MrCaptainMan
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Posts
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Joined
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As a mostly solo and very small team oriented player, I encounter situations in CoH more often than I'd like to to where I end up bemoaning the fact that a pure solo path isn't viable.
The most recent example of this is with the Drowning In Blood trial. I haven't done it, and my 2 SG-mates weren't ingame, so i joined the LFG just to see how long it would take. About 10 mins later I got the callup, accepted, and found myself in a team of 4 strangers. I wasn't the leader. I said in chat that I hadn't done it before, and the other non-leader members said that it was their first time too. I asked if we could do it slowly-ish so that I could read the blurb etc, and the leader apparently agreed. The team leader had done it before. The first instruction i saw was 'Speak to the commander for instructions', so i followed the team over to him and clicked him. The only option i got was 'never mind'. The instructions had changed to defeat something or other. I commented on how I was a tad disappointed with not being able to read the blurb as I wasn't the leqader, adn the leader replied 'cool story bro'.
I quit.
I have 2 SG-mates, so we'll be able to do it ourselves slowly as long as one of us is the leader, and we get a fourth. That fourth will be welcome, of course, and we're not going to be arsehats about it, but tbh interms of our enjoyment of the gamne, he or she will be unnecessary and we'll essentially just be viewing him or her as a bot to pad the numbers. We use Skype while we play, and if left entirely to our own devices we'd be stopping to chat about stuff while we play through the content where we are able. I don't know if DiB has any timelimits which would prohibit that behaviour, but as it stands, the game is forcing either us to alter our preferred playstyle, or the fourth member to just stand around waiting while we have a chinwag. Which is a shame, but it is a (minor) negative aspect of the forced team minimums that stil exist in parts in CoH.
That said, 'forced teaming' does form only a fairly small part of the CoH experience. Overall, it's an extremely flexible game.
And awesome.
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With apologies to Katy Perry (and click that link if you want to sing along with the tune
)
Deicide was never in my plan,
I’d only just unlocked my Alpha!
Heather Townshend and Mu’ Vorkhan
Kinda pushed me at it.
It’s not what I’m used to
I don’t even solo EBs!
But Talons and the Tsoo
Proved fairly easy!
I killed a God, and I liked it
The feel of his evil insides
I killed a God, just to try it
I hope Hero Corps don’t find out
It felt so wrong it felt so right
Don’t mean I’m T4 tonight
I killed a God and I liked it
Time to grind it
Even if the arc rewards blow chunks
It doesn’t matter
I just pwned in Ancient Rome
Romulus, back atcha!
It’s not what heroes do
Not ‘there should be another way’
But no Avatar means no Confuse
Haha-I finally get to say
I killed a God and I liked it
Check it out he’s got a giant pelvis
I killed a God just to try it
Now I’m feelin’ like I’m frikkin’ Elvis!
It felt so wrong it felt so right
This is my idea of a boss fight
I killed a God and I liked it
Time to grind it
That Mot thinks he’s so magical
All spikes and teeth and rituals
All nom nom noms and eating souls
Like Ice Mistral and Kadabra
It’s a big deal I’m really pii-ii-ii-issed!
I killed a God and I liked it
The God-killer sword in my hand
I killed a God, and while solo
I didn’t need no raid to do it
It felt so epic so badass
But don’t mean I’ve unlocked Judgement
I killed a God and I liked it
Time to grind it
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Isn't there a mission in the new DA that requires you to go to Cimerora?
If your 50 has never done Monty's arc, do you need to stop saving the world from the God of Death and do it before you can continue?
That's mildly silly.
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I played the hell out of the I22 DA content on Beta so although it's v v cool indeed (apart from idrop rates), it going live hasn't excited me a load because of that. I was however looking forward to Beast Mastery and Staff Fighting, so hopefully they'll arrive soonish.
Overall, though, it's a pretty cool issue.
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Seems a bit off of them to put the Beast Mastery set in their (v cool) Issue 22 launch video and not put it in the issue.
But yay, issue 22!
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Quote:I like the way you think lol.Originally Posted by Sapphic_Neko
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Quote:Originally Posted by Valandir
I wouldnt mind some recluse webbing
wait... recluse spiders don't make webs.
oh dear, coffee and dirty mind on the loose.
Is that a picture of Mr Bean?
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AH, then I guess I can retract my 'my bad' response then lol.
Anyway, I'm very glad they've sorted it out by now. Very nice work on these Vig-> Vill and Rogue-> Hero tips.
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When the alignment system was introduced, I loved the tips and the Hero/Vig choices a hero could make in paragon. I felt they were pretty cool in depicting the slide from heroism to Vigilanteism. When I turned Rogue in Beta, however, I was disappointed to see that when i went forth to the Rogue isles to take my vigilante to the heart of evil, the tips that dropped only had villainous choices. I wanted to continue being a vigilante in the RI. I didn't bother continuing, and when it hit live, as i didn't have any real reason to move my hero over to full Villain, i likewise didn't bother going beyond Vig, and that was on my main, to get the RI explo badges and some defeats.
