Wonderslug
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Posts
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Joined
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Quote:I'm actually totally in agreement with you there.Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
There has been a great decline of one-off missions over the years. You go from City of Heroes, where contacts had almost as many one-off missions as they had arc missions, to CoV where contacts have one to three arcs and maybe two one-off missions, to Praetoria where one-off missions do not exist. And I'm not sure that's a good thing.
Low-level blueside contacts contain far too much "keel seex snow moose" cruft and the lack of any actual arcs prior to 10 (unless you're a kheldian) is silly, but at the same time some of the more interesting missions in I0-I1 content had nothing to do with arcs. Stuff like the auction mission where you had Hellions and Skulls! (And other stuff too! Which pretty much anyone can do in five seconds in MA now, but was actually really rare at the time.) Or the missions from Portal Corp that are the only place you actually find out what the heck the deal is with the Hydra. Even in CoV there are a few bits of background information that are only revealed in one-offs.
Tip missions recapture some of the feeling of the better one-shots, but of course those are all mostly focused on the morality of the players driven by the rogues' gallery rather than exploring background stuff, like you'd get with a contact who specialized in one or two factions.
Not every story worth telling needs or deserves to be an arc. You can easily fit a small but complete narrative into a single mission, especially since the tech for mission design has advanced orders of magnitude beyond the point where finding more than one faction in a mission qualified as really neato keen. A lot of post-CoV contacts who just offer a single arc really feel overly narrow or slapdash to me, and giving them some themed one-shots would help round them out considerably.
Which reminds me, one aspect of early blueside missions desperately in need of revisiting is the antiquated so-called mini-arc.
Before they figured out how to give contacts multiple real arcs, sometimes they'd cheat a second one in by having a contact give a "mission" that was actually a chain of missions that automatically assigned the next task as soon as the first previous one completes. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of newer players weren't even aware those existed, which is a pity because the A Titan Named Joe mini-arc from Crimson is more interesting and infinitely better paced than World Wide Padding or To Save a Thousand Outdoor Glowie Hunts. But you don't get souvenirs from mini-arcs, or arc bonuses or merits, or redo them via Ouroboros, and of course if you level in the middle of one every subsequent mission is still going to be -1 to you. -
Running that on a team is something special.
"Hello Ashley. We are your father. There is nothing wrong." -
Something orchestral for fighting a mad god imprisoned in a machine? Sounds like you need E. S. Posthumus to me!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wozkj581nxs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GusLypfx7OQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oigCXlGr_04 -
Spider Strike and Suppression appear to be mag 18 and mag 20 base, although that's scaled by the AV knockback table and I'm not sure what that looks like. The red tower is also a 200% knockup/back buff. So probably at least mag 60, until the red tower's down.
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The helmet parts, breastplates, and leg guards are under half helmets, chest details, and belts. Gloves and boots are, well, gloves and boots.
Most pieces start with "Samurai," but the chest and leg textures are called Onomichi, IIRC, and are available under tight and baggy/tucked In. -
Soccer mom PI + streetwise hustler would be pretty damn tame for They Fight Crime.
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Heh. Mine's still not even 2/3 of the way there. It hit 400 pretty fast, since then it's been maybe 0-5 plays a week.
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They tend to evaporate as soon as someone exits the rooftop.
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Quote:The poison version has never been altered that I know of. I spent quite a while trying to figure out exactly how it worked--or rather, failed to work--way back in...probably 2006. It was certainly before City of Data existed, otherwise I would just have looked it up. It's been this bad since the start.Originally Posted by Delta_Strider
On a guess, it used to behave like /Trap's Poison Trap at some point. Basically for every enemy within range, a separate cloud is generated, thus those low proc chances are multiplied for every additional target adjacent to it. Course, they eventually limited it to only one cloud.
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Quote:Y'know, I look at that and I can totally still see Hugo Weaving's face. I don't know if that means the makeup team took a lot of care in molding the prosthetics to match his facial contours or if I just subconsciously think of Hugo Weaving as Creepy McSkullfaceguy.Originally Posted by BrandX
The really awesome part is we know Hugo Weaving isn't one of the many actors who say "They need to see my face!"
