Adeon Hawkwood
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Quote:It depends how you view the axis. My view is:Originally Posted by Lothic
I'd agree with the general idea of this even though like I said before it's kind of hard to peg entire classes of people under set alignments. While I can accept your "alignment corners" idea you somehow managed to mix all the Praetorians up. This is what they actually are given the flavor of their respective arcs:
Wardens: Lawful Good, Neutral Good, Lawful Neutral, True Neutral
Crusaders: Chaotic Good, Neutral Good, Chaotic Neutral, True Neutral
Responsibility: Lawful Evil, Neutral Evil, Lawful Neutral, True Neutral
Power: Chaotic Evil, Neutral Evil, Chaotic Neutral, True Neutral
You've got to realize Emperor Cole is the main "bad guy" here.
Things like "power" and "responsibility" are being used in service of his inherently totalitarian regime.
Lawful-Chaotic -> Do they support the system or oppose it?
Good-Evil -> Are they doing it for themselves or to help others?
Your view is basically the other way around:
Lawful-Chaotic -> Are they doing it for themselves or to help others?
Good-Evil -> Do they support Cole (aka: the system) or oppose him?
I consider the first method to be much closer to the spirit of the D&D alignment than the second. Compare a Chaotic Good character to a Lawful Good character. They both want to help people, they just differ as to how they should do it and what the goal is. The Lawful Good character will attempt to work with the system to reform it if necessary and will generally value safety and security, breaking the system invites anarchy and should only be done as a last resort. Conversely the Chaotic Good character will value freedom (both of action and thought/speech) and believe that people should, as much as possible, be free to choose their own course and will prefer to smash the system in order to free people. To me that sounds a lot more like the difference between Wardens and Responsibility than Wardens and Crusaders.
Cole is evil, no argument there but not everyone who works for him is evil. The Responsibility faction is trying to do right by the people of Preatoria but are doing so within the system (either because they believe that breaking it will be worse than the alternative or because despite everything else Cole was legally appointed).
Conversely the Resistance is not automatically good. The Cursaders don't really care about killing people which is not the actions of a good person (even a Chaotic Good person). Consider the end of the Resistance arc. When you're getting ready to go through the portal Steven mentions that the portal to the Rogue Isles is mostly being used by the Crusader types. Sure some Crusaders choose to become heroes (and some Wardens become villains) but the point being made in the story is that the Crusaders as a groups feel a stronger connection to the ideology of the Isles than they do Paragon City.
EDIT: To butcher a famous quote by Churchill (which I'm not quoting directly for obvious reasons): "If Cole invaded the Rogue Isles, I would make at least a favourable reference to Lord Recluse in the House of Commons." Cole is evil, but not all who oppose him are good. -
Quote:I agree. I wrote up my thoughts on this a while back (linky). But basically my view is that each of the 8 CoX alignments really represents a collection of D&D alignments (with lots of overlap).Originally Posted by UberGuy
Actually, I could not disagree more. Specifically, the characterization of all Villains as Chaotic Evil smacks of applying a shoe-horn to find a place to list the last two alignments of the CoH/V and D&D categories not already mentioned.
All villains do not fit cleanly in the Chaotic Evil alignment. If Rogue covers Neutral Evil (and I think that's an overly restrictive of Rogue, too), I believe there is plenty of room for Villains to be Lawful Evil. There are plenty of examples villains who espouse strong loyalty to order and tradition while heartlessly striking down innocents to enforce order and tradition through fear and oppression. Edit: Just because Recluse might fit Chaotic Evil, it is not reasonable to cast all villain motivations based on his image.
On the matter of Rogues, while I do think that Neutral Evil does fit Rogues, I also feel that Chaotic Neutral and even (True) Neutral fit. Just because you're breaking the law, and even if you're willing to break your word, it doesn't mean you're willing to harm innocents. In fact, the Rogue Morality mission has you risk absolutely overwhelming punishment (attacking an Aribiter is usually like ordering a death sentence with a side of torture) to spare the lives of innocent bystanders, when you could just take the job and be paid.