Recently, i decided to take him through Vig into Vill and then Rogue and back to hero, to get the badges.
I was pleasantly surprised to find the actual 'Villainous' tip missions that a Vig gets to do in the RI are all, from a stroyline point of view, vigilante missions. My vigilante's aim in them all is actually to do good, even though they are dubbed 'villainous' by the mechanics.
In fact, the 'villainous' tip missions a Vig gets in the RI are exactly what I wanted my Vig to do!
Likewise, after becoming a villain and doing the actual villainous missions to get the badges, and then picking Rogue choices, the 'reluctant hero' atmosphere is very well depicted IMO. And when my character, now a Rogue, went to paragon, the 'hero' tip missions he got were all very nice tales showing him trying to do stuff for purely selfish reasons only to be cajoled or otherwise mildly conned into the greater good.
I realise that my initial disappointment was pretty much solely caused by the titling of the tips rather than the actual narrative content, which i should have played through before making up my mind.
My bad.
I realise now that my vigilante could stay in the Rogue isles, doing essentially vigilante activities endlessly, if he chose to dismiss the morality mission.
Doh.
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Quote:I'm going to save ME1,2 and 3 (and 4, 5 and 6 if they happen) until i retire. I hear they need a bit of commitment, and I can't be bothered right now.Originally Posted by Bill Z Bubba
For the record, I'll be on CoH on the 6th. Think I'll hold off on ME3 until it hits steam.
Ah, I remember the days when i could play a Final Fantasy game for a week without leaving my flat...
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Fantastic work, Dink. I'm sold already.
The bubble helmet with a choice of heads inside is amazing.
Don't let this dev go, NCSoft. She's a keeper.
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Quote:It's possible to get Efficiency Expert in Ouro. I got it yesterday.Originally Posted by Roderick
A chance to fail is fine, IF there's an oppurtunity to try again.
Trials (the original kind) were only differentiated from Task Forces by a chance to fail. Some (like the respec trial) make you restart the failed mission. Others just outright fail and you have to start over.
Most failable missions cost you nothing more than the end-of-mission rewards. This is fine by me.
Incarnate trials can be failed, and doing so costs the entire league their potential rewards. This sucks, but it can be retried, so I don't mind.
Things where failing once means that you will never get that reward are not cool in my book. Yes, I'm talking about you, Efficiency Expert Pither. They annoy me so much that I've never even attempted Pither's badge, even though I've had several people tell me how easy it is, even though I'm fully IO'd out with T3/4 Incarnate abilites, even though my girlfriend got it by accident when she didn't even know the badge existed, just because I know that if I do try for it, there's a chance that I may have a hiccup in my Internet, or a power failure, or a lag spike, and fail a mission, losing the badge. In my mind, not having the badge, but having the chance to get it later is better than losing the one and only chance to get it ever.
There's a few other newer badges that I would look at the same way, like Vincent Ross's for doing the side missions in his arc, or the Hero one for rescuing cops in a burning building. Screw those up and lose the badge. But those ones are in Ouroboros, so I can try again - so they don't bother me.
Short version: Failable is fine. Failable with no chance to ever try again is bad.
Eco
EDIT: My bad, I didn't, I just got it normal, I remember now. I've been soing flashbacks to get the villainn stature badges on my recently turned ex-hero, and I got confused with that.
It was very very easy to get, however. I sped through every mission, never even got close to being worried about running out of time. A Mapserver dc isn't plannable-for, of course, I see what you mean there. -
Swimming a hundred meters is challenging-for a 5-yr old. I don't think most adults would say that swimming 100 meters is particularly challenging, however.
The trials are like that. GG is wrong.
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FW is, overall, overcast.
The new DA is constantly stuck at night.
I'd love a sunny, tropical even, zone that doesn't depress me just flying around it.
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Quote:I'll probably just continue playing as normal, tbh.Originally Posted by Comicsluvr
We have a double xp weekend coming up next month (the first I'll be able to enjoy in a while). I'm planning on leveling several lowbies that have gotten stuck in ruts as well as pushing for 50 on one toon.
How do YOU use your time on double xp weekends? Do you level the lowbies, push on to 50 or something in between?
Although i might go as far as sticking to my highest sub-50 toon, I guess i might as well make use of the extra boost towards 50.
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Quote:This is my preferred playstyle, tbh, but I did meander through the DA content with a fresh 50 Stalker, clearing all in every mission, and at the end, I had one T2 in Alpha. In ordeer to continue 'meandering', I'd need to park her there and wait for more solo-friendly incarnate content to come out.Originally Posted by Chase_Arcanum
Well, you could forget about speeding to a top that hold nothing else to do (except go back through the content you sped through initially) and just meander through the game, enjoying where the journey takes you...
