Bill Z Bubba

Cosmic_Herald, I miss my buddies that would game like that. They've long since moved on to other areas.

I'd sooner delete all my characters than sell my account.

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How much would the requested change further degrade one's ability to get a team going for a TF/SF?

These are worthwhile questions. Questions that only the devs can answer.

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Or how much would the requested change INCREASE the ability to form teams for certain TF's? I've seen players attempt to form TF teams and either give up, because they couldn't find enough people to start the TF, or switch to a different TF that was more popular and easier to find team mates for.

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Example: I want to run Manticore. I can only get 5 to join for a total of 6. Can't even find a pad. Dead in the water.

Change is implemented. I set my virtual team diff slider to 7. TF starts. We have 6 people diving through a TF being spawned for 7. Complete without issue. 6 happy players.

Example 2: I want to run Manticore at 3 in the morning. No way in hell I'm finding 6 more players. I set my VTDS to 7. I solo the whole thing cuz my claws/sr is a badass. 1 VERY happy player.

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In terms of Survivability, which would be better? Will or Inv?

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For the 1 to 50 game, willpower without a doubt. However, at 50 and cranked to the gills on setIOs and PurpleIOs, I might have to give the nod to Inv.

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If you're a defender, buff your teammates and then kill things.

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My dark/ and TA/ defenders take exception to this!

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True true. Some defenders debuff the enemy WHILE killing them.

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Do people avoid discussing IO because of how datamining is done?

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It's been stated that the developers don't take IOs into account for power set balance. I don't necessarily believe that, but it's out there.

That being the case, a lot of the number crunchers tend to view balance around SOs.

And then toss that information out the window and compare purpled to the hilt builds.

Outback, welcome to the game.

Your analysis is true for those that play as your analysis has shown.

I prefer these 5 ATs to play like this:

Everyone dives in at once killing everything.
Race to next spawn.
Repeat.

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I expect Going Rogue will have a metric ton of story, arcs and systems as well.

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While I don't expect it will be on the level of CoV, I agree with this statement.

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It makes no sense to me. Never has. This game has always been somewhat solo friendly and has only become more so as it has evolved. Has this killed teaming? Has it EVER killed teaming? No. Never. Not once.

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I started with CoV back in June 2006. I have a harder time building and finding teams now than I did when I first joined. Is that evidence to disprove your point? Nope. But I play CoV nearly everyday and I use my experience to assert my opinions.

So, to me, teaming as declined since the addition of more soloable content that you mentioned.

I'll say again...making these TFs/SFs soloable will make no difference how I continue to play this game, but I bet it will reduce teaming in the datamining results.

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I'd love to see the datamining on that. How much of your decreased ability to form a team is due to players choosing to only team for speed TF/SFs? How much of it is caused now due to players only teaming for farms in the AE?

Are you talking about building teams for standard content? Or for TF/SFs? I acknowledge fully that it *seems* like no one is teaming for standard content these days. But I'm one of the folks soloing that content, so I wouldn't notice it anyway.

How much would the requested change further degrade one's ability to get a team going for a TF/SF?

These are worthwhile questions. Questions that only the devs can answer.

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I think he should be like... yanno when a really cute puppy comes and gives you bunches of kisses?
He should be nice like that. All the time.

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The universe would implode. Conversely, there aren't enough drugs in the universe to attain that.

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I think the universe would be just fine. And I bet you would feel better too in about 3 or 4 days afer you adjusted to the new happier you.

You cant go around being grumpy all the time, it leads to premature balding and ulcers.

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Ulcers went away when I quit drinking whiskey. As for balding:

Never gonna happen. I'll have a full head of grey hair on my deathbed.

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Because it removes more Team Only content in a MMO that the devs designed to be team oriented.

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Precisely. The discussion we're having, regardless of whether everyone acknowledges it, is if this makes any sense.

It makes no sense to me. Never has. This game has always been somewhat solo friendly and has only become more so as it has evolved. Has this killed teaming? Has it EVER killed teaming? No. Never. Not once.

Hell, I still team from time to time when the mood strikes me. It's never been difficult for me to find a team. I state plainly on my server's badge channel "5th diff ITF starting now, all welcome." Within 15-20 minutes on a bad night I'll have a team.

People must like teaming for that to happen.

Some nights, I don't want to team at all. Sometimes I'll close my chat window entirely after putting myself on global hide to all and never say a word to anyone.

