ClawsandEffect

Would you rather wait 6 months for something new because they haven't tracked down exactly which piece of 7 years worth of code is causing it to act weird?

It's not like a red arrow pops up pointing at the piece of code causing the problem when a bug is reported.

A bug gets reported and then they have to manually track down where the bug is coming from, which could be in a piece of code that has no apparent connection to the resulting problem.

It's not as simple as "Oh, a bug! Flip that switch and it'll be fine."

The "civilians walking on the ceiling" bug that existed for 3 years is a good example. Did it occur to you that it may have actually taken them that entire 3 years to FIND the cause of that bug? I imagine that, after 7 years, there is a hell of a lot of code to sift through to find things like that.

And it could be a case of one piece of code reacting strangely when combined with another, but individually they're fine. In fact, I'm sure that happens with quite a few of the persistent bugs.

How do you figure out what's doing it when all the code appears to be working right? You go through, one by one, and combine that code with other code to see if it produces the same result.

Just because they haven't fixed something RIGHT NOW, does not, in any way shape or form, mean they aren't doing anything about it. I'd be willing to bet there are at least a couple people employed at Paragon Studios whose SOLE job is to sift through all that code looking for the bugs that get reported. Their job has to suck royally, especially when you consider that fixing a bug quite frequently creates a new one.

You mean the people playing with the mechanics and content that the devs have no obligation to allow them early access to?

Sorry, that's kind of the trade off. If you want to have EARLY access to the new features of the game before they reach the live servers, they expect you to report any bugs you happen to find in return for the privilege of having that access.

Players don't have the right to access content early, it's a privilege we earn with our willingness to report stuff as we find it.

So, actually, you're dead wrong. The simple fact that they are letting us play with new content before it reaches the live servers means we ARE obligated to test that stuff.

The devs could very easily say: "Oh, you don't want to test stuff and report bugs you find? You don't need to be on the Beta server then, you can wait to play that stuff like everyone else. Have a nice day."

And they would have every right to do so.

Since Going Rogue we have gotten:

Time Manipulation: Usable by Defenders, Corruptors, Controllers, and Masterminds.
Beam Rifle: Usable by Defenders, Corruptors, and Blasters.
Street Justice: Usable by Scrappers, Brutes, Tanks, and Stalkers
Titan Weapons: Usable by Scrappers, Brutes, and Tanks.
Dual Pistols: Usable by Defenders, Corruptors, and Blasters.
Electric Control: Usable by Dominators and Controllers.
Demon Summoning: Usable by Masterminds.
Kinetic Melee: Usable by Scrappers, Brutes, Tanks, and Stalkers.
Darkness Manipulation: Usable by Blasters. (it's technically a new set, because no one has ever had that mix of powers before)
Dark Blast (Blaster version): Usable by Blasters. (it's different enough it's technically a new set as well)
Ice Armor (Stalker version): Usable by Stalkers. (Again, the changes to the set make it unique)

So, Defenders, Corruptors, Controllers, Scrappers, Stalkers, Brutes, and Tanks have all gotten 3 new sets apiece.

Dominators, and Masterminds have all gotten 2 new sets apiece.

Blasters have technically gotten 5 new sets, if you count Dark Blast as being a new set due to the differences. They've gotten at least 4, because the Manipulation is definitely a new set.

The next one slated to be released is probably Darkness Control, Affinity, and Assault. So, Dominators and Controllers will be getting 2 more sets each. That will give Dominators 4 new sets and Controllers will have gotten 5 new sets.

Only Masterminds will have gotten less than 3 new sets by the time the new Dark sets are released, which is largely because their primaries are not shared by any other AT, so they don't get developed as quickly.

It's not really that lopsided at all if you look at how many new sets each individual AT has gotten.

Also, that makes 11 new sets in the last year. That is more than we've gotten in the previous 4 years combined.

I'm expecting them to announce a new blast set soon, and maybe a new MM primary. A Stalker-unique primary set would be nice, but I don't know if that's even in consideration.

