EvilGeko

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Exactly Booster - Farming Portals for XP, Farming Wolves for XP, Farming Winterlords for XP, Farming Hami for Enhancements - all fit States' definition of "unfun". There has to/should be a change forthcoming.

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Except fighting Hami is VERY fun. Much more fun than the 638th "kill all in warehouse" mission. Feels like something epic is going on. I need to hurry up and get these two levels so I can join the raiding without the max debt scare.

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You do realize that many of us are here because we actually wanted a game without the madness of Elite Loot? That we don't want to feel forced into farming?

Does your casual player base mean so little to you?

Given the choice between farm-for-the-win and skip Arena/CoV I'll skip PvP -- ToA taught me that much.

Loot Farming wins again... Very disappointed.

[/ QUOTE ]Actually..the devs have said on many accounts that they want the game to be very accessible. Also, I'd wait to see how much of an advantage these enhancements will give players in the arena before criticizing it.

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We really don't need to wait, math does it all.

6 HO DMG/ACC = 300% base to-hit. Something like that eliminates any defense currently in the game.

I really don't care. I'm going to hit level 50 this week and then start farming my Hami-Os. Hopefully I can get about 10 before I4 hits live.

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be ready to explain that again in 3 months when everyone forgets.

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Yup. Which would be yet another reason to post the numbers on the website, if not in game.

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Just the Free patch updates would have been enough in my book to set them apart. While I might not agree that each Issue is as big as an expansion pack in another game 3 issues is more than an expansion and not having to cough up another $50 sets a high standard for other MORPs to try and match.

I just couldn't conceive of Sony ever doing that unless the entire industry changed. But games like CoH with free updates and Matrix Online with it's continuing storyline (not to discount CoH's stories but CoH doesn't revolve around a single story) are setting the bar high for other developers. It will be interesting to see if companies like Sony and Blizzard will try and respond or if they just try and ignore them and hope fans don't notice.

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On Everquest 2, Sony has made at least three major updates since launch which added tons of new content (quests, dungeons, new art assets, new spells and powers and the like) for free.

I think Statesman is great for posting, but honestly, he only posts a bit more than the devs of the other two MMOs I play. Both are SOE titles and the developers in both EQOA and EQ 2 are very active on the boards and provide tons of free content on a regular basis.

Honestly, I think the devs here are a bit too permissive. The Winter Lord event was a good example. When they realized that you could get a level 1 character to 20 inside of a few hours, they should have taken the servers down and fixed that immediately. Exploit patching is just a bit too slow for my book.

Other than that, I'm very glad to see that Statesman is being more careful with what he says and that he doesn't make any promises anymore. The whole Regen scare of 2004 still leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

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Letting the creator of the SG have the ability to demote the top-level commanders of the SG or possible kick inactive ones would be nice. I have 3 leaders in my SG now who haven't played in 2-3 months and, with new members rolling in, I could use the space.

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To avoid abuse of this, I would have rank decay. How it would work is if a character isn't logged on for an entire month, their rank decays by one step. If the only leader decays the oldest, ranking member would be auto-promoted to leader.

Also, even with the obvious twink-fest it would become, I think we need a SG vault that the leader can give withdrawal permissions to.

Finally, we need something for SGs to do! INSTANCED RAIDING CONTENT! Single-set uber enhancements.

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We will roll back the Boss changes.


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I was just playing and I had to stop and ask:

Any chance we could keep the exp increase?

Wonderful! Best post on these boards EVER!

My faith has been 100% restored. You guys are the best development team in the business!

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I can complete missions with super speed on without having to engage any enemies at all because of its stealth and speed. Try that with fly. You get in trouble and have super speed you turn it on and you are gone from combat with at most one parting hit. Try that with fly and you'll get hit 2 or 3 more times trying to get away. So how is fly the "safest" again?

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Well to be fair, you're shifting context here. No doubt Superspeed is a better combat power. Fly is not designed to be an effective combat power. Hover is. But as a safer travel power Fly fits the bill.

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I'm not shifting the context here at all. Geko stated that fly was the "Safest no matter how you slice it ". A blatantly incorrect statement. Statements such as that are what make players wonder if designers play their own game.

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Exactly. It really does make you wonder if they know how the game is played. There is simply NO WAY Flight is safer than SS overall.

