Oedipus_Tex

Actually I think the reason newer exploding objects do Repel and not KB is because Repel allows the character to keep standing. You can eat inspirations during a Repel but not during a KB.

I had suggested for the trials that huge knockback replace some of the huge damage components. Specifically, I kind of wish the Anti Matter Pulse Ray in Keyes Island that hits you for 50% of your HP every few seconds was instead a huge knockback from the center of the map that required you to put your back to a wall or risk being flung into danger (with pets still being immune to it).

Freezing Rain ticks 5 times per second and has a 5% chance per tick to knockdown. This should translate to about a 33% chance per second. The knockdown aura has a target cap of 16 enemies but I'm unsure how or if this is actually obeyed. The animation that plays when an enemy falls over is called SWEEP_LOW. I don't know its duration or whether there is a way to obtain it.

Analysis of knockdown patches is sort of tricky because enemies can run out of them. But they can also run into them during an ongoing fight--sometimes in mass numbers, as in an ambush or accidental pull. Further, a knockdown patches' low base knockdown chance means that in the moment the power is actually cast (or when the enemy first runs into it) the odds of falling are low. The power needs a few seconds to saturate. The reason this is important to note is that a lot of damage happens in the opening seconds of the battle, when the patch is at its weakest. The reason casting these powers around corners is a popular technique is related to this issue specifically.

Probably the silliest power to require grounding is Flash Freeze in the Ice Control set. That's a power that someone really knocked themselves out making sure it would be unpopular. In addition to having twice the recharge, twice the cast time, a higher endurance cost, a damage component (6 pts of damage at level 50) to prevent stacking, and less range than comparable powers, it also requires the target be on the ground.

I would consider making Recovery Aura have a 120 second recharge time, no self-stacking. That would put most Empaths in the "supercharged self endurance" category all of the time a la Cold Domination and give them some slack in the trials so they don't have to constantly try to gather everyone.

I can see Absorb Pain as a 15ft AoE targetted cast for sure, assuming it keeps its current no-self-heal penalty.

I think Regen Aura would be extremely overpowered with its recharge changed.

Sonic Resonance and Force Field need much more extreme buffs than these. AoE shields do not begin to fix their late game issues (tho admitedly Sonic is a little better in trials than it is in the main game, and Force Field the reverse).

I'm curious about the differences between these two set combos. Kinetics is obviously a lot better at survivability and buffing. The Blaster is a glass cannon (in this case more like sugarglass). I already have the Blaster at 30, but now that Kinetics is no longer annoying, am wondering whether the damage difference is enough to keep the Blaster around.

Somewhat unrelated photo of guys in dresses. Not superheroes, but athletes and college students mostly. The image is from the "Red Dress Run" in New Orleans. It's a popular annual event that basically involves... running in a red dress. It proves nothing one way or another, but something to look at.

I had to go and google that thread. The name is like a camp event horizon:

"I thought CoX was a Teen rated game?!?!?!"

The best part is the poster's logic that crossdressing (gender switching, actually) shouldn't be allowed because it is too sexy. Thanks for the laughs.

I think "sexism" is kind of a strong word. I don't know how much effort is involved with resolving clipping issues with the different models or how expensive it is to port them, so its hard for me to really have an opinion.

I'll say that a lack of skirts isn't the beginning of the issue though. Male characters don't really have shorts. There are those "boxer" shorts I've seen in the AE but never figured out how to unlock. But for the most part if you want short shorts you end up with something like this:



Of course, he'd be wearing those briefs even if I had a pants option. But not every toon is going for that look.

[I will add that I do find it somewhat funny that when this character joins a team, I'll get 2 or 3 comments about his missing pants. Meanwhile I'm fighting next to female characters dressed like Cher circa "If I Could Turn Back Time."]

Based on your sign up date, I'm assuming you are somewhat new to the game. Builds are a tricky thing. IMO there are many improvements that could be made to this one. I don't think the build would be able to annoy too many people because it doesn't have the endurance or the survivability to pull it off.

I'll start by saying that I'm also not sure whether you mean "annoy because it can do its thing pretty well" or "annoy because its blowing enemies all over the place for no reason." I'm assuming the former. If all you want is the latter, you can save yourself lots of time by just slotting standard knockback IOs.


Main recommendations:

- You must slot at least some endurance recovery in Steamy Mists. One-slotting it won't work.

- Hurricane needs to be slotted for -ToHit, which is the main benefit of this power.

- The Kinetic Crash set is low-ish damage. Not enough to be useful in most damage powers.

- Opinions vary but mine is that Nova completely sucks on Defenders. You're correct that it is annoying, but moreso to the user than the team because after you use it you're out of the fight for a while.

