Gangrene

I just wish they'd fix the Invader badge to not tell you you're a 'Task Force Commander.'

Villains have Strike Forces, after all.

Would it be possible to look at balancing the requirements/benefits on some of these Accolades? Requiring participation on a level 45+ Strikeforce to obtain a level 7-20 Accolade seems a little out of line in the risk/reward catagory.

Then they're asking for people to herd and exploit? I understand a free bonus that hits 2, maybe 3 people for full damage, but 5? And every single time as long as you line them up using the geometry? Pardon me, but that's dumb. If they put a limit of 5 on the number that a power can hit, they ought to fully intend for that power to regularly hit 5.

So is this message I'm suppose to get is 'It's ok to cheat the game system, as long as you're really good at it and don't do it in huge numbers?' *sigh* I'm probably over-reacting, and I really don't want these powers nerfed. I'd just like to see some real balance in the game, not mathematical 'our formula doesn't take that into account' balance.

Ok, new system. Widen the cones. Since they are designed to hit 1.5 targets, fine. We'll use that as the max intended damage.

1 target is hit (100% normal damage)
2 targets are hit (75% normal damage)
3 targets are hit (50% normal damage)
4 targets are hit (37.5% normal damage)
5 targets are hit (30% normal damage)

You wouldn't count misses of course, so if you had 5 targets in the wider cone, but missed on 3, you'd use the 2 targets scale (75% damage.)

I'm not blaming you _Castle_, but this goes into the whole 'why are Storm Controllers better at their Secondary than Storm Defenders are at their Primary?' issue. The closer you look at the system, the more arbitary it seems.

If it was decided tomorrow that Blaster nukes were too powerful, you could by this logic set them to use the .07 Blaster buff table. How is that supposed to make sense to anyone?

It's really impossible to make power choices in this game without relying on other people to tell you if a power is good or a stinker. The few times we *do* as players get numbers, they are utterly without context, and more or less useless without a basis for comparison. e.g. +66% accuracy means what to your chances to hit an SR scrapper at level 30? I know, but only because I have had someone else decyper the system for me.

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FYI: Melee AT Patron Power Pool Ranged attacks which cause damage will be changed to using the Melee damage scale.

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OMG! That's so going to rule for Stalkers, especially. Mmm... Full power Sniper attacks...

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HO's increasing Range was a bug.

The cone sizes for the melee powers is part of the Recharge/Damage/Endurance calculation. Increasing Cone sizes means reducing Damage & increasing End costs or increasing Recharge time to compensate.

In general, though, this probably will not happen.

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I have an idea. Since if you raise the number on one aspect, you have to lower the numbers on another, let's get creative with where we lower things.

Melee cones effect a max of 5 targets. Lower that to 4, and you've cut the power by 20%. Nerf! But we'll be ok.

Now raise the size the the cone that those 4 possible targets could be in by 20% of a circle.. or 72 degrees. Viola, problem solved. Heck, even half that would be fantastic.

I don't think there should be a 'safe zone' around either base. We already have that in the form of the underground hospital respawn area. Perhaps we should have an area around and close to the base that provides a bonus (e.g. +ToHit for the controlling side, -ToHit to opposing side.)

Either that, or have Arbitor/Police drones patrol the area? At high speed, preferably, so that if you were close you could see them coming and dodge out of the way, but not if you were engaged in anyway with another opponent.

Base camping kinda sucks a bunch for both sides.

The 1/1 thing is interesting, and I guess it's added a role for my corrupter. She's a thermal with Recall Friend and I teamed up with /Kin corrupter and sat back at the base, teleporting people back up topside if they died, or just TPing them back to us when they needed buffs or were dying. Forge/Shields and Speed Boost/ID make for a great combo on Stalkers though!

No numbers were given for Magnitude on any PPP. Or durations for Mez powers, either. Or Knockback magnitude. I'm very disappointed at the dirth of information given out for the PPP, considering that they are un'respec'able. How do they expect people to make an informed choice without *all* the information?

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Wow, ye of little faith.

Isolator is marked as "Hero Only". Villains can kill the contaminated for 100 years, and never get the badge.

Only Heroes can get the badge.

