Cavatina

Originally Posted by _____

conveience is probably part of it but if ma teams are any indication repetitive content isn't much of a turn-off

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow

Frankly, I wasn't going of Champions Online at all (I don't know enough about it) but rather off a video I saw from DC Universe Online, where the Narrator talks about how a power in offensive mode shoots lightning whereas the same power in defensive mode does pretty much a carbon copy of Tesla Cage. I also don't want to get into discussions about what City of Heroes would be like with a free-choice points system. That ship has sailed. I mean, it's fun to think about it, but here I want to keep to something that is at least remotely realistic.

One of the things I have always hated about traditional MMO balance is that every class is designed with at least a few things that the class expressly CANNOT do. I guess that's part of the course for designing around a teaming structure, but it is individually limiting to a high extent. Looking at our game, however, we already have an out - Dual Builds. Originally designed to alleviate the problem of needing a specific build for PvP that's different from what's best for PvP, the expanded system was marketed as a way to, among other things, have a solo build and a team build. I mean that's not all it's designed to do, but it's still a possibility. We can, theoretically, build on that and allow different builds to actually be of different ATs. It's just a question of what is allowed.

Now, I want to say something right here - that's a direct AT-for-AT swap. No picking and choosing of primaries and secondaries out of a unipool of powersets like you can in the Architect. One of the overriding priorities of my train of thought is to propose an addition that does NOT break any balancing points anywhere in the game, or at the very least which damages as few as possible. Free power selection has proven to not work in this game and ATs were designed around both limiting raw power and reducing the the ability to gimp. That's not a structure I want to mess with, not least of all because I want to work WITH the system, rather than trying to overhaul it.

Look at it this way: you have a Fire/Fire Scrapper called Flame Dude and a Fire/Fire controller called FIame Dude. Functionally, the difference between having just one Flame Dude who can visit a trainer and switch between Scrapper and Controller is almost completely identical to having both a Scrapper and a Controller and logging out of one and into the other. Granted, with two characters, you have to level up to 50 twice as many times as for one character with two builds, but look at it from a different perspective.

I have a Dark/Dark Scrapper I made before I4. When Dark Melee and Dark Armour were ported over to Brutes, I didn't make one. Why bother? I already have the exact same combination. I made a Fire/Fire Brute at some point in I9 or I10. When Fiery Melee and Fiery Aura were ported over to Scrappers, I saw no reason to make one. I already had that combination. Well, suppose my Fiery Melee/Fiery Aura Brute doubled up as a Fire Control/Fiery Assault Dominator? Then I would very much jump at the chance to make a new Fiery Melee/ Fiery Aura Scrapper and I would dual-class him as a Fire Blast/Fire Manipulation Blaster. This adds one extra step of variety, which in turn means we can make more things with the tools we already have without resorting to duplicates.

Granted, this is a kludge. The system was never designed to even consider this kind of multi-classing in the way a points system would, where you pick ability themes and then pick what you do with these abilities afterwards. Perhaps, from a conceptual standpoint, such a points system would be superior, but I'm not confident it will be quite as straightforward as a class system. But that's besides the point. We already HAVE a class system. The point is to find a way to branch out without having to go NGE.

I believe such a system of dual-classing would be good for the game. As I said, it would add more variety and, being that you have your extra class from level 1, should allow people to get familiar with their alter ego. What's more, that ought to put an end to the debates about making non-solo-proficient classes more solo-proficient, because those who want to solo will always have a second class to play when they're not on a team. This might actually allow for team-centric classes to become even more team-centric when there's an out.

I also understand that this is tantamount to an AT respec, and I know how the community views those. I don't believe this is as much a problem, however, as this isn't a respec, it's part of the same character. It's done once at character creation and cannot be altered again. Granted, if this were allowed, for existing level 50s it WILL be the next best thing to an AT respec, but they will not abandon their old AT and will not be able to change their minds. There's also the potential problem of messing with player character balance, but since this only really switches from one stable state to another, it shouldn't present such a problem. Provided we either time this AT switchover to once every 15 minutes or even to having to visit the trainer to do it, such that people aren't switching around all the time, then I don't see it as a meaningful problem.

It doesn't help Tankers feel more like the tanks of comic books and it doesn't solve my problem with make-pretend threat, but what it does is it gives us more flexibility to adapt to situations and it just makes it so you can pick your strengths and your weaknesses so you're never in a position of wishing to just log out and play another AT.

Originally Posted by Prof_Backfire

...I haven't (deliberately) paid for a costume change in years.

But yeah, once you're 50, if you ain't farming purples you might as well be farming dirt.

Originally Posted by PhiloticKnight

Yes, because I'd never been on any board with rep before. Consider me naively optimistic about humanity, I suppose.

Originally Posted by Fury_Flechette

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm currently liking the fact that uncommon salvage (Titanium Shards, Thorn Tree Vines, etc.) are going for sky high prices.

I've rolled two brand new characters in the last couple of days and instead of using arbitrage, I've just taken my characters into AE missions solo for about a level's worth of xp (about 4 missions). That yielded approximately 700 tickets, which in turn were exchanged for 8 Titanium Shards. Those Shards sold quickly for around 350k apiece. After market fees and such, my characters are now 2.5M in the black for very little work.

I suppose I could mine this for a few levels more, but 2.5M is more than enough to enable me (characters are levels 8 and 10) to outfit them entirely with DOs and the first two sets of SOs, or more likely, enough of a starter fund to start marketeering in earnest.

For as many times I've heard about someone complaining about sky high salvage prices, I wonder why they just don't take advantage of it.

