Ariel_NA

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Errr... maybe I'm being stupid, but surely the fact that an Arena is being built IN THE GAME is pretty big proof that its being worked on?
Did you misread the first post or something?

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Yes, I did, as a matter of fact. Thank you.
I was in PI last night, and came back to this thread. The Arena is under construction on Test.


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So people lets take a step back and remember the olden days where a game came out, we liked it or didnt and played it or not)

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I'm not sure which out-of-the-box MMORPG's we used to play in the past that were flawless. I can't think of any, although I may have heard of one. The poster's implication being that the norm is no-complaint launches and bug-free, content-complete releases (or perhaps that people never used to complain about game products). Even good old EQ took months to become the legend that it is (was) today.

I started playing CoH 6 weeks before it came out, and still am. And I'm still happy with it. But I've been /bugging and /petitioning since Day 1, and I'm sure that will continue for as long as the game exists. It's nothing against enjoying the game or not.
For example, I've been playing for over 9 months and my mission window still doesn't work when I'm the team leader and some of the time even when I'm not.
I would like that fixed.
That has nothing to do with loyalty or whining or ability to enjoy a game or $30 a month charges on my credit card.

This thread is great and all, but what happened to the Arena?
Seriously.

Statesman may be coy about the Issue 3 remarks (that he never made), but he did say in an interview that it would be in before CoV. It's available from the old news/press releases, but I don't want to search for it. My thread on the Arena went away with the usual 2-week purge.

Now, should Cryptic be held to a statement made to a "journalist" about the game? No, absolutely not.
On the other hand, when the game's been out for 8 months and we still haven't heard anything on the arena, it might be a good idea to put something out there in the official forums. The usual cryptic remarks would be fine. Something to debate ad nauseum.

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There ARE things that can be done -- both to reduce ganking (I'm not promising it will ever completely go away) and allow a broader level range in PvP combat. Lower levels should have a chance to attack and defend themselves, even if it is hard.

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Lower levels should be able to put up a running fight, but not a true fight. They shouldn't be able to "hold their own" against someone +5 levels, in other words.
They should be able to do a bit of damage, nothing major, take 75% of their own HP, and run for their lives to a safe location where they regroup and summon allies.

The one thing I thought of, you could scale up or down END usage on a by-level basis. So, the 15th level hero challenging the 25th level villain could, in fact, shoot the 25th level villain for 150 HP of damage, but it would cost him 3x the normal Endurance.
He just couldn't shoot him a lot.
On the other hand, the 25th level villain could "toy" with the 15th level hero for as long as he felt it was amusing.

Since CoH checks to-hit and drains END before animation, this wouldn't be a huge problem. It would be weird, yes, but not impossible.

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Mission customization: Choosing between "regular" mobs and +2 level mobs is not really what I would call a customized mission.

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Sigh. That isn't at all what I meant. Mission Customization means, well, a mission has been customized. It's where we go back over old missions and add new art & functionality.

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lol.
Sorry about that!
You were right, I was wrong, etc. [Rent Happy Gilmore and fast forward to the scene with Carl Weathers for the whole spiel.]
In my defense I don't think it was a drastic misinterpretation, there was some vagueness there.
But, still, it was a very incorrect assumption. Thanks for clarifying.
And not flaming.

I like all the little things you add to "old" missions, those features are really nice little bonuses.
Today I was playing my bottom alt (character #8) and had a cave mission that was wide and sort of seascaped, with a sand floor. It was so easy to navigate, in some ways it was better than a warehouse because you never had to look up or hunt through crates. I was so shocked, I stayed in that mission for over an hour.

But the burning Hellion ones and all the weird lab equipment, everything smoky...those are billiant.

Oh well, hopefully he comes back to see my chagrin.

Now I wish I'd never posted. I thought it was a very odd thing for Statesman to say.
(Because he didn't)

I love Statesman, but I think we need to be fair here:

Global chat is not content-related under any circumstance whatsover. If anything, the clunkiness is more aimed toward powergamers than casual gamers. Also, if you're soloing, why would you need global chat? (Ie., a team-oriented feature.)

Mission customization: Choosing between "regular" mobs and +2 level mobs is not really what I would call a customized mission. The mission is exactly the same in all respects except that the mobs will say 41 next to their name instead of 39. It is a good feature--I'm not disputing that. I'm just saying that a choice of how long/hard you want to grind is not the same as customizing your mission. Now, the costume creator: there's customization!

Want to benefit everyone (all levels and all types of players) with regards to missions? Allow us to abandon missions permanently. Make us go to the contact in person. Make us pay influence or maybe even a small XP penalty.

