Angelic_EU

[ QUOTE ]
Contribution has already been made - our suggestions get fed back to Paragon Studios and that has helped shaped their direction with the game.

As to direct input... that'll be down to the individual beta/alpha testers that PS employ. Likely some of us may get a chance to help beta.

[/ QUOTE ]

The way I see it is that: suggestions and development have to go hand-in-hand every step of the way; and the community also need feedbacks from the development team - it's a two way process between the developers and the end-users.

I know there will be Beta testing and so on. But judging by the recent experience from the MA issus, most of the feedbacks regarding the possibility of farming/PL exploitation had fallen into deafears. In fact, nevermind the testings, just a casual glance of the posts on i14 related issues recently, it is hard not to notice the feelings that there is a detachment between what the devs do and what the community wants.

Just that there are better ways to handle suggestions and implement them. And I do mean well, I do wish to see us cheering the CoR and not jeering it like the last issue.

How the community can contribute to the development of the upcoming Going Rogue?

The reason for this post is that: I quite very much love CoX. Of course, there are certain things in which that I don't particularly like and there are some aspect of the game where are rooms for improvements. Having said that I do hope that the new City of Rogue would have the qualities that it needs to compete with its rivals.

We do quite often have some really good ideas here; and there are things that we would very much like to see in the game, if only the devs take notice of us. So I hope the development team will allow the players community to take a more active role in the development of CoR. Perhaps, CoR can be a issue that is developed by the players for the players - loved by the players.

What do you all thing? And most important of all, what can us contribute to the making of i16?

By the way, could someone post a link of this in the US forum, please? Even though I know the devs always stay up late to read the EU forum, I still want to know what the US players think about contributing to the i16.

Thanks

The second nomination I would like to make is:

Mercytown: The One with All the Fish (6017)
by @Frija

There are not many low level MA arcs that are not farming arcs or have some sorts of farming/PLing elements in them. For the majority of the rest, they are either too boring or too demanding for a newly made character to do - even with a well-balanced team. Mercifully, Mercytown (lv1-10) is not one of them.

It is a lighthearted and funny story suitable for all ATs below lv10 - and this alone worth more praise than I could offer. It has a good choice of maps, which makes it easy to follow and in-line with the progress of the arc. And again, similar to my above nomination, this arc has a lot of dialogues and clues that keep reminding you the flow of the story.

In fact, it is obvious that the author has a great creative input in writing the clues. Those clues do make the story a great deal more entertaining - and cute. (something interesting to read while waiting for your teammates to level up)

We certainly need more of this kind of low level arc that is doable, fun and enjoyable. And what's more: this story itself can easily be incorperated into the existing CoX Universe. I would be most delighted to see it make into one of the Dev's Chioce.

I would nominate:

Might Makes Right (5213)
by @Frija

It is one of the many stories I have tried when MA first came out. It was advertised on the Mission Architect channel and so I gave it a try. It turned out to be a very enjoyable arc indeed; and played it twice with 2 more my 50s.

It is not painfully hard and impossible to do. It is easily soloable; and of course better with a full team. It is obvious that the author has thought about the 'doability' of the story. The story flows smoothly from mission 1 to mission 5. Good choice of maps and other MA functions (kidnap, growies, etc), which make the story more engaging. Unlike many others, which are just like a killing-spree from the starting line all the way til the end, this one has a lot of clues and dialogues that help to do the story-telling throughout the missions; so you will not get bored or lose track of the story. There are also some eyecatching custom mobs too.

It is the first story arc that I would nominate. I hope you all like it too.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
The MA is on a different server.

[/ QUOTE ]

The MA System is indeed on a different server. One in the US.

The Map Servers which host running MA instances may not be however, if you see what I mean?

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for charifying. Edited that part out.

I was in an ITF yesterday in from 5-9pm; and we failed at the end. Nevermind why we failed. But for the majority of the second to last and the last mission, the lag was simply UNBEARABLE.

We all know the place where we called 'Lag Slope'. The lag normally starts after you cross the short badge and clear the second General and the surrounding EBs. The lag really begins when the ambushes starting to spawn, charging down the hill. But no. Yesterday, the lag started as soon as we were nearly the river before crossing the bridge. The game turned into a slideshow; with endless amount of disconnection up the screen. I have done A LOT of ITF since it ever came out. Yesterday, was easily the worst ever. It is so bad to the extend that it was simply unplayable - none of the powers were recharge correctly let alone being able to fire.

But that was just the beginning. The lag continue until the finale of the ITF. Yes, it did. You would have thought after the lag slope, the lag would fade away. But it was not the case. Even the AVs were moving frame by frame.

