BrandX

Originally Posted by Test_Rat

Since coming back to City of Heroes my current projects have been stalkers.

I recently finshed IOing out a Spines/Ninjitsu stalker with all the trimmings: Permahaste, Softcapped, lots of procs. Its quite the AoE Content grinding machine, and it has great single target relatively due to AS!.

I was quite proud of it.

However, I noticed that even though my stalker is so far ahead of the standard curve in terms of AoE damage and survivablity it is not welcome within the City of Villians community.

I have pretty much zero luck getting on Pick up Group TFs (thankfully I am in Repeat Offenders and they accomodate anyone for anything, but this is a discussion outside that.). When the impossible does happen and I do get picked up for TFs, I have had the following experiences:

Had people quit the team because the leader invited a stalker.
Had people threaten to quit the team, until the leader boots me.
In nearly 100% of the time People will say in Team for me to read it: "A stalker?, ugh Stalker. Oh boy Stalker etc"

I have to come to the conclusion that the stalker AT is simply not accepted as a positive addition to any team in City of Villians, and I can only see this growing worse come Going Rogue.

So what must be changed with the AT?
What addtions or subtractions can be done to the stalker AT to make them a welcome part of the City of game as a whole, instead of something people point at and use to comfort themselves and say "at least I am not him!"

I really have no idea. I was quite impressed with my Spines/Ninjitsu's performance that I planned to make my first Praetorian a DB/Ninjitsu. But obviously this AT is lacking in some way that makes it the worst choice for teaming with.

Originally Posted by UnicyclePeon

Thanks for the replies. I'll keep thinking about my options. I do already have a level 50 soft-capped Fire/SR but to be honest, without a self-heal I'm a little worried that big spawns will eat him due to occasional lucky streaks. But, I never tried using him on a farm map. I might give it a shot.

If anyone else has suggestions, I'd like to hear them. If not, cool.

Lewis

Originally Posted by Moonlighter

Sadly, it might be the best attack outside of Storm Kick we have. The DPA might not quite be as high as Crane Kick, but then again I am not kicking my targets away from me.

Now that BAB fixed the animation and put the sound in the right place the attack flows much better than it's reputation from back in the day when it was mistimed and had bad sound placement. The alternate animation is not bad either; though it doesn't flow as well as it good because of the "wind up" with the fist to round out the longer time.

Without CAK what is your attack chain? Are you using Thunder Kick? EC?

Originally Posted by CactusBrawler

Yes either that or kill you, as I said I'm not going to hold the world to my own flawed moral code, and decide that said code is worth more than everyone elses life.

The state has its hands tied in the Joker's case, since he's clinically insane (at least the state says so) and Batman refuses to do so, in fact actively goes out of his way to keep the Joker alive.

Difference is we kill terrorists, Batman in this case is not giving into terrorists causing them to kill innocents in reprisal, and then preventing anyone else from killing said terrorists.

Originally Posted by CactusBrawler

It's not quite the same thing, because the Joker has told Batman why he's doing it.

In your situation it would be like your stalker telling you "Every time you wear a pony tail, I'll kill people" and you then saying "Well **** that I like wearing a pony tail".

You could wear your hair a different way, Batman could help people another way, he chooses to be Batman, people die because of it, every kill the Joker has made since telling Batman that he'll kill because of him have been Batman's responsibility.

Originally Posted by Agonus

IC. GTFO is a bit of a paraphrase.



The two characters were talking about something like watching over people that needed help. Serious-ish, non-goofy stuff. I was on Lord Agonus at the time, in a black business suit and the white mask in my forum avatar. Aggie is also a serious-ish character.

I tried to get a conversation going about the various ways of dealing with the common man. The other two characters were having none of it.

Originally Posted by Knightslayer

It's pretty hit and miss.
I've had some good RP conversations in all kinds of places (while just standing around on the Grandville docks, while talking with friends IC outside the Facemaker's on Cap when strangers just wander by and join in, and a few other instances).
So don't let it get to you, you're probably better off without people like those anyway Agonus.

Originally Posted by Starjammer

You're kidding, right? Bruce Wayne has billions of dollars and the most influential name in Gotham. If his goal was to clean up the city, he could do so with endowments and bought elections.

No, the reason that Bruce Wayne puts on the suit and takes matters into his own hands is because it's an outlet for his own rage, frustration and survivor's guilt. He didn't create Batman to be a symbol so much as a means by which to not get killed doing it. He is not an emotionally healthy person and he's the first to admit that. Which is the whole reason for Batman's code in the first place. Bruce knows that taking the power of life and death is the line he can't cross for the sake of his own sanity.

On the subject of guilt... Batman may feel guilty for what the Joker does but guilty feelings do not equal responsibility. Lots of people feel guilty for things that they are not responsible for. Batman is also smart enough to know that, which is why he'll never allow himself to use it as an excuse.

