Pauper
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Posts
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Nice, thoughtful points. Let me contrast with my own experience. I'm a casual player by my own definition -- though I log in 5-6 times a week to play, my usual play time will usually run an hour or two, sometimes a bit longer, unless I'm enjoying an otherwise unscheduled weekend. Sometimes that hour will be spend figuring out what salvage from some toons needs to go into the base bins to let other toons build their enhancement recipes. I seldom play at higher than baseline difficulty and I'm not hardcore about enhancements -- if anything, I'm the guy putting underpriced rare recipes and enhancements on the auction house because I just don't want to spend that much time figuring out exactly how much Inf I need to ensure a 'payoff' and then have to grind out or mail that Inf to a given toon.
For me, 'pay to win' probably should be replaced with 'pay to play', as in, give me the option to pay to get to the point where I can play what other people in game are playing. Case in point:
After playing the game off and on for over 8 years, I finally got my first character to max level over Memorial Day weekend and was looking forward to trying out the Incarnate content. Then, on May 31, Issue 23 went live and it seemed as though everyone with an Incarnate wanted to run the new Magisterium trial, which my poor guy who hadn't even filled his Alpha slot yet couldn't do. Over the past month, I've been able to get into a few BAF runs and a single Lambda trial, plus ran my own respec trial to get a Notice of the Well, which was enough to upgrade the Alpha to Rare to get the level shift and still have components left over to slot Judgment with a Common power. The rest of the time, I was running other toons, and now have a second character with a slotted Alpha...and realize that now people are focused on running MoM and 'Hard Way' Mag trials, which again my poor guys can't participate in. If I had the ability to purchase, say, 2000 Incarnate Threads off the Paragon Market, I'm sure there'd be an outcry that I'm 'paying to win', when really all I'm doing is paying to be able to get into the same content everyone else already seems to have a character for.
Likewise, as noted above, I tend to be the guy who takes rare recipes and throws them on the AH for Inf to fund more mundane activities. So when the recent special on enhancements came up, I decided to splurge and picked up a couple for my blaster, including Ragnarok. While it hasn't turned my Blaster into a living god -- even Elite Bosses are still pretty tough and generally require a Rise of the Phoenix to finish off -- it's made the more mundane content a lot easier to get though, so I'm not nearly as worried about small groups of yellows as I used to be. Could I have ground out the Inf required to get all those enhancements 'honestly' from the in-game market? Probably. Would it have been any fun? Doubtful. Am I going to turn around and drop the same amount of money on enhancements for my other toons? No -- the difference isn't that huge. Was it worth the expense I paid? I'd say 'yes' -- I have one toon now with a significant power bump, so I know what that feels like, and I do enjoy it. And I don't feel at all bad that I didn't spend the last six months doing Death from Below so many times that the mere mention of the sewer network would make me want to hurl.
Are there people out there using real cash to give themselves in-game bragging rights? Probably -- it wouldn't surprise me at all. But I have to assume that there are folks out there like me who'd simply like to be able to play the game that everyone else seems to be playing without having to spend so much time doing so that it feels like a second full-time job. 'Pay to play' does that for me.
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Given that the last MacOS X update supported by Belkin was for OS X 10.4, I'd suspect that the issue is the drivers are so out of date that the device is unusable with OS X 10.7.
You might be able to get the n52te drivers to work, but my understanding is that those drivers don't enable the full functionality of the n52 device.
Good luck!
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I don't think this is a bad idea, but do we really need yet another random mission generator in the game? I mean, we've got the radio/paper missions, we've got tip missions, we have the alternate missions when we're not running story arc missions for a given contact.
Seems like the biggest wrinkle in this option would be to give players a chance to run at an even higher effective difficulty level, where +4/x8 isn't difficult enough. I'm not sure that's a benefit worth re-purposing the FBSA contacts for. If anything I'd prefer to see static arcs from those contacts that tie into the existing Atlas story lines. So the SERAPH contact might give you a mission to identify that there is an Arachnos mole in the FBSA, for instance, which ends up revealing that the mole is actually in SERAPH.
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If you are new to the Incarnate content, one thing you should know because it was a gotcha for me until I figured it out.
