Arcanaville
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Quote:I'm not sure you've actually read the entire blog entry. I'm not extrapolating anything. Positron articulates the philosophy directly within the post which goes beyond his operational statement in a way I cannot see how anyone could confuse. And as I said repeatedly, I'm not arguing with any specific way the game canon has been managed, but the philosophy articulated in the blog post. Because I say that repeatedly as well, I'm not sure you've actually read my entire post either.Originally Posted by minimalist_NA
The thing is, without concrete examples of how any of Posi's changes have seriously, materially changed someone's gameplay experience in a way comparable to, say, the 5th column mess, I frankly see this as a lot of hyperventilating over nothing. You even agree that his original statement is reasonable, but you extrapolate the implications in such an extreme way that, frankly, I'm just not seeing any evidence of in game. -
Quote:I didn't like doing it, actually, and I hesitated to mention it at all, but fundamentally the problem that Keyes presents - that the devs present through Keyes - at the end is this:Originally Posted by Amygdala
And no, practical solutions does not necessarily mean telling people to stand in the hospital.
Badge 1: you need enough firepower to defeat Antimatter, and you need to avoid getting hit by Obliteration.
Badge 2: you need enough firepower to defeat Antimatter, and you need to prevent anyone from dying.
The obvious solution to #1 is to find the minimum number of player necessary to bring him down, and assemble that number through the players with the most experience and best success rate in avoiding Obliteration patches. Its practical in the sense that it is the *optimal* solution. Every person you add beyond that number increases the probability of failure, even if you can get it to work.
The obvious solution to #2 is to use the same solution for #1 with the addition of dedicated healers.
I don't like the fact that those two solutions are the obvious solution to resolve badge run failures, but they are. -
Quote:Every server's culture seems to be different in often inexplicable ways. And Triumph has always seemed to do things in particularly unique ways: what works elsewhere has often been found to not work there, for reasons I really can't fully explain.Originally Posted by Amygdala
What I am trying to show is that although you may experience these frustrations on Triumph, there are other servers who are managing to get PuG style groups to complete these badges and are not using anything other than in game communications and occasionally the forums. These servers are not necessarily Virtue or Freedom. The examples I gave were based on my home server, Champion.
It goes back quite a long ways. When the rule everywhere else was "do not spawn any pets for any reason" in the early Hamidon raids, Triuimph was perfecting PA tanking. That's just the way the server rolls. Numbers are part of it, but its not the only factor that affects what seems to work and not work on the different servers. -
Quote:I'm not sure this particular story conveys the intended idea.Originally Posted by Positron
Everyone seems to be getting on Zwill's case about not knowing something about the game.
The game is BIG. Everyone misses something. I told a designer the other day that you can combine two enhancements that are already IN a power (i.e. not including one in your tray) and they had no idea that was in the game. Been there since launch (or a little after), not many people know it can be done because the UI was set up for simplification in this case. -
Quote:Because I'm currently leveling a Storm/Sonic defender already.Originally Posted by BrandX
Yeah, was gonna ask what Dues mentioned. Purely from a numbers perspective (mind you this isn't a big deal...I mean I rolled a DP/TIME...according to most I was shooting my self in the foot picking DP
), why not go Time/Sonic Defender? -
Quote:Originally Posted by Infini
Unless those in RV are different (higher HP, etc) I don't see soloing them being any more difficult than any other AV/Hero. The hardest part, imo, is timing. Getting in there when the zone is dead would be the best as you don't have to worry about outside interference. Just one person of the opposing side is all it would take to ruin the attempt.
It's been a while since I've done any PVP, but don't the AVs spawn in pairs, too?Since 2007, the following changes would make soloing AVs and Heroes in RV harder than in the past:Quote:Originally Posted by New Dawn
It is possible to solo them. I worked that out in 2006-2007.
Edit: Just quickly I think Scirroco would be a pig, never worked out if he's doable but with new incarnate pets I wouldn't be too surprised.
1. If you intend to use heavies, they can no longer be healed.
2. DR reduces buffs: certain things like perma-PA and perma domination are no longer generally possible, and with it tactics like perma-confuse through the triangles. It also significantly reduces the damage buffs you can generate on yourself. And some archetypes simply cannot be buffed high enough to be able to tank AVs in RV due to DR; in particular most squishies cannot exceed about 22% defense in RV regardless of how strong the defense buffs are.
Certain other changes have improved matters:
1. Incarnate pets, some of which do a lot of damage and all of which (being critters and not players) are immune from DR.
2. Alpha slot level shift which can reduce the level gap to +3, and Ultimate inspirations which can reduce the level gap even further to +2.
