Clave_Dark_5

Trial and error are the best teachers...

but Paragonwiki will still slip you test answers in class.


Start here.

[ QUOTE ]
awesome that fun lol, can someone give me a link to a class guide? like best solo class, most played class, highest dmg etc....

[/ QUOTE ]

Check these forums for the sections for each "class" (we usually call 'erm ATs round these parts, but that aint no big sin), "Tanker", "Stalker", etc. At the top of each forum are threads with player guides you can check out; be warned some are not exactly as complete as they could be, some are very biased towards certain issues that others might not be, and most of them are rather old and may be out of date since some powers have been updated, changed, nerfed, etc. People don't tend to write them as much these days, which is a story I'll save you from.

The best news is that once you understand more or less what a basic build needs, you can fake your way through most ATs - er, "classes". There is very seldomly an actual "bad build", almost any build is playable. Just be sure to pay attention to the forum for your chosen class and you'll find all sorts of good info dropped here and there.

And welcome to the game.

"Darn", now I have something else to want in this game that I didn't know I wanted - more leg options.

Anyone else getting tired of the robotic "monstrous" feet and want more options for robot-like legs/feet? I know I am.

I recall it being Doms too.

The stalker bigotry continues!!!!!111eleventy-one!

[ QUOTE ]
"Abandoned" office maps which match the "Clean" office maps in layout. So you could have a character visit a building in one mission and then have them return in another mission to find the building destroyed (Crey raided the office!) or reconstructed (go back in time to prevent the bomb from going off!).

None of the abandoned/clean layouts match up currently. None are even close enough to fudge it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Same goes for the tech lab maps. I'm trying to shoehorn this into my third arc and it's going to be only a semi-fit at best.

[ QUOTE ]
But you have time for 21,211 posts. Pfft.

Why not let the person the post was meant for or a person that would actually fit that senario bring that up if it applies. We don't need a bunch of strawmen running around like chicken little.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not every second people spend on the forums is time when they could have been on the game itself - some of us have to leave the house on occasion.

I've also been here 3 years and made maybe three friends, one of whom just dropped his sub. Playing at night (like say 3 AM) and suffering from altoholism spread across three servers I rarely get a chance to see the same faces day after day. I don't mind as I like to solo sometimes.

And your last sentence really doesn't seem to make sense.

Thanks for playing and the review, GlaziusF.

You hit points about the custom mobs (Ted's PRIVATE files, the elec bugs) that I have been trying to play around with. This mish has been giving me fits of all sorts (including MA bugs, yes) since it's inception and those foes are the last thing I know I really need to revisit (again) - so thanks for the tap-tap on my shoulder about them.

As for the "it just ended, I wanna see the system-evil-mind itself"... hm! I hadn't considered that angle. I might just have to add a fourth mish - depends on what I can come up with. I'm going on vacation soon and will be without CoH for like a week and a half (I may die!), so I'll have all sorts of time to think about it (or it might occur to me five minutes from now and I'll have it up before I go).

Again, thanks for the good and thoughtful review, they're the lifeblood of this system I feel.

I've got two arcs up (see sig) and I am working very slowly on my third. It's going to be really different - not humor focused - and I want it to be juuust right. People will probably hate it though.

If I had more slots I'd probably do another quickie I have an idea for that would write itself, unlike the one I'm working on. But I don't like the idea of putting one up, hyping here on the boards (see my sig down there? Nice isn't it? Enticing even...) and then yanking it for another, so I'm making my final arc the one I really want to do.

For anyone who wants more plays, hyping your work on these forums (SEE MY SIG DOWN THERE? THOSE ARCS ARE COMEDY GOLD - SRSLY! Ok, I'll stop now, sorry) really, really helps. As do the tags like SFMA.

Oh I dunno... if they hadn't made this list as "draconian" as they had, I'm sure players would be trying to using all sorts of offensive stuff. Lord knows I've seen some manage to wrangle in obnoxious material in as it is.

Sure, sure, they'll get caught and genericed or the mission will get yanked, but untill then I have to put up with dealing with racist or obscene (mostly puerile) material. It's to be expected that people will pull these shenanigans, but no need to make it easy.

English is mighty flexible, we can always think of another way to say what we want (good or bad).

Oh, wait...


DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM! Ok, can I have a cookie now?

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Okay, in that case, let me pose a second question.

Should custom MA critters give more xp/tickets if their difficulty is set higher? The idea seems to fit in well with the dev's idea of risk vs. reward. More powers to use means more risk to the player, so a larger reward seems logical.

