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Quote:Seriously, who said any of those things, other than yourself?Originally Posted by Nalrok_AthZim
I love how this thread started as "You should team if you have problems, people who are having problems" and devolved into "I AM ENTITLED TO SOLO EVERYTHING, DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO, I AM DESERVING OF ALL THINGS I REQUEST!"
Sad. I'm going to go back to smashing apart Malta. -
Quote:My reasons for seldom teaming were listed in another post.Originally Posted by Nethergoat
There are a ton of interesting folk playing this game. I'm rarely able to team myself, but I find idiots and jerkwads to be a rare exception rather than the rule.
And this is from pure PUGing, accepting whatever blind invites come my way while I'm checking my traps at the market.
Team or don't, play the game however you like.
But don't try and justify it by playing up 'annoying people'.
I would remember interesting people if I ever met any on a blind invite PUG, (the only kind I've ever joined), but all I recall were the annoying ones. Just an observation, not a justification. -
Quote:There is nothing right about it either. It isn't right or wrong.Originally Posted by Scythus
There's nothing wrong with teaming for hard stuff. I find that it helps with my otherwise lackluster social skills and I meet new and interesting people.
As for me, I find it easier to deal with hard stuff than it is to deal with people.
On the few teams that I've been on over the years, I've never met anyone interesting, but I've met more than a few annoying people. -
Quote:Getting help in the desert is a life or death thing, this is a game. Phobias aren't easily overcome, if they were, they wouldn't be phobias.Originally Posted by GuyPerfect
Er, to clarify, this isn't a "teaming versus solo" thing. This is a "get help for hard stuff" thing. I mean, if your car breaks down on the interstate in the middle of the dessert...
The stress/phobia thing can be overcome, and I wouldn't say that it gives reason to bark at the devs for making content that can't be easily soloed.
This largely depends on whom you play with. Play on Triumph and you can team with me and friends. It's a non-stop stream of witty banter, uninspired yet hilarious obvservations, and glorious faceplanting that still somehow results in us coming out on top.
For the record, who exactly barked at the devs? I didn't, I soloed all of Remiel's missions. Was it one, two, three, or a hundred people barking?
Unless it was in the hundred category, your original post and thread title are a bit of an overreaction.
It is perfectly valid for a paying customer to ask for a service, as long as they keep their expectations reasonable and their tone civil.
If the developers don't want Remiel's arcs to be too easy, there is nothing wrong with that. The developers are clearly not opposed to soloing. If they were, they would require teams like they do task forces.
I'm convinced that the only reason that you can't autocomplete Trapdoor's mission is because you get a choice to kill him or let him live. I'm assuming that this choice actually has some future consequence. It wasn't to make it hard for some players.
I also doubt that they made it hard to pull Trapdoor to the hallway to screw with the players. They probably just wanted to have the players figure out to deal with the clones, and it wasn't their original intent to allow players to pull him out of range and trivialize the encounter. -
Quote:Could you please whine a little harder? Add some tears too.Originally Posted by GuyPerfect
You know, Lord Recluse has always been pretty tough to solo. And Widdershins on my Elec/Pain Corruptor? Yeah, can't be done. I don't think I've ever soloed Nosferatu, except maybe with my Peacebringer running Light Form. Envoy of Shadow took more Inspirations than you can shake Nurse Francine at.
My response in these situations, at least from my perspective, was quite reasonable: I acknowledged that some foes or missions are too difficult to solo, so I asked for help. Apparently what I was supposed to do was come to the forums and complain about how the entire game isn't easy for all my characters... or something?
Look, I know people like to be able to accomplish things on their own, but let's think about this realistically for a moment. Some enemies are, by design, so hard that you can't take them down by yourself, and no matter what server you play on, there are always hundreds of other players online who can help you...
I mean, not to put two and two together or anything, but doesn't it seem a bit unreasonable to refuse to ask for help?
Yeah, Trapdoor's kinda rough. As is fighting Holtz and the Honoree at once with all those Rikti coming out of the portals. And the Minotaur at the end, what with that Endurance debuff it has. So if you can't do it alone, is it really something the devs have done wrong and they are for some reason at fault for making a terrible game? Be honest, now: is it?
