FourSpeed

... Paragon City have countless bus stops, but not a single bus?

... the Blimp in Atlas Park *still* prevent me from hitching a ride on it?

... a GM with 10X my Hit Points run like a little girl when I shoot it?

... lone Arachnos and Longbow mobs conduct suicide attacks on bases in Bloody Bay?

... a hero run faster than he can fly - when aircraft, bullets, rockets and other
airborne projectiles can go supersonic but cars, trains and other ground-based
objects cannot?

... citizens in banks and offices run around liked crazed maniacs even after the bad
guys are arrested?

... an ambush know exactly where I am even when I'm completely invisible?

... mobs leap off buildings (to their deaths) when you hover just out of their reach?



Cheers,
4

As mentioned earlier, Voids are created by the Council, unlike Quants who simply
have the fancy rifle.

The other point is Voids are Human. Sure, highly modified, and presumably highly
trained, but human nevertheless. They also have no appreciable stealth capability
and as also mentioned, they are attacked by other factions on occasion.

Now, I'm no Loremaster, so I simply took these descriptions from P-Wiki.

I know what you're thinking... No, no, no...

It's not that I can't kill them, or they keep killing my PB's - not at all. I learned
how to handle Voids way back in I3 / I4 when they actually *were* dangerous.
I haven't had a Kheld killed by a Void (or Quant for that matter) in years...

That's not a problem, or even a factor anymore...

I hate them because of the way the Devs implemented them - they show up
*everywhere*, disregarding common sense, faction loyaties, or canon story lore...

What prompts this latest rant? Simple. First Ward.

I ran it with one of my PB's (level capped @L28) over the weekend.

While I have some other issues with First Ward, I enjoyed the story arcs and new
mission types. Overall, I'd rate the zone favorably based on what I saw.

Unfortunately, with Khelds, Voids show up in *every* mission ... In Praetoria...
Where there are no Khelds ... or Council ...

Would a dev PLEASE explain to me how the average Praetorian, imprisoned in
First Ward even knows what a Kheld IS? Or what a Void IS? Or how to create one?
Or how to hire dozens of them to defend against Khelds?

Why would Apparitions work with them?
Why would Devouring Earth work with them?
Why would they be teamed with elite D.U.S.T squads?
Why would Ghouls tolerate their presence?

When all is said and done, *nothing* was more ruinous to the story of First
Ward than these Voids showing up all over the place.

The same is true in Paragon City as well, but it was extremely jarring in the new
content...


Devs, this is an AT you're SELLING to people now.


I like the *concept* of a kryptonite enemy, I honestly do.

However, NOT to the exclusion of logic and worse yet to the ruin of the stories.

I really think it is long past the point where the devs need to pick a handful
of factions where Voids make sense, and adjust the mechanic so that they
ONLY appear with those groups. Factions like Council, Malta, Family, Crey could
logically have access to them...

Voids are specially created, elite troops designed to kill Khelds. Surely, they're
expensive, and relatively rare. A Hellion might be able to buy a Quantum rifle, but
hire a Void? Doubtful imho. Close knit factions like Tsoo? Why would they allow
"outsiders"? Banished Pantheon? Ghosts, Really?

It's ridiculous.

There is zero reason for DE, Praetorians, Carnies, Apparitions, T'uatha and many
others to do so in the context of the lore, and when they appear in those cases it
actually ruins the story.

Nowhere is this more obvious than First Ward.

It is really a detrimental attribute for an AT you want people to purchase and
imho, some consideration should be given to tempering the concept to make
it interesting and augmentive rather than overbearing, irritating and outright
ludicrous.

Ok, I've said my piece. I really hope the devs will revisit that mechanic.


Regards,
4


PS> I don't recall seeing any Quants in First Ward, so that, at least, is a step
in the proper direction imho.

In the past few weeks or so, roughly since Freedom went live, I've seen a large
drop in salvage prices, and I'm wondering what market / game forces have lead to this.

FYI - I'm not wondering if that result is Good or Bad (it's irrelevant to me), but
what the causality of the pricing change is.

A few speculations I have (in no particular order):

I'm fairly comfortable with the idea that Rare (orange) Salvage price decreases
are most probably due to the recent prevalence of lowbie AE and CEBR types of
farming - where those players are exchanging tix for rare salvage, and thus
significantly raising supply of rares on the market.

With the most recent AE changes (no rez rewards, ambush DR), I'd expect that
activity to wane a bit now and rare salvage to gradually ramp up again in price.