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You realize that this is the first badge that I know of to have this functionality (Hero only)?

There will be Villains camping with and competing with Heroes for a badge they can never earn? That sucks for both sides.

How will this work when side switching is enabled. Will a Villain-turned-Hero be able to earn Isolater? Will a Hero lose his Isolater if they 'go rogue?'

And I'm sure everyone is aware that the text on Isolater doesn't make even the slightest bit of sense if it's earned in Recluse's Victory.

Also, what about villains that didn't earn 'Jail Bird?' Will there be a spot in RV for them to go to get that?

I double dare you to try soloing a /Thermal corrupter who's primary isn't Ice Blast. Not everyone can solo at the highest difficulty levels, even with SO's.

One of the things that MM's do well is fight incredibly difficult spawns that would be difficult to impossible for anyone else. It's a perk of the AT, and I don't think MM's should be nerfed for it. Higher level encounters should just be designed with MM tactics in mind, and it seems like right now that they aren't.

TLDR = Too Long. Didn't Read.

Well, I'm pretty sure they won't do this, but it would be nice if Placate added -125 perception directly to the target, so at least the target doesn't see us while we are ASing. I like that they currently can't see us so we can get in position for an AS.

With this change it will be a lot easier for people who have been placated to break LOS. I hope that's not intentional.

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Question about invis if anyone cares to answer..
What is the perception with Hide + Invis? Would that stop most any heroes from seeing you in the upcoming PvP zone? I understand you cannot attack while Invis is on.

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Invisibility is rated at -611 perception. Until you pass level 45, it pushes you to the Stealth cap when combined with Hide.

Because the Perception cap is always 10 feet greater than the Stealth cap even with max Stealth you can be seen at 10 feet away by someone with maxxed Perception.

You can never be totally invisible to someone willing to go all out on perception powers.

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Just to parse Castle's response, though... does that mean that GI has to be reapplied every time someone attacks?

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Certainly not!! I should hope anyway.

What he means is this change is to make it so that people with no +perception can see a Stalker immediately after they Placate.

Right now, if I run into a team of Heroes without any Tactics or +per (I know, it's unlikely) and zap their Controller dead in a single hit (because they are annoying), I can immediately turn and Placate another team member.

What used to happen: I would gain an instant -500 perception, and suddenly disappear and cause them to lose target on me, too. Then I'd be able to walk away, or just wait and zap another hero the same way when Placate returned. the heroes would have no chance of hitting me back, since I was only visible for a a little more than a second following the AS, but before the Placate.

The way it will be now: I run in, totally invisible, and vap one hero dead with an AS. I can Placate, and for 10 seconds the hero I placated can't target me. But with only -375 to perception, now ALL the heroes can see me, unless I get more than 125 feet away.

GI and Stealth won't help this. But if you run away for more than 10 seconds all your stealth (Full Hide, GI, Stealth, etc.) come back and unless they have +per enough to see through it, you vanish and they lose target.

75% of Hide is 375 -perception.
Grant Invis is 611 -perception.
Stealth is 390 -perception.

So it just means that a Stalker needs to have a friend or a Buffbot to do the same thing. It won't actually prevent the problem.

My favorite recent PvP moment is one where I'm in Bloody Bay, trying to earn influence for the Bling Badge so I can do Doc Buzzsaws missions before I outlevel her.

I'm with a couple newbies, a Brute and a Stalker that are barely in their teens. they want to 'fight Heroes' but when I told them they could get a giant mutated pet, they dropped that, and I led them through collecting meteors and Firebase stuff.

We're on the second to last meteor to collect, when a team of three heroes (Tanker, Emp controller, and a Scrapper) descends on us. The other Stalker is visible, as he had just clicked the Meteor, and so was the Brute. We didn't make any hostile moves, but the Emp started unloading Radiation blasts on the Stalker, so he jumped on her.

The Scrapper ran over to assist the Emp, while the Tanker turned on his fire aura thing. I walked right over into his AoE, Built Up, and AS'ed him, and followed up with a Bone Smasher and EP that collapsed him like a ton of bricks.

