Failsight

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I've always thought it would be thematic and balanced if rage's crash was a tohit crash. That way, you'd still have a 5% chance of chrushing someone's skull, but you almost certaintly wouldn't actually hit them.

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I thought of that one before, but I'm trying to remember if Tanker taunt auras have a separate damage and taunt check, or whether the aura requires a ToHit check equally for both damage and taunt (for those that have both). Some Tanker taunt auras are auto hit (Inv, WP, SD), so that could be potentially unfair.

If this doesn't affect Tankers' ability to keep aggro, I'd be all for the ToHit crash.

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Allowing everyone to run around with actual invisible powers is...a very bad idea, game design-wise.

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Why?

Does Wolverine glow green when he heals?

Does Professor Xavier shoot pink rays when he dominate's someone's mind?

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Because, unlike a comic book or cartoon, a game (especially multiplayer) requires a certain amount of visual indication as a shorthand for being able to understand what's going on. Multiplayer games require substantial cues for quick reaction times, as well as to be able to understand what's going on around your character while not even looking at your character (like when you're looking at your tray for recharging powers).

Because gaming isn't a passive activity, cueing takes precedence over visual realism in terms of good gameplay, especially team (or adversarial) gameplay. For example, can you imagine PvP with no colours? Can you imagine trying to heal the Bubbler who hit PFF and it not working because you can't see their power active?

I'm fine with making powers more subtle--I'll probably do that on a number of characters--but on heavily team dependant characters, I may change colours, but wouldn't want to make things invisible. After all, I don't want my Rad 'fender being yelled at for not using AM just because no one saw it.

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I meant the actual debuff. It's supposed to be part of the balance of rage. But when stacked, it fails to apply.

Agreed that this screws defense based sets far more than dam-res based sets, but Castle was supposed to deal with that at some point.

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Which is why I said he'd probably not fix that part of it without a complete overhaul of the entire power.

Or basically: that particular penalty is very unbalanced, and should be replaced with a different penalty. What, exactly, is the question. Probably why it's still the way it is for now.

If it alone is fixed, I'd actually be very pissed at Castle. Even while Dom PSW was blatantly broken, he left it until he had a chance to overhaul the entire power (well, the entire set...the entire AT...). Not a perfect example to set up precedence, but I hope you get the gist: fixing one part of a power that breaks many combinations of powers just to make it "WAI" is very, very bad.

Wait, are you talking about the defence debuff taking effect or the visual indicators failing to show up? The effect itself is debilitating to defence-based defensive sets if it can't be countered. The latter...I've never noticed, actually.

You can already achieve "invisible armors" in many cases with a single macro or keybind, at least when viewing your own character.

Allowing everyone to run around with actual invisible powers is...a very bad idea, game design-wise.

If true, that'd be disastrous to many, many characters. I doubt that's something Castle is going to do without a major overhaul to the power.

Thugs are no worse for "getting everybody killed" than any other MM set. Basically, an MM who doesn't know how to control their pets will end up drawing additional enemies into a fight. An MM who knows what they're doing, of course, is a force to be reckoned with.

The noob probably played with some bad Thugs MMs and maybe played with a few not-so-bad non-Thugs MMs, and formed an opinion on that. Either that, or someone was telling them lies and half-truths while laughing at the noob from their dark, lonely room.

That looks very close to my own build power selection-wise, with the most significant difference being that I swapped the positions of Taunt and Phalanx Fighting--that extra 5% defense is really important, and SD's taunt aura is strong enough to be able to tank without Taunt in most situations like most other Tanker primaries.

And there's no need to add Taunt SOs to attacks. Just move around a bit and keep smacking things.

The only two issues with an SO only SD/SS build are: endurance usage and not having a recharge buffer for Rage crashes. The latter is pretty important if you plan to use Rage a lot, as Rage has a 20% defence debuff that can only be countered by re-applying Rage. Being caught during a Rage crash with the def debuff hurts a lot.

