Lord Mayhem

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Do you know what I would put that down to. The diversty in Charecter creation. You made a 1/X choice and it came good for you (where X is greater in CoX than any other game)

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That's a factor, yeah - being an Explorer-Achiever type player (by Bartle type) CoH/V keeps me interested because there are so many powersets, and different synergies when you put them together, that I find new tactics all the time which keeps me interested - and levelling is fast enough that I always feel like I'm making good progress and have the chance to explore many more archetypes/powersets than in most other MMOs. In fact until WoW & CoH/V I wasn't much of an altaholic - generally I'd have one main character that got 95% of my online time and maybe an alt or two to muck about with but not seriously level. Often it was dispiriting to find that your sole main character that you'd been playing for years was nerfed into uselessness or just not needed in the high-end game - I never get that feeling here.

CoH/V's ragdoll physics, plethora of knockback/repel and other "manipulative" powers, that you can use terrain to your advantage in combat, and the fact we generally face more enemies than the number of players in our teams, is also refreshing when you've come from MMOs where combat is basically a team of players in a field/dungeon stood around one monster for ages just hitting it with swords/sticks or magic (i.e. the majority of other MMOs).

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Well Val as you seem to be the only one who has returned somesort of well thought out reply to my precept, If you will allow me let me express this in (some form of) mathmatics as it is a language that I feel comfortable with.

40% balance-Lots of players notice-Much Dev time required
30% balance-After a while you see it-Nuff Dev time required
20% balance-With some experience you notice-Dev time required
10% balance-Only veterans notice-Little Dev time needed
0% balance- Perfaection-But was it worth the sacrifices
10-4 come back yall

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Perfection and Balance are both impossible because they're highly subjective. That doesn't make them any less reasonable for the devs to strive for - and I hope they keep striving for it - but the first rule of MMOs is that the Devs will never be able to please all of the playerbase.

The only way to get anything approaching archetype/powerset balance in this MMO would be to reduce the options to one archetype with just 1 primary and 1 secondary powerset to choose from - but even then I suspect you'd get the playerbase moaning that the travel power pools weren't balanced against each other (heck, some do that now).

Honestly as I only care about PvE here I couldn't give a damn about balance as long as no sets are truly useless. Having sets of differing difficulty/power is actually a plus for me, because even though I mostly gravitate towards powerful powersets I do occasionally play the weaker ones for "more of a challenge".

Ok I do see the need for tweaks, especially with EM for stalkers as it pretty much was the default choice for most people (I know - I have an EM stalker - though I did think the ET change unwarranted for brutes/tankers) - but really all I want the Devs to do is keep adding content and keep fixing bugs and then I'll be happy.

The main combinations I want now, that aren't currently possible, are:

Broadsword/Shield Brute (I13, I presume)
Archery/TA Corruptor (probably not I13, as Corruptors are getting Pain Domination)
Spines/Stone Brute (weird concept idea I have)
Gravity/Traps Controller (another concept, plus "Wormhole mobs into traps" fun)

And if they can hurry up and make Dual Pistols for Blasters/Corruptors (and maybe Defenders) and a Staff fighting powerset for melee archetypes then I'd be very happy too.

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Hmmm, I hope the merit reward system is implemented on a different way, I mean, Positron stated they were implementing this to avoid the need of dong lots of TF's to get the desired recipe, so I hope the redeem cost will be sensible. With a scheme like this (I of course know we don't know anything yet so this is pure speculation, just taking it as an example) for a loTG we'd need to do 5 / 10 STF's or even more TF's of lower rewards hence invalidating Positron's statement.

I am all for waiting and seeing what this new reward system brings, hopefully will remove my need to farm in order to get enough inf to afford the recipes I want for my builds. If well implemented, this system should go as far as encouraging teaming if some tokens also become available (in smaller quantities I guess) on regular mishes besides TF's plus this should significantly reduce the insane amounts of inf needed to buy recipes at AH.

