MadScientist

These powers really need to list all their numbers in the description.

Yes, powers normally don't give numbers, but Inspirations always do, and enhancements sort of do now. These are more like inspirations. We can see it's 5% Resistance from Rugged, let's see that it's 5% Smashing Resistance from this station.

Salvage is more valuable than Infamy, so it's better to know more about what it's buying. If you buy a temp power in Sirens Call and it turns out to be useless, it's easy to get back 10k Infamy. If you don't like your buff, you may have a hard time assembling the right match of salvage drops to make a better buff, or may deplete a SG's salvage collection while you're correcting your mistake.

Besides, actual numbers are going to be all over the internet within 15 minutes of any patch. It's not like this is really a secret. So let's just share the information openly.

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in short, as things stand now, I just can't see myself BOTHERING to powerup before hitting a mission.

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I don't think this was ever intended. These buffs aren't meant to serve you throughout a mission. They aren't meant to be something to rely upon all the time. Rather, you enter a mission and get to a snag, say three spawns placed inconveniently close together, or an EB, or a Longbow Ballista. You stop (or die), exit the mish, hit your base and buff up, then return and clear out the obstacle. 15 minutes is plenty of time to do that.

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before a mission, in the middle of a mission, same thing. It's just not worth the effort for the little boost. 5% smashing resist will not matter against that Ballista.

put it this way: I can pick up Inspirations, use as few or as many as I need against that Ballista, and have the excess still available for later.

and now, my long-winded analysis of the powers I got when using my level 40 Brute and 40 Corr...

Sleep Resistance is similar to Health. It reduces how long you are asleep (though not by long). This is terrible as you still have all your toggles knocked off. After the cost of Salvage (a finite resource) I expect something better than a power I already have at level 16 or 18 on all my characters.

Confuse and Fear resistance suffer from the same problem as the old Mez Protection inspirations. This just isn't something that I want to use pre-emptively. How much really threatens me with Fear/Confuse anyways? and since most of them do BOTH (I'm looking at those Psi Defender Longbow Wardens and Crey Clones) choosing just one seems pretty much a waste. I'd rather just use a Break Free when I need to.

The same situational reactive vs proactive argument from Confuse/Fear applies to Perception. Perception is also weaker than just using an inpiration because the inpiration counters the -Acc that comes with things like Smoke Bomb.

Run speed boost of 2.5% is just about meaningless on my characters with Swift. At least I'm not at the run speed cap because I see that Sprint is still effective. That low buff will not stop Stone Brutes from pestering every /Kin Corruptor on the server for Speedboost. I can't see this being of any use to lower level characters, either, since it's not going to be anywhere near a travel power. At the very least, the cost needs to come WAY down since someone under level 14 will not have much salvage.

Run speed is also useless if I get Slowed. I think Run and anti-Slow should be a single power. For that matter, this should combine all movement buffs - the way Speed Boost can buff run and fly speeds with one power.

Resistance buffs. 5%. Yay. Hold me back, I may be immortal. This is just as much as a Rugged, but against only 1 type of damage. Most things do many types of damage. If I go with a Thorns mission, I can save myself from a little Lethal with the Guides, but take plenty of Smash from Earth Thorns and Fire from Behemoths. I wouldn't bother with this unless it would let me pretty much ignore one type of enemy. eg, if I could walk into a room and have 50% Fire resist, that would be a tactical change. but at 5% of 1 type, that's almost unnoticable. A 5% Max HP boost would be much more noticable, still not a copy of Rugged, and yet it would still not be worth spending salvage on it.


The only powers I find useful here are Slow Resist, Recharge and Knockback Protection. These share one thing in common - they can be taken to guard against an entire range of tactics throughout a whole mission. For example, heading into a mission with lots of Earth Thorns, get Slow Resist. That is a lot more noticable than a little Damage Resistance against a single type.
THAT should be the model for these powers. Find the things that drive people nuts that we'd want to guard against ahead of time. Things we can't react to very well, but when we die and hit the base we'd want to grab a "fix" for the problem.

Along those lines, these would make better powers:
- Accuracy Debuff Protection.
- Damage Debuff Protection. Probably combine that with the Acc debuff since alone those are EXTREMELY situational.
- Defense/Resistance Debuff Protection. PLEASE put these together so no one ends up getting the wrong one, and so archtypes with a mix of defenses aren't hurt by a split.
- Resist -Fly/-Jump/Immobilize.
- heck, protection from any other Debuffs, if I've missed any. We have -Recharge counter, and as mentioned above a combined +Move power would counter Slow.
- Resist End Drain. Let me say that again: RESIST END DRAIN. For when you're heading to a Carnie mission. We REALLY need a preventative measure to keep toggles up - the various powers out there that increase Recovery are not counters to End Draining. (and I can't see getting Stamina duplicated on this table anyways, if that was a good idea I suspect we'd have it already on there.)
- Travel Powers, like we get in the arena. Running a little faster is nowhere near as fun as being able to fly for 15 minutes. This will help people get around certain zones that aren't Superspeed Friendly. Or how about the very slow Group Fly - it's not quite Fly, but it's better than nothing for a Speeder.
- going outside the box a little, I doubt you can code this... Clairvoyance. The ability to see mission objectives on the maps. That's something I'd gladly burn salvage on.
- even farther outside the box... Resist Void Hunters, only usable by Kheldians, reduces the damage done by Voids to half what it currently is and counters the stun effect.