If you manage to catch aggro with the Stealth component, you are gone long before the mobs have time to react. By contrast with the slow meandering pace of Flight, you can get killed either in normal travel or in trying to escape. Sure you can go all the way to the ceiling of the zone, but that makes a slow power even slower since you must add in the ascent and descent time.

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Sounds like this player has invested in 4 powers - 3 of which he choose, and most of which he has probably slotted more than 6, and he still cannot fly. How much more of an investment did he make compared to your 1 power? How much did he have to give up compared to you and he still cannot go vertical.

No matter how you slice it, flying is ultimately safer than super speed, and offer an undeniable vertical advantage over super speed (or in this case, 4 other speed powers). If flyspeed had the same max as runspeed, why would anyone ever take superspeed?

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One word: Hasten

And why do you guys care if everyone takes Fly? Everyone and their brother takes Hasten and Stamina, but that's not a problem. Why would it be a problem if everyone took a power that everyone had access to?

This response doesn't make any sense. SS takers only have to take Hasten (or Flurry). Hasten is so undeniably useful that basically SS is a free power. I for one took it for the Stealth component alone, but now use it as my primary form of travel.

Fly does not need to be slow. That's not fun. There is no good reason to balance the travel powers because everyone can take any of them. It's just plain silly.

If you really think Flight is safer than SS, then you cannot be playing this game. I can escape nearly anything with SS. Plus with no ACC penalty I don't even need to activate it, I can keep it one. Yesterday, I was running from a battle that was a bit too much for me. SS got me out of the line of danger in about one second. By contrast with Fly, you have to take several shots before you get out of range and you can be killed if you don't leave quick enough.

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Finally, might I suggest removing the AVs from the 40+ missions and replacing them with Elite Bosses? That's a great new category and it better fits standard missions. Leave AVs for TF, trials and such.

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Actually AV's start showing up in missions in your 30's, not 40's. Between doing it myself and with friends I think I've faced the Envoy of Shadows a dozen or more times already and Altered Tanya maybe 4 times with my now 37 controller. I think that the Envoy showing up 3 times during one arc is a bit ridiculous period.

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Yes, that's true, but Terra is really an Elite Boss right now. She's so weak that I don't consider her a true AV. All they would need to do for her is change her classification when conned.

I kinda have a soft spot in my heart for the Envoy of Shadow though, but if he was downgraded to Elite Boss it wouldn't hurt my feelings.

Statesman, thank you for the well-thought out post. I think that bosses now are fairly reasonable, but only for certain ATs.

Blasters, Defenders, and Controllers as you said, should not be subjected to random instant death. At the same time, if you just lower the damage of Bosses, then the melee ATs will dominate the bosses just as easily as ever. Thus the change to correct this should come in a change to the ranged ATs.

For Defenders this is easy, IMO. Allow them to target themselves and use the full measure of their powers on themselves. For a couple of sets this will also require adding a small defensive boost. What I would recommend is that the Defender sets all get a Dull Pain type targetable HP boost. I'm sure there is a power in each set that could either have this as an added effect or simply be replaced with it. Make it perhaps 25% boost for Defender sets and 20% for Controllers.

For Blasters, I think you should give them some defense. Range is not enough of a defense for those guys. Scrappers do nearly the same damage (superior at melee range) and have MUCH better survivability. Lose some of the melee powers in the Blaster sets and add some small (5-10%) RESIST buffs. Resist, not defense. Defense is cool but it has too many holes at high level. Blasters should still have the weakest defenses, but it should not be as extreme as it is now.

Finally, might I suggest removing the AVs from the 40+ missions and replacing them with Elite Bosses? That's a great new category and it better fits standard missions. Leave AVs for TF, trials and such. In fact, most TF should spawn elite bosses at the end. Archvillains should be raid mobs. Mobs that you know you need a supremely well built team to take down.

Well, that's my 2 inf. Thanks again for your efforts.

Thanks for always staying involved and not being discouraged by the negativity. Always remember the negativity is people who love the game so much that they get emotional about it.

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I did not personally attempt the respec trial. Many who did reported complete team-wipes and failed trials, I don't recall any reported successes.

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I forgot what this would do to the respec trial. OMG the whining that will ensue. I still think the core will be a bore, but getting to the reactor is likely to be a crucible.

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Please, please, be clear and concise or say nothing at all.

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If only more of the posters on this thread followed the rules you wish to impose on Statesman.

Maybe WE are the villians here. Playing by any set of rules we choose while the hero must play fair.

