Lightslinger

Thanks for the help everyone, after pouring over all the new i16 screen shots, news, and all your advice Lightslinger will be staying Energy/Energy.

That doesn't mean I won't be rolling a Rad/EM post haste

I'm really, really freakin' excited about Radiation Blasters. I always thought it was cool on Defenders and have tried several concepts, but they've all failed.

I'm working on my concept now and trolling the Virtue Name Watch for name ideas.

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So I was going to kneejerk with a "SO WHAT ELSE IS NEW" reply, but you put so much effort into the post that I slept on it.

I think the root of the problem is this: the devs hate crowd control, but love damage. They want control powers to suck for as many ATs as they can get away with, but want all ATs to be able to deal damage. Result: Control powers are artificially sucktastic for ATs such as defenders, while controller damage only sucks for the 2 seconds it takes for Containment to kick in.

This suggests one way to fix it: Share the team-role bending love. Subdue could be a 100% mag 4 root (like controller roots), Will Domination could be a 100% mag 4 sleep (like Mesmerize), Petrifying Gaze Stunning Shot Bitter Freeze Ray Screech and Scramble Thoughts could recharge faster and deal decent damage, Freeze Ray and Tesla Cage could deal better damage (like controller holds), Howling Twilight Dark Pit Repulsion Bomb and Thunder Clap could be mag 3 stuns (like controller stuns), and ZOMGTRICKARROW. This is just defender changes, so it's not exactly how I'd fix it if I were king, since I'd also get to adjust Containment if I were king, but it's close.

Doesn't help all the defender sets, true, but some defender sets have issues with or without comparing them to controllers.

[/ QUOTE ]While they are at it why not get rid of the stupid accuracy penalty control powers have? To me it always felt like you were being punished for doing your job by having poorer accuracy on AoE control yet blasters dont get anything like this on their AoE damage. In some cases like nukes blasters get a bonus to accuracy these kinds of powers. Since aoe controls take forever and a day + 1 to come back their shouldnt be any penalty to them because you have to make them count when you use them.

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Didn't the accuracy and recharge penalties on all the AoE holds have something to do with all the "City of Statues" complaints from launch?

Power Customization is going to fix a lot of these issues. For example, I always thought of "Energy" in "Energy Blast/Manip" to be a pretty generic term. By coloring the energy, you can make it into whatever you want. Tint all the Energy Manip powers White and you have Sonic Manipulation, tint all the powers green and you had Radiation Manipulation, etc, etc.

The Science Pack introduced such a revolutionary feature in the Super Tailor that I think sky's the limit for the next booster packs.

I'm betting on the natural pack introducing back options. Backpacks, quivers, sheaths, jetpacks, jump packs, and so on.

Mutant will probably be some more animal themed parts.

I bet they have new buildings for us to go to for Power Customization as opposed to simply going to the tailor.

If any Issue has ever been deserving of the "Freem!" moniker, it is most definitely Issue 16.

Yeah, I'm starting to debate it more and more based on the high level rad blasts.

Now what I really need is to beat up one of those Legacy Chain jerks and take his light blasts!

If you look at the Ice Guy on the Issue 16 Overview page, his Ice Armor looks much, much more transparent than what we have now. I'm assuming he chose a darker green to do that.

Oh and also.

OMGOMGOMGOMOMGISSUESIXTEENISAMAZINGWOOOOOOT

Lightslinger is my main, he was created in Issue 7. He is a hero who, as implied by his name, slings blasts of light. I'd always thought "When we get PC I'll tint his Energy/Energy attacks light yellow and he'll be perfect!"

Now, the awesomeness that is Issue 16 has revealed that Blasters are getting Radiation Blast.

So tell me, Blaster sages. Would it not make more sense for Lightslinger to have yellow radiation blasts as opposed to yellow energy blasts?

(The reason I'm asking is this is going to involve re-rolling my main from a level 50 and purchasing a rename token, so its a pretty big deal for me)

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On the roleplay end of things, check out Pocket D, if you haven't been introduced to it yet. Entrances are in Kings Row, Talos, and Founder's Falls for heroes, Port Oakes, Sharkhead, and St. Martial for villains. It's where a lot of the RP on Virtue takes place nowdays.

(pre-emptively in before jokes about catgirls and/or sex)

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My eyes! The goggles do nothing!

Can't recommend the Legion of Valor enough, amazing group of people.

If you have any questions and want to talk in-game about LoV, just send me a tell, global is @Lightslinger.

If you want to know as much as possible about the game you've come to the right place, just don't feed the trolls.

There's an amazing wealth of guides and basic information here on the forums, it's really a shame so few players will ever see any of it.

