Bystander

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I just wish I could go into any missions without crashing, and then being unnable to log that version of the character again.

[/ QUOTE ]
I wish that Cryptic would test on a typical user's system, one like mine *points to sig file below* rather than their uber systems for their quality testing. Seriously. Most users do not have the super systems. If this goes live like this, my husband and I may not be able to play any toons past level 40. And if that happens, that would probably be enough to make us just stop playing the game at all, even as much as we love the game.

[/ QUOTE ]

From the patch notes:
[ QUOTE ]
3. Issue 7 is not fully optimized yet. Players with low end systems may have serious performance issues.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm sure that once they finish optimizing it, us people with low-mid end systems will have a much better time in Grandville.

[ QUOTE ]
Thunder Strike
Indicated recharge time: Slow
actual recharge time: 20sec

Soul Drain
Indicated recharge time: Very Long
actual recharge time: 180sec

Lightning Rod
Indicated recharge time: Slow
actual recharge time: 180sec

Here's hoping that it's a bug and not a typo!

[/ QUOTE ]

Here's hoping as well, but from what I've seen those "values" for recharge time are extremely subjective and can vary dramatically.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I read it as reducing the rate of recharge... therefore increasing the time to recharge. If I'm wrong, feel free to pronounce DOOOOM!

[/ QUOTE ]

DOOOOOM!

Reduce means decrease, take away. If you are REDUCING a 10 second recharge time you are taking away or decreasing the recharge time.

How you turned reducing the rate to increasing the rate I can't quite figure out.

However... when they increase recharge times, they generally say they increase the time.

Maybe you're inadvertently right though and it's a typo in the patch notes and they meant increase.

[/ QUOTE ]

But if you reduce the RATE then you reduce the speed it recharges. I agree with dim that that would mean longer recharge TIME to recharge.

i.e. if my rate is .5 per minute, it takes two minutes to recharge.
Reduce my rate to .2 per minute and it takes 5 minutes to recharge.

Of course, if a redname calls me out as an "idjit" feel free to join in.

[/ QUOTE ]

Grrr now I'm confused. It was so clear and simple earlier. You did point out one thing though... reduced recharge RATE... vs reduced recharge TIME...

Sheesh they couldn't just say increased recharge time?

[/ QUOTE ]

That would have been clearer, yes.

Has anyone checked to see how this affects things yet? I'm at work so I can't, and was in a SF last night so I couldn't investigate it then either.

[ QUOTE ]
Three minute recharge? LAME.

Lightning Rod is supposed to be the final attack of the set, the capstone of your chain. Analagous to Midnight Grasp, or Head Splitter, or Golden Dragonfly, or others. All of those attacks have 10-20second recharges. 3 minutes, just ... it just about kills my interest in the set. If I wanted an ultimate attack I can bust out once or twice a mish if I'm lucky, then I'd be a Corrupter.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, I have to agree. This should really be a 20-30 second recharge power, not 3 minutes.

I read it as reducing the rate of recharge... therefore increasing the time to recharge. If I'm wrong, feel free to pronounce DOOOOM!

From the 5/10 patch:
[ QUOTE ]
* Reduced the recharge rate on Paragon Police Ghost's Smoke Grenade power.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sweet. That should make them a lot easier to deal with. Now we just gotta get the glue grenades to have the same fix

[ QUOTE ]
Does Electric Armor have any Toxic resists????

[/ QUOTE ]

Nope. No Toxic resists at all.

[ QUOTE ]
What badges are needed for accolades?

[/ QUOTE ]

People are still figuring that out. From what I understand though, the ones that have been confirmed are as follows.

High Pain Threshold -
Deathless (4th debt)
Locked & Loaded (exploration)
Gangbuster (kill Marcones)
Technofreak (history)

Demonic -
Overlord (exploration)
Coldhearted (kill certain CoTs)
Soul Taker (mission)

Megalomaniac -
Last Stand (exploration)
Crystal Keeper (strike force)
Strike Breaker (mission)

As far as I've seen that's all that's been confirmed so far. Anyone have any other input?

Ok, so since I haven't seen a list of the temp powers that are awarded for completing a Mayhem Mission successfully, I figured I'd start compiling one. This is what I have so far, please help me fill in holes and correct mistakes.