Where does this idea come from, that every mission must be soloable with all characters? To me, that's the unreasonable part in all of this. There's no sense in spurning all the other players in the game with you when you find yourself up against something that you can't overcome all alone. Doing that in real life is a major disservice to oneself; I don't see why it should be expected to be any different in this game.
It's okay to ask for help, it really is. The game was designed with the specific purpose of allowing players to work together, so I would hope that we as players can recognize that as a core feature of the game and make use of it when appropriate. I really don't think we're entitled to talk down to the devs just because they do something differently than we would have.
I had no trouble beating trapdoor, weakened honoree, minotaur etc. solo. Five times with scrapper, tanker, dominator, blaster, stalker.
I don't generally care if content is solo or team oriented. If teaming is required, I generally don't do it. Plenty of other things to do. But if teaming is required, then I shouldn't be allowed to take the mission. Task forces require teams, to start at least.
I don't hate teaming. I'm not opposed to teaming, I'm just terrible at teaming.
I have been trying to make myself team since I19 came out, because I would like to actually see these task forces that I cannot do solo. I don't need to do the task forces for Alpha slot boosts, I've gotten the first boost already on a scrapper playing solo. But I hoped that incarnate shards would be a good carrot to get me to try teaming.
I can't bring myself to ask. Maybe I'm shy like Mirai. Maybe it is something else. But when I try to make myself ask for a team, I start getting physical stress indicators. My chest tightens up and I start to sweat. I play games to relax, stress I got plenty of elsewhere.
I'm not incapable of teaming. Sometimes I'm asked. Sometimes I say yes. But when I do, I'm more stressed than when I play solo. It is always a relief when it breaks up.
So no, it isn't always OK to ask for help. No it really isn't. Not for everyone.
Get a large enough population and you get all kinds. People like you and people like me. We don't have to understand each other or agree on anything.
The developers don't have to build content around my limitations or yours. But if they make content that includes rather than content that excludes, then maybe they retain more customers.
Those are my reasons, they probably don't apply to most of the people who are trying to solo this stuff. -
Quote:If it is so easy to defeat Trapdoor without pulling him to the corridor then why are you so happy that they can no longer pull him to the corridor?Originally Posted by Nalrok_AthZim
I have yet to hear of problems soloing Trapdoor from any of my global friends. If he's a problem for you then I'm sorry, but I find him to be an easy target. I've soloed the mission on a Stone/EM Tanker, an AR/NRG Blaster, a Pistol/Kin Corr, a Dark/Dark Brute, a Demon/Dark MM, and a BS/Regen Scrapper. No problems. My FF/NRG Defender buddy had no problem, my Ice/Elec Blaster buddy had no problem, and my Emp/Psi Defender buddy had no problem.
It's not hard. If you have trouble finding his bifurcations, snag a jetpack temp power and just fly around. Hit tab. You'll find them.
If it's still impossible with kiting and flying and knocking him in the lava and holding the bifurcations, I think the problem isn't the mission (I hate to say that but... that's the only other conclusion I can come to).
Weren't you arguing that it is good that they are making it harder? Isn't that what the title of this thread means? But if it is still easy, it can't be hard. Can't be both at the same time, y'know?
This thread is flame bait. You just want to sneer at people who struggle with this mission.
Me, I tend to agree with those that say having multiple ways of defeating him makes things more interesting. Just academic, I've already unlocked the Alpha slot on my 50s, and I'm not planning more any time soon. -
Quote:Well I was going to try an arc from your signature this evening, but most of them were levels 40+, and I was on a level 26 fire/fire blaster and didn't want to switch. I went and played one of Bubbawheat's instead. Wasn't in his signature, but I figured his forum name and global might be the same.Originally Posted by Dark_Respite
Oh I'm sure I'm a minority. I was just curious if I were ALONE. Apparently, I'm not. And believe me, I am all for getting equivalent XP to what I would in the game... what I meant was, if it's a lightning fast dash-in-do-this-get-out-not-a-lot-of-xp mission, same as you'd get if you stealthed a mish, would you get upset?
And I've said for a while that I think that rather than making stuff "Dev's Choice," the really good arcs should become new actual missions for the contacts in the game (like the filler missions between the uber story arcs we get from contacts).