(And, technically, Kheldian is Level 1 content, not Level 50, it's just a reward for achieving level 50. The reward being you get to start over and do level 1 content, again. Still a cool feature. If I got to level 50 and could play a villain, that would be nice, too, but it wouldn't be level 50 content.)

The rest of the stuff is all right on, and does more or less cover all levels of play.
Of course, he doesn't list all features, such as the increased HP/Dam of mobs. Those aren't level dependent, of course, but do drastically impact soloing, particularly for support classes.
(Then again, if you're a support class, shouldn't you be supporting someone? )

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*Posted in Positron's thread about the Difficulty slider*

Here's a random thought (pardons if it has been mentioned):

Is it possible to raise the HP/Exp/Damage of minions on the streets *only* while leaving mobs in missions as they currently are?


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Wow. That's a good idea.
I can't think of any negatives associated with that idea (assuming that increased mob difficulty is a given).

The only trick would be making sure the con is accurate. If you fight red con 36's for 30 minutes in your mission, then come outside and decide to take on some red con 36's outside, but WHOOPS! These red cons are 50% tougher than the other red cons.

This is not a bad thing. Making the con system accurate would be nice.

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Right now, Tanker changes have highest priority. The Design team tested some stuff last week while I was in Philly, and I'll personally test some more things this week. I'll post an update on this stuff on Friday.


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I wonder about the changes to Tank Taunt and PP Provoke. Those are not in dispute, so they should be the first to go in.
Right?

Is it really smart to give speaking roles to the humorous costume winners?
How do the guys trying to write a real comic feel about that?
Won't this just fuel the fire of flamers who think the comic suxx0rs?

-Ariel

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Just for the record, making risk=reward is definitely one of our goals - we're trying to add spice and reward to bring people to the harder/underutilized zones.

One of the trickinesses of having a largely "loot free" game is trying to make rewards interesting for such things - obviously if characters are motivated largely by XP+influence as the major rewards it makes things a bit tougher for the designers - many players tend to go and do whatever the easiest source of XP is and ignore most everything else. And we like the lack of loot, generally.

But I know Jack & co are thinking on the issue, in any case.

-jg

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Hey, you made those the rewards, don't blame the player base for wanting them.

Last night I sidekicked with my roommate.
She was 32 and I was therefore 31.
Why was she getting 700 XP for +3 mobs and I was getting 350 for +4?

Is the intent of the new sidekick system that you get half the XP of your mentor? I don't recall reading that anywhere. I didn't even know there was a new SK system.

Statesman, you have spoke time and again about risks and rewards.
If my partner in a duo is +1 level aboveme, so she is fighting +3 mobs and I am fighting +4 mobs why would I get less XP?
My risk is greater...but my reward is 2x less?!

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I was wondering what's with psionics? No tank actually resists psionics? That's not cool =/


I made a poo tanker for the psionic reisists, and it doesnt have any =/

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Crystal armor doesn't work any more?
When did that happen?

(Or mineral armor...they switched the names awhile ago, I forget which is which.)

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it used to be 20 seconds. I meant to change it to 60 seconds, but accidently made it like 600 or something. That made it 5 times better than the Defender Clear Mind power. Clear mind was 60 seononds, and it is now 90 seconds. Stimulant must not be as good as clear mind.

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90 seconds?
Really?
Hmm.

So if I cast Clear Mind before a fight as a buff, it might actually work now? That is exciting.
For the last 6 months it's served as a mere curative.

I killed Babbage alongside my Task Force and got no badge.
THey all got badges. I am a healer, so I didn't do any damage to it.
At least that's my theory.

Character Name: Lady Ariel
Server: Justice
Time: 20:00 CST (On the dot, maybe 19:59)
DATE: SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 19 (3 days after the update)
Location: Skyway
Occasion: Synapse TF
Event: Babbage
Other characters present: Cryptobioticman, Lushoto,
Electric Chaos, some others
TF Leader: Me
Earned Babbage Badge: Everyone else but me

Here is a thread where I whine about it:
My Babbage thread

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Pos, what if you're a defender healing/buffing everyone, do you have to make a hit to get badge credit?

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Make sure you are grouped with people who are dealing damage.

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I did that. In fact I was the leader. I got no badge.
I was there "fighting" alongside them.

My pathetic Babbage thred

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Pos, what if you're a defender healing/buffing everyone, do you have to make a hit to get badge credit?

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Make sure you are grouped with people who are dealing damage.

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I was grouped with people dealing damage and they all got the Babbage badge and I didn't.
I was right there with them doing my Empathy thing and I got zilch.

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Babbage or Psychic Babbage (two different beasts)?]

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I have the same problem with Babbage, although the rest of my group got the badge.
I assume I didn't b/c I'm a healer and didn't do any damage. Even though we were grouped, so obviously I should have.

