Captain Fabulous

Well, Jack can say it any way he pleases I guess, and I'm rather surprised given his penchant for Greek Mythology, but Talos in Greek, according to my Greek friend, is pronounced TAHL-ohs. If it were pronounced TAY-los, he says it would be spelled Teilos.

Now I'm just passing on what I've been told. Don't no Greek scholars get all up in my junk if they disagree.

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Is there a resolution yet to the blacked out character models when inside arachnos missions? I have the same issue in Banks and Casino's as well. It only happens inside missions so far. Couple screens of what it looks like:
Pic 1
Pic 2


My system:
EVGA 680i MB (nVidia 15.00 Drivers)
2GB 1066 OCZ Ram
C2D E6600
EVGA 8500GT (nVidia 158.18 Drivers)
Vista Business 32bit

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No. It is a driver issue that only nVidia can fix, and I'm sure it's something of a low priority.

The current workaround is to set your in-game shader details to low for the duration of any problem missions.

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Secondly, run a full system scandisk and defrag. Then open up the CoH updater and "Verify all files." This might take a while so pop in a movie.

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Shogun comes to mind - or maybe Roots.

I'm also wondering where all these switches can be found. I've been thinking of expanding my demolauncher to also launch the game with whatever switches you like. (Though it would be a LOT better if the switches were added to the Updater itself, IMHO.)

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I don't believe there has ever been an official listing or compilation of the available command-line switches. The ones we know of have been given to us by various devs on an as-needed basis.

And I agree, it would be nice if they were available on the updater like the safe mode check box is.

These are the ones I know of. Feel free to add any I may have missed:

-renderthread [0|1]
Enables/disables multithreaded mode.

-test
Launches the Test Server version of the game.

-cov
Launches the game in City of Villains mode.

-compatibleCursors [0|1]
Enables/disables programmable hardware cursors.

-useTexEnvCombine
Forces an alternate rendering algorithm to be used; can sometimes allow older/integrated GPUs to work.

In addition to the switches above, the following switch can also be used in a shortcut to the game executable (CityOfHeroes.exe) instead of the updater:

-project [coh|cohtest]
Allows you to bypass the updater and launch the game directly from the game executable.

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However, it's simply not what this particular encounter is. As others have pointed out, in order to make a single entity that can be attacked by 50 players at the same time we have to step outside of the bounds of 'normal' rules in order to make it challenging.

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I was on a villain hami raid last night and it failed miserably. The whole PA/PS thing is bogus. "We were worried about PS/PA becoming required"


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Please kill this thread.

Stop your whining.

Ooooh it's too hard there is a chance a failure, we can't perma hold while we chat and admire our colorful spandex.

Get over it. It's been proven that the new Hamidon is beatable. I was there on Test when one happened. Why should the Dev's spoon feed you?

It's like there is this group of people that think because they cannot pull up a command line and go into God mode that the game sucks. "I can't finish the game because I might die".

Stop complaining, do something constructive like reading the notes on the Hami raid on test and see what works. Better yet come up with your own solution. Don't like the "risk" go to Mercy or Pocket D and turn your self into a pumpkin.

Poison Pill

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And in tonight's performance, Poison Pill will be our lead Hami Pom-Pom Squad Leader...

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This ability to attack phase-shifted targets is part of that evolution.

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Hrumpf!

Back before Phaseshift was gutted (Pre CoV) many people, my self included, suggested that phased characters be able to attack each other rather than the now in-place, kludge of a fix to keep Masterminds in check, was implemented. The official response was, essentially "We do not want to do that because who is to say that all people phase in the same way." or to use Champions terms, every ones phase shift special effect was different.

Now that get tossed out the window for Hami?

Bah. Just remove phaseshift from the game already, rather than keep nipping pieces off it's decaying carcass. The power is still useless in the developer stated role of an Oh crap! power because of the activation time (which was promised to be fixed, but I doubt it has been).

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Well that might have been what they said, but the reality was in the game engine not allowing it. "Phase Shift" is basically a flag saying "this person is now not touchable". Same holds true for other powers like dimension shift, detention field, Phantom Army, etc. Hami obviously was re-programmed to allow him to hit targets that are flagged as "untouchable". But this still is not the same as allowing one phase shifted person to fight another. That would still require additional re-coding that's probably neither quick or easy.

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"Focused Accuracy" one more time, I'll remind you it can't be obtained till LEVEL 41. That gives all you SR scrappers 40 levels of unfettered PvP playtime.

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PvP zones don't open up until level 15, every other to-hit buff (Yes, even "useless" Aim) opens before that.

Enhancement values also play an important roll. SR's toggle defenses offer a whopping 16% defense at TO level, three slotted at DO level, its a massive 18% defense.


Oh, and you broke your promise, you didnt stop arguing.

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I only promised to stop arguing with people like you who degrade the discussion to a 12-year old's level.

And for the record, this isn't an argument either, just a point of fact.

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When your base chance to hit is floored, accuracy does squat. You know this, I don't need to tell you this.

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Actually, if you're floored, accuracy *always* has an effect, tohit buffs don't unless they are high enough.

Take something with very high defense, like an Eluded scrapper in PvP, or maybe a MoGed PP in PvE. Stacking a small amount of tohit, something that might have a very dramatic effect on something very close to flooring you, on something that is deep-flooring you actually has zero effect. Accuracy always increases your chance to hit, right up to the tohit ceiling, by a proportional amount.

The proportional amount might not be as much as you want, but that's not the same thing as saying its worthless.

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Yes yes yes... if I'm being floored, as in hit with so much tohit debuffs that after adding in the tohit buffs I still can't get above 5%, then yes, they do nothing. And yes, in that case an extra 20% accuracy is gonna add a whopping 1%. So lessee... 5% or 6% (assume no slotted accuracy enhancements)? Both squat. So what's your point?

