IanTheM1

This, to an extent. Unless I get the Crash Reporter, I'm not going to attempt to explain what crashed me, usually since I have no idea what did, in the tiny little bug report box.

And I rather dislike that tiny little bug report box. It steals away all attention, making it impossible to pause mid-report to answer a tell or such. And the room allotted is rarely enough to coherently explain an issue as big as, well, I crash nearly every Incarnate Trial.

I don't think anyone's expecting them to offer Incarnate powers for sale.

But yes, I'd like to see the costume bits and bobs (and emotes), sans Ascension Armor, obviously, available for Paragon Points purchase.

Attaching even greater rewards to badges that are already frustrating and potentially alienating doesn't seem like a great idea to me.

Not quite. I've been unable to join any raid I've crashed out, even after maintenance. Though that makes me wonder: Is this Cannot Find Instance problem only happening with Keyes? I had the niggling thought that something was hooked up properly with it.

As for the queue, I still don't know why they didn't use the Arena interface for it. While it could use another coat of polish, it was pretty good at getting everybody on one screen, showing what needed to be shown, and then getting you into your instance.

I'd also still like to know why pre-formed Leagues need all their members in one zone while queued leagues, or the Arena even, do not.

Your raid was the second one I crashed out of. :/

I think I've gotten nearly every CoH crash prompt from doing the Trials, with the sole exception of the "out of memory" one. And I could just be forgetting that one. One's I know for a fact that I've gotten:

- The classic Cryptic Crash Reporter

- "File x.pigg is corrupt" which was followed by me verifying my install, going back in and crashing again with "File y.pigg is corrupt"

- A sound loop followed by "Good news! CoH was about to crash...but didn't. It's probably still going to, though." (And it did.)

- The standard Windows "This program has stopped working..." box.

- The newest one came yesterday during the first Keyes: A blank box with no text of any kind and two equally blank buttons. Seemed like it could've been the corrupted file or "it didn't crash!" ones (though no sound loop, so maybe not the latter), but I couldn't tell, obviously.

The lieutenants are immune to all control by design. The minions are not.

Sent (and then sent again, for I am woefully incapable of getting everything into one message).

I just updated my drivers to see if that would help as I tried to earn some merits for my second account, and nope, crashed out and I'm not even going to bother trying to get back in. And yeah, I defrag regularly.

I can't actually make it through the trials without crashing, and now if I crash I'm gone for good. Issue 20.5 is over for me already.

Seeing as how you eventually would have had to switch the Launcher anyway, and it was very much worth it to do so anyway compared to the old clunky one, and the aura was free, I don't see how that really applies.

They have confirmed that you'll be able to see parts buyable through Paragon Points in the creator before owning them, but there's been no mention of other unlockable parts.

This. Even with its current interrupt time, Castle said Aid Self was a little too good.

Leadership simply does not need any kind of buff. It's a pure power multiplier set no matter what AT you take it on, and once you start stacking it...

Fighting I could see being tweaked, but only in step with much-needed tweaks to set bonuses.

Also /unsigned on changes to Stealth. Aside from the slightly higher end cost and slow effect, it's equivalent to Cloaking Device. Get rid of those, and it's no longer balanced. I also wouldn't touch Invisibility. Grant Invis could be slightly cheaper and the whole Phase Shift tangle would be nice to address at some point, though.

I was puzzling over this until I realized we already have a mechanic to modularly swap out mission geometry - glowies. There may be some further technical hurdle due to spawning the decorations as entities rather than baked-in geometry though.

Plus the way the badges work means that unless all four teams are actually cooperating properly, you won't even necessarily get all four badges in one event.

I was getting to it.

My takes on some redside events:

Deathsurge

As a friend suggested, step one should be to break his kneecaps. Seriously, he runs too damn much.

Step two, villains should be aided in taking down the monster by the Luddites. These do not con as friendly (and should probably be levelless), however, so they're perfectly able to be harmed by AoEs or possibly aggro onto players if Deathsurge isn't keeping their attention.

A possible step three is to make Deathsurge weakened by attacks on the PTS substations, opening up an additional way for small teams to soften him up.

Special reward: A Gremlin non-combat mini-pet.


Sharkhead Isle Miners' Strike

This one suffers from a really obvious design flaw, even bigger than Scrapyard's chance to drone himself. All of the miners that spawn to march with him are always a specific level (I believe it's 22 or 23 but it's been a while since I've checked). This turns their presence into an obnoxious duality. Either it essentially forces lower level characters to not participate, or it turns the whole event into one big boring nuke-and-grind for high level characters.

So, step one, is to make the marching Scrapyarders levelless like other event mobs. Obviously this wouldn't instantly make them a huge threat to higher level characters, but it means they could actually do some damage to them and possibly be a problem in large enough numbers.