At the last mission, the lag began as soon as we enter the mission. It was not just slow; our actions were essentially ground to a halt. Again, our powers were not recharged probably and none could be fired. We put up with it since we made it that far to the finale. We were patient and we did it bit by bit. We went to Rom and things were still not improved there. Rom was effectly moving at frame-by-frame rate, charging at us 1ft at every few seconds. Every time an ambush came in, we would have a disconnection. Funny enough, normally went we fight Rom, there is only 1 ambush - so long as we don't kill the entire spawn. There were 3 yesterday coming in non-stop. Since the beginning of the second to last mission, we were hardly able to control our characters nevermind playing it normally.

We fed up. We gave up. Customer satisfation hit rock bottom; and felt below further still. It was not enjoyable at all - at any rate, speaking most charitably.

Then I moved on to do some MA missions with some coalition friends. We started off in Cap's AE building. None of us could load into the map. Several of us disconnected or crashed as a result. We tried again; and the same resulted. So we moved to St. Martial. Yet again, we failed to load onto the map. After 2 (or so) fail attempts, we finally loaded into the map. Then I disconnected, then crashed, at the second mob. I went to bed.

It was not a single isolated incident. I was asking around on various channels about the lag. I knew that there were 2 more teams doing ITF at around the same time I was doing mine. They had exactly the same among of lag. The same with MA arcs again.

And it was not just last night either. We are experiencing more frequent lag since the introduction of i14. To be fair - TO BE REALLY FAIR - as a customer who just want some fun time playing a game, that kind of lag is utterly unacceptable. I am not asking for silky smooth gaming experience every second I am on althought it WAS almost the case when I first started. I know there are limitations, either with my computer and internet system or otherwise. But still, the amount lag now has gone beyond any reasonable expectations. After all, this is a game, which is meant for fun, not for frustration, in return for money.

I therefore sincerely ask the customer support to investigate the course of the frequent lag recently; and thereby reduce the amonut of it. I would also ask you all to share your experience of lag, telling us when and what you were playing at that time. Let us hope they would take notice of the situation and do something about it.

Thank you.

After i14, what is the most effective and survivable ATs and powersets combo for PvP, both in hero and in villain? And that is for soloing in PvP, or mostly in RV.

How about duo or teaming? What sort of AT combo in a team is good for PvP action?

Thanks

I know the current state of PvP has generate a fair bit of bad publicity. Interesting though, we still heard stories about people enjoying a bit of PvP in RV.

I am trying to be as positive as possible and do geniuely wish to have some positive feedback. Please indulge me.

So, I am thinking, is it worth organising some sort of PvP Night once a week? BUT (A-ha!), the PvP Night I have in mind is like a teaming event: that is several teams of heroes up against several teams of villains. More like the weekly Mothership Raid - it's a team event. So you can form a PvP team that is balanced inside the PvP zones. Something like that. Or mix around for best survivability.

Would anyone be interested? And if so, would you help advertising it?

If there are enough people, we can choose a night and see now it goes.

I don't encourage endless farming: as in I don't encourge people to JUST farm and not trying out other contents in the game. But as it currently stands, there seems to be no effective solutions to it.

Anyway, there is a new 'Union MA Farming' channel where at least we can seperate the MA farmers from those who want to do something else.

You can use that channel to form farm team; recruit for more while inside mission or across zone; asking to join a farm team; or talk about farming in general.

You don't have to spam the Broadcast for invites or painfully fending off blind invites.

Have to accept that there is a sizeable population of MA farmers now. Just want to give them a proper place to organise their farming activities, whilst others non-farming players can get on with their game play as per usual (as possible).

Not a prefect solution. But at least we can sort out who is doing what in a relative neatly manner; and get on with what we want to do.

SO, if you are a MA farmer or want to get involve in some MA farmings, please make the most of the Union MA Farming channel and avoid spamming the Broadcast.

Does any know which one is the map where Scirocco spawn in his patron arc: Hammer of the World?

It's the map where you stop 4 rituals then defeat Ice Mistral then Scricco.

Just want to know whether it is available for choosing.

Many thanks

Hi all,

I have a question about the Force Feedback chance for +recharge proc: does it have some sort of cool down time after it has fired?

I put two of the proc in two of my AoE attacks that do KB. I know it has A CHANCE of firing IF my attacks hit a target. So basically it has a higher chance to fire if it is in a AoE. But I noticed that once the proc has been fired once, it does take a long while before it seems to have the chance to fire the second time. So does it really have a cool down timer?

Thanks

1) Still only 3 ambushes maximum. Just checked. Let me know if you can get more than 3 (and on what map)

Thank you all for the reply!

1) Is the maximum number ambush 3? I have tried on a number of indoor and outdoor maps and I could not put more than 3 ambushes in each of them.

2) How do you get the contact to do an emote? Last night I was doing a short 1-mission long arc. At start, the contact was standing upright, like it would be normally. Then when I completed it and came out of the mission, he was kind of kneeling on the floor (like doing some kind of emote). Any one knows how it is done?

