Stormfront_NA

Hi:

This is mainly a convenience or Quality of Life suggestion, it is not a fix for something that can not be worked around.

I had a large number of level 50 alts that begun their careers red side, I could then with out issue get new missions, start SFs and what not. Life was peachy!

Then with GR I had the opportunity to change alignments, since I had 18 level 50 villains, I had my hands full. So my Villains, went Rogue, and then Hero! All 36 of my level 50 alts could now use my one base! Yay! I still could with any of my 36 alts do any new missions, and start TFs.

Then it occurred to me, that many of my alts were not really hero material, they were good people, but could be vindictive at times, so they really were more Vigilante in spirit. So thus commenced the great exodus from Hero to Vigilante, I decided to re-align 30 of my 36 alts to Vigilante!

I had just finished getting all of my vigilantes set and ensuring all the critical power giving accolades acquired when I19 struck! Sweet timing!

So now, I had to unlock the Alpha Slot for 36 alts, oh my, I had my work cut out for me!

I first did my Heroes, piece of cake, they are mostly melee, so I zoomed thru the missions with out a hitch or challenge to speak off.

Then I went on to my vigilantes, at first I did the original heroes gone vigilante and had no problems at all, it was great, by then I have mastered the alpha slot unlocking that even my Emp Defender soloed it! Yeah, she did, did not die once either!

Then I went from my originally villain to rogue to hero to vigilante alts, and then the Titanic struck the iceberg. Suddenly I discovered none of them could take on new missions, TFs or tasks. I had worked so hard to get my first one into a group, and I could not get the mission, it was so embarrasing, after all that work!

One of my friends helped me determine what was the problem, it turned out I had too many open arcs! Here I am, a Vigilante with 9 red side arcs and 1 blue side arc! Thank God I had 1 blue side arc, or I would have been terninally messed-up. So I sent a bug request, I thought all red side material went into stasis when you switched blue side, well the count on unfinished arcs did not, so surely it must be a bug...

As a Vigilante, while I could go red side, I could not talk to the contacts to complete the unfinished arc; unless I went the painful tip route to go villain, clear the grey con arcs, then tip again to go rogue, then again to go hero and then tip again to go Vigilante. Obviously while feasable, not pleasant to do.

I was lucky that I had one blue unfinished arc, I was unlucky it was Levantera, but after suffering thru the moronic Leventara's vanguard part-2 missions, I cleared the arc and was able to get a mission from the good Mender.

After this horrid experience, and lack of help from the GMs via stuck and dozens of emails, the best they could do was tell me do Levantera and good day to you, thank you for playing CoH, ha ha ha....

It occurred to me, when I have a mission that is too annoying or perhaps the nature of the mobs in it are such that I can not complete, I can go to the Contact and either auto-complete or abandon the mission. In the same vein, when an arc is grey to me, very old and well below my level, where I can not gain exp, why not be able to auto-complete or abandon?

I thought for a bit more, and concluded auto-complete would be a bad idea, for it would lend itself to abuse and exploitation, next thing we know all would start 9 arcs, get 10 levels and then auto-complete the arcs getting badges, merits,and what not; this would simply be wrong!

Then I concluded the right answer is abandon the thread! You get nothing for abandoning it in the form of merits and what not, and you get it off your books and freeing up mission slots, and you are not forced to do exp pointless missions while trying to complete and be rid off the arc!

In my case, since 9 of my incomplete arcs are in an alignment I can't perform, the abandon choice would be a great QoL improvement for me, for it would save me the tedium of switching alignments back and forth.

The way I see this working, is you: Left click on your contact and it gives you the choice to abandon the arc. You click abandon and the book by their icon goes away.

Hugs

Stormy

Mmm...

After my first encounter's shock, I went: "OMG This place is infested with AVs; I am so toast" I remember immediately exiting the mission and complaining in channel over it. Then I was told, for that particular mission, I "was" already an incarnate, and the AVs would not be so bad. So with great trepidation I returned, and found out, what I had been told was the truth. I found the whole thing to be actually quite amuzing and enterteining, it was nice to feel "super" with any AT.

But to an extent, the poster does have an interesting point, it would be nice if the mission complexity or threat by mob would be different based on AT performing it. For instance, taking on Hero-1 with a non-melee being spammed with mez attacks by Hero-1 and the ambushes that spawn subsequently is a bit on the harsh side, since support ATs are denied the ability to have passive mez protection.

