I've been playing "City of Heroes" since Beta, I've learned a lot over the years, and I know what made me stay for all of those years. I did what everyone did when they joined City of Heroes, and it was addicting, it was fun and I found myself thinking of the game day and night even when I was at work, but after 4 or 5 years I was wondering whats next? I made it to level 50 and I can't go higher than that, my character was the same as everyone else, ( what's the fun in that )? So I figured if I can't "LEVEL UP!", I had to "POWER UP!", and that's when I learned more about the set bonuses from the enhancement sets.
This is why I played solo, not to play the whole game that way, but to improve my power and to perfect whatever weakness my archetype had. Every time I played in a group I keep hearing the same thing, " I hate Carnies, Maltas, CoT's, and Freakshow"!! why?, because they all suck endurance. Well my characters had no problems with endurance, because endurance was the first step in improving my characters. My next step was to work on my Defense, Resist, and so on, whatever my weakness, I build it up with my set bonuses from the enhancement sets.
Everything seems to fall in place after that,
1: You can email your character a recipe or influence
2: Ouroboros, going back in time
3: Enhancement Boosters
4: Incarnates
5: Accolade Powers
6: Purple IO's
I did not get on "YouTube", letting people know what I did, because I didn't want anything to spoil my characters. Once I've had my character set or close to being set, I joined a group to test my character even more. There was times when everyone died, but I was still alive to group teleport everyone away from danger. And there was a time when a tanker in the group, saw how well my scrapper was handling a mob, that he wanted to PvP in an arena. Long story short, I was a level 45 staff/will power scrapper, and he was a level 50 tanker, that was my first time in an arena, I won and I didn't even get to use my "Strength of Will".
So what I'm trying to say is, make the game for everyone in mind, because not everyone is going to play the game the same way. When you hear people talk about what they like or don't like in a game, remember this, everything that I've listed above kept me for 9 years.
There's a sentiment implicit in the original post that I'd like to echo, and that ias the importance of re-playability and the importance of having enhancements and so forth that are "deep" in the sense that there's not usually an obvious right answer that slaps you in the face. If the gear system is done right, we ought to be arguing about what the "best" build is and never really coming to a consensus about a lot of it. CoX got that part right, eventually, with 6-slot maximums in powers, enhancement diversification rules, and invention origin enhancements.
So my request to the devs is to remember that the building of the toon from the ground up in terms of powers to pick, slots to put in them, and what to fill those slots with ought to be as engaging and complex a process as we had in CoX, albeit without that broken Hamios and so forth. Going too simple in that realm makes the game get stale fast because as the OP pointed out, you might get a toon to the level cap in a few days/weeks, but getting them kitted out the way you ideally want is a process that should take a lot of time to plan and execute, and that's part of what makes toons worth playing beyond the cap.
Edit: I also liked the Accolade powers for this reason. They were the reason I did the Praetorian Portal corp mission on many of my toons, and I would usually advertize when I was doing them so people could get badges if they needed them.
R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising
Funny I always found the crafting and collection of enhancements to be a chore that I put up with.
never enjoyed anything about it.
Mind you I was still pressured into doing it by the people I hung out with who would ridicule you for not being optimized
but it was way more trouble than it was worth even just to shut them up
I really only enjoyed the game early on when I didn't know anyone to team with and near the end when I was the only one of my friends still playing
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/browse/pub/3185/Crusader-Game-Books
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC48O9dPcNVdeyNM4efAvX6w/videos?view_as=subscriber
Well, if I have my druthers, the majority of the "optimized" stuff your friends think you "need" will be stuff they can give you if they think it's so critical.
[color=#ff0000]Business Manager[/color]
[img]http://missingworldsmedia.com/images/favicon.ico[/img]
Anything that's worth gaining is never easy, but it was worth it for me, all of my hard work paid off. It didn't take as long as you may think, my problem was I had over two pages of level 50's. When I played one character and I got a good recipe or a purple drop that I couldn't use, I emailed it to a character that can use it. Just because I perfect my powers when I solo, doesn't mean I'm going to go running off while on a team, and jump in a pile of foes because I can handle myself. I get more people asking me why I'm not with a super group, I try and make it simple and tell them "It's not for me" but they still persist. It came to a point where I made my own super group with just me in it, just to shut them up.
After 8 years of on-again, off-again play in CoX, I never got a single toon totally "done". I was content with having almost no purples except the ones I got from random drops (or else I sold those to pay for others), then I generally wanted to get the easier Accolades to pump up my max endo and HP, and I usually tried to get at least one Zephyr to put in a travel power and enhance my KB protection and then I also liked the ones you could slot into the Fitness powers. I also usually had a +Stealth proc in Super Speed or Fly if I had it, which was often. With set bonuses I generally didn't care about defense or resistance and went primarily for +Recovery and global damage buffs. But then I played a lot of Def/Con types. The fact that my toons could always use something to upgrade some part of thier buold somewhere was what made it fun to keep playing them over and over.
Purples, HamiO's, accolade powers, and other hard-to-get items were part of the reason I kept track of my toons in the long-term sense. I think CoT needs Very Rare type stuff for this reason too. That said I never let anyone tell me I had to grind for stuff. If I didn't feel like totally purple-ing out my toons, I didn't. Nobody was going to make me do that. I was also unlikely to ever do missions or farms with people just so that someone ELSE could get the purple or whatever they wanted either. I did content to have fun, not grind for gear. And this was in a somewhat gear grindy game. I'm okay with making CoT as gear grindy as CoX was because I feel I'm impervious to that anyway. When the game starts feeling like a burden or a crappy job that I'm doing to maintain something instead of fun, I generally say "no thanks" and go do something fun. Luckily my CoX friends and SG members were totally coll with that and we never made anyone get any high-end swag just to be allowed to hang around with us.
R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising
I played very similarly NightProwl and Radiac. Only my drive to refine and build--other than it was a fun metagame--was that I always followed my theme strictly but yet wanted my hero to be as powerful as he could be.
Because of this, often my power combinations were not particularly synergistic, so I had to study and test and FIND synergies that weren't commonly used, and then intensely optimize to make my hero the powerful hero he should be.
I did enjoy the studying, designing, and implementing my designs more than (as Paladin mentioned) the sometimes grindy collecting and not-to-immersive crafting system, but then playing CoH was just generally FUN, so even the collecting and crafting was ok.
Miss it. Miss it bad. Just can't find another game. Boy have I tried.
FIGHT EVIL! (or go cause trouble so the Heroes have something to do.)
