Neuronia

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I'm very happy about this change, but there's one thing that bugs me.

We can't store recipes in the Vault. If I get a freespec recipe and want to save it for a rainy day, I've got to lose a spot in my already limited recipe inventory.

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Just park it in a Wentworth's slot. Yes, it still takes a slot but it allows you carry one more recipe.

*Pulls out lowdrum and calls EvilGeko into the thread*

Great dev team, giving us what we want - within reason.

Thank you guys.

Oh, Positron.

Could you tell us what "level" the recipes are? For examples, costumes are level 1. Don't think it matters since anyone can use them, just curiosity...

I love villainside, I level soooooooo fast and there is so much content compared to heroside, and very little running around from zone to zone.

Only things I miss are the higher population and the lack of lag in certain zones (IE Grandville can get taxing at times).

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One more suggestion from me, and anyone who plays Counter-Strike: Source will see it's brilliance. In SG matches, when you observe what are you really looking for? To the average person they see fire being thrown but it looks very complicated as a lot of things are going on. My suggestion would simply remove all observers, and instead you are in looking at what exactly the person in the match see's. Let me explain, I'm Player A fighting Player B. Someone joins the match as an observer and immediatly see's my UI, my Power Trays, HP, and Inspirations. With a click of a button, they would switch to Player B's UI, Power Trays, HP, and Inspirations.

This would be very beneficial because then that observer, who may not know very much about PvP, could see what the basic movements are and how to play. Also, in the PvP SG Ladder, this could be shown to see who is using illegal inspiratiosn or to just get a better view of the match.

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Yes.

To a degree though this can already be done by FRAPSing your match and leaving the UI up. You'll see the Inspiration tray and what gets clicked and when.

I would do this in a minute on my Emp to be honest if I could get it running and it wouldn't explode my computer.

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Floyd Grubb?

*slight snicker*

Going to watch the video, once I can wipe the smile from my face.

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I seem to recall the name "Grubb" as relatively important in the role-playing world (Dungeons & Dragons). Any relation?

Nice clip by the way.

The event is fine.

People will complain for the sake of complaining, but it's fine.

You can get a variety of costume temps with little efforts and the spawns are fairly easy to manage.

Good work devs.

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Holy [censored] Elf stalker joined VORI, all you need now is Meldo and Twixt and its GG everyone else should just quit.



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I would lol if Twixt played and some was:

"I got TP Foed, wtf??!!"

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Really what she's asking IMHO isn't stifling or draconian. It's asking for posters to be constructive in the forums used to gather bug reports, suggestions, feedback, etc. Even criticism can be constructive, so long as it's not flamey.

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'No' and '/unsigned' are every bit as constructive and useful as 'yes' and '/signed'. Yet one can lead to banning, and the other seemingly does not.

Something is very wrong here.

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Ya think?

There are now 4 sections where users can completely circumvent the rules:

i)PWNZ, a section created entirely to flaunt and circumvent the rules. Hey, I love that as a pvper I'm above the law on thee forums! But what if you aren't? Why aren't you allowed the break the rules?

ii)Forum Games. Again, a litany of fluff posts with very little content meant to pad post counts. All in good fun, no harm done but not really necessary.

iii)The server forums: How many threads turn into +1, lol, qft, ec etc etc with very little content.

iv)Now a general swath through the forums where one cannot disagree but they can instead agree in curt terms.

I sincerly miss the days of Lighthouse's shining entrance into the forums where threads were locked, posts were edited and so on for content.

I had my first post Modded after close to three years of posting here recently. Not a happy occasion, but something I accept because I care about the rules.

Let's make sure those rules apply to everyone.

Noooo!

We need more villain backgrounders!

*Chains Arctic to chair*

Awww we'll miss you, I loved the backgrounders and your work with the Pargon Times...all the best and welcome to Canuckistan!

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So... if we can only create a door to the Ouroboros Citadel after we've been exposed to time travel, and we can only time travel by going to the Ouroboros Citadel, how do we get exposed to time travel in the first place?

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*Taps Sadako on shoulder*

*Dredges up ED, I9 Doom and MUO threads*

"See? It's like getting hit over the head all over again!"





(More seriously, I expect we'll need to do some of the actual content or speak with contacts to gain the ability, much like doing Levantera's arc gives us merits)

Anyone else notice that the Uniques did not include Defense, Damage Resistance or Healing?

Hmmm....

/e tinfoil hat

Nice article!

And for those that missed it, the Halloween event is noted as being from October 22 to November 4.

It is and here's why:

They added loot three years in. This is no small feat and it could have backfired dramatically. Instead, they put in a 'lootorial' in both games and made the system entirely unobtrusive.

