Xalaqia

I like it very much.

I think that demi-god heroes like Statesman and Superman are vulnerable to becoming distanced from humanity. This story shows us how much the love of a good woman can do.

/sniffle

Ah, NASTY non-objective bosses. Good one!

Perhaps once they've been "weakened" by other missions and objectives, present them as a mission goal, toned down somewhat.

I'd like to write a mission where the objective is made harder by players not paying attention to the mission briefing.

My first thought is non-objective bosses, which spawn ambushes when defeated. Briefing: Don't fight Boss1 if you can. He has a lot of friends.

My second thought is non-objective glowies or destructible objects (that explode!) which trigger ambushes. Briefing: The Circle has left mystic traps. Avoid them if you can.

Which of these are possible?

Also, in what other ways can the mission be made harder by players doing/not doing what they are supposed to do, outside of the normal objectives?

Basically, I want the players to have an easier time of it if they actually read stuff.

Yes, I understand that some players will see these as additional sources of xp.

They've fixed the looping drone explosions on Test? Dammit, now I have to play those comedy arcs before it goes live!

Yes, but I did it with two nukes, a full Shivan Shard, and a bunch of large (mostly purple) inspirations. The psychic AOE is a real pain. It's radius is huge!

Leave your computer on if you can. If you have to shut it off, the updater will resume from where it was, so your progress will not be lost.

Check www.paragonwiki.com for Unlockable Contacts. I recall quite a plethora in the 25-30 range.

What is your location? I'm getting 280+kb/s in Western Canada.

What is your expected download completion time in hours? What is your typical download speed?

In the meantime, turn off any other draws on your bandwidth, torrents, streaming music or radio, other downloads, all unnecessary programs.

EDIT: If it's still a long time, then browse the forums for the guides for new players. This game is incredible, and there's a tonne to it.

Any questions, while you have our attention?

Given the lack of guardrails in the demon-powered electrical generating system, a trusted operative who is a man-eating man-shark, the presence of heavily armed soliders and combat-psychics on every city block, and the scattering of vicious spider-predators in the slums of the capital, I'm inclined to say that enforcing safety regulations are a lower priority in the Rogue Isles.

In addition, it allows fatal "accidents" to be more plausible. And deniable.

Check out the Ebil Marketeers forums to find out how to make millions while you sleep.

Strike Forces?

I don't run them often enough to put in a good estimate.

@burner24 will be hosting a Statesman's Task Force starting 4pm Eastern, 2pm Mountain on Sunday July 12, 2009.

I'll be joining, in the guise of a inv/mace or ice/ice tank, kat/sr scrapper, or AR/Dev blaster, as required.

Starting from scratch has another effect. As you fight with what you have, and the next power choice comes up, you have a better idea of what would be useful.

Given you've really tried to make your Blaster as a melee combatant, I'd echo the suggestion to make a brute or scrapper.

Also, If you take Stun, you might want to slot some Disorient Duration into that.

Also, the defense bonus and endurance drain from Stealth is minimal. Those five slots could go elsewhere.

I strongly recommend taking the first two Blaster Attack powers from your primary tree. These are very useful due to the Blaster Defiance ability. Check it out at www.paragonwiki.com and see why.

The damage from Power Thrust is minimal, so putting 2 damage enhancers is a waste, in my opinion. Either move them elsewhere, or use them for knockback, recharge, end reduction... etc.

The endurance drain from temp invulnerability is low, so endurance reduction is not that useful, and the power cycles very quicly when toggled on or off, so recharge is best removed.

Also, Flurry does damage, but as a blaster you have access to many more much more efficient attacks. Drop flurry and take another attack from your primary.

My general inclination is, if using SOs, slot three damage into significant damage powers.

I'd throw another slot on Aim and Build-Up for recharge. They give a nice damage spike.

For Recall Friend, I'd suggest Range instead of End Reduc.

Also, if you want superspeed, you only need to take EITHER Flurry OR Hasten. You don't need both to get Superspeed.

EDIT: Slot some Endurrance Modification into Stamina. It's three slotted, which means with SOs you pretty much double it's effect.

There was a graphic update around Issue 6. It put "working, sorta" machines into the "nope, not today, not ever" category.