I wished I had screen shots of how I slotted my powers, you wouldn't have thought that it would have worked, but years of playing proved that it did. I only had one set of purple IO's on my characters, the rest was rare and they was not level 50 IO's. It was setup that way for when I SK down to play a low level taskforce, that I would not lose any set bonuses from my enhancements. That's why I use the Ouroboros portal to test my characters powers, and to see what power I would have at a low level. You would find me in PI in front of Portal Corp, aggro as many foes to see whats my weakness is and how many can I aggro. It trips me out when people think I'm in trouble while doing that, and they come running to help, you've got to love them for that. When I'm level 50, you can find me in the RWZ fighting level 53 - 54 Rikti, by the way I get more purple drops during that than when I'm on a team.
My most expensive and best build I ever had on CoH. Took me quite some time to fine tune and tweak it just right. She was a BEAST!
[color=#9400D3][b]Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.96[/b][/color]
[color=#9400D3][b]http://www.cohplanner.com/[/b][/color]
[color=#800080][u][b][url=http://www.cohplanner.com/mids/download.php?uc=1605&c=768&a=1536&f=HEX&dc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lick this DataLink to open the build![/url][/b][/u][/color]
[b][color=#9400D3]oOStatic NekoOo:[/color][color=#000000] Level 50 Technology Tanker[/color][/b]
[b][color=#9400D3]Primary Power Set: [/color][color=#000000]Electric Armor[/color][/b]
[b][color=#9400D3]Secondary Power Set: [/color][color=#000000]Titan Weapons[/color][/b]
[b][color=#9400D3]Power Pool: [/color][color=#000000]Leaping[/color][/b]
[b][color=#9400D3]Power Pool: [/color][color=#000000]Speed[/color][/b]
[b][color=#9400D3]Power Pool: [/color][color=#000000]Fighting[/color][/b]
[b][color=#9400D3]Power Pool: [/color][color=#000000]Leadership[/color][/b]
[b][color=#9400D3]Ancillary Pool: [/color][color=#000000]Energy Mastery[/color][/b]
[color=#9400D3][b]Hero Profile:[/b][/color]
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 1:[/color] [color=#000000]Charged Armor[/color][/b] [color=#9400D3]--[/color] [color=#800080]ImpArm-[/color][color=#800080]ResPsi[/color](A)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]ImpArm-[/color][color=#800080]ResDam[/color](3)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]ImpArm-[/color][color=#800080]ResDam/EndRdx[/color](3)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]ImpArm-[/color][color=#800080]ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg[/color](5)
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 1:[/color] [color=#000000]Defensive Sweep[/color][/b] [color=#9400D3]--[/color] [color=#800080]LkGmblr-[/color][color=#800080]Rchg+[/color](A)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]FotG-[/color][color=#800080]Acc/Dmg[/color](11)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]FotG-[/color][color=#800080]Dam/End/Rech[/color](19)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]FotG-[/color][color=#800080]Acc/End/Rech[/color](21)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]FotG-[/color][color=#800080]Acc/Dmg/End/Rech[/color](34)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]FotG-[/color][color=#800080]Dam/Rech[/color](34)
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 2:[/color] [color=#000000]Conductive Shield[/color][/b] [color=#9400D3]--[/color] [color=#800080]ImpArm-[/color][color=#800080]ResPsi[/color](A)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]ImpArm-[/color][color=#800080]ResDam[/color](5)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]ImpArm-[/color][color=#800080]ResDam/EndRdx[/color](7)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]ImpArm-[/color][color=#800080]ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg[/color](7)
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 4:[/color] [color=#000000]Crushing Blow[/color][/b] [color=#9400D3]--[/color] [color=#800080]Hectmb-[/color][color=#800080]Dmg/Rchg[/color](A)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]Hectmb-[/color][color=#800080]Acc/Dmg/Rchg[/color](17)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]Hectmb-[/color][color=#800080]Acc/Rchg[/color](25)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]Hectmb-[/color][color=#800080]Dmg/EndRdx[/color](43)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]Hectmb-[/color][color=#800080]Dam%[/color](43)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]Achilles-[/color][color=#800080]ResDeb%[/color](48)
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 6:[/color] [color=#000000]Static Shield[/color][/b] [color=#9400D3]--[/color] [color=#800080]ImpArm-[/color][color=#800080]ResPsi[/color](A)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]ImpArm-[/color][color=#800080]ResDam[/color](9)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]ImpArm-[/color][color=#800080]ResDam/EndRdx[/color](9)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]ImpArm-[/color][color=#800080]ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg[/color](11)
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 8:[/color] [color=#000000]Grounded[/color][/b] [color=#9400D3]--[/color] [color=#800080]S'fstPrt-[/color][color=#800080]ResDam/Def+[/color](A)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]Aegis-[/color][color=#800080]Psi/Status[/color](33)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]ImpArm-[/color][color=#800080]ResPsi[/color](42)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]GA-[/color][color=#800080]3defTpProc[/color](43)
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 10:[/color] [color=#000000]Combat Jumping[/color][/b] [color=#9400D3]--[/color] [color=#800080]LkGmblr-[/color][color=#800080]Rchg+[/color](A)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]SW-[/color][color=#800080]ResDam/Re TP[/color](48)
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 12:[/color] [color=#000000]Energize[/color][/b] [color=#9400D3]--[/color] [color=#800080]Dct'dW-[/color][color=#800080]Heal/EndRdx[/color](A)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]Dct'dW-[/color][color=#800080]EndRdx/Rchg[/color](13)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]Dct'dW-[/color][color=#800080]Heal/Rchg[/color](13)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]Dct'dW-[/color][color=#800080]Heal/EndRdx/Rchg[/color](15)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]Dct'dW-[/color][color=#800080]Heal[/color](15)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]Dct'dW-[/color][color=#800080]Rchg[/color](45)
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 14:[/color] [color=#000000]Super Jump[/color][/b] [color=#9400D3]--[/color] [color=#800080]Jump[/color][color=#800080]-I[/color](A)
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 16:[/color] [color=#000000]Hasten[/color][/b] [color=#9400D3]--[/color] [color=#800080]RechRdx[/color][color=#800080]-I[/color](A)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]RechRdx[/color][color=#800080]-I[/color](17)
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 18:[/color] [color=#000000]Lightning Reflexes[/color][/b] [color=#9400D3]--[/color] [color=#800080]Run[/color][color=#800080]-I[/color](A)
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 20:[/color] [color=#000000]Build Momentum[/color][/b] [color=#9400D3]--[/color] [color=#800080]AdjTgt-[/color][color=#800080]Rchg[/color](A)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]AdjTgt-[/color][color=#800080]ToHit/EndRdx/Rchg[/color](21)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]AdjTgt-[/color][color=#800080]ToHit/Rchg[/color](45)
