MajorDarkness

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I recently found my Quality Control Statistics textbook from a class I taught once, and I'm thinking I can try applying the techniques it contains to see if the hit/miss is appropriately random.

But I don't have HeroStats. Any recommendations as to how to get appropriate input for this process?

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HeroStats is nice and free, if it works for you.

As I said, it's my observation that my own personal hit/miss issue is completely dependent upon the enemy that I am fighting. More appropriately, "Sometimes I just miss constantly."

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It'd be nice if I could get the game to log the calculated expected percentage to hit for each attack. I wonder if that's in the logs Cryptic keeps? it'd be meaningless to most players but they could put in an option for something like "verbose logging" hmm...

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I'm sure that Cryptic could get that data if they chose to. HeroStats cannot since the chat messages it uses ("Midnight Grasp missed!") don't tell you enough about the target. I guess it could tell you how many times you hit a certain mob type, but it would be up to you to calculate the misses and what level they were against.

It's interesting, to say the least.

Continuing with my assumption that it's not Accuracy that is bugged, but Defense, I've been saving my HeroStats files after fighting each enemy type.

I am a level 48 Dark/Dark Scrapper. I have two level 50 Accuracy SO's in Air Superiority, Smite, and Midnight Grasp (HeroStats doesn't track Shadow Maul due to the obscure 'hit' messages.). This should give me a base of 130% Accuracy according to CoHPlanner.

Fighting Werewolves and Hydra at +2 levels (all minions, these are Portal missions), my Accuracy for all attacks was 95% +/- a small margin of error.

Fighting Carnie minions at +2 levels (mostly, very few +3's tossed in) my Accuracy for all attacks was 80% +/- a small error.

Let's say that I lose 10% Accuracy per level difference, I should be at 110% when fighting +2 minions. Do Carnies have a 30% Defense? Is this working as intended?

I have another session where I fought nothing but +2 Devouring Earth Boulders. I was level 46 with 2 level 45 SO's in the attacks (120% Accuracy). In that case I had 65% with Air Superiority (all Smashing), 56% with Midnight Grasp (all Negative Energy), and 71% with Smite (half Smashing, half Negative). I don't know what's up with that.

This is where the developers have an edge. They know what Defense Carnies, Boulders, and Werewolves have. They know what the Accuracy penalty is for higher level enemies. All we can do is report numbers from the LIVE server.

What do you guys think?

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This morning, I had PMs in my box saying the Accuracy of Dark Melee, Energy Melee and Claws seem to be wrong. I've gotten similar PMs about Ninja Blade as well.

We've tons of data here which all support that accuracy is working as intended and players still have a base 75% to hit even level critters.

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OK, I've had these same problems, and have PMed Statesman about it (since I'm talking DM for Scrappers).

I have played A LOT and saved my Hero Stats after each mission. I have come to a conclusion:

It's not Accuracy that's messed up, it's Defense, and only against powers that have multiple damage types. Yes, it's that old problem again.

I have two Accuracy SO's in all attacks. I was fighting Devouring Earth Boulders, and my Accuracy for DM powers were around 56%. Against Council Empire, all powers were about 90%. Yes, that's still low, but it's not insane. Werewolves, and I'm over 90% with Midnight Grasp & Air Superiority, Carnies and CoT Daemons have me at about 70%.

It seems to me that anything that has a Defensive power is either getting applied double (once per damage type) or getting applied after the cap. I now have two +3 SO Accuracies in my attacks, and I'm doing OK against +2 level enemies. When they were -2 SOs (just hit 47) I couldn't get better than 85% against +2 level enemies.

I'm still collecting data, but that's a quick status report. What do you guys think?

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At I5 - and now again with ED - some claim that the game is "dying" and that thousands of players are leaving. This isn't true. We're actually gaining customers. Not hundreds of thousands, but we're gaining nevertheless.


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I believe you. However, City of Heroes is gaining numbers in spite of ED, not because of it. It's gaining numbers because of City of Villains. Any attempt to show the contrary is, I believe, wishful thinking.