I suspect a little of both. -
Quote:No, the sleep effect is not recurring. If it were it would basically be a clunkier prototype of Static Field and would not be a totally useless lump of useless uselessness even if your henchman helpfully chucked AoEs at sleeping targets every chance they got.Originally Posted by Berzerker_NA
I guess I wasn't factoring in that the sleep effect is recurring as long as the gas lasts (or is it?) So, even if the commando wakes them all up with a grenade, they'll fall back to sleep, right?
Poison Trap applies an initial sleep, then creates a gas cloud that attempts to apply an unenhanceable 4-second hold and an enhanceable 10% end drain once per second. The catch? They each have a 2% chance to occur.
That means that any given target, provided it stays in the cloud for the entire duration, has a 54.5% chance (0.98^30) of never getting hit by a hold, and a 54.5% chance of never getting hit by an end drain. In fact there's a nearly 30% chance that the cloud will do nothing at all whatsoever to any single target, again assuming it remains in the cloud for the entire duration.
It is easily the most worthless power in the game, because while plenty of powers are weak, and plenty of powers have effects that are considered not beneficial or hyper situational, (Poison) Poison Trap is the only one I can think of with a nearly 1/3 chance to literally contribute nothing at all to things it hits. -
The snipes have not used the ranged damage table since Issue 15. No melee ATs use their ranged damage tables for anything anymore.
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Victoly!
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Quote:The target = caster thing is just how all PBAoEs are defined. You don't damage yourself when you use Irradiate, for example.Originally Posted by UberGuy
I don't know if that's the case. It says the target is "caster" and the taunt is applied to the target. So I read it as he's taunting himself for every ally in range. I have no idea what that would actually cause him to do.
But if that's wrong and he really is taunting the pylons, that probably makes sense as the way the devs get the pylons to apply the Drain power to him.
Taunting the pylons to make them use their power on Hami makes some sense, except it's a 300-foot radius PBAoE auto power. They basically can't not use it on him (unless someone Wormholes them all away, I guess.) Possibly at some point it was supposed to be single target for some reason, and the taunt was left in as an artifact of unimplemented design? -
Quote:Thing is, that power is used by Hami, and the "If a Rikti TF Pylon" refers to the target--Hami is taunting the pylons, not the other way around. I have no idea why.Originally Posted by UberGuy
He will actually shoot players who wander too closely even with the pylons up. I had dug up that taunt power a while back, and to be honest, I can't reconcile it with how he actually behaves. Part of that may relate to the fact that it's a taunt by an ally, and I have no idea what that even does to the NPC AI.
The pylons do have a power though: [Objects.Drain_Hami.Drain]. It has exactly one effect, which is to make Hami untouchable.
I saw that for myself during a master run over the weekend. We left the pylons up just to see what, if anything, would happen; after taking out the mitos we found we couldn't affect Hami at all until we eliminated the pylons. -
I don't think anybody disputes that opening with Moonbeam in complete safety lets you frontload a fight with another big orange number.
I personally find using it that way slow, boring, and inefficient compared to just scrapping it out. In three years I have found Moonbeam actually, legitimately useful exactly once: ganking the portals before wading into the Holtz/Honoree fight.
I keep it for three reasons:
1. Sometimes it's fun to drop a dude from halfway across the map.
2. Set mule.
3. See number 1. -
Yes, they critical when hidden.
Moonbeam does about 250 damage less than AS, assuming ED slotting and no Build Up. Using Moonbeam > Placate > AS will work fine, provided you don't mind the six second interrupt on Moonbeam; you almost certainly have faster ways to achieve similar results. -
Quote:I think one of us has completely missed the other's point, and I'm honestly not sure which.Originally Posted by Anti_Proton
Until either attacked or when infected with the bad habbits of other MM pets, at which point they begin their suicide run again.
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I would settle for the "stay" command inflicting a mag 100 immobilize until canceled.
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Quote:His power data is here. The numbers are all in Damage Scale; to figure out his actual damage output you need a few extra pieces of information:Originally Posted by Spiritchaser
I'm curious to know if anyone has recorded LR's actual damage output, or if there's a good place to find it.