The arcs in my signature, I'll admit, range from "what was I thinking?" to "this is good, even if I say so myself." They are not the best arcs I've ever played. I haven't even listed all my arcs (yes there's a 7th that's not in my signature, because I created it to test the limits of the AE... and admittedly the arc sucks). But they're arcs that others have played and even enjoyed.
As a matter of interest, I'm curious which AE arcs you've really liked (if any), whether they were in someone's signature or not, so as to get an idea of your taste.
Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite
I don't tend to read people's signatures, and AE arcs aren't usually on my mind when I'm on the forums, so I rarely think to use them as a starting point. This thread only caught my eye because it isn't in the MA section.
On another note, since I just finished playing an MA arc: One thing that makes doing MA arcs a little tiresome, is the fact that everything takes place in the AE buildings. I like flying/leaping/running/porting from mission to mission. It helps with immersion. Bopping back to AE reminds me I'm playing a game within a game. -
Quote:Thanks, I've bookmarked the link. I'll try some of those out tomorrow.Originally Posted by Bubbawheat
For those saying that it is too hard to find good arcs, I added a link to one of the only decent quality list of good arcs sorted by level range done by PoliceWoman: Here. It will vary here and there based on people's tastes, but every one of the arcs listed is as good if not better than pre-Going Rogue in-game arcs.
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Quote:Yes.Originally Posted by Dark_Respite
This then raises in my mind a question for everyone who decries the arcs with lousy writing...
... if there were arcs that were well-written, with an engaging story, well-designed enemies, a good and varied use of maps, etc., but that occasionally might be lighter on XP (the way FedEx missions can be sometimes), would you still play them?
I have turned off experience so I don't out level a good story arc in the regular game. I'm not in any hurry to get to 50 or something.Sometimes I am in a hurry to get to the next level to get my next power, if it is a key power, but most of those come early. -
Quote:Hm, maybe this is why some of the arcs I liked were 4 stars and some of the ones I hated were 5 stars. Maybe I should only look in the 1 stars.Originally Posted by Ironik
The feedback (and 1-star ratings) I got on my arcs was so demoralizing that I deleted one and unpublished the other. I didn't have EBs ar AVs in either, which seemed to be the hang-up for many of the raters. Apparently focusing on story interfered with the farmers, so my arc got bad ratings and pushed to the bottom of the pile.
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Quote:Ok, I second this. A purge followed by republishing would help me a lot to find something good.Originally Posted by Smersh
Also, there are far too many dead arcs cluttering the search. I think a wipe is in order... give a global message of the day so authors can save their arcs, and unpublish everything. Let it be restocked. -
I do play AE arcs sometimes. I get frustrated with the following:
Finding an arc that isn't someone's ticket farm and isn't really badly written.
Arcs that are written for level 40+ characters, but flagged as levels 1-54. Quite a lot of stuff is too tough for a level 8 character with TO enhancements and only 6 powers. (I play the introductory arcs that Flame Kitten did quite a lot with low level characters.)
Arcs that have custom power sets. This can be good or bad, but mostly bad. I've tried quite a few arcs where the arc designer designed characters to spam mez effects. I'm guessing these are designed for scrappers/tankers/brutes/stalkers who shrug off mez effects. Harder to play with a blaster or a defender.
Arcs that are over fond of Elite Bosses and Arch Villains. I don't like EBs or AVs. I don't want to play arcs with these. I'm not uber or leet.
Honestly, after playing in AE for a while, I often feel like I shouldn't even try playing anything but a scrapper or a brute. I kind of get the feeling that many AE writers feel that the regular game is too easy.
The last arc I played in AE left a sour taste in my mouth, and I haven't felt like trying again since. It was an arc by @Heraclea complaining about the developers nerfing experience on custom characters. As if the developers would ever play that lousy arc. People who waste my time to make a statement only make a bad experience. Preach on the forums, leave it out of the game. Or at least warn me.
Other things keeping me away from AE lately is all the shiny new stuff. I18 and I19 added lots of stuff to try out.
I want a better way of finding arcs that are appropriate for my character's level and level appropriate TO, DO or SO enhancement slotting. If it is built as a challenge for someone's level 50 purple IO build, I want warning well in advance.
I want to find a way to find story driven arcs, so I can avoid farms. I have no problems with farmers, but I aren't one.
