Futurias
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Posts
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There were only 3 bug-fixes other than the booster pack... what am I supposed to think?
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Is this set to go live tomorrow? Because Secondary Mutation is incredibly broken and they know its missing parts (tails at the minimum).
If they do, I'm going to be very disappointed with QA... because there is none with this patch. -
Yeah, you have to log in as his account (which is a no-no if they are not there.)
I need to buy this Mutant Pack for one of my friends when it comes out. -
My .sig says it all. -3 day headstart, still here!
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I won't even try to use a market while an event is going on (especially bad in Cap Au Diable with Zombies or Banners.)
But when I went to the fairly empty market in St. Martial, it worked perfectly fine. It's a lag issue.
It also doesn't help trying to use it during crush hours. -
Quote:Yes, but that doesn't quite fit Batman and Green Lantern (that might only be a few levels apart) in quite the same light.Originally Posted by GavinRuneblade
I have mixed feelings on this myself. From a simulationist/realism standpoint I can see the value in it. Batman was the hero, Robin the sidekick and it would take away from the story if Robin could do everything as well as Batman.
So the term 'sidekick' is a bit hard to state exactly.
Exactly.Quote:Originally Posted by GavinRuneblade
From a gamist/fun point of view, this isn't a story/comic/tv/movie and there are human's behind each character wanting to have fun. And each having the same right to fun.
When you are plowing through missions at a fairly quick pace, auto-completing really isn't a valid 'tactic'.Quote:Originally Posted by GavinRuneblade
Overall, I think the devs struck an ok balance between realism and fun. Yes, some enemies for some builds are particularly hard. Fine. Every three days you can drop a mission. Or you can dial down the difficulty. Or you an pop inspirations. I think that having those options are enough considering the rarity of the really hard missions/enemies.
Popping inspirations should happen, but I was finding that I was using inspirations faster than they were dropping.
Lowering the difficulty actually reverses the problem, with things actually being to easy at times for the mentor while the sidekick is playing at a reasonable, fun level.
Then he levels and suddenly things are way too easy for him. That's why I think "Sidekick = Mentor" level would actually work better.
I tend to think that they've figured out how to balance things with even conning for the most part. The problem is when you aren't even conning.Quote:Originally Posted by GavinRuneblade
In general, most people get through most content even with sub-optimal builds and poor play skills and forgetting inspirations. The few times those who know what they are doing and have a reasonable or above reasonable build get into trouble are rare enough that I take it as the devs doing an ok job. If no one ever got in over their head, I'd say the game was too easy. It's a balancing act between too hard and not hard enough, between too much variety and not enough variety. In my opinion, as a particularly unskilled player mind you, I think the devs did a good job. I know a lot of people like to say the game is too easy. I strongly disagree based on my experiences in pugs and with new players. But I think it is not too hard either.
-10% accuracy and damage really doesn't sound that bad. They are forgetting that the mobs are also more effective against you. On big teams with swaths of buffs, not quite such a big deal. I've seen teams that mowed through +4s, yet I've seen just a few characters swap out and suddenly things are quite a bit harder.
I'd think that erring on the side of caution for balance would be safer.Quote:Originally Posted by GavinRuneblade
Now, mathematically, I think the "effective range" of -3 to +4 where we can function and get rewards is a pretty narrow band. Within those seven levels, I think a sidekick's -1 might represent too high a percent difference at low levels. I think scaling from -5 to +6 might make the game a bit more flexible. But I also think that at this point, such a decision is beyond the ability of the devs to adjust. And I think sidekicks at 100% the power of the trainer is too much at mid and high level. But at low level, it might be something to visit in the same way as beginner's luck.
Thanks saying I made you think about it at least. I got slammed on forum rep (mostly because I was upset. I thought I was upfront in stating it was a bit of a rant.)Quote:Originally Posted by GavinRuneblade
Something like a sidekick to a character level 2-19 is the same level as the mentor. At those early levels the extra two slots makes a difference. Each extra power is really noticed. By level 30 people are taking vanity powers. At that point the -1, I think, is fine.
