Futurias

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Here is my problem Jack:

I have 2 accounts now and 2 50's: FF/Energy Defender and Invul/SS Tank.

Problems with my Force Fielder:
1- Not needed by most types of characters in high levels except blasters who suck.
2- I can go into arena by my self and walk my 50 invul tank up to my 50 FF defender, and without using ANY rage or insp, and only one acc SO per attack, I can hit my FFielder 9:10 through his 5 Cytoskeleton+1 Membrane Dispersion Bubble. Now I have read on the boards that this is because of the ACC>DEF issue at the high levels particularly with HOs, but I can not find one FF defender that is worth anything in PvP unless they have 5 [censored] repell powers making them a joke in PvE. I will be happy to demonstrate just how good, and how crappy being a level 50 Force Fielder can be anytime you like. PLEASE GIVE US SOME DAMN LOVE! I will really start [censored] when I get uber-famous.

-MrHeaven

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Um, this is the way that Forcefield works. Because he can't do his single target bubbles on himself, he has the lowest defense, but he can grant a much higher one to his team mates. Do a duo with him and try to hit his friend that he super-bubbles.

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I respectfully disagree. a Dark/* Defender should NOT be played like a controller. It should be played as an accuracy and damage debuffer. When I have 3 pets out, I can debuff damage on a single target by 95%. Can a Controller do this? The answer is no.

Just because you have Fearsome Stare doesn't mean you should play like a controller. Stick to what you're AT is for: ie buff/debuff/blasting. If a defender was playing like that on my team, they'd be kicked off.

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You are right, but only partly. A Dark Defender should be played as a aggresively defenisve debuffer/buffer with control.

Dark's are very flexible, if slotted correctly. You can just boost damage and attack (mini-blaster), minor control and debuffing (when there are no controllers) and healing/debuffing support (no other defenders.)

Some groups I've done all three in just three missions, depending on who we lost/gained.

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Actually, not only are Defender secondaries at 66% of Blaster's "base" damage, but we also generally get weaker attacks in *identical* builds.

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Brawl Indices between the two ATs are consistent.

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I notice you snipped the part that shows a Defender doing one grade of damage less than Blasters.

And I hate Brawl index, as that doesn't really mean a lot to me directly.

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First of all tankers shouldn't be able to herd that many mobs in the first place. There should be a limit. Say surrounded by more than 20 mobs....bam... your armor drops. Dead tanker, Dead team... problem solved. UNLESS he has a defender there to pull his bacon out of the fire. But why penalize EVERYONE because of an often exploited game mechanic? My scrapper dosen't herd.... so why should I Lose the one AoE I have?

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A real solution for herding: Make villains unwilling to travel more than a certain distance from their spawn points. It'd have to be fairly short, but it could be done.

My DM/DA would be crippled without her AoEs... Dark Consumption, Soul Drain, Dark Regeneration, Oppressive Gloom, Cloak of Fear...Okay, Shadow Maul's not a huge deal and Energy Torrent is more a bonus than anything else.

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It would be exploited by people knowing that a mob won't follow very far. I'm more in the camp of "get too many mobs on you, you die".

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It's not mind-boggling at all. This is the natural consequence of so very many defenders choosing to totally neglect their secondary powerset. You simply cannot count on the average defender being able to do any damage whatsoever. Anecdotal case in point, I picked up two high-30s defenders off LFT last night and between the two of them they had seven slots in offense. Total. The potential for defenders to do damage is there, far more damage (and more intelligently directed) than any controller pet can hope to deal, but very rarely is that potential met.

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Actually, not only are Defender secondaries at 66% of Blaster's "base" damage, but we also generally get weaker attacks in *identical* builds.

If a Blaster gets a heavy damage attack, it is most likely a moderate damage attack in the Defender set. So Defenders are being doubly penalized so that we don't step on Blasters toes.

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Some one PM'ed me about this issue - and I've talked about Defenders a bit at conventions - so I thought I'd at least post something on them.

Basically, we've already committed to looking at several Archetypes and builds for I5 and afterwards, but I've said nary a word about Defenders. Why? Because of all the Archetypes, we're happiest with them. There are certainly issues with individual sets and powers - and those we're always looking at. Defenders, however, don't have any overarching problems.

BUT....I'm extremely concerned about the perception that Defenders "aren't needed" and thus "can't find a team" at high levels. Defenders should fill a valuable role at ALL levels and help Archetypes achieve levels that they can't reach by themselves. After all, Defenders are all about buffs (and debuffs). Every Archetype should be extremely happy when the Defender provides a resistance or defense buff...

Anyway, just wanted to post our view on Defenders right now.

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Jack, unless people see a *visible* sign that you are helping, they don't realize the Defenders benefit.

