GhostLancer

Unchangable at all? You've got to be kidding. What happens when down the road the devs realize the balance is off on these things (anybody want to take odds on them getting it right first try?) and have to alter them and then people suddenly hate their choices? I'm hoping this is just a misunderstanding over semantics, because otherwise it's a design decision that flies in the face of most of the lessons learned through years of MMO experience. Stuff always needs to be changed and players need the ability to adapt their characters to those changes, especially since most of them are because of errors on the dev side, not the players.

Replaying 40 levels to deal with a patch change is not fun, especially with the level of repetition that already exists.

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When asking a "why can't" question, I would first ask a "why would heroes and villains..." question. Why would heroes and villains form a permanent coalition?

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For me, it's not a matter of the coalition, but the cross base access it provides. It allows for "safe" interactions between heroes and villains in associated groups (contrary to what the PvP zones would have you believe, comic heroes and villains rarely just charge at each other yelling). Raids are less than ideal for this because of the raid mechanic limitations (like the time limit), and Pocket D (while I love it, mucho thanks to the devs) is by nature an exceedingly public area which means a particularly important scene between archrivals can be interrupted by a bunch of geniuses from either side deciding they want to pile on.

A better question when restricting options is "what good does restricting this do versus what harm not restricting it does?" Hero/Villain SG coalitions have zero potential for exploits (I've spent quite a while trying to think of one) and they make RP much easier and more enjoyable. I can't think of a single good reason for denying them (not even fluff, since hero groups and villain groups rountinely join together to battle this and that).

Castle:
I'm curious. Why the complicated math (well, relatively)? Wouldn't it be more effective to get away from the subtractive design of DEF and move to something multiplicative (terminology shamelessly stolen from FreelanceWizard)?

The numbers on DEF powers would have to be tweaked, but you'd have -perfect- equivalence in scalability with RES sets at -all- levels.

Ex: 50% DEF would cut a target's ACC in half, whatever that ACC was to begin with. So then, say, a white minion would have a 25% chance to hit (50% base ACC x 50%). Then, no matter -what- the mob's base accuracy, 50% DEF would mean you take (on average) half the damage you would have with no DEF, exactly the same as 50% RES means you take half the damage you would with no RES.

Holy Fan-F-Ing-Tastic Batman!

Ok, after not hearing a thing after two months of AV-hating, I expected the dev consensus was "working as intended". Talk about a surprise from left field... Only it's something good.

It woudln't be fair for me to jump down Crytpic's throat for everything I don't like without giving equal compliments for the good stuff so, very very nice guys.

So, when do we get this? Next week? (I keed, I keed.)

If that's the Arbiter standing right next to a "normal" Arbiter, it's the respec guy (the equivalent of Jack Wolf).

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Does this bug affect powers granted by Equip Robot or is it just the 32 power that is bugged?

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It's all the upgrade powers, both the level 6 and level 32 versions, in all the MM powersets.

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Agreed, and I wanted to add to this..

Last night I had a string of missions all in the same mission door. Now, it made it super easy for our team to lvl up fast, but it really broke the sense that we were part of a living city having an impact.

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What kind of missions were they? I know I've had a couple of times where I was sent to the same boat for subsequent missions, but in context of the missions it fit (IIRC, I cleaned out the boat of Lost for the contact to use, and then we used it for a series of things).

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Something I'm wondering though is why they don't utilize the cops or Longbow more often then they do. It'd go a long way to feeling more villainous if, instead of kidnapping some idiot from the Mooks for the 8th time, you were smacking around the cops to get to them.

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They do use Longbow and its more vigilante counterpart Wyvern quite a bit later on (I fought them very often in the late teens and continue to do so in the early 20s). They also start throwing lower echelon heroes at you around then as well (I've taken out the Sea Witch, and at least one other who's name I can't remember, plus Ms. Shock from the cape mission).

I suppose the theory is that you have to snarl around with the other wolves for a while until you prove you're big enough in the pack to be a threat.

