Novacat_NA

Make it a Blaster Inherent, so we'll be useful to at least one teammate [our clone]!

Well as long as we can know ahead of time the rules [ie; they're set before people can start joining] it won't be TOO bad, but I can imagine this rule will be extremely popular with melee classes, and avoided by the plague by everyone who has to stay away from those at all costs or die in nanoseconds.

Especially since with same-speeds, attacking with ranged characters will root you dangerously long when something's chasing you down.

This is great.

The mission difficulty slider was a great addition [and now hard-boiled becomes 'easy-mode' which should take care of pre-pet controllers and other non-offensive builds], and, well as a blaster, couldn't be happier about the bosses.

It's also going to encourage teaming, believe it or not. increased xp bonuses for teaming [like that xp bug everyone was worrying about, say?] makes you WANT to team. The occasional "you will require a teammate to..." missions become far less trouble [the bigger the reward, the easier it is to find someone on the spot] to deal with.

I personally prefer solo-play. That's when you get to read all the juicy story-arcs [still can't believe the whole Freaklympics thing].

And since people get different contacts and different story-arcs,it's always interesting to get a look at what so and so is doing, meaning you help out for a handful of missions for a change of pace.

Sure grouping can be fun, but sometimes it's tedious, and/or you don't get along, so it's really nice to not be forced to do so.


One question States; you're probably not too keen on giving us direct mechanics like that, but how DO tripmines work in terms of being set off? A few on the blaster forums have been trying to figure why they sometimes need to be passed over a few times to set off...

And their stealth may have gone missing.

they seem to avoid them whenever possible, stopping short of the perimiter-laser and taking the long-way around instead of a straight run.

Just remember: "Encourage team play" should mean encouraging team play, NOT forcing it, or discouraging solo play.

"oh, and I almost forgot: you'll need a couple of teammates for this timed mission to simultaneously disarm bombs." is not encouraging teamwork. it's forcing it in a very bad way.


having different missions, and a better xp bonus for helping someone clear a mission than for clearing one of your own, that's encouraging. [for once it really is 'not a bug, it's a feature'!]

giving everyone on the team the temp power to be gained during that mission? that's VERY encouraging.

giving a special reward for sticking through an entire story-arc with someone should DEFINITELY warrant a bonus.

Failing that, at least clearing such missions for those other than the mission owner in regards to contact advancement, etc, should count. That would allow people to team up even more, as they help each-other through entire story-arcs.

Such things make people WANT to team up, and reward doing so, but do not punish you for wanting to play solo. Sometimes we just want to chat a bit, then do some solo missions. that's part of multiplayer too.

One thing: Played a mission [on hard-boiled] just a few hours ago with a single teammate of my level. I counted roughly 6 of each lost boss [Abberant Ermites and Rectors], all of which conned orange [level 15 as we were].

in two cases, they were found in pairs, one instance of which had one clipped behind some crates [he popped through and began attacking us]. needless to say, two sleeping blasters does not a good fight make. we'd already run through our break-frees from the earlier couple of bosses, but managed to take them out eventually. roughly 3 deaths each for a simple "kill the leader" mission; who's named boss... was an LT(headman swordsman) flanked by two Rectors.

I shudder to think what would've happened if we were on rugged difficulty, or post level 25, or more than 2...

I fell in love with Blasters almost immediately; wave that sword around all you want, I can shoot energy out of my .. hands.

It's the way missions tend to progress as a single-target blaster for me. Lots of stealth, constant planning/setting up for battle [energy/devices as you've probably guessed]. Lt's and minions? make them yellow or orange, that just makes things more fun. That's what the slider is for, and except maybe for a need for an 'easy' setting for lower controllers and defenders, is perfect.

There's nothing like the feeling you've trapped and outmaneuvered a group of evil minions [ok so that's just satisfying for the big bang], their leaders [lt's; should be more buffer types for that; they always come with all those minions] and the big bosses in the area. Finish the mission feeling like that guy Mellowlink from that old armorhunter anime...

One way of enjoying solo is playing mousetrap; baiting, trapping, using overelaborate plans that half-fail when the entire-group runs at you [and into your bombs] makes one feel far more attached to his character than just standing there with 'hack' on auto, regenerating whatever the Shadow Envoy breathes at you.

more to the point, it's best if they don't have a chance because you covered the exit points, smokescreened the area, caltropped the floor, boobytrapped half the room behind them then opened up on them from the front so they think you just popped around the corner.

if they don't have a chance because I'm uberpowered and invincible, it's boring, BUT, that's what the mission difficulty setting is for.

More importantly, some might enjoy the feeling of beating up on giant demon-princes for their lunch-money. It's a game, we all have our ways of having fun, and should.

but if I don't have a chance because no matter what I do, one lucky counter [always at least 5% chance, right? rarely that low for a boss, too, right?], rips me to shreds, that's just as bad.

