Lightfoot

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Some quick questions on things I couldn't find:

Are cutscenes possible in the current iteration of the MA?

I can't find a "Kill X of Y" mission objective. I assume this is because the MA arcs are instanced out, and you're not actually doing them in the game itself, thus making street hunting impractical. I was thinking of getting around it by using a large outdoor map, populating it with many different types of enemies, and doing the Kill X there, but I can't seem to do that either.

Is it possible to make multi-part missions? The first mish for the arc I've got outlined would want to work like this:

1) Talk to contact
2) Kill X of Y. Final kill gives clue leading to
3) Door mish, need to kill boss and recover glowy.

Appreciate the closed beta folks here helping us out.

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I'm pretty sure it would take you two missions for this.

Mission 1: Talk to Contact, be sent to outdoor map populated with assorted groups. Mission Goal: Defeat all of X Group. Have Clue drop on final defeat.

Return to Contact

Mission 2: Indoor mish, Mission Goals: Defeat Boss and Find Clue

I haven't had the chance to play with this too much, myself. I'll delve into it a bit more tonight. I'll let you know if I figure out how to do what you are thinking of.

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Alrighty, one more question for the pile...

Will we have to "Pick Allignment" for the missions we create, or will all missions be playable by anyone? Like, if I have a mission where you have to fight through a Longbow base to fight Positron (probably visiting to help upgrade their defenses or something), would a hero be able to play that?

More specifically, could I make it optional? Like, regardless of who the opponents are, could I flag a mission as only being playable by heroes, only playable by villains, or "neutral" so that anyone can play?

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My interpretation of the Dev response to similar questions is that all missions posted to the Architect would be available to all characters, regardless of Faction, in much the same way as a police officer might enjoy playing Grand Theft Auto in his spare time. Since the scenarios in the the Architect are "intended" to be entertainment, the actual morality of the person being "entertained" is irrelevant.

On the other hand, I say that it is a case of "buyer beware." Since the system, in the lore, is created by a collabaration of Crey and Aeon, neither known for their upstanding citizenship, I think any Hero should approach the system with a healthy sense of caution. What you do may have moral consequences, whether or not you believe it to be little more than a game.

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Are ambushes possible? Can our heroes leave a door mission and get attacked by our custom villains in an ambush?

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We have been led to believe that it all happens in the Architect Entertainment building, rather than out in the world. Someone may make an arc with Vic Johannson as the Contact, but an image of Vic will appear and grant the missions, which will lead you to doors within the building. You won't be going to King's Row to Vic, so you will never be outisde to receive an ambush.

In mission ambushes? Yes. In between mission ambushes? No.

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Here's my little beef about this system (from the Blue side perspective). I don't really care for the "entertainment" or Holo-deck explanation for this tool. If I'm role playing, would a hero actually go to a store and make a "simulated" game for other heroes to play? This doesn't seem to really fit into the general theme of the game-- fighting bad guys-- not simulated bad guys.

Basically, I'm playing a game (COH), where my character makes a game (Simulator) for another gamer to play? I don't get it.


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My take on the Architect is that the things we simulate can become real. Almost every single arc I have planned will be written to fit into the CoX backstory with the hope that it gets into the canon.

I don't think the Devs have fully divined the creativity of a significant portion of the playerbase. I wouldn't be surprised to see the first "Third Tier" Story Arc be declared within a month of Issue 14's release, if there isn't already a few Arcs worthy of it among the 400+ that are already being tested.

I don't plan on writing simulated content for people to play through a simulator, I plan on writing content that will change the game world.

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Regarding Trial Accounts using Mission Architect, if they are going to put a new box on the shelves, specifically promoting MA, wouldn't they HAVE to let trial accounts use it?

That would be like putting out the GvE Edition and not letting you try redside unless you subscribed.

My question: Will you be able to take virtual tours of whatever map you chose? I haven't seen every map in the game, and I haven't memorized every one I have seen, so placing glowies, or mobs on a map will be much more difficult if I only have the 2-D version to look at.

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The screenshots showed a top down version of the map, and I would imagine that there is a way to test run the map before placing any spawns in the event that you didn't know the map by the layout.

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200 merits is 5 Lady Greys and a Katie if that takes you 8-12 months you are to casual to have a forum account.