Some of that activity may also be a factor in the price reductions of Uncommon
as well, but I'd expect it to be less than the rare segment, so I'm still wondering
at the drop there, where Carnie Masks, Steel, Symbols etc. are back to Vendor
price levels.

I don't have any idea what pushed Common prices down, although I'm aware of
some efforts by folks here to drop Al Silvers and a couple others down. But things
like Circuit Board, Spell Scroll, Runes and many others are also back in the Vendor
Price range, and I'm doubtful any of those efforts had anything more than a minor
(and temporary) effect.

I am wondering if there was a dev bump to salvage drops (I21), and I've seen
occasions on recent toons where they got double salvage drops (bug?).

I doubt it's attributable to iStuff as those have been run by L50s for several
months now - while prices still remained elevated during that period.

Another possiblity is that I21 has boosted the population (esp for former VIP
accounts), and I wonder if that activity is a significant factor (Freebs can't
use WW/BM so I doubt they're a contributor). I have no proof that population
did, in fact, increase significantly, but if it did, perhaps it's a factor.


So, what do *you* think has lead to reduced salvage prices across the board?


Regards,
4

Interesting question.

Most of my toons are unique.

However, I do have a small handful inspired by characters in books or movies, etc.

In those few cases, my rationale was - "I wonder what those guys would be
like, and how they'd interact if they were in the 'City of' world".

For instance, I have a Brute that is a Tolkienesque Tree Ent, who slumbered
for aeons, and woke up to find themselves in this radically changed "Middle Earth".

I have another toon that is Arizona themed (for an AZ SG) that is based on
a Hopi-Indian legend and it is built based on what I read of that character on
Wikipedia.

A couple characters from some movies I like have found their way into Paragon City
and the Rogue Isles, one of which was purely a "pun" name about existing game
powers and the character's name in the movie.

I'm doubtful the Ent or Hopi-inspired toons are copyright issues at all, and some
of the movie characters weren't IN the movies but were inspired by the movie's setting.

A couple of my "movie" toons might be copyrighted (I have no idea), and may possibly
be an issue as they are those characters, transported here in "City". <shrug>

Whether they are or not, the reasons *I* made them were because they "fit" (for me)
in the "City of" universe and they're sort of a tribute to a movie I liked. YMMV.


Regards,
4

Maestro nailed it for me too...

It is a tactical AT. You cannot just wade in indiscriminately and wail away at
everything - that way lies Death (and I *hate* dying more than I like killing).
In that regard, it's as much a mindset as a playstyle.

You survey the situation, assess and prioritize the targets, and then, you methodically
kill them. Done right, it's a virtual symphony - like the way Downey fought in the
Sherlock Holmes movie... It's a ballet.

Solo, you live or die based on how well you assess, and implement your plan.

I enjoy playing those kinds of ATs - Blasters, Stalkers, Khelds (PBs) -- they
all have that approach, and their success depends on their ability to carry it
through.

On teams, it's a source of amusement (and some pride) that I'm usually the
last to die if there's a team wipe and more often than not, the fact that I
don't die is often a deciding factor that saves the day when things do go south...

In my experience, Blasters that die often either: Do not understand a tactical
playstyle OR Simply choose to ignore it and play their Blaster like a Brute
(with the predictable, and entirely appropriate face-plants).


Regards,
4

I have two L50 Blasters that I play regularly. Neither of them are Incarnated past
a T3 Alpha.

Are they the "Best" solo Blasters? I have no idea, but I like both of them, and
both of them can solo the game at the settings you suggest without any difficulty
at all, although they each have very different feel and playstyles.

The oldest (from Day 1) is an E3 Blaster that soloed the content back in the I-1
to I-3 days, on a seriously sub-optimal build. After I9 Inventions, and a much
needed respec it's now cake for him. He plays like a mini-controller with several
holds, and the ability for soft-control via End Drain...

Not a fast playstyle, but very, very safe and still quite effective.

The second is a Fire/Energy, with a nice build from the get-go, and it's easy
for him... Fire really does a LOT more damage and most stuff is crispy fried
right away... Energy keeps him safe from anything close due to Total Focus,
Bonesmasher and Power Thrust. He can be a very effective Blapper, but Fire
makes that mostly unnecessary unless you prefer that playstyle.


Regards,
4

"Best Soloist" is a pretty difficult thing to nail down...

Additionally, most AT's have "holes" that make some factions more difficult than
others...

Khelds, for instance can struggle against Energy resistant Pantheon, High Def
builds can get into trouble against Def debuffers, my SS/WP can get into trouble
against Longbow (-Regen debuffs) etc.