The combination of the two means its still possible, but not with older techniques.
And Heroes and AVs spawn two and three at a time in RV when faction reinforcements are summoned.
I believe they are all theoretically soloable on both sides. Whether they all have been under the current RV conditions is something I don't know. Some luck is involved with some of them, like Ghost Widow: no matter how high your defense if she gets lucky with her mega hold it can mess up any attempt at soloing. -
Quote:It would be extremely time consuming to do it right.Originally Posted by Cake
Would it be that difficult to give higher level versions an appropriate power loadout to remain challenge at higher levels?
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Quote:The disagreement tended to revolve over whether to let the rest of us live, though.Originally Posted by Party_Kake
Magneto is not a villain.
He just happens to slightly disagree with a mutant that can alter the minds of every living being he chooses. It's very hard to win a propaganda war against big brother.
The Joker killed Maggie Gyllenhaal, not Katie Holmes. That's less forgivable.Quote:Also the Joker throws the best parties, and he killed Katie Holmes so we're cool. Still can't believe she married a nutjob like that. -
Quote:Powers that are usable when dead can't cost end, because when dead you don't have end. Its also not logical to me for powers you can use when dead to have intrinsic crashes, because in effect you've already paid a crash to use them: you're dead. Rezzes with crashes like Mutation are paying for an additional buff beyond the rez with the crash.Originally Posted by Eldagore
LOL. That brings a whole new meaning to the term "corpse blasting"!!
But there is merit to the idea of a nuke in defiance. I would add to that idea the nuke only drops 25% endo and then...wait for it.... gives 10 seconds of mez protection after.
"You cant stop me! I wont let you!! I have to win!!" (nukes, breaks free of constraints)
Nukes need MOAR then just that, but it would be a really good start I think. It helps patch up an AT hole AND fits nicely into comic theme.
Nice idea William_Valence.
Mutation would be another rez that would work really good for blasters, by the way. -
Quote:The game seems to have had problems in the past with properly tracking special conditions like X is consistently alive, or in a particular location, etc. It sounds like a complex problem for the game servers to continuously track when players are within the combat area for the final fight, given how potentially large and irregularly shaped that area is. A glitch could cause a player to lose the badge without knowing anything about it until the end.Originally Posted by Snow Globe
I'm sure you can give examples, but I'm not following you.
I'm not even sure what the precise region and timeframe is for Lambda. I was on one Lambda where some players actually started fighting him outside the walls but still near the area, and I quickly taunted him back inside and the trial didn't fail. -
Quote:"Soloing" in the scrapper forum is the same as it is everywhere: performing a task with a single player (and generally a single player character).Originally Posted by Infini
A long time ago I solo'd a couple of them with nukes and shivans on an EM/EA brute (this was before Energy Transfer got 'fixed').
I know those powers don't really constitute properly soloing in the scrapper forum, but if you have to kill them quickly before someone despawns them or ganks you, they would be helpful.
Whether someone does something with or without temp powers or inspirations is a separate special circumstance.
Mostly, I'm interested to see whether people attempt this, and if so under what conditions: with or without temps, with or without (massive) insps, and how hard it is. It seems to be one of the last things that hasn't been generally discussed in terms of performance. I've heard of people duoing Lambda, but not really trying to solo all the heroes or avs in RV. -
"Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis " is the longest word listed in major dictionaries, although its linguistically termed a coined word: i.e. it was specifically coined to be a long word, and isn't otherwise used in natural language.
The longest word sometimes cited is a chemical formula for a known large protein, and chemical formulas are not universally recognized as genuine "words" but rather semantic formulas. It also cannot be posted without doubling the maximum post size. Its the formula for titin, which is an extremely long protein present in muscle, and is about 190 thousand letters long.
As to auction houses in bases, the obvious answer would be to write a web front end to the auction houses and use the same pass-thru technique the store uses. But you'd need much better web developers to do that reasonably well. -
Quote:Hmm, it seems my information on Time Crawl is incorrect. It doesn't stack according to the power analyzer. That's odd. Now I have to hunt down why that information is incorrect.Originally Posted by Mega_Jamie
The last discussion I remember on beta about -regen stacking with TM was that it did not stack, so the best achievable was only -150.
I'll whip out a power analyser thing tonight to test it on some baddies, but anyway, from playing Time solo and grouped for TFs up to 30 now, (i level so slowly
) as well as messing around with various versions on Beta, I have to agree with the majority of people, this set is just right at falling in line with the top tier sets at best, and possibly coming off a bit short.