Level 5-10 - Raptor Pack, giving 2 gameplay hours of Fly.
Level 10-15 - Jump Boots, giving 2 gameplay hours of Superjump.
Level 15-20 - Resuscitation, giving 48 gameplay hours of Self Rez, with a 1 hour recharge timer.
Level 20-25 - Team Recall, giving I think 24 gameplay hours of a group version of Recall Friend, with something around a 2 minute recharge timer.
Level 25-30 - ???
Level 30-35 - (can't remember name), giving I think 72 gameplay hours of +5 maximum Endurance.
Level 35-40 - ???
Level 40-45 - ???
Level 45-50 - ???

Can anyone fill in those holes or provide any additional information?

I did another mayhem mission last night. This time with my lvl 40 Bot/FF Mastermind, paired with a lvl 30 Dark/Energy Brute that was lackey'd to me. Mission difficulty was at Relentless because I wanted to see what it would be like at that level. The mayhem mission was in Founder's Falls.

We got in, tons of Psi-Cops and Police Drones. The Psi-Cops weren't too bad, but the Police drones were just underwhelming in my opinion. For something that insta-defeats any villain npc around generally, it just felt like they should have been doing something more. The villain group in the area was Devouring Earth, which just felt weird. I don't imagine them being particularly concerned with a villain being trapped in jail or whatnot, but apparently they really were.

So we took out the DE near the PD, got the key, and went in. Went around the reinforced door (why is there a reinforced door there when you can just go another route around it, anyway?) and down to the cell area. There was one of the giant PPD robot bosses in there and that was really neat. Enjoyed that a lot. Also was ambushed by some more at the same time. We defeated them and the Brute started on the door that was supposed to keep the villain in. It didn't since she just jumped over/around it. I don't remember her name but she was a Katana scrapper essentially, who looked kinda like Silver Mantis. No time bonus for breaking her out, which I personally think needs to be changed. She stuck with us for a while but eventually disappeared and I'm not sure where she went.

We got out of there and were making our way toward the bank, killing on the way. Not as much random stuff that I saw for destruction as Steel Canyon, but I could have been imagining things. Found another group of DE, took them out and went in there. It was an arson job, with all four bombs right in the front lobby, so we took out the associated ambush, set the bombs and ran.

Blowing up the building gave us an additional four minutes, doubling our time to eight. The Brute was killed in the ambush that followed, and I decided to just run for the bank. I got there, recalled the Brute, he popped an awaken, and we waited for my bots to enter the bank. They showed up right when the ambush showed up. We took them out and went through the bank taking out the Longbow as we went.

Broke open the safe, the Brute went for the money while I went back to head off the Hero. Turned out to be a Sonic hero named Cacaphony at Boss level. He two or three shotted me, which dropped the bots, leaving the Brute to take everything. I was partially behind a corner, so I popped an awaken and tried to get the bots back up as quick as possible, but the hero kept taking them out via AoE attacks almost as soon as I'd summon them. We got him down to maybe 5-10% health by the time we ran out of time and the mission ended as a failure.

I still got to choose a contact, which was good, though I didn't get the temp power as a result.

Overall feelings on this one. First, it was difficult, but I was intending it to be difficult because I wanted to see what it'd be like. Once I7 goes live though, I'll probably tone it down to Malicious or Vicious for the mayhem missions so that I can actually be more likely to beat them and so I can be more sure of causing mayhem in the meantime. Second, now that I've actually done a mayhem mission with my bots, the serious delay the bots have in entering doors is definitely a pain. Also their huge size in the tight corridors of the PD was a pain for the Brute to move around. Third, as I said, the DE felt weird. Perhaps switching them out for a different type of enemy that shows up in FF? Council would work no problem, Rikti could possibly work, CoT would work.

[ QUOTE ]
Suggestion for Named Hero

For a solo player:

At difficulty level 1. it's a Boss.
At difficulty level 2, it's a Boss+1
At difficulty level 3, it's a Boss+2
At difficulty level 4, it's an Elite Boss
At difficulty level 5, it's an Elite Boss+1
At difficulty level 6, it's an Hero
At difficulty level 7, it's a Hero+1
At difficulty level 8, it's a Hero+2

[Of course, only difficulty levels 1-5 can be chosen by the player as the starting level.]

For each two side missions done, the level difficulty of the final boss goes up one.

For 4 players, the difficulty level goes up one.
For 6 players, the difficulty level goes up two.
For 8 players, the difficulty level goes up three.


