Noxilicious

Super-Powered
  • Posts

    714
  • Joined

  1. Considering that thematically Super Strength is for the Big Tough Guy ATs with high resistance like Tankers and Brutes while Martial Arts goes to the ATs with less resistance like Scrappers and Stalkers, giving an SS-inspired set to an AT with no resistance seems a tad inappropriate.

    So if we're going with the physical theme, Martial Arts seems like a better thematic fit. You could add the Shuriken and Exploding Shuriken powers for range, and maybe make a a Shuriken Barrage as well as a range attack.

    Either way, going for a physically powerful set for a physically frail AT seems a tad silly.
  2. The joke with you using the word lazy like it defeats everything people here said is that the devs never really intended for you to right-click and select info in the vendor list to find out what an enhancement does, or memorise the order that enhancements are listed.

    That's why we had/have the mouse-over feature. You just hover over Thallium Exposure and see, ah, it increases your hold duration! It certainly was convenient to have such easy access to the information (which we also had to read but never had an issue with that. Nobody here had an issue with reading).

    And like I said earlier, if this bug had been fixed, and it had been around in a long time, mind, we wouldn't be here, either.

    So sure, let's keep the icons the same. I would still love to see this bug fixed so everyone can get mouse-over text again.

    And I hope you won't find it outrageous and "lazy" to ask the devs to fix a bug in their system.
  3. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill View Post
    Of course, I *have* been playing this game over five years now. I haven't had to right click in a while. I did, years ago. Seems like a few seconds paid off rather well.
    Five years ago we didn't have the mouse-over bug. I find it hard to trust you on this.
  4. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Sharker_Quint View Post
    i have done a toon from 1-50 using them. my first 50. took all of 3 months for me to figure out to use generic io's to be able to save money.
    That's nice. Doesn't change the fact that not everyone will bother with IOs, nor should they need to.

    Quote:
    and why the hell would i turn off a function that was never off to begin with?
    Because the mouse-over text is terribly convenient, a convenience a lot of people unfortunately miss because there's a bug going around. If the mouse-over text actually worked for everyone, I doubt I would have even made this thread.

    Quote:
    not to mention that if you actually pay attention to what you are using and spend some actual time reading the info, i know heaven forbid i mention a time sink in a game that has time sinks, you would understand them.
    If people positively liked timesinks, you wouldn't hear people complain about unnecessary zoning (or reversely be amazed by how the clone mission in Faultline ends next to your contact in Talos Island), and people wouldn't be using Ouroboros, Base Teleporters, Mission Teleporters, etc, or even boykott them.

    But people love these conveniences. I just fail to see why making enhancements mor convenient is a bad thing.

    And no, just reading the info isn't bad at all if the mouse-over worked as intended. Constantly right-clicking-select-info does get the slightest bit tedious, though.

    Hypothetical scenario: Imagine instead of this thread, I made a thread asking the devs to fix the mouse-over bug, you know, put back in a feature that made SOs a lot more convenient to use, would you still say it's a bad idea?
  5. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Sharker_Quint View Post
    by what they enhance.
    It's true that they have the same order no matter the origin, but I sincerely doubt anybody bothers to remember the order. Do you?
  6. I'm using regular IOs. I assume that about everyone on this forum uses them.

    Not everyone in the game does, though. Some are just new and so they stick to T/D/SOs, some consider it too much of a hassle.

    And even then, who cares what their reasons are? The devs repeatedly said the game is balanced around SOs, so making SOs as convenient as possible seems hardly like a bad thing.

    So, Sharker, please do me a favour and try to play a toon from 1 to 50 using only DOs and SOs, and be sure to turn tooltips off so you cannot just hover over enhancements to figure out what they are. If you get back to me then and say you didn't find it tedious in the least, I'll be much more inclined to consider you're right.
  7. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Sharker_Quint View Post
    so what is wrong with putting your pointer over the enh and reading it? you haven't addressed that yet. at least in a way that we've described.
    You mean other than the fact that it's bugged and doesn't work for everyone?

    And no, I checked, Tool Tips are enabled. It's a bug.

    And while right-clicking and selecting info isn't a big glaring flaw, it's still a hassle, especially when you have to replace your enhancements every five levels.
  8. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill View Post
    I'm getting deja vu. I could swear we've had the exact same thing come up, word for word, within the last month.