Thanks alot!

Just found this over on the US forum. They are asking for more specific spawn locations too:

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat....=0#Post13317607

That is really we should ask the dev to add into the MA system.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
At the moment, we can choose to have an ally, an additional mob, etc. to spawn in either the Front, the Middle or the Back of a map. It seems to work fine most of the time if there is just one objective you want to spawn. But it can be quite annoying sometimes if you have more than one items and they are set to spawn upon the completion of a sequent of events.

[/ QUOTE ]
In my experience objectives that spawn on completion of others have worse problems than dodgy labeling of spawn points. It appears that the items that are on the map from the start get first choice of spawn points and anything that comes later has to fit in around them. You may find you can get more consistant results if you set everything to appear from the beginning. If you can, then on a linear map players should still be completing objectives in the 'right' order anyway.

[/ QUOTE ]

Tried that trick. Only works sometimes. Occassionally, I still have to go back and forth (mostly going back) in order to find the new spawn.

That still did not solve the problem of spawn point in outdoor map. I know it is random; and that ruin of grandeur of the boss fight. Put it this way, in the final part of an ITF, it will not quite the same if Romulus is spawn not in his usual spot but somewhere else - it kind of ruin the artistic presentation of an important fight.

I do believe that precision spawning will benefit a lot of story writers.

[ QUOTE ]
But (and this has also been put into one of the mission screens loading tips, thanksfully) outside maps simply don't have a back/middle/front and you cant define where anything goes in them, it's purely random.

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh, did not see that. Aaah, that is annoying.

I have a few concepts (like a detective story or Indiana Jones in CoT caves) and I want to write in the mission some kind of progression as it go along. Like I said before, a sequence of objectives/events building up to the final moment. It should flow with the movement of players along the map. It is rather stupid to have to go back and forth the same place trying to find where the things are.

Motif of most of the MA missions I have played (and some are really good) are rather much like those old dev-design ones: you enter the map, go through a killing spree (if you can't stealth it), hit the boss/grab the hostage/click something, get out. That's it. It is getting a bit repetitive now - even with the lastest injection of MA creativity. I suppose we can break that progression down into the 5 allowing mission spaces we have; but that would break the sense of build-up every time you zone in and out. It really does spoil the mood.

And some of the maps are quite big. If it is allowed to strategically place objectives at various point of interest, it would really add a new dimension and excitment of story writing.

Without some kind of precision spawning, it really makes some good concepts hard to come into being.

At the moment, we can choose to have an ally, an additional mob, etc. to spawn in either the Front, the Middle or the Back of a map. It seems to work fine most of the time if there is just one objective you want to spawn. But it can be quite annoying sometimes if you have more than one items and they are set to spawn upon the completion of a sequent of events.

For example, I was setting up a nice little story once using a large Longbow map. I think it is Map 15 (unlockable, by the way) - a straight and long Longbow base. I chose that particular one because I want to investigate a few things along the way from the mission door to the end room and fight the boss there. Like a detective story (CoX-style, if you must) with layers of events: one leading to the other in sequence. In that one, I think, first I want to click a glowie, then move on to pick up an NPC sidekick, who together will help me to unlock a safe, then fight an ambush and then some of the final boss'es lackeys. And finally, after acquiring all the clues, fight the boss in the deepest part of the base. But I ended up runing up and down the map just to fulfil all my objectives. And worse, the final boss spawned somewhere in the middle section of the map instead of the 'Back'. It kind of spoil the whole story a bit (well alot, really).

Another example is the Skyway city map. In fact, outdoor map is terrible in finding and tracking your objectives. Most frequently used part of that map is the upper most L-shape motorway. To be honest, I don't seem to remember I need to go under that part in any of the dev-design missions. You fight along the way and complete the objective near the end of the motorway where there are helicopters guarded by Longbow wardens. That's it (or lead the hostage back to the mission door). When I use that map and set the objectives to spawn near the Front, then Middle and Back in one of my missions, they ended up spawning nearly everywhere. Front, Middle and Back in an outdoor map do not make any logical sense at all. Try the Atlas Park map - the Ruin version is the worst!

And I think some of us want to write something like a TF or SF. It would be nice to have the final AVs spawn in somewhere special - like the door of Atlas Park City Hall or the deepest part of the cave guarded by mobs. It has a finale or climax feel to it. Just imagine how comical it will be if, in LRSF, Freedom Phalanx is spawned at a random location instead of that nice plaza in the centre of Atlas.

See. Sometimes a story flows with the shape of a map. It would be nice to have some precision in picking the location where an objective is spawned.

I was just reading the Patch Note and realised that there is no AE building in Granville! Did Lord Recluse not giving them planning permission to put a new shinny building? Come on, think about the rent.

