Jade_Dragon
-
Posts
2627 -
Joined
-
Quote:Once again, simplifying for the layman.Originally Posted by Fleeting Whisper
*picks a nit, hands it to Lemur Lad*
A dual core processor rarely actually doubles the processing speed. It's closer to +50%.
Honestly, you can only get double the speed out of a dual core processor if you are taking advantage of multithreading, and those two operations are not mutually exclusive, or are unable to be performed on one processor or the other for some reason. Most of the time, your system is doing so little that there is no reason but for a single core to be handling the instructions. (Such as, when it is idling)
I'm going to assume, though, that the CoH server code is doing the same thing for so many different players that there is plenty of opportunity for all available processors to be... processing.
-
Quote:All of the above is absolutely true.Originally Posted by Fleeting Whisper
That's true for a subscalar CPU, without instruction level parallelism. Just about every modern CPU (even single-core CPUs) have ILP, which will at least bring them up to scalar level in the general case, barring pipeline stalls.
Superscalar design adds a dispatcher on top of the ILP, which, as the name suggests, improves upon the ILP of a scalar model. Superscalar isn't expecially new, either. The Intel P5 Pentium was superscalar for integer operations, and the P6 was superscalar for both integer and floating point operations. The P6 microarchitecture was introduced in 1995. The Intel Core microarchitecture is descended from the P6, and is the basis for most of the actively used Intel CPUs.
Multi-core processors simply add on top of the ILP. Essentially, multiple CPUs acting in concert as one, which increases simultaneous instruction processing even further. Of course, in all of the above, a poorly written instruction sequence can stall the whole operation regardless.
A friend of mine is doing research development on many-core processors, on the order of 40,000 cores (apparently, there's some government computer with approximately that many). A quick glance at Wikipedia says there's the Ambric Am2045 available on the market now, with 336 cores.
My computer only has 2.
However, in the end it doesn't change the fact that even processing multiple instructions at the same time, you are still limited by the speed it takes to process those instructions. A CPU running dual core at 300 Hz is the same thing as a CPU with a single core processor running at 600 Hz. While it is twice as fast, you're still going to run into the same problem, which is if you eat up too many cycles the game will slow down.
I also didn't mention the fact that the graphics is usually not processed by the CPU either, but by the graphics card. And of course as Lemur pointed out, this is actually being handled by the server, and not our client. All the network traffic really has to deal with is the final calculated value of Fury at that time.
-
Quote:Actually, it seems to me that compared to the animation time of the attacks, the longer they are the less redraw time will effect their DPA. It's fast animating attacks that would have the biggest problem with redrawn because it could up to halve the damage.Originally Posted by Moonlighter
Maybe this wouldn't be so bad if the animation times of the higher tier Dual Pistol powers weren't so ridiculously long, or if the AoEs weren't all DoT style deliveries that had you standing there the entire time exaggerating the long animation effect.
I suspect redraw is more an annoyance, and the long animation times in general are responsible for the low DPA. And it's not like it's not a problem every AR and Archery Blaster has to deal with as well.
BTW, the reason none of the Secondaries let you keep the guns out is that the Secondary would have to FORCE you to keep the guns out. There is no way to have one animation with guns drawn, and another without. So a hypothetical Pistols Secondary would force you to draw the guns, even for powers that did not use them. (Like Build Up, or a martial arts-style kick with the guns drawn) -
Quote:[snurk] Good point.Originally Posted by Arcanaville
SorrI don't think the game servers are capable of making regeneration ticks happen backwards in time. Might have to wait for CoH 2.0 for that feature.
-
Quote:The first is the Bruiser's Power that raises Fury as he is attacked. This appears to be similar to the Brute version. The last is the power that lowers Fury over time. Like old Fury, it is a constant per tick, instead of applying a larger reduction when not in combat, like with new Fury. So in that, Bruisers have not been updated to use new Fury.Originally Posted by Fleeting Whisper
Did you try checking Mastermind Pets.Thug Boss.Fury, Mastermind Pets.Thug Boss.Fury Buff, and Mastermind Pets. Thug Boss.Rage Dampen? That's the Bruiser's version of Fury.
Never mind the rest of what I said. The second power appears to be the one that manages incoming damage. Instead of being applied per power, that +5% Fury on each attack is only for players and AVs. (The bit that was bugged before) As I originally suggested before an edit, I think what is happening is that after a round of attacks, the total attacks the Bruiser or Brute has made are totally, and Fury is boosed based on that. So you don't really gain Fury as you attack, you gain Fury at the end of any cycle in which you make an attack.
Just a guess there, though. I'm still not really sure how to interpret that power. It DOES appear to be the same for both, though, at least under the old Fury.