Originally Posted by PhiloticKnight

I sent this off as a PM to P_P, but I honestly think it's worthy of public posting. RE: the rep farmers

"[They farm rep] Because they are idiots and jerks. Their entire thread to "raise the rep" is a complete joke and even more than that, DANGEROUS. They create "fake rep" which they can then later use to give their opinion more "weight" to newbies that may not know the difference. The only problem is, their opinion could easily be wrong and they could hurt new players who take them at their word because of their high rep count.

I've asked the admins to delete or lock the thread, but they don't respond at all. I can only hope that no one gets hurt from this seriously or are turned away from the game because of it."

Where reputation COULD have been serious business and helped new players or posters to discover who is useful and helpful to listen to, instead because of that thread, it's now SRS BZNS and basically a joke.

11 of the top 15 "reputable" forumites on the member list got there because of that thread and solely because of that thread.

Samuraiko (Dark_Respite) originally posted in that thread but wisely deleted all of her posts in it and hasn't posted there since, which makes me respect her again. If she didn't do that, she'd make it 12 out of the top 15, but because of her taking herself out of it, I'm taking her out of that count.

A rising tide raises all boats, as they say. The more rep they give to each other, the more rep power they have to give to each other in the future. It's artificial inflation basically.

That's why I've started to ignore the rep system entirely. It had a CHANCE to be useful at the start, but it's basically just a big joke now. I don't care what position I'm in at all with the way this thing is going. I'm much more interested in the comments posted now than I am in some score which is now essentially meaningless.

Originally Posted by Hell_Jumper

it will hurt me on a personal/player level because a few long time players that have become friends will be leaving to Champions. I have seen them less and less and the Beta comes on more and more and the feedback that they are telling me is that they are excited about the game.

Originally Posted by COTCaveHater

Originally Posted by DSorrow

Why would anyone want to avoid the market?

I hope it's not "I don't want to taint myself with capitalism", because that's just lol-worthy.

Originally Posted by Snakebit

Between the hyperbole, ad hominem statements, the "ebil flipper" comments, and the "wah, I wanna be rich too, I just don't want to work for it" hogwash (not to mention a complete lack of understanding of grade school economics) in this thread I thought I was at the DNC.

Originally Posted by UberGuy

He wants to make mad profits on the actual Black Market that springs up.

Originally Posted by Laevateinn

When people ask how to avoid the market, it's usually not avoiding the market that they're interested in. After all, the market is already 90% avoidable: except for purples, PvPIOs and a few other items (e.g. respec recipes), everything in the game is available through Merits or tickets. What they're really asking is how to get what they want while paying trivial and inconsequential prices.

Originally Posted by Darc_Ranger

Have a dedicated door access through Pocket D to an AE suite, so it does not takeup RP space in Pocket D. Once inside the room you can see outside into the zone opposite of the ski area view. During Winter Holiday, maybe fliers can see the special AE building attached to Pocket D, but Access is still from inside Pocket D.

You could use the Pocket D hospital space so that is one less floor needed. Have the welcome to AE person stand outside the door area at a desk or create a small suite before entering main AE space.

Originally Posted by Golden_Girl_EU

I'm not so sure - the new sk system would cut down on the broadcast chat, and Pocket D has a reduced chat range too, which was added to help RPers, I think.

Originally Posted by Futurias

It wouldn't ruin it for me, especially if they were off in their own section of Pocket D.

I found it very annoying that they created co-op self-made missions... then basically said 'no co-op missions until level 35+.'

Originally Posted by AquaJAWS

Instead of moving it, why not just add another AE outlet into Pocket D. That COULD also get a lot of people out of Atlas and Cap.

Originally Posted by Perfect_Pain

FTR - Farmers are extremely happy about ALL of these changes.

Power Levelers, are likely not quite as happy.

Originally Posted by Frost_NA

Hear that sound?

That's the sound of PLers crying out in one voice and then being suddenly silenced.

If the exemplar power loss issue is solved, I'm all for these changes.

Originally Posted by Wavicle

Nah, experienced and skilled players would bring real sets instead of 3 kins. Leadership is the second rate backup for buff/debuff sets without -Def or +Tohit. :P

Originally Posted by Von Stuben

There is a real need for review of what is " common" or " rare" and what the cost is of all of it. It is clear that the market is out of whack. It is also clear that the market is designed to benefit gold farmers at the expense of players . I feel like the entire system should be reviewed, it is by far the absolute worst part of the game. I hate and dread using the market every time I have to do it. But maybe that is because I am not a greedy gold farmer sending my kids to college on RMT.

Originally Posted by Johnny_Butane

[ QUOTE ]
<QR>

One of the big misconceptions (I think) to playing this game is rolling up a Tanker and expecting to be Super Man or The Thing or Colossus.

This isn't City of Marvel or City of DC, but City of Heroes, and the game and context must be confined to that for purposes of role play / lore discussion.

For the same reason rolling a Wizard in EQ never produced Gandalf or Merlin.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ok, look at the game's lore. The Tankers in the CoH lore aren't low damage decoys like player Tankers are.

Statesman? 'Nuff said.



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Originally Posted by Johnny_Butane

People have demonstrated repeatedly with many suggestions that there are things the devs could have done and CAN STILL DO to fix the problem.

The "concession" in question didn't have to be made and doesn't have to go unaddressed.

It is purely the devs' whim that holds Tankers back. Shafting Tankers and continuing to ignore the same damn complaints about them for four years wasn't done for the good of the game, that's for damn sure. Solutions exist. There are better alternatives. The devs have refused to pursue them, at least up until this point.




That might be a fair comment in this case if the devs had attempted to compromise. They didn't. They decided to force comic tanks to fit into the MMO mold and discard important and expected traits/characteristics just because they felt an AT was needed to be a dedicated tank at the expence of everything else.

That's not called making a compromise or a concession. That's allowing one ideal to fully supplant another and ignoring anyone who complained after their half-hearted attempt at a quick fix didn't fix the problem.


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