JawDropper_EU

No one here has expressed hatred of Cryptic. People have merely doubted that the game is about to die. They think you are just trolling.

Firstly, I understand you concerns that CO and DCUO may kill off CoX, but I wouldnt worry for two reasons: 1) NCSoft know what's coming. They knew when they bought CoX, if they didn't think they could compete they wouldnt have wasted their money. 2) If CO is CoX2 as you call it, and better as you suggest, then so what if CoX dies, there will be the better "sequel" out there to play

Myself, I think option 1 is more likely. I would also disagree with your view that "most of the cox fans hate ncsoft" since I have seen little evidence for such an opinion.

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Reactor Party - Matt Barrett was the frontman of a promising band when a meteorite slammed into his stage at a small gig, granting him the powers of a Rad/Rad Defender. Name comes from the ****disco song, and his look is loosely based on Late of the Pier

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Which reminds me i need to get Fantasy Black Channel...
But how are you able to make a costume in their style? I wouldn't say that their fashion is distinctive enough to be able to be recreated in the costume creater.

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*cough* Let's not get personal, people.

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NO U!

Aww nuts

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Cave men didn't have shields, full stop. They are a [censored] sapians sapians invention.

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What a wealth of useless information you are.

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I'm a teacher, that's my job.

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Thankfully you're a Maths teacher. sapiens

Ok I have a very fun dark/sonic corruptor at lvl 30 and I am in two minds as to whether to get Blackstar or not when I get to 32 (if I can find teams to get me there though!).

Now, I am aware it's a pretty shonky nuke partly due to the lack of aim, if it were (for example) Dreadful Wail I would be in no dilemma, would snap it up instantly, but the bad press that Blackstar suffers from has made me unsure.

See, I know it's a fairly -tohit debuff (off the top of my hed, is it 40%?) which makes me think it could be handy as a team "Oh carp" power to floor enemies tohit, especially alongside liquify when i get that later. But is that worth flooring my endurance thereby dropping the 4 toggles i run to support the team (Assault, Tactics, the Sonic AoE res shield and the sonic AoE -res debuff - names forgotten )? I'm not sure it is. So i was just wondering what the thoughts of other team orientated dark/* cors are on this power, worth taking or not? If not, what should i be taking instead?

PS so looking forward to having a soloing spec for this toon so that i can crawl through heroic missions slightly quicker when i can't find a team!

I must admit i do not see a problem with the population on heroes side (Union). Teams still seem relatively easy to get for most level groups at the peak times that I play at. However, Defiant Villains is a different matter. Really rather deserted. No teams for my wonderful dark/sonic corruptor

Zombie_Man on the US forums helpfully posted a nice summary (for those of us at work who can't listen) of the chat as follows:

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Topic: PvE Power Changes.


Why Kheldian changes?

1. Power disparity v. VEATs.

2. Are VEATs popular? Yes.

3. HEATs are hard (to learn) and will still be hard. But some QoL: e.g., AT inherent buffs will remain on all forms, so, no worrying about those buffs dropping; multi-builds will help in having two different builds that can specialize the forms.

4. Range of the AT inherent buff isn't changing because how intensive the server needs to work to check on buffs.

5. Kheldian damage increase is because VEAT damage was higher and because of data mining.

6. Kheldian tanking? Can cap out Resistance, but no stacking defense and no pool powers for defense... so, not really Tanks.

7. Kheldian inherent new info: 10% resist to recharge slows for every H/VEAT on the team.

8. Other Kheldian details being saved for Hero Con



Power Toggles Not Detoggling Anymore

1. Since I4 Castle had been looking for a coding change to allow an end to Toggle dropping. Unbeknownst to him, Shannon Pozniewski (a cryptic programmer) added it in. Castle only recently found documentation on that, so, now it's in.

2. Bigger effect for squishie ATs that are more easily mezzed.

3. What is suppressed during a mez: Anything that is not a status protection will get suppressed. Exception: Kheldian flight will still fly, but speed is suppressed. Kheldian forms don't drop. Suppressed team buffs are suppressed for teammates.

[Chat on what happens if a Group Flier is mezzed... everyone loses the buff and drops. <laugh, laugh> (But they forget that would happen anyway if a Group Flier is mezzed <shrug&gt.]

4. Effect on Power Toggle and game play: In internal tests, no more having to pay attention to toggles. But that could lead to not noticing a power that is detoggled for some other reason. It will be a significant change for PvPers.

5. No more powers that detoggle a foe in PvP.

6. Critters will not get the same toggle protection -- the few that have toggles can be detoggled.





Most Negative Feedback? Barrage.

1. Because it effects low level tankers who don't have an attack chain yet.

2. What about Vet Reward powers? Doesn't effect newbies!

3. Why long recharge? To give it more damage to fit in an attack chain (but, again, that hurts low level toons).

4. Castle is still 'looking at it'. He's been reading the forums about it.




Movement (and now Recharge!) Protection for Temperature Protection

1. Did it for kicks, seemed like the right thing to do at the moment.




Invulnerability

1. Perceived weakness (but wasn't that weak).

2. So, removed Defense Debuff.

3. Tried to make each power as good as the others.




Energy Aura

1. The work of one of Castle's minion. Keep a look at it during beta. If too weak, other stuff they can do.

2. Eventually proliferated to Heroes, no timetable.




War Mace

1. Has been under performing. Has been getting buffs over time. Looking to see if the current change went too far.

2. Clobber changed from stun-only power to partial damage power.

3. If the updated War Mace overperforms, Castle thinks it'll more likely be because of Crowd Control's max number of targets, and not because of the change to Clobber.