[/ QUOTE ] But I think the Devs have made it quite clear that AE is not intended to be a place to earn rewards, but a place to tell stories.

[/ QUOTE ]

This.

[/ QUOTE ]

Maybe I missed the email, but I thought we had been told that MA was as "good a place as the rest of the game" to level a toon to 50? You know, not in six hours or anything but.

[ QUOTE ]
Yes .... "Smack my Niche Up"

[/ QUOTE ]

That's my fave so far.

I don't even really look for a niche, trawling through the market like that takes forever, I get bored. I once or twice have stumbled across one and I do go for them when I do, but when it gets slapped I just drop it and stick to mah purple-crafting.

[ QUOTE ]
well pooh. Looks like it's the newspaper for me then. Thanks.

[/ QUOTE ]

YAY!

[ QUOTE ]
Is it just me or are there essentially 2 MAs. One is for Teaming and getting XP, the other is for Solo, playing story arcs?

[/ QUOTE ]
Only if you let it be so. You could form your own team and go play arcs. PBTW, people like to solo a lot in MA to make sure they get a chance to read all of the story.
[ QUOTE ]
Anyways, I would like to address the Solo/story arcs side. Since the costom critters are tougher than standard mobs, it became very evident that when I wanted to play story arcs, I really should take a character that can take a beating. Since the arc is unknown, you should be wise and prepare for a tough fight.

[/ QUOTE ]
Good arcs usually try and give you some idea about what you're going to face inside so that there's no rude surprise. Also, keep in mind that since these sorts of arcs are yes harder, you may not be able to play through them at the same difficulty level setting that you're used to playing at in non-MA stories. If you're getting beaten at every turn, go out, turn down your setting a notch, go back in; rinse and repeat as needed. Or start at the bottom and work up. I see this as something of a player responsibility issue; my 50th level stalker can take care of herself so I can take her in at higher difficulty levels, my 12th level Corr... not so much.
[ QUOTE ]
Thus, I much prefer my scrapper or tanker to my blaster or defender. To me it just makes sense.

[/ QUOTE ]
That's already half way there to what I described above about player responsibility.
[ QUOTE ]
The other side of this is that I also wrote 2 arcs (see below), yet I received a low rating because one player ran into the knockback that some of my custom mobs had in my second arc.


[/ QUOTE ]One guy's review does not necessarily equal truth. He may have been right for all I know, but remember than no matter what you do in an arc, someone will praise you for it, many won't mention it at all, and someone will castigate you for it. Welcome to the dev's world.
[ QUOTE ]
I can certainly sympathize with that guys problems, and I tried to change the custom mobs but I am unsure how effective that will be because I changed one status effect for another (Power to Electricity).

[/ QUOTE ]
This is why you test, test and retest after making changes.
[ QUOTE ]
My point is that if your going to use custom mobs, there will be some players that will use toons that have a weakness to whatever your using. There is really no way to prevent this from happening.

[/ QUOTE ]
Yup. We learn to live with it, just like we always have in the non-MA game. I found out the hard way that my Corr has a huge gap in his armor regarding Psy attacks this way, and that didn't happen to me in MA, it was in the usual content.
[ QUOTE ]
In the end, what I guess I would like to say is that MA writers should be aware of this problem, but MA players should also bring toons that can handle a tougher playing environment. I suspect that I will only play MA story content with either a scrapper or tanker, because I want to follow the story and enjoy the content, I don't want to be taking trips to the hospital every few minutes.

[/ QUOTE ]
My 12th level MM has been doing just fine in MA since level 1. Once you get more comfy with the whole thing I think you'll find you can stretch your legs a bit more with your AT choice.
[ QUOTE ]
Honestly, I felt quite bad about that person having trouble playing my arc, that is not what I intended. I want people to enjoy the story, not get miffed because of a game mechanic that is out of my control.

[/ QUOTE ]
See above about being castigated for anything you do. The one guy got mad and gave you a poor rating - big deal, really. He may have had a legit gripe or maybe he was having a bad day, maybe he's one of those "I ULTRA-HATE KNOCKBACK AND WISH I COULD HATE YOU TO PIECES FOR EVER USING IT!" types. Who knows? I've had my two arcs played a total of about 75 times now and have had the range of feedback on it; once I even got two feedback reports back to back that told me X was perfect and that X (the same X, yes) needed to be taken out.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

6) Many long story arcs are simply plain bad, too challenging, have too many objectives, are using annoying maps and annoying mobs, have too much text , too many ambushes, too many AVs, finally just too much of everything and that makes them pure PITA to run. They get an auto 1 star from me.

