Ariel_NA

Make it so that in-game email is only available to those with a week-old (or 15 days) account.
And/or make it so that email cannot be used by trial accounts.

Email spam should be very easy to block. /Tells are another thing entirely. Those are much trickier.

IMO you should have an option for:
<ul type="square">[*] Allow tells from players not in your friend/team/supergroup[*] Allow tells from strangers only when "Looking for Group"[*] Allow tells from all players in the same zone as your avatar (or 1000m or whatever). This is because often /local chat goes ignored, and sometimes you want to talk to someone about their name or costume who is standing next to you. Or maybe you are standing outside the same mission door.[*] Do not allow tells (or emails) from any player who has been flagged as a spammer via the /ignore_spammer command.[/list]

A) "toggle combatnumbers" does not appear in this official thread, nor in the offical Q&amp;A. That should be corrected, IMO.

B) Don't try to cut and paste the command from the original post (wherever that might be) because the quotation marks are not compliant with keybinds.
Well, you can cut and paste, but make sure you change the quotation marks.

It took me awhile to figure that out.

[ QUOTE ]

Gravity STILL suffers from extremely long animation times.
Gravity STILL has a control gap.
Gravity STILL has subpar secondary effects.
Gravity STILL gets a Pet that is a crutch to make up for the control gap while other controlers get pets that add damage to their already superior control.


[/ QUOTE ]
Gravity Pets STILL use a damage pet's AI even though they are control pets.
Gravity powers STILL do smashing damage, meaning that all our puny damage calculations are only accurate against mobs without the most common damage resistance/defense in the game.
Gravity STILL has to wait 26 levels to have their control gap "fixed". Kind of like when someone has a broken window on their car and they "fix" it by duct-taping a piece of plastic over it--it's ugly, it doesn't always work, and a lot of people would rather just have the broken window.

--Ariel

Nice post Cartophilius.
How about:

"My Supergroup needs me."
Play this card at any time to immediately escape from combat.

[ QUOTE ]
How dumb. Magic (alpha beta and Arabian) was the best card game, and the last.

[/ QUOTE ]
Razgob_Ironjaw:
I'm willing to say that Alpha/Beta/Arabian (and Unlimited) were the best...but how do you figure they were they the last card games?

[ QUOTE ]

Secondly, I might be GMing games of it at the big cons (Gen Con, Origins, etc.) - so keep your eyes peeled.

[/ QUOTE ]
You must be a great GM if you can run a game for 300!

I remember when Origin mattered.

When characters had statistics, like Strength and Intellect.

And when they dumped Personality/Charisma.

I remember the first "nerf" after launch--getting rid of naked toons...
and all the "This is censorship!" threads it generated.
If that happened now, CuppaJo would have to paste an "Official Naked Toons Thread."

Here's what a 3-level spread might look like. Like all systems and ideas around this place, it's imperfect, but at least you've got a real chance within every weight class, regardless of AT or build. Biggest difference is probably between 8 and 11, but honestly how long does it take you to level from 8 to 9?

1 to 4 (if you don't want to be level 1, do the tutorial or hunt for 5 minutes)
5 to 7
8 to 11
12 to 13 (DO's)
14 to 16 (power pool tier 3)
17 to 19
20 to 21 (power pool tier 4 important?)
............[17 to 21 alternative]
22 to 24 (SO's)
25 to 27
28 to 31
32 to 34 (last Primary Power)
35 to 37
38 to 40 (last Secondary Power)
41 to 43 (1st ancilary)
44 to 46 (2nd ancilary)
47 to 49 (3rd and 4th ancilary) *
50 (class of its own) *

* This could easily be
47 to 50 (superheavyweight)
or
47 to 48 (3rd ancilary)
49 to 50 (4th ancilary)

As part of exemplaring, you will lose all powers except those authorized at your new weight class.
With some tinkering, the list could be made to give more powers for an EX going down, or to include less powers.
That is really a policy decision for the devs.

I think the reasoning behind making them all even is because that is simple and easy.*
When was the last time you drove down a highway with a speed limit of 57?

I agree 100% with you that the weight classes, as-is, don't make much sense if you really look at them.
I also agree that they need to be more finely divided.
Even a system with 3-level ranges would be better. A 4 vs 6 or a 24 vs 26 or a 48 vs 50...those all seem about the same to me.
But a 5 against a 9 or a 40 against a 44 seems much more unfair.

I am not saying your weight class proposal was worthless. I was saying it had about 8 good points and 2 weak points.
Is the glass 20% empty or is the glass 80% full?

I would just like to not have a weight class of two (12-13), I don't have an answer to it.

As for the one weight class I would prefer a split of 14-17 and 18-21.

