GadgetDon

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This pretty much seems to clear the way for CoH on XBox 360.

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Fixed that for you. The Live Marketplace on the 360 offers the opportunity for people to (in theory) pay for their MMO subscriptions with Microsoft Points ... which means, they could buy prepaid cards at any video game or computer outlet ... no credit card required. Make it a 1200-point fee, that's $16 - enough that even after MicroSoft's inevitable cut, there's still probably a nearly-full, standard MMO fee left for NCSoft.

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This pretty much seems to clear the way for CoH on PS3.

Refixed

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This pretty much seems to clear the way for CoH on Macs.

Refixed

(Hey, a guy can hope, can't he?)

BTW, the regular Hami raid this Saturday (10/27) won't be happening, at least not with the usual band of idiots. Angry Angels are having a Halloweeen party, and given that most of the leaders are associated with the Angels...

We went from weekly raids to monthly because of low turnout. If Turnout is high (and it was for the last raid) we may go to twice monthly. Might have done it this past month but with everything going on during October seemed like a bad time.

Of course, attendance may drop off when I11 hits, the classic "new shiny" effect.

For next year, could the monsters that jump out of doorways, and the minions that are spawned by the GMs, have the Giant Monster code so they always con at your level (like Rikti in invasions have)? Solves some concerns about griefing (intentional or accidental).

A few notes and musings after tonights raid.

There is a significant new strategy that the targetter for the assault team has developed, that I'm not sure has been documented. Instead of trying to hold and attack green mitos (focusing the heals of the other greens onto the green attacked instead of yellows), they attack blues. The strategy part is that they keep shifting targets, so that they are attacking the mito near the first scrapper team's "strike" team. You don't need holds for that, and it lets the yellow team quickly go through the mitos. That means the targetter has to be aware of what's happening with the yellow teams.

This is HIGHLY effective. For a variety of reasons, I thought this was going to be a failed raid, breaking our streak heroside, when I saw the mix we had. But the raid ran very smoothly.

It definitely changes some of the expectations of the two scrapper teams. Under the old strategy, each scrapper team are expected to take down their own mitos, and whichever team finishes first will help the other. With the new strategy, the expectation will be for the front team to finish and move around, the back team will be holding aggro while the mitos they attack are quickly healed.

Tonight, we were short on scrappers. (This is unusual.) However, there was an Invulnerable/Electric Melee tanker who arrived too late for the tanker team, I invited him, and he proved very effective. So, if there are shortages on scrappers (or even if there are extra scrappers for a separate "strike" team) and there are more tanks than the tank team needs, extra tanks can act as scrappers.

The "traditional" scrapper team is five scrappers, three buffers. That way, there's a buffer at each mito, keeping the mez protection up for the scrappers at that mito.

But in practice, I've found a team of six scrappers, two buffers for the front team very effective. I split the scrappers 4-1-1, so the first mito has four scrappers whaling on it, popping it quickly so we can cycle around. The group of four mitos gets a buffer, and the scrapper on the far mito gets the other buffer. Once the first mito is popped, we're 5-1, with one buffer for the 5 and one buffer for the one.

I have group fly, so have tried to put non-fliers in the strike group. But more DPS is also desired.

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Going to have to make my way out to one of these soon. Haven't been to a Hami raid since i8.

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The current schedule is every Wednesday @ 8PM EST and every Saturday @ 6PM EST in the Hive.

Anyone can organize a raid at any time, speaking up on the VirtueUnited global channel is a good way to reach many poeple and one of the mods will be happy to put the announcement in the motd. It is best to give as much prior notice to any impromptu raids as possible.

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I'd also strongly advise having gone to several raids before running your own, spending time with the leaders to understand how the groups get thier tasks done, and so forth.

If we've got one weakness, heroside, is that I'm not sure we've got enough people learning the leadership tasks. When neither Nucess nor Manticore made it into the raid, there was unnecessary confusion. If any regular raiders would be willing to do so, talk to the team leaders about learning what's necessary to act as team leaders.

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Manticore leads raids?

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My error, I meant Minicore. (Thought I'd corrected that.)

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Going to have to make my way out to one of these soon. Haven't been to a Hami raid since i8.

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The current schedule is every Wednesday @ 8PM EST and every Saturday @ 6PM EST in the Hive.