As a high level defender, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt what I can do, but it's basically invisible to most people. They see a blob of green or black and don't relate that to the archvillian not hurting the entire team.

Unless you can turn on exactly what a lot of defenders do into some sort of visible phenomonia, your average player may not really understand.

I'd really like an option that would put a visible "blocked" or "$damage reduced" on peoples screens in a unique color. Then they'll realize that the defender *are* doing their job, even when the green numbers aren't flying above their heads.

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I agree.

I don't like playing evil, never will play evil, and I don't understand people who like playing evil.
(I don't disaprove or anything as pretentious as that, just can't relate)

The only reason I would ever purchase CoV is if it improves the CoH gameplay in some important way.

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Don't play "evil", play misguided or that you "know" better on how to fix everyone's problem. Or an infiltrator on a mission of revenge against a villain that is part of Arachnos.

"Evil" is not simple or just meglomania.

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I'm sure blinkies still make a sound now. It's slightly softer but it's still there. Every time I solo my blinkie missions in cave missions, I turn off Super Speed and any other "loud" powers other than Superior Invis and just crank up the volume to help me locate those darn blinkies.

Keep those entries coming

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Actually, I wish blinkies had sparklies like Thief III had.

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I guess I'm in the minority here, but I didn't much care for it. Manticore's narration sounded too melodramatic. I also found it really hard to like the characters. Statesman was condescending in the fight scene, Manticore seemed only too eager to jump into States' shoes as leader, Sister Psycho wasn't too bad considering what she went through, but Synapse just seemed like a whiney bum. I did like Positron, as he seemed to be the only one of the 'heroes' that actually thought of the others.

I dunno, I hope they back off of the character flaws in following issues and focus more on the Surviving 8 doing daring acts of daring do.

Flame me if you must, but please...

Have the decency to bring marshmallows.

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Good summation. You hit just about all my gripes with it. The only other thing I can say I didn't like was the art. Too loose for my taste.

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21/21... Yeah, Commander Courage was a decision point for me...

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Same here. That was the only one I was unsure of but I guessed right for a perfect score.

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I used logic on that one. I *knew* what all three of the other guys should have looked like, so I knew it had to be Captain Courage.

21 out of 21.

I am such a geek.

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You know that all you americans descend from europeans?

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O.o

My Watanabe cousins are "all" from Europe?

Arthur Hansen

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Joking apart, this is a really, really good idea.

It would give so much more personality and life to the signature heroes to have them do this. They don't even have to get off their pedestals. A simple ranged attack would do.


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I totally agree -- and I like the x-ray eyes idea. They just turn and this unbelievably powerful bolt of pure....power comes out and vaporizes the annoying bad guys.

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You aren't kidding. Antimatter does enough damage to one-shot you in the 40s! Could you imagine how much damage that would do to some low level Outcast at 16th level.

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1. Actually, we've tweaked SS in the past; the issues with SJ have slowly evolved over time.

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What are the "issues"? Why not remove the stealth component from SS in the arena? Maybe up the end cost of SJ in the arena. And for goodness' sake, remove the acc penalty in fly, or lower its end cost. The way things have panned out show what people WANT, which is all that matters. Your and the devs wants should be secondary to your customers; you are here to provide US with an entertainment outlet - not see you world brought to life. Maybe we, the players, want to be able to defeat scores of enemies easily. Why not make ahard mode where villains hit harder, or powers work less effectively, if that's what you want - then see which people opt for. Let's run a poll to see what changes the players want; afterall, those are the people the changes will affect. Have any of the devs even played a character all the way through to 50? I'd like to team with a dev and see how they think the game should be played. It's nice to know that we're paying you folks to tell us how to play.

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Super Speed doesn't have stealth in the arena. It was only added for safety of the traveller (it is a travel power, after all.)

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1. Actually, we've tweaked SS in the past; the issues with SJ have slowly evolved over time.

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What "issues with SJ have slowly evolved over time" ?
What are the PvE problems with Superspeed ?

Your vagueness and amibiguity are remarkable, even for a politician.

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Super Speed used to give a good defense bonus. As it is fast enough out of the box, everyone was six-slotting it for defense instead of travel.

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Couple of changes we're making in I5:

1) Instead of the first five levels being debt free, the first TEN levels will be debt free.

2) XP debt will be halved on mission maps (that includes outdoor mission maps, too).

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Missed this somehow. Is that you only "earn" half the debt on mission maps or that you burn it off twice as fast? One just makes it harder to get to the debt cap, while the other burns off debt faster.

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Who pressed the nerf button on that one? Was it the Powerlevelers? No?

Well that's good to hear since it makes absolutely no sense to me why they'd shoot themselves in the foot like that. I do believe it was the Devs that pressed the nerf button.

