Lady_Sadako

I feel like I just found a glowing green crystal in the debris.

Making bosses harder doesn't encourage teaming, it encourages dependence.

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I'll check this!

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You know, sometimes I don't feel like this is a game of thousands of people connected by wires and servers.

Sometimes, bizarrely enough, it just feels like a really cool RPG session round at a friend's house, where the GM has his own ideas but he's always willing to discuss where the campaign's going, and you know that he's actually listening, and he really gives a damn, and that matters.

Yay Statesman and all the other Devs.

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But...there are a few missions that have multiple bosses in a single spawn and a few more that have multiple bosses spread throughout the map.

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Ah, like the end of story arcs? Gotcha, I think.

Thanks for the response.

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A solo player (unless the mission calls specifically for a boss in a spawn override) will create spawns with minions and lts. ONLY.

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States, it has been the experience of a great many players (mentioned on other threads) that *multiple* unnamed bosses show up on missions that they entered alone.

You say above that the spawn override takes place when a mission calls for *a* boss - does this mean that ordinarily, missions entered by a single player should not spawn more than one boss?

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I would LOVE to do Pulp stuff...but would it sell? That's the issue.

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Well, if you're going to do far future, then why not 1920s?

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Doc Savage. The Shadow. Agent 13. *shudders* Such great potential from the Pulp world.

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Two out of three of those have been filmed. And as has been pointed out, the recent Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is in the pulp genre. It would be ever so film noir to do a pulp game - metropolis skylines, prohibition, blimps, high adventure... for heaven's sake, what's Indiana Jones if not pure pulp?

City of Shadows?

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Actually, if a boss will appear in a mission, the mission briefing mentions it. Check the text.

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That's not true and you should know that.

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I think, by now, he does know that. Plenty of people have pointed it out.

I also think that he honestly *didn't* know that we were getting bosses in missions without any clear warning.

For my part, having played through the changes for a couple of days now, it's like this:

Soloing is now hard. It's not impossible, *except* for missions at the end of story arcs. Those have bosses out the wazoo. An *orange* boss, I can now take, though not without breaking sweat. A *red* boss fighting an *orange* LT, like at the end of the Path of the Dark arc - well, no. Especially not if he turns into another red boss after we drop him.

If I have this right, this now means that we can't finish story arcs on our own.

I think the Devs may be missing out on something important about superhero psychology here. Us heroes like to go one-on-one against powerful, or at least COLOURFUL, foes from time to time. It's part of the whole drama of the situation. Yes, teaming up to defeat archvillains is great. However, preventing a boss villain from executing his fiendish plan is *also* great. It's not always X-Men versus Galactus or FF versus Doctor Doom - sometimes it's Spidey versus Doc Ock, Batman versus Joker, One Hero fighting One Villain, trading insults all the way.

If the pedestrians are going to compliment me on my heroic deeds, I'd like to feel I've earned it! Last night, someone said in passing 'Lady Sadako defeated the most hideous Devouring Earth monster I've eve seen!' I had to reply 'Not without putting out a request for help, I didn't.'

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Actually, I'd have to disagree with that statement, for the simple reason that named mobs sometimes turn out to be Lts.

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Good point, I hadn't thought of that.

I am beginning to think that the 'you should think about bringing allies' text is the new clue, though. I've seen it several times since I3 went live and hardly at all before that.

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Perhaps what is needed is a 'More Information' button on mission acceptance text. The standard mission text would be thematically appropriate to the story being told and would could be vague, misleading or have other surprises, and the More Information button would open a second window which spoils some of the surprise.

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To quote Statesman elsewhere:

Anytime a Mission has a boss, the mission text SHOULD clearly identify that a boss will appear regardless of the team size entering it (bosses appear in spawns usually if there's 2 or more heroes on a mission map). /Bug it if the text isn't clear. We'll be improving this UI shortly so that there are icons that point out when a mission requires help and when it's solo-able.

So, folks, /bug it if the text isn't clear.

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Actually, if a boss will appear in a mission, the mission briefing mentions it. Check the text.

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The mission briefing certainly does mention *named* bosses, e.g. 'defeat Archon Bahlasti and his men' leaves you in little doubt that there's a boss coming, but I don't remember seeing anything that gave any warning about unnamed bosses, such as the Lesser Devoured I ran into in a mission this afternoon. I'll be sure and check in future, though.

Wait... are you perhaps referring to the occasional bit of text that says 'this will be tough, you'll need to bring allies with you'?

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If a player sees a boss of his level, he should probably get help...

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But doesn't that happen in the majority of missions?

It also leaves us in the hitherto unusual position of needing to get help *during* a mission, since we have no way of knowing beforehand whether or not there's going to be a boss in there. That will be awkward in timed missions.

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Yup ... true. Execpt the ones you can buy are called Disiplines.

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Discipline, concentration, all I know is that I don't have it.

.... anyway, I can kill you with my brain.

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Even when you know you are going against a mezzer or a sleeper/holder.. you wont be able to buy the spires to help you. Careful use of spire? Oh sure.

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You can still buy Concentration insps. They haven't been broken up at all.

The ones you can't buy are the brand new ones, Emerge and Resolve. These give status protection but can ALSO be taken while you're actually suffering from the effect. So, if you get mezzed and you take an Emerge, you wake up instantly *and* you have ongoing protection for a while.

