Kitsune9tails

Which brings us back to the second part of the OP: How would Manticore compare to Robin Hood, if you brought Robin to the modern world, acclimated him, and gave him modern tech to work with?

What level thugs/archery would such a version of Robin Hood be? In Atlas Park, struggling with Hellions, or in Peregrine City, struggling with Malta?

Would he have Weapon or Body Mastery? Would his Legendary Status allow him to be an Incarnate?

3/7 players mentioned it to me unsolicited.

Conversely, one of the players being complained about specifically asked the Puss in Boots player during the game why he wasn't being more proactive.

The Puss in Boots player told me seperately that he is intentionally playing a more sedate, quiet and intellectual version of the character.

This is a bit of the point. Are we balancing around the 'comfort zone' or not? To what extent should ramping up your difficulty be counted or discounted, let alone IOs and Incarnation?

I seem to remember that at one time, these sorts of things were supposed to be discounted entirely in terms of balance.

I am slightly worried that this is the case.

RE: Blasters dying more or less than everyone else in Incarnate content, it seems just barely possible that since there are a lot of effects that "one shot" tankers, it is just barely possible that everyone else is dying enought to keep constant Blaster deaths from standing out.

Maybe.

So let's assume that Defiance 2 did not buff Blasters up to 'acceptably low' standards of performance relative to other archetypes, many of which have been buffed since.

It all comes back to the basic scenario: you have a Blaster (let's say a fire/fire blaster) who encounters 3 +0 minions, 2 of which can mez (rikti, I suppose), while on an SO build.

What should happen?
How would the scenario be different if we switch out the Blaster for a fire/fire scrapper?
How should the scenario be different if we switch out the Blaster for a fire/fire scrapper?

My thought is that the Blaster is at much greater risk, will use more resources, and not get much extra kill speed out of the deal. My next thought is to wonder if giving the Blaster enough damage to one shot all 3 minions with single target attacks is too much.

If villains were allowed to be competent, there would be no heroes and probably no world

I can handwave the Telepathists as being a type of enemy that is brand new to the setting (and possibly connected with Mother Mayhem's mental domination of Penny).

However, someone really should have caught the internal inconsistency within the same mission with the fact that the Telepathists can convince us to be defeated by a thrown rock, but not by a plasma rifle.

Pacification should either be:

- Removed upon zoning into the buildings or
- Be a visible radius effect around the Seers, or
- Be linked in strength to PR

...any of those would provide a reason that Telepathists can't rock our world elsewhere (blocked by line of sight, limited radius, won't work on Primal Earth period), while giving players a tactic to deal with it, AND a reason it doesn't enable the IDF to rock our world.

I think it's a perspective thing.

From the Dev's perspective (I imagine), it's not a 'numpty with a rock' doing the, er, heavy lifting. It's the Telepathists psychically convincing you that you can be defeated by a thrown rock, which is arguably comic-book-sensible.

Since they designed the trial, and this element makes total sense to them, they thought it would be self-evident to the players as well, and did not make the Telepathists' effect on the situation graphically and dramatically convincing enough to counter our own perspective on how powerful our characters should be in the narrative.

If you see Superman in the comics get hurt by a thrown rock due to telepathic interference, you think, "Someone came up with an interesting way around Superman's invulnerability! Golly gee, how will he get out of this one?"

But when it happens to YOU, that's not going to be your first reaction. Like Superman himself, you are going to think, "HAX!"

Welll maybe Superman wouldn't think exactly that but you get the idea.

It's something that often happens to writers; since they are looking at their story from the 'backstage side', they occaisionally have to be reminded that some story elements are not as obvious or convincing before you know the dark secret behind it.

Or you could just tell them directly, rather than waiting for them to get that info by other means.

I suggest people use this thread to vet very specific, bulleted lists of things they would like to see going forward with the playerbase.

If the playerbase doesn't reveal gaping problems with the idea, shoot it over to Zwillinger and Avatea.

They may not agree, but we can try to make sure they know and understand. Even if we fail to do that, it's better than not trying.

After all, apparently the Devs are getting ready to look at Tankers, therefore anything is possible, right?

Of my hundreds of characters, the only ones that will Incarnate are the ones for whom it makes sense. Same deal as the Patron arcs.

What the standard performance of a Blaster currently is, is something that might be calculable.

The real question is what the standard performance of a Blaster ought to be compared to the other archetypes; particularly Scrappers (and therefore Stalkers and Brutes).