It's been said by others, I'll repeat it here: Powerlevelers have NO apreciable effect on our gaming experience- however what DOES have a definite quantifiable effect on our gaming experience is ham-handed, futile, vindictive crusades by the developers to stamp out what really is a minor annoyance, if it can be called that at all.

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Just what I was thinking. It's really the insanely loud group that gets riled up by seeing a low-level toon standing in a train station that "effects the game". We all have to suffer because of attempts to solve the "problem" that is a made-up problem.
And of course, every bad experience they have they instantly attribute to "those darn, stupid powerlevelers". A player doesn't know how to play well? He must be a pwlvler! Someone is rude to them? A pwlvler! (The pwlvlers I've met seem to know there stuff pretty well....and most of them are eager to help me and answer my questions too.)

Now...because they let trivial stuff like that bother them, we all have to put up with watching how far away from the action we are instead of having fun. Thanks guys...

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This is not necessarily true. This also causes lag issues at the trams. The Devs didnt' "just" decide to do this, they had data we don't that prompted them to do so.

This is not the first "anti-powerleveling" tweaks they've made. This is just the latest one.

The most recent one was the AFK logout, IIRC.

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The new state for COH defender http://www.heeza.fr/Images/leashicon.gif

New defender/controller items at your local contact
http://www.bylawleash.com/images/leashdiagram.jpg

If you want to take your defender/controller of the leash follow the map
http://www.town.beaumont.ab.ca/image...ff%20Leash.jpg

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Because, of course, all Defender/controllers feel this is far too onerous.

:P

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then you never street hunted with a scrapper have you. I am sometimes on my 3rd set of 8+ by the time my healer friends catches up with me. To give me another one of those great endurance and heal buffs or give a heal. Founders Fall they have a hard time trying to keep up; I guess I will just street hunt solo and tell the defender tough cookie keep up or find a group doing missions. (Wait I can not she is a real life friend) oh well I can solo street sweep no skin off my teeth good luck defender/controllers you are now the red head step child of coh

I know one thing I ran into something I have not seen in COH before last night. People in my groups talking about leaving for another game; I have not had that happen once before in COH now it is starting to pop up and all of it was over the xp leash law

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Really? Every time an "unpleasant" change pops up, someone is screaming that they are going to leave. That just happens.

And yes, I have street hunted with scrappers.

You have to work to stick with them, but you can do it easily enough.

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Currently - stay within 300 ft.

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This will be fixed before this goes live, right?

Or at the very least give every hold a single 1 point of damage.

Most Controllers and Defenders already get forced into teaming to get xp, don't shaft them more.

Sailor eX
"Not in the face!"

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I see no reason that you should be 300' away from a fight you are involved in. Your buffs aren't earning XP, you are. That requires you to be closer to the fight.

That really isn't that tough.

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This part of the system ought to be changed. Basically what it means is that for missions where your team splits up, say because you're scouting for bombs or just need to beat lots hundreds of skuls, you're actually losing experience per person doing that. Even though it makes perfect sense to split up in these cases, the entire team is being penalized experience because of the lost shares. The team multiplier does not make up for the loss of the split exp shares.

Instead, I think what should happen is people who get exp are treated as their own team for exp purposes. People who don't get exp because they're out of range and didn't do damage are treated as not being on the team at all. That way you're still encouraged to be in range to receive a share, but if you're not in range the people who are in range aren't penalized for having you on the team.

Otherwise I like the new system. This part of it should change, though. My two cents.

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This seems to be left in to stop bridging and inflating XP for the SK that is being bridged.

Note, the one who is really losing out on the XP is the person out of range. The XP for everyone else is staying the same.

It just isn't *increasing* to split it only among people in range.

This is again nudging people to stick together for their street sweeping.

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Now, let me clarify the situation with Badges and Defeat tasks. As long as you or any of your teammates are within 200 ft. of the defeated mob, EVERYONE on the team gets credit. This is not a change in Issue 4; this is the way that it currently works.

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Ummmm...I thought the way it currently worked, for badge tallies, is that you get badge credit for kills anywhere in the zone?

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Sounds like if you are over 200' no one gets credit.

So no sniping for badges!

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What about the group holds that do no damage whatsoever. Can't it be changed so the holds do at least 1 point of damage or so that you get exp if you affect the groups of enemies somehow? I still dont like the idea of having to deal some kind of damage and stay alive. This also affects my defender who is a "happy healer" and has no attacks anyways. Maybe we can increase max life on defenders and controllers so they're not as "squishy."

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Well, it's more of an incentive to PROTECT the squishies rather than just running in. Besides, you have a full minute to be dead. Most mobs can be taken out in a minute, except AVs. Not getting AV XP would suck but... oh well.

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The XP for AVs already sucks for the time it takes to defeat most of them!

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There is nothing in the game that ignores resistences.

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Hami and Dark's do right now!