Midnight Grasp

1. DOT was too long. Most critters die before it's finished. So, more damage (2.2 damage scale) upfront, and shorter DOT (.6 damage scale),



Patron Pools and APP

1. They all got looked at by Posi, Castle, and minion. Datamined which ones were taken and which were ignored. Buffs, nerfs, and power replacements!

2. If powers are replaced, when you log in, you'll have the new power. No grandfathering.

3. About 20% of the A/EPPs were replaced.

4. As one example of the Epic/Patron changes, Castle mentions that Weapon Mastery for Scrappers will now include Focused Accuracy. If his memory is correct.




Mission Architect

1. Repeat the reason why it's delayed: Players wanted customizable bosses. So, Castle sees himself writing AI scripts non-stop.




Toxic Damage

1. Why no Defense? Originally, it was untyped. When it became typed, they added resistance, but forgot to retrofit Defense. And then it became a lack of time issue in order to code it in.


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Xfire, firefox with facebook open, and then either windows media player or the BBC iPlayer listening to BBC 6music (best radio station!).

My current favourite names that I am running with are:

Jaw Dropper My first 50 and name sake. The character was named and styled as a mickey take at one of the ppl i used to play with, who was always going on about how good looking and sexy he was! Roll on an Illusion controller whose powers are his blinding good looks. Its a silly arrogant name and i love it!

Obituary This is one of those names that I can't believe I got redside (Defiant), it's such an obvious name for a villain that I was fully expecting it to be taken when I rolled this ton late last year. Still, i love the name, love the concept (even if it did take a little bit of shoehorning to explain why ppl called him Obituary) and love the powersets. Good times. Oh yeah, he is called Obituary because he famously wrote a long article for the Paragon Times mourning the death of inventing in the US before going on a widely publicised killing spree that got him put away in the zig.

Ungarmax Gun toting blaster with name referencing classic game that i grew up spending hours on.

These are my three favourite names and the ones that I would like to hold on to most if servers were ever to merged (not that i think they will) and also the ones that would mostly likely be already taken.

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Quick question, Is there a charge for using paypal?

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Nope

Wait, so because I'm subscribing via PayPal (since yes, I too have a Maestro card and I'm certainly not going to use my corporate Amex card) I'm no longer able to buy new slots, character renames or server transfers? That is ridiculous

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And your loincloth. Dear god, don't forget your loincloth!

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I've put that on hold for now. Rest assured though, if I win the lottery or something, I will be going straight to the relevant NCSoft building in full armour and standing outside it screaming for Jay to come out and answer my challenge Achilles style. Trial by combat for barbaric animal skin loincloths.

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You don' wan' mess wit' Jay man, he loco man...loco!

Hey guys, I have a lvl 8ish radiation/archery def, if I am around at that time, any chance I can tag along?

Sorry I can't be more conclusive than a maybe

Best of luck in all your future endeavours. I will continue to lurk watching your blog with interest.
JD

There's an ice/cold corruptor who solos AV/heroes US-side, without the aid of Shivans. Dunno if a defender could do it though...greater debuffs and all that.

Regarding PP, I was disappointed that no PP has so far been announced for i13 as i really really want an archery/radiation corruptor. I was gonna slot it for +recharge so I could have perma AM then have a 20sec or so Rain of Arrows that would have the chance to scourge. Yum. It might have enticed me away from WoW (currently eating my free time), tried a rad/arch defender but its just not the same. Too defender-y not enough scourge

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I choose you, Mrs. Badcrumble!

I win.

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No need... Blue Steel suffers from Hand Squeezy Death.

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"You killed him man! You killed him dead!"

I find it odd that we're being told that it's essentially our fault we get a lesser service. Most companies wouldnt be so blunt to their clients. But I must point out that from my experience, NCsoft and all associated personel provide the highest level of interaction that I have experienced in a game, and that is most definitely a good thing. I would aslo point out at this that I find both Jay and BAB (but Jay more) very very funny. I don't know what Jay is on, but I want me some!

Performing arts tutor? Don't even get me started on actors. That's a whole other rant.

And now I'm worried that one of my toons' dodgy bios will be in there!

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hypogonadism

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Massive nuts syndrome?
I'm not a doctor...just curious

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People who you've never talked to before who call you mate immediately.

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You must hate Aussies then... G'day mate!

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As I posted above, I generally just hate people, and that is regardless of nationality, creed, religion, race etc. I'm fairly equal with my hatred.

Of course Australians are to blame for that darn Australian Questioning Intonation currently pervading British youths. Yeah, that annoys me too. I'm just a bitter old man.

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(I really do hate people though).

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This is not a good attitude

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I know, but most of them really really annoy me. It's all rather irrational but nevermind.

While we're all aboard the pedantry train, other things that annoy me in this vein are (in no particular order):

People who don't have capital letters for their character names (I appreciate at times that there may be a concept reason, but only rarely).

People who type/say "should of" or "could of" etc.

People who you've never talked to before who call you mate immeadiatly.

I would go on but I'm making myself annoyed at work (I really do hate people though).

*Wishes he had never deleted The Spelling Fascist mastermind*

Edit: Speaking of which, my two most hated internet spelling mistakes are the infamous Rouge for Rogue and the possibly more prevalent Loose vs Lose mix up.