Steampunkette
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Posts
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Quote:What would you think of increasing the end cost, then, to 15.6 end per click and making the current poison debuffs (Envenom and Weaken) targeted AoEs, instead of single target effects?Originally Posted by SkarmoryThePG
Frankly, I disagree. The debuffs are strong enough as is. I'd rather affect more targets than one more. Most mobs die fast enough as is already to bother debuffing them one by one.
Cottage rule -could- apply to this, but it's keeping the power more or less the same, isn't it?
-Rachel- -
Quote:To be fair: Mastermind End costs for their secondary powers are much more expensive than their Corruptor Secondary counterparts.Originally Posted by SkarmoryThePG
Poison blast won't happen. Toxic is considered an "unbalanced" damage type, with no matching defense. It's the elephant in the living room of damage types, and why no single player attack in the game deals primarily poison damage.
And Poison... there is not really any reason to take it over Radiation Emission. The two anchors are not much weaker than the single target debuffs and are AoE (hell, they pack more -tohit). AM is a powerful and highly desirable ally buff. Antidote is... decent, but not that good. Alkaloid is horribly overpriced for its effect and (especially) recharge time. Neurotoxic recharges faster than LR but in return doesn't have the much-desired -regen. The whole set has absolutely no alpha strike reduction capability. Poison Trap is a joke. The only AoE debuff that would help is on a 5m timer and often dies with its carrier.
So, yeah. I think Poison needs some work before it's good enough. For the lack of alpha help I have no solution, but I do believe Alkaloid needs to be retooled. I'd start by cutting the duration in two or four but adding a +regen component to the heal. The heal that keeps on healing, like the new (and awesome) Energize.
For example: Tar Patch
Corruptor End cost: 7.8
Mastermind End Cost: 9.75
25% Difference on that power.
Meanwhile Mastermind "Soothe" from Pain Dom costs 16.12 while a Corruptor's only costs 13. Since the poison heal costs 16.25 we can assume it's cost would be near to 13 since 16.25 is 125% of 13. It's got a slightly lower heal component, but a 15% damres buff versus toxic.
So the end costs for Corruptors would be as follows ((MM Costs in Parenthesis)
Alkaloid: 13 (16.25)
Envenom: 9.75 (13)
Weaken: 9.75 (13)
Neurotoxic Breath: 9.75 (13)
Elixir of Life: 24.38 (32.5)
Antidote: 4.88 (6.5)
Paralytic Poison: 7.3 (9.75)
Poison Trap: 12.19 (16.25)
Noxious Gas: 17.06 (22.75)
Now Envenom and Weaken are both Click-Activated Singe Target Debuffs while Radiation Infection and Enervating Field are both AoE Toggle Debuffs based on a Target's location. The Debuff from Envenom and Weaken lasts 30 seconds and recharges in 12 seconds. So let's see a per-second end cost.
9.75 divided by 30 is .32 end per second
Meanwhile Radiation Infection comes out at .52 end per second. Turning it into an AoE click with a 30 second duration it would cost...
.52 multiplied by 30 is 15.6 end per click.
So the endurance cost for using a click equivalent of Rad infection (AoE Debuff) would cost 15.6 end. The same click as a single target costs only 9.75. I think that's a fair tradeoff. Though, again, I'd still like to see the numbers of the single target debuffs increased...
-Rachel- -
There is a whole other side the the issue noone's touched on, yet: Legality.
"Just have them sign a waiver!" Nope. No can do. There's all sorts of legalities through copyright courts, hiring lawyers, creating legal documents. It's a huge pile of work for very little overall benefit (cheesy voice actors that some, potentially many, players may not want to listen to).
Think back to Wing Commander and all the other old voice-acted games. How horrible were they? I still can't help but think back to Krazy Ivan for the Playstation and his obsession with "Flooffy Dice!"
So let's go over the reasons to add voice acting to City of Heroes!
