Hikari_Hime

The prestige boost will change where the crunch point happens for any given SG, but it won't change the fact it's going to happen.

That said, I'm pretty sure that this won't kill bases - the reason being that a PvE fully functional base can be maintained with 3 people. Where it becomes an issue is the oh-so-well-implemented raid system.

In the ideal world, base construction will stop at the point where earnings=rent, which is the model the devs seem to have used, entering a static state.

What is not included in the model - attrition of characters, both in terms of people leaving the game, and in terms of lower alts replacing 50's. No hard numbers, but I'm pretty sure my pres/hour is much higher on my 50 than my lvl 10-20 alts.

It also doesn't account for destruction of items during raids - does anyone even know if you get refunded the prestige, is it "just" a loss of salvage?

Ultimately, I disagree with kinslayer - rent isn't going to kill unraidable bases, and right now, rent isn't exactly the top of the list of things that will kill raidable bases either [img]/uk/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

There has to be a glass ceiling somewhere, glass ceilings are what make it possible for the playing field to be determined by something other than the age of your account, but the rent system isn't a very good one.

Trouble is, I can't think of anything better, except possibly capping prestige based on the SG size, which will just encourage bloated SG's with inactive alts to fill in the gaps.

((Story based on IC events in the GG continuity, critique more than welcome, I'm not entirely happy with it and can't work out why))

4th August 2006, Galaxy City – 11am

A soft beeping slipped through the fog of sleep overlaying her mind, recalling her to wakefulness far too soon. Minako opened her eyes, looking blurrily around, the room not her familiar pink and lace room at the lab, the furniture unfamiliar.

A hand on her shoulder recalled her to full wakefulness, and she looked up at Juan, his normal eyes closed and his third eye open in meditation. “Is something wrong love?”

Minako shook her head slightly, rubbing the sleep away from her eyes. “It’s just the comm, Circe wouldn’t wake me unless it was important, I’d better check what it is. You keep resting though…”

Juan nodded slightly and went back to meditating as she slipped out of bed, grabbing a dressing gown off the back of the door. It hung on her like a tent, Sophie’s, not hers, but it didn’t matter, it was warm. She slipped outside, heading for the privacy of the roof before answering her comm.

“Hai Circe?” The melodious, not quite accented tones of the lab’s main controlling computer answered her. “Miss Minako, I apologise for disturbing your rest, but I have just received an alert from the PCPD that charges have been filed against you.”

Minako sat down slowly on one of the air vents, pulling the robe around her more tightly, her voice faint. “Charges?”

Circe’s voice comes back, emotionless as ever. “Yes, Miss Minako, Miss Pyranah has filed them against you claiming assault when you struck her. The police request your presence for questioning. I feel I should remind you that her actions in provoking you were an attempt to prevent the arrest of her friend.”

Minako stared numbly down at her hands. “Does that make hitting her any better?”

Circe’s voice took on a faint, though impossible, hint of smugness. “In the eyes of the law? Yes.”

Minako looked out over the city, the deceptive stillness and peace denying the chaos beyond the war walls. “I guess I’d better go get dressed then…”

She dressed quietly, wrapping her shields tightly around herself to hide the inner emotion and turmoil she felt, slipping out the house like a ghost in the night. When she reached the police station, the receptionist looked at her blankly. “Can I help you Miss?”

Minako bit her lip, her thoughts running wild. She could just walk away, pretend she didn’t know what was happening, the receptionist asked the question again, making up her mind. She was proud of herself, her voice not faltering as she said. “My name is Nishizumi Minako, I believe I’m wanted for questioning…”

She wasn’t sure what she’d expected to happen, if she believed the TV shows the cops around her should have pulled guns and slapped handcuffs on her. What she hadn’t expected was for a kind-faced woman to lead her over into a room with comfy chairs and give her a cup of tea, although it made it easier to tell her side of the story.

The woman seemed incredulous, until Minako handed over her hero licence, then she spent ages outside on the phone, becoming steadily more and more agitated. Minako stopped sipping at the tea, the cup going stone cold in her hands.