But down lower, you might be right that the -1 could be too much.
Anyhow, I haven't made up my mind on this issue. Thank you for the thread, people are saying interesting things and making me think about it. -
He was Ice/Ice, but at that level we were pretty ham-strung.
I think mostly my biggest problem is that by design you are at base default supposed to be facing +0 (and sometimes some +1s that spawn too often) but that for sidekicks, they are automatically facing +1s and +2s while having less slots that are almost always filled with less powerful enhancements and can lose the crutch power.
It just seems like they are making the SK fight a lot harder than they really should be. -
Quote:I believe that part about 'water mains and pipes' is actually proper English. It looks bad, but English can actually be that way at times.Originally Posted by Tokyo
There are more examples of mispelling and general bad grammar and sentence structure that I could point out.
English is flexible. It has to be to mug all those other languages for such interesting words its likes. -
Thanks for the reply GavinRuneblade, but the only bosses that used to spawn below three members in your party were the named or specifically placed bosses. Duos never originally got them. It was only in i13 or i14 (I can't remember specifically) when the devs stated they had redone some of the spawns when duos suddenly got random bosses (which actually breaks some of the lower level stories, as you are sent to arrest a name lieutenant... and you've beat up four of five bosses on your way to him.)
I do have to disagree with your slotting advice as 'normal strategy'. Because it really was not. Maybe it's just because I've been here so long, but the 1acc + damage used to be 'THE' slotting strategy (better DPS/DPE) and when they changed it that you can only get +100% damage from slotting, the last one or two slots changed to either recharge or endurance reduction. And generally I've found that unless you are constantly fighting accuracy debuffing enemies, more damage equals taking less damage and defeating the foes.
And just for your clarfication, Steel_Shaman, this is actually my second Warshade and has Nova of course. It probably was a matter of powers matching up poorly, but that doesn't mitigate some of the underlying issues that I've kept running into though.
I've played just about every AT to about the mid 30s at the very least, so I do feel that I have a fairly good idea how to play (which is why the 'learn to play' comments pissed me off so badly.) -
Quote:No, I said it spawned a +1 to the mentor, which happens *normally* during play.Originally Posted by GavinRuneblade
Nope, I gave at least three options. One included using only SOs. You have chosen to ignore that one, and deliberately misinterpret the other two.
In your first post you said that you "add +1 level to the primary mission holder". That means you turned the difficulty up above normal. I said, turn it back to normal if you can't handle the increase.
Which I had pointed out 1 acc is fairly standard (and one DO is what a lot of level 17+ people have slotted.)Quote:I also said choose a different enemy group to face, because some are harder than others. Lots of people avoid the circle of thorns, malta, and knives of artemis. They are a pain, much harder than their levels suggest, and there is no bonus reward for going after them, so many people skip them altogether. If you have an issue with arachnos, then just fight council, nemesis, freaks, lost, rikti, etc. There are a ton of options. At your level head to Striga or Croatoa and do the stories there, no arachnos great content, no changes to your build required.
I also said add one extra slot to your attacks, or change from 1 acc 2 dam to 2 acc 1 dam.
That *is* telling me how to play. I'm not a big fan of buying/selling items to make enhancements. It makes the game a grind (ie. work) instead of play.Quote:None of these are "learn to play" none of them are "IOs are needed".
If you don't want to craft, then buy them finished. The ones I recommended you should be able to get for very cheap, like 200k or less crafted. I bought a few attack IOs redside yesterday for 65k to 150k crafted.
I buy them only sometimes, because I would rather play than grind recipes and salvage.
