Standoff

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And there aren't really any "normal thugs" in the game. Even skulls and hellions have some superpowers.

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The Warriors?

Pretty much all highly trained thugs with weapons - their EB Heracles is the only one I can recall using any sort of power, and even that was just a single armour toggle courtesy of a stolen item.

[/ QUOTE ]They're involved in a magic artifact smuggling ring with the hellions and the outcasts, making it likely that their members have make use of some as well. Their bracelets especially seem like they might well be enchanted.

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Impossible to prove or disprove without some dev letting us know how things really are (in terms of either game lore or actual implementation details).

However, mobs do normally show power fx when they're using non-passives, and warriors show nothing. If the Wiki article's accurate the only "powers" to their name are regular weapons attacks and an across the board S/L and knockback resistance, and all of those could be accounted for by them being "normal, but hard, regular humans".

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Who said that heroes use metal bullets in their guns? Rubber bullets do not normally kill (unless they hit the wrong spot), but a normal thug would eventually pas out from the pain if hit by enough.

[/ QUOTE ]My flamethrower also uses rubber fire

And there aren't really any "normal thugs" in the game. Even skulls and hellions have some superpowers.

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The Warriors?

Pretty much all highly trained thugs with weapons - their EB Heracles is the only one I can recall using any sort of power, and even that was just a single armour toggle courtesy of a stolen item.

...including costume picture!

Details here.

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I'm also wondering if some aren't jumping the gun with disappointments. After all not all facts are known about Issue 13, don't forget the "More" part in the announcement.

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If the "More" was that good why didn't they mention what it was? Guessing its going to be something small, hence why its added as an endnote!

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Cause it might be stuff thats not quite ready to be annoucned yet, but might make it, in one shape or another.

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Or, because it gives them another opportunity to mess with our heads.

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When I respec, don't dump powers in my trays, I would rather do that myself.

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Or, even better, preserve the tray positions of any powers that you've carried over through the respec (and leave any new powers out of the tray initially).

On the whole I'm mildly happy. The mission designer's very nice if you're into that sort of thing, but I'm really not, the Day Job system is nice but hardly overwhelming, and new TF reward scheme probably the best of the lot from my perspective.

New content/power sets - all good, but not a complete surprise for a new Issue so I'm not turning cartwheels because it's in there.

The Booster Packs - as you've probably gathered, they count as negatives for me.

Although, as has been said many times, that's not a complete list so I'm reserving judgement on the complete package until all the details are out.

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Since it is already possible to have a perma-jetpack as a temporary power (at least on villains), you aren't forced to buy one if you want the advantage of not taking a travel power.

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Only "perma" on Villains if you do the right missions, and keep redoing them via Ouboros as they run out. Very temporary on Heroes.

No one's forced to buy it at all, but at the very least it will save in-game effort, and at most it will effectively let you take one or two extra power picks and still have a usable travel power.

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As for the Cyborg power, there is no indication that it will confer any advantage, my complete guess is that it is cosmetic, like a costume-power for a giant robot, or a Prestige Power Sprint for wheeled movement.

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Fixed for accuracy, in the face of zero actual facts.

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Either way we "lose"

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Wow, some complaints are really scraping the bottom of the barrel.

"If people enjoy the content they're given we lose! "

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Let's just say that whatever all the extra stuff they've yet to announce is, we're still living in the land of Dooooooooooooooommmmm!!!! and should start preparing for the servers going dark.

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Am i the first one to think, "Hmmm i can create my own farm map" !!

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Given that Posi said this in the announcment:

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What limits needed to be put into place to stop farming? Should we even have such limits? Etc. In the end, we made a system that we believe is best suited for what the Mission Architect was made for, and made sure it cannot be abused.

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...I think the answer to your question has to be "no".

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Yup. As was the concept of hitpoints and attacks. Blizzard are one of the most original companies in gaming history; almost all modern development choices have began with them.

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Not just development; over 80% of the tactics used at the Battle of Hastings, the Normandy landings and The Alamo were inspired by WoW concepts. Fact.

It seems they are.

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Like a ingame itemmall, nothing new on the horizon. And if people willing to pay for it, whats wrong with it?

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Not something I'm hugely bothered about myself, but several people have made "if you can actully buff your toon for cash, that's wrong" noises in the past.

The concern, which I can see the reasons for, is that being able to make your toon more capable with RL money means you're gaining an in-game advantage you didn't earn through in-game efforts.

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Its an ongoing story in nearly every game that has a itemshop.

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But CoX doesn't (didn't?) - one of its unique selling points. "Everyone else does it" isn't a compelling argument in itself.

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I dont see a jet-pack actualy 'boosting' your character (refer weddingpack). At the end its simple for me, time is money and money is time. It pretty much balances everything out.

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The wedding pack isn't a good thing to compare it to, because that was 100% cosmetic. The Cyborg pack isn't, and the jet thingy seems to be 100% power-based.

The "boost" in the jet pack is that if you pay (and continue paying) for this, you don't need to pick a travel power so you effectively get an extra power slot to pick into.

Sure, there are other ways to get jet packs, but even so...slippery slope.

Edit: Fixed typo

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Like a ingame itemmall, nothing new on the horizon. And if people willing to pay for it, whats wrong with it?

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Not something I'm hugely bothered about myself, but several people have made "if you can actully buff your toon for cash, that's wrong" noises in the past.

The concern, which I can see the reasons for, is that being able to make your toon more capable with RL money means you're gaining an in-game advantage you didn't earn through in-game efforts.

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what its only works for 30 days...that is weak i thought it was like the jump pack that you kept and had on every toon?


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Having consulted with my main guru (for matters im not sure on) Standoff , that is my understanding of it yea.

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I also do lottery numbers.