[/ QUOTE ]

I have seen a bit of this, and I've not even run that much in the MA. And it always seems to happen in the LAST mission. One arc had *60* glowies in it, each on a :15 timer (a PM exchange with the author revealed that as a mistake though, as they weren't meant to be required; otherwise, a good arc).

Did another arc tonight that was fine, no great work of art but was ok. Until the last mission, in which you had to beat versions of:

Vandal
Requiem
Nemesis
Countess Crey
Nosferatu

...and a couple more I forget. There were like eight EBs. I got Vandal down to a sliver, then faceplanted twice, and I decided that I wasn't going to go through that seven more times.

[/ QUOTE ]

These faults are not due to the length of an arc but the author not properly marking what can be expected inside.

[ QUOTE ]
/macro TP "say You know, $target, you're such a moron, you're supposed to be *here*!$$powexec_name Recall Friend"

Everyone appreciates a TP from a teammate.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not true! I keep taking TPF on like every third toon I make and nine times out of ten after I've rushed to the mis door, I ask "anyone want a TP?..."
...
...
and then they all come running up on their own.

Maybe I need to put an insult on it for them to ask. Better yet something like "well you never ask for me to TP you until you're stuck in a wall, $target... maybe I should just leave you there."

Liquid X has the best sig ever.

[ QUOTE ]

It totally doesn't make sense. I just thought it was a hilarious bug. You're right, for someone trying to make a serious arc, this bug sucks, and I wish I had something helpful to offer.

[/ QUOTE ]

Too true. At best I guess you can /bug it and hope they can get round to fixing it. Not much help I know, but that's about all I can think of.

Although it can be time consuming, there's also setting your ally for setting X and testing it to see what he does.

[ QUOTE ]
Well OBVIOUSLY the pets are smarter than their boss and know who to back.

"Uh, boss, I don't think we should be fighting this guy...."
"Shut up and do as you're told, minion!"
"It's just that, he's probably gonna kick your butt, and then we'll go down with you, and..."
"Nobody asked you! Attack!"
"Ok, that's it, we quit."

[/ QUOTE ]

That would make a good "defeated boss clue" in the right arc.

[ QUOTE ]
Are you looking under the "unique" abandoned tech maps?

Because I just checked, and the tech and abandoned tech categories seem to be exactly the same maps.

[/ QUOTE ]

I can't recall exactly as I did my search a couple of weeks ago. I do recall I spent some good time going through all the maps, but I could have been wrong. I also could have ruled out "Map X, Y and Z" that did have matches due to something I wanted or didn't want for my arc; I kinda think not, but...

Sometimes my memory can be a bit questionable I suppose.

Thanks devs!

I'll have to create a single new thread for my first two arcs this weekend, which may hopefully kick-start me into working on my final arc.

[ QUOTE ]
perhaps your team size or diff rating?

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm guessing this. I never see any of my non-placed-bosses when I'm solo testing my stories (which I do at baby setting to make it quick). I don't think I saw a boss when I was set at difficulty 4 either.

I think you have to have numbers on your side to get them.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I'd pick the character that I have the most fun with, or played most often, or the one I considered "my main".

[/ QUOTE ]

This.

[/ QUOTE ]

Seconded, can't be stressed enough.

I'd suggest trying to not rush to 50 for an AT you have no solid proof fits your playstyle. Find out what sort of Arachnos "spider" you want to play, find out what AT is somehwat close to that, then play that second AT - not for quick leveling, but to play for fun. Fun NOW, not later.

If you enjoyed it, then come 50 you might enjoy the unlockable AT. But starting a game to rush through it to then play it with something else seems a bit... pointless to me.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I've put "Ma preferred but NO FARMs plz" in my search comment.

I get tired of being invited to PuGs who seem to think I want to do nothing but farm. I join up, roll into a mission and see that huge Paragon City street map and just sigh...

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree about farming, however I always wonder when I see the automatic perception about a given map. I've played arcs on that map that were not farming missions. It's not my favorite map by a long shot -- believe it or not, I like the big CoT maps better. At least there, the environment itself is conducive to a "search" atmosphere; it "feels" right -- but the big city map itself is not limited to farming.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not saying it was by any means. In the past when I've - oh spit! - found myself recruited by a farming team (meaning about four times now), it's always been that map though; so when I see it now, I start to get wary.

I'm sure there are perfectly good SFMAs out there that use it.