Optanite

Everybody loves Crepes.

That better?

I really hope we see a new path of development for MA. It hasn't changed much since its release except removing exploits (understandable), altering power priorities, and harsh warnings given to the player base. I would of preferred the developers encourage seeking exploits so they can be found and fixed. It would also encourage people to make more bizarre missions.

For example, I made a mission designed that only a single AT could possibly do without breaking a sweat, while almost impossible for anyone else. I had a bunch of people test it with me. We had a lot of fun and died more often then I can count, but the rewards were good and we had a blast. It was a mix of SG/PuG too!

If the above example is something that is done by more people, and more often, I'd say MA would be nearly perfected. Unfortunately, I was worried the entire time that what I made could be considered an exploit (even now since I gave you no details to what I really did).

Would be nice, but I recall it said before that animals would require a lot of custom animations, which I imagine can be a lot of work for something that may not be used that much once the newness wears off.

Also, everything in the game (few exceptions) have to have a ranged attack. Wouldn't really fit the game theme to hunt deer, let alone ones that shoot back at you.

Here is my issue with MA. The rewards for defeating critters is far too static.

Minions = X exp.
Lieutenants = Y exp.
Boss = Z exp.
etc etc etc...

Players want to be rewarded for their efforts. If they are not properly rewarded, they can get a sense of being robbed.

A Scrapper's Tale: I took down the 5 swordsmen with relative ease, and I earned 1000 exp. I then went to fight the 5 radiation robots, and it was a harsh battle, where I had to apply time consuming strategies, but did manage to dispatch them for .... 1000 exp.

If this game, like many others, constantly repeats the mantra "Risk vs. Reward", then why not increase the reward when something truly risky is encountered? Shouldn't defeating more lethal critters be given a larger reward?

A Controller's Tale: I took down the 5 radiation robots with relative ease (and with a pinch of luck). I earned 1000 exp. I then went to fight the 5 swordsmen, and it was a long battle as they bypassed my only defense. After a long battle, I was rewarded 1000 exp.

It would be most difficult to balance the reward, as the risk is different depending certain static choices the player has made. What is easy for a blaster, might be near impossible for a tank. What is extremely difficult for a fire damage user, might be extremely simple for a non-fire damage user. To fix this, I recommend to reward variety. The non-AE critters seem to be balanced based on the enemy group as a whole (for the most part). I like Tsoo for example. They are mostly ninja-fodder, but they have sorcerers and the ancestors to make the group a challenge to any AT. If they gave a flat rate bonus to populating the mission with a mix of ranged/melee/(de)buffs/controls/pets/ranks, then you can create more interesting challenges for rewards that are more difficult to exploit.


Farming should be challenged. Farming isn't going away. It was here well before MA. The difference with MA is that we are able to increase the risk/reward slightly from normal content by removing low risk elements (ex. minions) from the equation. MA can't be just about letting players tell a story. There has to be a meta-game. MA allows the player to construct an unlimited number of scenarios. There should be incentive to make and play the challenging ones. If you increase the reward for doing such, the players will create all the variety of end game content this game needs.

[ QUOTE ]
Or how Freaks, the tanks especially, are fairly easy to embed head-first into walls and other objects, leaving them flailing helplessly while you beat them unconscious.

[/ QUOTE ]

I wish stuff like this was more normal and expected, making the game more arcade like. I use to love punting stuff off the buildings in Brickstown when I first started playing.

I doubt this cone range thing will get that popular. Infact, you can do this trick with any cone attack, but it is just much more extreme with melee cones. I do it with Melee Breath of Fire all the time, easily pushing 20-30ft.

A lot of people already don't like setting up cone attacks already. Setting up cone attacks and working with lag/sync/timing to make them larger may be more aggravating.

I've known about this for several months. I've Petitioned in game and even PM Castle regarding it a while back.