Anyone can organize a raid at any time, speaking up on the VirtueUnited global channel is a good way to reach many poeple and one of the mods will be happy to put the announcement in the motd. It is best to give as much prior notice to any impromptu raids as possible.

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I'd also strongly advise having gone to several raids before running your own, spending time with the leaders to understand how the groups get thier tasks done, and so forth.

If we've got one weakness, heroside, is that I'm not sure we've got enough people learning the leadership tasks. When neither Nucess nor Minicore made it into the raid, there was unnecessary confusion. If any regular raiders would be willing to do so, talk to the team leaders about learning what's necessary to act as team leaders.

Arctic_Sun, can you confirm that you meant the 20th Amendment? Because yeah, if it is the 20th amendment in this reality, that's some very interesting implications.

Thanks, Lighthouse. But I hope you understand (and take back) how important fixing the problems with that older content is. Can we expect to have eight people enter the main mission in the Eden and assume nobody's going to drop into black nothingness until they hit bottom anytime in the forseeable future?

Lighthouse, it may seem that we're jumping on you, but I hope it's clear that these comments come because we like the old content.

And it doesn't need to take the sort of work involved in, say, revamping Faultline or the Rikti Crash Site. Eden's biggest problems are some bugs, and taking a look at those two Quarries, and somewhat the issue of the rewards. As great as a fully new Positron TF would be...a simple edit to reduce the number of missions and reduce the travel time would make a world of difference. Shadow Shard, same thing.

There's great stuff in the old content that needs a little attention.

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However, we hope everyone can appreciate the history behind this older content and also appreciate that, in the larger scheme of things, we have our designers working hard to bring out exciting new content in a timely manner and not spending too much time optimizing the experience of dated content.

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The problem with this is that, if you are adding new members all the time as the numbers suggest, it's ALL new content to them. And your primary "end-game content" remains rolling up a new alt where you go through all the old content.

Nobody is expecting you to go through every old mission and update it. But this attitude of (paraphasing you) "it's old so it doesn't matter if it sucks" is very bad for the health of the game.

And if that's not what you meant by what I quoted...that's how it sounds.

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Lighthouse --

When doing something like this, how about fixing the problems with the Eden TRIAL first.

1) The Eden TRIAL does not give a Pool D TRIAL recipe. It gives a standard Pool C. Right now the only way to get a Pool D TRIAL recipe is the Respec Trial on the hero side.

2) The Eden trial can not be started by someone beyond the level range.

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I think the reason those trials give pool c instead of pool d is because it would not be fair to villains. Heroes would have at least 5 ways to get their pool D drops, while villains would only have 3. Until the lack of content redside is fixed this will probably stay that way.

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Heroes also have many more task forces than Villains do. Should the Shadow Shard Task Forces not give rare recipes at all?

Heroes have many more zones than villains have. Should salvage and recipes not be awarded in certain zones?

Add me to those disappointed. The loss of the enhancements is not a big deal to me, by the time I get to those levels I'm more interested in the full power of an SO (or now an IO). But it's the attitude of "It's old content, so we'll let it fester".

Eden is one of the best trials in the game, but it needs some developer time.

First, the bug when forming. If the captain isn't within the range, the trial is immediately disbanded. As a level 50, I can start Positron, Synapse, Transcendence, Sister Psyche, first respec, Moonbeam, Hess, Citadel, Manticore, second respec, Numina, all without problem. But if I start Eden as a captain, the team is automatically disbanded.

Second, although this may be fixed, there have been problems with people falling through the map on entrance.

Third, the two Quarries may be Monsters, but they're not expected to be single team opponents. I've been on Eden trials that couldn't defeat the quarries and had to lure them into a hole, but had no real problem with the rest of the trial and had no problem at all with the Crystal Titan.

You WERE willing to go into them to close off earning XP from the lichen (and as usual, the solution wasn't to limit the number of spawns, but just say "OK, risk but zero rewards). But all these other problems have been left untouched.

I know the new stuff is sexy, the new stuff is fun. But I'm disappointed in this announcement, and the recent statement that nothing is going to be done about the Positron TF any time soon.

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Im actually curious if anyone knows the reasoning behind removing lv 45 and 46 from getting a hami during the raid.

Seems like the risk is still there so should not the reward be as well?

And yes i know they cant use it, but they can still get it and use it when they reach 47.