In the same issue as this game-altering system we got the States TF and a reworked Hamidon for endgame content.

Now if that wasn't enough, Issue 10 gave us the Rikti War Zone and invasions to allow us to team hero-villain AND get another raid event in the Mothership Raid. MORE stuff for our upper level characters to do and more costume and story arc options.

Now, Issue 11 closes the year with new powersets, new 'costume' options (If you consider customization a costume option) and more content, old and new!

Oh and did we mention more loot? And the IO sets for debuff/buff?

I'm already not even close to down with I10 content and now more stuff?

Wow.

Yep NNY you are exactly right but I thin that the Devs, hardworking as they are, live in a vaccuum when it comes to PvP. I don't foresee any balance changes outside of IO modification in the near future unfortunately.

Damage classes should never have got status effects (outside of perhaps the taunt aura of tankers) on TOP of their high damage scales, and on top of that City Of doesn't patch in changes when things seem weighted in a certain direction until MUCH later, if at all.

Examples:

Dominators were underperforming, now many say they are overperforming. My Controllers would love a click that grants me mez protection and doubles my damage. That took what, 2-3 issues though?

Fire Blast for Blasters was given a deserved boost and is now the top dog but even that took a while...and then you hear _Castle_ say PvP changes won't affect PvE.

???

It doesn't have to at all. We've seen City of Data and powers have tags when they affect players (if target = player). Just play with those on your internal testing until you get some form of balance, either by boosting other sets to the level of EM or by creating new sets that can rival it.

Oh well, at least Arena play really is balanced

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...

So, it looks like everyone wants every AT to resist everything, and everyone to do 1 damage per hit so we have these long, epic, "fair" battles. But THEIR favorite AT is the exception; they get to do more damage.

I dunno. Though my mind/kin has fallen way too often to AS and EM/* characters. Oh, and Granite armor characters. But I'm not gonna cry for a nerf. I just accept the fact that I'm out-matched and try to avoid them. In fact, there have only been TWO times my controller ever did anything worthwhile in PvP: Held a dominator with TK... but i ran out of End before i could defeat him =( Then in RV, I confused an MM and her Spider-drone and laughed when the drone killed her. (In my defense, I only did that because she refused to kill me so i could get heavies faster)

Never taken my Fire/En into a pvp zone. Actually, i did take him into BB for a shivan... gonna go to warburg soon for nukes... but even despite everyone saying that I'll kill anyone with that power combo, I'm pretty sure any AT can kill me if they see me first. I certainly won't engage anyone unless I feel they're trying to take my scientist or launch codes.

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Nope.

I WOULD like an environment with some variety however...and I see it this way.

You don't see Superman or Wolverine get two-shotted when they're in a climactic fight, or Magneto. The fights go on for a while (several panels or several minutes) with a LOT of back and forth.

Why can't my superhero, of whatever AT, be able to stand up to damage from another player? These should be epic fights where we throw each other down and pound and exchange blows for a while before a winner is declared.

Instead, what we have are hyperbuffed Blasters and Defenders two-shotting people (hell sometimes one-shotting off Inferno DoTs) and the rest of us playing catchup.

Look, I LOVE the PvP in this game, it's the most fun PvP I have EVER seen and it's one of the reasons I am stiff subscribing...but would it really have killed the Devs to make us tougher toward each other? With all the IOs and buffs out there people drop FAST. That's great because it forces you into split-second decicions but...

...if MUO comes out and their PvP has a fair amount of back and forth and strategic play; if their fights last longer than a few seconds before I hit the floor, I'll definitely consider trying it out.

Very nice issue once again.

Posi is obviously the highlight.

What is "beer-can chicken"?

Also a bit surprised that they don't identify issue titles with pieces of literature! I thought that was a little 'metagame' with the players.

Also, rock on Lord Infamy. I also have a Plant/Thorns soon to be Mako, woot!

Great work!

PvP in this game is loads of fun but it's like the original Olympics really...spirit of competition and pure sport, no reward and no reason other than measuring yourself.

Which in the end, is just fine

Look at animation times for some powers...understand that some powers should be slower for power level purposes, but rooting in PvP is killer.

Reexamine unresisted debuffs/damage. It's fine to have a portion of damage/debuffs be unresisted, but when you pile on Power Boost/Power Buildup on top it reaches insane levels.
Perhaps just lower the % of unresisteds OR give Villains higher damage scales/better unresisted damage/debuffs.

Allow choosing arena maps to make matches more strategic and less 'luck of the draw'.

Have an actual PvP rep amongst the devs. With all due respect to _Castle_'s tons of work the "no changes to PvE because of PvP" is a copout.

