Johnny_Butane

[ QUOTE ]
And you know, I thought that having Miss Liberty in that 1963 mission was really kind of borked.

The Freedom Phalanx novel had her at about 28 years of age in 1986. That puts her her birthday at about 1958. That means she would have been around 5 in 1963.

Even if you disregard that as not being canon, Ms. Liberty's relatively youthful age seems to preclude the idea that her mother would have been a well established heroine in her own right back in 1963 ...

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, the timeline is kind of screwed up and always bugged me.

In the Web of Arachnos novel, States and Maiden Justice wed in 1932, when she was 22.

Let's assume Miss Liberty was very young in the 1963 arc, about 18.

That puts her around 41 in the Freedom Phalanx novel in 1986. That seems to be a little old for how she was written there. Her daughter, Ms. Liberty, was 9 in 1986. 32 isn't that old to have a kid, so that much works out.

However, that would make Ms. Liberty presently 32, which is much older than the CoH comics made her out to be. In fact the game makes mention of people doubting her ability to lead Freedom Corps as such a young age. That would lead one to think she's still in her early 20's or so.

The timeline and the math mostly works out, but the characterization in the game doesn't. Indeed, all of the Phalanxers, Positron, Synapse, Manticore, would all be pushing 50, as Positron and Synapse were both 27 in 1986.


.

[ QUOTE ]
I'm pretty sure Ms. Liberty would be a lot more upset if you'd killed her mother.

[/ QUOTE ]

Before she gave birth to her, even.


.

[ QUOTE ]
Right now it looks like you're completely unable to use the Mission Engineer accolade inside missions - I discovered that the weird T-Pose bug was caused by using it in missions - was the functionality removed as a heavy-handed fix for the T-Pose bug? Tell me it's not so! That's incredibly inconvenient!

[/ QUOTE ]

Silly developers.

T-poses are so passé.

Having the arms at a 45 degreee angle for the bind pose gives you better shoulder deformation.



.

[ QUOTE ]
I* killed her when I was helping Recluse gain power in the Isles.

*You can replace I with the name of any Villain character that has done the Mender Tesseract Story.

[/ QUOTE ]

No, "you" didn't. That arc takes place in 1963 and she's still alive and well in 1986 in the Freedom Phalanx novel. Plus, either Hero 1 or Manticore has said she retired before the Rikti war. People who've been dead for 40 years tend not to retire.


.

[ QUOTE ]
2 more reasons

* Huge numbers of enemies
* Interesting AV fight

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

For me, currently the ITF is the pinnacle of TFs in the same way the Faultline arcs hold the title of best zone content for story and gameplay in the game.


[/ QUOTE ]

Agreed as to both. Can you imagine how often Posi would be run if it were shortened to 4 well designed missions?

[/ QUOTE ]

I just want to add more concensus to encourage more TFs like the ITF and stories like the Faultline arcs.

[/ QUOTE ]

I want to add to my original comment that the RWZ arcs come a close second for zone content, but they lose points for a couple of reasons.

-There's some redundancy accross the arcs. How many time is the Vanguard base attacked and you have to fight in the map set just outside it and do the same rescue objectives each time? Too many. Both the final zone arc and the TF end nearly identically; fighting Hro' in the portal room and destroying the four generators.

-Major deduction for the Vanguard Sword enemy group. They ruin the arc they're featured in. They're annoying to fight and they have a stupid gimick with their Curse.

-In general, some missions got way tonned down in terms of how intense they were between beta and open beta. They got a lot blander due to players complaining they were too "chaotic". It wasn't a question of difficulty, it was a question of visual noise. War is chaotic, that was the intent. Points off for the devs giving in.

-Points off for the "Get the Word Out" mission. The generators are glitched and you will often find them already defeated the second you zone into the map, thus failing the mission. Points off for this never being fixed.

-Points added for the first mission of Serpent Drummer's arc. It's the most unique mission in the game in that it starts with something other than fighting identical thugs in square rooms and it encourages some roleplay, which was brave on the designer's part.

***


Flawed as they are, the RWZ has good arcs. It's a shame to see the devs do arcs like these and the Faultline arcs, and the ITF and then push out something like the i15 TF. You can see they're capable of much better. It's depressing.



.

The Ouroboros "warp in" effect for when you enter the Ouroboros zone is broken.
The one that makes it look like they're being twisted out of shape.

Instead players just appear behind the portal and run forward.



.

[ QUOTE ]
I was thinking the Eye Beams for the APP, but Ice could possible work as well (i.e. Super Breath), to bad that Ice Breath isn't an APP that you can choose.