It may be simply polite to support ATs if set to -1/x1/N/N for the missions to be non mez equipped, after all with exception of the pre-packaged EBs, the highest mob you gonna face is a LT, and typically Rikti Mentalists are bosses; it kinda annoys me when the mission "happens" to give me a Rikti Mentalist as a LT, so rude...

Of course as a melee essentially imprevious to mez effects, the missions are just right, the ambushes are great, pour them on! I need the bodies around me; so they can buff my damage gained from my PBAE aura. As I fight the EBs/AVs I tend to kill their supporting mobs and loose some of the dmg buffs from my aura, so it is nice that the missions have several waves of ambushers to replenish my buffing needs.

Amazing how different what appear to be serious challenge for 1 AT, it is actually an assistance to another AT...


Frankly I am not sure how you could level challenge by AT: Melee are so well made and so self-sufficient; while support are intentionally made so brittle, I can't see how to add challenge to melee with out really socking-it to the support ATs. At best relief in the abusive use of spammed mez would ease off the burden on support ATs, while having no impact what so ever on melee.

Stormy

Since I19 has just been released...

Stormy Wednesday has been cancelled for tomorrow!

We will do Buck next week

Hugs Stormy

Oh Bill, I saw what you wrote, it seems you used such wide paintbrush strokes...

As a note, I use a one round as reference, and some of you may be wondering why?
If you assume, that the player always goes first, the first round is for the support AT to do a pre-emptive attack, This is the round the battle is made or lost for a support AT. Whatever mobs shakes the first round pre-emptive attack, will get their turn right after! (the new code since I16 gives mobs initiative as a standard), since I13 all mobs were given ranged attacks with status effects with near sniper range, and believe me, they will spam those attacks on the support immediately after being attacked. (Next time you fight a mob, notice the order of their attacks, they always begin with an attack with mez secondary effects or a mez right out, and then switch to a melee or ranged attack based on the mob type, then they weill go back to the mez supported attack, and rinse wash and repeat), fortunately for those support Ats with high Defense, your defense score remains intact despite being under the effects of a mez! But I can't emphasize how important is that first round pre-emptive attack!

Generic Defenders affecting themselves as a whole? and how the few buffs that they can give to themselves themselves makes a telling difference in one round, how? I know there are a few defenders that have a few of their powers that may affect them too, but these are not their premium buffs either, would love for empaths to give themselves clear mind! A Kin may use syphon or some other power, but their powers are very short ranged, and if they use their pre-emptive attack to a fulcrum shift, how is that helping them prevent the mez tzunami that follows?

Please explain, how in one round, a Generic Defender is going to neutralize the standard generic mob size of 6 (1 Boss, 2 LTs, 4 Minions) before they mez her out of action in one round?

I can almost side with you with the Blasters, they have their light (ha ha ha) damage attack and one moderate attack being a defense against the standard mob size of 6, after being mezzed. But no cigar in this one, its a best a baby pacifier when we do the math, its not so hot a protection...

Controllers can mez, given, if not ambushed, they go first. But have less than a 25% to mez the entire standard group of 6 in one round, less if mobs are higher leveled, please explain how the generic controller can use that first round to nearly achieve unconditional protection performance?

Same goes for the situation for Doms and Corruptors...

MMs are a unique beast, Mez the MM and the pets are there for her! Mez a pet, so there are 6 more, who cares! I see MMs as a kinda hybrid support and melee on this aspect.

I still do not agree that the use of inspirations to deal with standard groups is an acceptable answer to mez protection, I will agree with the use of inspirations if a Support AT takes on anything stronger than a generic mob group of her level, but that should be also true for melee...

Stormy

Mmm..

Nice concept but pragmatically pointless.

If playing a support AT, it is your job to die a lot so all can see how ubber the mob the Melee is gonna defeat is; think of it as the "Red Shirt" syndrome in the old Star Trek. A bit of dark humor there...

The reason I say its pointless, is that seldom an attack on a support AT is solely a single attack, instead you are usually mobbed! So the anti-one-shot-kill code is pointless, you gonna get hit at least 3 times in the same round, and being a support AT all 3 of those attacks are gonna take a big bite out of your hit-points, the simple truth is that you are going to die no matter what.

The developer's challenge mind set against Support ATs does not need the critical to take the Support AT down, they are weak enough as they are, and thus it is not really needed (they also spam the use of mez to ensure you stay nice and still for the second and third hit); The critical hit's big pow! is more in place to "wake-up" the melee; I never experienced any of my Melees ever being defeated by a critical hit, even by an AV, but the critical does hit hard enough to get my attention!

So while your suggestion is well intentioned, it would not accomplish any benefit in behalf of the Support ATs.

