Dollymistress

I don't get it. All pool powers unlock at level 6 anyway...

I want the three mystery bullet points!

Aww where is the redside skin and CoV branding?

I never really visit the main website except to check vet rewards. Usually I go straight to the forums. Please at least have a CoV skin for these if nothing else.

eek.

I was taking a break from playing until Monday cos that was when the event started. Guess I better get my badger on sooner rather than later...

I think the Devs might have limited the day jobs to a smaller number because of the huge 30 day timer on them. I would much prefer there to be far more jobs (like 60 instead of 12) with a far smaller timer on them (1 week instead of 1 month).

Some of the badges/accolades could even give the exact same rewards.

Having a shorter timer but more badges doesn't really change the system - it doesn't make getting them all any easier. What it does is reward "effort" at a faster pace and that just makes things more fun. It would feel better to us collector badge-hunter types.

I see two problems with this system:

1) What if something goes wrong? What if I leave my main in the right place then log off for 30 days, and when I come back I find out the badge is bugged? What if a server reset or a sync problem or a new patch stops the timer. Worse still - what if something *resets* the timer (like a big patch)?

a lot of paranoid badge hunters will be logging their badge character in every couple of days to check their progress and crying if something has gone wrong.

2) What happens when the Architect arrives?

From the descriptions of Issue 14 it sounds like my main will need to spend many many hours logged in using the mission creator in order to earn all those badges. If I have these day job badges weighing on my mind then everything I ever do form Issue 13 onwards using my main will feel pressured and rushed, especially big stuff like the mission creator. I will always be wanting to hurry up and log back out to continue my day job progress.

When Issue 13 goes live my main will log in, grab all the badges and extras that are part of the new issue, then log out quickly to start earning the first day job badge. She will only ever return to check back on badge progress and change log-out location.

That's going to conflict a LOT with Issue 14's content if I suddenly need ot keep my main logged IN to unlock the mission creator content and fiddle with my story arcs...

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[u]Topic: PvE Power Changes.[u]


[u]Why Kheldian changes?[u]

1. Power disparity v. VEATs.

2. Are VEATs popular? Yes.

3. HEATs are hard (to learn) and will still be hard. But some QoL: e.g., AT inherent buffs will remain on all forms, so, no worrying about those buffs dropping; multi-builds will help in having two different builds that can specialize the forms.

4. Range of the AT inherent buff isn't changing because how intensive the server needs to work to check on buffs.

5. Kheldian damage increase is because VEAT damage was higher and because of data mining.

6. Kheldian tanking? Can cap out Resistance, but no stacking defense and no pool powers for defense... so, not really Tanks.

7. Kheldian inherent new info: 10% resist to recharge slows for every H/VEAT on the team.

8. Other Kheldian details being saved for Hero Con



[u]Power Toggles Not Detoggling Anymore[u]

1. Since I4 Castle had been looking for a coding change to allow an end to Toggle dropping. Unbeknownst to him, Shannon Pozniewski (a cryptic programmer) added it in. Castle only recently found documentation on that, so, now it's in.

2. Bigger effect for squishie ATs that are more easily mezzed.

3. What is suppressed during a mez: Anything that is not a status protection will get suppressed. Exception: Kheldian flight will still fly, but speed is suppressed. Kheldian forms don't drop. Suppressed team buffs are suppressed for teammates.

[Chat on what happens if a Group Flier is mezzed... everyone loses the buff and drops. <laugh, laugh> (But they forget that would happen anyway if a Group Flier is mezzed <shrug&gt.]

4. Effect on Power Toggle and game play: In internal tests, no more having to pay attention to toggles. But that could lead to not noticing a power that is detoggled for some other reason. It will be a significant change for PvPers.

5. No more powers that detoggle a foe in PvP.

6. Critters will not get the same toggle protection -- the few that have toggles can be detoggled.





[u]Most Negative Feedback? Barrage.[u]

1. Because it effects low level tankers who don't have an attack chain yet.

2. What about Vet Reward powers? Doesn't effect newbies!

3. Why long recharge? To give it more damage to fit in an attack chain (but, again, that hurts low level toons).

4. Castle is still 'looking at it'. He's been reading the forums about it.




[u]Movement (and now Recharge!) Protection for Temperature Protection[u]

1. Did it for kicks, seemed like the right thing to do at the moment.




[u]Invulnerability[u]

1. Perceived weakness (but wasn't that weak).

2. So, removed Defense Debuff.

3. Tried to make each power as good as the others.




[u]Energy Aura[u]

1. The work of one of Castle's minion. Keep a look at it during beta. If too weak, other stuff they can do.

2. Eventually proliferated to Heroes, no timetable.




[u]War Mace[u]

1. Has been under performing. Has been getting buffs over time. Looking to see if the current change went too far.

2. Clobber changed from stun-only power to partial damage power.

3. If the updated War Mace overperforms, Castle thinks it'll more likely be because of Crowd Control's max number of targets, and not because of the change to Clobber.




