Fuzun

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Ooo, Extracted Essense can be buffed? It's targettable, isn't it? So it would be interesting to see if it inherits the defense buffs. (They wouldn't last long, though, the WS shields tick every 0.75 seconds. Do an Eclipse, though, and then Extract... )


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Oh yes they can be buffed. A Fulcrum Shift, Clear Mind, Adreanal Boost, Speed Boost, Accel Metal, and Vengenance buffed Fuzzball (with some Yellow inspirations for flavoring) is a awesome engine of destruction. Go, Go Uber-Fuzzball...of DOOOOMMM!!!!!! And when I add to the mix my own Warshade Nova with like buffs. Purple Rain of DOOOOOM, FTW!! (Yes. I do live for those moments )

If people read Castle first post, he mentioned that some Pet AI issues were caused by +RECH buffs to the powers. This change will fix some AI issue not all. * glances towards NPC Fuzun in my published arc...

And Soulbound Allegiance is still a very worthwhile set. I really didn't know or even notice about the +RECH of the set leaking into my Warshades Extracted Essences. I wanted the set for the +RECH for summoning them AND the Pet Build Up Proc. I could slot Pet Damage sets into them at the time, but w/o recharge it means a lot of down time beween pets.

If I didn't already have the the Soulbound's already, I've be slotting a RIP set for the +RECH bonus for me. Soulbounds's Set Bonuses are OK but don't include any +RECH.

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I went through each pacth note between I7 and I8, there is nothing further. Certainly no specific mention of recharge inheritance.

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Based on discussions at the time, I was pretty sure they gave them "buff" inheritance. Primarily they were interested in damage and toHit, for things like Ice Storm or RoF. Doing that by letting everything through was probably just the shortest path to the goal.

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As I recall from the discussions with the devs, the code basically just cloned all of the current buffs (types, magnitudes and durations) of the player onto the summoned entity. That was to allow powers like Burn and Blizzard to buffable like other non-summoned entity attacks like Nova.

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[...] The alternative, as I understand it, would be to fix that long standing bug I said we couldn’t fix. That would result in up to a 50% increase in server CPU time in the Powers computations, though and that simply isn't a workable solution.

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See, he's referring back to the first paragraph and saying the second is the fix for it.

Although I wonder if the lag would not be so bad if ONLY recharge was tested for and excluded, not every single effect that an Enhancement can have.


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I don't know their code, but as a rule coding only for Recharge would only be a specific case of the general solution. That means it might save a few lines of code and a few processor cycles, it won't shave near enough from the 50% to be worth attempting it.

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No thats just them changing the rules in the middle of the game again. Just like with the multiple instances of a pet. If it wasnt meant to be then why let it go on for so long? Thats why I say they are full of it this time. Normally I would let this kind of thing go but this is setting a precedent, at any given moment in time they can always say something was never intended just so they can nerf with not justifiable reason. At this point their word is meaningless because we were encouraged to use recharge,damage, accuracy buffs since issue 7 since that part of the technology was added to psuedo pets.

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The reason why it's not an instantly changed thing is because it takes time to make *code* changes into the game. There is a finite about of resources they have for updating the game. So they have to weight those changes against all of the other changes and additions they want to make to the game. And then go through their internal testing, QA, beta testing, open testing and then live deployment.

Something to majorly bear in mind. The powers are already balance in regard to their currently intended performance. The leaked Reacharge altereed their performance.

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1) Gun Drone has a really large Endurance cost, is interruptible, and takes a very long while to set down, which makes is a between-combat power only. At least Recharge is useful for it because it's not permanent. Would you consider lowering its End cost to about 30, and making it a faster summons and hopefully not interruptible?


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I woun't mind seeing this myself. The interrupt time means more time I can't resummon in combat.

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2) VS does not benefit from Recharge now since it's perma out of the box. End cost and animation time seems reasonable. Would you consider shortening its lifespan to about 45 seconds, and speeding up its fire rate so that it does the same damage over its lifetime? That way slotting up Recharge in it makes a bit of sense, right now since it doesn't stack, that's wasted slotting.


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Rechage still makes since as you can get multiples out. Most people don't bother with the power or just 4 slotting is an leave it be.

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3) Lightning Storm is on a pretty long recharge, and supposedly balanced around doing close to its full damage, yet its fire rate is too slow to make it worth the End cost in anything but a boss/AV fight. Would you be willing to lower its End cost by about 20% so that it's not a waste to summon it for other fights, and also to give it an "alpha strike" capability by giving it a 1-use Chain Induction attack when its first summoned? That way its overall long-term DPS will hardly be affected, but it will become more useful when summoned for a single small fight.