Stormy

Hi:

When we activate our Oro portal and click on it, we are transported to that mystical place and appear right next to the portal, one would use to leave the floating island.

Could it be possible, that instead of appearing next to the portal at Oro we appear somewhere away from it?

The reason I ask for this, there are times players port to Oro and go AFK, at times the entire area about the portal is heavely congested by AFK players and their pets; thus making it very difficult at times to click on the portal to go on. By having the players appear, say on the left side near the temple, they would be away from anything significant and not be on the way of other players.

Hugs

Stormy

Mmm...

I am on Champion, and use Atlas WW as my ALTs' base of operations, essentially where I log them off. I do a lot of IO crafting and have been known to play the WW market game from time to time. But to be honest, I seldom see a request in broadcast channel for folks looking for more members for an AE team. In fact, the few times I go to AE, is to trade tickets for salvage, and the place is usually abandoned.

While during my gam play, I have encountered AE babies, they are extremely rare now days, and as a TF leader I have booted them off the team from time to time, perhaps is that week a month I endure thingy, and my patience runs thin :<)

I used to have AE missions, I wrote, but by now I have deleted them all, and not even have a mission for anyone to use.

The only use I have for AE is to kill stuff to get tickets, so I can redeem them for salvage that is stupidly priced at WW. From that end, I wish common salvage could be acquired through AE tickets as well.

If I am going to help an SG mate or friend level up some, AE is a poor choice to make. At level 50, my friend would be sidekicked to me at level 49. As such he would be entitled to get level 50 drops to include the much coveted purple drops; something AE can not come even close to match; I also find the random recipe roll at AE is frankly a random roll for "junk recipes" as a rule...

Now days, taking a low level to Peregrine Island is no big deal, they are sidekicked, they are 49, nothing is gonna really bug them on their way to the door mission. And with I19 transportation improvements and fitness pool becoming inherent moving lowbies around will become even safer; thus making AE even less appealing.

Stormy

Hugs...

For Wed Dec 1 we are going to do the "Buck Salinger" thread, which unlocks the Katie Hannon TF.

Buck Salinger range is 30-34. but because we are going to do the thread thru Oro, the minumum level will be 35.

See ya Wednesday!

Stormy

Mmmm...

I do believe there are too few actual Heroes in the game, by proper standards, most of those iconic figures are actually Vigilantes.

I believe GR and the new alignment system, is going to do much to help flush out the icon chracters and our own as well.

For example, take my alt "Lady Reaver" whose stories can be found under stories in this forum. She is a fire/axe Tanker, who received her powers from the Norse God of Justice Forsetti. She strictly follows Forsetti's laws first, which often do not line-up with Paragon's laws. Forsetti has given her the ability or curse to be able to hear the voices of the dead, who then leads her to their murderer and compels her to avenge them and will continue to do so until she does. In actuallity she does go after the murderer, punishes them in a mortal way and sends them body and soul to Forsetti for final judgment (they don't go to the hospital)...mmm let see who wins teleporter or God...mmm:<)

If you look at the axe power set, and read the power names: Behead, Enviscerate, etc. It would seem those using axe as an attack, could hardly be considered heroes. Same could be said for other power sets.

I can see her doing a Citadel, and goes to "question" 20 Council, I would think they much rather go thru waterboarding than evisceration!

In the case of Manticore, he is a clear Vigilante example.

Hugs

Stormy

Mmm...

Interesting criss-crossing of opinions here, some ranging from devs are too lazy, there is no pragmatic value for weather to it would make the game appear less artificial.

For myself, I like weather as ameans to add ambiance to the game.

I believe before we restrict the game to hard core utility, we should look at teh soft side of things...

I play the game for recreation first, meet people and socialize is next to my agenda, and then the feeling of being super and not the average citizen. For myself, I am experiencing severe medical conditions which is deeply affecting my day to day life, so I look at this game as my escape from my dark and depressing reality.

I believe much on the "feel" of the game, I often comment as I travel from zone to zone, how much I enjoy the night scene as I fly across the entire zone to the mission entrance. As I see the stars, my mind just wanders with pleasure. Then there are the incredible sunsets at Talos, that makes my skin grow goosebumps.

I do get some weather enjoyment, with the winter events, the slippery sidewalks and what not.

I believe weather could be used as an instrument to create "feelings" such as that eerie fog at Dark Asturia... Would love to see the ghost ship at Talos and IP be preceeded with a similar fog, perhaps that same fog could appear during a zombie raid!