Against the right factions, +4/8 is doable for any of those, but not necessarily
all.

One AT I have that is (arguably) least bothered by factions is my old tried and true
Fiery Aura / Ice Melee Tank. Decent defense, Decent Damage, Conserve Power
and Healing Flames allow him to deal with pretty much any faction.

He's *not* as powerful as my SS/WP Brute, when the brute can pick his enemy,
but he's very good against pretty much everything.

Interesting question, and some interesting answers.


Regards,
4

I don't think it is unfair in the slightest for a couple reasons.

First, the number of powers it does affect is large to begin with - and it also
ignores ED (by varying degree depending on tier), so one can certainly make
a case for it being "powerful enough" already.

Secondly, and more from a thematic view, the idea of the Alpha is to make
what you have already (ie. core Pri/Sec powers) more effective. As it is the
very first Incarnate Ability, having it work that way (and not affecting iPowers
that come later) seems perfectly reasonable to me.


Regards,
4

There isn't a tutorial as such for Incarnates (that I'm aware of).

However, you can talk to Mender Ramiel in Ouroboros to get some basic info
about Incarnates. He is *also* the contact for the missions that will open your
Alpha slot.

You can also unlock the Alpha slot (and the others) by running the iTrials
(BAF, Lambda and Keyes).

Finally, asking questions on the forums or poking around on Paragon Wiki will
also provide you with plenty of information about Incarnates as well.


Regards,
4

np.

All's well - just had to replace the heater and clean up (dry out) the mess.

Nothing that some $ and time couldn't fix...


4

Sorry for the delay, had a mini crisis with the house Water Heater that took some
attention the past couple days - yech.

Anyway, this bind works on my PB:

/bind key "powexec_toggle_off White Dwarf$$powexec_toggle_off Bright Nova$$powexec_name Combat Flight$$powexec_name Energy Flight"

It switches you to Human form (from either Nova or Dwarf) and puts you in Energy Flight.

Press it again for Combat Flight (ie. Hover)

Note that it's basically the same as your "f" bind without the Goto Tray command.


Regards,
4

Some interesting viewpoints out here...

A few random thoughts I'll toss out.

* I never list anything for 1, ever. I've lost 4 inf on things that way, and from a
purely psychological standpoint, it bugs me.... (the min market fee is 5).

The rule there - Never list for less than you'd be willing to accept if they
paid that exact price.

I can accept 11 for a common, but not -4

Typically, at the end of a play session, or when a toon fills up, I'll dump my common
salvage (listed for 11).

Taken in aggregate, I've *always* gotten more inf doing that, than the vendor pays.

Sure, a Silver might sell for 11, but Circuit Board might sell for 50,000 - and
just one of those beats the Vendor price of 250 each for the entire lot.

In the end, doing that keeps the Market Wheel greased, assists other players,
and still gains me a modest (but acceptable) profit for the time involved.


* From a money making standpoint, flipping salvage is about as small time as
it gets - you can make 10's of millions flipping Common Recipes in a couple hours
(see my sig guide) - salvage is lot less value for the time, even for a brand
new toon.

In fact, one stack of 10 L50 Common recipes would beat the 1.5 million earned from
the OP's entire exercise (no knock on OP if he enjoyed a few hours of market
dabbling that way).

But for pure funding? Not so much. The only time I think it can be a decent
strategy is for toons running AE missions - converting tickets to rares can be pretty
lucrative for the effort invested... Even so, converting tickets on random IO rolls
is statistically more profitable (for more effort though).


* Market effect: Virtually None. Entire groups of players have descended
upon a specific salvage niche numerous times. For a time, typically minutes,
if they focus on the task exclusively, they can sway the price, but ultimately,
Supply & Demand will re-instate itself very quickly as soon as that dedicated
effort stops. For what it's worth, that is a Good Thing.

As for supply - abundant supply of Common salvage is desirable - for crafting.

Having a floor price? Not worth the programmer effort (regardless of how little).

Why?

My first point - considered in aggregate, it already sells above Vendor Price.

If you only ever sell Kinetic Weapons or Silver, you might not get vendor price for
it, but on the other hand, if the difference between what you do get vs 250
each is *problematic* (really?) vendor it...

A floor price is a solution for a non-existent problem.


Regards,
4

If someone doesn't answer it for you in the meantime, I can look up #1 when
I get home from work.

My default "switch to Human" bind automatically places me in Energy Flight.