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There are only level 50 Hami-O's. So, a level 46, for example, couldn't slot a Hami-O if they took it as a reward. Previously, people in those level ranges could select a Hami-O but the server wouldn't cough it up for them and well, they would be a very sad panda that they went through the raid and got nothing in the end. As the fix for that bug, we simply removed the option for getting a Hami-O. There are some other rewards in the table they can choose from.

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A far better reward would be to give them (and everyone) a level 50 Hammi-O. There are many cases where you receive SOs you can't use yet. So, you either hold on to it, or sell it.

For those who don't know, the Hami raids have been started again. We had a successful Villain raid on Tuesday, and a successful Hero raid on Wednesday.

Hover would be good, but may not be possible. Adding a +jump buff is fairly easy and the mechanics support multiple stacking jump powers, but flight is a power that cuts off other flight powers. If it overrode flight and even run and jump (the way that group fly does) that wouldn't be good. Imagine people trying to "run faster" at hover speeds.

The raid went very smoothly. Right now, we're dependent upon two teams of 5 scrappers, which must either be five flyers, or two flyers, one group flyer, and two carried along with group fly.

I think we could make do with one group of five and one group of three...the group three holds aggro, the group of five clear their mitos and cycles around. It will take longer, meaning that the set of three will probably need EoEs at the end, but it will make do.

Also, it's possible that for holding aggro, we can make do with jumpers. Flight is better, and anyone looking forward to raiding regularly would do well to respec into flight. But if we're short on scrappers, it's worth a try. I think the tough part for jumpers will be the trouble with the buffers.

Seeing how a good raid runs with people who know what they're doing, I think a reset is faster than trying to recover in place like Septa suggested. And unfortunately I don't think that strategy would work with people who don't know what they're doing.

Nope. Had lots of false starts and bails, which meant we were running out of EoEs.

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PLs explain
"significant new mechanics"

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Mayhem, Safeguards, and invention are new mechanisms. New ATs or new PowerSets are new mechanisms. Vet rewards (as a concept, not necessarily each reward) made up a new mechanism.

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I hate to Point this out But..... Invention Is not New.. Inventing Has been Around Sense the Release Of Villains with Base Items.. They Just Expanded on Inventing to Include Costume, temp powers and IO's

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the use of recipe drops is new. Sets with set bonuses is new. And a whole lot of working getting the drops right and balanced (still not done). Yeah, it's new.

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PLs explain
"significant new mechanics"

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Mayhem, Safeguards, and invention are new mechanisms. New ATs or new PowerSets are new mechanisms. Vet rewards (as a concept, not necessarily each reward) made up a new mechanism.

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I hate to be MR. DOOM but i must be honest.

I love the idea of CO-OP zone and TF/SF and a CO-OP zone.. but is that it??? yea the rikiti are all fun and good but really... is this it? As I see it if you can go threw all the new stuff in a single weekend, easy!! Looks as though there are a few contacts and 1 tf/sf.... no new power sets.. still no epic ATs for COV, no PPP re-work(as of yet). RCS is not a new zone, yea it might have some added stuff but really, come on!! there is nothing here that will take long to go threw.. BUT i digress. there might be other items in i10 not yet known to usm but i doubt it. I would rather they (PlanyNC, CRyptic) take a few more months and give us more in this issue.

The ----->>>GENERAL<<<-----
population agrees on the following
1. COV needs more SFs
2. PPPs need buffed/re-worked.
3. Both sides need new sets/ATs
4. IOP trial needs fixed

Call me crazy. and I'm sure some of u will but 1 co-op tf/sf/zone and a few new contacts should not be a whole issue.

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The reason that many of the issues dragged out so long before release (and then had a long shaking-down period on live of fixing bugs) is that they tried to fit so much in the issues, including both new mechanics and new content.

I9 was minimal content, significant new mechanics. I10 will be significant content (in importance, at least), minimal new mechanics. Hopefully, that means I10 will come to live in a fairly short time, and I11 won't be delayed because of bug fixes for I10.

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So based on a lack of reply to my previous post I guess no one else finds that the I10 Rikti Invasion to be uncreative and redundant material because there already was an invasion. Rikti are currently in like 5 zones and 2 trials, uh was this really the baddie group that needed to make a come back? Seems like there are plenty already. Filthy alien scum.
And to reinstate that the co-op aspect is awesome and I'm looking foward to the zone specific costume recipes

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Actually, I think it's about time that the Rikti came back in a big way.

