Jade_Dragon

Well, you know, if you got a character to 50, what did you accomplish? You got a level 1 Kheldian, or a level 1 SoA.

If you get a Kheldian or an SoA to level 50, though, THEN what have you accomplished? You have a level 50 Kheldian or SoA.

You've still got that second accomplishment to aim for. And personally, I don't think making the first one easier made the second any easier. If anything, it made it that much sooner before you got to realize that no, Kheldians and SoA are NOT uber powerful, and in fact they may suck.

I could have argued in favor of making it 30 or 40 (you get capes at 20 and auras at 30, EATs at 40 does kind of make sense) but if it ties in with Going Rogue, and we even manage to get a new EAT out of it, well, that's fine with me.

If Weapon Customization could have been available at the time the game was developed, it's possible there could have been a single Power Set, called Medieval Weapons, which contained generic attacks and generic animations for a weapon of some type. You might then have been able to select a particular type of weapon, a sword, axe or mace, and the actual model, animation, and damage type could have been applied from there. It would have been a perfectly acceptable system, flexible and expandable with additional weapon options that might have been added later.

On the other hand, the system as it currently stands allows differences to be introduced into the Power Sets. Broadsword, Katana, Battle Axe and War Mace all have completely different feels, with different secondary effects, and even individual powers. Broadsword is slow and deals high damage, while Katana is much faster paced, and has a more skillful look. (It is also the only left handed weapon set) Battle Axe does knockback, while War Mace disorients, and Broadsword/Katana debuff Defense. Although a lot of this feel is in the animation, the animations ARE different. There are differences in cast times between some of the same powers in Broadsword, Battle Axe, and War Mace, and each Set has thus been balanced completely independently. To normalize their cast times would imbalance them.

The way the devs have the Power Sets currently set up, cast time, Powers and secondary effects are standardized across a Power Set, so they can balance that Set against its full capabilities. The suggested Medieval Weapons Set above would have to have a single secondary effect, a single damage type, and a single set of Powers - it would have to either have Parry, or not have Parry, for instance. One might theorize about a Bladed Weapons and Blunt Weapons, for Lethal and Smashing damage respectively, but that's as far as you could go. If you're going to give the different weapon options in the same Set different characteristics and cast times, you might as well just go ahead and make it a different Set. That way the devs can continue to balance each Set independently.

The important point, though, is that that isn't the way the devs developed the Power Sets. Broadsword, Katana, Battle Axe and War Mace already existed, before Weapon Customization were implemented, and they were designed around each being a unique Set, with their own individual characteristics. So it's too late to change now. We already have legacy Power Sets to deal with. And no one is going to want to give up Broadsword's Parry for a more generic Power. No one is going to want to give up Battle Axe's knockback for a -Def. Many players chose those Sets for those characteristics, and are not going to want to give them up.

Now, this is not to say that future weapon sets can't keep Weapon Customization in mind, incorporating Powers and effects that are meant to widen the available options. (Such as making Polearms do a small amount of Lethal damage as well as Smashing, so a blade can be put on the end of a staff) This is also not to say that the existing weapon sets cannot be merged across Archetypes, making Broadsword the Bladed Weapons for Scrappers and Stalkers, for instance, and Battle Axe have the same options for Tankers and Brutes. The weapon models would be shared, but the secondary effects and animations would actually be determined by your Archetype, not the weapon model. (So a Tanker's Broadsword would do knockback, while a Scrapper could use his Battle Axe to Parry)

You've got to be realistic about what is possible, though, and how much time it would take. The devs might be able to "tack on" a model that allows you to use a crossbow with the Assault Rifle Power Set. With quite a bit more time, they might be able to cross link the weapon you select with animations, and have a crossbow be usable with Archery, using different animations which still have the same cast time and effects as the existing Powers. As there is nothing like this currently in the game, however, we're talking about adding a new feature. Using the selection of the weapon model, the crossbow, to also select the Power animation. Weapon Customization + Animation Customization.

The final step, actually having the Crossbow do something unique, or have a different cast time, would most likely have to be a totally new Power Set.

Assault Rifle does not have Aim. If Dark Blast is proliferated to Blasters, it is at least possible that it will not have Aim either. (Psychic Blast for Defenders does not have Aim, but it does for Blasters, so for Dark it could go either way)

As for Swap Ammo replacing Aim, I don't believe that is the purpose of Swap Ammo, although it should be noted that as well as the potential to avoid the resistance of some foes, the Incendiary Ammo also does additional DoT damage. Thus if you use Swap Ammo ONLY for Incendiary rounds, you will get a constant bonus, not just the 10 second bonus of Aim.