I would say that if you had a HEAT and a VEAT, you could show customer service that your account needs to be reset to allow EATs because you obviously at one time had a 50 villain and hero.

It would be a pain however and the best bet is to not delete your only 50 hero or villain.

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Ok, just so yall know this is a miss of all Bot/FF MMs and I think a Necro/FF AV, not sure. I got all the items and went to the AV just to see what would happen and a BILLION Bot/FF MMs all over me couldnt bring me down so time ran out. In any case the time was set to a half hour i think. I am not sure if the miss is actually doable in a half hour, but if any team could do it mine could, maybe we will try it some time. HERE is a screenie of me with the Big Boss

EDIT:

Lightslinger,

I will try and locate a good one for ya, its my PB in the Avatar.

Hey I just remembered, go to our website and on Profiles check out Light, thats a fairly cool one.

Sphere Website

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Awesome, thanks, I really like Sphere and Light and Earth, cool characters.

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"Think your team is the best?"

Yes.

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Blatant threadjack here, XeroCurve, could I see a screenshot of your character that is in your avatar, because even really small, he still looks freakin' cool.

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If you were going to change things about the zones, what would you do?

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The zones don't need to be changed, the players do.

If any new player would bother to read their mission text they'd realize there was more to the game than AP and AE. If they'd bother to look at the map and click the other tab they'd see there's more than one zone. Taking the AE out of AP won't fix stupid or lazy, but hey, they could take AE out of every zone for all I care.

Me, I'm going to CO when it comes out. Whether it sucks or not, at least it won't have AE and all the B.S. that seems to have accompanied it.



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This is one of the things that I feared would happen.
See the "conspiracy" part of this post ::
https://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthre...ue#Post13740503

I'm wondering why you are posting here though. Your signature indicates that you have been playing WoW instead of CoX since "4-9-08". You even go on to indicate that CoX has been dead since that point.

CoX is alive albeit not so well since the AE was released.

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I suppose if I cared I would change my profile but since I don't, I won't.

I rarely play WoW anymore, and I left this game when the ads came in. Those flopped, I'm back killing time till I find another game I'd rather play. Maybe I'll still keep my account here, I usually have game accounts in 2-3 at the same time. As it is now, I play CoX once a week. I still pay every month and that entitles me to post.

So y'know, if you don't think anything I have to say is relevant you can put me on ignore. I won't cry, promise.

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Threadjack here, but I have to ask this...

Why would you leave because of ads that you can turn off? I can understand people being miffed about ads that can't be disabled, but seriously...you click "Disable ads" and the issue is resolved.

Comic-Con is July 23-26, my money is on those dates for more i16 info.

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MMOs are about balance and even if you take farming out of the equation, AE is not balanced.

-Regular missions have contacts you have to earn/find, then continually travel to until you get their cell. AE puts the contact right next to you.

-Regular missions have doors that can be on the other end of the zone or even in another zone entirely. AE always has the door right next to you.

-If you want to go to the hospital in a regular mission it could put you hundreds of yards away from the mission door, the AE hospital always puts you right next to the mission door.

-Random missions give you random salvage and recipe drops. AE tickets allow you to more selectively choose your drops.

-If you're having to buy enhancements with influence you will have to find a vendor selling your Origin, then you'll have to wade through the sometimes oddly named inventory list (curse you Magic Origin). If you use AE tickets you travel a few feet to a single person who offers not only every type of regular enhancement, they even have a nifty menu that lets you select the type of enhancement you're looking for.

These are just a few of the examples of how convenient AE is compared to regular content. Why does AE not have ANY downfalls to balance all of its amazing features that dwarf the regular content?

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In theory, this is all balanced by there being no "end of mission" reward in terms of XP/Influence/Prestige. In practice...not so much.

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Agreed, when AE is being used for actual story arcs, the lack of an end of mission bonus does balance it. However, when a team is mowing down all Boss spawns fast the lack of the bonus isn't even noticeable.

MMOs are about balance and even if you take farming out of the equation, AE is not balanced.

-Regular missions have contacts you have to earn/find, then continually travel to until you get their cell. AE puts the contact right next to you.

-Regular missions have doors that can be on the other end of the zone or even in another zone entirely. AE always has the door right next to you.

-If you want to go to the hospital in a regular mission it could put you hundreds of yards away from the mission door, the AE hospital always puts you right next to the mission door.

-Random missions give you random salvage and recipe drops. AE tickets allow you to more selectively choose your drops.

