Castle

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hows that fix looking castle?

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Geko and I may have figured out a fix this morning. I'm working on it...but still no ETA.

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The pets couldn't be targeted and even when moused over nothing showed up.

Sorry forgot about that part.

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Unfortunately, they have to be that way. Having them targettable was far too problematic.

I like Flight, simply because it is the lowest Maintenance. Click the toggle, press auto-run and go AFK for a few minutes or chat with my SG.

I like Super Jump because of its combination of speed and vertical movement. It's also handy in PvP. It's a maintenance power, though. It's difficult to chat when you constantly hold down the spacebar. (Yeah, I know...remap the key!)

I like Teleport due to it's speed and PvP benefits. It takes a lot of getting used to, though.

I like Superspeed mainly due to speed. I typically take it in combination with another travel power, though.

You'll notice in that quote I said "I think" -- turns out I was wrong. It's a timing issue in code and would need some serious work to address. It's still on the list, but it's low priority due to the difficulty involved.

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Kin is an extremely good set as-is, throughout its career. It needs no changes. Do not draw the developer eye to Kin.

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QFE odds are if the Devs actually take notice of posts like this and take a look at Kin, its gonna get nerfed.

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I've looked at Kinetics a lot. There are no plans to change it at this time.

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I just rechecked this. It looks like Brute taunt auras (invincibility, mud pots) are exempt from this restriction. The inherent taunt of those powers apparently is set to work on all NPCs, but the Tanker equivalents do not.

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Well, I hope your "source" works both ways and gets that problem to a Dev.

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Indirectly, it did.

No comments on the gauntlet issue at the moment -- but I am reading the threads and taking notes.

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Last time I checked, there is no Gadgets secondary. There is, however, one called Devices. Freudian slips like this and folks wonder why some hold the belief that the devs don't seem to know the Blaster AT all that much.

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Gadgets is the internal name of Devices. It's a Legacy issue and it was my mistake when adding the patch note.

As for the change itself, there was an exploit involving TFoe and various stationary entities (like Auto Turret.) In fixing this, the player versions of these entities were locked down as well. I do realise this impacts one of the tactics Devices players used to bypass the limitations of the set. I'll be keeping an eye on this to see if the change hampers the gameplay too severely.

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Can you imagine how powerful the pocket d temp power would be for pvp if it had a reasonable activation time. It would make all escape powers pale in comparison.

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And that is why it has a long, interruptable activation time.

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I remember MacAllen charging into a full spawn the one time he grouped with us in Beta...and promptly getting killed because the entire group was unprepared for it.

I remember the Cows.

I remember playing in Freak Force, which I believe was the second or third SG made in Beta.

I remember someone on the original forums had a character whose sole ability was to be able to summon Cheerleaders. Great stories!

I remember Qlop (actually, I remember him from the Anarchy Online Beta, too. I argued with him there just as much!)

I remember shelving my first Live character because his attack chain wasn't good enough.

I remember when Invisibility (now Superior Invisibility) + Hover took me 10 minutes to get to the top of the trees in Perez Park because it had the built in Slow that Stealth had.

I remember having a characters costume reset because she looked too naked (in beta...I was trying to prove a point!)

I remember how disappointed I was that I couldn't catch the Rikti attack ship during the Rikti Invasion...despite having 6 slotted Flight.

I remember writing a post asking Cryptic and NCSoft to have some sort of memorial for Coyote -- the first ever fan to post on the old forums, and writer of the "Welcome to City Of Heroes FAQ." (I'd "known" him online for quite some time over on the Safehouse.)

I remember my first encounter with the Knives of Artemis, and the numerous "Ow, my feet!" jokes afterwards.

That's enough for now...back to the spreadsheets!

Unbelievably, Impale is 80' range.

Disclaimer: No, that does not imply an impending range reduction for impale or increase for Focus.

After numerous PMs, I figure I should address this.

First, we know about this. It was noted as happening during Beta. At that time, we decided to watch the PvP data and see if it proved a problem. Stalkers are not doing poorly in PvP at any level range.

Second, I discussed this with our QA and programmer and have filed it as a bug. It is low priority, however, since Stalkers are still the best in PvP according to our data. As such, there is no ETA for a fix.

Third, there is a workaround for this issue. I'm certain you all can figure out what it is, if you don't already know.