Each Alpha slot power has two different 'recipes' for its creation. This may seem innocuous at first, but there's a reason for it -- one recipe contains components that are created using Incarnate threads (as noted by a previous poster), while the other recipe contains components that are created using Incarnate shards.
Why is this significant? Because as a player mainly doing solo content, you're going to have much easier access to threads than to shards -- other posters have pointed out how easy it is to get threads in Dark Astoria, but shards don't drop there. You'll have to go to a zone where you can fight even-con mobs, such as the Rikti War Zone, to get Incarnate shards. You can also convert Astral Merits into shards, but on a one-for-one basis rather than on the more generous one-to-four Astral Merit-to-Incarnate thread ratio.
This is not to say that shards and shard-based salvage are useless; just that you shouldn't worry about completing a recipe just because you've managed to get hold of a single shard-based component for it. It will be much easier to go get all the thread-based components, especially if you're soloing, than it will be to grind out the remaining shards.
Note this is only an issue for the Alpha slot -- all other slots use exclusively thread-based components as far as I can tell.
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Quote:Except in Dark Astoria, you do.Originally Posted by Vyver
I'm recognizing a pattern here. And that it's 'anything can be villainous as long as you add the "waiting for your opportunity to grab power for yourself" tag at the end.'
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Quote:Going "that" route basically means that you were just playing along with the other members of the story, all the while waiting for your opportunity to grab power for yourself. I'd say that's pretty villainous.Originally Posted by Zaloopa
That and the ability to let kadabra kill and sigil die are about the only non-heroic options in all of the DA arcs. I still wish redsiders had a different chain of contacts for DA that were all about why you even care about fighting mot.
Not to mention there's plenty of opportunity to show your bad side prior to that (talking to the dude after the Arachnos patron and his lackeys depart, breaking another dude out of the Zig, and the aforementioned letting two heroes just die).
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Quote:Thanks! You just gave me an awesome idea for an Architect mission!Originally Posted by Slaunyeh
The game could have build on this, leading to the inevitable breakdown in communication (perhaps through villain actions, giving the rogue islers a win for a change), and eventually tie into the war in a bittersweet moment where you realize that people on both sides want this war, and there's just no fighting human nature on your own.
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Quote:I think a lot of folks, including the OP, are misunderstanding this finding. Show me any other damage type where bothOriginally Posted by GuyPerfect
Still, the fact remains that most enemies still don't resist Psionic at all, which is worth consideration. Where nearly everything resists Smashing and Lethal, not much (comparatively) resists Psionic. And in many cases, enemies will resist everything else, but not Psionic. Nonetheless, enemy protection to the damage type is still easily found across the board, so players who deal Psionic aren't getting a free pass.
a) the incidence of resistance is relatively low among mob types, and
b) the likelihood of having no resistance when a mob resists all other damage types is relatively high
and I'll agree with you that Psionic damage is not 'exotic'. About the only other type I can think of that might fall into this category is Toxic, and I'd guess that's because Toxic was added to the game later.
If no other damage type follows this particular resistance pattern, then I think the devs are justified in considering Psionic damage 'exotic'.
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Or that, too.
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Quote:As an example, say you had a blaster-general mod for +Recovery; all blaster ATs get a blanket 95% of any power that applied a +Recovery, compared to say 120% for defenders. (I don't know what the actual numbers, are, or if there actually is an AT-general mod for +Recovery, I'm just using this as an example.)Originally Posted by Kyriani
Can you explain that a bit more in detail? As in, is it not simply a matter of changing a number value for a specific power for a specific AT? And would it be so bad to up those values?
So let's say you increased the +Recovery for blasters from .95 to 1.05.
Congratulations! You just made Drain Psyche even better!
A simplistic example, but the general point is that modifying an AT-general modifier changes every power in that AT, even if a power doesn't really need the modification. And if you're going to have to modify individual powers in addition to a general modifier, why not just eliminate the middleman and only modify the powers?
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I like this idea as a powerset. There might be enough different 'shapeshifting' options to make a full AT feasible.
And with the recent 'personal missions' functionality, the devs have already shown that it's possible to completely replace your own character's 'normal' appearance and power trays with a completely different character and set of powers. Not to mention the Coyote travel power, the Panther stealth power, etc.
