GadgetDon

If the rewards haven't been decided yet and still open to suggestions:

(1) Every AV gets a badge, for defeating them "at the peak of their power". You don't get it for the EB version. (EB versions should count for portal jokeys, I think that's the only AV-related badge.)

(2) Instead of picking one lucky person to get a random SO, everyone at the end of the mission gets to pick and SO, set at their level +2 or the AV's level+2, whichever is lower.

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So how will this affect Giant Monster spawns, such as Kronos Titan, that aren't connected to TFs?

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I've been exceptionally vocal on the issue of AVs while soloing. That said...

The Kronos needs to stay a monster. (Not a giant monster, always purple, but a monster.) It's just one of those experiences that I think should stay where they are. First, it's one of those fun encounters. Second, it's something that, at least whenever I've seen someone with it, there's never any trouble getting help. And, if you're willing to accept going to the hospital from the ambush and letting the other mission expire, it's optional.

OTOH, for Baphomet, Adamastor, Babbage within non-TF missions...I'd like them to downgrade, but won't be brokenhearted if they don't.

I like the idea for named Elite Bosses (Hercules, FrostFire, ATTA) to get promoted to AVs when appropriate. My only exception is Longbow Ballistas...AVs should be unique, singular, one and only one of them. (So should EB, but that ship sailed with Ballistas). Again, I won't be brokenhearted, but it doesn't seem right.

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This is really good news to hear on all three aspects. Indeed This is better than a snowball in June. It's better than Popiel's Pocket Fisherman. Better than Corn Nuts. Thanks.

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Now let's keep this in perspective.

I know Ron Popeil.

Evil Popeil is a character of mine.

And this, sir, is...

Ah heck, you're right, it is better than the pocket fisherman!

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So, will the AV spawn as an Elite boss? ie a weaker version of what we used to face? Or will it be another villain in the group?

For instance, while solo on hero, will I be facing Nightstar, Elite Boss Version or a Praetorian Elite Boss?

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I'm sure it's NightStar, Elite Boss Version. After all, when doing a Freakshow mission with a boss on heroic (or villainous), it's still a tank, but at the rank of lieutenant.

I'm a very happy Donny.

*checks calendar*

Funny, my calendar says Christmas is December 25th, not January 10th.

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!

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Question, though: don't the spec ops EMP grenades do damage to bots?

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Yes, they do damage, and there is some endurance effect. But, it doesn't disable them, because their defenses aren't dependant upon endurance-burning powers nor do they have to turn toggles back on.

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The mere fact that the devs decided to give an enemy, and a Lt-level at that, the ability to just utterly negate ALL defenses, no matter the AT...it's staggering. It's damn near terrifying in its implications: could it be the beginning of a trend?

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I thought the idea was to make make some of the mobs as much like PCs as possible. This is exactly what you face in PVP.

So the advice all the controllers and defenders would give is to just have a break free on hand nad shut up --- except some of them want break frees eliminated or nerfed.

Anyway... I still dont get it. Longbow have never been a problem for me. Only thing I find tough is when there is a spines warden.

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Yes, that was the idea.

It was an idea that many people, myself included, strongly dislike. First, the "joy" of PvP is one that has eluded many of us and so bringing the PvP feel into PvE is not a step forward. Second, PvP, as we are always told, is optional, there is such a paucity of content in CoV that these arc are not. Third, if we have a PvP opponent we cannot deal with, we go fight other people or we go do PvE. In most cases, we must defeat those opponents. And fourth, a defeat in PvP is an aw, shucks I lost, a defeat in PvE has real consequences.

The difficulty depends upon the AT. My Mastermind has no real trouble either...once in battle, neither I nor my bots have toggles to drop, the only time I have endurance issues is while summoning/equipping them and my big gun bot doesn't seem to have endurance issues.

But having taken four scrappers into the upper 40s, knowing that being somehow stunned or held is usually followed by a trip to the hospital even if I have a break free and the devastation of a sapper, these descriptions sound as though any longbow mission would be unsoloable at heroic. For what are supposed to be the most solo-friendly ATs out there.

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This is better for everyone, how the hell is it worse for you if the meleers on your team are no longer getting toggle-dropped?