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Statesman is the learned and talented lead designer of City of Heroes and has an obligation to play it straight with his customers. We on the other hand are a bunch of yahoos who paid $15 to play a game. There is no moral or practical equivalence here. We have no obligation other than to show everyone the same courtesy that we would expect in turn.

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Just to give you a stat side...

The success rate on the respec is a tad over 75%.

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LOL. Owned. It's not the trial. You just suck.

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Regeneration, though, is a small concern.


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Leave my set alone, you!

JOY!!

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And this high level player will be able to pull the mob out of the wall for you?

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Maybe, lol. I've seen it happen with Teleport Foe and Taunt. Not trying to start an argument here, I was just offering some self-help remedies.

I agree. But if you've already started the mission, see if you can get a high level to go in with you. They will be all grey to him or her and they can do it quickly.

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A friend's stuck in temple all day. But I'm stuck at work all day. So I'm ok with this.

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A few of my co-workers are out today. I'm glad I'm a heathen (and a Catholic) so I can play later.

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Pardon my ignorance but what holy day is this?

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It's Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. It could be worse, Yom Kippur starts soon.

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Reading through the thread (about 1/3 of the way through now), and want to make a counterpoint that is likely to be a minority view since the opposite viewpoint has been stated many times (and my viewpoint not once (yet)).

I like being sent back to newb type zones by my contacts.

I'd be annoyed if it happened with every mission, but at the rate I've been getting them in the mid 20s (about 10 or 15% of the time), it's totally cool with me. I like being reminded of my character's past, and I love the idea that (for example) there's a huge underground 5th Column base in King's Row - a zone filled with hundreds of zealous but inexperienced heroes who have no idea what's really going on right under their noses.

Sure, it has nothing to do with actual detective skills or anything - it's just another contact giving me another mission, just like those low level characters are doing - but I nevertheless get a sense of accomplishment.

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I just logged off after doing three missions in King's Row, Steel Canyon and Skyway City....at level 33. I get more than 50% of my missions in zones where everything is grey. I hardly ever get missions in Founder's Falls, where three of my contacts are or Brickstown where the rest are.

Buff to Tankers + no nerf to Scrappers = Great job devs.

Good luck Tankers, I hope this happens for you guys.

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If 1 hero takes out 12 minions, by your own math, that is 480 xp just for him. To get the same 480 xp each, your group of 8 has to kill 55 minions in the same time period. Your groups cannot kill 55 as fast as a decent soloer can kill 12.

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Actually, they can. IF the group goes to the zones with the spawns of the appropriate size...

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No, they can't. I'm assuming you mean a well-balanced group and not a group of Blasters or Scrappers.

Solo ability stacks up differently by AT:

Scrapper or Blaster - There is simply no way a well balanced group can earn as much exp as one of these classes can alone.

Tanks, Defenders - Perhaps a well-balanced group can beat these guys, but that's mostly because of the presence of the damage dealers noted above.

Controllers - Pre-pet, sure a group can own them. Post-pet. For fire and illusion there is no way. That will probably change after the nerf.

I play a Scrapper, and I'm very happy right now, but I can tell you that I group only for company, not to get more exp. The most efficient way for me to exp is to street sweep solo. There is simply no way that having a group can increase my exp. None. I do missions, even though they suck for exp, for fun, and I group to do task forces for fun. I'm not complaining, but honestly, your assesment does not reflect the truth of the situation.

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Currently, there are no spawns anywhere that are worth tackling with a 5+ person team. Unless you are herding, which looks to me like an exploit, even 4 people is a bit too many.


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The Trial Zones. These are designed for teams sizes 6 to 8 or so. Those spawns are HHHUUUGGGGEEEE - and challenging (at the low and mid levels). But many people don't take the challenge.

Again, I'm not sure what "penalty" is being allueded to.

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They might be challenging, but to the strict min/maxer they are not worth it because of one thing: Bosses.

Bosses give about 2-4 times the exp of minions but take 5-6 times longer to kill. Trial zones have bosses in almost every spawn in my experience. They also aren't any more challenging in a group because you have them locked down or under control.

Should you cater to the min/maxer? Sure, because the evidence shows that everyone tries to maximize their play to SOME extent.

This is also why contacts should stop giving high level characters missions in extremely low level zones. If you want us to fight along the way, there has to be something besides grays to fight along the way.

Because as you've said before, we should act like heroes at all time. And beating up the weak, even if they are naughty is not heroic and doesn't feel like it. (The no exp thing sucks too. )