This would mean that a solo player on level 1 who does just the bank job, will get a Boss. If that player does 4 side missions, he or she would get a Boss+2.

A solo player on level 5 who does just the bank job will get an Elite Boss+1. (This allows soloists who run at highest difficulty level to avoid a Hero fight.)

A team of 8 that's starts at difficulty level 1 will get always get at least an Elite Boss. If they do four side missions, they get a Hero. If a team of 8 starts at difficulty level 5 they will always get a Hero+2.

[/ QUOTE ]

I like this suggestion. It makes sense, it'd be easy to test to confirm each level of it, and it would provide an appropriate difficulty dependant on team size, reputation level, and amount of mayhem caused. Though for solo players on Villainous difficulty, the bosses should be replaced by Lt's to conform with the system for the rest of the game.

[ QUOTE ]
Just a heads up:

I have several devs reading this thread, and are working on the bugs you guys are finding, and on ways to improve the Mayhem Missions (such as making the end Hero non-random; currently the end Hero you get is totally random, and has nothing to do with anything you did in the mission, we are looking into changing that).

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for letting us know. Guess we'll stop trying to figure out the pattern/triggers

[ QUOTE ]
If they added a heal to this set I can guarentee it wouldmean reducing the resistance numbers. The best thing I have seen suggested it adding a regen boost. Maybe 100% enhanceable or just doing 150% unenhanceable. Even if they added health regen I think they would cut something slightly. The fact that this set has a resistance to regen rate debuff however makes me kinda doubt they would.

Adding immob to grounded which the way it stands now most people will skip. Or adding regen rate boost to grounded would not only make it more appealing for most would also make people feel better about the set overall.

[/ QUOTE ]

Honestly, I think you're right, if they do add a self heal, they probably would need to reduce the resistance levels. And personally, as much as a self heal would be nice, I like the resistance levels where they are more.

As for the regen boost, while I understand that +100% is the same that Rooted from Stone has, Fast Healing from the Regen set only has +75%, so I can't imagine them going even as high as +75% if they add it to Grounded. My reasoning is that Rooted is a toggle so it can have higher numbers, but Fast Healing and Grounded are both passives so the numbers should be less and Fast Healing ONLY does +regen rate, while Grounded does other things as well.

I agree with the fairly general consensus that having both Conserve Power and Power Sink is redundant. I also agree that of the two, Conserve Power makes sense to be the one to drop were a power to be dropped. As far as Quick Recovery, however, I seem to remember _Castle_ saying something some time back about how Brutes would never get Regen as a secondary, specifically because of Quick Recovery enabling them to never having to stop. It'd be brokenly powerful. Unfortunately, my Search Fu is failing me and I can't seem to find the thread where he said this (if anyone else wants to try, be my guest). Even if I am completely misremembering that thread, I think the point still stands that it would be too powerful. Sure, it could enable people to not take the fitness line, but then you'll have people who take it AND the fitness line and be disgustingly powerful as a result. So I don't see that happening personally.

I also don't see any sort of Dull Pain or Reconstruction/Healing Flames type power happening (and for reference, I really like the suggested name of Defibrillation, which could work either as a self heal or as a self rez, honestly), as much as that is the hole of the set that I personally would most like filled. Which is why the minor regeneration increase that a few people have proposed has seemed to make the most sense to me. Since there have been a number of people (may not be all, may not be most) that have said that they don't like the passive Grounded since the amount it give isn't really much in comparison to the other powers, it makes the most sense to me to add it to that power to make it a bit more attractive to those who may skip it.

As far as the immobilization and knockback holes, technically we do have access to protection from those. As a few others have pointed out, we get protection to those in our level 38 power, Power Surge. Mind you, that doesn't help for the first 37 levels, and that doesn't help in the downtime while it's recharging. And speaking as someone who has only gotten two characters to level 30, and only one character to 40, basing the argument against plugging those holes on the level 38 power is distasteful to me. With that being said, all sets are balanced as a whole not by individual powers, so as a result we must take that power into account when discussing balance.

Oh and by the way, I just want to say thank you and congrats to each of you who have worked to get this thread back on track. It took some doing, but good job. Lets keep it this way

[ QUOTE ]
New Hypothesis about the End Bosses: Starting at level 20, even on solo/villainous, the first time you get sent to a new Mayhem Mission map, you must fight the signature hero for that zone. If you defeat that hero, you get the uber temp power reward for that map.

