Oxygenation

Nevermind, got this answered for me ingame. Thanks anyway =)

Post deleted by Oxygenation

I'm all for Issues getting out as soon as they can but I really hate some of the costume bugs that got out with this one.

That whole not being able to select the interior color of trench coat tails without some silly workaround is unacceptable...they're a Veteran Reward for crying outloud....they shouldn't come with a bug. And I know there's a thread to discuss VRs and perhaps I'll post this there too but since this is a general gripe about costume bugs and I figure the same people work on fixing all the costume pieces...I'd include it here.

The fact that females still can't use the chest emblem patterns is made even lamer by the fact they're described as a new costume feature in the patch notes.

The over the shoulder cape now has clipping on the neck for males. I'm not sure if that's true for females or huge but regular males, at least mine, have clipping right under the chin. This was not fixed by body sliders or any such. It was working fine on Test up until the last patch and I can't say for certain after that as I didn't play on Test again after it got its final patch. All I know is it looks wretched.

I don't imagine it being fixed anytime soon though. I mean, after all, we lived with that horrible v shaped clipping with the male spikey hairstyle for the entire interim between issues...why would we see a fix to this?

I'm sorry if I sound bitter. I love this game, I really do, but these graphical details that we and others have to deal with and stare at day in and day out are annoying and you would figure we could get the ball rolling on fixing these sorts of things. Surely they're not that hard to fix...in case of the over the shoulder capes they apparently weren't that hard to screw up.

Anyhow, I'm just in a foul mood over this. I had a costume ready and planned around that cape and was quite looking forward to it once I8 went Live but I just can't deal with that horrible clipping so boo.

I'm sure there are other problems, but those are the only ones I've noticed.

All in all, keep up the good work but work on these bug fixes please.

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Now we just need a bare leg option for men, and a cape with that same pattern on the bottom edge

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I completely concur. It's a shame the devs seem to have an issue with giving male toons a shorts or bare leg option of any kind, especially with this toga deal. I dunno about you but I've never seen a toga over tights, pants or anything else other than bare legs.

Shorts for guys! Hell, give me briefs and bare legs for guys! I've got a broadsword scrapper that would so Conan it up like that.

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Liquid, I can understand your points... you're always pretty good at stating them... and I can see where just because no one complained doesn't mean there wasn't a problem, but look: Don't you find it the least bit interesting that now that they are trying to shoehorn PvP in, they are suddenly discovering all these powers that were "already broken"?

It just seems fishy to me... I'm not usually one who complains either, I've had my share of adapting to do, and have pretty much done so without complaint becuase I do believe that there should be some challenge to the game, but I am really getting worried that once someone discovers a new tactic that is perfectly valid, that power is going to be looked at and changed so that the tactic will no longer work.

This is an evolving game, there are, as you say, always new players coming in and new tactics (some of which are explotive perhaps) but are being discovered... I just... I don't know... I really didn't see a good PvE reason for doing this to SS or SJ.

Anyway...

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Does it seem strange? Of course it does. Does that mean thats the reason why it was done? Of course not. The problem is that people are trying to blame all the changes they don't like on PvP, and are (for the most part) claiming that Statesman is lying about why the changes were made without having any kind of proof. In other words, taking what can very well be just a coincidence and trying to use it as damning proof.

And in the end, it's not good for the community, and is rather unfair to Statesman and the other Dev's.

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Well I was just reading over these posts and this one caught my eye because it's a trend I've noticed before amongst those that hold the Dev team to godlike status.

Why do all these individuals assume they are going to tell us the truth? Do they know us? Do they have a long relationship with us that garners trust and honesty? Do they call us by our first names and say "hey, let's do lunch"? No, the Devs and I, or anyone else, have no reason whatsoever to have trust in each other. So therefore, why are they required to tell us the truth?

Now, I'm not saying necissarily that they're lying (although I personally suspect Statesman is quite a bit or rather tweaking the truth to better save his reputation) but I'm just asking what reason to we have to believe they'd never lead us in the opposite direction of the truth? The Devs have(which has been stated many times by Statesman in not so many words) a very clear "vision" of this game and where it is to go. Do you really think that if if the "vision" was getting too far off course and sudden changes were made that any red name would claim it was for their own selfish gains? The upholding of the "vision"?