Additionally, change how they spawn. Instead of a big line of random Scrapyarders, make each new spawn have various minions, one or two lieutenants, and one Lead Protester, a special lieutenant carrying a protest sign. If you kill the Lead Protester, it will demoralize the surrounding Scrapyarders, terrorizing them for a short time before they either attack or flee. This it to give an opening for lower level characters to fight off the march, and is shockingly an objective best suited to Stalkers.

Now, as for the big man himself, he needs some work. His attacks are very dull, and he barely even uses his signature hammer. Either give him more Mace powers or this is another good spot for Titan Weapons. He should also have the ability to cast a light version of Leadership or Vengeance on his followers.

Additionally, he gets some new pathing (it's really a bit absurd that this hasn't been fixed after more than TEN issues). Instead of marching towards the docks or wherever else, he marches to a showdown somewhere in central Sharkhead with the man who killed him - Cap'n Mako now spawns during the event to help you crush the riot. The only worry here is him stealing badge credit, but I honestly see no reason not to just turn the death of Scrapyard into an wide-area event trigger like Lusca or Paladin.

Special reward: Scrapyard's Hammer for Mace/Titan Weapons, something appropriately shark-y, and/or a click temp power that makes Scrapyarders fear you.

That's sort of the point, though. I like my costume unlocks nice and redundant. It's no different from my many requests for a non-Cabal witch hat.

As for your idea, I'm alright with it, though obviously it has the pre-requisite of a Boomtown revamp.

I think it's possible to dynamically create an image in-game, as a system like that is used to generate the pictures for contacts, your own ID card, and your costume slots. That said, all of those exist only in the UI. I'm not sure if that's a problem, but it could very well be. The actual swap-out is much easier, thanks to the code used for in-game advertising.

As for custom geometry, that technology is already available. AE contacts swap their appearance locally, and presumably Praetoria's phasing tech works similarly.

That said, I do find myself agreeing with Sam, especially once we start talking about statues. Most of the heroes you see statues of died in order to get that sort of memorial, and even then, it would still be sort of odd to see a statue of characters that aren't traditional heroes.

All that said, if it was possible to get my villains' faces on wanted posters as seen in various places in the Rogue Isles, that would be very, very cool to the point where that should be the first goal in implementing this.

I think this saves me the work of making a post for Lusca. Though with the slight addendum of upping her merit rewards to at least 6.

Lesse, what to do next...

Babbage

What is the purpose of Babbage? As it stands he's just a giant clockwork that shows up as part of Synapse's TF, plus an occasional spawn in Boomtown, which is currently redundant.

How about an encounter where Babbage roams the ruins of Baumton, digging through debris in order to find enough parts to upgrade himself? His AI would not kick in until activated, preventing the issue that plagues the Paladin event. Attacking him during the search phase would divert his attention, but only temporarily. Each time he busts open a pile of debris, a large swarm of Clockwork builds from the scraps to attack the players.

Once he make it through all three or four piles, he gains enough material to piece together his Babbage Engine, a clankering bundle of this and that which supercharges the giant machine, granting him stronger abilities (like Electric Control, for instance). Damage done to him during the first phase would still count, but it would be impossible to bring roaming Babbage under 25% health and/or he would heal himself slightly after each pile of debris.

Special costume reward: Babbage-style shoulder gears.

Paladin

Paladin is unique, since there's nothing technically wrong with the event itself (except maybe taking a bit longer than it needs to...and being a bit overwhelming for at-level characters), but rather its fail state, leading to lots of wandering Paladins blocking the event from starting.

So for my first idea, instead of Paladin wandering off to north Kings Row, upon being built, he should launch an assault on the PPD Headquarters. Followed by a legion of Clockwork, he invades the PPD garage and makes a nuisance of himself, drawing the ire of more combat-active PPD. If Paladin is defeated for any reason, he breaks down into two Lesser Paladins, not unlike the Devouring Earth. These Lesser Paladins are Elite Bosses that are a bit speedier but otherwise weaker than the GM version.

Alternatively, reverse the event. Paladin now spawns randomly and normally like other Giant Monsters. When Paladin is defeated, instead of collapsing and despawning, he merely shuts down or breaks apart and waves of Clockwork begin swarming in to try and revive him. This theoretically means the Paladin event can happen anywhere in the zone, which could be a technical hurdle. I'm also slightly uneasy about removing solo/small team access to the event by attaching it to a GM kill, but this still seems like it has potential.

Also, Paladin is begging to be remade using Shield Defense and either Broadsword or Titan Weapons.

Special costume reward: Clockwork Shield and Sword.

I think this is the route to go. Rez powers are supposed to put you into an untouchable state for a certain amount of time after their use, but this period is either buggy and cuts out too soon, or I believe is nonexistent on some self-rezzes.

Every rez power should get a check up to make sure they're operating properly.