HeroVorkk

1. Dozens of heroes in Perez (by the AP gate) forming streethunt teams. 7-10 range for the streets 11-14 range for all the hydras in the lake.

2. Same in the 17-19 range for the far end of Boomtown.

3. Sewer Trial Kraken farming.

4. Warwolf herd-n-burn dumpster diving mission.

5. Fulcrum Shift buff icons that extended off the right side of the screen (from the team roster window).

6. One-shotting Sappers with Sniper Rifle 6-slotted for damage (Targetting Drone for Acc).

7. Atlas Park, Atlas Park 2, Atlas Park 3, etc.

Some suggestions for gathering data that you can give to Castle:

Remove all possible end saving things (enhancements, etc) from a couple of your low level attack powers. Malf down to level 19 to get rid of stamina. Turn off all toggles (including sprint).

Attack low level mobs (no danger to you) and note the end used for each attack and see if it is consistant with what should normally be expected. Note any inconsistancies.

Try that with a various mix of toggles on/off to maybe find a pattern. Un-Malf (to regain stamina) and try again.

Take detailed notes.

Yea, it sounds like a lot of work but deliberate tests using a deliberate plan may reveal something.

WOW, just WOW (and I don't mean the Blizzard game).

This thing is so old archeologists are searching for it.

The disorient for AB was removed a long time ago. It's one of the best buff powers in the game.

If they were debt free, then there would have to be NO XP, Inf, Prestige, Insp, salvage, Enh drops or any other type of reward for defeating NPC mobs.

No debt risk = no reward. It would just have to be that way.

99% of damage from player then killed by 1 point of NPC damage causing full debt is bad. 99% of damage from NPC then killed by 1 point of player damage causing no debt is bad also.

The patch notes method helps with this but is not the full answer as it does not deal with healing that occurs during the fights and how that affects the percentages of PC vs NPC damage.

I don't pretend to know the "best" answer to this. I'm sure the dev's with some useful suggestions (not rants) from players will figure something out.

Some time back (over a year ago), our esteemed hosts (NcSoft/Cryptic) held a short story contest. The following story was one of the winning entries. It is available somewhere on the CoH web site but I am posting it here in it's entirety. I don't remember who the author was.

The hero ID was still fresh in my hands when I got the call to help with an outbreak in a remote part of the city. Surely I was too untested for such a large and important task, but I vowed to do my best. The city had assigned several competent officers to guide hero efforts in the area, and they proved invaluable. Soon I had recovered the formula needed to produce an antidote and I left it in the very capable hands of Coyote.

Although I found satisfaction in helping the city with this problem, something was missing. Was this truly the way for me? After speaking briefly with Miss Liberty, I decided to wander the streets for a time and contemplate my path.

Rounding the corner of the local Mighty Mart, I saw three thugs attempting to steal a woman's purse. I called for them to stop, but they only laughed and pushed the woman onto the ground. Some spark lit within me then, a call for justice that could not be denied.

My face tightened with resolve as sparks began to dance around my hands. One of the crooks carried a bat, and the other two had knives. They advanced upon me quickly, confident in their numbers. I noted that the woman had run across the street, and that she had managed to retrieve her purse while they had focused on me.

Seeing that she was out of harms way, I released a bolt of charged energy at the punk with the bat, followed by a powerful lightning blast. He fell to the ground groaning, and I gave my attention to the other two. They had tried to flank me, but weren't expecting their comrade to fall so quickly. I turned just as the nearest struck with his blade. It was only a glancing blow, and the blade barely scratched my shoulder. I won't lie, it hurt, but I tried not to show it as I punched the thug in the gut, and then hit him with a blast of lightning while he was disoriented. One more punch and he was down.

I turned toward the third, only to see him running away. Grabbing a mini-grenade from a belt pouch, I tossed it in a high arc. It popped just over his head, releasing quick drying glue and stopping him in his tracks. As he struggled to get free I let loose a couple of quick bolts and he too was out.

I gathered the three of them in a pile and used my comm unit to call a police drone to port them to jail. After it had done its job, I began to walk away when I felt a timid hand upon my shoulder. It was the woman with the purse. She smiled shyly and offered her thanks. I will never forget her words.

'I’ve never met a hero before.'

A hero? I nodded and smiled. Thanks to her, I sure felt like one.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Which makes them fairly weak and almost pointless. I would rather have a choice that builds a lot on my strengths then a little on my weaknesses.

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually it seems that it's you that missed the point rather than the powers. The APPs and the PPPs are specifically designed to fill holes in each AT.

