Liquid

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Interesting, so slotting endo reducers will actually reduce the amount of endo your pets use when shooting their lasers and stuff? Not that it matters, but that's not what I expected, I only wanted to reduce what I pay for the initial summon.

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Whoa! Seconded. Positron, is this the case? Do end reducers not lower the endurance cost of the summon powers themselves?

I was really excited at the prospect of not needing Stamina. I hope Endurance Reducers work like they do in our other powers.

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How do you guys like the Toggle Drop on him? Is it too nasty or does it add a nice challenge?

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Neither. Toggle dropping is simply annoying, it isn't too hard or a challenge, it just makes us stand there and keep turning our toggles back on while we get pounded, and have them knocked off again.

If the goal is to allow this NPC to threaten the defensive ATs, I'd prefer you gave him a damage type that isn't resisted very easily by anyone, like toxic or cold.

Please keep Toggle Dropping out of PvE, it's a horrible, horrible game mechanic.

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I can't think of a reason why the devs would want to "avoid" having level 50's generate extra prestige. It sounds like a perfect reward for maxing out your character, to me.

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Why would you want anything other than level 50's in your SG then?

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Because, in my SG anyway, level 50s are on once a week at most. Most of the level 50s I know are usually playing lower level alts, because they can gain the same amount of prestige for the group as well as gaining experience and try out new powers at the same time.

Earning MORE prestige with my level 50s than with my alts might actually encourage me to play them. It doesn't have to be much more, honestly, maybe a 25% bonus.

You guys need to give us a reason to play level 50s over lower level alts. Don't make it so it's a no brainer to always be playing 50s like it is now for playing lowers, just give 50s some small, but significant, bonus.

Some level 50 PvE content besides a 70+ player raid, and repetitive, 6-12 hour, 8 person TFs in a zone that punishes you for not happening to be able to fly or teleport would help too.

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I can't help but wonder if the water equally changed Cole's perspectives. He was an infameous thief after all; after drinking from the fountain he sort of took a 360 from that path.

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180, you stupid, spaghetti-slurping cretin - *180*! If I did a 360, I'd go completely around and end up back where I started!
- Statesman

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I didn't know States had a role in Last Action Hero as the main villain..

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It's a beautiful day and we're out killing drug dealers. Are there any in the house?

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When Mussolini fell, Arachnos splintered. The Center took a small group and formed the Council. At that time Arakhn stayed with the Council and Requiem was placed in the 5th Column as a mole.

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So that's it? Now, instead of the 5th being Requiem's great achievement, he was just a mole in the group?

So much for "My 5th Column, my power", huh?

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I can't help but wonder if the water equally changed Cole's perspectives. He was an infameous thief after all; after drinking from the fountain he sort of took a 360 from that path.

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180, you stupid, spaghetti-slurping cretin - *180*! If I did a 360, I'd go completely around and end up back where I started!
- Statesman

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-Maiden Justice is Monica Richter. Her daughter is Miss Liberty who was born in the late 40's. (Statesman and Maiden Justice waited until later in their careers to have children.) Her granddaughter is Ms. Liberty who was born in the early 80's.

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So uh... this means that Tyrant is Dominatrix's grandfather too, right?

Ew.

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With Enhancement Diversification comes a benefit for ALL City of Heroes powers.

Every power, across the board, is getting a 13.33% reduction in its Endurance cost.

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While I appreciate this, it doesn't really make a lot of sense for two reasons:

1) You wanted to encourage us to slot endurance reducers.

2) The problem with the ED system is how it cuts the potential Res and Def powers in the defensive sets by another 1/3 after I5, because they have no other real slotting options.

What you need to do, to make ED palatable, is raise base Def and Resistance values. Heal powers can choose to slot recharges instead, but Def and Resistance powers have no other options, aside from Endurance reduction, which doesn't help defensively.

This doesn't matter to me so much, aside from the not-so-logical nature of this proposed tradeoff confirming my decision, as I have cancelled my pre-order, and shut off the auto-payment on my account. I'm going to keep playing for the rest of the month, to finish up some TFs with my friends that I haven't done.

This isn't an "I'll quit" threat. I effectively already have, and I doubt you really care about whether or not this one player that loved your game sticks around or not. I'm not quitting over this one thing either, just the general design methods (but not goals) that you've had the last several months. I'll look back every couple of months to see if you guys have changed your design methods and added any content that interests me.

