BurningChick
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Posts
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Joined
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Quote:Times are toughOriginally Posted by Steampunkette
$30k....? What?!
But, IIRC, salaries in gaming tend to skew a little lower than elsewhere because lots of people want to work in gaming. -
Quote:So ...Originally Posted by Ad Astra
I agree with this.
Heck, the Base Builders also had a dev (or so we thought) - but after I13 dropped, Sunstorm was no more to be seen in the Base Construction forum.
Devoting a Dev sounds nice in theory - but given the complexities involved, it would seem like a long training time for that single person, during which PvP would continue to languish.
Attention from the Dev Team - sure, it may be PvP's "turn". But a PvP Dev probably won't have the desired effect in close to a short timeframe.
Pay a dev $30k / year to be the PvP guy.
Pay out about another $30k for insurance, infrastructure, benefits and what have you.
Pay to train him past his "drain on resources" phase (anywhere from 6 months to a year, IME).
And hope he brings in enough new subs to cover the cost of everything.
If NCSoft's profit margin right now is bout $5 per sub per month (note: guess!), you're looking at needing about 1000 new subs (minus box sales) for a whole year just to keep this guy going. And you're not recovering other expenses like hardware upgrades. Or things he absolutely can't do like coding.
Ummm ...
Not sure if there's a good business case there based on past experience. -
Quote:The same could be said of any set that isn't empathy.Originally Posted by Vanden
See, this is why FF needs buffs. This is a far too common opinion on it.
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Quote:Just for the sake of history: the quote was from Statesman, not Castle. Unfortunately, States' post comparing Sonic and FF is long gone -- it provided some of the only insight into the design intentions behind both sets. One thing States never answered is just how a bubbler would spam a power that KBed mobs away from the bubbler's target.Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
Fast-recharging, not fast-animating. At one point, Castle described it as a power Forcefielders would want to spam for this precise reason. However, my experience with Repulsion Bomb is from only a year ago.
Dumpster diving?
Anyway ...
To throw something out: I've exchanged PMs with the devs about FF in the past, and one of the things mentioned is that Force Bubble's AoE is 50' simply because that's about the right size needed to keep most (possibly all non-resistant) mobs from reaching the bubbler. Making it smaller would make it much less effective at what it's supposed to be doing. But, lest we forget, ever since defenders got Traps, FF can no longer lay sole claim to having the worst (de)buff T9.
FF's base problem is that this game has /lots/ of ways to keep mobs out of melee range of squishies (possibly partial list): immobs; slows; tankers; KB; repel. Of the entries in the list, only KB and repel have any particular downsides (that is, fugging up AoEs) and preclude them from being the always on, always useful advantage that States tried to pitch in his FF v. Sonic post.
States thought the game was a tactical, single target game (remember when Taunt was ST? When Geko was surprised that tankers didn't like having AoE KBs?). The players thought, and still thank, that the game is an AoE-fulled zerg-fest ... mostly because it's more efficient to mow down spawns meant for 3 players and up with AoEs.
I'm rambling now ...
But, to sum up: changing FF means changing its bible entry (damage mitigation through KB, repel, buffs -- even det. field was a late addition), and doing THAT would be even harder for the devs to retcon than breaking the cottage rule. -
Quote:Yup, was solo.Originally Posted by Ironblade
Were you solo? Please note, the no bosses and no AV's options only apply when solo. As soon as you add a second person to the team, those settings are ignored.
Also, some missions have specific spawns that override the settings and are always bosses.
Having said that, if you're saying you were getting four bosses in one spawn, that sounds broken.
And I can't see a dev setting 2 separate tip missions to have spawns with four bosses.
And /only/ DE tip missions, as far as I can tell, are bugged for me in this way. -
He folks,
Anyone else seeing insane spawns in morality missions?
What I'm seeing:
Hero tips
L50
Talos
DE
Spawn size = 4
No bosses
No AVs
Bosses spawning when they oughtn't be. Including, in two missions, spawns with 4 bosses. -
I made a spines / regen scrapper a looooong time ago on Pinnacle named Echidna.