Not that I necessarily agree with the theory, since lots of villains do tend to just "appear" without an entrenched power base, but it seems to be the intended progression.

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well, his mask is sort of greeky helmety. (or is it spartan?)

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Random nitpick, don't know if anyone's mentioned already, but Spartans -are- Greek Sparta was one of the Greek city-states.

I'll keep it short and simple.

SWEET!

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Also, I want to make one thing clear. Forcing players to group will not get you more players to group with. The player who will /only/ play solo will not group if forced. He will leave the game. The player who groups when he is able and solos when he is not will not group more if forced he will just forego playing when he cannot group or he will also leave the game.

The key to encouraging grouping is not in making soloing less attractive but in making grouping more attractive.

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I'll have to agree with this one too.

I got more than enough of two hour waits LFT doing nothing because you can't progress at anything resembling a reasonable rate without a group in FFXI. I liked CoH because I could get together with a group of my friends and do good, no matter what AT they were, or if nobody was on, I could solo nicely. I enjoy the game, but if we're moving towards "you either need a group or you need to run your missions at the -2 on the slider to survive", or even worse, "no tanker, no group" and things like that, then I honestly don't see the point in continuing playing.

Ghost Lancer - Level 14 Energy/Devices Blaster

(Actually both of the characters in my sig, but Star Lancer has been semi-retired because I'm enjoying Ghost too much )

Using /petition to report bugs just doesn't work. I can only assume nobody's briefed NCSoft's Customer Support on just what the hell they're supposed to be doing. Basically the boards tell you to report it that way...then some CSR tells you to go to the boards.

Somebody needs to make a definitive answer and sit all parties down and let them know what the hell it is, because running your customers in a loop is just bad business.

((Put this together over a couple of hours surfing the forums late at night. It's my first time putting all my background concept down in detail in words, and it's not my best work, but here it is. This is a repost from the Virtue server boards.))

The Star Lancer

The Man: Jayce Jystal was born in Seattle, Earth. But it was not this Earth. In Jayce’s universe, there were no superheroes, except for the vids and holo-stories. Over a century ahead of the world where he would one day find himself, the humans of his Earth had spread out into space, and by the time Anjuren and Celia Jystal had their first child the Stellar Confederation, formed from Earth and her colonies, controlled fifty star systems.

He had a fairly unremarkable childhood. Like just about every other middle-class kid, he lived comfortably, if not luxuriously. Jayce performed above average in his schooling, but was far from a genius. When he decided, as many others his age were, to seek adventure out exploring the cosmos and join the Confederation’s Star Forces, his application to the Stellar Fleet Academy was rejected, and he just barely made the cutoff for an appointment to the Star Lancer Academy on Aryss IV.

To add insult to injury, the adventure seeking Jayce ended up sitting out the most ‘excitement’ the Confederation had seen in twenty years. Halfway through his first year in the Academy, the dimension raiding Rikti launched an invasion of Earth. Though caught by surprise (unlike the heroes of Paragon City, the Stellar Confederation had little more knowledge of dimension travel than a few radical quantum physics theories), the Confederation forces quickly struck back. They didn’t have the heroes that saved Paragon City and its Earth, but they did have technology comparable to the Rikti. Faced with stiff opposition, the Rikti withdrew less than six months after their initial strike, but it was still the first real war the humans had fought in decades, and the victorious warriors became instant celebrities, much to Jayce’s chagrin.The Rikti would, however, have a profound impact on his life.

As the scientists of Paragon City later would, the Stellar Confederation intently studied the Rikti technology captured during the war. Most of it was based on technology the Confederation already possessed, but the portal technology was something completely alien. Reverse engineering of the designs was given top priority by military leaders, and after three years the first human system based on Rikti portal technology was ready for trials. The human teleportation systems were still extremely primitive, and much more bulky than their Rikti counterparts, so it was decided the prototype unit would be an improved drive system for a starship. Instantaneous travel across stellar distances seemed like a dream come true for both the Fleet’s exploratory and military missions, and being stationed aboard the experimental test ship, the SCSS Goddard, seemed like the chance for glory that the newly commissioned Second Lieutenant Jayce Jystal had been dying for since the end of the Rikti War. In a way, it was.

