Fulmens

I asked in the Tanker forum and was also told Impervium Psi resist "Dropped from Task Force."

( here )

The three uniques in that example are the most expensive things in the game, or close to it, and I don't see supply coming up to demand any time soon. On the other hand they're REALLY REALLY GOOD.

I'm working on a "lower-end" guide that doesn't use any uniques. I got a 4 of a set plus all the salvage for under 1 million last night.

[ QUOTE ]
you can make tiny bits of pocket change by buying common salvage cheap and selling it to NPC's.

[/ QUOTE ]
aaand... sig.

[ QUOTE ]
Consume and Dark Consumption have always been overly long on the recharge

[/ QUOTE ]
Everyone wants to go to heaven, nobody wants to die.

Can anyone make a demofile of this so that we can show a dev?

OK, another lovely theory slain by an ugly fact.

I got nothin'.

Yup. Total damage. You are right, I am wrong.

Scrapper crits [excluding special powers like headsplitter] are 5% vs minions, 10% vs management.

If we assumed "all" scrapper crits were vs. management, the answer is a little over 57% health.

If we assume that the 1.125 multiplier is "defiance compensation" instead of "smash/lethal compensation": at 45% and under, and a Blaster does more damage than a Scrapper with the same attack [Air Superiority, say].

(numbers taken from A'ville's "Defiance points" in her first post.)

I wasn't there, I don't know... but was Siege using an Energy Torrent type of attack or was it single-target?

Because there's the "stood in the cone" effect.

(I also think that mobs may react to discovering stealthed players the same way heroes react to discovering a stealthed Stalker. Not sure if you were even discovered, though.)

[ QUOTE ]

I mean, I am seeing baddies that actually run past the person that first attacked and head straight for me who was standing a bit of a way away and doing nothing. I did not even have toggles running.


[/ QUOTE ]

I think the starting aggro rules (that is, critters who haven't taken any damage yet) are slightly randomized on purpose. I've gotten the same effect on Force Field defenders. . . haven't taken a swing at anyone, and some goon starts getting in my visage.

Going around the corner to get you, that seems a little extreme, though.

[ QUOTE ]

Arcana, if I am reading between your lines correctly are you saying that much of the game engine is/was designed primarily by trial and error and not by creating/using a mathematical model to represent some particular plan or behavior?


[/ QUOTE ]

This is a game where, (I hear- wasn't there), Tanks started out able to reach 100% damage resistance and they didn't realize it would be a problem.

Math came to this game somewhat late.

I'm going to make a new year's resolution: Anything from before issue #2 (in this case, City of Blasters) is Old and I'm not going to discuss it. We'll see if it lasts. . .

As far as Vigilance, the question in my head is: What do you give a group of people who have nothing in common? It is WONDERFUL for Dark and for Storm, it's decent for lowbie FF,
it's a joke for Kinetics. Damage bonus? Buff bonus? Whatever you pick, there'll be a Defender who gets no use out of it... unless it's "Defiance for the entire team" or something equally unbalanced. (Me, my Defender, and my six dead buddies TOOLED Infernal!)

On the "Sliver of life" issue:

I did a bunch of calculations as to where the "Sliver of life" would occur, based on assumptions [an enemy is supposed to get taken down by three "2.777 brawl" attacks, times scaling, and ED changed the scaling for the latter 2/3 of the game] but I don't know if those assumptions hold.

One possibility on "sliver of life": People get used to certain patterns- if BU + Aim + Fireball + Fire Breath takes down +1s consistently, you tend to fight that way. If you do what normally works and it doesn't work, because of [for instance] 20% energy resistance on Malta, you end up with a "sliver of life" and you notice. Blasters notice "sliver of life" a lot more than nonblasters because it's so all-or-nothing.

This is similar to the "fight what you can barely beat" theory of Arcanaville's.

My usage is normally:
NOVA: stealth-bu-aim-nuke-blue-flee the survivors.
THUNDEROUS BLAST: [defender] aim-power build up- nuke- personal force field
INFERNO: Follow the tank, warn the team, bu/aim/nuke.

Yesterday, we aggroed four spawns, plus an AV, at once. ["Why Fire Controllers Are Not Necessarily Better than Fire Blasters", pt. xx ] I think a couple nukes went off in that fight- I was busy. It was certainly the time for it.

Replying to Scrapulous:

The basic assumption of my "You can always get more INFL" statement is that you are time-limited and ambitious. Most people -ESPECIALLY people who need this guide - are newer players. 200 hours of playtime seems like a lot to them [and it is.] They want to go up levels, get more power, see more new stuff.

"Deliberately going into debt" never made sense to me until I had a level 50 and got a different perspective on the game. Exemping after my debt was gone, likewise, was doing a favor for a friend.