You guys were doing great for solo before. all you need to do is stop forcing grouping so much. It's a lot more fun to group when you don't feel obligated...

Far more satisfying to singlehandedly discover that the big great sinister plot of the freakshow is.... "the Freaklympics". That blew my mind after all the sinister-conspiracy-beneath-the-dark-evil-conspiracy stuff, and had my roomate cry out "you're fighting the "Special-Special Olympics???"

though that xp bug seems to be a step in the right direction. call it a feature?

I was thinking; wouldn't that so-called XP "bug" for doing other people's missions be a much better incentive to team then just "if that things sees me it's insta-debt"?

I for one enjoy helping people out with their missions, because it gives me targets, and an xp bonus at the end. But I prefer solo and wish it wasn't so ramped up at the base diff [that's what the slider is for, and pre-lv25, it works like an absolute charm]

That's the way to keep people happy. Use the carrot, not the stick.

taskforce missions are one thing, but being downgraded to street-hunting-only because all your current missions require you to "bring a teammate" for simultaneous disarms,etc is nothing but a very horrible hassle. Not all of us consider large street-groups good XP....

or, increase mission xp bonuses all-around, for missions that require teams. If you have people looking for those who got such mission types so they can 'help', that causes group-play.

besides, the way it is currently with bosses, you need a second person to feel safe, but a third sometimes random boss-spawns.

**Actually from my experience it's more often 4+, but that severly depends on mission difficulty... missions which are +1 at base (usually late in story-arc types where minion average goes yellow) are the ones that seem at highest risk of developping "bigass-group-of-minions-with-2-lt's + boss" syndrome even with 3 players(sure they're your level instead, but...). It's not a guaranteed thing, but law of averages and all you'll have none one mission and 1 per group the next.

I, and many others it seems from reading these forums, do enjoy that bosses last a bit longer. I fully agree with their hp increase for the most part...

however, I'm very, VERY glad that the one-shot-debt [and of course the 1-2-debt combo that always occurs if they get to melee, or if there's a minion around] bosses cause is going to be adressed.

Have you seen what happens to a pair of squishies when one gets a bit too close to the other just as a skiff's missile [or jumpbot's flamethrower] goes off? When everything boss-like cons purple because it's +2 from the highest on the team, plus boss-conning? Alright so flamethrowers are DoT so it's not too bad assuming your defender sees what just hit you [and is about to chip you to death]...

should we even bother trying to find out what the inside of the reactor looks like without rolling up yet another regen-scrapper?

At the risk of having devs 'fix' energy blasters, the only thing keeping between me and the debt-cap at all times [yeah, only like 2 bubbles on average at all times] is powerpush and constant, constant knockdowns.

I've been hearing rumors of very bad accuracy on time-bombs and new "visible tripmine-problem" [as well as them not detonating when they should], making me wonder if it's even viable to play the careful-setup game in hopes of increasing my chances, or if that tripmine field will be jumped over/ran around ruining 2 minutes of careful positioning. That in itself should be a fair tactic; it's slow, can involve good planning, and is damn satisfying to pull off.

The hp and resistances are fine; it's what makes them tough to take on and forces us to use a handful of inspirations. as it should be. The extra damage, is overkill by far.

PS: Gotta agree with that last one; the slider DOES take care of the job, and WELL. I tuned it up to tenacious, and could handle rugged [slow and steady] if it weren't for the threat of a red-con boss suddenly having me in the hospital before his attack animation even finishes.

Funny enough, now blasters aren't really anywhere near capable of soloing bosses anymore MOST of the time. Any 'blaster' type boss is dealing damage now in proportions you see when taking a potshot at some poor hellion while flying overhead at level 20.

Elite bosses are a wonderful addition, and I've managed to kill a small handful alone [only thanks to constant powerpush, caltrops and half a dozen Catch-a-breaths over 5 minute cat/mouse games].

Lt's have always been the 'tougher minion', the one you tried to keep back for a few seconds while you dealt with his 1-3 subordinates. The guy you want to try and take out either dead first [snipe+1 attack on aim/buildup] or dead last [once the minions are out of the way.]

Old bosses were a tougher lt; the guy you had to think three times about, but could win over at full health/end if you went at it carefully.

New bosses are Arch-villains in all but XP and health only. one-shotters [or insta-kill combo that's "technicly not that powerful if half of it misses(which it doesn't)"], often better range than my sniping with their 'light ranged attack' that deal roughly the same damage, and, of course, a handful of minions, just in case that first crossbow-bolt didn't COMPLETLY finish you off.

and we're supposed to go after these all the time for xp because we're 'single-target' blasters?

getting debt-capped twice in 3 days says otherwise...