Captain_Meson

I can log in successfully. The first time I logged in, I was in the bank in Steel, and went to Valkyrie to level successfully. A bit after that I crashed. Now every time I log in with this character I crash within a few seconds, and usually Windows reports that the display driver has died and restarted. I have rebooted, and done a "verify files" in the launcher, to no avail.

---System information gathered by CoH Helper version 0.2.0.2---

DxDiag gathered at July 1, 2010 21:05 (-07:00)
Operating System: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (6.1, Build 7600) (7600.win7_gdr.100226-1909)
System Manufacturer: System manufacturer
System Model: System Product Name
BIOS: BIOS Date: 02/24/10 12:23:42 Ver: 08.00.15
Central Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 930 @ 2.80GHz (8 CPUs), ~2.8GHz
Memory: 6144MB
.Net Memory Report: 4831MB out of 6135MB available
Page File: 10651MB (1617MB currently in use)
C Drive: (INTEL SSDSA2M080G2GC) 20092MB out of 76216MB (26%) free
D Drive: (WDC WD15EARS-00Z5B1) 1368120MB out of 1430796MB (95%) free
E Drive: (PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-218L) zero-size drive
Windows directory location: C:\Windows
DirectX: DirectX 11
DirectX Diag version: 6.01.7600.16385 (64-bit version)

Display Notes: No problems found.
Sound Notes: No problems found.

No problems found.

No problems found.
Input Notes: No problems found.

Monitor:
Monitor's Max Resolution: (blank)
Video Device Name: ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series
Manufacturer / Chip: ATI Technologies Inc. / ATI display adapter (0x6899)
Video Memory: 3819 MB
Driver Version: 8.723.0.0
Driver Date: 4/6/2010 6:22:38 PM
Driver Language: English

Sound Device Description: Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Driver File: RTKVHD64.sys
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.5959
Driver Date: 10/14/2009 5:31:22 PM

Sound Device Description: Realtek Digital Output (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Driver File: RTKVHD64.sys
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.5959
Driver Date: 10/14/2009 5:31:22 PM

Sound Device Description: Realtek Digital Output(Optical) (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Driver File: RTKVHD64.sys
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.5959
Driver Date: 10/14/2009 5:31:22 PM


WMI Information
Motherboard Manufacturer: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
Motherboard Model: (empty)
Motherboard Product: P6X58D PREMIUM
Motherboard Version: Rev 1.xx
BIOS Manufacturer: American Megatrends Inc.
BIOS Name: BIOS Date: 02/24/10 12:23:42 Ver: 08.00.15
BIOS Version: 022410 - 20100224
BIOS Release: 20100224000000.000000+000


Registry Information for Current User
Resolution: 1920x1200
3D Resolution: 1920x1200 (Not using renderscale)
Full Screen: Yes
Maximized: No
Screen Position: 0, 0
Refresh Rate: 60Hz
Vertical Sync Enabled: Yes


Physics Quality: High
Maximum Particles: 50000
Max Particle Fill? 10.000
Physics Card Enabled: No


Anti-aliasing: 2x
Anisotropic Filtering: 4x
Texture LOD Bias: Smooth
Water Effects: Ultra quality
Bloom: 1.000 (turned on)
Depth of Field Enabled: Yes
Desaturation Effects (Sepia) Enabled: Yes
Shader Detail: Medium?


World Texture Level: Very High
Character Texture Level: Very High
World Detail Level (Vis_Scale): 1.000
Entity Detail Level: 1.000
Shadows Enabled: No
Shadow Mode: Unknown (4)
Shadow Map Shader: High quality
Environmental Reflections: High quality
Advanced Occlusion Settings: No
Ambient Occlusion: High quality
Occlusion Strength: Strong
Blur: Trilateral
Ambient Resolution: Quality


Gamma Correction: 1.000
Geometry Buffers (VBOs) Enabled: Yes
Suppression of FX When Camera Close Enabled: No
Close Suppression Range: 3.000
Show Advertisements: Yes

Audio Mode: Performance
3D Audio: No
FX Sound Volume: 0.651
Music Sound Volume: 0.337