    So, I'll repeat myself -
    Nope. I didn't have trouble. You learn the color coding - doesn't matter what the "icons" are. And any confusion? Hover or right click. Kind of the point of TOs, after all, is to "train" you.
    But the problem is it doesn't actually train you. At least not in a way that helps you later. If you learn the icons you're screwed over because DOs and SOs use only a limited range of them, and with 26 different enhancements you will have a lot of samey colours, not to mention that it screws over colour-blind people like Vorn.
  9. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Vornotron View Post
    And I'm (red/green) colorblind.
    There's also that, too. Considering the Patrol XP bar colour was changed to accomodate colour-blind people, this wouldn't be unprecedent, either.
  10. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Sharker_Quint View Post
    umm... they're color coded. they also have a distinguishing feature that do's have a half/half border around them and so's have a single border around them. and if you make them all look the same, you will have a tougher time figuring them out then you do now.

    best idea is to just get rid of to/do's all together and make them all so's.
    Actually, the difference in colour can be extremely subtle, and when the icons are the same, it's hard to tell two enhancements apart. Also, I think I said that the borders can stay the same.

    Here, I made a horrible MS Paint image to illustrate my point:



    The border still says Natural, but the icons definitely say Defense Debuff and Fear.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Sharker_Quint View Post
    they do if you put your mouse pointer over them.
    Now that you mention it, I remember that we had this feature.

    Had. It's been bugged for a long time now. To my knowledge it's also unknown what causes this bug and why not everyone is affected, but even if it works for you, there's several others it doesn't work for.

    I suppose if that bug is fixed, we wouldn't need to change the enhancement icons anymore, but still, I'm not exactly unconvinced changing them is a bad idea.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Fleeting Whisper View Post
    While I understand the issue at hand, I'm going to be honest: When I first joined on my trial account (midway through I7; before I9 and inventions) and got up to DO/SO levels... I looked at the info on the enhancements I was buying. I knew what I was getting and didn't screw up my purchases
    Actually, my idea here wasn't that you make wrong purchases, but that telling them apart seems unnecessarily difficult, especially with the mouse-over bug around. Having to right-click a lot might not be the biggest issue of the game, but it's, at least to me, a QoL issue, if only a minor one.
  11. Edit: Neo Shadowdream made a wonderful installer that standardises DO and SO images. Just use the installer if these enhancements confuse you and see them become easier to tell apart!

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Neo Shadowdream View Post
    In order Sci/Tech Acc DO, Nat/Tech End Mod DO, Tech Heal SO, Natural DMG SO, Nat RechRedux SO, Natural To Hit Debuff SO (Note the downward arrow instead of the upward), Mutation/Sci Confuse DO, Mutation/Sci Hold DO, Mut/Sci Interrupt Redux DO, Mut/Sci Taunt DO.


    Like it? Download it! it modifies ALL Enhancments to the TO style Icon, keeping the SO/DO borders.

    [Edit]Turns out that even though there is a Resist Icon in the game, Resist Enhancements point to the Defense Icon. This has the wonderful effect of, Defense, and Resist Icons are exactly the same. And sadly, without a change Dev side its stuck like this, as far as I can tell.[Edit]
    I bolded it in the quote, but it bears repeating, due to code reasons the Defense and Resist Icons are the same with this installer, so unfortunately there's gonna be some confusion regarding those two when using the installer.

    Anyway, mad props to Neo Shadowdream for this installer! You rock!

    My regular post resumes now.

    -----------------------------------

    So I've been discussing this with my buddies and a couple of newbies lately, and eventually we figured that for all the flavour that unique Dual and Single Origin Enhancement names and icons bring, they're ultimately more trouble than they're worth.

    Maybe you still remember when you're new to the game, and once you went from TOs to DOs, you were barely able to tell enhancements apart? And once you thought you got the hang of it you switched to SOs and are confused all the same? And went through that trouble every time you made a toon with a different origin?

    I realise that about everyone who reads this already switched to IOs that lack this problem because they either use generic IOs which have the standard icons AND standard enhancement names, or they use IO sets which also have their enhancement type in their name, like, say, Devastation: Damage/accuracy.

    But many players outside the forums who are either new or don't care enough to get in the Invention system are stuck with DOs and SOs, and I dare say they are just too frustrating to figure out at times.

    The problem is two-fold, and both parts are related to flavour.

    First, the names: Often enough the enhancement name at least suggests the nature of the enhancement, like Benedict Tech Adv. Targeting Eye. But more often than it should be, that is not the case. Can you figure out what Dragon Strike does? Dragon Flurry? Insight of Grey? Military Insight?