Actually, I was noting that since they redid the difficulty (because duos did not used to spawn bosses ever for 13ish issues) that they've made a lot of piecemeal changes to how teaming and difficulty affects gameplay.Quote:Your experience is totally unrelated to the sidekick mechanics. Let me give you an example, let's say in some random sport Chicago always beats LA but always looses to NY. Meanwhile NY always looses to LA. If Chicago went around saying that NY was way too good and twinked and no fun and the league needed to change the rules to make it a fair contest, LA would be really confused. LA would tell them, try to change your strategy, your opening lineup goes right into NY's strengths, or whatever. NY is fine, we kick their *** all the time. And clearly it's not a "learn to play" issue because Chicago takes down LA, so they obviously know how to play. It's just this one matchup, for whatever reason, is harder for them.
It's not the sidekick mechanic. That's trying to pass the buck and dodge responsibility. Some enemies require different tactics and different builds than others. And some are just never going to be easy for a warshade. Zombies resist negative damage heavily, so do the circle of thorns. They will always be harder for you to kill. Widows have unusually high defense and an attack that debuffs your tohit. If you do not slot extra accuracy to compensate, you will miss more often. That is all there is to it. The same thing will happen at any level.
You can either adapt to the different enemies, or you can pick your fights. But blaming the devs for your build not working equally well against 100% of the enemies is silly.
Bosses spawning on Duos is part of that. Specifically placed bosses in missions are still harder than Lts., even when they are downgraded. They hit harder and have higher resistances than a comparable Lt. of their own faction (I found that out the hard way running into a downgraded Troll boss.) So to say that they are 'just hit point' differences doesn't fully match their difficulty.
Since the last two or three issues, where they have been playing with the difficulty, adding 'random' spawns that are supposed to emulate the difficulty of the base difficulty, but switching around the types of mobs more (probably to try to make combat slightly more interesting, a laudable goal.)
So when my friend joined up, we started duoning a lot.
When they first did this about a ten months ago, I started to run into fairly broken things. Boss and Lts. from a single click from Trick or Treating.
Random spawns in some missions were 3 Lts. and five minions (and this was not an over-lapping spawn. It was one spawn.)
So I've been carefully noting the spawn difficulty for duos, because they've been frankly unfun and dangerous to play against.
In fact, in the last ten months or so, I've probably quit playing at night in disgust at team wiping with my friend more than I had in the previous five years.
There is something wrong with some of the spawns. Somebody ran some numbers and said, 'This should match the proper difficulty per player,' and forgot to actually take into account front-loaded, back-loaded and the random +1 mobs. -
Quote:Actually, I generally find them to be a hassle to make. I don't play this game to craft. I play to be a super-hero.Originally Posted by UberGuy
They aren't required. You're choosing to play with optional difficulty increase. IOs make it easier to manage that difficulty increase. If you don't want to use IOs, and you don't want challenges as hard as what you faced in the OP, then don't increase your difficulty.
You are basically saying that you have to have IOs to play 'effectively'. Another shut up and learn to play.
+0/x1 settings should be the basic playing level for anyone that isn't playing a 'gimped' build like an Empath with almost no attacks.Quote:Originally Posted by GavinRuneblade
You have two options.
#1 Turn your difficulty down to match your skill level and character build.
#2 Turn your build's power higher to match your difficulty level.
IO's are the best way to achieve #2. You can also add more accuracy SOs and fewer damage SOs. Or take slots from other powers and add them to your attacks. But I think you'll have more fun following my frankenslotting advice and it will save you inf also.
They are not required, they are simply more efficient and help you achieve #2 easier since you are not interested in #1.
A duo (like playing with my friend that joined the game because of me) should not require special settings (lowering difficulty, IO slotting, etc.)
That should be the *basic* settings. I'm sure part of the problem was that the Widow is slightly overly twinked, but it is not fun.
Part of that I think is because they are holding over the -1 Sidekick level... even though I think more people would be happier being even level with their team/mission leader. -
Quote:What happened to IOs not being required to play the game?Originally Posted by GavinRuneblade
This looks like an invitation for my favorite speech about the joys of frankenslotting. =)
So you have three slots and are level 22. Right now using SOs you could have 1 Acc, and 2 dam for 38% Acc/76% Damage while they're toop of the line, but they'll drop fast as you level.