I deleted him when I realized that playing FotMs isn't all that much fun.
Imagine my surprise when I saw, months later, Echidna, spines a-poking, in a bank mish
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Traps / Dark is good.
The -ToHit from Dark and Drones stacks with Force Field Generator.
Tentacles will nail mobs in place for Caltrops.
Caltrops can take a couple damage procs -- I wouldn't underestimate the extra damage from a drop that can be stacked.
If you go Drones > Acid Mortar > Tentacles > Caltrops > (Gas Trap if you want to get into melee) > Nightfall, you have one of the deadliest, safest AoE combos a defender can get. The downside is that the combo is relatively weak against hard, single targets. -
Why do I get the feeling that, if cold had mez protection, you would use that as ammunition about how superior cold is to Rad?
Is this a case of "if it's not in Cold, I don't personally value it", or do you genuinely not see mob mezzes as being detrimental to your play? -
Quote:Fluffy's PBAoE is one of the nastiest ToHit debuffs in the game -- melee's a good place for him to beOriginally Posted by MTS
Tell me about it. On an all-defender team I run with, I've taken to putting sonic disruption on the dark servant, because it's the most likely to be in melee range of an enemy...
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Quote:Changing the rules, again, would alienate the people who like the current rules. And the people who left over I12 probably wouldn't come back.Originally Posted by Aura_Familia
Reverting to I12 is a good idea, but it wouldn't get any additional people to pvp.
Honestly, Posi simply should've stuck to his promise to develop PvP on an ongoing basis.
Or come out and said, "It's dead. Other than fixing exploits, we're no longer working on PvP." -
Quote:If FF got more versatility, Castle would probably nerf the small bubbles. And that would make me sadOriginally Posted by Biospark
Your point has merit Turbo, and I think most folks here are not disagreeing with the idea that FF could use some versatility, but the scenario you describe as the point where FF provides zero benefit (none of us believe that point is commonly achievable) would relegate any support toon to similar near-zero performance.
FWIW, the problem isn't so much that FF is overly focused on (def-based) mitigation, it's that the game is, when you get right down to it, pretty easy. The original dev team, as far as I can tell, figured they had made a challenging, tactical game (one that leverages repel and KB as high order mitigation).
The playerbase figured the devs had made a constant zerg rush.
Meh.
I love the fact that, as someone mentioned, when teamed with a bubbler, I can run full steam into spawns. With wreckless abandon. With Blazing Aura and Hotfeet going.
I don't have to wait for someone to grab aggro. I don't have to wait for someone to mez the spawn. I don't have to wait for debuffs to land. I GO.
I like playing my bubbler when I want a relaxing stroll through Paragon City. I find a 'troller or another defender and 6 random teammates ... and watch my XP bar fill up. Nothing really bad every happens to teammates when my bubbler's along.
I can't say that for any of my other toons. -
Mondo,
I wouldn't get all that wrapped up over soft-capping def. At the end of the day, unenhanced, each drone is a 10 ToHit debuff.
My Dark / Traps def was soloing 0 / 8 spawns of Freaks by the early 30s. The various tricks in Traps add up to more than enough mitigation so that, once you rack up more than about 30ish def, you're gilding the lily. -
Quote:I got asked to leave a couple Rikti invasions on my Thugs / Traps -- apparently, I was doing more damage than some teamsOriginally Posted by Tatum
Another Note: Poison Gas Trap.
I used to be a huge fan of slotting the dmg proc's into this back when it was *cough* a bit broken. Today, with 4dmg procs its good but not the nuke it once was. So I messed around with alternate slotting and the best I came up with that I like is as following.
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A couple things; PBU doesn't work with drops so it doesn't help much with Traps.
I'd slot ToHit debuffs in Seeker Drones -- it'll help protect you against def debuffs ... and will massively help your teammates.
PGT is an entertaining place to drop (up to 4!) damage procs.
