Bone_Machine

I have an arc with only 6 plays so far. 4 stars. There's a link to a comic book cover in my sig I made to promote it as well. It's called Revenge is a Dish Best Served From My Cold Dead Fingers. 5 missions. Heavy on the story. I'd love some feedback on it. Thanks in advance!

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Mine to be reviewed:

Name: Death to Disco!
Arc ID: 84420
Creator Global Name: @Wrong Number
Difficulty Level: Medium
Synopsis: It's 2009; Dr. Disco Fever has somehow altered the timeline so that Disco never died. The Star Spangled Banner is played to a Disco beat! Sporting events start with people standing up and "getting down" for our national anthem. Restore the timeline or be stuck Boogie Oggie-ing forever!
Number of EB/AVS – 0
Story Type - Humor
Mission Count: 2
Estimated Time to Play: about 30 minutes

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I really liked your arc! 5 stars! I don't really have anything bad to say I guess. The custom baddies were not too hard and looked thematic. Good stuff.

I do wish I had to defeat Carter. I'd play that mission every day...

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Arc Name: Big Trouble in Little Ol' China
Arc ID: 91485
Faction: Custom Enemy (Kung-Fu flick based)
Creator Global Name: @Aemaeth
Difficulty Level: Medium

Mission Count: 3

Estimated Time to Play: 40 minutes

Thanks!

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Ok, I just ran it. I enjoyed the frantic style and the mix of bad guys. It fit with what story there was.

As for critiques, my number one one would be this: PLEASE don't make TA minions. YOu quickly get overwhelmed by -perception and even eating quite a few yellows won't help. Made it occasionally very difficult/annoying. I like a challenge but that is just frustrating. Perhaps make that a boss so it won't stack at much.

Your story could use more info at the top. So there's some idea of what's going on rather than just dumping you into it. Set the stage if you will. Then let everything descend into madness. Madness that is NOT a Nemesis plot.

Somebody out there get a team together and give my story a try:

Name: Revenge is a Dish Best Served From My Cold Dead Fingers
ID: 29659
Morality: Heroic
Creator: @Bone Machine
Length: 5 missions, 8 AV/EB. Soloable on Heroic.
Time: 45-60 minutes

Synopsis: Statesman has gone missing and it looks like the Banish Pantheon are behind it. But wait! Zombie heroes from Paragon City's past have something to say about that! And they want revenge!

Name: Revenge is a Dish Best Served From My Cold Dead Fingers
ID: 29659
Morality: Heroic
Creator: @Bone Machine
Length: 5 missions, 8 AV/EB. Soloable on Heroic.
Time: 45-60 minutes

Statesman has gone missing and it looks like the Banish Pantheon are behind it. But wait! Zombie heroes from Paragon City's past have something to say about that!

What's the name/number? I'd check it out.

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Basically play on Heroic if you want AV's to be EB's.

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Unless you select a character that is hard coded to be an AV. If you look at the dev created AVs, there are some that show level ranges as for instance (52-52). That will spawn as an AV no matter what your reputation is set at.

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Ah, duh, of course. I even have one in one of my arcs. Vandal is an AV no matter what. But he's still soloable on my Uncle Sam arc. Because you have NPC's with you at the very end.

Basically play on Heroic if you want AV's to be EB's.

My two biggest requests are the afore mentioned specific boss ambush with the ability to pick a boss with no group. Number two would be to pick an entire spawn so you could have a group that could look like a player group ala the Civic Squad from the Westin Phelps arc. Or more to my tastes the LRSF full AV team battles.

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yeah, but if SR never got hit, except for AOE's, well, there would be a big nerf cry, and the devs would take SR in the same alley they took regen and beat it with the nerf bat till it screamed.

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They found SR as a baby in that ally. We know all about that alley.

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Very discouraging as a villain player, very pleasing as a hero player.

But bad for the game.

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Exactly!

While there is a tad bit of hyperbole in my post it's basically true. There are a few misses. Some AT's miss occasionally. But do die that quick.