However, the power of Swap Ammo is rather its flexibility, the ability to change the characteristics of the attacks to suit your foes. There is no other Set in the game that does Lethal, Fire, Ice AND Toxic damage. Period. There is also no other Set in the game that lets you choose your Secondary effect. This flexibility is at the cost of the strength of those effects.

If you want a Lethal set with Aim, take Archery. If you want to do more Fire damage, take Fire Blast. If you want to freeze foes better, take Ice Blast. You shouldn't expect Dual Pistols to be as good as all three of those combined.

I have found that while using only one of the two DOES reduce your overall damage, it is not as by much as having neither of them.

Basically, the more attacks a henchman has, the less of them he can use. Similar to how a player builds attack chains, a henchman has a maximum number of attacks he can use over a given period of time. On top of this, the AI must take around a second to make a decision as to which attack to select next, which the player doesn't have. Thus, at maximum upgrade the attacks will not be used as fast as they recharge.

Putting it another way, whichever of the two you add first, whether Equip or Upgrade, significantly improves damage. The second of the two has a lower, but still noticable impact on damage. So in the heat of battle, I would definately put the priority on the first upgrade, but not use the second until you are sure other factors do not take greater priority. (Such as healing yourself or teammates because your health is in the red)

Yeah, I'm one of those people who believes Blapping is a style, not a power choice. I have an Electric/Fire Blaster who has an extremely strong combo in Tesla Cage/Fire Sword/Fire Sword Circle, but I wouldn't call her a Blapper. Her sword is part of her concept, but mostly she sticks at range, either letting the foes come to her, or darting in to finish off the last few foes.

Blapping seems to me to be more about leveraging the really high damage melee attacks for the quick kill. It's still a stick and move strategy, but more constant, instead of something you do only when the situation presents itself. Instead, you make the situation present itself.

It does hint that you can work your way up to it, and as I've gotten more experienced with my Blaster, I've found myself becoming more comfortable Blapping. It almost becomes an instinct.

I could be wrong about this, but I don't think Stealth is a major part of the concept here. It's about reaction time and quick movement. Stealth slows you down, and isn't really useful once the combat has started. (and the one Secondary that has non-slowing stealth doesn't have any Blapping moves)

I think that's an oversimplification.

First of all, there are five types of powers. There are similarly five types of Power Sets. The Power Sets are, primarily, made up of one of those five power types. This has been inherent to the design of the game since day one of the Archetype System:

Melee
Ranged
Defense
Buff/Debuff
Control

There is no "Assault" power. There is no "Manipulation" power. No power can be Ranged and Melee at the same time. No power can be Defense and Control at the same time. The lines are a bit blurred, for instance, a Ranged power can apply damage and hold a foe, and a Control power can apply damage and hold a foe, but in general it is easy to tell which is which. A given power fits into one and only one of those categories. (The one real exception seems to be those Buff/Debuff powers that both debuff and control in equal amounts)

Power Sets specialize with one of those given types of powers, but there are always "crossover" powers that allow more flexibility in the design of a character. Ranged Power Sets, for instance, usually consists of 7 Ranged attacks, one Control power, and one self buff, in the form of Aim. Some Melee sets add one or more Ranged attacks, Spectral Wounds from Illusion is more of a Ranged attack, and Buff/Debuff sets tend to be all over the place.

The problem is that a Power Set that is TOO concentrated doesn't provide the tools needed for a character to be effective. If Control powers did no damage, and Control Sets had only Control powers, (and the same for Buff/Debuff) no Controller could ever deal damage. If Blasters could only deal Ranged and Melee damage, no Control or Defense mitigation at all, they would die long before they could finish off a foe. Even Melee Sets as defined for Scrappers and Tankers are too specialized to provide enough defense to a Blaster, as was proven in Beta. I myself made the comment at the time that Melee with Defense is only half a power, you can't have Super Strength without being tough enough to withstand the impact on your own fists when you punch.

Now, it turned out Control was a viable alternative for damage mitigation as well. But that's where Manipulation comes from, it is Melee, plus additional powers required to make those Melee attacks USABLE. Likewise, Assault is not just "deal damage", the ability to deal damage from Range, before the foe is aggroed and able to attack you is a very different thing from being forced to fight in Melee. To ignore the combination of Ranged and Melee in Assault is to ignore what makes a Dominator's offensive strategy different from a theoretical Control/Melee or Control/Ranged. Certainly the two combinations would have their own strengths and weaknesses, just as Ranged/Melee did, and Dominators get to walk a line somewhere between.