Ultimately I'm waiting to go up against the big AVs, in ITF and STF etc etc to see how useful -rech is as a gimmick. -
Quote:I'm still trying to decide what to roll for my first *live* TM character. I tested my brains out on TM, so I have the luxury of backing off a bit and deciding what I actually want to play, not what would be good to test. Energy/Time did cross my mind as a "what if" on my main.Originally Posted by BrandX
No reason to miss it!
Power Mastery keeps the option for Total Focus open! So reroll to Energy/Time or Time/Energy!
But to be honest, I'm currently trying to decide between:
- Gravity/Time controller. Love the concept. Gravity, time - PhysicsGirl would probably be interesting. Not the most powerful combo, but definitely ... swirly.
- Bots/Time mastermind. Another concept combo, but it has the significant disadvantage that I'll probably fall asleep while playing it. That would probably be ludicrous to solo.
- Sonic/Time corruptor. Probably an awesome soloing combo, without quite the somnolence of bots. Speaking of overpowered, I still have no idea what anyone was thinking when they gave squishies Siren's Song. You might as well practically give blasters Elude.
- Electric/Time controller. Honestly, I have no concept for this. The idea popped into my head, and it just seemed so weird it had a certain charm to it. -
Quote:I'm not addressing the issue of whether a canon contradiction is "a big deal." Something either is or is not contradictory to canon. Canon either is or is not changed. Whether that is important enough to Positron, or to you, is itself a component of my thesis in the original soapbox post. To wit: once you decide to start making such distinctions, you have to decide if that position is applied across the whole of the creative staff you are responsible for, and what the ramifications are for applying it in that way.Originally Posted by minimalist_NA
I didn't even think your 'main' ones were any more of a problem, either
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Quote:Being damage buffed while dead seems suboptimal.Originally Posted by William_Valence
One thing that I've tossed around in my head for quite a while is, what if Defiance were expanded to work when the Blaster was dead as well as mezzed?
Kidding. As much as the devs conspire to kill blasters, I don't think they want them shooting while dead.
Along the same lines as my observation of damage buffing powers above, I also find it interesting that while blasters get things like Rise of the Phoenix, its ironically once again the melee archetypes that get rezzes in their powersets when they rarely need them, and the archetype that's always falling down has to get all the way to 41 to unlock a powerset that has one. And blasters don't get things like Soul Transfer, which I believe every blaster that has ever walked the servers has wished for at least once. -
Quote:I haven't bothered to check since beta, but as far as I know everything in Time Crawl stacks, including the -regen. Ditto Time Stop.Originally Posted by Oedipus_Tex
I'm working on it.
P.S. are you saying the -Regen does stack? It was my initial assumption from open beta that it did stack, but someone said it doesn't and I never bothered to test it one way or another.
About the only thing wrong with Time Manipulation is its called a manipulation set but I can't make a blaster with it. I'm not generally in favor of powerset respec, but I'd pay real money to swap my En/En's secondary for Time Manipulation. I would miss total focus, but I would write it a really nice goodbye letter. -
Quote:But that's outside of RV, with the full benefit of full strength damage enhancement and buffs. That will drop substantially in RV due to DR. Assuming you're getting something like say 250%-300% total damage buff (i.e. +150% to +200% above base damage including slotting) on your attacks DR will reduce that to 215% - 240% total damage enhancement. You're going to lose about fifteen to twenty percent of your damage due to DR on or around those levels of damage buff. My guess is you'll probably be around 200 dps in an equivalent situation in RV. That's not "low" in the absolute sense, but its low relative to what you can do with other primaries besides MA. I'm pretty sure Claws, Katana, and especially Fire can do better (well, I know Fire does better because I specifically tested and used it).Originally Posted by Moonlighter
I'm getting around 250 DPS (to the Rikti pylon, assuming I am doing the math correctly) with no lore pets. But that's with the boost from /Shield. That's why I ask. I realize, though, the the smashing resists are pretty brutal.
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Quote:Its just a side issue to the main ones I mentioned, but I don't consider it a reach. I know the Underground trial singles out Primal Earth: that's the problem. That should not be the case because there's nothing special about Primal Earth relevant to this situation. Its directly implied what is "special" about Primal Earth, and that thing is something not unique to Primal Earth and also true for those other dimensions.Originally Posted by minimalist_NA
And the Underground spoiler only singles out Primal Earth, not "other dimensions" in general. This could speak to the idea that War Earth and the shadow dimensions are roughly under Praetorian control already, or that Primal Earth is "special" somehow (as usual).
Either way that's a real reach to go looking for "canon conflicts". -
Quote:This sort of thing has been suggested in the past: vis a vis Blaster Overdrive.Originally Posted by Shenalia
Getting back on-topic - "crashless nukes", and not necessarily Blasters and the role they fulfill...
