Katie V
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Posts
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Joined
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Quote:The problem with defeat-alls isn't thrematic, it's mechanical. There may be very good story reasons why you're cleaning the Circle of Thorns out of that bank, but the experience goes downhill fast if you accidentally knock a Guide halfway through a wall, or a ghost runs off and phases, leaving you to wait five minutes for it to return, or a patrol decides to hang out in the rafters. I'm here to defeat bad guys, not spend half an hour searching every nook and cranny to find that last coward.Originally Posted by Aggelakis
Throwing the baby out with the bathwater, really. Defeat alls can be very good story movers. -
Quote:Time and Space Manipulation requires rare salvage, a rare pool A drop, a pool B drop, and a random roll. Jaunt requires uncommon salvage and uncommon pool A drops. Jaunt also provides better direct bonuses: the T&S stealth IO neither increases your teleport range nor reduces the endurance cost.Originally Posted by Zamuel
Just now I was looking at the two Teleport sets and scratching my head on why Time and Space Manipulation is just outright better than Jaunt when they have the exact same level range.
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Techniques I use for finding good arcs:
1) Avoid anything that hasn't been rated at least 20 times. I usually go for 4-star arcs rather than 5-star arcs, since most 5-star arcs haven't been rated very often.
2) Use the Mission Architect tags when searching. Someone who cares enough to put the tags in their description is likely to have done a good job with the arc.
3) Avoid anything with a "defeat all" mission objective.
4) If I find an arc I like, I'll search for other arcs by that same author.
5) Use the advanced search options. The most important option (arc morality) is hidden in the advanced section. -
Mercedes Lackey's arc needs proofreading. Errors I've spotted so far:
"The old man in in league with $character_name. Find him and make him one of us!"
"$character_name is close. I can feel him"
"Sometimes good deeds do pay off. omYou freed the Singing Tiki..."
In the final mission, several things the Singing Tiki says are cut off.
The guy you rescue is variously referred to as "Old Man MacGruffin" and "Old Man MacGuffin".
Other than that, it's a very enjoyable arc. And if it's the one that Futurias is complaining about, I didn't have any trouble with the final boss (although I was only running at +2. If I were running at my normal +4, it might have been harder). -
Unless your keyboard or mouse is wireless, they can't cause lag. It's probably some software running on your computer -- does your keyboard have non-standard keys that can be configured by software?
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Movement is handled client-side to minimize input lag, and then sanity-checked by the server. It's why packet loss shows up as rubberbanding rather than freezing in place, and why the game is playable on dialup. If you're seeing input lag, it's a problem with your computer.
I doubt it's your graphics card that's causing the problem: I've run CoH on an even weaker GPU (an Intel G35), and while it had plenty of issues, input lag wasn't one of them. I've also run on an ATI HD 4350, again without input lag. -
So far there have been four runs: Virtue, Justice, Freedom, and Union. I don't know about European times, but the US runs have all been during the workday.
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If you're feeling thematic, the only options are Traps/AR and AR/Dev.
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Quote:Doesn't mean they'll ever show up at a time that I'm awake but not at work.Originally Posted by Niviene
Something tells me the Rikti are not done yet... just sayin
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Quote:You don't need it -- my plant/storm did just fine (if a bit slow) with Brawl, Apprentice Charm, and Strangler for single-target damage. These days, I'm more likely to simply summon a pet (Fly Trap if I'm impatient, Tornado if I'm feeling sadistic).Originally Posted by Sweetmeat
Of course if you've just started the game, you won't have any veteran attack powers, so you will need at least one pool attack(Air Superiority or Flurry are my favorites) to help put mobs down. You can usually respec out of these in the 40s when you get APP attack powers. Actually be new to the game, I would probably go with Illusion/Storm or Fire/Rad as those two would be least reliant on veteran attacks for damage.
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My concern is that you'll have endurance problems. Between Seeds, Freezing Rain, Tornado, and Lightning Storm, you're using about 4 end/sec. Add in Hurricane, Steamy Mist, and Carrion Creepers for another 1 end/sec, if you're spamming Roots that's up to another 3 end/sec, and so on. You'll either need to slot more heavily for endurance reduction, or carry a tray or two of blues all the time.
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Quote:I doubt it. As far as I know, that's the only way to do reflections with scanline rendering, and it's why scanline rendering can't have realistic non-flat mirrors.Originally Posted by Golden Girl
I wonder if they'll change that with the new reflective surfaces in GR?
Now, if the Ultra Mode engine is a real-time raytracer....
Well, one can always dream. -
Quote:You can bypass the updater by running the "CityOfHeroes.exe" program directly with the "-project coh" command-line parameter. Keep in mind that you'll still need to run the updater every time there's an update.Originally Posted by Million
Just got a laptop that supports 3D, however in order to play a game in 3d, you have to launch it through a separate app. The COH updater causes some problem with this, and i havent been able to find a work around, was hoping someone could shed some light.
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Quote:What powersets have you tried? Some solo much better than others -- my plant/storm can rip through an x6 spawn faster than the average scrapper can defeat an x1 spawn. It's not too good a combination for single targets, and it's very slow against tough single targets (an elite boss fight is a hit-or-miss situation, depending on how many blue inspirations I've got), but against groups she's the most powerful character I've played.Originally Posted by MaHaBone23
Ugh, I've always felt that people that try to solo on a controller are trying to punish themselves to appease some sense of guilt. Every troller build I've ever played feels slow and painful, even with pets.