[/ QUOTE ]

With proper power customization you could do it with Shiver or Chillblain in the Ice APP.

But I doubt customization is going to be done properly.

Eye Beams are overrated. They don't do a heck of a lot of damage and the -def is pointless if you're already Inv. If they had a -res debuff instead, might be another story. And no, the -res Achilles proc isn't worth it.


.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I honestly have no idea how they got the powersets done as quickly as they did as well as they did.

[/ QUOTE ]



[/ QUOTE ]

I think the quote says it all.



.

[ QUOTE ]
You don't get to be Superman, and you don't get to be Thor.

[/ QUOTE ]

We could if the devs would stop doing stupid crap like pitting unpowered, half naked guys with swords against us in the high levels after I've already stood up to Superman and Thor worthy threats.


.

[ QUOTE ]
What a specious argument. That's the difference between a game and a comic book. If you're literally immune to any type of attack it breaks game balance.


[/ QUOTE ]

Characters are essentially "immune" to pistol fire after level 20 or so because the enemies stop using them and anything you encounter that does, is grey con. Characters are immune to Warrior and Tsoo swords too by the time they're 50. Which is where the Cimerorans and their crappy swords belonged; the mid levels.

[ QUOTE ]
Or for a slightly older analogy, one Sherman tank didn't stand much chance against a Tiger, but what about 5 Shermans or 10?


[/ QUOTE ]

That analogy is flawed. Tiger tanks weren't inulnerable to Sherman attacks. They could take more damage from a Sherman than a Sherman could take from them in the same ammount of time. A better analogy is someone throwing rocks at a Tiger. No matter if you have one person throwing rocks or a hundred, they're just going to plink off the sides. They are invulnerable to thrown rocks. Thrown boulders? Maybe not. But a boulder is not a rock, just as an energy blade is not an Iron Age relic.

[ QUOTE ]
By your reasoning I guess all Natural Origin broadsword scrappers are scrubs too, because all they're using are the same big pieces of sharpened steel the Cimerorans are.


[/ QUOTE ]

The Boradsword Scrapper get a pass because they are the star (I don't want to say 'hero' because this applies to CoV too) of the show.

Just in the same way John McClane can survive multiple gunshot wounds and still function while the nameless mooks he's fighting generally drop dead from one bullet, even though they're both just Natural men with guns.

Batman and Captain America fighting giant robots armed with death rays just shows how badass they are. Superman and Thor getting punked by ninjas armed with normal katanas is BS.

The Hero Rule(TM) of suspension of disbelief doesn't extend to NPCs like Cimeroran Traitors. This isn't their adventure.


.

[ QUOTE ]

I don't agree at all. A sword is low tech but it'll kill you just fine. To use a comic book analogy, while someone like Colossus would laugh at swords, a solid sword blow could kill Spiderman and most other characters in a heartbeat if it landed.


[/ QUOTE ]

The thing is, we've got Colossus-like characters in game and enough swords can kill them just fine.
You take a stock Invul Tanker, and by that I mean one running on just the powers in their Primary and not supplemented by Tough and/or IOs, and they're not laughing at Cimeroran swords at all.

Enemies wielding common swords shouldn't be featured in high level content as a any kind of challenge threat because common swords shouldn't be a threat to many high level characters. High level firey characters should be melting them on contact. Characters covered in stone should be breaking swords against their bodies. Invulnerable characters (even those without the Fighting pool) should be yanking them harmlessly out of their opponents hands and twisting them into knots.

By level 50, my character has stood up to anti-aircraft fire and not flinched. He's been hit by lightning countless times and walked away with a smile on his face. He's fought living infernos and robots with death rays.

Common Iron Age swords shouldn't scrach him in is prime. Five swords or fifty-five swords shouldn't matter.

Keep the scrub weapons and scrub enemies in the scrub levels.


.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Co-op is not overdone, and there are only two Co-op zones/TFs in this game.

If anything I WANT SUM MO, I WANT SUM MO!

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm actually kinda tired of heroes and villains being all chummy. I'd like to see things where we have PVE vs PVE, much like the battle zones in Siren's Call, but not necessarily PVP. Task forces that counter each other (via Oroborous for example) as villains do X and Heroes try to undo it, giving nice rewards to wresting control from one side or the other.

I want to see COMPETITIVE zones. It can't be that hard to do without resorting to lolpvp.

[/ QUOTE ]

This would be extremely interesting to see and take part in; I would totally be there.