Testing the Hypothesis: If you have run one or more mayhem missions at level 20 and above, solo, on villainous, have you ever not gotten an Elite Boss for the end boss of the bank robbery the first time on a new map? If you have run more than one mayhem mission to the same map solo on villainous, have you ever gotten the Elite Boss other than the first time?

[/ QUOTE ]

Both Mayhem Missions I have run have been with the same character from the same contact (Mickey the Filch) at the same level (lvl 24). The first one was in a team of three at villainous and we had Ms. Shock at Boss rank (we did one of the sidemissions). The second one was solo at villainous and I had Ms. Shock at Lt. rank (I did three of the sidemissions). So I have YET to get an Elite Boss.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Okay, I'm not actually on test, but I have a few things to say either way:

-I've read 33 pages of recounts of Mayhem missions, and noticed a distinct lack of Blue Steel, the most logical guy to try to stop you. By 'distinct lack' I mean he isn't there, and he really should be.
.

[/ QUOTE ]

If they had Blue Steel show up swinging a shield around in melee range, there would likely be a massive revolt about it not being implemented into a power set yet.

My guess, the shield animations arent even started yet.

[/ QUOTE ]

Though I wouldn't be at all surprised if, once the Shield sets are ready, we start seeing Blue Shield as one of the potential people who will try to stop us.

I did another Mayhem Mission this morning before work with my Stalker. For reference, she's lvl 24 set to Villainous difficulty, and I was solo. The map was Steel Canyon. The broker (Mickey the Filch) said I'd have 20 minutes, but I showed up in Steel with only 15.

I started out mostly heading to find Family to get the sidemissions, killing and destroying on the way. I got the key to rescue the villain from the PD, so I went there first. Stealthed in, only a few cops in the place, so I took them out and went down to the jails. Two cops were just outside the other villain's cell, so I shanked them. The villain hopped over/through the door and joined me. She was a Radiation something or other, and I can't remember her name. We took care of the ambush and left the PD. She immediately ran off causing destruction in some other part of the area and I never saw her again.

So I looked for some more Family. Came close to dying when I was fighting some Swat when some Longbow ambushed me and then a pair of Family ran across the street to join in as well. I ended up having to teleport away (since I was glued down) and rest on a roof top a ways off. Came back, slaughtered them all, got the key to the jeweler's. Also found another pair of Family that I took a key from to an office building that had some senator's daughter.

Did the jeweler's first, stealthed through it taking out lone security guards and avoiding the surveilance cameras. The only place where I wasn't able to avoid them was the vault in the back, but I took that out and the couple waves of ambushes that showed up, and finished the side mission. I do really like the ability to essentially just stealth through this, being a Stalker. Having teamed with a Mastermind in this sidemission the last time I did a Mayhem Mission, I can definitely understand how it would be a pain to them.

Then I went over to the office building. Went through methodically killing all the swat as I went, careful to take out the ones who shoot the glue grenade first. Found the daughter, killed her protectors right in front of her and dragged her terrified form out of there. When we got back to the truck, she said something about me regretting this and did the thanking emote.

So I still had a good 30ish minutes remaining, so I hunted for some more Family looking for the fourth sidemission and ended up not being able to find any. After causing more mayhem for another ten to fifteen minutes (not entirely sure how long since I kept adding on additional time), I went for the bank. Ignored the oblivious guards in the lobby, and went right for the vault. Took out two guards chatting in a corner, and went to town on the vault door. Got it to about halfway before an ambush showed up, so I sliced them up and went back to the door. Finally destroyed it and grabbed the loot.

Was heading back to the elevator when I heard Ms Shock telling me to halt. So I waited for her to come up the elevator and ambushed her (she was a Lt, and had a single Longbow with her). Had her down to a sliver when an additional ambush of swat showed up. The added forces and the glue grenade they hit me with was able to put me down. Instead of waking up in jail, I figured I'd be recklass. I used a Bounce Back I had, followed by a Break Free, a Respite, and two Catch a Breaths. Finished off Ms Shock, the two swat, and then the longbow. Then I hid, finished recovering, and snuck out.

At that point, I still had around 15-20 minutes left on the clock, so I cleaned up the few swat members that I had missed, destroyed every single car and truck on the map, and was working my way along the streets destroying every single object that I could when time finally ran out.