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Because a detoggled Brute, at worst, gets himself killed. A corruptor that's spending their day looking as drunk as Ted Kennnedy, on the other hand, tends to kill the whole team.

And, of course, is still detoggled.

Try playing a squishy for once, and you'll understand what I mean. My Stormer spends more time retoggling than he does blasting.

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And you still have not answered my question. How does the reduction of the stun, which dropped toggles on even Brutes, make things worse for you squishies?

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A detoggled Brute can't keep aggro off the squishies. I know Brutes aren't tanks, but they still have taunt and still are in front getting aggro.

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Nullifiers' attack though, is so devastating that all tactics failed when in small groups. The only thing that worked was popping dull pain and running like hell. Yeah, if I'm in a well-balanced, very large team everything's more survivable. But in a 2-person group, the very first spawn when entering one of the more crowded rooms had 3 nullifiers and 3 spec ops (plus the rest, but those are the only ones that I worry about). Yeah, it probably was 3 spawns, but that's sort of immaterial when they're all in the same tiny room.

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That's another issue. When stealth got suppression, I raised holy hell about dealing with multiple spawns, particularly Malta spawns with sappers. I was assured by Jack Emmert that wouldn't be a problem, they'd never have spawns so close together you'll aggro more than one. Some spawns were changed in the warehouses, but there are rooms like the three-level platform room in tech environments that are simply designed to aggro multiple groups (particularly if against Nemesis...that room with Nemesis usually has a sniper in each spawn meaning when you're within line of sight of a sniper that group is aggroed). And in Orenbega, at T-intersections, there are often two spawns there that are nearly impossible to pull one out unless you have just the right type of character. And, wandering patrols means even a completely isolated spawn can result in you fighting two groups as a patrol comes up.

Then came I5 with caps on aoe holds, aoe damage, and taunt. The caps were explicitely set based on the maximum size of one spawn, with the assurance that you'd never have to fight more than one spawn. Pointing out that simply wasn't true, we were told to /bug those. Well, I /bugged and /bugged and /bugged as did others. I must have submitted 100 bug reports.

Nothing changed. The points where you often get spawns close together still get spawns close together. There has never been anything in the update lists about changing spawn points on mission maps to avoid it. Other than the statements from Jack Emmert that no, no, this really was a bug, there is no reason to believe that bugs about overlapping spawns aren't simply routed to dev:null.

And, with I5, in mission ambushes became a lot more common. These aren't just wandering patrols you can go stealth and wait for them to pass, they are locked into you and are going where you are and if you move they'll follow. They're guaranteed if you release a hostage and have to take the hostage somewhere, and if you happen to release two hostages you get two ambushes.

And now, in CoV (and I assume it's only a matter of time for CoH). You get attack waves where the waves are time based, rather than the next wave spawning after the last wave is defeated. Contrary to everything Jack Emmert has said, it's now COMMON to be fighting two spawns at once that simply cannot be pulled apart because they're targetted on you. If your character cannot take down spawns quickly, it's easy to find yourself facing four or five spawns.

But hey, Jack's happy with the limits and happy with the ambushes, so it's all good, right?

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Here's a great idea: get rid of inherent powers in all mobs. Make those powers toggle or click powers just like the player version. Carry the toggle-dropping aspects of powers over to PvE, and let us fight mobs on a leve lplaying field.

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I'm all kinds of behind that. Getting that Longbow Warden held is nice, but to see them still firing Quills AND floating in the air...well, it's just dumb. Yeah, I see the point to it while they're non-aggroed, as it makes the Stalker think twice, but I should be able to help the Stalker out, right?

That goes for those darn phase-shifting Carnies as well. Held = no more phasing.

It's not so much the damage - Quills is pretty weak, comparatively - but the principle.

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Thinking about it...one reason that they may use inherents instead of toggles is that it would be hard to have the AI smart enough to turn toggles back on and also to have them control their endurance use so they don't let their toggles drop. We are smarter than the AIs. Plus, we can slot toggles with endurance reduction, NPCs don't get slots.