Somebody link to how to record a demo and I'll post them.

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My biggest problem with the zone is that now that the signature villains and heroes have been buffed, is that they are now too difficult so I don’t think anyone will even bother trying to fight them.. I admit that before the buff signature villains were easily taken down by the heavies and a dozen or so heroes but I do not believe when they buffed the signature villains (and heroes) they took into account other villains attacking at the same time. I foresee one side capturing enough turrets to spawn a signature hero or villain and when everyone gathers to attack the signature character is when the other side moves in, making it impossible to defeat the signature character. I don’t think it’s possible, even with dozens of heroes to take on three of the buffed signature villains and a group of player villains at the same time.

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Yeah, that's what happened the one time I tried to fight Statesman when the hero's actually 'let' us win to spawn them. Some blaster came in and Nova'd and killed just about everybody near Statesman.

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I think this will be even worse when villains control the zone, all the villains grouped around the signature heroes will also have to take on things like blaster nukes.

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That's assuming that can actually happen without heros agreeing to let it happen. I serioiusly think the disparity of 'hole filling' the patron pools do vs. the hero pools is going to show on live like nipples through a wet t-shirt and time on live is the water. There was more innuendo in that sentance than originally intended.

The more I play in RV with my EM/SR Stalker and my DM/EA Brute the more apparent how bad it is. I was chased and hit consistantly with Elude on this morning by both a Katana/Regen and some sort of Ill Controller and was unable to lose them and escape. THey could see me at quite a distance and they NEVER failed to hit me. They both fly like me and the scrapper would just hit me with Air Superiority and didn't EVER miss with it. With Elude running. People keep telling me that that's not possible and that I'm 'wrong' but I just don't see how. I double checked to see that Elude actually WAS running after I hit it in a panic after the first hit.

On my Brute with Overload running I got to a Heavy span and had started the process and two Scrappers, a Spines/Regen and Katana/Regen showed up becuase they both saw me leave the base and fly stright up to the upper limit before leaving the base. THey BOTH hit me and interrupted me. I Touch of Fear'd them both long enough to get the Heavy as a pet, thinking I'd then be somewhat of a match for them. Nope. They unfeared and proceded to take me out in a few hits WITH OVERLOAD RUNNING.

BUt, I must be WRONG and that probably didn't ACTUALLY happen, right?

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If you read what I said closely, I said you're flat out wrong.

You are.

But keep posting. You say something wrong long enough, it's still wrong.

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So me posting my own experinces, what has actually happened to me is 'wrong'? Really? How does that work exactly? Not to mention that __jdos__ had the exact same experience. I really don't understand how you can say I'm 'wrong' when all I have done is tell you what's happened to me.

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I have no problem with your analysis being proven correct. But if you are going to be right, let's fast forward to that part so the Devs can fix it. And them fixing it correctly is going to take testing and datamining, as well as analysis and conjecture.

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Please stop acting like I don't want to test. It's not true. I do. I would LOVE a level bump to test this.

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I was with you, more or less, up to this point. But you don"t know what you're talking about. I've played MANY hours in RV with a dm/regen, 3 nucleolus all attacks, 3 cyto tactics, 3 cyto fa, and I hit sr/ninja scrappers very little -- most particularly when elude is up. I would estimate MAYBE 5% of the time.

I've seen several stalkers come into the massed heroes in front of the villain base and get kills without worrying about a thing, despite the fact that everyone can see them. Cotton Candy Killer is one that springs immediately to mind, but there are several others as well.

You're just flat out wrong on this point and it calls into question everything else you say. If I were you, I would change my argument.

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I'm not suprised you have that experience with a DM scrapper. No Build Up. And if you read what I said closely, I said it's 'possible' not that every AT with every Powerset could do it. But any of the ones out there that have a combo of Build Up, Focused Accuracy and HO's CAN.

