Protonic_Flux

You know, looking thru this thread there's quite a bit of dev hate going on, then as soon as _Castle_ posts it's nothing by joygasms and happiness.

At the risk of further alienating myself from the CoX forum community I have to wonder. Since when did it become fashionable to bash the devs and Lighthouse at all. Now with Lighthouse I have some issues, which I stated in a post that got removed (chuckles). But all in all I think they've done a great job with the game, the changes are coming so slowly because there is so much to do and so little people around to do it. That's not the dev's fault, that's NCsoft or Cryptics fault on a financial level. So unless we're all ready to start screaming for more people to work on stuff in exchange for paying for our free issues (and I do NOT want that!!!1) then we have to learn to be a bit patient. Now then, for the devs it might be wise if they added something to the forums like a "In production" thread where they list out what they're doing. We're not their bosses, so they dont have to give us a minute by minute on how they spend every day, but just some general idea to shut some of us up.

Like when am I getting my killer clown villain archtype. I want to bash on longbow with a pogo stick while giggling madly....

This is on the test server

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did he by chance announce that he's leaving for another game too?? *crosses fingers*

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Now that's just not cool to say. You dont see me crossing my fingers that your gonna leave for another game do you?

But Cuppa, I WANT to panic and stomp my feet. It's what I do best.

*Deleted by PF*

I think I'm going to go into a corner and cry now.

Yes, I have always had a fond spot in my black little heart for Malta. To me they are by far the best villain group in the game, even moreso then Arachnos.

Of course I also happen to love Nemesis and the Tsoo, so I guess there's no accounting for taste.

Bah, I'm already out of ideas. Someone can carry this on if you want. But you get the idea. lol

The ending would be you and your team and Frostfire taking on some AV. Afterwards he turns himself in to pay for his crimes, however he has brought to light something that could have destroyed Paragon City and some of the Signature heroes. All in all it would give a story of redemption that CoH doesnt really have.

You know what would be cool end game content. And as far as I know no hero missions have this. How about a redeem Frostfire story arc. It could be in the late 30's to mid 40's. Your contact could come to you with a amazing discovery.


Mission 1- Meet with Frostfire

Frostfire- Who escaped again not long after you arrested him last, has turned up again. But get this. it's not exactly what you think? He's willing to come clean and surrender himself to you. That's right, he's asked for you by name (Insert hero name here) and says that he has some important info concerning some major villain organization and some of their activitys. And he's willing to give everything he has and himself over to you. Go, meet with him at this location in Steel Canyon (Could be anywhere) and bring him in for justice. I dont have to warn you that this could be a trap, or probably is a trap. How often does the bad guy ever just turn himself in. But he asked for you personally. So that alone should make this meeting worth your while. Might want to bring some friends though.

Of course it's going to be a trap, but not exactly what you think. (Using the cutscene technology. Show Frostfire defeating a couple Malta and then beating heat out the back of the building.
You enter the mission and fight your way thru Malta galore, coming to the end of the mission you find a Malta gunslinger talking about bringing Frostfire in dead or alive, preferibly dead. After spanking the Malta goons you find a computer with partially erased data on a Malta plot to kill (Insert signature hero name here) and some clues in it that link it to Arachnos or the 5th Column or whatever bigger villain name group you want.

More to come.

Honestly, where is the fun in this change? The idea of every change in the game should first and formost be for fun. You have a held monster that can still attack regardless? Who thought up that wonderful idea?

I'm starting to think that we need to seriously go back on some issues that are present in the game. The devs are just making it too hard. I dont know if this is Matt's idea of the game now that he's lead designer and Jack's over and in charge of the whole thing or what? But I liked it much better before.

Honestly, you have a mob in game that can be held, but can attack when held? Where did you come up with this wonderful idea?

<censored!!!>

Damn, she is beautiful. Thanks so much for doing that video.

It's a great thing that's been done here.

My little Claws/SR scrapper. She's what? Lvl 50 now?