The Goddard launched with great ceremony and much celebration but, despite the encouraging results of the lab tests and simulations, the first space jump was a spectacular failure. The portal destabilized rapidly and very little of the Goddard ever materialized at the target point. The vessel was declared lost with all hands and the systems were taken back to the drawing board but, in reality, at least one member of her crew had survived.

After going unconscious during the reality-warping, mind-bending chaos of the failed experiment, Jayce woke up in a back alley in the Argosy Industrial area of Atlas Park, along with a few pieces of bulkhead and decking from the Goddard’s barracks. Injured, disoriented, and with his armor badly damaged, he wandered aimlessly until a couple of heroes from the Freedom Corps noticed him and picked him up. He spent almost a month in a Freedom Corps infirmary recovering and learning about this new world. At first, he could think of nothing but finding a way home but, in time, his uncharacteristically enthusiastic AI, Alyssa, convinced him that, as a Star Lancer, he had a sworn duty to use his advanced technology to protect the innocents of humanity, regardless of the dimension.

Now, Jayce nominally works with the Department of Advanced Technology Application as the hero “Star Lancer”, though he is always on the lookout out for any leads on a way home.

The Machine: The Aegis Technologies Minerva Mk. III Powered Infantry Combat Armor is the standard issue power armor for the Stellar Confederation’s Star Lancer Corps. Designed to be as versatile as possible without sacrificing combat efficiency, the armor is based around an artificial quantum singularity energy reactor that powers gravity control systems that can be adapted for various functions.

Primary armament consists of dual, arm-mounted plasma pulse cannons capable of several firing modes. Defensive systems include a crystanium alloy armorweave outer shell, and variable configuration energy fields providing both deflection and camouflage. Locomotion is provided by servo-assisted walking/running or the LeviGrav flight system. Control systems are based around a direct neural interface link, but manual control is possible in emergency situations.

Deus Ex Machina: SLTacAI-098198517f “Alyssa” is a standard issue Tactical Artificial Intelligence. All Star Lancer officers are provided with a TacAI to assist in situational awareness, threat assessment, and general command and control functions. Jayce’s AI, Alyssa, resides in a memory core module stored in a cybernetic implant in the lower rear area of his head, just behind the ear. Generally very thoughtful and conservative, she makes an interesting partner to the impulsive Jayce (who often refers to her as “mother”, which annoys her greatly). In a strange role-reversal, since their arrival in Paragon City Alyssa has heartily embraced the hero role (possibly due to her strong moral imperative), while Jayce remains largely ambivalent about the idea. Though she usually communicates directly with Jayce through his neural interface, she is also capable of holo-projecting herself and takes the form of a young woman with shoulder-length auburn hair wearing the black and gold uniform jumpsuit of a Star Lancer.

"That is the end of the transmission," Alyssa's soft voice intoned in Jayce Jystal's head. "His assertations are interesting, and our experiences tend to confirm them."

Jayce gave a short, bitter laugh and, with a thought, swtiched the flight systems of his battle armor into hover mode. "'Experiences' is kind of a light term for having a scruffy mutate wearing the rejects from a transportation department yardsale pull out an big-*** energy rifle and try to give me a real close haircut with it, wouldn't you think?" Glancing over at a holographic display projected by his optic implant, he scowled and sighed. "The reactor output is still way below par 'Lyss. The armor's power systems are draining way too fast."

