je_saist

correct. I hit the edit button on the entry under "published arcs" : changed a map, several bits of text, added an enemy class... and then when I finished, I had a options to save the file, save and text... but no options to republish the arc.

Think? I came to that conclusion back on page 2.

Would you mind explaining how adding another ranged set to the ranged epic powers is silly?

I was directly responding to this line:

If you check the Post Going Rogue Info Here thread, Equilibrium was brought up a heck of a lot more than anything Woo has done, hence my line about Equilibrium and Ultra Violet.

I've been thinking more about the proposed powers and trying to match the themes with Weapons Mastery. I'd also like to keep the damage change feature from the main power set.

Weapons mastery is setup as: Immobilize, AOE Status Effect, Damage, Toggle, Damage.

So here's my set suggestion.

Tier 1: Double Shot - base single target attack : Damage

Tier 2: Fluid Grenade - player tosses a grenade creating an oil slick. The behavior of the oil slick depends on the damage of the base shot. (requires tech / ui work).

Tier 3: Change Ammo - change the ammunition : using the same damage types as the main power set, but with changed rations. 60 / 40 split on smashing/lethal - elemental damage.

Tier 4: Targeting Drone - lift straight from weapons mastery
New Tier 4: Scatter fire - the pbaeo / taeo surround fire from the main set

Tier 5: Scatter Fire - the pbaoe surround fire from the main set.
New Tier 5: Overconfident - self buff / debuff - described below.

***

Okay, The Tier 3 power works to fill a couple of purposes.

Incendiary + Fluid Grenade = Oil Slick on fire effect. Strong DOT
Cryo + Fluid grenade = ice patch causes enemies to fall down
Chemical + Fluid grenade = choking cloud effect, minor hold, resistance drop.

I think this proposal would be... acceptable... to the developers, aside from the tech / ui work needed to mod the fluid grenade. It would allow the devs to largely re-use existing animations in the game, although creating a choking cloud effect for the chemical patch might require new animation work.

Fire and Dark sets would still be viable for their damage / status effect capabilities. Body Mastery is still viable for it's Physical Perfection and Endurance Reduction. I'm not entirely sure that my Weapons Mastery II proposal balances well against Weapons Mastery I.

I'm halfway thinking keeping the targeting drone makes the power-set... too over-powered, but I can't help but think that taking Targeting Drone out and putting another attack in would most certainly be too strong.

*** EDIT! ***

Edit, oh good, nobody has responded yet. Lets me post this bit in. To reiterate, my concern with the proposed set is that it's a little too... versatile... for the Devs to consider. While I can see my idea for a multi-effect fluid field effect being met by using the Trick Arrow pet trick. As I understand Oil Slick, placing oil slick summons a pet that is vulnerable to energy / fire damage only, and when hit, triggers the flaming field. Theoretically, my multi-effect fluid field would spawn 3 different pets, each only vulnerable to Fire, Cryo, and Toxic damage. Hitting one of the spawned pets immediately despawns the other pets and the animation triggers.

Combined with an accuracy boost... I think this is just too much for a Scrapper epic power. Looking at the stalker patrons, I had a bit of an idea. The theory behind the I want Dual Pistols on Melee is that players want to get in close. Well, there is a Patron Power that boosts defense... Shadow Meld... so...

Lets drop the targeting drone and move the proposed Tier 5, the PBAO / TAOE blast to Tier 4. In place is a new Tier 5: Overconfident.

The idea behind Overconfident is that the player is in a pitched battle and is getting themselves worked up, moving faster and faster, till they drop from exhaustion. It's very easy for a player to get in over their heads.

The power itself lasts 2 minutes with a recharge of 12 minutes. The power is split into 4 parts and is equal buff / debuff.

In the first 30 seconds the player gains a 25% recharge time and 10% resistance to all damage. The player suffers from a 15% defense debuff and a 25% defense debuff resistance debuff. The player gains a .5 mag taunt aura

In the second 30 seconds the player's recharge increases to 50% with a 20% resistance to all damage. The player suffers from a 30% defense debuff and a 50% defense debuff resistance debuff. The player gains a 1.0 mag taunt aura

In the third 30 seconds the player's recharge increases to 75% with a 30% resistance to all damage. Defense drops by 40% and resistance to defense debuffs drops 75%. The player gains a 1.5mag taunt aura. The player gains a 20% recovery bonus

In the final 30 seconds the players recharge caps at 100% with a 40% resistance to all damage. The player suffers from a 50% defense drop and a 100% debuff to defense debuff resistance. The player gains a 2.0mag taunt aura. The player gains a 40% recovery bonus.

As the power drops the players suffers from a -1000% penalty to regeneration and recovery, and cannot be healed for 15 seconds.

The conceptual idea is that as the player engages in continued combat, they open themselves up to further and further to enemy attack. As their AOE taunt grows in magnitude, enemies are... encouraged... to smack the Overconfident player around. The final stages of the power are a frenzy as activity as the player fires off attack after attack. Recovery increases allowing players to sustain the attack chains in the heat of combat... till it's over. Exhausted, body torn apart, weakened from the strain, the Overconfident player must quickly retreat from battle.

Catgirls with Ballgags!

*shifty eyes*

*dashes for cover*

that sounds delicious and horrifying at the same time...

