Hammerfall

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Fact is, a lot, probably the majority, of players (and indeed the players of all MMOS) just want to get as powerful as possible as quickly as possible. They never read the story, it is irrelevent to them.

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I have tried to tell people since I4 that the problem that this game has is the gamesystem. Since there is very little in it to augment the story, all that is left is the grinding wow-style hack and slash to get xp and "stories" taped on top with few windows of text. That quite frankly does not satisfy me, and it should not require great deal of imagination to see that masses of people just ignore the 'stories' no matter how well they are written.

What the devs should need to do in CO or whatever, is to create a game system with enough options and actions in it and game world interesting enough so that every moment is immersive enough, feels like youre 'in the story'.

They should stop trying to make a game that is merely extension of the old pen-and-paper RPGs where you have to imagine everything.

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No, personal opinion. Some subscribers do like official PvE content and a continuation of the 'City of' Story over farming missions and Ego-boost arcs.

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What is the difference? And what is "ego-boost" arc?

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What really annoys me is that the devs put an enormous amount of effort into this, when that effort should have been put to better use.

The resources could have been used to create new contacts, missions, mob types, zones etc that are part of the CoX canon.


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Youve got to be kidding me.

Personally I appreciate the effort put in by devs to create something out-of-the-ordinary, but I havent tested the architect long enough to have an opinion yet.

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Such a waste of a tool with such potential committed by tools with such little potential.


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You have encountered the wonderful world of player-generated content.

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Regarding the mission architect I see Necro's fears but also on the opposite scale, I have worried that it may be a lot more basic than people (such as myself) are hoping for.

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Kind of like day jobs. Sorry, I had to say it

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As for shoehorning a graphics upgrade into the current engine (which was amaturishly designed in the first instance and is now held together with spitballs and chewing gum), it would actully be easier to take a functioning game engine with decient graphics and shoehorn the CoX gameplay into that.

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The problem as I see it, is that then the game would look like the game engine, instead of looking like what it was wanted to be. Of course, practicality tends to spoil dreams. The reason why games tend to look too similar to my eye these days is because they share game engines.

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Acording to both in game info, Red Tomax and Mids, Clobber now does about 30% more damage than Shatter.


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Well on second thought, the reason might be that my clobber was completly unenhanced..

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Just logged into my War Mace tank and noticed something - Clobber is now listed as EXTREME damage, not Minor?

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What? o_O

edit: tested: yes, the damage increase is noticeable, but shatter still does at least 50% more damage than clobber despite them both having "extreme damage" description.

Could be made also a base teleport beacon.

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Is the world not about choice and freedom?

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That kind of game world would not be about freedom. It might have some merit if all people were relatively same power level and obviously you already gave example why that is not the case. lvl 1s are not in the same boat as lvl 50s. This is a great showcase of the inherent inbalance of a MMORPG world. Never are lower lvls feasible compared to higher levels. Lower levels would have to hide and rely on higher levels to protect them. That is not freedom. That is why pvp will always be inherently inbalanced in a game with level progression. Therefore fully pvp-open world is not practically feasible. End.

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Pffft! If everyone was a softie like you!

[/ QUOTE ]Being a "softie" has nothing to do with it. Turning the game into a gankfest where dying would cost you earned xp is hardly fun and is not in the slightest bit social.
Being able to chat under Atlas, GG or anywhere for that matter without being shot, held, whacked up-side-the-head or otherwise give a fast track to hospital by some bothersome n00b is one of the nicer things about this game.

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Indeed. Gankfests wont teach anything and arent in the least bit fun. One of the many reasons why I would prefer characters be more solo-capable in pvp rather than the balanced for team nonsense.

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While the idea of a KOTOR style morality gauge would be idealistically preferrable I don't think it would fit thematically with the game setting. At some point the powers that be would make a call on whether you are "one of them" or not. Boy scouts aren't welcome in the Rogue Isles, the likes of Scrapyarder and Sea Witch are good examples of what happens to them. Similarly villains or those with villainous leanings don't manage so well in Statesman's back yard.