[/ QUOTE ]

Exactly, APP and PPP are just that... to give some power type choices not normally available for the AT. Ranged attacks for melee types, holds for defenders, damresist for blasters, etc.

Q: Why should you build a Kin/Sonics?

A: Because you want to play a Kin/Sonics.

If you don't want to play a Kin/Sonic, then don't build one.

If you are looking to min/max the DPS or Burst damage, then go ahead and be a Spreadsheet GURU and microanalize the differences in Acc, Damage, Recharge, etc.

Most times, I pick my primaries and secondaries for the "funness" and general usefulness of the powersets, not the "who does 0.0054% more damage per second" powersets.

So you can't hit a stalker running Elude? You probably can't hit a scrapper running elude either. A mob can't hit you if you are running elude. That's what elude is for. I'ts a super-defense power. Working as intended. That's its purpose.

Sa far as range checks, I have not noticed a snipe power fail to work just because the mob got out of range AFTER I activated the power. I have characters with Energy Snipe, Sniper Rifle, and Moonbeam (different characters). Many times I have activated the snipe as the mob is running away (but still in range) and have the snipe go off (and hit the mob) well after the mob is out of range. If LOS is lost, then the snipe fails to activate.

Melee attacks all work that way. You can activate the attack and even if the target runs away, when the attack goes off, you get the hit. AS is just an interruptable melee attack. Same rules apply.

I've seen hundreds of posts complaining about stalkers AS in pvp. Get over it. It's what they do. There are ways to avoid it/defend against it. Learn them. Use them.

REMOVE THE TIMER.....

This creates some questions....

If the caster has Fort on him when he casts Burn, the damage of burn is increased, yes?

What if Burn is cast then Fortitude is applied to the caster after? Does this increase Burn damage of the already existing Burn patch?

Fulcrum Shift... If the caster of Caltrops, Blizzard or other "temporary pets" powers has FS buffs on him when he casts the Caltrops (and others), do the Caltrops do more damage?

What if the FS is done AFTER the caltrops are already out?

What if the caltrops are already out AND they are in the AoE of the FS when FS is cast?

The basic question here is... does the buff have to be already on the caster of the "temporary pet" power for that "pet" to be buffed?

Is it safe to assume this also applies to CoV defensive sets?

Stalker Ninjitsu secondary, for example.

[ QUOTE ]
You have to set an option to be able to hear enemies in the PvP zones. (I was _wondering_ why they didn't reply to my taunts...)

[/ QUOTE ]

In the options menu, there is a selection to "Allow hero private chat" (for CoV) or to "Allow villain private chat" (for CoH). Enabling these lets you receive /tells from hero to villain and vice versa.

With my 18 Ninja Stalker, I can one-shot (no buildup or insp's)yellow minions with AS. It has 1 acc and 3 damage, all DO's.

With buildup, I can one shot yellow LT's and sometimes Orange LT's (depending on type).

For a Orange Boss, I buildup, then AS, then run, then after AS is recharged, go back, placate, AS again. This sometimes is enough or a couple of regular attacks finishes him (if I live thru his attacks).

Without AS, taking out 3 yellow minions becomes very dangerous.

I don't think we are overpowered. Other than AS, we are not very strong.

Croatoa can be entered at any level. The lvl 25 limit was a bug that has been fixed (or will be soon). It is not a hazard zone.

You can buy DO and SO enhancements at any level, you just can't use store bought ones until lvl 12 (DO) or 22 (SO).

[ QUOTE ]

I know you work for Cryptic but what does everything have to be so "Cryptic?" A lot of terminology in COH/COV is misleading and confusing. I would suggest someone go back and re-write all terms and descriptions so that even an idiot can understand them. The enhancement indicators is a good start. Now if only I can see what my final damage/defense/debuff # are. Similar to what the hero planner/builders do.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yea, sometimes it can get confusing. For example:
A even level SO DefBuff Enhancer does NOT buff your Def by 20%. It increases your DefBuff power by 20%. If you have a 10% DefBuff from a power and you put that enhancer in it, you do NOT get a 30% DefBuff (your 10 plus the enhancer's 20). You get a 14% DefBuff (your 10 plus 20% of that 10).

So with the Buildup giving 80% base damage boost, and it working at 100% value, you get the 80%. With it working at 125% value (scrappers), you get 100% (125% of the 80%) base damage boost.

ARRRGGGHHH, my calculator is doing headspins....

