MrQuizzles

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/e would kill for Nictus VEATs.

Seriously. They took the evil Kheldians and made them heroes. WTF.

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Well, the Kheldians were added with Issue 3, a good 9 months before CoV came out.

I can definitely see why they wouldn't let trial users make their own missions ('cause it would take up a huge amount of space on their server), but I really don't see why you can't run player-created missions.

Maybe they're worried about ratings fraud but can't simply not let you rate stuff? I'unno, but I agree that they shouldn't direct you to it if you can't play any of it.

Strange that you'd need special heat spreaders for a macbook pro. The heat spreaders manufacturers put on RAM these days is just for show. They're not in any way needed, nor have they ever been.

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Wait, what?


Destroyed?


I don't see no smoking craters in the ground.

Oh wait... the EXPLOIT got destroyed. Yeah it blowed up reeeal good, din'nit?

Sorry for your loss, brah. Now suck it up and play, or not, your choice.

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actually what i think he was remarking about is the fact mobs got harder. which they did. Unless you somehow consider darkest night a better move to give minions than tar patch. >_>

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I'd rather have my ToHit Debuffed than have that much -res put on me.

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Intangibility(and Cage powers, but that's a whole other issue)... Yes I know there are only 2 powers that use the effect, and I know people generally hate them, but why deny set bonuses to the few people who actually take (and possibly even use) those powers?

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Cage and foe intangibility are the same thing, so there's actually 4 powers that use that effect. I think people mostly slot them for recharge and perhaps accuracy, though. Most people probably couldn't tell you what intangibility enhancements even do. It would be incredibly low priority, and the sets would be pretty much ignored.

I would change quite a lot of electric blast. I would ditch the strange pillars of squiggly blue lines we have now in favor of very short, very bright, brilliant arcs that have a bit of a lingering effect.

It should be possible to do with shaders, though who knows if the game's engine would allow you to tie the effect to the power.

I would make this change because electricity is not blue squiggly lines.

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The problem is getting the physics effects to be rendered identically across all players. Right now, all physics bits are done locally and then the actual position of the object is later aligned to what the server says.

It usually comes out to about the same thing, but there's no guarantees, unfortunately. Lag or deficient hardware can verily mess with it and ruin one's BRB experience.

It pretty much can't be done for the same reason that everyone sees different objects being thrown by Propel.

[/ QUOTE ]So when I smash the gate off the frame near Sister Psyche in IP, and kick it around the street for a while, no one else sees that?

<pout>

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Nope, only you see it. The server doesn't keep track of its location. When it comes into view for a certain player, it spawns for that player where it should. If you have interactions with it after that time, then they'll see you hit it, but there's no guarantee that their client's calculations will match up with your own.

The problem is getting the physics effects to be rendered identically across all players. Right now, all physics bits are done locally and then the actual position of the object is later aligned to what the server says.

It usually comes out to about the same thing, but there's no guarantees, unfortunately. Lag or deficient hardware can verily mess with it and ruin one's BRB experience.

It pretty much can't be done for the same reason that everyone sees different objects being thrown by Propel.

If you become mezzed while the animation for switching into Dwarf Form is playing, you will stop switching into Dwarf Form and remain mezzed in human form.

This is quite annoying as you're supposed to be able to switch into Dwarf Form while mezzed.

One mistake I noticed was with Howling Twilight. Magnitude 2 only stuns up to minions, not lieutenants.

I'll update this post as I find things. I'm just reading through it now, but I know I'll forget by the time I reach the end.

Edit: Good guide.

Heh, my opinion on oppressive gloom is a bit different, but that's perhaps because I have experience as a Dark/Rad, and I'm always sitting in melee sticking my tongue out at the enemies saying "you can't hit me."

A note about Black Hole, you CAN phase AVs with it. They actually don't have any special protection against phase, the PTOD don't cover it. Of course, Black Hole means you'll get everything else along with it, so it's not really optimal.