Edit 2: As I think about it, the same thing applies to heroes. All heroes are not Lawful Good. Basically I think this effort at alignment categorization ran aground when it tried to keep Primal and Praetorean "alignments" distinct. They aren't, and so there should be overlap.
The Primal Earth alignments are the bars of the chart:
Hero = Good
Vigilante & Rogue = Neutral
Villain = Evil
While the Praetorian Earth alignments represent the corners of the chart:
Responsibility: Lawful Good, Neutral Good, Lawful Neutral, True Neutral
Wardens: Chaotic Good, Neutral Good, Chaotic Neutral, True Neutral
Power: Lawful Evil, Neutral Evil, Lawful Neutral, True Neutral
Crusaders: Chaotic Evil, Neutral Evil, Chaotic Neutral, True Neutral -
Quote:Actually I have, unfortunately the campaign never really got going so I never studied the full rules.Originally Posted by Manofmanychars
I can tell you've never played 7th Sea.
That's not a pure story element. A pure story element has no impact on gameplay. By having background grant extra XP it forces the GM to either incorporate elements of your background into his campaign (which he may not want to do) or tell you you can't have a particular background because it won't work with the overall campaign story.Quote:Backgrounds in 7th Sea are just that. They are purely story elements for your character to have. They set up events that happened to your character prior to the beginning of the game, which come back as a recurring subplot until such a time as they're resolved. You earn additional experience for taking part in scenes related to your background (a return on the investment of character points you used to buy the background). When the background is resolved, you get some more bonus experience. Backgrounds can also be earned through gameplay under certain circumstances.
Sure it makes sense to decide your character's background at character creation, at the very least it's worth thinking about where do they come from and why are they adventuring. However you don't need rules to do that, as I said in my last post having background be a non-rules based system allows maximum flexibility to come up with a background without impacting your ability to build a character you enjoy playing.Quote:A character's backstory should be decided on creation. Having Schrodinger's Past is unrealistic and is one of the main contributing factors in the overall lack of attachment many players feel for their characters. You didn't get to choose your own past, why should your character? -
Quote:Occam's Razor. There are a few places where animations seem to act in weird ways (the aforementioned Snow Storm/Dual Pistols, using a Bow temp power with a shield and a few others). What is more likely, that the devs occasionally put in extra animations for specific powers in unusual stances for the heck of it (something BaBs stated to be very difficult based on the work done with brawl) or that it's an unintended consequence of something in the power animation system?Originally Posted by TwilightPhoenix
It's a bug when the character uses a different animation with the Nem Staff out?
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Quote:Yeah that was pretty much what I was suggesting with the Scorpion Shield clone. I don't think it's a huge risk of making it the APP simply because the cat is out of the bag anyhow with Scorpion Shield being available to Defenders.Originally Posted by Ravenbane
I'm definitely all for stepping up the protection of the Body Armor set, and you just gave me an idea. I really like the idea of something like a TI clone (power body armor, as you call it) but how about a toggle that does S/L defense instead of resist? Firstly, this differentiates it from TI and the other shields in the defender APPs, so that's nice. Secondly, it meshes nicely with the FF generator in Traps, the -to hit in Flash Arrow in TA, or any other +defense or -to hit powers in other primaries like Deflection Bubble, Hurricane, Radiation Infection, and Darkest Night. Of course, that risks making it THE choice for Defender APPs, but that's far from the biggest problem in the world.
My only real issue with that is range. Taser is very short ranged, and I think a lot of Defenders would prefer a longer ranged power.Quote:I agree with you as far as hold>stun for the first power, but I tried to choose powers that weren't too high-tech, but either could work. I kinda thought something like a taser that holds, kinda like the power Malta Sappers have, would be kind of cool.
AoE sleeps are one of those powers you either love or hate. My Defender is an Assault Rifle Defender so the usefulness of sleeps is pretty low to meQuote:As far as Sleep Grenades I chose it because I'm fond of Mass Hypno on my level 50 defender; it's very helpful in drawing more aggro than we want to when mobs are close together. Another idea for the grenades could be to make the AoE web grenade you suggested, and then make possibly the 4th or 5th power an AoE stun grenade. Pair them up and you effectively have a group hold, which is nice. 