I understand its a lot of work, especially if weather is going to interact with us, such as fog, wind, rain, etc could have a negative impact on both player's and mob's accuracies for instance, slippery floors making us slip and fall (knockdown like effect), Giggles, wind could make our flight go faster or slower based on which way the wind is blowing! But I believe it would add so much to our game! So perhaps this suggestion could be part of a new big time release such as CoV and GR, so the time and effort could be devoted to such a grand undertasking.

A good game takes care of sheer mechanics, a great game also attends to ambiance!

Hugs

Stormy

[QUOTE=ClawsandEffect;3334320]

There is an even BETTER reason to not give support ATs passive mez protection, and it seems to have been completely ignored by just about everyone: The devs' wishes, and their track record of how they respond to players doing things they do not want them to do.

The devs don't want support ATs to have passive mez protection. They haven't given it to them after 6 years, and are givig no indication of EVER giving it to them. They have also gone on record in the past explicitely stating that they don't want them to have it. That covers their wishes.

Now for their track record of response to things.

What do you think is going to happen if thedevs relent and give all support ATs passive mez protection? Based on their track record thus far, it will almost definitely be accompanied by an increase of mez frequency AND magnitude across the board. It will essentially work out that the devs will give the support ATs mez protection to stop the complaints, and then arrange it to where that mez protection is almost completely pointless. If support ATs are given mag 3 protection, you will most likely see a number of new enemy types throwing mag 4 mezzes, and you will most likely see an overall increase of the enemy types that have mezzes to begin with. That will suck for everyone, not just the suport ATs, because it won't come with an increase to melee ATs' mez protection, making it less effective as well.

I'm not against mez protection for support ATs per se. I AM against an overall increase in the amount of mez we have to deal with, because they will probably not give us something they don't want us to have without some kind of catch. And knowing how the devs tend to operate, I would expect that to be exactly what happens. And anyone else who has paid attention to the devs' track record should know that I am probably correct in this.

QUOTE]


We have seen all too often, the all excuse..The devs said, the devs think...

By now, we have lots of proof, the devs "do change their ways or minds"

I remember lots of flames and negative posts with the dev said argument such as:

No way we gonna be able to email ourselves, no way we gonna have market mergers, no way we gonna have a mid log in screen to just switch alts with out going to log-in screen, and we can go on and on...

Giving Support "SOME" mez resistance, does not "HAVE" to result in increases of the use of mez, frankly I am hard pressed in seeing how could it be abused even more.

The whole intent of many of my postings is to provide devs with rationale for change, not a whine, please note that I take time and effort to provide number analysis and then comment to the results of my analysis. I give you ample opportunity to review my numbers and then reflect on them, I am yet to see any dis-agreeing posts indicating how my analysis itself is flawed, and thus my conclusions would naturally be in error.

If the devs do privide support with "SOME" mez relief, I would hope it is thru "understanding" and thus balancing the thread value of a particualr mob type to an AT. You advocate much for melee and tanks in particular, I applaud your commitment, but how would you like a minion to have an attack that you simply can't resist and as a result it will result with you being defeated? How would you feel, if all the mobs had such an an ability and it was used all the time?

I sense you tend to think in extremes, and not dwell much in the "in betweens", but tell me, why should a minion be able to have such a threat intensity over a support AT? and given that you think (I mean you, not what you say the devs say) that is appropriate why should there not every minion and above that possesses such an equivalent threat to a tank as well?

Lets say all mobs from here on, have the built-in ability to ignore protections say 50% of the time, how would you like them apples? Paraphrasing Sharker's wisdom: "Eat inspirations!"


Please understand this, I really wish forums could be used in a manner one could disagree with developers and be able to provide a rationale of why. Having posters just disagreeing by throwing insults, using extreme samples, saying a dev once said, having smart allec remarks, giving patch/work arounds, are hardly beneficial for positive change. The devs have demnstrated time and time again, that they can change their minds if provided sufficient reason and volume of requests for change; the past few releases a chuck full of changes.


Stormy

Ps: It is very fine to disagree with me, but all I ask is to please document your rationale. I give you this much, you had documented your concerns to an extent; and because of it, I can reply to your particular objection; that in itself is beneficial.

[QUOTE=ClawsandEffect;3334320]

There is an even BETTER reason to not give support ATs passive mez protection, and it seems to have been completely ignored by just about everyone: The devs' wishes, and their track record of how they respond to players doing things they do not want them to do.

The devs don't want support ATs to have passive mez protection. They haven't given it to them after 6 years, and are givig no indication of EVER giving it to them. They have also gone on record in the past explicitely stating that they don't want them to have it. That covers their wishes.