1. Potential Immersion increase
2. Some other MMOs are doing it
Why not to do it:
1. Cheesy Voice Acting
2. Legal Issues
3. Potential immersion breaking as a player who RPs their Brute as a Hero gets called "Villain" all the time.
4. Repetitive voice actors. The same handful of "Good" actors wind up playing all the roles.
5. The Wilhelm Scream. After hearing the "Kidnapping Victim" beg for mercy the 200th time you'll be ready to give off a Wilhelm scream.
6. Other games with enormous budgets that haven't been released yet have it and may or may not flop, whether the voice is a factor remains to be seen.
7. Lower replay value: There's only so many times you can listen to the same actor giving the same line over and over again before you don't want to hear it. At least you can skim over text as it stands.
8. Skip? If the vocals are skippable you've wasted tons of time coding them into the game for the people who skip them. If it's unskippable you've just slowed down every activity in the game which involves voice acting.
So yeah. Maybe you can think of more reasons. Why not copy-paste this list and expand on it in your posts?
-Rachel- -
I'd want to see poison ported over to corruptors with faster recharges and lower end cost.... have Noxious Gas be an ally targeted AoE. Then up all the debuff numbers on the single-target effects. Turn poison into a single-target slaying set. Radiation Emission has good numbers and AoE effects. Make Poison GREAT numbers and single-target.
As for a poison blast set: I wouldn't mind it. I imagine it'd have damage values similar to Psi Blast or Rad Blast, which wouldn't be that bad.
Though, to be honest, I'd probably make a Dual Pistols/Poison as my first and probably only poison corruptor >.>
-Rachel- -
Quote:Do you mean Update or upgrade? Updating generally means software additions and modifications. Upgrade means removing a piece of hardware or software and replacing it with a different, more effective, item.Originally Posted by Durakken
question... why go with an OEM OS. that seems dumb to do. With someone that updates fairly often... it seems like you would end up spending more money overall
If you're talking about updates: They're almost always free. Especially Operating System Updates.
If you're referring to upgrading the OS in a new computer... what the heck? Why not just transfer your hard drive to the new tower, rather than buying an OS? Or you could take your old computer in and the new computer and let the Geek Squad or your local tech-store transfer the data over. Tons of solutions (some more cost effective than others!). Either way you generally upgrade once and you're good for 5-6 years of OS goodness.
So yeah. Really don't understand which you're referring to.
-Rachel- -
http://www.ascendtech.us/customkitit...TBBINTDE1400KT
Ta-Dah.
I actually used this service to build my boyfriend's computer. Purchased the tower, power supply, motherboard, processor, and RAM from this site and it all came pre-built. just slotted in his old hard drive (with Windows already on it) and his CD/DVD drive and he was good to go.
Cost just under $300 when you add in the Geforce 240 we bought, which runs ultra mode beautifully when combined with the 4 gigs of RAM. Upgrade to Windows 7 for another hundred bucks and you've just saved yourself $200 on your budget.
-Rachel-
*Edit* Heck! Here's a Palit 240 GT 1GB just like the one we bought. http://www.eworldsale.com/palit-neat...504_51489.html Just cheaper! -
I'd be fine with selectable brokers, Oro Mayhems/Safeguards, or Simul-complete on mayhems/safeguards given by different brokers. Petitioning to change brokers or contacts? No.
-Rachel- -
Having seen what a speed-specced Shield/SS tanker can do, namely outstrip the team's Electric blaster for damage, I find your statement of Scrapper Damage shaky.
Yes. A Scrapper can soft cap his defense and tank just about as well as a Tanker! But a Tanker can slot for Damage and dish out similar numbers to a scrapper, as well. Or, by slotting for speed, use against all odds and Double-Stacked rage to make the scrapper look physically weak.
Yes. There are specific builds which can do "As good" as other base ATs. But those ATs can turn around and do the exact same thing with specific IO Builds.
-Rachel- -
Quote:And what about the other points raised? The titanic disparity in accuracy for classes that don't have melee attacks of any kind? Nothing to say to that?Originally Posted by Anti_Proton
@Steam, I understand that builds would need a major overhaul from slotting recharge to all end, thats the point.