Both routes lead to dead ends. Play testing could not confirm what I was experiencing. Castle wanted a demonstration, but I was unable to provide one for a number of reasons. Neither party met me in game. Ultimately, I wasn't going to stress out about providing them information on the issue with regards to a service I pay for, if the issue doesn't negatively impact me.

I find I have a much easier time pulling off some crazy cone attacks if the NPC targets are in transit. I can do it with immobilized or idle targets, but its harder to pull off. I was able to hit almost an entire group on the Cimerora wall, with One Thousand Cuts, but that was hard/lucky to pull off.

Take a slot (or 3) from permafrost and put one in Super Speed, and put the universal travel set in it to recover a bigger E/N defense bonus.

Switch the Focused Smite 5th slot to a Mocking Beratement Acc/Rech in Haymaker and KOB. 6th slot on KOB, put an Acc/Dmg/Rech so the stats are actually really good.

Also taking taunt earlier, 6 slotting with Perfect Zinger can save you slots in Chilling Embrace with a stronger global recharge, and it gives you a big S/L defense, making those slots worth twice as much.

[ QUOTE ]
The proper solution, and the one I hope Castle eventually pursues, is to make the Resistance portions of all such powers Unenhanceable (and maybe slightly increase their base values to make up for losses to people who were enhancing them), and allow the rest of the power to be buffed.

[/ QUOTE ]

/Signed

[ QUOTE ]
-Heal is not -regen.

[/ QUOTE ]

That would depend on your perception. I understand they are two different mechanics, and if regen is not influenced by a healing modifier, then that's fine.

On the other hand, if it wasn't explicitly described as being different in game, then it would be easy to assume they are connected. Clearly, "Healing" and "Regeneration" are considered the same by the Devs, or the power "Instant Healing" would of been named "Instant Regeneration" or something like that.

but I digress. I'm a little annoyed that after getting 41 levels, I was expecting some nice shields with the information that was presented to me in game.

Wouldn't -Heal affect +Regen from PToD?

Wouldn't -Heal affect Regen Resist?

Okay, so why not make Power Boost just not enhance resistance?

If +/-Special was just one global attribute, I can understand this, but then why does the power break down what attributes it is effecting in game? If it is all separate attributes, then the power should be castable without effecting resistance powers at all.

Otherwise, make the resistance in the ice shields not enhanceable. I doubt anyone is slotting these for resists, and if they wanted to buff cold/fire resist more, that's what Arctic Fog is for.

I still feel this is still an issue. The in game description is extremely misleading. I suppose you could update the description to point out this exception, but I think the easier solution would be to make my suggested change.

Would it ever get changed for this? Well, I can't think of any other powers that would also be impacted, so this is Cold/*/Power Defenders only affected, or at most and ideally, >0.5% of the Heroes population (ignoring HEAT). I wouldn't imagine such a small percentage to get much attention.

Oh, I agree.

-DMG cannot be enhanced.

[ QUOTE ]
PBU will work with Benumb. Enough reason to take it right there.

[/ QUOTE ]

I found Benumb powerful enough. Basically comes down to more -regen, huh? Personally, I like the unenhanceable aspects of it.

Well, that stinks.

I'd give up enhancing the resist on the shields to allow PBU to work with it, considering the fire resist is minimal and the cold resist is already really high in the set (and an uncommon damage type at that).

I did not intend to imply that PBU will impact acid arrows -RES, but that acid arrow contains both -RES and -DEF yet -DEF was enhanced.

I just recently tested PBU with Sleet. Works as expected. -DEF and Slow are enhanced until PBU wears off (or longer if target exits the area before PBU wears off.

Guess I have to respec now. Thanks for the bad news Rush_Bolt.

I suspect the strength mod is completely missing from PBU. Arctic Fog also doesn't get boosted for the 12 seconds.

Anyone out there with FF try this with PBU? I know it works for controllers with Power Boost.

That doesn't make sense. Acid Arrow has a -res component, but the -Def gets enhanced (so I hear).