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Thats where 'reputation' as in several other MMOs comes into play. If you do non-boyscout things, your reputation with roque isles would increase. If you have good enough reputation, you would be allowed in there without NPCs trying to attack you. (Its not like the mobs there could stop the heroes anyway) Similarly for more boyscout-zones. Zones would still be open to everyone (apart from level restriction, which is silly) but the function of them would change according to player actions.

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1. you are required to be lvl 50, so you can say that PVP is a part of the game you need to play PVE for over a year only to have a chance.


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Umm, whut? Since when do you need to be level 50 before you can PvP? You can access the arena from level 1, and zonal from what, 15? Hardly level 50..

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In practise NOBODY seems to pvp below 50. Not even on union, let alone defiant. Best I can get is lvl 40 sometimes. The other zones apart from RV are regularly empty.

ps. My first 50 took like 8 months. Cant say it was fast, but I wasnt trying to grind either.

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heroes dont fight eachother 'anywhere'.

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Sure they do. It's a comic book cliche that heroes usually fight the first time they meet up (wherever that happens to be) before teaming up to defeat the villain.

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Gap between heroes and villains has been diminished since a long time in comics. (I am not talking about current junk comics) It should be so that characters arent 'born' as heroes or villains, rather it should be that their actions define them. KOTOR-style, Fable-style, etc.

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Chess aint that competitive and well doesnt get adrenaline rushing.

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Competitive? Dont go there.

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In particular, I feel issue 13 is a step in the right direction.


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You must be the only one.


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In theory the changes were aimed at right direction. They just didnt do very good job at it. Complete change of pace and loss of invention bonuses. Lot of powers doing nothing, break frees doing nothing.. Powersets nerfed (bugged or not) in practise to point of uselessness (regen).. Naturally people feel powerless, get annoyed, and quit in anger.

Not to mention the changes didnt do very good job at balancing things imo. They just switched the unbalance to another direction.

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Take base raids for example. Why do they have to be limited to bases? Why cant two SGs, of either villian v hero or same side v same side duke it out in a city zone? And i dont mean an instanced one. I mean in the same zone that we play but they, having been allocated, can fight and any other player cant join in?

Why cant the devs invent some incentive for these battles?
They dont even have to invent em. There are hundereds of JLAvJSA or X men v Avengers stories they can swipe to create a compelling reason to fight.
Who knows? Maybe some PvE players would get the PvP bug.

The players would love it. And they'de be great to watch too. I could go on and on.

Just a bit of imagination and forward planning is required to spruce this game up no end.

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I cant believe Im agreeing with you, but you have hit some nails there.

Although the number of non-pvp zones where hero and villain SG could duke it out is severely limited due to certain reasons..

I have never done this strike force. Tried it maybe once with no real heart in it. That was enough.

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But what makes me laugh you can spend a billion on youre char and going in RV or Sirens and get wiped out by another person that hasnt spent a penny on there char and just has normal SO's as easy as eating cake. That is a real downside to this game.

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While you dont need IOs to have a viable build, they were huge advantage pre-I13, they are nigh pointless now, and the main problem is this:

- Either IO sets provide the huge wow-like advantage, which not only pisses off people like me who hate to grind, causes PVP NOT be viable until you have them. This forces you to grind for them making it a long tedious progress of making a pvp character that can actually beat some of the vets. And causes severe inbalance between newer and older characters.

- Or they dont do anything at all, like now, so grinding for them is a huge waste of time. Completely neutralizing the reason for having them in the first place (who needs them for PVE? bah!). [censored] off all those people who like being in the wow-bandwagon, buying your way into an über-character.

Either way its bad. Personally Id rather not have them introduced in the first place and instead have time spent in improving the game engine which is responsible for having an enjoyable GAMING EXPERIENCE, rather than just a bunch of pointless endgame goals. One day youre gonna wake up and ask yourself, "what the heck have I spent all these months for? Boring grind for these 1's and 0's on server somewhere in Germany? I think I go do something more meaningful." (iteration: if getting them wasnt such a grind, it wouldnt be as bad. But since the core game system has remained unchanged all these years, thats whats wrong. Gaming experience is boring, and endgoals dont change that. Only combat has changed slightly, but that is not the core.)

