Mr_Remarkable

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To you guys the buff isn't worthwhile (too low, doesn't last long enough, too expensive when stacked), and that's fine. For us it's a buff we didn't have before, and if we're smart about when/how we use it...

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I understand you're trying to be grateful, and that's an excellent attitude, but as they're currently implemented, these stations do nothing but offer false hope.

The buffs as they stand are too weak to make any sort of tangible difference in a battle. You can give yourself 5% resistance to one damage type, about 2.5% increase in speed, or some small amount of resistance to a specific type of mez (which only affects the duration of the mez, not the magnitude).

One application of any of these "buffs" is completely unnoticable, but multiple applications would be too costly to be worthwhile, and the stacking ability doesn't even work.


I've got my fingers crossed that Positron is remembering an old design of the Empowerment stations that allowed stacking, but was later scrapped in favor of the temp power idea. Temp powers are preferable because they'll persist for the specified period of in-game time even through death. Maybe the first design had powers "cast" on you when you spent the salvage, which would necessitate the lower individual values. "Cast" buffs from different sources (like multiple characters or multiple empowerment stations) can stack with each other. Hopefully this is the case, and the buff values just need to be changed to non-stacking strength.

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Multiple empowerment stations will stack the buffs that are offered (by design). If we made the buffs as good as players "expect" right out the gate, they'd be WAY too good when stacked.

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I just tested this on the test server. I have a base with 6 empowerment stations (one of each tier for tech and arcane) and I created an Increase Run Speed buff. I got the buff the first time, but every successive time I tried to create the same buff at another station I got a message saying there was no room in inventory.

I noticed this same thing months ago, but I thought it was by design. It was never mentioned anywhere that we were expected to stack these buffs for them to be useful. I'm irritated that we weren't TOLD how we were supposed to properly use these stations.

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Multiple empowerment stations will stack the buffs that are offered (by design). If we made the buffs as good as players "expect" right out the gate, they'd be WAY too good when stacked.

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But... why make them stackable in the first place?


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Well, while they could no doubt code them to not stack - it would go against the game's basic structure of "It (almost, see FF or Sonic bubbles for the main exceptions) always stacks".

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No, it wouldn't.

The Empowerment Station buffs are passive temp powers. This is the ONLY time in the entire game where you can "stack" multiples of the same temp power. You can't buy multiple jet packs from the arena, or multiple IR goggles at one time from Siren's Call, can you?

Are you really going to spend 50 Tech Material, 15 Tech Hardware, 15 Tech Prototype, 5 Tech Software, plus the salvage cost of FIVE of the 3rd tier empowerment stations just to get 25% psionic resistance for 15 minutes?

Just change the design so you can't stack the buffs, then make the buffs worthwhile. It's maddening that the stations were watered down to such impotence to encourage stacking.

More feedback:

Today I copied my main hero to test multiple times to get enough salvage to buy the top tier empowerment station in the hopes that the top tier station would provide stronger buffs.

5% Psionic Resistance for 15 minutes costs the following:
10 Tech Material
03 Tech Hardware
03 Tech Prototype
01 Tech Software

There will never, EVER, be a time on any conceivable character where this will be a worthwhile purchase. This is sheer insanity. 17 components, most of which require rare salvage, just to get less of an effect than an orange inspiration will give you?

No thanks.

It's useless to argue about the delivery method for these buffs if the buffs themselves are going to be so underwhelming.

C'mon, devs. What's the deal?

Can anyone tell me where the mission contacts are in RV? Level 50 heroes are supposed to be able to do PvP missions in RV so they can earn the badges, right?

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So... how is THE Blue Shield (Trainer in King's Row) associated with the "blue shield" PPD?

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It's Blue Steel.

"So the commissioner called in a number of favors with local heroes, including the former policeman Blue Steel, and a city-wide manhunt was undertaken."

From:
Gears, ratchets, sockets, and springs.

cheers,
Arctic Sun

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I really hope he shows up in a mission soon, because that'll mean the devs are working on Shield powers.

Well, the patch notes now say Kheldians can use these buffs while in their forms. THANK YOU DEVS!

Now I can start some serious testing with my most familiar character to see how useful these things can be.