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Well yeah obviously I made the numbers up for the sake of example, and I hope you're right that we won't need more than 5-6 TFs to get any specific rare recipe we want, but I'm not quite as optimistic as you - I don't think the Devs will make it easy enough that, say, someone could do a "fast Katie/Eden" every night for a week and get an LotG +rchg at the end of that week guaranteed - but call me cynical.

Personally I don't think purples will be affected at all by this, just recipes in the TF/Trial pools, so I wouldn't expect farming to die out overnight. That would be overly optimistic, as much as I don't want to ever be forced into farming (I've managed to avoid it so far, just by using the AH wisely and being patient - admittedly I don't tend to use purples or LotG +rchg, except for two sets of cheap purples I have for my dom that is nearing 50 but apart from that I don't compromise much e.g. my Crab Spider has 5 full Positron sets).

I don't think the devs will want to curb the enthusiasm of the playerbase for doing loads of TFs, so they won't make it that easy - but what they will do is give the players who are "unlucky" with drops (which includes me) a definite target to work towards (however slowly). Being casual friendly doesn't mean making it really easy for everyone to have the best stuff - it just means giving casuals a way to make visible progress, which a token system will do regardless of how high they set the costs for the best stuff.

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The only bit I frowned upon on the Issue 13 content is the bit about new invention sets I think we have enough plus can't help feeling sorry for Mids recoding the Hero Designer for new sets again

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I'm sure the Devs will be adding purple sets for those categories that don't have them (such as ToHit Buff/Debuff, Resists, Defence, Fear, Snipe, etc.) - something I welcome. Sure, it might make the attack set purples even rarer (and thus more expensive) unless the Devs weight the purple drops towards the more desirable ones - but more choices of ways to get the purple set bonuses (especially 10% global rchg) will be good. The buff/debuff/control sets will doubtless sell far more cheaply than the attacks (like sleep/confuse sets do now), making it cheaper/easier for certain archetypes/powersets to get purpled-up.

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I wonder if there'll be badges for creating missions, and if they'll be tied to the mission rating, or to just creating a mission?


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Why not both?

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Yeah I suspect there will be lots of badges - if they tie each unlock to a badge then they've automatically hooked all the obsessive badgers into the new system - a good bedrock to build upon and make sure tons of new content is being made so the system will perpetuate itself.

I just really enjoy the basic gameplay more than any other MMO I've ever played (quite a few in the last ten years) - that's why this is the only MMO I've ever re-subscribed to. This makes the gameplay fun, rather than a repetitive grind (sure, all MMOs are repetitive, but the gameplay in this is less repetitive than most I find).

Dominator and/or Mastermind probably. Brains > brawn. Being persuasive/tricksy > direct confrontation.

Now that we've seen confirmation of Shields for all melee ATs and Pain Domination for Corrs/MMs this would be my list:

Blaster: Radiation Blast / - (they got a new secondary last time)
Brute: Broadsword / Shield
Controller: - / Cold Domination (no primaries left to proliferate)
Corruptor: Psychic Blast / Pain Domination (a shame, I wanted Archery/TA so bad)
Defender: Thermal Radiation / Fire Blast
Dominator: Illusion Control / - (I think Dark Assault will come when Blasters get Dark Blast & Manipulation)
Mastermind: - / Pain Domination
Scrapper: Battle Axe / Shield
Stalker: Broadsword / Shield
Tanker: Shield / Broadsword

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I suspect it works by you gaining tokens in parallell to normal salvage and receipe drops and, once you have enough, you can cash them in against rare receipes (and possibly salvage). You'd still earn most of your receipes and salvage through drops, but if you really, really need one particular receipe that you can't buy for money or inf at the auction house, you can buy it with tokens rather than spending all your time farming, waiting for the right drop.

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I suspect the tokens you get for user-generated missions will be completely different tokens from the ones you can get on TF/Trial completion.

