Master_Armantus

Arc Name: Invasion of the Dark Realm
Arc ID: 38959
Faction: Heroic
Creator Global/Forum Name: @Master_Armantus
Difficulty Level: Designed for team play, preferably 4+ members
Estimated Time to Play: 1 hour
Synopsis: Malta and Nemesis have been working together to bring an outside force into our world, but they are unaware of the power that they'll unleash! It is up to the Vanguard and the heroes of Paragon to fight back the invasion before all is lost.

So far many positive reviews, particularly on map choices and custom enemy groups. This arc has been tweaked and tested, so expect a smooth flowing and seamless storyline. Enjoy!

I'm seeing the staff as a more natural thing, so no pink glowie energy like Gambit. But simply wielding a staff isn't really grounds for any kind of lawsuit. If the set were to steal some signature maneuver of some other character in comic lore, then that would be a problem. What I had in mind as far as the flow of the set is to have some simple, basic 1-2 hit powers in the beginning, progressing to more flashy and powerful moves towards the 6th-9th tier. Very similar to the Martial Arts set, in terms of the flow. Perhaps it could be the second set to use combinations, like Dual Blades? (up to the devs, of course)

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I'm not sure if my opinion means anything but.. Staff power?! you mean like mages and wizards type staff powers? or staff power set like Martial Arts or Javalin kind of staff power?! it's not that I don't understand the meaning of having staff power considering we who has vet's got the Nemesis Staff or Staff of Warding, but a good understanding would be surfice..

Out side of that if it goes great with the AT's than I'm all for it.

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The melee set would be martial arts based, yes. The ranged set would depend on many things really. As already discussed in this thread, the ideas for the ranged set are pretty limited and spread out. It could perhaps shape into a solid magic or tech staff, similar to the Nemesis or Black Wand staves. Or it could just become something unique on its own, without being based around something already in-game.

I'm really interested in a melee staff set, and I can imagine all kinds of different options for the potential look of it (staves, spears, pikes, polearms, etc.). As for the ranged set, I initially had magic users in mind, but as of this moment I'm kind of 'meh' about the whole thing.

Definitely still wanting a staff melee set, though.

All of the other travel powers are more manageable in terms of direction and distance control. Teleport only works on a fixed distance (unless you hit an object or wall). There have been many times that teleport has gotten me into trouble (aggroing mobs that weren't formerly in my range of view). There have also been many times I've had to TP two or three times just to get exactly where I'd like to be, when it was actually <100 yds away (target distance overshoots desired location, for example). I'm sure I'm not alone on these frustrations.

My suggestion is to give players the option of manually adjusting teleport distance. A player could control it via scroll wheel, or two different keys (zoom target towards or away from character). For players that have this option activated, the target will appear in front of them at the default TP distance, so that they can still "speed TP" from one mission to the next, or wherever.

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That would essentially make it Power Customization of an existing powerset - not a new powerset at all. And we have had a bajillion previous discussions about how cool it would be to customize powers to make then look different - but BaB posted a FAQ on the topic that indicates it is unlikely to happen.

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Well, if it's already been discussed and shot down I see no reason to continue this, then.

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Also upthread, when someone opined that a staff set would seem to be limited because it indicates Magic Oirgin, you stated that other powersets already indicate specific origins. You used FF as being Tech and Dual Blades as being Natural, among others. My Force Fields are bubbles of magic shielding bthat protect my allies; my Dual Blades are magical blades, which adds to their awesome speed and damage. Also, my Radiation Blasts and Radiation Emission are magical blasts and hexes - because I wanted to see it that way. You have limited yourself if you can't visualize different origins for powersets instead of going with your first impression.

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I was pointing out that if a set seemed too #insert_origin, there were other sets that could appear that way as well, so that argument didn't have much weight on it. If you're assuming I'm incapable of visualizing outside the box, then I don't know what to tell you, other than I already pointed out that RP and primary/secondary sets play an important role in deciding what origin to choose.

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What I would suggest (for a ranged set) would be a mixture of attacks from existing sets, but with different damage types.

For a "Magic-y" feel in almost no particular order:
Fire Blast (ST) (Fire Damage)
Fire Ball (AoE) (Fire Damage)
Ice Blast (ST) (Cold Damage, -rech)
Lightning Bolt or Charged Bolts (ST) (Energy Damage, minor End Drain)
Chain Lightning (Energy Damage, see Brute's Electric Melee)
Mystic Bolt (renamed Energy Blast) (Energy/Smashing, low magnitude KB)
Aim (Yeah, Aim. Just because. )
Gale (Cone, Very minor smashing damage, high KB.)
Blizzard.
.....and so on.

It wouldn't exactly be the same as any other set.
Weaknesses:
*Unable to fully take advantage of a foe that's weak against a specific damage type.
*Unable to stack secondary effects.