"I have done all the retuning I can with the capabilities of the armor's auto-repair systems. The central power source was distorted by the dimensional shift, and unless you can find a new and compatible artifical quantum singularity core, this is as good as it is going to get." A holographic simulation of his AI appeared in front of Jayce, the slightly transparent young woman wearing the uniform jumpsuit of a Stellar Confederation Star Lancer seeming to hover unaided along with him in the air over Paragon City, Alyssa's face bearing a frown matching his own. "And those 'big-***' energy wepons the mutants used do match the the Rikti rifles and sidearms used during their invasion of our dimension. Arming and guiding disenfranchised minorities is an effective and common insurgent tactic."

"Not going to let that go, huh? Yeah I know it is. The Rikti are smart and more than that, they're tenacious bastards, so I really don't put it past them."

A smile spread across her face. "So what are we going to do about it?"

"Do?" Jayce gave another short bark of laughter as he brought up the diagnostic displays on the suit's weapon systems. "You're starting to take this being called a 'hero' bit way too seriously. We're going to do the same thing we've done since we got tossed into this weird dimension, figure it out when it becomes an issue." He shifted to the power systems displays, then back to the weapons. "Try recalibrating the plasma blasters' energy systems. We're going to have to squeeze more efficiency out of this somewhere."

Alyssa raised an eyebrow and gave him her characteristic annoyed look, and then the hologram winked out. "Analyzing..."

One of the things I DID like about SWG was the flags they had available. The RP flag was great for finding like minded people, and the Helper flag was nice for finding folks who WOULDN'T tell you "STFU u stupid n00b!" when you didn't know something.

Basically my ghetto answer was to stick (Roleplayer) at the end of my info block. You'd have to see me, info on me, and then read to the end to find it, but it's better than nothing I suppose.

Actually, since his main "make the bad guys fall down" ability is his martial arts, Batman would still qualify as Natural I'd think. His gadgets are really useful, but none (except maybe all his kick-*** vehicles) really reach the kind of hyper-advanced superhuman type level that I'd envision for a Technology hero. If anything, I'd say Batman is a Natural hero with a load of Gadget Enhancements

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The magical hero receives his powers from a magical source. These abilities might stem from a mystical artifact that the hero has gained over the years - or perhaps the hero has mastered numerous spells that provide him with superhuman gifts.

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The red part covers Dr. Strange. In the case of Statesman (and Superman for that matter), there are no spells involved, merely innate abilities. Wheras magic involves the manipulation of external forces to achieve a goal, the Natural hero relies entirely on internal capabilities. It comes down to splitting hairs eventually if you debate it hard enough.

The concept of Olypian levels as the limit of a Natural hero's capabilities is not necessarily accurate since the upper limit of human capability is hard to fix in a universe with things like psychic powers and "superhuman" martial arts forms.

Magic user, Magic Origin....fairly simple classification I'd think.

Statesman uses no technology, no spells or artifacts, is not a mutant, and had no scientific experiment or accident. All you have left is Natural. The entire "Inner Will" bit reinforces the Natural designation.

*points to sig*

Not to be confused with Starlancer, some level 2 Blaster I saw today

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The worst are the dang clcokwork princes...those guys are nasty...

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I remember fighting my first Prince. Took out the couple of minions he had with him pretty quick, then we started blasting it out. Finally after a pretty nice fight, the Prince goes down and I'm hovering there happily patting myself on the back when all of a sudden all these electric bolts start zapping me and my health (already low) goes red. I barely have time to get my Personal Force Field up to save my bacon, all the while going "WTF?! I cleared this area! Gears?! WTF is a Gear?!" Gotta love the enemy that keeps giving, even after it's dead.

As for RPing, I've got my character backstory all developed (perhaps insanely so...I'm an amateur writer as a hobby and I get carried away with this stuff all the time ), just haven't really got a chance to use it. Not many folks use Local and I shut off Broadcast half the time because it's spammed by folks who don't know about/can't be bothered with the Seek Team flag.

Oh well, hopefully I'll find some like minded souls once I get back in game this weekend (curse you vile Gamestop and your lousy pre-order shipping to Hawaii!).