Also, FF has Toxic resist in one of the bubbles.

I have an Ice Dom Defender with the shields.

Using PBU then using the shields should yield stronger shields, right? All the in-game text and numbers show that it should make an impact.

I checked the combat attributes from the receiver, and they just get basic defense.

Anyone else try this? Is it maybe just ice? Any FF users out there use PBU to cap target defense?

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Added a note to pieces of the Soulbound Allegiance IO set that will warn the player that slotting this enhancement into a pet power that summons a pet that is lower than level 50 will result in the pet not benefiting from the effects of the enhancement.

[/ QUOTE ]

Wait, does this include when exemped down?

[/ QUOTE ]

Did they ever come out and say "Working as Intended." with this IO? I haven't used it myself, but I have read up on it. I suppose I'm not surprised by this.

Number of People Impacted by Bug = Effort used to correct bug.

This fix causes another problem. How do I know what level my Voltaic Sentinel is? How about Tornado?

I'd probably join that. @Mind Siphoner - Usually available 11pm EST or later.

[ QUOTE ]
What I wish they would do is hire 10 college interns (preferably English Lit. Majors ) and let them go to town on the entire game.

[/ QUOTE ]

Fixed..

... but seriously. I'd rather people who review games and game content then uninterested and underpaid Eng-Lit Majors.

Okay, so i15 is on our heels, and we have yet to have new dev choice in over a month.

I have a a couple arcs both are 4 star, one sitting at 999+ while the other is just over 100. I got the Master Builder badge. I'm not necessarily expecting a Dev Choice or Hall of Fame for my stuff, but I don't view my arcs to be as good as many others out there.

Sad thing is, of the bunch of Dev Choice content that I've played, I wasn't at all impressed. I've played quite a bit of AE content that were much better.

How often is Dev Choice content going to be selected? I'd rather not be in a "Dev’s Choice: For Your Consideration" thread, because it is then no longer 'Dev's Choice' but 'Players Choice' instead.

It would be nice to see this become more systematical. Something to the effect of "If an arc has X number of votes over Y average rating, the arc is quickly reviewed for exploits and sent to Hall of Fame."

Thought I'd post this since I haven't seen many good Fire/Shield builds. I haven't been looking that much, but a quick search didn't come up with anything good for me.

I've had a lot of fun with this toon, and I've had a lot of people benefit from it. I have soft capped melee defense, and sitting around 43.37% ranged. AoE defense is low, but its not that common. I managed to get there without [Weave] so I could have my [Breath of Fire].

It is a blast using [Shield Charge] and [Fire Sword Circle] together getting boosted with [Build Up] and [Against All Odds].

I don't have any purples yet. Working on this toons IOs one set at a time was a breeze. I'd love any feedback.

