Sardan

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The way the game seems to work is, if you have a life outside of the game you are going to lag behind the hardcore players and be useless in the next raid because you don't have the Thingie of Awesome that everyone else has. I just have no interest in a game that requires you to spend that much time on it to do well.

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That is called the timesink formula. All the prevalent EQ Clone mmos rely on it as the model for gameplay. As I said, I can't stand this style of gameplay for the exact reason you stated. If COH starts publishing content oriented in that manner as the person I replied to seems to want, then I doubt I'll be the only one who decides this is no longer the game they want to play.

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This isn't a binary either/or type of situation. There's no way that CoH will suddenly turn its entire progression structure into an EQ/WoW knockoff. In fact it can't, as has been hashed over many times in the forums.

What I was advocating was the notion of adding SOME new content that moves out of the "you can do everything with SOs" model. If they did this and you didn't care for it, you'd simply skip it. When's the last time you did a Hami raid? I skip them because I don't find that to be compelling content, just as some people skip the MA, some skip PvP, and others skip TFs. To each his own. Variety and choice are wonderful. Speaking only for myself, I would relish a zone or even an "elite" TF that broke out of the "you can do it with SOs" mold. If you didn't like it, you could certainly quit the game. But a more logical option would be to simply not partake, and instead play other new "you can do it with just SOs" content that would most assuredly continue to be added.

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In wow, when you reach the lvl cap, you have to start with 5man groups, then 5man heroics, then a 10man raid, then a 25man heroic raid, then they release a new 10/25 man raid that you have to be geared from the prevois 10/25man raid in order to be worth anything in it.

CoH seems to lack that from what you guys are telling me. Imo that makes for a huge gap in stuff to do at end game, considering 70% of my time on wow now is working on the new raids, gearing myself out to beat the last boss in the raid (raids average from 4 to 14 or so bosses), then working on getting the best items from that raid before the next one is released (typically 2-5 months later)

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I haven't read the entire thread, but wanted to comment on this. You note correctly that the concept of having steppingstone raids is core to WoW and missing from CoH. While most of the people on the forums will likely say they prefer it that way, there's no doubt that this very feature keeps tons of people engaged in WoW.

In a recent (and mostly uninformative) interview with the site Boomtown.net, Posi said that Going Rogue will include "difficult tasks for level 50 characters to do that make them more powerful". There's no indication of what "more powerful" means, especially when the devs have clearly said raising the level cap absolutely won't happen. My guess is that it'll be the Universal Enhancement Slots from the August marketing survey, but who knows. My point is that this will be the closest we have to WoW-style end game raids where you need to already be kitted out pretty well to succeed, and presumably they'll have harder content for you to tackle that makes the "more powerful" part desirable.

The current PvE power progression model can definitely use some tweaking, because they've made a point to make all content in such a way that an SO'd character can still tackle it. So going for big set bonuses or getting purple IOs is just a matter of personal satisfaction, not a prerequisite to conquer any content. I hope that some content is added that only the "more powerful" characters who've gotten the goodies offered by Going Rogue can tackle. That would give us something to strive for at 50, yet the rest of the game (and the MA) would still cater to the casual gamers who don't care about getting kitted out.

Babs' post earlier in this thread where he said "It would be a big mistake to take that marketing survey as a roadmap for future content. I can think of at least 2 things that were on there that were either radically changed or outright cut" had me thinking that perhaps they had scuttled the idea of Universal Enhancement Slots. The more I had considered that feature, the more I thought it might alter game balance too much.

Yet the recent Boomtown.net interview with Posi had this exchange:

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Boomtown: Looking forward the first paid expansion has been announced – Going Rogue. Please explain to our readers what the new expansion will bring.

Matt Miller: I can’t release much information yet. Hopefully the name alone, Going Rogue, provides a good foreshadowing to what the game will encompass. But among other things there will be new zones, the ability to switch a hero to a villain and vice versa, and difficult tasks for level 50 characters to do that make them more powerful.

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Obviously "more powerful" could mean lots of things. But it is intriguing!

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What are the restrictions on these PvP IOs anyway? I've heard 10 minute timers, 3 level difference Max, Zones Suck, Zones Rule, Arena Sucks, Arena rules?

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I believe you can't get a recipe drop if you're more than 3 levels higher than whoever you kill. Once you get a drop, you can't get another recipe from that character for 10 minutes. That character can still give recipe drops on defeat during that 10 minute window, just not to whoever defeated him.

This just seems odd to implement as an IO. I love the idea of being able to aquire a self-rez power but I'd much rather have it implemented as a rare recipe. The precedent here is the existing Ethereal Shift phase shift recipe. A rare recipe is still way more common than a purple, and more importantly it's usable by all characters instead of just level 50s. The power would work like the Resuscitation Skyline safeguard temp power (complete with 1 hour cool down) except that instead of expiring after 48 hours of game play, it expires after 10 uses. The key feature of the Resuscitation power that makes it so much more valuable than even a large Awaken is that it can be used as a combat rez--it includes an untouchable period so you have time to turn on toggles, get away from the center of the fight, etc.