I love Caltrops, but mostly as a place to mule more damage procs. By the late game, mobs tend to get nailed in place by teams anyway, so I dig the extra damage. Otherwise it's good area denial.
The proc in Triage Beacon will only affect you when you activate the power -- that's not a really good return on investment, IME.
There's a resistance debuff proc you can slot in Acid Mortar -- it's outlandishly tasty, especially since you can stack Acid Mortars (if not the effect from the proc) on tough targets.
And take hasten. No, seriously, take hasten. You want Drones and Acid Mortar up as often as possible.
I'm not a big fan of Aid Other / Self ... mostly because, at some point, someone will see AO on you and demand you follow the tanker just to keep him healed. Sorry, that ain't me. I think you'll get more mileage out of Assault and Tactics (Tactics especially since it helps mortar nail hard targets).
You also might want to consider a PPP for a +def shield.
YMMV, of course. -
Something people forget about FF, IME, is how effective FF is with 3 primary powers, 1 pool power, and 10 additional slots.
No other set is so economical, which leaves bubblers with lots of space and slots for attacks and pool powers. -
I've been playing toons with immobs / other dirty tricks lately, so I haven't had many runners at all.
But, to throw a couple things out ...
Critter AI's always been wonky. Always. Mobs haven't been using powers given to them. Pets inheriting +recharge end up not using some powers. And so on.
We know that, ever since the dev team has grown, there've been coders poking around the engine, and, presumably, cleaning things up from the "Git 'er done" days -- presumably so that new features can be implemented. Sometimes, the changes have unforseen consequences.
Conjecture: maybe, just maybe, a dev tweaked something in the engine that had the unintended consequence that mob AI is /now/ WAI according to some "As Intended" model from years ago, and the devs have been making mobs based off an AI model that was brokety-broke ... and, now, no longer is.
Wild conjecture: we know the devs have been playing with timing issues for the last little while (OSA). Maybe someone tweaked a low-level timing issue that's had unforseen consequences?
And ... ummm ... if I were a mob under +7 (I've been on teams that could street sweep +6s) and saw a Repeat Offender style team (all [de]buff) come my way, I'd high tail it. Seriously. I'd be gone, other side of the map, out the door, renouncing my evil ways. Some mobs, especially from groups like Crey and the Council, should take off. In those cases, some control should be especially handy.
This game, as it is, is awfully simple with little or no thought to tactics needed for most situations. I'd /love/ to see mob AI get tweaked up. -
Quote:Since cold is so clearly head and shoulders above another defender primary, the devs should seriously look at nerfing the carp out of it.Originally Posted by Turbo_Ski
Case in point Cold brings 40% def in addition to -102.5% recharge AoE debuff, 20% unslotted res to energy, 30% unslotted res to fire, 45% unslotted res to cold, -30% def AoE, -30% res AoE, and an AoE knockdown patch in sleet. Explain to me how all that AoE damage mitigation is inferior to a 5% def difference and status protection FF offers. A 5% +def/-tohit difference that is easily covered by multitude of sets, including a defender's dark blast.
And, FWIW, I'd rather have equivalent effect buffs than debuffs; you don't have to wait for buffs to land before charging in. -
Don,
My abbreviated, rough guide to perma-Dom:
71 or 72ish% global recharge + Hasten with 3 white SOs -- but you need to be Johnny on the Spot with hitting Hasten and Dom -- it's a lot of micro-management.
If you go with 71+ Hasten with 6 white SOs, you will have a few seconds of overlapping Domination, meaning you won't have to be so fast with trigger finger. Or you could have less global recharge.
However, low-80s + 3-slotted Hasten is, IME, the sweet spot between having some overlap and not going into multi-billion inf builds.
If you have 130ish global recharge, you don't need no stanking Hasten, but you're looking at an absurdly expensive fire / fire build.
For a much more thorough guide, look here.