I think the TF/Trial ones will let you get specific rare TF/Trial pool recipes over time, guaranteed. Say if Katie Hannon rewards 1 token, maybe the ITF gives 2, LGTF 3, SSTFs give 4, maybe LRSF/STF give 5 (with perhaps bonus tokens for a successful MoLRSF/MoSTF) - then maybe it costs 2 tokens for a shot at a random rare recipe, but 5 to pick the triple aspect IO from Trap of the Hunter, 10 for a proc from Positron or Sting of the Manticore, up to maybe 25 (or even 50) for a LotG +rechg. That's what I'd expect.

I'd be very surprised if completing user-generated missions gave those same tokens - with them I think there will be separate tokens with their own totally unconnected rewards table, which would let you trade earned tokens in for aesthetic things like costume pieces and badges/titles, and maybe temp powers like jet packs, but possibly also spend those tokens to unlock things to use in your own user-generated missions.

The latter would make the user-generated mission system a self-fulfilling game - the more missions you do made by other players, the more tokens you get to unlock tools to use when creating your own missions. E.g. everyone might start with 10 basic factions they could use in their missions (say Hellions, Skulls, Snakes etc) and a few basic maps/tilesets (say warehouse, office & sewer), but to unlock Malta or Carnies or Freaks for use you might have to spend 5 tokens, to unlock lab or Arachnos tilesets might cost 10 tokens, then maybe even more tokens to unlock special end-of-mission rooms (perhaps a reactor room, or the Crey Paragon Protector incubation room). Then there could be unlockable missions types/objectives too that would also cost tokens to get more options.

That's what I suspect anyway. In fact they'll probably use the Inventions system again for both reward systems, exactly like Vanguard Merits do (while still remaining totally separate from everything else in the main inventions system).

How comforting that after an apocalypse you'll still be able to see Vin Diesel's face pasted up everywhere. Talk about heaping more misery on the survivors

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It's not even good flamebait.

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Oh I don't know - when I read the OP I had a sudden urge to set fire to my monitor.

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I think you've misunderstood the concept of flaming there Val surely you should have felt a sudden urge to set fire to me, leave the poor innocent monitors out of this, the phrase don't shoot the messenger springs to mind.

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I wasn't trying to flame you - I very rarely flame individuals personally as I see no need for it unless they're being utterly moronic (and you weren't) - but I was probably flaming the gist of your original post.

Why? Because, after 10 years playing MMOs (not non-stop, I hasten to add!), recurring posts like this have started to inflict upon me a nauseatingly strong sense of deja vu. Now I know you're new to MMOs (as you said it in another post), and thus probably undeserving of any criticism for repetition, but honestly this has all been said before a million times by players in dozens (if not hundreds) of games who just had one of their favourite powers/classes nerfed.

I understand the complaint, I just fail to see the point in making it again and/or any motive attached to reviving this dead horse just to beat it again. I'd be interested to know what responses you were expecting - a Dev response (unlikely here), the agreement/praise of a forum united in your cause, or what actually happened? Because the latter was probably somewhat obvious to most forumites, hence them labelling you as a flamebaiter (deservedly or not).

My comment was actually trying to inject a little bit of humour (albeit very little) just to take the edge off the way the thread was going - I don't like it when mass insults and mob-handedness veer too closely to bullying. In retrospect I should probably have avoided posting here, like I usually do in highly combative topics where neither side is going to agree or make much progress.

On this topic I'll just continue to fencesit, because it's not like anything we say or do is going to change the Devs' minds on nerfing/buffing powers, not when compared to the more vocal US subscribers who not only outnumber us but have direct Dev attention.

The main thing I love about CoH/V is how completely you can customise your character - not just appearance, or your path through the game, but also that you can mix & match your powersets and power pools and then take exactly the powers you want from them and enhance those powers exactly as you wish - very different to the cookie-cutter progression in other MMOs where characters of the same level/class/talent-spec usually not only look the same but also play exactly the same way with the same abilities.

