Rooftop_Raider

Nerdrage!

Ragequit!!

Quit, uh, nerd?!

(rats, I think I've come full-circle....)

Personally I think the game would be best served by eliminating any PvP-specific powerset adjustments and not allow the PvP game to run any differently than the PvE game. Therefore any changes to PvP come directly from PvE changes, and minimal extra effort is needed by the dev team to "make PvP work" in this game.

Let's not kid ourselves - this game was not remotely designed with PvP in mind. It was tacked on nearly 2 years later, coming about in preparation for, and in the wake of, CoV. How much time have the devs spent working and reworking PvP to no positive benefit? Wouldn't PvP have been better if it just remained consistent with the rules of the PvE game?

And think what all that effort could have been spent better on, towards the advancement of the rest of the game? I can't imagine we'd have less PvP players than we do now. And it's quite possible we'd have more players total, given more improvements in the PvE game that would have taken place in lieu of the wasted changes on PvP.

I'd go as far as to suggest this game would have been better without PvP in the first place. Perhaps those 4 zones could have been better put to use in another capacity, and however many missions created as a result. I could still see PvP in the form of arena matches, however. But considering how insignificant PvP has been in this game for it's total lifespan, I think the future of the product could have been better served by attention having gone elsewhere.

I think the future of CoH lies with PvE, not PvP, to be brutally honest.

Personally I'd also like to see all the AH/BM's inside, in power-dampening locations, though the only weakness I see with that is we don't even have inherent movement bonuses or Sprint allowed, which is a bit of a downer for me as I feel like I am practically walking (though not quite as slow as the Walk power).

But yeah, as far as the interface, I think it's better than it was, but it still has room for improvement. I'd like to see smaller icons if possible, and allow me to see more on-screen at a time. I run at 1920x1200 and I still feel like there's not enough room for the market UI plus my own salvage and recipe trays.

I'm getting over a cold, so I apologize if I ramble a bit. I didn't like the "So Stalkers" thread because it's basically a "Stalkers are worthless" thread, and I posted this thread more as a positive discussion. I believe Stalkers as an AT need a little more lovin, but I don't think the AT is "worth less" than any other AT. But clearly, opinions vary.

I think this issue, for example, is more noticeable when logging into a high-desirability AT like a Brute, and then logging immediately into a Stalker and essentially not being very wanted. For example, in the last couple weeks I've played 2 Brutes and 1 Stalker. Probably spent more time on the Stalker, since I'm soloing all his arcs. I'm quite frequently asked to join teams on my Brutes, whereas I don't believe I've been asked once on my Stalker. I'm this close to going into hidden status, or Not Looking for Group status on my Brutes, where it's not even a concern with the Stalker.

Now, does it matter to me, personally, at this point in time, that nobody's asking me to join teams, farm missions, strike forces, bank missions, etc on my Stalker? No, because I'm soloing arcs. I find it annoying that I'm being solicited all the time on my Brutes - I have no interest in farming for others, tanking (I prefer the term "bruting"), or anything else at the time.

But surely this has to be important to others. I can't be the only one to think there's something wrong with that. If you're a Stalker and you want to get on a team, it's likely going to be harder than it is with other AT's. If there is one spot left and there is a Brute and a Stalker vying for that position, does anyone realistically think the Stalker is going to get in?

Popularity and desirability have always been issues for Stalkers. And while the AT has been buffed a few times since release, these problems still exist. I just believe that factors like base and max HP, and incomplete secondaries are issues here. I would say, ideally, that I'd like to also see AS as interruptable, but no doubt others might disagree. And that's fine.

It's certainly not a "skills issue" and I believe, solo at least, Stalkers are just fine. But I think with a fair bit of certainty this AT is the least popular of the 4 melee AT's, and this trend shows no signs of reversal. At least in my mind. I do find it hopeful that Castle believes the AT "needs something" but I can't imagine what he or anyone else at Paragon Studios would do towards rectifying things.

I still haven't worked this out. I found an older version of this program, one that I know has worked for me before, and no luck. I still have no sound when I play back demos. Any else have this problem?

Reminds me of Scrapyard and Crimson, actually. Maybe the same AI "personality" settings"

Option 1 for me. I don't necessarily think new textures need to be dramatically bigger, but I think across the board the smallest ones need to be replaced first, then make your way up. The highest res textures should be replaced last. I think this methodology should be used, regardless if the art is related to faces, walls, or objects.

One thing I'd like to bring up, but my concern is based on an understanding which I am not sure is relevant, or accurate, but I'll throw it out there for others to consider and correct if possible. Basically, I think a lot of 32-bit games can only function in up to, but no more than, 2GB of usable space. If you vamp up too many textures, I believe that increases the amount of system RAM (not just graphical RAM) used. Given the game has had problems in the past of memory leaks, this problem could occur and bring systems to a halt sooner, when such an event occurs. Just throwing that out there. Hopefully someone with a better understanding might be able to work out the details. Thank you!

To Talen, I wasn't in beta, so I'm completely oblivious to any upcoming improvements that might come to Stalkers, which could have been discussed there.

Let me be clear - I don't want Stalkers to become Scrappers. I want Stalkers to not pale in comparison to the other melee classes. I want Stalkers to retain what makes them unique, but eliminate the things that make us underpowered as an AT. I'm not suggesting we eliminate Hide, Assassinate and Placate, etc.