Please see this thread for the details of my trials and tribulations:
Babbage Badge not working?

--Ariel

Edit: I did this POST update. 8 pm CST Sunday Sept 19.

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Dropping missions is a good idea. We'll get around to it. Much like a Mission Difficulty slider, it's a "sooner rather than later" feature.

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Goodbye Perez Park at 7th level!
Goodbye Vahz missions of death!
Goodbye high level, "Why don't you just go to Atlas Park, won't that be fun? missions!"
Goodbye "Just killed 40 xxx?" "Why don't you go kill them again?"

Goodbye TAKING MISSIONS THAT MY SIDEKICK CAN'T GET TO!!!!

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Ever spend a weekend in Detroit?

Odds are the first one will be out west but think of us out here in the Mid-West. The great lakes area is nice, we even had a branch of the Avengers for a time...hehe.

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Detroit is North of Canada. That isn't the midwest.

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This is the least intelligible dev post I've ever made. If you can't wade through the above: "CROSS-VERSION BUG FIXES HARD. BIG UPDATES MAYBE GOOD" and ignore the rest.

-jg

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Fair enough, but I won't be ignoring:
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we are experimenting with trying to get more changes out in between the "big *** updates"

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--Ariel

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Minion/Underling - no caps,

Lieutenants - 25% chance to hit/avoid attack capped

Bosses - 50% Accuracy versus Defense cap,

Monsters/ArchVillians - Accuracy versus Defense capped at 75%,


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You don't have Super Reflexes, obviously. We already get the short end on that crap.

But i'm with you in the sense that bosses should be "more like heros" and the AI should be improved.

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From Statesman:

Actually, they can. IF the group goes to the zones with the spawns of the appropriate size...

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I'm not sure that trial/hazard zones are the answer for better group XP, and definitely not for improving any kind of earnings per hour.

Last I heard Sidekicking will not be improved so that everyone can go in the same zones.
Why not?
How are we supposed to take teams of 8 into all the "best" zones when we know that our SK's can't go?
Getting together a team of 8 that is all +/-1 level of each other is impossible.

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I will outrun them and not by a little. At level 38 we clocked it. I earned XP at a rate of 190,000 per hour solo.


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A team will always earn XP more slowly because of friction:
1) Old people leaving
2) Looking for new people
3) People getting distracted by individual issues (Training, selling, contacts)
4) People with RL obligations (such as going to the bathroom)
5) Everyone wants a democracy -- that takes time
6) Debating everything and where to go
6a) If you're solo, you know what zones you can go to.
7) The "Hey, can you invite my friend?" syndrome. That always requires waiting for someone to catch up.
8) "We're almost ready...as soon as I find a healer."

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Essentially, each hit (if successful) will give you a short term damage buff. Different powers would have different buffs; but if you could string enough hits together you can "peak" your damage.

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So, now Hasten will become as pervasive for Tankers as it is for Scrappers.

Well, I like the changes, but I still hate Hasten. (I don't hate it, I just hate 75% of all characters having it.)

What's going to happen to Tanker Taunt?

My alternative is make it into a huge taunt-effect "Build Up" which works on Challenge, Provoke, and all inherent taunting melee attacks.
Or else a PBAoE.

Or is it just meant to be a power that almost everybody skips.

Let's not forget that while you are getting a mission/talking to a contact, the rest of your group isn't standing there next to you saying in local/team chat, "Is he done yet? This sure is fun."

They are all seeing their contacts in multiple zones, afk, going to the store, training, bio, etc.
So, when you say, "On the way" it's even more inaccurate than the lowbie-zone dilemma portrays.

It's not even remotely close to a Point A to B issue.

And that's assuming everyone in the group is willing to contribute in a street sweeping from Point A, D, K, R, and Z to Point B while they are traveling.
Or that the people who can contribute will choose to knowing that some guy is sitting there afk waiting for a Recall.
I won't say "leeching" because that's not his intent, but he's definitely not contributing.
It all changes once you get in the mission...sure, in that controlled environment, everything balances out.

By the way, in how many other MMORPG's does your 30th level hero have to go slogging through the sheep zone for a quest?
I'm really asking, all I've ever played is UO and SWG.

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1 hero - 3 minions. Hero receives 120 xp.

4 heroes - 12 minions. Each hero receives 192 xp.

8 heroes - 24 minions. Each hero receives 210 xp.

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Of course, with 4 heroes or more, it's going to be more like 1 boss, 2 LT's and 6 minions, and so on.
And 6 heroes or more raises mob level by 1, as well.
Throwing bosses into the mix would probably push those totals up even higher. LT's about the same as the lost minions xp wise.