[u]Midnight Grasp[u]

1. DOT was too long. Most critters die before it's finished. So, more damage (2.2 damage scale) upfront, and shorter DOT (.6 damage scale),



[u]Patron Pools and APP[u]

1. They all got looked at by Posi, Castle, and minion. Datamined which ones were taken and which were ignored. Buffs, nerfs, and power replacements!

2. If powers are replaced, when you log in, you'll have the new power. No grandfathering.

3. About 20% of the A/EPPs were replaced.

4. As one example of the Epic/Patron changes, Castle mentions that Weapon Mastery for Scrappers will now include Focused Accuracy. If his memory is correct.




[u]Mission Architect[u]

1. Repeat the reason why it's delayed: Players wanted customizable bosses. So, Castle sees himself writing AI scripts non-stop.




[u]Toxic Damage[u]

1. Why no Defense? Originally, it was untyped. When it became typed, they added resistance, but forgot to retrofit Defense. And then it became a lack of time issue in order to code it in.

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Way to make VEATs/HEATs even less popular!

Recharge modifer resists work both ways, remember? That's why Winter's Gift went from being "yay" to being "omg sucks".

New VEAT/HEAT change: for every VEAT/HEAT on your team, your VEAT/HEAT loses a percentage of their recharge reductions. The -50% recharge time you worked hard to build up on your character form slotting purple sets? Gone, unless you kick the VEATs/HEATs off your team.

Tee hee! Here's the bomb I dropped on Champion redside when the Cyborg pack arrived...

LMAO 1

LMAO 2

Some of the pics I've seen here are amazing!

hmmmmmmm.

Something odd is going on. Unlucky Issue number 13? We'll find out in two years time in a Positron anecdote that during September 2008 Jay accidentally deleted the entire Issue 13 build and so the Devs had to re-create the entire updated code in just 3 weeks, after it had originally taken 4 months to write.

Something like that. Tech problem or internal shake-up.

Remember Posi's one big rule is you never announce something if you aren't sure it's going to happen...

When is the Pocket D event and will I be able to get in?

BUSTED!

I was there, now gimmeh a PPD Hardsuit

Hmm let's see, places that could relate to day jobs:

Mercy - Arachnos areas, wasteland areas, sea shores, snake hole areas.
Port Oakes - Gangster areas, fishing areas, bars and clubs, SG Registrar, Docks, "failed" Construction site (LOL), sinking oil tanker, the Villa area.
Cap Au Diable - Mountains, University, runway, Aeon City, forests/logging area, cargo areas, undercity.
Sharkhead - Dig sites, Refinery, Sky Raiders base, Freakshow "town", docks, graveyard, Crey areas, shanty town.
Nerva - South docks, Crey area, Longbow base, Forests, Thorn Isle.
St. Martial - Giza, forest, Hard Way, Casino district, Carnie circus (I can see this zone being the most popular early on for jobs!).
Grandville - Arachnos, Fab, tunnels under the town, shanty town, infested areas, maybe even the Dev office!
Bloody Bay - Forests, base areas.
Siren's Call - Bounty hunter?
Warburg - Missle launch area, underground base, Rogue Arachnos areas.
Recluse's Victory - Not sure about this, it usually doesn't fit with other new features.
The Abyss - Hami studier?
Pocket D - Dancer, DJ, Skiing Instructor?!
Rikti Warzone - Vanguard, rebuilder, Rikti studier.
Ouroboros - Mender!
Cimerora - Roman!
Monster Island (it's AMAZING how many villains don't even realise/remember this place exists!) - Monkey Studies? GM studies?

General - Monkey Fight Club, Arena, Ferries, Black Market Trucks, Vanguard outposts, Facemakers, Supergroup bases (!), and Vault Reserves, Hospitals.

