Heartbreaker

Unfortunately, It's probably too late for changes, but I really hope these models aren't final, as the ones in the screenshot bug the heck out of me. Just from the few screenshots we have, I can see one minor nit-pick, and one bigger issue.

The minor issue: those hilts are all wrong for a curved blade. Most curved blades will have a hilt that curves down in the front and up in the back, sort of like a ~. A good number of them also have a hand-guard connecting the front of the hilt to the pommel.

The big issue: those swords are FREAKIN GINORMOUS!!! Even if we assume that blondie is at the minimum height, the blades are as long as she is tall, making them around 4 feet. That's long for a two-handed sword!

Related to this item from the summary thread:

[ QUOTE ]
Apply room style to base is too destructive. You can't copy 1 room without overwriting everything. Why not a Copy+Paste Style instead? (you could still apply that to the base, just with a bit more running around.)


[/ QUOTE ]

Why isn't there an "Apply Base style to Room" option?

Hey, started playing here more seriously since Issue 9 and am loooking for a good global chat channel. Virtue Badges and Vee Badgers seemed pretty dead, Virtue United seems active, but apparently I need an invite to it? Who do I talk to about that?

or are Virtue United and VirtueUnited two different channels?

[ QUOTE ]
1) You have the default To Hit value (ie no buffs), your target has no Defense value. How often do you WANT to hit him? Conversely, as the defender, how often do you expect to be missed?


[/ QUOTE ]

Technically, thats two different questions: Of course, as the Attacker, I'd WANT to hit my target ALL THE TIME! On the other hand, As both the attacker and defender in this situation, I'd EXPECT the ratio to be pretty much 50%

[ QUOTE ]

2) You have the maximum possible To Hit value, and your target has no defense value. How often do you WANT to hit him? Conversely, as the defender, how often do you expect to be missed?


[/ QUOTE ]
Again, I'd WANT to hit the target all the time, the difference is, in this situation, It's much more reasonable to expect it. As the defender, I'd pretty much expect to take it in the shorts. Problem is, without inspirations, many ATs are stuck at the base Defense value, while pretty much anyone can slot Accuracy.
[ QUOTE ]

3) You have the default To Hit value, and your target has the maximum possible defense value. How often do you WANT to hit him? Conversely, as the defender, how often do you expect to be missed?


[/ QUOTE ]

Okay, I believe Ive harped on the language used enough by now. In this situation, I'd expect to hit very rarely, no MORE than 1/20 attacks, maybe fewer. As the defender, I'd expect to be pretty much untouchable in this situation.

[ QUOTE ]

4) You have the maximum possible To Hit value, and your target has the maximum possible defense value. How often do you WANT to hit him? Conversely, as the defender, how often do you expect to be missed?

[/ QUOTE ]

Now, this is a tough one. Part of me says that it should be back to the basic 50%, the same as if neither player had either. Some people might feel this unfair to one or the other parties, but honestly, we're dealing with two opposed abilities here, it really doesn't matter what increment you choose to examine (100% of Max, 50% of Max, whatever), if you increment both abilities equally, they should each bear the same weight, whihc is to say they should cancel each other out.

Of course, there is still the larger problem, of Accuracy percentages being true only when a ridiculously large sample is taken. Frankly, I really don't feel that 950/1000 hits is the same thing as 95/100- especially when I'm slotting 2 lvl 53 Accuracy SO's in all my attacks, AND running Focused Accuracy, and still missing 4/5 attacks against a +1 minion. Heck, many nights, I'd be surprised if I even MADE 1000 attacks in my session.

First off, I'd like to say that I do like these ideas.

Secondly, I had a specific comment/suggestion regarding the "Student" pool:
As it's every student's aspiration to one day become the master, why not have the 4th (And 5th, and 6th, if they go that far) Ability in this pool give a bonus when SKing someone else? Alternatively, they could give bonuses when Exemplared. In this fashion, the pool would still be relevant at higer levels.

Like many of the others here, I found it rather frustrating. The only thing I truly liked about it was the ability to unlock the accessories and badges from last year on some of my newer Alts.