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 22:[/color] [color=#000000]Lightning Field[/color][/b] [color=#9400D3]--[/color] [color=#800080]EndRdx[/color][color=#800080]-I[/color](A)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]Armgdn-[/color][color=#800080]Dam%[/color](23)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]Sciroc-[/color][color=#800080]Dam%[/color](23)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]Erad-[/color][color=#800080]%Dam[/color](25)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]FotG-[/color][color=#800080]ResDeb%[/color](27)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]Oblit-[/color][color=#800080]%Dam[/color](48)
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 24:[/color] [color=#000000]Boxing[/color][/b] [color=#9400D3]--[/color] [color=#800080]Acc[/color][color=#800080]-I[/color](A)
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 26:[/color] [color=#000000]Power Sink[/color][/b] [color=#9400D3]--[/color] [color=#800080]Mocking-[/color][color=#800080]Taunt[/color](A)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]Mocking-[/color][color=#800080]Taunt/Rchg[/color](27)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]Mocking-[/color][color=#800080]Taunt/Rchg/Rng[/color](29)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]Mocking-[/color][color=#800080]Acc/Rchg[/color](29)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]Mocking-[/color][color=#800080]Taunt/Rng[/color](46)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]Mocking-[/color][color=#800080]Rchg[/color](46)
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 28:[/color] [color=#000000]Rend Armor[/color][/b] [color=#9400D3]--[/color] [color=#800080]GS-[/color][color=#800080]Acc/Dmg[/color](A)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]GS-[/color][color=#800080]Dam/Rech[/color](37)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]GS-[/color][color=#800080]Dam/End/Rech[/color](40)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]GS-[/color][color=#800080]Acc/End/Rech[/color](42)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]GS-[/color][color=#800080]Acc/Dmg/End/Rech[/color](42)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]Achilles-[/color][color=#800080]ResDeb%[/color](45)
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 30:[/color] [color=#000000]Tough[/color][/b] [color=#9400D3]--[/color] [color=#800080]ImpArm-[/color][color=#800080]ResPsi[/color](A)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]ImpArm-[/color][color=#800080]ResDam[/color](31)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]ImpArm-[/color][color=#800080]ResDam/EndRdx[/color](31)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]ImpArm-[/color][color=#800080]ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg[/color](31)
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 32:[/color] [color=#000000]Weave[/color][/b] [color=#9400D3]--[/color] [color=#800080]LkGmblr-[/color][color=#800080]Rchg+[/color](A)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]RedFtn-[/color][color=#800080]Def[/color](33)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]RedFtn-[/color][color=#800080]Def/EndRdx[/color](33)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]RedFtn-[/color][color=#800080]Def/EndRdx/Rchg[/color](46)
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 35:[/color] [color=#000000]Whirling Smash[/color][/b] [color=#9400D3]--[/color] [color=#800080]Armgdn-[/color][color=#800080]Dmg/Rchg[/color](A)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]Armgdn-[/color][color=#800080]Acc/Dmg/Rchg[/color](36)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]Armgdn-[/color][color=#800080]Acc/Rchg[/color](36)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]Armgdn-[/color][color=#800080]Dmg/EndRdx[/color](36)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]Armgdn-[/color][color=#800080]Dmg[/color](37)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]FrcFbk-[/color][color=#800080]Rechg%[/color](37)
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 38:[/color] [color=#000000]Arc of Destruction[/color][/b] [color=#9400D3]--[/color] [color=#800080]SMotTanker-[/color][color=#800080]Acc/Dmg[/color](A)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]SMotTanker-[/color][color=#800080]Dmg/Rchg[/color](39)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]SMotTanker-[/color][color=#800080]Acc/Dmg/Rchg[/color](39)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]SMotTanker-[/color][color=#800080]Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg[/color](39)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]SMotTanker-[/color][color=#800080]Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg[/color](40)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]SMotTanker-[/color][color=#800080]Rchg/Res%[/color](40)
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 41:[/color] [color=#000000]Conserve Power[/color][/b] [color=#9400D3]--[/color] [color=#800080]RechRdx[/color][color=#800080]-I[/color](A)
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 44:[/color] [color=#000000]Physical Perfection[/color][/b] [color=#9400D3]--[/color] [color=#800080]P'Shift-[/color][color=#800080]End%[/color](A)
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 47:[/color] [color=#000000]Taunt[/color][/b] [color=#9400D3]--[/color] [color=#800080]Zinger-[/color][color=#800080]Dam%[/color](A)
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 49:[/color] [color=#000000]Maneuvers[/color][/b] [color=#9400D3]--[/color] [color=#800080]LkGmblr-[/color][color=#800080]Rchg+[/color](A)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]RedFtn-[/color][color=#800080]Def[/color](50)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]RedFtn-[/color][color=#800080]Def/EndRdx[/color](50)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]RedFtn-[/color][color=#800080]Def/EndRdx/Rchg[/color](50)
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 1:[/color] [color=#000000]Brawl[/color][/b] [color=#9400D3]--[/color] [color=#800080]Acc[/color][color=#800080]-I[/color](A)
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 1:[/color] [color=#000000]Gauntlet[/color][/b]
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 1:[/color] [color=#000000]Prestige Power Dash[/color][/b] [color=#9400D3]--[/color] [color=#9400D3]Empty[/color](A)
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 1:[/color] [color=#000000]Prestige Power Slide[/color][/b] [color=#9400D3]--[/color] [color=#9400D3]Empty[/color](A)
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 1:[/color] [color=#000000]Prestige Power Quick[/color][/b] [color=#9400D3]--[/color] [color=#9400D3]Empty[/color](A)
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 1:[/color] [color=#000000]Prestige Power Rush[/color][/b] [color=#9400D3]--[/color] [color=#9400D3]Empty[/color](A)
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 1:[/color] [color=#000000]Prestige Power Surge[/color][/b] [color=#9400D3]--[/color] [color=#9400D3]Empty[/color](A)
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 1:[/color] [color=#000000]Sprint[/color][/b] [color=#9400D3]--[/color] [color=#800080]Run[/color][color=#800080]-I[/color](A)
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 2:[/color] [color=#000000]Rest[/color][/b] [color=#9400D3]--[/color] [color=#800080]RechRdx[/color][color=#800080]-I[/color](A)
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 4:[/color] [color=#000000]Ninja Run[/color][/b]
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 4:[/color] [color=#000000]Swift[/color][/b] [color=#9400D3]--[/color] [color=#800080]Run[/color][color=#800080]-I[/color](A)
