Redlynne

[ QUOTE ]
Grav/TA looks good on paper, but I'm not certain if that translates into real performance.

[/ QUOTE ]
It was when I was speccing out my Gravity/TA in Mids' that I discovered something about how Holds "ought to be" slotted. Mind you, this was in reaction to the release of the Basilisk and Lockdown sets for Holds:

<ul type="square">[*]Basilisk Gaze: Acc/Hold (single target) -or- Acc/Rech (targeted AoE)[*]Basilisk Gaze: Hold/Rech[*]Basilisk Gaze: End/Rech/Hold[*]Basilisk Gaze: Acc/End/Rech/Hold[*]Lockdown: Acc/End/Rech/Hold[*]Lockdown: Chance for +2 Mag[/list]<ul type="square">[*]Basilisk's Gaze (2): 2.5% Defense (Energy,Negative), 1.25% Defense (Ranged)[*]Basilisk's Gaze (3): 2% (0.03 End/sec) Recovery[*]Basilisk's Gaze (4): 7.5% Enhancement (RechargeTime)[*]Lockdown (2): 3% DamageBuff (All)[/list]For a 6-slotted hold power, these are "insane" set bonuses ... especially for a Gravity/TA where you can have four Hold powers by level 38 (and fully slotted up by 40). Stack up four copies of the above combo (in Gravity Distortion, Ice Arrow, Gravity Distortion Field and EMP Arrow) and you've got ...
<ul type="square">[*]10% Defense(Energy,Negative), 5% Defense(Ranged)[*]8% (~0.13 End/sec) Recovery[*]30% Enhancement (RechargeTime) [*]12% DamageBuff (All) [/list]And on a Controller, that Chance for +2 Mag proc (20% chance) stacks up with your Inherent ability to proc an Overpower (20% chance) for additional +1 Mag on Critters ... dramatically increasing the odds of being able to Hold a Boss with a single click. This makes every single Hold power you have very powerful at all times (even against AVs).

I have to agree that Mass Comedy is not the "problem power" of the Mind Control set ... it's Telekinesis.

Telekinesis has ... what ... the second highest endurance cost of any toggle power in the game? And a Max Targets limit of are you frakkin' kidding me *FIVE*?!?!

The max limit of targets ought to be at least 10 ... if not 16.

And by all the Greek Gods running around in CoH ... I would LOVE IT if Telekinesis had its effects bifurcated into TWO powers. Use the same mechanics as what we've got for Kheldian Forms as far as allowing a single power choice to unlock additional "inherent" powers. That way, you can have a target AoE toggle HOLD power which "unlocks" an additional target AoE toggle Foe Repel power ... and I don't have to have BOTH EFFECTS going on at the same time if I don't want them both to be on at the same time. Slot the Hold and Foe Repel powers individually.

Telekinetic Hold toggle
Telekinetic Push toggle

Simple.
Easy.
Effective.

NOT BEING DONE.

This has been known to clear things up on occasion, yes ...

Tricks with Sticks (and other discoveries I've made along the way)

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It was when I was speccing out my Gravity/TA in Mids' that I discovered something about how Holds "ought to be" slotted. Mind you, this was in reaction to the release of the Basilisk and Lockdown sets for Holds:

• Basilisk Gaze: Acc/Hold (single target) -or- Acc/Rech (targeted AoE)
• Basilisk Gaze: Hold/Rech
• Basilisk Gaze: End/Rech/Hold
• Basilisk Gaze: Acc/End/Rech/Hold
• Lockdown: Acc/End/Rech/Hold
• Lockdown: Chance for +2 Mag

• Basilisk's Gaze (2): 2.5% Defense (Energy,Negative), 1.25% Defense (Ranged)
• Basilisk's Gaze (3): 2% (0.03 End/sec) Recovery
• Basilisk's Gaze (4): 7.5% Enhancement (RechargeTime)
• Lockdown (2): 3% DamageBuff (All)

For a 6-slotted hold power, these are "insane" set bonuses ... especially for a Gravity/TA where you can have four Hold powers by level 38 (and fully slotted up by 40). Stack up four copies of the above combo (in Gravity Distortion, Ice Arrow, Gravity Distortion Field and EMP Arrow) and you've got ...