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Lightning Storm's potential can be increased greatly with having the +RECH in. My /Storm Controllers cranks out a tremendous about of damage with Lighting Storm and Tornado. You just need to negate some aspects of the two powers: KB. It's an Earth Controllers by the way. I spam Stone Cages every times it's up. Critter's don't move unless I want them to move. With no KB, LS and Tornado shreds spawns. Unless I got 6+ critters in a spawn, its too boring otherwise.

And when I allow critters to move, it's because I want lighting Storm and Tornado to keep critter away. Sometimes there's too many critter even for me to handle. I know, I know. Shocking but true. The KB, Stun and Fear of those two give me a another level of control. Kinda of nice for a Controller, no?

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The ability to slot def/rech in Mind Link is not a bug. It was known throughout Beta and is working as intended, IIRC.

[/ QUOTE ]But the ability for pets to inherrent hasten wasnt working as intended? I dont get that because we were specifically encouraged to use that for psuedo pets. How is it all of a sudden not working as intended?

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I don't think it's even been working as intended. As Castle posted, to fix it would increase power processing on the server by 50%. That is a huge amount when multipled by the hundred of power calculations the server does per minute.

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The ability to slot def/rech in Mind Link is not a bug. It was known throughout Beta and is working as intended, IIRC.

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Castle has posted explicitly about mind.. It's something different that he's trying with it. And it is working as he intended.

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Reports from a friend with ninjas and another with a necro claim that both of their toons are performing better with what you call a nerf.

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Really? Reports I've been reading say Fly Trap and Jounin are still not cycling their attacks correctly on test.

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Jounin haven't been cycling their attack now on the Live Servers. My pre-level 32 Jounin like to use Soaring Dragon multiple times in a row. In fact, I think that character is still 22-. No SO's, just DOs. no IO Set bonuses at all.

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Meanwhile, we have a long standing 'bug' that we cannot fix:

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That says it ALL right there.

I don't even play PET classes and this still disgusts me. I'm through accepting THAT answer for all the things wrong with this game, Castle.

Sorry as hell, but I'm sick of it.

Cal2

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Cal2 is they do fix that bug then the server's power processing load will increase by 50%. That's the consequence of fixing that bug. Combats will starting being to lag noticeable. Any mass combat situation (like a Zombie Apocalyse) will be measured in seconds per frame. So get server performance back to it's current level would probably take $250-$500K of hardware for all of the game servers. You don't happen to have a spare 1/2 million dollars you could give to NCSoft now, do you? Or they can totally rewrite the game engine or license a new one and take, oh, 2-3 years to reimplement the game? I'm sure that everyone would like to have no game updates for 2-3 years.

People get so worked up about it because they *love* the game. If they didn't care about the game, they wouldn't not be complaining so loudly.

Ryu the fact is that some players don't see value of a pet that can target and fire at enemies independent of you. It's more damage, some can draw aggro, they don't use any of your endurance to attack, and they work when you are disabled (mezz'ed, caged, etc). But I'm more one of them. I <3 t my VS, Gun Turrent, Lighting Storms, et al.

You'll pryinig them from my dead, clenched fist. (And some will fight you even then )

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wel thats just PERFECT

thanks for giving me another useless 50 to gut and delete.

EDIT: Dont interfere with the "vision" it was never intended... EVER we are not the superheroes, we are just citizens with a trick or two... most of them dont do anything really.

gads I am mad enough to bite the heads off of nails!

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Do you think the devs really want to tick people off like you are? The spent *months* look at other alternatives. One was to make normal missions become a lag-fest like pre-I9 Hamidon raids. Th other was to render a lot of attack non-buffable at all.And doing nothing wasn't a choice they could make either. They make the only *viable* choice they could make.

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I never noticed the recharge thing, but Pets used to get stuck when attacking "items" in Mayem missions without the recharge buffs. Especially the NPC ones. They would rather stare down that diabolical cardboard box than help me with PPD and Longbow. Since this example is not related to recharge, has it been looked at.

At least the Bruiser will leave the "parking meter" to follow me when I get too far away from him.

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There are other AI issues besides the power recharge issue. Such as the Melee only Ally's in MA not closing near enough to actually use any melee attack. They just stand there and stare at their target. And why in the would does my pre-32 Jounin's see so insistent on using Soaring Dragon 2 or 3 times in a row. Makes many an application of Smoke Flash of little value.

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But what about exemptions to this fix. Thats what most of us want to know about. We already know its possible for some exemptions because there have been reports that the defender lightning storm still behaves the same as on live as on test yet the controller/corrupter/mastermind version of the power is now uneffected by recharge. I do think at the very least if you are making the powers not take recharge any more and if they arent able to be targeted anyways then maybe you can up the damage or change the recharge itself. I just really hate for lightning storm to become worthless outside of boss/av fights.