Do the numbers show how many people have stopped automatic billing? I know a lot of people who have stopped automatic billing, and plan to quit when their already purchased time runs out. I'm guessing they count as current subscribers in the subscription data.

Thanks.

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With Enhancement Diversification comes a benefit for ALL City of Heroes powers.

Every power, across the board, is getting a 13.33% reduction in its Endurance cost.

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OK, this addresses the reduction in Stamina's ability.

A while ago it was said that you (the developers) would never get rid of Stamina or Hasten and make them inherent powers.

Isn't that what you just did?

Please, just do it. Take Stamina and Hasten out of the power pools. Make Hasten an Auto & Inherent power that we get at level 10 and Stamina one at level 20. Make then such that we cannot ever put an enhancement in them. Make them increase slightly per level.

That means that a hero starts attacking faster as he or she levels up, and their abilities take less endurance as they get more powerful. That sounds fine to me, since it's what happens already.

Hasten and Stamina weren't supposed to be taken so often, we know that, but the players LIKE them. They like the way their hero works with those powers. Just give the powers to them. Replace the powers with something else. There are plenty of powers in the Power Pools that aren't very helpful, so it doesn't really matter. Maybe keep the powers the way they are, but reduce their ability by 70%.

Please, just get rid of Stamina and Hasten. Bite the bullet and get rid of them. Make them Inherent and Auto, and scale them as you see appropriate.

If you really want to entice people into slotting their powers differently, there are plenty of suggestions in the other threads. The ED method is a penalty, not an enticement.

Reducing END across the board made Stamina a partial Inherent power already. Please go all the way with this one and do the rest of what we were told you would never do.

(I know that anything posted to these boards are property of NCSoft & Cryptic, but I wanted to emphasize that they can use any of my ideas without restriction. Thanks!)

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3) Announce zone events in the zone. Some zone events are harder to notice than others, and a zone-wide announcement would at least alert players to the event.

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Now THAT is a good idea.
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Best example I can think of for a hazard zone is Adamastor, in Dark Astoria.

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Well, the rumor is that the mobs in DA tell you when he's coming or due. I say this is a rumor because I was there last week and heard the shaman say things like "He has arrived!" so I spent the next hour or so looking for him to no avail. I frequently go hunting for him (as a Games Workshop fan I love the badge title!), but have never seen him outside of the Portal mission.

The only time I ever saw Jurassik was when someone sent out a broadcast about him. I sent a tell for an invite, and by the time I got there a team of three 47-50's were there too. We asked if we could join their team, and they said it was full. Needless to say, my teammate and I were both level 42, so we didn't do as much damage as three 47-50's. No badge.

I really think that Adamastor is under the same problem timer as Sally.

I think the concept of a last-ditch improvement is a good one, but I'm not sure that Damage is the best way to do it to serve the purpose. With my Fire/Fire blaster, I usually die either when I'm held or out of endurance. Maybe the lower health levels could kick in an increased mag to status effects so you can break out of them when you are so close to dying. Another helpful version would be if either your endurance regenerated faster when low on health or you used less and less endurance the closer you are to dying (like Conserve Power).

Thanks!

Hmm. I'm thinking that your concept for a fallen hero is a little extreme, and that maybe the reverse is more applicable.

If you have a villain who wants to turn good, how long should they have to endure before they are trusted? The Juggernaut has been trying to be a good guy for quite some time now, and still no one believes him. If we were going to have a method of transferring from CoV to CoH, then a system similar to yours would have to be used.

Going from CoH to CoV is much easier. The example you use is extreme. First, Superman is called the Big Blue Boyscout for his pure ideals. Second, Lex Luthor is a major super criminal who has no need for someone on Superman's level for anything other than as a tool to accomplish some goal. If he ever thought Superman was turning evil, he'd give him some task where it'd succeed even if Superman betrayed him (which a free-thinking Superman would certainly do).

