Gargoyle_KDR

The crowd in line for the doors to open just cheered at the camera crew that is sweeping around the serpentine line. 10 more minutes to go, and there are several thousand folks in line here.

- B.

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I'll be hanging around the NC Soft booth on Saturday. I want to check out the show, but I am only there Saturday, so if I am not at the NC Soft booth, I am wandering around aimlessly.

I am on a panel discussing the future of MMOs at 6pm on Saturday in Theater A.

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Cya there!

Oh, and tell CuppaJo that we'll miss her. The Rock Bottom was fun last year.

- B.

Ah, how this brings back memories of the end of Beta. The world invasion that was run then was great fun.

- Bayne

The splash page is an artwork featuring a collection of various heroes. DB is included in the piece.

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In the group I described a couple posts back we had 3 Tactics, 3 uses of Geas (twice in one fight too), the 4 Blasters had their Aim, 1 Defender had Aim, and a Defender Rad Debuff going. Then added to that were the 15+ Shivans (about 4 out at any given time) and all the ACC INSP we were carrying. We still couldn't take Mako below 25% health.

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Hmm. Did Mako just stand there and take it, or did he run around a lot? How much regen debuff did you have, and were the regen-debuffing Kin/Rad/Dark characters able to hit him consistently with LR, Trans, etc?

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For the majority of the fight he stayed confined to the small alley. A couple of times he would jump up above us or run around a little in the local area, but he always came back to the location. Keep in mind that 7 of the 8 team members were fighting him with ranged attacks so we didn't really have to chase him down much.

There was 1 Rad Defender. I didn't get a good sense from her a quantified amount of resistance or misses from the debuffs she was doing.

The FF/Dark Defender was able to hit with Tenebrous Tentacles about half of the time I think. Same for his other powers.

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I'm of neutral opinion on Mako. My group beat him last night with a team of 6, but we had the right powers for it. Three of us had Tactics. Our Empath's Fortitude had 3x ToHit. Two of us had Geas (Tank/Controller though), and the two Blasters had their usual Aim buffs.

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In the group I described a couple posts back we had 3 Tactics, 3 uses of Geas (twice in one fight too), the 4 Blasters had their Aim, 1 Defender had Aim, and a Defender Rad Debuff going. Then added to that were the 15+ Shivans (about 4 out at any given time) and all the ACC INSP we were carrying. We still couldn't take Mako below 25% health.

Between Test and Live I've been on the STF 6 times now. All 6 have failed. 2 due to people dropping and 4 due to 1 AV, Mako. This last attempt on Live is the one that really points out the design flaw of this encounter.

We had a team of 8. 4 Blasters, 1 Scrapper, and 3 Defenders (Rad/Emp, FF/Energy, FF/Dark).

Everything up to the point of encountering the 4 AVs in the last mission was fine. The team was able to handle the 3 other AVs. Over the course of 2 nights the team spent 6 hours on just that last mission. The first night we took out the other 3 AVs but after 60 minutes of a stalemate against Mako we were at the point we had to stop for the evening. The next night we came back, restocked INSP, and then took out the 3 other AVs again. That left just Mako to deal with.

The next 4 hours were spent trying to overcome Mako. An hour was spent trying to overcome his Unstoppable+Elude powers. We could not bring him below 25% health. At that point we pulled back so 5 of us could go to BB to get Shivans and restock on INSP. That took a little less than an hour. We then came back to face Mako again. The last battle went on for right around 1 full hour.

That last battle saw the team use 100+ INSP, 2 full recycles of Geas (and that has a 25 minute recycle time), 15+ Shivans, and at least 4 other Temp Powers. Throughout the fight Mako was no lower than 25% health. Nothing we tried would break past that barrier. At the end of the hour Mako ended up getting through all of our defenses in a quick series of lucky attacks resulting in a team wipe. At that point we gave up.

The team was having fun up to the point we had to face Mako. From that point it was like getting slapped in the face. 8 customers went away from this experience mad and dissatisfied.

Positron and company, you need to look at the data coming back off this TF. There is something seriously wrong with that AV. If 8 characters can spend that much time and resources trying to overcome 1 AV without success there is a serious balance issue.

Excellent!

Thanks for all the hard work on this!

(So say I as numbers 35 and 62. )

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...Liberator (the Eden Trial) might give you the Boulder.

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I can confirm this is true. I finally got around to doing the Eden trial this past weekend, and I recieved both badges upon completion.

It appears it will be. Read the news: CoV goes Gold.

As others have pointed out, what about Force Fields? That set is also Defense based yet it appears to have been overlooked. What sort of debuff resistance do you intend to provide the Force Field powers?