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Let's look at the alternatives shall we? Let Pet's be boostable with +RECH. But they will have to undo the I7 tech which let's pets inherit buffs of the caster. So that will make the most powers attacks of some Blasters, Defenders, and Corruptors and a smatter of other attacks be unable to be affected but Build Up, Aim type powers and Insight and Enrage inspirations. Yeah, that will go over well.

And Lighting Storm is near useless totally useless because it's attack is taking 5 seconds to recharge instead of 2.5 seconds? Gasp. I supposed all of those Controllers and Defenders reaching level 40 before I9 never ever used, much less took, Lightning Storm seeing as it was so unless before IO enhancers. *rolleyes

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Question: Once an arc has reached Developers' Choice status, can it be edited at all, ever?

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Yes you can still edit Hall of Fame and Developer's Choice promoted arcs. I keeping finding and fixing tiny typos and weak sentence structures in Dev's Choice arc. (I think's it's Gremelinses. Dey sneak, dey is. )

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I'm quite certain it will be possible to make a mission where you're guaranteed to fail. Making a mission that cannot be completed, on the other hand, is another matter entirely.

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So you're saying "escort Cardboard Box to safety" is probably out of the question?

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That's an clicklie or blow up thingie. I doubt the MA will allow you pick an object as a hostage. Now "escort (Nemesis) Colonel Comet to safety" should be entirely doable.

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And you can't publish a mission that can't be "beaten". It might be hard, but the error checking makes sure that whatever you make is possible to complete.

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Not that I don't believe you, but once this goes to Open Beta, I intend to attack the MA with hammer, drill, and demon posessed rubber duckies until I prove you wrong. It's one of the aspects of MA that I've been planning to go after as soon as I can.


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Don't you think that at least some of the closed beta testers are already trying to do this?

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Edit: Wonder if you will be able to purchase more story arcs with tickets? Eventually?

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Too easy, I think. Maybe as an reward.

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Are we limited to how many Stories we can have per account. i.e. one story line per char, or one story line per account?

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3 Published story arcs per account (each story arc with up to 5 missions). Unlimited numbers of unpublished story arcs (which reside on the local drive of your PC). Publishing a mission uploads from your PC to the MA server into an empty publishing slot. Getting a Published Arc promoted into the Hall of Fame or Dev's Choice will free up that slot for reuse.

Edit: to make things a bit clearer

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another poster, JohnathanBloom, found this:

http://www.massively.com/2009/02/26/...ity-of-heroes/

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Am I reading this right that we will be able to play with people from other servers on either side?

That could solve a lot of the complaints from people on low pop serves who don't want to move.

3 story arcs per account seems low. I thought it was 3 per character.


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You read that wrong. The published stories in the MA are cross server and cross faction. Anyone character can run any mission on any server. BUT teamplay and the like is still the same. That is, you can still only team with players on the same game server that you are logged into.

And what said that it's 3 publishing slots only. It's not a technical limitation. (At least I hope not; otherwise, pohsyb and I will some "discussions" ). Maybe one can earn more slots as rewards?

MA is doing to be disruptive to the normal flow of the game. But every other new Issue have been disruptive to the flow of the game. Issue 14 is a probably going to be more diruptive for a longer period of time, but it will eventually settle out. Everyone and their dog will want to try out the MA Editor and run missions. But eventually interest will wane. I will be one of those types. I'll trying it out, press the limit of what the MA Editor is capable of, create and publish a mission (maybe two). But I don't have any illusions of stardom. I doubt any of my stuff will hit the HoF or Dev's Choice. So once the initial infatuation goes away. MA will be just another thing I dally with. I'll check out any new HoF and Dev's Choice stuff, check in with certain "famous" players stuff, talked about stuff and highly rated stuff. That is, it'll just be another part of the game for me. And I'm fairly certain that I'm in the majority of the current population.

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"At the high level we allow you to create your own stories and share them with others in the game."

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What does "At the high level" mean?

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From the 20,000 ft view.... The overall arching vision... etc.

Just a figure of speech. He's not referring the character levels.

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Lot's of character origin stories will spring to life I imagine.

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Yes indeedy do.

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We would like to know if you stay out of sync for more than 10 seconds. The server should automatically try to /sync if you're out of sync for that long.

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I have a character on Justice, "Mastermind Mandy" (lvel 50 MM), which doesn't get the Out of Sync problem. She gets the Reset to Zone Entry every 10 seconds or so. The character get's rubber banded back to the spot she zones into to. This happens for the first 3-4 zones. And they periodsly returned through out the session. The /sync command is the only way to break the cycles. The character is in the zone, I can see other character. and they can see me.