Just to reiterate on Placates mechanics:
Placate, the power has two portions: Placate (the effect) and a Hide equivalent.
Any attack or effect on the original target will break the Placate, but not the hide -- only a new attack on any target breaks that.
In PvE, we've made the AI ignore Effects when placated, so the AI still ignores you (most of the time.)

Placate is a tool. It is a powerful tool, but it has limitations. Learning those limitations and how to work around them is a large part of gameplay for Stalkers.

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All kidding aside, it baffles me every time I see someone refer to their character as their "toon"... Maybe it's because I'm a P&P RPGer and not a video gamer, but where in the heck did that originate? I think it sounds pretty silly.

Thanks

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The first place I heard 'Toon' used was on The Realm many years back, where it was common. Apparently, the 'toon' vs. 'character' thing largely depends on what your introduction to online gaming culture was. There isn't really much of a difference.

I've been looking at this off and on for a few months (since I7 was released) and haven't found any replicatable evidence for it. I have seen enough reports from enough disparate sources that I believe there is something funky happening, but so far, I've not been able to track it down.

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Can you tell us if the jetpack will remain visible or will it vanish when the 30 seconds is up. Obviously the power benefit would vanish after the 30 seconds but.. just hoping there's a way to keep it visible for those characters who want that option for their costume.

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From a powers/animation standpoint, the backpack geometry fades away after a period of non-use. I do not believe the geometry is available as a 'Cape' option so it is always present, though. I'm not Jay, though, so I could certainly be wrong!

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I know there are different ranks for mobs. AV/Hero>GM> Elite Boss> Boss>Lueitenent> Minion and Underlings but where do pets and henchmen fall under?

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The Ranks are equivalent to Archetypes for players -- each one has it's own unique stats. In general, the Underling, Minion, Lieutenant, Boss, Elite Boss, Archvillain and Giant Monster Ranks cover everything. Pets, Henchmen, Snipers, certain Rularuu critters, the Civilians in Mayhem Missions and a couple other, rather esoteric groups exist as well.

Pets, for instance, do slightly less damage than Minions, but have greater Hit Points. There are three varieties of Henchmen: Minion, Lieutenant and Boss. Each of these does less damage than the equivalent Critter, but have greater Hit Points. Henchmen also have a greater base perception than other pets or critters, as well as enabling the Mastermind Command hotkeys.

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Please tell me you're not going to screw up yet another one my toons but with this time with getting rid of the cool animations of the power. Please tell me whatever you're doing will still allow the animation effects of the power that are in place now, will still be happening after this "fix" to the break free problems. If you make it just some boring hold I'll be quit upset. The spinning around part of the power is what makes it so cool! Please figure out some way to make break frees work, but not take away the animation.

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That is the goal. We really like the animation since it is such a signature move. No promises, but we really don't want to change the look of the power.

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But what would surprise me is if it was a bug for Ghost Widow and that we should be able to BF out of hers and they fix it so we can. That'll shock the hell out of me. 'Cause, see, then it wouldn't be har... uhh... I mean fun enough.

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Since the bug is in the animation, not the power, any fix will affect Ghost Widow's power, as well as the patron power version.

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In PvP soul storm causes effected opponents to spin around, and while in this stasis they can not use a bf. If they use one before hand they will not be effected by either the hold or the ariel acrobatics. I just want an official word or link about this power.

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This is a known bug. A fix is in the works.

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Part of the problem is there is a lot of confusion on what Gauntlet is. My understanding is that the AOE powers mentioned above, Auras, the Taunt Power, temp powers are *not* using Gauntlet at all. Only some single target attacks use gauntlet. Gauntlet is a *small* aoe taunt bubble around a single target when you hit the target and your power is one that makes use of it.

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Gauntlet is a generic name for a variety of powers which all include an inherent 'Taunt' effect. The text says "Each time the Tanker attacks, he enrages the target, and those around him, enticing them to attack the Tanker."

So, what is an attack?
* Any of your Melee Powers which damage a target, and many that simply apply a Status Effect. Single Target attacks are limited to 5 critters effected per attack. PBAoE's such as Whirling Mace are limited to the number of critters that take damage -- in this case, up to 10 critters.
* Any 'Aura' powers you may have, such as Icicles or Invincibility.