Finally she came back into the room, looking a lot less calm than before. “Miss Nishizumi…I mean hero Hikari…I mean…”

Minako didn’t look up. “Either’s fine…”

The woman looked at her, compassion in her eyes. “You’ve caused the legal boys a pretty big headache you know, but we won’t be pressing charges at this time. There’s a representative from MAGI on the way to see you though, so I have to ask you to remain here…”

Minako nodded numbly at her, setting the tea down on the table and staring over at the wall. The police detective shook her head slightly as she walked out. “Poor kid, she looks way too young to be a hero…”

Minako looked up as someone new entered the room, a man she didn’t know, holding her hero licence in his hand. He looked at her, then waved his hand and a shimmering barrier sprang up around the room, cutting off the faint hum from outside.

The man looked at her, peering over half moon spectacles. “My name is Christos, Minako, now, why don’t you start from the beginning?”

At the end of it, Minako felt exhausted, drained. Some of the questions made sense, questions about Winter, about their friendship, but some of them didn’t, questions about the war, about her father’s death, her work, her relationships even. No matter how much she’d tried not to talk, she’d found the words pouring out, the only thing stopping them an occasional bout of tears.

Christos made notes in a small notebook, um’ing and ah’ing occasionally. He looked over to her as it finally finished. “My recommendation, Minako, although it will not be strictly enforced, is that you attend counselling sessions before resuming any super-powered activities. If you wish I can recommend a number of qualified psychiatrists used to working with both heroes and young people.”

Minako just nodded numbly, and he looked sharply at her. “Or maybe I should book you the first appointment. You’re human Minako, and you’ve been through stuff that most people couldn’t cope with. Frankly I’m impressed with your restraint, but we’re here to help you, support you.”

One quick phonecall later, and Minako found herself escorted across the city in a car with tinted windows, being escorted into a green baize room with a couch and desk. The far door opened and a youngish woman, her hair pulled up in a ponytail, entered the room carrying a tray. “Hello Mina-chan, it’s been a while. No more nightmares I hope? Do you still have three sugars in your chocolate?”

Minako nodded at her, then sat down on the couch and started to cry.

29/7/6 - 20:00 hours
Emergency Medical Center - Galaxy City

Minako went to brush the hair back out of her face, leaving a trail of blood across her forehead. The bed in front of her was empty now, she couldn't even remember the face of the hero who had been lying on it, or if it had even been a hero or one of the city police troops.

Either way, he'd be back in the fight now. She looked around, room spinning slightly as she looked for the next victim, wondering how long it would be before those she sent back out would come in again, or if they'd make it this far at all.

A hand on her shoulder stopped her, something white and damp pressing at her face and hands, wiping away the blood. Minako blinked, and looked up into the face of one of the nurses, an empath like her, but one who's powers extended as far as diagnosis, not healing.

"Don't know if you prefer Minako or Hikari right now, but either way you're exhausted. You've been here since this all began, and you didn't look too fresh then. You need to go home and get some rest, before we end up with you on the tables too."

Minako blinked at her again. "Home..." She bit her lip, tears starting to form in her eyes. Home wasn't a place of safety any more, home was where he wouldn't be, where the counterstrike against Requiem was being prepared, where once she'd been happiest, able to pretend she could be normal again.

The nurse frowned at her, pulling her into a hug briefly. "Heard about your dad, I'm sorry. You want me to call you a taxi?"

Minako shook her head numbly. "No, it's ok, it's not far to walk..."

Minako stumbled out onto the street, heading for the statue, and the faint hope of finding some peace inside herself, or at least somewhere safe to cry.

Psi counters most of your cons (the range is better, it's got a lot better control) but suffers from if you hit a psi-resistant enemy, you're screwed.

My Emp/Psi isn't massivley offender built, and can still solo happily on invincible.

The main point I'd make is that with RA no longer perma (or even close) you will need stamina, but I think you can afford to put it later in your build than you have. I didn't admit I actually needed it until after I got into the epics and tried to run mind over body along with telekenisis.

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Has anyone tried using Coolant Belt temp power from respec trial on Hami? Or the 2 temp powers from Hydra trial also could work on him as they do on Hydra head.