All I'm trying to do is call attention to a disparity that will be hurtful to this game. It NEEDS to be addressed or the PvP in this zone will go stale and die. If you don't want to belive me then I suggest you roll a defence based villian like an Ninja, SR or EA Stalker or EA Brute. If all I wanted to do was win whatever I'd just go join all the heros with one of my tanks listed in my Sig. But I'd rather do that when the villians pose a challenge. I don't want stale PvP because I was given an 'I win' button.

I'm not simply complaining. Read my post. Yeah, it's pretty 'doom' but it offers some analysis instead of pure rant. A level bump would be nice but, as I said, I doubt that will do anything at all to help because of the nature of the holes being filled Hero Side vs the addition of new attacks on the Villian side, with nary a hole filled. Other than Stalkers(outside of the glaring lack of FA or at least 'Aim') the new powers do nothing to fill holes that the AT's have.

I seriously doubt that testing will prove otherwise but it sure would help. Help prove my point that is.

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For an ancedotal example: I had my lvl 41 DM/EA brute in RV going toe to toe with a Broad Sword/Regen Scrapper. I was running Overload and he was debuffed by at least one casting of Radiation Infection and my Touch of Fear with one To-Hit Debuff SO

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Not only does FA give a tohit buff to shred defense builds and perception to see stalkers, but it also has tohit debuff resist. So ri and touch of fear (along with every single other tohit debuff villains have) do not debuff FA at all.

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Didn't remember that. That explains a LOT actually.

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I FIGURED IT OUT!

the reason the devs dont give the villains good patron powers is because they realized how game-breaking they are

so when i7 hits live they'll stealth remove all the overpowered APP's and give free respecs to all the heros so they can compare their dark mastery and such to our ghost widow patron powers


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Nah, their brilliant plan involves Villians getting the pre-NERF version of HO's from the Recluse SF. You know, the ones that boosted stuff by 33%-50% instead of the 20%-33% like an SO!


lol, my turn to laugh. Although that's about the only thing I could see that could even come close to salvaging the Patron Pools unfortunately. Ah well.



As to the story about the base raid, I don't really think it's too early to tell because other than the Snipe on Stalkers(Who are the only Villian class to really get useful powers even if they are all the same from each patron basically) the Patron powers don't really add much to the Villian AT's at all that would help. Corruptors get a hold, some armor, which IS nice, but they already have a secondary that does damage and has status effects. Dominators get... more attacks. They have an entire secondary powerset that's pretty much all attacks. They don't really need another. Brutes get range... Ok, but not spectacular. Nothing to help deal with high Def toons or anything. No new tools. Just a different kind of an attack. Same goes with Master Minds, they basically got a bunch of attacks. Nothing in any of the Patron Pools add will help, or give you a new angle with the problem you had in the base raid. Mostly all that's gonna happen is that the new atacks will replace older ones in your tray is about all.

Sorry, I'm gonna rant here, so here's a preemptive: DOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

But to preface that: I really love this game. I've been a player since May of '04 when I saw it at E3. I played with the character creator and went home and bought it that day and have loved it ever since. I've gotten my brother, his wife, my best friend and my son to play. I've made a fairly popular mod for HL called Action and so understand on some level the process and the decisions that are made with game design and game balance in mind. I didn't balk at ED. I understood exactly why it was happening and while I didn't welcome it, I adapted. Even the tank resistance changes. I miss perma-Unstoppable for the fun ride and mourned it's passing but welcomed the ability to move about freely with Unyielding. And on and on. Basically I'm a supporter of the dev's deep down, even if I have done the occasional rant on a particular point or two.

With that said, I FEAR for the state of Hero vs. Villian PvP. Yeah, I know that there is already a glaring level discrepancy in RV that won't go away until I7 is on live for a few months. Not to mention the 5 to 1 ratio of hero's to villians. But there are some serious issues and GLARING disparities that is only going to grow more obvious when things move on. They are such that if something isn't done NOW there will be more serious decisions to be made. Probably mostly negative, only amplified by the time elapsed. And that's the Patron Powers vs. Ancillary Powers.

