Psyte

Can someone tell me if my reasoning is off here?

Right now I've got a second build going with Meridian, my level 50 Energy/Energy blaster. In his build there are nothing but level 50 enhancements: Set IO's, Common IO's and a smattering of Hamidons. I initially did this for concept and practicality reasons; I wanted a "maxed" version of Meridian, but given how hard/expensive it can be to get IO'd out with (nice) sets, I decided to hit the Commons first and added the Hami's on a whim.

Now, Enhancement Diversification basically limits you to practically using only 3 SO's worth of enhancement for any given attribute a power may have. So, at level 50, 3-slotting a particular attribute with level 50 common IO's is a pretty big waste. However, enhancement scaling is per enhancement, reducing its effectiveness. So, in theory, when exemplared I might make out better in some regards. The nice thing here is this - no worrying about Set Bonuses makes this a lot easier and cheaper on me!

To illustrate - my stamina is slotted with 4 IO's. 3 of them are level 50 Common End Mods, and one is a level 50 Performance Shifter: Chance for +Endurance. I used Ouroboros to exemplar myself to the following levels:
Before ED - 126.9% (waaay past ED)
Level 50 - 99.1% bonus
Level 24 - 85.3%
Levle 14 - n/a

Power Blast/Bolt/Burst all have 2 Acc/Dam level 50 Hamis, 2 level 50 Recharges, plus a single Dam/End and End both at 50. (Acc, Dam, Rech, End):
Before ED - 66.7, 93.1%, 83.3%, 68.9%
Level 50 - 66.7%, 90.2%, 83.3%, 68.9%
Level 24 - 46.4%, 64.8%, 58%, 47.4%
Level 14 - 24.1%, 33.6%, 30.1%, 24.6%

Sadly, that's as low as Ouroboros would let me go. Now, since they're all schedule A traits (8/16/33), I sort of squint funny, round a bit and look at things this way...

Stamina
Before ED - 4 SO's
Level 50 - 3 SO's
Level 24 - 2.75 SO's
Levle 14 - n/a

Power Blast/Bolt/Burst:
Level 50 - 2 SO's, 3 SO's, 2.5 SO's, 2 SO's (total - 9.5 slots worth of SO's)
Level 24 - 1.5 SO's, 2 SO's, 1.75 SO's, 1.5 SO's (total - 5.75 slots worth of SO's or 11.5 DO's)
Level 14 - 1.5 DO's, 2 DO's, 2 DO's, 1.5 DO's (7 slots worth of DO's)

Compare those with my normal build:

Stamina - 3 level 30 End Mod IO's
Before ED - 104.4
Level 50 - 95.7% (-3.4%)
Level 24 - 72.4% (-12.9%)
Level 14 - n/a

Power Blast - 1 Acc lev 50, 1 Dam lev 30, 1 Dam lev 35, 1 Rech level 30, 1 Dam/Rech level 36
Level 50 - 42.4%, 91.3%, 58%
Level 24 - 29%, 65.9%, 40%
Level 14 - 14%, 34.2%, 20.9%

Kind of interesting. I'm actually fairly horrible with numbers and stat mongering, but so far it does look good if I'm going low. More to the point, if I'm going below the point where my IO Set bonuses are available. Certainly, at level 24 all of them are gone. At the moment I do not have any of my fun procs worked into the second build (Chance to Hold and such), but am considering it. I'm not going to be putting Purples into this build, either - that's for my other, normal, build.

I haven't had a chance to hit Test yet - will hopefully do that tonight. The lowest you can get Stamina is at level 15 if exemplared, right? Exemplar level + 5 levels for powers, right?

If I'm waaay off on this, let me know. But I'm kind of wanting to have a nice second build that does better for exemplaring since my set bonuses won't carry over...

http://cid-43e6fac8a5a892f7.skydrive...f/panel-gr.wmv

I uploaded it to my Skydrive, so you've got another download site

"It's just a flesh wound."

Wait until you see Tyrant in the same outfit making the same pose!

O_o

Seriously, though... looking forward to this quite a bit. I'm a little miffed my friendly, local, corporately owned game store isn't taking pre-orders yet.

Thank you! Will likely get it tonight after work. And I'd like to say "thank you" for making this a one-time, for your entire account ability rather than some other games that charge you per character!

There were some others but I think they got canned. I was looking forward to the soccer one

Now, NCSoft Korea has more than a few! Bring them over!!!

Or, basically: compare it to Apple and iTunes. You can use a credit or debit card online, sure, but you can also buy cards in the store. Same with Microsoft and their Live points; buy online or in stores.

NCSoft already has Timecards and NCCoin cards available. All this is doing is making them more versatile for players. In turn this might make them more attractive for retailers, also (since they make money off those things too). And it would certainly make the cost they spent setting up the whole system more sensible than only support one game (Exteel), maybe two (Dungeon Runners).

edit: While I'm thinking about it, I can't remember the last time I saw an in-game ad in COH. They could really use that advertising system to promote DR and Exteel. Or advertise COH and other games in Exteel. Last ad I remember was for TR

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I just don't see them switching this game over to it any time in the near future.