My SD/SS, btw, I was able to fund quite easily without farming. I only got lucky with my Numina unique (as a merit roll--I've gotten two of them that way), but otherwise, cheap sets like Smashing Haymaker and Multi-Strike can bring you right to the verge of soft-capping. Picking up the Steadfast 3% def unique will take you over. At that point, you'll be a very amazing wrecking machine.

Oh, and I frankenslotted Shield Charge to maximise both recharge and damage. It's pretty scary in combination with Footstomp.

A well, if cheaply slotted SD/SS is simply a monster. My favourite Tanker of all time, as it's quite survivable, and very solid in the damage department (I've had Scrappers struggle to keep up with me).

For solo, I prefer to steer away from a secondary that has DoT damage, as it will break the sleep effects of two of Mind's low level powers, Mesmerize and Mass Hypnosis. Even then, Fire can work around those problems with smart target selection and use of other mezzes.

Psi is a great secondary still, despite the reduction (which was bound to happen) to Psychic Shockwave, and the Mind/Psi combo will only really have issues against Psi resistant enemies (though there seem to be a lot at the higher spectrum of the game), but even then, if played well, it'll just mean it'll take a noticeable longer time defeating enemies.

Energy has gotten a nice boost with the Dom upgrades, and has the easiest great single target ranged attack chain for Dom secondaries. Power Push is now a premiere power for the set, especially considering its amazing base tohit. That's what allows Energy to have such a good ranged attack chain. It also gets Power Boost, which goes well with Dom primaries. Its one downside is the need to control KB, which is still quite doable, especially solo, and really a very small downside for what you're getting.

Electricity is also a very nice set with very nice cast times, and the only secondary that has a full-out Build Up (Fire has Fiery Embrace, best paired with its Fire attacks, but not as good outside of it and with a longer timer, and Thorns has Aim), which does have a great impact over time when used often, considering the upgraded base damage values of Doms.

At that point, it's up to you to decide. I'm sure others will give preferences and advice.

Mind control is actually near the top for mitigating enemies. Especially solo, when your sleeps are much less likely to be broken prematurely. It uses a variety of different meta-controls (sleep, confuse, and fear) on top of a few regular hold powers. It also has the unique benefit (if you're good, or curse if you're not) of Telekinesis, which is amazingly potent power under Domination's influence, and a great tool (especially additive to other controls) when not.

One of the things I am doing with my Mind/Energy Dom is using the longer range of Mesmerize to help counteract the knockback. Definitely use it as an attack and not a hold, considering how often Sleep can be broken.

In every situation outside of AVs, I'll take Sleep over Immob, unless the Immob also happens to have -KB (not always the case), in which case it depends on the secondary.

Oh, and BTW many Dom secondaries are almost as weak at AoE as Energy. Considering that as secondaries go, Doms pretty much only get a cone and a 15ft PbAoE (the latter Energy does get), it's pretty apparent that the design of Doms relies largely on its primaries for any AoE it might put out. In general, only Fire/(Fire/Psi/Thorns) are considered AoE monsters, and only at relatively high levels or recharge rates.

I suppose "very survivable" is relative. It'll be a very unique tanking experience, though, as much of ElA's mitigation comes from draining endurance. Not a style I'm really interested in playing, but will be something to watch.

Basically, it might mean, between 2 CPs and PS, never having to go anywhere near Stamina, or even worry about collecting IOs for end recovery. That helps free up room for things like what looks to be the very necessary two picks for Aid Self and two picks for Tough (if not extra for Weave).

EDIT: Though I'm not really a fan of all-Res sets in the first place (I'd rather not get hit at all), so ElA is low on my wants list. I am very excited for Tankers getting ElM though!

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If we can make suggestions I would love to have the one handed hurl animation from Shields tossed into the normal SS set.

Its just way too cool NOT to have.

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Oooh! Excellent idea from the JMan himself!

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If everybody was SKed to maybe 3 levels below the person who set up the mission, that would do a lot to make regular missions attractive compared to AE.

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3 levels below?!