Mr. Fantastic/Plastic Man style stretching really isn't do-able in the current character model, but a character that can turn into an elephant, or a velociraptor, or something like that should be achievable with current tech.
Curious to see how the OP runs with this.
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Quote:How's anybody in a PUG supposed to know you went to the same grandmother's funeral two months ago during a TPN Campus trial that was spinning out of control faster than Charlie Sheen and Kim Kardashian doing the $64,000 Pyramid?Originally Posted by Snow Globe
We're talking 1 funeral for 1 person, right? At least I hope you are. If you are talking about multiple funerals for the same person...
Actually, forget I said anything about this, I don't want to know.
Anyway, thanks for pointing out that info, Snow Globe, because until you did so, I had absolutely no idea that any of it existed. I'd seen the LFG list, but never bothered to mouse over the trial names, because what other element in game gives you detailed info just for mousing over it? And though I'd been to the Paragon Wiki, I had no idea there were guides actually on the City of Heroes website itself.
I guess my point is, this stuff isn't necessarily obvious if you're not already familiar with it. I've been out since before the issue where the Mission Architect came out and just got back into the game in January by downloading the game client after CoX went free-to-play. I found the Wikia wiki and assumed that wiki-based info about CoX had been abandoned until someone linked to the music page on the Paragon wiki and things advanced from there.
And honestly, the thought that I'm "insane" for not wanting to take a 2 credit course on "Tactics of the Praetorian War" before I can fill the Destiny slot on my first Incarnate character is more than a little insulting. The folks on my server (Victory) put up with me enough when leading regular Task Forces (we were wandering through the Faultline Dam during Posi part II when someone asked, "Where are we going?" and someone else replied "I don't know, I'm just following Crimson Flicker."); I don't feel like I should have to subject them to my Laurie Notaro-like leadership skills in an actual Incarnate Trial.
Maybe it's just a personal problem.
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Quote:More like City of Corruptors -- people seem to be laser-focused on the "OMG DMG MOAR" of the Scourge mechanic and wondering why Blasters don't get something even better.Originally Posted by Tsuji
As opposed to city of brutes and scrappers?
And I was an Ill/Emp Controller, but so many people were talking about how awesome blappers were that I finally broke down and rolled a Fire/Energy blaster. Holy cow! Three-mob spawn: my initial attacks would drop the first before he could reach me, Power Thrust would knock the second back so he'd have to stand up and run back to me, by which time I'd have taken minimal damage from the third while defeating him (unless he was a Vahzilok zombie, in which case I'd have to kite him to keep from taking massive damage, which also delayed how quickly the second mob could get back into the fight). And I could do this from level 1! Add in Hover and life only got better.Quote:I was a storm/dark defender back then, by the way. Not a blaster.
Even today, at level 48, when Blasters are supposedly second-class citizens, this toon can defeat pretty much any even-con enemy simply by using Bone Smasher + Power Thrust on it, and for the few that don't fall over from that, a quick follow-up with Flares is enough to finish the job.
The commentary on the blaster changes makes it looks like the devs have decided to give Blasters some interesting new tricks without necessarily juicing up the DPS, which seems fine to me. Fears assuaged.
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Quote:Here's my problem -- *I* don't know this stuff, so if the person putting together the Lambda trial doesn't know it, I either don't know enough not to join the trial, or I don't know enough to start my own instead.Originally Posted by Snow Globe
Basic stupidity check for trial leaders. If they don't know these, do not join their groups. Instead make your own group and invite them to your own (or find something else to do).
It's almost supremely ironic that the generally proposed fix for not having enough trials, TFs, and the like running on a server is to take the initiative and start one yourself, yet if you do that without having an idea of how the trial, TF, or what-have-you is supposed to run, you're contributing to the problem of clueless, "stupid" leaders.
This double-standard is exactly why I avoid running trials and task forces in CoX at nearly all cost, and I'd be willing to bet I'm not the only one who feels that way.
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I am filled with trepidation at this news, because I remember what things were like at launch -- there were only 5 ATs and Blasters were the kings of ranged damage. They were also the kings of melee damage, because 'blappers' were far more effective dishing out damage than scrappers were, to the point where some friends I played with were openly questioning why the scrapper AT even existed. They were also the kings of damage mitigation, thanks to a combination of sniping and kiting that allowed them to take advantage of most enemies' inability to deal significant ranged damage versus melee damage, whiich made their ability to avoid enemy 'alphas' superior to even the best-designed tanker.