Edit: and if you want to go for Hasten-less perma-dom, dear god, don't take my 130ish global recharge as gospel -- find the real number. I wouldn't want to be responsible for an eleventy billion inf whoops
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Quote:Hence the '?'Originally Posted by Talen Lee
Efficay Adaptor didn't arrive in I9. It's only 5% from your overall calculations, but the End mod and knockback sets (which helped form the cornerstones of my first 'actual have it' sets) were in the next release.
But, OMG, that build was whacky. 4 LotGs (CJ and Concealment), Posis in Ball Lightning, Fire Vomit, and Cages. Two sets of Doctored Wounds. A couple Decimations and a Crushing Impact, and, IME, that's about it -- borderline, but still perma.
I think I added Efficacy in I10 so I could nuke the heals and justify having Fitness. -
A couple things ...
Fitness is becoming inherent in I19, so that opens up 3 power choices for you.
Pure support builds can run headlong into "heavy mitigation" sets -- FF, Sonic, and, to a lesser extent, Ice, Traps, and Dark. You will run into situations where you simply won't be reactively healing. Worse, if you're teamed with a bubbler, all you have to do, really, is keep the bubbler on her feet with Fort and CM. Regen Aura should more than keep everyone's health in the green in this situation.
My advice? Proc up Neutrino Bolt. Take Cosmic Burst (Mezzing a mob > than watching it beat on a blaster, you healing blaster). Take Irradiate (seriously, it does solid damage AND carries a heavy def debuff). And you'll have something to do when you run into teams that simply don't need hair-trigger healing, large-scale single target buffing. -
Quote:You don't want to see her build -- it was ... ummm ... interesting. Health, Aid Self and Aid Other for +recharge. 2 sets of Efficacy (?) for Consume and Stamina. Stealth pool for muling LotGs.Originally Posted by Novawulfe
Pics or it didn't happen.
It wasn't nearly as elegant as my current build with purples, Obliteration, and Basilisk's Gaze. But it worked, and was surprisingly effective.
But the important thing is: if an idjit like me could make fire / fire perma during I9, it should be a cakewalk to do now. Which, in point of fact, it seems to be; with one more Expedient recipe, my elec / ice will be perma by 35. Even inf doesn't seem to be a problem with rare recipes falling from the sky with A-merits. -
I've been mulling this over since the weekend, and I simply dunno.
FWIW, most of my defenders are slot-limited, not power-limited, so I'll probably just end up with pool powers that don't require much slotting (Recall Friend, stealth pool). For me, this change doesn't make the Fighting Pool more attractive ... 'cause my toons either have Tough 'n' Weave or they don't have the slots to spend on them.
I do, however, I have a couple stamina-less toons who /will/ benefit from the change. Massively. -
Quote:Just to reiterate: people were making perma-doms in the opening days of I9, before purples were even out.Originally Posted by Silas
Permadom has always been possible without purples. Mind Control especially has always been very cheap to permadom, even at lower levels. Sleep sets, confuse sets and KB sets are all very cheap and offer good +rech bonuses.
Failing that, 2 kins :3
My fire / freaking fire was perma'd in I9. -
Quote:Only ...Originally Posted by Chase_Arcanum
"That Guy" LOVES this game. It was his baby. It was a huge career leap for him and he poured his blood, sweat, and tears into it for over half a decade. It means more to him than it ever could to you or to me. Always did and always will.
...
Letting go of CoH to help fund other projects wasn't a decision made lightly-- and he's likely suffered more than a few moments akin to "empty nest syndrome" out of it. Ultimately, though, if Cryptic's other interests were going to make it, he had to let his first one leave home... but I'm positive he still keeps an eye on how it's doing, celebrates its victories, mourns its losses, and sometimes, like any parent, wonders WTF they're thinking with some decisions they make.
In interviews and posts after the post-CoV implosion, he has made the point over and over that he has no problem letting his projects go; it's the /next/ project that turns his crank, not past ones. He makes a strong point of decidedly not living in the past.
He probably still does love CoH, but he's moved on.