Originally Posted by Tramontane

One of the things I love about Virtue is that even a lot of PuGs will still be RP-friendly, so if you begin RPing you might very well get the whole team going.

Originally Posted by Pyro_Master_NA

On average, how long does this task force usually take? A few sg mates are going to do it soon but I'm not sure if I'll be on long enough to finish. I'd be using my 38 ss/fire brute and I have no idea what toons they would be using, so assume the playing level of a knowledgeable pug.

Originally Posted by SpittingTrashcan

To the best of my understanding, the bickering here was not about animation time changes but about changing Eagle's Claw from a high single target damage attack to a mid-high ST and low AoE attack. I'm pretty sure that by tweaking the damage numbers of the ST and AoE components of such an attack, it could be one in PvP and the other in PvE, eliminating the need for that discussion to even be happening.

On a more personal note, I really wish that "make it like Thunder Strike" wasn't the go-to easy solution for high-tier, high-damage, low-DPA single target attacks. I'm well aware that the balancing equations make AoE ludicrously more efficient than ST in PvE, but heaping more undifferentiated AoE powers onto underperforming sets seems like the least interesting solution.

Originally Posted by _Pine_

Just want to clarify in case some one (and I believe some one did) takes this the wrong way. I had no intention to infer that any one sub 50 on an ITF is looking for a PL. It does happen however, and if you do get people on your ITF that have that mentality, you will go slower. I myself have used the ITF to help level in the 40's. But I always try to keep a nuke or two on hand as well as a shivan if things get hairy so I can contribute.

Just had to clarify that.

Originally Posted by Umbral

And do you really think those animations would lose their luster if they were sped up a bit?

Originally Posted by Frosticus

If what you are implying is true, then my respect for the powers team just hit the floor. Nothing personal, but if they are handing the set over to a player to rebalance then all I can do is laugh.

I don't really care about your personal restraint. Honestly I can't express how little it impacts me, but if you want me to put the importance of a video game into perspective just ask. It probably won't make you happy though. This just goes to show how high your head is in the clouds and if Castle handed the set over to you I hope he is embarrassed to show his face at the office. Best of luck with it though, you will absolutely need it if they acknowledge you as the designer and you don't have a red name to shelter you.

Definitely looking forward to you living up to your self proclaimed brilliance with this set.

Originally Posted by Umbral

Pretty doesn't have to mean "takes longer than it has any right to where performance is concerned". Katana is actually a very aesthetically attractive set, but it's not hindered by long animation times. If anything, those fast animations make it look better because it looks like you're actually fighting and not just striking a new pose every 2 seconds.

If Castle simply gave BABs a number and told him to do the best he could with it, I doubt we'd suddenly see a drop in prettiness. I have confidence that BABs is a skilled enough animator that he can actually make a 1.5 second punch look just as good as a 2 second punch, especially since the problem with so many of the actual problem animations is dramatic slowing or outright pauses that just look silly and annoying after the second time you see it.

Originally Posted by GavinRuneblade

And, what is "the next step up?"

Also, from all of those attack chains you listed, what powers do you skip other than NS?

Originally Posted by Umbral

Actually, the pause is still there. It's smaller than it used to be, but it's still present.

Honestly, I really don't care where those frames come from. I'm completely fed up with having to deal with long animation times making powers virtually useless just because BABs wants to make 'em pretty. As far as I'm concerned, it doesn't really matter what it looks like as long as the animation time is appropriate for the power to effective and the animation makes sense. That should be Castle's primary concern as well. It should be up to BABs to make the most out of the animation time that Castle gives him.

Ever since Dual Pistols hit test, I've had to imagine that this conversation takes place every time a set is designed:



I can't think of any other reason why there would be so many attacks that are so much longer than they have any reason to be now that we know how animation time affects performance. In all honesty, the powers guys should be setting strict animation time budgets for each power and telling BABs to do what he can with those. From what I've heard from Castle, it seems that he's a lot softer on animation time restrictions than he should be.

I realize that it's going to piss off a lot of people, but animation time shouldn't be under the authority of the animation guys which it seems like it has and likely always will be. It affects the performance of a power more than almost any other attribute nowadays because it has no guiding principle behind it other than a vague heuristic where the devs decide aesthetics and performance collide, regardless of whether that collision renders what should be a powerful power useless because it takes too long to do anything.

Originally Posted by Donna_

Non single target damage means that the power is greatly nerfed dmg wise in PvP in addition to your scaled nerf already...

Sorry but this suggestion is bad... and tbh annoys me too because you are suggesting and asking dev's to take away something that many pvp'rs enjoy.

Suggesting changes to powers that only benefit your category of play style (pve) is very selfish.

PvP'ers have taken enough nerfage for the sake of non pvp'rs already.
Enough is enough!