I have friends who can only put 5-10 hours a week into this game. They'll have a level 50 about... never.

They want all the XP they can get, as fast as they can get it. And I don't blame them. I generally want all the XP I can get, too.

As for the "50% faster levelling": What causes downtime? Damage taken or endurance used. If you're hitting 16% more often and doing 33% more damage, you're finishing fights 50% faster [assuming you're a damage-dealing class.] That's 50% more fights you can get in between Resting, and 50% more value you bring to a team.

Similar arguments can be constructed for a defense class.

Now for the attempted constructive advice: How To Get Influence When You're Young, Other Than Simply Earning It.

* If you find yourself SK'd up [my level 12 ended up in Oranbega once because they NEEDED force fields] ask if people have any training enhancements to get rid of. Yeah, it's close to begging. But level 30's delete the trainings anyway, so it's more like "recycling."

* You can often find high levels who need the Fortuneteller mission; mention that tips are gladly accepted. (It's one of those "outright selling it is tacky, but wheedling is fine") things. PEople don't usually realize until level 41 or so that they need it, so ... again, pocket change to a 41 is 100,000 infl.

* I've never won a costume/trivia/whatever contest. But some people do. Any costume contest with less than 100,000 infl as a prize is probably bogus in some way.

Neth: That assumes that you want two "Costumes with capes."

I kept my original costume for Boltcutter on my original slot. That way, if I exemplar down to below level 20, I can go into the mission cape-free.

(The best use I ever saw for a costume slot is a friend of mine who has a glowing white costume he uses when his nuke's ready.)

To the OP:
I will present the other side of a couple of issues.

"Don't slot DO's"- this is IMO hideous advice.

1) If you're slotting your attacks with one ACC and two Damage DO's, you're levelling roughly 50% faster. You're winning more fights faster and you're having more fun. And if you don't enjoy level 16, you won't make it to level 17.

2) Unlike actual life, you will never run out of inf when you're old. Once you get to level X [it used to be level 33 back before Supergroup mode] you earn more than you need with no work required. What are you saving for?

3) There are all sorts of ways to get extra Influence, but you can't get extra XP.

My next argument is the "Only buy at 22 and 27-8." I believe that you should buy at 22, 23, and [possibly] 24.

Why? Because at 22 you can NOT AFFORD EVERYTHING. So your choices are:

Go with semi-empty loadout for 22, 23, 24, 25, and 26; or increase your ACTUAL WORKING FUNCTIONALITY at level 23 and 24, and be spread a little thinner at 27.

Due to the nature of the XP curve, you're getting about 25% more XP [and, therefore, roughly 25% more direct Inf] at level 23 as you were at level 22, and 25% more at 24 than you were at 23.

Indirect [by selling] inf goes up too. I don't know if this curve has changed, but it used to be that level 19 badguys dropped DO's less than 1% of the time, and level 20 badguys dropped DO's 25% of the time. Assuming that you make "almost all" your money for the level 25 SO's in 20+, you're making:

L20,21, 22: X, 1.25X, 1.56X = 3.8X.
L20-24:
X, 1.25X, 1.56X, 1.95X, 2.43X = 8.2X .

You can buy TWICE AS MANY level 25 enhancements.

Incidentally, the total direct inf you get from levels 12-19 is less than you get from level 20, 21, 22. [3.32X vs. 3.8X. ]

Not buying DO's is like eating catfood when you're young so you won't have to do it when you're old, when you know you're going to inherit $5 million on your 25th birthday.

Third point: Slotting a mix of DO's and TO's [using free dropped TO's] or a mix of SO's and DO's is a valid way to cut your expenses. Slotting two SO's for damage and two DO's saves you about 1/3 of an SO- 10,000 infl for a level 25 . Costs you a slot, but given that the competing advice costs you ALL your slots for 21 levels... seems like a bargain to me.

[ QUOTE ]
Firstly, the majority of PvP rewards are the ability to purchase level 53 enhancements (to which you can get the same effect by combining 3 level 50 enhancements),

[/ QUOTE ]

You get a 52 by combining three level 50's.

Three 52's is some tiny fraction worse than three 53's, though, so the point remains.

"If you look over to the left, in the Forest of Data, you'll see a lovely discontinuity. . . meanwhile, in the Land of Overlapping Slopes, you can look up at the majestic face of Regen. . ."

The only reason I'm not going to join the "[censored] IT LISTEN TO ME" army is an example that _Castle_ used at one point:

Someone sent in a demorecord designed to prove that "thing X got nerfed". And the demorecord was a deliberate fraud and a forgery.