Telling me I need to "l2p" Stalkers an appeal to authority fallacy. We fall short as a melee AT. And the reason why these complaints have been brought up before is because others recognized how this AT has been shortchanged.

Incidentally, I am not suggesting AS have the same damage out of Hide, as it does while Hidden. I do believe this is the least of the three issues I brought up before, but I think the subject needs to be broached. For example, there could be an alternate animation for AS when used outside of Hide. Just throwing that out there.

That really puts it in context for me. I think at this point I just need to look at my build and optimize it a bit. Thanks, everyone!

No doubt Rage is a more effective power, by far, over Tactics, and Assault is probably not even noticable on a Brute, but I was wondering if anyone who plays a SS Brute, skips Rage, and uses Tactics instead. Reason why I ask, is I find the frequent endurance and defense drop, and lack of damage when Rage expires, to be a bit of a hassle. IIRC, the defense doesn't drop if you get Rage to stack, but I'm just using SO's at the moment, and I don't always get to that point, or I just plain forget.

Down the line I intend to get recharge set bonuses, among other things, but I wanted to get some feedback on those who deal with Rage, and if anyone thinks skipping it is a viable option on a Brute. Thank you!

I've always been a fan of the concept of the Stalker. The single target focused melee AT which essentially sneaks up to the enemy and forcibly ganks a foe out of existence before it realizes it. However, I think the way the Stalker AT was crippled from the onset, makes it dead last in terms of desirability, as a melee AT.

1) Less hitpoints and lower HP cap than any other melee AT.
2) One defensive power removed from each secondary.
3) Interruptable AS.

Fortunately some buffs occurred to the AT (increased damage scale, more crits, some cool AS aftereffects if the target survives, endurance-free Hide, etc) which helped, but those big whoppers above still remain. And I'm okay with losing an AoE attack for primary power sets, to make room for AS. And Placate in place of Taunt is just fine. Here is what I think would help the Stalker become more competitive with the other melee AT's:

1) The same base hitpoints and HP cap as Scrappers.
2) Make Hide an inherent power, similar to Domination, thus allowing missing 9th powers to be re-inserted into these Stalker secondaries. There's no reason why Stalkers should be deprived of Quick Recovery, Death Shroud, etc as an option.
3) Make AS uninterruptable. It's not the most effective single target attack in battle, because of how the damage is reduced, but it's still a nice option to use. Most sets which have a second AoE, or even only one AoE, can fire the power off at any time, even though those generally are similarly not that effective as single target attacks.
4) Specifically for Energy Aura, replace Repulse with Dampening Field. This isn't even a Cottage Rule issue - a knockback aura is anti-thematic to any melee AT, as demonstrated by it's absence from Brute EA.

I think less base and potential HP, missing powers, and our lack of AoE aren't suitably compensated by the ability to Hide and Assassinate.

Personally, I don't even pay attention to Fury. I've been playing my endgame Brutes for the last week and I really just go from mob to mob and beat things up. I do feel compelled to keep moving _because_ of Fury, but I don't go through the motions of analyzing it or spending any time fretting about keeping it up. Also, it's fairly quick to build up, so even if I go AFK a minute, by the time I floor the next group or two, I'm already back up there. Just how I look at it.

I do like the freedom this gives me to pick more powers, either from power pools, or even the EPP/PPP's.

Only characters which I loved thematically but didn't enjoy playing were my Kheldians. Consequently, I no longer play them. I haven't had that problem with any other AT or powerset combinations.

I wonder if the OP will be doing an updated review, with the constructive criticisms in mind. As in, he takes the fair criticism seriously (ignoring the personal attacks/heated debates) and tightens up the video quite a bit.

I'm not trying to be mean or offensive or anything, but I literally couldn't watch the entire video - I had to watch chunks of it. Ideally you should show as little of you and your apartment, game consoles, computer, etc as possible, to make the presentation more palatable. It's fair to have a torso shot of you in the beginning, and perhaps some graphics on the side. But as soon as possible the actual review should start, and it should be more relevant, use the proper terminology for things (ideally explaining things like "quests are called missions" and so forth), and as concise as possible.

You have a certain level of experience and equipment, which is undercut by the flaws in the presentation. And while I am not petitioning that you change your view on the game, I believe you should improve the presentation. That's probably about 15 minutes worth of content stretched out to 20, and it's highly unpolished.

To be clear, the base run speed boost you get with Swift at level 1 should be 3mph, and at level 50 should be 5mph. Your base run speed, which doesn't change as your level, is 14.32mph. So characters should run at 17.90mph at level 1 after I19, and work their way up to 19.33mph by the time they reach level 50. Just to put this change into perspective.

(edit: at level 1, the boost is 25%, and at level 50, the boost is 35%)

The synergy has been high damage, really. I'm not sure where it stands now, after the Dom buffs of last year, but it still seems like a high damage output combo to me.

I had one of my demons do that when I died. It managed to kill a foe at the same time, thus rezzing me, and we basically mopped up the rest of the group after that. Pretty cool.

(edit: to be clear, I had to resummon them, but I was nigh invincible when I rezzed, and did so surrounded by enemies)