And now we're back to the Goldbrickers and their plan. You know, just because your cellphone takes pictures, doesn't mean you have to take pictures of everything, all the time. Let this be a lesson to all you shutter-happy picture-takers out there: it can come back and bite you in the posterior.
Aww, poor little goldbricker with his outdated cellphone. I bet it doesn't even play MP3s. Ok kid, maybe I won't slap you. They're so cute when they're on my side. All the clues I found come together, and now we know exactly where the goldbricker heist is going to go down, and when.
Only one thing left to do, and that's to stop it. I'm not sure why exactly I have to stop it before the PPD show up though; isn't stopping bank robberies part of their job? Kid, if you're so smart, can you make your robots not block doorways? And I foil this particular plot, but the true mystery of the goldbrickers continues...
Overall: Tightly plotted, great use of detail to keep the story moving and keep the missions interesting. Excellent dialogue and characterization, even on throwaway villains whose sole purpose was to get their butts kicked by me. Some nice insight on a little-developed villain group, that raises more questions than it answers of course, and bonus points for pulling off the near-impossible task of making a heroside contact actually interesting. The beginning-of-mission clues were especially nice, as an in-character way to keep the story straight and sort through Mark's rambling, although it would be nice to get some mention at the end of how he feels about the results of my testing. Excellent arc overall, just clear up that level range, ok? And maybe consider cutting back on the pets in the final mission. -
Quote:Only the most obsessive-compulsive Arc designer would need the level of customization base designers are used to. Even if they added things base designers have wanted for ages, like walls and floors that don't require stacking up hundreds of desks, it would be an incredibly time-consuming endeavor to simply build a single room, let alone a whole map. Not to mention the testing, testing and more testing to make sure there aren't any problems with the geometry, and of course the potential for abuse.Originally Posted by Evilanna
I think the MA devs and the base devs should get together and build a map editor that can be used for both bases and the MA system. This could be the "shot in the arm" that bases really need while also helping to improve the MA system (not that it needs that type of improvement, but it would be really cool.)
Oh, and file space. Your supervillain's awesome volcano lair? Yeah, it'll take up quite a bit of space. And cause a lot of lag when someone tries to play it.
The ability to modify lighting and add or remove things like fog would be nice though. I like the Ruladak cave, really I do, but no matter what the pop-up says it's still the Ruladak cave, not to mention huge.