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It's unlikely that thermite plasma is dangerous to Hamidon and he'd have to be from another dimension for the particle cannon to be effective. Hamidon doesn't display enough connections to the Rikti to suggest their heavy weapons would be effective against him.

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Plus IIRC it's impossible to get the temp powers if you're exemping down to the trial, so it's impossible for anyone able to fight Hamidon to get them.

I'd say that the solution we have for Hami raiding now cannot be the origional vision for how a raid was supposed to work.

The version we have now is heavily biased in favour of certain AT's and makes others superfluous. It also breaks the server character limits.

All the indications we have from other trials etc in the game indicates that the Dev's expect a SG to have about 24 "uber" members, that's what the IoP trial is designed for after all, and the other trials all have a hidden key somewhere.

Of course, we've seen before how good the internal QA server is at picking up new bugs in old systems, they're normally picked up by the players on TC or live, and since no-one has ever found the intended raid strategy, it's entirely possible it broke sometime back in I3 and no-one's actually noticed yet :P

What would be nice is confirmation from the Dev's of how big they expect a hamidon raid team to be, whether they expect every AT to play an equal role in the encounter, and whether the mechanism they have in place for a "proper" raid is still achieveable on the live servers.

Good thinking Xanthus, shame you didn't find anything really.

Ok, what got added at the same time as the hive? Is there anything out on Monster or Monkey Island maybe?

Monster Island would be my next guess, although I'mm still willing to try fighting our way in through the walking route and seeing if anything happens.

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This is probably stupid thing to say, but would the NPCs at tram stations with coloured rings be connected to Hami? (click them all, in an oder, etc) Or are they normal contavts that I've never visted? Please don't hit me

*would like to get a HO someday, and will say/do anything that might help*

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For all we know, the secret could be to have everyone stand inside the jelly and play a different boombox emote...

Actually, now that I've typed that it doesn't sound like such a stupid idea, there must be a reason for that emote...

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Nofuture lists it as an immob too, I'm probably misremembering.

[/ QUOTE ]You are, subdue is definitely immob.

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It was I3 when I last used it, I have trouble remembering last week, never mind last year

Not sure how much it applies to storm/Psi, but I've found scream-tk blast-will dom-psi lance to be a pretty effective minion/lt killer, with dominate to knock out the partner mob.

In 3 man spawns, will dom will lock down 1, dominate the other, and you've just about got enough time to use lance straight after TK blast if the knockback takes.

GoD picnic in the park then? I'll bring cookies...

Sunday, 12pm until we run out of awakens?

I'm pretty certain it's a sleep, although it's been a while since I had it on my build - Will Dom won for damage anyway, since I was always going to have dominate for a nice ST hold.

Easiest way is check if it takes sleep or immob enhances, although can't for a couple of hours since I'm in work.

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Nofuture lists it as an immob too, I'm probably misremembering.

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It's kind of interesting how everytime we do a Hami raid we always end up trying to find an easier way.

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But has anyone TRIED the ideas suggested?

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You'd hope so, wouldn't you?

Anyone willing to trawl the US boards to see where they've already searched? And I remember an expedition heading out a few months ago, but can't remember who was leading it.

Need to check my oh-so-busy social calendar, but I'd be willing to go GM pounding next weekend on general principle, looking for the womble spoon is an added bonus.

I'd take Will Dom over Subdue if you're having to pick, they're both secondary sleeps, Will Dom has a faster activation time and a higher base damage.

The immob is scramble thoughts, and personally I hate it, although YMMV.

Well, the Dev's say 24, or 3 8-man teams.

Off the top of my head, things that "might" be womble spoons: (for those who don't know, the womble spoon is an item with seemingly no purpose required to defeat an invulnerable evil)

From the Eden Trial - resist inspirations dropped from opponents en-route

From the Hydra Trial - temp powers allowing much higher damage than normal powers allow

Neither TC or the cavern has an uberboss, although TV also has the precollected glowies in the reactor belts.

So, assuming that the Devs follow a pattern...

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I have also noticed the route for runners and its a long and interesting one. Its like they really, really want you to run there. Also the number of swarms that have -fly and -teleport is ridiculous. And the lenght of time it lasts is huge.

