Aett_Thorn

Well, if they're salaried, then no, probably not. But if they're hourly, then yeah. also, I know that if I asked my salaried people to come in at 12 am and stay until 6 am, they'd be pushing for some extra compensation, and I don't think Dunkin Donuts would be enough.

1) It depends on the game and the recent releases of content into that game.

2) Doing it at 3 am eastern puts it at midnight PST, when a decent amount of people might still be playing there. It also means that you have to pay a lot of people overtime and ask them to come in very early and stay for an indeterminate amount of time, instead of just asking them to show up an hour or two before they normally would.

Yeah, that's what's got me interested in it. It's a fairly odd combination that I don't think I'll ever see a lot of. I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't going to make a completely gimped pair somehow (not that I'm against that, I just like to know upfront).

I started a build in Mid's, but man, I'm going to be starved for slots for most of my career. I figure I'll take both Sting of the Wasp and Gambler's Cut while leveling, but then drop one of them later in a respec, which should help a bit. But I'm still going to be very slot-starved.

Well, this is more a byproduct of how the spreadsheets work behind the game. Defenders/Corruptors/Blasters have different AT debuff mods that apply to all powers. So if a power has a debuff strength of 1, but the AT mods for debuff are 25%/20%/12.5%, then you get a power that does a 25% debuff for a Defender, 20% for a Corruptor, and 12.5% for a Blaster.

However, the Blaster is doing significantly more damage.

Yes. However, you'll still be doing 20% more damage to him.

Against someone with no resistance, you'll apply a 20% resistance debuff to him. Against someone with 30% resistance, you'll apply a (20*.7 = 14) 14% resistance debuff to them.


However, you're STILL doing 20% more damage to this target. For instance, let's say you have an attack that does 100 damage. If the enemy has 0% resistance, your attack with bruising in effect will do 120 damage, or 20% more.

Now, if the enemy has 30% resistance, then your attack would normally do 70 damage. With bruising in effect, the enemy has 14% resistance debuff, and so his resistance is now only 16%. So your attack would do 84 damage. That's 14 more damage from 70, which is a 20% increase in damage.

Was it a Dev that said this? I've been told in a PM by Castle back in the day that there are no server-side limitations for why Fly is slower than Super Speed, for instance. All travel is done in three dimensions anyways, so there's o way that's a valid response.

Forbin's test seems to have proved that free players can get enough through drops and content to fully DO himself out at level 15, with ++ DOs, to boot. How is that arguing over semantics?

The theory was that free players couldn't afford to buy DOs and SOs for their characters at the respective levels they open up. Forbin pretty well found out that that's not true for DOs, and had enough cash left over after buying ++ level DOs to be well on his way to buying the next set.


Also, you're assuming that "balanced around SOs" means "SOs are required," which I don't think is true. Will it be slightly more difficult with DOs? Yes. Can it be done? Most certainly.

Well, it would still help, depending on if they reduced sell price by a proportionate amount.

For instance, let's say that they dropped purchase price by 50%, and dropped sell prices by 50% as well. You'd still be better off, since you're still getting the same amount of influence per kill as you were before, meaning that you have proportionately more than you did before even though the sell/buy prices dropped by the same percentage.

Your last point here may have some merit to it. If new content in the 20-29 level range is based on a fully-SO'd character or higher, than yes, the expectation should be that all characters in that level range should be able to fully SO-out their characters reasonably (obviously, someone that decides to completely change their costume every other day may have some issues affording stuff, but that's their own fault).

However, your point before that seems to make the completely opposite point. For premium players with access to the invention system, and for VIPs, the stretch goal is Inventions, and SOs are actually pretty easy to afford. However, for free players, SOs are still the stretch goal for them, as they are the best that they can get as long as they are free players. So does that mean that they should be a stretch to get?

Well, you get 2 at each odd level from 3-21, so that's 20 slots to fill. (edit - forgot the base slots in the powers, so that's an additional 11 slots, is that right?) Do I think it's going to be tough? Yes, I do. Do I think it's impossible with smart decisions? No, I do not. I am also assuming that this test won't make me SO-out powers like rest, brawl, and hurdle/swift/health, but I will probably try to get Stamina 3-slotted with enhancements quickly.

However, even if I do this, the results may not be achievable to all characters, and I am aware of that. I think that I could probably speed up inf gain on a /WP scrapper more than I could on something like an Ice/FF Controller playing solo. So I admit that there will be some variability in this. The Scrapper could likely take down tougher enemies (either more Lts and Boss or higher-level enemies, which would yield a better Inf/XP ratio) than the Controller.


However, I think that some of what this argument comes down to is perception by the new players. For instance, I don't think that new players will have the expectation to fully SO-out their characters right at level 22. That is something that the Vets are used to, but the new players aren't. So does the new player have an expectation that they even need to do this, or should be able to? I don't know. Certainly, new players who are brought onboard by current vets may, but that will be given to them by the veteran player, not the new player.


So a better test would be can a new player buy what a new player expects to be able to buy, and that would very wildly by new player. We can certainly test whether a free player can achieve what a vet thinks that should get, but is that the right test to perform?


Further Edit -> As an addendum to this last point, since vets can likely e-mail funds to new players that they bring on, are we only talking about new free players that do not know anyone in-game? If so, what would their perceptions be? Can we even tell? We can guess, but can we know for sure?

Again, we're posing scenarios about two different types of players:

1) Those who might make some minor mistakes along the way that they want to fix, or

2) Those who plan ahead enough that they don't need a respec.


#2 can then easily use a respec to do what I'm suggesting because they won't need to bank them for build mistakes.

#1, the guy/girl who made a mistake as a new player that they'd like to correct can do so, just in a fashion that also helps them with their money issues.



If you never needed to use a respec until I6 when ED came in, then why not use it to get yourself some extra money? If you didn't need it to fix a build mistake, then you lose nothing by using it this way, so I don't understand what the problem is there. It's not burning a respec if you didn't need it anyways, but it helps you to afford the next level's enhancements.

I'm not saying that you NEED to do this. I'm merely suggesting it as a way to help buy enhancements when you need them if you're otherwise short of cash.


The discussion at hand is that free players can't buy SOs and DOs at the levels that they can begin getting them. Aside from the development decision there, there are ways that a smart player can get enough influence to do just that. Suggesting several ways to do that, including the respec option to sell back old enhancements, is not out of the picture here.

It depends on what criteria you want me to use. However, I would say that considering the advice I've seen in these types of threads, the prevailing advice is that new players not even bother slotting TOs, and just selling them. Now, for me, my usual path is to sell any TO that I get, slot any dropped DOs that I can use, and save my influence for SOs at level 22, depending on the character's needs (for instance, I may buy a few Acc DOs depending on the character).

I would likely stick to that path, as I think it's playing smart, but if you want me to take a different path, I can try that, too. But if the test is whether or not a smart* new player can afford to mostly SO-out their character at level 22, I'd think that would be how you'd go.

But what is the definition of "basic gear"?

Quite honestly, that definition for most of the experienced population of the game might be a progression from TOs until level 12, then DOs until 22, then SOs. However, that doesn't mean that it's THE definition. Because you can use TOs until 22, then DOs until 32, and then SOs after that. Depending on how much you team, you may not notice much difference in leveling speed.

I think that's my main issue here. A lot of the older players have come to believe that you need to completely SO-out your character at level 22 to have a fighting chance at survival and leveling. But that's simply not true.