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 4:[/color] [color=#000000]Health[/color][/b] [color=#9400D3]--[/color] [color=#800080]Numna-[/color][color=#800080]Regen/Rcvry+[/color](A)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]Mrcl-[/color][color=#800080]Rcvry+[/color](19)
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 4:[/color] [color=#000000]Hurdle[/color][/b] [color=#9400D3]--[/color] [color=#800080]Jump[/color][color=#800080]-I[/color](A)
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 4:[/color] [color=#000000]Stamina[/color][/b] [color=#9400D3]--[/color] [color=#800080]P'Shift-[/color][color=#800080]End%[/color](A)[color=#800080], [/color][color=#800080]P'Shift-[/color][color=#800080]EndMod[/color](34)
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 1:[/color] [color=#000000]Momentum[/color][/b]
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 0:[/color] [color=#000000]Freedom Phalanx Reserve[/color][/b]
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 0:[/color] [color=#000000]Portal Jockey[/color][/b]
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 0:[/color] [color=#000000]Task Force Commander[/color][/b]
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 0:[/color] [color=#000000]The Atlas Medallion[/color][/b]
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 50:[/color] [color=#000000]Ion Partial Radial Judgement[/color][/b]
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 50:[/color] [color=#000000]Cimeroran Total Core Improved Ally[/color][/b]
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 50:[/color] [color=#000000]Cardiac Partial Core Revamp[/color][/b]
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 50:[/color] [color=#000000]Preemptive Partial Radial Conversion[/color][/b]
[b][color=#BA55D3]Level 50:[/color] [color=#000000]Ageless Partial Core Invocation[/color][/b]
[color=#9400D3]------------[/color]
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I got chills! They're multiplyin'. And I'm losin' control. Cuz the power, I'm supplyin'. Why it's ELECTRIFYIN'!!
Whoa!! Static,
Now that is what I'm talking about, did you by any chance use "enhancement boosters" on some or all of your enhancements?
If you did, I think I can see it, just didn't know how this "Mid Build" shows it compared to the way CoX shows it.
I've also noticed that you could have improved on your character even further, must have still been working on it.
I was never done with mines either, jumping from character to character trying to improve on what I've learned.
By the way, I've use the "Sentinel Plus" program to save my characters, any way I can use it with this "Mid Build" program?
I did not use Booster Packs to get my enhancements. I was a little bit of an ebil marketer. That was the final build. I was done doing any tweaks to her I could do. I could pretty much take on anything with her and not worry about it. That one and two or three others were my favorites to play. My friend and I would solo the Towers on the ITF with this Tank and his Time/Fire Defender. We even Duo'd Rommy and managed to take out a couple of Nicti before the rest of the team joined us. LOL.
I got chills! They're multiplyin'. And I'm losin' control. Cuz the power, I'm supplyin'. Why it's ELECTRIFYIN'!!
Sorry I meant to say "Enhancement Boosters", not "Booster Packs".
I think even in the case where grinding for the gear was a pain, the building of the toon in MIDS or whatever was still an engaging and interesting part of the game, at least for me.
R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising
I played solo more often then on a team, though often it was because I lacked an active sg or any involvement in global channels for years. There were times when I was grinding for salvage through Oro or AE tickets that I would do solo on purpose. I wouldn't say it was work, I still was having fun. I just wouldn't want to drag anyone else around for it.
I didn't build my characters because I had to, I did it because I wanted too. I wasn't a Mids user, but I really loved building and tweaking characters. Most of my building went into overall performance instead of aiming for the caps, except for my Inv./EM tank I tricked out for psi def/resistance. I loved the looks I would get charging in and aggroing an entire room of carnies and my health never dropping below 60%. I did end up purpling out one character, my main but that was more out of love than min/maxing.
-----------------------------------------
I never set anything on fire accidentally!
The Titan Legacy - Defender of the Inner Flame
I was about 60/40 solo/teaming. Most of the teaming was on PUGs.
I didn't have any regular teammates from an SG for most of my time in the game.
I detested spamming zone chat with "LFT" so I would throw one out and if I didn't get a response in a few minutes, I'd head out on my own.
I only messed around with MIDs a little bit. I mostly used common IOs. I didn't really start worrying about set bonuses and such until the last year or so when incarnate stuff got me to get out a few of my favorite 50s.
"I don't think you understand the gravity of your situation."
I've never heard of "Mid's" until after the closing of CoX, everything I did was on paper and respecting my characters. Sometimes I'll do a terra volta taskforce mission to get another respect if I needed one. Don't get me wrong, I love playing in a group (how else am I going to show off my skillz ). I love it when they say, "how did you live through all of that, without dying"?, I just tell them "you think I'm going to jump into something like that without a way out"?
I love taking the worst archetype, and see what I can do to make him the best, that's why most of my characters are defenders, controllers, and masterminds. I'm going to mess around with this "Mid's" program and see if I can resurrect one of my characters.
I bet I spend half as much time dinkering with Mids as I spent playing. BEST META-GAME EVER!
Paid off too. Had many similar experiences to NightProwl.
FIGHT EVIL! (or go cause trouble so the Heroes have something to do.)
I remember when I first respeced my main (thug/poison mm) after using mids to redesign her.
It was liked she jumped two levels how much more powerful she was
So this thread is really about optimizing your toons and not about playing solo, right?
I didn't get that at first.
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/browse/pub/3185/Crusader-Game-Books
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC48O9dPcNVdeyNM4efAvX6w/videos?view_as=subscriber
This thread is for all of the people who don't understand why people solo in a MMO game, It also let other solo players know that they are not alone.
As well as letting the dev's know what to keep in a game, and why they should keep it.
Solo players want to join in a group, but they know that the stronger each character is in a group, the better the success of winning. Too many times people power level, but they don't know how to use their powers. examples: (Your fighting a large group of foes, then someone with knock-back pushes him into another large group), or ( Your in a warehouse and a rad/storm has his debuff on a runner who runs and aggro the whole warehouse), I can go on but y'all know the story.
Solo players will join a team, but not until they feel that they are ready, trust me, you will be glad that a solo player is in your group when your tanker goes down, or when things goes nuts. I mean really, even the "XMEN" had a "Danger Room" to train in before they went out, just look at the solo players as if they are in the "Danger Room".