My opinion on Petrifying Gaze is also different, but again: Dark/Rad. I have a love affair with Cosmic Burst, so I find P-Gaze to be both redundant and terrible.

I am making a guide to Dark/Rad, and it's interesting how things differ with just the change in secondary. I'm sure you'll agree once you see how I view and use the set.

Ok, I finally got around to modifying the spreadsheet to account for what happens to enemy ToHit/Accuracy after +5, so it's now 100% accurate on that account. I also tweaked any values in it that were found to be incorrect.

Features:
-This spreadsheet will automatically calculate final accuracy for a wide range of enemy levels based on what defense and ToHit debuffs you have. You can use this to get a good idea of how a theoretical defense or debuff-based build will fare.

-The sheet will automatically adjust debuff values according to the level adjustment and inherent resistance that higher ranking foes have (AV resistances are assumed to be 85%).

-There is a player character ToHit calculator that will tell you your accuracy against varying levels of foes given your accuracy buffs.

-The sheet also holds the values for power effectiveness and PC ToHit against varying enemy levels and can calculate how the effects of a power are scaled against them.

-It also includes a basic recharge calculator that will calculate the modified recharge of a power given the base recharge and any buffs.

The sheet comes in .xls format. If you don't have Excel or any other spreadsheet program, then try out OpenOffice.org. OpenOffice.org is a free and open-source alternative to MSOffice.
You can download the sheet here.

The sheet was originally composed by Ladioss_Sopp and later picked up and edited by me.

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I think this may be close to what pohsyb's comment meant, but only the man himself could say for certain.

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I saw the ToHit buff from Dark Nova was 7.5% and decided it wasn't worth putting a tohit IO there at level 10.

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I saw that the endurance recovery buff was only .25% and decided to switch over to ToHit buffs.

I want Thunder Thighs

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We have lots of room to grow, check out our Jobs listing: Jobs at NC Norcal in Mountain View!

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Aw, I'm painfully close to meeting the requirements for Jr. Software Engineer or Game Engineer. I'm just a bachelor's degree in Computer Science away (rather, half of one...3 semesters left >.< I swear I can do that other stuff)


I need to find a Computer Science major and eat his brain to gain his knowledge, it's the only way!

...I hear linear algebra is quite tasty.

Look, if you're going to necropost, at least be traditional and do my post about Black Hole that Geko responded to. I believe it's called "Black Hole is still broken!" or somesuch.

I was proved wrong, it wasn't broken, it merely sucked.

I enjoy it, yes.

Oooh, can we reduce the recharge time for Dark Consumtpion in the Dark Mastery APP for Defenders, too?

I mean, it's great and all, but the recharge is 4 minutes.

Bah, I was the first Dark/Rad defender! Well...probably not, but there's actually a decent chance I'm the one that's been around the longest, since June 8th '04. I'm glad you made a guide because I wasn't about to even though I'm sure I've recounted this information countless times.

I honestly couldn't tell you about the Dark/Rad low game right now, actually. I've been lvl 50 going on two years now...things have changed a very, very lot.

Anyways, I think you're a touch optimistic with a few things. Or perhaps I'm a touch pessimistic (or bitter). Let's let other people decide on that.

A few errata/things I thought are worth mentioning:

Twilight Grasp: Don't forget the regen debuff, it's a very important part of the power. I couldn't have soloed all those AVs without it.

Tar Patch: It's a 30% resistance debuff and has been ever since Tar Patch got its -res in Issue 4.

Darkest Night: It's painfully true. Darkest Night's ToHit debuff is only 18%.

Shadowfall: You forgot to mention the rule when slotting Shadowfall- For every defense enhancement you put in Shadowfall, I'll kill you.

Petrifying Gaze: 10 second duration, 16 second recharge. It's actually the worst hold in the game outside of Patron/Ancillary power pools. It's still useful, though. I'm just bitter since it was nerfed in I5. It used to be one of the best holds in the game, period.

