Balanced

[ QUOTE ]

9) Designing nineteen more missions to add to my task force.

[/ QUOTE ]
It can't take that long to copy and paste them.

He has a press conference to announce that heroes will be infiltrating via a "covert mini-sub" (italics mine)? Why not sail the sub in on the surface with a brass band on top of it?

<shakes head sadly>

Maybe I should have left him in that cave....

[ QUOTE ]
Prior to the TV show Heroes, I started a cheerleader type character. For some reason, the character never really worked as a hero for me. I tried a couple years ago when I saw energy melee... the pink pom-poms of doom.

[/ QUOTE ]
My cheerleader character long predates "Heroes" as well. She won't have any pom-poms unless the devs add an emote with them, though--she's a dark/dark defender. A cheerful, perky, acrobatic dark/dark defender.

Here's an excerpt from the Jenkins Files. I originally wrote it for a thread on the Mek Man bug, and now add it here to consolidate our records of Jenkins' career(s). (And also to help protect the thread from Lighthouse's upcoming purge until we can get it archived.)

Jenkins Meets the Mek Man

Jenkins stared glumly around the office.

How did I wind up working for a temp agency? All those jobs, all that schmoozing with powerful villains...and here I am, waiting for someone's secretary to call in sick or something.

A steady beeping noise from the next desk provided a welcome distraction. He'd been a bit surprised to see a robot in one of the cubicles, but apparently the agency took its non-discrimination policy seriously. It didn't quite look like the ones he'd worked with in his brief stint with the Council. The emblem wasn't right. Still there was something familiar about it....

"Excuse me," Jenkins said, "but I have the oddest feeling we've met before. I can't remember where, though."
"*beep* Now that you mention it, you seem familiar as well. Let me run an image match. *beep*"

Jenkins doodled on a sticky pad as a distant expression settled onto the mech's optical sensor plate.

"Ah, now I remember. *beep* You held me prisoner once, when you were working for the Circle. I hardly recognized you without the flaming eyes."
"Yeah, those were murder. You wouldn't believe the Visine bill...wait..." Jenkins trailed off. "I held you prisoner?" he asked, eyeing the mech's slashing claw nervously.
"*beep* Probability exceeds 99.87%. No hard feelings. Everyone has, you know."
"Well, I'm glad you feel that way. What do you mean, 'Everyone has.'?"
"I worked for the Fifth Column, up until their dustup with the Council. I did my bit in the fight for a while, but eventually this *beep* brute of a hero tripped on someone's rifle and fell on me. It didn't hurt, of course, but it wrecked my targeting circuits. That lousy *beep* Burkholder was too busy slapping new emblems on all the other guys to bother fixing me, and I wound up out on the streets. I've been taking temp jobs from the agency to keep my fuel in my power cell ever since."

"So, they're pretty good at finding jobs for you?" That sounded promising.
"Oh, yeah. *beep* Work's been steady--all kinds of interesting positions. I've been a mechanic, a cop...I even had a gig as a stage magician once, but I *beep* sucked at it--no sleeves to hide things in."
"That sounds pretty cool!" Jenkins exclaimed, starting to feel much better about his situation.
"Yeah, it's been *beep* great. Except..."
Uh-oh. "Except what?"
"No matter what *beep* job I take, I wind up getting *beep* kidnapped!" the mech groaned.

Danger! Danger! "Every job?"
"It never *beep* fails. I've been kidnapped by Circle magicians. I've been held prisoner while working as a *beep* Circle magician. I've been menaced by *beep* overgrown mushrooms as a paralegal. And the worst of it is, I always wind up getting rescued by a *beep* hero. A hero got me into this mess, and I wind up *beep* thanking one for saving me at least once a week."
" Do you suppose the agency is setting you up?"
"Nah. I think it's just my *beep* rotten luck. Maybe you ought to steer clear of me, before I *beep* jinx you, too," the mech concluded, sounding depressed.

Jinx me? You have no idea. "I don't know. I'm having second thoughts about this..."

The briskly professional voice of his manager interrupted him. "Jenkins? Unit 13?" she said. "I've got a nice job lined up for the two of you. Azuria needs a couple of assistants to help catalogue a bunch of scrolls MAGI just received, and I know both of you listed familiarity with arcane scripts on your resumés."

As the two newly dubbed research assistants headed toward City Hall, Jenkins tried to muster a shred of hope. "This doesn't sound so bad, does it?"
The mech looked at him despairingly. "We're *beep* doomed."
"Oh, bloody hell."

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
A very minor improvement for Gadgets...I mean, Devices! (Yeah, it was a dumb mistake -- typing in haste and all of that.)