But let's say I have a 30% persistent tohit buff and I get hit with 50% worth of tohit debuffs. Adjusted chance to hit is 30% (assuming a starting base chance to hit of 50%, not uncommon while fighting +2s and +3s). Add in 1 accuracy SO from your powers and your chance to hit is now 40%. Not great, but a whole lot better than the 6.65% I would have had without the tohit buff.

Now let's say that 30% tohit buff is now an accuracy buff. Adjusted chance to hit becomes 5%. With the 1 SO and the 30% accuracy buff my chance to hit is... <drum roll please>... 8.15%

So that big whopping 30% accuracy buff that required multiple IO sets to get, at who knows what cost in terms of reduced abilities, not to mention millions upon millions in inf, will take your accuracy in this very common case from 6.65% to 8.15% -- a net gain of 1.5% What kinda crack are you smokin dude that you think this is worthwhile???

And since when does the whole game just adjust solely for SR Scrappers in PvP? Cause it's not like I can just run out and craft up 4 or 5 full sets of IO inventions right now to give every toon I have a 30% tohit buff. You all make it sound like it's something every single toon can easily and cheaply obtain. Well it ain't. And before someone utters "Focused Accuracy" one more time, I'll remind you it can't be obtained till LEVEL 41. That gives all you SR scrappers 40 levels of unfettered PvP playtime.

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Bypassing everyone's resistances and defenses is nothing more than a cheap trick -- not completely unexpected as the devs have been relying on cheap tricks since I2 and the creation of the post level 40 game.

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Let me see if I get this straight, because occasionally I get confused. You believe this, and you *also* believe this:

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Actually I was much more concerned with them changing set tohit buffs to accuracy buffs, essentially making those buffs useless.

All the +accuracy in the world isn't gonna help you against foes with defense and/or tohit debuffs. This was the sole opportunity for toons without access to a persistent tohit buff to actually be able to reasonably fight these foes. Tanks and Scrappers can get Focused Accuracy at level 41, Defenders, Controllers, and Corruptors can get Tactics if they can squeeze it into their builds, and the rest get NOTHING.

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... at the same time? How do they fit in the same head?

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Cheap Trick: when my dark/dark brute or inv/ss tank has to fight CoT and get multiple stacked tohit debuffs that completely floors their accuracy, making them unable to hit anything save 5%.

Counter Cheap Trick: some kind of tohit buff that allows me to bypass said Cheap Trick, and I dunno, actually be able to HIT my foes?

Cheap Trick: battling a room full of Sky Raiders with 3 or more force field generators, making them untouchable.

Counter Cheap Trick: having a tohit buff that will actually allow me to hit the things I'm fighting.

Cause I know I don't need to tell you that adding accuracy once your base chance to hit is floored does virtually nothing. The only thing to counter massive "cheap trick" defense buffs and debuffs are via tohit buffs.

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Tohit buffs are, in essence, a cheap trick to bypass defenses.

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Defenses that are nothing but a cheap trick to make some foes "harder" without actually making them harder.

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Anything less than 15% of a tohit buff is by and large meaningless. Only Corruptors, Defenders, and Controllers can get to that level or higher.

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Sure, if you are one of those people that have the basic opinion that there is hitting all the time, and everything else, then you might think this. However, its worth noting that the current version of the invention system allows for much higher tohit buffs than that, and combined with just plain old tactics anyone could still get about as much tohit buffs as an SR scrapper has defenses, which is ridiculous.

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Ridiculous if you're an SR scrapper that PvPs. Not so ridiculous when you're fighting CoT and have 3 or more applications of Chill of the Night on you. I don't expect to hit everything all the time, but I really, really have a problem with being able to hit nothing all the time.

So if the devs reduce all the foe tohit debuffs and defense buffs (everyone who enjoys fighting large spawns of Rikti drones without a tohit buff stand up and say AYE!!) to a reasonable level and/or remove their stackability, then perhaps we wouldn't need to have all those tohit buffs. But fat chance of that happening. And oh, I forgot my very very favorite -- fighting Nemesis with not one, not two, but 3 stacked vengeance. Cheap trick indeed...

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And if they were actually supposed to be accuracy buffs, not tohit buffs, why were the values of the tohit buffs cut in half while on test?

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Ooh, ooh, me, me!

They were originally tohit buffs because it wasn't thought that there was a way to make them accuracy buffs. They wanted to give players a way to hit more often and that was the only way to do it at the time. However, the side effect of allowing players to hit more often in this case was that they would hit defensive sets way, way, way too often.

When it became clear just how much tohit buffs there were, and how they could be stacked, in sample calculations (like, say, [u]mine[u]) they decided to knock them down so that they wouldn't hit defensive sets as hard.

The problem was that there really isn't a value for tohit buffs that is strong enough under all conditions in PvE, without being disasterous for defense sets in PvP. There is no sweet spot, but that doesn't stop the devs from trying to find one anyway. But they *knew* there was a problem, they just were not sure how to address it. They definitely wanted increased accuracy in PvE, but didn't want to further unbalance PvP. That just wasn't possible, because there isn't a Player Accuracy attribute to modify: the notion of a "player accuracy buff" doesn't exist in the current game.

The realization was, though, that while there is no way to buff a player's accuracy, there *was* a way to buff all the accuracy attributes of every single power possessed by a player. *That* revelation allowed the devs to implement the +Acc in the invention system as originally desired: something that was a nice boost in PvE, without being a problem in PvP.

The change is happening now, after go-live, because they didn't want this particular patch, which has a whole lot of powers changes, to hold up the I9 release.


They are +accuracy because they were always intended to be +accuracy. They were only +tohit because they thought they had no choice. In fact, its actually a valid point of debate to ask whether *any* "persistent" tohit buffs were actually meant to be tohit buffs when cast in this light. "Focused Accuracy" is not called "Focused ToHit:" it claims to boost accuracy, when it actually boosts player base tohit. Tactics is also specifically said to buff ally Accuracy. Something worth thinking about.