Show Advanced Graphics Options: No
Overall Graphics Quality: 1.000
Reverse Mouse Buttons: No
Save Login Username: Yes
Transfer Rate: 637189 bytes/second
Current Game Version: 1800.201006040036.5Tr
Installation Directory: D:\apps\City of Heroes

Mod files in the Data directory
No modifications found

I wanted to use the testing room for its secondary purpose - trying out a decision on my live character before committing to it - but because of the upcoming beta and the database copy it appears that all I can do is get the state of my character from a few days ago onto Training Room 02. There aren't any options on the copy tool pages to control this. Am I going to have to use up a veteran reward respec because of this?

I was really pleased by the City Traveller idea; since much of the appeal of this game is for us altoholics, this was a great bonus tor easing some tedium in the early teens when mission doors are far across big zones with dangerous spawns (Steel Canyon, Cap au Diable). And while Combat Jumping and Hasten are both great powers, Hover isn't much use for a melee character for whom Flight fits as a travel power, Teleport Foe becomes nigh-useless eventually and Recall Friend is less useful when teammates are all experienced and have travel powers.

Some thoughts I had:

How about giving a choice among some of the harder-to-unlock costume items? Frex, for those of us who will never have the time to do an 8-player TF, let us get the Roman armor set this way.

Maybe a couple special emotes, like "stand at attenton and gleam heroically" and "huddle villainously in projected shadows"? I'm thinking simple lighting effects that combine with the fixed pose to keep the art cost low.

Or maybe actual aura choices that start unlocked (like booster and special edition auras and capes) and convey the extra-shiny or extra-shady nature? These would probably be too expensive to make, though.

Perhaps a once-per-hour highly interruptible teleport to the zone's trainer (doesn't work on mission maps, in trial/etc. zones it goes to the nearest zone exit)?

Or maybe a "rail pass" that lets you board the PTA from any normal zone without gaving to run to the station. I'd go for the extra benefit and lower cost of making one "green line" and one "yellow line" pass power to pick from, and the pass always boards that line regardless where you are. I guess the villain equivalent would be just the ferry or black helicopter, neither of which goes to Mercy .

If players only play highly-rated arcs, newly written ones will never get reviewed. If you are an arc author, please take the time to search for "unrated" arcs and find several that interest you every time you play. That way all of us who are trying to make good arcs can get a chance to be seen.

Also, many folks are trying to make good, interesting arcs but need feedback on what is missing or doesn't work.

Both of these points are especially true because of the hideous number of arcs out there that shouldn't have been published at all. For every serious entry I've found, there are six farm missions, four lame arcs with a custom villain group but insufficient or zero text/story, and three that the author marked "unfinished" but published anyway (what's with that?).

That seems obvious if you start thinking like you are roleplaying and not accumulating "score" in some game you made up for yourself. Having badges for specific jobs allows a specific reward for playing your character consistently: If you play a doctor, and consistently log out in the hospital, you will soon start to get more rewards from logging out in the hospital than would a roll-player who goes there because they currently want that reward.

It's about time an MMO company started making mechanics that rewarded people for role-playing. Too many things that coudl be done along those lines are too exploitable. (For example, a real superhero does not say to the old lady who is being mugged, "I'm sorry ma'am. I don't get any exp for helping you so you can just suffer." But if there were any reward at all for defeating gray enemies, some rollplayer would exploit it so there isn't.)

I like this idea on many levels, but most especially because it's a tangible incentive to roleplay characters at least a tiny bit.

I thought I noticed that too, but on going a little deeper I don't thin it's *totally* fixed. It only goes crazy if you do a lot of deletions while jumping around, and not when you are deleting from the end of the text. This is still a huge improvement.

I personally thank you for your original post series. I found it entirely readable, entirely clear, and very informative. It was also another indictment of Cryptic's lack of understanding of the mathematics of game design (which first showed in the amazingly bad decision to make accuracy mechanics additive instead of multiplicative).

I really hope the devs take a good solid look at your data and conclusions, and adjust things.