    Second, the icons: TOs and Generic IOs have 23 unique icons, disregarding colour, over 26 enhancement types. most icons are self-explanatory and those that appear twice share a related function and appear right next to each other, like Defense Buff and Defense Debuff, so TOs and Generic IOs are easy to tell apart. Most DO and SO categories have only two to four icons over 26 enhancement types. It goes without saying that icon and enhancement type, rarely, if ever, match and it's absolutely horrendous trying to tell the slightly darker orange enhancement apart from the slightly lighter orange enhancement if they use the same icon.


    tl;dr, DOs and SOs are horribly confusing.

    So what I suggest is, the DO and SO icons are changed from their current flavour ones to the generic TO and IO ones. To preserve the flavour DOs and SOs would still retain their names and the icon borders (tech enhancements would still have the gear and natural enhancements would still have the green circle), but with the generic icons you would have a lot easier time telling them apart, eliminating this infinitely confusing design while style retaining the origin flavour of these enhancements.



    Alternate Suggestions

    Others came up with several other good solutions to clarify this design, so I'll be listing it here for easier access.

    - Add tags like (DAM) or (ACC) next to enhancement names. That way you can still quickly see what an enhancement does while still retaining the icon flavour.

    - complete vendor UI overhaul. By including features like telling your vendor what origin and enhancement types you're looking for, using the vendors would hopefully be a much quicker and easier process.
  12. I'm with the others that the second idea is not exactly stellar. As Panzerwaffen said, when I'm the team leader, I want all the rights and responsibilities. I have the responsibility to recruit people and in turn the right to kick people.

    That said, here's two things I would love to see that would hopefully make forming a team easier.

    1. Make an official, server-wide LFT channel

    Yes, I know we have many global channels dedicated to that purpose, but there's a couple of issues with them. For starters, they're not exactly intuitive or easy to find. Unless someone directly points you to a global channel, chances are you'll never know they exist. Then there's also the fact that since they are player-maintained, occasionally you'll find several LFT global channels for one server. Last but not least, you can only join so many global channels, so if you play on many servers and join global channels dedicated to other topics, you'll probably never have enough to join LFT global channels for all your servers, especially since about every server has an LFT channel, a TF channel, a badge channel and general chitchat channel.

    So if you don't know about global channels or you cannot join any more, you're stuck with Broadcast, which has its own huge issues. I feel we only got that channel because the devs saw that other popular MMOs have this channel, so we ought to have it, too. Not necessarily wrong, but most other MMOs are open-world based whereas CoH is instance-based. For every 29 missions I spend in instances I spend one minute in a city zone. Even worse, specially blue-side you have several zones for one level-range, so chances are someone's broadcasting looking for a team in your level-range while you're in a different one.

    A server-wide, official LFT channel would hopefully solve all these issues. Since it's official and has a dedicated button on the chatbox, a lot more people would use it, and as a server-wide channel it would reach teams even in instances. So by making it easier for players to stay in touch with each other no matter how knowledged they are or where they are, it should become a lot easier to find and form teams.

    2. Make a counterpart Searching For Team system to the Searching For Members system.

    Now the Searching For Members system is a great way for team leaders to find more members,sure, but I feel it helps solo players more by allowing them to set themselves as LFT and making themselves the first on the search list and therefore the first to be picked out for teams. A Searching For Members system would allow team leaders to set themselves as looking for members for mission teams, TF teams, etc, making it easier for team leaders to fill teams by having solo players approach them instead.

    The idea behind that feature is that team leaders already try to have people approach them instead. After all, even team leaders use Broadcast and global channels to say they're looking for more members and that you should send them tells if you want to join the team. A Searching For Members system would basically eliminate that step and allow your server to know you want more members without perpetually broadcasting "level 23 team LF3M" or sending tells to people that never respond or aren't interested.

    One issue I see is that there are several people that cannot stand getting tells asking to join their team, so you would only show up on the Searching For Members list if you actively set yourself to looking for members. That way, if you aren't looking for members, nobody will even know you exist and just leave you alone.



    So, any thoughts? Any glaring problems I missed? Is this too far into Standard Code Rant territory to happen in the foreseeable future?
  13. Dunno if you already read it, but in the latest dev diary with David Nakayama he says the original idea for energy morph was being enveloped by a pod, but they later changed that to, well, the energy morph.

    I guess someone just forgot to change the slash command.
  14. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Kelenar View Post
    I've gotten posts deleted and gotten into closed betas afterward, so I wouldn't worry about it too much. Unless the post was, like, threatening to kill a dev's dog or something.
    I knew my feud with Rover would come back to bite me in the *** one day.
  15. Imagine the poor newbie who starts the game rolling a science hero with Atlas Park as the starter zone and just wonders "hey, where does this go?" upon seeing the door behind his starter contact.