It's Statesman's job as a developer and as the frontman of this opperation to appease the whining and upset feelings of his subjects (us) do you think he's going to tell us full truths if they're going to upset us and make us whine even more? I know I certainly wouldn't do that. So what's to say that the only reason he's saying there are "significant PvE issues" is to save himself from being called a liar or some such because he's always said PvP would not change the PvE game. You say we have no proof that the PvE game is changing because of PvP and that may be true. A lot of sneaking suspicions considering the timing of the changes and how the changes are in direct regard to MANY whines and complaints about balance in the arena "I can't hit a perma-MoG'd Scrapper and they ALWAYS win the match. I can't use flight to get away from a jousting SJ'er" And I admit those are suspicions BUT suspicions with grounds. But what proof do we have that these changes AREN'T because of PvP and PvP alone or at the least the biggest reason? The only proof we have is what Statesman says.

Well the only proof I have is what I've tested and seen and I think it's fishy...why am I not right? Because he says so?

Again I say, I'm not saying that he HAS to be lying just saying it looks that way and I just don't think there's any real reason to believe what he says when of course everything he says pretty much HAS to be condusive to the game is going as planned and "we've been looking at these issues for a while now." That alone is the biggest cop out ever in my opinion. Citing "we've been looking at this for a while" or "I've always had issues with such and such power" is an easy way to throw off questions by leading the flock to believe "I've been thinking of doing something about this for a while now, it's just the first YOU'VE heard of it"...why is that more often than not the answer we're given? To me, it's just not good enough.

Anyhow, no need for a response, I won't be checking back to see if there is one. I just wanted to throw this out there.

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Agreed.

We should try NEVER to change a power because of PvP alone (BTW, this is what I've always promised). The changes now aren't solely because of PvP - there's signifcant PvE issues, too.

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With all due respect, sir...you are completely full of it.

*flame on*

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One additional thing I would like to point out is that I'm not sure this change will have the intended effect for group gameplay. I'm actually more leery now about bringing along teammates in my door missions than I was previously. On Unyielding, if I solo a mission, it's comfortably filled with lts and minions. If I add one person, it's likely similar. When I hit 3 people, unnamed bosses appear. So I think very hard before I add that third person now.

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I'm with you on this. I'm definitely more leery now and haven't enjoyed the game as much as pre-I3 and simply because of the one shots and debt. I'm no fan of debt, no one is, I know it comes with the territory BUT up until I3 my defender had been in debt a total of, count them, two times over his level 37 career. Admittedly this is because I built him to be a team player for the most part, I go in with a team and heal/buff them..drawing no aggro upon myself (even though I get some of course, one always does, I just don't get the brunt of it). Now with the release of I3 and the added damage to bosses I've had my backside handed to me by Boss AoE and one shots to the point I have earned the first debt badge and am halfway to the second.

I think one shots are ridiculous as they are anyway. I don't feel they should be taken out of the game BUT the damage should be reduced to where it doesn't take you out automatically. What's the fun or the realism of being a superhero if you can't at least have a fighting chance to stay alive after a devistating attack. Have a one shot take me down to blinking red health but give me a chance to pull off a heal first and at least survive even if I have to run after.

Beyond this, as vulnerable as Defenders and Controller are (and Blasters too, but I'm talking about those that keep the team alive here) if we're one shotted or taken out because of a Boss AoE (remember healing and radiant auras are AoE as well so you have to be relatively close to your tankers and scrappers for them to get the heal if they need it) then what does that do for the rest of our team? they have no one to heal them or buff them anymore and before too long they're AoE'd to death or one shotted or just taken out in general. This makes the point of being a healer, well...pointless. If I'm not given the chance to save myself and then save my teammates then why do I have healing powers in the first place?