[/ QUOTE ]

So when you type in Haste, does the preview screen load twice as fast? Or does you keyboard go twice as fast? Does the Dev Power Set haste last longer then the Pool power, recharges faster, or does it more then double your recharge speed?

Dev Haste is broken!! Too powerful, I say! Nerf Devs!!

[/ QUOTE ]
I suspect it's got a higher recharge buff than the pool power (so the "hit a key" power recharges quicker), but it obviously carries an accuracy debuff. I figure it's probably balanced.

And if they changed it to the McGuyver set, they'd have to change the powers to things like "Chewing Gum", "Baling Wire", "Lumber", and "Random Piece of Junk", and it would be up to us to find ways to make them useful. Oh, and we couldn't pair it with AR anymore.

(Oh, and I'm all for making Smoke Grenade as "good" as Flash Arrow. Maybe then we could use the primary > secondary argument to talk them into buffing Flash Arrow all the way up to "marginally useful, sometimes...maybe". Still bitter about Flash Arrow.)

I would certainly create an alt for it. Fortunately, I don't have to, as I have several alts ready to go already--two of them are even at the appropriate levels already. This is because I make alts and play them, rather than building them and throwing them away. Why would you even make an alt if you're not going to play it as high as 15? It doesn't take long, and you generally don't get much of a feel for the powersets before then. How do you know you're not throwing away something really fun?

[ QUOTE ]
Interestingly enough, there's been some science news in the last few days that indicates that the moon really is geologically active!

[/ QUOTE ]
<nitpick>Technically, wouldn't that be selenologically active?</nitpick>

[ QUOTE ]
Miswording or misinterpretation. New Faultline is actually two (two, two!) zones in one -- the city zone, open to all levels but with a level range of 15-25, and the Hazard Zone beyond the Dam, with security clearance 15+ (although I'm not sure it actually blocks you like normal Hazard Zones do, due to how the entrances are done).

[/ QUOTE ]
The "Hazard" area does not block you like a real Hazard Zone. It just has Hazard Zone-type spawns.

[ QUOTE ]
I was confused by the article. On the one hand, it was stated that the zone is open to anyone of all levels (and I believe I wandered into it on test). However another part of the article talked about travel powers and how you could go earlier than 14 previously, so you didnt have travel powers, so now the security clearance levels are 15-25.

So, is this zone open, or not? Or was the security clearance restriction simply a comment on the levels of foes, which would mean that most players adventuring there for real would have the minimum level needed for travel?

I found it a bit confusing.

Lewis

[/ QUOTE ]
It's open. You can walk in there at level 1 (a fact that Agoraphobic Man, my perma-level 1 badger will be taking advantage of). Previously, though, it was intended to be used by characters in the pre-travel power range. In fact, there was a mission that generally forced you to go there before you got a travel power, unless you were willing to let it sit in your tray for a level or two. Now the content is designed for more appropriate levels, and the blasted Vahz hunt is gone at last.

[ QUOTE ]
Seismic activity on the moon changed our tides!?!? Was this 'seismic activity' the moon breaking up into a ring around Earth?? How could... ok ok, fiction, suspend disbelief... go with it Zloth...

[/ QUOTE ]
*deep breath*
Maybe the seismic activity is only a symptom of whatever also caused the tidal changes. Maybe a mysterious force suddenly teleported in huge quantities of neutronium for some nefarious purpose. Or maybe the Lunar Gopher-Men developed a matter-transmitting tunnel digger and accidentally hollowed out a large portion of the moon.

Or, y'know...something. Come on, Zloth, work with me here. I'm trying to make it not-embarrassing.

I would submit that the Reflections are just that--reflections. The people that come to the Shard are accustomed to fighting certain enemies; in the minds of heroes--and perhaps those of the Expeditionary Force--"enemy" is associated with images of Nemesis, Rikti, Council, and sometimes Crey forces. So when the fragmented essence of Rularuu that suffuses the Shard tries to fight against these intruders, it manifests in the form of these enemies. The situation is complicated by the fact that the Shard lies so close to Paragon-Earth, and that the images carried into the Shard are those of individuals, creating a resonance between the Reflections and the beings they reflect, even though they ultimately serve Rularuu.

As to the Kora fruit--my pet theory (a retcon to explain why they only seem to appear in FBZ, despite the references to the bloodwaters in the canon) is that they're only the fruiting bodies of much larger plants...or perhaps even plant, singular. These plants are rooted in the Cascades, but span the entire Shadow Shard in the form of the warp vines and the Kora fruit. Conditions in FBZ may be more conducive to forming blooms, or it may simply be that no one has found the fruit in the more hazardous areas yet. More disturbing is the notion that these plants may actually be part of Rularuu as well, which would explain why the soldiers of Rularuu guard them, but don't eat them. For the grimmest possible interpretation, consider this: Where do all those soldiers of Rularuu come from?