And "NO"!, we don't want to join your SG, unless it's a SG of solo players. Who knows maybe we'll help you out, by taking down that AV your having trouble with. ;)
The way your describing things Paladin, brings back memories of what I went through in the game, in the first 4 to 5 years.
I didn't know much about crafting either, I was just leveling up, and having fun. When a new power came out, I bought it just to keep from getting bored, I just got tired of it all. A friend told me all about crafting, and the bonuses you get from the enhancement sets. I tried it, and now I have something new to do in a game that I thought was getting old fast, ( at least in my eye's ). I had over 2 pages of lvl 50 characters to improve on, each character already had influences, salvages, and recipes. So all the hard work was already done years ago, and with the "email system" in place, I could share all of that between each and every character, (even the new ones I've started).
~hint for the dev's: make it so you can email a bulk of items such as recipes, salvages, and crafted IO's in the "email system".
I finally joined a SG, and they wanted me to dress like them, and it was the ugliest costume I've ever seen. They gave me the influence to get it, and I said to myself, (I'll never wear this thing), but the final straw was when we met in PI, ( I thought it was for a mission ), but they sat in a circle on an island talking some nerdy language. I said "I'M OUT"!!!, (never looked back).
I still play like you, but the difference is when I'm not in a group, and in my spare time, I like to upgrade my powers and I don't like joining a group until I'm done.
So Paladin, if and when CoX comes back, or until CoT is done, I might start a "Solo Players" SG that you can join
1: You won't have to dress in a costume that you don't like.
2: We'll help you with Missions, TF's, or taking out an AV or GM.
3: You don't have to be super powered slotted up, because each and every one of us has power enough to makeup the difference.
4: No pressure of any kind, we will understand.
5: No "Power Leveling", unless everyone that's on your team agrees.
6: If you join our "Solo Players" SG, you don't have to talk, chat, or ever join a mission with us ever, but if you need us, we'll be here.
The importance of this concept cannot be overstated. It's one of the aspects that broadens the game to include almost every play style -- even yours, Paladin, because there was nothing wrong with playing without any Enhancements if you wanted to. Sure, you'll always get people saying you MUST this or MUST that (like the folks who say Fitness was a requirement), but they were right only for their own style of play. The only way someone could be wrong about a build was if they insisted it was the only correct one.
Spurn all ye kindle.
It all comes down to Optimizing For A Purpose. Change the objective of the Purpose and to Optimization Point shifts to a new location/style/method/rationale. This is why I have been at pains in previous threads to design an Enhancement System that doesn't "make the choices for you" and which relies on a [i]dynamic equilibrium[/i] over a range of possibilities, rather than intentionally building a system that has only One Right Answer to it, with everything else being Gimp By Design™.
Needless to say, such a balancing act is ... tricky ... to achieve at the level of Game Design. It CAN be done, but it isn't all that easy to find (or maintain!).
[center][img=44x100]https://i.imgur.com/sMUQ928.gif[/img]
[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
I might be interested if the game includes some sort of secret HQ for individual characters.
In COH I really loved decorating my SG base. Everything there was the way I wanted it and whenever I did team up with anyone, I'd offer them a tour
Most of the people I showed it to thought it was pretty cool
Trouble is, if I were in someone else's SG I couldn't always decorate the base the way I want it.
That would be fine if I had my own personal space somewhere else that I could decorate but if not, I'd miss it too much.
Think of the SG base as the Hall of Justice, and my own HQ as the Batcave.
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/browse/pub/3185/Crusader-Game-Books
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC48O9dPcNVdeyNM4efAvX6w/videos?view_as=subscriber
Not to get dragged off onto a Player Housing and Base Building tangent ... but ...
One of the really major failings of the City of Heroes Base Editor was a core component of its design ... global permissions. You either had edit permission or you didn't. And if you had it, you could edit anything and everything in the base, without restrictions. In practice, this meant that Edit Authority became a matter of [b]TRUST[/b] and thus something that couldn't just be given out to everyone. This meant that only a tiny fraction of the playerbase ever got to enjoy the artistic possibilities of creating and editing a base interior. It was just too risky to give the permission out to people. You had to [b]TRUST[/b] that people would only do what they said they were going to do ... and there were plenty of examples of that trust being abused and taken advantage of (up to and including deleting entire bases).
One solution to the Edit Permissions problem would be to have Permission To Edit controlled on a room by room basis. That way a particular map can have a "sandbox" room that a wide variety of people can mess around with or do demonstrations in before being "promoted" to being allowed to edit other specific sections of a shared map. This would allow a system of [b]Trust But Verify[/b] that would make Base Editing a more widely shared (and perhaps widely appreciated) skill and endeavor. It would also make possible "Guest Designers" for SGs, who could be invited in simply to redecorate specific portions of a Base, rather than being given the keys to the entire kingdom (so to speak).
Another solution would be to structure things such that each PC has their own individual space to design/edit/redecorate, but then that space can be "linked" to the common area(s) of a SG. That way, everyone can enjoy the pleasure of editing their own personal space, but also in an SG be a part of something "more" than just their own space.
Anyway, enough digression. I blame TheMightyPaladin entirely for this unnecessary rant of mine.
"We are not Ninja, we are merely a hedge. Please move along."
[center][img=44x100]https://i.imgur.com/sMUQ928.gif[/img]
[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
You know Paladin,
I've never even thought about the SG base situation, in CoX I never got around in building my base. Too much of my time upgrading my powers on all of my characters, I guess I would have started building my base when I was done with all of my characters. It was a shame to, some people bases was sweet, it gave me ideas of what I wanted in my base if and when I ever made one.
That's what this thread is for,
I want to hear everyone's ideas and the problems they had, we can talk it through and find out the solution to a problem.
That idea of yours about "Structure things such that each PC would have their own individual space to design/edit", gave me an idea (I hope ya'll are listening devs).
BASE BUILDER
1: Structure things so each account has their own individual space to design/edit.
2: Add in lock/unlock, don't want people in your space when you didn't allow it.
3: Structure it in a way so our accounts won't be compromised by hackers, if it's possible.
I've though of a few ways to link the base between another base, but I'll leave it up to y'all to see if it will work or not, maybe add in anything that's feasible.
~ The base that we built is saved on our PC's, every time we edit or make any changes to our personal base, it saves on our PC's.
~ When we join a SG or not, our personal bases are uploaded to CoT's servers, that way they can filter out any undesirables.