[/ QUOTE ]

Competitive raid. Villains trying to bust Recluse out of the Zigg following the STF, and heroes trying to stop them. Part of it involves summoning the signature heroes or villains to tip the scale. Optional PvP element in the "middle" where the raids overlap that can help tip the scale but isn't required or crucial. Generous rewards to draw people in. Hero or villain side can start it, but rewards go up depending on how many opponent players participate on the other side. Lesser rewards are assured just for taking part.



.

[ QUOTE ]
Oh god did I just say nurf scrappers/brutes so tanks can be teh awesomesauce? But in essence this is half of what your statement implies.

[/ QUOTE ]

What would that accomplish?

It wouldn't make Tankers more fun to play, and it wouldn't make Scrappers or Brutes happier.

The issue isn't that Scrappers and Brutes can obtain more survivability. Every AT can fairly easily. The issue is that the AT with the most survivability already can't obtain a comparable increase in damage as easily. In a game where more survivability is easy to get, and more damage is much harder to get, an AT with medium damage and high survivability is at a disadvantage to ATs with high damage and medium survivability. That is simply how the system works. Nerfing those two latter ATs wont change that.

That being said, that doesn't change the status quo from being unfair to Tankers. Everyone being tougher diminishes their primary role on teams and they see less return for building to cover their weak area.

I say the remedy to this dispairity is giving them better damage out of the box and expanding on their secondary role as damage dealers. Scrappers and Brutes really shouldn't complain because the alternative would be nerfs to their survivability.

That assumes the devs want to fix the dispairity. They likely don't care either way.


.

[ QUOTE ]
You're right Johnny. By the same token, I want my defenders to outdamage corruptors and blasters while retaining their support capabilities.


[/ QUOTE ]

You mean like how Scrappers and Brutes can obtain enough survivability to stand up to AVs and Hazard sized spawns and retain their damage capabilities to be able to solo them?

Yet the reverse of that for Tankers would be somehow "unbalanced"?

Sorry, I forgot there was a developer bias for a second there.



.

[ QUOTE ]
I wanted to build a Homage to Supes, as in similar powers, and resistances, yet able to stand toe to toe with any AV and take him down, even if everyone else on the team goes down.

[/ QUOTE ]

You can't have that, not with the correct power sets anyways. This AT has no teeth. You want a fighter, a warrior. Tankers are rodeo clowns. Efforts to change that are met with insults and trolling.

You will have what you seek perhaps if SS is ported to Scrappers or if you don't mind Brute Fury and buy the expansion.

The developers don't want Tankers "taking down" anyone. They want obedient little taunt decoys to act as distractions and be crutches for poor for teams. That's their current "vision" of Tankers. I've spent two and a half years trying to change that and you're welcome to pitch in if you feel like it.


.

[ QUOTE ]
Just like Malta, Knives of Artemis, Bane Spiders, Nemesis soldiers, Chimera's ninjas, Battlemaiden's goons...shall I go on? End-game enemies with no powers aren't unique to the ITF.


[/ QUOTE ]

Malta has tech, they just don't look like it. Post 45 they should be mostly Titans and powered armoured troops, not blue cowboys.

The Knives have tech too. They should really be sporting energy blades/bolts and have some high tech equivalent to caltrops.

Nemesis has tech. It just looks like it's old fashioned. He should be using more Automatons and less foot soldiers post 45.

Chimera and his ninjas are garbage IMO and don't belong post 40. Same goes for Battlemaiden's warriors.


.

[ QUOTE ]

I was on a team once that stealth-ran that mission. I have no idea how they did it; the two Tanks told the rest of us to wait at the door and two minutes later, BAM mission complete. It was wonderful.


[/ QUOTE ]

Depending on build, many Tankers and Scrappers can just pound the crystals, ignore the squids and lobsters and move on before the ambush catches up. Leapfrogging with two, the mission can potentially be completed in the time it takes a Tanker to defeat 5 cysts.


.

[ QUOTE ]
There's underlying reasons as to why Cimerorans can go toe-to-toe with modern soldiers and heroes- according to the fluff (whether you like it or not), Cimerora is the source of all the power that became modern superheroes.

Basically, it's magic.

[/ QUOTE ]

Um, no.

As a cannon junkie, that's just plain incorrect.

Cimerora, as far as we've been told in the game's storyline, has nothing to do with the Box and Fountain on Praxidae, which is where moden super powers come from, immediately speaking.

SPOILERS

If it was, the 5th wouldn't have needed States and Recluse to power their big gold robots.