• 10% Defense(Energy,Negative), 5% Defense(Ranged)
• 8% (~0.13 End/sec) Recovery
• 30% Enhancement (RechargeTime)
• 12% DamageBuff (All)

And on a Controller, that Chance for +2 Mag proc (20% chance) stacks up with your Inherent ability to proc an Overpower (20% chance) for additional +1 Mag on Critters ... dramatically increasing the odds of being able to Hold a Boss with a single click. This makes every single Hold power you have very powerful at all times (even against AVs).

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Since Glue Arrow can take Slow sets, and since with Glue Arrow there's no restriction against procs (like there is with Flash Arrow) ... would it not be advantageous to slot Glue Arrow with the Smashing Damage (Impeded Swiftness) and -Recharge (Pacing of the Turtle) procs? I guess the question really centers around whether or not the Pseudo-Pet that actually performs the mechanics of running the Glue Arrow effect would be able to leverage the enhancement provided by these procs. Being able to take up to three bites at the apple (1 chance per 10 seconds) provided by these procs sounds like nothing to sneeze at ... especially since Glue Arrow is already providing a -20% Recharge debuff on its own, and being able to "double" that (on occasion) would seem to be a decent investment.

Immobilize Effect lacks consistent visual indicator

The Crippling Axe Kick in the Martial Arts/* powerset (among others), and the Immobilize Procs in IO Sets (such as Razzle Dazzle, et al) completely lack any sort of visual indicator that they are ... in fact ... in effect. Even something as "simple" as just making a "slow pulsing glow" aura or just simply recycling the starburst aura effect around the lower legs/boots to indicate that the target is, in fact, Immobilized would be greatly appreciated.

(yes, this is a feature request ... as opposed to an outright bug)

Tech Wings, while hovering/flying, female model (definitely)

The "wrist" hinge point(s) of the Tech Wings will, while flapping, clip each other rather ... dramatically ... right behind the character's head. This happens at all times while flying type powers are active with this costume option on female character types. Have not tested if the "width clearance" is any better on male or huge models so as to avoid this problem.

Recommendation:
Make the Tech Wings use a "slenderer" more streamlined mesh model of the wing wrist joint to avoid clipping while flapping. Either that, or adjust the skeleton for the Tech Wings such that the wrist joints are more widely spaced apart while flapping.

Might as well say a couple things about my AE arc, Inverse Ninja Law (202912).

None of the three missions has Defeat All as an objective ... but in order to successfully complete the missions it is wise to Defeat All, simply because of how they are structured.

In the first mission, your first (of two) objectives is to receive additional instructions from your contact (a Tsoo boss named Midnight Sun) once you're on site. This is in a glowie that you have to search. When you complete the glowie, it spawns an escort which is a required objective. When you complete the rescue, the (former) hostage is Pacifist (and thus, can be defeated for mission fail) ... and rather than spawning ambushes, I simply have multiple patrols spawn throughout the map. Sometimes ... but not every time ... one of the patrols spawns right on top of you when you perform the rescue, extending that fight. You then have to escort the hostage back to the mission front door, and if you encounter any of the newly spawned patrols along the way, you're almost certainly going to have to fight them because they'll engage your Escort (who won't fight back). So it makes for a nice Battle In/Battle Out mission on a fairly small map.

The second mission reprises the "get more info from contact once you're on site" requirement in order to spawn a Defend Object with multiple waves of defenders. Additional patrols spawn as well, so that unlike an ambush, it's not the same every single time. Sometimes the patrols will wander in on you where you're defending the object, sometimes they won't. Makes for a nice little variable.