Really when you get down to it, SoA and Human Form Kheldians are Ranged/Melee in the Primary, and Defense/Buff-Debuff in the Secondary. Perhaps a bit more Defense for Kheldians and a bit more Buff/Debuff for Arachnos, but neither are pure Ranged/Defense. Defenders and Controllers are pure Ranged, combined with those defenses which protect themselves as well as allies, and they do better with some Melee attacks, so that just gives you more flexibility. It's not like Ranged/Defense has really been shown to be a problem. It's just that it has drawbacks, as with any AT, that giving a little more flexibility in power choices does fix.

I think a lot of the problems surrounding powers and Geko's animations is that originally the game was never intended to have powers that could be fired back to back with nothing but a cooldown timer and Endurance to limit them. The original system consisted of a dramatically smaller number of attacks, which could never have resulted in an attack chain. Thus, people would have been sitting around doing nothing for long periods waiting for attacks to recharge.

The problem is, this was flung up against Jack's "vision", and the actual gameplay style that developed once the players got ahold of it. Jack, as with most of his current games, wanted a constant interaction, console-type experience where you were constantly pressing buttons. And the players wanted an attractive, seamless graphic experience in which one animation flowed naturally into the next. Geko's original graphic design, which was intended for the open powers system, ended up being bashed to fit that vision. And it was bashed badly.

I agree that a lot of it was due to the devs not realizing that they SHOULD have gone back and redesigned a system based on cast time, damage, and recharge, not just damage and recharge. And they should have REALIZED they should have realized it. But the problem was also that the devs didn't have TIME to go back and redesign the system. Which is why we have so many reused animations, many of them used inappropriately for the amount of damage they do.

I think this was it. Being the guy in charge of ED was not really something anyone could have recovered from. Comparing multiple trips back to the hospital to his having to die several time to overcome a Boss on his Nintendo DS was just the icing on the cake.

I think he more said the wrong thing or left himself open to misinterpretation than any actual changes he made to the game. That "no more nerfs" quote, in fact, was that he said there would be no more major changes to Power stats, while ED was a change in the base game structure itself, the ATs and how Enhancements were slotted. He was technically correct since he wasn't changing any powers that he said he would not change. Of course, powers have been changed since, but I think that he also may have been talking about the inception of the "Cottage Rule", although not defined as such at that time.

I'll also say in his defense that as UnSub said, he was in charge during the most aggressive development of the early game, when many of the bugs and design flaws were being hammered out of the game. CoH also had a very tentative start, being as the original CO-like open powers design had been scrapped for ATs, throwing away a good half of the game's design phase. This left a lot of work that still needed to be done after release, although that's proven true for Cryptic's other games since. (And is probably true of MMOs in general)

I'm fairly certain that I saw Kheldians and VEATs in the AT selection list, greyed out, until I finally unlocked them.

And I know if I have one unlocked and not the other than the locked one appears greyed out. (As I have my hero 50 on one account and my villain 50 on the other)

My sister's husband always says about Ranma, "That is a very confused girl. Obviously. Because I'm attracted to her. So, a very confused girl."



And IIFC, usually if you have a stable digitigrade biped, such as a bird, the foot has an opposable toe to do the job of the heel. Also, typically the body is balanced with its center of gravity over the legs, but reclining, often with a tail for even better balance. This is more stable than our upright posture.

As Samuel said, the thigh is tucked up against the body, and allows the leg to be under the center of gravity.

Heehee. You forgot Tanker Energy Aura, Claws and Super Reflexes. And unlike me, put Empathy on the villain side and Pain Domination on the hero side. Actually, while the devs have been pretty clear about never giving Empathy to villains and vice versa, I think would would be cool if Preatorians got access to BOTH sets. Not holding my breath for that at release, though.

I also included Manipulation and Assault, since the devs seem to consider that part of Proliferation, even though technically there should be no place those sets can be Proliferated. They consider Mastermind Primaries to NOT be part of Proliferation. I'm guessing that's because the existing Manipulation and Assault sets could be assembled from existing powers. (Although for Mental Manipulation that was not entirely true)

I'm guessing there will be some "outside the concept" Sets that won't be Proliferated, like Ninjitsu for Tankers and Stone Armor for Stalkers. Empathy and Pain Domination would fit in that category as well. I'd like to see all Sets available to AT LEAST two ATs, though, if not a clear majority of them.

That's a good idea.

As others have said, though, the devs developed this game with the idea that your costume would have no effect on your gameplay. I think that was the right idea, and they should stick with it. I don't like being forced into a look because it's the only viable build with which I can progress. I can get enough of that elsewhere.

Yep, I know that, which is why I put it in quotes. I actually did a lot of research when I was coming up with my werewolf design. And really, walking on your toes isn't that easy for a biped, so likely it wouldn't be realistic. It's just the Rule of Cool in effect.