Sheema

Yes.


Am I too late?

Well, my evening just ended on a high note. After getting WRECKED (and that's capital WRECKED) in 4 straight arena matches tonight, I slunk back into Siren's Call and ended up on a dom/stalker heavy team and actually did some hero-killin'. Turned out I was teamed w/ DB and MageStorm, and I even got a side order of kind words on having a cool toon (Oblivia, who I wasn't playing at the time) to end my night on a happy note.

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Here's a real kicker of a glitch. Was doing Frostfire and the mission had no ice or fire effects during the whole mission on the wals or floors. But the whole team was still slipping and sliding on.....bare carpeted floors.

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Experienced the same...and was thoroughly amused.

Bug fixes should be prioritized based on severity and population affected, and as such, arena bugs were placed on the back-burner. However, over time, priority on those items has to rise, especially given the severity of the bugs. Otherwise you send the message to your customers that they are no more important than the blip on the population chart they represent.

There is always some way that any player is somehow a minority. It could be "PvPer", or "badger with more than XXX badges", or "AR/Rad corrupters over level 45", or whatever. At any rate, it would be nice to know that when an issue comes up that hits one of your specific minorities, that you will at least be a low priority, instead of a no priority.

Respecs should be available on a reliable basis every so often. For one thing, not everyone agrees on what warrants a freespec and what doesn't. Flight buffs might not warrant a freespec in the eyes of some, but others would disagree. Or how about chopping the effectiveness of to-hit debuff enhancers by 1/3rd - no freespec came with that, but it certainly affected one of my toons pretty heavily. With regular availability of respecs, there is no need to quibble over where the line is, as it will all work out eventually.

Also, even if powers don't change over time, characters do. Maybe they take an interest in PvP, or want to take flight because they never really explored the Shadow Shard, or whatever. Over time, my biggest need for more respecs comes from Hami-O's - if I'm going to continue to develop my toon, there comes a point where I have to move some slots around as, for example, I get a few Ribos for my fire shield. Those are earned rewards, and we should have the opportunity to make the most of them.

I mean, I suppose the devs could wave their fingers and say "No! You are REALLY done with that character! No more!" But do they really want to? I mean, once I lose interest in my characters, I pretty much lose interest in paying the subscription fee.

Has anyone fought Mirror Spirit in a Mayhem Mission? I tried my first mayhem today, and the hero in the bank at the end was Mirror Spirit. The team could barely wriggle her life bar before she teleported away. In that complicated little bank map, this translated into hitting her a couple times, her teleporting, then run run run through the hallways to hit her one or two more times, before she tp'd again. We tried luring her outside but she didn't follow. We laid plenty of holds on her, but she eventually shook them off and played the tp game until at full health. How do you get her to sit still long enough to make a dent?

Overall the mission was fun, but the end battle was lame. Why do I have to "escape" from a hero who runs after 2 hits?

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Blaster: Devices: Trip Mine: 5% for 1 Toggle
Blaster: Devices: Time Bomb: 19% for 1 Toggle
Blaster: Electrical Manipulation: Charged Brawl: 5% for 1 Toggle
Blaster: Electrical Manipulation: Havok Punch: 22% for 1 Toggle
Blaster: Energy Manipulation: Bone Smasher: 22% for 1 Toggle
Blaster: Energy Manipulation: Energy Punch: 5% for 1 Toggle
Blaster: Fire Manipulation: Fire Sword: 5% for 1 Toggle
Blaster: Fire Manipulation: Fire Sword Circle: 22% for 1 Toggle
Blaster: Ice Manipulation: Frozen Fists: 5% for 1 Toggle
Blaster: Ice Manipulation: Ice Sword: 22% for 1 Toggle


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I see something very wrong here.

In regards to my Ice/Energy blapper, I agree. This change was needed, and the numbers for /EM aren't far off. High damage + stuns + good toggle-drops all rolled into one = broken.

However, I feel like my fire/fire blaster is being unneccessarily punished for the sins of /EM. Keep in mind that /fire is already arguably the worst PvP blaster secondary.

