Gothika

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Yes Castle instead of nerfing tk's repel aspect just make it so you pop 2 BFs to negate the repel effect, that would be more reasonable and make people less angry (You can also go with the 1bf breaks repel approach also. The issue with tk isn't really the repel, it's just the bug that causes KB to be perma if tk is used with a kb power, if you can fix that instead then it will be golden.

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Well, that should be fixed in I12, too. A lot of powers which Knockback Suppression is missing on are getting it added. That doesn't completely alleviate the issue, though, which is why I added the exclusion flag to TK. I'm willing to grant that that was a bit of overkill, though, which is why I'm posting here.


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Well, that's definitely a one-two punch on Mind if you're adding suppression to Levitate. Making either Breakfrees or Sturdies more effective against Repels would be a better approach at this point, imo. If further steps need to be taken when the more comprehensive PvP pass is done, then it could be readdressed then.

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Break Free offers 25% resistance to Repel. Escape offers 100% resistance to Repel. I could make Break Frees grant resistance anywhere from 25% to 100%. Where is the acceptable breakpoint?

25% = 4 BFs needed to obviate the effect.
33% = 3 BFs needed to obviate the effect.
50% = 2 BFs needed to obviate the effect.
100% = 1 BF needef to obviate the effect.

Once 100% resistance is reached, you can't be Repelled unless the effect is irresistible. This will apply to Force Bubble, Hurricane, and other Repel type powers as well.

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If those are the stats for the small version of the insp, then I'd say each small should be 50%, a medium should be 75% and a large 100% resistance to Repels.

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75% is indistinguishable from 50% for these purposes.

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Ok, but it looks good. For some reason in the back of my mind I was thinking "ok, a small and medium would break free of Repel" but yeah, so would two smalls. In that case just make it small = 50% and mediums and larges = 100%.

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Break Free offers 25% resistance to Repel. Escape offers 100% resistance to Repel. I could make Break Frees grant resistance anywhere from 25% to 100%. Where is the acceptable breakpoint?

25% = 4 BFs needed to obviate the effect.
33% = 3 BFs needed to obviate the effect.
50% = 2 BFs needed to obviate the effect.
100% = 1 BF needef to obviate the effect.

Once 100% resistance is reached, you can't be Repelled unless the effect is irresistible. This will apply to Force Bubble, Hurricane, and other Repel type powers as well.

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If those are the stats for the small version of the insp, then I'd say each small should be 50%, a medium should be 75% and a large 100% resistance to Repels.

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but if tk is useless..then how else will villians drone heroes?..besides tp foe that is

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have TP Foe not affect players....

*sneaks out*

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This is needed more than a nerf to TK, imo.

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tk will no longer affect players? sucks balls for me

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TK is a continuous hold and a continuous repel. Only the repel part is being removed for PvP. At this point, it will take actual player testing to see if that makes TK 'useless' in PvP. If it does, then ask for a re-buff short of continuous repel, e.g., a limited Knock Down.

As it is, TK was definitely being exploited. This is only the beginning of nerfs to overpowered exploits in PvP. For those exploiting, they will complain loudly. But we need to remember that the PvP community has been asking for balance to such exploitable powers. You're starting to get what you're asking for. The "I Win" buttons are being disabled.

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Power Boost/Power Buildup better be on that list.

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This should go away with Issue 12. TK's Repel will no longer affect players.

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Nice. Now to address Dominate and Mesmerize hitting through everything...

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Yes, let's remove *any* reason to have Mind in PvP. Being vulnerable to a select few powers just means there's actually a paper to your rock.

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tk will no longer affect players? sucks balls for me

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The hold will still affect players; the repel will not.

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Isn't the Hold suppressed if something attacks the target, though?

Well, with the impending nerf of Acrobatics Mind isn't completely screwed. I'd trade TK's Repel for Levitate affecting more targets. Honestly, I only used TK to try to keep melees out of melee range anyway.

I hope Repel not affecting players applies to *all* Repels though, not just TK. You can also trap people into corners with Force Bubble, for example.

Good show! Well done with the addition of a couple of free slots and Vet slots.