I wouldn't object if NPCs got a significant endurance reduction on togggles, like the reduction from 50%-100% depending upon the power in compensation for our smarter abilities and slots. (Flight, for example, probably should be endurance-free for villains.) And, shorten the animation times when activating toggles, since it would be asking a lot of the AI to decide what toggles get turned back on before charging in.

But if this was to happen...every arguement we've made against toggle dropping NPCs goes out the window. The best arguement against toggle dropping NPCs is that we can't drop their toggles. And I'm far from sure I would find that a good exchange.

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Here's a great idea: get rid of inherent powers in all mobs. Make those powers toggle or click powers just like the player version. Carry the toggle-dropping aspects of powers over to PvE, and let us fight mobs on a leve lplaying field. That Freakshow juicer giving you problems? Brawl him and watch him plumment to his death, sicne his flight as just been shut off. Those sky raiders chasing you in the air? Watch as their fligth speed gets suppressed from them attacking you. Uh-oh... Mr. Behemoth just lost all his defesnive/damage resist powers because he ran out of endurance. Mobs don't seem so tough when they have to play fair, do they?

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Seconded, absolutely. Inherents on mobs remove a HUGE chunk of the strategy available to players, and emphasise the importance of damage - if you can't debuff or hold to remove the powers, then what use are secondary effects? What else is there except hit them very hard until their health is gone?

Players have got tired of computer controlled enemies breaking the rules. It isn't fair, and one of the primary requirements of meaningful gameplay is that it feels fair. This doesn't.

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I think many of the inherent powers should be toggles, just about all on human villains. But others that naturally flow from their existance, like spirits' flight ability, I'd think that would be inherent because it's not their power, it's what they are.

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1) Longbow have an XP Bonus
2) Flamethrower: The Multiple Burn Patches is a bug. I've put it on my list of things to fix.
3) Spec Ops are limited to 1 per spawn point for generic spawns. There may be specific encounter groups designed with more than one, however.
4) The Sonic Concussion power blows through anyones Hold protection, but it only lasts 1/4 of a second. It is working as designed, however, I'll pass this to geko to see if it is too strong of an effect.
5) Arachnos is fairly tough, too -- especially if there are Fortunata's around.

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After talking to geko:
The Flamethrower is by design, however there is a bug (well, it's really a feature with an unintended consequence) which prevents Henchmen from reacting properly to the power. I'll be fixing that portion of the power.
The mag 100 Stun is being replaced with a more standard stun (duration based, normal magnitude.)

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Thanks.

However, I take it the spec ops having endurance draining power with the ability to attack while stealthed without suppression will not change, the fact that there are designed encounters with multiple spec ops will not change, and that fact that in missions with multiple waves of ambushes where the next spawn is set in motion before the last spawn is cleared means we could find ourselves dealing with many spec ops will not change?

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2) Make toggles (all toggles) not shut off when held, slept, or disoriented, but instead be suppressed while the effect is on, so that we don't actually have to reactivate them. 90% of the issue comes from having to click the damn things again, go through the animation of 6 toggles, only to have them knocked off again or get held again before we finish.

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Let me sign this, stamp this, sign in blood, agree.

Being vulnerable when held by a status effect is annoying, but can be dealt with. Blasters, once out of a hold, can immediately retreat if necessary and start blasting, controllers can start controlling, defenders healing. Meleers have to start turning on toggles. I would be happy to trade a lowered status effect for toggle suppression. And it's not like suppression is a foreign concept to the game these days.

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4) Remove hold/stun/disorient/immobilize/endurance drain effects from ALL MINIONS. Knockback is fine as long as it's considerably lower in magnitude than bosses, and isn't given to everyone. The only real difference between a minion and an LT or Boss should not be hitpoints, damage, and accuracy. LTs and Bosses should have power advantages. Sappers, for example, should be LTs, but shouldn't have 3 freaking endurance drains (one of which is AoE, and another is a melee hold!) that drain 75% of your bar. If you want them to have all those drains, make it 25-33% of a bar, and make their hold attack NOT drain endurance.

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The problem with this is, for most of my characters, once a sapper drains me I'm probably done for that battle, my choices are escape or examine the ground. That means I must one-shot them, or hold them. Lieutenants don't get one shotted and are slightly harder to hold.