I've played some really great AE arcs. But they were hard to find, and I don't want to keep playing them over and over until I tire of them. I want to find new ones to try. -
Nope, not frustrated a bit. Enjoying it quite a lot in fact.
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So do people who don't like rain of fire kick Ninja Masterminds off their teams too? I've noticed the Oni likes that attack a lot. You can't tell him not to use, he won't listen.
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Because S*perman is from Smallville, and Recluse wanted to be from somewhere grander?
Quote:I don't see how anyone at the head of an army of spider themed thugs can be considered an anarchist. That's quite some fascist hierarchy he has there.Originally Posted by Arilou
Recluse is a consistent anarchist: There's no limits except your own. You are free to do whatever you want... Until you piss off someone stronger.
He's fairly honest about it. -
Quote:Ah that explains a lot. Last night my SOA dropped toggles several times on exiting a mission. One of those times I noticed my Justice click power had reset too early also.Originally Posted by EarthWyrm
This actually contains the core of the reason why the toggle dropping happens: Time.
What's happened in the past (and is probably happening here) is that as you move from zone to mission, you're moving to a new server. And the server clocks are set differently. If you go into a mission and the server clock says that it's 7 pm in the zone, but inside the mission the server clock says that it's 9 pm, the game decides that you must have been logged off for two hours and resets your powers. (Note that this means that your long-recharge clicks are probably all recharged as well, when you find the toggles dropped.)
You can check this by typing /servertime before and after zoning. That will help support isolate what server(s) need to have their clocks reset to fix the problem. -
In the hollows he is an elite boss/downgraded arch villain every time I ever fought him.
In tip missions, he is just a boss, and a blaster type boss with low hit points at that.
Though I've seen level 20 Outcast fire bosses spawn imps in Steel Canyon once in a while. -
I've unlocked the alpha slot on all 5 of my 50's, but I don't plan to fill it on all. I parked all my 50's as soon as they became 50, and in doing the unlock arc, I rediscovered I really don't like to play my psi blaster very much.
I think my tanker and scrapper will get alpha slot stuff, but not so sure of the others. Not the blaster. Maybe the dominator and the stalker. -
Quote:Look at your power tray. The upper left corner has the word 'Powers', click on that word. That will open up the Powers window.Originally Posted by Ultimo_
Will do. Of course, that also will have to wait until I get home. How do I access that info? I'm sure someone told me but I don't recall.
In the upper left corner of the powers window are the words 'Combat Attributes'. Click on that. That opens up Combat Attributes window.
The Combat attributes window is divided up into sections, the first section is 'Base'. Expand that section. It lists a lot of stuff. Endurance consumption and recovery rate are listed next to each other. -
If you miss those stacked ambushes, why not rebuild the original in AE? I'm sure with a little creativity you could make a mission even more severe. Then you could do it over and over as often as you want.
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I really doubt that mission was working as intended. Bugs are supposed to be fixed. It doesn't have anything to do with making whiners happy.
If you guys want harder missions, there is that whole difficulty slider thing going. Crank it up to +4/x8 and have fun with it.
Persons playing at +0/x1 difficulty should not be hit with missions that are far beyond what that difficulty setting is supposed to deliver.
The nice thing about the difficulty settings is that they allow people to find their fun zone and play there without bothering other people.
If +4/x8 difficulty isn't hard enough for you, ask the developers to offer +6/x16 or something. Was adding higher difficulty levels to the game twice catering to whiners? The default difficulty was working as intended wasn't it? That wasn't a bug. Who are the whiners here, really? -
I agree with the OP up to a point.
Doing the same cape mission at 20 on every one of my many alts is monotonous. Same with doing the midnighter access missions. Unlike the OP, I do the missions anyway, but it isn't fun like regular missions, it is a chore. I don't think that I can explain it any better.
I like doing missions, I just don't like doing those missions. They don't feel fun. I think the problem is that I'm not immersed in those missions. I'm not just playing for fun, and having rewards drop as an incidental. I'm playing for the specific rewards. I feel constrained.
If I want to unlock Oroborous, I have choices. I can do Doc Delilah's arc, or I can do the Ubelmann arc, or I can ask someone to open a portal when I turn 25.