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This is my best drop 0.o

http://s544.photobucket.com/albums/hh353...27-10-46-18.jpg

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Holy crap. I had no idea anything was selling for that much. The mind boggles.

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ICryptic's logo is still there because Cryptic owns the code that runs the game, and NCSoft/Paragon studios is only leasing it.

Until Paragon Studios writes their own code, the Cryptic logo stays there, presumably as part of the leasing agreement.

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It's a little more than "just leasing it". They have a license to the code but they also certainly have the rights to do their own upgrades and not give those upgrades to cryptic. Basically they licensed code then branched it.

Eryq you may not be a marketeer but someday soon if you keep racking up those PVP recipes you're going to post your screenshot here and join the billionaire's club!

Not exactly on topic, but a hint that made me love using Teleport: binding the power to a keyboard/mouse combo makes it tremendously easier to use. Something like:

/bind Lshift+Lbutton, "powexec_Name Teleport"

You just point where you want to go, hold down the left shift key and click your mouse, and you're there.

I started my first hero on Virtue a few hours ago and promptly got invited to a sewer team. When we all entered the sewers we noticed Roxstar, a lvl 50 tank, standing there. She proceeded to blaze a trail, helpfully taunting spawns as we went. I've never had such a smooth, fast, sewer run. Made those early normally tedious levels just fly by. Roxstar hung with us lowbies long after most players would've gotten bored and figured they did their good deed.

So I salute you, Roxstar! If you ever start a lowbie on Freedom (my normal home server), please send a tell to @sardan and I'll help you any way I can.

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Just playing the game to fifty does NOT guarentee you millions of inf. I have 2 50s (blueside) and neither has more than 50M inf.

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Just to make sure I'm clear, if 50 isn't enough, how many millions of influence do you need to qualify as having millions of inf?

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Pithy humor, gotta love it.

Unleth it pitheth you off, I gueth.

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Ok I made a tank on virtue last night. server seemed pretty empty.

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As mentioned by others, teaming is the key to fast XP. When you do a /search command to look for teammates, the window includes people already on teams (there's no way to filter them out ) and it truncates the results list. That can make it seem like there are few people available to team with. So make sure when you search for teammates to set the level range, to filter out folks way above your level. Even then on Virtue you'll often get truncated results, so learn to break your searches down. Do one search for Defenders/Controllers, then another search for Blasters/Scrappers, etc. By doing this kind of filtering you'll see that there are usually a lot more folks available to team with than it appears at first.

This may be more basic than what the OP was after, but perhaps it'll be helpful:

Understanding the Fundamentals of the CoH Auction Market

This short guide will explain a few basic truths of the market in CoH. The goal is to introduce a few important concepts and avoid drowning the reader in details.

I don't think this guide is very long, but here's a TL;DR version anyway:

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If you want to make a fortune playing the market or just want to avoid paying top prices, the secret is to have a bit of patience. Don't outbid peak weekend prices. Look at average prices on a Tuesday or Wednesday, put in your bids, and [u]force yourself to wait a day or two for your bids to pan out[u]. Buy recipes and salvage and do your own crafting instead of buying pre-crafted IOs.

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Supply and Demand
Unlike a store, prices are set in the CoH markets by "supply and demand". We've all heard this phrase, but what does it mean? Simply put, the more available something is, the lower its price will be and vice versa. Prices are set between willing sellers and buyers. No one can force you to buy at a price you're not willing to pay.

Example: before the Mission Architect (MA) was introduced, only rare (orange) salvage was pricey due to its rarity. Uncommon (yellow) salvage was abundant and therefore cheap, and generally you'd get a better price by selling it to a store than by selling it on the market. Now uncommon salvage frequently sells for 50K-100K inf. What changed? MA missions don't drop salvage, they drop tickets. Players have shown a reluctance to redeem their tickets for uncommon salvage; instead they save up for desirable recipes. People are crafting IOs just as much as ever so demand has remained constant but supply has tightened up, so salvage sells for more.

Prediction: when the Going Rogue expansion goes live, there will be at least a temporary shift away from the MA. Salvage will once again be abundant and prices will plunge.


Cyclic Demand
Demand that predictably follows a pattern is called "cyclic demand." In the real world, think of peak season hotel prices. Hotel prices are always highest in the peak season because there are more people chasing after a fixed number of hotel rooms. This pattern of higher prices during peak season is so reliable as to be predictable.

Is there cyclic demand in CoH? Sure. There are always more players on during weekends, holidays and special events such as the release of a new issue or a double XP weekend. Why should you care about cyclic demand in CoH? It'll make more sense after the next section....


Gotta Have It NOW
When most players decide they want to buy a set of IOs, they proceed to bid high enough to get the set right away. That's understandable. For them the market isn't fun. It's a necessary chore, like going grocery shopping. They want to get it over with and get back to having fun. By putting in high bids they get their stuff quickly. Experienced marketeers derisively refer to that as "get it now" pricing; they're derisive because it guarantees the buyer is paying top dollar.