Currently as it stands the heros' powers can fill huge gaping holes in PvP that terribly destroy the balance between the two sides because there is no like power on the villian side. The lack of those same holes being filled on the Villian side will end with RV being dead. Not to mention what effect it will have on base raids.

For example, giving Blasters the like of Hibernate, Personal Force Field and Force of Nature(Unstoppable-Lite). There is NOTHING similar on the villian side that can do as much to get a villian out of a sticky situation. I've seen all three of these used to GREAT effect in RV in the few days I've been there. The lack of powers with anything near the utility of those powers is a real shame. This kind of protection for a 'squishy' class SHOULD be available one of the villian Squishy AT's as well.

This is on top of their already 30% unresistable damage and the highest burst accuracy in the game with Aim and Build Up both available, another horrible discrepancy between the two sides.

Controllers get Indomitable Will, a powerful status protection that can be used as a panic button to great effect. Yet again, nothing of it's like is available to Villian squishies. None of them get status protection of any kind.

And Power Build Up is basically a 10 second Domination on a 120 second timer that doesn't require previous attacks to make it available. Their holds already last longer than a Dominator without PBU. This would have been a PERFECT addition to either Corr or Dom Patron Powers to even out the playing field. This is also available to defender sets as well, so even more possible AT's with it to add to the disparity.

Then there is Containment. Something that in all previous zones enabled Controllers to even compete in the low levels. But in RV with the avalibility of decent, straight damage powers, it's too much. With only three holds necessary to knock off status protection, NONE of the villian AT's last long in a zone where Break Frees require you to rezone to a store to aquire.

Defenders, as previously statud gain acces to Power Build Up, which is a huge boon and is sorely missing from Patron Powers IMHO. But they can also gain a high damage(for a Def)Melee attack. Something their Corruptor brothers could use as well. Another glaring hole that Patron Powers failed to fill.

Then there is the Focused Accuracy debate. Now having played my lvl 40 SR stalker in RV I know all the Doom sayers were right. It allows Tanks and Scrappers to see you from quite a distance and just plain NEVER miss. And I mean even with Elude or Overload on NEVER miss. The right build, which isn't hard to do, can completely NEGATE, yes NEGATE the entire defensive line. And by Negate I mean that it offers NO decent protection even with the lvl 38 uber-power running against anybody who cares to make a build to PvP. Focused Accuracy or a power like it is a game-breaking discrepancy. The Villian side has no equivilant power to counter Ice tanks or SR with Elude running, or even to-hit debuffs from defenders and controllers. For an ancedotal example: I had my lvl 41 DM/EA brute in RV going toe to toe with a Broad Sword/Regen Scrapper. I was running Overload and he was debuffed by at least one casting of Radiation Infection and my Touch of Fear with one To-Hit Debuff SO. He NAILED ME repeatedly with all of that running. Between FA and Build Up he was able to clean my clock SOLO with all my vaunted defence and help from a */rad Corr somehwere above me. This sort of thing will drive every living soul out of RV IMHO.

And as we have seen in RV on test, most people just wnat to win at any cost and log their hero's. IF this lasts, pretty much the zone will be an Arch-Villian badge hunting zone for the heros like it is currently on test.

If somebody could explain to me how villians are suposed to compete with hero's in RV, I'd love to hear it. But based on the Patron Powers alone it's not looking good IMHO. I mean, the pets villians get aren't even up very often. THey are a true panic button if there ever was one. At least Overload is up ever few min. But 15min? Sheesh. Gimie some Hibernate,PFF,Force of Nature,Indomitable Will, Focused Accuracy or the like instead of a VERY situational pet.

I'm sorry for the rant but the last few days has been about the most un-fun I've experienced since I bought CoH in '04. Sure, I could be like the rest of the jerks and log all my Hero's but what's the point?