Actually, I'd be interested in what this does. Perhaps that is the old broken AV bonus. -
Quote:The main point is that on a team, or with his own self buffs, a Scrapper will "bump up" the line in comparison to the Brute. If you're going to measure the Scrapper at the maximum he can sustain, then you need to measure the Brute at the maximum he can sustain, not an assumed average across all builds.Originally Posted by Bill Z Bubba
If you're going to pick the spot where fury equalizes against scrapper damage, you have to make a LOT of assumptions including averaging out uptime on damage buffs.
The other important factor is that Castle himself stated explicitly that he was balancing around the 60% Fury balance point. Under these conditions, the Scrapper baseline is equivalent to the Brute baseline with the new Fury. The very idea that a Brute could be buffed to do greater damage than the Scrapper is contradictory to the concept that the Scrapper will do more damage than the Brute. -
Quote:It's basically the smallest unit of time that a computer program takes to execute an instruction. When the CPU is doing this, it cannot do other things, like launch an attack, animate graphics, or change object locations. Basically, you have a looping chain of activities, and the time it takes to come back to the beginning of the loop is how long it takes the game to respond to your input. Too many activities in the loop and the game slows down. (Even if you break up activities and schedule them to take place "at the same time", something called multithreading, the CPU STILL can only do one thing at a time. So it'll still slow you down)Originally Posted by ClawsandEffect
(I have no idea what a CPU cycle is, it's the word Castle used for it)
A lot of the problem here is that it's something that is checking for an event to happen, instead of the event itself triggering the effect. A foe attacking you is an event, but for you to counterattack you would have to initiate it, not the foe. I'm honestly not sure that Fury works this way, but an example might be if it is monitoring the number of hits you take in a cycle. After the cycle, Fury checks that number, and applies its increase based on it.
Now, one solution might be for every attack programmed onto a critter (actually, every attack in the game, since it would need to work in PvP, too) to have a component that damages the caster if a given state is set. This is how Assassin Strike works (not to mention Containment) an additional damage component is added if you are in the Hide state. You might call this a "Reflect" state, and if your foe is in the Reflect state, you take the damage. That would be originated by the attack itself and you wouldn't need to poll for it.
The amount of work it would take to add a Reflect damage to every single attack in the game, critter and player, would likely make it not worth the effort. Plus, it would have to be a constant effect, it would not be determined by YOUR level, but the stats of the critter attacking you, and couldn't be Enhanced, or buffed by your damage buffs. (So it couldn't be a proc. The only control you would have over it is turning on the Power that turns on the "state") -
Quote:It's a Heisenbug. Running Hero Stats, or any other kind of testing, actually causes the bug to suppress. It only shows up if you're not paying attention to it. Mostly when that miss is 100% certain to get you killed by an AV.Originally Posted by Bill Z Bubba
No, you fool! It's obvious that the devs are in collusion with the coders of hero stats to hide their malicious accuracy tampering!
-
Quote:The problem is people who complain that it is NOT on every player 100% of the time. Plus, as a bubbler you should know it is much easier to bubble in "groups". If you cannot bubble everyone, you would probably split it up into multiple "groups". If you miss someone, it can be hard to notice that you missed him, or that you need to renew him.Originally Posted by JuliusSeizure
Sure, it might not be on every player 100% of the time, and it might just be on the Alpha sink full time, but you are actually making an effort not to bubble team mates which you deem as not needing more protection.
If you bubble people on the fly as you find time for it, and no one minds that, then there is no problem. -
Given that I play a Ninja/FF myself, I can see where the conflict is. Ninjas are fragile, and if you're using the Tankermind strategy to manage them, you NEED to shield them. If you lose Bodyguard, you're going to lose both yourself and your henchmen quickly, and then you're not going to be bubbling anyone. So under the circumstances, I would do the same thing; my henchmen take top priority, and anyone else will be bubbled if I feel the need and can fit it into my rotation as I am refreshing the bubbles on my henchmen.
Personally, I look at the Secondary powers as a sort of Defense power that I can apply to my henchmen. That my teammates can be buffed by them too is a bonus, but to me it's like a Tanker having powers that can buff his team, like Shield Defense. To me, it makes no more sense for an MM to buff his team and not his henchmen than for a Tanker to have Defenses that don't effect himself. (Besides, isn't that what a Corruptor is for?)
I also make it a hard and fast rule that anybody who cannot wait for me to buff them in their turn does not want to be buffed. I am not going to chase you down because you got impatient waiting for me and ran into that spawn. And I'm not going to put you on some sort of priority list above someone else because you feel you're more important. If you run ahead without waiting for me, I take that as a sign that you feel confident that you can handle the spawn on your own.