[ QUOTE ]
well I can't drive for 2 1/2 hrs after class... I wouldn't have enough gas to get back home... why doesn't anything ever happen in SACREMENTO! it's the freaking capital!

[/ QUOTE ]

Hey, you got Ahnold who wants to "clean up Sacramento". What else could you ever want???

[ QUOTE ]
meh. New York, Philadelphia and So. Cal. Who really lives in those places?

[/ QUOTE ]

Generally, people who know their geography....

San Jose is in NORTHERN California.
(it's a little south of San Francisco)

MUHAHAHAHAHAHA

I remember, months ago, when the I5 changes were first announced, various posters saying (demanding?) that herding can be "fixed" with an AI change.

Well, here it is.

OK, what the heck is it?

For $35.00 ($24 discounted) it better be something more than just a 3-ring binder with a fancy cover.

[ QUOTE ]
My brother works at the plant where they manufacture a large percentage of the CD's and DVD's available in the U.S.

Last week they did an order of 300,000 copies CoV.

[/ QUOTE ]

So, everything they fix/change on beta since then will be on a patch at release or soon after.

Strange industry. They announce that it is in Gold release status, the CD's have already been made for distribution...
and Beta server is still up.

I really hope that the live release goes well. Not just for the players, but also for Cryptic and NcSoft's reputations.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Rock!

[/ QUOTE ]

Paper! I win!

[/ QUOTE ]

Scissors, I win!

Oh, No..... the rock.... AAAAHHHHhhhhhhhhh........

I know about the "never finished" aspect of computer games. The time comes when the suits say "Time's up. Publish now with what we got and we'll patch later".

I just hope that it isn't too "incomplete" on release just to meet a deadline.

I'm not in the game design/production/distribution business so I just have a layman's view here:

What needs to be done to release a new computer game?
1. Printed materials made (boxes, manuals, etc). These are probably already done for CoV.
2. Take the software and imprint it on to CDs (lots of them).
3. Put the CDs into the boxes with the manuals and other printed material, each box with a unique key code number inside.
4. Ship these out to distribution centers, then from there to retail outlets (brick and mortar, online, etc).

These are (to me) the major physical steps to take.

The software has to be in "final release" condition for step 2 above to occur.

For a MMORG, there is the extra concern of the game world (servers) to also be in the "final release" condition so the clients can log in and play.

Seeing as how the CoV beta server just went to fulltime operation and they are still "fixing/adjusting" bugs, content, and other gameplay stuff.... and it is now Oct 18th.....

Is there realistically time to do all that stuff (especially the physical distribution stuff) and be live by Oct 31st (29th for the 2-day early players)? That's just 9 days away. Nine days to get all those thousands of boxes in to the stores and in to the hands of the pre-order customers. Nine days to take the state of CoV as it now is on the beta server and finish it up to the final version on the live servers.

Can it be done?????

Inquiring minds want to know.

OK, time for another avatar contest. We gotta submit some entries for Nomad to choose from.

My recommendations for slotting:

Transfusion: 2 Acc, 4 Heals.
With SO's, this gives more points healed than an equal level Emp Def's Heal Aura 6-slotted with heals.

Siphon Power: 2 Acc and as many recharge reducers as you can spare. Until Fulcrum Shift, this is your damage buff power.

Siphon Speed: 1 or 2 Acc. Possibly one recharge reducer (or hasten) to have this power ready before the previous use wears off.

Increase Density: 1 DamResist

Speed Boost: 1 or more End Recovery.

Inertial Reduction: 1 Jump

Transference: 2 Acc and 4 Recharge reduce or 2 Acc, 2 Recharge Reduce and 2 End Recovery. Depends on whether you want more frequent use or more end recovery per use.

Fulcrum Shift: 2 Acc, 4 Recharge reduce.

Repel: I offer no opinion on this. Never used it.

The powers used most often in a fight are generally Transfusion, Transference, and Fulcrum (Siphon Power below 32). All of these must hit the mob to work. That's why I recommend 2 Acc in each.

There have been comments made that with Siphon Speed and/or Inertial Reduction, you don't need a travel power. Personally, I don't want to rely on hitting (and aggroing) a mob (Siphon) or having to re-activate a power (IR) every minute for my travel. I took SuperSpeed (since I already had Hasten) and combined with using IR as needed, I can get anywhere easily and fast.

As of the time I am posting this, I have a Kinetics/Energy Def at level 44. Kinetics is a very "active" power set. You must be constantly alert to all around you. If you want the benefits of your own powers, you must get in close to the mobs.