And, yes, I think a 5 could beat a 9 [+4] (say a 5 Blaster and a 9 Controller). My Controller at 9 couldn't beat a mule.
Regardless of opinion, it is far more likely than a 14 beating a 21 [+7]. That is unlikely in the extreme.

I wonder how long these fights last? With two even levels blasting away at each other, how long does it take to go from full to K.O?
A 19 versus a 21 with 3-slot Stamina could be at a bigger disadvantage than any other place in the game except the 21/22 fiasco. But that is pure speculation, we have no idea how fights play out.

I'm not underestimating travel powers, but neither am I overestimating them--Which would you rather bet 1,000,000 influence on:
A 13 with Sprint fighting a 14 with Fly, or
a 14 fighting a 21, and both Fly?

Ariel

* If they come up with a color coding system for the weight classes then we don't have to figure that out for ourselves.

[ QUOTE ]

Here is an alternate distribution. It is not even, but divided by important levels (enhancements and power selection):

Strawweight-(Level 1 to 5) - pre power pool
Flyweight-(6 to 11) - pre dual-origins
Bantamweight-(12 to 13) - pre travel power
Featherweight-(14 to 21) - pre single origins (wide and varied fights here)
Lightweight-(22 to 26) - single origins and perma powers (stamina becomes effective, as does perma hasten)
Welterweight-(27 to 31) - pre primary set completion
Middleweight-(32 to 37) - pre secondary set completion
Cruiserweight-(38 to 40) - pre auxiliary power
Heavyweight-(41 to 46) - pre max auxiliary
Super Heavyweight-(47 to 50) - access to every power available

[/ QUOTE ]
A) You have a weight class of 12 and 13.
B) You have a weight class of 14 to 21. Ie., you say that a 14 should be able to take on a 21.
B2) I don't think that travel power = auto-win. It will be hard to kill someone who wants to fly away (or invis), but they won't be doing any more damage to you when it comes time for them to finally fight.

That's fabulous Manje!
I tinkered with something like that myself, but gave up speculating.

The idea of 4 level spreads at lower levels makes, sense, too: at those levels, level is all.
Your new hero would never consider taking on a +4 boss (I assume a PC would be similar to a +4 boss or LT) but at 30+ it doesn't require as much thought.
In other words, the difference between a 10 and a 14 is severe (40% more levels, mathematically speaking) while a 30 and a 34 isn't as pronounced (just over 10%).
If you told me a level 30 beat a 34 I'd believe it without hesitation.
But if you told me that a lvl 5 beat a 9, I'd be shocked. Well, no I wouldn't, I just wouldn't believe it.

I think the distinctions you made for power pools, travel powers, and SO's are meaningful. But even if not, they are more meaningful than cutting everything at 5, only because that's how many fingers I have on each hand.
Surprised the Simpsons don't use base 8, really.

[ QUOTE ]
isn't a better-equipped hero supposed to have an advantage, all other factors being the same?


[/ QUOTE ]
Well, then, shouldn't a 50 beat the stuffing out of a level 25?
Statesman and others (Lord Recluse) have said they should. Of course, we can't play in a system where level 50's run around pummeling level 10's for fun, but to use your language, they are supposed to have a huge advantage.
And yet they don't because we want a fair system.

P.S. You can have most of your SO's at 22 if you just save for them. Knowing that from level 1, it is easy to have 350-600,000 inf by the time you hit lvl 22.
I generally have 450K or so by then and buy 20-25 SO's. If you are powerleveling, then of course you would need friends to twink you.
My point being that it is unfair to say that level 22's with SO's have gained their advantage unfairly which is not necessarily the case...only for PLers.

[edit] Oops, Posi posted while I was writing!

Well, what about the DO/SO issue:
[ QUOTE ]

Lightweight-(20 to 24)


[/ QUOTE ]
A 20 and a 21 aren't going to stand a chance against a 22, 23, or 24.

As an aside, referring to level 1-14 Arena fighting, we are going to see some highly inflated rankings.

*makes note to create a character called "The Diver" who takes dives for influence.

[ QUOTE ]
From Statesman:
If you battle in the Arena another hero in a weight class below you (weight classes are five level bands), you will be auto-exemplared to that weight class.

[/ QUOTE ]
Does anybody know if the Arena works the same as COV PvP? Ie., level 15 required to participate?

Based on what Statesman said, there's two options here.
Option #1:
Multiples of 5 are top of the class.
46-50
41-45
36-40
31-35
26-30
21-25
16-20
15 &lt;--- Weight Class "zero"?

Option #2:
Multiples of 5 begin the class.
50 &lt;--- Special Class of its own*
45-49
40-44
35-39
30-34
25-29
20-24
15-19
* Actually, I think this is pretty cool--50's have to exemp against everybody. "Pick on somebody your own size."