To the OP: Start the arc, then autocomplete the missions, one every third day. The first one and the second don't require any fighting, they are just dialog. (Stuff will try to hit you in the first, but you are untouchable, just ignore them and go straight to the goal.) -
Quote:I finished respeccing out of fitness on all my builds a couple of weeks ago. Except for Praetorians created after the I18 freespec was issued.Originally Posted by AmazingMOO
I *believe* in taking fitness on a character only if it fits the concept. A martial artist who trains daily is going to have increased stamina and health. A sorcerer who wields magic-- not so much. Accordingly, I currently slot for endurance usage and take advantage of the various recovery bonuses available through IOs on most of my characters.
However, in a short amount of time, that will all be moot. The concept of 'Endurance Management' goes out the window and the newly re-retooled Inherent Fitness Pool is here to stay.
Unlike many of you, I'll only have a handful of characters who need to respec around inherent fitness. Most of my characters will simply have a handful of new slots in which to drop a single IO. I've embraced the change and have been working for Numina's, Miracle, and Performance Shifter procs to drop in to place when the day arrives. (Tuesday, maybe?)
Interestingly, I've still run into a few odd situations with my respecs:
- My Cold/Dark defender has a Miracle proc slotted in Frostwork. I've mentioned to teammates that this is to 'keep me honest' so that I hand out Frostwork as often as possible. Reworking my defender's build to move that Miracle over into Inherent Health has left me genuinely worrying about changes I might make or need to make to my playstyle.
- My archery/psi blaster has a Numina's proc in Drain Psyche. It's otherwise slotted with Numina's and Efficacy Adapter for Franken-slotted fun. Breaking up the set of Numina's, however, will leave me without the 12% regeneration bonus having a pair of them grants. I'm either going to have to work in another Numina's IO or rethink my slotting entirely.
- Likewise, my Dark/Invulnerability scrapper has a Numina's proc in Siphon Life. She's also heavily optimized for 'Necromancer' type play-- depending on taps and drains for a great deal of her survivability. While moving the Numina's to Inherent Health, my initial testing showed that she still gets some distance out of it that play style. Still, I'm not entirely sure that having inherent fitness won't make it rather redundant. I'm going to have to test several builds before I come to a conclusion one way or the other.
If you're speccing from a fitnessless build to a build with inherent fitness, what difficulties have you run in to?
Having done so, and playing without fitness for a while now, and changing a wide range of characters anywhere from level 8 to level 50, I have a few comments and observations. In no particular order:
Stamina wasn't as good as I thought it was. Characters that were poorly slotted before respeccing, actually perform better now that I've put more slots into endurance reduction. Thanks to invention enhancements, slotting for endurance reduction hasn't cost me accuracy or damage.
Characters who were well slotted before, are a bit slower than before. I have to put some thought into pacing myself and not sprint from group to group.
The power I miss the most is not stamina, it is swift. I've adjusted to playing without stamina. But I have to fight myself to leave sprint toggled off. I feel like I'm wading in mud.
I'm not planning to add slots to any of the fitness powers. They will each get one enhancement in the default slot.
I do eat blue inspirations for endurance recovery now. Used to just use them to make room in the tray.
For me, the real performance break point isn't really 20 because of stamina, it is 22 when level 25 SO and IO enhancements become available. -
Since you've played to 20 in Praetoria, consider making 1 hero and 1 villain that start in the original zones. The arcs in these zones are older and often longer. But as you are a new player, they will be new to you. You might find them entertaining.
No hero arcs levels 1-10, except in the Hollows. Just missions. Contacts are handed to you. Radio/Safeguard missions are optional. After 10, more arcs than you can do without turning off experience. Downside is the missions hero side often send you from zone to zone, which is an out dated time sink.
Villain side arcs start at level 2, contacts are only handed to you until about level 6, after that you have to complete Newspaper/Mayhem missions to get new contacts. Story arcs are shorter, don't have the time sinks.
Like a lot of people, I have many alts. I like trying out archetype/powerset combinations. For someone like me, the fun is in the leveling, not in the endgame. After 6 years, I only have 5 level 50's, none of which have seen much play since getting to 50. That may change with the next issue, I want to try out the new incarnate stuff. -
This is why my favorite masterminds are zombies and ninjas. They are quiet when they fight, and silent when they aren't fighting.