Lots to choose from - I do hope that they limit it somewhat to the key locations (at least at launch) otherwise my main will need to stop playing a lot to earn the badges for all these vocations!

Aww I liked Dark Star Rising.

Babytoons is gonna win cos it's the best

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It's a gimmick for these shows. Way too much drama over something so minor. I had to almost gag when I saw the last giveaway item was just sold on ebay for $230. Some people need to get their priorities in order!

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<joker>It's not about the money. It's about sending a message... </joker>

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You know? I'd like to know if these things are ever going to be available to those of us who are barely able to afford to keep our accounts online.

I know I'm going to sound like I'm whining, but I'm on a fixed income, and honestly, I can't afford to go to Germany to pick up a pass to give me this.

Is there EVER going to be a "costume parts collection" expansion pack? Cause it gets a bit on my nerves when I see things that could be available to all, or unlocked through actualy gameplay be made available because you were able to flaunt your ability to pay for a ticket.

I am going to get SO flamed on this.....

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The answer is simple, and very easy to implement. The Devs create a single, quick Halloween mission similar to the Christmas mission, and the first time you complete it you get to pick a single permanent costume power form the list of temporary ones that are available.

The Freakshow boss and PPD Hardsuit aren't on the list, cos that might be unfair to the convention people.

Everyone happy. The End.

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Nah. This sucks. Some of us on the east coast that can't squeeze in a trip to the west coast for Pax are getting shafted. I would have preferred a temp power reward that expires after N uses that something more permanent like a costume set.

While I still think PA, PAX and CoX rock, this move is the fail.

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I'm not beating this dead horse again. People will either agree that having an incentive for visiting NCNC is cool, or they're going to lament not being able to get ever item in the game.

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... and why can't the in-game item be something as innocuous as a badge?

Or, here's a thought: why does it have to be something in-game, at all?

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"Innocuous" as a badge huh?

If the SDCC item was a badge, the scalping prices would be much...much...MUCH higher.

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BTW I've seen Doms stack enough Holds on Bat'zul to hold him almost indefinitely, making defeating me quite easy.

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People who would criticize the guide first ought to have an idea what they are talking about:
The fact is you only need one dom to hold him. Him and Infernal both have very low status protection despite having purple triangles.

So five doms is wasteful overkill.

And you never needed a dom to begin with because corruptors will provides sufficient mitigation/heals for the AV fight on top of having debuffs.

But if you aren't a lead corruptor like myself, you may have no choice but to settle for a dom in the absense of corruptors.
Concidently this is also the only time you'd need to resort to using a mastermind because they bring along the debuff.

The corruptor is a superior invite because they bring both mitigation and debuff into one package, so you don't have to bloat your team up and make things take longer to kill as a result.

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There is so much wrong with this post that I don't even know where to begin.

On the one hand, you want maximum efficiency. Then on the other hand, you use the term "overkill". That's a flat contradiction.

The poster you rpelied to didn't say 5 Doms were required to hold Batz, you deliberately misinterpreted that way. They said you need Doms (plural - no specific quantity given) to hold him almost indefinitely. There's nothing wrong with that statement.

I've known lots of awful Corruptors, and lots of fantastic Doms. You are clearly just grinding a pointless axe for the sake of trolling people who use MMs and Doms.

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Wrong, the altar's positions are random and so are the spawns.

I use to run through on invis looking for the ones that could be clicked safely, but realized it's faster to just pop purples and superpseed through the whole thing.


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Wrong. The altars are always in exactly the same place (whichever 5 appear out of the possible 9), and the spawns alternate between two defined arrangements. There is only ever 1 possible combination where the result is not being able to click an altar without causing aggro. This is when 1 altar appears in the North East tunnel, and the spawn is right no top of it.

In all other circumstances, you can safetly click without them seeing you (or at least I can, using my Stalker who is about 5'6" tall - not sure about taller characters).

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Certainly not with my method. I use a /rad corruptor as lead, so dominator mitigation is not needed, and their damage in inferior to the alternatives.

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I know lots of Doms who would say that a /rads "mitigation" is not needed on a Cap SF.

If you're talking about generally about PuGs, then the best method is for 1 or 2 people to take the lead and do the work in mishes 2-5.