Oh, and:

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Tohit buff = useful. Accuracy buffs = useless.

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Deslot all your accuracy and come back and say this again.

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When your base chance to hit is floored, accuracy does squat. You know this, I don't need to tell you this. So how exactly is that statement wrong? When you can't hit things because they've debuffed your chance to hit or have obnoxiously high defenses, adding more accuracy isn't going to help you, at least not much. Tohit buffs will help much more at significantly smaller values.

And y'know what, what the hell is wrong with actually wanting to hit everything all the time? Do you actually enjoy missing? I don't. PvP aside of course.

So there's the solution. Take out all the PvE tohit debuffs and defense buffs. Then we wouldn't need any tohit buffs in the game, and PvP can be wonderfully balanced (tho I'm sure someone will still find something to whine about).

And if the devs can find a way to turn tohit buffs into accy buffs, why can't they make that happen only in PvP areas? That way we naughtly little PvE beggars that actually like to hit what we're fighting can have fun, while all the incessant PvP defense toons can rest easy that their precious SR scrapper won't get one shotted all the time.

See, everyone wins. Oh wait, this is a Cryptic game. No, what was I thinking. This will never happen. Sorry, I got caught up in the moment. Everyone go back to whining...

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Ok, I'll try it. I'll solo an entire mission just by confusing my foes. We'll see how quickly and how much XP I get. Moron.

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Resorting to insults will get you nowhere. Decieve can, and usually does, result in a net gain in your XP over time.

7% accuracy, or to-hit for that matter, can make a difference, when fighting things that are at least +3, those 2 SOs bringing your accuracy to 150%? make it 157%, you'll hit more.

Against things +2 or lower, any buff to your accuracy beyond that 2 SO mark or to your to-hit won't matter much, unless you've got something hitting you with to-hit debuffs, or accuracy debuffs.

Mind you, this does not hold true in PvP, but since 80% of the game is PvE, and PvP will never be balanced, I'm not too worried about it.

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Oh yes, and you're right Targeting Drone is a fairly decent tohit buff. If you're a */devices blaster. What about the other 20+ combinations of blasters, what do they get. Oh, um, NOTHING.

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You are right, there are 28 combinations of blasters that do not get targetting drones.

but look at it the other way, 20% of the combinations DO get targetting drone. I'll take it you're a "glass is half empty" kind of person.

Aim may be up for 10 seconds, however, with 3 recharge SOs its got a 46.2 second recharge, meaning its up almost 25% of the time without outside boosts. add in hasten, Accellerate Metabolism, Speed Boost, Adrenaline Boost, or any other power that increases your recharge rate, and that number will be even better.

with a 46 second recharge, Aim will be up every other fight, if your team is moving slower than optimal, it could be up every fight. Remember, thats without outside boosts.

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Yes, and I'm done arguing with you. I've said all I wanted to say an I'm not going to get into a pissing match.

You're 100% right about everything, and I'm 100% wrong (especially when you twist my words around).

And even tho your you're 100% right about everything, you obviously have no clue how to calculate accuracy and tohit buffs, but you're always right anyway. And if you see 20% as your glass being half-full, then your math is a lot worse than I first expected. But again, since you're always right 20% MUST equal half-full.

And sure, why not, every time I play my blaster I'll just drag along a rad, kin, and empath so that I can have Aim up "almost every battle". Yes, I certainly see how that is a legitimate alternative to a persistent, always on tohit buff. What the hell was I thinking to question your omnipotence?

Wait, I got it! I'll just get an illusion troller instead of all that and just sit back and let them deceive the entire map. Then I don't have to even worry about being able to hit things! Yes yes, that's exactly what I'll do. Problem solved!

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<QR>

::hissing voice over::
"We have broken him my lord!!!!"

::Mr. Burns voice over::
"Excellent. Release the hounds for the last remaining few."



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Please... hardly. I just won't get into a pissing match with someone who obviously cannot debate the points at hand and must resort to twisting my words around and saying stupid things like "well yeah, it's a Super Hero RPG but that doesn't mean it has to be actually like Super Heroes, now does it?"

Sorry, when the discussion gets to that point it's obvious it has degenerated to 5th grade debate team status, and I just won't go there.

So yes, y'all have fun with your lovely new Hami, and your lovely new STF, and you're wonderfully useless IOs and their equally useless set bonuses for which the first round of nerfs is already sitting on the test server.

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Well, since you put it that way, we really are being victimized. Why bother leveling up your toon, testing multiple builds, gathering HOs and now IOs, spend weeks or months leveling a character from 1 to 50 and learning everything there is to know about your powers, how they work, which combos works best, etc. etc. etc., only to find it's all USELESS when fighting the new big bad end game boss.

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Name me a single MMO game where an end/raid boss on the scale of Hamidon (and by scale I mean requires a large mass of players) does not overwhelm the defenses of any single character.

The devs wanted Hamidon to be something that required something other than "stack all the bubbles and fortitudes available and go to down". Is this the only way they could have done it? No. But given what they've decided Hamidon itself should be - a large, unmoving foe, this is one of the most time-effective means they could use.

Hamidon in any form similar to what he is now would be completely trivialized by a zone full of players who's powers actually worked on him.

Here's a revalation for you: if the armored ATs could use thier defenses to stand up to Hamidon the way you seem to want them to, in order to be as challenging as he is to them right now, assuming the same basic behavior, he would have to be able to absolutely annhiliate any non-armored (or equivalent) AT, as he would have to do between 4x and 10x his current damage. That sounds grand, doesn't it?

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And hell, I've been on enough teams to know that even with full resistances and defense current toons can very easily be overwhelmed by their enemies, simply by taking more damage than they can mitigate.