Well, hopefully these people are getting reported. And now we have some people saying the hero AT's are easy, and some are having the same problem I am having with the villain AT's. So, the question is why? Is there a inherant weekness that we're mission for each signature hero or villain? And if there is can a red name at least say yes, they all have weaknesses. Though I prefer a good team taking out a Sig instead of a certin weakness.

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A group of Jerks and I made our Lovebot team and completely dominated BAB, Manticore, and Statesman. So don't whine too hard--they're beatable.

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OK, those are the heroes. Take your team against the signature villains. And tell me if it's the same. And I'm kinda torn by the 4 posts below mine. On one hand I'm glad that other people are really enjoying RV. On the other hand I cant see how anyone could have fun experiencing what I experienced. After I posted I went and made a new toon. A EM/inv tanker and went in again. Same experience. Getting plastered in no time straight when a signature villain showed up. Now I dont play Tankers in CoH normally. But I've read up on the slotting, and talked to other tanks. And from the information that's been widespread. I gotta say it was a big dissapointment.

The reason I'm not complaining about the PvP part of RV is that in all the zones I was in it was easily a 10 to 1 or 12 to 1 villain to hero ratio. There's no fricken way that I could expect to do good in that situation. And I know that is because alot of people are testing out the villains at high level. Which is cool. Now if the numbers were more even and heroes were getting slaughtered. Then I would post some complaints. The problems I have are for the most part the signature villains. Mainly Ghost Widow. I havent fought Lord Recluse. But if Ghost Widow can take out 3 teams of 6 solo in under a minute. Then Recluse should be able to solo the Hamidon after yellow death...

And as far as the signature heroes go. I would hope they would be a even match for each other.


Maybe what they need to do is redo RV for a day and have groups go solely against each signature hero and villain and do some hard data mining. What works and doesnt work on each of them.

Welp, after spending time in all the PvP zones, and then going to RV tonight. Officially I'm completely done with CoX and it's PvP. This is the least amount of fun I've ever had in this game. I've spent time studying what people say are good PvP builds, did my research. Did experimentation. Then set to make a PvP character for RV. Now I dont mind getting defeated. But I see several things that leave me completely with the whole....Why bother feeling.

#1 HAV and VAV (Hero and Villain AVs) What the hell? My idea of fighting a Arch villain isnt facing off against a AV with 30900 hitpoints and has a area effect hold that can kill a fully slotted regen scrapper inside of 20 seconds. What's the point of the whole zone if your going to work to capture the zone then face off against something that cant be beaten by 10 people, 20 people. This isnt the Hamidon. The reward isnt a duo ability SO (HO's) The reward is seeing the zone turn for a few minutes...

The hitpoints arent too bad to deal with. Sure they shouldnt be soloable. But when you go into battle with a full team along with other teams and everybody dies in a few seconds....Ok, where's the fun.

And that's just what RV isnt for me. Fun. You have a mech like robot that isnt very responsive or helpful. You have unbeatable archvillains who give you DEBT when they defeat you inside of 15 seconds. Why the hell are any NPC mobs still giving debt in a PvP zone? I've never understood that. Even if your level 50. It's still a matter of pride that your debt free. Plus you dont earn Inf or prestige if your exemplared down and have debt.

All for all. I hope this is the end of it. The playerbase has gotten PvP. Just leave it alone and spend the money I give you on more PvE content. Because PvP is dead to me. There's too much that would have to be changed for it to be fun. There's no challenge in fighting with a full team against a NPC that can solo you and your team like a lvl 50 running thru a lvl 1 mission.

And no challenge = No fun.


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not only av's but the turrets. The reason I wanted no debt? so casuals dont get discouraged and go back exclusively to pve. As is, if this were on live, even if I were a dedicated pvper which I am not, pver mostly, either I'd the debt cap quickly thanks to the potence of the turrets, bosses everywhere, and the signiture toons, or I'd be spending most of my time malefactoring away the debt.

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This person is exactly right btw. But it's only a small part of why PvP is a complete failure. Good luck on other endevours devs. Just let this part of CoX go.