I'd say there are more lying scumbags out there than there are good, careful scientists by a factor of 10, at least. The entry barriers are lower. . .

[ QUOTE ]
If I had a set of claws, I'd be driving them straight into people's chests and faces all day long.

EDIT: Hmmm.. probably a good thing I don't have claws.


[/ QUOTE ]
And. . .sig.

[ QUOTE ]
I for one have noticed a completely terrible change to my SS/EA brute. It seems I can no longer stand toe to toe with much of anything anymore without getting constantly ganked. On live, I was just fine and can take on +3 with no problem but now, it seems out of the question. I thought it was supposed to be "fixed", not get worse.


[/ QUOTE ]
Could you do any sort of measurements on this?

"On live, I got to 50% health in 10 seconds standing there in front of six +3 mobs, on test I got killed in the same time" or something?

Or "On test, I fought four +3 minions and an lt of [type x] and died; on live, same spawn, I lived"?

Also include the level of brute, and maybe what powers you had running.

The goal of the bug report is to have something people can replicate.

[ QUOTE ]
Should I just start over with something else?


[/ QUOTE ]

Yes.

It's a totally different game- think of it as "City of Heroes II."

High level characters can't do what they used to do; on the other hand, some of what they used to do was go AFK under 80 badguys with a message saying "Taunt on Auto- Recall Me As Needed".

I pretty much had to give up my high-level Scrapper- he sits on the porch and tells boring stories about when he was a kid and could take on fifty purples and not die.

And I have some problems, in detail, with how they did some of the nerfs. Everyone's a backseat driver, or at least I am.

But my new heroes go out there and they take risks, dammit, and they fight the good fight. And they pay attention, and they work together, and they're fun.

So, yeah, love your game, big fanboi, and I've got this idea for how I'd do things differently. It's more work, do you guys have a problem with that? Cool.

. . .seriously, I'm coming in on the "I'd like a nonpatron option" side.

It doesn't have to be 20 [!] more new sets or whatever you guys are doing now. One "Independent" set per AT would at least give us a place to declare our "Screw all y'all" orientation. And if it was made out of existing powers from other sets? "I stole it, it's mine now."

(As far as epic sets being "made of leftovers" - I didn't mind at all. . . although I appreciate the extra work you guys are putting in on CoV.)

Are there any powers where animation time and activation time are different?

I did some work on calculating activation and recharge rates and the like, once. (Also, proving that there's roughly a .5 second "redraw" time after pool attacks.)

It was slow and laborious and I don't know if people without lab science backgrounds would get as much accuracy as I did.

I suspect demorecord files provide better info anyway, although their numbers always seemed to come out .1 second higher than mine and we never managed to figure out why.

Is there a handy thread explaining demorecord format?

- - - - - - - - - -
HOW TO MEASURE ACTIVATION AND RECHARGE TIME FOR YOURSELF:

Warning: Boring and/or obvious stuff follows.

I went to Test, took out all my damage from the relevant attack, and timed an "autofire" sequence against a good volunteer.

Good volunteers:

1) Don't interrupt [knockback, stun, etc. ]
2) Will survive at least five applications of the attack and preferably 10
3) don't run away
4) Don't kill you.

( This was a lot easier with an I4 scrapper. I was using armored Crey in Brickstown, because they resist Smash/Lethal. )

Test 1: Set to autofire, fire 8 times [or whatever you can manage.] Time them - start of first to start of last, start of first to end of last, whatever. Just be consistent. Repeat three times on three test subjects and average results, throwing out any obvious screw-ups. This is Result A.

Test 2: Same,but with fewer attacks- as few as two would work, but I'd use three or four. Repeat test three times and average. Be sure to use the same timing- start to start, start to end, whatever. This is B.

Subtract B from A: this will give you the time for the "middle" attacks. If A was eight attacks and B was three, this is five attacks plus five full recharges.
Divide by 5 to get C: One attack plus one full recharge.

Test 3: Same as test 1, but with three or four Recharge Reducers in the power. Go to the Enhancement screen and keep track of what the modified Recharge time is (As close to 100% as you can get it, ideally.) The time for test 3 is D.

Test 4: Same as test 2, but with Recharge Reducers. The time for test 4 is E.

From D and E, Calculate the time for one attack and one modified recharge; label this F.

Given Activation time A, Recharge modifier M, and true recharge time R:

[Basic Algebra Follows]
A+ R = C
A + (R/1+M) = F

Subtracting: C-F = R (1- (1/1+M)

Plug in C, F, and M and you can find R.

Once you find R, you can find A.

My errors were on the order of +/- .2 seconds; if you have a stopwatch that goes to .1 seconds, you can probably do better.

The whole procedure takes about an hour or so, per power.