Upon reviewing this thread, I had an idea. The main problem over this seems to be that some people have a desire to keep the crash component for the "feel" of how it works, and others recognize how the crash keeps the nukes from being truly viable powers a vast majority of the time. From what it sounds like, the idea of "Going All Out" is tied to the concept of comic-book Blasters. Then, it hit me...
Why do the nuke powers themselves and "The Crash" have to be the same power?
Swap Ammo's mechanic gives us the solution here:
- Take the crash component out from the nuke powers and then give them a proper balance calculation.
- For Blasters, add a Domination-like click power that is received upon taking their Tier-9 power. When activated, they receive a short duration buff (5 seconds?) that creates an "additional" damage tick on any powers used within that timeframe - bypassing the traditional damage cap that powers could be boosted to. Upon the end of that duration buff, the Blaster receives a "full crash".
With this, "The Crash" becomes an additional, non-enhanceable power with a long recharge that allows Blasters to occasionally, truly go "all out" on an enemy and leave them dramatically weakened. By separating it from the nukes themselves, the current Tier-9s can become usable on a regular basis without being "out of balance" by the devs' terms - like FA/RoA/HoB. An additional bonus: "The Crash" could easily be used for more than just the nuke itself in this situation. Each Blaster power could have an "additional damage" component set aside to only activate when "The Crash" buff is in effect, so every single power could be balanced individually around this concept.
The end result? Everybody - Blaster, Defenders and Corrupters - get useful, non-crashing nukes with proper, balanced damage/recharge calculations (overall effect: buff). Blasters receive a function that allows them to use those non-crashing nukes at their current level of power - or slightly higher, if the Devs calculate it that way - with a crash attached to it. This could also be applied to the current crashless nuke sets, giving them an extra "oomph" if so desired, too.
Comments? Likes/dislikes? -
Quote:I was going to refute the assertion that TMs heals are weaker than comparable ones and it has virtually no -regen and its numbers don't compare to Rad, but it occurs to me we need people who believe this to increase the likelihood the devs don't change their minds about the set.Originally Posted by Nox__Fatalis
You counted -rech with a power that has a 6 min cooldown, awesome. Way overpowered.
Seriously guys.
And FF doesn't have heals? That can be rectified with a power pool, true mez protection can't.
There's virtually no -regen in the set, no status protection, and numbers can't even compare to rad. No -def autohit powers, and as far as I can tell the HPS of mending is no greater than any other aoe heal.
I don't know what sets people have been playing before now, but if you are faceplanting at 50 you are doing it wrong.
All I know is my Ill/Rad can average, with her recharge, something in the neighborhood of -650% regen by partially stacking LR. The numbers I get for single target stack of -regen on TM is about -550%. When the problem is that its a hair under Rad and can't quite get to Traps, those are problems I can live with. In the meantime I predict Farsight will be the next Radiation Infection, where people basically needed videos of Rads going to sleep inside the cloud to demonstrate what the strength of the power actually was. And farsight has none of the weaknesses of Radiation Infection. -
Quote:In the past, people used to brag about the numerically impossible, and would continue to do so even when it was proven numerically impossible**. That's a strange, strange compulsion. Now, its less about bragging about the numerically impossible, and more about bragging about the too expensive to be common. You can't disprove someone is doing it, but its unlikely very many people are.Originally Posted by Madadh
My guess is that most peoples brags outpace reality. On the internet, it's hard to verify, if you are even the sort skeptical enough to try. But add the pile of brags together, and you create a fair amount of pressure to conform to a standard or norm that's just not the norm.
Like: "my bad-*** blaster used to two-shot bosses all the time before ED" - that sort of thing. -
Quote:Unfortunately, that's sort of why the 100% cap exists. Its not a true statement that reward must be proportional to risk, and therefore to get extremely high rewards I just have to take on extremely high risk. It is extremely difficult to safeguard against that. Notice how difficult it is to safeguard against getting extremely high reward *rates* with only standard levels of reward *amount*.Originally Posted by mauk2
I really wish the devs would raise the reward cap for custom mobs above 100 percent.
My challenge map would give pretty great rewards if they did. -
Quote:Haven't we had glitchy problems in the past with missions and rewards that depended on something being in a very specific place or a very specific state continuously? Not sure I would want to rely on that for an otherwise tricky badge to get.Originally Posted by Snow Globe
Keyes:
Loves a Challenge - Complete the Keyes Island Reactor Trial without you being defeated during the final battle with Anti-Matter, but you need to be in the battle area for the duration of the fight. -
Quote:Our saying is "when you find a customer that is always right, hire them."Originally Posted by Gemini_2099
Our saying is the customer is always right.