[/ QUOTE ]Me thinks yall dont know what casual actually is. Casual gamer wont have time to do a tf/sf/trial. You looking at 30 to 45 minutes at best for their time played a few days a week, now spread the play sessions across multiple alts. Now you see how this can end up taking months or years for IOs?

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A Lady Grey can be run in 45 minutes.

[/ QUOTE ]Casual gamer doesnt have many toons level 45+ if any.

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So then why would such a person give a poop about not being able to max out his toons?

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DING! DING! DING!

We have a winnah!!

Most casual players don't care. The people who do are the hardcore folks, advocating on behalf of the casual players to make it easier for the casual folks to get their Merits, which would also have the side effect of making it even easier for those same hardcore folks to maximize their Merit gains.

Enlightened self interest, FTW!

Actually, there are some players who are really suffering under the system, as it stands. It's the players who are getting hooked enough that they are no longer casual, but who have yet to learn the tricks of the hardcore players. These players are starting to care about how to get more performance, and are reeling under the sticker shock they get when they try to figure out how much it would cost in any of the in game currency to get the stuff that would make them "really cool." A basic education in playing the market should ease the sticker shock and help them understand how to get the things they need without paying an arm and a leg. With all of the factors that hit the market at the same time (not just Merits, but PVP 2.0 and Dual Builds, too), and the new factor coming in Issue 14 (Skee-ball tickets), using the Market wisely will require more patience than it did beforehand.

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And the point is that the damage is already being done. I'm one of the people playing games with the market, it is part of the game I enjoy. I don't enjoy a group of people benefiting from information that I don't have.

The fact that the Market has moved based on changes in I-13 and I-14 prove that the information is not staying in the Closed Beta. So essentially, people who either A) Should be testing content, or B) Shouldn't know what is going on in Closed Beta but have been told something from someone who broke the NDA, get to have an advantage in the market mini-game.

I know that Open Beta will happen, I know that it is still possible to make Inf in the market before the issue comes. That is absolutely 100% not the point.

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As more people use Merits and Ske-Ball Tickets to get the things they actually want instead of relying on random drops, the market demand for some items will go up. The "upside" is that the demand for what most would consider "trash items" would go up, as there would be fewer "undesireable" drops being awarded. Where, normally, these things were so plentiful that they were either being sold on the market for peanuts, or sold to the vendors because it was more profitable. The "downside" is that the demand for the "good stuff" goes down as people perceive it as cheaper to buy through Merits than through the market. In order to compensate, sellers must lower their asking price, making these things available to a wider range of people, and demand will rise again (more people buying at a lower price, as oppsoed to fewer people buying at a higher price). Continued use of these systems may bring a sort of equilibrium as opposed to the wild spikes and valleys that exist among the Recipe and Salvage pools.

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It is impossible to deny, that people who were buying Purple's for 35mil during the last Closed Beta, had an obvious advantage over people buying them at the 55mil price they went to when it went open. In terms of market speculating (this issue I am concerned with here, as it affects what I like to do in the game), they were able to make more profit, and invest more with a lower risk/reward profile, than someone who didn't have that info.

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Forgive me if I'm wrong, but isn't defeating level 50+ enemies still the only way to get Purples? I was under the understanding that Purples were not available for Merits, which means that the fluctuation in market price for those Purples that you are complaining about has nothing to do with Merits and Issue 13 (unless the only people buying said Purples were the hardcore PVPers who left and their farming toons). If a player is supposed to be able to run Architect from 1-50 and be able to get the same rewards, There is a good chance that Purples will be available for Ske-Ball tickets, but I expect the price to be almost prohibitively high.

The market fluctuates, based on supply and demand. It just happens. I was selling Luck Charms for 60,000 on Monday, and 25,000 last night. Does that mean that folks from Closed Beta are gaming my Luck Charm market? What do they know that they are unloading all of their Luck Charms and saturating the market?

I understand and appreciate your concern, but you may be seeing things that aren't there. As always, the best way to make and save money on the Market is patience. If you need it now, you bid high. If you can wait, you bid low. If you need the money now, you put it up for less and take the chance that it goes to someone who bid low. If you want max inf., put it up for max inf. and wait. That Purple that you sold for 55 million last month will eventually sell for 55 million again.