- Gale is redundant with other knockback powers. Even if the attempt is to just to cause lots of scatter, you're probably better off with anything else.

- Hami-O Ribosomes (End/Resist) are extremely expensive.

- Skipping Power Blast is probably a bad idea.

- Invisibility is mostly a waste when you can just stack Super Speed with Steamy Mists

- I am not a fan of Fly. This may be a flavor thing so I left it in and slotted it with -kb and some ranged defense to at least make it contribute something.

- While you can go with any APP you want, the Electric this particular combination have a few sane options to use on teams. This is assuming your intent isn't just to annoy.

- It is my assumption this build is targetting the Cardiac alpha


[EDIT: Fixed and reposted build]


Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.941
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Crowned Chaos: Level 50 Magic Defender
Primary Power Set: Storm Summoning
Secondary Power Set: Energy Blast
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Flight
Ancillary Pool: Electricity Mastery
Hero Profile:
Level 1: O2 Boost -- Heal-I(A)
Level 1: Power Bolt -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(7), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(9)
Level 2: Power Blast -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(3), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(3), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(5), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(13)
Level 4: Energy Torrent -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(21), Posi-Dmg/Rng(21), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(23), Posi-Dam%(23)
Level 6: Steamy Mist -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(7), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx(9), TtmC'tng-ResDam(11), RedFtn-Def(27), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(29)
Level 8: Freezing Rain -- Achilles-ResDeb%(A), RechRdx-I(25), RechRdx-I(27)
Level 10: Power Burst -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(11), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(13), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(31), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(31), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(31)
Level 12: Hurricane -- DarkWD-ToHitDeb(A), DarkWD-ToHitDeb/Rchg(15), DarkWD-Rchg/EndRdx(15), DarkWD-ToHitdeb/Rchg/EndRdx(33)
Level 14: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(17), RechRdx-I(19)
Level 16: Super Speed -- Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(A), Zephyr-ResKB(34)
Level 18: Snow Storm -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 20: Aim -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 22: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(25), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(33), RedFtn-EndRdx(34), RedFtn-Def(45), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(46)
Level 24: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 26: Tornado -- ExRmnt-Acc/Rchg(A), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg(29), ExRmnt-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(37), ExRmnt-Dmg/EndRdx(37), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(37), ExRmnt-+Res(Pets)(39)
Level 28: Thunder Clap -- Stpfy-Acc/Rchg(A), Stpfy-EndRdx/Stun(33), Stpfy-Acc/EndRdx(34), Stpfy-Stun/Rng(36), Stpfy-Acc/Stun/Rchg(36), Stpfy-KB%(36)
Level 30: Hover -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(50)
Level 32: Lightning Storm -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(39), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(40), RechRdx-I(40), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(40), Dev'n-Hold%(42)
Level 35: Explosive Blast -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(42), Posi-Dmg/Rng(42), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(43), Posi-Dam%(43), FrcFbk-Rechg%(43)
Level 38: Fly -- Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(A), Zephyr-ResKB(39)
Level 41: Electric Fence -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(45), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(46), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(48), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(48), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(50)
Level 44: Shocking Bolt -- BasGaze-Acc/Hold(A), BasGaze-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(45), BasGaze-Acc/Rchg(46), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold(50)
Level 47: Power Sink -- Efficacy-EndMod/Acc(A), Efficacy-EndMod/Rchg(48)
Level 49: Charged Armor -- TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx(A)
Level 50: Cardiac Core Paragon
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 1: Vigilance
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 2: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(17), P'Shift-End%(19)

Yes of course I'd pay it. I would hope most rational people would. I don't know how to say it except that trying to obtain these rewards through gameplay would push past the limit of what I consider a healthy relationship with a video game.


Two minor points to add:

1) IMO the debate about whether it takes 20 or 154 or however many days to buy rewards misses the point. Those are the costs assuming you buy nothing else.

2) The idea that people either want costumes or want tangibles/advancement is strange in a video game that maintains a significant revenue line via direct sales of costume parts packaged together with useful-ish powers. Why package these things together if most players would rather purchase either the costumes or the powers?

Did the beta run yesterday (on a Dominator actually) but thought some notes might be helpful on what to expect on your Controller. Anyone else who has run it can feel free to provide info as well. The raid is still not "official" so it may or may not be changed between then and now. I also apologize because this is really, really long. And I'm sure I got some details wrong, which hopefully someone can correct.

I'll start by saying, at least as it stands right now, this trial is significantly harder than either Lambda or the BAF. It is essentially a beginning to end AV fight with several phases, and lots of ways for you to die. This is not intended to be a detailed guide; there are some guides already floating around. I wanted to share some specific takeaways for Controllers so you aren't caught unaware.

