Siolfir

In this post and the followup two posts later I threw together a made-up dataset showing the concern I have about using median and mean times through datamining all of the runs.

After the followup, the dataset had 4 groups of players contributing towards the time, but only 1 group of players was causing the greatly reduced reward.

I suggested that instead of datamining all of the runs, that representative runs are used instead and weighted equally to the rewards, so that 25% of the players aren't setting the rewards for the other 75% simply because they're rapidly running the same thing with multiple characters to max out their rewards.

I understand that this is a Q&A thread and not a suggestions thread, so I'll turn this into a question: are there any plans to adopt this sort of reward structure and revisit the merit awards for the various tasks instead of setting times based on a lower percentage of the population running a higher percentage of the high-reward tasks?

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3) Giant Monsters: Its very annoying to get a group of people to take out certain GM's (Lusca i.e.). Are there any plans for doling out a MINIMUM amount of merits for defeating a GM, something pleasant, yet small enough to not encourage farming (I am not including the general Monster Isle DE monsters in this suggestion,). My suggestion would be 5ish, maybe 7 for Lusca.

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I'm not a redname, but maybe I can take a shot at this one for you.

The merit system already has a reward for fighting GMs (note that this is only Giant Monsters, not the Monster DE) of 2 merits for anyone that would qualify for the badge.

This is posted in the Meritorious Measurement thread.

Thank you for addressing our concerns.

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Q. What’s happening to Rent?

A. Rent still exists, but it has been reduced dramatically. Rent is no longer charged by plot size, and is instead based on the number of utility items in the base.

These are the items that charge rent:
- Storage bins: 100 prestige per bin.
- Workbenches, and Enhancement terminals: 100 per tier
- Medical Items: 100 per item, excluding Basic Reclaimator

No rent is charged for basic utility items like Teleporters, Teleport beacons, Medical Reclaimator's, Basic Work Tables, and Invention work tables. Rent free bases of any size can still be built, with all the normal utilities available. In the future, we will be looking into improving how rent is charged as well.

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These changes represent an increase in rent for me, as I was able to fit things on the default, 0-rent plot size, and paying any rent is an increase.

I deliberately kept things small to avoid the rent, and villainside it's relatively easy to get all of the essentials without increasing plot size - since there are fewer zones, there are fewer teleporters needed, less power and control needed to power them, and storage just takes up space and not either control or power.

So, the question - are there any plans to continue to excuse the default plot size from rent, since your response seems to indicate that the desire was to reduce rent?

First off, thank you for taking the time to answer some of our concerns about this. One of your answers was actually linked to a question I asked in the original thread, although the reply was to a different post:[ QUOTE ]
Poster: EvilGeko
Q: Will you state right here, right now, that you will not further nerf rewards on content that the playerbase learns to do quicker?

A: We can’t do that. However, we can state right here and now that we won’t take such decisions lightly. We’re going to only decrease rewards on a task if we don’t have the option of immediately making adjustments to a Task Force and we find that the majority of players are running the Task Force at a significantly reduced average time than before.

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My concern is how you determine the majority of players are running at a significantly reduced time, as opposed to the same group of players running the TF or SF more often at reduced times, which causes the majority of runs to have a significantly reduced time.

Because this seems to be gearing the system towards the speed runners, and leaving the "average" player who doesn't stealth the objectives with reduced rewards. This is already shown in the time estimate from the Virgil Tarikoss SF and Eden Trial - an 8-person team fighting their way through each mission will not take an average of 50 or 10 minutes to complete these, so obviously the rewards are geared towards the multiple runs of a smaller group of people.

I'm also concerned about the cost of several of the rewards and pricing of them. Do you honestly want to say that defeating 20 AVs isn't even worth one single origin enhancement, through two runs at least 24 hours apart of the Katie Hannon TF? Also, a couple of developers that aren't on the rewards team have stated that they had slightly lower estimates for how much effort should go into a random recipe roll, both listing times of around 60-75 minutes. This would put the cost of a random roll at 12-15 merits, which is honestly where I see the average completion time settling into once speed runs are done more frequently on the higher-value TFs.