This might work in an AE farm, but not in a real mission where, y'know, the enemies hit back. Just imagine a level 10 trying to do Frostfire when everyone else on the team is level 7...

[/ QUOTE ]Running with pick up groups usually winds up in a bigger spread than that already in my experience. You end up with 4 or 5 players within 3 levels of each other and then the rest of the team lackeyed to them.

You act as though people didn't run real missions with a three level spread in the team before.

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My suggestion for auto-SK is to allow it to put the auto-SK'd player -1 or -2, but give a lower XP rate (i.e. they get a lower share of the team's XP), such that they can contribute to the team, but have a penalty for not being someone's actual sidekick. Of course, actually SK'ing them gets rid of the penalty. Whether or not auto-SK is trashed or proliferated to regular content...I really don't care. It's just that the current design pretty much makes it the perfect mass PL'ing tool.

I think that J_B is just one of those chronically grumpy people who'll somehow manage to outlive us all.... World's a funny place, ain't it?

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Will the new animations have the same animation time as the current animations? I'd find it pretty unreasonable if they are longer, or shorter, animation times for those powers.

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Might be part of why most of the "new" animations are actually new.

Well, since animations come in sets (generally of 2) per power anyway (just that most have a set of 1), it might be possible to have two sets of 1 (old and new) and one set of 2 (old and new together) that alternate. We already have conditional alternating animations due to things like Shields, or in Brawl's case, pretty much every weapon set, so I wouldn't put it out of possibility that we can have the choice of old+new alternating.

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There will not be an alternate animation for every power, but the potential to add new animations or even plug in existing animations that work for the power is there.

Right now we have an alternate animation for Jab, Punch, Haymaker, Foot Stomp, and Knockout Blow that are intended for players who want to play a more 'heroic' super strength character (compared to the somewhat smashy super strength that we have now). Most of those are completely new animations.

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This is very cool. On behalf of my level 50 invuln/ss tank, I thank you.

Let me second the request for a "random" option on the animations. That would make it seem we have more powers and more variety in the game. Don't delay issue 16 for it, but it's something to consider for a future update.

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This. Please.

Actually, we have one type of trading, one type of auctioning, and a few kinds of purchasing, all on top of a random drop system. Outside of character-to-character trading and random drops, the influence/infamy pseudo-currency system is very important.

Market prices for IOs, sets, and just about everything tradable in the auction house are pretty much predicated on fixed values at stores or crafting tables, as those provide base amounts of worth to basic items (regular or common IO enhancements), and everything else pretty much works off this basis, with the rules of supply and demand affecting prices relative to this.

Ticket/Merit vendors aren't really trading, because you're using a type of earned currency in order to acquire an item. That's more along the lines of crafting or producing from a general element. The item isn't being exchanged to another person for their usage, it is being instantaneously created from what is earned via supposed playtime.

Again, this is why every player is a producer, and why non-currency trading isn't very helpful.

Currency provides a way to shortcut progress by spending a resource to trade with another person, who can in turn trade that resource to get what they want. If you have to potentially trade a good--something with inherent value--for another good when the ability to simply spend time to produce it is available, guess what is going to happen? More producers producing for themselves.

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FailSight you did offer suggestions, and I didn't agree with them, because I feel they are just temporary fixes, and that they would have to repeat those fixes every time the Players who going looking for something to exploit and find it. But what of the other Suggestion, (SK level Limits), the 2 main issues with AE is the Markets incredible fluxuations with it's prices, and the increased demand because of nearly Instant lvl 50 charaters. SO what are other suggestions you may have?

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Yes and no regarding temporary fixes. Fixing exploits is necessary regardless. That's about the only fix that's temporary.

Removing auto-SK or making auto-SK'd players earn xp/inf/tickets slower are non-temporary fixes. It moves the MA more in-line with the rest of the game.

I think that the random button is really the heart of what the MA should really be about: trying something new, and perhaps stumbling upon a hidden gem. The random button itself shouldn't be a hidden gem, it should be prominent and enticing. Thus having it top level and perhaps with added (ticket earning boost only, not xp or inf) incentive are there to give carrot, where other parts of the MA might get some stick.

