Acyl

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also for all of you really got something smart to say...don't turn this into a personal issue cause this is just a game..i fight in real life and i doubt any of you kids i would pay attention to.

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I'm a former soldier. Okay, I'm a geek, but I know my weaponry. This isn't exactly unique - many folks who play this game are military. Plenty of folks here know martial arts or whatever.

And you know what? That means exactly zilch. Claiming you're some kinda tough guy and assuming you're better than everyone else just makes you look silly.

It doesn't mean a thing. This is a discussion forum; what matters is how you make your argument. Annnnd...it's not about spelling and grammar. You can have bad English and make excellent points. But you haven't. That's the problem:

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all of these toons they keep changing damage and what not but there is yet one toon i ain't seen nobody did nothing to at all....city of heroes fire kinetics controller.

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As other posters have already said, Fire/Kin has been 'nerfed' before. People still play Fire/Kin characters, because the combination is still good. Psychic Shockwave for Dominators has been changed, but it's still a damn good AoE, and Dominators have gotten a damage buff. Try again.

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I hardly play the game anymore cause everytime I go to play it's something new for no obvious reason. Half my global don't even light up cause of these facts.

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I'm assuming many of the folks you have on your global friends list don't play anymore. So what? That's normal for MMOs. People subscribe for a while. Then they quit. Sometimes they come back. Sometimes they don't. Turnover happens in all games. You don't know WHY they've left. You're just assuming.

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Just like they say "purple recipes" are random but I have toons like others seem to get the drop repeat on the team lol.

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They are random. They're just lucky. You're just unlucky. It happens. Get over it.

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but about every account has a fire kinetic controller.

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Oh really. Prove it. I think you're wrong.

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i just want to see some changes with the toon and i think the reason why is cause they know they will lose even more people. i read something about how they changed pvp to make it equal for all archetypes, but who in this game actually do pvp on a fire kinetics controllers?

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anyways, like i was saying though, how is it that fire kinetics controller gets all this glamour and fame, but all these other toons it's "nerfed" thank you come again!

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So do you want buffs or nerfs to Fire/Kin? Make up your mind. First you say that Fire/Kin is too good and should be nerfed, but then you say that Fire/Kin is no good in PvP and should be changed? Make up your mind. What are you saying?

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if you guys can "change" just the power "shockwave" on a dominator...why can't they change how many imps a fire controller has?

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It's Psychic Shockwave, not 'Shockwave'. And they have nerfed the number of pets a controller can spawn. It's not our fault that you didn't know that.

You've made claims, but have no proof. Do you know why people have quit the game? I stopped playing for a year, not because of nerfs but because of money. Do you know that everyone has a Fire/Kin? I don't.

Your facts are wrong. Fire Control and Kinetics have both been affected by balance changes in the past. But you insist those powersets have never been 'nerfed'.

You're wrong.

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Yeah, I think you overestimate the ability of CoH players to A) follow instructions or B) read. I was on one of these that took something like 20 minutes to complete after everyone was in place at the glowies. One person jumped the gun like 5 times in a row; it was so bad I was beginning to suspect they were griefing us.

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That's pretty much the reason why I don't try to do the Cavern trial with strangers. The only successful runs I've been on... were with my main SG.

Even then, it's tricky. The group I hang out with is big enough that we can muster enough folks to do regular 8-player TFs and trials, but also small and close-knit enough that we know nobody's gonna do something stupid.

A small SG or group of friends...might not have enough manpower. A really large SG...is actually not much better than a bunch of strangers; you can't be sure everyone on the team is trustworthy.

That's why I think the Cavern is a spectacularly badly designed trial; you need a full team of people all on the same page and doing their jobs.

There's other content in CoH which requires eight players to start. But you don't need eight players to finish those TFs. The Cavern requires it.

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So what would be the best server to jump on if i need ingame help. Since i will be treating this as a new product (Human_Being).

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The help channel is server-wide, but not cross-server. There are cross-server 'global' chat channels, but help isn't one of them. So when you ask a question on help, it only hits folks on the server you're currently connected to.

Do note you may need to fiddle with your chat window settings/tabs a little to make sure the help channel is displayed. I'm not sure where the help channel is displayed by default.