The last mission is a Battle Royale in which the only things spawning on the map are Tsoo Patrols (Enemy), Custom Critter Patrols (Rogue) and a Battle (Tsoo and Custom, both Enemy). Your objective is to Click The Glowie and you have 10 minutes in order to find and do it. The mobs are all engaging each other and so there's combat going on everywhere in a swirling melee ... and you're welcome to partake, or avoid, as you please. It is perfectly possible to "ninja" this mission by stealth in order to click the glowie, and then hang around to mop up all the mobs at your leisure, as you please. It's also fun to just hang around, stealthed, and watch the mobs simply trash each other ... since it's not an assured outcome as to which side will "win" in any particular spot on the map.

I'd be resubmitting the Spring Knights base for a second look ... if I had about another 2 mil prestige to spend for decorating it up. You're welcome to ask me for a tour EnVee, to see some of the changes since you last visited back in october.

Manticore, nice to "meet" you again after seeing you at last year's War College for Tabula Rasa! Very nice of Cuppa to take the time to drag you out of your Base Of Operations to come talk to those of us who knew you and your work.

<ul type="square">[*]More of a "what if?" than a past history question:
The Ouroboros organization seems to be oddly "unconcerned" by (ie. no real focus on) the Banished Pantheon's return and ... conquest, I suppose ... of Dark Astoria. Should we, the players, take this as a sign that the whole (back)story thread revolving around the Banished Pantheon and "recovering" Dark Astoria is less important than we've been led to believe by in-game text?[*]Do you, or Hero 1, have any storylines in the works for The Zig in Brickstown?
The Zig is such an incredibly MASSIVE structure, that so totally dominates the zone ... it seems a crying shame that it's essentially a terrain feature and nothing more.[*]Is there any way to expand more upon the backstory of the Crey's Folly zone? Is Crey Industries (ever?) going to do anything to "reclaim" it(s property)?[/list]

Magic 8-ball says "answer hazy, try again later."

Wow ... you must not Exemplar ... EVER ...

The alternative is to give yourself a bigger control room. The AUX limit is partially imposed by the room size. The basic control main can have 9 AUX attached to it ... but the 2x2 control room only allows up to 4 AUX to be in the room with the main control item.

Bigger control room ... more AUX items ... more control.

Or you can just upgrade to the Supercomputer ...

Frost
<ul type="square">[*]Invention IO: Accuracy (50)[*]HamiO: Centriole Exposure (Dam/Rng)[*]HamiO: Centriole Exposure (Dam/Rng)[*]Positron's Blast: Dam/Rng (25)[*]Positron's Blast: Acc/Dam/End (25)[*]Pacing of the Turtle: Chance of -Recharge (20)[/list]
<ul type="square">[*]58.40% Accuracy[*]95.39% Damage (Pre-ED: 102.60%)[*]16.00% End Discount[*]50.40% Range (Pre-ED: 52.00%)[/list]
Positron's Blast (2/6): +2.5% (0.04 END/sec) Recovery



Does a pretty "decent" job of enhancing the power for everything other than recharge ... which is fine, if you've got a lot of recharge in your set bonus totals. Sadly, mixing acc+rng+dam+rech+end reduction all together seems to be a bit of a "bridge too far" as far as the IO sets for PBAoE/Slow/Taunt are concerned. You can get 4 out of 5 of those properties, but not 5 out of 5 together ... while reserving the 6th slot for the -Recharge proc.

For the Ninja/* MM ... Teleport Foe is your scariest weapon.

Unlike most of the other primaries, where your preferred tactic is to either dive into the piles (zombies, thugs) or to stand back and open up (bots, mercs) ... with Ninjas your best play is ABDUCTION. This is because Ninjas are stupidly squishy when they "dive in" against massed enemy forces, but they make remarkably short work of abducted foes who are brought to them.

TP Foe ... "feed 'em to the Ninjas" ... wash/rinse/repeat.
It's amazing how fast a single outnumbered critter can drop when facing Ninjas alone.

And you can essentially do this starting at level 8.

And even when your TP Foe won't pull a critter due to level+ranking giving them sufficient resistance to being teleported, the TP Foe power still counts as a non-line of sight "attack" and thus as a ranged pull ... even around corners so you don't have to eat alpha for the team ... thus, still enabling the "divide and conquer" tactics that best leverage Ninja powers.

