DragunBlud

I'm going to try to go back and get some better case studies done w/ the Maniac Slammer bosses.

But it'll probably end up being like "trying to get your car mechanic to hear that noise". I won't be able to recreate the issues I've experienced. But I'm sure as hell gonna try!

Yea... custom critters do make it hard to keep tabs on what's going on. Although... I always take that into account when I came across the situations that I did.

First off thanks for your reply

Thanks Cat for your reply... No I don't have a lot of details and I'm not disturbed or upset with your comments.

Unfortunately... a tremendous amount of data was not retrieved while playing. I was going against bosses in AE, except for the one incident where I mentioned an issue with AV's. I was also, more concerned with "Ok... I gotta stay alive and figure out what I'm doing different from a few days ago and what has changed about what I'm doing" Well... I'm continuing in my own private investigation into this mystery and this is just part of it. By asking other players have they noticed any changes in how they're characters are performing.

Actually I didn't want to get to far into to much of an in depth or drawn out thread but was wondering if any other players had been noticing any discrepancies in the performance of their character abilities and powers. As apposed to the way or how your character may have previously performed.

I'm glad that you aren't seeing any noticeable changes in how your character is played. That's Great!

I'll also mention this because I almost forgot. I was in the aura of a kins transfusion just yesterday a few times and didn't even get the benefit of it. Like I said weird.

Again I was just wondering if anyone else has been noticing and strange anomalies.

it's hard to get a scientific analysis for what is going on because I can't isolate each scenario and make them all exactly the same. With i16 it'll be a lot easier to make a 8man type mission to isolate and figure out what exactly may be going on.

Also, the last known change to fitness was in maybe i6. Well that's why I was wondering about any changes in its effectiveness that you may have noticed. If you notice something isn't the way it use to be, then it's definitely has changed whether we were told about it or not.

Hi... all. I need to ask this because I've been experiencing and noticing extreme changes made to the toons that I play. Plus, I would like to know if anyone else has noticed anomalies with their game character toons.

What I mean by this is have you been use to playing a toon one day a certain way using certain powers then tomorrow you notice that very same method or power isn't working the way it was the day before, w/ no mention by the Devs or anything?

Case in Point: I was on a team a while back with my Stone/Rad troller and all of a sudden I noticed there seemed to be a debuff cap on bosses that never seemed to be there before. I don't know what was going on. There was at least 3 trollers on the team and no one seemed to be able to hold, immobilize, stun, debuff, or hit a few of the bosses. I saw fire cages going off I know; and as for myself I had my 2 radiation toggles going, my lingering radiation, choking cloud, earthquake, and activated stone cages, EMPulse, volcanic gases, stalagmites and all of these including what ever else the other trollers on the team had going... seemed to miss or effect these other bosses.

Of course I haven't figured out all the numbers, but it even sounds statistically impossible for all of these effects to miss NPC's overall. The funny thing also, is about a week earlier I was able to cage and hold considerably well without even using EMPulse or Volcanic gases. Now all of them seem to be capped or nerfed. Either that or NPC's are being Uberized.

Even if there is a cap on the amount of NPC's choking cloud can effect, that cap shouldn't effect volcanic gases, or EMPulse, or anything else. It also seems like from what I saw, that no matter how many powers you have going only two or three will stack and the rest will just show off as graphically pretty within the game.

Next I'm in a mission today and the mission is set to have several AV's that are all the same throughout the mission. Me and the team are moving along pretty well, maybe a little too well. We knock over about maybe 5 or 6 AV's and get to the next one and all of a sudden some of our powers aren't working any more on the team. As a matter of fact we took on 2 AV's at the same time before this next AV and now people are dying like flies. This AV is no different from the previous (mind you). We ended up leaving the mission and breaking up the team cause we spent almost 15 minutes on this one AV.

Also, just to throw this out there and I want somebody to tell me have they noticed any changes to the Fitness pool also, Particularly Health? No matter how it's slotted. If someone knows what issue the Fitness Pool was nerfed... please let me know.

I also have to mention that while playing other people playing the game couldn't figure out what was going on and why some powers were either not working or seemed to be less effective and I also began to ask various veteran players I know about this and they couldn't even figure what the problem might be either.

I also must mention that these anomalies all seem to be occurring in AE. This could be a problem with that game feature all itself, which wouldn't surprise me.

its silly... these. codes they give out and perks for going to conventions are mainly to just inspire people that are close or in the area to show up.