The Brute and the Stalker were still in trouble though, but they had the Emp busy and flying too far away for her Scrapper friend to be aided by her heals. So I sauntered over, Placate+AS, follow up. A bit of Scrapping, all misses on his part, all hits on mine. Dead Scrapper.

By then the Emp was Flying away. The Brute managed to catch her with a -Fly(or maybe it was a Stun?) and she tumbled down to the earth, not too far from me. A hop and a skip, and my Hide returns just in time for me to vanish right next to her. Build Up is ready, so I use that, and Assassin Strike neatly ends her little forray into Bloody Bay.

And we continue on...

I did feel a bit guilty for stealing all the kills.

The AV into EB that gave me the most headaches was Longbows Agent X. I was an EM/Nin stalker soloing him, and he had some insane Regen that was almost faster than I could Placate/Build Up/AS him. I was so happy when he finally activated MoG, and my next AS floored him.

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It's no worse than Regen's self rez. It sees more usefulness mainly in groups, though. People tend to look down their noses at self-rezzes because they think they need to automatically make room for Fitness, and they don't even think about just how often even skilled players actually die.

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Except that you need an NPC close by to use this Rezz. So if you run for safety and get shot down before you get clear (about 75% of all my deaths. Will be different depending on the person, of course) you won't be able to use this rezz at all. Regen's rezz is always usable.

And the fact that a few 250 Inf inspirations will do nearly the same thing, in more situations.

A free respec is likely (haven't seen a definitive yes or no). A respec for Powersets is highly unlikely (The Devs have stated a few times that they won't do that sort of thing). But until solid information is available, it's all up in the air.

Assume nothing.

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Empowerment stations are instant buffs. You are bathed in radiation/magic/etc. on the spot and get a bonus to your travel speed/lethal resistance/attack speed/endurance recovery/knockback protection/whatever you need at the time, right then and there.

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Hmm... Doesn't this kinda sorta invalidate the need for Acrobatics? One buff to replace an entire 3rd tier Pool Power? Is there a buff that gives me Whirlwind?

Yeah.. if you add a second range check to AS, you know what the next patch will bring? 10 second long travel power supression.

What makes more sense to me would be letting AS have a 7 yard range, making two LoS and range checks.. BUT!! the assassin doesn't have to remain still. They still can be interrupted by even a single point of damage.

However, I suspect this would be an unpopular change, as it would make skilled assassin's almost impossible to stop. It would make it tough for the newbie Stalkers, though.

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I actually like one-shotting. But...it should work like it does with npcs - we can one-shot characters that are multiple levels below us, so it should do the same for other heroes/villains. I know this'll mean that a level 50 can one-shot my 21 scrapper. Stinks, but I do think Thor should smash Rocket Boy or Mustard Man in one shot too. Iron Man, or Captain America, probably not.

James

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Hmm.. except in any PvP zone I know of, you are automatically exemplared to the same level as everyone else. So if you're Thor then you'll be fighting Dr. Doom, or Loki. Mustard Man or Rocket Boy won't even be on your radar.

And why Thor would want to one shot Captain America or Iron Man troubles me...

Hmm.. what about DoT attacks? Like Say.. a Dark/Dark Stalker eats about 20+ Enrages and goes wild with Shadow Maul from Hidden Status on a defenseless controller. Could it one shot in that single attack, since that attack takes longer than a second to do full damage?

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Actually that is incorrect, the "start" is needed to start the game and the "select" is for switching from 1 player to 2 player on Contra. The "start" and "select" are not really part of the code, but they are needed to make it work. As to the "pause" referance, I have never heard or used that before, is it possible that is needed for a specific option in a specific Konami game?

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The Konami code was first seen in Gradius in 1986, where it was as I described. You had to hit 'start' to pause the game, enter the code, and the hit 'start' again to unpause the game.

People are most familiar with the Contra variation which adds the option of hitting 'select' at the end for 2 player mode. For Contra's single player mode, you did not hit 'select.' But Contra was released in 1988 long after Gradius had established the code as Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A.

As for the 'starts,' I agree they are needed to start the game, but they are needed whether you enter the code correctly or not. They do not become part of the code for that reason.

Again, my source like, with all the information I am referring too. Wikipedia: Konami code