If spec-ops are the new sappers, then spec-ops should never been more than one per spawn. Even that's no guarantee...I've had five overlapping longbow ambushes in some missions which means I've been fighting three spawns simultaneously. (That's another issue...an in-mission ambush should not spawn until the prior group is taken care of.) Fortunately, I've been running a robotic mastermind and those don't seem to be bothered me (and they can drain me of endurance all the want...in combat my main role is "Everybody attack that one" "now everybody attack taht one") But I've run scrappers (much) and tankers (a little) and can well imagine the impact on brutes and stalkers.

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In fact, I saved Lord Recluse's post about this:
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Rent does not cause item decay. The affect of rent is that your functional items become non-functional. You can be offline for a month and your base will be unchanged. Back rent does not accrue. All you need to do is make the most current payment and your base is fully functional again.

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Well to be honest, he did say the truth.

A: You do not lose items. Nothing disappears.
B: Nothing does change about your base.
C: Base rent does not incure past the 1st due (will not stack).

So all in all, what was said is true. Just not the whole truth. You are correct that they never stated that we could be locked out of our bases after soo much time.

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He said "The affect of rent is that your functional items become non-functional." Not an affect. And later in that thread, people did talk about not paying rent and using the base socially, and that was not corrected. And I do not have such a statement recorded to back me up, but I'm pretty sure I remember a red name saying you could use a base socially without worrying about rent.

My guess would be the decision to close down bases that haven't had rent paid after that statement was made, and they forgot this statement was made. An honest mistake.

That said...I think it's a lousy decision. And if it stands, it's gotta be a lot clearer this will happen as you create bases and in the rent notes, and there has to be a way to get a full refund on a base and make it go away

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1) Longbow have an XP Bonus
2) Flamethrower: The Multiple Burn Patches is a bug. I've put it on my list of things to fix.
3) Spec Ops are limited to 1 per spawn point for generic spawns. There may be specific encounter groups designed with more than one, however.
4) The Sonic Concussion power blows through anyones Hold protection, but it only lasts 1/4 of a second. It is working as designed, however, I'll pass this to geko to see if it is too strong of an effect.
5) Arachnos is fairly tough, too -- especially if there are Fortunata's around.

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The duration of an unresistable hold really doesn't matter.

Toggle dropping is DEATH to meleers. First, with the exception of SR, that leaves you completely vulnerable to any other hold that comes your way (or indeed may still be in effect on you but resisted because of your power). Second, after I5, toggles are what keeps you alive and for the most part toggles have long recharge times, so you're essentially standing there in your skivvies in front of opponents that are supposed to represent a significant challenge to you in full armor.

And that's been given to an opponent that can attack from stealth. You know, the thing taken from players in I3. At least with sappers you can see them coming.

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I was under the impression that if you didn't ever pay base rent you would only loose access to things that would be useful in raids. Therefore if you never wanted to do raids you'd never need to pay rent.

Our base hasn't even been made fully functional yet but we get into it and use it for role play and to play with the editor, and we've let the rent go for a long time. Last night we couldn't get into it at all until someone finally paid.

Am I remembering wrong? Are you required to pay rent just to use the base even if you aren't using it for raids?

Thanks!

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I'm afraid you're remembering somewhat wrong. There is a grace period after your first missed payment during which you base is powered down. But if you continue to ignore rent, eventually all access to your base is lost. Once you pay your rent, access is restored.

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This may be different from what was finally decided, but that is what we were told in the beta boards.

Add me to the [censored] group, who was somewhat molified about the surprise of rent by the very explicit statements of Lord Recluse that if you didn't want to bother with the rent, no worries, you'd never be in arrears more than a month and it just meant the powered items wouldn't work.

In CoH, there are helicopters in:

Atlas Park - near Ms. Liberty
Steel Canyon - dunno
Talos - Near the two ferries.

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I have more End problems than ever....

AND on top of that Hasten isnt perma anymore.... you know you get a lump amount of end drained when hasten wears off, Therefore the more you can use hasten the less end you have.

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I hate ED, but for accuracy's sake...