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5. Captain Mako (Shane Hensley)


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I thought Shane was no longer with Cryptic as well, having moved on to his own development studio to work on a super sekrit MMO of his own (Deadlands! *crosses fingers*).

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Always with CoH to the bitter end:

1. Positron
2. BAB
3. Castle
4. Ghost Widow
5. War Witch
6. JLove
7. Ken Morse (Art Lead)
8. Graham
9. Brian Clayton (Production, General Manager)
10. Mynx (Producer)
11. Ghost Falcon (Producer)
12. Lighthouse (Community Rep)
13. Ex Libris (Community Relations)
14. Blue Steel (design support)
15. Richard (AP/Build Engineer)
16. Ross (Marketing)
17. Mike Apolis (Mapolis, art dept.)




Moved Out Before the Bitter End, but Came Back to NorCal:

1. pohsyb
2. Garth
3. Manticore (part time story consultant at NC Austin)



Familiars Who Moved Out Before the Bitter End:

1. Ian
2. Ravenstorm
3. Nick Duguid
4. Captain Mako (Shane Hensley)
5. Old_Lord_Recluse (Zeb Cook)
6. Lord_Recluse (Serdar Corpur)
7. Constellation (Brian Gilmore)
8. Geko (Al Rivera)
9. Archon Voss (Thomas Foss)
10. Statesman (Jack Emmert)
11-41. Unfamilar programmers and artists listed in the CoV credits whom we never interacted with on the boards.



Also, on the NCSoft Community Rep side, we've lost a few familar names: CuppaJo, Alexa, Aura, Arctic_Sun, Awry (who is married to Manticore and played Sister Psyche at the Live Valentine Event!), Cricket, etc....



New Hires at NorCal

1. Jimmy the IT Guy
2. Hero 1 (story bible)
3. BAB's animation minion
4. BAB's animation minion
5. Castle's powers minion
6. Don Pham (environmental/3D artist)
7-8. Moderators 11 and 419?


BAB,

Confirmation on these please:

Ex Libris looked over my list of Devs and so I thought that Ravenstorm, Mike Apolis, SuperMartin (Martin Simpson), The Dark Watcher, and Vince D'Amelio, came over to NorCal with you, no? (Of course, The Dark Watcher and Ghost Widow have never revealed their RL identities, so, there could be some overlap in this list ).

And so, there is now both a Garth and a Graham at NorCal? (Neither appear in the CoV credits, so they both are pretty new-ish).

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That's all production staff, but I imagine there's also some support staff? An office manager (so everyone gets their pens and paperclips), some kind of HR person and Bob from accounting (so everyone can get a paycheck), for example?

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Im trying to wrap my brain around a Toggle based confuse power.

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Arctic Air

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Remove PA and give me some hard control power and I would be for it but there isn't enough control. A Ill/* Dom would only really be a second hand MM. Even replacing PA with a AoE Immob would be more "helpful."

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Maybe for you there isn't enough control, but I've never had any problems at all controlling with my Illusion Controller. Illusion Dominator would fit the playstyle I use for my Illusionist even better. Illusion without PA is next to pointless.

I'm not going to touch that Psi Manipulation portion of the post with a 10' pole.

But I wanted to comment that Illusion Control belongs on Dominators, whether it's retinted for Villains or just a straight port. If Masterminds get their own version as well, that's fine. But if Masterminds get it instead of Dominators I'll be *extremely* upset.

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This is just a thought I had, so I'll throw it out there. Not saying what's being done isn't cool (It's very convenient, both the streamlined costume selection and showing stats during character creation), but here it is: Is there a point where the information we're getting is too much? I kind of feel like we're venturing into finding out who the "man behnd the curtain" is, so to speak. Does knowing every little piddling detail about everything really make such a big difference in the average player's enjoyment of the game? I know there's number crunchers, and they're gonna love it (probably...some might not like having their stat-geek status lowered when anyone can get their own info), but doesn't making this game more mechanical or mathematical by showing numbers all the time kind of demystify things too much?

I know, I might be overreacting a bit. But think of it this way: People love hotdogs. If you kept reminding them exactly what ingredients are in it, and how its made, would there still be as many who love them? Would they love them as much? Too much information can ruin a good thing.