First and worst, is that with the exception of /devices, which has a completely unrelated delivery mechanism, /fire is the only secondary that gets a primary (22%) toggle-knock that does not queue. While the /EM's, /Electrics, and /Ices get to queue up their attack and joust, /Fire has to actually make a serious entry into melee, hit the Fire Sword Circle, and pray that the opponent hasn't hopped away or that lag is lying to you about being in melee range. With the speed of movement in PvP, this is a tremendous disadvantage.

Second - all other blaster secondaries get one attack that is the "complete package" - the best toggle-knocker, the best damage, and the best change to mezz (when applicable) all in one attack. /Fire is the only secondary with a primary toggle knocker attached to a weaker damaging attack than the secondary toggle knocker. The only special distinguishing characteristic that /Fire's primary toggle-knocker gets is that you probably won't even get a to-hit roll for your trouble.

Finally, I just feel that the devs are missing an opportunity to finally give /fire a flavor in PvP. /EM has mezz and great utility such as Boost Range and Power Boost. /Electricity has mezz and Endurance Modification. /Ice has slows, a hold, and Ice Patch. /Dev has actual utility and even offers its own unique fighting style in tp-trapping. /Fire has....Hot Feet? Blazing Aura? Burn?

/Fire has damage, and that's all. It's not even as much damage or as frequently unresisted damage as /EM. Not to mention that when compared to the grossness of toggledrop-stun-win, /fire is the set that best exemplifies the original intent of toggle-dropping: to allow the blaster a chance to deal some actual damage against armored up foes. The adjustment of toggle-dropping in PvP is an opportunity to give /fire an actual PvP flavor of its own by making it *the* toggle-dropping set. Instead, the proposed changes are throwing out the baby with the bathwater and excessively punishing what is already the worst blaster secondary in PvP.

What do I propose instead? First of all, /Fire's primary toggle knocker should be moved to Fire Sword. That move is only common sense. A primary toggle-knocker that doesn't queue for the weakest secondary is just cruel and unusual punishment.

Second, the devs should recognize that /fire is weak in PvP, needs a secondary effect to have some PvP flavor, and truly uses toggle-dropping for its intended purpose, rather than a stun & win button. Fire Sword, as the primary toggle-knocker, should have a higher chance to drop toggles than other sets' primary toggle-knockers. I wouldn't find 50% to be unreasonable, and keep in mind that as a player who has an Ice/EM specifically for PvP, I find the 22% on Bone Smasher to be perfectly reasonable.

And as far as FSC? Even with a pumped up Fire Sword, I'd leave it at 22%. In the majority of PvP action, it won't even earn a to-hit roll anyways, but it will come into play in unique situations, such as vs. granite tanks or in a team scenario with teammates that can slow opponents. This will add flavor and variety to the rock-paper-scissors matchups of PvP.

Please devs - don't gimp the gimpy. Take this opportunity to not only remove the gross toggle-drop-stun-win abuse but to also add greater flavor and balance across the sets in PvP.

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I am simply posting here to make 5 of the top threads on the forum have me as the last poster

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NO! Me!

There are uncountable behaviors in this world that do not violate any laws or rules, and yet are still considered to be rude, jerkhole behavior. Even when jerkhole behavior stands up to the letter of the law, it still doesn't change the fact that the perpetrators are, well....jerkholes.

To anybody who would behave in such a manner, I guess the question is whether whatever enjoyment it is you get from peeing on other people's parties is worth the reputation you earn and the repercussions (which may or may not be the result of some code of conduct) that come along with them.

And while I'm here, a couple of thoughts on Fight Club:

First, for those who continue to insist on how much happier the FCers would be if we just took it to the arena - the arena has been around for a long time, and has ALWAYS been a ghost town. It took very little time at all after the arrival of Siren's Call for the initial fight club to form and to begin frequently seeing more people participating in a night than set foot in the arena in a week. It should be pretty obvious that there's something there, and it's not just a case of the FCers "not getting it" when it comes to the arena. I think what you have to keep in mind is that there isn't just 1 PvP - people might enjoy 1v1, or pick-up teams, or carefully planned organized teams, or open hunting and ganking, or any other possible combinations. The arena works for you because that's how you like to PvP. Fight Club works for FCers because that's how they enjoy PvP - convincing them that the arena is somehow superior for meeting their desires from PvP is a pointless exercise.