<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>| Copy &amp; Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
|MxDz;1407;699;1398;HEX;|
|78DAA5934973124114C77B584202030449424216423692404 872733958A5D18A56A|
|84A9998836629241D9884028AE1A0370F2EE572F2E2C99BEB D9722BBF897E14177C|
|EFFD1BF4EE14FC7FDDAFFB2DD3FDA6707BCD56EAEE7965452 E568BAE7BB0556A161|
|B0DDDF4178A65A7D4BB5E6F4DAE3B2D37A0944A76D60E0ABA AA75FEB2A39B77304E|
|7597D6F491AEB93ABF557174F5B0338D5DA9557453D75AF9C E20BC59AF572944B9D|
|2726A65DBCC5A35EDBA986CE8628356B0AFA00F9D9253D3B1 4B0DA794BF503FA4BC|
|45B745F987A9B005FADFE30AE569FBD50D4246796E0A7A760 5F69E60625F9039100|
|4C304CB780DD26055F90604917E202EE8CFA97F703F609CC8 CB3A1293A72CE8A908|
|6C47B0702CC89DC048B9BCC8E5F3CE88C9775DA22FEE0088B E9AA0D9B8B228891F4|
|994DF15D34332054CDEC027D9DCFB01F82808BE17A43F0BE6 B28230E5ED435EAB0F|
|A620D043C1425851A179310D91290C9337FCCDC3A6011C48F ABBCC7238A508058D5|
|A96B846D3E2FA885C63A6BAD80FD97CEA27F00B817E0BC6DA 8225E56504C82B6E6A|
|885FB5F8527AC9340893677012653D139FA1E78210254F982 213B8A76114391C136|
|450E4630A34622A1A414F24D11349F4C4187A62063D31879E 8852F451F36AA308E4|
|A540E3A64DC697C534910796047339DC6056905B143C21AF9 4499F3A92D89365A00|
|23882F431AA3811C428FD94F19AC2314EE318A7718CD338C6 191C6306C798A05CB3|
|F0B266716F0BB8B007B4326FE2CDBFC4CA2BDCC06BE08D60F 52DF04E30415E59D37|
|D59DC6F8A4C7998BC7934EEF216B00D8CE223A117583137BA 82F31BF3753F4EFAD1|
|A3367CDD0F8FBA53526EFABA5F95B26453EAEFA6FF7ABED89 D387DD782A4DB2C9B2|
|4D60E8F7659F658F6598A2CB778B5C4A3F657BB537CF43417 7486E52CCB3996A7BC|
|29102209B1D82C6196084B94A59F25CE32C4926479C1D2FE0 3A715F76B|
|-------------------------------------------------------------------|</pre><hr />

I have a very short arc with a final rating of 4 star (999+).

It has an ally in it. The Ally is a lieut. earth/thermal. I picked this 'controller theme' because its low DPS, to avoid robbing the player of exp/tickets. It can also mesh with almost any other AT at any level, including other controllers.

Problem is the most consistent feedback regarding the ally is that it dies (or they think it went missing when they thought it was an immortal ally). I suspect most people solo this arc. After all, if they were not solo, why do they care about the ally?

So, if you like the ally, and it really helps you (+DMG, +TOHIT, +status protection, Foe -DEF, Holds), would you not want to protect that asset? Should there not be a challenge or cost if you let them die? Should I of made them boss or higher, effectively making support oriented toons less 'supportive'?

What do you think? If you want to see what I'm talking about, ARC: 1541

(FYI: I've had people say its overpowered, but that's not nearly as often. I realize I cannot make everybody happy.)

Oh, and the best 'no brains' transaction is to sell common recipes to the vendor. ~464 inf/ticket every time at lvl 50. 9999 tickets would be worth 4.6mil, which is often better then doing a couple gold rolls.

Roll what other people are not rolling.

I try to look for a reward ratio of around 1200 inf/ticket as a low point. Anything much lower then this is not worth it.

To get a big ticket item from the gold roll, you have ~4% chance to get a +Regen/+Recover/+Recharge recipe at lvl40-44. Aside from that, there are not a lot of high demand recipes, and the market seems to be flooded with a lot of them, including quite a few good ones like the quad attribute IOs. Also with my ratio, each gold roll must sell on average for 4.6 mil, but that doesn't happen.

I personally like Silver. Silver has a lot of recipes that are simply slotted by almost every character in the game. It has its share of undesirables, but you can expect an in-demand recipe with only a couple rolls. On average, they would need to all sell for 702k inf, which sometimes happens.

If you want more predictable 'per ticket' influence, salvage can be great.

Rare is rarely worth it considering how many tickets they cost. Unless I know I can sell them for ~800k each, I don't bother.

High lvl Uncommon can sell for 100k each at times. With their cost, selling for 96k each meets my requirements.

Selling common salvage has got some great results, but requires micro transactions. They only need to sell on average for 9600 to meet my requirement, and may sell for double or triple that. Unfortunately, due to the random roll, you could end up with salvage worth its vendor trash value (250).