I don't expect things to return to City of Blasters as a result of Issue 24s release, but anything that moves the game back in that direction would be a mistake, IMO.
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Quote:Lowering your difficulty settings would also be helpful in avoiding having to fight three or four Illusionists at once.Originally Posted by corinna
Facing two or three at once (or four!) can be very tricky, and there is always a good chance of being defeated in such circumstances.
A temp power that delayed activation of phase shift would make fights against these types of opponents easier, and with a limited number of charges the use of the power would need to be tactical. It would be wasteful to use it on every single Illusionist, but when faced with several it would definitely be helpful.
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Quote:**Note - Spoilers for high-level redside content below!**Originally Posted by Nalrok_AthZim
Then why is there a villain alignment in this game if all you do is get screwed out of real villainy/cornholed into doing hero work?
Because, in the world of comic books, real villainy *is* all about getting screwed out of success by your so-called 'friends' just as you're on the brink of triumphing. Or (and there should really be an arc about this somewhere), it's about actually succeeding, and realizing that success isn't nearly as satisfying as the struggle to succeed. (See the Fantastic Four story arc where Dr. Doom finally succeeds in conquering the world, humiliating Reed Richards, and rescuing his mother, then realizes how incredibly boring ruling the world actually is.)
You'd think that would be obvious once you get to the level of the Arachnos Patrons, since no matter whom you choose to serve, you end up betraying that Patron's ultimate plan for personal success on behalf of Arachnos, then that Patron directs you to betray Lord Arachnos himself.
To paraphrase Raymond Chandler, if comic book villainy is at all realistic, which it very seldom is, it is written with a certain sense of detachment, otherwise nobody but a psychopath would want to write it or read it.
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Pretty sure this won't be a popular option, but I'm of a mind that some power sets should be retired for some ATs. Best example: you can be a Martial Arts/Super Reflexes Scrapper, or a Super Reflexes/Martial Arts Tanker, or a Martial Arts/Super Reflexes Stalker. It's possible to argue that Scrapper and Stalker are largely superfluous (have one AT that focuses on damage and another that focuses on defense) and thus at least part of the combo should be retired for one of the two damage-based ATs, or conversely that the combo makes more sense for Scrappers/Stalkers, but less sense for Tankers (really, a flippy, superfast, ninja brick?).
Some power set proliferation and duplication made sense when CoH and CoV were largely two different games, but now that the games are almost wholly integrated with one another, the duplication of power sets just seems like laziness in some ways. This could also help with the perception of certain ATs as sub-optimal -- part of the reason that Blasters are considered underpowered is that they have basically the same primary sets as Corruptors, but the Corruptor interacts with them in different ways which are considered more entertaining. Replacing some of the more damaging Corruptor power sets with less overtly powerful but more flavorful new power sets which better fit the Corruptor 'theme' should also help the perception of the Blaster AT.
Reducing the number of places where you see the same power set available on a different AT should make that powerset seem less 'old', since you're not seeing it every time you decide to roll up a new toon.
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Quote:I always kinda thought that was the point.Originally Posted by Nalrok_AthZim
You know how almost every redside arc starts with your contact promising you power if you run some errands for him and then ends with the contact screwing you over? Yeah, nothing's changed.
Villains show that there's no depth they won't sink to in order to gain power, but ultimately are defeated when they inevitably turn against each other in a bid to be the only one with power.
Heroes, on the other hand, team up to battle the greater evil, but can't completely defeat it because there are lines that they won't cross, being heroes and all, which allows villainy to survive to plot another day.
Which is what makes Tyrant truly dangerous -- while the Praetors are certainly willing to interfere with each others' plots and backstab one another, Tyrant not only can get them all singing the same song, but is willing to work with them, even to the point of granting them some of the power he's channeling from the Well.
(Another good example from outside CoX: the Justice Lords from the animated "Justice League" series. A group that combines a willingness to cross boundaries that 'regular' heroes won't cross, plus the heroic advantage of working together. Even Batman observes that the JL can't beat the Justice Lords unless they cross "some kind of line".)
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Have only run this once so far, though thought it was fun and plan to run it again.