We're not talking about a large overhaul of the engine here. We're talking about abject imbalance and rampant engine re-writing creating an "Elite" cadre of ATs and a few "Useless" ones.
-Rachel- -
The Gender disparity in costume pieces is based on two factors.
The First Issue: The time inherent in creating each version of the piece. Especially in cases where geometry is used multiple versions must be created which respond to each individual slider on a give body type without creating too much clipping.
The Second Issue: The general disparity in Comics involving the amount of clothing the average female superhero wears compared to her male counterparts. This disparity caused a need for "Tops and Bottoms With Skin" for females, to allow for far more revealing costumes. This of course rises from the fact that comics were and still are a power fantasy aimed mainly at men from the ages of 10-35.
The Third Issue: The mental block toward imbalance that arises, unheeded, when looking at three selections which contain an uneven amount of options. One feels the inherent need to "Balance" these options to some degree or another. So females, who get the extra "With Skin" costume options over the two male models, are left holding the bag on many masculine costume pieces.
My solution? Create a tops and bottoms with skin option for males. port over the female skins with the addendum of removing cleavage shading and likely adding musculature. Then proliferate all the costume options to both males and females.
Of course the Devs are aware that far fewer men would use the "Hearts Plus" top and bottom with skin option than females will (Second Issue). So they don't bother pouring hours and hours and hours of laborious redesign (First issue) to balance the scale (Third Issue)
So while it probably won't happen, I agree that all body types should have all costume options. Then again, I loved the Rocky Horror Picture Show, so I might be a -touch- unbalanced and/or biased.
-Rachel -
Quote:No. It doesn't balance out at all. A melee character generally balances defenses against lack of ranged attacks, while a ranged character sacrifices personal defense for distance. Why does this work? Ranged Attacks from NPCs do Less damage than Melee attacks from NPCs. With a Range Penalty you encourage the Blasters to use Melee attacks. Being in Melee means more incoming damage with no defenses. Meanwhile Controllers, Corruptors, Defenders, and Masterminds have no melee attacks (Outside of the new Demon summoning powerset) and find all of their attack and control powers are suddenly less accurate with no net gain. The two ATs you're thinking of which mix melee and range are Dominators and Blasters, both of whom also have control effects (Except Energy Manipulation blasters.)Originally Posted by Anti_Proton
Ok I was running my latest tank last night and had a few ideas about some of the basic game mechanics.
1. Make accuracy range-based: Missing a stationary object with no shields is just ridiculous. I understand the reasoning, but it can be very immersion-breaking. Of course, range-based accuracy would be affected by to-hit and -to-hit powers, but in this case you would need to stack debuffs to cause a melee power to miss consistanly. This may seem to give melee characters an advantage, but considering they are already without significant range power and the fact that most ranged characters have a melee secondary, it really does balance out.
Then again 3 of the 4 EATs also have both melee and ranged attacks... But again, it doesn't balance out. It creates a pointless accuracy disparity.
No. Recharge rates are a balancing measure in gameplay. Having recharge based on your current endurance situation would be incredibly limiting for most builds. People would shuck recharge rate enhancements or IOs (since they'd be useless) and shift entirely to +endurance and +recovery builds which, under your system, are far more powerful, since more End is equal to faster attacks -and- more end to use them.Quote:Originally Posted by Anti_Proton
2. Tie recharge rate to endurance: This eliminates the need for recharge enhancements all together since, in this case, the more endurance you have, the faster your powers recharge. It's basically if you are tired, you tend to react slowers, meaning your powers recharge slower. Although toggles would require a bit of a discount, it would also mean that there would be almost no wait for toggle to recharge if your endurance is already full.
Could be neat, but generally seems unneeded.Quote:Originally Posted by Anti_Proton
3. New targeting features: Instead of a boxed recticle, the target is highlighted when the blue hand passes over it. This would give you more accurate target selection in a crowded battlefields. Another new feature would be the ability to select multiple targets at once. By right-clicking over an area of targets, you highlight all of them allowing you to either single-target the one closest to you in that group until they are all defeated, or AoE the entire group repeatedly. This is still effected by the limitations of the number of targets a power can effect at once.