It's those nights that I'd like to be able to fire up the ITF all on my own. I can crank it up at 6PM, play for an hour, take a 3 hour break to hang out with my wife and son, and go back to it after they've gone to bed. Play til 3 am if I like.

How does this hurt anyone else? How would this in any way be detrimental at all to anyone else?

Do I team more now than I would if my requested change were to be implemented? Hell no. I team when and if I desire a team. When I don't feel like teaming but do feel like socializing with my fellow players, I yap along with the best of them in the badge channel.

MMO does not equate to forced teaming. It means nothing more than that you CAN team.

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I think he should be like... yanno when a really cute puppy comes and gives you bunches of kisses?
He should be nice like that. All the time.

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The universe would implode. Conversely, there aren't enough drugs in the universe to attain that.

I took Bill's 5th costume and cranked the height all the way up. He's normally just under 6' tall. Then I set F12 to the lightning costume change emote, threw in a local yell, and watched with a giggle as Bill goes into full berserk mode.

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Wouldnt this also classify as Inv?

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Yup. My werewolf is claws/inv scrapper. With I-16, all of the visual FX for inv will be muted as much as possible.

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Bears have slow, strong movements. SS.

And no Claws will look right on it.

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Fury Claws work .... ok ... as talons. Kind of. When in motion and you don't look too closely.

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ITF come to mind

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Been soloed. Not by me. I failed at the autohit fluffy in the last mission.

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I made this thread because I am excited about what they are implementing... Not about wishes they would implement

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So what?

It's a public forum. You don't get to choose what course a thread takes.

I'm also very happy with the addition of the virtual team size slider. We share joy in that for obvious reasons.

This change directly ties in to another change I've long sought after. I'm not going to sit back idly when there's the chance that I can use this opportunity to sway developer opinion.

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and until they decide otherwise

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And welcome to the point. I've laid out my arguments for change. I've seen no worthwhile arguments against this change.

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Theoretically speaking I think it might be possible to give the player a "random" setting in the power configuration screens

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That would be rather groovy.

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If this was a democracy, you'd have a point. But since the devs make the rule, the only "argument" anyone needs is "because the devs have deemed TFs/SFs as team content."

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Absolutely true, Clouded. Which is why it's our lot to persuade the devs to change their minds when they make a decision that either lacks sense or no longer has validity.

If Positron comes into the thread and states, "We will never allow the virtual team difficulty slider to be recognized by TF/SF minimum team member requirements and those that wish to solo these events will be forced to continue using exploits to do so, thus diminishing the event on two fronts" so be it.

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Having been part of this thread, I've seen only ONE argument against changing/improving how TF/SFs are started: "It's supposed to be team content!"

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And they also seem to conveniently ignore the fact that a "team" does not have to consist of 6 or more players to, in fact, be a team. There aren't any particularly good arguments against allowing solo players to access TF's, and there are NO good arguments against allowing smaller teams to access them.

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As long as the difficulty stays set for the minimum required teammates. You start on 1st diff with the virtual team slider set to 7 for Manticore, it stays that way throughout with AVs staying AVs. If you can't manage it, then you should have brought more players.

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I'm sick of this holier-than-thou attitude regarding players that have issues doing TFs, and the insinuation that people who can do TFs don't have lives.

Playing an MMO is just like any other hobby. If you dedicate time and energy to it, you can participate in all the content. If you can only play in short doses, or insist on soloing, then you may not be able to experience everything.

If you windsurfed a couple of times every year, you'd probably complain that the weeklong trip to the Caribbean was too much time and effort, and the tour company should make it so you can go down there for an afternoon to windsurf by yourself.

If you went dancing once a month, you'd probably complain that an exchange weekend was too much time and effort, and that you should be able to see all the amazing bands on your own schedule instead of traveling to see them all play the same weekend.

There are plenty of hobbies that I put less time and energy into than CoH, but I certainly don't make demands on the organizers of those hobbies to allow me to experience everything having to do with that hobby even though I'm only a casual participant.

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Personally, I'm sick of this holier-than-thou attitude that states TF/SFs should *continue* to be locked to X team size when the content itself for *most* of them isn't hard enough to warrant a team only designation.

If I wanted to go windsurfing, I have countless beaches that I could go to all on my own because I have the resources and wherewithal to not bother with a tour company.

