je_saist

I guess my problem with this concept is that it assumes that NCSoft would turn development of a City of Heroes 2 over to a different developer than Paragon Studios. Of the sequel titles NCSoft has funded the development of, specifically Lineage II and Guild Wars 2, both were developed by the development houses that created the original games in the first place. Ergo, there is no precedent to suggest that NCSoft would look to build or fund a separate development house for a sequel title.

I do not believe that F.Grubb has announced who picked him up, but there are a couple of rumors on where he's gone.

• some say that C.Bruce over at Infogrames managed to work a deal that F.Grubb couldn't pass up.
• some say S.O.E. offered F.Grubb a deal he couldn't pass up.
• some say that EA headhunted F.Grubb for either Mythic or Bioware.

We'll know in a couple months probably were F.Grubb will wind up working, if he stays in the MMO business at all. For all we know he could be moving out to the East Coast to work on the next Tribes with Hi-Rez studios.

no no no.

They're yellow because the new servers are less powerful and can handle less players than the old servers! The developers removed hardware to make it seem like we had more players than we actually have!

Which doesn't explain why the zones are much more stable during events. I'm not seeing as many LCMS's during Mothership Raids, Rikti Raids, Zombie Raids, or Hamidon Raids that I have in the past. Not to mention lag intensive missions like the third mish of the ITF are more responsive than they were before.

Perhaps it's because the developers added hardware and average subscriptions went up because of Going Rogue?

um. No.

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Mental_M...d_of_Confusion
http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Psionic_...d_of_Confusion
http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Psychic_...d_of_Confusion

All of these include an enhancement setting for: Enhance Damage

World of Confusion has a minor damage component. This will cause aggro regardless of the state of confusion.


As a minor note, I just checked in game, and neither the blaster World of Confusion, nor the Controller Epic World of Confusion, make any mention in their text that World of Confuse does not cause aggro.

I'm not entirely sure on this, but I'm pretty sure the random number generator works on team defeats to begin with. I get recipes and salvage drops on TF's for mobs that I haven't touched.

Again, I didn't do the original calculations. I just borrowed somebody's elses numbers and ran from there.

be glad I got in here before Arcanaville :P

We'd still be waiting for her to finish the mathematical analysis!

The random number generator is random.

The random number generator only rolls on enemy defeat.

The random number generator is random.

The more enemies a player defeats in a mission, the more times the random number generator rolls.

Sometimes the random number generator gives a desired reward.

Most of the times the random number generator does not give a desired reward.

The random number generator is random. All the random number generator cares about is the defeat of an opponent.

At this point in time there is no code evidence to suggest that the player's defeat history is tracked for drop rewards.

How did I test this? Dual Boxing, Triple Boxing, and Quadboxing various AE arcs, Ouro Arcs, Task Forces, and regular story missions.

Now, there is a trade-off in total available rewards. Many of the game's rewards are tied to event completion rather than the random number generator. Alpha-Merits, Regular Merits, and Task Force Specific Incarnate Salvage stand as examples of these event completion rewards.

Assuming defeats per second are equivalent, a team that clears every map in an event are going to get far less total rewards compared to teams that hit the enemies they need to hit and just get on with that event.

A team that takes 3 or so hours to clear an LGTF is going to get far less total rewards than a team that didn't clear an LGTF, but ran an LGTF, an ITF, and maybe a Dr. Khan in the same amount of time.

That's because this integrated graphics chipset isn't (officially) supported by Windows 7.

It's a DX9 / OpenGL 2.x class card and support for these chips was terminated in March 2009, 8 months before Windows 7 was released.

Now, that being said, you can (unofficially) use the Vista version of the 9.3.1 driver along with Mobility Modder.

Windows 7 will by and large accept drivers compatible with the Windows Display Driver Model originally included with Vista, although such drivers will lack the benefits of the WDDM 1.1 specification.

Technically... they are actually PC's.

PC in and of itself simply means personal computer... and both the Ipod and the Ipad are personal computer devices.

Technically... they are not actually PC's.