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* Shadow Shard Maps show the location of each Jump Pad. A dotted line connects the Jump Pad with its end point.

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Useful for the non-flyer or teleporter. A good addition for the players.


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* A teleporter on Firebase Zulu takes players to any of the other three zones in the Shadow Shard (works both ways).

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In theory a great addtion. The implementation of it is rather unimpressive though. The teleporters should be in Mole Points to maintain the theme of the portals. Why oh why are there portal gates out of FBZ but only floating balls of light on the other side of the gate? The whole thing feels like a band-aid rather than a fully fleshed out solution to zone movement.


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* Dr. Scott Wachhorst, a prominent xenobiologist and Portal Corp. leader, willingly purchases Enhancements from players in Firebase Zulu.

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Why did you add a second purchasing agent in FBZ? What is needed is a second location to purchase inspirations, not another place to sell.


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* A renegade Brute, Kallarn, purchases Enhancements with the hope that he might gain enough power to overthrow Ruladak. It can be found in the Cascades.

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Ok, so this is a needed improvement.


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* Slarrah, a Wisp who has been converted by Faathim the Kind relieves players of excess Enhancements in the Chantry.

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This is a needed improvement for the zone.


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* Nameless Mystic. An interdimensional mystic feeds off the energy kicked off by the dreaded Lanaru. He happily accepts Enhancements. Found lurking near the Storm Palace.


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This is a needed addition to the zone.

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It does warm the heart to see some defenders in the arena other than myself....I have only seen one bubble defender. Bayne. In our large Virtue vs Liberty match last weekend and he seemd to do ok as well.

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In the Virtue vs. Liberty match there were 2 Force Field Defenders: Bayne and Savant. I chatted with Savant during the event about our builds. We have different slotting approaches for things like Force Bubble and the APP powers.

Bayne does OK in PvP because I did an analysis of what was and what was not working with my original PvE build. I found I had to alter several things from my extremely effective PvE build in order to have a suitable PvP build. Not everyone is going to do that kind of analysis, nor should they have to. Even after the respec for PvP I find my build is hampered by the extremes of the to-hit code. My defense buffs can be trumped by all of the To-Hit buff powers even if they have minimal slotting in the power.

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The fact that there is so little bickering around FF needing a buff should speak volumes.

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I couldn't agree more.

If it quacks like a duck, walks like a duck, and looks like a duck it probably *is* a duck.

Supergroup Name: The Defenders of Paragon

Website: http://www.tdop.org

Leader or Recruiting Officers:
Xanatos
Bayne
Exodus
Libertyman
Dynatron
Korpershutz

Preferred Method of contact:
Registering at our website and posting on our forums. Although meeting up with us in game is just as desirable.

Description:
"These guys have been around since the beginning and i'm sure they'll be here 'till the end!"
-Paragon city mayor on the subject of the Defenders.

Paragon City is full of crime and villians. The city cries out desperatly for a hope, an answer, a defense from the evils that fill it. The Defenders of Paragon serve that hope and protect Paragon City. We shall use the powers gifted to us to there fullest extent to defeat evil wherever it exists. We stand for truth, justice, freedom, and righteousness. We are the ray of hope in Paragon City's darkest hour. We are The Defenders.

It is accurate to say the Defenders are like the JSA of Paragon City. We are comprised of the best of the old and boldest of the new. We pay homage to the excellance that is the comic book industry through the characters we play. It is because of this that we have such a wide variety of members and such a brilliant mix of superheroes on the team. We have members at all level ranges, and look to promote a roleplay-freindly family spirit in our supergroup.

We're not a "clan" or "guild." We are Superheroes.

The Defenders of Paragon are comprised of 2 in-game supergroups due to the 75 character size limitiation. The Defenders of Paragon and The New Defenders of Paragon function as a single supergroup for all roleplaying and game purposes.

DJ: Go ahead caller, you're on the air.
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:: A soothing baritone voice with a hint of a Pacific Northwestern accent is heard over the radio ::
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Bayne: Thank you for taking my call, Outcast Jack. I'm a long-time listener; first time caller.
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DJ: OWWWWwwww!!!! Welcome to the show.
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B: Uhm, yes, of course. I have a question...well, two questions actually...for the group.
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DJ: Yeah, well let's get to them Baybe.
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B: Bayne. My name is Bayne, not "Baybe."
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DJ: Riiiiiight. Let's get to it then.
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B: Ok, my first question is directed toward Clockwork King. Is that a Lake Industries Micro Bio-Fusion Power Cell I see in the thorax of the Clockwork King? I've always wondered how you powered that skeletal system of yours, and if it is a LIMBFPC then I can see why you can generate the huge levels of energy you need to shift that mass around with ease.
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:: without interruption Bayne immeadiately runs on to his next question ::
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B: And second, I hear you play Bridge. Would you think it is balanced to force raise to 3 No-Trump in response to an opening bid of 1 Heart or 1 Spade? I've been thinking my partner could choose to leave the contract in 3NT or bid again. Do you have an opinion on that?