[ QUOTE ]
I suppose veteran rewards could similarly solve the problem, but it would take a fairly ongoing set of respecs to fix the problem, and for most veterans (who just don't respec anywhere near that often) this would wind up being a fairly lackluster reward.

[/ QUOTE ]
I believe the information we currently have on Veteran Rewards indicates that we will have choices among various rewards. Thus, those who don't need or want yet another respec should be free to simply choose something else.

I suggest that people try to wean themselves off the free respecs. I suspect we will see fewer of them in times to come, as the devs seem to feel that they've made enough truly major power adjustments. Future changes may not be enough in their eyes to warrant a respec, particularly if respecs are made available through the Vet Rewards system.

Take a careful look at the changes. Do they break your character? For example, what would you do with a respec for the flight changes, move a slot or two to another power? Can you honestly say that those two slots radically change your gameplay?

That said, I would like to see the L50 unlimited-respec trial that's been hinted at, if only because it would be nifty new content. Maybe they could adapt a non-SG version of the Cathedral of Pain trial for it, providing respecs and a way to experience the trial without having to deal with the IoP/raidable base hassle.

[ QUOTE ]

/bind TAB "target_enemy_next$$target_custom_next void$$target_custom_next quant$$target_custom_next cyst"

Tab will “con” through enemies as normal until a Void, Quantum, or Cyst is in sight then it will default to targeting only that mob. Great for finding Quantums hiding in the back of a big crowd or for targeting Cysts surrounded by tons of Unbound Nictus. Some suggest adding in “target_cusom_next sapper” I have that bound to another key and only use when I’m on Malta missions.

[/ QUOTE ]
This is an excellent bind, but I would point out that it will remain locked onto a dead Void or Quant if there's one in line-of-sight. If you use your tab key for quick target-switching in combat, this can be a problem. If you add the "alive" parameter to each entry, it will allow you to tab away from your freshly-defeated nuisance.

My version looks like this:

/bind TAB "target_enemy_next$$target_custom_next quant alive$$target_custom_next void alive$$target_custom_next cyst"

I didn't bother with an "alive" for the cyst entry because they don't leave corpses to monopolize your bind. I also swap the order of the Quant and Void, for those thankfully rare cases (usually on outdoor maps) when one of each is in line-of-sight. I consider the Voids the greater threat, so I target them preferentially.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Subscribed time would be a better term.

[/ QUOTE ]

Blech. So much for actually being a game Veteran.

Should call it "Billing Veteran Extra $$$ Sponge Awards" then.

[/ QUOTE ]
You're the sort to complain about being hung with a new rope, aren't you?

I think it's a fair bet that most people haven't been paying for a subscription for months/years without ever playing.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

The reason you are seeing it in the first place is because of Auto Assault. They calculate their rewards based on paid time.

However - we will be basing ours on played time (beta doesn't count tho yo).


[/ QUOTE ]

Let me get this straight...

So, if a Friend and I both had our own accounts since CoH Day 1, never lapsed on a renewal, always had an active account...

I've played... 5000 hours, he's played 1000 (arbitrary numbers), but we've paid for the same amount of time... I would receive more Vet rewards than him?



[/ QUOTE ]

I was just wondering the same....if so that s bullsh%&. So our money is good enough to take but not good enough to get the full benefits. Sorry some of us have real life things going on and dont have all freaking day to play your game...but hey..our money is good enough...this is so f d up. This is got to be the stupidest move by you guys yet............

[/ QUOTE ]
Calm down. That is not what CuppaJo meant. Read the rest of the post:

[ QUOTE ]

This played time includes any time that would come with a retail box purchase or hero gear purchase. In fact - the system already tracks this 'included' time. It is just not set up to make that data visible to you in your account management screen yet.

[/ QUOTE ]

Read "played time" as "subscribed time", if that makes you more comfortable. The distinction Cuppa's making is between time paid for and time with play access. This is how it worked with the CoV Beta invites, and this is how it will work with Veteran Rewards. If you signed up two years ago, and your account has never lapsed, you will get the rewards for 2 years of play. This will happen regardless of whether any particular portion of that subscription time was paid for as a monthly fee, as part of the box price for CoH or CoV, as part of the price of a Hero Gear kit, or with a game card Statesman gave you for rescuing a kitty from a tree. It will even happen if you haven't logged in for the last year. If you're paid up for a year in advance, that year won't count until you've used it.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
You forgot "No teleport surface detection beyond 100 yards getting teleporters killed because they can't get a valid teleport reticule in time to stop from falling to their doom."

