Malachite_Green

"Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia." -E.L. Doctorow

Pick your favorite writer. Make a character with the writer's name and powers appropriate to the works of that writer. Then come join us in the Writers Guild by sending a tell to Robert E. Howard (@Malachite_Green), Quentin Crisp, or H P Lovecraft.

I'm having this same problem. I had it running Windows 2000 SP2 (I know it's old, but it worked), so I upgraded to SP4 and still have the problem. The strange thing is, I've had the problem with the beta server since issue 19 on it, and I20 dropping proliferated the problem to the main updater. But I can still use test just fine. So obviously there's a version of the CoH software that won't run into that problem even with the I20 content.

I would like Sky Raider machetes.

I should probably either have said something earlier or waited until I see how it has been implimented, but I have one request for the mission architect.

I want recognition of exceptional player written material to be based on merit not popularity.

To put it simply, I want to see the best of the best receive rewards. I don't want to walk into a mission that has received acclaim and think to myself "I could write something better than this" or just as likely "I have written something better than this".

It may seem obvious that it will be this way, but when you think about it, there's more partiality than that. In order for a mission to receive acclaim it must be reviewed by people. And more popular people have more people they can go to and say "Hey, check out my spiffy new mission" who will. And because they have people that will experience it and rate it (potentially based on their friendship with the writer rather than the merit of the material) it will have a better chance of receiving renown than a mission written by a loner whose mission may never be reviewed by anyone.

I do write this because I have few online friends and I want my missions to have a chance. But I also write this because I'm sure there are better writers than me out there whose missions would be truely exceptional, and I don't want to be let down by stories by less gifted writers simply because they weren't popular enough.

I only wish I had a good way to impliment an impartial mass judging criteria. Perhaps if there were a "play random architect mission" option and the ratings from such plays were used as the initial sieve of mission quality. The problem becomes getting people to use that option, and that means incentivizing it. I'm not sure that you would be willing to give out a particularly large amount of influence or XP. So I would propose that you let people open up later mission slots by playing through random missions and rating them. Making the people who wanted to be writers themselves the initial judge of mission quality. I think I would be willing to live through some less-than-stellar missions to have the chance to write more of my own.

I wonder if this means that Kheldians will finally get some something out of their inherent from teaming with villains?

Hey! I'm there! Number 73. Score.

Interesting data. I've been thinking about respeccing my level 50 blaster to a PVP (stalker hunter) build, so this is really handy.

Something bothers me, though. Supposedly range is a blaster's defense. As it stands though, a buffed blaster can only see a buffed stalker at 11 feet. Which I dare say isn't very ranged. Not to mention that the buffed Stalker can see the buffed blaster at 581.5 feet. It seems like the stalker has the blatant range advantage.

Already posted the data here. Feel free to go and edit and update.

I strongly encourage you to put whatever data you might have into it for community access.

I'd like to point out that there is also a separate brawl table for temporary powers. You can find it in brawl index form here. While I'm mentioning it, that site is a wiki, so it's great for community keeping-information- together purposes.

I'll also inject my opinion that it's a bit pointless for there to be separate ranged and melee brawl tables when they aren't used. All scrapper attacks are melee, even if they have range. All tanker, stalker, and brute attacks too. It doesn't matter for corruptors, blasters and a few others. Pretty much the only time you actually see this affecting ANYTHING is with defenders.

1. Nine Inch Nails - You Know Who You Are
2. Metallica - Unforgiven II (Ick. Why couldn't it have been the original?)
3. Aphex Twin - Schottkey 7th Path
4. Nine Inch Nails - 10 Miles High (Version)
5. Aerosmith - Love in an Elevator
6. Eagles - The Sad Cafe
7. Tomorrow Never Dies - Hamburg Break In
8. Pantera - Hard Lines, Sunken Cheeks
9. Garth Brooks - Mr. Blue
10. Dr. Demento - The Purple People Eater

What can I say, I have a compulsive need to have complete albums. And sometimes that results in no-name tracks playing. Rather often, really.