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The works of George Lucas? Ten gorillas, two months, tops. Add another week for Splinter of the Mind's Eye.

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...wasn't that Barbara Hambley? >_> I haven't gotten around to that one though, so I may have made that up.

I was totally off the idea of MA but this is giving me something to look forward to. ^_^

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Barbara Hambly wrote Planet of Twilight (widely regarded as the worst book in the Expanded Universe).

Just looked it up, looks like I was wrong. Splinter of the Mind's Eye was written by Alan Dean Foster, who was the ghost writer of the novelization of Star Wars (Lucas received writing credit). Foster was contracted to write it as the basis for a low budget sequel to Star Wars just in case Star Wars flopped. By the time the book was published, Star Wars was a raging success, and Lucas decided that a grander story was warranted, and the plot of Splinter was never developed into a movie. As there are quite a few risque scenes between Luke and Leia, the book has been officlally denied as part of the canon.

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And as for the MA, Sister Flame has made it known that she wants to do two missions. One that involves some kind of dance contest and the other involves the player rescuing Sister Flame and Brother Frost in the last mission to take down the Elite Boss... whose secret we cannot reveal here because Sister Flame says that surprises must be kept. All I can say is that Sister Flame has made up a story arc that would put George Lucas to shame.

Nuff said.

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Not to take anything away from Sister Flame's story, because what I've read so far sounds really cool, but you aren't setting the bar too high here.

You know how some folks say that if you give a thousand monkeys typewriters and an infinite amount of time, one would eventually come out with a work of Shakespeare.

The works of George Lucas? Ten gorillas, two months, tops. Add another week for Splinter of the Mind's Eye.

Comparable to Lawrence Kasdan (the screenwriter for Return of the Jedi), perhaps?

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(and a bug that I had reported of the Crab back costume piece wasn't removable in any costume slot).


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Not a bug. You get the Crab Spider Backpack immediately upon picking Crab Spider powers. You still have the powers, regardless of which build you happen to be using. This has been commented on, and we are told that it is working as expected.

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I believe that you misunderstood me. I could not remove the backpack, even after selecting the "none" option. I reported this and they said that it was indeed a bug and that they will be working on it.

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If any one of your two builds still has Crab Spider powers selected (as opposed to repeccing out of Crab, and making Build 1 a Wolf Spider and Build 2 a Bane Spider and not being able to get rid of the backpack), then this may be an unfixable problem. Your character still has Crab Powers, which automatically gives you the Crab backpack. Switching builds does not remove the Crab powers from the one build that has it, which is still attached to your character information.

I was under the impression that this was working as expected.

I say, make the Bane a PVP build, let your victims think you are going to lay down the wall of AoE, and then go all Ninja on them. Revel in their curses as the burly Crab Spider fades from view and nails them with an Executioner's Strike. Enjoy the taste of their sweet tears as they cry home to their mommas.

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(and a bug that I had reported of the Crab back costume piece wasn't removable in any costume slot).


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Not a bug. You get the Crab Spider Backpack immediately upon picking Crab Spider powers. You still have the powers, regardless of which build you happen to be using. This has been commented on, and we are told that it is working as expected.

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30 days for a badge logged out, that seems a wee big excessive. 60 days to get an accolade and 1 year logged out at LEAST to earn all the badges.

Congrats on killing badging for me. I am still working on the pillbox badges now i have to log out to earn those for a year, how is my badge toon supposed to get played?

Shorten the time needed to earn the badge at least make it like 5 days of logged out that way i can actually earn some of this stuff the costume options with them for the toons I PLAY

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The time is not consecutive. You don't have to kill all 1000 Rikti Monkeys in one session, you don't have to leave the character in the Hospital, unplayed, for 30 days. Play for 4 hours, log out in the hospital until the next day. If you start at roughly the same time, you have just earned 20 of those 720 hours in one day. Make sure you log out in the same kind of place, and when you play the next day, you will have earned another 20 hours. Average four hours a day on a single character, and it will take 36 days to earn the badge, and you still got to play that character for 144 of those hours (or six full days).