The most populated server is Freedom. Virtue is a close second. Thus, you're more likely to get a response there. I think Virtue's more helpful than Freedom, but I'm biased because I play on Virtue. =) Honestly you should be fine asking on Freedom.

Infinity is reputed to be the third biggest server, but if that's true it's still quite a bit behind Freedom and Virtue. Justice is supposed to be close to Infinity.

(QR) If you take a look at the Mission Architect...there's several versions of the Freedom Phalanx and Vindicators that you can use as allies/enemies.

Among them are 'Signature Boss Pets'. I suspect these are the same ones that turn up in the Mender Silos TF and possibly elsewhere. The signature characters in this category are labeled as 'Hero' when you target them, but really only have Boss durability.

(QR) What the hell. Short answer:

Previously, Domination gave double damage to doms when activated. It doesn't do that any longer.

Instead, Dominators now do more damage normally; their base damage modifiers have been increased.

However, because they're now doing high damage all the time... the endurance costs and recharge times of dominator attacks have been increased.

The Domination inherent still grants extra magnitude/duration to control powers, mez protection, and a full endurance bar.

Psychic Shockwave in the /Psi powerset has had its damage lowered...though I think it's still the hardest-hitting aoe available to doms.

But seriously, go read the Issue 15 or test forums. They have way more detail than my quick capsule here.

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City of Villains wasn't an issue, but how it was tied into the game was an issue, i6. Going Rogue would be tied into the game through an issue, though all it is itself is an expansion.

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What folks are saying, though, is that Going Rogue doesn't have to launch together with an Issue.

I agree it's most likely that Going Rogue will be released together with an Issue update, like City of Villains and Issue 6. That's what they did last time, and it makes sense from a logistical perspective. Less beta testing and patching to do.

But we don't really know for sure what their plans for Going Rogue are. I think it'll probably arrive alongside an Issue, but it's possible that it could be released independent of the issue schedule.

Which is what people here are suggesting.

(QR) I've always assumed they were just generic designs meant to represent random player characters. As such, I doubt the devs gave them names.

Although it's possible they could be specific creations of folks in Cryptic or Beta players or something.

Maybe someone could ask Manticore in the lore thread?

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That's why I was asking if they had a form of Defiance as well. They were not moving at all, but were still attacking as long as I remained in range.

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Well, Fortunatas have no melee attacks at all, so they don't usually move that much anyway. Are you sure they were locked in position?

(I'm not saying you're wrong; they might indeed have Defiance-esque capabilities. After all, AE mobs using blaster powers do. But I'm just trying to narrow the perimeters as it were.)

Hm.

I like Synapse. His name's brilliant. He's a speedster with electrical powers, how cool is that?

And not everyone can identify with a rich vigilante like Manticore, or an immortal avatar like Statesman. But Steve Berry was just an average guy working an average nine-to five job. He didn't want to become a superhero.

When you get down to it, he's the sort of guy who's happiest on the couch. With a beer. He's a reluctant hero. But he is a hero.

His sidekick is Mynx, and we're told he rescued her when she was living on the streets. That shows a great deal of sympathy and compassion on his part.

On the other hand, I have fun imagining what his friends thought.

Positron: "Oh dear...Steve, you brought a catgirl home?"
Statesman: "Synapse, I hope you haven't been taking advantage of---"
Synapse: "Damnit guys, it's not like that! Really!"

On the villain side...I think the Clockwork King has a fascinating story. He was a small-time criminal, but he didn't deserve to be beaten to death - that was a monumental failure on Blue Steel's part.

The King's a tragic figure. He's incredibly powerful, but completely insane. He has one friend, but even that relationship is horribly messed up.

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Also, I'm currently typing this while wearing a uniform, so this is a uniformed estimation of release dates

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I'm currently wearing an old sports jersey, so I too am making a uniformed estimation.

Clearly this is a new groundbreaking trend in data analysis and forecasting.

Now we need some posters dressed like the Village People. That'd be double the statistical awesome.

I think it's more likely that Issue 16 will be what Paragon Studios promotes in response to the challenge from a certain other superhero MMO.