I don't think the devs even expect people to travel cross country or trans-international at the cost of maybe $200+ plane ticket, for only maybe 2 or 3 days just to get a code for a for a game they already pay $15 a month for. lol

I understand this. The Devs and NCsoft as a whole want to show their thanks some how to the people that came out and were able to make it to the event. What better way to show their thanks than to offer them a costume code. It's nothing against the people that can't make it to the event, but they just want to be able to show the people that are able to make it out there some form of gratitude that maybe they can show off in game even.

Besides I'm sure... the same offer will be made for every one of Paragon Studio's treasured customers... us; within or in about a year or so, during some type of event or for only $9.99

Fear not fair heroes... we are all appreciated by those that bring us the game we subscribe to. Surely what may seem as a bias now will not be as such. Just give it time.

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It's not an over inflated sense of entitlement. Its the sense of being a customer and wanting to be informed properly in a timely manner about the product and services you're paying for.

Those type of statements tend to come across as though Customers should just be happy with what they get as far as content & service.

Where as I truly and absolutely believe whether I'm receiving as a Customer or giving as a Businessman... Customers should expect nor receive no less than the best. And if a customer isn't happy with something no matter how large or small it may seem. The Customer should say something about it or else it may go unnoticed.

I don't want to see anyone's buffs on me. I want the option to either deny buffs or not to visibly show buffs. It gets on my nerves the way people see heroes standing around and just assume you want their buffs.

It chaffs my taint the way you can spend 15 to 20 minutes figuring out or working on an awesome looking costume at icon, then you finish and now want to sport that outfit in action only to have to look at the gloss of freaking block ice all over your schweet duds.

Don't get me wrong I can understand someone saying "duh, but those freaking buffs awesomely make you better. if you don't let people dump them on you at will whether you like it or not, you have no idea how much teams would start wiping".

oh well... to tell you the truth I don't mind buffs. I just don't like seeing them on me as I play. I wanna see me (narcissistic hero), not the effects of your toon on me :P So the option to cut off other character visual effects on me is fine with me. that might be ok.

The downside or complexity of denying character buffs or even the visuals of such may be things like denying Rez effects and Kin powers... oops. Now you're not getting those fantastic heals, or Fulcrum Shift effects people tend to love so much. Or even if you don't show the effects doesn't Rez powers that players play on you have an animation to them. If you deny the ability to see this will it effect the Rez all together.

That could be the complicated aspect I suppose of trying to write code to prevent buffs visually.

Although when someone does try to Rez me... I'm given a choice to accept it or not... or even with team tp prompts i'm given the choice. But that's not the answer either... Can you imagine getting a "do you accept pop up" everytime transference, transfusion, Fulcrum Shift, Fortitude, RA's, AM's, etc... go off in a fight. Hmmmm idk, but that sounds more annoying :P lol

yea... like when you get invites right when you're about to log off and have to go take care of something more important than gaming lol

true all true... I guess there really is no way to enforce politeness lol. if it were it would be in some kinda law.

I don't think the invite is so annoying as is the pop-up window. I've actually asked a few players why online why they like to put "lft pst 1st" or something like that in their search description. and a majority of them usually all say the same thing about how they don't like the pretty much. If there were an option just like "prompt team teleport [enable/disable]" that allowed the team invite to show up in the chat box instead of as an immediate pop up. if you wanted the invite you could then click on the invite in your chat box and then the pop up comes up.

But yes... thanks for answering that question. the "not accepting invites" options kinda solves all this. Unless you're actually looking for a team and just find "pop-ups" to be annoying and at an unexpected time lol

thanks again.

lol... this is very funny and interesting. Although I'm thinking on this idea to take it alot farther than just costumes.

How about being a real Rikti, or Rularuu (or whoever you spell it)? I'm talking about you could actually be this species or play as a traitor to all mankind by being a human that has joined the Rikti or Rularuu side. You would play the game through as an Agent of the Rikti, CoT, Council, Crey, Nemesis, Hellions etc... moving your way up the ranks and storyline for any of the said NPC factions. In PVP zones you would be an enemy to both villains and heroes... but in PVE zones you would be on a probationary status so to speak and can only be attacked by NPC's that would normally attack any player.

All this can I guess kinda be done already if you have a little imagination and like to Role Play your toons. But yea... I would love more Alien Costume pieces.

I imagine that if something like this were to be conceived into an actual virtual fact... you could choose Alien as your origin... this in return would allow a costume piece to be unlocked for you every time you achieved a level that is a multiple of 5 (5,10,15,20,25,30 etc) from your Alien Contact/Trainer (aliens & traitors just have to have different trainers) lol. Maybe even based off your AT, only certain costume pieces would be unlocked at each of those levels. Then people would say... oh that must be a tank, cause that's a tank costume piece or thats a controller cause he has a controller costume piece.