So yes, I think the boss damage needs to be looked at a bit. I really don't mind the higher HP as much as I thought I was going to. I still don't like it, hate it in fact BUT if I am solo'ing I can still take on an orange boss with a number of inspirations in tow. I often have to leave the mission to buy some when one is sprung on me (and I'm sorry but you DO run into missions that have no mention of a boss in the text. I was doing a Crey mission the other day, I forget what it's called but it's the one where they inject you with that serum or whatever that lowers your endurance and hp regen as well as the recharge rate of your powers. Anyhow, as far as I remember, and I've been paying close attention since Statesman said to "check the text" and nowhere did it mention any bosses and sure enough, the second enemy I run into was a boss, I forget what they're called, they look like Voltic Tanks but they're Bosses and not lts) but I can take them on if need be. But the damage...the damage really needs to be looked at or something needs to be looked at. I don't know how anyone could call it "balance" when the boss damage is so much greater than what we as heroes can do and the boss HP is so high that it's completely counter-productive to our powers in many cases.

Balance, in my humble opinion, would at the LEAST be "One shot me to within an inch of my life but give me a chance to pull off a heal" as opposed to "One shot me dead"...doesn't seemed very balanced to me there.

So therefore, with this being said I'm leery of teams now. When invited to a team it's quickly become second nature to me to ask how many members and do you plan on getting more. It's hard enough keeping people alive with the ridiculous boss changes but even worse when you've got a large team spawning Bosses left and right and one of those bosses decides to take you, the defender, out. It's just too much I feel.

Another example to promote changing something to the changes that were implemented. A team and I went after Nosferatu the other day. Very good team, we were doing really well (myself *Defender*, one tank, two scrappers and a blaster). We get to Nosferatu and things seem to be going well at first, I was paying attention to my teammate and not Nosferatu himself as it's my job to keep them living. Then in the middle of a heal to the blaster, Nosferatu executes some cone power that takes him and myself out, one shot...no chance. He then subsequently took out both the scrappers and the tank ran. It was during this time (while the scrappers tried in vain to take him) that I actually targeted the AV to see him at half health only to watch him regen to full health within a matter of seconds. Now, I know he's supposed to regen, all enemies do, vampyres regen even quicker BUT seeing that he's an AV and his HP is already ridiculously high as it is and it takes a good amount of time to get that HP down, should his regen rate not be slowed a little? Once again this doesn't seem like balance...balance would have been increasing his HP and damage (somewhat on the damage, the one shot thing has GOT to go) but lowering his regen rate a little bit so he can't regen so quickly that increased HP that's a [Censored] and a half to get down as it is. That would be balance.

And what about the Terra Volta respec trial? Is it balance to have so many Freak Tank Bosses there? Two in a group is one thing as you're fighting to the reactor...sometimes more...but when you actually get to the reactor and they start coming down with the waves of enemies and they're at their new increased HP and damage rate and your team can't get the two or three that come down taken out in time before the next wave falls on you and now you've got five or six Freak tanks and if they don't instantly kill you from one shots and such you still can't get ALL five or six of them taken out with the increased HP and then another wave comes down and you've got nine or ten Freak Tanks on the floor...it's time to run and call it a day if you can make it to the door before they destroy the reactor, that is if you're lucky enough to get out without being one shotted. So basically...if the tanks and scrappers can get out before the reactor is destroyed.

Is that balance? I'd think balance would be to tone down the boss spawn in the reactor IF they're going to be so hard to take on. As previously stated it's hard enough keeping a team alive with the increased damage and HP, throw in ALL those Freak Tanks and the fact you've got to run and get a shield to protect yourself in the middle of battle sometimes and well you've got a dead hero because I had to run and get a shield and couldn't heal. (This wasn't an issue before as my healing aura more than made up for any damage the radiation did BUT with all those Freak Tanks running around any little damage radiation was doing on me was just making my HP that much lower).

Statesman talks so much about balance amongst the archetypes and balance in the game and what-not. Somehow I just don't see "balance" here AT ALL. Balance in the game is at the very least a fighting chance.