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So far my only issue is with the name of the new powerset: "Pain Domination". You hear that name and immediately think it's for Dominators, but it's only for Corruptors and Masterminds. This set needs a better name. Won't know what's appropriate until the powers themselves are listed, but some initial suggestions: Antipathy, Sadism, Torture, Cruelty, Agony.

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Why in the world would you, after thinking about it for more than ten seconds, or actually playing a Dominator, leap to the conclusion that Pain domination had to be a Dominator set?

Every single Dominator Primary to date is <Something> Control, and every single Dominator Secondary to date is <Something> Assault. If Corrupters were getting Pain Control, I think you would have an issue.

That's not to say the name of the set is set in stone. Devices and Sonic Resonance were both something else in the first stages of testing, and were renamed later, before they hit live. Come up with an evocative enough alternative, and you may capture the Devs imagination. The argument that "it is called Pain Domination and steps on Dominators' toes" isn't enough, particularly when Corrupters and Defenders already have Cold Domination.

There are some characters that I don't see any places where they could log out for their day jobs.

Mr. X-Citement is a performance artist.

Nightwail sings in a goth / punk band.

Lord Aquarian is a cult leader.

Lady Crane is a martial arts instructor.

I have some characters that are teachers, and some that are students. How will the University know the difference?

Still, my heroes are very excited about this.

My villains could care less, I don't think a single one of them has a "day job." Maybe Dr H. West, but he would only work in the Hospital because he needs spare parts for his research.

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Remove the subscription Fee per month.

IMO you cant have a CASH SHOP and a SUB FEE..

It used to be pay sub fee get all this wonderful other stuff for free or part of your sub fee.. however you wanna see it.

Now its pay your sub fee and now buy everything else.. because we wont give it to you for free even thoe this game is OLD 4 years and is coming up on some MAJOR competition..

I wonder if those other copmpetitive games are going to make us pay a sub fee AND buy all the ingame extras too. ??

*make is maybe not the right word.. but thats what i am sayin right now.

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Which free methods of getting a Respec are going away to make room for this?

If the answer to this question is "any of them", then your argument holds water. If the answer is "none of them," then your argument doesn't. We are losing nothing in this transaction that was not already free. You still have the three Respec trials, the Vet specs, the Patron respec, Respec Recipes and we have been told that they still plan to give out freespecs when something major happens to our powers that a significant portion of the people who have those powersets affected could either want to repec into or out of the affected powers.

Since we aren't losing anything, this reaction simply comes off as knee-jerk. We have been given yet another way to Respec, and lost nothing.

Take a few deep breaths.

It will help.

Really.

edit: forgot about Respec Recipes

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Good post to stay neutral but i myself are mostly talking about the amount of powers, heros have given away almost all the sets they have while villains just recieve them. Heros are just switching sets with their fellow ATs, + the villain epic ATs=total hero wipe and ending in people playing cov and not coh.

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Please, if your responding to someone elses post please click on quote so that it doesnt look like your a total lunatic talking to yourself, even though you may really be one.

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I left the quote in because I wanted to say that I agree with you here. What's he smoking? Because it is obviously good, and he should be sharing. A little more structure to the thoughts and a little less Keyboard Tourette's would serve him well. I think he has a point here that is simply not being expressed well. I also think he is flat out wrong about the "total hero wipe."

BUT....

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How many power sets did villians get access to that they did not have before? Lets see...Electrical blast, Storm summoning, Earth Control. Okay, 3 sets. How many did Heros get access to that they didnt have before? Plant control, Psi blast, cold domination, thermal radiation...Hmm, lets see. That adds up to 4 sets. So where are you doing your research again? Its not on any game im currently playing.

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This paragraph is also wrong.

Heroes got Psi Blast, Psi Manipulation, Plant Control, Thermal Radiation, Cold Domination, Ice Blast, Fiery Melee, Fiery Aura, Dark Armor, Dark Melee.

New sets in bold. I only bolded half of Psi Manipulation because, if it follows the pattern of the other Manipulation sets, it will be a combination of short range attacks and soft controls. The short range attacks will be coming from the Dominator's Psi Assault, but the soft controls will be from Mind Control, which heroes have access to from the Controller's Mind Control. Heroes get 3 and 1/2 new sets from villains, the rest they already had in the other Heroic Archetypes.