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You've been on teams of 50 people? Neat!

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I just keep thinking back thru 30 some odd years of comic book stories when heroes were gathered in teamups to defeat a dire enemy.

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This is not a comic book. I am really done with people going here. This is a game inspired by comic themes. Comic books are stories the flow of which, every concept and event in, serve the storytelling aims of the author. Books need no balance. The most indestructable character in the universe can be threatened by the loss of loved ones, or by plots that super strength cannot defeat. These things cannot be reliably represented in the modern MMO. CoH is a D20-style combat simulation that looks like comics. It cannot be true to fiction because there is no author. We are the characters, and we have to be limited in the scope of the game's context.

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It's simply ridiculous that with such a rich history of large scale battles in comic book lore the devs chose to throw it all out the window and just make this creature -- a human infused with dark magiks -- into a virtually indestructible, unstoppable, laws-of-physics, time, and space-breaking omnipotent god.

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Because that never happens in the comics.

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EVERYTHING has a weakness. Galactus has a weakness. The Oans have a weakness. Doomsday has a weakness. Hami has none.

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Nice selective memory, since I actually enumerated Hamidon's weaknesses earlier.

Did I mention that the new Hamidon is actually easier to kill in tems of damage dealt? Imagine that. He's harder because he's actually more dangerous than before. And the battles with him are short and frentic instead of long and tedious like they were in I8 and before.

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There is no real challenge here.

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That always happens when you run away and cry that it's too hard.

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And the only strategy involves figuring out how many of each AT you need, what powers they must have

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Wait, you mean like the rest of the bloody game?

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After that, it's pretty much the same as every other foe in CoX -- kill anything that moves as quickly as possible.

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Oh, you do mean that! So... do you not actually like the rest of the game?

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After all the kinks of the "strategy" are worked out, doing Hami will simply be by rote, just as it always has before.

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And someone claimed this would not be so.... where?

The difference is that it's a much, much more active "rote". It requires everyone present to move in tandem, not just put someone on follow and click their best ranged power. It can't fail because someone pulls a giant monster onto people tediously casting holds on Hamidon, or because they lag. The whole thing is much more active, and is clearly going to be much less boring than before, because the combat phases are much shorter. Hell, even planning to get out of dodge when new blooms appear is more interesting.

You refuse to see that the encounter has actually been improved, even if one agrees it has bogus mechanics of threat. That hasn't changed. But victory comes through active participation of a smaller core of people (and there was always a smaller core of people at pre-I9 raids who were actually paying attention) acting in brief, coordinated bursts. For the people who are there to actually participate and pay attention, it's a lot more enjoyable. For the people who were bored and afk, they can either step up or go run the STF. You see, the real beauty of it is that they now have that choice.

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I'm soooo [censored] tired of arguing with you people. Ok fine. You're all 100% right. The new Hami encounter is the best thing since sliced bread.

All the nerfs that have come and will come are not really nerfs, they're just "evolutions".

The game is better now than it's every been. Really.

Are you all happy now? I guess I'm the deranged one that actually expects a Super Hero RPG to play like, I dunno, Super Heroes. Obvioulsy, I'm mistaken. It's a game loosely based on super heroes, formulated on a D327094370 system of illogical and nonsensical rules where anything and everything can happen at anytime just cause. Yeah, that makes a lot more sense.

Have fun playing your super-duper fun game. And oh yea, you're always right, and I'm always wrong.

La

Dee

Daa

Ok, I'll try it. I'll solo an entire mission just by confusing my foes. We'll see how quickly and how much XP I get. Moron.

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As for the to-hit buff being not worth it on anything but controllers/defenders/corruptors

look at the numbers

base numbers at lvl 50
blaster, tanker, scrapper, brute, stalker 7%
khledians 9%
controllers, corruptors 10%
defender 12.5%
Dominators, masterminds 7.5%

not a huge spread there. yeah, 5% can make a difference, but its hardly neglegible.

Also, almost every blaster gets Aim, if you have devices secondary, you also get Targetting drone, 2 more self tohit buffs

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Anything less than 15% of a tohit buff is by and large meaningless. Only Corruptors, Defenders, and Controllers can get to that level or higher.

Since you're so fond of math, why don't you sit down and figure out exactly what a 7% tohit buff buys you versus what a 7% accuracy buff buys you. In either case, squat.

And yeah, that 10 second Aim is gonna get you really far. "ok, hold on everyone, let me wait for Aim to recharge before we fight those CoT." <10 seconds pass> "sorry guys, I gotta wait for aim to recharge again..."

Oh yes, and you're right Targeting Drone is a fairly decent tohit buff. If you're a */devices blaster. What about the other 20+ combinations of blasters, what do they get. Oh, um, NOTHING.

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Modified Accuracy Set Bonuses -- They now modify the Accuracy of all of a player’s powers, instead of modifying the player’s base To Hit value.

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Hmm, that doesn't sound like a nerf, that sounds a lot more like DOING WHAT ITS SUPPOSED TO DO.

"accuracy" bonus should affect "accuracy" not anything else, sorry.

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Sorry, but turning a tohit buff, regardless of what it's called, into an accuracy buff is a nerf, plain and simple. There are many places in the game where tohit buffs are referred to as accuracy buffs. This is no way changes what they truly are and how they work. And if they were actually supposed to be accuracy buffs, not tohit buffs, why were the values of the tohit buffs cut in half while on test? I guess that wasn't a nerf either, huh?

Tohit buff = useful. Accuracy buffs = useless. Turning a power from useful to useless is a nerf, no matter how you decide to word it.

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Tanks and Scrappers can get Focused Accuracy at level 41, Defenders, Controllers, and Corruptors can get Tactics if they can squeeze it into their builds, and the rest get NOTHING.