If you're talking only aobut your sort of PuG where Doms are a hassle, a /Rad Corr leads and only plays in the same way you do, then fine. But then all this guide tells me is what you think the best way is for you to do your Cap SFs, which doesn't help anyone else much

As someone who has ghosted Cap SFs hundreds of times at a frequency of around 3-4 times a week or more ever since Issue 9, I've got to take issue with a few of the points made by the OP.

First off - the character I primarily use for my Cap SF runs is a Claws/Regen Stalker. At level 20, she has Strike, Slash, Focus, Air Sup, Fly, Reconstruction, Hide, AS, Build Up, Swift, Health, Stamina.

As the OP points out, a quick travel power is best so Fly isn't ideal, but I have it cos I like fliying

Here's how I've always run it.

First mission: Go in with the whole team and wipe the map as usual.

Second mission. Find the Foreman. Build Up+AS the first guard (preferably any spectral so that they don't do the annoying running away trick) then kill the other two. Leave a Hordeling until last because they may rez.

Find the attack leader. Use 2 reds and 4 lucks. Build Up+AS, then Air Sup. This will kill him. Then kill his guards. On a big team, you will need help. Try not to confuse the guard NPCs with other mobs around.

Third mission. Stealth to the end. Use 2 reds and 4 lucks. Kill the named boss, and his guards. Find the glowie.

Fourth mission. Exactly the same process at the first. After the mission ends, exit directly to Ouroboros to grab more inspirs unless someone in your team has reserves.

Fifth mission. Find the Tech. One Warden will almost always be MA, so I always carry a BF with me just in case I get hit with a pesky stun. The Tech is always guarded by two Wardens, so it helps to have more than one person take them down.

Once the Tech is loose, all Stealth gets turned off and whoever has him must immediately make a run for the computer console. The ambushes are practically infinite, but you *can* get around this if you leave 1 Longbow alive, which blocks the next wave.

Do not try to go up the ramps in the final room if the console is up on the ledge - stand under it and the Tech will be just as happy

The main issues I have with the OP's guide is:

1) Dominators are incredibly useful. I used to solo this with my Mind/Psi back when it could be properly ghosted in 20-25 minutes. Mass Hypnosis is a full substitute for 4 lucks any day, and that means you can use the 4 lucks to reach the objectives/bosses

Fire Cages is also massively useful. Any AoE control, basically.

The second issue I have is with the final mission. First of all, you do not need a full tray of lucks to get the altars. The only altar position that you ever need lucks for is the North East tunnel. At this tunnel, the NPCs spawn around the altar in all directions, making it impossible to click without aggro.

For all other altar locations, you can either -

a) Hide behind a horn/rock while clicking (you don't need LoS to click them!)

b) Hide under the ground (i.e. if the altar is on the edge of a ledge, you can hide just off that edge, lower down, and click it)

c) Hide behind the altar itself. Maybe I can do this cos my Stalker is small, but I've always used the altar itself as cover - they never see me when I click

Clicking the final altar is a very important subject for discussion. In the old days when this mission could be ghosted properly, the ambushes triggered by the final altar click were never a problem. This is because in the old days you called the rest of the team back *after* you clicked the final altar. This meant that the three ambushes were aimed only at you, standing at the last altar. Each wave would therefore run off miles from Infernal/Batzul, and never had to be dealt with.

IF however, you click the final Altar with the rest of your team standing at the entrance, the ambushes will go after them, and that means they will try to run right through Infernal, causing a fight.

Sometimes this fight is a good thing, it clears the ambushes and it clears the Legacy mobs. However, sometimes it is more trouble than it's worth so I recommend that (if possible) everyone in the team waits outside the final mission until the last altar is clicked.

After I've clicked the last altar, I always fly just above the central lava and turn off Hide. That triggers Batzul, and after he appears I fly high until Hide has recharged.

I then usually fly down towards Batzul, use Demonic (or a couple of lucks), hit him once (lolmelee) and then fly away to the end of the north tunnel (using greens or healing quick, tee hee).

When I get my Nem Staff/Blackwand in Cotober I will be a happy panda!

Batzul will then chase me, and find Infernal. The two will fight each other while the team watches.

At this point it's time to clear the Legacy in front of the big fight, and then attack the AVs.

My final issue with the OP's guide is that you never, EVER kill Infernal first. Killing Infernal triggers a MAZZSIVE ambush, which makes it even harder to kill Batzul. ALWAYS kill Batzul first, and THEN kill Infernal (and then run for it!).