The original Rikti invasion is the defining event in the history leading up to the game. It's the reason Boomtown and Crey's Folly are the state they're in, they wiped out most of the heroes of the day, it's the reason for the War Walls. But for 9 issues, they've been relegated to "just another villain group", less important than the Hellions (who get to destroy buildings through arson), Devouring Earth (with a task force and Hamidon), the Council (two task forces and an Island all their own), and definitely not Arachnos. Villainside, they've got almost no appearance at all.

It's about time that the group that nearly conquered our world take on some importance again.

And there will be missions where we'll learn more about the Rikti. There will be new Rikti forces to fight.

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Wait a minute, you mean that the new issue will not even stay around? So, there are also issues that were introduced before i played that are no longer even there? How is that fair? Dangit! (stomps foot) Well,nothing I can do about it, I guess. I can try to level only one, but it will be difficult this weekend, because I want to bring up many of my lowies into mid levels if possible. But, yeah, I do need to get at least one up to fifty, it just gets so grindy. Sorry about the doom, but that's what I've been having to endure in game, people always bring up how dead the servers are and how no one wants to team. I even told one guy to stop it, because I was sick of hearing about how the game was dying, I am investing time and money here - could they really just snatch the whole thing out from under me? (This is my first mmorpg, so I don't know how these things go)

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For a short time (probably a week or so) there will be an invasion with Rikti everywhere. Atlas Park, Mercy Island, Peregrine Island, Grandville, everywhere. That will end after the period, and most zones will be back to where they were.

However, both heroes and villains will be able to go into the new War Zone, reach the contacts there, get missions, and at 45-50th level do a new TF. That will stay indefinitely.

Games can go out of business, but there's no indication of that happening any time soon.

This is going to have a lot of story implications. First, Angus McGee's arc, where you keep the Rikti from breaking through the barrier around the home world, is pretty much obsolete.

But as for the groups:

Skulls, Hellions, Outcasts, Trolls, Family: While they may get involved in the crossfire, it'll mostly be business as usual for those groups.

Tsoo: The Tsoo may have some role in the fight to protect their territories, but it will be defensive only. They'll leave it to the heroes.

Vahz: Dr. Vahz will want to take steps to help stop it, he views himself as a hero. But, his experiments will continue as he views the experiments as the way to make humans better. My guess is no story changes

Clockwork: This could be interesting. The Rikti communicate telepathically, and the Clockwork King controls his minions with the force of his psychic power. While they probably won't interact, I could see some interesting conflicts take place. I don't think they'll fiddle with the Clockwork stories for the issue, some interesting stories could be done

Circle of Thorns: Don't I remember something about the Circle abandoning part of Orenbega where the Rikti got too close? I think they will try to stay out of the fight, but there may be a story or two.

Council: Again, they may have a minor role to play, but they've tended to hunker down and let others deal with real threats. No changes to arcs

Crey: Crey, I'm sure, will be involved in the fight (while sneaking away bodies and looking for other ways to make a fast buck) No changes to existing arcs, but we'll encounter them in the War Zone

Freakshow: No changes to arcs, but there may be some Freakshow in, enjoying the fight and maybe trying to get some technology out of it.

Carnies: I want to see what happens with the Carnies. The leader of the Carnies put the mask on in order to fight the Rikti. It's possible the madness has so infected her and her followers that they'll revel in the destruction, but it wouldn't be out of character to see the Carnies in the fight. No change to existing arcs, but could be in the zone.

Rikti: Many of the rikti stories won't make sense with a returned Rikti. For one thing, with a world-destroying threat, who on earth is going to give them the cure to chickenpox? Instead, we'll try to figure out how to infect more of them. The role of the Lost, Restructionalists, and Traditionalists will be interesting to see how they play out.

Malta: This could be their chance for redemption, at least in the eyes of some. Their methods may be unpleasant, but this is war will be the view. Indigo's arc will be even more important to understand what these "heroes" are like, but I'm not sure that Crimson's arc makes sense.

Nemesis: Ah, Nemesis. Master of plots within plots. I'm sure we'll be seeing Nemesis in the fight...but things won't be as they seem, I am sure.