I'm sorry it came to this. I loved this game, and I still love its potential. It will always be the game that made me realize that I loved the superhero genre, and that MMOs can break the mold and be about fun gameplay instead of getting stuff and gaining levels, if they want to.

Good luck.

Don't take this as personal criticism or the beginning of a flame war, I just wanted to explain a couple of things:

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Though, 40-50 isn't just Peregrine Island. There's also Shadow Shard. And Rikti Crash Site.

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I mentioned those when I said:

At level 50 there is one city zone, a hazard zone that nobody goes to, another hazard zone with the most horribly boring and laggy experience the entire game has to offer, and 4 connected, nearly identical hazard zones that have repetitive missions with no storylines, insanely repetitive TFs that require 8 people and blocks of 4-12 (!!) hours to complete, and to top it off the zones punish you for not taking flight or teleport.

You might also note that I didn't mention Perez Park, Boomtown, Faultline, Dark Astoria, or Crey's Folly for the 1-39 stuff, either. I was talking about meaningful content, not hazard zones or an endless supply of soulless glowie clicking or rescue missions.

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And all the other dimensions you go to.

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Those are actually the missions you get in Peregrine, so they fall under Peregrine just like the Frostfire mission falls under The Hollows.

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You know what you guys are right. This place would be much better off without all the conspiracy theorists around. I mean, if the devs say that Regen scrappers can plow through a dozen +8 bosses it must be true, right?

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Not to mention how easy Hibernate made it to kill AVs. I mean hold aggro on AVs. No wait, I mean click glowies with no ri... hmm.

Badg..! No.

What did Hibernate lasting more than 30 seconds enable you to do in PvE again? Endlessly exist in a state of no-risk, no-reward?

Somebody better do something about all those people standing around at the tram.

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I developed The Authority RPG

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You know, if you read the Paragon History on the website (I'm sure you have), with all the deaths of heroes and such, it really seemed like CoH was going to have a gritty realism feel to it, like The Authority. However, in game and in the Paragon Times, everything seems pretty Justice League in nature.

I hope you consider writing an article or two about some of the heroes that died in Paragon's past, or maybe some detailed historical accounts of some of the more interesting and famous villains. You know, maybe one of those really cool ones that has a long history of developing plans within plans, and schemes within schemes, and is probably using Lord Recluse at this very moment without his knowledge.

You know what I'm talking about. Oh!

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I just find it impossible to believe that only 8% of the playerbase has a 50.

Just doesn't jive with logic.

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I suspect it's because our definition of playerbase is "people who play the game for X hours a week", and their definition is "people who pay 15 bucks a month".

Another thing is, I noticed that they never ask WHY people don't have 50s. Maybe it's because at around level 35, people notice that the time to get from 30-40 is the same as the time it took to get from 1-30, but you only have two city zones and two hazard zones to do it in.

As you gain in level, in this game, you spend MORE time in LESS areas. At level 50 there is one city zone, a hazard zone that nobody goes to, another hazard zone with the most horribly boring and laggy experience the entire game has to offer, and 4 connected, nearly identical hazard zones that have repetitive missions with no storylines, insanely repetitive TFs that require 8 people and blocks of 4-12 (!!) hours to complete, and to top it off the zones punish you for not taking flight or teleport.

So basically, when you split up zones that have meaningful content that don't require a full team for several hours to experience, and you split them by comparable time spent, rather than by equal level spans, you get the following:

1) 1-29: Atlas, Galaxy, King's, The Hollows, Skyway, Steel Canyon, Talos, Independence Port, Striga, Croatoa

2) 30-39: Croatoa (to 35), Brickstown, Founder's Falls

3) 40-50: Peregrine

This just might be why only 8% of the playerbase has level 50s. Everyone I know started serious alts once their main hit about 35, because there just isn't much that's interesting to do from that point on.

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I wouldn't say he is lying. It's called spin. When you're part of upper level management you learn to say and hear things in ways other than the way they sound, if that makes sense. He's just being a business man.


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I'm so glad you said this.

I've wanted to say this many times on this board, and I never make the post after I finish typing it out. I just know it's going to follow with tons of "tin-foil hat" posts from people who have never been in the position where a choice had to be made between telling the customer whole truth, or some sugar coated version. Those choices are usually made by the people with the money, by the way, not the person speaking, lest they risk being fired.