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Quote:This leads to one of the best pieces of MMO design advice I've ever seen:Originally Posted by Zyphoid
I don't see the point in bots. I play the game to, well, play the game. I really don't want a bot playing it for me.
Widespread use of bots is a sign that you, as a game designer, have made a major mistake. If there is content in your game that is both simple enough for a bot to play, and boring enough that many people will use a bot to play it, you need to re-think things. -
Bots/traps:
Battle drones: Alpha, Bravo, Charlie
Protector bots: Delta, Echo
Assault bot: Foxtrot
The "attack my target" team is Foxtrot and Charlie. I'm thinking of renaming the drones to Whiskey, Tango, and Foxtrot, in which case the assault bot becomes Charlie, but that leaves the question of what to name the protector bots. -
I find it incredibly fun. You can play it control-heavy, using Strangler and Vines to lock everything down at the start of your attack, or you can play it the way I do: Seeds of Confusion to direct everyone's attention away from me, Roots to keep them in roughly the same place, then fire off Carrion Creepers, Lightning Storm, and Tornado for damage. It's great if you like being surrounded with barely-controlled chaos.
Incidentally, my plant/storm controller is the only non-scrapper I've gone into scrapperlock on. Being methodical may be more survivable, but a headlong charge through a series of packed x6 spawns sure is fun :-) -
Quote:This is highly dependant on the build. A plant/storm controller, for example, picks up Seeds of Confusion at level 8, letting your enemies do the hard work of damaging each other for you. It further picks up Freezing Rain at 16 with a 30% resistance debuff (roughly equivalent to a 30% damage buff), and Carrion Creepers at 26. Combine this with suitable frankenslotting, and you've got something that can take down large groups in a hurry, limited by how fast Seeds recharges and by how fast you can recover endurance.Originally Posted by Jade_Dragon
Controllers are a special case. They can do an extreme amount of AoE damage at high levels, but they aren't going to do that kind of damage prior to 40. And a good portion of that damage will be from Containment followed by subsequent AoE damage/holds.
Single-target damage is rather lacking until level 38, when you can throw Fly Trap, Tornado, and Lightning Storm into the mix. -
It depends on the character in question, but I try to maintain a pace of one group of enemies every 20-30 seconds. For example, my scrappers tend to be single-target fighters, so they run at +2/x1 with bosses. On the other hand, my plant/storm controller has mainly AoE attacks, and effectiveness increases with the number of targets (up to the hit cap of Seeds of Confusion), so she runs at +0/x6 with no bosses.
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Quote:I've seen it there too, but I wrote it off as simply a graphical glitch from running CoH under Linux.Originally Posted by Zaran
This map is used in the last mission of the "The Strange Case of Benjamin Decker" arc as well. And yes, I have seen all the weird issues with the geometry appearing and disappearing. I had just assumed it was my suystem though.
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I don't see what the fuss is about. I recently teamed up to do a few level 45 BNY runs at +2 on my level 23 bots/traps with a mix of common IOs, DOs, and a couple of TOs that expired over the course of the run, and I didn't have any trouble (or at least, no more than the rest of the team).
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Quote:Some do, some don't. If you can randomly generate it (like a maze or a Sudoku square), no amount of Googling will give an answer.Originally Posted by BackAlleyBrawler
Do puzzle games really work in this internet age? Especially online games, where you already have guaranteed access to the web and convenient access to wikis, FAQs, walkthroughs, etc.
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Quote:It's hard to do with a "repeat visits to the same contact" arc, but the engine has the ability for one mission to kick off another without a visit to the original contact. Consider this re-write of the Golden Roller's arc:Originally Posted by Tired Angel
I haven't read the whole thread (sorry) but my main thinking around this is that it is a limitation of how missions are issued in CoV (and CoH). Because you rely on contacts to give out missions it difficult to write story arcs that revolve around villains doing naughty things of their own free will. You can't really get the feeling of "today I am going to go take over the world and I am going to do it like this" it is more "today so and so is taking over the world and I am going help them by following their plan".
GR: "I've got a tip for you: I've heard that Dr. Cambrian of the Crey is involved in the development of a new MacGuffin you might find useful."
Accepting this gives you the "Kidnap Dr. Cambrian" mission. Upon mission success, you'd get a dialog saying "Questioning Dr. Cambrian reveals that the main development work is being done in Paragon City. You know where there's an abandoned freighter you could use, once you've kicked out the Lost inhabiting it." Closing the dialog kicks off the "Defeat Lost in cargo ship" mission. Clearing out the cargo ship and exiting the mission gives you an appropriate flavor dialog and starts the third mission.
This is where the engine needs a little bit of work: I don't think the engine can currently take you directly from one mission map to another. It shouldn't be too hard to add, though. Alternatively, it could dump you in a non-instanced "Paragon Docks" zone that's only used in this arc.
Finishing the third mission gives you an appropriate flavor dialog, ending in "It's time to head back to the Golden Roller and brag about your accomplishments." (You do need an excuse to return to the contact to finish off the mission, after all.)
Creative writing lets you get around many of the limits imposed by the traditional mission structure. It's not as easy as writing a "lackey of the day" mission, but there are some MA arcs that manage it. -
Quote:It's nice to see that yet another person doesn't understand the NCSoft security problem. What's been happening is that you log in to the NCSoft Master Account site with your own username and password, and the server gives you access to somebody else's account. Having one of these keyfobs wouldn't change a thing.Originally Posted by Noyjitat
I really wish ncsoft offered this service because you'd never have to worry about being hacked ever again. Once you setup your account it is REQUIRED to have that device just to login.