What are some of the "better ways" people have found to slot Frost in */Ice Melee? I'm trying to settle on a 6-slot strategy for Frost and am wondering if anyone's come up with a more brilliant plan than the sorts of things I'm contemplating.

How useful is Ice Patch these days for an */Ice Melee tanker ... or even better yet, an Ice/Ice tanker? I remember how it used to be back in Issue 12 ... but I'm wondering if due to all of the new(er) options available if the usefulness of Ice Patch has (in relative terms) been diminished of late?

[ QUOTE ]
hmmm.... How did thee stack thine desks to make 3 floors?

[/ QUOTE ]
The trick with 3D design is not so much the methods, but in making sure there's enough clearance space in between the levels. You've only got 48 ft (total) of max height to work with ... and once you start including things like the height of your "flooring materials" (which will typically be 3-4 ft tall when using cabinets/shelves for the task) you start "running out of room" in a hurry.

Always make sure you've got at least 8 ft of "headspace" (preferrably 9-10 ft if you can get it) between "floor" and "ceiling" at all times, otherwise your taller toons can get trapped in terrain when moving around.

[ QUOTE ]
finding what you need across up to 18 racks is a real PITA.

[/ QUOTE ]
Learn 2 Organize YOUR Stuff

If you can't do it for yourself, refrain from asking the Development Team to do it for you.

Unlike other control systems, this one (and its arcane counterpart) attach to the ceiling (like a lamp) ... not the floor (like a desk).

Btw Sunstorm, in case it isn't obvious enough yet ...

Knowing that we aren't screaming at maximum volume into an empty room anymore is a tremendous lift to morale in the Base Builder community. Seriously.

<ul type="square">[*] Group Name: Spring Knights[*] Server: Virtue[*] Side: Blue[*] Approximate Size/Cost: 8x8 / ~2 million prestige (Issue 12 pricing)[*] Anything else peritnent: Featured in the City Scoop, extensive use of Magic Desks for 3D design[/list]

[ QUOTE ]
Prestige Refunds: The programming team has set up a refund system for all base plots, rooms and items.

[/ QUOTE ]
Trumpets sound and peasants cheer!


[ QUOTE ]
Teleporter recipes: The Rare salvage requirement on these should be removed in the next patch.

[/ QUOTE ]
Counter-offer:
Stop requiring crafting for Basic Teleporter Pads at all. You'll save yourselves (and us!) a whole lot of grief by letting this legacy mistake go NOW rather than later.

[ QUOTE ]
A. Base salvage has little value to most players. Since there are a limited number of base items to construct, once those items are built there is little need for any further base salvage.

As a result, base salvage tends to either gather dust on salvage racks, or be a source of confusion with Invention salvage. Base salvage will not be removed though, so anything not converted to Brain Storm tokens will remain in game.

[/ QUOTE ]
Shennanigans.

Base Salvage is in Issue 12 and prior of little value to "most" players because it is only used for two things ... building permanent base items and crafting temporary buffs via empowerment stations. This creates little demand for it, and in a supply-and-demand context in which there are ever increasing levels of supply, that means it has little value.

All you had to do was make Base Salvage into a consumable ... something that needs to be "devoured" on a more regular basis. What could possibly create such a demand? Why Base Raiding PvP ... obviously!

Right now, with consensual base raiding in Issue 12, everything gets restored after the raid at no cost.

What if that were no longer true?

What if, after a base raid (consensual and/or otherwise) there was a repair bill? A repair bill to be paid not in Prestige ... but in Base Salvage? In the Issue 12 context, this would cost Components ... the quantity, quality and type determined by the extent of the damage to the various base items emplaced within the base. We've got Repair AUX items that are supposed to attach to Worktables ... enable those to provide your UI for processing base repairs following PvP. Cash in your Components and stuff in the Base gets repaired to full working order.

This then creates a demand for Base Salvage sufficient to fuel a market(!) for trading it ... once Base Raiding gains traction and is seen as an enjoyable activity to engage in by a non-negligible segment of the playerbase.