I used to work for a company where I was told to tell customers things that weren't the whole truth. "Yes, we have redundant bandwidth!" Well, actually, we do have two T1s to two different providers, but if one goes down, everyone in that IP space goes down. We don't switch over to the other one, but have to insinuate that we do, otherwise you will just go to one of the other 10 ISPs in town that will tell you what you want to hear. Not that they actually have it, either.

My favorite CRPG designer once was forced to change aspects of his game, because the company who owned the license it was based on insisted on sticking to rules that weren't balanced when translated to the game in question. He explained this to us, at length, on the company's message boards. Shortly thereafter, all of those posts were removed, and he didn't post again for at least 2 months. It didn't take an astrophysicist to figure out that he'd said more than he should have, and was reprimanded for it.

So, no tin foil hat. What Nozy is saying, I have witnessed first hand, and even reluctantly been part of.

I always wanted to make this "It's just business" post about the 5th Column, though. "I have this story bible, and the Council replacing the 5th has been planned!" Well, yeah, I'm sure it was planned. The thing is, based on my experience, I'm betting that it wasn't something the writers and designers behind the 5th Column wanted to do.

This is something I've wanted to say for a while now:

Jack, or whoever came up with the 5th in the first place, and all you writers and designers that created their history, style, and storylines, if you are reading this, and if I'm right about you being forced to change them but not being able to tell anyone the real reason why, I feel your pain. I mean it.

I know I'm bitter about some changes to the game, and that I've said things that might have been questionable or over the line to or about you guys, but I have artist and designer friends, and I know how much pain it would cause them to have to change the very core of something they poured their heart and soul into.

If I'm wrong, well, at least you know that I care about the game and the people who make it, even in my current bitter state.

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Then later, when circumstances present themselves he'll do something completely different and explain it through some logic only philosophers and Democrats think make sense.


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Now, now, let's be fair. Republicans do it too.

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While I seem to remember the "whenever possible" in the original post, others don't. Unless someone out there has an archive, I think we're at the mercy of our memories.


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Yeah. Really, I'm not so concerned about being right (other than a dislike of spreading misinformation), I'd just like to know for sure.

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This doesn't have any bearing on his other point, however, that they *haven't* made any PvE changes based solely on PvP. Everything in I5 has at leas some PvE reason for changing.

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I have one word for you: Hibernate. Tell me what the PvE problem is with being invulnerable but unable to do ANYTHING, including aggro generation or glowie clicking (since you can't move), for an unlimited time until you turn it off?

The fact that they can heal back to full, at the risk of letting their foes kill all their teammates if they stay in it for more than 10 seconds? I kind of thought that was the purpose of it.

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Should I take this comment to heart, like I did the "PvP will not effect PvE" comments

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I don't know why you'd take that to heart since he never said that. He did say that PvP-only changes would affect PvE as little as possible, which seems true so far.


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That's what he said, like, 2 months ago.

My kingdom for a copy of the CoH beta message boards. Lots of people from beta remember him saying that PvP would NOT affect PvE, as they could make powers work differently in each realm. I don't think we all imagined it.

I suspect that they hadn't yet figured out that they couldn't make self or ally buffs work differently in each.

Edit: FYI, I remember two statements. One, during beta, was something like "PvP is not even being considered in the balance process." This isn't a promise of any sort, but it made some of us assume that PvP would never even enter the game, because not considering it on creation is a horrible, horrible development mistake if you plan on adding it later.

The real statement was on the release boards, shortly after CoV was announced. Lots of people immediately announced that PvP concerns would negatively impact PvE balance, and the response was along the lines of "PvP balance issues will not affect PvE. We can make powers work differently in each". This didn't contradict the other statement, and put a lot of us at ease. I wish I still had an archive of the thread, because I am almost positive that I made a post in it asking how they planned to handle self buffs. I doubted that they would base it on the zone you were in, since every MMO puts PvE content in their PvP zones to entice those who hate PvP into being gank... err, "giving PvP content a try".

It was Geko who first made us realise that PvP would assuredly affect PvE balance, when he asked Electric Blasters to consider PvP when discussing how crappy their secondary effect was.

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Erm. No. PvP will be an optional part of gameplay. Always.


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Should I take this comment to heart, like I did the "PvP will not effect PvE" comments and "everyone will be able to solo in this game/we will be catering to the casual players" type comments from pre CoH beta, only to find out later that "Well, that's not really what we meant"?

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Depends on how you define "optional". If every issue from here on out added PvP zones with PvE content in them, he'd be living up to both promises.

1) PvP still optional. Just don't enter any of the new zones.

2) New PvE content always being added. You just have to enter PvP zones to get it.