That being said, if someone complained about my not bubbling them on my Nin/FF (and in all honestly, she has not yet been on a team yet, so I haven't had the opportunity to test this) I would explain, and give the team the choice. "I have been drawing aggro with my Taunt and my attacks, in order to tank for my henchmen and my pets, using Bodyguard. If I take the time to bubble all members of the team, and protect the team as a Defender would, then I will have to take a more support role, in which I and my henchmen stand back and do not take the point. This will mean a greater risk for the team, and more damage being taken by teammates other than me. Given that you feel that the team can take this greater risk, I will do this is you ask me to."
If, after we have tried it the other way, the team is dying constantly, and the tank is unable to handle the aggro, I will just point out that when I was using the Tankermind strategy, the team was doing better, and if they would like me to return to it, I will. After all, if I am build for using that strategy, and my henchmen do better in melee anyway, it would be best for me to play to my strengths.
I will say that on the other side of the coin, if I am playing a Corruptor or an MM, I will buff another MMs's pets if he asks for it, but they don't have priority. Again, if you are playing an MM, I expect you to give first priority to your own pets, and you won't be relying on me to do it. -
Quote:Good point.Originally Posted by Schismatrix
Well, it's easier to debuff a target's -regen to the point that it won't regain any health than it is to calibrate damage on a per-foe basis to counteract regen and adjust accordingly. Also, as i recall (and i may be wrong), Arcanaville posted that the Devs had given some consideration to adding -regen to cage powers. i'm betting on adding debuffs being a more likely solution.
I wonder if it's possible to debuff regen into the negative.
Seriously, I would like to see a near floor of regen, and then a trickle damage to ensure some is lost. Not much, not enough to kill the foe on its own, but enough to justify the time of intangibility, and ensure the foe is very likely to NOT GAIN HP, even if he has fairly high regen. -
The Defender Inherent only increases its damage significantly when it is solo. On a team of two or three (with the Defender being the second or third, obviously) it is possible to provide enough damage to fill in as a damage dealer. But past that, the damage bonus disappears.
Defenders, in general, have higher burst damage, and thus provide slightly more damage at the beginning of a fight. Corruptors provide more damage at the end of the fight, with Scourge. Outside of that, and the slightly higher damage for the Corruptor and slightly higher buffs for the Defender, there is not that much difference. It is not even as much as between a Tanker and a Scrapper.
It's really not the case that the other ATs are that similar. And even Defenders and Corruptors have their own "style". Their roles are similar, just with a slightly different emphasis on how they go about those various roles. -
Well, I think your Scrapper line is too high. Solo, Brute damage equalizes to Scrappers at 60% Fury. So it was more like this:
Code:* brute damageFury Damage 85% | * * 75% | * * * * 65% |----------------------------------- 55% | * * * * 45% | * * * * 35% | * * 25% | * 15% | * 05% |* ___________________________________________ Time
- scrapper damage
That's being generous, I doubt Fury would fall as low as 35% between spawns for an experienced, IO'ed out Brute, but I did see behavior like that on my own, lower level Brutes.
With the changes to Fury, my experience is that it has become this:
The rise is faster, and the fluctuation is closer to the 60% baseline comparison for the Scrapper. However, again for the high end Brute the chart above would look more like rising to 85% and staying there. Very rarely if ever would the line drop below that. With the current version, it's still possible to hit 75% and stay there, but you're closer to the Scrapper.Code:Fury Damage 75% | * * * * 65% |--------------------------------- 55% | * * * * * * 45% | * * * 35% | * 25% | * 15% | * 05% | * ___________________________________________ Time
-
Quote:It's all in your head, please.Originally Posted by Tolerance
make me think it's all in my head, please.
Seriously, there is always the perception that accuracy has been nerfed. That's one reason I found it so funny to say "OMG! Accuracy has been un-nerfed!!!" when the accuracy of players of low levels was increased. You've got to either laugh at it, or it'll drive you crazy. -
I think I have come to regret that I deleted the Defender that eventually became my Dark/Dark Corruptor, Experiment OEBR1. While I didn't really get as far playing him as a Defender as I did as a Corruptor, it would be nice, with Going Rogue, to have switched the Defender version over to the evil side. Just so I'd have an evil Defender.
Most of my deletions, though, have been replacing characters with recreations, and in instances where I wasn't sure about the next Power Set combo, I kept the old, just trying out the same name on another server. In fact, in one case where I decided a Stone/Axe Tanker with Stealth would be a lot more fun as Dark/Dual Blades, I KEPT the Stone/Axe (removing the Stealth) and gave him a new name, costume and concept.