On the flip side, as someone who has way too many alts, I found the whole thing boring, repetitive, and sadistically time-consuming. Some may say that as both an Altaholic and a Badge Hound, I've painted myself into a corner here, but talking with others during this event, I'm not the only one. I ran the entire setup around 20 times, plus making 3 additional Snaptooth runs for each of my characters that had done the event last year another 10 or so times. Isn't there some way you guys can make these events more Alt-friendly?

Compared to the Xmas event, where the 1 Mission required could be obtained by anyone, and run as many times as needed, The setup for this event sucked.

As many of us have tried to tell you numerous times in the past, Encourage us to team, don't FORCE us. Especially don't force us to team with a SPECIFIC Player/Gender/AT/Side- that pretty much guarantees that there will be people gated from the event simply because they didnt log in at the right time. Locking us out of the required missions after completing them further complicated matters.

And if we ARE going to be forced to team with the opposing team, at least let us give them inspirations. Ideally, we'd also be able to find them in team search. I'd also suggest that the bartenders add a fourth Temp power, a Rez of some sort.

With the exception of the Malta group, this event makes use of some of the most annoying, overpowered, and overused villain groups in the game. At least the villains have the opportunity to take advantage of farming teams to get thier CoT mission cleaned out, Heroes are stuck with a "Kill All" vs Council in a Cave map. At Even-level, Snaptooth as an EB is a considerable foe, Most people will have a hard time dealing with him, even without the neverending ambush. This led to most people just using someone vastly higher level to blitz the mission.

I was partucularly disappointed to see Badges disassociated form rewards this time around. For the Xmas event, and last year's Vday event, the badges came tied with an additional in-game reward. Linking say, Partygoer and the Hearts costume, would have helped a great deal with the repetitiveness of having to run Snaptooth, reducing the number of required runs from 3-5 down to 2-3.

Speaking of the "Hearts Costume", I may be in the minority here, but I find the Male pattern vastly superior to the Female pattern- any chance I'll ever get to use it on my female characters? And hopefully without having to kill Snaptooth again next year? (Also, why isn't the Female version availible as a "Tops with Skin" option?)

Are you in SG mode perhaps?

Dunno if this counts as a "Bug" or an "Issue 8 Costume", so im posting it to both:

On test, the V belt has taken a few knocks. It clips with skirts/shorts again- but in a new place . It's also not as shiny.

Moving the "Hips" slider around did nothing to stop the clipping, moving the "Waist" slider didnt help either, it actually caused the waist to start clipping over the top of the belt.

I want a mini-warwolf.

Just take the warwolf, shrink him down, and stick him on the Rikti Monkey frame.

Not sure if this qualifies as a "Bug" or "wishlist" item, but since the patterns already exist, im calling it a bug:
Several pattern options that are availible on tights are "missing" from the "tights with skin" category. Specifically, I'd really like to be able to use the Villain straps , now just called "straps" (as opposed to "straps 1 or 2)

Also there are still many Torso/Leg patterns that don't have matching boot/glove patterns.

Patterns on skirts are back, hooray- however, for the "blend" option, theyre using the "chaps" pattern that goes on pants, instead of a more uniform fade pattern that would make more sense on a skirt.

Bikini 2 (the "G-string" bottom) is no longer availible for wear underneath skirts.

Jay's the man!

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
- Vandal has no placeholder. (not sure how a meter could be achieved for this one. Can you put 4 meters on one placeholder? Perhaps 4 placeholders "Wreck Mailboxes", "Wreck Phones", etc; each awarding an invisible badge when finished?)


[/ QUOTE ]
I don't think I can do what you ask. Just cause enough mayhem throughout your gameplay and you should get this badge by 50.

[/ QUOTE ]

Doesn't take near that long, I started an Elec/Elec Brute 2 weeks ago, she's only 23 and I got Vandal on my last Mayhem Mission.

On Male/Jackets/Tuxedo, and pretty much any Female jacket with Lapels, Chest Emblem is half on the Lapel and half on the Jacket. Chest slider doesn't really seem to affect this at all.

On Female/Shirts the chest emblem is really high up, practically on the shoulder. Again, chest slider doesnt affect this either.

As many others have mentioned, really do miss the ability to have 2 patterns on male pants, plus the patterns are stretched and distorted some on the current pants.