From the 5/16 patch notes
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Mayhem Missions: Signature Heroes now only spawn for groups of 4 or more on appropriate maps

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Oh what the hell! That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Part of the fun of Mayhem missions is knowing that your gonna face one of the major heroes at the end of it. And now that's been taken away? We're attacking Paragon City! If some villain attacked and destroyed a part of Gotham would you tell me that Batman would shuffle it off for one of Robin's fans to do?

If 3 city blocks of Metropolis were destroyed are you telling me Superman would give the Cadmius project (SP) a call and tell them to send some test tube project after them?

I really hope that you reconsider this. What's next. Taking the signature heroes out of the story arcs in CoV and replacing them with no name heroes?

Amazing. You can still do a mayhem mission and on the easiest level get from 5 to 12 glue arrows and 4 or 6 acc debuffs from the Paragon Ghosts, but dont expect to see Back Alley Brawler, or Valkyrie if you trash Steel Canyon.

Bah.

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Actually, I'm talking about individualizing through moral choices made during the course of gameplay. Example:

Lets say a Story Arc in City of Heroes involves you having to track down a Hero who has suddendly taken to a life of crime. So, as the story arc goes on, you learn why: His daughter got deathly ill, and the only ones who could cure her was the villain group he was working for. So, you would have a choice: Let him escape, because his intents are noble, or arrest him, because no matter what his intents are, he was still breaking the law.

Letting him go would result in the "Angel of Mercy" badge.

Arresting him would get you the "Letter of the Law" badge.

Obviously, it wouldn't make sense to allow access to BOTH badges. And this would help personalize your character, by showing what moral decisions he/she/it has had to make. Plus, each badge could "unlock" a different contact, allowing story arcs showing the consequences of your decisions.

For example, if you let him go, the villains would now have access to the stuff to build a doomsday style weapon that threatens everyone in the city, with you having to stop it.

But if you arrested him, you would have to deal with him breaking out of jail and seeking revenge (As you essentially sacraficed his kid).

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Now I wouldnt be against something like this with new story arcs and such. But doing it for past missions and then changing it for players would cover 2 areas that I have to disagree with.

1. The cost. As I stated above I would rather have the money go into new zones, or zone revamps (The reconstruction of 2 of our hazard zones come to mind) and powersets then to go back and change how the past badge system works.

2. Your messing with characters badges, that's going to get you ill will from the playerbase, and Cryptic doesnt need any more ill will from those who are still with the game. Even if it swaps out one badge for another (Say, a new badge for failing the warwall mission instead of winning it) your still going to alter people characters. And all I have to do it point to any of the many flame wars on the forums to show that people do not like change...Even if it is neccessary and inevitable in a MMO. Plus, your always gonna have a small percentage whining that they want BOTH badges. If there's something that can be cried about, it will be.

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<ul type="square">[*] Trench Coats will be part of the Veteran Rewards System. You will earn this Prestige item after ~3 months of having an active account.[/list]
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Will we be awarded Trenchcoats at character creation? Or would we have to have a "placeholder" costume first, before we get the Trenchcoat awarded when we actually log on with that character?

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If you have more then 3 paid months with CoX then you get the trenchcoat at character creation. This is for time put in game total, not time put in with a character.

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Whoa, whoa, whoa. Liquid. I have to greatly dissagree with you here. Most people have 1 character they dedicate to badge collecting. Now replay value aside. Your saying that those people should not be able to earn badges outside of missions that our theirs?! Forget that.

There is nothing wrong with the replay value of the game. Playing this game thru as a scrapper is vastly different then playing it thru as a blaster. /End Hijack

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Yes, I am saying that. Especially since then the Dev's would be able to implement Badges where you could only earn one or the other, thus helping individualize the different characters by showcasing what paths they have taken through "life".