Really, because I solo so much, it hasn't been a problem to just create additional characters on different servers. And now that server transfers are available, I can even take the ones I like the best and move them to where I know more folks to team with.
BTW, one toon I kick myself for CREATING, is a Kinetic Melee/Willpower Scrapper. I was playing a female Energy Melee/Willpower werewolf Brute, a character I'm levelling for my sister, and suddenly thought that Kinetic Melee might capture the more skill, less brute force feel I was trying to give for her. I tried it out, and it was SO outside concept that I actually kept playing because I couldn't stop laughing. I finally contacted some friends of mine that were online and commented, "This werewolf must like NASCAR, because she sounds like she's throwing cars at people."
I finally settled on a completely new Kinetic Melee/Shield concept that worked and seemed to fit the sound effects, but I'm really glad I didn't delete the original character to try that out. I still plan to try Claws/Willpower on another server, but I'm keeping the EM/Will version.
-
Quote:/em muahahahaOriginally Posted by Rush_Bolt
It's been reasoned that it means those powers would be able to benefit from whatever you'd have slotted in the Interface Incarnate slot. Before the Issue 18 beta started, there was even a leak about an Interface that gave attacks a -RES debuff.
-
Sure, but let me get home to check it. It makes use of bindfiles, so it's something like /bind t "camdist 2.0$$window_hide nav$$bind_load_file c:/coh/teleport1.txt" (Even longer than that, actually)
Also, my bind is very similar to the one in this link, and you can also find some very good teleport binds in the Player Guides forum, even in the thread on Binds that is stickied at the top of the forum. (The basic /bind shift+lbutton "powexec_name Teleport" is the simplest) -
Quote:I'm actually not sure if he meant that, or if he meant that he intended to release the 10 levels over time. Either way, it's not going to be a "release it all at once" think like CoV or the Going Rogue expansion, it'll be over time and the over next issues. Probably indefinately.Originally Posted by Chad Gulzow-Man
First of all, I'm pretty sure Posi said they're looking at going beyond 10 Incarnate levels--it's something they're going to continue expanding for as long as they keep updating the game.
I honestly never studied it that closely, so some of my description was a bit off, such as it not being like Enhancements. But I think what I was trying to say is that you are not enhancing the SLOT, it's a bonus to your character, that just happens to take the form of global Enhancements that partially override ED. Much like global Set Bonuses that duplicate the effect of Enhancements, except that those totally ignore ED. (And are much, much smaller)Quote:As far as the Alpha Slot goes, I don't know how much is allowed to be said since it was tested and pulled while still under the Going Rogue closed beta NDA, but it's effectively a global enhancement slot that works on every power you own, and that a small percentage (~20%) of that enhancement would ignore the limitation of Enhancement Diversification. It does not work with regular enhancements or IOs, but uses its own specialized craftable enhancements.
That's the Alpha Slot, though, and I saw some leaked information that suggested that powers of different kinds could be slotted in the Slots. (And that's mentioned in the link, too) So while that may not be true for the final product, the idea I think is that the devs can probably put just about any effect they can think of into one of these slots. And the info that the effects can be unslotted and switched around makes me think that's pretty interesting, too. -
Basically, the Incarnate system is 10 slots, the first of which was called the Alpha Slot. Supposedly, there were Powers or effects that you could craft and place in those slots, to give you buffs of some sort. Like more powerful IOs, except they didn't Enhance anything, you just got the Set Bonuses.
They're also like pseudo-levels, so when you have the Alpha slot filled, (or just unlocked?) you'll effectively be level 51, and able to take on level 51s on even terms.
That's all that's really been announced publically, outside of that they're putting it off to the next issue, and they will probably not be releasing all 10 at once. They want to save some so they can continue to keep raising the number of slots/levels.
[edit] And the reason it was delayed was, basically, it's going to be tied to the new content related to Praetoria, but they didn't have any content ready yet. There was no way to earn it, except for something they kludged together at the last minute, and more importantly, there was nothing to DO with it. You'd earn it, and then be exemplared back down the moment you teamed with anyone who was doing any of the current content.
So from what I understand, the devs decided to wait on the Alpha Slot until after the whole system is in place.
[edit^2] Note also that I believe the "Alpha" and "Omega" costumes and auras are intended to be a representation of these slots in some way. -
Well, my understanding is that part of the problem with the pet AI is inherited from critters, which is that any one critter in a spawn will choose to close to melee. This is actually to make things easier for players, it gets easier to pick them off one by one when they are running at you that way. Thus, if they fixed that for pets, they would also fix it for critters, and your gameplay would become a lot harder.
