Quinch

As a note on AE, keep in mind that every AE building has a section designed exactly for the purpose of working in peace and quiet.

I don't see mezzing mobs as a problem, including my squishies. A quick swing by a contact/hospital/AE for a tray full of breakfrees will solve any mezzing issues that could crop up.

{dear log-out bug,

DIE.

Sincerely,

Quinch}

Lady Deathwish.
Fusionette.
General Z.
That Nemesis Defector Guy In RWZ Arc Who Gets Blasted Away The Moment You Rescue Him.

Combat escort missions in CoH have a bad rap and, let's be honest, it's entirely well-deserved. Considering that most of the combat NPCs tend to be glass cannons, combined with their utter lack of self-preservation and {usually} instant mission failure from their sudden yet inevitable faceplanting gives a lot of players a "dead man walking, fission mailed" attitude toward them.

So, if the problem stems from the fact that they die so easily, the question becomes, why let them die at all?

Here's a proposition for their revised behavior -

1} NPC is "released", from their "captors", or whatever they're set to put them into...

2} Combat mode. They fight according to their general combat AI.

3} If their HP hits 0, they don't "die" - they go back into passive mode, kneeling on the ground. See Proton's behavior at the end of Twinshot's arc. They remain that way as long as there are hostile NPCs in the vicinity.

4} Once there are no more hostiles, they get back up and pop an insta-full-heal power.

5} Goto 2}

This would, in theory, remove the inherent issues around their penchant for being defeated. They would still get defeated as easily as they are now, but it would not become an inconvenience. Putting them into a non-combat mode after being defeated {as opposed to straight-out unkillability} would prevent them from doing too much of the player's work for them.

Any thoughts?

I think you're overestimating the peer pressure - if people aren't routinely kicked from teams for using powers with knockback, I very much doubt that they'd be kicked later either. Furthermore, knockback is a tool, and it can be used well or poorly - energy torrent can give a pressed defender some breathing space, but it will also split a group of enemies. This applies especially to powers with a "chance-to" approach to knockback, including the ones bundled with damage. They can also interfere with their users as well, because a group scattered by knockback is that much harder to AoE for them as well as their teammates, which is the core issue of nearly all complaints about KB to begin with. It has its time, and its place, but not all of them all the time.

I can deal with a bit of chaos on the battlefield. Hell, most of the time I cause it. But just because we can doesn't mean we should have to, especially if we can invest the attention to prevent it.

No restrictions: That means that freems starting in Praetoria would get access to a bunch of stuff non-Praetorians don't. I don't mind it, but it doesn't make much business sense, so I don't see it happening.

Outleveling: That pretty much applies to the whole game. Keep in mind, though, that not-so-recently the devs added radio missions to Praetoria in addition to arcs, so I don't think that outleveling is viewed as an issue. As a warning, though, they could add a message at Lv10 warning about possible outleveling, a pointer/option to turn your XP off and a short information blurb about arc ranges.

Keep in mind that Null the Gull is a workaround because... I don't know, Paragon can't afford a UI programmer? But anyway, I'm trying to keep it as simple as possible - the solution in this case would use readily available tools rather than trying to add new features into the old code. Basically, trying to KISS.

Well, if it would {or looks like it would} bring in more money to PS, I'm pretty sure they'd make the effort.

Quick suggestion;

Premise:
Praetoria is visually beautiful and magnificently written.

Problem:
It's also a ghost town due to VIP-locks.

Solution proposal:
Open Praetoria to Freems and Preems. Limitation: The alignment choice is limited to the one chosen at first. Morality missions railroad the decision. Can only play arcs from their alignment - no Responsibility/Wardens overlap.

Expected result:
More players in Praetoria, giving VIPs a wider pool of teammates. Good writing provides a draw to experience more of it - with only two character slots, the only option to do so for Freems/Preems is to buy said stuff, resulting in money influx.


Thoughts?

Just to throw this out;

"Restrained"; an inherent power at Lv2.

Toggle, no endurance cost, recharge or animation time.

Said power debuffs the player's knockback through the floor.

Thus, player has control whether he wants his attacks to KB/KD/KU or not.

If said player wants some attacks to KB but not others, they will need to turn it on and off on the fly. No handholding.

Thoughts?

Boo. There go my plans for an upside-down base too.

Ahwell, thanks anyway.

Quick question - with the new base item placement options, is it possible to rotate them along more than one axis? Specifically, to turn them upside down, since flooring and other thin items appear to be invisible from below.

Is any of that money going to go into non-cosmetic improvements? Things like an improved search interface, Praetorian flashbacks or upgrade of existing flashback system maybe, maybe some base lovin'? I'm all for more shiny and more stories, don't get me wrong, but I don't hear anything about eventually bringing anything else up to date?

A while ago I tossed out an idea of tradeoff enhancements - the kind that has exceptional benefit in one aspect, but decreases another; for example, an SO-grade enhancement that gives out 66% to damage, but -33% to accuracy. Or {and I foresee these getting sold out within minutes, nevermind the fact that NPC supply is infinite} 66% to recharge and -33% to knockback, hold duration versus damage, and so on. That way you'd get much more versatility in slotting without getting more in terms of enhancement values.

Just to check, does using /renderscale have any actual benefit? Cranking it way down doesn't seem to give me any increase in framerate.

Did that, didn't help much. Is there a functional difference between applying the paste on the heatsink or the chip itself? I'm guessing not, but I've reached the "no stupid questions" point.

Something that just occurred to me - the heatsink clips in to place rather easily, without much pressure needed. Could that be the problem? There are little "rungs" on each side of the clip, should I try to move each side by a step so as to put more pressure with the clipped sink, or would that risk punching the CPU through the motherboard?

It easily hits the seventies when the CPU usage gets intensive, but I'm asking more from the damage prevention aspect.