Very simple answer:

Dark Armor is the ONLY set in the game that can cap Psi resistance. Dark Armor tanks can have 90% resistance to Psionic damage, and they can get it relatively easily. Scrappers can hit 75% just as easily. The only AT that CAN'T hit their resistance cap to Psionic with DA is brutes, and that's because their cap is 90% but they have the same base as scrappers.

Which would you rather have? Negative Energy resistance capped, or Psi resistance capped? It's a safe bet they would not have given us both. And NE is still in the 60%+ range on most characters, making it the second highest resistance in the set (not counting adding Tough to S/L resistances)

Or if you build your characters with theme in mind before anything else and there's no plausible reason they'd be lighting people on fire.

I was happy when they introduced the Negative DoT Interface, now my WP/DM tank can have more damage without breaking his theme. Same for my BS/DA scrapper.

Contrary to popular (on the forums at least) belief, there are a lot of people who choose things because they fit their character, rather than because they are the most powerful option.

I concur.

I've been trying to find some variation on the name Train Wreck on my home server with a similar idea in mind.

Stone would definitely fit your concept, but the reason fro playing Stone will obscur your costume completely.

I would go with Invuln myself. It fits the idea of an immovable object nicely, and it won't ruin your costume.

Because then you'd be right back in the position of being stuck with a crappy attack that you are forced to take, when everything else in the set is a better choice?

At least this way that attack you're forced to take does something useful for you, instead of just taking up a power pick.

Your guess is probably very accurate.

They could probably change recharge and damage/effect numbers every other week if they felt like it, or had a reason to.

Creating new animations from scratch is quite a bit more time consuming. It's exceptionally rare, and only recently done much at all, for the devs to make new animations for existing powersets. Precisely because it is so time consuming that it usually makes more sense to just use that time to make a new set.

This is actually a good point.

The game doesn't care if you have a backstory that states your character is 4,000 years old and the ruler of his own dimension. As far as the game is concerned, you are a beginning hero. Period. (or Full Stop for our British/Aussie/Kiwi friends)

She's talking down to you the same way a drill sergeant in any military on Earth talks down to a brand new recruit.

Flambeaux is written like she is on purpose. By seeing how annoying and self-absorbed she is now her appearances in tip missions later in the game make a lot more sense. She's not a hero so she can help people, she's a hero because she wants fame and glory. Which is the wrong reason to be a hero.

I also got the irony in some of the characters. Dillo I interpreted as a hardcore roleplayer that NEVER breaks character. Grym is a refugee from a fantasy MMO. (one guess as to which one).

I am inclined to agree.

I'm getting a sense of "But....my character wouldn't DO that!" .........as though the game can tell what your character would or wouldn't do. Again, the beginning arcs are told from the assumption that your character is a brand new just-registered hero. Your first taste of action was the disaster in Galaxy City, and you're entering Atlas Park as an inexperienced newbie.

It's an MMO, and it kind of has to be pretty much the same for everyone. If they spent the time to ensure that the beginning story arcs fit each and every possible character created in the game, well, it would be years before we saw even a single new story arc released. (And people would STILL complain that there wasn't an option appropriate to their character)

I really don't see what the big deal is about the beginning arcs being gone. They were badly written, and introduced you to the "run over here and click on this guy, then run back and go somewhere else" mechanic that the game was designed on originally.

How many variations of "go beat up some Hellions" do you really NEED to get you from 1-5?

Also, don't forget that the new beginning of the game is designed for people who will only have 2 characters to run through it, unless they pony up some cash for more character slots. They aren't going to be running 30 different brand new characters through it.

Are you sure?

I think your perception might be a little Clouded.

I'm aware of the difference between regen and max health.

I'll try to clarify what I meant.

Your regen will tick at a set interval, and it will always be the same amount per tick, which is a set percentage of your max health.