All in all, just as fun as the last time I had done one. I do want to note that if you don't take out the swat guys with the glue grenade, they can stack the glue grenades on you even if there's only one of them. I had never let them live long enough to stack a third, so I'm not entirely sure if they can, but the recharge time is definitely considerably less than the slow duration.

Plenty of other people are having that as well. I personally am not, though I do have the issue that many others are having where I can't zone out of Grandville (including into missions and my base) without crashing.

[ QUOTE ]
I assume this place will do. I just wanted to add in my frustration at the fact that you need a patron badge to do the new SF it seems to penalise players that want to diversify their power selections.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, you can always choose a patron, do their arcs, but not take any of their patron powers. That should enable you to do Recluse's SF. I can't see it actually checking whether you have any of the powers.

[ QUOTE ]
I beleive Chain Induction does work similarly to Confuse.

The strength (and accuracy?) of the bolt arcing from each target is based on the critter it is arcing from, not you. A bolt arcing from a Hero will do more damage than one arcing from a minion, and possibly more damage than the one arcing from you.

A bolt arcing from a Giant Monster should do interesting damage (and may crash the server if it hits another GM ). Now, if only a team of electric brutes could reach Lusca...

[/ QUOTE ]

If this is the case, is Chain Induction even worth it at that point (outside of style)? You're losing experience due to your own attacks! I mean, with Confuse, at least they're not attacking you any more - it's a control. With this, it's your attack that's doing damage, so you're getting more aggro and yet losing more experience. How is this worth it? Can any of you who are competent at the whole experience loss deal with Confuse chime in with whether this would be worth it?

Ah well, I didn't make it either. Wait, no... I submitted a Stalker. Yes. That's it, my stalker IS in there, she's just using Hide! Woot! I must have made it in!

*sigh* My delusions only last so long... Gratz to all of you who did make it in!

I do agree that the sound effects could use some work (ok, possibly a fair amount of work), but it's entirely possible that that is merely a bug since there seem to be other sound bugs that they're fixing. Sure that link is related to Fulcrum Shift, but it's talking about FS not sounding as powerful as it did, so theoretically there could be some sort of semi-general sound balance or whatever bug going on.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Some dev slacker(s) didnt want to make a new animation. I'm not crazy about the animations either.

[/ QUOTE ]

They were too busy making pumpkin and chicken dance emotes.

[/ QUOTE ]

Don't knock the pumpkin emote. I love that one. I could have done without the chicken dance though. And personally I like the animations that I've seen so far. Mind you, I've only seen Charged Brawl and Havoc Punch in action since I haven't had time to look at the set more than a few minutes. I've seen still screens of Jacob's Ladder and it looks good from the screens but I'd have to see video of it to really decide. Haven't seen anything on any others though. Hint hint to anyone who's gotten to the later levels of the set.

[ QUOTE ]
After level 20, engaging in any Mayhem or raising the difficulty guarantees an Elite Boss, so take extra purple and red inspirations.

After level 20, taking in a team of 3 or more guarantees a signature Hero at full Hero/AV level.

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually, according to my own experience this is not true. I did a mayhem mission consisting of three people (two at lvl 24, one at lvl 22). We received a named boss at the end, not an Elite Boss, nor a full on Hero.

We did engage in a fair amount of destruction (in Steel Canyon), and did one side mission (rob a jeweler). We went and did the heist with about 4ish minutes to go, and finished it and the named boss (Ms Shock) afterward with about 30 seconds to spare.

Edit: Forgot to mention that all three of us were on Villainous (the lowest) difficulty.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Mayhem missions need to be optional, not required to open contacts.

[/ QUOTE ]

You get the contact whether you succeed at the mission or not.

[/ QUOTE ]

You still have to go in, face ambushes, and waste 20 minutes for time to run out.

[/ QUOTE ]

Or, well, 15 minutes since they keep seeming to start out with less time than the broker says you should have. And I could be mistaken, but as far as I know, the ambushes only occur when you're doing stuff. If you don't do anything I don't think you get any ambushes. So if you REALLY don't like Mayhem Missions (which, I personally don't understand. I love them, even if I think the difficulty is scaled a fair amount too high), you can just go in, make a sandwich, and come back and have your contact. Kind of like going to a mission using Fly.