. I'm not sure about an AoE stun, I think it would be ok if it was only mag 2 (i.e. doesn't stun LTs) mag 3 might be a bit to good.
Honestly, I probably wouldn't bother with either power on a Defender. The long cast time and short duration of Gun Drone make it very irritating to use. LRM does ok damage but it's a snipe so you have to cast it first meaning you can't use any debuffs for more damage/suvivability which really hurts a lot of Defender primaries.Quote:4. Gun Drone - I'm choosing this over LRM rocket because I can't help but think the Rocket is an overpowered choice for a Defender APP, plus a summon pet power would be unique to the defender APPs (short of going red side and choosing a patron pool). -
Quote:That's a bug more than anything else (assuming that your point is casting rad powers without the nemesis staff vanishing), there's a similar bug when you use Snow Storm with Dual Pistols outOriginally Posted by TwilightPhoenix
While there's a few technical limitations in the way, to vastly understate things I'm sure, I wouldn't say there isn't any groundwork laid out....
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Quote:That's not an issue with the system, that's an issue with the players. D&D tends to attract the people who play RPGs to just go out and hit things, other games are more popular with those who want to role-play a bit more (and there is nothing wrong with either option). However you will find players of both types playing all types of games.Originally Posted by Manofmanychars
Here's a challenge for you: go to the D&D players you know, and ask them who their characters' parents are. Ask them about their characters' lives prior to adventuring. What sort of emotional issues do their characters carry from past experiences? I doubt you'll get many detailed answers that aren't on-the-spot.
To pick one of your examples from 7th Sea you don't need an in-game "background" trait to come up with a background for your character, in fact if you have them I would argue it actually limits your choices. There are plenty of people who like to both min-max and role-play, for those people having their characters backstory affect thier in game abilities is REALLY annoying. It forces you to either not min-max or min-max your background. A separation of stats and background actually aids role-playing (IMHO) because it means you can make a character you want to play and then decide how they got their (or visa-verse depending on preference) without needing to feel that your choice of background gimped your char or that you style of play forces you into a specific back story. -
Yep Traps really, really rocks. Just remember the code of the trapper:
If the tank wishes to take the alpha, he'd better have super speed. -
The big issue for me with a Defender Gadget based APP is the shield. You used Body Armor, is a pretty poor power for a squishy character (I'll explain why in a bit). Cloaking Device is an awful power in devices and I don't see it getting any better in a Defender Epic. The value of the stealth with no movement penalty is pretty minor (especially with the increase of speed for Sprint and Swift becoming inherent in I19) and since any Defender can take Stealth a Defender taking the Gadgets APP isn't really getting any benefit form Cloaking Device. I would actually like to fix both issues by changing the defense of Cloaking Device to be a 1.5 scale Ranged Defense bonus only with no suppression (personally I think they should do this to the version in Devices) and making that the epic shield. Other options for a gadget epic shield: make a renamed clone of Scorpion Shield, just copy Body Armor, make a renamed clone of Temporary Invulnerability.
Option 1 - A Ranged Defense only Cloaking Device
This basically gives the set a Ranged defense version of Scorpion Shield. I'm just not sure how that would play out in practice. In theory the two should be equivalent after all one provides a bonus to one out of three positional tags while the other provides protection to 2 of the 7 typed tags. In practice however there is a valid argument that for a Defender Ranged defense is a lot more powerful than S/L defense. The fact that this would make it trivial for a Traps Defender to softcap range is also a consideration (although they can do that with S/L now so maybe it wouldn't be as big a problem).
Option 2 - Scorpion Shield Clone
Pretty obvious really. It's, presumably, not unblanaced and it gives an option for Defenders who want a S/L shield without having to go redside and do a patron arc.
Option 3 - Body Armor
The obvious solution. The problem is that Body Armor is a pretty poor power for a squishy character. In armor sets passive resistance powers provide about one third of the resistance that toggles get. This isn't a huge issue there since they are intended to stack with other powers to provide good overall resistance. However for a squishy character who only has one shield this minuscule amount is not that much use (Body Armor actually has a slightly higher than normal value because of this, but it's still tiny). I guess it might be a nice option for a Defender with endurance issues to get some resistance but that's about it.