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Anyone can pick up tactics, 3 slotted with to-hit buffs, it does help pretty much any AT, though certainly defenders get the biggest buff for it.

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Yes, any AT can take tactics, but the values are so small for anyone but Defenders, Controllers, and Corruptors, that even 3 slotted the buff is negligible, and not worth the underpowered prerequisite (either Maneuvers or Assault), heavy end cost, and slots.

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I guess Scirocco "evolved" as well.

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As somebody else already said, it is probably a bug, since it doesnt happen consitently. /bug is your friend.

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Perhaps, I guess only time will tell. But don't be surprised if it's not.

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Illusion has Specral Terror, one of the best AoE controls in the game. it can fear a boss, allowing you to apply that hold as you please.

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I agree, ST is a great power. But it doesn't establish containment, is immovable (and can no longer be TPd since that nerf), and won't stop them from attacking if attacked first. And unlike dark fears, there is no inherent tohit debuff either. Works well on a large team with aggro control, but is not much more than a quick breather on a small team or solo.

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it also has decieve, which does not do direct damage, but it certainly does damage.

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For which you get little to no XP for, and also won't establish containment. Is it effective, of course. Does it make up for a lack of a reliable AOE containment power and nerfed PA? Nope.

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If that were the case it should have been noted in the Known Issues section. Yes yes, I know, they're only human, blah blah blah, notes get missed, blah blah blah, the janitor accidentally threw out the latest additions, blah blah blah, someones dog ate the new list, blah blah blah...

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Nothing I say here is going to change your mind, since you seem to think that it is impossible for a human to make a mistake.

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I dunno about you, but if part of my job was to ensure that patch notes and known issue lists were kept accurate and up to date, and I used the "I'm only human" excuse every time some very important item was "accidentally" left out, I would have been fired long ago. The "human" excuse is just old and tired at this point.

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The dev team's taken a stance to value Debuff/Buff over any characters innate abilities since I5, the new end game raids are just a continuation of that.

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This is clearly about you having an axe to grind, and zero objective experience or consideration of what it takes to make something hard for 50 people. His damage output would have to be maximized in some way to account for the fact that we can cap our protections to him, meaning raids without the max number of people, or without maximized buffs, would be horribly unprepared for him. If they tune his damage output somewhere lower, then raids who can max their defenses would trivialize the raid.


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So of course, it's fine to trivialize 1/2 of the melee ATs powersets out there instead and add an inspiration to do something they're supposed to already be capable of.

I still say if they had decided to make Hamidon "difficult" by putting a zone debuff that greyed out all buff/debuff powers, and the debuff could only be countered by an inspiration you'd have to farm, the majority of the playerbase that haunt these forums would cry foul loud enough until it got fixed.

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Oh, so you think he doesn't trivialize buff/debuff powers? You think he doesn't trivialize buffs that give defense? Buffs that give DR? Buffs that heal or add +regen? Pets?

He currently leaves useful buffs for toHit, recharge and damage. He currently has specific vulnererability to melee damage (yellows) ranged damage (blues) and holds (greens). He calls for as high a burst damage as possible, making Scrappers of all sorts and Tankers with their top-end melee attacks (which are high burst damage by design) valuable. Anyone with a hold is good for taking on greens. Anyone with ranged damage is good for blues. And anyone who can give good mez protection is invaluable. Buff up just one guy to keep each yellow busy and they can keep the heat off the other groups long enough for an entire bloom to be cleared.

Wake up and stop acting like you're being victimized.

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Well, since you put it that way, we really are being victimized. Why bother leveling up your toon, testing multiple builds, gathering HOs and now IOs, spend weeks or months leveling a character from 1 to 50 and learning everything there is to know about your powers, how they work, which combos works best, etc. etc. etc., only to find it's all USELESS when fighting the new big bad end game boss.

Bypassing everyone's resistances and defenses is nothing more than a cheap trick -- not completely unexpected as the devs have been relying on cheap tricks since I2 and the creation of the post level 40 game.

And hell, I've been on enough teams to know that even with full resistances and defense current toons can very easily be overwhelmed by their enemies, simply by taking more damage than they can mitigate.

It didn't HAVE to be this way. The game already suffers from a severe lack of "feeling super", fighting a foe that completely negates all your powers just adds insult to injury.

I just keep thinking back thru 30 some odd years of comic book stories when heroes were gathered in teamups to defeat a dire enemy. Would Superman suddenly lose his invulnerability? Would the Hulk? Would Wolverine's unbreakable adamantium claws and skeleton get shattered? His ability to regenerate his wounds negated? Would Wonder Woman's unbreakable bracelets break and unbreakable lasso snap? Would the magiks of Dr. Fate, the Phantom Stranger, The Spectre, Zatanna, and Deadman have absolutely no effect? Would their protective spells be of absolutely no use?

It's simply ridiculous that with such a rich history of large scale battles in comic book lore the devs chose to throw it all out the window and just make this creature -- a human infused with dark magiks -- into a virtually indestructible, unstoppable, laws-of-physics, time, and space-breaking omnipotent god.

EVERYTHING has a weakness. Galactus has a weakness. The Oans have a weakness. Doomsday has a weakness. Hami has none. There is no real challenge here. And the only strategy involves figuring out how many of each AT you need, what powers they must have, and finding a way to coordinate 50 people to work in tandem. After that, it's pretty much the same as every other foe in CoX -- kill anything that moves as quickly as possible.

After all the kinks of the "strategy" are worked out, doing Hami will simply be by rote, just as it always has before.

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It's a shame that their special fan-only closed beta, and then an open beta with some raids watched BY a developer didn't seem to notice that these inspirations weren't working 'as intended'.

So much for the improved testing environment.

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How do you know that they didn't notice it then, and the fix has only just now come through QA?

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Good point, in three days, its pretty unlikely they'd identify, isolate, and address an issue of this nature.