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Couple problems with that. 1. Are you going to individualize by archtype, or by origin? And then when you've made that choice, then you better darn well make sure that one AT or origin has the exact same as another, because you KNOW someone is going to complain that magic origins have more badges then mutants, or that blasters have more badges then scrappers do. And then there's the factor that we're going to have to dedicate devs and support to plan this, then impliment it, and test it. Then send it to the test server. That costs money. I'm sorry, but I'd rather have them save that money for a new zone, zone revamp, or new missions/story arcs or even for new powersets.

Leave it to the playerbase to make this distinction in their own minds about their characters, that's one of the reason the biography feature is there in the first place. Also there's wonderful sites like Crey Industries Threat Database and the CoV version of that, whatever it is.

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Also, you can only get the badge by doing the missions yourself. joining someone else for them will not award it.

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Hallelujah. Now if only they will fix up most of the other mission badges like that, I'll be happy.

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You mean like the "War Wall Defender" badge that gets rewarded regadless of whether you succeed or fail?

Just glad they got the "Time spent in BB/ Siren's/ Warburg" badges fixed. No more spending 5 consecutive hours in a zone

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No, I mean, as in fixing other mission badges (Like the Save the Fortuneteller mission) so you can't get the badge by joining their mission. It has to be YOUR mission.

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Why is this bad? Sometimes you just... miss the mission or whatever on a toon, it happens. Why is it such a bad thing to be able to join someone else to get the badge that you missed while doing other things?

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Because I am a firm believer in the need for multiple playthroughs to see/achieve everything. I don't agree with being able to earn all the badges/fully experience every mission on a single playthrough. And fixing it so you can't earn badges through missions that are not your own is a good way to fix that.

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Whoa, whoa, whoa. Liquid. I have to greatly dissagree with you here. Most people have 1 character they dedicate to badge collecting. Now replay value aside. Your saying that those people should not be able to earn badges outside of missions that our theirs?! Forget that.

There is nothing wrong with the replay value of the game. Playing this game thru as a scrapper is vastly different then playing it thru as a blaster. /End Hijack

Has the devs made any posts regarding the Mayhem missions at all yet? Are those glue and blind grenades going to get toned down a bit?

Ok, my second running of a Mayhem Mission. This time was also set to the easiest setting....Villanious. The character was a lvl 30 EM/Fire brute. I went into the mission with a full compliment of inspirations, all of which I saved for the final fight against whoever my hero was to be.

Wow, this was the total opposite of my first Mayhem Mission. From my very first encounter with a Ghost whatever from the Paragon Police I realized I wouldnt be able to finish the mission. 1 lone Ghost policeman whatever the hell they are, managed to stack a total of 5 of the blind grenades on me, in under 30 seconds. I got defeated in the mission a total of 3 times before calling it quits. Including getting 1 shotted by the Back Alley Brawler, and this was AFTER I dinged... So he was -1 elite boss to me.

He actually handed me 2 of my defeats. The first one was in the vault itself, when 2 ghosts and 1 of those glue throwing cops managed to stack a total of, and I'm not kidding here. 17 blindness grenades and 4 glue arrows on me. This was thru 3 lucks too. Even with 1 green SO and 2 yellows popped, I couldnt hit anything and died. THe second time. I was all out of enhancements so I didnt stand a chance.

I also managed to die doing the jewelry robbery sidequest, when I had a total of 17 blind grenades and 13 glue arrows on me from the 8 mobs that all decided to come after me after I completed the jewelry heist for the bonus time.

All in all. Those blind grenades and glue arrows have to go. They totally ruin Mayhem missions, at least in the lvl 30 and above range. I could have brought all lucks to the mission and popped them like candy thruout the whole time and wouldnt have won the battle.

Valkyrie was the first Elite boss hero that I fought, in the lvl 25 mission. Using a combination of 2 lucks, Darkest Night (Corruptor debuff). 1 Acc and I think 2 rages I managed to defeat her soundly.

With Back Alley Brawler I stood no chance. A Brute shouldn't get 1 shotted, even by someone as tough as him...The first time I might have been able to win. Like I said above I had 3 lucks with me when I went to engage him. But getting 17 acc debuffs put on you on top of 4 slow debuffs makes any fight impossible.