Secondly, regarding the idea that FC somehow is interfering with or ruining the "true" PvP in the zone - experience tells me that's far from the truth. Whenever I've seen an FC start up, it's because the numbers in the zone are heavily tilted to the point where people on the losing side have no chance of competing. For those folks, it pretty much comes down to giving up and leaving the zone or hit the roof for some 1v1's, and maybe a little social time. If anything, the fact that people have something entertaining to do to keep them in the zone until the numbers balance out more helps to rekindle the action in the zone - not to interfere with it. I've been attending FC pretty much since November, and far more of them end in massive brawls than any other way.

"Lame-[censored] heroes", "Cowardly villains", blah blah blah. I spent quite a few hours in Siren's Call last night, playing some on both sides, and no one side or the other was the trash-talking side, or the dishonorable tactic side, or any of the other bullpucky that gets heaped on an entire class of players because a few players on each side make jerks of themselves, and tend to stand out from the crowd while doing so.

I played with both my hero (Sheema) and villain (Oblivia), switching to whichever side was outnumbered whenever I had an even multiple of 6k bounty. I can say with confidence that there's not much difference between the two sides. For both the heroes and the villains, the bulk of the crowd were sportsmanlike and concentrating on the fighting. And of course, on both sides, there were people whining or trash-talking in broadcast. Those people tend to stand out, and those few end up representing "all of the heroes" or "all of the villains" for the opposing side. And for that majority of players who are being classy, since they aren't being jerks and they are viewing the few on the other side as representing the entire side, they think that the other side is a bunch of trash-talkin', whining, dirty-tactic, no-good [Censored].

Just another night in Siren's Call.

P.S. - I am in no way any more above this than anyone else. I, too, am human, and occassionally let some player on the other side rile me up. And oh yes, I've let a few doozies out in the Broadcast channel on occassion.

P.S.S. - Standard broadcast-channel nonsense aside, it was a pretty fun night in Siren's Call. Lots of good battles.

When someone hasn't had first-hand experience with something, they only thing they have to base their judgement on is you. Chances are, if you are finding that you have to justify your game playing to people, you are telling them you play games as if it's some sort of admission, and you are self-conscious about the perceived geekiness of gaming. Stop that!

When somebody asks you what you did last night, you say confidently "Playing Heroes." When they ask what that is, say "It's an on-line video game" matter-of-factly. And when they say, "Oh, are you one of those weirdos that get addicted to your computer and crawls around in sewer tunnels with plastic swords and commits suicide when their character dies?", feel free to treat them as if they just told you the world was flat and the moon is made of cheese.

If you treat it like it's nothing to be ashamed of and is a normal, healthy thing to do, most others will to.

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Lady Lullabye... you have to admire her spirit!

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One of these days, tanker, ONE OF THESE DAYS!!!














i'll catch you afk

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This kinda doesn't do it for me _Castle_. I had a very eyebrow raising experience the other day that kinda points the other way.

I used /Nin caltrops. I tp'd a blaster right onto them and immediately used air superiority. Now I got the full knockdown onto that caltrop pacth. I'd say the blaster spend about a total of 3-4 seconds on top of that patch. When he got up, he immediately turned on SS and zipped right out of the caltrops at full speed (and I have a slow enhancement to boot).

Please explain.

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I can echo this experience. I have multiple experiences of Caltrops + TP Foe + Air Superiority + watch my opponent stand up and walk away unhindered. Perhaps there's some carwash effect on my memory, but to my recollection/Nin caltrops only ever slowed an opponent when I threw them underneath someone standing there that I expected would be running soon. I've since respecced out of caltrops.

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<[CS]Zeb> One thing about Prestige is as you get higher, it becomes a trade-off betwee Prestige or Influence. As you get more of the first, you get less of the second. So there are times you'll want to change to or from SG mode instead of being in it all the time.