However, I'm not sure how removing melee attacks from a pet would effect that AI. It might just run into melee with no attack to actually use. Which might actually be preferential, as long as the remaining attacks do more damage than the brawl.
BTW, in testing I found that Brawl usually did increase pet damage, especially early on when they have few upgrades, since it gave them an additional attack to cycle. I pretty much ran all the tests I could with both Brawl, in melee, and without it at range. I don't think I ever found a case where the damage went up without Brawl, although often it was close. And of course, the issue is not Brawl being used in melee, it is the pet closing to melee when you don't want it to. -
Quote:Well, to be honest you can move while Slowed, just, well, slowly. And even after you teleport you still can't move when Immobilized, just teleport again. Really, Teleport just ignores Immobilize and Slow.Originally Posted by Local_Man
It is the only travel power that lets you move while Immobed or slowed.
Personally, I find it helpful to have two binds for Teleport, one for short range teleport, and one for long. For the long range, travel power, I "turn it on" with a key, which also pans out the camera, and turns off the windows so I have more freedom to click locations. My bind then turns into a single click to Teleport, repeatable so I just keep clicking to travel. This is usually so fast on my system I don't even need Hover.
My short range teleport I have bound to an Alt-click combination, and Alt turns on the cursor when I press it down. So I just hold down Alt, position the cursor, and click. Works great for rapid and emergency teleport.
I actually only use the latter bind for character concepts that I decide are good at "combat teleporting". I won't use it on some of my characters that only use it for travel. Of course, one of those who is "innately good at teleporting" is my Warshade. (And often one reason I won't use the short range bind is I plan to use it for something else, like Caltrops or Tar Patch) -
Quote:Well, it just seems to me that since Detention Shield (or for that matter, Sonic Cage) on a foe precludes you and your team being able to damage it, it would be nice if some damage were dealt to compensate, even if only partially. And it WOULD be in concept, in JLU Green Lantern was seen to use his bubbles to "suffocate" foes, or to contain their own attacks so they would knock themselves out.Originally Posted by Schismatrix
The former is nice, but i think the latter is unlikely. There were some interesting ideas presented for improving "cage" powers in the GR beta involving adding debuffs like a massive -regen. Those seem more likely.
At the very least, a -regen would be nice, so the foe doesn't come out of the cage better off than when he went in. An amount of damage than counters his regen would accomplish the same thing.
Yes, but that's their secondary focus. Not that I'm happy about it, of course, but Defenders are NOT intended to be the primary ranged damage dealers for their "side". As I said, you can regard their attacks as support for their primary powers when soloing, to allow them to defeat foes with no damage dealing powers in their Primary.Quote:Oh, and it's also true that Force Fields does nothing for a Defender's secondary, just like it adds nothing to a Corruptor's primary. After all, Defenders have ranged damage as their secondary focus. 
Of course, you could argue that Corruptors aren't actually the primary ranged damage dealers for the villain side, either; that Dominators are, or that villains aren't supposed to have primary ranged damage dealers at all. (The damage dealers are Brutes and Stalkers, everyone else is just support) However, I would rather not open the floor to THAT debate.
-
Quote:Originally Posted by Lord_Thanatos
Its a low damage knockback attack that has a controller level stun, that can be made perma with just SO slotting. Yeah, I know that, I just want moar damage!!!
I may pick it up on my Tri-Form build for more utility. Then again, I'm so rarely in Human form on that build it probably wouldn't get used. Oh well, I'm sure I'll get the chance to try it. -
Quote:The passive resists certainly could be rolling with the punches, you weren't able to avoid it, but you were able to keep it from making full contact.Originally Posted by Leo_G
Honestly, the passive resists could be any number of things but for the most part, it's agreed to be 'rolling with the punches'.
Why it scales, though, that's so it's useful when it needs to be there, without being overpowered when you are at full health. If it was just constant across the board, it wouldn't be useful, really. Although, I was kind of hoping that was exactly what would be implemented, before the scaling idea was thought of.
A counterpart in D&D is if you missed a saving throw against some effect. As a secondary benefit in some cases you could get to halve the damage, even if you were hit. It kept a saving throw from being "all or nothing". -
Quote:With Force Bolt's damage that would be nothing. And honestly, I don't want Force Bolt to do more damage because it has a 100% chance of knockback. If I used it regularly in my attack chain because it was significant as a damage attack, it would be worse than Power Push on a Dominator.Originally Posted by Schismatrix
Hey, at least Force Bolt would do more damage.
OTOH, Repulsion Bomb getting damage was a really nice change. And I think if Detention Field did DoT to the foe held within it for its duration, it might be a more useful power, too.