Strengths:
*Never fully shut down against a foe that's highly resistant to a specific damage type.

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Again, what I had in mind was a more neutral energy style. Think of the blast animations looking a lot like an energy blaster/peacebringer's attacks. Instead of coming out of their hands, it's coming from a staff. This will somewhat limit the work needed on the devs part, while at the same time leaving room to make a more balanced ranged set, complete with a sniper attack, aim, a nuke, etc.

Combine this neutral idea with the staff option idea that Hero_of_Steel presented, and we've got options that any origin can use.

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/sign melee set if they can get the animations right. Though we have enough weapon sets already D:

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There are a lot of weapon sets, but then again weapons are a huge part of the world of combat. I thought of the staff as a weapon because, off the top of my head, the only weapon choices in the game boil down to guns, bows, or swords, all of which deal lethal damage, if I'm not mistaken. The staff would actually give the mace some company in the smashing damage department. I can understand the difficulty in making the animations, but the game would never have gotten nearly as far as it has with its huge variety of power set choices had the devs simply skipped over ideas because they felt they were too hard to implement.


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/unsign ranged set. Bit restrictive in theme. (if you expand the idea further here, maybe a workable version can be reached. But doubtful)

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Yeah, I hadn't thought about the different elemental themes it could have. What I had in mind was something more neutral, along the lines of peacebringer blasts, which would deal energy damage. As far as the set favoring magic users... I believe certain sets already exist that cater to a specific origin. Examples include force fields (science/technology), illusion (magic), assault rifle and traps (technology/natural), dual blades (natural), etc. Obviously, many of these, when paired with another set, could have the origin modified for RP purposes. Long story short, making the set seem magic friendly shouldn't really be a restricting factor, as it really depends on what the player wants to do with it.

Forgive me if this has already been suggested, but I think it would be a great idea and make for extremely versatile power sets: the Staff. Actually, I could see the staff being split into two power sets, one melee and one ranged. Melee could be martial arts themed, and the ranged set could be magic themed (which would please those who'd like to make a modern day sorceror or wizard).

Obviously, if both sets were to be made, they could be used together on a blaster (swapping powers the devs feel comfortable using so as not to over/under-power them). This would be perfect for those players that dislike weapon redraw. Meanwhile, the melee set could be offered to scrappers and stalkers, while the ranged set could be offered to corruptors and defenders.

I'll leave it like that for now, but I'll offer more insight and suggestions if I see a lot of interest in this.

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"Display driver has stopped working and has fully recovered" Is just another way of saying the same thing.

the first versions of the driver Nvidia released had this error message. then with the latest update you should receive both "Display driver has stopped working and has fully recovered" and " Nvidia error 14 ( or 13). So in a way your right, the symptoms ressemble.. because it's the same bug

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So there currently exists no updates that really fix the 9x issues (I'm using 9600 GS)? Windows claims all of my drivers are fully up to date, and I don't really want to risk downloading beta updates unless it's been confirmed they actually work, without introducing new bugs into my system.

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Maybe it's your monitor?

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It may be, the error states that the "Display driver has stopped working and has fully recovered." I figured since the symptoms found in this thread very closely resemble the problems I've been having it might be the graphics card interfering.

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I promised a reply and now several days later my Vista 64 machine with 8800GT is stable on the latest WHQL drivers using sp2 beta.

This is starting to look consistent for MOST of the 8x cards and 2x cards... still not looking so good for many of the 9x cards though. Like Ex noted from tech support in a previous thread, most 9x's are still requiring a driver rollback. Wish we could puzzle out why, but at least we know.

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So I'm using a 9600 GS that blacks out once a day, and doesn't recover until I quit the game through task manager (I play about 3-4 hours daily). Not terrible, but definitely annoying. I haven't installed any of the updates for fear of releasing newer and nastier bugs.

So according to Ex-Libris, you say, there's nothing I can do at this time.

Does anyone else out there with a 9xxx series have a successful resolution to this problem?

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I am curious if anyone has found a way to make a bind or macro that will start you running then start you flying or even start you flying and then switch flyposes

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to start running then fly:

/bind key "++autorun$$powexec_name fly"

as for switching fly poses, you might just bind another key to hit after you start the run/fly animation:

/bind key "e flypose#"

don't quote me on this, but you might be able to combine all 3:

/bind key "++autorun$$powexec_name fly$$e flypose#"

so if the last one doesn't work, then just stick with the first two binds

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/bind <Keyname> "beginchat OOC: "

or

/macro OOC: "beginchat OOC: "

will both work. Replace the <Keyname> in the /bind command with whatever key you want to press to make it show up.