We're probably looking at a late June or early July release date for Issue 15, and historically speaking there's usually been a 2-4 month gap between issues. So that's just about right for Issue 16 to arrive in September or October. It's unlikely they'll be able to rush another Issue release within 2009 after that, though it remains possible.

However, we are assuming that Going Rogue will arrive together with an Issue launch.

The last expansion, City of Villains, launched with Issue 6. That's why everyone expects that Going Rogue's introduction will be part of a numbered Issue.

Maybe not.

We don't know.

Fortunatas have protection to Sleep, Hold, Immob and Stun. I don't think they have protection against Confuse and Fear, however.

Note this isn't really unusual. Just within Arachnos, Wolf Spider Huntsman and Crab Spider Webmaster bosses have extra mag against all mezzes, including Confuse and Fear.

Note that the player VEATs have built-in mez protection of a similar kind.

It's not unique to Arachnos either; the Cimeroran Traitors are similarly hard to mez.

I find it odd that you weren't able to break through the hold protection with four-stacked domination, but I've never tried to lock down a Fortunata that way. I only have two control characters currently, and both of 'em have confuse/fear, so...

But yes, they do have mez protection.

1. The scheduled maintenance window is 8 AM to 10 AM Central Time (6 AM to 8 AM Pacific, 9 AM to 11 AM Eastern) on Mondays and Fridays. This is standard maintenance; they reset the servers, make sure everything's okay, make serverside software updates, kick the tires, clean cotton candy out of the air vents, that sort of thing.

They also reserve the same two hour block on every weekday for additional updates (patches, issue publications, etc).

2. No, trial accounts can no longer join supergroups. They could in the past.

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2: It's uncertain if there really is a NEED for double-XP weekends anymore. What with patrol XP, XP curve smoothing, etc, the only way you're NOT making XP hand over fist NOW is just NEVER playing.

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The way I see it, aside from the direct effect of speeding up levelling, there's a publicity function in double XP weekends.

It encourages existing loyal players to play more, and creates a sort of festive atmosphere. It entices previous players to come back to the game. It creates activity and buzz.

So I predict we'll continue to see double XP weekends in the future. When they might be, though...that's anyone's guess. I'm guessing we'll see one somewhen after the launch of the next issue - between Issue 15 and 16.

But that's just a guess.

It's also possible to purchase a special $20 monthly card for the game, which gives a 30-day jetpack. You can get the same for $5 from the online store. That gives the jetpack to all your characters, and allows full flight.

It's not all that common, but you might have seen someone with it.

I think Doomhawk's right, though. You probably saw a Peacebringer.

If you have a Level 50 hero, you unlock two Epic ATs, Peacebringers and Warshades. Peacebringers get flight for free, Warshades get teleport.

(Level 50 villains unlock the Villain Epic ATs, but those don't get free travel powers)

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So I rerolled MM then :P but I've had a change of heart, I went necro/dark. I just need to get some play-time now, my costume looks pathetic compared to others. Why don't they just give you all the parts at the beginning? =( I'm not sure about the villain side though, I'm lv 4 and no one has or wants to party that I met.

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Okay, let's be fair 'ere. The vast majority of costume pieces in this game are available from the start.

There are only two major categories of stuff that are level-based unlocks - capes and regular auras. What I'd consider a third are wings - those are craftable in-game drops, or purchasable with in-game currency.

But you don't need wings, capes, or auras to make a good costume. I've won costume contests on low-level characters before, and I'm not a design genius or anything.

Conversely, I've seen costumes that use the latest cash items, fancy veteran rewards, whatever, and still look bloody awful. What matters ain't the restrictions on costume pieces, it's your own design.

Also...you can save costume designs to local files. And once a character is created, you can still make costume tweaks at the tailor. So a costume can be a work in progress. Even if you ain't happy with it now, you can improve it down the line.

As for teaming on the villain side, I've generally not had problems. If you're level 4, though, I'd recommend toughing it out till level 5, and trying in Port Oakes instead of Mercy.

(QR) Let me see if I understand this. After finishing your build, you clicked to finish and the respec didn't succeed - you ended up in your original build, and some of the new enhancements you slotted were just flat out missing?