Overall? Unsigned.
-Rachel- -
Bramblehammer. my new stone/shield brute!
As soon as the mutation pack launches I'll redo her current look to utilize the pieces in that image. Eeeeeeee I can't wait! =-3
-Rachel- -
Quote:Heh. Don't worry about that! The only things stored on your computer will be the updated textures, some character models, the new music, and other "Resources"Originally Posted by Blpup
5%? *makes room on PC*
All the maps, mission text, contacts, and other huge tracts of data will be stored on the server side. That's what it's for.
-Rachel- -
Quote:I think he means the 2 powersets and Ultra Mode, which admittedly was likely a huge amount of work...Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison
Wait, you think 2 powersets is half of Going Rogue?
Doesn't cover the zones, new maps, new enemies, two new powersets, new missions from 1-50, incarnate level, new starting zone, new systems for character transfer, new costume pieces, new emotes...
-Rachel- -
Quote:A Defibrillator will not return someone from the brink of death. It will fry a corpse. A Defibrillator will not revive an unconscious friend. It will shock him, possibly into tachycardia.Originally Posted by ClawsandEffect
The name doesn't fit the power though.
Call it Defibrilator. Since that is the name of the device you are referring to with the power description.
A Defibrillator's actual purpose is to reset a tachycardial heart to a normal rythym. It does this by temporarily stopping the heart.
I really hate that myth. That said: Yes. I'd prefer the name Defibrillate, even still. For while it is a myth, it's a cultural one that has slipped into mainstream and pop culture. So it fits comics perfectly.
-Rachel-
*Edit* Actually, gong back to check my work, it not only functions on Tachycardia, but also on other arrhythmic disorders which include slowed heart rates, rather than just elevated ones. -
Actually the BEST Sapling method would be to take multiple samples each day at the same times for about 6 weeks running.
Try one in the morning, one just after noon, one during Primetime, and one after primetime. For every server, every day.
Unfortunately if you do that over the course of six weeks you'll actually only see the slightest amount of change (if any) since the game is billed once every four weeks. So I suppose it'd take months... Perhaps a 90day scheme? Or 180days?
One would not be remiss to suggest that samples be taken every day for a solid year...
-Rachel- -
I like it!
-Rachel- -
I like it a great deal! And I'm one of the many who already has all the current packs...
-Rachel- -
Quote:The problem is that 90% of "Attack while move" powers would be while moving forward, not unilaterally. And what's the point of adding movement if it just forces the player to step forward with every melee attack as -part- of the attack's animation? "More dynamic feel of combat"?Originally Posted by Leo_G
My comment was directed at the line "it's impossible to make melee attacks while running look good". I'd agree that attacking and running like suggested by the OP wouldn't look good at all, but that's far and away from the generalized statement you made.
That said, it's not that melee attacks look bad while running. It's that Haymaker doesn't look right while running or crane kick or storm kick or the plethora of other melee attacks...because they are currently animated in a fashion that doesn't entail movement. In martial arts, a strong knee to the midsection is an overall stationary attack. A flying knee attack would entail movement forward or to the side but not while running (can't run on one leg, of course). But you can make a jab and still move away.
Amending movement to attacking is not how it works in real life either so that is why I suggested attacks specifically designed to be used while moving. It's taking in the thoughts and suggestions of everyone while moving a step closer to some kind of solution. And there have been players asking for added powers or branching powersets so it'd be interesting to add, IMO.
Perhaps. It could be a step toward "Devil May Cry" gameplay, which many people seem to like. The issue then becomes "Marching" one enemy into aggro range of other spawns, since 90% of attacks would wind up with forward movement.