I'm still wondering how failed attempts are accounted for in the average as well.

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If it's our job to ensure the continuation of the human race, someone better figure out cloning right quick. Because that's the only way perpetuation is going on in my part of the sever.

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Yeah, really. What does Ex think this is, Pocket D on Virtue?

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Make me lolz, this thread has.

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And it's good for a quick +1.

Sure, what the heck...

Star Strider Forces Registry
Name: Polar Abyss
Global Contact: @Siolfir
Level of Classification: 50 Corruptor
Origin: Magic
Super Rank & Super Group: Ringleader - Sanctum Sanitorium

Personally speaking, I think the endurance cost factor is largely a part of what all else "needs" to get stacked with Shields to have the same feel of survivability.

The damage debuff from AAO is nice for the mobs in range of it, but not every mob is going to be in range. The lower defense numbers (relative to SR) mean you're more likely to get hit by secondary effects, which can often hurt performance more than simple damage that can be easily healed.

In addition, SR is much easier to tweak to the soft-cap on Defense. The set with similar positional numbers (Ninjitsu) has a built-in self heal and an Elude clone for a tier 9 and three AoE aggro-deflection tools in Caltrops, Smoke Flash, and Blinding Powder (which also has -to-hit to stack with the defense).

The rest of my Elec/Shield Brute's woes were most likely directly related to Hasten; on a SO build, even slotting for EndRed, you'll go through endurance quickly. But without Hasten Elec's damage performance against "hard targets" is somewhat meager, and I want LR and SC up as often as possible. But I had to stop to rest for either hit points or endurance multiple times on Villainous missions after the level bump to 50 (running patron arc missions against Longbow), something that my other Brutes haven't had to bother with since hitting level 20.

Just my thoughts on/experience with it.

Edit: since I just saw it requested (but it should be obvious), I was only using the Brute version of Shields in testing.

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We need a Shotgun Temp Power, I amd suprised they forgot that!

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And the Chainsaw temp power, which fits over your characters right hand.

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Resistance Powers
* Each AT now recieves a bonus resist buff while in PVP, in order to set each AT closer in overall survivability.

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So is this what's going to prevent the mostly-higher damage numbers for everyone across the board from being a two-shot festival of carnage?

Also, while damage has been "normalized" for most ATs, I noticed that Defender numbers are distinctly lower than anyone else's - with the diminishing returns (buff diversification!) and heals granting heal resistance for a short time, it would seem that this would eliminate Defenders from serious contention, as they'll do less damage than anyone and the stronger buffs just mean you're going to hit the dimished returns faster.

Also - Spines just seems to me; I'm assuming that there's a good deal more testing involved before the numbers become finalized? And re: suppression - Hurdle + Combat Jumping still isn't suppressed, right?

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Mids is wacky then, which is what I was looking at. After double checking, for some reason it was listing 240s as the duration. But mousing over the stuff, the 240 seems to come from... knockback...? It lists some sort of 240 second knockback duration and is listing that instead of the 30 second Water Spout duration. Weird.

That being said, it looks like Tornado/Water Spout duration/magnitude is the same regardless of the AT that summons it. Unless Mids is off there?

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No, that's probably correct (I didn't check the actual numbers) since it summons a pet - all pets have the same AT modifiers, so the only way to change it would be multiple copies of the pet.

It's why Defender and Blaster Ice Storm and Blizzard do the same damage, they summon the same pet. Corruptors do slightly more once the target(s) get low because the pet they use has Scourge.

And if they're the same, so what? It has a higher cost and triple the recharge. It's already weaker due to that.

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Water Spout - 26 end cost, minor damage, knockback, fear, disorient, -DEF. Duration: 240s, Recharge: 180


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I have no idea where you got the duration from on this, but as someone who has a level 50 Stalker with Water Spout, I guarantee you that it does not last long enough to even double-stack.