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It's almost as though they expect us to fight our way to Hamidon. In fact, that might be an amusing thing to do. Any takers? I'm not suggesting actually fighting Hamidon at the end though.

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Humm, worth a try with an empty insp bar perhaps?

After all, mobs drop ambrosia in the Titan trial, maybe there's a rare anti-hami insp drop?

That's the kind of thing you wouldn't see unless you slaughtered a lot of mobs in the zone...

Well, every solution we (aka the players on either side of the atlantic) have tried has been brute force (overwhelming the hamidon in some way be it holds, end drain etc)

The devs have also nerfed a few of the more sucessful brute force solutions so they don't work, and said that you can kill Hamidon with just 24 heroes.

There's got to be a womble spoon out there somewhere, it's just really really really well hidden.

I only had two issues that I noticed with the raid.

1 was that the sings seemed to keep losing the targeting this time. I was hopping between Grav Mistress's, Force of Will's, and the speccy terrors, because I kept getting "attack invalid for your current target" comming up in the combat window.

That can't have been helping with keeping up the holding phase, especially if people weren't watching the combat window, 'cos it was the only way *I* could tell if a power had actually fired.

The other was the Babel was the only raid leader using the global channel for orders, most of the other commands I saw were being given out in broadcast or local. Less of a problem once the teams were formed since our leader was relaying orders but it made it hard sometimes to work out what was an offical order and what was an officious sounding idiot.

Shame there's no way to silence people on broadcast really.

I assume you ask because you want someone to design an alt costume for you, not out of general curiosity.

Is there a preference for male/female/huge?

Key points - No capes, no aura's, costumes with a lower polygon count are better (so as little detail as possible, and preferably a smooth helmet in the idea situation)

No capes and auras is the most important bit.

Colour should show your AT - Red for Blasters, Blue for defenders, Purple for controllers (can't remember tanks and scrappers ), kheldians should take the colour for the AT they will be playing most like.

Special cases, empaths wear green, illusion controllers wear grey. If you can heal (possibly just /emp controllers, some guides have anyone with an aura heal wearing it) you should have green stripes, if you can hold (any power that takes an orange hold enhancement) then you should have a purple stripe.

Just to double check, telekenisis does work like a normal hold, doesn't it?

The normal idiot check of "does it take hold enhancements?" doesn't apply.

We're using the same costumes as last time, there's a linky in one of the threads.

I think it's red costume, purple stripes (blasters are base red aren't they?).

Purple stripes is the bit that means you're in the holding team, so I'd say that's most important.

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found the link, costume guide here

Holding blasters are indeed red with purple stripes.

Mentioned in the other thread, but here for sake of ease

Hikari-Hime, Emp/Psi/Psi defender.

Do we have a specific gather place and time, or just the eden gate around 7?

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on my sg screen we have about 35k prestige but on the base builder interface it say -1 mill...is it a bug or do i need to take out a loan and consolidate my debts and secure a new loan on our small hiiden spot.

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Clicky



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Umm, didn't the OP say -1,000,000? And it should show the same on the SG screen and the builder reguardless.

I'd say that's a bug, doubly so if you're managed to get into severe negative prestige - it should be impossible to get lower than -300,000 and still be able to access your base.

Global Name: @Hikari-Hime
Server: Union
Main RP Characters (always IC):
Hikari-Hime (COH) - Guardians of Destiny
Minako (COH) - Guardians of Destiny (social RP only)
Radiophobia (COH) - The Y-files
Catrina Vargas (COH) (social RP only)
Lalane (COV) - The Concorde

Secondary Characters (IC or OC depending on team makeup):
Senoi (COH)
Subject Anjel (COH)
Hell's Kitten (COH)
Nascent Light (COH)

Type of RP: Statue, Social, Plotarc, Mission
Can be contacted: MSN/AIM/YAHOO/ICQ via trillian, IRC by arrangement, Forum PM, email, gamemail
Times on: COH - times vary between 19:00 to 01:00, contactable through MSN etc for entire period, contactable via email 09:00 to 17:00
Timezone: BST

In theory it starts at 7, so there's no way we'd make an 8pm mission, there's a slight chance we be there for all or part of one that starts at 9.