1. Archvillain damage table. Scale 1 damage for a level 54 AV is 517.68 on the ranged table, and 862.79 on the melee table. Those figures are from I7, but I don't believe they've changed. Base damage is damage scale multiplied by the appropriate table entry.
2. The tower buff. The tower provides a 105% buff to smashing, lethal, and energy damage. That means while the tower's up, all his damage is multiplied by 2.05 except for the toxic DoT from Slice.
3. Combat modifiers. At +4, all his damage is multiplied by 1.44. With the advent of level shifting, it's now also possible to fight him at, effectively, +3, which reduces the multiplier to 1.33.
Put together, it looks like so:
I also have a theory about why some people see him use his regular Bane summon and some don't. The old AI tried to determine the "best" attack to use in a given situation, for a highly idiosyncratic definition of "best." This is one reason critters never used to use their ranged attacks in melee, even if it meant, say, cycling Pummel over and over instead of firing the Macross Missile Massacre. It also often led to critters getting "stuck" on single powers.Code:Base Tower Buff +4(Tower) +3(Tower) +4(No Tow.) +3(No Tow.) Energy Punch 862.79s 1768.72s 2546.96s 2352.40s 1242.42s 1147.51s Energy Smash 1691.07s 3466.69s 4992.03s 4610.70s 2435.14s 2249.12s Spider Strike 1414.96s 2900.70s 4177.01s 3857.93s 2037.56s 1881.90s Slice 1035.35l+ 2122.46l+ 3056.35l+ 2822.88l+ 1490.90l+ 1377.02l+ 862.79t* 862.79t 1242.42t 1147.51t 1242.42t 1147.51t Total 1898.14 2985.25 4298.77 3970.39 2733.32 2524.53 Arm Lash 1423.60l 2918.39l 4202.48l 3881.45l 2049.99l 1893.39l Channelgun 931.82e 1910.24e 2750.74e 2540.61e 1341.83e 1239.33e Suppression 999.12e 2048.20e 2949.41e 2724.11e 1438.74e 1328.83e *10-second DoT
The tweaks that have happened since I14 have made AI power choice more random, meaning they'll mix things up more and stop fixating so much on single powers. (Good for critters, not so good for MMs trying to convince their bots or mercs not to charge into melee and bip things with their mighty, mighty brawl.)
Recluse has five attacks with 4-second recharges: Energy Punch, Slice, Arm Lash, Channelgun, and Suppression. Energy Smash is 8, and Spider Strike 16. Now that he'll freely try to cycle through all of them, that means there's basically never a time when he doesn't have multiple attacks recharged and ready to fire--the animation time on Suppression alone means by the time he finishes using it he has at least four other powers ready to use. I'm wondering if it's not simply a case of the RNG keeping him so busy spamming attacks the summon just doesn't pop up consistently. -
Quote:This is a significant part of why you're having endurance problems. All three are treated as utility powers that happen to do damage, and thus cost significantly more endurance than the standard damage formula would dictate. I suggest six-slotting Chilblain, Block of Ice, and Air Superiority ASAP and getting some endred in there. (Recharge and/or hold in Block of Ice would not go amiss, even at the cost of damage--BoI does the same damage as Chilblain, albeit all up front, but it costs more and takes twice as long to recharge.) If you are not averse to frankenslotting that would pay huge dividends in terms of solo damage efficiency.Originally Posted by RemusShepherd
I've slotted them all 1xAcc, 3xDam.
You also have a number of damage proc options. Chilblain will take both slow and immobilize set procs. BoI will take slow and hold set procs. Air Sup will take melee and knockback set procs.
Using Frostbite for damage on its own merits is a horrible idea--it does a little over 9 damage, base, at level 50. People who use it for damage do so because it takes three damage procs (slow, immob, targeted AoE), recharges quickly, and covers a huge area while setting up containment. The procs are doing the lion's share of the work, not Frostbite itself. It also plays poorly with Ice Slick, although nicely with Arctic Air if you can afford it.
Jack at 32 will help, of course, as will Sleet. -
If you aren't willing to wait until 40 or to as for a portal at a gathering spot--a request which, I note, is usually answered speedily and graciously on the servers I know--I suppose you could hang around the black market in Cap au Diable until someone with less misplaced pride asks if anyone can drop a portal. They can be used by multiple people and last for several minutes, or until the original summoner goes through. During peak hours you will probably not have to wait long.
