Meatbop

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One of the first rules of game design is that when realism conflicts with fun, fun wins.


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Think you could tell Statesman that?

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Regarding the stealth nerf to Burn and Rain powers
From: Statesman

I'm afraid there's not much to comment on.

It's ridiculous to expect that a mob would sit helplessly in a fire. They're being hurt, after all.


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I've been thinking about the whole "Show the Numbers", "Don't show the Numbers" dilema that seems to have reared its head in this thread, and it got me thinking.

The dev's don't like numbers, but players want to know if they hit the maximum level of benefit from their powers. Have the dev's considered something really simple, like maybe a bar that fills up under each power?

So for example, a blaster could have a bar under one of their attack powers that fills up as they add enhancements. There could be a little button marked "build up" next to this bar to show how much more effectiveness is added to the power when buildup is used.

Any time a cap for a power is in place, just put a bar under it that fills up as enhancments and slots are put in. Then when it's full, just have it read "Max Power!" or some other suitable Simpsons reference.

Where this would get a little sticky is when powers stack, such as defenses/resists for a tanker. But really, all you need is a little subscreen that lists all their defenses/resists. A happy, and simple bar graph.

I would LOVE something like this. It is numberless, but it would offer enough info to both the casual and hardcore gamer to get the most out of their character. And I think it'd be fun, "Just one more slot and I'll be Max Power!"

I strongly support CuppaJo and the devs, in general. However I don't trust Statesman anymore, and I haven't for a while. He's very subtle sometimes about how a change to the game will affect powers. The latest Burn nerf is a good example. They quite craftily explained what fear powers effect would do now, and how taunt would work with it. However the power that this change seems to really have been introduced for is Burn.

I agree, there is logic in that baddies don't want to stand in fire, but similarly, why would they want to stand toe-to-toe with a 7 foot tall robot winding up with Knockout Blow? Sometimes you just have to check logic at the door with games, and especially with superheroes.

At any rate, when Posi, Geko or any of the devs make a response on the boards, they are very clear in their meanings. Statesman? Not so much.

Cuppa, you're awesome, just figured I should toss that in there. Posi, Geko and the rest, you do great work. Statesman.... meh. Whatever.

*edited for late night spelling. I suspect I still missed some stuff...*

Quoted from Statesman's original post-
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I went away from the computer to check on some CoV stuff and *wham* I received 5 or so PM's asking "what is the Blaster's role?"

Answer - Ranged damage.


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Then about 4 sentences later...

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Secondly, I have no intention of removing melee attacks


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Then immediately after that gem...

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it's just a "perception" by some Blasters that some of the Secondary Sets aren't as useful as Devices or Energy Manipulation.


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Take a good close look at that progression states. First, blasters role is ranged damage, your own words. Second, you have no intenion of removing melee attacks... you know, the things that don't define the blaster's role. I'm not saying Blasters shouldn't have any melee attacks, but some sets just have a silly number of them.

Third, you're telling all the blasters that their 'perception' of certain sets is wrong? Kinda like you proved your uber regen build roxxored on your internal test environment, right?

Could it be, I dunno, that the guys who have played their blasters from 1 to 50 'might' have some knowledge on what is an inferior powerset and what isn't? Saying Ice Manipulation is as useful as Devices is like saying Ice Armor is as good as Invulnerability for tankers. It's just not true.

Just a thought States, but just to show some love to those people who are between levels 40-50, you should give them a free respec since they have no way to ever get an epic power pool otherwise.

That'd be pretty weak if you introduced high level content, for which no high level character could use. Well, weak and stupid anyways.

This comes from a guy who's highest level character is 33, but I'm just lookin out for the Fire/Dev blasters, ya know?

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Well it would be logical to maybe offer a deal of some sorts for both CoH and CoV like $20.00 a month. That would be cool.
I mean how many people would support this? I would do this. But only to one of my accounts. If the wifey or kids want to play CoV, they can do it on the same account.

My original intent was to make a thread where people would /yes or /no their support on if CoV was an additional $15.00 a month, and how many people would pay that kinda double fee to experience being a Villain is all.