    That said, I think it is completely, err, counter-intuitive to put access to the highest-level PvP zone in a starter zone. Hell, Peregrine Island has five perfectly good portals to use, just dedicate one of them to Recluse's Victory and you still have four more for normal missions.
  16. There's also the option of getting a badge in Recluse's Victory to unlock Ouroboros, but that is a whee bit late in your toon's career.

    Oh, and I think doing the Science Shop mission in Brickstown also unlocks Ouroboros.

    That said, it's still very easy to miss the one and only arc that entrusts you with the secret red-side, and while it's not a huge deal, having more options isn't bad.

    If writing entirely new contacts and arcs is out of question, maybe rewriting Darren Wade's arc would be a good option. He's a pop-up contact in the 20-25 range, so his level range is ideal and he's hard to miss. Maybe just have Doctor Echo appear in the second mission show up twice as a hostage because of time-travel shenanigans?

    Either way, that's my 2 cents.
  17. Well, aren't I a little worried now. I hope getting one post of mine deleted still has me "in good standing" territory.
  18. Quote:
    Originally Posted by NekoNeko View Post
    Words
    The thing about traveling is, it's not exactly exciting or all that fun. If you're a brand-new player getting to fly over the Rogue Isles or Paragon City might be fun for the first time, but after a year of playing, you saw it all and getting from A to B isn't an exciting sight-seeing tour anymore, it's just something to be done so you can get back to beating up more baddies, the actual meat of the game.

    Frankly, I don't buy into the "back in my day, we had to go through the snow uphill both ways to get XP!" talk, either. Yeah, travel time is infinitely longer in other MMOs, and it used to be worse in CoH's early days, too, but so what? I chose this MMO for a reason. Not to mention that the devs' mission isn't to copy other MMO elements because that's what all the cool kids are doing, but to make a fun game.

    So, when was the last time you were euphoric about taking the tram from Talos Island to Brickstown or flying over Sharkhead Isle? These simply don't get people excited about the game, and I dare say these aren't the reason people play this game. And the best part? The devs agree with this. All the starter-arcs now have much-reduced travel times and from what I've been told, since I17 blue-side contacts give their phone number much earlier, too.

    Feel free to keep waving your walking cane at us and telling us to get off your lawn, but I personally quite like that the devs learn from their mistakes and questionable mechanics instead of desparately clinging to archaic MMO design decisions.
  19. To date I only ever tried to Master of runs.

    The first was a Master of Statesman Taskforce run with a couple of friends. Oh, it was my first Statesman TF ever, too. To top it all off, I was playing a Blaster. The Master attempt eventually failed in the third mission when someone else face-planted. I was actually RELIEVED to see the Challenge Failed message pop up because it meant I didn't have to play so tensely anymore.

    My second Master attempt was an MoITF with a PUG. Funnily enough, that one went smoothly and it's m first and only Master of badge so far. I should also note that when they were recruiting for that MoITF I mentioned I wasn't too hot on the idea of a Master run and they said that if we failed it would be no biggie and we'd just keep on going, so there wasn't too much pressure, either.

    Anyway, I still don't really like Master runs myself. I can't really get into a mindset where I'm having fun. I always fear that I'll mess up and ruin it for everyone. It's just too stressful for me to enjoy.
  20. This seems to happen mostly in Nerva, too.

    I remember a Heist mission taking me to the AE. Not even online-banking is safe anymore.
  21. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill View Post
    I think the only comic that does has Horus becoming a Kheldian - essentially "you're hurt, I'm hurt, we can help each other, how about it?"
    Actually, wasn't it more like a Kheldian taking over a dead human body or something?

    Either way, I'm pretty sure the comic is on the bottom when it comes to questions of canon and lore.

    Regarding the question of how merging works, there's three cases where we have at least a rough idea what happened.

    In the case of Sunstorm, a police offer of facing certain death at the hands of Vahzilok zombies and a Kheldian figured a "warrior" like that would be an idea candidate.

    In the case of Moonfire, a dying Kheldian managed to grab the attention of an exchange student in Paragon City and the human agreed to merge to save the Kheldian.

    In the case of Shadowfire, the same Nictus has been jumping from mother to daughter for millenia, upholding a sort of family tradition.

    There's also the Peacebringer unit in the PPD that's never been much elaborated on, but I guess it can be assumed there's an organised effort to create Peacebringers between Kheldians and the PPD there.