~ Now when your in a SG, and you're in your own personal base, click a portal and all of the names of your SG mates shows up. There would be options to "Hide" your name from the portals list, and there would be options to "Lock" or "Unlock" your name from the portals list. That way your SG mates will know that your door is open for others to enter or not.
~ Let's add in a "Kick Button", just in case someone starts trippin in your personal base. (Don't want Superman trippin in the Bat Cave, Batman got to break out the "Bat Krypto Boot")
+1
I like this idea a lot. I see it as nice to have at launch but not required.
There's also been (since the [url=https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/missingworldsmedia/the-phoenix-project-city-of-titans]Kickstarter[/url]; scroll down to the Mogul add-on description) talk of individual living space and super base. I'm not sure exactly how they'll be implemented, but I'm confident that a Broody Noir Detective could have his secret base/crime lab before he joins the Generic Iconic Super League.
Foradain, Mage of Phoenix Rising.
[url=https://cityoftitans.com/forum/foradains-character-conclave]Foradain's Character Conclave[/url]
.
Avatar courtesy of [s]Satellite9[/s] [url=https://www.instagram.com/irezoomie/]Irezoomie[/url]
I agree with Red here that the goal of a dynamically equilibrated gear system is going to be a complex problem. I think the only way to create that is to continually tweak the system parameters (that is, the gear numbers) over time to try to achieve this. Now, given that I expect the gear to be tweaked after launch and maybe on a regular basis every few months afterward to try to achieve a good result, this means that the devs will likely need to buff/nerf different things as they go along, after launch. What thtis means for us the players is DON'T GET MARRIED TO YOUR POWERFUL GEAR COMBOES IN THE FIRST ^ MONTHS. Becasue they'll likely be taking a lot of that away as players find it. It also means, to the devs, when making a bit of gear, WHEN IN DOUBT, MAKE IT LESS POWERFUL AT FIRST. You can always makes somethign do MORE damage or whatever after finding out it's too weak. Nerfing stuff all over the place is generally less well received than pumping weak things up a little.
R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising
It's definitely better to start low and buff up than to start high and weaken. Even powers that are blatantly broken ( One-shotting archvillains for example) will have people complaining when the powers are fixed.
Please don't forget sidekick-ing, as that allowed people to fight even if they were low level on those high level missions... That made it easy to find pick-up teams, to play with friends, to bring in a new alt, with different powers / archetype ... And fighting those Giant Monsters...
I would suggest adding levels of permission, with only the top one being able to remove something from base, and, saved placement, so that reverting a room is easier...
I played CoX on and off for years, and was very sad to see it go away. Not only could you play the way you wanted at the time, there were enticements to play a different way (Solo or Team). It also stressed Teamwork instead of PVP to accomplish big goals, but also had PVP content for those who wanted it. When the time came, respec missions and options were helpful, but, imo, not enough. I would want partial respecs and saved builds as well. Another finishing touch, I'm afraid, but, probably wanted by most players...
IIRC, at one point CoX did have a thing that allowed you to have two separate "specs" that you could switch between. I'm not sure how it handled the enhancements in those slots, because I never used it personally, but I Think I remember my SG leader telling me about it.
R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising
By the end of CoH you could actually have three of those "optional builds" per character if you wanted. They added a third when the Incarnate system came out because I guess the case was made that you might want a different build when you either had or didn't have access to your Incarnate powers.
Basically the CoH build system allowed you to have a different set of predefined power selections and an entirely different enhancement load-out. You couldn't change the AT/powersets you started with, but beyond that it was almost like having a completely different character. You could even gear it so that you could be optimized for lower level PvP (i.e. have one build be set for level 50 play and another build set for level 30 play).
The whole thing had (IIRC) a 10 minute timer so that you couldn't exploit switching back-n-forth between builds too quickly. The big downside was that the system didn't save your power tray settings between builds so it could be a big pain to reset all of your trays even if the builds only differed by a few powers.
Hopefully CoT will offer a similar feature. It's the kind of thing that we probably wouldn't need on launch day but it could be added later on when time allowed.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
I forget what the timer was to swap between builds, but basically the way in which the game dealt with the enhancements was as if you had levelled up another character with the same primary/secondary.
This meant that you *HAD* to reslot all your powers for the 2nd (or 3rd) spec.
Which is what put me off from using it seriously.... it was just too expensive for me with my lousy drop rate to earn enough to make it worthwhile unless I stuck to SO's.
Then again, I found the whole "stats" side of CoX overwhelming, which is strange because I can get behind other games stuff... this could well be due to how much *less* in terms of overall they had.
Oh and defence in CoX? I have NO idea how that worked... it was not intuitive to me in the slightest.
+1.
I would have LOVED it they tried to have the Caps average around 100%.
Then, even n00bs could say, "OK I get it!" ;)
And if used IO Sets, then you could know by how much More your bonuses were?
Even though Tanks might have much Higher HP, with no bonuses, it just shows 100% HP
Same thing for Blasters, even though much lower HP, UI should show 100% HP, if no bonus.
I guess that more for me to guestimate how much Bonuses are helping my toon. ;D
Defense in CoX worked pretty much like this. There was a Base chance of 50% to hit a character. Using Defenses like Super Reflexes, you could adjust that percentage to make it harder. As you added your defenses you whittled that percentage down. So you add Focused Fighting as your first power, which reduces your chances of being hit in Melee by about 14%, which gives the enemy a 36% chance of hitting you with a Melee attack. Then as you slot Focused Fighting, depending on which enhancements you use, it increases the percentage you dodge Melee attacks making it harder for the Enemy to hit you. However, you couldn't go above 95% when it came to the odds of you dodging an attack. There was always a 5% chance, some called it the golden BB, that you would get hit by the enemy.
The thing about Defense vs. Resistance was that Defense allowed you to completely dodge the entire attack and take no damage from it. However, if you failed to dodge you took the full amount of damage. Unless you had some kind of Resistance power like Tough. Resistance powers didn't allow you to dodge any of the attacks, except for the 50/50 chance you might get hit. You just only took a Percentage of the amount of damage given to you based off of how much of that type of damage you resisted. Defenses could be either Positional or Typed damage. Resistances were only Typed damage.
I got chills! They're multiplyin'. And I'm losin' control. Cuz the power, I'm supplyin'. Why it's ELECTRIFYIN'!!