Or you can slot (all level 25 same as the SOs):
Pulverizing Fisticuffs Acc/Dam/Rech, Focused Smite Acc/Dam/Rech, Acc/Dam
for: 52% Acc, 52% Dam, 32% Rech at level 22
The PF costs 74k to craft and maybe 10k in salvage. The FS cost 36k to craft and maybe 2k in salvage.
Level 25 SOs cost 29.9k with some variety per style and store.
You replace those SOs even once from a store and you're over the price of the sets.
You can play around with the options to get some end reduction, heavier damage, etc.
Also, these guys will always be higher bonuses and often cheaper than equivalent-level common IOs. -
Quote:Actually, I thought TFs could not be lowered any more (but you can increase the difficulty)?Originally Posted by stfrn
You can set missions to -1 level now, so that's one option. But also you can have the lower level player be leader- and then both will be the same level.
I'm not sure if the Imperious TF is a signature TF or not (so would not be less than 50th level) but there are a lot of TFs that are.
I really think the side-kicking being at -1 level is a hold over from the old framework, which is not meshing perfectly with the new difficulty changes (a +1 boss and +1 minion is considered a 'normal' spawn for duos... but there are some lower level duos that get totally chewed up by that.) -
Quote:Actually, most of my 22+ characters don't have 40%+ slotting to accuracy. That's usually fairly hard to do without some serious slotting which you really don't have available at that level.Originally Posted by GavinRuneblade
Actually, the lower level you are the weaker bosses are. Level 1 to 5 bosses barely have more hit points than lieuts. I use a custom AE arc with enemies locked to level 1 for my tanks and defenders to level up in since they are such high exp for so few hp. I strongly recommend it.
But in the 20s bosses have gotten quite tough.
I'm guessing the blinds were part of the problem. Also I'm still strongly suspecting neither of you have enough accuracy slotted.
Are your primary attacks at 40%+ because if not, you really should tone down the level of your enemies. You want 50-60% accuracy to go up against +2s (depending on any tohit buffs such as the Kismet unique), and really don't want to try it with only "one" accuracy slotted, especially if it is a DO.
I know some people hate to miss and slot way more accuracy than damage, but I've always 1acc+2-3damage, which generally works for most slots.
The part that is annoying is the sidekicking relic of -1. I don't really think that the developers have considered deeply entire missions or TFs with a -1 penalty for everyone but the leader can be quite frustrating and 'unfun' to be penalized.
I actually had this happen on an ITF. We only had one 50, everyone else was sidekicked to 49. It was quite a bit harder (we had a few team-wipes at times).
I'm positive that if everyone had actually been even-leveled with the 50, it would have been a much smoother experience (and probably would have been faster XP too.) -
Quote:It was a +1 (to the Mentor) Widow, which ended up being harder than the Elite Boss we had to fight.Originally Posted by Fleeting Whisper
True. But a duo fighting a +2 boss (+1 to one of the players) should be fine, unless the character who's sidekicked is level 3 or something.
He was a level 20 Blaster (and I happened to be a natural level 19, but still 'effectively' a sidekick) of a Warshade.
The only way that we defeated her was by mass inspirations eventually. -
So exactly why is 1 Minion and 1 Boss considered balanced on duos?
Then you add +1 level to the primary mission holder...
...and your sidekick is suddenly facing off against a +2 (purple) Boss.
Sorry, I'm just really frustrated with dying constantly as a sidekick at level 19 because of the 'new' mob difficulty that they implemented a few issues ago.
It's no fun team wiping with your friend every two or three spawns. -
Quote:I would assume its your no-script. I use FireFox with Ad-Block and see new posts fine.Originally Posted by Supernumiphone
So that's why. I get the same thing, and it's quite aggravating. I use the boards a lot less since the changeover since there's no way to reliably tell what's new.
I don't suppose that crack web team has offered you a workaround? -
Quote:I thought that was the last patch that has already gone live? It was supposed to re-enable Intel options.Originally Posted by Kioshi
Meh nothing on Intel shader and general gfx fix.