(sowwy Jouster)



Jouster's avatar is a Whooping Crane... and unfortunately I can't find a decent sized picture of his drawn avatar that is work safe. He's also at the Midwest Fur Fest right now so I can't get a proper picture from him that way either.

Two movies. Equilibrium and Ultra Violet.

If you are actually looking for a semi-serious response, I'm not really sure what drives this particular desire. I think the core of the desire is that players want to do things in the game that don't make sense... because the game already doesn't make sense. Think about it. We already have avatars that can jump tall buildings in a single bound. We have avatars that can shoot beams of radiation from their bare hands. We have avatars that can sprout rocks out of their body.

So, what's the big deal with continuing to be ludicrous? What's the big deal with having Pistols that are used in melee only? What's the big deal with playing a Blaster like a Scrapper? What's the big deal with playing a Scrapper like a tank? What's the big deal with playing a Defender like a Blaster? and so on and so on and so on and so on....

The feeling, well, emotional response of lets do it anyways is, to me, further strengthened by the lack of any real punishment in the game. I don't mean just, well, debt, or the lack of it. I mean beyond that, in relation to the community. I've lost count of the number of spammers, trolls, griefers, and the like that I've encountered in the game that still play, that haven't been banned, even when they do things the devs say are bannable offenses; e.g. putting Ourobous Portal on the ski slope; e.g. dragging Monsters in PI to Portal Courtyard; e.g. Confusing a Player in a PvP zone, then chain confusing to Atlas Park and nuking lowbies; e.g. spamming broadcast in AP with a constant string of words censored by the in-game engine, then working out how to spell those words with leet-speak or punctuation to get around the filter.

Yes, the GM's and Mods do step in on occasion and nail players that really deserve it... but rarely do we ever actually see a developer or mod say something to the effect of you are doing it wrong.

***

Edit: clarification here. I don't think I tied this line of thought into the original argument well enough.

Where I'm trying to go with this line of thought is that we don't often see responses to many of the suggestions and ideas that get tossed around. Occasionally Back Alley Brawler will step in with a facepalm... but for the most part, the developers and moderators stay out of the suggestion threads. So there's a flood of wild and crazy ideas going around that never get responded to on an official level. Yes, other players pick these ideas apart, and either improve them to the point where they are acceptable, like maybe doing Dual Pistols as an Epic / Patron Power (Maelstrom could be a Villain patron... maybe?), or absolutely destroy the arguments. Really, what's the worst we can do to Missy K? Neg-rep her? Well, turn rep off and it really doesn't matter. Ignore her? Well, that means you don't see anything she says in the future, but it doesn't solve the root problem of teaching other players how to play the game, or what makes sense for the game.

With the lack of... I hesitate to the use the word tactile... perhaps... perceived? With the lack of perceived feedback on many aspects of how we play the game from the devs, we're often pressing vague boundaries, or stepping over those boundaries. Yeah, it's a bit much to expect the devs to set hard rules on everything we do... or don't do within the game world or outside of the game world. That lack of a hard-formed environment basically forms a breeding ground for bad ideas to flourish, and for good ideas to get buried. Which is one of the many reasons why most game forums typically draw only a small percentage of the actual playing and paying base.

Still not happy with tying this back into the behavior expectation of why players might feel one way or the other, but I hope it's enough background to establish a point

***

Anyways, bypassing the community aspect and looking back into the game aspect, there's the, well, it's not a problem, but various combinations of IO sets will let one archtype mimic or behave like another archtype. Case in point would be an SR Stalker or Scrapper soft-capping on defenses. Since an SR Stalker or Scrapper can soft-cap very easily, and since that defense generally can't be taken away, why shouldn't they play like brute? Why shouldn't they play like a tank? Why shouldn't a defender rack up on damage bonus's and have ranged combat like a blaster or corruptor?

The developers, as I see it, have boxed themselves into a corner. By designing a better game, an easier to access, and an easier to play game, they've also opened up the game world to be bent in ways the original design never accounted for. From a long-term viewpoint it's not exactly that big of a surprise that some of the things you, or I, find outlandish and crazy, like Dual-Pistols in a Melee set, seem like completely normal and logical steps of game design to another player.

***

Oh, and Bill. A: I wrote that. and B: if you really believe that I'm ignorant when it comes to systems maintenance.. woah are you ever wrong. I've also said that directly to Microsoft employees, and even they can't contest what I say. So if you have a counter-argument, I'd love to hear it, because even the guys who write the software say I'm right.

I think the horse has been turned into Jerky by now.

I do wonder about the Epic Power class though. There already is Weapons Mastery, which I believe comes with Shurioken and Shurioken that go boom. It might not be that much of a stretch to have a Weapons Mastery II class with pistols instead of throwing stars.

Correct. They are the official response to super-powered threats by the Police Department.

*hands Silverado a fuzzy paw glove*

Here, facepawing hurts a lot less. Especially when you need to do a triple-take double-facepaw.

... I'm with Hyperstrike. I'd love to have that Pirate Run in the game.

And here I was thinking States was responsible for the new Hamidon Raid. * gets out the tar and pitchforks and storms the cubicle of BaBs!*

*empties the cans of catnip and fills them with SackTreats*