I hope this was sufficient explanation since somebody once asked why I hated IOs in the first place.

Overall, this game was once great and original in the superhero genre. Unfortunately it started off the wrong foot by basing itself on hunt/gather-philosophy of WoW instead of more superhero-like ideas like the games Freedom Force, Spiderman 2, etc. A mistake Im hoping DC universe online wont do. (the interviews have got me really hopeful)

Personally, pressing alt+tab for targeting closest target while jumping and shooting is not a problem for me, so I wonder if the original breaking log suggestion would change much.

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Also travel powers cant negate distance. Between 2 targets that travel with the same speed the one firing from range and moving always has upper hand compared to the one trying to move in to fire.And well nothing really negated routing from ranged dps.

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Doesnt work that way anymore, since travel suppression on the one shooting takes longer than on the one being shot at. Not to mention that even if one shot misses, the shooter still gets suppressed while the target does not.

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Rent stop posting about PvP seriously.

Breaking lock is exploitable and kills utility of toggle AT's.It has been pointed out a gazillion times that the fix for kiting is simply giving to melee powers that would fast close distance like in every other mmo game plus secondary effects to these powers to give chance of soft lockdowns such as 2-3 second stuns that aint breakfreeable.

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Stuns arent breakfreeable in the game anymore. Any of them. Neither are any other mezzes. Breakfrees do absolutely nothing, in case you havent been to the game recently.

Ravenswing:
Kiting is screwed in the game already. I am really struggling to understand why you still continue to moan about this. Kiting is only barely possible AT ALL. As if melee characters dont have it good enough already.

Targeted toggles are screwed in the game already. Unlike self-affecting toggles, targeted toggles DO drop when mezzed. Oh and did I mention that mezzes are unresistable and there is no defense against them anymore? Rads are so frigging screwed atm.

Do any of you guys actually play this game?

placate in place of intimidate, please! Because intimidate is overpowered already in the hands of a melee character..

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Attempting to change that changes everything an RPG is.

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Its not the system, its how the game is made. I used to play these games for fun and company and adventure. If the end rewards become the sole purpose of why youre playing then something is seriously wrong. Grinding same task force over and over, where is the sense of adventure, exploration, wonder, and excitement? If the game itself would be enjoyable enough then I wouldnt mind collecting IOs. But if IOs are all there is...

And making more 'content' is not the answer anymore. The problem is too simplistic game system which is propably restricted by the game engine that cant be helped. All PVE mission mechanics in this game can be counted with fingers of one hand. 1. beat a mob 2. click a glowie 3.simultaneously click two or more glowies, 4. escort hostage. Thats it without too few exceptions (Hami insps, crystal titan, er... well thems both the same anyway). Because all new content is played through the exact same way its far from 'new'. Most of the issues afterwards (except the one that introduced pvp and pvp zones) are just candy topping that doesnt address the real problem.

Dont you understand that I am giving the reasons of why I am NOT playing this game? Just in case dev or something might be reading. I guess it is wasted effort. I already said why I have canceled my subs (again).

ps. If I need to find something positive out of the latest issue, then its that my first ever character, Hammerfall invul/mace tanker, is better in PVP than ever. Sorry guys, 3 years too late.

Let me put this another way. I already HAD characters for pvp. Then devs in their infinite wisdom keep nerfing those characters (repeatedly over several issues) so Im supposed to grind MORE to get OTHER characters. [censored] off.

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I play other games for skill-intensive pvp allright. Counterstrike or any other kind of shooter is not among them though.

What bugs me to no small degree is that this game USED to have ok PVP, but then IOs were introduced and it turned into WoW.

I am vocal because this game has nothing left to offer except what is left of pvp. It was my first MMO, I would like to hang around. But I cannot tolerate PvE anymore.

If you dont want me around then fine.
edit: accounts cancelled.

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Hammer, to be honest, you're just annoyed that people who put more effort/time in to the game end up with a better build than you.

It's not much different from someone at level 40 whining because a level 50 has 4 more powers and 21 odd more slots.

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That is why I play games without level progression.

I got better things to do in my life than waste countless hours of boring and repetitive WORK just so I could get a CHANCE to play PVP.