The devs have made no claims the Cimerorans are anything more than well trained warriors who keep exotic "pets" like Minotaurs and have little healing parlor tricks.

It's suggested, but never expanded upon, that being near the Nictus crystals in the caves make them feel more powerful. Even if it was intended the crystals had some kind of lasting effect and made them tougher, that only explains why my Inv/SS doesn't turn them into a fine red mist with the flick of an index finger. It doesn't dismiss or excuse their crappy iron age wepons from being able to scratch him. And they are specifically stated in game as being "mundane weapons", not special alien weapons, or made by the 5th or any other BS.

END SPOILERS



.

[ QUOTE ]
Wow. You just encapsulated all of the reasons why the ITF is my least favorite task/strike force. (Although that being said, I haven't tried the Shard ones.)

1) Wide Range: Which means that just like regular missions and just like saucer raids, you get level 35s who feel entitled to have half the team be level 50s, because they feel entitled to be sidekicked. So recruiting for one, once you get the four level 35-45s, grinds to halt as you try to recruit more 50s.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's got more to do with how you choose to construct your team and the teams you choose to join than the TF itself.

[ QUOTE ]

2) Unique Enemies: Yes, but stupid ones. By level 35, I've gone toe to toe with demons, monsters, and renegade gods capable of threatening all life on earth with a stray thought. Now, I face the ultimate enemy: a primitive barbarian in scraps of leather, with a chunk of metal in each hand. The idea that Cimeroran Traitors are a level 35-50 villain group annoys the heck out of me. Sure, go ahead, invoke the supposed magic that they're using, that isn't referred to anywhere in-game. Go ahead, somehow convince me that Roman legionnaires were all trained to Batman-like levels of physical prowess. Uh, no.


[/ QUOTE ]

I agree with you 100%. Unpowered, ancient Roman soldiers have no business being pitted against superheroes at level 50. 35-40? Yeah fine.
But for 40+ they should have fleshed their ranks out with more mythological creatures and magical threats. They could have done Satyrs and Harpies easily, but instead the devs wanted to riff on the 300 and try play up to the crowd they were losing to Conan at the time.

But again, to me that's an issue with the enemy group, not the TF.

[ QUOTE ]

3) Unlockable Costumes: Mean that if you play a character with that concept, you have to explain why you wore modern clothes from level 1-34. If they unlocked on an account-wide basis, I'd think this was the greatest reward ever. Having to be unlocked on a character by character basis, it's annoying.


[/ QUOTE ]

That's just part of the greater trend of the devs shafting anyone with a concept. The same reason I can't fly for 14 levels despite having angel wings. It's a petty limitation imposed by petty designers, one they've demonstrated they'll make an exception to, but only for the right price. In this case, $900 worth of monthly subscription.

In my opinion, that's more a reflection of their greed and distain for concept than a reflection on the TF.

[ QUOTE ]

5) Melee Centric: Did you know that Arachnos Soldiers are weak to melee? Cimerorans tear my Bane Spider character up, even on lowest difficulty settings. The stacking -def(all) from all those spammed Broadsword attacks makes Cimeroran Traitors just about the only enemies that threaten my bots/FF mastermind, too. Let me guess: you're a tank with a resistance-based primary?


[/ QUOTE ]

Different strokes. In my opinion, having a high level melee centric enemy group is a nice change. I missed the Tsoo. The -def causing cascade failures is nothing new though. The Vanguard Rangers, the 2nd most recent group addition to the game, crapped on everyone too. They both destroy anyone in melee range who's not paying attention. But again, that's a powers/enemy design issue.


[ QUOTE ]

6) Enemies that are "just right"? Are you including that one spawn of 8 overlapping elite bosses? Or the long path going up the hill that tends to drop three spawns on you at a time (regular spawn, patrol from in front, patrol from somehow behind) right at the moment that the team lags out? No other TF or SF has ever produced so many consecutive team wipes for me, not even mission 3 of the Positron TF.


[/ QUOTE ]

I've had different experiences.
The EBs in question are some the most mild EBs I've ever encountered. I've tanked like 6 of them at a time without trying. And I've never had a team wipe on Lag Hill. If anything, it gives the people I've run with more time to react. The constant waves can be dealt with by playing smart. Not even having a good build, just being semi organized and not being AFK. It's the most non-stop, action oriented TF in my opinion. It almost borders on being twitch, which I wont complain about.