Happy Anniversary one and all.

It has been a journey about growth. The players and the development folks have both learned more about one another. Much of it has been wonderful. Some of it has been troubling. All of it has been an experiance to remember.

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<ul type="square">[*]I will enter 45+ PvP knowing full well that I may be up against someone or an SG with all powers fully HO slotted, and will contiue to do so, because I want to, even knowing that I already have a disadvantage.[/list]
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I think that from what little we really know of the PvP details, this needs to be extended to all levels of combat. The large % bonus may not be there in the under 45 matches, but the dual/triple effect of the enhancements will be.

Your point can also be used to expound on a fairly universal aspect of PvP we know from other games: you don't generally know what your opponent(s) can do. We may know what powers they have, but we probably will not know how they have them slotted. The enhancement slotting patterns become a competitive variable for the players. The higher the character level the greater the variable becomes. It could be 6 slots, it could be HO's, it could be an accolade power, it could be an unexpected temporary power. These things will all come into play. PvP can be balanced, but it is not always fair.

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Looks like to me that the easy solution for States and crew now is to program into the arena rules interface the ability to shutdown HOs, then no one need complain that they only lost because the other guy has all HOs installed..

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And I see no problem at all with this. If the Hami users want "a challenge" as they say, then why not put yourself in the same class as the your competition.

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By extension, the scenario you propose means the only equitable solution is to remove all enhancements from everyone in the matches. Your Training, DO's, or SO's...gone. Their HO's...gone. Fortunately the Dev's realize this is not the answer because it removes the uniqueness each player worked so hard for.

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No offense intended, and I do see where you are coming from, however, intentional nor no, you may have been stretching the example a little wee tiny smidge of a bit too far.

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I intentionally extended the argument to the absurd so you could see the application of a balanced restriction against that of a one-sided restriction system. When taken to the extremes you can analyze the logical application of these types of things. Removing something from one person but not the other is not equitable but it may balance the match. Removing something from both may be equitable but at what cost? The unique characters each of us develped become nothing more generic templates. All our hard work to customize the way our powers work get thrown out with the bath water. Allowing the characters to stay the way their player built them is the most equitable to all.


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For example...do all 45+'s have access to HO's?

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Yes, of course they all have access to the HO's. Do they exercise that access? That's the sticking point. Some do and some don't. Those that run the risk of the raids do reap the reward. Those that don't want to participate or those that have the potential but not yet the means to gain HO's want to deny the reward through artificial means from those that have risked themselves.

Is that fair to the higher level character? No it isn't. Is it fair to the lower level character? It isn't supposed to be. Fighting something higher level will always be a threat to the lower level. That is what the PvE and PvP risk-reward system is based on.

For the lower levels it is the same as a lower weight class with 3 slots in a power taking on a higher level character that has 6 slots in a power. As I understand the exemplar system those extra slots are still available to the higher level character, but they operate at the enhancement cap for the level they are now fighting at. The higher level character will have an edge enhancement-wise no matter. HO's become part of that equation.

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Looks like to me that the easy solution for States and crew now is to program into the arena rules interface the ability to shutdown HOs, then noone need complain that they only lost because the other guy has all HOs installed..

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And I see no problem at all with this. If the Hami users want "a challenge" as they say, then why not put yourself in the same class as the your competition.

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By extension, the scenario you propose means the only equitable solution is to remove all enhancements from everyone in the matches. Your Training, DO's, or SO's...gone. Their HO's...gone. Fortunately the Dev's realize this is not the answer because it removes the uniqueness each player worked so hard for.

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I am level 47 and to get the badges I want for these rewards I have two choices: find a portal mission that contains these enemies and farm it over and over or run around the lower level areas causing havoc.

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Choice 3: Exemplar to an appropriate level Hero and help them get XP (and work off your debt) while you both get the badge. I know... it's just crazy enough to work.

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Positron, your option is built on a HUGE assumption that such a character has debt to work off. In my case I rarely have debt. The risk-reward schema for becoming an Exemplar is truly skewed for such characters. Additionally, when I do have some I can easily work it off fast by continuing to patrol or run missions at my own level. The reason I want to Exemplar is to have fun with my friends who do not have high level characters (like mine). In such situations the risk-reward schema is more like "all risk-no reward".

Also used:

SC: Steel Canyon

MD: Mission Door waypoint

@MD: "I'm am at the Mission Door waypoint"