gameboy1234

What cookies?

I'm thinking about this more and I want to post WHY I think this is such a sore issue for so many here.

Go check out some of the Zero Punctuation reviews where Yahtzee complains about difficulty curves like running into a brick wall. First you start off with all your powers working one way. You get used to it. You learn how to play. Then at some point, everything changes arbitrarily and the game just jacks you around.

That's how PVP is now. Worse, I have to burn respecs to change my build. And respecs are hard to get in this game. It's a grind. I have to grind respecs just to see if my PVP build is going to work, at all, or if I have to grind again to find if a different build is going to not work. To me that's the biggest issue, I think, is nothing works as expected and you're going to have to grind out several respecs to figure out how they do work.

Maybe if 2nd build only worked in PVP and all its respecs were free and instantly available, at least I'd have a chance to learn how things work. But now: I have to burn all my vet respecs? Buy respecs at $5 (or whatever) a pop? Forget it, I'm not going through that.

But--and this I think is the MOST IMPORTANT part--for new folks who have never tried PVP, coming into it and finding everything is different, even if respecs are free, is still too much of a barrier. Stuff has to work as expected or folks just won't try out PVP, it's too jarring for them. They'll never try it if they can't play *their* characters they way they're used to.

Now sure, a few things might need to be tweaked, some powers are over-powered, but that has to be done as little as possible and only when absolutely necessary, otherwise your potential pool of players goes way down.

My 2 inf.

Gotta agree. While not balanced, at least it made sense.


To expand on this a bit, it also made sense on a meta level. Like, I'm playing a game and the game rewards me for playing well. Like, in Team Fortress 2, if I'm a medic and I heal people, then I get a reward and I and my target become invulnerable and we get to rampage around for a while.

In CoH, if I heal I get rewarded with... a debuff and less healing. Gee, thanks. I'll just go over here and sit in this corner and not do anything for a while.

Another thing that "makes sense" from a game and "let's have fun" perspective is not having my movement debuffed every time I actually try to PvP. Come on, let me move around again. That bit I really miss.

I tried Zombie/Thermal and found it just ok. It sure wasn't sturdy compared to my Bots/FF. Problem is I doubt Bots work for Nyx's undead lady theme.

Just saying though, if you get an urge to play a robot grrl theme, Bots/FF is darn strong. I love mine.

I went Bots/FF, which lead me to discover that I had lots of time to manage the Bots, bubble the team, and occasionally Force Bolt the bleep out of a dangerous enemy.

Personally, since I have the time, it's fun to manage the bots. It's like my own RTS I get to play. Bubbling a team is easy too, since it's basically done once every 4 minutes and the rest of the time I can forget about it.

Just my 2 inf....

This.

Pick anything you want, it'll be fine. Bodyguard mode (available on all Masterminds) means you'll rarely be in danger of dying, and all MM sets do great damage.

I'd only say, as a first timer, stay away from Ninjas and Trick Arrow. Ninjas are good damage, but their AI is squirrelly and they're hard to manage. TA is good at high levels but really slow to get started.

Easy to get started on: Demons, Robots, Thugs, Mercs.
Easy, strong secondaries: Dark Miasma, Thermal Radiation

All the rest are good, but may take a tad more getting used to. Traps, you have to learn the basics of toe bombing; Poison is single target oriented and takes a bit of work. Actually, Pain Domination is easy but heals only in the beginning can be a lot of work. Force Fields is strong but doesn't always give you a lot to do. Storm Summoning can be unwieldy on teams.

I think you are totally ok. The name doesn't seem similar enough where anyone could generic you, and looking similar... only so many hot skimpy outfits are available for any female, in comics or in game. They're all just bikinis at their core.

Although now I want a cape with that neck piece. Hmm....

Pfft.

Two words: Battlestar Galactica.

Same. Fast spinning = network lag, in my experience. I.e., only during big raids or when I'm about to disconnect.

Leo, could you go someplace "quiet"--King's Row/Port Oaks?--and type /netgraph 1, and then do that video again? I'm interested to see what kind of speed and packet loss you have. Put the tray right above the netgraph in the bottom right if you can.

EDIT: also, reduce your graphics to close to the minimum and see if that affects the spin speed.

There must be something I like about PVP, but I can't think of what. Its potential, I suppose. I like the concept of teams of superheroes pitted against each other.



I've been doing a bunch of Flashback arcs for badges, i.e., with Inspirations off (among other things). So I happen to be thinking about playing without Inspirations. It occurred to me while reading the above that if the solution to any problem in PVP is "bring inspirations" then it might be worth it to see what PVP looks like without any Inspirations at all. Achieving balance would be easier, I think, if Inspirations weren't there to throw a wrench in the works.

Not on topic, but I wanted to toss that out there while the thought was still with me.

Specifically, she's "invested" it in the casinos they have there.

This, x 1000. All RtCW:ET battles I mention above have a defined win condition. Racing to beat that condition is a big part of the enjoyment. Ganking the enemy is just a means to an end. Deathmatches are really boring. Give me a victory condition.

I don't understand these two sentences. What new TFs are you trying to run? Apex and Tin Mage? And how does being tired of ITF relate to the TF of the week? The TF of the week is not ITF, it's Sister Psyche and Silver Mantis.

I believe you can run paper missions on Red side. (My rogue can run radio mishes blue side.) Obviously you could run a Silver Mantis, Tips, or team up with anyone on red side as well.

This is a neat idea. Special missions that only occur in the Flashback system.

Most times we can't change the time-line in our Ouroboros missions (according the the backstory on the villain side), but maybe for the special missions that don't occur in the regular game we did manage to change some thing.

I agree with the general sentiment expressed here. Many zones and locations have little back story available. There's now a "greeter" for many zones to tell you a bit about the zone like level ranges and such, but it's not the same as being told a story.

In contrast, I really like how the back story in Cimerora is done. You talk to several NPCs is the zone and gain an appreciation for the story that is being told. It lends impetus to your actions (beating up Romans) rather than just beating guys up because they're there to be beaten up.

Most zones could use this sort of treatment, imo. Mercy in particular is an engima to me. Why is Arachnos there? Why are there people struggling to leave? What is the significance of two different Arachnos forts? Why is there a huge treatment plant on a small island? Who and what are those snakes? (I realize the snakes are explained further later, much later, around level 45, but that's a bit long to wait for closure.)

Stuff like that. The interaction between groups that are present in a zone too. St. Martinal: why does Arachnos have partial control of the streets, but the Family seems to have open control of other parts? Who actually visits a casino in a country run by a power-mad super villain? Why is the Carnival of Shadows allowed to exist openly (my guess is they have protection from someone)?

All zones are kind of set-pieces where players are supposed to play, but there's not a lot of reasons for those set-pieces to exist. I realize returning to old content and old zones isn't your highest priority esp. with Praetoria, but I thought I'd add a plug.