Based on pure speculation on my part, there's a third option that seems likely:
Option #3
45-50 &lt;--- Weight Class of six
40-44
35-39
30-34
25-29
20-24
15-19

Option #4:
Oops! Make PVP start at level sixteen.

Ariel's Editorial Option #5:
Figure out a way to make 22 the start of a weight class somehow.
22's fighting 21's on equal footing...fully-slotted SO's versus DO's is just not going to be pretty.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I remember when you couldn't choose the destination when you got on the monorail. Instead you had to get off and back on at each stop.


[/ QUOTE ]

LoL....Nice one! That was a long time ago. You guys remember when you had to go through the Tutorial with EVERY alt you made?

Valdermic

[/ QUOTE ]
Actually you guys sponsored a contest to see how fast the Tutorial could be done.

[ QUOTE ]


Uhhh. You know, he has the longevity of the game to worry about. Uninteresting ways to gain boatloads of XP are bad for the game. Especially with PvP elements on the way.

Really frentic, hard and exciting ways to gain even boatloads of XP are fine. Risk and reward.

[/ QUOTE ]
I had a wolf mission and tried to herd it (not farm it) in this regard: "Hey, guys, let's herd all the wolves here, blow them up with one nova, then finish the mission. Sound fun?"
Guess what?
It was really fun and really freakin' hard. Our blaster didn't have his inferno fully slotted and we kept dying. Must have had 8 or 9 deaths. We had a bubbler, controller, scrapper, tank, you name it.
Herding wolves was frenetic, hard, and exciting.

It was so hard, in fact, that I never did it successfully and I left with debt, not XP. Even the scrapper who was too low for the mission and was just supposed to "hide" would come out when we were all dying...and he'd die too.
Now, I suppose if I had farmed (not herded) that mission, after a while it would have gotten boring. And when that happened I would have stopped. Ie., why not do a fun mission a few times?

I also portal farmed once about 6 months ago and that was the coolest thing ever! I would exemplar (i.e., no XP) to do it again.
When was the last time you did a mission with a team of 8 on auto-healing aura at the top of a temple in Oranbega and surrounded by 1,000 mobs trying to claw their way past each other up the stairs to get you?

And, honestly, would you describe the current missions as "Really frentic [sic], hard and exciting?"
Defeat X. Defeat X again. Defeat Y. ("Oh, goodie, Y, this will be totally different from Defeating X.")
Go to Cave and Defeat All. Or find a glowie then defeat all. Run around Oranbega looking for last stupid glowie or hidden mob.
Over and over and over.

Or, you could do a Task Force, which consists of doing those same repetitive missions over and over and over non-stop for 8 hours, except at the end you get to fight an AV or something. But by then, half your team has left, and you're not having any fun anymore.
How many Task Forces have you done that you would describe as frenetic, hard, and exciting? Zero, or possibly one?
And that is the ultimate content of the game.
I have done the trials and they are hard and can be frenetic or exciting. (Like kill 150 Rikti, yeah, let me put on my party hat.) But that is because trials are short. Not long, boring, and repetitive...like Task Forces. Or mission farming.

I had a mission once that was "Go to Science Fiction Convention" and I was all excited. But it turned out to be in a run-down warehouse in Crey's Folly in the middle of sewage. As soon as I clicked on the door, the mission window changed to "Defeat all villains (Rikti)".
Um, yeah. So much for the convention.

[ QUOTE ]

As I understand it, you are wrong, the combined defense vs lethal will be 90%.

Defense granted by different powers still stack. It's only the defenses granted by the same power that don't anymore.

[/ QUOTE ]
You're right, of course. I knew I had that wrong. It just didn't make any sense.

Let me say two things:
1) I said I wouldn't use CoH terms or math...I didn't say I don't know the former and don't understand the latter
2) Even though I have a SR scrapper, and who knows what else in my alts, I don't really care what the result is. But I would like all the people arguing (and theoretically any devs listening) to understand other people's POVs. That was all.

To the guy with all the math: what you really mean there is Gun/Knife Attack 1, Gun Attack 2, and Gun Attack 3. In reference to my example, I was refering to player defensive powers 1, 2, and 3. Not the same thing.

Last I heard/understood (which could be entirely wrong) this is one part of the effects of the patch:
Power 1 Defense v. lethal and others = 15%
Power 2 Defense v. lethal and others = 25%
Power 3 Defense v. lethal and others = 50%
Total Combined Defense versus lethal = 50% (not 90%)
because "only the largest single defense bonus will be used."

15 + 25 + 50 = 50 is counter-intuitive. I can comprehend that the devs have another system in mind. No problem. But, no amount of reasoned arguments will change a person's intuition.

Ah yes, of course.
Invis would work, too, for 90% of mobs. And even with the ones that can spot you, you could probably peek around a corner and make notes, then run past, take a couple hits, and duck around the next corner.
That won't work with Rikti if you get mezzed or with Nemesis, because they can shoot like 1.237 miles away. Being 6 levels higher is always the best defense.
You want a nice open map, too. I would never try this in a cavern.