I'm not saying this is what will happen, just that if it did happen, they could still say they never misled us or lied, because both promises were met.

Issue 4 was a massive disappointment for me in terms of content (the costume additions were fantastic, but that's not content), and I am worried Issue 6 will be as well, based on all the information I've read so far.

I'm going to be a little more difficult to please and say that I want EVERY issue to add meaningful (like, on the level of Striga or Croatoa) PvE content that is in no way associated with PvP. I'm also going to ask that the next two or three PvE only content additions are less fantasy oriented than the Shard or Croatoa. I think it's about time we see a zone-sized villain's lair like Arcade's Murderworld, a space station, or a warped Praetorian version of Atlas Park. I'd also like these to be zones with level 50 content.

My worry is less that there will never be new PvE content, and more that it will be in PvP zones, or that we will get half the PvE content we've been getting, to free up resources for the PvP content, once CoV is released.

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Stealth, Grant Invisibility, Invisibility,Combat Flight, Weave, Maneuvers, Vengeance, and Combat Jumping will grant a Defense bonus to Smashing and Lethal Attacks in addition to Melee and Ranged attacks.

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I appreciate the attempt to lessen the problem, but I hope the band-aid doesn't become the final solution. While this helps to alleviate the uselessness of the powers, this currently makes S/L damage even more unbalanced than it already is.

Please, change the Defense code to calculate the highest positional type and the highest damage type, and add them together, then remove the band-aids.

Also, in the meantime, please don't forget Steamy Mist, Shadow Fall, and possibly Fortitude (we still aren't sure how that one works).

Anyway, thank you for doing something about the useless powers.

Excellent. Glad to see you are addressing this, and I look forward to seeing you address the to-hit buffs.

However, please consider making all +Def powers give this resistance. You have neglected Invulnerability, which is now primarily focused on +Def from 2 powers (Invincibility mostly, and Tough Hide), as well as the Force Field set(!), Fortitude, Steamy Mist, Group Invisibility, Superior Invisibility, Cloak of Shadows, and Shadow Fall.

Edit: And as the poster below me points out, what about powers and powersets that rely on Acc debuffs for defense? All the -def and +Acc in the game hurts them just as much. Radiation, Dark Miasma, Dark Armor (there is still a debuff on CoF right?), and Storm need to be dealt with too. Balance is the goal, right? So don't leave anyone out that is adversely affected by the incredible abundancy of -Def and +Acc in the game.

The mixed sets won't get as much resistance, but they won't have all their +Def cancelled by one quicksand either, this way.

It's not like you are only giving it to purely +Def sets, I see Granite Armor in there.

Statesman,

While I am happy with the performance of Tanker Invulnerability after level 18 (Invincibility), I am not happy with the feel of it. Fire Armor and Kheldian Dwarves have the Invulnerable feel, despite the fact that they both underperform Invulnerability, survival wise, in most situations.

This is due to the fact that Invulnerability has such low non-Smashing/Lethal resistance, and such high +def from Invincibility. When I play my Invuln Tanker in Croatoa against the Fir-Bolg, 90% of her survival comes from Invincibility and Dull Pain, which makes her feel like some kind of weird cross between Super Reflexes and Regeneration in style. It just doesn't feel right.

Invulnerability is one of the most famous of comic book powers. Invulnerable heroes gain the ability to take hits and shrug them off, not dodge or heal them. I really wish you would consider trading Invincibility effectiveness for more effective non-Smashing/Lethal resistance. If you feel we are at the right level of survivability, I don't see anything wrong with trading where that survivability comes from. It would also be nice to have slots in our passives provide something meaningful.

Also, Defiance is also really, really worthless. I've never had the bar above 20% on my blaster. Containment, on the other hand, is fantastic. I'm really enjoying my new Gravity Controller (thanks for the animation reductions).

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Hope that clears that up.

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It does, I now understand the decision process that led to not having badges for the other TFs until much later.

Thanks a lot for this explanation, I know that you didn't have to give it, and appreciate that you did anyway.

Thanks for the info Positron, it's greatly appreciated. I am especially happy to hear that you plan on making the TFs more interesting.

I totally understand the data mining issue.

I do have one question: why were only the Freedom Phalanx Task Forces given badges in Issue 2, and not the new Task Forces that had been added? This is just a question, not some kind of slam. If it was because you didn't think badges would be so well received, that's understandable. If it's because of the difficulty of adding a badge to a Task Force, I'm hoping you might explain that difficulty so that more of us might understand.