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As far as I can see, the 'real numbers' aren't being forced on anyone who doesn't want to see them. Your hotdog analogy is perfect: the list of ingredients is available to anyone who wants to see them. That doesn't stop people from enjoying hotdogs nor is reading the ingredients a requirement for eating hotdogs.

I think think these improvements look great! One small request though: Can the various costume selection menus be alphabetized, please? It makes it *much* easier to find the costume piece you're looking for instead of having to scan through the entire list.

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<ul type="square">[*]Lack of Trials: Villains only have the three respec trials, heroes have the three respec trials plus the Eden and Sewer trials.[/list]

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You forgot Heroes also get the Cavern of Transcendence Trial.

Edit: bah, you put it in the update at the same time I post this!

Since we have a stickied thread about this now, I'll repost my suggestions from the other zone thread I posted it in:

One important type of zone that CoV lacks is what I refer to as 'theme zones'. These are the zones that have their own self-contained set of 4 contacts linked by an over-arcing storyline, ie: The Hollows, Faultline, Striga and Croatoa. Whatever new zones get put into the CoV side should be based on that model. Here's some examples of possible CoV 'theme zones':
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[*] The Docks - Level 10 - 20 zone
Ever wonder how all the villains get smuggled into Paragon City? They come in through this seedy, corrupt dockyard/warehouse area of Paragon. The Family has near complete control of this area, with the local government firmly in their pocket. Since the zone is technically part of Paragon City, Arachnos has no overt presence here. Villains will clash with Skulls, Hellions, Trolls, Outcast, Clockwork, Vahz, Paragon Police and of course, the Family. Finishing the missions of the last contact would unlock a timed Trial, which would basically be a tougher, more elaborate version of a Mayhem Mission where villains would have to complete specific tasks that lead up to breaking into the MAGI vault to steal the latest magical doodad put in there by Azuria. There's also a zone event where a random member of Freedom Force or the Vindicators enters the zone to 'clean it up'.
[*] The Island of Spiders - Level 15 - 25 zone
Look at a map of the Rogue Isles. There are some islands in the south labeled 'uncharted'. Well, this is one of them. Ironically, though the island bears the name of Lord Recluse's namesake, Arachnos pays little attention to the island since it appears to have no resources for them to exploit. There's a small shantytown with some Lost and maybe some Tsoo, large numbers of Banished Panthion (who quickly capture and devour any Circle of Thorns that set foot on the island, because they're as sick of CoT as the rest of us) cover most of the island and a dark secret is hidden on the far side of the island: and underground base housing the last splinter remnants of the 5th Column! The island story arc leads villains to discover the base and there's a Strikeforce where the villains lead a raid sponsored by the Council to kill the 5th Column AV leader and destroy the base.
[*] The Dark Forest - Level 20 - 30 zone
North of Salamanca is an area of forest that the Redcaps have successfully pulled into the spirit world. Why do villains care? Because to accomplish the feat the Redcaps focused their magics through a powerful crystal; a crystal that Lord Recluse wants to power his latest device, codenamed Project: MacGuffin! The same warring factions that exist in Croatoa also exist here up to and including the zone events, and there's a quick 1 hour Strikeforce where the villains attack a magical pinata that spits out rare recipes. (Ok, that last is a joke of course but no-one can say Katie's TF is especially time consuming or difficult)
[*] The Ruins of Atlantis - Level 25 - 35 zone
On the ocean floor in an unspecified location, part of the lost city of Atlantis has been found! Not wanting to get wet, Lord Recluse enclosed the whole site in a huge dome and pumped out all the water. The zone is a combination of high tech gizmos to reinforce the integrity of the dome and excavations of ancient ruins at the bottom of the ocean, the whole zone enclosed in water. Enemies include Arachnos, Coralax and Igneous and possibly Crey, Scrapyarders and Consortium depending on who Arachnos contracted some of the work out to. Mako has a Strikeforce here to retrieve the ancient Atlantian Thingamabob.[/list]
These are just examples, of course. Yet even if they put in all that, Villains would still need something like 7 more Strikeforces and 2 more Trials just to catch up to the Heroes in content. But at least it would be a start.