Plus, when you play the game through with different archetypes/powersets you do get a totally different gameplay experience - sure, you can get that in other games too with different classes, but here you can get that with different powersets in the same archetype. Most MMOs when I get a single character to maximum level and a few alts to middling levels I get totally bored of the gameplay and move on - not so with CoH/V (as my sig bears testament to) - here I've even played the same archetype to the level cap twice with several more in the mid/low levels of that same AT (brute).

This isn't the MMO I've played for the longest time (EverQuest still holds that place, with 3 full years), but one day I'm sure it will be. CoH/V is still the only MMO I've ever re-subscribed to after quitting - and that was because I really missed the basic gameplay - I still find this game fun after 2 full years as a subscriber (admittedly with a year's break away from it between both years to beta test a few things and then play that other MMO that has been remarkably popular, and yet only held my interest for 6 months).

I think I'll be here a while yet.

Lord Recluse gave me problems for the first time with my stalker while solo at the weekend. First and second attempts he summoned half a dozen Bane Spider Executioners, followed almost immediately by half a dozen Bane Spider Scouts, and then followed it up with another large Bane summon (Commandoes I think - both times I had a bit much on my plate at that moment to confirm) and I died with him at a sliver of health left both times. The second attempt I actually ran away around a corner to use Aid Self, but was then annihilated by a huge mob of Banes washing over me.

Yet on my 3rd attempt with a reset mission (I crashed to desktop, I didn't change difficulty, so the reset was unintentional), and using less red insps than the first attempt (but Overload was back up, unlike my second attempt where I used Demonic and then Lucks), Recluse only summoned a single Bane Spider Executioner and I'd killed him before he could summon anything else. He went from being horribly difficult to being a wuss, despite the fact he was the same EB throughout, just because the random number generator gave me a break on the 3rd attempt.

This was all on Ruthless btw - that's pretty much the only difficulty I use for soloing (I'd rather have more enemies than the higher level of Relentless).

Most other EBs have been pretty easy for him, though, being an EM stalker. Tbh specific bosses like Rikti Chief Soldiers (hit harder and more accurately than a lot of EBs in melee, I find) and Carnie Master Illusionists and Dark Ring Mistresses often give him greater trouble than most EBs do.

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I wonder if that means that they'll update the maps with valid locations for job offers. Yeah I know, I'm lazy. Blame it on vidiotmaps.

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That could be part of the "zone refinements" - maybe they'll create new lobbies and revamp some building exteriors throughout the zones of Paragon City and the Rogue Isles to provide more job opportunities.

All those casinoes in St Martial and pubs in Sharkhead/Mercy could be given lobbies easily (there's single-room instance maps for a Casino and a Club/Bar that could be re-used as lobbies), allowing for bouncer/bartender "jobs". All those restaurants and shops in Paragon could be given lobbies too (Yin's Market's interior from Faultline could be used as a generic shop interior) allowing for waiter/shopstaff "jobs".

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although I get the feeling this is meant more as a sneak view than an overview, and they might have saved something big to be announced later.

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I think you're probably right, although I bet the specifics of the base editor changes will be the big announcement that they're holding back - especially if personal apartments are part of it (and that, like the offline job system they've announced, could both be groundwork for the "secret identity" system that Positron mentioned).

Meanwhile they'll probably drip-feed which powersets are being proliferated one or two at a time, like they did last issue.

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At the moment, the list presented seems to involve a lot of work for Jay and the programmers, and not all that much for War Witch and other "content writers", and I can't see them having been allowed to sit twiddling their thumbs since I12.

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Yeah that's very much the feeling I got. Though with the mission writers adding arcs to Cimerora I think we'll probably get a zone revamp or two from War Witch, rather than a new zone - and possibly just minor spawns revamps too (like The Hollows) if the mission writers are overly busy with the new Cimerora stuff. Though the "zone refinements" (note: plural) might have been talking about PvP zone changes more than PvE hazard zone revamps - but yeah, I can't imagine War Witch will have had nothing to do for an issue (unless she's working on new zones for a possible expansion pack next year...).