The term Personal Computer was generally used to refer to those computers that are IBM PC compatible, even though the term had been used nearly a decade earlier with the Xerox PARC. The IBM-PC's were based on the x86 Architecture. Ultimately the largest consumer supporter of x86 processors was the Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft Corporation used the PC term in their marketing materials, thus creating the PC versus Mac meme that still continues today.

Since the processors used in the Ipod and Ipad systems are based on ARM, the Ipod and Ipad devices are not IBM-PC compatible... and thus they are not PC's.

I just took my ill / storm which has the Contagious Confusion proc, loaded up a Tsoo Dragon Enforcer standing by his lonesome in Talos with a hasten boosted dosing of Deceive...

and when the effect finally wore off... he was still standing all by his lonesome.

So no... Deceive, nor the Contagious Confusion Proc, seemed to generate any aggro.

I just commented on this over on the Misinformation thread: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showp...7&postcount=14

The concept of a Supergroup base as it was at the start of the game has largely been outdated. Cryptic envisioned the Supergroup base as something to entice over to CoH players of Ultima Online and Everquest, and many of the pricing costs and obtention methods were based on large groups of players working together.

As City of Heroes matured many of those older design concepts fell to the side. Case in point: In the original version of the game more emphasis was placed on random hunts and street sweeping for level progression. Using mission completes to deliver rewards was pretty much unheard of. Very few mission arcs created today have random zone hunts. Rather, as of Going Rogue, zone hunts were being focused on zowie objects where players may have to face enemies to clear a zowie location rather than hunt some annoyingly increasing number of enemies.

The vision of the Supergroup base as expressed back when the game launched has indeed become obsolete.

That does not mean that the concept of a Supergroup Base itself is obsolete.

It has been indicated by the developers, I believe as recently as the post Going Rogue launch interviews, that they do have some ideas on what to do with Supergroup bases. Much like the Pre-I18 market though, the implementation of bases largely needs to be scrapped in order for any serious work to be done, such as making SG bases cross-faction.

That is going to take both time and money, and the reality is that at this stage in the game's life rebuilding the systems that backs the Supergroup base would have little to no financial profit. A reworked base system would not draw back in players who have left the game. The flip side of that coin is that as the current SG bases already checks off all of the bullets on the list for a retail box feature, and if the rest of the game can't get new players to decide on subscribing, a revamped supergroup base that will take a few weeks to populate with stuff isn't going to do it either.

That isn't a good situation for those hoping for quick updates to Supergroup bases. The only likely way that Paragon Studios could convince NCSoft to fund improvements on a prioritized schedule is if something in the Supergroup base system had to be changed or updated for a major retail / issue expansion feature.

It could be for that reason that we'll see Supergroup bases locked in with future Incarnate content, or a possible merger of Supergroup base and AE functionality.

* * *
I think the most annoying misinformation that gets on my nerves today consist of the following falsities:

• You need Invention Origin Sets
• Everybody slots for soft-cap defense
• Everybody slots for mega-recharge
• Everybody has hundreds of millions of influence
• Influence on the market is provided by developers or the game itself, not by players who at some point have to go out and defeat an enemy to produce that influence.
• The market can be used to make everybody in the game rich (see previous false idea; that influence has to come from somewhere. It comes from player characters defeating enemies)

Then are the quasi-truthful statements, things that are not true, but might be perceived as true. My opinion is that the semi-truthful misinformation is overall worse than the flat out wrong misinformation. It's a lot easier for players to believe a half-truth than a whole lie, so I'm going to list out the common responses to each bit of misinformation:

• Dark Armor sucks: well, only if you try to tank like an Invuln or a Stone.
• Fire Armor sucks: again, only if you try to tank like Invuln or a Stone.
• Devs hate farming: Developers hate exploits, not farming. Problem is so many farms leverage exploits. You do the math.
• Kins must have Speed Boost and Increase Density on every build: While these are Class Defining Powers, they can be situational. Controllers with pets will benefit by always having the two powers in their current build. Fire / Kins with ID can cure their imp's lack of knockback protection and increase resistance, keeping the imps in a fight for just a little longer. Grav / Kins with ID can give Singularity tank level resistances to smashing and energy damage. Speed Boost cures pets taking forever to catch up. For Petless controllers like Mind, or the defender and corrupter classes, these powers may be better suited for a dual-build.
• Devs hate super group bases: Paragon Studios has limited resources available to develop the game and has to make the most of each cycle of development. Some aspects of the game, such as the implementation of Super Group bases, probably needs to be scrapped and rebuilt from scratch. The time and resources spent on updating Super Group bases wouldn't have an immediate impact on sales or subscriptions of the game (that is not up for debate, updating the SG bases wouldn't bring any old subscribers back and the draw to new players would be insignificant). Ergo, SG base work has to be done on a de-prioritized level.
• Devs hate architecture entertainment: see above section about limited resources. In many cases the improvements players want in Architecture Entertainment requires programming or user-interface work that hasn't been available.
• Devs hate PvP: The developers actions and reactions to PvP is more related to the core concept of the game's inherent imbalanced structure being adversarial to the balanced structure required for a competitive PvP environment to succeed. Imagine it a bit like this: you spend all day building 4-wheel sports cars. You know the ins and outs of the frame of the car, how the wheels hit the road, the cross-section of the tires and their grip per inch of rubber applied to the road, and other things like how the transmission and trans-axel work. Then somebody comes up and asks you to build a motorcycle reasoning that both a car and a motorcycle have wheels, engines, tires, and transmissions, so if you know how to build a car, you've got to know how to build a motorcycle. If you didn't get the meaning of this example, go down to your local mechanic and ask them to explain the difference between a car and a motorcycle. Here's a hint: they are very different vehicles.
• Devs hate insert your pet project here: read above sections about developer resources.
• Accuracy was nerfed: Players tend to remember when things don't work as expected, sometimes referred to as the perception phenomenon. So when a player misses an attack, that miss tends to register and stay in memory longer than the number of attacks that connected.
• Such and such attack does too much knockback: in the current revision of the game the knock-around effects are all centered on a magnitude scale of the same power effect. This means that knockup / knockdown powers on opponents weak to knockback will generate knockback. This couples in with the perception phenomenon. Players remember the times that an enemy critter went flying backwards instead of the times the enemy just flopped over or bounced straight up.

Bull. Excrement.

Let me repeat that for you and Mod 05. You. Are. Full. Of. It.

I am going to stand by this statement, and this statement is going to stand. Period. I am not going to let you or anyone else think you can get away with this type of post on this board.

Now, that being said, I'm not going to go back and recreate the other stuff that got gutted from this beat down. Even I'm not that pedantic about making a point I should not have to make, and anybody who was actually interested has already seen this post the other 6 and half billion times I've linked to it.

There's this thing called Resource Management.


Paragon Studios has a limited number of developers. These developers are broken down by their specialties.

• Some developers are writers. They create the story content.
• Some developers are artists. They draw the artwork for the game.
• Some developers are modelers. They take the artwork that the artists draw and turn it into a 3D model.
• Some developers are animators. They take the 3D model's that the modelers made and then create the data needed to determine the actions those models can perform.
• Some developers are power developers. They calculate how much damage an attack should do. They also try and make sure that the game experience is relatively balanced.
• Some developers are reward developers. They calculate what reward should be given in the game for what-ever action.
• Some developers are User-Interface developers. They figure out how to display information so that it can be easily understood by the user.
• Some developers are coders. They write the actual code that gets compiled by a processor.

Here's the key thing to these breakdowns:

Developers that are good at one specialty probably aren't good at another specialty.

Noble Savage is an artists. If he was over in Black Scorpion's cubicle messing around with the power spreadsheets, we'd all have flashy dual-pistol animations for every single attack. If he was over in Television's cubicle, the source code would be filled with ASCII drawings.

Black Scorpion is a numbers calculator. If he was over in Noble Savages's cubicle messing around with the art we'd all have stick figures for maximized network efficiency. If he was over in Television's cubicle messing around, the compiled code would gain a 512bit encryption key.