The devs could have just created Salvage Deleting Stations to let small SGs do something with their salvage if they weren't concerned with getting something worthwhile back.

I like the implementation, but even if nothing else changes, the buffs need to be about 5 times as powerful as they are right now. They're temp powers, so they can't be stacked. One application has to be noticable.

I think a 25% resistance buff to one damage type or a 25% speed increase would be a nice, useful buff. I still wouldn't use the mez buffs, because Break Frees trump them in almost every regard.

They're just not good enough to even qualify as buffs right now. 5% resistance to 1/8th the damage types a 1st tier orange inspiration can resist? Less of a travel boost than Swift/Hurdle? Mez empowerments that affect duration instead of magnitude and are separate per mez type?

No thanks.

These stations are completely unattractive to me as they stand. The Run Speed and Jump Speed buffs are practically non-existant, and the other buffs are significantly worse than the 1st level inspirations you can buy from your contacts.

I just don't understand why these buffs are so weak, considering it's absolutely impossible to stack them. You can only have one of a specific temp power at a time, after all.

On top of all that, and I apologize in advance for repeating what I've already said and /bugged, these buffs do not work in Kheldian forms.

I truly hope this is not the strength these stations are released with. I wouldn't want some well-meaning SG member to waste their salvage building one of these things without knowing better.

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I've gone and lowered the costs of all the Empowerment buffs. There was a bug where the data was seeing Tier 2 Salvage (created by the Tier 1 salvage you collect) as Tier 1 quantities, i.e. the player would have a lot more of it.

The new Empowerment costs should be much more in line with what you guys were thinking. Sorry.

This will get up to the training room in the next major patch.

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Awesome, Positron. Any word on whether or not Kheldians can use these buffs while in Nova and Dwarf form?

That's kind of a deal breaker for me.

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But what I don't understand is all the complaining that is happening. Too many people complaining this won't help a small SG...Why does it have to? Individual flats will be coming out at some point in the future...why does a SG base have to be geared to a small casual group?

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They have to help small SGs because that's what they were designed for. The devs have been saying for months that Empowerment Stations were specifically developed to give small SGs something to do with their salvage.

The "complaining" is all based on the feeling that small SGs can't really benefit from these stations with the current buff prices.

Each buff takes at least 9 components. Each component takes at least 3 salvage. So, at a minimum, a player needs 27 pieces of salvage to get one of the cheapest buffs.

Let's be generous and give salvage a 1:20 drop rate (5%), and assume a player will only get the exact salvage they need for a buff. 540 mobs later you can create a buff that makes you wake up sooner after being mezzed by Sleep effects for 15 minutes.


Now, to be fair, I haven't tested the exact percentages of damage resistance provided by some of the better buffs, but unless they're upwards of 50%, they're not worth it.

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No, they are not temporary powers .... they are Buffs ....

IE you have flight, so you can use an Increase Flight Speed Buff ...to do just that ....

I hope I can create my own level 50 HO's :P LOL!

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They're passive temp powers that expire after 15 minutes of game time.

You can't stack them, because you can't have two of the exact same power.

The powers need to work in Nova and Dwarf form, and the costs need to be drastically reduced. Buying a temp power in Siren's Call is way better than using these stations right now.

Empowerment Station buffs don't work in Nova or Dwarf form for Kheldians. I do most of my fighting in Nova form, and if I'm going to need some extra help, that's the form I'll need it in. I know temp powers can work in Nova and Dwarf form, so these need to be fixed.

Also, I was disappointed that with all the salvage I've saved up since I6, all I could get out of the station was ONE buff of Fear Resistance, Slow Resistance, Knockback Protection, or Knockback Enhancement. Maybe I just had bad luck with my salvage, but it seems like all the good buffs are too expensive to be used more than once an Issue. What's the point?

Doesn't mez resistance just lower the duration of mez powers? It'd be much more useful if these buffs provided mez protection.

More later.

Nothing about the horrendous recharge times on all the good powers, eh?

Three slotting Glue Arrow with recharge SOs just so you can use it once a fight is horribly wasteful for a 3rd tier power.

And weren't you going to look at Entangling Arrow to try to at least make it as good as Web Grenade?

Positron, will we have any fast way of getting to our base once we realize we need these buffs, or are we expected to die?