Hell, I didn't even touch on all the points I had about the dispairities. THere's more out there. And all of them point to a PvP game that is just gonna be unfun to play as a villian. And if you value a balance, fun PvP experience then something drastically needs to be done. Because all the HO's and Patron Powers will not bring the dispairity any closer to balance with Patron vs. Ancillary powers. Otherwise RV will look much like it does on Test but with less people.

There. There's my one and only DOOOOOOOOM.

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8. Would it kill you to throw in some randomized women as well as men? I mean, is there some guild rule among thugs that they all have to be guys?


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Feh. I think they should do this with everyone, or spread around some options of choosing male/female characters. Can you imagine a wraithly, beautiful, furious female Liche? Or a tough, tom-boy Commando? Or a hot girl-ninja?

I'd just like to see some ladies among MM pets REGARDLESS.

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Supposedly there's a carnie set in the future. I'm sure you will definatly get your wish then.

My favorite quote from a hero in the zone so far:

"Hey, I haven't been AS'd yet! And I've been here for an hour!"

BTW, I play a stalker and while I have gotten a few off it was pretty much only noobs stading alone on top of Atlas or afk people.

As I suspected the zone is curbing most of what people feared in Siren's about Stalkers. Everybody see's me and nobody misses me. :P

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, I'll give you a shout some night this week and we can meet up in Siren's. Bring your Stalker and I'll show you how I can punch through your defences as if they aren't there. Both with my Tank and my TA/A.

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When someone comes out crying that HO's negate defense, they are being an idiot. HO's are not the culprit, at least not since they reduced the amount of buff they provided several issues back. The reason that defense has a problem is the large number of high base value self toHitBuff powers. Aim, Build Up, and Focused Accuracy are the prime problems.

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Well Build Up and Aim are only available to Blasters in tandem in Siren's call and Focused Accuracy isn't even available to anybody in Siren's Call at all. So your point is only valid for Blappers/Blasters there. And ALL of them are much more effective with HO's because, again, of the slotting freedom they give.

You'd have to be an idiot to think that HO's don't have a dramatic effect on a PvP build, especially against defense based sets. Or a noob that doesn't even have one HO. There is a reason people sit through the snorefest that is a Hammidon raid. HO's exaserbate an already BAD problem for defence sets. To the point where whole powersets are negated. Because it's not just Blasters with BU+Aim or Scrappers/Tanks with FA who can hit you. It's everybody. You are right that BU+Aim can negate defence sets and that FA takes a toll as well, but that's only part of the problem. Especially in Siren's Call.

Hell, with my TA/A defender I don't even need Aim, I power I skipped, to hit ANY defene build in Siren's Call. I can even punch through PFF on a MM with some regularity with no aim because a good chunk of my attack chain are slotted with Dmg/Acc HO's to some extent or another. Blazing Arrow has three and can hit any stalker almost without fail. And while I realize that the Arrow set has an acc boost it only further makes my point. And my point has nothing to do with the valid point that BU and Aim and FA are problems as well.

But lest anybody think I am calling for an HO nerf, I'm not. I think they are fine. Defence sets need a boost, plain and simple. And while they are getting one for PvE in I7 they are lacking in PvP.

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What, is today lets be an idiot day? Read that damn sentence, "HO's do not increase damage or ACC beyond what SO's offer since ED was implemented." I can slot exactly the same amount, in fact a tiny bit more, ACC and DAM and toHitBuffs with SO's than with HO's. This isn't an opinion, its simple math. Now, would there be a price to pay for that slotting? Certainly there would, but it could be easily overcome by getting a couple of buffs.

HO's do not negate defensive based sets, defensive based sets have far more to worry about from the high base values of self toHitBuffs like Aim and Buildup than HO's.

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Nice, all you do is continue with your straw man and completely ignore my other post and anybody else's arguement about how HO's affect slotting. NOBODY argued that HO's have a higher value than SO's. So quit acting like people are arguing that and address the whole issue before you call people idiots. The pot is looking very much like it's calling the kettle black.