There's an even worse form of "get it now": since many of the players that want to get their IOs right now don't want to be bothered with the hassle of crafting them, they'll pay a healthy premium to have someone else do the crafting. And when I say "healthy premium" I really mean "insane premium" like paying 2-3 mil for ingredients that costs 500K to purchase and craft.


The Secret Every CoH Market Billionaire Knows
Combine the concepts of cyclic demand with "get it now" pricing, and you get an interesting phenomenon. During peak demand (usually weekend evenings) there is a reliable flood of players who just want to buy their stuff ASAP and get back to playing. Prices surge. Off-peak those players are absent for the most part and prices sag.

So if you want to make a fortune playing the market or just want to avoid paying top prices, the secret is to have a bit of patience. Don't outbid peak weekend prices. Look at average prices on a Tuesday or Wednesday, put in your bids, and force yourself to wait a day or two for your bids to pan out. Buy recipes and salvage and do your own crafting instead of buying pre-crafted IOs.

The real kicker is that for every player who takes the time to read this and try it out, there will be hundreds who can't be bothered. And those will be the ones making you rich, Dear Reader.

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yag. grats.

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Eryq, it just slays me that you monitor this forum.

And to the OP: gratz!

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Doom crying on a yet to be released feature....

wow

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Given that it's common for some idiot with ice shields to grief people doing costume contests, I think it's reasonable to anticipate there will be some folks who try to use color customization to intentionally annoy others.

I believe another method you can use for non-recurring billing is to buy NCsoft game cards. I use a credit card, but I recall this being mentioned on the forums.

I'm casting my vote with some of the others in this thread that said that a single KB protection IO will suffice. It lets you ignore the vast majority of the KD/KB you'll encounter, such as allowing you to stand happily in Earthquake.

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At a total guess, I'd say we're more likely to get an option "Turn off other player's power customization", than to get "remove buff".

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That'd work.

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Or add an Options Page entry for "Always Accept Buffs" or "Only Accept Buffs from Teammates" or "Never accept buffs".

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But I like this better. I'd like to never receive non-teammate buffs.

My two bits: the costume bits don't do anything for me, but the emotes, costume change emotes, and Super Tailor are awesome. I'll have my 10 bucks ready.

EDIT: the /e experiment emote has a surprise feature. It seems to have a random chance of either having a happy outcome or a frustrating one. Unexpectedly entertaining!

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Which isn't what I was talking about. Unlikely usually means far less than a chance of 50%, not "no ULTIMATE PROOF."

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As I said before, the list was basically items that had all been shot down by the devs as being highly unlikely. Assuming that any of them were likely because of a 3rd party marketing survey was and still is rather silly.

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It's amazing how things come full circle. It's exactly this type of post that led me to create this thread.

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The minimum level requirement for the Blue Steel Task Force is 62.

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Only good one.

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I guess I'm just easy to please--I thought they were all good.

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Blue Steel has no Secondary powers. All his powers are Primary.

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This one is hilarious.

Also...*frowns at the ones that are blatantly just "Blue Steel" subbed for "Chuck Norris"*

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Actually I would've loved if they'd stolen this line from a TV commercial:

"Blue Steel once had an awkward moment.... just to see what one felt like."

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Could be meaning AION

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As The_Coming_Storm mentioned, AION is not being developed by Paragon Studios. It is published by NCsoft but has an entirely separate dev team.

"Our next MMO" is certainly an intriguing phrase! No way that just slipped in by accident. On the one hand, that's exciting. A follow-on to COH could really be mind-blowing. On the other hand any significant MMO takes years to develop nowadays, so whatever they are working on is a looooong way away from seeing the light of day. And I dread "dev drain", in which COH could once again be stripped of most of its devs as they shift to the new project, exactly as it happened at Cryptic. I sure hope that doesn't happen, but it sure seems likely.

From Manticore's Canon Fodder thread in the Dev Digest forum:

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Question: I just pretty much want to know anything and everything there is about Blue Steel, such as how did he come by his powers, why is he not a registered super hero (instead of working for the police)?
Answer:
Blue Steel grinds his coffee with his teeth and boils the water with his rage over Tub Ci’s release.
Blue Steel didn’t come by his powers; he sprang full grown from the forehead of Zeus ready for battle.
Blue Steel doesn’t sleep. He waits…for another crack at the Clockwork King.
Castle and BABs put Shield Defense in the game because Blue Steel told them to…or else.
Blue Steel has no Secondary powers. All his powers are Primary.
If you can see Blue Steel, he can see you. If you can't see Blue Steel, you may be only seconds away from defeat.
Blue Steel doesn’t register as a hero. The city registers heroes so Blue Steel doesn’t have to take them down.
Blue Steel told Statesman that PPD trumps FP and Statesman shut up.
Blue Steel destroyed the periodic table, because the only element he understands is the element of surprise.

(I consulted with Ray Snyder, the dev who plays Blue Steel, and he informed me that Blue Steel is a Martial Arts, Shield Defense Scrapper but…Blue Steel doesn’t need an Archetype. Blue Steel *is* an Archetype)

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I just freemed myself.