Yes. It is possible. No. It would not make the game better or improve it. If anything it would further imbalance PvP and either create frustration on all parts (Months or years of reworking animations instead of making new ones, months or years of reworking systems to allow for motion mid-combat instead of developing new systems, Taking movement control out of the people who have gotten used to the system as it is, forcing a new learning curve on combat).
-Rachel- -
Quote:Okay... You've proven that there can be decent, moving animations!Originally Posted by Leo_G
That's only because the attacks of CoHs were imagined while *not* moving. That doesn't mean it's impossible to make attacks on the run.
Yeah, I can't think of any way for Whirling Hands to be used while running...but then Whirling Hands, by it's nature, is an attack you use while *spinning*.
But a drop kick? A charging battering ram? A clothesline? Anime-esque samurai speed slash?
Melee can be used while running...but only if it was designed to be used while doing so. If they ever expanded the primary/secondary powersets by adding 1-2 powers, a cool little utility power for melee sets could be a power usable while moving.
-MA = Shadow Boxing (slightly longer range, PBAoE, leaves trail of body shapes as you move, any direction)
-SS = Clothesline (normal range, narrow cone, can only move forward/sideways)
-Dark Melee = Tentacle Swipe (slightly longer range, ST, a tentacle of darkness reaches from your arm and slams foe, any direction)
etc. etc.
Which is not what I was arguing against. Multilateral melee attack motion. This means Omnidirectional. Using that "Clothesline" attack which requires forward movement negates the argument. Shadow Boxing, Tentacle Slame... Use them while moving backwards or strafing left.
How about the MA attacks? We're not talking about a single move per powerset after all. We're talking about completely removing the "Rooting" mechanic and recreating every powers to animate while moving. So how about Eagle's Claw Kick without any kind of rooting. So I can hit it, then move straight back, and kick you from across the room, in mid-air? No. You'd have to remake EVERY SINGLE MELEE ATTACK POWER just to get this idea to work loosely. And even then:
It'd still look Weak. When you throw a punch or a kick you brace or balance, shift your weight on your feet, twist your hips, and put force behind it. You can't run backwards and throw off a haymaker or a spinning back kick.
-Rachel- -
I'd actually love this. This would entice me to PvP in a PvE manner or with a "Normal" build.
-Rachel- -
There is no way to make melee attacks look good while running multilaterally.
It just doesn't work. Show me a haymaker that looks good while you're running backwards, fighting the guy chasing you, face to face. Show me a decent way to animate "Whirling Hands" while running around. From the animation standpoint there's no way to get a feeling of -force- or power without rooting or bracing for the impact.
In addition you'd create a MASSIVE DISPARITY for players of blasting characters over melee characters. Simply because the Blaster can maintain speed while fleeing and firing at the melee character. So your improvement to PvP's feel of frenetic motion just unbalanced it beyond all reason and logic.
As for the more powerset combinations: Not against that at all, as it is. But with the idea of "Freeing" the ATs from their powersets? No. Not at all. I'm all for more powerset customization, but I don't want to see the return of the ala carte power selection. Powerset proliferation: Yes. Full Freedom: No.
Your final request gets a resounding "YES, Pleeeeeeeeeeeeease!" from me. I'd love to see tons more costume options, booster packs or not.
-Rachel- -
I'm not on board with most of these ideas. But I do like the -idea- of Costume Enhancements, if not the implementation.
What would people think of having 2-3 "Global enhancement" slots per costume, to which you can place "Costume Origin Enhancements" which have a global effect on all powers or the player's baseline abilities?
Could get incredibly broken, I imagine... though the idea of having a costume slot which grants a +15% damage buff or one which grants a +7.5% defense buff could be nice...
-Rachel- -
Quote:Really? I was thinking of a Stielhandgranate powerset...Originally Posted by Rush_Bolt
I don't really have anything to say on the set, but the thread title made me think of powers that shoot wands.
Which amuses me.
-Rachel- -
The Devs have commented on it. They will not change the basic appearance of PA or Phantasm. However at some point in the future they might consider possibly giving players the option of using dopplegangers.
Maybe.
-Rachel-