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Based on that, I'll chime in. No, I wouldn't pay an extra 5, 10, 15, etc dollars a month. And yes, I would leave the game. Expansions should not require more money to play them (aside from the initial cost). If NC Soft goes this route, seriously, how many customers will they lose? $30 bucks a month to experience the whole game, or $15 to play a competitors full product.

No contest, at least for me. The cheaper one wins out. And just because I would find the marketing scheme distasteful and offensive, I would quit the game. It reminds me of D&D 3rd edition when they switced to D&D 3.5 only 2 years after the new edition was released. No, you don't have to buy 3.5, but every new publication (i.e. expansion) from here on out is based on it, so enjoy your old books cuz their ain't any new ones coming out. That made me quit D&D in a split second.

This would too.

I know that this is a business first, game second, but abject greed is different than making a nice profit.

Frankly, there is nothing in Issue 3 that I care about now (not that I even know what's in it, mind you), I just want Issue 4 for the non-combat system. They could implement 3 new AT's in Issue 3, and I'd still rather have a non-combat system.

Get everyone on the NSSOCS (NOT So Secret Out of Combat System) right now, States!

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Super
Secret
Out of
Combat
System

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I hope you're wrong about that. The promise of an out of combat system is what's been keeping me around. Not sure I want to wait till next year for that.

I'm still enjoying the bounties of Issue #2, so I can wait a while for tidbits on Issue #3.

My guesses based on previous things Statesman has said-
- Epic Archetypes
- Non-combat System
- Sonic & Bow powersets

I actually hope that the dev's hold off on fixing the +1 mobs in missions until they have the difficulty slider ready to go. I love this bug! My SG is actually pumped about doing missions because they're a challenge now (and you guys did some terrific work with more varied types of missions).

Consider going that route, States. I promise I won't be a jerk about your ideas for 'soloing' controllers.... for like a week, at least, if you do.

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Posted by Gothryd:
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Having missions where the only way to solve it is to have 3 people (any 3, just have 3 bodies) on a team is 'forced'. This seems artificial and contrasts too sharply with the rest of the gameplay. Accomplish this mission using X, Y or Z tactics is better than accomplish this mission by having N number of characters.


Plese consider some of the following ideas to add a dynamic to group play:

Have a villain who must not be injured (meaning you need some sort of hold/disorient/sleep to incapacitate her without dealing damage). Innocents who are coerced into being bad guys is a staple of the genre. Stopping them without hurting them is more challenging than blasting them in most cases.


Have a villain in a room with a bomb that he will detonate if he sees any heroes (meaning you need someone with invisibility, some form of grant invisibility, stealth, etc to sneak past). Watch any number of movies and this situation arises. Their finger is on the button.


Have a room that has some bomb to deactivate or some important relic that will be destroyed if you don't retrieve it but that room is on fire, causing enormous amounts of damage to anyone who enters (meaning you need someone like a tank or someone with resist buffs, phase shift, etc)


Have a mission where healing skills (defenders, controllers, anyone with medicine) saves a victim with their healing powers.


Let's have some more missions where brute force is not the only answer. In the above examples, each problem can be overcome using more than one skill/power/tactic.

As the game stands on live, every mission is accomplished by dealing damage. That's it. Every mission today is right up a blaster's or scrapper's alley. What about a mission that is right up a defender's alley or a controller, or a tank?

CoH can be much more than just a 3rd person shooter.
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Awesome ideas. Anything that can help take us away from "Kill first, sort em out later" mentality is good. We're super heroes after all, not everything can be solved by nuking someone. Not all of us are the Punisher or Spawn.

Would it be possible just to select if we want a team based mission every time? I realize that it would require you guys to code an alternate team-based mission for every non-team based mission, but my SG would erect golden idols to all of you dev's if you did something like this.

Too bad. A lot of creative and well-done work swept away with but a brush of the mighty hand of Mod.

I hope at the very least you guys make a note of some of the better work and try to purchase rights to use it. There's some fantastic stuff out there that Cryptic would be silly to ignore.