My guess is that most arcs won't be tampered with, but I hope that at least the Rikti and some of the Malta missions get looked at. I don't see a problem with the Statesman's Task Force or the Lord Recluse Strike Force or Lord Recluse's Victory. Recluse will be involved in the fight against the Rikti, but his resources are vast, and he's not about to ignore what happens when we beat the Rikti. And the heroes cannot ignore what Recluse is doing either.

One thing though...I do hope that, in the War Zone, if we see some Rikti fighting some Crey forces and step in to intervene, the Crey don't turn their guns on us. In the minor dustups for power, that may make sense, but in a war zone, anything that isn't Rikti is an ally.

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Gadget, I was pretty sure the EoEs were only useful against the yellow mitos, not Hamidon himself, so they shouldn't be used when they are taunting, they just need support.

I'd actually argue that we don't really need anyone taunting hami as long as everyone is spread out around him, and not just on one side. There was enough AoE healing going on that getting hit by Hami every once in awhile didn't wipe anyone.

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EoE protects against the damage done by Yellow Mitos, Blue Mitos, and Hami itself, everything but Green mitos. And our brute team was taunting during last nights work.

Some thoughts about the revised strategy:

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Brute Agro Squad
2 teams of: 3-5 brutes and 3 support heal/rez/buffers (brutes will need EOE's: 2+ each x 4 blooms, 48 minimum raid total)
<ul type="square">Each team will be in charge of controlling the agro from 3 yellow mitos. The teams should set up on opposite sides of Hamidon (the east main staging area, and opposite on the west side of hami). Communication between the brute team leaders, and among their own brutes, is essential! Each brute must know precisely which mito they are responsible for. Recommend that the team leaders decide which 2 mitos are their 'center' ones, and assign brutes to center, right and left from that. If setting up at the east and west rock outcroppings it is quite easy to locate these two 'center' mitos, as they are the ones directly in front of the area. Each mito should also assigned a buffer to look after the health and status resist buffs of the brutes attacking it. Extra brutes should be assigned around to the mitos to help kill them. Two brutes on a yellow should have no problem SMASHing it down. Note: Brutes with any form of flight are highly preferred.

On their start signal, the brutes will eat an EOE and rush to their assigned yellow mitos and engage them. The supporters will follow the brutes at a distance, keeping them healed and spammed with stacked mez resist. The support AT's need to remain outside of the aoe splash effect of the mito attack, but within range of their powers. Brutes can assist with this by keeping to the outside edge of the goo and remaining as stationary as possible while attacking. When a yellow mito is killed, move to the next nearest one and help to kill it as well.[/list]
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I'd describe flight as mandatory. It can be from a temp power. You can buy raptor packs at Siren's Call if the villains are "winning", or we can find someone able to get the mission from the Sky Raider contact with the boxes for sky raider jetpacks.

Buffers also have to be able to fly. Buffing a flying brute from the ground is a disaster waiting to happen, since you'll have to be right under the system.

I think the ideal team is four brutes, four support. Two brutes supported by one buffer on one mito, other mitos have one brute and one support. The extra support should have rez and recall friend, floating between the teams supporting the buffers, healing and rezzing as necessary (and rezzing the brute also if necessary).

Once yellows are down, we should have six brutes taunting the blues away from the assault team. They will still need buffing, but shouldn't need EoEs...the damage is significantly less.

Once the mitos are down, and we're ready to be attacking Hami...brutes must be taunting hami. Mastermind pets have no particular aggro holding powers (particularly when they die so quickly), they can only hold Hami aggro during the mito clearing stage because they are the only ones shooting at Hami.

Hami taunting has to be done in rotation. One brute can't keep taunting Hami, because the blasts have a -heal component to them. One of the brute teams can handle the taunting (and would be able to communicate well). And of course the brutes will need EoEs for this.

8 EoE per brute isn't enough. Yes, if everything goes perfectly, two per brute would be enough to take down the Yellows, but the odds of four clearings with no problems are low. Add to that the EoEs used during taunted, and they'll need a lot. To be safe, I'd say 16 EoEs per brute.

Other inspirations needed: Awakens are good, particularly for the buffers. Blues useful as well, since the blue mitos can drain endurance.

Poison MMs make good buffers if they have Alkaloid and Antidote (and ideally three-slotted with recharge). Buffers must be able to fly to keep on a level with their Brutes Ideally buffers will also have a rez power and recall friend.