It was basically the difference between [b]NO GET HITSU!![/b] and [b]THAT NO HURTSU!![/b]
Problem was, the Defense system (as revealed by Arcanaville) was just an unholy mess to understand and explain, so most of the time it got simplified into the explanation that Static just gave you.
[center][img=44x100]https://i.imgur.com/sMUQ928.gif[/img]
[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
Quite right. Defense reduced your chance of getting hit. Resistance reduced the amount of damage that you received when you did get hit.
A major problem between these stats, in my opinion, is that defense was much more heavily favored. Defense provided more benefit per point than resistance. There was also the phenomenon that avoiding an attack due to defense also meant avoiding any crowd controls or debuffs the attack would inflict, unlike resistance that only shielded you from damage. On the other hand, resistance did reduce resistance debuffs while defense would instead suffer [url=http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Cascading_Defense_Failure]Cascading Defense Failure™[/url] from defense debuffs.
Such a dichotomy may be inevitable between the two, but hopefully it won't be such a tangled mess for players to understand in City of Titans---assuming both mechanics will exist as they once did---and won't show such a bias towards one or the other in practice.
Sweet build on oOStatic NekoOo. Saved to my Mids files which seem to continue to grow even after sunset because as Empyrean said "Best Meta-Game Ever". Loved the ability to have multiple builds in game as well. Much easier to work towards an Empathy/Sonic defender build that could handle the RWZ challenge when you had the option to switch between that very solo oriented build to a more 'normalized' empathy teaming build.
Hard to believe that /SR was once the "poster child" for cascading defense failure considering how impossible it was to initiate on an /SR by the game's end.
Having played /SR since Issue 2, I can tell you that you're admiring grass that only looks greener. Defense was difficult (bordering on impossible) to obtain in "sufficient" quantities prior to Invention Sets, even before Enhancement Dysfunction and the Global Defense Nerf double whammy that effectively "broke" Defense as a protection scheme until Inventions corrected the ERROR. When people, like Arcanaville, first started investigating Defense, they noticed that it was hands down the most vulnerable protection scheme and extremely susceptible to disruptions. There were almost [b]50[/b] different Powers that Players had access to which Debuffed Defense by unacceptably large amounts. Number of Resistance Debuffs? Less than a dozen.
Resistance could effectively and successfully Tank an AV or a GM.
Defense simply could not.
Don't get me wrong, Defense could "work" vs an AV or a GM ... for a while ... and then the "double snake eyes" dice roll would come up and you'd go from perfectly fine to faceplanted in an instant, with no warning.
Defense could OFF Tank ... but only Resistance could MAIN Tank.
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[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
I think this sort of distinction is would not have been such a bad thing per se, IF the tanker sets were all "no cascade breakdown" and the scrapper sets were all "YES cascade breakdown". It would have been a dividing line between the two play styles and would have helped contrast them off of each other.
R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising
The difficulty there is the phenom that Red spoke of ... fine one moment and a wet mush on the floor the next. Getting two-shotted never mind one shotted from full health before you have much time to react is no fun especially when it happens repeatedly by a fairly wide range of attackers. Just means no one would play whatever AT is heavily based on that sort of mitigation.
Edit: Reminds me of how upset some teammates got over Wailers when there resistance based sets first encountered Wailers ... and many went from green to dead very quickly.
The only way that would have worked in CoH, was to either raise the minimum of a chance to be hit or lower the maximum amount of defense a Tanker could have had.
If a Tanker could sit at 95% Defense the whole time and not suffer cascade breakdown, they never would have died. :p
It's true that defense wasn't always as strong as it became in practice, and bad luck could be fatal. I started playing not long before inventions hit the scene, and after that point, reaching high levels of defense became a common goal. Reaching the soft cap was godlike, and it definitely felt that way on my MA/SR Stalker.
I didn't get into the metagame of stats until quite a while after I started playing, so I apologize for generalizing based on an incomplete experience. I also concede that Arcanaville played a major part in bringing defense up to par.
Anyways, the topic of defense vs. resistance could probably use a thread of its own.
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final Thread t = new Thread(() -> {
// TODO add posts
},"Defense vs. Resistance");
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Did it work? :P
So long as City of Titans doesn't fall into the [b]SINKHOLE[/b] of making Defense "work" the same way that City of Heroes did, I'd be up for the challenge of redesigning the system. ^_^
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[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
Is the choice of the word "sinkhole" meant to be evocative of a particular pattern of self-propagating problem wherein fixes only broke things worse, or is it merely a word chosen as an expletive-substitute to describe how bad Defense was in CoH?
If the former, could you elaborate a bit more on your perspective on it, please? I confess, I didn't play many defense-oriented characters. My main was a Mastermind; my primary means of avoiding damage was having minions who soaked it up for me.
[color=#ff0000]Business Manager[/color]
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I intended the former.
Best I can do to elaborate on the point is to give you a link.
[url=http://web.archive.org/web/20120904080030/http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=115184]Arcana's Guide to Defense v1.4 - Updated for I7[/url]
Warning: [b]WALL OF TEXT CRITS YOU!!!![/b]
The link to this historical document was obtained from:
[url=http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Defense]Paragon Wiki: Defense[/url]
Short answer ... messy messy messy omfgbbqsaucepanclobberme math involved ... and that was before Inventions started making things even MORE complicated!
Slightly longer answer ... addition and subtraction in the formula made things go "squirrely" in a hurry. Defense only became seriously effective when held close to the softcaps on to-hit, producing a "roll a natural 20 to hit me" behavior ... which was fine against a single opponent, but lousy in the face of "too many dice" getting thrown at you too quickly.
Eventually, you had powersets like Willpower that offered a mixture of Resistance, Defense AND Regeneration, giving you something of a tri-fecta, and with Invention Sets it became possible to softcap Defense in ways that would have been completely un/impossible without Sets. There were builds out there for Blasters that had softcapped Defenses (usually against Smash/Lethal only).
The downside was that Defense was something of a [b]One Trick Pony[/b] for a very long time in the history of City of Heroes. Mind you, it was a Good Trick™ ... but it wasn't a beat everything Trick. There was plenty of "kryptonite" for Defense lying around all over the place. High Defense let you pull off stuff that tended to make other powersets fold in certain circumstances (see: Redlynne vs 5 Rikti Magus and holding all of their aggro simultaneously for long periods of time) and it was THE go to method of soaking an Alpha Strike from massed enemies, in lieu of Resistances or Regeneration (since Regen was notoriously vulnerable to Alpha Strikes).
The really odd thing about Defense oriented protection schemes like Super Reflexes was that they were absolutely awesome against Trash Mobs ... but then critically vulnerable to AVs and GMs ... which was decidedly weird.