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Those all sound like really great changes to the Hollows. Now how about setting War Witch loose on the Shadow Shard?

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Why do you hate War Witch?

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I'll have to admit the Coralax are a surprise to me... how did they end up there?

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I'm wondering this, too. If Coralax were to show up in Paragon City, Talos, Independence Port, Striga or Peregrine would have been better choices. Most fish don't handle changes from salt water to fresh well. I guess Coralax are salmon/trout hybrids.

The rest of the changes sound very nice, though. Will the Hazard Zone designation be removed?

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*sigh* Way to screw villains YET AGAIN.

*HIGHLY disappointed with the "epic" archetype*

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I'm a card-carrying Patron Pool hater, but I still think the VEATs look cool. My final judgment will depend on the powers they get.

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edited to add: Bah. If corruptors only get one new primary (per Castle, 2 or 3 above), and we know they're getting storm, then they aren't getting empathy. Ah well...


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If they stick with themes for the primary/secondary ports, will that mean Corruptors will get Electric Blast as a primary?

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The Midnight Squad

JOIN THE MIDNIGHT SQUAD (LEVELS 10 - 20)
The clandestine organization of mystics, scholars and mages, known only as the Midnight Squad, seeks to rebuild its numbers since the devastating assault of the Rikti Invasion. The Midnighters hold a secret that could bring the alien assault to an end, but without the help of the Heroes of Paragon City™ it will remain Lost forever.

NEW ROMAN-STYLE ZONE MAPS (LEVELS 35 - 50)
The Midnighters hold many secrets within their walls, including a highly coveted Ouroboros crystal, enabling them to travel to the far reaches of time. There is a familiar threat in an ancient land and the Midnighters need the help of both Heroes and Villains to stop it. Players step foot upon the ancient land of the Roman Cimeroran Peninsula, where they battle deadly creatures, defend an ancient city and ultimately come face to face with the enemy of time itself. Throughout this journey players uncover the mysteries of power and the origins that guide them today.



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Looks like the 10-20 is Heroes only, and 35-50 is Heroes and Vills.

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That's the way I read it as well. I hope there's actually some different 10-20 stuff for Villains, too. Even though I enjoy the co-op in the RWZ, I'm leery of them adding too much co-op stuff. At least in this case Villains should have a very strong motivation for cooperating with Heroes, though. Anyone who read the first CoH novel can probably guess why.

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But doesn't the Cape Technology only render a flat image?

Who wants flat hair?

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Looks damn good on Ghost Widow. I'll take her hair.

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2. Reduce the minimum number of players required for a TF or SF to a maximum of six. Only exception: STF and LRSF, since they are meant to be endgame challenges and "hardcore".


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Just to quickly touch on this (since I'm on the Training Room with the Wedding Event, but reading here too) - most Task Forces and Strike Forces have a requirement of 4. I was looking over documentation on the list of SF/TF.

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Really? Most have 4?

Positron: 3
Synapse: 4
Sister Psycho: 5
Moonfire: 6
Citadel: 6
Hess: 6
Katie 'the hero vending machine' Hannon: 6
Manticore: 7
Numina: 4
Quarterfield: 8
Sara Moore: 8
Justin Augustine: 8
Faathim: 8
Lady Grey: 8
Statesman: 8

Average for the *15* TFs: 6.3
That's 3 out of 15 at 4 or less.

Virgil: 4
Mantis: 4
Renault: 4
Ice Mistral: 4
Lady Grey: 8
Recluse: 8

Average for the incredible *6* SFs: 5.3
That's 4 out of 6 at 4, so in fairness villain side isn't so bad... for the very few SFs it actually has.

Edit: CoD was wrong about Virgil being 5 minimum, checked it in game.

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We feel that the group size requirements are certainly not onerous and that the need for grouping is a good dynamic in a social environment like City of Heroes.

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It certainly is onerous on those 8 person minimum, marathon Shadow Shard TFs. I don't think I've ever managed to finish one of those with more than half the members lasting until the end.