<edit: snip - see below>

Edit: Water Spout lasts 30 seconds, so is the functional equivalent of Tornado with triple the recharge and a higher cost. It just looks prettier.

At the price of $10 per respec, I'm certainly never going to use it.

Server transfer, meh. A little high for my taste, but sure. Extra slots on a server I felt was a good deal - less than the cost of opening a slot up by moving someone, and the higher-priced package deals are a good incentive.

But $10 for a respec?! At the cost of the respec recipes on the market, I'm going to have to side with those that have said that for around the same cost, you can follow one of those RMT spam emails that you've been trying so hard to get rid of and pick up enough influence/infamy to buy several respec recipes and still have some left over.

It's not that it's a bad idea, it's that it's hideously overpriced compared to already existing means of getting them, and to top it off you don't even have the convenience of it being a freespec which you can use anywhere. Hm..there's a thought: $10 for a freespec to all characters on the account?

I certainly don't mind the attempt to generate extra cash flow (it's a business after all), but I can't think of anyone who would use the service at the current pricing.

[*]In a PvP zone, a good way to locate Stalkers is to stand still in an open area and broadcast that you're looking for a duel.
[*]By looking at another players info, you can see how many veteran badges they have. This helps you easily identify expert players that you can count on for advice.

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Are you able to let us know what the number is for the server cap? Or would you have to kill us if you told us?

I doubt very seriously they would give out free tokens so people could move toons during this period. They are taking every reasonable step they can to accomodate the player base. They raised the server cap and issued warnings that your server "may" get capped. Just keep trying to log in, you sould get in within a few minutes. If it helps, think of it as a sale with no rainchecks

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Why does knowing the exact number the cap is set at matter? I've seen people ask for this before, and it still boggles my mind. You'll never know the exact number of people that are on at a given time, because there will always be more that are hidden.

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I don't care how many people are on at one time. I'm asking what the "cap" is. If the people complaining that their server is locked out, or they are getting mass amounts of lag, it may help to understand that it's because x number of people are on. If that confuses you I'm sorry.

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and knowing is half the battle.

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Yo Joe?

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Had reported last week on the test server that the Mini 2 and Mini 3 skirts have the slits on the front and back now instead of the sides so that the character's underwear is clearly visible. Checked today's update and sure enough now the same issue is happening on the live server. Don't know if there are any other clothes items this happens on. I have bugged it on both servers. FYI

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Thanks for the report. We looked into it here and have not been able to reproduce it. PM me with the server and character name of a character affected by this and we'll try and track it down.

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Niviene says it's fixed. Castle just wants to look up our female toons' skirts. I haven't actually checked test to see after the patch, but Niviene hasn't lied to me yet.

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A bit about the patch on test that fixes it, though - you still have to go to the costume shop and fix it yourself. I'm hoping that the patch comes with (even more) free costume tokens for those that don't have them stockpiled from vet rewards.

On the other hand, I guess if you want you can have the option to be an exhibitionist...

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http://www.cityofheroes.com/communit...s_9months.html

It's a vet reward...you searched all those sites except the main one

There are only 2 types of belly shirts..Long sleeve and short sleeve (both pictures in the link above)

There's not a matching bottom. The one show in the images is "Disco". Pair up the belly shirt with whatever bottom you want.

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Not always true - there is a Disco bottom and a Hacker bottom.

I don't have screenshots for them, but I don't often use them either. [Edit: the main site shows the Disco bottoms in use on pictures 12 and 14 of 15 on that link.]

The Hacker bottom I just never use, but I like the top for a few of my characters (upside-down V from the neck down and around with sleeves).

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13. Rectified Recticle 20% increase to perception

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I haven't checked this one on test to see if it's changed for issue 12, but due to the lack of description I'll add the following:

effect is always on, even if the power is not

I have it slotted in Tactics on my lvl 39 Rad/Therm, the in-game combat attributes show it as working even before I turn on the power.