Debugging is *not* a straightforward process. The devs probably just wanted to get I9 on live, since so many people wanted it, and it wasn't seriously broken.

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If that were the case it should have been noted in the Known Issues section. Yes yes, I know, they're only human, blah blah blah, notes get missed, blah blah blah, the janitor accidentally threw out the latest additions, blah blah blah, someones dog ate the new list, blah blah blah...

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Prepare to get lynched. ((more :P)) The current forum fanbase is of the opinion that it's perfectly fine for the end game to completely negate half you character, and you'll also have people suggest you use your armors in "new and different ways" such as "Death Shroud for Damage Mitigation and Stacking Cloak of Fear's debuff".

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Baloney. Moreover, the current Hamidon actually allows slightly more powers to be effective. It still cuts out defense and now erdoes the benefit of healing, but it now makes more mez protections useful.

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The dev team's taken a stance to value Debuff/Buff over any characters innate abilities since I5, the new end game raids are just a continuation of that.

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This is clearly about you having an axe to grind, and zero objective experience or consideration of what it takes to make something hard for 50 people. His damage output would have to be maximized in some way to account for the fact that we can cap our protections to him, meaning raids without the max number of people, or without maximized buffs, would be horribly unprepared for him. If they tune his damage output somewhere lower, then raids who can max their defenses would trivialize the raid.

That's not an easy nut to crack.

If Hami honored defense and DR, do you realize how totally we could negate his threat with 50 people?

I'm not saying the current design is anywhere near the best it could be. But last night I attended a raid that succeeded in under three hours. It was the Justice server's first I9 raid ever, most people there didn't even know how Hami had changed, and we succeeded on our first try. This wasn't some uber-SG-based raid. It was an open raid accessible to anyone who attended (up to the zone cap, of course).

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And ultimately turned it into yet another elitism inaccessible to average and casual players.

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Bzzt. Wrong. All it takes is leaders willing to organize the casual players, and enough casual players to show up. The new raid is even more friendly in the sense that it makes more use of all ATs. There's really an important use for melee types now, for example.

If the strategy can be tuned enough, the time on the raids will come down significantly. Since he can be spawned at will by killing GMs, the old once-a-day (or so) limit is now defunct, and more people can actually potentially raid.

The biggest constraint is on finding enough people willing to lead and not just be lemmings. And I say that as someone who's got a strong lemming streak when it comes to raids. Get enough leaders and you can get more raids. More raids = more people getting rewards. More people getting rewards means more access for more-average players.

Stop fixating on how the changes impacted Phase Shift, and look at the big picture.

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I wasn't even talking about phase shift. I don't even think anyone at the raid I attended had it. Gratz for your group completing it, but what I saw on Freedom was a bloody mess.

I guess Scirocco "evolved" as well.

Like I said, open the door for one foe to hit that which is labeled "indestructible", then it's only a matter of time before it trickles down to every common boss.

The truly sad part is this really nerfs the hell outta the Illusion set. With no AOE immobilize or sleep they are incapable of reliably establishing containment, and have only *2*, yes TWO, attack powers in the whole set that do damage. With no reliable AOE control abilities (save the "10 seconds every 3 minutes" AOE hold), PA is your only means of protecting yourself from aggro. And hell, you can't even have them out all the time, and the damage they do is minimal as most of it heals back.

This pretty much makes Illusion a complete waste of a team spot on the STF, and any future endeavors where foes have "evolved" to be able to hit that which is "indestructible". And probably the saddest part of all is that while these upgraded foes can attack and destroy them, no one on the team, including their creator, can buff or heal them.

Wow... simply WOW...

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Willy, did you even look at the patch notes?

Basically, the only thing to get "nerfed" was something that was not working right
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Player AT’s damage resistance was not 'capped' vs. the Hamidon’s special damage type. As a result, players could completely eliminate incoming damage from Hamidon via Essence of the Earth inspirations, which is not the intended behavior. Resistance to this damage type now has the standard maximum values as determined by archetype.

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"Which is not the intended behavior" means, not a nerf, but a bug fix.

Actually, these patch notes seem to have a lot of buffs to the game.

Stop crying Doooooooooommmmm!

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Actually I was much more concerned with them changing set tohit buffs to accuracy buffs, essentially making those buffs useless.

All the +accuracy in the world isn't gonna help you against foes with defense and/or tohit debuffs. This was the sole opportunity for toons without access to a persistent tohit buff to actually be able to reasonably fight these foes. Tanks and Scrappers can get Focused Accuracy at level 41, Defenders, Controllers, and Corruptors can get Tactics if they can squeeze it into their builds, and the rest get NOTHING.

And what good are all the various vet temp and craftable temp powers if they're adjusted chance to hit is around 50% for most battles? Bonus accuracy won't help them either, leaving them as they are now -- useless tray clutter.

And let's chalk this up to yet another PvE change made solely to ceases the endless whining of the PvP crowd. Cause I can't imagine anyone other than a PvP SR scrapper/stalker having a problem with adding tohit buffs to the game. So they get to have their PvP and the rest of us get to keep our useless temp powers and frustrating missions where we can't hit a damned thing.

Bravo!

And I wonder, with the 2 months that I9 sat on test, at no point did anyone realize that EoEs were granting full protection? Not once? Even when the raids were being monitored by in-game devs did they not notice? Sorry, but it smells a lot like Christmas all over again.

And WOW... even my best 2 week estimate has been blown away. I9 was released on Tuesday and by Friday the first round of nerfs hit the test server, 3 whole days!!!

WOO!!!

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Well I attempted Hami last night for the first time, and I can honestly say it's not something I will ever likely attempt again, at least not for a long time. It was, without any shadow of doubt, neither FUN nor CHALLENGING.