Kryoman, Ghandi said, "You must be the change you wish to see in the world."

I'm not sure he was thinking about superhero MMOs... but it applies!

I've done a "Paragon City Monster Patrol" day, and it was a lot of fun.

I'm glad you found some fire in Paragon City, and I hope a lot of the "LFT!" people read this and become inspired themselves.

Do you know that I actually mentioned City of Heroes in a job interview? I said it developed leadership skills. Leading a bunch of people you can't see through potentially complicated and frustrating tasks through typed commands alone.

I've introduced at least five people into 3+ years subscribers.

We are an excellent marketing tool.

Going to demo for a co-worker at lunch today!

Richard Garfield (one of the brains behind Magic) talked about the metagame.

He often played a game where you cut deals and non-aggression pacts, etc with other players. Richard would routinely break these pacts when it was convenient to do so. He found that, despite the games being separate, that less and less people would willingly cut a deal with him, because he had garnered a reputation as a backstabber. Therefore, he lost more and more.

He started honouring his agreements, even when at a disadvantage to do so. He found his win percentage climbing, because, overall, he became known as a guy who wouldn't sell you out.

No game happens in a vacuum.

Games are not always played as their designers intended.

Transgressing norms, whether hard-coded by developers, passed into law by legislation, or socially implied by the community, will create retaliation.

We're the rabid wombat next to the 500lb gorilla that is WoW.

Easy to not see it, but once it gets it's teeth in...

EDIT: for missing word

Some very nice turns of speech, Fulmens.

I do enjoy the 1-20 myself. Coming into the world, in some ways...

To our returning hero: Check out the invention tutorial, available to anyone at level 10+ at the university in either Steel Canyon or Cap au Diable. It explains how IOs work both generic and sets.

However, since a 40 IO is always better than +3 SO, never needs upgrading, and 45 and 50 are even more so, I tend not to spend much money on SOs after level 37, except as "placeholders" as I mentioned above.

I'm thinking that a returning player at level 25 may not have stacks of inf to do an IO outfit.

No "sane" person uses SOs?

I do, good sir, disagree!

IO'ing at level 25 takes more time, and more inf than fully outfitting in SOs. For some, time and/or inf are rarer commmodities.

Also, as I open up slots on my 45+ characters, I sometimes put SOs in there, as I don't have the time or inclination to shop for or build IOs.

Short Answer: Play what you find fun.

All ATs are capable of soloing. All are useful on teams. Some are better than others, some are late bloomers. The dual build feature means you can have a solo build and a team build.

For your first character, I'd suggest a good solo-er, like a scrapper for heroes, or a brute for villains. They tend to be easier to learn (smash! smash! SMASH!) so you can spend some of your learning brainpower on how the game works in general.

But don't let that stop you. The description of a controller makes you salivate? Go for it.

Longer: Rather than a "healing" role, think about a "support" role. Buffing/debuffing in this game is very significant, and a team can benefit from someone who can heal, OR prevents the enemy from hitting in the first place, OR increases the damage output to the point where the enemy doesn't live long enough to really hurt anyone. In fact, I've heard scrappers or blasters called "Pro-active healers." They kill everything before it hurts you.

My impression is that heroside, good defenders and controllers are in slightly short supply. Note that being a defender or controller won't give you a pass from me for being dumb, or constantly AFK or a jerk.

I'd rather you play something you enjoy, rather than something you tolerate because you think it's necessary.

That being said, since this game is enjoyable at all levels, you don't need to pick a main, and race them to 50. Makes lots of characters, experiment with ATs, powersets and builds. Did I mention the dual builds feature?

At level 16 I got teleport after I learned about pool powers and travel powers.

Had a real OMG moment on the Synapse task force around level 20 facing Babbage.

Learned about Stamina on the Sister Psyche Task Force around level 22 (/team Why are your end bars always full at the end of a fight, and mine is always empty?)

Also learned about Freakshow rezzing (/team HE GOT UP!)

Found out about stores and purchasing SOs around level 27

Found out about the magic SO store in Talos at 28-30, after ALWAYS going to the IP one which is very much out of the way.

Learned about pulling, herding, and more specifics of aggro around 30.