The percentage of your HP that each tick gives you back will never change, no matter how much you boost your regeneration rate. You could have your regeneration ticking 4 times per second and the amount per tick will never change.

However, if you increase your max health the percentage will translate to more actual HP gained. Increasing max HP is the only way to increase how much health is returned to you per regeneration tick.

Simple math example:

Say your regeneration works out to 5% of your health returned every 5 seconds. If you have 100 health you will get 5 HP back every 5 seconds.

If you increase your regen rate, that might change to 5 health every 4 seconds instead, but it remains 5 health.

Now, if you increase your HP to 200, that 5% will be 10 HP returned every 5 seconds instead of 5.

By increasing your regen rate you can get 10 health back every 8 seconds, but by increasing your max HP, you get the same amount back in 5 seconds instead.

That's what I meant about more HP improving your regeneration. More HP per tick will make your regeneration more effective. More effective = improved.

This.

Nothing you acquire while a VIP ever gets deleted, you just lose access to some of it until you become a ViP again.

You will lose access to Incarnate stuff automatically upon your subscription running out, but things like SSAs, Going Rogue, First Ward, etc. will be available for purchase separately.

And if you bought Going Rogue separately to begin with, you will keep side-switching, alignment merits and Praetoria access upon dropping to Premium.

The alignment merits may end up being largely worthless to you though unless you bought an Invention license or are a long term vet and get it for free.

As far as I know, Shield will be the only incompatible set, for obvious reasons: You can't hold a shield when you have a weapon that big, and it's completely unnecessary when you're swinging a railroad crossing sign. The presence of a defense buff in the set implies, to me at least, that you will frequently be using the weapon itself as your shield anyway.

Claws and Stone are incompatible more because it looked weird than anything else. It's perfectly reasonable for a giant stone guy to be swinging around a giant weapon.

Speaking of which, there REALLY needs to be a stalagmite weapon model for Titan Weapons.

I agree with this right here. In fact this is the CORE of my problem with JB's attitude on the subject.

If *I* don't like the way something plays, or it doesn't meet my expectations, but the vast majority of the other players like it the way it is, I damn well play something else that does meet my expectations of it.

It boggles me that JB keeps saying that tanker damage is too low, their survivability advantage is unnecessary, and he doesn't like being expected to be a meatshield, and yet he refuses to just play brutes instead. The things he has a problem with regarding tankers are ALL solved by the brute AT's very existence.

Nope, he thought it would be better to play tanks and be unhappy with them, and spam the forums for four years with demands to change an AT that 99% of the rest of the playerbase is perfectly fine with the performance of into something he feels is closer to what the comic books say it should be.

I have NEVER seen the devs make sweeping changes to an AT just to please one, or a handful of people. If there is a legitimate balance problem, sure. But not to make an extremely small number of people happy.

But, if JB wants to waste his time spamming the forums with demands to make tanks into Superman clones, that's his prerogative.

(I'm speaking of JB in third person instead of talking TO him because I'm pretty sure he has me on ignore.)

I'm quite sure I can get you more defense than that. I'll play with it when I get a chance later tonight and see what I can do.

But that's an example of one particular powerset combination, and is not representative of the entire AT.

Just because your Fire/Ice tank is no good in PvP, it does not automatically mean that ALL tanks suck in PvP. A Fire/SS/Earth tank is actually pretty good.

I specifically mentioned power set differences for a reason. It applies to every AT.

A Psi/EM blaster is awesome in PvP. A Dual Pistols/Ice, not so much. They're both blasters, but the power sets chosen make all the difference between whether they're going to rock or suck in PvP.

Similarly, a Regen scrapper will be significantly better in PvP than a Willpower scrapper. The self-heals make the difference there. Willpower's reliance on resistance, defense and regeneration make it awesome in PvE, but in PvP the defense and regeneration might as well not even be there because of the emphasis on accuracy and the likelyhood of being killed in seconds flat, long before your regeneration has a chance to heal you.

That's what I meant about any AT being viable, but specific power set choices make the difference.