UnicyclePeon

LadyMage,

I believe your thinking is spot on. I love your idea about AoE drop-off with range. Full damge at the center of an explosion, half damage at the edges, with a gradient in-between. Cones would work similarly (and this might increase the desire for cone range increases). The only issue would be whether the server can accurately keep position location. I assume it can, since it already can keep track of whether players are in various ranges of other centered powers.

Nice Idea! AoE has crazy damage in the center or near the start of the cone, decent damage at the fringe, and decent between. Adjust percentages to taste. Nothing else would have to change. A fire blaster could still nuke the heck out of small groups but would have to be more careful on big groups.

RULE.

Lewis

Thanks. Even when I'm worried and frustrated, I do thank you for taking the time.

Statesman,

I'm possibly too late here but have you looked at any of the threads about Gravity Controllers in the Controller forum? Is there any chance that there will be any changes to gravity to bring its control ability up to match the other controllers?

Here is the main thread, one of many recent ones:

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showf...o=&fpart=1

Thanks,

Lewis

[ QUOTE ]
I came to this game expecting to be able to play a super hero. My idea was nothing more complex than being able to punch things, be tough and be able to fly. That is what I want out of COH.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is exactly what I wanted too. Like you, I found there was no way to be able to punch things, be very tough, fly, AND be reliable for my team (read: resistant to stun, sleep, mez).

The most classic super-hero type in all of comic books, the flying brick, and you can't do it AND stay awake during a fight.

/ex-Tanker

I want to get to level 50 for 4 reasons:

1) To see a plan come to fruitioin
2) To be able to go back and do all the old quests or new content I missed (exploration badges etc)
3) The ability to help others
4) The ability to be able to focus on a new toon

[ QUOTE ]
After leave 30, +1 should be the minimum mob you get in a mission (including bosses). There should also be a healthy amount of +2s as well.

[/ QUOTE ]

Once difficulty sliders are in, they should allow difficulty to go down to -2 for slow soloers.

Actually what would be nice would be a level slider (-2 to +3, with every 2 players in your team allowing the slider to go +1 more or something like that) AS WELL AS a "tactics" slider of "easy" "normal" "hard". Whether tactics means lots of stuns and holds or not, or a higher percentage of bosses or LTs, I can't say.

But it seems to me that difficulty is different enough from build to build that level increases may be relatively meaningless to one build but having lots of bosses or mez powers might be hell. To a different build it might be the opposite.

Lewis

[ QUOTE ]

Choice 3: Exemplar to an appropriate level Hero and help them get XP (and work off your debt) while you both get the badge. I know... it's just crazy enough to work.

[/ QUOTE ]

When I exemplared down, all the enemies ran from me. Every one, as if they knew I was higher level. It was strange. That was on the 1st day of the patch. Apologies if I'm crazy or it has been fixed.

/checking updates page after instead of before

Thanks Statesman.

In addition to a street punching set, why not make Energy Melee a Scrapper primary? I can see Super Strength being more of a tanker thing, but an energy puncher? That screams "scrapper". Also, The Energy Melee animations are very cool. I love the Barrage animation and the Whirling Hands animation, etc.

Lewis

I just don't see how they will hammer everything down into the same range of difficulty. Each character is designed differently. Different player skill levels exist. Some builds are better than others. The kinds of challenges people seek are different based on what they want.

Currently, it is possible to satisfy most of these issues except that some archetypes feel un-needed. I think the purple patch killed this. Before the purple patch, it was totally possible to "build your own challenge" so that support classes were needed. Who cares if a group is fighting 20 purples? The devs didn't like it so now we have all these woes.

I have an unusual build, sort of. I have a Super Reflexes scrapper with Dark as primary but I am a Speedster so I havent and wont take any of the Dark Melee attacks except the first 3. In many ways this makes me gimped (cant drain life, cant drain end, cant boost power or entangle foes) but on the other hand I have plenty of slots for defense. I started out able to take on 3 or 4 minions but by the mid teens I could fight a pack of 6-10 whites with a LT in there and now that I'm level 26 I can fight packs of 10-15 whites, and have taken on as many as 20 at once. It is a heck of a lot of fun, can be pretty risky, and takes a while, but I dig it.

I bring this up because my gravity controller (level 17) can barely take on 1 white minion, and it takes forever. My level 18 Fire Blaster can take on 10 yellow minions. My tanker can tank 15 guys and doesnt have to run but it takes a LONG time to fight them. I have a friend with a scrapper that is so poorly built that he plays like my tanker on kill rate and takes a hit like my scrapper with his toggles off.

Before the purple patch, there was room for all these play styles. Now with the purple patch the control types feel useless in big groups because they aren't needed. (For the record, I love to duo with a Tanker or Controller or Defender, and they help a lot. I don't like big groups personally).

As another poster stated, if support classes are required, everyone else must be made group dependent. Combining that with the idea that everyone will be shoved into the same performance bubble (3 whites = doable, 5+ = uh oh) then how in the world are all these disparate play styles going to be supported?

The answer may be that player variety will go away. I have at least 1 character of each AT and enjoy all of them. I can't see staying interested in them in the new proposed environment.

I could see revoking the purple patch. I could see mission difficulty sliders so that a group can generate their own +4 mission or more if they could handle it. But shoving everyone into the same bubble of performance and mutual dependence is going to ruin (for me) the magic of the game.

Finally, on the whole "level 40 minion" thing, count me in on the camp that would view 3 level 40 minions as no progression if its as hard to fight them as 3 level 4 minions. I mean right now I can take on 15 whites or more if I'm on the ball and prepared and I use my inspirations, my environment, and my wits to the max. It is exciting. And I'm supposed to be excited by being shoved down to fighting 3 minions?

Thanks but no thanks. I play this game because it ISN'T EverQuest. While it would still be better than EQ (where 1 blue is a challenge), it would kill the appeal of being a Super Hero. That is what I feel like now with my characters (even my controllers and defenders).

Lewis