Villains got Battle Axe, War Mace, Super Reflexes, Electrical Blast, Storm Summoning (twice), Earth Control, Electric Assault, Electric Melee, and Electric Armor.

Again, new sets in bold. Electric Assault is a special set, half of it will be ranged attacks, which will be new to Villains, the other half will be short range attacks, which Villains get from Brutes. because the ranged attacks will be doubling up from Electrical Blast, I won't include them in my count. Villains got 5 new sets from Heroes, granted two of those five sets were granted to two Archetypes, the rest of the sets already existed in the other Villainous Archetypes.

Villains DID get more from Heroes than Heroes got from Villains, if you are talking quantity. When it comes to quality, I do think Heroes came out on top. However, I do believe that, once they decide what to do with doubled powers (Caltrops in Ninjutsu and a Scrapper APP) and problematic sets (Kinetics Masterminds), we will see more Proliferation. I expect to see this sooner rather than later (this year rather than next) thanks to the enlarged Dev. Team.

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I don't think they could have released a list of sets that would have made the PVP community happy.

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Ice armor or regen for my brute would have made me happy.
Broadsword for a brute would have made me happy.
Empathy for corrupters would have made me happy.
Kinetics for MMs would have made me happy.
Illusion for Doms would have made me happy.

Giving scrappers energy aura would have made me happy.
Giving tankers energy aura would have made me happy.
(why should villains be stuck with the ultimate in craptastic)
Giving thermal and cold secondaries to heroes, who will use the buffs to MORE effect than us to start with, and then will be able to powerboost them on top of it....that is guaranteed to make people angry.

Giving scrappers fire/fire so they can Fiery Embrace+BU+Greater firesword crit +dots = 1 shot kill. let alone however many other attacks they can get off in that time period......sorry, not going to make villains happy.

Heroes recieved very very GOOD powersets, while villains recieved garbage in return (with a POSSIBLE exception of storm secondary). And for those who are hoping and praying the VEATs make up for it.....COME ON. You know deep in your hearts that anything made for villains has to be WORSE than warshades and peacebringers......and those are pretty poor excuses for ATs.

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Funny that you didn't address the Archetypes that are ticking you off and telling us which sets they could have gotten that would have made you happy

Blasters could have gotten Psi Blast, Dark Blast or Radiation Blast. Which would you rather have had to deal with, Power and Range Boosted -Recharge, -Accuracy or -Defense?

Controllers already have every other hard control set, all that was left was Plant Control. The possible Secondaries were Cold Domination, Thermal Radiation, Dark Miasma, Traps and Poison. Which would you have rather had? Only Dark Miasma is not unique to Villains. Would rather face Power Build Up + -recharge from Cold Domination, Forge from Thermal Radiation, -accuaracy from Dark Miasma, Forcefield Generator from Traps, or Envemom and Antidote from Poison?

Same question for Defenders?

You say Energy Aura for Tanks would have made you happy. Since they already had Energy Melee, Tanks would have probably gotten Broadsword.

You say you wanted Scrappers to get Energy Aura, too. Are you sure? You know the Devs like to present matched sets. If Scrappers had gotten Energy Aura, dollars to dougnuts they would have gotten Energy Melee. I know you would have been pleased to see that.

The problem is archetype design and APPs. Powersets are inconsequential. You would have found a reason to complain no matter what Defenders, Controllers and Blasters got, because they are simply more useful in team PvP than any of the Villain Archetypes. This is the problem that needs to be addressed. Screaming about the powersets when there is a much larger issue is like running through a forest blindfolded. You run into a lot of trees, but you have a hard time getting out of the forest. Granting Villains APPs so that Villains will have access to Power Build Up is only a partial fix because Defenders, with the magnitude of their buffs, will always outperform any of the Villain ATs with Power Build Up.

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Those heroes complaining about fire/fire....they're idiots.

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Amen Brutha! I thought this was the most significant addition next to Psi Blast Blasters in PvP. I dont think people understand just how much damage scraps can do now with not one, but 2 build ups!!! It will far and above surpas anything a blaster can do, but in melee form. To not say that the heros got just a little bit of love here would be pure ignorance on anyones part.