Also, a AE building in Rikti War Zone? Let me say that again: an Entainment building in a war zone! I wonder would the rikti want to have a go in making some mission arc too.

so,what is the very first thing you will be doing once the server is back up?

One of the major argument against the existing PvP format is that our ATs are designed to be different and do different things complimenting each others. The current balancing exercise around PvP play is to make inherently different ATs into something similar. To my mind, it is like asking an army nurse to fight an infantry soldier on a level playfield - there bound to be some serious problems. But of course, you all heard about something similar.

Now i14 is coming soon and there will some sort of PvP-drop recipes. I suppose this new feature is some kind of incentive (or bribe or bait) to encourage more people to try out and ideally stay on PvP. Good incentive I suppose but it still not addressing the major problem there is about the PvP: ATs are inherently different.

Then I could not stop wondering why the devs are willing to go thought all the troubles changing structure of the PvP system (and still most of us are not entirely impressed) and adding incentives BUT fail to look into the obvious simple solution: encourage people to team in PvP. The rationale behind this suggestion is simple: instead of balancing each individual ATs and powersets, balance the way and the manner players engage in PvP - because ATs and powersets are meant to be balanced WITH each others; not AMONGST each others.

I propose that they could add some sort of Teaming Bonus to encourage people to team with different ATs in PvP zones. Perhaps higher influence/infamy return and higher rate of recipe drop if the team consists of different ATs. For example, a tanker and a defender each have a solo drop rate of x% per PvP kill, but if they were to team up then it would increase the overall drop rate to >x% per teammate per kill if the teammates are within certain radius of each others. But this kind of bonus only available if the team consists of different ATs. So back to the above example: if the team consist of 2 tankers, then the drop rate will remain the same as x% per teammate per kill.

In fact, I would go as far as to suggesting that the devs should create some form of useful buffs or temp powers that last a fair bit back in PvE zones. Or even specific costume or badges or even merits. So there are reasons - other than inf and recipes - for people to step into the PvP zones and team there like they would in a TF/SF. From past experience, these sorts of rewards are what drive people to team and to do something together.

Think about it: it is not hard to achieve. It is rather common that we ask for a specific AT to join a TF or SF - STF and LRSF are very good examples. We already have an habit of picking a set of matching ATs for a team. That is something we have been doing it for a while. I propose that the devs should take advantage of this long standing habit and incooperate it into the PvP system.

Also, it is not hard to gather enough people into a zone as you might imagine. Mothership raid over on Union every Friday night is a good example on how keen people will turn up a regularly for zone event - and not to mention occassionally there will a second one during the weekend. There are usually a fair amount of people turning up - very often there are at least 3 - 4 teams on a Friday. We do die regularly in a typical raid. It is not uncommon that all of the raiders pass out on the mothership and need a quick trip to the hospital. Yet, we are still doing it every week.

In short, rather than tweaking (fiddling?) with the existing ATs into what they are not designed for, why not incooperate the mind-set and the teaming sytle/habit from the PvE, which has been going on everyday for the last so many years, into the PvP system. The Devs have clearly done enough on the computer sciences/software engineering side regarding the PvP system. But how about the social sciences/social engineering side of it? After all, PvP is all about people - us the players. It needs some other kind of strategy to make the PvP system works; and work well. This might just be an effective improvement with minimum changes.

I am a bit confused. So would very much hope someone who has tried CoF and OG to tell me whether the Fear and Stun elements in CoF and OG are stackable by themselves.

So for example: if I switch only CoF on and stand next to a boss, would the fear component of CoF stack on the boss everytime it pulses?

Also, which one worth taking if I am to just pick one?

Thanks

So they dial down the defence in any defensive armour. But did they do something with To-Hit value in, say, leadership as well? If they don't, they basically strip the armour off to bare bone from any defensive set in PvP... Ocuh

Hi all,

Could someone please tell me why my defence is lower (actually a fair bit) in PvP zone comparing to PvE zone?

My /energy brute has quite good defence in PvE from set bonuses and did (to my surprise) rather well in LRSF. But when I took her to RV, she just could not stop being hit. Then I checked the numbers, overall her defence in RV is lower than she normally would.

I don't know why

Do we have more details on the new Tournament feature?

Would any of you be interested in having a go?

Should be fun. Could organise it, say, every weekend along side the regular Mothership raid.

Hi all,

Just some questions regarding the newly added patron powers for brute; or more specifically Arctic Breath and Darkest Night.

Has anyone tried Arctic Breath yet? If so, what do you think about it? Worth taking?

And how is Darkest Night on brute? I know the debuff is lower than the MM's and Corrupter's version but does it worth taking?

In fact, which one seems to be more useful?

Thanks a lot.