I've had that happen before. What the GMs told me to do was simply log out and log back into that character, which apparently restored my inventory (with no action on their part).

If this doesn't work, be sure to contact support.

(QR) Most folks have given good advice. So I'll just give a few words about Bots/Traps PvP in particular, since nobody's talked about that. I do not have a Mastermind myself, but I used to PvP regularly against them.

All masterminds in general face special challenges in PvP - micromanaging your henchmen can be tough.

First of all, they will die. Resummoning and upgrading your henchmen can be difficult in the heat of battle. This has been improved recently; it's easier and quicker to respawn/upgrade henchmen now. But still, bear this in mind.

The second problem is...your henchmen are tough. Your character is fragile. Other players may attack you first, not your henchmen.

Some time after City of Villains launched, the devs introduced bodyguard mode...pretty much because of this problem. Masterminds were getting killed too fast in PvP. Anyway, when your henchmen are set to Follow and Defensive, any damage your character takes is distributed among your minions.

Sounds good? It is. When surrounded by your henchmen, a Mastermind with bodyguard up is very tough.

But issuing any other command to them - including specific targeting and movement orders - takes them out of bodyguard; that can cost you.

Finally, your ability to take damage and do damage comes from your henchmen. That should be obvious... but PvP in City of Heroes/Villains can be very mobile. Players fly, super-speed, and jump around.

Annnnd...your henchmen do not move as fast as a player. Your own character can outrace your henchmen if you're not careful. Thus a mastermind has a certain mobility disadvantage in PvP.

However.

A /Traps Mastermind can be quite effective because of the above considerations. Once you realise that a Mastermind is not well suited to fast-paced movement and chasing down other players, the obvious solution is to make them come to you.

Or teleport them to you, even; you can pick up a power called 'Recall Foe'.

A Traps Mastermind is excellent for this, because you've got plenty of toys to lay down, allowing you to make a small patch of battlefield that's to your advantage.

Reminds me of one time in high school, where a kid from another class walked in.

"Hey, where does Jonathan sit? I gotta leave something on his desk."
"Jonathan who? We have six Jonathans."
"...six? Uh...his surname starts with L..."
"Jonathan Lim, Jonathan Lee, or Jonathan Leong?"
"Lee. Jonathan Lee, thanks."
"Which Jonathan Lee? We have two."
"...uh...I think he sits near the window."
"They sit next to each other."
"Well, he's in the photo club."
"They're both in the photo club, sorry."
"Um, he's in the media team too."
"They're both in media."
"What?"
"Wait, do you mean the tall Jonathan or the short Jonathan?"
"He's tall."
"Ah, okay. Last row, third from the front."

I've been playing since mid-2004. The game is very different today. There's hero and villain sides to the game, which adds a lot of variety.

There's crafting and a market - I don't like the market, as such, but the invention system allows you to really customize your character's abilities in amazing ways.

A lot of content has been added. There's a lot of new baddies to fight and interesting encounters to do. There are plenty of new game mechanics as well.

We can create and share player-generated content now - people can make their own missions with custom scripting and even unique enemies.

As other people have said here, it's pretty easy to find teams these days and levelling is faster. But CoH/CoV is not a game where you're supposed to rush to max level. Other MMOs have the 'real game' at max level. This game is not like that. Most of the content is on the way up.

However, in CoH/CoV you can go back and do whatever you missed later on. That's pretty huge. Also, there is a fair bit of stuff that can only be done in the later levels. The developers have added a lot of late-game TFs, story arcs, raids and so on - there is some 'traditional MMO' endgame content.

Why do I keep playing this game? The community is awesome. I've played lots of other MMOs, including a certain big one I won't name. The forums were hostile and a lot of the players on the servers weren't very nice. This game has a different feel, somehow.

I also love the fact this game lets me make all sorts of characters. I'm a very visual sort of player, and I like designing costumes and picking flashy power combinations. Finally, for the tiny bit of me that is a number-crunching designer, the invention system lets you do some really killer builds these days.