I too personally wish that Flight was a touch faster, however it doesn't bother me enough to worry too much about it. What does bother me is this though:

The fact that the cap on travel speed SOs is NOT mentioned anywhere. At least not anywhere that I'm aware of and I did my research as a "normal" player ie. one that reads the game manual and pays attention to any in-game directions and/or texts as opposed to someone who reads the forums constantly or goes searching for information (travel speed SO caps not being something someone would think they need to search for).

That's what happened to me. I wanted my flight just a little bit faster and I had an extra slot to "burn" if you will. So I added it to Flight for a total of 6. I placed my fifth flight speed SO on it only to notice no difference. I was on a team at the time so I made mention "I just added a fifth SO to my flying speed and I'm not flying any faster" much to my surprise (and the surprise of three others on the team) one of our teammates spoke up and said "There's a cap at four, you can only use four SOs on flight speed." What? Excuse me? How come I didn't know this?

So I read over the game manual, nothing about travel speed SO caps in the enhancements section or the pool power section, nowhere. So I checked in-game for a few things. I read the flight power description, nothing. I read the flight power allowed enhancements description, nothing. I read the information on flight speed SOs both on the ones I already had locked into powers as well as at the store I bought them at only to one again find nothing.

My question is, what is to keep a player who doesn't know about these things, and I'm sure there are lots more than myself and the few I mentioned above, from adding that extra, non-needed and useless slot to a travel power simply because they wanted to go faster but didn't know there was a cap? What bothers me even more about this is the enhnancement system actually ALLOWS a player to put that fifth flight speed SO on the power, knowing good and well it won't have any affect.

I luckily had an extra respec and needed to do that anyway to dispose of another power I didn't care for so I was able to respec out of that extra, useless slot. But what if I hadn't been able to? That would have meant I wasted an enhancement slot that does me NO good whatsoever (five is plenty for flight, four flight speed and one endurance reduction) and all because there's nothing to tell the casual player that travel speeds cap.

If I'm wrong about this and there's somewhere in-game or in the manual that I missed, please let me know and I'll call myself one who doesn't pay attention to details. BUT I'm pretty certain I was very thorough.

I think that there needs to be some sort of in-game text applied to travel powers to tell what the cap is for those players not in the know about such things.

All in all I guess this really has nothing to do with the original post but still, since it was on the topic of travel powers and their speed and SOs and such I figured it was as good a place as any.

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Exactly. It seemed the real question was danced around, IMO.

I think the question should have been:

'Why was the boss damage / health increase implemented when the mission difficulty slider was already in the works? Those players who wanted a tougher challenge could raise the slider while those players who were already having a tough time could leave it at default. Increasing the base damage and health does nothing to change the difficulty other than to turn most missions into exercises into futility for other than uber built characters.'

Or something along those lines.

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Danced around? It was downright evaded! I was looking forward to this Ask Statesman thing because I just knew, as many players that were asking about this Boss issue, that it'd be one of the questions he'd answer...and then to get an answer like that. ::sigh::

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Not that the boards aren't pretty negative as a whole, bue ESPECIALLY after a release...

And every release these boards become flamefest for a couple of weeks.

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Thank you for making my exact point which is there would not be so much negativity after a release IF there wasn't something broken. People don't post negatively about positive changes, at least not in my experience.

And yes of course even if a release was completely smooth without a bug in the world people would STILL find something to complain about BUT I guarantee you it wouldn't be anywhere as near as bad as it is at the moment.

People just don't feel they're listened to and they don't understand why. I completely sympathize with them. It sucks to be told you have a voice only for it to seem like that voice is stifled constantly. But all in all I love this game and I am very thankful for the things the Devs do give us...usually.

I know this is still an on the fence kind of post and it will remain that way. I'm just wary of a few things.

Oh and by the by, since my last post I played with Issue 3 non stop last night until dawn's early light and I have to say that I'm not as thankful as I was BUT that's a post better left for other places in the forums.

Still thankful for Striga Isle though. I love that zone. The Vulcanologist badge is fun too!

Well, here's what I was wondering about this Boss HP/Damage increase and all that madness (no I'm not happy about it either) however...I digress...

More than a few times Statesman has said that bosses weren't meant to be solo'able...for example:

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Bosses weren't meant to be solo-able UNLESS a particular player used Inspirations & strategy.