Now for their track record of response to things.

What do you think is going to happen if thedevs relent and give all support ATs passive mez protection? Based on their track record thus far, it will almost definitely be accompanied by an increase of mez frequency AND magnitude across the board. It will essentially work out that the devs will give the support ATs mez protection to stop the complaints, and then arrange it to where that mez protection is almost completely pointless. If support ATs are given mag 3 protection, you will most likely see a number of new enemy types throwing mag 4 mezzes, and you will most likely see an overall increase of the enemy types that have mezzes to begin with. That will suck for everyone, not just the suport ATs, because it won't come with an increase to melee ATs' mez protection, making it less effective as well.

I'm not against mez protection for support ATs per se. I AM against an overall increase in the amount of mez we have to deal with, because they will probably not give us something they don't want us to have without some kind of catch. And knowing how the devs tend to operate, I would expect that to be exactly what happens. And anyone else who has paid attention to the devs' track record should know that I am probably correct in this.

QUOTE]


We have seen all too often, the all excuse..The devs said, the devs think...

By now, we have lots of proof, the devs "do change their ways or minds"

I remember lots of flames and negative posts with the dev said argument such as:

No way we gonna be able to email ourselves, no way we gonna have market mergers, no way we gonna have a mid log in screen to just switch alts with out going to log-in screen, and we can go on and on...

Giving Support "SOME" mez resistance, does not "HAVE" to result in increases of the use of mez, frankly I am hard pressed in seeing how could it be abused even more.

The whole intent of many of my postings is to provide devs with rationale for change, not a whine, please note that I take time and effort to provide number analysis and then comment to the results of my analysis. I give you ample opportunity to review my numbers and then reflect on them, I am yet to see any dis-agreeing posts indicating how my analysis itself is flawed, and thus my conclusions would naturally be in error.

If the devs do privide support with "SOME" mez relief, I would hope it is thru "understanding" and thus balancing the thread value of a particualr mob type to an AT. You advocate much for melee and tanks in particular, I applaud your commitment, but how would you like a minion to have an attack that you simply can't resist and as a result it will result with you being defeated? How would you feel, if all the mobs had such an an ability and it was used all the time?

I sense you tend to think in extremes, and not dwell much in the "in betweens", but tell me, why should a minion be able to have such a threat intensity over a support AT? and given that you think (I mean you, not what you say the devs say) that is appropriate why should there not every minion and above that possesses such an equivalent threat to a tank as well?

Lets say all mobs from here on, have the built-in ability to ignore protections say 50% of the time, how would you like them apples? Paraphrasing Sharker's wisdom: "Eat inspirations!"


Please understand this, I really wish forums could be used in a manner one could disagree with developers and be able to provide a rationale of why. Having posters just disagreeing by throwing insults, using extreme samples, saying a dev once said, having smart allec remarks, giving patch/work arounds, are hardly beneficial for positive change. The devs have demnstrated time and time again, that they can change their minds if provided sufficient reason and volume of requests for change; the past few releases a chuck full of changes.


Stormy

Ps: It is very fine to disagree with me, but all I ask is to please document your rationale. I give you this much, you had documented your concerns to an extent; and because of it, I can reply to your particular objection; that in itself is beneficial.

Mmm...

I read your need for differentiation, thus it appears to me your position is the very thing I am fighting against: Black and White. I have - You don't have, that is different!

I want shades of grey, You have - I don't have as much, that is different "too".

If we gonna really differentiate, the hard way...

Then Melee should have no status effects as secondaries or primaries, after all isn't that what Controllers do?

Then Melee should have no ranged attacks at all, after all isn't that what Blasters do?

Then Melee should have no self heal or access to self heal, isn't that the job of a Defender?

Then Melee should not have built-in damage boosts, once again, isn't that the Defender's job?


Oh wait, I get it, that is different...

Oh I see another big difference, support ATs have to depend on breakfrees to perform, while melee does not have to depend on inspirations to perform...I see the difference now, and difference must be preserved at any cost!

Stormy

Amy:

Perhaps one of these days, when you are not hyper-busy, you can teach me how to do the woods inside the base as you did. I would love to have that feature as a standard in my base. Perhaps if we can get together, I can show you my base, and you can see why.

Hugs

Stormy

Thank you all for coming to last night's Hess TF Unlock event; CG in getting the gold badge!

Now that we unlocked the Hess TF, now we get to do him!

So next Wednesday Nov 24 is Hess TF night!

You all come and be prepared to have a good time!

Stormy

Hugs to everyone!

Will watch the video tonight!

Giggles

Stormy