Unfortunately, I still think XP/Minute is the best indicator. Saying, "well, there were 25 mobs at 27th level and 25 mobs at 28th level" doesn't really tell me how able I would be to take them on. Would I die, would I finish the mission really fast? Really slowly? Etc.

Another problem with the sneaky idea is, unless your map is very straightforward, you may not always be sure if you counted guys or not. Easiest way to make sure of that is to kill them.

If you check out Mantid's (see above) thread, he simply did the mission and then /copychat.
That is an almost infallible system.
He did his on test, so he actually completed the mission, too, and could get mission XP awards at each difficulty. As I did mine on live, I couldn't do that.

Since the thread has been locked for a while, did you jump over to Thread #2?

I will explain this whole problem using zero mathematics and zero CoH terms:

Step 1:
FORGET EVERYTHING YOU KNOW.

No really. Did you do it?
Okay.

Step 2:
Imagine that you have a bunch of superpowers that protect you from harm, such as bullets and knives. A whole bunch of them.

Step 3:
Imagine that one of them is pretty good and really helps you not get hurt by bullets or knives.

Step 4:
If you activate 3 or 4 more powers like that, would you expect to be:
A) Really extra super-duper protected from bullets and knives?
Or
B) Protected exactly the same against bullets and knives?

This is the problem in the proverbial nutshell. No amount of math or "but what if the bullets are flaming" or "wait, no, what if they are ice knives" is going to change that.

It's simply counterintuitive.

Geko, care to take on the AI of Singularity next? I mean, when you're finished.
Damage AI for a control pet =

Sounds like you could use almost the same one. I'd rather have ST's AI than poo or jack's.

[ QUOTE ]
No chance you guys will be driving through Kansas and will want to stop by my place for a pizza, huh? Or if you don't like pizza, we can get Chinese...or BBQ? I've got a grill!

[/ QUOTE ]
Drive through Kansas on the way from San Jose to San Francisco?

PSA: Stay in school, kids!

[ QUOTE ]

Overkill is a particularly critical factor when you judge how much of a time difference it takes to kill a +1 vs. a +2 vs. a +3 -- and this will differ based on villain group resistances to damage.

[/ QUOTE ]
Overkill is over-rated.
I did the exact same mission against the exact same types of mobs with the exact same types of resistances 13 times, to include twice at each difficulty. I kill maybe 50-60 mobs per mission. The time factor for each mission will take into account how much damage I'm doing compared to their HP. You know how? Because the ones that I do enough damage to will die, and I will move on to the next one. The ones I don't will take longer, and the mission will take longer. Overall this produces a number of minutes per mission based on damage output vs mob HP. Yes, against one mob, that is not enough data, but against 60, it will affect the overall time.

Easiest way to look at this is to look at the times...each difficulty increase took longer than the one before it, without exception. That is due 100% to the phenomenon you are speaking of. In other words, every extra second of mission-complete time was due to a decrease in the ratio of my damage to their HP.

Otherwise, what calculations would you suggest that I use to come up with a "true" table of time taken that accounts for mob HP and overkill?

[ QUOTE ]

So these numbers are nice, and it's cool to see them, but everyone should try out the various difficulty levels for themselves and see which suits them the best. HeroStats is probably the most effective way to watch XP per minute stats.

[/ QUOTE ]
People are lazy. They would rather read about me doing the same mission over and over than do it themselves.

Please change the O.P. to read:
INDIVIDUAL RESULTS MAY VARY.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
...However, when they finally roll back the boss changes they've been saying they're going to roll back for a the last month or so, that might change some of the numbers.

-Garrik

[/ QUOTE ]
The boss changes were rolled back almost a week ago (February 1st). Check out the Recent Updates link on the home page.

[/ QUOTE ]
My mission did not have any bosses at any difficulty.
In terms of these particular numbers they will not be affected one iota by boss changes.

In reality, if you throw in a boss you can change "Invincible" to "Impossible" for my build, and "Heroic" to "Hope I Have Enough Inspirations". But that's just me. My main loves 'em all at Invincible--AV's, Monsters, Elite Bosses, Bosses, Lieutenants, Minions, Underlings.

Have an instanced viewing room. When the door is clicked one person and one person only are taken to their own private viewing room. Think "viewing booth" (or Pee-Wee Herman) if that helps.
The only thing in the room is a couch, a fridge*, a plant, a lamp, and a big TV.
I can't imagine that framerates would be a problem in an instanced cubicle with one occupant.

Ariel

*It glows, but doesn't make any noise, and when you click on it, it tells you that you have received a cold beverage, then it goes back to glowing.