Some patterns get distorted rather unkindly on the Thigh-High boots, particularly "Fade Line".

holy crap this thread is huge... I dont have time to read it all right now, so I don't know if this has come up yet, but I'd really like to beg to get the glue bombs toned down a bit- theyre positively sadistic, especially indoors.
They have a massive autohit AOE, something like a 60 second duration, and EVERY OTHER GUY has one.
That really sucked the fun out of the mission for me.

The other minor complaint I had was cardboard boxes- why am I be rewarded for blowing up Paragon City's trash? why are the cops coming after me- you think theyd be happy someone's finally cleaning the place up!

Well, it's not much to look at right now, but we hope to do more with it in time. We blew most of our prestige on the land, all we've been able to afford so far is a couple of couches.

Superbase

Cozy, huh?

As I stated in my answer to Arcanaville above, I was under the impression that it was
[Base Acc * [1+ Accuracy Buffs]] - [Defense +Accuracy Debuffs],
not [Base Accuracy - [Defense +Accuracy debuffs]] * [1+Accuracy Buffs].
While that seems like an odd way to construct this system, since the two of you seem to be in agreement on that equation, ill concede the point to you and Arcanville.
That still leaves the question of wether all lvl48 minions posess a [Defense + Accuracy Debuff] Value of -21 ((75-20=55*1.66= 91.3) remember, I have to be below 90% before a streak of 2 is acceptable), which I'd find a bit hard to believe.

[ QUOTE ]
1. Your assumption of being at the accuracy cap is only true if you're fighting certain mob types. If you fight enemies with debuffs, defense powers, high enough level, etc. then you may no longer be capped.


[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, it is an assumption, for a number of reasons:

1) Unless ALL lvl 48 minions have signifigant (More than 34.5%)(124.5 -34.5 still puts me at the 90% to-hit range which dictates a maximum streak of 1 miss) defense bonuses or accuracy debuffs, It holds true. Maybe it's just me, but I think this is a somewhat reasonable assumption to start from.

2) Not knowing the ACTUAL accuracy numbers, I can ONLY speculate.

If I knew what my intended to-hit was against higher or lower level foes, I could test it against them as well.
If I knew for certian the accuracy bonuses from Martial Arts and Focused Accuracy were, I could figure them into the equation as well- though including them would only further my point, so I can see why you wouldn't want me to know those numbers.

[ QUOTE ]
2. The correct question is not "Why haven't they responded", it's "Why haven't you provided the proof?" Since you say you can easily demonstrate otherwise, do it. Show us a demorecord, Fraps, HeroStats log - something that bears out what you're saying. Make sure you note the exact time, server, and toon name so the Devs can look it up on their side too.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, I'll admit, I haven't done so yet, but ill get to work on it as soon as the game stops crashing every time I try to zone. Being as it's something I could easily produce on many occasions, I didnt really think specific proof was neccesary, as I figured many other people observed this behavior as well.

Arcanaville, thanks for your more thought out reply, I'll endeavor to do more research bfore I post a more thorough response, but I can answer 2 of your questions right away:

#1: I can't specifically say for sure one way or another, but with the number of miss streaks Ive observed, it would be difficult to imagine they are all aresult of this bug.

#3: I'm Martial Arts/Regen, with Body Mastery as my EPP. I have no autohit attacks, and only 2 AOEs: Dragon Tail, and Energy Torrent. With the exception of Brawl, which I haven't used in about 10 levels, all of my attacks are slotted with 2 Lvl 50 Accuracy SOs.

Now, as far as #2 goes, that's something I'll have to look at more closely. This is the first time I've heard stated that Accuracy Debuffs/Defense are applied to my base to-hit chance before it being multiplied by my enhancement/ accuracy buffs- that's seems rather counterintuitive as it means with a high enough defense, I wouldn't matter how much accuracy I had, I'd never be able to hit.
Not to challenge you, but I'd be very interested to see that statement documented somewhere, as this is the first Ive heard of it.

And they still haven't responded to my question:

With 2 SO's slotted, that puts my accuracy at 75x1.66 = 124.5
With an accuracy cap of 95%, I should always be at that vs even con minons- which the streakbreaker chart says I should have a maximum of 1 miss in a row, yet I can easily demonstrate otherwise. Why?