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thanks weatherby!

wow.... and all this time I thought (( )) was just a way for people to differentiate themselves in the chat window! and now i know what "OOC" means!

yeah, i've been playing for about 9 months now gathering as much knowledge as possible, i think now i'm ready to baby step out into the world of RP!

btw, is there a way to automatically put (( )) around what you type, or OOC: before?

In case no one else has pointed out, having the same color but in different tones works well too! Really depends on your character concept, but it's quite possible to have a character using varying shades of green or blue or red or w/e and pull it off nicely.

As an example I've made several ice-based characters who's costumes include black or white with varying shades of blue. If anyone is interested I'll include pics.

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* Numpad Healing Binds from _tet_:
NUMPAD1 "+ $$teamselect 1$$powexec_name Heal Other"
NUMPAD2 "+ $$teamselect 2$$powexec_name Heal Other"
NUMPAD3 "+ $$teamselect 3$$powexec_name Heal Other"
NUMPAD4 "+ $$teamselect 4$$powexec_name Heal Other"
NUMPAD5 "+ $$teamselect 5$$powexec_name Heal Other"
NUMPAD6 "+ $$teamselect 6$$powexec_name Heal Other"
NUMPAD7 "+ $$teamselect 7$$powexec_name Heal Other"
NUMPAD8 "+ $$teamselect 8$$powexec_name Heal Other"

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I got this from a a thread in this section titled "A Compiled List of Binds."

All you would need to do is type in /bind and then paste each line above with it to get the Heal Other power to work.

I have a lvl 26 empath and these binds work wonders. I even went a step further and made binds for each buffing power, i.e. Clear Mind and Fortitude, and eventually Adrenaline Boost.

For those binds I simply combine numpad1-8 with another key, like control and alt. So for clear mind right now I'm using:

/bind lalt+numpad1 "+ $$teamselect 1$$powexec_name Clear Mind"

etc. etc. through numpad8. This will bind it so when you hold the left alt key and hit numpad1, you will cast Clear Mind on teammate #1.

Meanwhile with Fortitude, I use:

/bind lctrl+numpad1 "+ $$teamselect 1$$powexec_name Fortitude"

and of course change "1" to each corresponding teammate for each bind. This will make it so if you hit the left control key with numpad1 you will cast Fortitude on teammate 1.

Lastly, you could alter "lalt" and "lctrl" to be "ralt" and "rctrl" for the right alt and control keys.

The OP's binds are more orderly and probably a few lines shorter than these, but trying each out I would say the above binds are alot quicker to use in combat!

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Before or after Issue 13?

Before: "How to make a Magic Desk." just below this post.

For a concise version, see the Scoop that was put out on November 10th:
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showf...12476679#Bases

After Issue 13, you don't have to do all that, you can stack things on top of any desk it seems.

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Awesome! Since i13 is coming any time now, I suppose I'll just wait before I make any base changes. Many thanks!

I'm new to item stacking, and I can see this guide would be helpful if I knew how to put it to use... Just wondering if anyone could help me find a guide or point me in the right direction. Keep in mind I have absolutely no experience in this matter, lol, but I am very interested in learning. Help is much appreciated!

EDIT:

From Snow_Globe in "Base Guides & Resources"
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Before or after Issue 13?

Before: "How to make a Magic Desk." just below this post.

For a concise version, see the Scoop that was put out on November 10th:
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showf...12476679#Bases

After Issue 13, you don't have to do all that, you can stack things on top of any desk it seems.

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I apologize if I've overlooked anything, but I was wondering if there's an "Idiot's Guide" to item stacking? I've seen some amazing pictures as to what players are able to do with their bases (using item stacking and other advanced techniques), and now I feel so limited and helpless! Much appreciated!

I've never done a Hami-Raid before... Is there a usual date that these happen or does someone organize it? Anyone know when the next one will be?

In response to adding more variety to MM pet appearance, I think the easiest solution would be to make the pets customizable at the tailor. It always baffled me why there was no way to do this, it really takes away from all the potential mastermind personalities that players could come up with. Let's say you have some flashy, flamboyant ex-military guy with Mercs following him around in their plain gray and black outfits... doesn't really fit his style, but it certainly could if you could dress them each appropriately.

P.S. Forgive me if this suggestion was already posted, I just skimmed through the thread before posting this.

With the hope that I haven't overlooked anything in the guides already posted, I'm wondering if anyone knows how to macro pet commands and ALSO have the pets say something to affirm the command. I've been able to macro the commands but they still say their generic lines that they were already programmed to say. Is there any way to alter what they say in a key bind or macro? Or am I doomed to seeing the same generic combat jargon for all eternity?!

I've done:

/macro <button name> "petcompow <petname> <follow defensive>$$..."

but after the $$ I can't figure out what can come next to override what they're already programmed to say in BG mode. Thanks in advance!