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QR

Some people also use parentheses (double or single, I've seen both) preceded by "oO" to represent thought bubbles they want to transmit to the whole team, for whatever reason. The two Os are supposed to be the little bubbles leading up to the big thought bubble. Example:

oO(Wow, what a weird costume that guy has!)

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I'm more used to seeing it with a period for a third bubble:

[Team] Acyl: . o O ( I'm thinking like this, see? )

Haven't encountered that much in MMOs, but it's a reasonably common trick on MUDs, IRC, and other text-based roleplay environments.

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Would it be possible for me to witness at least one fully RP'd scanner/paper mission? Maybe just heroside because villain RP would just scare me. Then again, I have been freaked out under the Atlas Park statue after walking in on a scripted modern re-inactment of The ILLIAD.

I have a friend of mine whom I've watched become twisted into an avid RP'er (I'll never try to surprise him in his base again) but I don't know any of his friends well enough to ask if I could experience them acting in character.

I'd imagine my presence would taint their experience unless I was to portray some kind of ghost or extra dimensional being sent to observe.

"To Wentworth's for a stealth IO! Awayyyyy!" (gets on a Sit 'n Spin)

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Well, I've seen quite a few PuGs essentially become RP teams, especially on Virtue. There's enough critical mass of RPers on the server that even PuGs can end up mostly made up of RPers.

The problem for me, though - and I do think this is a problem... well, let's say that it's an eight-man team and five people are RPing.

I always worry that the other three are left out, or somehow alienated. Maybe I'm weird like that, but I dunno.

If you play on Virtue during prime-time hours (US evenings), I'd offer to put together a small team with folks from my SG and show you how it goes, as it were... if not, I'm sure other players would be willing to do similar.

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oh brother.. i cant believe someone actually went there.

way to further convolute the issue.

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It's comparison. It's analogy. People do that when they argue.

It also helps explain why people got so riled up about what he said - there are folks who'd see things in that light.

That's why I love this game too.

Oh, couple more things. If you didn't already know, Dominators are getting some major changes in I15. Domination no longer gives a damage boost. Instead, dom base damage has been vastly increased, so they do high damage all the time.

But Domination still gives you a full bar of endurance and mez protection, so there's still a reason to seek permadom.

Lastly, for permadom you want Hasten three-slotted for rech, and you'd need about 70% recharge in IO set bonuses.

The largest +recharge bonuses are from purple IO sets, and most also use the expensive LoTG +recharge uniques. This is why permadom is often considered to be an expensive build.

However, it is possible to make a permadom character who relies more on standard IO bonuses.

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Never understood why a hero would say ((Hello.))
How is greeting someone new to a team not in character? I could understand if it was a villain, however.

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I'm one of those people who will do ((Heya)), or ((Hello)) when greeting someone who's just joined a pick-up group. Why? What's so out-of-character about saying hi?

Speech pattern.

My Rad/Rad corruptor is a clunky 1950s robot. A nuclear-powered robot maid. Think Jetsons meets Fallout. She "speaks" in clicks, whirrs, and advertising jingles.

If I think the team will be cool with it, I sometimes do that on pick-up groups. Most folks find it funny.

But if I think it'd freak out other folks, then I don't do it. Or, y'know, sometimes I'm tired and just don't wanna bother. Typing ((Hi)) is easier than something like: "-klik- Hello, hello, hello! Welcome, sir/madam/other! Coffee, tea, or chemical treatments?"

Okay, so if I'm not RPing - why do I still use the parenthesis?

Habit. Simple as that. I'm used to putting all my out-of-character statements in brackets. I do it without thinking, because I've been doing it in this game for five years. I don't RP all the time, but I RP most of the time and all my in-game friends are RPers. So I'm conditioned to act in a certain way.

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Seems like people use the double parens more often than they speak in-character. Maybe the double parens should be used when actually IN character?

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No, it prob'ly seems that way to you...but I assume you're only running into RPers on pick-up groups. Many RPers are like me - if the team isn't RP-centric, we won't RP either.

But if you have a team of mostly RPers, or entirely RPers, trust me, things are pretty different. I've got chat logs from TFs with my SG that don't have a single line of parenthetical out-of-character dialogue in team chat.