Hence the part where I stated IN PVE ONLY... I could care less what you do in PVE, it's not gonna affect me.
Anyways, it's not missing that im talking about, its the fact that using an expendable resource that's intended to boost one's accuracy could actually ave no impact on the situation whatsoever.

Actually, it might require a bit more coding, but Id suggest that using a power or inspiration that gives a temp acc boost tell the system to start tracking a new streak with the boosted accuracy, so that any previous attacks at the lower accuracy don't penalize you.

yeah, im aware of the arcane origins of the terminology, I just dislike it. It's unclear to those who are unfamiliar, and needlessly so. The identity of a "critter" might be vague as well, but at least it's clear that it refers to a single entity.

WeirdBeard, I see one glaring flaw with the way you say this system works:

[ QUOTE ]
To determine the to-hit used in the table above, you take either the current to-hit, or the worst to-hit in your current miss series, whichever is lower.


[/ QUOTE ]

That means that if I have started a miss streak, using a power such as Aim or Build Up, or using an Accuracy inspiration will actually have no appreciable effect- (as they increase my current accuracy, but do nothing for the accuracy of previous attacks in my streak) Is that intended? Perhaps activating one of the above should force a streakbreaker to take effect. Err, in PVE only, I mean...
(yeah, that would make your next attack 'auto-hit', but heck, it's only 1 attack)

Also, whie the streakbreaker code supposedly breaks any sufficiently long miss streak, there's nothing to stop me from having a series of miss streaks punctuated by the occasional streakbreaker auto-hit.
Missing 3 times, hitting once, and then missing another 3 times is only marginally less annoying than missing all 7 times in a row. Even more annoying sometimes, considering that 1 hit is usually brawl. It's been my experience that, even unslotted, Brawl seems to have a higer overall accuracy than any other attack.

And another thing: if your streakbreaker code is based on "average" accuracy over a series of attacks, is it possible that this same sort of calculation is being used for overall accuracy? That might go a long way to explaining some of the issues we've seen brought up time and again.

I spent a few hours last night with a new character, brawling my way to lvl 3. The only power I used was brawl, and I only attacked even-con minions (with the exception of the guys I needed to get my Isolator Badge after finishing my door mission in Outbreak). Aside from a few trips to the hospital, as far as I can tell, the streakbreaker on is working, at this level. I never saw a streak of more than 3 misses, though I did have a number of the aforementioned series of 3 miss, 1 hit, 3 miss- and at least 1 of 3 miss, 1 hit, 3 miss, 1 hit, 3 miss, hospital. One thing of note I did observe: an inordinate amount of misses seemed to be my 1st attack against a given critter. (I like that word so much better than 'mob'- to me a mob has always been a group of people, not one)
Tonight I plan on switching to Jab for my trip to lvl 5, and seeing if I notice a difference.

If anyone's interested, I believe I recorded some demos, though im not 100% familiar with that process yet. (I even got the part where some guy started KSing me, so I put him on Follow and went to make a sandwich- good fun!)

[ QUOTE ]
That chart isn't quite correct either (missed the 50-60 range). It's actually:

Final to-hit : misses allowed
>.9 : 1
.8-.9 : 2
.6-.8 : 3
.4-.6 : 4
.3-.4 : 6
.2-.3 : 8
0 -.2 : 100



[/ QUOTE ]
That still does nothign to explain why characters using 2 Accuracy SOs in all attacks can see massive miss streaks, when, according to that chart, the worst we should ever experience is a 50% miss ratio.

Edit: [ QUOTE ]
The system does not track each power individually; instead it tracks every miss you make in a row, regardless of power (or target). Otherwise you could have nine different powers, each with a 0.95 to-hit, and if you executed them all in a row you could miss each attack (note a caveat at the bottom of the post regarding this).


[/ QUOTE ]

Thank you! I'm so glad to finally see this from a redname! this has been one of the biggest mysteries regarding the streakbreaker since Beta!

[ QUOTE ]
I stand corrected.

This was PM'd to me by a user who got the info from Pohsyb.
[ QUOTE ]
The streakbreaker will force a hit if there has been a long series of misses (only for heroes)

ACC / Length of miss streak before we force a hit
>90 / 1
80-90 / 2
60-80 / 3
30-50 / 4
20-30 / 6
10-20 / 8
1-10 / 100

The random number is calculated simply by the C stdlib rand().