To be honest though, I do have to admit that crafting Base Salvage into components to create items was "more tedious than it was worth" actually. Conversely, the idea of porting everything over to Invention Salvage is a really ugly cudgel of an alternative ... particularly when simultaneously launching Dual Builds.

If you want to simplify Base Crafting, then actually go ahead and simplify it. Use Brainstorms, instead of Base Salvage (and Base Components derived therefrom) as the "currency" for Base Items. Require [#] of Brainstorms to build the craftable Base Items or to craft temporary Empowerments. Convert all Base Salvage drops in Issue 12 into Brainstorm drops in Issue 13. Convert all Base Salvage in storage bins in bases into Brainstorms (conversion rate need not be 1:1). Repairs for PvP damage cost [#] of Brainstorms for damaged/destroyed base items.

You see where I'm going with this? If you're going to simplify things ... simplify them down to the level of "currency" and we'll all get along just fine. But we NEED to have a "currency" which isn't in direct competition with the need to create Invention Enhancements so that our characters are playable in the game at large. That's why switching "base crafting currency" over to Invention Salvage is a Lose-Lose proposition for base builders ... because it's something "too valuable to communally pool and share" with your SG mates for the betterment of your base.


[ QUOTE ]
Q. Salvage Storage Racks, Why only 30 pieces of invention salvage?

[/ QUOTE ]
The storage rack issue is only an insult to players who make use of their base services ... IF ... it becomes the only way to store the "currency" used for crafting base items and temporary empoowerments. The best possible solution would be for there to be a "base crafting currency storage rack" (ie. the Base Salvage racks that we have now) and a separate Invention Storage Rack that held ... six storage slots that functioned exactly like the auction spaces in Wentworths and the Black Market. So you'd have six spaces per Invention Rack that can each hold up to 10 pieces of a single TYPE of salvage ... just like the auction slots do. This makes space plentiful ... yet also limited.

Note also that such an arrangement would mean that you'd need three invention racks per salvage type, per salvage grade, in order to store at least one piece of salvage of every type. That's 18 invention storage racks to store up to 10 pieces of every single type of salvage (common to rare, tech and arcane) available on the market.

Easy.
Simple.
Effective.
Not being done.

[ QUOTE ]
A. Rent still exists, but it has been reduced dramatically.

[/ QUOTE ]
Correction.
Rent has been slashed so dramatically that it is difficult to justify its continued existence ... especially if there is nothing being done to the "penalized for paying early, rewarded for paying late" business model that we've been stuck with since CoV launched years ago.

I mean, seriously! What part of going to pay RENT does the Dev team consider to be FUN?!?

[ QUOTE ]
Base Repricing
1) How will the repricing of bases affect you personally?

[/ QUOTE ]
If I teardown to take advantage of the repricing, for all intents and purposes I'm going to have to demolish everything back to the Entry Room and rebuild everything from scratch. If I don't take advantage of repricing, it will have no effect whatsoever.

[ QUOTE ]
2) Will you dismantle your base to gain the additional prestige from the repricing?

[/ QUOTE ]
It is simply not possible to gain additional prestige from repricing WITHOUT wholesale demolishing of not only Base Items, but also Rooms those items go into.

[ QUOTE ]
3) How long would this process take you if you were to engage in this practice?

[/ QUOTE ]
At least a Man-Day worth of work, in game time. That's time spent NOT playing the rest of the game and needing to be anti-social while working on the Base.

[ QUOTE ]
4) What are the positive and negative concerns regarding repricing?

[/ QUOTE ]
Positive: that it is happening at all.

Negatives: Base Rent is now so trivial as to be (almost literally) pointless, tedious and synonymous with "Not Fun" now. The necessity to demolish/replace manually rather than by automatic scripting process. No advantages (price wise) to choosing Hidden Plots for four of the plot sizes.

[ QUOTE ]
5) How will this feature affect you long term and short term?

[/ QUOTE ]
Short term, this Issue has gone from being "The Architect" to being "The Demolisher" in my view. Long term, it will make large, sprawling bases the norm rather than the exception. Decorating costs will become higher, in proportionate although not absolute terms, for Art Bases.