Now if this plan is a resounding success for DR, and I mean more than just covering their expenses, then they might think of expanding it to other games like this one.

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Again, its not "switching to" but "adding to." They could do it regardless of DR's success or failure. Exteel seems successful enough, but, again, Lineage II, Guild Wars and City of Heroes all have microtransactional services available, plus its not unreasonable to assume Aion will have things to offer in time.

* COH has 5 booster packs, the jetpack, server transfers, renames, character slots and AE slots that are buyable.

* Guild Wars has buyable character slots, their Bonus Mission pack, 2008 Upgrade thingie, Game of the Year upgrade, skill unlocks, weapon unlocks, additional storage, makeover, gender change, pet unlocks, and renames.

* Lineage II offers a gender change option. Their subclass change and server change options are a whopping $50, so those are hardly micros, but still, accepting multiple timecards/NCCoin cards would work.

And, like I said, adding it to the available options, bringing NCCoins into players hands could actually be helpful for Dungeon Runners and Exteel. If you buy $15 worth of NCCoins, spend $10 on X from another game, you have a $5 balance that will either sit unused or can be spent on something else or somewhere else.

But, and again, the biggest thing is it gives friends and families of players a convenient way to feed our gaming hobby. Regardless of the game it directly benefits, that is worth NCSoft's time. There are players who use timecards because they don't use credit/debit cards (for whatever reason), don't want to use one of those pre-paid debit cards (and their outrageous fees), etc., who wold love to buy things for their game of choice but haven't because they can't pay for it, so they would certainly benefit too.

I do too. But NCSoft making more money will give them more ability to keep DR running until everything works out.

But, back to the point: if we can pay with NCCoins that's potentially more money for NCSoft, its convenient for our friends and family who go to retail stores, and the "change" can be spent in NCCoin games like Exteel and hopefully Dungeon Runners. Use them for yourself or to gift to others. In theory a win/win for everyone. That's all I want.

edit: I'm not saying they will keep DR going if they're making more money off of COH and their other games, but it certainly makes that option easier for them. Certainly easier than if they have to tighten their belts, y'know?

There's not quite a two-month difference between the two posts; they just put a new update on their test server prepping things, so it seems they're going to be around a while longer. I did, however, want to point out they were moving towards it - should've disclaimed it better, obviously ("if they're still around they're moving to NCCOins").

But, still, the more NCCoins floating around the better for Exteel, (the hopefully still running) Dungeon Runners*, and any NCSoft game that accepts them as a payment option.

*I just sub'd to that. Fun game, nice change of pace.

Dungeon Runners will be accepting NCCoins towards the end of the year.
http://boards.dungeonrunners.com/sho...p;postcount=17
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Our new microtransaction system is done. Our new website is done. Lots of new content is done. They've been ready for over two months now. We're waiting for permission to deploy our recent changes.

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http://boards.dungeonrunners.com/sho...115#post156115
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Our long-term goal is to get item sales into the game with NCcoin. That's been delayed until late this year

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I think you're missing Sky's point - if we could use NCCoins for any sort of NCSoft transaction - be it game time, in-game microtransactions (server changes, renames, character slots) or game related transactions (booster packs, the jet pack power) it would be a nice additional option for us players and our families. That's really the gist of it.

Certainly as a SG leader it'd be great for me as I could give away cards and let the players decide how they're going to use them. Free month? Buy goodies? Whatever.

You can use Time Cards to buy NCCoins.
You can also buy NCCoin Cards from 7-11, Best Buy, etc. They're the ones with Exteel on them.

It would be a good solution for gifting. Give us the option to pay by credit, debit, time card, Pay Pal or NCCoin. COH, Guild Wars, and Lineage II all have things to be bought outside the game subscription. Also, by allowing us to pay by NCCoin, that would make the option more attractive plus leftover NCCoins from a $15 time card could find their way into Exteel or Dungeon Runners.

(qr) I'd a thousand times rather get useless spam email than for them to go back to using tells, going to broadcast, or any other means of communication we use that they're not in yet.

Thanks for this thread. I am *loving* my Radeon 4670 right now instead of worrying about glitches and stuff.

Current specs:
Windows 7 beta
Core2Duo 6300
4g RAM
Dell 375w PSU
GeForce 7900 GS w/256m --- This is what I want to upgrade, and nothing else!

1. Is getting a Radeon still asking for pain in COH? Or are things relatively okay-ish these days? Note - I'm running Windows 7 at the moment. Assume I'm reasonably computer literate and know to update drivers and such.