Option 4 - Temporary Invulnerability Clone
Basically the idea here is to fix the issue of a passive resistance power sucking on a squishy character by making a power (Powered Body Armor, maybe?) which gets increased resistance but becomes a toggle.
Of the options 1 and 4 are my preferences although I'll acknowledge 1 might be a bit to good.
Regarding the other powers:
Taser - Personally I'd prefer a hold like Cryo Greeze ray, but Taser would work.
Sleep Grenade - Not a big fan of sleep powers personally but definitely a possible option.
Surveillance - not really a Defender Epic power IMHO, Epic powers are supposed to be things that the character doesn't normally get and resistance debuffs are present in a lot of Defender sets. The ability to stack Surveillance with other resistance debuffs might be a bit to good.
Targeting Drone - Honestly the Epic pool version of Targeting Drone (and Focused Accuracy which is a clone of it) is awful. It has two advantages over Tactics: first it doesn't require you to take Assault of Maneuvers and secondly it provides resistance to to hit debuffs. Tactics provides a much stronger buff for half the endurance cost.
With that in mind here's how I would do it:
1. Cryo Freeze Ray
2. Wide Area Web Grenade (as the power Arachnos Soldiers get but with a "fire from assault rifle" animation and a 15ft radius)
3. Shield (whichever one makes sense)
4. Either Sleep Grenade or think up something new.
5. LRM Rocket
The problem with this is that it's a pretty close clone of Mace Mastery. -
Quote:And you're basing this on what exactly? Unless you're in the closed beta (has that started yet?) and are breaking the NDA the information on the official page simply states that the new animations will allow us to change the origin point of the attack. The problem Sam is discussing is entirely different since it would involve changing the stance for a power.Originally Posted by JoshexDirad
i19 is changing that
See this post by BaBs:
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showp...0&postcount=26
Considering the issues that BaBs had trying to remove redraw, the issues they apparently had getting Brawl to work correctly, not to mention the complications involved in Shield Defense I think it's safe to say that mucking around with stances is not something that's as simple it might seem.
What they are doing is having different animations for a power which all use the same stance (which they already did for Super Strength and Martial Arts) and that is very different from different stances. -
Quote:Well one option is to take the medicine pool and get it very slowly. The other option is to get the Longbow Warden 2 Badge and setup a heal farm in the Arena.Originally Posted by Blue_Centurion
My only question......How the heck does a brute (somewhat easily) get any healing badges???????
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Quote:You might want to read the posts myself and Jade Dragon made above yours. While we don't know all of the details BaBs expressed the view several times that eliminating redraw was not a trivial issue and that the one power that does eliminate it (Brawl) had to be made VERY complicated to support that.Originally Posted by Roleplayer606
Yes kick causes redraw have on my broadsword / regen scrapper and is very disheartening maybe is time they took time fix whole redraw issue instead focusing on lame packs and such.
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Quote:I have a similar bind, the main issue I find is that there is also a minion called "Quartz" and the bind doesn't differentiate.Originally Posted by Derangedpolygot
I have "R" bound to target Cairns and Quartz(also Sappers and Immunes Surgeons)
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Quote:There was possibly some truth in this before gleemail. Even then it was reasonably easy to store the excess inf (mostly by bidding on level 53 recipes). Since hte implementation of gleemail it's even easier to pass the excess to an alt. As for keeping marketeers in check I don't really see it. Most people either marketeer because they enjoy it as an activity, because they want to buy stuff or simply because they want to have an ever increasing quantity of inf. None of these goals are really effect by the inf cap directly.Originally Posted by Yomo_Kimyata
I was thinking (surprise!) about the cap and I would posit that having a cap helps to keep the ebil marketers in check.
I mean, if the cap were 10 quadrillion, wouldn't the "rich" try to get still richer, at the ultimate cost of the poor casual player? With the hard cap and the logistical limitations of storing value in excess of the cap, I would argue that this is a disincentive for amassing wealth just for the sake of amassing wealth. -
Quote:One nice side effect of Dargeting Trone is that it has 55% resistance to to hit debuffs so in general a Devices blaster won't notice them unless they are very heavy.Originally Posted by Arbegla
while 1% tohit is greater then 1% acc, acc usually comes in higher packages, and isn't affected by debuffs.