-If you're having to buy enhancements with influence you will have to find a vendor selling your Origin, then you'll have to wade through the sometimes oddly named inventory list (curse you Magic Origin). If you use AE tickets you travel a few feet to a single person who offers not only every type of regular enhancement, they even have a nifty menu that lets you select the type of enhancement you're looking for.

These are just a few of the examples of how convenient AE is compared to regular content. Why does AE not have ANY downfalls to balance all of its amazing features that dwarf the regular content?

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I'm glad we've got AE from the get-go. Hasn't changed my playstyle one bit, except that some characters do exclusively AE, some do only dev content, and some do a mix.

I could live with removing AE from Atlas/Galaxy; don't really see the need to remove it from Kings Row. New players aren't going to know to run to Kings Row anyway without doing their first contacts.

Personally, I don't see any reason to gimp AE at all; however, for the sake of argument, I could making the AE buildings in lower level zones inaccessible until one character on your account achieves, say, level 15 or so. That would give the player enough experience at moving between zones and playing dev content to at least have a clue about standard gameplay. Or rather than level-gate, simply make playing through the Atlas/Galaxy arcs mandatory, with a contact in KR unlocking the AE, perhaps after completing your first KR mission.

One thing though: The villain side starter area stinks. The snakes are one of my least favorite groups in the game. I relish the idea of using AE to level past Kalinda/Burke (though Burke has some decent missions).

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What you're proposing is actually more restrictive than simply removing the buildings from the lowbie zones. In the removal idea a player can simply choose to run to the nearest AE and go about their merry way the exact same way as before. Your idea will force them to run certain contacts or hit a certain level.

I believe something needs to change but I think it's too late to level-gate AE.

Edit: It's also too late to tie AE access to a Vet Reward. How would you like to buy a game called "City of Heroes: Architect Edition", get home and read a pop-up "Oh by the way, Architect is a Veteran's Reward you'll get in 3 months, enjoy!"

-Remove AE buildings from Atlas Park, Galaxy City, King's Row, and Mercy Isle. Yes, lowbies that want to experience AE will have to go to Steel, Skyway, or Port Oakes, but it's honestly not that hard. I've ran to Icon on the far end of Steel as a level 2 many, many times before. This will restore the "opening" zones to what they once were and should be. I recommend destroying them during a Rikti raid

-Cap AE rewards per 10 levels. I know it sounds bad, but if we set it at a very, very high number all it will do is ask that for at least 2 levels out of every 10, a person go experience non-AE content. The cap will exist in level ranges, such as 1-10, 11-20, 21-30, 31-40, and 41-50. If a person reaches 8 levels inside a level range entirely in AE, all rewards inside AE are capped until the next level range. A simple pop-up will show upon reaching cap "You have reached the limit for rewards inside AE missions for your level range. Experience, Influence, Prestige, and Tickets will resume at level 11." This does not effect level 50s at all.

Anyone remember the episode of Star Trek: TNG where the entire crew of the Enterprise got addicted to the "game" that Riker brought back from shore leave? The game was so easy almost to the point that it played itself and brainwashed the entire crew. AE has always reminded me of that

((Note: I'm not looking down on the practice of farming AE at all, I do my fair share and enjoy it. I just think it should be something that isn't clogging up our starting zones. I believe we need to restore our lowbie zones to what they once were or else this game is going to suffer.))

AE is not the DOOOOM of CoH like I've often heard, but it is a problem. Like this thread has shown, any player that levels to 50 entirely in AP is going to think we have less content than most iPhone games.

My ideas:

-During a pre-planned Invasion event, Rikti, Zombies, or something new, destroy the AE buildings in Atlas Park, Galaxy City, King's Row, and Mercy Isle. I don't think its a good idea to expose a brand new player to all the AE Spam and this would take care of it nicely and with an in-game explanation. It would also be nice to see an invasion actually have a lasting effect.

-AE Reward caps per 10 levels. Each level section would have it's own cap for all AE rewards. A simple pop-up would read "You have maximized AE rewards for levels 11-20. You will no longer receive Experience, Influence, Prestige, or Tickets inside AE until you are level 21." The caps don't have to be all that low, just something that would make the player go out into the zones once in a while and explore.

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I don't recall any type of open testing for the other booster packs.

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True, but it's good to hammer out bugs first. After the whole "cape with wings" thing that happened with the Magic pack. With all the upset people who lost their costume combinations (and people like me who now have "legacy costumes" they can't change), I could see why they'd want to test a little to make sure that sort of stuff doesn't hit live.

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I definitely agree with the idea of testing the booster packs for bugs first. I was asking that because another poster, or as I read it, implied that there were previous booster tests.

I don't recall any type of open testing for the other booster packs.