The one other thing that would encourage me to use these powers is if they could take more of the salvage that I can't use. Give each power 2 different formulas. Make the second formula include one of the Special Salvage from AVs and PVP missions. Eg, Rechage can be 2 Foci, or 1 Scent of Brimstone. This will also help Supergroups, as they don't need a lot of Scent of Brimstone but may need more normal salvage pieces to make Foci or Glyphs - so they can trade Brimstone to people who would otherwsei hold Foci for powerups. We need salvage OPTIONS.


in short, as things stand now, I just can't see myself BOTHERING to powerup before hitting a mission. I only see a benefit if these would have a noticable boost to me for every last minute of the buff. Remember, people are more hesitant to spend a finite resource such as Salvage, so these have to be a lot more impressive than what we buy in Siren's Call or what we get from Enhancements.

These powers really need unique buff icons where possible. Every resistance power puts up the shield icon. That itself is odd, usually they use the half-circle icons for resistance and shield for Def. There's little point in blinking icons for a power expiring if you can't tell which power is about to expire.

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* Lowered Empowerment Station recipe requirements. (Known Issue: requirements for recipes on Tech Empowerment Stations were not reduced. This is a bug and will be fixed in a later patch.)

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First off, the recipes for the Empowerment Buffs don't show unless you have the components for them. Not a huge deal, but might be good later on if there are more intricate recipes that require a broader variety. It'd be good to know which things I need.

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I thought that was an option? Has it changed with yesterdays patch?

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it seems bugged with yesterday's patch.
there's still the option to hide/unhide the greyed-out powers you can't create, but when you show them it does not show the *recipe* if you can't complete it.

also, below each power name it says "help" - it's not a hyperlink, there's no right-click, it's just bad text. I think the whole interface got broke'd.

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We've been told these stations are to buff up to get past a big hurdle in a mission. (Such as an Elite Boss.) These don't seem to be for PvP. 15 minutes is very irrelevant for PvP - if you got wrecked by a stalker this is still going to be within the 20 minutes of "no profit" time so you can't even get proper revenge.

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But isn't Perception pretty much useless in PvE?

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My original point exactly. It's certainly less useful than Confuse or Fear resistance, which will definitely help you overcome certain bosses. if these are PvE objects, as we were initially told they were, and supported by the brief nature of the buff, then the cost is not fair for that use.

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Yeah, but think PvP. Stalkers are already crying over FA; making +Per buffs in your base too cheap would make em throw even bigger fits...

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Precisely. As soon as this goes live, anyone with enough Salvage will be able to see Stalkers in Siren's Call without even needing IR goggles to do it.

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We've been told these stations are to buff up to get past a big hurdle in a mission. (Such as an Elite Boss.) These don't seem to be for PvP. 15 minutes is very irrelevant for PvP - if you got wrecked by a stalker this is still going to be within the 20 minutes of "no profit" time so you can't even get proper revenge.

If anything, this is more useful for AVOIDING Stalkers than attacking them. This will make you a little safer when running that Patrol mission for the badge and temp power.

Perception Increase needs its cost reduced. This is currently more expensive than Fear and Confuse resistance, and I can only think of one mob in the game that does -Perception. It's just not enough of a threat to justify the cost.

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Isolator is marked as "Hero Only". Villains can kill the contaminated for 100 years, and never get the badge.


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Not gonna stop villains from killing the mob to prevent heroes from getting it.

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The key part of that sentence is "to prevent heroes from getting it." There is NO REASON for a villain to kill a level 1 contaminated EXCEPT GRIEFING. This is, I think, trouble waiting to happen.

On the other hand...
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Not gonna stop villains from killing the heroes who are forced to camp if they want it.

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That's OK since there's a reason for the villain to do it - they can gain Reputation.

Sounds like the Plague Carrier badge now awards at the absolute end of the multipart mission, not at the "mission complete" for part 2.
I wonder if this is related to any of the issues with XP awards for 2-part missions.

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Oh and for the record...I have Crystal Keeper. And I agree....sigh.