[/ QUOTE ]

If you look elsewhere, Positron may have discovered / realised why that is happening.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ya, he said that about a month ago...and no fix is on Test yet even...I'd still call it a major issue, particularly with Team teleport, since it can get entire TEAMS killed, not just the teleporter.

[/ QUOTE ]
Well, no. He said that today, actually.

I hold Cricket in high regard, and I'm sure she'll be a worthy successor...but never a replacement.

Good luck at TR, Cuppa. Now that I know it'll be a classy joint, I believe I'll give it a try myself.

[ QUOTE ]
Slightly off topic, Posi, but can I request one little "feature"?

When you kill a Portal (ie, Rikti or Behemoth) can it automatically nix any remaining enemies that came from it? It's very annoying to destroy the thing only to have 0 XP enemies still hanging around. This would potentially fix the odd risk/reward curve on these things.

[/ QUOTE ]
As I understand it, the XP reward for Portals is intended to be roughly equivalent to the XP that would be gained from the average number of critters you'd expect the Portal to spawn in a normal fight. I'm not sure how many critters that is--judging by the XP values of Rikti Portals, the devs may have based it on a single spawn for a mid-size team, with the idea that it would average out in the long run. Essentially, they moved the XP from the critters to the Portal so that there would be no point in farming them. Autokilling the spawns on defeat of the Portal would reduce the "risk" (in the dev's eyes) of the encounter. You would be getting the XP for some percentage of those mobs for "free". As a result, I don't expect this change to happen (pleasant as it would be).

To elaborate a bit:

There was originally supposed to be a Trial (rather than a TF) set in the Faultline dam. This is why Faultline is a trial zone, with the attendant boss-heavy spawns. It was going to be similar in principle to the respec trial, with the team defending multiple support structures for the dam against waves of attackers. The trial was scrapped, but the site was built into the zone, and the description made it into the Prima guide.

With the revamp of hazard/trial zones Posi has hinted at, the trial may finally make it into the game around Issue 9. There have also been hints that there will be a trial at the crashed ship in the Rikti Crash Site (another currently trial-less trial zone).

[ QUOTE ]
We've got a nice tweak to the Domination ability coming down the pipe (it will crank up your Mez resistance while it is active), and are currently data-mining PvP to see what effect our last set of tweaks to the AT have had.

[/ QUOTE ]
While this is unquestionably Nifty, I'm not sure it's the right direction to go in addressing the woes of the Dom AT. I think most of us will agree that Domination is already pretty sweet--it's just the rest of the time that we feel lacking. Making our brief periods of uberness more uber won't make the slog in between any better. I'd rather see something shore us up in the gaps.

Here's a thought: Keep the mez protection (I'm hoping it's protection, as opposed to resistance, which is much less nifty). Key it to the Domination bar, rather than the power. When the bar is full, and Domination is available, mez protection kicks in until the bar drops, or Domination is activated. This would present us with a tactical decision: Do I save the bar to keep the protective buff, or do I trigger Domination and go all megalomaniacal on my foes? More importantly, it would ease the frustration during those long periods when we're all sparkly and looking at the little dot of unrecharged Domination.

[ QUOTE ]
(And you can always PM me with them in the future, ya know, as opposed to making it a matter of public record)

[/ QUOTE ]
It's the Gilgamesh treatment. Take it as a sign of acceptance.

Very nice backgrounder about one of my favorite love-to-hate groups (the Ruu may trump them).

[ QUOTE ]


Run 1: StormThat mythical “scatter” that so many people are fond of complaining about didn’t seem to be much of a factor here, but perhaps my teammates can elaborate in a more unbiased fashion on that.

[/ QUOTE ]
I didn't notice much problem with scatter, specifically--you tended to keep things pushed into the same general area. I did have to chase my targets quite a bit more due to the Hurricane repel. It also made it a bit trickier to use Soul Drain effectively, since you usually barreled in right behind me. It wasn't difficult to compensate for, however.