Oh well... I shouldn't read stuff like this. It'll get my imagination to working lol. Its a nice dream though anyway. Can't imagine seeing anything like what I said in the near future. maybe in i251 lol

For just a little bit more clarification on the whole email thing...

I'm thinking that your email should only be open to Devs and CoX Support automatically and people you allow to send you email, but the people you allow to email you can only email you from the account that you allow to have email access to you.

That way a person couldn't just email you anymore just based off of the fact that they know your character name or global name. They couldn't get permission from a legitimate account just so they could send you spam from some other account they have.

Okay this is an idea I guess on enforcing a little etiquette within the game.

Alot of people in the game, especially some veteran players I've noticed... complain about and/or don't like people sending them invites to a team without "please send tell" (PST) message 1st.

I'm not a stickler for having to get a "tell" all the time 1st, but it can get annoying if i'm trying to do something else and I keep getting invite pop ups from time to time.

I notice that there is an option in the search criteria that you can select that says "not excepting invites". I don't use this option often and was wondering does it prevent people from sending me invites or does it just let people know I'm not looking for an invite (only if they are courteous, or diligent enough to look up my name in a search).

If this option doesn't prevent you from receiving pop up invites. How about this as an idea: A "you must send this player a tell 1st b4 inviting" option. Of course the message can probably be shorter.

I thinking... we could have an option that flags our characters that way if anyone tries to anonymously invite you to a team. You can have an option already selected for your character that will pop up for the person inviting that says "You must Ask this Player 1st before inviting".

I don't know... I would hope this is something that could be done and not too hard to do for the players of the game.

I even wish that email was only open to Devs, Support, and friends that you give permission to email you and not any and everyone so that spam email would more than likely become a thing of the past.

If you got spam email after that, then you know it was someone you gave the email permission to... and then you could just take that person off your list and even ignore them if you like.

oh yea,... much smiles and thanks for the continued advice and recommendations

man Ryu... are you trying to just completely ruin my day? lol

So what good is hover then if it gives no KB mitigation. its just a slow travel power that you can fight with I guess.

Although, if you look at Hover it still says that it takes Defensive sets although the only one Defense set I see that gives knockback protection is Karma. unfortunately it just causes 4 points of knockback resistance. whatever that is.

besides motion this makes hover useless. is this the nerfing of a power to the point of uselessness. I guess hover is still fun from an RP point of view. Cause we all know that moving doesn't have an effect on defensive percentages in the game VS. standing still defensive percentages

(sheesh, I swear it's harder to hit disoriented NPC sometimes, than it is when he's completely coherent, unlike when I'm disoriented... it seems my defenses go right out the window lol)

I'm starting to see that hasten isn't really doing me all that good right now. my set bonuses and my IO's are letting all my powers recharge pretty fast. Hasten almost seems to wear on my power endurance more than necessary. Although I'm going to have to do some soloing and teaming to know for sure and especially when I get to 35, 36 and 44, 45 I can really see how its panning out.

I may have to respec to Leaping and Acrobatics anyhow if it becomes unneeded or a hinderance.

yea... all great ideas. Like 'em all.

yea I can't use hover and burn at the same time so I have to cut off hover for about a sec, activate burn and switch on hover. lol its kinda funny cause there seems to be a loop-hole in the game so far that when done fast enough (probably especially with a key bind) the foes still don't knock you back cause they have to wait until that turn for the hover which is already set to start again is cleared. At least that's what i've noticed so far. lol but there is always that possible millisecond chance where a knock back gets squeezed inbetween the commands to knock me down, but it hasn't happened yet. :P (but this combo is definitely more high maintenance for hasten, than it would be with acrobatics and leaping).

I didn't want to try leaping as a travel power cause I thought I would have to go with an extra slot for acrobatics, but now that I think about it... acrobatics wouldn't have made me lose an extra slot, I just would've been able to use the Temperature Protection's spot for acrobatics.

Right now I'm trying out how hasten will effect the game play. If its really not doing what I need, I'll use one of my Veteran respecs for the Leaping pool acrobatics power.

Yea... the more I thought about it. Hasten started to seem more and more like the thing to go with.

I'm using Hover to me and it really doesn't seem to take as long to cycle another power as it was taking when I don't use hover. For Example: With Hover... I do a flip and keep on going. W/out Hover... I might fall flat on my back, get up and continue fighting at the same rate. unfortunately that's not the case when w/out Hover I get knocked on the other side of the room into another mob or down off a balcony or ledge. In the latter cases Hover has helped tremendously in me keeping my position with the mob pretty steady.