I don't use Quantum Flight at all - never went back to it after the changes
made to it's Phase back in I-4 or I-5, so, can't help you on that one.

The (obvious) question I'd ask is what's wrong with the binds you posted ?

It seems to me you could simply pull out the "goto tray" part if you don't want that.


Regards,
4

I'm with the others on this one. Short Circuit has never returned End to the caster
(and I've been playing my E^3 Blaster since Day 1).

Also agree with Teeto_K -- you need BOTH SC & PS to drain mobs since ED.
Ball Lightning, and (surprisingly) Tesla Cage are also helpful at keeping a mob drained,
but a single cast of SC or PS will not fully drain a mob these days.

I haven't run my Blaster lately (too many alts), so I can't speak to whether
PS is different since I21. I suspect not, but I can run some Tips over the weekend
and check it. I do know it was fine a few weeks ago...

(EDIT - 10/10/2011)
I did run some Tips and the SSA over the weekend, and didn't notice any oddities
with either Short Circuit or Power Sink. It took both to drain an even con mob, and
only Power Sink gave me any end as part of the power cast.
Both seem to be working the same as always to me... <shrug>
(/EDIT)

I'm not sure what it is you are actually encountering, but I'm quite sure Short
Circuit didn't work the way you described.


Regards,
4

PS> Other than Power Sink, which is specifically designed to give you
End (when you hit a mob with it), the other powers (T1 & T2 attacks)
wth a "chance" to do that have been minimal, and inconsequential at best,
in my experience <shrug>. Any end they did give back was virtually unnoticeable.

In the RP sense of avenging their deaths, sure... ie. "You filthy rotten bastige,
you killed my favorite Ninja - For that, I'm going to snap you like a toothpick..."

In the mechanical sense of using the Vengeance power - No, not so much...

As the others point out, that is to prevent exploitive usage of Vengeance,
hence you can only cast that for a player defeat.

I only have Vengeance on a few toons, mostly because I solo primarily, so I
tend to use the first approach much more often...


Cheers,
4

I agree with all of the OP's critiques in regard to the Paragon Market.

I'll particularly emphasize that they will *never* sell me an IO or costume piece
if I cannot *see* the values or looks IN the interface at Point of Sale time.

The market is supposed to encourage and capitalize on impulse buying.

So, during those rare moments where I'd actually peruse the store in the first place,
if I have to resort to jumping into the costume editor or surfing the web to see a
picture of an item (or look up stats for an IO), guess what?

You just lost the mood moment AND the sale.

One hopes for improvement, but heck - the crappy UI is saving me money!


Regards,
4


PS> So why did I post? I'd like the game to continue to succeed and for that to
occur, they need to continue to make money - A decent UI that facilitates
purchases is obviously a key part of the new business model... The current
UI (like *many* of their UI's) leaves much to be desired, so far...

This is a very mixed bag for me as well.

I'm happy that Human Form PB's got many of the perks they were looking for,
but the downside that saddens me is that Dwarf is essentially obsolete.

LF covers the resists, you can take the slots you'd normally put in Dwarf and
put them into Human Form, for better dps and utility.

In short, there's little to no reason to ever take Dwarf now.

Nova still has some utility as a hover blaster, but again, you could easily skip
it and put those slots in a maxxed Human Only build with minimal loss or regret.

For me, the *point* of the AT was always the forms... That was what uniquely
distinguished khelds from a standard Blaster, Scrapper, Tank....

While Human Only was still viable then, the new changes seem to make it the
definitive approach now, relegating forms to concept (or old-school) builds.

It's good to see the devs finally looking at PBs, but I can't say I'm all that
keen on the thematic direction they seem to have taken with the AT... YMMV


Regards,
4

So, I logged in last night and placed one of my tokens into the Tier 8 slot and got
the /auctionhouse power, only to discover that it doesn't work in the base; you
know, the one place where I have my salvage, vault and crafting table all conveniently
located together ... wth?

Maybe it's just me, but if it doesn't work in the base, it's about 90% worthless,
as I have 20 free tp's to the BM/WW that will take me straight to the Cap or Steel
BM/WW - within a SuperJump from the University.

In the case of Cap, the free Ouros portal (available every 5 mins) also works.

I'm hoping this is a bug with the /auctionhouse power.

Otherwise, as a tier 8 reward, count me extremely disappointed.

To me, if it's WAI, it's another perfect example of an excellent concept with a
practically useless implementation -- just like the idiotic Rocket Board (a perma
No Sale until they re-think the toggles).

Yet another head-scratcher, I guess...


Regards,
4