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Hey, we got our inch, now I want my mile!

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No, we just got a mile and a half, and some folks still want that extra inch... <boggle>

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Hey, that's my inch! Leggo! Mine!

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Yanno the end of Jay and Silent Bob strike back.. when they get peoples addys and hunt them down to kick their [censored]??

Yanno that part..

Well everyone who is whinning and crying and [censored] in this thread.. REALLY makes me wanna invest some loot and try and do it for realz

If you dont like it.. Leave

But srsly I have been freakin begging for more slots at just about any cost for over 2 years now..

Go the freak away if you dont like it..

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Hey, we got our inch, now I want my mile!

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We discussed larger price points like what you are suggesting. However, doing so sets us up for more possibility of being in a refund situation.

For example, a customer purchases 36 slots for whatever nifty price we offer it for, thinking that they can apply them all to a specific server, only to find out that they can't because of the current max slots limitation. We can then envision that they won't like that and, not wanting to apply those slots to a different location, contact us for a refund. Unfortunately, all sales are final (as will be clearly stated in the disclaimers when you purchase said slots).

Given this possibility of buyer remorse, we'd prefer to have the user buy them as they go and feel the 5 for $19.99 is a very reasonable "chunk" to do that in.

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While I agree that the 5/$20 is very reasonable (more than I was expecting, actually - I was originally thinking the price point would be at or above the transfer price given that I've only transferred to make room on a server), with maximum increase of 24 having factors of 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, and 12 is there any chance of getting 6 for $20 instead, so you can fill up one server without breaking up the packages?

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Looking at the numbers, a straight port of energy transfer to Scrappers would do about 80% of the damage of a Stalker's Assassin Strike. And they could do that with being hidden and having much better defense than Stalkers. And with hasten and a Recharge IO, they could hit it again after 10 seconds. To say nothing of criticals or the fact they could follow up with Total Focus for another 65% of an Assassin's Strike. Not to mention, with fire aura being a scrapper set now, a EM/Fire scrapper could added Fiery Embrace into the mix as well.

PvE it would be potent, but I don't think game breaking. Most of the "uber" PvE sets are all about AoE, which EM is sorely lacking. But in PvP, it would be crazy. Pretty much a hero side Stalker with better surivivablity.

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You think of all that...yet you forget that a crit with ET would likely be the same as it is for a Stalker...No Added Damage. The scrapper would just not lose any life from using it.

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Just to make it clear, that 80% of an Assassin's Stike is without a crit. That's the straight-up damage a Scrapper could expect every time. Crits would just be gravy.

Yes, I suppose it's possible they wouldn't allow ET to crit, much like a Stalker. I think it's still way too good even without the crit. My guess is the Devs would be much more likely to greatly reduce the damage ET does, and then allow it to have normal Scrapper criticals.

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So, 80% of an Assassin's Strike...kindof like a Brute at high Fury does equivalent damage to Assassin's Strike with ET, each and every time?

Still not seeing a problem here.

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Quick stab, Crits. scrappers have 'em brutes do not. Brutes do not do the type of damage that scrappers can even with full fury. Stalkers can crit, but only from hide. Interrupt their hide, and no crits.

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I have no problems with Scrappers getting the Stalker version of EM, replacing Placate for Confront and Assassin's Strike for Whirling Hands.

It has lower percentages on the stuns (10% on EP, 30% on BS, 50% on ET vs 30/60/60 respectively) and while it would be a step up compared to the current Scrapper sets if the plan is to port Stone Melee and Super Strength it's a worse PvE performer than either. I was actually thinking it would be the likely candidate since I figured that EM/EA would be more likely for Scrappers specifically so that they didn't get Fiery Embrace (from Fire/Fire), Rage, or SM's entire-spawn control.

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Rolling a Sonic/Psi and saying lol to PvE the second I12 hits.

And people didnt think Psi would be overpowered in PvE...

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Yeah, I checked but Drain Bamage was already taken.

I figured it would be, but still...