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At least it's not the worst SF in the game. It moves at a decent speed, you can all get a Temp Phase power before hand, and it helps fill your XP bar when you realize there's nowhere near enough missions in existence to get you to 40.

The problems with this being a requirement are:
1. time needed in a single large block.
2. the SF itself isn't very profitable. Compare it to the Sharkhead SF which has 3 AVs, so you come out of it with at least 4 SOs. The Cap SF has 2 AVs but only takes about 50 minutes. Yes, this accolade is now a new form of profit, but the SOs will help you get people to run it again, making it easier to get teams.

on the bright side, you need to be 40 for the badge in RV. That was wise. That saves us from a flood of 35s wanting to LK for the SF to get the accolade at 35. You can do the SF at a reasonable level and still have the accolade as soon as possible.

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Crystal Keeper IS a prerequisite for Megalomaniac.

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I'm seeing a trend here.
- run a whole TF
- run a Respec
- die and gain enough XP for a debt badge
These are all things that require *playing* the game. These are not badge requirements that your level 50 SG friends can teleport you to, or quickly herd for you while you sit at a ferry.

Coincidence? or conspiracy?


The only problem is that a Strike Force is terrible for a casual player - they'll likely never be able to get that accolade.

One more reason to let us change banner colors directly...
I went into Edit Base, and had someone else change SG settings while I was there. The banners looked the color I expceted, up until I actually let go and dropped them in the spot. This could cause all sorts of trouble with 2 people editing things at once.

Another QoL reason for this... it would simplify life greatly if you want to change existing banners. Like if you placed one of a new color and it was a little bit off-color, it's a huge process to fix it.

However, this all seems very minor. I wouldn't be surprised if this fix waits for the first or second patch after I7. After all, the banners do work as they are, it's just very clumsy.

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If the contact is 45+ and operates same as 45+ contacts in CoH, then you should be able to do missions from the contact at 50.

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You'd think that, but many of the unlocked contacts don't work that way. Tarixus and Jaeger work from 25-29, they won't talk to you at 30. Though Doc Buzzsaw WILL talk to you at 30. It's inconsistent.

even at 10 hours of work, is that really worth it for 6 missions of content?

I really hope the TV doesn't give a mission that awards another badge.

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It has become apparent that Deathless, the 4th debt badge, is required for the High Pain Threshhold accolade.

Please don't do this. Some of us actually try NOT to die in this game

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Sucky though it may be, I have to point out one thing, Deathless isn't for Debt. It is for number of deaths.
I'd be damn impressed if you've dodged that one all the way through the game.

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Quoted for Truth and Example.

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Please stop perpetuating this misinformation.

here.

Most badge guides says Exaulted is 500 deaths, but it's really 10 million debt, straight from the powers-that-be.

Deathless and Undying are similar, though my limited search talents can't find the post that said that more plainly than the one I quoted, and I really don't want to spend any more time on this. I know for a fact I got Deahtless on an Alt last week who was alive and fighting at the time it was awarded.

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i dont think deathless being a requirement is that bad, if u dont have deathless, u dont really need the extra 10%hp

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Tell that to someone who lives for PvP.

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You can't have PvP without PvE.

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You could be a GREAT PvE player who never dies in PvE and yet you need the 10% HP for PvP. All I'm doing is giving an example that counters the original quote from XquietusX.

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WRT the TV contact:

... Do you think after playing to 50 and doing lots of 'end game' content, you could hit 20 mill inf. and then play that contact?

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Assuming for a moment the TV will give missions at 50, and not cut off after a 45-49 range...

Someone above said 300-500k per hour at 50. I'm not sure if that accounts for selling loot, but I'll use 400k badge credit per hour as a good number and calculate that it will take 50 hours of work at level 50 to earn 20 million. Maybe a little less time if you picked up some credit along the way, but that's going to be less per hour at lower levels anyways.

Bottom line: 50 hours for unlocking 6 missions. I don't think so.

(I've been assuming it's 6 missions, every other unlocked contact is similar.)

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i dont think deathless being a requirement is that bad, if u dont have deathless, u dont really need the extra 10%hp

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Tell that to someone who lives for PvP.

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It has become apparent that Deathless, the 4th debt badge, is required for the High Pain Threshhold accolade.

Please don't do this. Some of us actually try NOT to die in this game

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Sucky though it may be, I have to point out one thing, Deathless isn't for Debt. It is for number of deaths.
I'd be damn impressed if you've dodged that one all the way through the game.

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Not true. Per CuppaJo, all such badges are for debt. Not sure where that post was, though.
(This confusion continues to spread because some people and some websites copy badge guides from each other and never correct them.)

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When playing a toon from level 1-50, you receive the first infamy badge around lvl 28-30, the second infamy badge around 41, and the third around 48-49. It may seem like 20 million is a lot, but it isn't. My lvl 50 hero routinely earns a 300-500k influence an hour, so the 10 million to go from the second to the third infamy badge will be nothing by level 50. You should earn the 3 infamy badges without any extra effort.