[ QUOTE ]
Run 3: Trick Arrow
Total team damage taken: 43,975.69
<ul type="square">[*]Balanced: 8050.80; Luminara: 16,878.01; Veazey: 4,635.30; _Darkblade: not available; Valorin: 10,063.20; Goofy Parrot: 4,348.38[/list]Total team damage done: 106,118.66
<ul type="square">[*]Balanced: 19,995.63; Luminara: 14,690.30; Veazey: 19,685.88; _Darkblade: not available; Valorin: 51,039.63; Goofy Parrot: 707.22[/list]Experience per minute: 2,437
Time to complete mission: 23 minutes 50 seconds
Number of deaths: 7

Notes: Somehow, the numbers on this compare well to the Dark Miasma team. Admittedly, we weren’t playing in a toggle-friendly mode, but the fact of Luminara’s relatively low damage taken stat is something I can’t explain at the moment. Mobs were Flash Arrowed, but a 9.6% accuracy debuff doesn’t account for her taking less than half the damage she did with the Storm team. My best guess is that by this point, everyone was running in with her rather than behind her, as the damage seems to be spread out a bit more evenly among team members. Anyone who was on the team that can remember this detail?


[/ QUOTE ]
I believe you're correct. I, at least, was by this point accustomed to her berserk charges, and was making a point of charging in as close to her as I could, with my damage aura running. Note that I took nearly 2k more damage than in Run 2, and nearly 4 times as much as in Run 1. A lot of that is due to a conscious effort to pull aggro away from Luminara. I also found myself actually relying on my self-heal in this run--it had mostly gathered dust in the first two runs.

That brings up something to consider with this test: We did three runs of the same mission, with all the same characters except for the defender. We were, I think, working together much more effectively by the third run, and familiarity with the mission undoubtedly improved our efficiency as well.

On a slightly ranty, non-TA note: Nemesis Vengeance sucks. I kept an eye on my accuracy stats, and most of my primary attack chain stayed below 70% for the whole test. After the last mission, most of my attack chain showed an average between 40% and 55%. Granted, this is mostly against +1 and +2 enemies, but I was also leading off with Soul Drain as often as possible to buff my accuracy. I took a quick poll of the others after the test, and they mostly reported similar accuracy. It appears that Vengeance was cutting our modified to-hit roughly in half on the average. It really should be made non-stacking.

[ QUOTE ]
Luminara, I think the 36 PB is probably a good target. If we can get more mid-30's folks, it'll give a decent indication of the post-SO, pre-Hami game.

[/ QUOTE ]
As indicated, I can supply a L33 Dark/Dark defender. I also have a L33 Dark/Dark Scrapper, if we need to fill out a team in that range.

The extra power at 32 would be a definite consideration in comparing the defenders. If you run your L30 TA, the other defenders we sub in should probably refrain from using their L32 power (if they have it).

[ QUOTE ]
Okay, this is for those interested in participating in Operation: Same Mission, Different Defender.

How does Thursday evening (5/18/06) at 7:00 p.m. Eastern sound?

Ideally I'd like to make sure we meet the following criteria:
<ul type="square">[*]The group mission should be at least in the high-20s or low-30s[*]Sidekicking/Exemplaring is fine for everyone except the TA/ Defender and his replacement(s); I don't want fewer powers for a SK or extra slots for an Exemplar skewing the results in any direction[*]If possible, I'd like the same player to run the TA/ defender and replacement(s); this may not be possible to do unless someone has multiple defenders (including TA/) at the same level[/list]
[/ QUOTE ]
This is a good idea, but these conditions are going to be hard to meet. Even those of us with multiple defenders aren't likely to have them at the same levels. My TA is too low for this (at 19) and my empath is too high (at 50). I have a D3 in the range, however (33), and could tag in for a L33 TA, if we can get one.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Slow enhancements can effect many different things, and each of them is displayed, even if the final values are the same. I kicked that to engineering earlier to day to see if there is an easy way of condensing things.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's not a power/enhancement mechanic issue, _Castle_. It's the same problem that's causing accuracy enhancement values to not appear in the tooltips. Buggy tooltip display. No accuracy values, recharge showing up as slow, etc.

[/ QUOTE ]
Right. When I checked, Glue and Ice Arrow had no Slow DOs slotted. The Recharge Reduction DO values were being displayed with the "Slow" label. Recharge Reduction enhancement values appear to display correctly on powers that do not have a Slow component.

Here's a follow-up on something I noticed while we were testing (Bluff here):

I noted that recharge enhancement values weren't being displayed properly in Glue and Ice Arrow. Instead, the recharge percentages were being displayed as Slow enhancement values. I logged in with my ill/storm to see if this was specific to those powers or a general problem. It's general--Freezing Rain has the same issue. I currently have Freezing Rain slotted 3 recharge/1 slow, and it showed a separate Slow percentage for each recharge enhancement, plus one for the slow enhancer. It's very odd, but it's not just a TA problem. I bugged it from my stormie, with a list of powers I'd seen the problem on.