I've tried to test out the new Croatoa material several times. But I just can't get past the "Rescue Wayland McCrane" mission.

Like HolyEvilAoD, every time I rescue the hostage, the lag spike comes. I think it is the waves spawning, but I couldn't be sure because I've never stayed connected through it. Yes, I'm on a modem.

I don't mind the IDEA behind this type of mission. But an implementation that excludes modem users goes against the stated system requirements. Which means if it goes live like this, wave missions will REDUCE the amount of content I can access. This is BAD! Completely unacceptable. If the computer crashing missions were limited to the new content, at least I could still enjoy the game I bought, but this is removing pieces of it.

And it's not just a solo thing. I have a character that I solo with. Can't get through the mission. I COULD get a team together to do the mission, but that really wouldn't help because I'd still get hit with the lag spike and be unable to finish the mission. Even if the rest of the team did manage to get Wayland past the waves of Tuatha, I still wouldn't have been able to appreciate it.

You must either fix the lag spike or limit these missions to Croatoa.

Please do the former. I would like to have a chance to complete this new content type.

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Side notes:

It's really inconvenient to /bug this because you get booted. There's probably more people that have this problem then bug reports would indicate.

Despite recent hopes, I will not be getting broadband any time soon. The phone company says that it is impossible to get us DSL.

Also, the mission itself has one major problem: Animated stone. It's stupid. And boring. It can't hurt me. And I can't hurt it. So it's just a waste of my time. Please have it despawn when its caster dies. However, you included a timed despawn, so it's not that bad. But if a scrapper can't defeat it before the timer runs out, you really have to consider what that says about it.

The Outbreak mission worked fine for me. I'll cast my vote for having the Flower Knight not spawn at the end of the mission, but that's not as big a deal to me as being able to complete a "soloable" mission.

I don't object to a power that gives a blaster bonuses. But it seems to me that the point of teaming up is to support each other, using your strengths to reduce the weaknesses of others. And having your weakness offset by the strengths of others. Defiance doesn't do that. It encourages people NOT to offset the weakness of the blaster, which is exactly the opposite of what should be encouraged. So I don't like it in teams. I don't want to have to tell defenders to heal me or bubble me or protect me. They should do that automatically.

I will not use it intentionally. If a fight goes badly, it may be nice bonus to turn things around, but not to lead off.

Solo, it is really nice at the lower levels. I might occasionally use it at higher levels, but not often. In a team, I won't use it. I'll either be mezzed and in deperate need of help or I'll be running away or the fight or the fight will already be effectively over by the time I hit 40% health.

I already perform better solo than teamed. I can manage a 1 hero sized spawn, but a 2 hero sized spawn is sometimes beyond what I can kill, so I die. Please, give me a reason to team up, not a reason to solo.

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Okay, let me get to a few more specific suggestions (assuming desperation is going to stay as some semblance of what it is).

I don't like the defiance bar. It clutters up my window and looks ugly. It seems to show very small bonuses. If you keep the bar, please consider making it logarithmic. Then it will look like more progress is being made. But frankly, since you've already announced the buff percentages, the bar isn't that important. It's not that difficult to remember the simple doubling 40, 80, 160, 320, 500. There's only 6 states. You don't need a bar for that. Rather, please consider a color-based defiance meter. Change the color of my health to reflect the extra damage I'm doing. Or put the defiance meter in my health bar. If I'm using defiance, the right side will be empty anyway. Of just do away with defiance indication totally. It's not like we get indicators of everything.

Other ideas to tweak or change defiance.
Have you considered basing defiance on endurance? The bonuses may have to be scaled down, but then it would help with AV and monster fights, where I am teamed and limited by endurance, rather than solo, when I am certainly not.

Or, I don't know. Mez resist of mag (missing HP %)/33%, so we can try to kill before we are killed rather than being helplessly chain mezzed to death. Defense would be nice, but I know we're not going to get that.