Under perma hasten, when the old hasten wore off, you still got the endurance hit. Perma hasten only meant that, when the old hasten wore off, you had a new hasten up. So, since you're no longer able to use hasten so often, you're not experiencing the endurance loss from hasten wearing off so often, and that saves you some endurance. In fact, since the fifth and sixth enhancement are of minimal value, 4 recharge + 2 Endurance Reduction may work. (Does endurance reduction reduce the penalty when wearing off?)

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Noted.

We also need to add more Contacts from levels 35-40.

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Thanks. Hopefully some of them with soloable arcs.

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Of course. How SILLY of me to assume

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Exactly.

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I note, in extracting that one part, you didn't bother to mention where you are receiving your information that you do get a refund on destroyed information. Is this somewhere available, or are you perhaps making an assumption.

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Oh?????? If this is so, if we can rebuild items that were destroyed, that puts a completely different complexion on it. I had presumed that you would NOT get the prestige back.

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And of course, as is the norm on these boards, you decided not to bother finding out the facts, but post a long-winded rant instead.

And people wonder why the developers don't take these boards more seriously...

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Of course. How SILLY of me to assume that when something I've purchased gets destroyed, I get a full refund. After all, when my car gets totalled in an accident, the car dealership offers a full refund. Or, for a game example, when my enhancements have gone red, I can pop them off and get a full refund.

If I've missed a statement somewhere that you get the prestige back when something is destroyed, then mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. But I think that would have jumped out at me, just like it did in this previous post. If it's hidden deep in a help file...I'll suggest it be placed in a more obvious location.

I'd really like this confirmed by a redname. Given that, when this issue was raised, the only comment was "there's a chance it won't be destroyed", I still have my doubts. If it's true...why bother with the add-on that increases the chance that items won't get destroyed?

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"Poz, are you really so blind as to think the recovery chance matters? If there is even the POSSIBILITY of all the prestige needed to put down the stuff needed for a base raid will disappear..."

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You know that when items get destroyed, you get all that prestige back, right? Nothing is lost other than the Salvage.

But, like so many others, I feel rent has GOT to go. It's the worst part of the entire COH/V system.

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Oh?????? If this is so, if we can rebuild items that were destroyed, that puts a completely different complexion on it. I had presumed that you would NOT get the prestige back.

Where did you hear that we got the prestige back? If a redname can confirm that, it will do a lot to assuage some anxieties.

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I bought CoV so that my son and I could build a base together. I knew that he would love it (being a 6 year old who loves things like that). I realized that with just 2 people we would never have anything flashy. However, I hoped that we would be able to build a small base that might give us some kind of perk.

Then I played with the builder and realized that was never going to happen.

If it were me, I would make the prices for things scaling. You want your first room, it costs X, then the next costs 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, etc. Put those kind of controls in for all of the items and then a small group could build a moderately functional base while a larger one can pull down the resources needed for a truely impressive one.

Another thing to keep in mind is that by making bases so expensive, you are going to disuade people from raiding if they find that they can't keep their bases intact.

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A suggestion - create a lot of alts and get them in that "supergroup". You get 20K per member up to 15, and so it won't take long to have enough prestige for a decent social base where you can have lots of fun with the base editor.

I think prices are way too high. I'm in a specialized SG that only adventures together. It would add to our enjoyment to use the mission computer for SG task forces (when they're created). Even dumping the savings of several 50th level alts into the base, I'm doubting we'll ever go beyond having the base worktable.

But, to give them credit, the bonus does pay for a social base.

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I'm well aware of how wrap-around works. There were several arcade games back in the '80s I had problems with this in as far as score went.

As for 'Streaks' any true random number generator exhibits streaks. A good write up with some helpful visual info can be found at http://bcs.whfreeman.com/ips4e/suppl...cel/04_IPS.pdf

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Yes, but some algorithms are a lot streakier than others. And based on my experience and others I've talked to, there was a change to the random number generator used (I think with I2, but could be wrong) that became VERY streaky.

And plainly and simply...missing streaks aren't fun. It isn't fun whiffing time after time after time.

I wish we had the original random number algorithm back.