[/ QUOTE ]

[/ QUOTE ]

Ok, now I KNOW that's not true. I'm a Martial Arts scrapper. I'm told that we have a 10% bonus to accuracy. (Im still not sure why- not complaining, just not sure) I have always used 2 slots for ACC enhancements- which are now SO's (+66%).

So that's a base accuracy of 75%, with a 76% bonus. That should put me at 132% (75 x 1.76) Accuracy, before I even click Focus Chi (+~50%?), or eat an inspiration. Then there's also whatever the bonus from Focused Accuracy with 2 Acc buff SOs is, too. (I needed a buy in power for my Epic Power Pool, and didnt need Conserve Power)

Even without the bonus from Martial Arts, that's a 66% bonus, or 126%. Really, it's even worse than that, as I usually duo with my roommate, a defender, running Tactics (+12.5%) with 2 Acc Buff SOs (whatever that adds, im not sure which 'schedule' those are), which should put me in the neighborhood of 141% Accuracy.

Assuming there's a hard cap of 95% Acc, I should pretty much ALWAYS be at that cap vs Even-Con Minions. Probably vs +1s or +2s, maybe even vs +3s (It sure would be nice to know what my accuracy vs higher level mobs is intended to be: In the old days, It would have been about 90% vs +4s, which is as high as I care about, since anything higher isnt worth any more.) I'd have to be debuffed 37% before it would even begin to register. Which means even with the crappiest luck in the world, I should be hitting one out of every two swings, according to this streakbreaker chart. I can guarantee I've hit way less often than that.

Perversely, I seem to hit more often vs +1 Minions than against even con or below. Really, there's just NO excuse for why I should miss a -13 minion more than once in a row (or ever, for that matter).


Edit: I just did the math- even with 1 lousy training enhancement (+8.whatever%), that puts Joe Random to 81% vs even cons. (84.75% for weapon users, and 88.5% for Martial Artists) Which, according to this chart, should yield a minimum of 1 in 3 hits. I can go brawl Hellions in GC right now and not see that kind of accuracy.
Your streakbreaker is broken.

Do beta bases count?
If so, here are some shots:
(If not, don't look at these! )
The Great Hall

The 'Throne Room'

The view from my throne

These pillars run along either side of The Great Hall

The Study

The secret Tech Lab

The Mech Garage

The idea here was a retro-tech lair. As my villain is on the run from Malta, he can't afford to have his entire base kitted out with the shiny new Tech Stuff, only a couple well-concealed rooms at the back of the place.

There's a few other shots, mostly of the Study and the 'Tech Lab' HERE at my photobucket album.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]


Twilight grasp's animation time doesn't bug me. It's AoE is pretty big and it heals for a lot. It's also a very, VERY powerful debuff. To me, it's a debuff with a healing component.

[ QUOTE ]


I agree. It's actually comparable in magnitude with Empathy's AoE heal, and it does debuff toHit and health recovery significantly. I don't find the animation very annoying. Maybe I just remember the way it used to be.




[/ QUOTE ]

[/ QUOTE ]

To be specific, Twilight Grasp is a single target 20% To Hit Debuff, 12.5% Damage Debuff and -Regen Debuff, with a large side helping out AoE Heal(base heal is equal to 23% of your base HP).

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not knocking Twilight Grasp, I love it, but there are times where it needs to go off faster. It could be a +100% Heal with a 200yd radius and it still wouldnt matter if I can't activate it before someone goes down.
True story: On a team of 4 roughly even leveled characters, on one of the Croatoa cave missions vs Tuatha. My roommate is playing a fire/storm, and me with my D3. I'm running Shadowfall, and he's running Steamy Mist. He opens with Smoke, and I open with Tar Patch. as im throwing Darkest Night on one of the Lts, he throws Fire Cages on the group and draws aggro. a couple seconds later, he drops to 50%, so I activate TG. He's dead before it activates. That's what I'm talking about here.
Now, im not sure about your playstyles, but personally, when Im playing my D3, ive got a lot of different tools to use, so I can't really be standing on the sidelines waiting to use TG the moment someone goes to 70% health.

Twilight Grasp still takes WAY to long to activate. In a group of 4 roughly even level players, I can't heal my team fast enough if one of them starts getting below 50% health.