That's why I haven't been playing the game in the little time I have. -
Quote:I've got a friend that is playing on a Netbook with an Intel GMA chipset. That's a pretty low bar for playing this game.Originally Posted by Eisenzahn
Followed your advice there. And, well, the only difference is that trying to access the Black Market started crashing me again. So, your canned response managed to re-break the one and only pre-existing problem I17 had managed to fix for me, without fixing anything else.
I'm heading over to suspend my account right now, until I can save up for a new computer. Exactly what I was promised I wouldn't have to do to keep up with the ******* ultra mode update.
There's never any guarantee that all computers will play, but it may not be the game in this case. -
My team wish is to actually get rid of the -1 level penalty for lower level side-kicks. I think it punishes those players that don't get their crutch power (as they are usually over level 20) have lower enhancements (usually only TO and DOs, or just less enhancements in general) and forces them to fight roughly 20% harder (-10% accuracy, -10% damage, etc.)
When you sidekick, everyone should actually just be your level. -
I believe Dark Miasma and Dark Blast also have three shades (two dark black types and a reddish/purple too.)
That did not affect it when they made it custom-tintable. -
But is that force measured at the atomic level or quark?
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Still no version that has all the emotes from all the packs?
Edit: Well, I'll take a stab at figuring it out again. I failed miserably last time.
Code:Well, this is what I came up with. Added as a basic top menu of the quickchat/emote. Hope it works.Menu Boosters { Menu Cyborg { Option "Robot Dance" "e dance7" Option "Power Down" "e powerdown" Option "Power Up" "e powerup" } Menu Magic { Option "Card Trick" "e CardTrick" Option "Magic Card Trick" "e MagicCards" Option "Juggle" "e Juggle" Option "Juggle Balls" "e Juggleballs" Option "Juggle Electricity" "e JuggleElectricity" Option "Juggle Fire" "e JuggleFire" Option "Juggle Magic" "e JuggleMagic" } Menu Super Science { Option "Experiment" "e experiment" Option "Calculate" "e calculate" } Menu Natural { Option "Push Ups" "e pushups" Option "Bring It" "e bringit" } Menu Wedding { Option "Propose" "e propose" Option "Throw Confetti" "e Throw Confetti" Option "Throw Rose Petals" "e ThrowRosePetals" Option "Throw Rice" "e ThrowRice" } }
(And again I fail... it looks right to me. I even added the extra "}" I'd forgotten.) -
Quote:I thought there was a limitation on SFX and models. Basically you can't do both. OTOH, I don't see why they couldn't change the SFX on Dwarf and Nova (though it might be a slight kludge.)Originally Posted by Dr_Mechano
Granite cannot be customised either. Granite, Nova and Dwarf all use the 'model replacement' tech.
Still unhappy with this one, as it really does smack of 'not fair' and punishing the Epic Archetypes for their story and causing it to limit the players personal story.Quote:Originally Posted by BackAlleyBrawler
Should clarify this by saying that 'fiction' was only one of the reasons we opted to not do EAT power customization. It wasn't the only reason, it wasn't even one fo the more important reasons, and it doesn't necessarily mean that we'll never do it.
And I hate looking like every other single Dwarf and Nova on the Imperious TF. -
Quote:Er? I can do a She-Hulk or Powergirl quite easily (Gigatanica is Max Height and Busty as Hell!)Originally Posted by _Echoo_
Are you imagining the case of stretching the sliders to approximate Huge, or in a smaller increase of a 10-20% extension on sliders, or both? I can certainly imagine the great distortion with messing with pushing the mesh too far, but would a smaller increase still throw things out of whack?
For example She-Hulk or Power Girl aren't even close to the level of hugeness of the Male Huge body type, but they are both popular comic characters whose body shapes can't be reproduced in this game. A woman of that size - someone with a slightly thicker upper body and arms but not massively bulging with muscle - is what I think of when someone mentions the Huge Female type.
I really appreciate you taking the time out to answer our questions even if it's not always what we want to hear.