Creativity is the art of concealing your sources.

[ QUOTE ]
Greetings Liberty!

Attention Liberty Scrappers!

- Tired of living the solo lifestyle? Roaming the streets of Paragon, dispensing justice in bite-sized nuggets?

- Tired of looking at that crowd of eight Outcasts taunting you with their superior numbers, but vastly inferior warrior spirit?

- Tired of scrambling for the leftovers in groups dominated by blaster AE damage, hoping that the LT or Boss might have some fight left in him, by the time you get there?

- Tired of chasing down runners who you have taken to 1/4 health?
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Attention Controllers!

- Tired of "cultivating patience" via the chip, chip, chip process of the solo controller lifestyle?

- Tired of being told to not use sleep/mez CC because it gets whacked by hamfisted blaster AEs?

- Tired of using your healer functionality more than crowd control in groups?

We've got a group for you!

Supergroup Name: Scrap Control

Website (if any): None yet. Will probably build a yahoo group if we can get a decent sized crew.

Leader or Recruiting Officers: Toasty Tony lvl 11 Fire/Kin
Priss Teen lvl 16 DM/Inv

Preferred Method of contact: Regular email. There_is_no_spoon@msn.com

Colors: Charcoal/Purple

Guild Description: Mainly a grouping network with some coordinating for Task Forces, etc. encouraging the excellent compatibility between these two occasionally frustrating ATs. Controllers and Scrappers ONLY. Promoting and developing strategies for maximum effectiveness. Non-hierarchical. No egos, please. Role-play or not, individual preference. Colorful character bios appreciated but definitely not required. Looking to build a decent sized network, but if we hit the size max, will boot anyone who doesn't log in at least once every couple weeks (allowances made for special circumstances, of course.) Maturity appreciated.
Weird builds encouraged.

Also, as a general rule, we will NOT interfere with other players (i.e. Kill-steal, griefing, etc.)

Join the fun! Join the glory! Scrap Control - Liberty Server

[/ QUOTE ]

Just to let everyone know, Scrap Control is still around. It seems the founders have taken off for greener pastures, but I have inherited the group, and, after a membership slump, I'm trying to get it going again. And all the values and Scrapper/Controller teaming that makes this supergroup great are still there.

New Contacts (this replaces the oldcontact methods): <ul type="square">[*]Pris Stratton[*]Roy Baty[*]Tiran Pyresmelt[*]Unseen Blow[*]Dark Pain[*]Or global @Malachite Green (that's me of course)[/list]

Great thread! Wish I had found it earlier. Really needs to be better advertised. I thought I would contribute by posting a chart of the common topics for server specific channels the servers. If you know of a channel that would fit one of the blank spots, post it! We want to know. If you would be so kind as to update and repost the chart occasionally, that would be great. Sorry if your channel doesn't appear, this isn't meant to be a comprehensive listing of global chat channels.

<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre> Open Forum Monster Hunting Hamidon Raids Exchanges Ambush Alerts Badge Hunting
Champion Champion Forums
Freedom Freedom Monster
Guardian Guardian HO Trade Network
Infinity Monsters Inf Trades 911
Justice JSMAS Justice Hamidon
Liberty Liberty LibertyRaiders
Pinnacle PinnacleMonsters Hami Bound PinnacleAmbush
Protector Jello Shooters
Triumph Monster Sighting Triumph Hamidon ABANDONED AMBUSH Badge Hunter
Victory Victory Forum Victory Monsters Victory Badges
Virtue Virtue Hunters Virtue911
</pre><hr />

Sorry about the layout. I guess the code tag isn't making this into preformatted text properly.

For those types that like the numbers, I calculate a brawl index of 5.45. No, not 5.4444.

The raw data from an AMed lvl 22 controller:
Propel: 39.75
Brawl: 7.29

That leads to the conclusion that the BI is between 5.4571036 and 5.4482522. Repetitions at a few different numbers should narrow the margin further, but it seems close enough to me.