    So basically, anything from chance encounters to planned merging, anything goes.
  22. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Psychoti View Post
    1) How often do you PuG instead of grouping within your SG or friends?
    I spent significantly more time on PUGs than I spent solo or with friends, mostly because I prefer the group experience and because schedules mean I don't always get to play with my buddies. Notably I almost always make and lead PUGs myself rather than on relying on someone else's PUG.

    Quote:
    2) How often do you group with friends and fill the rest of the group with PuGs?
    Never, actually. Few of my buddies actually share my fondness of teaming with strangers or forming PUGs, so when I am playing with my friends, it tends to be small teams, about two to four people.

    Quote:
    3) How often do your PuG members do what you feel needs to be done without being told to do so?
    I generally just expect them to go pew pew a lot, and funnily enough, it's what people do.

    Quote:
    4) How often do you find yourself telling PuG members what you feel they should be doing (for the good of the current team/session)?
    I tend to often tell people what we WILL do. Say, when we're about to do a Mayhem Mission, I tell people that I prefer to fight our way through because I hate dealing with five million Longbow ambushes at once, especially at lower levels. On Strike Forces I just tell people beforehand that this is not a speedrun and that we'll fight our way through.

    I generally find it best to tell people beforehand what you plan on doing. Either they're cool with and stay with you or they don't like your way of playing and join another PUG. It certainly beats the team breaking apart in the middle of something because of mixed expectations.

    Remember people, communication is key!

    Quote:
    5) How often do you find yourself adding PuG members to your friends/global friends, and if those lists are full, using other methods of remembering them?
    As I mentioned before, I generally lead teams myself, and since I tend to be occupied with setting missions, changing difficulty, filling open spots and such, I'm not as concerned with who's who on my time. Instead, when I'm about to call it a day I tell people who liked my team to add me to their Global Friends list instead. Generally, every two or three PUGs someone's adding me to their Global Friends list.

    Of courese I also have to note I tend to completely forget who's who on my Global Friends list and completely stopped telling people to add me if they liked my team.

    Quote:
    6) How often do you group with complete jerks in a PuG?
    Hardly ever, really. People are either very fun or very quiet. If people really don't like my teams, instead of ***** they just leave, and I never really had any horror PUG experiences.

    TL;DR: I personally have mostly good PUG experiences.
  23. Well, personally I would narrow it down to either Natural or Mutant. Magic and Science are out of question because he's neither the result of a spell or freak accident.

    As far as using guns go, I'm in the "The Technology origin is more advanced than that" field. After all, Manticore is Natural origin despite having lots of gadgets like frickin' teleportation arrows. Batman is also a gadgeteer and I think most people would consider him more of a Natural than a Technology Hero.

    So, Natural or Mutation? He's the product of a Mutant origin character so you could classify him as a Mutant as well, but then again, he doesn't actually have any of those mutant powers himself and while mutants are humans that are different, your toon's a natural illusion, so to speak.

    So I guess I'd go for Natural myself.
  24. Can't say I ever beat it without an MM (in fact, I tend to be the MM), but every 'cuda SF I was on the token Stalker hesitated to use the kill-switch until we all just team-wiped.

    I've never failed a 'cuda SF yet, did maybe four or five, but we ALWAYS get team-wiped at the ambush and then have to fight those hundreds of enemies before we can take on Reichsman again. Easily adds 20 to 30 minutes to the SF, and it's the reason I only do it every couple of months.
  25. I only ever picked Black Scorpion as Patron (as of now only two of my villains hit 40 yet), but from checking ParagonWiki, most contacts are pretty sore about their beat-down but come to respect you after Time After Time.

    Scirocco's kinda the opposite in that he says he respects you after his beat-down, but at the end of Time After Time he goes all NEENER NEENER NEENER I USED YOU, so let's just say I doubt his sincerity. Mako doesn't really care either way and never really cares about you one way or the other.

    Black Scorpion and Ghost Widow are the ones that are the most sore about their beat-down but towards the end of Time After Time they respect you and even seem genuinely concerned about you. I confess to being weirdly touched by Black Scorpion's last two words before sending me off to face Lord Recluse, they really caught me off-guard.

    tl;dr:

    After the beat-down Black Scorpion and Ghost Widow are sore you beat them, Scirocco claims to respect you and Mako doesn't care.

    After Time After Time Black Scorpion and Ghost Widow respect you, Scirocco feels all high-and-mighty about "using" you and Mako still doesn't care.