Powers are coded to affect players <if target = player if target = critter> so modifying the <if target = player> scales could be done. So if my EF is reduced to 20% unresisted <if target = player> that does nothing to EF being used on a Boss or AV.


Perhaps limit the amount of stacking buffs/debuffs on one target.

I dunno, City of Heroes PvP is very fun and a rush to play, I'm going to keep doing it for a while but it would be nice if say...some builds fell out of favour and others ascended instead of the typical Rad/Psi - Ill/Emp - Fire/EM trifecta with the occasional Storm/Sonic teams.

I'd say PvP is in a good place right now but some tweaking and variety would be welcome.

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Ok, but I can't talk about Issue 11 or beyond... but that's pretty much what you guys WANT me to talk about so we are at an impass.

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Well actually there is lots you can talk about outside of Issue 11.

I'd love to know what you and the other Devs' favorite aspect of the game is...is it the costume customization, the array of powers, the freedom in slotting, the varied zones, etc?

Know it's hard to take a step back and look sometimes but enquiring minds want to know!

Only suggestions would be to shorten some of them heroside.

Quarterfield could stand to lose about 7-8 missions, Positron could lose 3-4 missions and Faathim could stand to lose 4-5 missions as well.

The Devs have progressed a lot in their task force design:

Lord Recluse: 5 missions
Statesman: 5 missions
Lady Grey: 5 missions

And those are pretty fun!

Take into account people's available powers when you add/modify task forces. Positron, for example, puts you at a point where you (probably) have a travel power but not all of the "Big 3" of Stamina, Swift/Hurdle and Health.

Not a lot of defeat all missions, a few timed missions are good too to impress that you need to get this done against the clock.

Manticore is one of the better old task forces. You have a few defeat alls, a delivery, two of the missions are ghostable and you have a few street sweeps culminating with a moderately tough AV. Can be done in under two hours.

Hess is also great, as is Silver Mantis.

Speaking of Silver Mantis...redside can use some love! One or two task forces would do us a lot of good.

Five stars!

Have fun with whomever NC and Cryptic send over there.
And tell us how it went, dear lord!

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I agree with the OP. PvP is the end game content in this game. The AI is rediculously predictable . The PvE content of this game is basically the same maps and the same enemies(all predictable) just with different texture skins and powers. One of the reasons there are always people PvEing is because you HAVE to PvE to get your toon to 50, so that you can then PvP. And the "PvP zones", they arn't really PvP zones, they are more PvPvE zones. Let them make a level 50 FFA zone with no PvE, I bet it would never be empty. And as a sick joke, they should put a 50 hour timer badge there.

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Absolutely.

PvP is a form of endgame content in this game and it certainly affords a fair amount of variety...but even there there is an amount of repetition and redundancy as you have your Fire/EM Blasters, your Ill/Emps, your cagers and so on...it basically comes down to whoever has the most practice, which is 100% cool!

As to the predictability aspect...I find it's a little humorous to read. Would we REALLY play a game where everything changed from one day to the next, where there was patching that altered powers every two days and where mobs gained and lost powers at a whim?

My pen and paper GM and I got into the discussion about facing the same mobs all the time in his game...he basically made the point that they were numbers dressed up with names and behaviours...Salamanders, Dragons, whatnot...this game dresses stuff up pretty well.

I've really gotten into test pvp lately thanks to a very supportive sg. It's LOADS of fun but after an hour or two of it I start getting bored and want to roll alts, design new costumes and run missions with my other friends.

If I'd known about PvP from day 1, I might have been different but there aren't enough of my live server friends that are interested (despite my entreaties) to make it worthwhile there.

Don't want to Necro post but I saw this great Plant/Thorns duelling on test and decided to give it a go myself...it seems as if there aren't a lot of outlets for Domination from the Secondary...which is why I took the Immob and Hold with the Immob from the Secondary as well.

Since I'll be building for PvP generally, I'll be grabbing SoC and skipping the AoE sleep and hold as well...should a Plant/Thorns be focused more on raw killing or should Domination (perhaps permable?) be a focus as well?

The heavy change is a bit much, but perhaps we would understand where you are going if you explained what the heavy's use is in the zone.

Is it to ward off players, fend off arch-villains, conquer pillboxes? Right now their durability is just inferior for many of those tasks. Do you view them as a sort of temp power reward?

Just got the Accolade on my emp...will be under the wire getting it on my Brute.

Thanks for a really cool event guys!

Great issue.

Was good seeing Behind the Mask back...also enjoyed the column on roleplaying and the piece on Brutes as well.

Again, City Scoop is doing a bangup job keeping us informed and entertained.