But as noted, if you're not even 40 yet it is way premature to be worrying about getting there for the Alpha slot, since you cannot acquire it until level 50. If you want to get there for other reasons, then yes, I'm afraid you will have to either level to 40 or swallow your pride.
Edit: Also, since you haven't actually given your level and just so all bases are covered: you must be at least level 25 to enter Ouroboros. -
The portal to Recluse's Victory is never closed. If you're clicking on the one with Vernon von Grun and Operative Grillo in front of it, that's the wrong portal. That's a mission door. The RV portal is south of that, through a narrow hall.
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Any exploration badge in Recluse's Victory also qualifies.
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The good news is that a mechanic exactly like mez protection already exists for defense debuffs. The bad news is that it is the thing we call "defense."
To put it another way, mez protection and mez are the same thing, only one of them is a negative value and the other is positive. Likewise, defense and defense debuff are the same thing, only one of them is a negative value and the other is positive. Defense debuff "magnitude" already exists: it's the value of the defense debuff.
For example, Captain Spandex has an attribute that determines whether or not he is held. By default that value is -1, and if it rises above 0, he is held. Frank the Ice Thorn Caster uses Block of Ice on Captain Spandex. Block of Ice is a mag 3 hold, meaning it raises the value of Captain Spandex's "hold" attribute by three points: -1 + 3 = 2. Because the value is now greater than 0, he is held.
But then Bubble Lass stands next to him with Dispersion Bubble running. That subtracts 8.65 (at level 50) from Captain Spandex's hold attribute: 2 - 8.65 = -6.65. It's now once more under 0, so he is no longer held. Both Block of Ice and Dispersion Bubble have manipulated the same attribute of Captain Spandex, but in opposite directions.
Captain Spandex also has an attribute that determines his defense to, say, melee attacks. By default that value is 0. If it rises above 0 he becomes harder to hit, down to the tohit clamp of 5%, and if it decreases below 0 he becomes easier to hit, up to the tohit clamp of 95%. A passing stranger does a fly-by tarot reading on him and he draws the Hermit, causing his melee defense attribute (along with all his other defensive attributes) to increase by 0.05--colloquially, he has gained a 5% defense buff. Captain Spandex is happy.
But then, tragically, Bob the Earth Thorn Caster drops a Quicksand patch under his feet. This reduces his melee defense attribute (along with all his other defensive attributes) by 0.25--colloquially, he has suffered a 25% defense debuff. His defensive attributes are now at 0.05 - 0.25= -0.20, or -20% defense. This allows Susan the Succubus to easily claw his face off. Both the Hermit temporary power and Quicksand have manipulated the same attribute of Captain Spandex, but in opposite directions.
But what about resistance? Well, mechanically, resistance is aspect of an attribute that resists all attempts to alter that attribute in any way. (This is why buffs are flagged unresistable--otherwise you could resist those too). The exact result of resistance to an effect depends on whether that effect is a duration effect or a magnitude effect. All effects are either duration effects or magnitude effects; it is not possible for anything to be both.
Duration effects have a fixed magnitude that cannot be altered by any means, but a variable duration that is affected by things such as slotting, strength buffs or debuffs, archetype modifiers, level scaling, etc. Powers that inflict mez generally use duration effects.
Magnitude effects have a fixed duration that cannot be altered by any means, but a variable magnitude that is affected by things such as slotting, strength buffs or debuffs, archetype modifiers, level scaling, etc. Powers that inflict debuffs generally use magnitude effects.
So if Captain Spandex has hold resistance, that will try to resist any change to his hold attribute. It will reduce the duration of Block of Ice's hold, because that is a duration effect. It will always be a mag 3 hold no matter what.
Likewise, if Captain Spandex has defense debuff resistance, that will attempt to resist any change to his defense attributes. It will reduce the magnitude of Quicksand's debuff, because that is a magnitude effect. It will always last 0.45 seconds per pulse, no matter what.
tl;dr:
Unfortunately the mechanics you're proposing are already being used by the game, they just do something else.