Basically this fight takes place at an outdoor "reactor" facility. It's populated by level 54 the IDF and Warwork robots familiar by now from the last few trials. Unlike the BAF reinforcement waves, the spawns here are not all-bosses, so most Controllers can deal with them reasonably well. This is true throughout most of the encounter, minus some Elite Bosses that show up later (but who appear to be surrounded by enemies of various ranks). The AV himself is of course more or less immune to controls.

After the first (fairly easy) segment where your team fights some IDF, you get introduced to something called the "Anti Matter Pulse Ray." The Anti-Matter Pulse Ray is not your friend.

Basically the AMPR goes off every 30 seconds, and hits every player in the zone for 50% of his or her HP. This cannot be dodged or resisted. It goes without saying that Empaths, Therms, Kins, Rads, anyone with Rebirth Destiny, and anyone I've forgotten need to throw their weight into keeping people's HP buffed. You can see the pulse countdown in the raid action window.

Pets are immune to the AMPR. However, uou will probably not get much opportunity to test this out, because:

The AMPR is tied to Anti-Matter's health. The more he loses, the harder the AMPR hits. I have no idea how much damage the AMPR is capable of at max strength. However with the AV at about 70% health I'm pretty sure he hit me for over 60% of my HP per pulse. He does not regenerate health during this phase, so if he gets hurt, your league has to deal with that damage every pulse until it is possible to actually kill him. Under all circumstances you must avoid doing damage to him. For most Controllers this probably means not summoning pets. The AV will be very close to you in certain portions of the trial and any damage the pet does in its blind zeal to protect you increases the AMPR.

Winning the next 3 segments of the trial involves finding "power cells" temp power drops around the map and using them to charge up "terminals" that disable each of the three reactors. Each reactor gets increasingly more complex to locate the power cells and/or activate the terminals. At first you just have to kill the enemies around the terminal, and power the cells up (I believe all enemies within a certain radius must be dead for it to work, so your team will concentrate on the area around the terminal they are working on). In later segments, the enemies have to be dead and the AV must be pulled within a certain distance of the terminal for it to work.* In the final phase of all this, the "power cells" are located inside "bunkers" and can only be gotten by either busting down the door and attacking the things inside, or stealthing it (not sure how the stealth works but probably Illusionists can pull it off).

[*He's a flyer BTW, so depending on what is happening -Fly may be a good or bad idea (usually bad if damage is attached). One of my teammates accidentally drained his endurance and he fell and hit the ground.]

After all of this is done, its finally time to take on the AV head on. The AMPR is gone, but in its place the AV has a power called Disentegrate. As you probably guessed, this power is also not your friend.

Disentegrate is a single-target damage over time power with a twist. If the person hit with it dies, the AV gets a massive self heal. When a team member calls out that he or she is being disentegrated, you should throw every buff, heal, and shield you can spare to keep him or her alive. (The notice is fairly hard to see.) If someone dies near the end of the fight, it could be like a reset button.

While this is going on, you also have to look out for the AVs "Entanglement" ability. Entanglement surrounds you in a globe that is either red or blue. Anyone with a red globe standing next to a person with a blue globe takes damage. I was not able to evaluate how much damage this power actually does. It did seem less deadly than many other abilities going on.

The AV also has a power called "Obliteration Beam" that I know very little about. I believe it works like the Halberds in the Apex TF. Supposedly there is a marker on the ground where it hits, but due to all the chaos, I never actually saw it. He also has a power similar to Marauder's Nova Fist thing that will pretty much one-shot any squishy who wanders too close.

His final ability is "Time Stop." This goes off when he hits certain health numbers. It is basically a huge magnitude auto-hit Hold. I don't know if you can take damage during this segment (I assume you can though). When the Hold wears off, the AV runs and jumps on top of a "generator" surrounded by power terminals, and begins healing himself. Destroying the terminals interupts his healing and resumes the fight. I believe he does this 4 times before he dies.

My group was lucky enough to have a great leader who had also done the raid before. My Ice/Fire Dominator (lvl 53 after level shifts) died about 4 or 5 times. I would have died many many more times if not for having Aid Self though, which dealt with the damage pulses pretty well. I only had 1 hospital trip, due to having Rise of the Phoenix. It took us about 45 minutes to complete the trial. I would say most team members were excellent to good players with several incarnate shifts under the belt.

I would say Ill/Cold on the assumption that as the bar raises soloing a "standard" AV will become less and less of an ideal. The AVs in the raids are more or less immune to control powers. Illusion is the only control set worth anything against them (the powers are useful for other stuff but not dealing with the AV). I have no idea how /Traps Masterminds do in raids but my guess the pets get obliterated.