For starters, virtually all your defensive abilities are utterly useless. Damage is untyped, meaning resistances do nothing. Their tohit buff must be off the charts, cause defense is worthless. Regens fair a tad better due to their nature, until of course they get hit with a -regen debuff which puts them out. Mez protection is a joke, cause one hit broke Unyielding, leaving me near-perma disoriented. And without any fear protection of my own, often perma-terrorized. So basically, what's the point of having powers when none of them do a damned thing? Factor in their own native damage and mez resistances, and we're all nothing but level 1 toons. Sorry, this isn't what we deserve for climbing the ranks to level 50.


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Prepare to get lynched. ((more :P)) The current forum fanbase is of the opinion that it's perfectly fine for the end game to completely negate half you character, and you'll also have people suggest you use your armors in "new and different ways" such as "Death Shroud for Damage Mitigation and Stacking Cloak of Fear's debuff".

The dev team's taken a stance to value Debuff/Buff over any characters innate abilities since I5, the new end game raids are just a continuation of that.

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And ultimately turned it into yet another elitism inaccessible to average and casual players. When exactly do these players get cool, fun, and challenging (for their skill level) things to do instead of the endless mission grinds and worthless "kill 100 <enter name of foe here>" badges?

Most TFs and trials are beyond what most casual players can do, either due to ability or time. Hami is now completely off the chart. Invention drop rates are too low and associated costs too high to get any kind of meaningful use of them.

So again, I ask, what "fun" and "challenging" things do the average/casual gamers get to do now?

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If you remember the old table top version of Marvel Heroes, the Torch was highly resistant to heat and flame while Iceman was to ice and cold.

I wish that the design here had been done in a "What would (Jack) Kirby do" kinda way instead of being done in the "MMO based on Super Heroes" method.

Imagine PvP if there was no "best" cookie cutter build....where an Ice guy would be very strong against Ice, good against most things and weak against heat and fire. Could you build a Great Ice build that others would emulate? Sure but along comes that fire guy who beats you down because you're all wet.

I really do hope that the MUO is designed from a comic book stand point first and that the mechanics are set to that rather than bending the genre to meet the mechanics.

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Umm, isn't Jack the lead on MUO??? I wouldn't get your hopes up that'll it'll be anything different than CoX set in the Marvel Universe.

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In particular, if you've ever seen how the powers are defined, each is a distinct copy, even if the power is identical in every way to one used by another AT. Even different mobs get different copies of the same power, which is why updating powers is such a huge undertaking. This is why some powers for some ATs are broken in odd ways - someone forgot to update one of the copies.

Or, as Arcana mentioned, the AI for some mobs forgets to use certain powers that they have, even when other mobs do use that power. The devs have often fixed such mobs one an individual basis, suggesting that even the AI settings aren't shared (though the "libraries" of general behavior do seem to be).

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Not commenting on the AI. Just the thoughts on powers in general and how it was mentioned that each power is a distinct copy. Y'see the one thing that I'll say bothers me a little more than other power issues is that Sonic shields that offer the same protection as ( just using examples) Thermal shields only have a difference in fx, not just because they are Sonic or Thermal. Any difference would be because of slotting.This makes the game City of Heroes/Villains FX. Energy power-possessing characters don't get receive a little bonus protection from Energy attacks as an inherant power. Funny, because Matla do if I remember correctly. Fire weilding characters don't receive an inherant resistance to Fire. And these things make no sense. A human torch wouldn't get burned if you know what I mean. I hope when the Marvel game comes out they take these sorts of things into consideration because this game never will.

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Yeah, I harped on this issue, hell, musta been over 2 years ago. Never understood why, as a controller who specializes in mezzing people can't "evolve" to gain any kind of meaningful mez protection. Or that how a defender who can form a protective bubble around his teammates that allows them to fight can't do the same for himself. Or how any number of toons can use their power or a device that will heal another, but can't turned the damned thing around and heal themself. Oh, but that would be "unbalanced" they say. Ok, whatev.

And you know that if this ever changes, and fire-based toons get some kind of inherent fire resistance the numbers will be so small it will be meaningless; and of course, being an "auto" or "temp" power, unenhanceable.

But hey, with all these nifty new invention enhancements with their set bonuses you could build some fire resistance into your fire blaster. If you had the 20 million influence it would cost to buy and create all the parts necessary, or had a year or two to spend trying to amass all the salvage and recipes on your own.

Yeah, that's it, it's not that the game doesn't provide it for us, I guess we're just too lazy to achieve it.

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Our characters are living organisms. How come we can't "adapt" and do similar things as hami?

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Respecs + New Slotting.

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You're enjoying this, aren't you Castle?

I would like to add that our character did just adapt, its called inventions.

Brutes adapted in I7 with Electric melee and electric Armor

Defenders and controllers adapted earlier with Trick Arrow and Sonic Resonance.

Where would the fun in this game be if it wasn't a challenge?

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That's just it, it's NOT a challenge. A challenge implies strategy

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Quoted for emphasis. We keep saying this but Cryptic does not get it! You can tell whenever they mention the Boss Hit Point thing. They honestly believe that by increasing the mob hit points they made the fights "harder" when all they did was make the fights "longer". I am still wait to see any evidence they understand this.

Every change they make to Hami (and similar encounters) moves the event ever closer to being nothing more than an exercise in brute force, and boy is that dull!

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Well I attempted Hami last night for the first time, and I can honestly say it's not something I will ever likely attempt again, at least not for a long time. It was, without any shadow of doubt, neither FUN nor CHALLENGING.

For starters, virtually all your defensive abilities are utterly useless. Damage is untyped, meaning resistances do nothing. Their tohit buff must be off the charts, cause defense is worthless. Regens fair a tad better due to their nature, until of course they get hit with a -regen debuff which puts them out. Mez protection is a joke, cause one hit broke Unyielding, leaving me near-perma disoriented. And without any fear protection of my own, often perma-terrorized. So basically, what's the point of having powers when none of them do a damned thing? Factor in their own native damage and mez resistances, and we're all nothing but level 1 toons. Sorry, this isn't what we deserve for climbing the ranks to level 50.