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Widen your focus a bit, and you will understand. Most of us are looking at these new powersets for their impact on PvE. Just like those of who are going, "Psi Blasters? That's going to suck at low levels. Vazh and Clockworks resist Psi, don't they?" The PvE'ers wonder what all the hubbub is about because the vast majority of them don't PvP, not even casually.

I'm "meh" about Fire / Fire because I hate the animations of Incinerate, Fire Sword Circle and Greater Fire Sword Circle and because Temperature Protection is a joke (it does make it easier to plan a build when there are couple powers in either your Powersets that are throwaways). I think it will be a strong combo, but I'm not real excited to play it.

Since I don't PvP, it took me a while to figure out why a lot of PvP'ers were mad about Psi Blast. In the end, it isn't just about Psi Blast, Psi Blast just exacerbates a problem. The real problem is the number and quality of buffs available on hero-side PvP combined with a damage type that most villain-side PvP'ers haven't had to, and is very difficult to, plan for. Add to this that Psi Blasters with Energy Manipulation as a Secondary can also do this at extreme range, and I see where PvP'ers are concerned.

So, cut folks some slack. The reason why most of the folks seem so ignorant about the power of these sets in PvP is because they are. There are only two ways they are going to understand, experience or reasonable discourse. I have actually read almost all of the posts in the assorted Power Proliferation threads, and let me tell you, there is an average of one reasonable post per three pages. With so many people fanning the flames higher, don't be surprised if people don't hang out to find those reasonable posts that will help them understand.

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This is a horrible feature that unfairly penalises City of Vill--

Oh, wait, wrong thread. Looks neat

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Yeah, Villains get the short end of the stick again! There's a Werewolf option on those character sets, but still no Wolf Tails. Boycott character creation until Werewolves get tails!!! Stand up for your Cano-Hominid cousins!! Lycanthrope Power NOW!!!

j/k, looks great

So, Jay, Wolf Tails? Please? Wolf Tails are Sexy, and Jay is Sexy, so Jay should make Wolf Tails, right?

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Was this even listed in the features for I12? Color me impressed

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Sure, this comes under the heading of "numerous quality of life improvements." Just because the only things they told us about the first time we heard about it was sortable contacts and customizable power trays didn't mean that was all we were going to get.

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I like the idea of being able to choose costume sets. The only downside I can see is that you might wind up running into more folks who look like you if you decide to just pick a set.

I have a question about some of the sets named in the screenshot. I notice that there are veteran sets like Samurai and Boxing on the list. What about sets like Greek? Will those sets appear on the list only if you have all parts of a costume. If I only have the Toga, will Greek even appear on the list?

Or, crosses fingers, does this mean that the Greek bits are being opened for everyone, since I didn't see Vanguard on the list? As far as I know, Greek and Vanguard are the only sets that you can get piecemeal at the moment.

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Judging by this first round of proliferation, I'm almost scared to see how badly Red is gonna get it in the second and third rounds. The power proliferation? Well, looks like heroes got some of Villains better powersets, while, with exception of Storm, Red got crap. What about EMP's on Red side, or Cold for Brutes (a little Hibernation would be fun in PvP).

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Since there are more Powerset Proliferations coming, lets look at what remains to be gotten.

Blaster Primary: Dark Blast and Radiation Blast

Blaster Secondary: Dark Manipulation, Radiation Manipulation, Trick Arrow (maybe), Sonic Manipulation (?, I'm reaching), and Earth Manipulation (?, reaching again)

Brute Primary: Spines, Claws, Ice Melee, Broadsword, Katana / Ninja Blade, and Martial Arts

Brute Secondary: Regen, Ninjutsu and Ice Armor

Controller Primary: None, after Issue 13, controllers have all of the hard control sets

Controller Secondary: Dark Miasma, Poison, Traps and Cold Domination

Corrupter Primary: Archery and Psychic Blast

Corrupter Secondary: Empathy, Poison, Force Field, Traps (Devices might be a better fit) and Trick Arrow

Defender Primary: Thermal Radiation and Traps

Defender Secondary: Assault Rifle and Fire Blast

Dominator Primary: Illusion Control

Dominator Secondary: Dark Assault (could probably be pulled together in much the same way Electric Assault was)

Mastermind Primary: Only new ground to be broken here

Mastermind Secondary: Empathy, Kinetics, Radiation Emission, Sonic Resonance, Thermal Radiation, and Cold Domination