When I want to go dancing, I can do so whenever I want either alone or with a partner. I find an appropriate location and go after it.

CoH is a hobby of mine. One I've kept on my radar for well over four years. I like to see my hobbies improved. As this one has been. I like my skill with my hobby improved, as I've done so with this one.

Having been part of this thread, I've seen only ONE argument against changing/improving how TF/SFs are started: "It's supposed to be team content!"

I continue to refute that by stating that the devs already allow us to solo this content by way of hassling other players for pads and exploiting the logoff bug. This truth has been ignored each time I brought it up.

I also refute this with the fact that the majority of the TF/SFs in this game are NOT hard enough to warrant this mythical "team only" designation. The Hamidon is a group activity. Possibly the LRSF and STF are group activities. These are events that CAN NOT be soloed. (Probably.)

And yet we continue to have a group of people that are rabidly against giving us the ability to run soloable content without hassling other people when the tech to do so is being added to the game.

Interesting.

I am not asking for the AVs to be reduced to EBs while solo. That WOULD diminish the task. I'm not asking for the difficulty to be reduced AT ALL. If I want to solo Manticore, which I have done so, I should be FORCED to solo the entire event as set for the minimum number of players designated.


EDIT: And while I'm in rant mode, let's talk about time investments, shall we? How much time to do you think I've spent respecing my main in order to pull off the tasks I set before him? He's got none left. Zero. Nada. No trialspecs. No vetspecs. No freespecs. All used. Most done on the test server multiple times before being done on live.

How much time do you think I've had to play in order to get him fully outfitted? How many enemies killed and items sold were necessary? Granted, my brother helped me out some after he got himself outfitted, but unlike him, I'm not in an active group, nor do I have more than a single account.

How about forum time? Researching builds? Crunching numbers with other like-minded scrappers?

How many thousands of hours have I poured into this game and my main character?

Time investment? Yes, I know all about investing time to get what one desires. I just deleted my main villain who hit 50 shortly after they raised the level cap on the villain side. He hit 16 in about 8 hours of solo play.

I could cheat. I could have him powerleveled. I could have multiple accounts and farm every night. But I don't. Instead, I promote change when change makes sense.

As it makes sense here.

The devs hate me. It's a fact. Partly because I'm a crusty forum regular.

Here's the proof:

They nerfed claws by removing weapon redraw and increasing overall DPS.

They nerfed soloing by introducing IOs. Game content became too easy. Now they're going to give us the ability to set mission difficulty based on virtual team size thus increasing the difficulty of standard missions.

They nerfed SR after fixing it. Once upon a time we could have permalude. They ED and the GDR ripped that out from under us. SR was hurting so they gave it passive scaling dam-res. Then they gave us way to many positional defense buffs with setIOs and Arcana's critter accuracy change and now we're back to permalude levels of performance.

Wait a minute.... this post makes no sense at all. The devs LOVE ME! wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

and the love burrrrrrrnnnnnnnnnnnns... proof that they hate me.

/confused now

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I too use ZoneAlarm to detect "phone home" software. I run Spybot S+D and Ad Aware AE in offline mode once a week to check for malware but since I use Firefox with NoScript, Ad Block and Flash Block (I'm on dial-up, I don't need Flash Ads pushed on me) I feel very secure. For AV I use AntiVir and that is actively running.

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I listened to this guy on my AV solution for my workstation. Antivir gets great reviews and is very low on resource hogging, both of which are pluses for me.

I also scan with adaware and spybot somewhat regularly.

But that's on the workstation. My gaming rig still has nothing because I do nothing but game on it.

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Sorry for being dense, I have been away from CoH for about a year.

Do they mean a second aesthetic choice, or that they are fixing the animation times?

I was under the impression, and this could be totally wrong, that MA had sort of screwed up animation times resulting in a dps loss relative to other scrappers.

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Animation itself. This issue is all about giving the player the ability to control the aestetics of our characters to much more of a degree then ever before.

Whether it actually effects animation times relative to dps and such is beyond me but its not what this is about.

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I don't remember exactly when, but MA's actual animations were already tweaked to give the set a smoother feel which also resulted in an increase in performance.

I'm betting my hat that any alternate animations put into the game will have 100% identical states to the primary animation.

To do otherwise would cause the number crunchers to go into seizures.