And then there are the 3 waves, one at 75%, 50%, and 25%, where Hami respawns all his mitos, and wipes anyone not smart enough to be keeping track of his health and running for cover. Basically, then, you need to not only do this endeavor once, but 3 times.

The level of coordination needed to realistically do this is IMO virtually impossible to obtain amongst 50 people scattered over 6 or more teams.

And then there are the leechers. Ok, you've made it thru one wave, but find you're completely out of break frees, awakens, etc., so you port back to your base or Pocket D to get more. Lo and behold, some jackass has decided to enter the Hive before you return, making it impossible for you to re-enter and rejoin your teammates. THIS NEEDS TO BE FIXED. It is simply unacceptable. So not only then is the whole raid ridiculously impossible to complete without an SG's level of coordination, but there is no leaving the zone to rez or restock supplies between waves.

I guess the only good thing I can say about the whole affair is that I quickly reached the debt cap, allowing me to work on the debt badges. I can also say that, despite everything else, Hami is quite pretty to look at now.

But will I ever attempt this again? Not a chance in hell. I see no point, unless you're looking to piss away hours of your time, hit the debt cap, and come away with absolutely nothing. I'm perfectly glad to allow others to sort out this big mess and get it down to a science. Perhaps then I can partake of it and actually enjoy myself.

And as an aside, I can also say pretty much the same thing in regard to inventions. With the drop rates being so low and salvage, recipe, and inf costs so high, I can't imaging anyone who doesn't suffer from OCD actually getting a damned thing out of it other than the occasional IO here and there. Unfortunately, what I do see happening is the creation of a new "gold farming" sub-culture of people who continually farm AV missions over and over to obtain all the materials that the average and casual players do not have the time, patience, or incentive to gain on their own. These farmers will then sell their goods to amass large fortunes of inf, which they in turn will sell for real cash to other players from any number of available websites that cater to such.

All this time and anticipation for I9, and what do most of us get? A fat load of nothing.

Oh wait, I forgot something else we get. Mission-based Stealth suppression. Yeah, well, at least that's something we all can look forward to suffering through.

<snip>

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I was contributing something - brownies

Perhaps something more cerebral or philosophical:

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

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Are you off your Thorazine again?

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Since we're so off-topic from the OP anyhow WillyReborn...

Easy Chocolate Saucepan Brownies
From Diana Rattray

These chocolate brownies are easy to mix up in a saucepan, and they're chewy, moist, and delicious!
INGREDIENTS:

* 6 tablespoons butter
* 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
* 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
* 1 cup granulated sugar
* 2 large eggs
* 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
* 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

PREPARATION:
Heat oven to 325°. Grease and flour an 8-inch square baking pan.

In a saucepan over low heat, melt the butter and chocolate, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and let cool. With a whisk, beat in the vanilla and sugar.

Whisk in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir flour, measure into a small bowl, and stir in the baking powder and salt, blending well. With a wooden spoon, stir the flour mixture into the first mixture. Stir in the chopped nuts, blending well. Spoon into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake the brownies for about 25 minutes.

Muffin Cup Brownies
From Diana Rattray

Serve these round brownies with a big scoop of ice cream and dessert topping.
INGREDIENTS:

* 2/3 cup sifted all-purpose flour (sift before measuring)
* 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/3 cup butter
* 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
* 1 cup sugar
* 2 eggs, beaten
* 1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans
* 1 teaspoon vanilla

PREPARATION:
Preheat oven to 350°. Grease 12 muffin cups.
Sift flour with baking powder and salt. Sift again. Melt butter and chocolate over hot water.

In mixing bowl with electric mixer, beat eggs. Beat in sugar until well blended. Blend in chocolate mixture. Stir in flour mixture until well blended then stir in vanilla and pecans. Fill muffin cups about 1/3 full. Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes, until done. Cool before removing from pan. Makes 14 round muffin brownies. Serve with vanilla ice cream and butterscotch or chocolate fudge sauce, if desired.

Chocolate Brownies with Praline Topping

From Diana Rattray
Chocolate brownies with a praline pecan topping.
INGREDIENTS:

* Praline Topping
* 1/4 cup butter
* 2 tablespoons flour
* 3/4 cups firmly packed brown sugar
* 2 eggs
* 1 teaspoon vanilla
* 2 cups chopped pecans
* .
* Brownies
* 1 (21-1/2 oz) package Pillsbury fudge brownie mix
* 1/2 cup water
* 1/4 cup oil
* 1 egg

PREPARATION:
Heat oven to 350°. Grease bottom only of 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Melt butter in medium saucepan over medium-low heat; stir in flour until smooth. Add brown sugar and 2 eggs; mix well.Cook for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla and pecans. Set aside.

In large bowl,combine all brownie ingredients;beat 50 strokes with spoon. Spread in prepared pan. Spoon topping evenly over brownie layer. Bake at 350° for 30-35 minutes or until set. Do not over cook. Cool completely and cut into bars. Makes about 2 dozen brownies.

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I'm much more partial to

[censored] Pie

Sure to satisfy even the most annoying and obnoxious posters with absolutely nothing valid to contribute!

INGREDIENTS:

*1 cup of Shove it Up Your [censored]
*1/2 cup of troll bitters
*2 sticks horseshit
*1/2 tsp vitriol
*1/4 tsp bile
and just a pinch of strychnine

PREPARATION:

Mix all ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Pour mixture into a 9" [censored] and bake up your [censored] at 400F for 45 minutes or until a toothpick stuck up your urethra comes clean.

Serves 8, unless they're bitter, then serves 1