I am very surprised to see Stalkers getting Shields as well.

It all sounds pretty good - I'm a bit disappointed there isn't an announcement of a new zone (yet) and that they're holding back announcing which powersets will be proliferated, but I'm sure that will come in time (perhaps instead of a "new" zone we'll get one or more full zone revamps instead like with I8's Faultline - oh please let it be Boomtown's turn!). It will also be interesting to hear in detail about the base editor improvements too - I'm shocked those weren't discussed in detail in this announcement considering Issue 13's name.

So this issue will certainly be massive from a new systems standpoint (I honestly didn't expect we'd get the base revamps in the same issue as the mission creator), even if it turns out to be not so massive in terms of official content and moving the story forward - though I am glad to hear Cimerora is getting proper mission arcs. Regardless of the new systems, the new/official mission content and the new/proliferated powersets will be the main highlights of the issue for me, as they always are.

I'm a bit worried about the booster packs though, even though I will probably buy the cyborg pack (as I've always wanted more robotic pieces - but there better be loads of costume pieces in the booster to make it worth the price). Will the bought jetpack still only last 30 days before needing to be purchased again? Will it only be for one character or any/all on the account? If it's a "permanent temp power" (like the GvE Jump Pack) and as fast as the Raptor Pack then I foresee a lot of builds skipping travel powers in future.

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Who do you use for your Avatar pic on the forums and why?

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Ukko, the quirky little midget sidekick of Slaine from the 2000AD comics. Why? Because he's funny and immoral - an avatar that projects the fact I never take anything too seriously.

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Let us select from a list of Veteran Rewards instead of waiting for them.

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I've always wanted this, for obviously selfish reasons, but taking the wider view Praf and Shadowe are absolutely right.

As for whether the later rewards are rubbish, yeah some of them are for some people, but there are still things I'm looking forward to - mainly costume pieces: I use the Samurai Armour pieces a lot (more than the wings and trenchcoat tbh), but I'm still looking forward to getting the Tech Sleek costume pieces (I use tech armour pieces a lot on my characters), the boots/shorts from the Boxing set (I think it's insane that male characters can't actually get shorts of any kind until they become a 39 month vet, though) and the faction symbols for chest detail.

What I don't want to see in the veteran reward system are costume pieces that you can't get basic versions of anywhere else. Wings are fine, because you can get some from inventions, even though two are vet reward only. Trenchcoat is arguably fine too as that's only a 3 month wait. Samurai armour I think one of the 3 styles should have been offered to everyone, with the other 2 being vet reward only. There are 2 kilts unlocked by vet rewards - why couldn't one of those have been given to everyone, and the other kept for vets only? And shorts as I mentioned - males cannot get shorts anywhere until they become a 39 month vet, and then the shorts are obviously boxer-style - that's fine, but everyone should be able to get some normal shorts as standard.

I want vet reward costume pieces to give extra options and extra styles - but not things that non-vets can't get in any shape or form, because that kills certain concept/costume ideas that non-vets might have.

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Well if Valk's not going to go to any cons, someone who is needs to print this out and accost WW with it.

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I won't say it's impossible, but it is rather unlikely.

Though if someone wants to bring this and my airport idea (linked in the OP) to WW's attention then obviously I'm fine with that

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The search is a bit naff.

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I was rather tempted to jump on the bandwagon against S4P too (more against the volume/frequency/briefness of his suggestions, than the replication/recycling though), but tbh Sir_Helm makes a good point - the search on these forums is pretty naff - and I find the one on the US CoH/V forums even worse - hopefully the search function will be better when we move to the new forum software.