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[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
The to-hit system takes a lot into account. Its diverse in how it works over an entire spectrum of results. A lot of thought went to to the initial design concept, and a lot of math went it to making it all work to provide parity in the over-all system. Sorry, no details are forth coming...yet. This is one thing that won't be brought up until we are very close to player access.
[hr]I don't use a nerf bat, I have a magic crowbar!
- Combat Mechanic -
[color=#ff0000]Tech Team. [/color]
Note Tannim that keeping things under wraps for that long means that no "freelancers" have an opportunity to Check Your Work. No one outside of a small team can examine what you've done to search for edge cases and unintended behaviors. You have a smaller pool of people verifying that your system does what you're intending and designing it to do.
Merely mentioning.
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[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
Each ( Def/Res ) have their strength and weakness.
1: Do you have ( Def/Res ), for "Psionic"?
2: Do you have ( Def/Res ) for "Melee, Ranged, AoE, PBAoE "?
3: Do you have ( Def/Res Debuff Defense )?
Many people forget about things like this, they look at ( Def/Res ) as if it covers everything.
In CoH it was solo for the story; Team for the rush.
If the Devs want stories to memorable for group content; they well need to include a solo version.
Not necessary the same rewards but the same story.
In groups real life aggro can effect the whole team.
It also causes rushes even if no one intends to rush.
It's just the nature of the game; no one wants to be the person drags the team down.
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Then there were the attacks that had no positional tag and got through the positional defenses.
Not really. Just need the group to slow down and wait for you. Tell them it's your first time. They can either accept it or what works in FFXIV for PuG groups, is first timers give a bonus to the end reward, so people are generally more in favor of letting the first timer see the story in cut scenes (something CoH really didn't have much of any way and the story was really only played out for the team leader).
Speaking as a MA/SR Scrapper [b][i]fully invested[/i][/b] into the power of [b]NO GET HITSU!![/b] I can easily confirm this point. To be fair, the Powers which typically lacked the positional tagging, meaning that there was no "Defense" against them were the powers of [url=http://tomax.cohtitan.com/data/powers/archetype.php?at=2#Controller_Control.Mind_Control]Mind Control[/url] (specifically). An important point concerning these powers was that they were not only Psionic (and thus mental only, rather than physical) but that their animations produced absolutely NO projectile effects of any kind ... which was somewhat unique among powersets. Thus, from a gameplay perspective, the Powers found in Mind Control were "legitimately" something which could not be physically avoided ... rendering Positional Defenses (melee, ranged, AoE) utterly useless against them. So the lack of Positional Attack Tags on these powers was rightful and proper.
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[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
This is true.
It is also true that people are only really invested/interested in "reading the story" the first time through. After that, it pretty much devolves into a rush. The sad thing is that for most people the "new car smell" of content wears off extremely quickly, leaving only a few people who haven't ever been exposed to some sections of content ... especially if the content is replayable, and the Players have collectively decided as a community that replaying some content is worthwhile (usually for the rewards, not for the story).
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[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
Yeah that's what I meant by "AoE" and "PBAoE", but it was more than that.
Not many had ( Def/Res ) for it, that's how your ( Def/Res ) was weakened, allowing damage to chip away at your health.
That's why ( Controllers, Defenders, and other similar Archetypes ) could do what they do, not to mention, you have to deal with.
~ Defense and Resist Debuffs
~ Regeneration Debuffs
~ Tohit Debuffs
~ Endurance Drain
~ Holds
~ Recharge
I was on a SG called "Project Radiation", ( all Rad SG ), and we destroyed AV's and GM's. It was a shame what we did to them, I almost felt bad, but those badges made up for it. :P
It's not my call to make on when to release info, Red. I understand what you're saying here, and at some point more people will get to work / play with the game and changes will occur as a result. However, as design goes, if developers basically open sourced every single mechanic and system, nothing would get done. This was what occurred early on the development of the project as there were tons of cooks in the kitchen so to speak.
It is tough enough for our team leads to manage the teams of actual volunteers, much less try and wrangle information from hundreds more during development.
Another factor in this is that we're not the only development team in town putting out a game. There are things we kind of need to hold back from talking about, or revealing the in-depth details of, because of the significance we hold for what is being developed. Add to that the fact that some stuff that was done ended up being unusuable because of the way the business / legality of things were set up at one point, or how in a couple of other instances other concepts were outright cribbed...and you begin to learn the lessons of letting stuff out too early.
I can understand the desire to get hands on with the game, digging into its mechanics and systems to make sure it is as viable as possible. I'm certain as development progresses there will be early stages of play made available where the edge cases are determined and proper course correction can be made. The important part about all this is that we believe the foundation and supporting framework is sound enough to work from. As one dev put it, and I'll paraphrase him here, "it might just blow up in our face and we have to start over from scratch, but I kind of doubt it. We'll have to make adjustments to the game throughout every stage from alpha through release and beyond, It's the nature of the beast. But I'll be damned if we put something out that's downright broken from go."
Those basic words have stuck with me since we started working together. We have a commitment to quality in every aspect of what we want to put into the game. If I were on the outside wanting to look in, I too would be skeptical and want to forewarn of possible dangers. Thanks for the warning, really.
In time all good things and all that...
[hr]I don't use a nerf bat, I have a magic crowbar!
- Combat Mechanic -
[color=#ff0000]Tech Team. [/color]
Tannim222, I'm in your corner,
I can't imagine just how frustrating it must be for you, and all the other people at MWM, to do something great for the community, just to have some in the same community, ( take swipes, have doubts, or whatever it may be ), just because they are not in the know. You and MWM have a "Core Belief" in what would make a great game for our community, it's the same "Core" that brought us all together. That "Core" is our "Foundation", and we all know if your going to build something, you have to start with a good "Foundation". So take your time and release it when you're good and ready, if some people can't see the forest for the trees, then they would be forever lost.
For the Community,
There are others making a CoH successor, for all we know, some of the volunteers may be shared with one another. How can a game stand out from the rest, if all the ideas are the same, you want your game to be different, and better than the rest, ( so let these guys and gals do what they are good at, and please, don't put more on their plates, than they need ).
Sometimes you have to step out of the cyber world, and take a walk in the real one.
The first phase of CoT, will be here soon enough, take your mind off of it by doing something else.
QFT
Spurn all ye kindle.
Word.
FIGHT EVIL! (or go cause trouble so the Heroes have something to do.)