I'd love some sort of craftable emergency transporter power that acts like I just clicked on a Base Portal, even if I'm inside a mission.

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What does this tell us? The risk/reward is ALREADY out of whack for most Giant Monsters, and now the developers are making them HARDER?!?!?

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Yes, they're making them harder, which means they'll have an increased reward. Right now there's no incentive to fight a Giant Monster if you already have the badge. Since the novelty has worn off of the Hero monsters, it's hard to find a team willing to risk the debt.

I think the Giant Monster change is long overdue. They made AVs worth the risk, and now they'll do the same for GMs.

Basically, I just love guaranteed sources of level 53 SOs

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Was the "45-50" a quote from a redname, or was that an assumption for the new zone? I keep hearing all kinds of speculation, but no hard data.

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Positron just said it about a dozen posts ago in this very thread.

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Recluse's Victory in Issue 7 is a level 45 to 50 PvP Zone.

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I see, so the fact is that the zone will be impossible to use when the new patch is launched since it will take a week or two for the first villains to reach level 45. Thats very dumb I must say considering the other zones overlap, new content that heroes can get practice within before the first villain even sets foot inside. Especially since temp powers are involved.

Isn't this kinda like giving all the heroes free access to the warburg nukes only in a heroes vs villain zone? Great, so the heroes get all the perks weeks before villains trickle in.

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Heroes got a head start on Bloody Bay when CoV launched because there were no level 15 villains. Sure, it takes less time to get to 15 than it will from 40-45, but the precedent is there.

That being said, I still think it sucks, and it conflicts with the information we've been given previously.

Hey guys, remember when this was a badge question thread? Good times.

The whole World Wide Red storyarc is about how expensive the Kronos was to put together and how there were only two of them, which the heroes take out over the course of the arc.

I don't think we'll see another Kronos on the villain side just so we can get a badge.

This is only semi-related, but do you think we'll ever see more powers that affect range?

Off the top of my head, I think only Hurricane actually affects attack range. It'd be nice to have a defender buff or a power pool that would give you a range increase, or a debuff that did the opposite. I've got lots of damage/range Hamidon enhancers in my Dark Nova powers, and they make a huge difference. I think people overlook the power of increasing default range.

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Basically: if it was meant to be taken down by more than 1 team, it gives the badge. Mission versions are scaled down versions that are more like AV's, thus able to be defeated by a single team, and thus do not give the badge.

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You might need to buff Giant Monsters then. There's not one in the game that requires more than one team to defeat.

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Totally agreed. A team of 7 of us took out Lusca and all his tentacles with no outside help.

Not to mention the Synapse Task Force is designed to have a Giant Monster ambush you after leaving a door mission.

Could be, but I doubt it. You don't get a new "Badge Earned" message for the Transmogrified badge after you use your first respec, but you DO get a new "Badge Earned" message for Awarded the Freedom Cross. Transmogrified just means you've completed the trial at least once, while the individual Accolades keep track of which respecs you've used.

Like I said, there's probably a reason things are the way they are, but I wanted to throw the possibility out there for discussion.

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Actually, on CoH you do have two badges. The title and graphic is the same, but the text changes--before respec it says "your powers are changing", after respec it says "your powers have changed"

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CoH awards an Accolade badge for the respec itself (something like Awarded the Freedom Cross) which has a title that changes depending on if you've used the respec or not.

CoH ALSO awards an Accomplishment badge called Transmogrified which just says you've saved the Terra Volta reactor. You only get this badge the first time you do the respec.

Unless I'm mistaken, I don't think the Transmogrified badge changes after you respec. I think only the accolade is replaced with a post-respec version.

I could be wrong.

Thanks Positron. I have one question.

Since CoH and CoV badges are the same, why doesn't CoV have a version of the Transmogrified badge from CoH? You get that badge after completing the respec trial once (no matter which of the three incarnations you do), and it doesn't change no matter if you've used a respec or not. Why can't that badge be awarded to Villains and then have Arbiter Leery key off of Transmogrified?

It makes sense to me, but there must be a reason this isn't the way it's set up.

If I have to waste a respec just so I can do a couple missions to help pad out the empty 35-40 range, I'm going to be a sad brute