[ QUOTE ]
Base Salvage Exchange to Invention Salvage
1) What is the negative effect on your base for this feature implementation?

[/ QUOTE ]
Invention Salvage is an inherently more limited and limiting resource, which is viewed more in personal terms than as being a group commodity to be shared. Salvage Storage changes are SEVERE and crippling (as revealed to date).

DO NOT WANT!

[ QUOTE ]
2) What is the positive effect on your base for this feature implementation?

[/ QUOTE ]
NONE.

[ QUOTE ]
3) How long will it take you to adjust to learning this new system?

[/ QUOTE ]
Longer than it will take the market manipulators to find a way to exploit the situation to my (and others') detriment.

The new system is cumbersome, unnecessary, unhelpfully limiting and calls into question why some items require crafting at all in order to be constructed.

[ QUOTE ]
4) What side effects to this system do you currently see from transitioning the old to new system?

[/ QUOTE ]
Balkanization of SG memberships into fragmented coalitions. Increased use of "personal bases" so as to overcome security issues not addressed that make theft of resources even more devastating.

[ QUOTE ]
5) What security concerns do you have regarding this change?

[/ QUOTE ]
Without the ability to fine tune security settings on a Per Rack basis, this new system is practically doomed to being exploited even before it launches. The lack of security fine tuning is almost an invitation for theft. This promotes potential paranoia, mistrust, and possibly even acrimony among people who should be able to trust each other and consider each other friends.

[ QUOTE ]
Additional Notes:

[/ QUOTE ]
Repricing upside: lower costs to buy going forward.
Repricing downside: massive waste of player time to take advantage of for legacy bases.

Elimination of Base Salvage: unnecessary and unwanted. A solution in search of a problem that successfully creates new complications where none previously existed. Was not broke ... stop trying to fix it. DO NOT WANT!

[ QUOTE ]
Is there a list of the minimum room size required for the base items? Like the fusion generator.

[/ QUOTE ]
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?k...AkRNJyX_BMKHMw

You can thank MadScientist for that.

<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>Hidden__________Old Cost__________New Cost____% Savings
8x8____________________0________________0
8x12____________1,653,861___________84,500________ 95%
12x12___________3,307,772__________312,500________ 91%
12x16___________4,671,491__________722,000________ 85%
16x16___________6,597,540________1,250,000________ 81%
16x20___________8,623,310________1,984,500________ 77%
20x20__________11,271,093________2,812,500________ 75%
20x24__________14,027,605________3,872,000________ 72%
24x24__________17,458,263________5,000,000________ 71%
24x28__________26,573,949________6,384,500________ 76%

Secure__________Old Cost__________New Cost____% Savings
12x16__________11,250,000__________722,000________ 94%
16x16__________20,000,000________1,250,000________ 94%
16x20__________31,250,000________1,984,500________ 94%
20x20__________48,828,125________2,812,500________ 94%
20x24__________70,312,500________5,000,000________ 93%
24x24_________101,250,000________7,812,500________ 92%
24x28_________137,812,500_______11,250,000________ 92%</pre><hr />
8x8 ... 8x12 ... 12x12 plots: Hidden Only

12x16 ... 16x16 ... 16x20 ... 20x20 plots: Hidden and Secure
Note that a Secure plot is priced exactly the same as a Hidden plot of same size, meaning that for any plot size between 12x16 and 20x20 there is NO ADVANTAGE to staying with a Hidden plot. Conversely, there are multiple advantages to "upgrading" to a Secure plot in which you can have two Control and two Power main items. This essentially makes Hidden plots in these sizes completely redundant and unnecessary (barring changes to the pricing structure).

20x24 ... 24x24 ... 24x28: Hidden and Secure
Only at these plot sizes do Secure plots become more expensive (to buy) than Hidden ones ... and even then, not by all that much.

[ QUOTE ]
Actually I was going to suggest that you might want to take a look at how MadScientist did the last base items list.

[/ QUOTE ]
I've been using that spreadsheet since "forever" now, and this is the first time I've heard about who made it.