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As an SG leader, I was happy when I first heard of a separate SG currency from influence, which is an individual's currency. I didn't want to have to mediate any kind of discussion over who's contributing more to the SG, who needs to sacrifice more, etc. etc. When I heard the possibility that players wouldn't be asked to choose between advancing their individual toons and their SG's, I was pretty happy to hear it.

Now, hearing that there is a trade-off. I am a little dissappointed. I never want to be put in that position of having to tell someone "your group-mates think you're not contributing your share to the base, you're going to have to curtail your personal development in favor of the group's needs." Making a trade-off has the potential to create some serious non-fun.

Actually, "disappointed" is too strong a word at this point. Cautiosly concerned seems more like it - we don't have enough details about Prestige to really make any kind of judgements at this point, IMHO.

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But what about all that influence you saved up hoping to buy a base? Sorry, but you can't expect the devs to release a feature with flaws in it just because you chose to act on very early, speculative information.

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Speculative? They've posted screenshots of bases being built with Inf, Inf was used by people at E3. This is the first time they've ever mentioned it might not be Inf.

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Yes, speculative. Screenshots of future features currently in development. Advance demos shown by marketing at a video game conference of how cool bases will look and how flexible the base designer might be. They may bear some, little, or no resemblence to the finished product. That's what "in development" means.

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If they have an actual problem with using Inf, they can post what it is, the problems you posted don't sound very convincing to me...

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They weren't intended to sound convincing. They were the result of "if I stop and think for 30 seconds what might go wrong with using influence, what can I come up with?" And for the record, I find them pretty convincing. We can disagree on that.

In the end, it doesn't matter whether they convince you or not - what matters is this: the devs found a reason. Enough reason to take already developed code (you've seen screenshots and played with it at E3, remember) and change it. We may never know those reasons, and really aren't entitled to them (although they could choose to expose that information, but I can't see the incentive for them considering how hard they get jumped upon for every little nugget of info they do give out).

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...certainly not worse than the problems with this system.

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And what are the problems with this system? The only problems I've seen discussed are:

- Datamining is unfair because we didn't know we were supposed to be in SG mode. This isn't a problem with the prestige system, it's a problem with picking a fair date to begin the datamining. This complaint is based on speculation (again) that the devs will datamine until the beginning of time. If it's worth scrapping developed code in favor of creating a whole new currency just to create fairness, it's probably worth it to choose a fair date to datamine from. My money's on that date revolving around when villains will be able to start earning their version of prestige (but hey, I'm speculating! Wheeee, what a fun word!).

- My influence-gathering time has gone to waste! Not a problem with the prestige system - a problem with life. Sometimes speculating on a hot tip pays off big, sometimes you come out looking like the heel. I do have some sympathy for folks who spent their time strolling down the wrong path to uber-basedom (and even I, a dedicated Icon-a-holic, have been managing my influence more carefully in preparation for the arrival of bases), but not so much that I'd ask the devs to install an unfair, broken system into the game to assuage the frustration of those who chose to engage in speculation.

- SG Mode interacting negatively with your costume - not a problem with Prestige - a problem with SG mode. Kinda the whole point of my post: want to rant? Rant against what's really broken!

If you got a problem with Prestige that isn't actually a problem with something else, please, let's discuss.

OK everybody - big, deep breath. Ahhhhhhhh.

Everyone's had an opportunity to knee-jerk react. Now let's carefully consider this concept of prestige.

It appears that at one time the devs intended bases to be purchased with influence. They apparently changed their minds, probably because they discovered some unfortunate side-effects if using influence. We will probably never know what exactly they found, but we can make an educated guess. You only need to think for a few moments to come up with a few flaws on your own, such as:

- There is no spare influence before level 38 or so. Look at how conflicted people are in this thread choosing between their own needs and their group needs for just their chest insignia - well how would you feel about having to choose between your needs and your group needs when you hit 20 and are allowed to buy a cape. or at 30 and can buy an aura, or a few SO's to keep your character from falling behind in effectiveness? It creates an uncomfortable, un-fun choice.