After lusting after the power for 37 levels, my FF/EB defender is about to respec out of Nova because it's totally useless.

As other posters have noted, the low damage (which is even worse for a Def) makes it less than useful as an Alpha strike. That's OK, I'm a Def. (Though a team with 2 defs really ought to be able to do a double-nova alpha strike and we've found it's just not worth it, see below.)

The long activation means I can't use it in an emergency when the battle is going badly. And the Defender inherent, which is already useless for non-healers, doesn't help in this situation where it should because the problem is the loss of recovery, not the END cost itself.

So here I have this power I waited for level 38 to get. It:

* Does some damage. Highly variable, so it can't be counted on to end a fight.
* Gets some knockback but
* Leaves me disabled far longer than the enemies take to stand back up
* Drops all my toggles, which as an FF/Leadership defender are an enormous part of my team's capabilities.

So the net effect is that this *supposedly great* power is a drastic net loss. It completely negates my high-powered team buffs for many seconds, in return for ridiculously low damage and some knockback (which I could get from Explosive Blast with more benefit and less bad side effects).

Nova, et al, might have been balanced for six SO damages before ED, but they are not good now.

Please get rid of one of the drawbacks to make the powers worth their exalted places in the power sets.
- Preferably, remove the recovery penalty. This would be the best choice, allowing Defenders to use the power in conjunction with their inherent as a real team-saver and allowing all characters the option of slotting for END reduction if they don't want their toggles dropping.
- Alternately, upscale the damage by a factor of about 2.0 so a Blaster will get 100% damage on a +1 Lt. if the power hits but the random extra damage ticks don't fire. This will make a 3-slotted post-ED Nova do a bit more damage than a 6-slotted one pre-ED would, making Blaster novas a viable (if risky) solo alpha strike and Defender novas worth the cost, at least to toggle-light builds like Empathy.

Sigh.

This is a very significant question for me, because it has been the focus of a couple of poignant decisions for me.

About a year and a half ago, I realized that I was taking too much time out of my real life for gaming, trying to play two MMOs and keep up with good single-player games. I had to pick which MMO to keep. I've had cause to revisit that decision recently, and I suspect the change in my answers is informative in many ways.

Really, the issues haven't changed. What has actually changed is that CoH/V has utterly failed to evolve in directions that make it more fun for me; the other game - let's call it "GoSH" - is still not directly aimed at my favorite interests but as part of their general polish it has actually become a great deal more fun for me over that time.

CoH/V strengths:

*** #1 absolute best feature of CoH/V ***[*]Sidekicking and exemplaring mean that I can play with my friends regardless of our differing amounts of playtime. It means we can mix and match alts to match our moods. It make the game a social occasion, which really makes up for the fact that a computer game, and especially an MMO, is a crippled environment for real role playing. (Sadly, this huge advantage only applies when one actually has friends playing the game. Since the lack of progress in the problem areas I mention below has driven most of the folks I'd play with away over time, it's becoming less and less important that I could group with them if they were still around.)
[*]Primary PvE focus: While time continues to be wasted on adding PvP features for me and my friends to ignore, the core of the gameplay is focussed on PvE. I don't miss any substantial part of gameplay because I get no fun from fighting other players.
[*]No rat hunting in CoH: From the very first moments you play your character, you are doing something heroic. Saving little old ladies from muggers means something in a way that no amount of rat hunting can.

Weaknesses of CoH/V:

*** #1 reason why I have cut my CoH/V gaming to one scheduled night a week with my friends, and gone back to "GoSH" the rest of the week ***[*]Exponentially increasing time to level - specifically, by the time you reach level 30 a 6-hour evening of gaming is "good" if it yields a tenth of a level, and it takes 3 levels to gain any new powers. Gaining new powers is the biggest carrot in the game, the way in which play stays fresh as well as the source of the biggest feeling of accomplishment. If it's going to take an entire month of play to get one new power, but I can play another game and get a feeling of growth and accomplishment every night...
[*]Poorly realized enemies, loss of heroic/villainous feeling: Somewhere around level 20, CoH starts to lose flavor fast. Graduating from street punks to small-scale organized threats like the Valhizoks and what you first think the CoT to be feels right. And everybody loves to hate the Nazis. But beating on Freaks on street corners just because they are "bad"? Going into the poshest neighborhood in the city and seeing Rikti - who are supposed to be mysterious and hidden - standing on streetcorners?
[*]Lack of villainy in CoV: "Kidnappings" that are just rescues with a different label, missions that play and feel identical to heroic ones in general, endless fights against Snakes and doing flunky work for "real" villains. Even the newspaper missions, which at least capture some of the flavor of being your own evil master, are all disconnected one-shots. Why does my supposedly arch-villainous character never even come up with a plan for world domination? On the good side, a few of the contacts' missions do feel very villainous - turning a new hero to the dark side, hunting down the old man, etc. But far too many of them could be hero missions with very minor changes.

So, a year and a half ago, I looked at the two games and said "Playing with my friends and not worrying about PvP, I'll go with CoH."

This year, I note that in GoSH the Battlegrounds feature has given a much better venue for the folks who want some PvP on their PvE servers (so PvP no longer interferes with PvE players), that they are working on an expansion that will raise the level cap, that they are retuning most of the high/max-level content for smaller, fun teams instead of massive raids. The things I hated most about that game have been improved greatly *despite my being at the edge of their target market*. They've also managed to fix many class and power (talent) balance issues by retuning and boosting underperforming characters instead of nerf-festing. They've even taken steps to make the classes that heal able to do so effectively in groups even while concentrating their talent choices on more interesting abilities - an unexpected and welcome step away from the EQ tank/healer/dps pigeonhole mentality.

Meanwhile in CoH/V the same year has seen almost no change in the most broken areas. One bright spot was a partial fix to the early disastrous design decision to make accuracy effects additive instead of multiplicative; these days Defense-based power sets are at least playable. But otherwise almost all the real changes in the game have been PvP-related. Most characters' high-level abilities, even if one is patient enough to reach them, are "situational". The powersets that used to be the most flexible have been nerfed into one-trick-pony status, so while an ice tanker does play differently from a fire tanker, a level-40 ice tanker plays almost identically to a level-12 one.

I am not giving up on CoH/V entirely just yet. The veterans' rewards include some nifty things to play with. The invention system in I9 sounds intriguing. I do have three good friends who are committed for the long haul, and it looks like the SG and base fixes will make it much more tenable for us to play as a 4-player, 20-character or so SG.

And not having to worry about aggro when I'm the healer makes the game much more relaxing when my work day has been tiring. I shouldn't forget to mention that.

But when I see the game today and think about where I hoped it was going 2 and 3 years ago, I am disappointed. I really hope that this trend will change. Meanwhile, I can play GoSH three or four nights a week and have fun with that while I wait.

I'm sure this suggestion is obvious enough it's been made before, but I haven't seen it so I'll make it now.

It seems to me that the basic dichotomy is not just small vs large SG, it's also PvP vs non-PvP. Small SGs are pretty much by definition not interested in PvP, but even moderetely-large ones might not be.

It would be great if you'd offer some lower-cost base plots that don't allow placing PvP-related rooms. Also decrease the cost of the "decorative" room type. These two changes would allow a small SG interested in a nice-looking base that matches their role-playing can get one, without unbalancing things for groups whose main pride is in "showing" their base to invaders...

An obvious suggestion, but one I think that has great merit:

Make the AV reward be an SO for *every* team member, instead of one chosen randomly. I'm in a pretty close-knit supergroup, and while none of us complains about this, I think we all (even or especially the lucky one who gets the SO) feel a little disappointed when only one of us gets the SO.

Let me start with the specific before I move on to my real beef, which is more general.

Specifically, why is Superior Invisibility on your "minor stealth powers" list. It is a PRIMARY power. It is also character-defining - in the various incarnations of The Shadow, invisibility is the constant factor, and to my mind no other archetype and powerset combination matches The Shadow the way Illusion Control does.