[ QUOTE ]

7) Co-Op: Is over-done. Holiday co-op missions were an interesting change of pace. The RWZ was an interesting idea that has gone on too long, and officially exhausted all of my interest in co-op content. The ITF is, in my opinion, already over the line, and all the more so because in this game, "co-op" seems to always mean "villains get to be heroes."


[/ QUOTE ]

This is a moot point. Everyone is going to be playing on either side pretty soon.

[ QUOTE ]

8) Painless Maps: Except, of course, for the one map that lags everybody out just as they're coming into the middle of a swarm of overlapping ambushes.


[/ QUOTE ]

Fail tech. The devs have made several attempts to find out what the problem is, they obviously have no clue how to fix it. I blame the 8 year old engine they're running and not having the coding manpower or knowhow to deal with it.


.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

For me, currently the ITF is the pinnacle of TFs in the same way the Faultline arcs hold the title of best zone content for story and gameplay in the game.


[/ QUOTE ]

Agreed as to both. Can you imagine how often Posi would be run if it were shortened to 4 well designed missions?

[/ QUOTE ]

I think if it got an overhaul it would get a lot more play.

However, I'd rather see work put in to the STF, LGTF and the i15TF. I work hard on my characters, and I like to play them at their prime at level 50, and have teammates at their prime, not auto exempted down to level 10 or 20 when everyone is crap.


.

[ QUOTE ]
When you beat the ITF, you feel like Superman.

[/ QUOTE ]

Except when Superman fights ancient Romans and Greeks, he doesn't need seven other heroes to defeat the AV. Just his dog.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_Centurion

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_(DC_Comics)

OT

Mission and gameplay-wise the ITF is fantastic with the exception of the finale to the 2nd last mission. I have no gripes about anything else.

The only general complaint is that many nuances of the story aren't clearly presented to the player unless they are team leader. This is a complaint about all TFs however, not just this one. If the story isn't told via cutscenes or in mission events, chances are it's not making it to all the players.

The i15 TF suffers from this much more because half of the events occur in text and in between missions. My first run on the i15 I had no clue what was going on. None. I had to read the text on paragonwiki to get filled in.

That's a failure in design IMO.

I personally don't want to read the story, I want to play it. The ITF does a better job at that. Not a 100% perfect job, but at least by my second ITF run I knew what was what. I still don't know what's going on with the Kahn TF, nor do I care to; it's fail content AFAIC.

Frankly, until the devs invest in tech to raise the bar of mission design, begin extensive use of scripted events, etc, you're not going to get much better than the ITF.

For me, currently the ITF is the pinnacle of TFs in the same way the Faultline arcs hold the title of best zone content for story and gameplay in the game.


.

[ QUOTE ]
As always, numbers are subject to change based on play testing. If the damage percentage needs to go up or down so be it. Perhaps set the damage bonus to 50% for the Tier I and 30% for the Tier II.

[/ QUOTE ]

Those are still insignificant numbers you're talking about.
You're still talking about increasing the average damage less than a percent.

50% extra base damage to two attacks that have the lowest base damage, and only with a 5-10% chance of firing at any time, and are at best only a small portion of an attack chain, isn't going to be noticable.

You don't need play testing to tell that 15 more damage points on Jab that happens once a minute or so wont make a lot of difference.

I think you should put some thought into your numbers, plug them into the scenario and look at the averages and then come back and present the idea again.

As for suggestions of numbers, how about a 100% chance to deal an extra 115% of base damage to Bosses and above?


.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I love what KO blow does, I hate how it looks doing it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hey, if we're really lucky, i16 will allow alternate animations for our powers.

[/ QUOTE ]

Knowing BaBs, we would have to be astronomically lucky.


.

[ QUOTE ]
For, a Superman homage though I was thinking either Fire Melee or Nrgy melee.

[/ QUOTE ]



Just




On the one hand, with the BS level amounts of S/L resistance the devs gave every two bit mob in this game, I can see exactly why a statement like this gets made.

The fact it got made in the first place, and the reasons why should be a red flag to the developers if they knew what they were doing.



.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Galaxy City

[/ QUOTE ]

That's Freedom Corps.

[/ QUOTE ]

Really, this is a question for Manticore's Cannon Fodder feature.

The comic depicts the Phalanx's HQ looking very much like the Freedom Corps HQ, with two differences:

-A Freedom Phalanx banner above the main doors

-There's some way to exit via the roof, like a skylight or blast doors.

I would wager they're supposed to be based out of Galaxy city, in that building, but like the lot of things, the game and the comic don't synch up 100%.


.