Still haven't had time to finish messing with it, but this my current version of "Lotus Operandi." She is a Plant/Trick Arrow Controller sort of inspired by "gumshoe detectives." (But man do I wish Plant/Dual Pistols was an option. )

Well... Electric Control also has an aggro-free Seeds of Confusion clone whose only significant disadvantages (on a Controller) are a slightly longer propogration time and a chance to critically miss. Endurance drain by itself is not what I considered a serious "main line" control ability. It does help out from time to time but like Ice and its -Recharge its more insurance than a replacement for actual mezzes.

I'm not sure what your background is. If it's C++, I highly recommend starting with Silverlight and the Microsoft package and C#. There is also a C-derrived language that Apple produces, but I know nothing about it. If you are newer to programming, Flash (which uses a language called "ActionScript", currently on version 3) is an option. A lot of people are excited about HTML 5 but I know nothing about that.

To answer your questions, "vector" is basically a complex sounding word for a shape that is rendered from a math formula. The term is mainly important because of what it is not: it's not pre-defined pixel-by-pixel data (those are called "rasters.") Vectors can grow or shrink or flip around or translate relatively smoothly. Rasters are made up pre-defined pixels, so they are often less flexible. Think about what happens when you zoom in on or "sheer" an electronic photograph: it pixilates.

In terms of City of Heroes, the character model is basically a type of (3D) vector, with a raster image mapped onto it (the face, skin, costume pattern, etc). The powers in Ice Control, such as Block of Ice, may be an example of a pure 3D vector; they even scale with the size of the enemy.

In simple games, 2D vectors are often used because they frequently (but not always) require less memory than equally-sized rasters do. This is why they are so popular for use in Flash, Silverlight and other online games. A vector that is just a huge red circle is just a formula for a circle that is red. A raster that is just a huge red circle is pixel data for every single pixel in the file. Silverlight, and newer versions of Flash allow you to see this rather directly by actually providing the code (as XML) used to build the vector image in your detailed design window. (No such information is provided for rasters, but using code you can interpret and manipulate that too.)

Another thing to keep in mind though is that images sometimes begin life as vectors but are converted to rasters (often via Adobe Photoshop or the equivalent) for use in the game ahead of time. The power icons used in this game are probably an example of that. It really depends on what the game is trying to achieve. An advantage of rasters in general is that they often have standard recognized formats (jpg, png, gif, etc) where vector doesn't seem to have as much standardized support.

BTW if this is your first game ever, I highly recommend trying something in 2D first. 3D is not necessarily harder, but to my knowledge there is no game that is entirely 3D. You will eventually need to understand 2D concepts for things like user interfaces or sub-games. And learning the concepts and design structures of the game design is a lot more important, IMO, than learning the technical hurdles of mastering 3D, especially since that has been changing so much over the past 10 years, and will probably continue to.

I am a small-time game developer myself. For me, it's a hobby, but I have built a few small games for corporate clients, mainly for use in the classroom. I think it's a very exciting field.

Continue to develop your idea. Keep a journal of your concepts and continue to write them down as you think of new elements. You may find it useful one day.

In terms of general recommendations, I think that you are correct: your idea is bigger than what is likely possible to be built by a lone developer. If you are interested in learning game design, I recommend exploring game building with simple concepts and building upward. Puzzle games, in particular, offer a lot of practical experience to help you get your feet wet.

My first games were written in Flash, which I found easier to learn than something abstract because it is so concrete and visual. Unfortunately, Flash isn't free. However, you can use Microsoft Visual Web Developer Express to write games for Silverlight for free (core product: http://www.microsoft.com/express/Web/). You need both the developer and the Silverlight plugin to staart building the game. That is what I am using on my current, probably-never-to-be-finished game project.

There is also the XNA toolkit for Microsoft Visual Studio Express you can use to build XBox games and installed games for Windows PCs. Keep in mind that the "Web" version is different than the "Normal" version, and that "Express" refers to the free, feature-lite versions as opposed to the version that costs money. It is however totally possible to build a game in the free versions.

I will share one piece of advice I was given when I was new to this hobby, which was "stay away from custom built RPGs--you will never finish." I don't mean that as discouragent. Tools like RPGMaker might make an RPG possible by supplying the basic tools, but an epic-scale game (even as "small" as some of the older Square titles) is incredibly time consuming as well as easy to accidentally make boring.

I will also add that AI, in general, is an absolute nightmare unless the person writing it is deeply looped in to the design of the game. It is simply a fact that good AI and complex gameplay are at odds with each other. I would recommend putting control of the groups somehow in the hands of the player.

I don't think its possible to run out of powerset ideas.

Actually, because of the ability to recolor them, they don't even have to stick to pre-formed concepts about what they "are." A set with a name like "Strange Forces" or "Entropy Domination" could look like just about anything.

And part of the reason "Water Control" is so desirable is for the ability to recolor it and call it not-water.