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So you say 10 million at 40, and another 10 million by 48 or so? That means that for my characters who played mostly in SG mode, they currently have maybe 2 million at 40. They'll NEVER get this badge in time to unlock the contact, they'll be at 14 million at 50. Other people may not leave SG Mode right at 40 - they'll stumble on the contact later. Seeing as the badge never has a meter, I may not realize just how impossible it will be for me because I already spent so much time in SG Mode. (hmm... uninformed choice to favor SG Mode over Contact Content... uninformed choices are still considered bad, right?)

So if you want to do 6 missions from a Television, you can not use SG Mode from 25 up to 49. Most SGs won't be happy with that. Sure, it's *my* problem if I want to skip this content Though personally don't like seeing content I can't enjoy, I can accept this. My alts skip the fun Slot Machine missions because Gangbuster is too much of a grind. But other people's decision about this content will affect my SG, and that's suddenly a problem for me.

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This is another reason why I hate to see contacts unlocked with Infamy badges. You can't work on Infamy. Let us unlock the special powers and contact with stuff we can go out and really earn.

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Like the new Television contact in Grandville that seems to require the Midas Touch (20 MILLION Inf) badge? Really, really bad idea in my opinion. I didn't get to do Doc Buzzsaw because of her badge requirement and this one requires 20 times as much!

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well, besides the game design philosophy reasons, there's a lot of practical reasons that 20 Infamy is bad. and it comes down to this: Just how long will it take to get that much?
I've been working to get my SGs base raid-worthy. I barely got Bling before outleveling Doc, so I can't be higher than 1.5 million. Most people dedicated to SG mode are the same. Can I even unlock this contact in time? It's sure to be hours - I can't spare hours to even test 6 missions.
and if I can earn this without outleveling the contact, how much Prestige does the SG miss out on so that I can get 6 missions?
and even if I don't see that Prestige sacrifice as worth it, how many people in my SG will try this? This will hurt us a lot - and I don't want to tell SG friends not to do certain missions.

I guess I'd rather have a requirement for the Television that is something I could help my SG-mates earn, even if it's difficult. I can help them kill mobs. I can't really help them gain Infamy any better than they can themselves.

Debt for an Accolade? oh yeah, that hurts. paying off debt isn't much of an achievement. It's not something you can specifically work at - it's just a byproduct of whatever you're doing at your time. This is not the same as hunting a specific group or doing a particular mission. You may as well make the levle 40 badge (whatever it's called) a requirement - and that would be a pretty lame requirement, IMHO.


This is another reason why I hate to see contacts unlocked with Infamy badges. You can't work on Infamy. Let us unlock the special powers and contact with stuff we can go out and really earn.

Empowerment Stations and Salvage Storage have rendered Worktables grossly inefficient. Perhaps downright unnecessary.

Previously, there were 2 reasons to have a worktable:
1. to build base items. This included refining salvage as a step in the process.
2. to refine salvage you hold, in order to clear inventory room for more salvage drops.

You can now refine salvage on an Empowerment Station that's 10k to 85k cheaper than a worktable. 160k cheaper if you wanted to keep all 3 around for this benefit to your SG.
Add to this the storage items and you can see that there's no need to keep worktables in your base to help manage inventory.

OK, so why use a worktable? Just to build items now. Most groups won't keep the tables in place for 2 reasons. First, you can sell table when done to help fund whatever you just built. You have 1.5 million for a Turbine Generator? You can borrow 100k of that for the worktable, then get it back. The second reason is that with a lack of access permissions, most SGs get annoyed by people planting personal items that aren't needed. (such as the 2 spare Mission Computers I've had to get rid of.)

This situation is kinda strange to me.
I'm not sure what should be done about it.

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You realize that this is the first badge that I know of to have this functionality (Hero only)?

There will be Villains camping with and competing with Heroes for a badge they can never earn? That sucks for both sides.

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Precisely. This is quite unexpected badge behavior. Someone else said Villains would give up camping eventually... not if they keep thinking they're making progress on something that doesn't exist. and since it never had a progress bar in the first place, it's hard to see how they'd realize they're wasting time.

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And I'm sure everyone is aware that the text on Isolater doesn't make even the slightest bit of sense if it's earned in Recluse's Victory.

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and I'm sure you're aware that Recluse Victory involves time travel. If you alter the Contaminated there, it must alter what you acheived at the start of your career.

maybe that's the *only* reason to spawn the guy there and not in PI or RCS.

besides, Villains have no gain from whacking this one rare spawn that Heroes need for a badge. I bet some Villains will kill Contaminated anyways just to grief Heroes.