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Okay and another example, though I couldn't find the original post so I'll have to paraphrase:

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Bosses were NEVER meant to be solo'able.

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Same thing really but still...he continues to say this. (Excuse the all caps on that last NEVER as he may not have actually capitalized that complete word but I'm thinking he did). Whatever the case...

My question is this and one of the best questions I've ever come up with for this game I think, pardon me if someone else has already asked it, but...if Bosses were NEVER meant to be solo'able then why did it take 8 months to have them changed?

I mean bosses are a big part of this game. The sort of issue you would think the development team would want to get right from the get go or at least soon after. If bosses were not and have not been what they were originally intended to be and considering again they're a major facet of the game then WHY did it take EIGHT months to get these changes to them implemented?

Don't tell me it was something like "We just didn't consider it a pressing issue" or some nonsense like that. If they were "NEVER" and I quote "NEVER" supposed to be solo'able that should be a pretty big deal and it should have been changed a long time ago, am I not right?

This is one of the biggest reasons I feel "forced grouping" is exactly what's going on here.

Now let's take into account the "Inspirations and strategy" part. Well I'm all for use of both, I do use them both myself on a normal basis. HOWEVER, as annoying as it may be to have to leave a mission, run to a contact, get more inspirations and go back if you've used them all to defeat one of these new more powerful bosses, what IF that's not always possible?

Let's talk about TFs and the Respec Trial and such. Both of these game implements involve many bosses and or AVs/monsters. Also both of these things DO NOT allow you to buy inspirations once the TF is started.

Therefore, I am with a team and we are just now coming up against that thing at the end of the Numina TF, I forget what he's called but he's an AV or a Monster or whatever...anyhow, we have used all our inspirations due to other HP/Damage increased bosses on the way to the end and now we're all out due to just not enough inspiration drops. What do we do then? How do we use inspirations to help us out against these ridiculously hard new boss changes?

Okay, another example, let's talk about the Level 34 Terra Volta Respec a moment. Freak Tanks EVERYWHERE. On the way to the reactor it's cool, nothing too big going on so long as you have a solid team. You use your inspirations to defeat the Tanks on the way, no big. Get to the reactor and the first few waves are okay, not too difficult and then by the third wave you've got a few Freak Tanks coming for you...oops, I used up my inspirations on those Freak Tanks on the way to the reactor. What do I do now?

You make it through because you've got a good Defender or something. Then here come the waves with 4 and 5 Freak Tanks in them and oops, all out of inspirations still or at least not enough to do any real good because drops are infrequent. What now? Due to the fact the HP has been so greatly raised the team cannot defeat all the Tanks before the next wave comes and then you've got 8 Tanks on the floor with you, smashing at you and the reactor. One of these new increased HP/Damage Tanks one shots your Defender, it's impossible to revive because either a) you don't have an awaken or b) you couldn't even if you did due to so many enemies being around or c) (which happened to me the other night) a teammate revives you and you're one shotted again before you can get out of the way. Two defeats, Two times in debt and all because the bosses are too high and I couldn't buy anymore inspirations, not that they would have helped the way things are now anyway, especially against SO MANY bosses in that reactor.

So what are the answers to these questions? Help me understand because I certainly don't.

Perhaps part of it is forced grouping. Perhaps part of it what someone else said that "The Devs are the enemy". Perhaps it's because they just can't churn out higher level content enough so they figure Increasing Boss HP/Damage will keep people from outleveling the content before it can get put into the game.

And yes, yes I know...increased XP as well, you can still level...however who gives a good hot damn about that increased XP when I'm spending half of it to clear my XP debt due to the fact a generic Uber Boss fryed me? I'm all for increased XP and I love that until it becomes counter-productive to one another. There is NO benefit to increased XP when Bosses are taking heros out left and right. Lots of benefit if you live through it, I will give you that...but some things are just so hard now it's impossible to do that.

Anyhow, that's all. Take it for what's it's worth. I just thought these were some good points. Flame away if you like, I'm sure some of you will. Nothing but words on a computer screen to me.