So, the Lex Luthor/Superman example is far from the normal fallen hero. The question shouldn't be whether Lex Luthor would believe it if Superman switched sides, but whether Superman or Lex Luthor would believe it if Batman switched sides. Read Kingdom Come for that answer.

How far from being a villain is Batman, anyway? The Punisher? Wolverene? Ghost Rider? These are characters that are full-on heroes, but give them a push and they'll cross the line. The slightest change in Batman's methods would offend the Big Blue Boyscout, and he'd be deemed a villain.

In actuality, it doesn't matter whether the other bad guys think that a hero has truly fallen. It only matters what the other heroes believe.

Another scenario; the hero that never was. I'm assuming that most everyone has seen The Incredibles by now, so what kind of hero would that one character have been if allowed to remain a hero? If capable of doing some of the other stuff we know that character to do, he/she never had the correct motivations to be a hero in the first place, so the slip to villainy was inevitable. Even if he did good for a while, his/her nature would put an end to it eventually.

One of the best examples of this is in one of my favorite episodes of The Simpsons. The one where Mr. Burns loses all of his money, and Lisa helps him get it back. In an honest effort to do good, Mr. Burns creates Lil Lisa's Slurry, one of the most offensive things he's ever done. Mr. Burns simply doesn't have the conscience that could stop him from doing evil things. He really thought he was doing good, but it was horribly evil.

Just my thoughts. I think that your other ideas are great, though. The motivations are very cool.

The 'stroke chin' and 'twirl mustache' ones are manditory. Some others...

;headache - The villain stands with his head down, thumb and index finger pinching the bridge of his nose.

;givemeaminute - Villain holds up his right index finger, as if saying, "Give me a minute," and then turns away.

;owfoot - Hop around on one leg as if something heavy was dropped on his foot.

;owhand - The villain shakes his hand as if he hurt it when punching something.

;boo - Various cat calls, thumbs-down, general dismissiveness.

;scare - Jump from a crouch, as if to scare someone.

;scoreX - Instead of the hero putting up a card, the villain presses a buzzer (like the players on Jeopardy use), and a number in cheesy, 7-segment LED numbers appears above his head.

;detonate - Use old-fashioned dynomite plunger-detonator.

;imsoscared - Mock fear. Exaggerated nail-biting, "Oooh, nooo!", etc.

;ivegotit - Exclamation of joy. Like those weird Old Navy commercials where people get excited about breathing air and cutting the grass. Follows headache or givemeaminute well.

;hangman - Mock placing a noose around his head, and hanging himself with it.

;shootme - Mock shooting himself in his head with his finger-gun.

;sepaku - Mock ritual suicide by pretend drawing a blade across his stomach with both hands.

;takeheraway - Point off to the right with the full arm, while pretentously looking down his nose to the left.

;immelting - Mock death as if being melted by acid (or water, if that works for you).

I'll post more if I come up with any.

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Capt Spaulding's: Museum of Monsters and Madmen

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I'm guessing this is a reference to House of 1000 Corpses instead of Animal Crackers. Not that it matters, since both are classics...

My supergroup:

S.W.A.T.
To serve and protect!
Colors: Black and grey.
Theme: All technology origin

Hi. I love this guide, by the way.

I wanted to point out something that I think I have discovered regarding the /bind command.

I created a keybind file that 'imported' a friends list into a new character. It was very manual, simply being of the form:

lshift+F10 "friend Scrap Heap$$friend Deep Frier$$ ... $$friend Mr Bonkers"

I had probably 35 friends on that list. The keybind file loaded OK, but when I did the left shift & F10, only some of my friends loaded. Looking at the file, the first dozen friends or so loaded. It appears that there is a line length limit to the keybind command. I'm going to guess 255 characters.

I solved this problem by splitting the binds up into less than 200 characters, and it seemed to work OK. Testing was not exhaustive by any means, though.

I don't know if someone wants to try to determine this limit exactly, or if you know that the problem really is something else.

Thanks again for the great guide!

ScrapHeap