I'll definitely look into the -knockback IO's for sure though. It's just so annoying to me that a "tank" is being knocked back. but I guess Fiery armor has to have a downside/balance considering the damage output it has just from the fiery armor (aura, consume, burn) alone. unlike the other armors that down have that much damage output I don't think, just from the armor. At least I can't be slept lol.

Thanks for all the help guys. It's all helpful

I don't know... I guess this idea seems to diminish the idea of having balanced teams. If the tanks already can take a lot of damage, w/ a little (taunt) crowd control, then you add damage based off of crowd control... to me it seems to raise that age old question: "Why does Superman even need the rest of these Justice League guys" lol

Imagine this power on an 8 man team of Tanks. Would they even need anyone else or any other AT type. They all would get damage buffed every time they taunt and some already get defense buffs based off of how many enemy NPC's are around them.

Now don't get me wrong... I've already heard of the 8 man Rad/Rad defender teams that mowed through mobs. maybe that has been nerfed since last I've heard. but even that I felt defeated the essence of each team needing a good balance in order to flow well. A balance that goes into putting go teams together but a balance that isn't too strict.

I think this idea takes away from that balance and would kinda even make the scrapper AT seem gimp and almost unnecessary in comparison

As a matter of fact I think the scrapper is the AT that is suppose to have Tank like defense to a degree, but deal out massive amounts of damage with good chances to critical a foe.

I said Intimidate Pool in the Dark Melee paragraph. I meant to say the "Presence" power pool.

thanks AceMace... I love that animation under your name it's really hilarious how Recluse's eyes bug out. lmao!

Anyway back to the issue at hand the build is a Fire/Dark Tank. I thought of going for a build I don't see too often and do something original.

Primary: Fiery Aura - I'm planning on picking up everything except temperature protection. Which leads to the original question of the post: What should go in it's place?

Secondary: Dark Melee - I'm grabbing everything out of this pool. I like the sound of everything in the pool. Except maybe fear... only because it doesn't effect several enemies at once. I was thinking if I didn't go for fear, Temperature Protection and left out something else; I could work up to invoke panic and the other fear ability that is under the Intimidate pool. This would more than make up for the singular Fear power under Dark Melee... But then I would have to give up something else that I already like.

Alt. Power Pool Sets: Flight - seeing as how the Fiery Aura pool doesn't have any type of Knock back resistance it seems. The Hover ability under Flight provides me the knock back resistance I need without having to go for Leaping just to get Acrobatics and end up dropping another power for it. The only hiccup I slightly have is cutting off hover for a couple of seconds to activate Burn, then reactivate Hover again... but the damage from Burn coupled with my taunt keeps enemies running around instead of attacking while my team mates and the fire kills them.

I opted out the idea of Fitness for this build because I have alot of health and endurance management going on from both the primary and secondary power sets. Healing Flames, Consume, Siphon Life, and Dark Consumption. Anything these can't do... inspirations and my team I believe will be able to make up for.

Also, the amount of damage and stacked damage buffs from Fiery Embrace and Soul Drain will also add to Burn, Blazing Aura, and Shadow Maul (along with any Fiery Epic powers I pick up at level 41 to 50).

Tried to give as much detail as possible about the build without being too detailed boring.

Hope this helps. Thank You.

I'm at level 30 and was wondering if I should finally take temperature protection. I was reading on the forums before and someone mentioned that Temperature Protection was a power that could be skipped for something better. but I'm wondering what is better.

Level 32 will be reserved for Rise of the Phoenix and level's 35 and 38 will be 4 my 2ndary powers.

Will I just be better off with Temperature Protection or is there something in the Power Pool area in the 1st two slots that will be useful in the long run?

I've thought about tp friend, tp foe, provoke, maneuvers, kick, stealth, or hasten. idk.

What would you guys suggest? Thank You.

Its always so silly to me to hear the hate some people have for certain AT's and the very likely hood that Epic AT's are gimp is hilarious.

But let assume that you worked your Epic AT open with a character that you built from the ground up, with no PL'ing whatsoever. Then lets feed into the notion that Epic AT's are gimp or whatever, and without the help of PL'ing you manage to get this weak Epic AT to lvl 50.

Hmmm I suppose some could say "oh you were just riding the coat tails of the rest of those in your team or that of your SG", but the fact that most people that play this game actually like playing this game... probably level their characters for the love and fun of the game play. If you have done all that with a regular character and managed to do that with a weak Epic toon, Sheesh! you must be one Kick @$$ player Dude!!!