I look forward to seeing what changes are made to the Mayhem missions concerning the debuffing. Because it was WAY overboard.

This might just be the defining issue that sets CoV apart from CoH. Overall I just finished my first Mayhem Mission. My character was a Sonic/Dark Corruptor. I heard about the problems so I switched my difficulty down to the lowest setting for the mission and had a absolute blast. Took me a hour to do a timed 20 minute mission

On my way to rob the bank in Steel Canyon. I broke into a warehouse, stole some weapons and grenades (temp power) after roughing up some family for the location of those items of course. Funny that the family and the Tsoo were working together :shakes head: anyways. After that I found another group of family and got the key to rob a jewelry store. Set off the motion detectors and then had to fight a combination of around 15 police and Longbow. (The glue grenades are a little overdone...)

All in all I think I trashed every mailbox, fire hydrant, garbage can and dumpster, bus stop, box, crate, storage container, and policeman in the zone. THEN I went and hit the bank....

The hero I drew was Valkyre, and she was tough as nails. She spawned as a Elite boss, which was totally cool. Mind you this is on the lowest setting. Having /dark as my secondary with Darkest Night made the fight very doable. I used 2 lucks, 2 damage reductions, a acc, and a damage as soon as I saw her (Out of fear..Yep, it's good to fear the heroes) And then went to work on her.

Oh! And yes, I did make a stop to the Paragon Police Station to bust out the villain to help me. But she sorta did her own thing and didnt follow that well. All in all I give mayhem missions a A.

Things that could be improved.

My character was 24, and I didnt see 1 of the ED 209 cops or any of the psionic crime fighters, so maybe I was too low. But a little bit of variation would do on the ambushes. Mix the Longbow and Paragon Police with maybe a random lesser hero (Think Ms Shock from the villain cape trial).

Less Glue! Those glue traps were annoying. I worked out if I stayed airborn and used knockdown and then my sonic sleep attack I could get the upper hand and sometimes keep from getting it used on me. But when I robbed the jewelry store I had about 6 of the glues stacked on me. And waiting 1 minute for any attack to recharge so you can fight is irksome.

Paragon City Information terminals! There were a couple of them outside of the blue forcefield that I couldnt get at. But MAN I want those things as a destroyable item. Cant really put my finger on why, I just always wanted to bash those things, even when playing CoH.

As far as I see that's it. Now I've heard that if you mission difficulty is set higher then the lowest setting you'll get a AV or even a Hero to fight at the end, even solo. And that it's unwinnable. If that's true then it should be either changed to where you get a bonus for avoiding the hero, or that nothing beyond a Elite boss will spawn solo. You want it tough, but not impossible.

Honestly, what I would love to hear in the zone. Some duel of the fates type music. The right music can really enhance the battle between heroes and villains in this zone. RV is really the pinnacle of CoH and CoV right now, let the music enhance that. I know it's too late to change stuff now. But in the future....

Duel of the Fates

No video. What gives?

Nevermind, I got it.

Oh, and um...Statesman fighting Recluse? Sweeet

Honestly, I think I like the old swipe better. If these are claws why are we doing a 1, 2 punch animation? Overhead and stabbing? If anything the 1, 2 animation should be two swipes with your nasty claws. It kinda looks out of place when your talking about a powerset that is all about the slashing damage.

It's sooo good to see the baseball pitch attack scrapped though. The gutshot stab for some reason doesnt bother me as much as the barrage attack of the new swipe. Otherwise I'm overly pleased and definently look forward to running a claws scrapper.

I would be all for the idea of tankers taking partial damage for all hit team mates within range. Provided they get enhanced buffs against THAT damage taken. Maybe a extra portion on top of the normal resistances they have. Otherwise every time a team got hit with a AE attack the tanker would go from full health into the red.

If this was implimented for tanks I would make one today! And anyone who looks up my history knows I have always deemed the Tank archtype the least enjoyable and appealing to me. This would make me want to be a tank.