Scrapper Primary: War Mace, Battle Axe, Electric Melee, Icy Melee, Stone Melee, Super Strength and Energy Melee

Scrapper Secondary: Ninjutsu, Energy Aura, Ice Armor, Stone Armor and Electric Armor

Stalker Primary: Broadsword, Battle Axe, War Mace (?), Fiery Melee, Ice Melee, Stone Melee and Super Strength

Stalker Secondary: Ice Armor, Stone Armor and Invulnerability

Tanker Primary: Super Reflexes, Regeneration, Energy Aura and Electric Armor

Tanker Secondary: Broadsword, Claws, Katana, Spines, Electric Melee and Martial Arts

Overall, I'm satisfied with the new sets, and I'm looking forward to the next sets to be proliferated. As always, there will be things I want that won't come in the next round, but there were a few pleasant suprises in this round, so it probably all washes.

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Personally a hero team in RV with 1 EMP and 1 Thermal, will wreck just about anything Villains can throw at them. You see Villains complaining a lot....maybe there is good cause for this.

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Powerset Proliferation is not, and never was, about PvP balance. It is about giving ALL NEW CHARACTERS more options. If it does throw PvP even further out of whack, like most of us expect it to do, give the Devs a chance to address it. I can tell you right now, it won't be by taking Psi Blast away. They will either weaken it, shore up a defensive set, or begin designing a new powerset to counter it.

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I know I'd like to use my tier 1 and 2 powers while held.

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Then play a Blaster, Defiance is their inherent power. This was given to Blasters because 1) the previous version of Defiance sucked and 2) Blasters have very little in the way of any sort of damage mitigation. They have no active defenses, they have no passive defenses, they have no hard controls, they have very limited soft controls, and they have no way to recover once an enemy starts to beat on them. Mezz a Blaster, and it is very likely they will die, even if they break out before the enemy kills them, they probably won't have enough hit points left to escape.

[ QUOTE ]
Fortunately, Champions is on the horizon, and is looking promising. Maybe they've learned some important lessons from their time with CoX, listen to all of the players.

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Because I'd like to see City of Heroes last for years and years more, I hope that the Champions folks do EXACTLY what you ask. It absolutely guarantees that Champions Online will fail. It has been proven time and time again that you can't please all of the people all of the time. Attempting to please everybody at the same time means that nobody winds up satisfied.

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Patron Powers are weak and horrible. The VEAT's may be decent, but the idea of playing a minion is very lack luster, jury still out on this one.

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Wrong thread. I doubt there is a single person that doesn't agree that Villains should have access to the APPs. I get the impression that the VEAT's aren't just any minion, but they will be held up as the Elite. The ones most Arachnos aspire to be.

I figured I'd answer this part first.

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Tell me: why couldn't we have Archery/Archery for blasters, instead? I already know the reason, but I'm just wondering what everyone else thinks. Thematically, Archers are blasters, not Defenders---look at history and comicbooks.

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Ummm. Blasters do have Archery. They have had it since Archery and Trick Arrow came out in Issue 5 (or was it 6?). They don't have Trick Arrow, which I don't think is out of line for them even if it is a little more Defender-y than most Blaster Secondaries other than Devices.


[ QUOTE ]
I can't possibly imagine a more boring, frustrating experience in online entertainment---even including EQ1. As a 'concept/character' type player, I found at every point in my progression, all such choices irrevocably, forcibly taken out of my hands---culminating in the outrage of 'patron powers'.

These 'powers' have got to be the worst designed and conceived abilities in the game. A complete waste of time and effort to 'achieve'. I've got 2 stored up respecs; and, while I cannot undo my irrevocable compulsion, I can certainly go back to ignoring them at the first opportunity (directly after this post, in fact).

<snip>

So, enter in PP. Nothing new. More linear, compulsory gameplay over the same endlessly repeated ravaged city-scapes: static, contained, constrained and micro-managed play. Yes, yes, I know Blasters get Psi/Psi---big deal. The Min/Maxers out there are either laughing their powergaming heads off or screaming in outrage. Who really cares?