So I guess I'll cut you some slack, S4P

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It wasn't bad with WP either, specially being Spines/WP as well as it wasn't bad at all with DM/SR soft capped, but i still rate my DM/DA the best to my experience. Looking forward on my Kat/Inv, done it on my Inv tank and it was a breeze so I guess /inv should do fine, pity he's Katana though but hey ho.-

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At least your Kat/Inv should be pretty safe with capped lethal defence from DA/Invinc/TH and all that lethal resist as well. Kat is supposed to be pretty good dps-wise now too (though I haven't played the set to a decent level, and not at all since the animation times were clipped down to make the set faster).

Be interested to know how you find it, though, as I made a DB/Inv scrapper the other day. I'm not expecting it to be a powerhouse combo, but tbh I'm running out of melee/armour sets to pair up that I haven't already played. I think Spines and Stone Armour are the main two I'm lacking now (and Ice & Electric Melee, but I may play the latter on a stalker), but hopefully proliferation will let me pair those on a Brute one day, because I have some build/concept ideas for it...

It really does depend on the character I'm playing - if I had to point to any EB as an all-round nightmare then I guess Calystix and Infernal are as close as it gets to EBs I dread facing. I've had more characters that struggled with them than ones that didn't, mainly because of the summons and their own high spike damage. Positron and Stheno are often nasty too and are EBs I'm certainly wary/respectful of. I also usually find Silver Mantis tougher than any of the other Arachnos EBs.

But most EBs that I find tough on one character will be easy for others. And honestly even the tough EBs aren't that hard to solo using either an Enrage/Luck overdose or a T9 godmode (or Demonic/EyeOfTheMagus) if available - and often I don't even need that. Never had to resort to Shivans to solo anything.

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There are lots of games with good PvP, but very few games which are as much fun PvE as CoX. It should focus on adding more of what it does well, not fiddling with something it does badly.

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This sentence and Cognito's 5 personal conclusions sum up my feelings pretty well.

Ok, I'm already getting my PvP from a different game and only really using CoH/V for the PvE, so I'm horribly biased in what I'm about to say... but I think the Devs should focus on the core PvE rather than trying to majorly revamp the PvP into something it's never going to be (i.e. as good as PvP in games designed mainly for PvP) - and I bet I'm not in the minority in feeling that.

I have no opposition to some PvP tweaks, as long as it doesn't burn up lots of dev time - but the Devs will never be able to make the PvP here as satisfying/rewarding as many PvPers would like, not without neglecting/ruining the fantastic PvE we already have. Most MMOs that have aimed for the middle ground (being good for both PvE and PvP) have tended to fall between two stools and end up being mediocre at both PvE and PvP.

But it's moot anyway - CoH/V launched as a pure PvE game so the PvP will never be more than a "tacked-on" extra. It remains to be seen if an MMO designed from the start and launched with an equal balance of both playstyles can succeed (I guess we'll find out when WAR launches).

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Someone make a Syndicate MMO for heavens sakes

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Syndicate was fun, but you can't have your Syndicate MMO until I get either a Battletech, Shadowrun, Warhammer 40K, Paranoia, G1 Transformers, Rifts, or Ghost in the Shell MMO

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I remember being told by a 'yank' to go home while playing Mechassault online on my Xbox at home. Also a friend of mine being asked by an American if the UK was in England. Go figure.

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I live on Guernsey, second biggest Channel Island after Jersey, and nearer France than the UK (but not a part of either) - imagine trying to explain that. When I played EQ1 I got tired of trying to explain it, and of dealing with the the usual follow-up "so you're French?" (then occasionally the anti-French insults/jokes that would follow). So I came up with a foolproof response that made most Americans instantly accept me without having to explain anything, or even lie...

When asked "so where do you live?" I would answer "near Jersey" and let assumption do the rest

Generally it worked like a charm. Though occasionally I'd get caught out - often because the extra letter I was putting into words like colour made them realise I probably wasn't from New Jersey