The point is: the developers only have a limited number of resources. Scheduling these resources to actually produce content is a monumental task.

We know without a doubt just where the developers time has been taken up. Since I13 Paragon Studios has been exceedingly transparent about explaining what the development staff is up to.

What you don't know, probably out of ignorance as that's the only way your post is possible, is that Architect Entertainment was originally scheduled for Issue 13. Architect Entertainment was delayed to Issue 14 in order to complete the system to expose custom NPC critters to the player.

The delay to Architect Entertainment meant that the developers had to switch up gears. Game upgrades like Day Jobs, Leveling Pacts, and Multiple Builds were originally scheduled for Issue 14. To keep from delaying Issue 13's release these I14 features were released in I13 since they were almost finished.

The work needed to create Issue 14, the architect entertainment release, was one of the reasons that Issue 15 was so light on content. If the developers had stuck to the original plan, Issue 14 would have been the Anniversary release, containing the Dr. Khan and Cuda task forces.

Behind these issues was the ongoing work with Power Customization, which debuted in Issue 16. We know, for a fact, that Paragon Studios took over 2 years to implement Power Customization into the game. Even then Power Customization was still incomplete, lacking support for Costume Overlays, epic power pools, patron power pools, and regular pool powers. The developers went on record, very explicitly, that exposing these costume control options to the players required development resources that would not be made available until after Going Rogue had launched.

Key point here.

I'm going to repeat it since you do not understand developer resources.

The developers flat out told the players, in a very explicit manner, that adding some features to game, such as additional costume customization options, required development resources that were already scheduled and accounted for, and would not be available until after Going Rogue had launched.

Got it? No? Well, I tried.

Something to keep in mind here is that Going Rogue was delayed at least twice that we know of. Issue 17, released on April 28 in 2010, contained most of the free issue updates that were developed alongside the Going Rogue expansion, and were scheduled to launch alongside Going Rogue. As these free issue updates were finished they were added to the game. This was delay number 1: Going Rogue development did not synch up to free issue development.

We didn't know why there had been such a delay, but we did find out shortly after the second delay occurred. Still on the Going Rogue news site from March 2010 is a news post declaring that Going Rogue would launch in July: http://goingrogue.na.cityofheroes.co...ing-rogue.html

Going Rogue did not launch until August 17th, 4 months after Issue 17, and 2 months after the original expected launch date.

We later found out that the reason for this massive delay was the result of hard decisions from the Paragon Studios staff. One of those decisions involved the Paragon Studios deciding to go ahead and merge the market databases. Another decision was to flesh out the Praetoria world and have a Loyalist and a Resistance faction for players to work through, rather than simply having only one Praetorian faction.

We do know that towards the end of Going Rogue's development the development team was split. Positron and a selection of developers started to work on creating the Incarnate Content.

We also know that Positron made the call to pull the initial Incarnate Alpha Slot from Going Rogue's release because there wasn't enough time or resources to implement the Alpha Slot in time for the retail release.

Let me repeat that so you can understand it.

The developers, specifically Mr. Miller, announced that a major feature update to the game was being delayed because there simply was not enough time to finish developing that major feature update. Development Resources Allocated to the Incarnate project had to stop what they were doing in order to help get the retail expansion out on the announced date.


The point is, the earliest, and I do mean the EARLIEST any developmental work not tied to Going Rogue or the Incarnate system could have been started, which is put into pre-production, would have been August 18 in 2010.

Let me repeat that so you can understand it.

August 18th would be the earliest possible date that Paragon Studios would have been able to start scheduling developers to work on aspects of the game that were not tied to Going Rogue's retail release.

Now, from that point, we already have Issue 19, which was the result of Positron's Task Force working on Incarnate Content. The same guys that had to stop what they were doing back in July and August to help get Going Rogue out onto store shelfs.

We don't know what any of the other Paragon Studios developers have been working on since that August 18th date. Issue 20 has a signed NDA clause, and you get a nice little ejection message if you aren't supposed to be on that Beta server. We won't know until either that NDA lifts or the Developers tell us straight on.