My ill/emp controller chose Penny -- I have an Architect mission where your character meets him on your first day working for our supergroup, so mentoring new heroes is kind of his thing.
Will probably choose to work with Numina if/when I run this on my blaster, solely for the healing/buffing.
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You could try finding a recipe for the energy drink advertised on the billboard in North Steel Canyon. Bring out the BEAST in you!
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Haven't quite made 20 on my Fire/Staff Tanker yet, so not sure if there are 'endgame issues' with the AT but I'm enjoying it a lot right now.
With Staff as a secondary instead of a primary, the concept of 'skippable attacks' is a bit tougher to implement -- haven't skipped any yet. On the other hand, this is the first character I've run that's been able to complete the final battle in the Shining Stars arc without losing any allies (and that includes my Ill/Emp controller who played it in flashback). I'm not doing as much damage as a Stalker or Brute, certainly, but I feel more survivable when soloing and more effective when teaming.
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Quote:This. A 4-person team is really my sweet spot. Between 4 and 8 can get muddy, depending on the fight. More than 8, and all I'm doing is tabbing between enemies and shooting, or watching my specific team list to see who's getting hit, depending on whether I'm playing a combat or support character.Originally Posted by Electric-Knight
I think what I enjoy most about the slower pace of soloing (and within small teams... I think my sweet spot is generally found within 1-4 characters... 5 and 6, depending on the power sets) is that I feel more like I am watching panels of a comicbook.
I get to see each and every thing. The character(s) get to shine. Each and every enemy and strike and miss and blast and whatever can be noticed and enjoyed.
Beyond the great amount of choices for looks and powers with varying approaches and affects (and effects, hehe), the little random elements of combat is what I love the most in this game. Even if they are mathematically inconsequential, the positioning, the falling, the flailing, the running and all the overall ragdoll physics and options at all of our fingertips, and at the AI's disposal, are enormously consequential for my entertainment and enjoyment.
When I'm playing solo, or on smaller teams, I feel like I really get to enjoy all of that much more than when an 8 (or higher) person team mushes a bunch of FX on top of a large group of faceless enemies for a few seconds before we move on to the next.
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Quote:OK, let's.Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
Let's look at an example. Let's take, say, Doc Delilah
Really? Because when I first encountered "Doc Delilah", she didn't even know her own name and had just emerged from years of psychic domination where she didn't really have her own individual identity. So she's got to discover her individual identity as opposed to being artificially held in the mindset of a submissive 17-year old girl.Quote:and return her in the new Incarnate content, only she's not cheerful and upbeat, she's dark and brooding and likes to lash out at people for no reason.
Then, when she does go out into the world and attempt to do good things, she's being thwarted and undone at every turn, sometimes by people and things that say they're trying to help. (In this, I'll agree with the folks who say that some significant amount of time must have passed between the Praetorian missions and the First Ward missions.)
Like I said, I thought the character fit the story and was effective. And I found quite a difference between Katie "It's really been a riot, but it's time for you to bother someone else" Douglas and Praetor "Don't you want to defend the place like a good little hero?" Duncan. You're welcome to your opinion, but obviously I don't agree with you.
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Quote:Going to disagree pretty seriously here -- there's a reason she refers to you as 'killer' in her first few missions. Well meaning or not, your character pretty much undoes most of the good she's done since leaving Imperial City before you even meet her, so it shouldn't be surprising that she thinks of you as a clueless Primal when you finally meet her face-to-face. The point of her arc seems to be to change her opinion of you from outright hatred to grudging admiration, and I thought it was effective.Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
The Katie Douglass of First Ward was, if you'll pardon my language, a right *****. The "confused and tortured" parts were left in even though she should realistically have gotten over it, yet the cheerful and positive sides of her were gone, leaving this whining, ungrateful, sarcastic brat worthy of standing in for Dominatrix as seen in Dark Astoria.
Now if you want to point out that this interpretation supports the idea that the arc was written assuming the character playing it was a Primal hero, I won't argue the point. On the other hand, presuming they didn't have the resources to provide three or more distinct adventure arcs (one for Primal heroes, one for Primal villains, and one or more for former Praetorians depending on which arcs the characters participated in), it makes sense to write for Primal heroes, as that's the largest population on pretty much every server.
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