- Bases are a group reward. They should be earned by group activity. If influence is used to pay for them, you know who will have a kick-booty base? Random Loner PL Guy, who may never even team with his SG (if he even has one), but PLs ppl for influence, or PLs his toons on his other account. He's piled up lots of influence this way, and his base is going to be SWEEET! And that alt-a-holic supergroup over there, with 70 toons played by 8 close friends who team together every day, but has not a single toon over level 25 - your incredible teamwork has earned you a shack!

- There's no way to set a datamining limit. Influence has been in the game since day 1. By creating a new currency, the devs create the ability to set a date to begin earning that currency. In order to not have a gross imbalance between villain bases and hero bases (remember, we'll be raiding each others' bases for items of grooviness), a cutoff date sure seems very useful. Say - right around the CoV release?

OK, so influence is bad. Prestige is created to reward group activity.

But what about all that influence you saved up hoping to buy a base? Sorry, but you can't expect the devs to release a feature with flaws in it just because you chose to act on very early, speculative information. At least learn from this - you can choose to start running around in SG mode all the time in hopes of earning the Palace of all Uberness when bases become available, but you still don't have all the details - you may find that you're not doing it right or (very likely) that it won't start counting until a future date that will likely be announced by the devs at some point.

Allowing prestige to be purchased with influence? Hello, flaws we tried to exclude by creating a new prestige system, come right on in and make yourself at home. It won't work.

So what's broken? That darn chest symbol! But that isn't a problem with the Prestige system - it's a flaw in Supergroup mode.

You want to complain at the devs about something? If you waste your breathe on using influence instead of prestige to buy bases, you probablyl aren't going to get anywhere. After all, they started with the idea of using influence, and found reason to abandon it. They aren't likely to go back, especially with CoV already in beta. Instead, ask for things that are more likely to be provided:

Can we please have all the symbols available for SG symbols, instead of a subset of the available costume symbols?

Can we please choose to use the SG or our original character chest option in SG mode, like we can control for each other individual costume piece?

Heck, bases aside, I'd find those to be great improvements in Supergroup mode - wouldn't you?

Can we please have an emote where a devil appears on one shoulder, then an angel appears on the other, then the toon flicks the angel off his shoulder? Pretty please?

In the magical universe where CrazyMonkey is emperor of all, and all devs do as CrazyMonkey says, this is how base raids work:

There are Really Cool Things, which can be obtained by SGs. They have little gameplay value other than status. Possession of a Really Cool Thing opens your base up to raids, so that others can steal your Really Cool Thing. If you don't want your base raided, you shouldn't go questing for Really Cool Things.

All SG members receive a Nifty Tele-Porto Wristwatch with their SG membership kit. Clicking a button on your Nifty Tele-Porto Wristwatch teleports you to your base instantly.

As long as SG members are on-line, and their base contains a Really Cool Thing, that SG's base is raidable. The raiding party can not consist of more raiders than there are defenders on-line at the time + 3.

When a team wants to raid, they go to a special contact, who lists all currently vulnerable SG bases, how many raiders can be in the raiding party, and what Really Cool Thing the raiders can expect to earn if they are successful. The raiders select an appropriate base to attack, and are given the location of the enemy base. They may pass through that base's entrance as if it were a mission door. The opportunity to enter lasts for a maximum of 15 minutes, and if no raiders have entered the base, the raid automatically fails. The raid contact is located far enough away from bases that it will take the raiding party at least 90 seconds to reach the base using te fastest travel powers. The raiding party also receives a map of the target base at this point, for planning purposes.

When a base is selected for a raiding, all SG members receive notification. They will have at least 90 seconds to return to their base and get ready, but probably more, as the raiding party will probably give the base map at least a cursory once-over. The defenders may choose to use their Nifty Tele-Porto Wristwatch to return to their base and defend it, or ignore the call and continue herding monkeys in Crey's Folly.

Really Cool Things have varying degrees of coolness. Depending on the coolness factor of a Really Cool Thing, each has a minimum number of total man-hours it must be defended per week or be forfeited. This means the Cooler your Thing is, the more SG members you'll have to have around defending it, or it will be forfeited. Smaller SGs or SGs with players who aren't on-line as often will have to settle for the Lesser Cool Things. Larger SGs can expect huge raid battles while defending their Tremendously Cool Things.