Infernal is especially vulnerable to knockdown and holds, so spam them (even the Ghost Slaying Axe if you have it!) cos he can be beaten quickly if you keep him off his feet.

The other Stalker I use to complete the SF is my Nin/Nin. She does more damage than Claws/, and has better defences, but she hasn't got Stamina at level 20 so I always grab a couple of blues before starting and try not to get into prolonged fights.

My favourite runs are always where I bring along a friend who also uses a Stalker, and we split the tasks between us to speed things up. It's lots more fun to do 4/5 tunnels each in the final mish instead of wait for one person to do all 9, and it makes the second mission a lot faster too.

Okay that's all I've got for now

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Looks great! What program did you do the modeling in?

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hmm Poser and some Photoshop stuff.

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That's not crappy at all, that's amazing. Lotsa stuff stands out, her face, the difference between materials on her costume, the nice background shot. Very slick.
At first I was like, what the hell are those purple/pink bubbles... then I followed them back and saw the bright burst on her forehead and thought... ahh! psionics, she's firing at someone... sweet

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tee hee, glad someone got that

Wow kewl i got a redname compliment too!

Thanks - I cheated on the eyes and added a pure white pixel in them as postwork to really bring them out more. This is going to be a title picture for my revamped website when it's finished

Oh and the reson for the purple stuff is cos Dollmistress is a mind/psi Dom

Yikes, it only took me two and a half years of procrastinating to finally produce a render of my main character!

The Arachnos logo and some parts of the costume had made me balk for a long time but eventually I've got around to putting THIS together.

Hope it's not too crappy

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Actually, they don't say issue 13 will be the last issue. They just say it'll be the last issue THIS YEAR, which, with only 5 months left in the year, isn't all that unlikely unless things progress really, really smoothly with i13 and i14...

[/ QUOTE ]This is just an announcement to point out that we have made no official statements regarding the timeline or release of our Free Issues. And that the articles have perhaps misinterpreted what was stated.

[/ QUOTE ]Fair enough. Please be aware that many of us have expectations based on previously made actual official statements. Namely that we should expect 3 issues per year. If that is to change we would appreciate an official annoucment of such, and sooner rather than later would be admirable.

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I think when we say 3 issues per year, what we really mean is 12 months/3...as in an issue every 4 months. We're not really paying much attention to where things fall in the calender year, just how much time passes between issues. That's the goal at least.

Are we hitting that goal? At this particular moment, not really. Chalk that up to forming a new company, moving into a new studio, and hiring/training a lot of new people. When you go from being a very tight-knit team of 15 people rapidly churning out issues and snatching up all of the low hanging fruit we can get our hands on to a much larger studio working on very large systems and the type of content that takes the longest to develop...things tend to slow down a bit.

I don't think we're that far behind though. If you look at the amount of things added to the game since the beginning of the year rather than just counting the issue numbers between January 1st and today, there's actually a good chunk of content that you guys have gotten without any additional costs. Probably close to 1 1/2 to 2 issues of content already. There was the mid-issue update for 11 and Issue 12, while not a great deal of new long-term content, was in reality quite a bit of work. We kind of went into I12 thinking it was going to be a smaller issue, but when everything was said and done and we looked back on everything we'd put in there, we realized how much work had really gone into it.

Having more people on the team is kind of a double-edged sword. We've found ourselves setting out to do things that we would have never considered before because we simply didn't have the people to do it. Now that we do, we're really reaching for some pretty high hanging fruit. Player created missions is only one of the things you guys have heard about...but there are some other big things also being worked on as well. Things that haven't been announced yet.

Chew on that for a while. We've announced player created missions. What do you think we might be working on that we didn't feel comfortable announcing yet?



All in all, I feel like we're starting to hit our stride, and we're still looking to expand the team even more to further increase our capacities...bear with us. I assure you, it's just as frustrating for us to have these long spans without new shiny content to keep you guys happily playing the game, but we really are doing the best we can.

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Sounds like player created NPCs to me...

Trying to beat Champions Online to the punch, huh?

A combined game + branching missions + create-a-mission = there are no "villains" or "heroes", there are just characters and the choices they make.

It sounds to me like CoX could evolve into something similar to Bioware RPGs, where we can slide between light and dark based on the choices we make.

Sounds good to me!