More generally, what are you fixing here? As someone who has played since the preorder preview period, and who has played various other MMOs, computer games, and FtF RP games for some 25 years, I believe I have some perspective as a player on why I play this game. CoH is distinctive among MMOs in really only three things: (1) It is about superheroes (2) it is combat-only, no crafting, no inventory, etc. (3) It is friendlier (at least at low levels) to casual and solo players and provides ways for friends to play together when they differ widely in amount of time gaming.

(1) is already broken by the issues of being a game and an MMO, and I can't really complain about it. Superheroes do not end up in the hospital after a fight with a gang. Superhero plots are primarily puzzles, where a villain presents a barrier that prevents the hero from prevailing by brute force and the hero must cleverly or luckily find a way around that barrier. These are things that are hard to translate to a computer RPG, and basically impossible to do in an MMO. I can live with that.

(3) is the one thing about CoH that hasn't been greatly weakened since opening day. Soloing has become overall less tenable above level 20, but if you constrain your character design to the types that do solo well you can do it. Sidekicking is great, and has been there since the beginning. Adding Exemplaring was a great improvement, for various reasons in the social dynamics of play.

But I am deeply concerned that I5 is evidence that you've completely forgotten the problems with (2). In the early days, trying various hero designs, I was exhilarated by the observation that given any archetype and powerset I could come up with tactics to make them fun and useful in play. Over time this has been weakened by nearly every patch, as archetypes were forced into traditional MMO roles and the more tactically-interesting powersets (like Devices) were "balanced" into lists of boring one-trick ponies. Certainly the decision to do away with the more fun/interesting uses of Smoke Grenade and leave it only useful as part of the boring but powerful Stealth-prox-mine attack was the worst I can remember.

But it is the ability to be innovative and tactical, to come up with new ways to combine powers, that keeps this game from being boring. Face it, no matter how many different backstories you can come up with for why I must go into a building and lay waste to everything I see in it, I will still spend the same 20 minutes pushing the same buttons in the same order over and over. The interest is in variety. And I5 seems to be continuing the push to destroy that variety in the name of "balance". I could care less about "balance". I don't care that Joe Blow can reach level 50 in "only" 2000 hours of play while it will take me 2500. I care about whether I am having fun for those 2500 hours. And with every patch, this specious "balance" is the reason why my characters get more and more boring to play.

Getting back to stealth, this is a perfect example. Nothing is broken, so don't fix it. Yes, many many players take Stealth, because at high levels getting the first shot off can decide a fight. Many many players take Stamina, because standing around doing nothing is not fun. Who is hurt by these things? Certainly not the people who are playing the game for fun.

I am particularly threatened by this change because it could substantially destroy the character I had hoped to finally get to level 50. Between the "balancing" away of fun on some characters, and the fact that the time/reward curve is designed backwards in this game (the time to level increases exponentially, but as you get to higher levels the number of levels between new powers gets *longer*!), I have had most of my characters get into the low 30s and stop, because the perceived reward for playing them more went to hell. So I finally have a charcter where I got lots of interesting powers with potentially interesting combinations by level 30, where I can expect to keep experimenting with those to fill the gaps between new powers. He is an Illusion controller, and now I see that one of the powers that gives him the most flexibility and 50% of his solo capability is going to be changed such that he can no longer do anything except stealth-cheese glowy missions with it.

Please stop the madness. Stop chasing the illusion of "balance" and start thinking about "fun for non-exploiters" instead. Ignore the children who measure their success in games by how quickly they "beat" them. They will be abandoning your game for the newest flavor of the month soon anyway. Don't continue destroying the game that has kept me playing for over a year chasing a chimera.

Thank you for listening.

This sounds potentially great, but I'm curious about this "specialize in one" thing. My main character, Captain Meson, is an academic scientist whose secret identity is a university professor. I suspect he would have some ability in "science", "scholarship", and possibly "communication". Obviously the system isn't fully explained in the article, but potentially a character might want to be shallow (or deep) in several skills instead of deep (or masterful) in one. Will that be allowed?