That 30 day expiry does strike me as a bit cheap on NCSoft's part...and the pack as a whole also seems to have opened the "pay cash and get a useful in-game power" gates. Buy this and you can skip a travel power, get something more useful instead and have a more effective toon as a result.

Similarly, the Cyborg pack promises some power (no details given) as part of the goodies.

Slippery slope time?

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and much more: let the speculation begin what do they mean with much more? ;-)

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This is the bit I'm looking at. I reckon they've got something else moderately big, and haven't told us yet. I mean, what happened to "all your base are belong to us"?
I reckon we've got something basey. If not, I know a certain someone who wouldn't be too pleased.

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I think you may be right.

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Ah I see...

The other problem I have is how do you measure what TF is worth which amount of Merits.

The ITF can take a very skilled and well built group 1hr-90 minutes but can take some groups 2-3hrs+

I would be peeved if I had done 3hrs on an ITF and got a minimal reward of merits for it because 'it can be done faster'.

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Only time will tell, and I suspect the devs themselves don't know exactly how the release version will scale yet.

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In reality there will be lots of content and the dev’s have done things correctly by setting up the new zone last issue and adding lots of missions this issue. The mission designer is a massive bit of the game and we, as users, probably don’t appreciate how much work has gone in to it. We will only realise the full effect of this release months later when there is loads of user content to play.

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From that point of view I think they've done the right thing as far as meeting the CO/DCO challenge is concerned. By releasing the designer next issue and holding off on new zones, etc..., they've given players time to familiarise themselves with adding new content and start building up a decent library of good stuff. Then as the competitors come out they can release new NC stuff (I13/14) and have the player content there to impress people.

If they'd held off on the designer they'd be facing the competitors with old NC content and a player-designed setup no one had really got up to speed with, and that would be a far weaker position.

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So...

It's kind of conflicting then, he said in the address that it would hopefully end the farming of TF for recipes...yet the merit system will take longer than actually just farming TF (quick Katie etc.) so then....what really is the point in the merit system if it's going to take LONGER than farming a TF...

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As I understand it, the point's that with merits you can be sure of getting the recipe you're after if you earn the necessary number of merits. As it is you can rerun TFs as often as you like and still get nothing but Pacing of the !*$!!%ing Turtle every time.

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Rather than the merit system encouraging people to do the nasty Task Forces (Positron/Shadow shards) how about you actually 'fix' them first and don't make them so [censored] boring and 4 hours+ long, then add the merit system!

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That's really a different issue; some TFs are well overdue for improvement, but even if they had them the current system still might give you an utterly useless IO as a "reward". And at least with the merit system it can scale up the number of tokens to reflect your Posi-induced suffering.

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Merit system: I would like to know more. I am one of those guys who alwys seems to be getting terrible recipes after TF's. So i'd be interested.


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Some info from here:

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Positron:
Basically:

Upon completing tasks in the game (Task Forces, Trials, etc.) you get an option of receiving Reward Merits instead of a normal reward. The number of merits is based on the difficulty of the mission, how long it takes to complete on average, etc. Thus things like the Katie Hannon TF have minimal merits associated with them, and things like the Shadow Shard Task Forces get bunches.

You can then trade those merits in for specific rewards, like recipes and the like, or trade in a smaller amount for random recipes if you feel lucky.

This should allow players who want to work towards a specific reward to be able to do so, but it will most likely take longer than the random rewarding of that item generated. This should keep the "value" of highly desired items in the Auction House (but most will likely see a fall in price). People still want instant gratification, and that is what the AH brings to those with the Inf. to spend.

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Just to clarify: my comment earlier was far more cryptic than the initial response assumed .

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NCNC is going to reinvigorate the property market by giving players a free RL house every time they ding 50?

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Interesting discussion. Will be even more interesting seeing where all these characters end up living in the future .

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I have an idea what this means, but it's SO out there. I mean, even more far fetched than a moon base, so I'll neither tell other people what it is nor gets my hopes up.

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You thinking single unified server across all continents? Seems damn unlikely, but weeelll....

Well, you don't absolutely have to stop, but you'll get very little extra if you try to slot PFF's defence any higher; add an extra enh that would notionally give you +20%, and you'll only get an actual increase of +3% (15% of the normal effect).

In most circumstances you'll be able make much more effective use of that extra slot on some other power where ED isn't yet an issue, but if there is no such power and getting the very best from PFF's important, you might just want to put more +DEF in PFF anyway.

Or, check and see if you could use that slot to get extra +DEF from an IO set bonus - the numbers tend to be a bit small there, but they aren't reduced by ED.

Enhancement Diversification is a system they brought in some time ago to stop people slotting any one aspect of a power too strongly. Its effect is to gradually reduce the benefit you get as you slot more and more of the same aspect, until once you're over a certain threshold you get very little benefit at all if you try to add further boosts.

For your Force Field power the critical threshold is 60% (as defence buff's a Schedule B power - see the table on the linked page for details) - as a general rule it's OK to slot up to, and slightly over (as the odds are the last enhancement you add while under the threshold will take you over it), but once there you might as well stop trying to go any higher. Basically if you're using Mid's it's OK to slot until you get that high rate warning.

One thing worth baring in mind is that while boosts that come directly from enhancements always count when ED's being worked out (even if you're mixing and matching SOs, common IOs, set IOs, etc...), boosts from set bonuses are separate from ED. If standard slotting from enhs gives you 61% and you add a set IO to get a +3% DEF bonus, you get the full +3%.

Hope this helps!

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*settles in to read document* ooooo, shiny!

Can't wait to read your reactions .

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Nnnnnnggg

Maintenance time's 8-10am (UK), so it could well be down for that.

Unless today's reveal is I13, in which case it could be down for a bit longer.