In answer to the OP's original question other people have covered the basic principles, so I'll just add that if you're interested in the mechanics the wiki has an excellent article on it:
http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Attack_Mechanics -
I think it's partly a level thing. The regular enemies that summon swarms are Fungoids, Herders and Lesser Devoured which rarely show up in higher level missions.
EDIT: Made a quick AE mission with nothing but those three enemy types. Killed several spawns and none of them summoned Swarms so it looks like something is borked. -
Quote:Not entirely true, the only way to unlock PPPs is to go Villain for a bit. In the case of Blasters and Masterminds especially this is very annoying since the PPPs have several very useful powers not in the regular APPs (notably an AoE immobilize is handy for staying at range).Originally Posted by Steampunkette
There's no great "Reward" for staying a hero, but there is no penalty, either.
It's a minor penalty but for a min-maxer it is a penalty.
Really? I would say the opposite is true. With the exception of Dominators and Brutes who do get to fill their bar the Villain power is only slightly stronger at the cost of a shorter duration and only affecting you instead of the whole team. It's not a bad power but 40% damage for 30 seconds on the entire team seems a lot more useful than 60% damage and 30% recharge for 20 seconds on yourselfQuote:Originally Posted by Zyphoid
The hero power seems like weak sauce compared to the villain power
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Quote:This is pretty much my feeling on the matter. I don't particularly care about having special maps or branching dialogue trees in regular story arcs. What I want is story arcs that don't have umpteen missions spread all over the city. To steal a quote, a good story arc should be like a miniskirt, short enough to retain interest but long enough to cover the subject.Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
I'd say they need to hire another writer or two and task them with nothing but playing through old missions and arcs, feeling the tedium, spotting the plot holes and re-writing them purely textually. Even if the old game never got any of the new tech (like dialogue trees) I would still like to see the actual briefings, debriefings, clues and NPC dialogue. This would also include scrapping or rewriting pointless "your princess is in another castle" missions where you go to a warehouse, but don't find anything out, costing you a pointless trip.
Now for the TFs (especially the signature TFs) I would like to see at least some special maps for each one as was done with the Positron TF. -
Quote:Actually that depends a LOT on the primary. Some primaries, Traps, Rad and Dark in particular) solo VERY well. Trick Arrow is somewhat middle of the road. It has high resistance debuffs which help a lot with damage output but it's damage mitigation tools limit it to smaller spawn sizes (baring a very high defense IO build or being paired with a damage mitigation heavy secondary like Dark Blast). Empathy is pretty much at the bottom of the heap in terms of soloing ability since it lacks any form of self damage buffing and in fact only has three powers that can even be used solo.Originally Posted by Super Firebug
(Soloing a non-Empathy Defender makes for a challenge.)
Not going to happen, Blasters get Manipulation ("Support") sets as secondaries, not Buff/Debuff sets. Like Wavicle said Trick Arrow BASED blaster secondary is not unreasonable.Quote:What about making Trick Arrow a Blaster secondary, so we can run stronger archers? Thanks.
That looks pretty decent, main changes I'd suggest are:Quote:Originally Posted by Wavicle
Entangling Arrow
Flash Arrow
Glue Arrow
Ice Arrow
Build Up
Arrow Stab
Bow Smash
Boost Range
Oil Patch Arrow
1. Reorder the powers so that the melee attacks come earlier (probably the T2 and either T3 or T4 powers). In general Blaster secondaries get Melee Damage early and debuff/control later.
2. Build Up doesn't really seem thematically appropriate to me. Personally I'd say leave it out entirely but if you really feel it needs a damage boost how about making a "Follow Up" style power called "Ranging Shot" which doubles as a weak attack and a damage/hit bonus?
3. Boost Range also doesn't really work thematically. I'd suggest a third melee attack (ideally with a control/knockback component) or maybe an AoE Sleep (i.e. Poison Gas Arrow without the -dam but with a shorter recharge).
