MasConejos
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Posts
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Joined
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I'm a little late to this party, but I'll post anyway
The game already supports all the tools it needs to make fights more interesting, and little or no code needs to be written to accommodate it (although backfilling previous content might be a little tedious). Quantums and Voids are AT specific enemies that spawn at about the correct rate (once or twice per mission), the same could be done for other ATs.
The mechanic for summoning reinforcements without messing with spawn proximity already exits - Rikti Communication Officers (And Clockwork Dukes (or princes, whichever summon)). They open a portal, reinforcements spill out. A similar mechanic could work for some other groups (skyraiders "teleport" in as a summon, Tsoo ninjas "drop" from the ceiling, CoTs can summon the MM pets, etc)
Other mechanics that could be used to pose a difficulty for certain ATs: Have a minion/lieutenant that summons singularity, or that even justs casts repel - most melee heroes will have a problem, most ranged wont. Have a minion that has a mag 20 hold (long recharge). If a tank taunts without looking first,they may get held. Have more enemy healers and buffers. Have a minion that can cast a long duration debuff like the kind you can get from a lab reactor. Depending on how individually challenging/annoying these various ideas are, they could spawn with almost any group, or they could be more like quants/voids and only spawn once or twice a map. -
Quote:I knew I should have checked my facts before posting. I even told myself that someone would contradict me with actual facts. Did I check it? Noooo.....Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Actually, Vista started off as a fork of the XP codebase, and was reset to be a fork of the 2k3 codebase. It's problems stem from classic feature-creep making the design target a complete mess. It's actually Windows 7 that is mostly based on a clean base, and it's more focused design ended up generating a much better product overall.
Still, all the same, Vista isn't a re-write, it's the same old codebase we all know and love (sic), heavily patched. As far as I know, 7 is not a clean code base (at least I can't find any references to support that statement), it was, as you said, just developed with a clear set of priorities, mostly aimed at fixing the flaws (perceived or otherwise) of Vista.
For anyone interested, see this story (editorial?) for a real life example of how things went bad during a rewrite -
Quote:Doing a re-write is seldom as wise or as easy a move as people think. For a code-base as mature as CoX, there is a MASSIVE amount of *debugged* and *working* code. Yes it has a few limitations and quirks, but 95% of it is perfectly good and usable. Additionally, in the case of CoX, I have no doubt that the content is tightly coupled to the code. Not only would a rewrite involve throwing out all the code, it would (in all probability) involve throwing out all the content and re-writing it to match the new system. Throwing years of labor and valid code should only be done when the benefit outweighs the cost, and that doesn't happen very often.Originally Posted by Hellsminion_CoH
But then, at what point does the program get too large and complicated (glutted) with old code, thus warranting a complete re-write?
The Windows team discovered this when trying to write what became Vista. They started with a fresh code base, and in the end had to throw it out (after ~3 years) and seed off of Server 2003 because they had too many issues trying to get it to work (where it took an additional ~3 years to complete Vista).
Look at Champions - for all intents and purposes it IS a rewrite of CoX. It took several years to achieve, and still it is buggy and has all new quirks — something CoX went through years ago. I for one would not want to reset to a new release/opening weekend/pre-I1 state only to watch the developers patch and update for a solid year or more just to bring CoX v1 feature parity
Although I might reconsider if it means getting my own Batmobile-eqsue conveyance... :P -
Quote:Reconstruction you'll want 3 recharge and 3 healing (at SO level).Originally Posted by mustski
Ok, how many enhancements etc would be a good plan? Is it still worth slotting a bit to boost the amount or just all out recharge?
For Training Origin/Dual Origin enhancements you can go 6 recharge (or heal or whatever), but as a rule of thumb, once you hit Single Origin enhancements, you get almost no extra benefit for any enhancements beyond the third (4 recharge is maybe 2% better than 3 recharge)
Reconstruction will be your main damage mitigation power, so you want it up often (3 recharge, hasten) and healing for as much as possible (3 healing)
Instant healing is more of an emergency power and is pretty strong out of the box. More recharge on it is good (if it takes recharge; I don't remember), but extra healing on it is at your own discretion. Healing enhancements (due to a long history of changes on that power as they attempted to balance it) aren't as effective as they usually are.
Integration you'll want 3 healing for.
Fast healing may eventually warrant 3 slots, but that can wait till you're higher level -
My personal favorite is to use 3-slotted hover with Power boost + AM. Add in hasten and you only have a couple of seconds downtime every cycle. Hover speed is near fly speed at that point.
I sometimes even forget to switch to fly when traveling long distances. -
I had a blast with everything I made.
Of most interest was how surprised I was at how easy it was for my MA/Nin stalker to take out a hero controlled pillbox solo, without death.
Of secondary interest were the dual storm/psi defenders my wife and I made. They were a lot of chaotic fun, and uterly devistated just about anything (what with the general lack of player-character psi def/res). Alas, a large number of villians ran off before I could put in the final blow, but that is to be expected. -
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Did you know...
The entances/exits to the Hazard Zones used to have their original names engraved above the giant doors. For instance, the 'Boomtown' gate had Baumton above it, "Faultline" was had Overbrook, etc.
This was changed a couple issues back to listing the in game name on the blue plaque beside the doors. I miss the old signs
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I'm pretty sure I saw Terra Volta's name stenciled in over the giant door, yesterday