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Quote:The way he describes it, though, grinding the DA arcs via speed-running seems to be even less fun than grinding the trials isOriginally Posted by Golden Girl
He's just hit +2 in eleven days - so he seems to be getting faster.
He got a current average of 1 shift every 5.5 days - and there's still 10 days left to get the 3rd before the 3 weeks are up.
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I ran Heather's arc myself, tens of times, trying to help with the drop rates reporting, and it is extremely easy to solo in about 10-15 mins, depending on Travel power and Damage output, but after your first run through of all the DA arcs, you can only do it once a day, so its short timescale is moot, really. If it took a half hour, it wouldn't give any slower or faster overall iProgress.
The only way a DA arc would take longer than they already do to dole out rewards is if they added one that took 20hrs+ to complete
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Quote:You keep saying this whilst conbeniently forgetting the doubling up of rewards first time through before the time-gating activates. The second and subsequent T3s will take longer.Originally Posted by Golden Girl
One level shift a week seems pretty reasonable progress for a solo path.
Your math is generally poor, I notice. Mime is too, which is why I recorded this data. I recommend that folk like us note things down so that we have evidence to support our opinions on things. Otherwise we're just flapping our lips and making air-noises!
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Quote:Well said. My GFs wardrobe is three times the size of mine.Originally Posted by Zombie Man
Not with things like armor sets or uniforms.
But more so with street clothes and historical clothes, then yes. Women get numerically more. Because woman usually wear more. Women layer more. Women have more diverse styles. Men just don't (usually) wear all the extra stuff women wear: shawls, belly shirts, corsets, skirts, etc...
Take skirts,e.g. Men have kilts. Women have dozens of styles of skirts. But they both get battle skirts (e.g., Valkyrie or Roman). What rankles me is that men don't have shorts. But when men do get shorts, there's no need for a dozen styles.
The comedian Elaine Boozler tells this joke in her stage act about how men and women differ and to show how they differ, she claims men won't even get this joke: "I was shopping with my boyfriend and I said I needed a new pair of black pants. And he said you already have a pair of black pants." The women in the audience laughed because they got the joke. If you don't get the joke, then you should back out this debate, because you just don't get how differently women actually use clothing in reality.
Just compare the average woman's closet to a man's closet. Woman have more costuming needs. And that's a fact.
Thus, forcing an equality based on simple numerical equity is just wrong.
And this is me making this argument who was spearheading the gender bias charge for years here. It's not about numbers.
I'm happy to say she's got quite a few corsets, too
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Quote:Well since you can only get one component per day in DA, that gives Bill 56 components in 56 days, plus any crafted from thread drops and astral/emp conversion. How many components does it take to T4 everything? I'm not near my pc now or I'd check.Originally Posted by Golden Girl
You will - or you'll be close
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After my experience with Casey and my knowledge of the DA progress rates I'll be playing the DA solo content once on my 50s for the story, which is really very good, and then grinding through trials for the actual incarnate progression. Forced reaming wins again.
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Quote:I like you, Chad, but this just sounds a bit dog-in-the-manger and Scroogey. You've still got what you always had with the Gunslinger Pack. When it came out first, were you saying 'this doesn't havbe enough Male or Huge costume pieces'?Originally Posted by Chad Gulzow-Man
The part where it's not fair to those of us with a stable of predominantly male characters, and my $5 only buys my favorite characters 1 costume when it'll buy someone else 2, and we paid for the exact same thing...?
If not, then what's your beef? Dink did it for free in her lunchbreaks or whatever.
As for stealing dev time, look at it this way: This action has given NC more revenue, since quite a few posters here incl me are now buying said pack when we hadn't before. More revenue = more stuff for us all in the future.
It's an investment!
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Quote:Ah, then even without anything slotted in any incarnate slots, the bar for the BAF must be low enough for it not to matter, as i always got a component.Originally Posted by PowerLeveler
There is no such thing as "participation matrix." There is a single bar. If you participate enough to clear the bar, you get an entirely random reward table* and if you don't participate enough to clear the bar you get 10 threads. Threads and iXp gained from defeating mobs were set up to be distributed evenly among the entire league in the half issue that came after trials first launched.
*Unless you're in the UG trial then you get a rare or very rare because that trial blooooooows.
Unless the bar is different for every trial dependent on the group performance?
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Quote:It wasn't hard at all tbh. I usually play for about 2-3 hrs per dAy anyway, on average, which is what it works out at. The downtime was largely minimal, especially if I was just happy to BAF BAF BAF.Originally Posted by Tenzhi
It would take me around 15 days of playing to get around to that many Trials run on one character. Which would in turn probably take me 5 weeks minimum to get around to (more likely 10+ weeks). If I could stay focused on the goal for that long.
The worst thing about it was the repetitiveness, especially of the BAFs and sLAMS, but that was heavily tempered by the fact that they're incredibly easy by now.
Eco