4. I think Glue Arrow would need a smaller radius. -
Quote:I think the devs would be more likely to nerf Dark Mastery. In general powers in Epic Pool Powers have recharge times that are twice those of equivalent powers in regular sets so going by that rule the one in Soul Mastery is the "correct" one (it's not the only power to break that rule but the majority of EPP powers do follow it).Originally Posted by TwilightPhoenix
Ok, I thought they were identical. Went and looked at City of Data and saw Corruptor Soul Mastery Soul Drain (which I assume is identical to the Defender version from the same set) had double the recharge of Dark Mastery's (120 base vs. 240). That's a little... silly and solves my dilemma. Now I suppose I'll need to advocate buffs to Defender/Corruptor Soul Mastery.
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You cannot mix powers from both Banes and Crabs at the same time. Arachnos Soldier's effectively have 6 power sets. All Soldiers have access to the Arachnos Soldier and Training and Gadgets power sets. Additionally you may select one pair of the other sets, either Crab Spider Soldier and Crab Spider Training or Bane Spider Soldier and Bane Spider Training.
I suspect what the other person was referring to was the Dual Builds option. You can select Crab powers in one build and Bane powers in the other (although due to limitations of the engine if you do you will have the crab backpack in both builds).
Regarding pet powers Soldiers have access to three pet powers. These are all temporary pets meaning unless you have a very high recharge build you can't have them out 100% of the time.
Call Reinforcements summons two Arachnobot Disruptors and is available to both Bane and Crabs
Summon Spiderlings summons 3 Spiderlings and is available to Crabs only
Additionally you can get one additional summon from your Patron Power pool (Mace Mastery is probably the most popular choice since it allows you to summon an Arachnobot Blaster in keeping with the spider robot theme).
Regarding recharge all three pets last for a maximum of 4 minutes. The Disruptors and the Patron pet have 15minute recharge time while the Spiderlings have 10 minute recharge. To get the Disruptors and Patron pet perma ou need a total of +275% recharge (same as perma Hasten) which basically means you need to slot the power with 95% recharge enhancement, take Hasten (and slot it with 95% recharge enhancement), take Mental Training (for +20% recharge) and get another 90% global recharge from somewhere (probably IOs). The Spiderlings are a lot easier since they only need +150% and you'll get 95% of that from slotting them. -
Quote:I generally avoid any team where the leader is looking for a specific powerset. Heck, most of the time I avoid teams where the leader is looking for a specific character type (although that does depend on the content, it can be useful to get extra support toons for the harder stuff).Originally Posted by Sprite Fire
I think its safe to say any STF demanding a "stone tanker" is pretty much screwed. Because all you need to know from seeing that is the team was built by a moron.
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My understanding is that hidden global friends show up on your list as being offline. The command /gunfriend will remove a global friend (remmeber you have to use the global name including the @ symbol).
EDIT: BIIIIILLLLLLL!!!!!! -
Quote:Heck, even on a peddle bike you should wear a helmet. My dad took a nasty spill one night (we think a car hit him but there was no witnesses and he had amnesia) his helmet was literally split in half from the impact. (As a side note for those who aren't familiar with it bicycle helmets are designed to break since making a helmet than can protect your head without being damaged would require it to be a lot heavier/more expensive).Originally Posted by sleestack
After a while aan ambulance showed up and the paramedics started doing their thing. While I was lying there in the road I looked over to see another motorcycle rider stopped at the light, staring at me with wide eyes and mouth hanging open. He wasn't wearing a helmet. I opened the visor on my helmet and yelled at him, "Get a helmet and wear it! It will save your life...like mine just saved my life! (Yes I was wearing a helmet, full faced. If you ride, wear a helmet!!! It WILL save your life and/or your cranium/brain. I'm living proof of that. My helmet had a 2-inch wide hole in the back, where it hit the pavement. If I had been helmetless that would have been my skull that was cracked open.)
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The individual AT pages on paragon wiki are the best source for this info (although you have to look them up inidvidually). Alternatively RedTomax has a list but the formatting is a little wierd:
http://tomax.cohtitan.com/data/modifiers.php