Note that there is no distinction between Primary and Secondary powersets, Epic Powersets or Pool Powers? These all have Gauntlet on them, to one extent or another (Pool Powers version is limited to 1 target, and only the direct attacks have it.)

If you are dealing with +3's or higher, it may be worthwhile to slot a Taunt enhancer or two into the powers you are using. They *do* help.

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On another note- you haven't given us your opinion.
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My SG has two lvl 50 Fire/Fire Tankers (my own is level 24 now). Are they viable tanks? One says "yes" the other says "I'm gimped." I've grouped with both of them and had no problems.

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What say you after 24 levels?
Overpowered?
Just right?
Gimped?
What powers did you take, and how has your solo and grouping experience been?

Thanks,

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At 21, I could solo large groups in Dark Astoria for massive XP. I did so for 3 levels but I got very bored doing so and went back to doing missions.

Teaming, I typically hook up with a Defender or Controller and as many others when I can find them on Test (low population makes large teams more difficult to put together.) I didn't take Taunt until 22, so that made life a bit rough, but with it, I don't do badly at all. Burn followed immediately by taunt keeps the aggro on me and off of my team mates and also provides a seond or two of damage mitigation which helps.

I use Hover for KB 'protection' and Burn for Immob protection. Hover isn't great for it, but it does help.

Is this style 'optimal'? Certainly not, but it works for me.

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Is Castle's sig quoting everyone's favourite robotic assassin from KOTOR?

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From KOTOR2, and I think it was one of the other HK models, but yeah.

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I just finished playing it again. I love the game.

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It makes me think that they thought of only 8 powers, but had to fill in 9 tiers. So... let's subtract DEF here (UY) and put it over here (TH), to tone down the potential DEF provided by Invinc. Viola! 9 powers!

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Unyielding was originally Unyielding Stance and it had no -DEF component. It did, however, make you immobile. This was incredibly unpopular and it was decided to remove that penalty. At that point, the -DEF was added to replace the Immobilize penalty.

I see a lot of requests asking "Can you give Fiery Aura Knockback and/or Immobilization protection." I have to answer "Almost certainly not." It's a primary design decision, and not one I can change easily. However, before you run off and burn me in effigy,

My SG has two lvl 50 Fire/Fire Tankers (my own is level 24 now). Are they viable tanks? One says "yes" the other says "I'm gimped." I've grouped with both of them and had no problems. I've seen all the math that says Fire is weaker defensively than the other sets, yet every model I have seen does not take into consideration the actual killing of opponents. Burn, Blazing Aura and Fiery Embrace are a huge offensive benefit that other tanker secondaries do not have access to. Well, ok, Blazing Aura has equivalents in Ice (90.1% of BA's damage) and Stone (81.8% of BA's damage), but neither of those can be boosted with a self buff from the Defensive set itself. Build Up with Fiery Embrace combined essentially double the damage of BA 3 slotted for Damage. Burn is essentially doubled as well. At level 50, that's ~12 points of damage every 0.2 seconds. Assuming you have a friend, temp power or, say Ring of Fire or Char from the APP's (which both benefit from Fiery Embrace as well) that's 12*5*5 (10 minus cast times for Build Up and Burn) 300 points of damage, or 2/3 of a minions HP at level 50. Burn also gives 100 seconds of Immobilization Protection equivalent to that in Unyielding.

None of that is to say Fire/* is perfect, or 'The best' but it IS the most offensive of the Tanker secondaries, with two damage powers and one damage buff. Could it use some help? Possibly. My biggest concern is actually the 'forced to take acrobatics' issue and there are other things we can do other than straight up buffs to address that.

PS: I'm aware Brutes Burn has a shorter Recharge than Tankers. I'm not going to comment on that at this time.

The first time I heard the term was a post in the old UO Newsgroup in a post that I *think* was made by our very own Venture. Actually, a quick search show it wasn't him, but a fellow named Bill Bessette. Here's a link to it.

I'm not CERTAIN it's the first use of the term, just the first I know of.

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Out of curiosity, does this tweak include the ability to fire off domination when mezzed?

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Not initially, but the patch following should have it. I forget to stick that in on the original change, and QA helpfully pointed it out, but not in time to reach the version going out.