2. Anyone playing at 1920x1200? What kind of card? Detail settings?

3. Where do you think the "sweet spot" is for an inexpensive card is, price /performance-wise? Sometimes I've seen (on sale) GF 9600 GSO's for as little as $50, sometimes 9600 GT's for $75. ATI's new 4770 is $109 with a $10 mail-in rebate. Right now I'm considering $100 my absolute max.

4. Any card makers to avoid? Or that you swear by?

5. How long does it take for competition to make prices drop down? I'd get a GSO or GT for $50.

I've got a GF 7900 GS w/256m right now, and would like an inexpensive upgrade! My most demanding games are City of Heroes (natch), The Witcher EE, Devil May Cry 4 and Demigod (performance on all is acceptable, but I'd like better). Everything else, like Guild Wars, Exteel, etc., are pretty easily pleased. I'm currently playing at 1600x? at Performance settings, and while generally pleased, I'd like to turn up the pretties up. I seem to average around 25-30 FPS depending on what's going on.

SLI/Crossfire is not an option on my motherboard or with my current power supply. The machine is still under warranty, so I'm not going to upgrade either anytime soon. I do NOT need to run the biggest, baddest games out there at 1920x1200 at the highest detail, nor do I care about FPS games like Crysis. I will NOT be overclocking.

Whatever I get, though, it must be fine with City of Heroes.

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Speaking of impulses, I would *love* to see NCSoft games made available on Stardock's Impulse service. Would seriously love it.

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I've picked stuff up from Stardock since Brad was just a small OS/2 developer. (Object Desktop - the original - was freaking amazing. Ran that from OS/2 2.1 through Warp 4.) While I'd love to see it there, as well, Steam's better known, so it makes sense to be on there initially.

That said... *looks at Windowblinds, Sins of a Solar Empire, etc.* I wouldn't object.

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Of course. By the way, I'm enjoying their newest game :P

I'm just wanting it to be easy to get COH through ANY online distributor

Speaking of impulses, I would *love* to see NCSoft games made available on Stardock's Impulse service. Would seriously love it.

Any chance we'll have a permanent "off" switch for accepting those fortune readings?

"No, no thanks, not now, *click* not ever."

A spell checker in a MMO would be worked overtime

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Mmm. If people are going to be rating my arcs based on the degree of difficulty, I may be the all time champion of suck. I'm mostly interested in the story-telling.

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Nah. I'm definitely hoping to find some favorite story-tellers when this comes out. I actually read the mission text and dialog, and I've been playing for three years

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Plus, I don't want to get stuck in a freaking cut scene of Dr. Aeon and Lord Recluse /em boombox -ing for ten or fifteen minutes, and have to use the task manager to close the program since we can't manually exit cut-scenes in the game as it stands.

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Agreed. In-game dialog is more considerate of my time than a cut scene is, especially if I'm short on time. Likewise, kills the rush/momentum of gameplay for me.

So long as I don't dip into the teens I'm happy

Thank you!

Nice! Any chance you could tell us your average-ish framerate? Type "/showfps 1" (minus the quotes) to bring up your framerate in the upper right-hand corner. Type "/showfps 0" to make it go away.

Full-screen FPS would be nice, but hey, no big deal.

My G4 is having issues, so I'm debating one of the new Mini's or a Mac Book since Apple's kicked Intel's integrated video to the curb

edited after re-reading and seeing detail settings.

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I did a quick search and couldn't find an answer: can we make and use underlings?

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Do you mean enemy group minions and lts or NPC's that help you fight?

The answer to both is yes.

[/ QUOTE ]Pretty sure he means "Underling" class enemies. Like Rikti Monkeys.

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Exactly. Sorry - was up a bit late :P

The idea of players blowing through a ton of them every so often sounds like it would be fun. A bunch of underlings, underlings, then someone harder as a stark contrast ("Whoah, this guy is good!"). I sorta feel like the underling rank is a bit underused...

I did a quick search and couldn't find an answer: can we make and use underlings?

Subjective: Please don't allow us to collect merits on a global/per account basis unless there's a way to prevent abuses (account hacks, RMT-enablement) or "whoops" moments (accidentally buying more than intended, wrong item, etc), perhaps through a time-limited refund ability (would require tracking what was just bought and all that, though).

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Objective: Many Task Forces give you enough merits for a random roll. However, because you have to redeem those credits for a random roll, the "immediate gratification" is lost.

Subjective: I love Merits but can understand the arguments against things as is. Could you, if nothing else, provide for a Random Roll + Change option? I realize its a small thing (well, maybe not from an implementation standpoint - I make no assumptions there), but some folks might well respond to that better. Quick, immediate, still got that excitement, etc. Let the player decide right then what they want to do. Finding a vendor, looking at the list, etc., isn't as convenient, and honestly it could be overwhelming looking at that list and seeing what you really want costing x00 credits (it a weird way, some folks might see that and feel almost obligated to try and get it that way).