This is exactly what happened to me. A Council vampire boss killed me twice. Before the third attempt, I went and bought some Insps, including plenty of Concentration, and that time I slaughtered him.

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Except for the fact that Statesman has said that ALL ATs should be able to solo, that's almost a good point.

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Statesman has made it quite explicit that while all ATs should be able to solo, that does not mean they will be able to solo all their own missions.

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And the Coven are NOT Carnival of Shadows guys...they're something else altogether. Hmmmmm.

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'... but we do have plans to expand the Knives of Artemis.'

Hmmmm.

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P.S. : Are you the Lady Sadako from the boards, Virtue and the Stratics Chat?

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Hello again, Abendstern.

Tonight, I was Walter Peck in AP 1, insisting that there was nothing supernatural going on. Eventually I got to say 'There is a man here in a werewolf suiAAARGH'

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BTW, we've got another "trick" up our sleeve for Halloween. MMMMWWWAAAHHAAAAHHAAAA.

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woot!

Stands to reason that trick or treating wouldn't have gotten the Fifth Column so spooked.

'they might not give me candy, helmut! vot vill I do if I get no candy? der fifth column vill be finished!'

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My relatives and friends believe I am in a self-destructive spiral from playing City of Heroes too much and they have decided to stage an intervention just for me.

My question to you all is should I even go to this? They tell me I have an online gaming disorder. I am the only one in my family who plays a massive online game.

I think they are all wierd, they think I am wierd. I'm tired of people telling me what to do with my life. What should I do about COH?

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There will always be games to play. You only have one family.

Go along to the intervention. Explain that you enjoy gaming very much, but that they are more important. You don't want to give up your gaming altogether, but they obviously want to know that you CAN leave it alone when you need to, so you'll prove it. Offer to give up playing for two weeks, straight. After that, only play on certain nights of the week. Make a plan with them and stick to it.

Your family clearly cares a lot about you. If you don't demonstrate to them that you can moderate your gaming, then they will think that the only way to help you is to cut you off from it. So, my advice is to cut down before you get cut off altogether.

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Does anyone ever wonder where these universities are going? All of a sudden these massive centers of learning sprout up through the ground. Maybe I should move to Rhode Island, there seems to be a lot of cool stuff happening down there now.

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Personally, I'm more worried about the Supergroup becoming replaced by the SuperFRAT.

I mean, can you imagine what superhero hazing would be like?

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Awesome, the other person who correctly guessed what the out of combat system would be!

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Not exactly - I thought there were going to be all sorts of internal puzzle type thingies involved.

I'm still wondering how they're going to resolve Skill Checks. Statesman did say there'd be challenge involved, and I'm not sure where the challenge (or the risk, for that matter) lies in the system as described.

TBH I'm hoping that you can attempt skill checks that are possibly too hard for you, with a risk of bad things happening if you fail - the most likely being triggering an ambush or causing the lab equipment to blow up or something like that. Risk and reward...

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5. Psychology is in there. Never fear.

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'We want you to head over to the lab, rescue the scientists, confront the Freakshow Boss, sit him down in a comfy chair and try and found out what childhood trauma drove him to become a villain in the first place.'

YOU HAVE GAINED A TEMPORARY POWER!

Group Hug (AoE)

Fantastic!

Statesman, if you have the time to answer, how is a 'skill check' going to work? Would it simply be a chance of success based on your skill level, made when you click on the appropriate clicky thing?

Will we be able to attempt skill checks that are far out of our league, and will we risk Terrible Consequences if we do so?

Clearly, they have a new leader. One who terrifies them so much that they are relieved to be arrested.

My fear is that they have used Clockwork King technology and... as the b-movie has it... saved Hitler's brain!

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I'd have to see some hard numbers to be sure, but I don't think a level 38 soloing could get rid of 38K debt in 1 mission, taking around 45 minutes to complete.

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Well, here's the deal.

Whatever the numbers add up to, it's *easier* to bash a mob while exemplared than it is while you're at your full level. If I have the choice of, say, going up against a white Nemesis for 50 xp and 50 debt paid off, fighting at my current level, or going up against a white Skull for 100 debt paid off, fighting as an exemplar, I'll pick the Skull every time.

Why is it easier? Because you have all your slots, and though they're powered down, they are still more than your L10 self had. And there's also that little matter of the bigger Inspiration tray.

If I have debt these days, I'd much rather get rid of it by exemplaring, because getting rid of it by adventuring at my current level is just a waste of hard-earned XP.

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I just Dont like th choice i have to make. I have to make the choice weather or not i want to have fun and play with my friends or Have fun and gain the next levle. Becuase I cant do both, your puting me in a postion where i have to say no beucase I would Like to progress my hero.

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At least you *have* a choice. Before update 2, there was no exemplaring. Are you honestly saying the Devs have given you too many options?

Exemplaring absolutely *rocks*. It's my favourite feature of the whole patch. It's challenging, useful and helps me get rid of debt faster.

When exemplared down to a lower level, I'm significantly better at staying alive than I was when I really was of that level. I have more slots (albeit powered down) and a much bigger inspiration tray. Moreover, I've learned how to play better since then.

Also, at level 10, I didn't have a button to press and gain 20 extra experience levels if things got hairy.

I'll say this, though. Dying while exemplared must truly suck. If I'm ever daft enough to let it happen, I'll let you know what it feels like...