I also want to publicly apologize for blowing up earlier about the math related to your statement of Invincibility and Unyielding providing a net bonus of 20% resistance. I may not be happy with the current state of Invulnerability being more about Defense from 2 powers than Resistance from the 6 that don't kill you, but it was my math that was wrong, not yours.

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I'm just scratching my head wondering why they didn't have badges created for these TF's when they were first released.


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This is the real question. It's ridiculous to expect them to devote resources to a year of datamining just for a few badges, but I don't understand why there weren't badges for the TFs when they went in. It's especially confusing because the TFs went in at the same time as the badge system.

I'm not issuing criticism, I'm asking a question: what, exactly, does it take to implement a badge for a TF?

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Just because you're in SG mode doesn't mean you automatically get Prestige. You still have to do things.

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This sounds like a confirmation.

Wow, does this suck. I team almost exclusively with my SG (I mean like, 99.9% of the lifespan of my characters), and you know what? We have hideous (to all but a couple people) SG colors, which can't be changed, and a mostly inappropriate symbol for lots of our characters.

I ask you this: Do the Justice League or the Avengers ever replace their chest symbols?

I love my SG, I wouldn't leave it for the Freedom Phalanx themselves, but putting our SG symbol on the chest of any of my characters is like putting a happy face on Batman's chest, and the chest symbol ain't optional in SG mode.

I'm not an Ice Tanker, but I'm following this because I'd like to see all the sets be equally viable. I feel the need to post, however, after seeing this:

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So: Any clue how y'all can set it up so that you can absorb Alphas and still be at risk from the rest of the spawn?

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I'd like to say that I am disappointed at the goal of being at risk every single spawn. I really like variety of difficulty in games, and I'd rather not be challenged 100% of the time. I would, however, like to be challenged every session, at varying levels, as well as having some reinforcement that I am a superhero on the level of Nightcrawler, Cyclops, Storm, Jean Grey, or Colossus, every session.

I think it is reasonable to assume that a single mission might be the reasonable minimum for a single play session-- the kind of thing that a working parent might have time for once a night. So, I'd rather they focused on trying to make 1-2 encounters a mission put you at serious risk, and 2-4 encounters putting you at moderate risk, with the rest putting you at minor to no risk.

Serious risk might feel like the live equivalent of a level 10 Regen Scrapper fighting a Lost Aberrant Boss and a minion, or a full 40+ team facing a room with 2 groups of +3 Carnies that include 2 Dark Ring Mistresses and 2 Master Illusionists. I'm not saying this is what they should provide, but the feel should be that way-- serious risk means there very well could be a team wipe if everyone isn't really on the ball.

Moderate might be that same level 10 Scrapper facing a Tesla Knight and two sprockets, or a full team facing one of those (+2 or +3) 5-LT Nemesis spawns within eyeshot of a couple Snipers with more LTs in their group, and with a Fire Tanker without Tough as the tank. I've been in the latter situation, and while I hate the crazy stacking Venegance that cuts through +Def like mad, and causes tons of accuracy issues, the situation could definately be described as a moderate challenge. I've had team wipes from it, but they could have been avoided if people were careful about when and how they killed the LTs.

Minor-no risk would be a live group facing the average +2 Malta Spawn with a Sapper in it, or the level 10 Scrapper facing the typical 3-minion Clockwork spawn.

Anyway, I PMed Statesman twice about variety in difficulty within a single mission, and both times he misunderstood me. First he seems to have thought I meant variety in aesthetics, citing new group types being added in I5. Then he thought I meant variety in difficulty among groups (like, Vahzilok being harder than Skulls), citing Sappers being added in Issue 1. I tried to clarify in a third PM, but he didn't write back, meaning he either was too busy to respond to me a third time (understandable), or he just thought I wasn't listening to him. Maybe he will read this thread, and maybe this post might make more sense than the PMs I sent him.

Regardless, I suppose I should give up on that, as I think he disagrees, and thinks every single spawn should give a feeling of overcoming a difficult task.

As a side note, I'd like to say that Circeus is exactly the sort of poster I wish I was, but unfortunately I find my motivation just won't hold up long enough to do the kinds of things he has, as it seems fairly random as to whether the developers will come to the same conclusions or not. Good job, Circeus.

Will we ever have any storyline involving the Reichsman?

I've been waiting to fight him since I first read the history of Paragon back before I got into the pre-order beta.