Dark Servant: I don't know why people keep saying that Dark Servant's Darkest Night is single-target. It is functionally identical to ours (believe me, I have received much aggro from it, especially that one time his anchor fell all the way down the Sewer Trial...that wasn't pretty). He turns it on and off at, I think, 18 second intervals.

Electron Haze has a 25% chance of knockback. I think it's worthwhile to note that it does more damage, costs less endurance and recharges faster than Irradiate.

Cosmic Burst: The disorient is exactly as long as the recharge. Always slot at least one recharge or one disorient enhancement depending on which you prefer.

Neutron Bomb: It doesn't quite do X-ray beam damage. Its damage is equal to exactly 1.5 Neutrino Bolts, making it pretty weak. It's still a very good ranged AoE power.

The hold on Atomic Blast lasts exactly as long as the -recovery it puts on you (10 seconds). The hold is unenhanceable, but Power Buildup and Accolades can increase the duration.


As for epics, I chose Dark Mastery. Why Dark Mastery? Two words: Soul Drain.

Dark/Rad is the perfect combo for just planting yourself in the middle of a massive group and using Soul Drain. Multiply that buff by Tar Patch's -resistance, and you're dealing crazy damage with 3 solid AoE attacks.

As for other Dark/Rad defenders that I've seen, I've seen 3 lvl 50s other than myself on Infinity. I know for a fact that one doesn't play any more, and I have no idea about the others. I used to see one on a regular basis, but haven't in a while. I saw the 3rd one only once ever.

It's certainly not a popular combo, and I can't imagine why.

I also remember when capes were first put on test. They had a few problems:

1. The cape mission was incredibly hard, and very few people could manage it solo (I managed it with my newly-ungimped Dark/Rad defender)

2. The lucky people who did complete the cape mission couldn't afford it since influence didn't transfer over to test.

I still can't believe that people complained about the smoke grenade "nerf". Some people just couldn't understand why the devs wouldn't want a Blaster Secondary power to be the strongest tohit debuff in the game, being 3 times as powerful as the second strongest, which resided in a Defender Primary set.

Rezzing people for 1HP with the old Howling Twilight. It used to suck (see my prior post about the old dark miasma).

Yeah, then it was "Where are the lost in Kings Row?" Now I don't know what it is people ask for in KR.

Back in my day, Dark Miasma sucked, missions were frontloaded, and missions gave but a fraction of the xp they do now.

Uphill both ways.

Um...maybe? I didn't make that part of the sheet, Ladioss_Sopp did. Try looking at the formulas that are encoded into the sheet to see what you can figure out if you're any good with that stuff.

We didn't know the correct accuracy formula for sure back when he made it (this sheet was originally made way back in I3 or possibly earlier), so it might be wrong. I'll have a look at it and make any changes if necessary (don't have the time to atm).

Good stuff. Now it's time for a shameless plug for the Issue 7 Spreadsheet!

Simply open the sheet up with MS Excel or other spreadsheet program and enter any defense buffs or tohit debuffs into cells L4 and M4 respectively. The buff/debuff values should be a percentile (ex: 51 as opposed to .51 to represent 51%). The sheet will then calculate the final accuracies of enemies of all ranks and levels up to + or - 5.*

The sheet also includes PC ToHit and power effectiveness tables as well as Healing and HP Tables for the CoH ATs.

To use the healing table on sheet2, simply enter the AT name in cell K6 and enter the value of the heal (as a percentage of HP) in K3, then enter any enhancement values into cell L6. Column H will give you base healing amount, and Column I will give you modified healing amount.

*The +6 through +10 numbers may be suspect. Statesman once said that the scaling would stop after +5, but the math behind it is unknown. Whether defense even stops it scaling after +5 is unknown at this point. If anyone can provide some numbers detailing what happens at that level, please PM me so I can add it to the sheet.

The sheet was originally composed by Ladioss_Sopp, then later revised by me.

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I dunno why people brought it back, but the pure number of people who wanted it to be (and those who honestly thought it was the mimes) kind of scares me... >.>

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Hey, we've got Carnies. I'd love it if they had a subdivision of mimes!

They can't control them.