To cap this, you can take that developers won't do this attitude of yours and shove it in a trash can.

Unless you can somehow show me where in Hades Lakes of Fire Paragon Studios managed to find coders, artists, UI developers, and everybody else needed to create updates to the game, not to mention PAYING THOSE DEVELOPERS TO DO THAT WORK, you need to shut up.

let me put it this way.

Dell owns Alienware. Alienware's are not hand-built by Alienware technicians. They are built in the same factories as Dell Inspirons.

If you want to buy a Dell, that's up to you.

Found the original announcement:

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showp...08&postcount=1

I'm not sure the Wolf Tail is actually listed on the store page.

It was an add-on from Noble Savage (I think) done off the working clock.

Well, with Black Scorpion and Synapse now running the powers, it probably got pushed onto their desks, and they are probably crushed with I20 workloads.

That's pretty much it. The 5670 has around 3/5 of the theoretical rendering power of a 5750:

• 6,200 MegaPixels versus 11,200 MegaPixels
• 15,500 MegaTexels versus 25,200 MegaTexels

You... really aren't close to the minimum. There's a pretty big gap in performance between the 5670 and the 5750.

That being said, the 5670 is still way more powerful than a RadeonHD 2600:



My own laptop here can drive Low Shadow, Low Environmental Reflects, and Ultra Quality Water while maintaining a playable frame-rate.

Playable defined as: I can live with 5 frames a second if I have to

I would think you would be able to drive these Ultra Mode settings in 1280*720 with maxed classic engine settings without a problem.

Well, looking at the information in a respec on a stalker:

• Blaze Mastery offers an additional 55.61 Damage @ level 50 for hidden status or against placated targets.
• Body, Darkness, and Weapon Mastery offers no additional damage on hidden status or against placated targets

On the Patron Side

• Soul Mastery offers an additional 55.61 damage against dark blast and 127.90 damage against moonbeam on hidden status or against placated targets
• Mace Mastery offers additional 55.61 damage against mace blast, 127.90 damage against mace beam, and a 50% chance for 55.61 damage against disruptor blast on hidden status and against placated targets.
• Leviathan Mastery offers an additional 55.61 damage on Spirit Shark for hidden status or against placated targets.
• Mu Mastery offers an additional 55.61 damage against Mu Bolts and 76.74 extra damage against Zapp on hidden status and against placated targets; as well as a 20% chance for 76.74 extra damage on held or sleeping targets against Zapp performed while not in a hidden state.

We do know that the combat information isn't entirely accurate for scrappers as the chance for critical while in a team isn't listed in the combat data exposed to the player: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Inherent

My suspicion is that the Assassination Team Critical reads it's damage count from the same data table that provides the damage for critical attacks from a Hide State.

Now, is that working as intended? I don't know. Probably is something to go yank on Black Scorpion's tail about.


*runs back through the thread carrying a section of armor that looks like it may have once bolted onto a scorpion tail*

Okay! Tail has been yanked! Gotta move before it catches up!

You'll need $10: https://secure.ncsoft.com/cgi-bin/St...em&item_id=197

The animated Wolf Tail is one of the Mutant pack additions: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Mutant_pack#Tails

I think he forgot to mention the HD part since ATi never did a Radeon 3100. It wouldn't make much difference given that the starting point for Ultra Mode graphics is the RadeonHD 4850.

That and the 3100 is an Integrated graphics chip: http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=88&pgno=1

As far as I am aware, the only time AMD has crossed branding lines has been in the integrated / mobile market. The integrated graphics chipset 740 which was sold under Radeon 2100. The Radeon x1350 also went through a couple of changes and was rebadged as the Radeon x2300.

There is a very large difference.

The requirement for Ultra Mode is that a Graphics Processor can execute Shader Code compiled against OpenGL 3.0 or Higher.

• Nvidia has supported OpenGL 3.0 since the Geforce 8000 series
• AMD has supported OpenGL 3.0 since the RadeonHD 2000 series

This is why the Ultra Mode Requirements state you must have one of these cards. Being able to process OpenGL 3.0 is the bare requirement.

