seebs

My grandfather once sent a nasty note to a vegetable vendor referring to some asparagus, including an example of the (overly tough) vegetable, which he referred to as a "f-----". It's a shame that the word is now censory, because that was a brilliant bit of writing.

Yes. Also, they've just confirmed FREE RESPECS FOR EVERYBODY, so this is probably coming in on the right time to use your freespecs to get stuff out of characters.

Yeah. A collaborative filter system would be MUCH better than the current one.

Seems to me like the right thing would be something like a fire/FF corruptor whose basic strategy is to faceplant repeatedly, then at the end of the mission, eat all the candy at once and solo the big bad.

"Plays" or "played"? I only recently ran into the books, and somehow I'd gotten the impression that he used to play CoH.

I gotta look him up some day and demand an answer to the pressing question: "y" or "ie"? (This is the sort of thing that bugs me for weeks.)

quickfire, a thought:

There is, as you say, no requirement that you post evidence.
There is also no requirement that anyone believe what you say.

We all have more fun, though, if we post support for our views, and if we try to evaluate each others' claims as best we can given that support.

FWIW... I would say that some aspects of the crafting system are daunting even to me. I'm autistic, and I habitually min-max in video games, and the nested interactions of the invention system ("if I take this set, that breaks rule of 5 for this recharge bonus so I should consider replacing that set, but then I lose part of my S/L defense, but I gain E defense, so maybe...") are Too Hard for me to do a good job. Yes, I can use Mids, but it can't really do a good job of "I would like to replace this set with that set, what would the implications be?"

That said... While crafting may not be NEEDED at low levels, if you have a little time to put in and you're soloing (so you'll be there long enough to care), it can make a HUGE difference. Grab yourself a Kismet +accuracy and a Karma or Steadfast -KB (or maybe the set bonus -KB from one of the knockback sets), on a level 8-10 character with no inherent -KB, and let us know whether it makes a difference.

And to some extent, I think, that's the point. The entire concept of crafting in this game is that it is to be optional. At all levels, really. The game was built with the assumption that you would have SOs at level 50, and characters are supposed to, with just SOs, be amazing enough to be able to take on the original 50-level content.

Yeah, I think this is premature enpatchulation.

I give up, I can't win that one. Canadian Supervillain ends with a fight against an elite boss with multiple mezzes. Even with AM up and one of the useful secondary mutations, I couldn't burn him down fast enough, and if even one Deceive missed, I was pretty much dead. After dying about four times I quit the mission.

Interesting custom characters, but some of the combinations end up being too powerful, and the elite boss was way too tough at my level. Maybe at 12, when I have bigger bonuses from enhancements, and maybe some +damage.

Calling it a night for now. Will be back to this project over the weekend.

Ugh! That was a great story, too.

1. There are other sources of mats. (AE most noticably, plus the market itself).
2. Crafting is not useless before 30. It isn't always the best bonuses you can get, but it is often better than the alternatives.

Level 10 IOs are better than anything you can get from TOs. Level 15 IOs are better than DOs. It's not until level 25 IOs that SOs are actually arguably better -- but by 25 you can be frankenslotting.

I do agree that the very restricted inventory is pretty frustrating.

Right! Arc the 11th, "Origin of a Canadian SuperVillain" (#80724). Looked amusing. Will give me something to do while the ncsoft launcher challenges our notion of what it means to "have already downloaded" a file.

I'm trying to be a good boy and follow instructions, running the launcher normally and letting it install the test server stuff fresh. I haven't ever previously had test server.

I just note that redownloading 6.5GB of files when you already had them right there is sorta dim, and... Really, who doesn't check for disk space before an install?

So, uhm.

Surely you've noticed that the ncsoft launcher will COMPLETELY REDOWNLOAD complete installs, or complete downloads, even though it has just downloaded all of the files.

And that it does not even TRY to check for available disk space.

So I just downloaded 6.5GB of test server stuff, then didn't have ANOTHER 6GB for it to unpack into (laptop with SSD). So I freed up space. I noticed that it still had the 6.5GB of downloaded files... But when I ran the launcher, it started over.

Now.

You guys had a launcher in the past that was smarter than this. In particular, it was not written by someone who devoted weeks of effort to introducing failures into something that would work right if you simply expended no effort at all. It was able to look at local files and use them if they had suitable checksums. I think it even checked for available disk space. It did not unconditionally UAC-prompt for admin access even when it would succeed without difficulty if you clicked No.

And it occurs to me: Surely, Paragon studios has some kind of summer intern who has taken a computer science class, maybe knows a little pascal, and manages to come to work with the pants on the lower half and the shirt on the upper half four days out of five, right? Maybe you could lend this summer intern to ncsoft.

10th arc: City of Ho Ho Ho (#18775). I am confident of my ability to help the laughing fat guy, right after I get some dinner.

... And, yup, completed that. Ambushes are harder on me than most ofther content -- lowbie illusion means I rely a fair bit on being able to pick a fight rather than being dropped into one.

Still, was fun. Cool story, came with souvenir!

Thugs and Love made me giggle. ALMOST made 10 -- less than a bubble left. Fun arc, recommended if you don't take the canon characters too seriously.

Up next: Twas a Dark and Stormy Night, or was it? (#2126). Very short, not a whole lot of writing, but what there is struck me as pretty solid, and the custom enemies really worked for me. Well done. Level 10 now, gonna go train and stuff.

That was pretty fun. Only had four ratings, but I enjoyed it. Cute story.

On to the 8th arc: Thugs and Love (#339282). Liking it so far, made it to level 9 on the first giant map full of hellions. Soooo ready to be on level 20+ IOs.

Okay! Done with Idol Hands. Really nice; I liked the concept, it developed reasonably well, interesting use of competing factions in a couple of places. Level 8.

Next up (My 6th): Into The Darkness (#296599). Decent story, hampered a bit by typos. Some of the typos are funny, but I don't think it's intentional. Custom opponents, interesting use of maps. Nothing super amazing, but it wasn't a bad experience.

And... Next up: Infringement (#169819). Looks amusing. I have realized that I'm never gonna level in architect mode if I keep stealthing missions, so it's back to killing stuff for me.

That one's already on my list from the chatter in the MA Arc channel last night.