<moved to top>

Basically, all boiled-down, in my mind, this new system pushes this game even further away from the comicbook superhero/villain genre. No longer is the game about playing the concept of a hero or villain: it's about balancing spread-sheets and shuddering in horror about all the work it's going to take to add anything really new and imaginative.

<snip>.

Cal2

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They never said they have stopped working on new Powersets. Shields are coming for all melee ATs. At least one new Dominator set is being worked on.

Deny it all you want, it doesn't make it false. The Devs ARE giving us what we want. Ever since Villains came out, People on both side of the law have been asking for powersets found on the other side. The Devs are finally making this happen, albeit slowly. The most logical reason to do these ports slowly is so that each set can be properly tweaked before it is given to an AT that did not have access to it before. Just because the powerset you wanted or expected didn't make it in this round is no reason to think you will never get it. There are powers that I wanted to get that didn't come down, you don't see me getting mad about it. I'm a naturally patient person. Obviously, the mileage varies for quite a few posters who are upset that they didn't get what they wanted..

Is the fact that these sets aren't "new" what makes you feel "constrained and micro-managed?" Given that Powerset Proliferation was ALWAYS advertised as giving all ATs access to some already existent powersets that they didn't have before, where did you get the impression that they would be fresh, new content? We've been saying since Villains was released, "Villains in the comics have electric blast powers, look at Electro. Why can't we have it?" Now, we get it, and people complain about it. It doesn't seem like the game is denying or pushing away the comic book genre, it looks like we are turning up our noses at it.

One thing I hope happens, sooner rather than later, is that Villains get access to the APPs. The PPPs are a neat idea, but in practice, they are purely roleplay. The APPs, in general, are stronger and have more utility. I'd like to see it in Issue 12.5, but if not that soon, the APPs definately need to make it into the next round of Powerset Proliferation.

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Brutes got the stick again. Unsurprising? I can't think of a single person who seriously wants to roll Super Reflexes on a brute. Considering EA is a functionally similar set, and most of the people selecting that sort of brawler concept probably already made invul or WP brutes, SR is kind of a worthless pick. Brutes want Ice, but the devs keep hammering on how fury generation is slowed by it, which I don't buy for a minute. No one who actually understands how fury generation works really thinks ice screws with fury. Considering I can max out my fury bar on a stunned LT hitting only brawl and energy punch, I think that excuse is REALLY tired. And right after claiming that Ice screws with fury, you give brutes a set without a taunt aura. After looking at what you guys gave to scrappers (the world!) I think it's time to stop messing with brute players and give them the sets they've been clamoring for - or at least come up with a decent reason why they shouldn't (eg. hibernate is broken).


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Hi, my name is Matt, and I want to make an /SR Brute.

There you go, now you know one.

I much prefer Defense to Resistance. Since I don't have Tank Hit Points, I'd rather not take as many hits, thank you.

That being said, I wouldn't say no to Ice/Ice for Brutes. Even if it does tweak with Fury, I'd live with it for the concept.

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heroes get all the good stuff from vill side, villains seem a little short changed

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Could this be because Villains have the better powersets? After proliferation, Heroes have five sets that Villains don't have access to aside from the Blaster Secondaries.

Illusion Control

Empathy

Archery

Broadsword

Katana

After proliferation, Villains have seven sets that Heroes don't have access to aside from the Mastermind Primaries.

Energy Aura

Ninjutsu

Ninja Blade

Electric Armor

Electric Melee

Traps

Poison

While I think Katana is better than Axe or War Mace for Brutes because of the faster animation times, it doesn't fit as well conceptually.

Illusion control would be great for Dominators, but I'm willing to wait on it. The sets we're receiving in Issue 12 gives me hope that Dominators will be getting two completely new Powersets in Issue 13, Electric Control and Earthen Assault.

Is Archery better than Electric Blast? Animation times are about the same, Electric has End Drain, Archery has +Acc, Electric is Energy damage, Archery is Lethal. I think it comes down to taste.

I think the only really good Hero sets that Villains don't have access to are Illusion Control and Empathy. As a pure "buff" set, Empathy is inappropriate for Corrupters, but could be useful for Masterminds. Empathy for Masterminds would need to be tweaked because of Bodyguard. As near as I can tell, Abosrb Pain on a minion + Bodyguard = endless damage loop.