Where the Requirements are inaccurate is having a graphics card that can Process OpenGL 3.0 Code... FAST ENOUGH TO MATTER.

Key point here. Simply being able to execute the code is NOT the same thing as being able to run the code fast enough to make the game playable.

For a full listing of graphics cards that are capable of Driving Ultra Mode fast enough to matter, please see this thread:

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=248474

Specifically, this post: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showp...7&postcount=11

One of the things you have to keep in mind about Fire Aura is the development idea behind the aura. The conceptual idea behind Fire is that you trade off survivability for damage. Part of that lack of survivability is represented by the lack of any native protection to Knockback effects, and the only native protection to immobilize being located in the burn power. Another part of that lack of survivability is presented by the lack of any native protections that offer Defense. Fire has nothing to keep enemy powers from hitting you.

The Issue 18 update to Fire Aura largely fixed the ability of the set to actually output damage, making a more realistic trade-off of survivability for damage. The changes listed were the removal of the Fear patch on Burn, the entire revamping of Fiery Embrace to boost all melee attack powers damage, and the addition of a recovery buff to consume.

Something else to keep in mind is Fire Aura includes a high damaging self rez. At high levels, you might as well get used to the idea that Rise of the Phoenix is going to be part of your attack chain.

You do have a significant advantage as a brute of getting access to Darkest Night. You'll be waiting until level 44 to get to the power, but it is well worth taking.


Now, as to IO slotting, there are a couple of schools of thought on the subject.

Some players go for the omgIneedsoftcappeddefensessonothingcanhitme, and yes that is typed with no spaces because that thought concept annoys me. Fact is, Fire Aura has no defense debuff resistance. According to the ParagonWiki Attack mechanics, Defense Debuff Resistance reduces how much defense a power that debuffs defense takes away. This means that all it takes is 1 single attack from a single enemy, and unless you are way OVER the soft cap for a particular damage, you are no longer at the soft-cap. Remember, Fire Armor does not have the mez aura's that Dark Armor offers, or the end-drain ability of Electric Armor armor, so there is no power that will buy time for a defense debuff effect to wear off.

My own personal preference on Fire Armor, and the one that I have found is more effective for sustained combat, is to focus on Recharge Buffs and Hit Point Buffs. Many IO sets that buff your hit points will also buff your regeneration, such as the Numina set or Luck of the Gambler set.

The higher your base recharge is, the more often Healing Flames will be back up.

The higher your Hit Points are, the more attacks you can live through.

I also recommend picking up the Winter's Gift Slow Resistance Status IO. Coupled with Temperature Protection and you'll have 40% resistance to slow. That's kind of important when you are relying on Healing Flames to be your Auto-Power, and a single slow can ruin your whole day.

Also, on the subject of Knockback IO slotting, I've got Fire Armors with 4 kb IO's apiece for 16 mag knockback protection... and there's still stuff in the non-incarnate game that can send them flying.

If you do not intend to participate in Incarnate content, then you'll probably be perfectly fine with only 3 knockback IO's. If you intend to participate in the Incarnate content you'll certainly want at least 4 KB IO's. I suggest putting a Knockback IO proc in the Temperature Protection, combat jumping, tough, and weave powers.

Also, the reason I'm not posting screen-shots from my fire auras is that they are still all slotted for I18 and aren't redone for I19 and inherent fitness.


Finally: if this does seem a little daunting... well it is.

Fire Aura is one of the hardest sets to play in the game, and it is NOT a set I would recommend for new players to try. Given the limitations of Fire Aura I would be very hesitant to approach the set on a purely Single Origin and lite IO base.

I would also be very hesitant about coupling it with Kinetic Melee, especially on a Brute / Scrapper.

The big problem in my mind is that KM has a couple of sunk animation attacks. While the -minus damage portion of KM should combo well with Fire Aura's resistances, the sunken animation costs may offset that synchronicity. The lower base HP levels of the Brute / Scrapper and the lower values of the native Fire Resistances, and the lack of any enemy mitigation effects, means you could very easily be sunk into a KM animation and find yourself dead.