Another idea (on top of the others) is to give diminishing returns (to any combination of xp, inf, or tickets that the devs desire) upon excessively repeated arcs and/or particular enemies.

As to your suggestion about SK limiting:

This is simply a no. Non-farming, non-PL'ing players should be able to play with friends who are at a vastly different level. That's what the SK system is for in the first place. Making people play with only people around their level range means you might as well get rid of the SK/Exemp system altogether.

Also, I still want to know how you'd set up bartering to be quick and easy.

A quick lesson in basic economics: bartering was a system used in personal one-to-one transactions, or amongst small groups of like-minded people, often within a tribe or nation. In other words, terms could be reached via dialogue to what particular items are worth compared to other items.

Currency made this much simpler: instead of having to argue whether a musket is worth 10 loaves of bread, 8 salted hams, and 3 bottles of mediocre wine--but only 1 fine wine--currency becomes an intermediate factor. That musket becomes worth 2 gold dubloons, from which you can buy however many loaves of bread, salted hams, or wines of whatever quality as you choose.

But what of, say, a ship? How many muskets, loaves of bread, salted hams, or bottles of various qualities of wine is a ship worth? What if the buyer doesn't have exactly the numbers available that the seller wants?

Taking this to in-game examples, if someone has a Numina unique to sell, what are they going to set the value as? How many of what set and what set? What if nobody has the exact combination of items to match the value of the one on sale?

I'll give you the answer: they talk about it and hammer it out person-to-person. But guess what? That option has always been available to players: we've had the ability to trade items character to character for far, far longer than the market has existed. But it's slow and personal. A person can't "set and forget" an item on a market, but actually has to wait for buyers to approach them to hammer out the details. That's not what I want to do in a video game designed around superheroes.

That is why a non-currency (and currency is only currency if you trade goods for it) system makes it more difficult and time consuming than an auction system. Currency is key to having the ability to buy and sell high value items, as the high value items can potentially be worth a much larger combination of various other items.

Because he's replying to your suggestion/idea, and saying he doesn't like it. There's nothing wrong with that, so long as he isn't being abusive and explaining why he doesn't like it.

I gave my suggestions:

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As for the MA itself, I can only really suggest a small number of things:

1) keep closing those exploits, devs;

2) get rid of auto-SK--it's not really necessary, and having it greatly assists in PLing;

3) make the random arc button visible at the top level instead of two clicks in;

4) give incentive to use that random button, like an extra few percentage chance of ticket drops if the arc was chosen via the random button;

5) penalise repeated running of the same arc over and over in a 24 hr period (not sure if this might already be implemented) via diminishing returns a la TFs/SFs.

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Basically, fix the MA with a few relatively (compared to some of your suggestions) small changes to try and boost the diversity of what gets played. That's all I think needs to be done to the MA: boost diversity.

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I know that CoX used to have purchasable game cards that covered subscription costs so that people wouldn't need to pay using a credit card. They're either all gone or very rare these days, I think.

[/ QUOTE ]Any time card/game card for an NCSoft game works for CoX. There's also the NCSoft time card that works for CoX, which I believe mostly replaced the CoX time cards.

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Ah, nice to know. Never used them, so never really looked for them.

I know that CoX used to have purchasable game cards that covered subscription costs so that people wouldn't need to pay using a credit card. They're either all gone or very rare these days, I think.

I'm...really not sure what else you're proposing. Game kinda needs money to maintain and keep developing.

And I highly disagree with almost everything you've said other than the obvious "exploitable enemies are something Devs will fix."

Overall, getting rid of inf as a currency will never happen. It'd be like this game getting rid of, say, the AT system. There are too many other systems reliant upon it.

Simply making inf a non-tradable resource is still problematic, as it gets rid of one major and easy way for one player to help another out, meaning if that player wanting the help wants cash, they'll end up, guess what? Farming.

Again, explain to me how your bartering system would be easy and not time consuming? I've seen no evidence of this so far that would work on a large scale system.