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The reason Warcry says what they say is because it's true. This is one thread of only 16 pages so far and there are dozens upon dozens of complaint pages many of them with 150+ pages with only the very few positive posts thrown in here and there.

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Actually, many of those posts are debates between people who are appreciative and those who aren't. But the Warcry article WAS a wake up call that we say too little about what is good in the game and too much about what isn't.

I post to Ask a Stupid Question all the time. I figure I can post one or two fewer stupiditied a day and one or two kudos instead. If lots of people do that, we might actually serve as a voice against the negativity.

I'd like to kudo the smooth Issue 3 rollout. The servers are a bit laggy, but they're in the yellow, too. I compart this to Issue 2 and I'm ery impressed with the behind the scenes time they spent in the past few weeks preparing for this. Very nice.

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Actually, that's why I made the point that there are positive posts thrown in amongst the negative. However, the majority ARE negative, the few that are positive are rarely a debate but rather someone feeling that everything is okay with the game flaming someone who upset about one thing or another...calling them whiners or making pathetic similes between them and one year olds not getting what they want...it's hardly positive.

Not to say that there are not a positive/negative debate here and there BUT the majority. I've spent most of my time since the release yesterday reading the boards until I just couldn't anymore because there are SOOOO many negative posts and it became too much to handle. In fact I've barely played the new content because of reading. The new content doesn't really affect me anyway because I am neither a scrapper nor a tank but a defender and pretty much built to team, though I can get through a mission with only minions and lts on my own and sometimes the occasional boss...well before Issue 3 was released that is...so all in all the content they did release was pretty good for my specific character.

So I do thank them. All I'm saying is there would not be anywhere near the number of negative posts if there wasn't something off about things.

It's like that old saying about "you can only hear something so many times before you start to believe it."

Well I can only read so many negative posts from hundreds upon hundreds of negatively affected people before I start to believe them as well. There is truth to what they're saying as well.

So I don't know if this post really fits in this thread because I'm on the fence about so many things. BUT I do thank the Dev team for some of the things they do, so I suppose that's better than no thanks at all.

I'll Kudo Striga Isle, it's a lovely little place to go and visit, it almost makes me wish to play one of my lower level alternates and get them to the correct security level for that place so I can do some missions there. Assuming none of the higher levels mission end up sending you there now for some or another. I'm a bit miffed about there not being a current exit to Striga marked on the map and after exploring for a while and getting my map open I had NO idea where to get out for the longest time BUT all in all I love the new zone. The volcano is awesome!

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This article on Warcry says we can create 100 page posts of our complaints to Cryptic, but can't put together 5 pages of thank you's for the people who make and manage CoH.

I say we prove them wrong. I've seen lots of little thank you threads on these boards: let's see what they look like all in one place. You can keep them short and sweet, just keep them coming.

I'll start.

Thanks for being one of the most involved Dev communities I've seen. Statesman alone has posted to these boards over 600 times, in other games, you might find that the entire Dev community posted less than 200 times.

So thanks for taking the time to keep us informed. Even where we disagree with you, it's so good to know where you're coming from.

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I'm not saying this to be a hater or anything or to demean this thread in any way HOWEVER I am playing devil's advocate here.

The reason Warcry says what they say is because it's true. This is one thread of only 16 pages so far and there are dozens upon dozens of complaint pages many of them with 150+ pages with only the very few positive posts thrown in here and there.

I do appreciate what the Devs do for us...sometimes. I often don't appreciate it at all...So thank you for sometimes, Devs. But that's all I can say.

If we want threads with 150+ pages of positive posts and thanks yous then it looks like the Devs are going to have to start pleasing a lot more players than just us on these 16 meger pages in comparison.

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Please ignore the troll.

The Developers decided that even with the minor bugs, they were happy with the last patch (for the most part) and went live with it.

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If this were the case and they were so happy with it then WHY did Statesman say they were pushing back the release of Issue 3 because of these exact "minor bugs" so they could be fixed before going live? But yet NOTHING post 12/23 got changed.

Explain that one to me and everyone else please.