If I truly felt that PB's and WS's were terrible AT's and just horrid; then walked into a room and saw a lvl 50 PB or WS... I should just fall down to the ground and kick in my worshipping emote. and say "Wow, how did this guy get such a terrible AT to level 50; he must be a god. I must have him on my team or beg to be on his team" lol

I just had an idea while playing one day. How cool it might be to have vehicles in the game. I remembered it while playing again today and decided I would Post my crazy idea.

This is how I would imagine it.

Vehicles would be an alternate travel power but not without fringe benefits and some draw backs and restrictions.
1. vehicles can't be used in buildings or in missions. (unlike normal travel powers)
2. vehicles could only be used to get you from missions, to contacts, or SG bases. (this would keep people from cluttering up places like Atlas Park's Administration Building for example.)
3. Once you select the power, you get to choose a Contact, Mission, or your SG base (if you have the latter) and go to it.
4. You click your power and your vehicle shows up. Your toon goes into an animation of getting in or on the vehicle and then you take off. if you're going to a contact or mission you appear in front of said contact or mission with the animation of you getting off or out of your vehicle. Then your vehicle fades away or leaves.
5. The power only works if you're close to the ground.
6. Because this alternate travel power seems to work like a quick teleport power, it should have some really big disadvantages to it. I don't like the # of uses or long recharge time difficulties on some powers. So imagine this would have a disadvantage but a unique one. Every time you use the ability it would cost you influence (I haven't picked out a number for this, but I imagine it might be something starting at 100,000 influence or so, but that's just a random number). Every time you use your vehicle within a 24 hour period, the amount of influence will go up, maybe even double. I believe thats an adequate draw back for such an amazing power. Plus it should help to reduce the possibility of people abusing the power.
7. The reasoning behind the paying of influence every time you use your vehicle power, would translate as maintenance and gas. you're actually using your influence or paying to keep your vehicle going. (you gotta imagine every time a super hero gets inside his super vehicle, its' not cheap... those things run on rocket fuel and nuclear reactor cores lol). If you don't have enough influence to use the power then the power will be inactive until you earn enough influence or until a 24 hour period has elapsed and you can afford to use the vehicle again.
8. Customization. This is the largest endeavor I think of the whole thing. Imagine several templates and prerendered models and parts that you can add to your vehicle including color. All this would take place at what I imagine would be a "City Garage" where heroes (or villains) would go to buy recipes for a vehicle and actually put together the salvage necessary for certain parts they want to add to their vehicles. This way you can design your own unique looking vehicle to fit your type of hero (or villain) Of course all of this would cost influence. (again the customization is a big stretch and isn't necessary to have the idea work, but I believe it would entice players to want to partake in the whole vehicle idea)
9. Yep Salvage... I believe this increases game play. You would need Salvage to make the parts to add to your vehicle.
10. Vets not needed. I didn't imagine this ability only being available to people that have been playing for several years, but at the same time not for those that haven't earned the influence to create or use vehicle. Because influence is needed to use the vehicle and customize it, I believe Vets probably wouldn't have a hard time using influence to make one. Also active players will also surely earn the influence in good time to create and customize a vehicle also.
11. The Showroom. Since usually people won't really be able to get a good look at your vehicle but for 3 to 5 seconds when you appear in front of a contact or mission. I think a showroom would be nice for people to name & display a saved image of their vehicle designs so that other players could look at vehicles others have created for ideas and inspiration.
12. Vehicles. Well, the type of vehicles I imagine 1st off would be... Jet Packs, Motorcycles, Cars, Mack Trucks (w/out the trailer). I would like to add helicopters and jets to this list but c'mon guys even my imagination has limits. lol I know it may not seem that way.
Again, this idea isn't intended to replace normal travel powers. This power will cost influence that normally low level toons will properly and justly so prefer to use on enhancements instead of a vehicle. but hey if you're lvl 22 and want to use your influence on a vehicle instead of enhancements, you would look good pulling up and leaving the mission, but you would suck inside of it. lol
Oh well, this all is just an idea of the imagination... whether fun or entirely impractical; I figure this is the forum to post it. I imagine others may have at some time or another at some point of playing this game probably wished their character could drive up in a hot rod or ride up on a supped up Harley.

man excuse my spelling... I think its time for me to go to bed. my grammar in that last reply was terrible. I think I may need to get some sleep :P lol

I should've said:

The "...vehicle power would 1st start off as a recipe power among many to choose from, that you would purchase and pay..."