Part_Troll

[ QUOTE ]
Very nice guide, both from a content and organization standpoint. Only comment I would make is that at heroic (in my experence) opponents generally con +0 (even/same level), when you get LTs, they con as if they were +1 to you (yellow instead of white). At higher difficulty settings, this seems to cause a surprise amongst some teams I've been on when they see reds or purples when not expecting them.


[/ QUOTE ]

I think there is a misunderstanding here.

<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>
Cogs/spiderlings/et @ level con blue
Minions @ level con white
Lieutenants @ level con yellow
bosses @ level con orange
elite bosses @ level con red
AV @ level con purple
Giant Monsters @ any level always con Purple

Which is the same way as saying the Con chart

off white = -4 or below
grey = -3
green = -2
blue = -1
white = even
yellow = +1
orange = +2
red = +3
Purple = +4 or more
</pre><hr />

So the orange/red nature of bosses etc, even in "same level" gradations, will always be there, even if they are all at the same -substantive- level as you.

So that means a Boss who cons WHITE to you, is actually three levels below your substantive level.

Hope that makes sense.

Thanks for the nice comment.

Ex

A guide to Hero Reputation and Task Forces, by Excession (Part_Troll). updated 10/22/07

What is this guide about?

How Reputation (Heroic, Unyielding, Invincible etc, changed at Hero Analysts throughout Paragon City) affects the difficulty of Task Force missions.

This post was originally offered in response to someone asking "does everyone have to set their reputation to Heroic before task forces begin, or just the Team Leader". After spending some time on it, I figured it was a good candidate for my First Guide. I hope you like it.

This guide was written from a Hero perspective. Here's a table of the CoH and CoV reputations

<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>
Hero Villain Effect

Heroic Villainous Base. Critters generally spawn at level, minions should con WHITE
Tenacious Malicious number of critters per spawn is increased as though you had an extra team-member
Rugged Vicious Same as Heroic, but spawns are one level higher than base
Unyielding Relentless Same as Tenacious, but spawns are one level higher than base
Invincible Ruthless Same as Heroic but all spawns are TWO levels higher than base.
</pre><hr />

What to do if you disagree with something stated here

Private Message to me with details, and I'll investigate.

And so to the guide.

[ QUOTE ]
Dear Forum

I have been asked on multiple occasions to set MY reputation to Heroic when we are forming a task force, even though I am not the leader. It is my understanding that only the Leader's reputation matters in Task Forces, and that my changing difficulty will have no positive benefit to me or the team in question.


[/ QUOTE ]

It makes sense for everyone to set their difficulty to Heroic.

Mission difficulty for normal Task Forces (Positron, Sister Psyche, etc) is determined by a number of factors.

Generally missions are at a set level, the MAX level for the TF, so for Positron thats L15, for Synapse it's L20, for Sister Psyche it's L25. This can be bumped up by having more people in the TF, so a 7 or 8 person team will probably run into L16's or even L17's on Positron.

The LEADER's difficulty will determine how much more difficult a TF will be, here's a little table as a guide.

UPDATE: A much better version of this information is available here

<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>

TF Difficulty

Heroic Tenacious Rugged Unyielding Invincible

Positron 10-15 15 +critters 16 16 +critters 17 critters
Synapse 15-20 20 +critters 21 21 +critters 22 critters
Sister Psyche 20-25 25 +critters 26 26 +critters 27 critters
Moonfire 23-28 28 +critters 29 29 +critters 30 critters
Citadel 25-30 30 +critters 31 31 +critters 32 critters
Manticore 30-35 35 +critters 36 36 +critters 37 critters
Numina 35-40 40 +critters 41 41 +critters 42 critters
</pre><hr />

So according to the above table, Positron is for Level 10 to Level 15 heros, the base (heroic) difficulty will be Level 15, at Tenacious there will be more Level 15 critters per spawn, at Rugged there will be the normal number of critters in each spawn, but they will be from a Level 16 base. Unyielding will be Lever 16 base, with more than then normal number of critters, and Invincible will be Level 17 with the normal number of critters.

Please be aware that these numbers aren't rock solid, there are slight wavering of critter levels and numbers within TF missions.

To put it into a practical example, a full team of eight Level 10 heroes, doing a Positron Task force on Invincible reputation, would be facing level 17 critters. They would not survive unscathed.

Here's a con chart: "con" means what colour a particular critter's name is when you target it.

<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>
Off-white = -4 levels or below your substantive level
Grey = -3
Green = -2
Blue = -1
White = even
Yellow = +1
Orange = +2
Red = +3
Purple = +4 levels or more above your substantive level
</pre><hr />

And how lieutenants and bosses con different colours to players, even though they are the same -level- as you are:

<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>
Cogs/spiderlings/et @ level con blue
Minions @ level con white
Lieutenants @ level con yellow
bosses @ level con orange
elite bosses @ level con red
AV @ level con purple
Giant Monsters @ any level always con Purple
</pre><hr />

A great article on difficult sliders and mission rewards is Mission Diffuculty &amp; Reputation for Solo Play , and another nice article on XP and difficulty sliders is Maximising Mission XP. Paragon wiki has a good page for all the CoH taskforces Paragon Wiki: Trials and Task Forces

The LEADER on a TF is a set position, determined by who is team leader when the TF is formed. It cannot be voluntarily changed in the game. Only if the leader disconnects/quits the TF will the Leader position change. Once that happens, the NEXT person who joined the -team- will become leader, and mission difficulty will now depend upon their current Hero Analyst rating.

So if you have

<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>
Player Difficulty

Joe Heroic
Mary Invincible
Annabel Rugged
Peter Heroic[*] LEADER
Zachary Tenacious
</pre><hr />

Then the TF will start on base level, and everything will be sweet.

If Peter Disconnects or otherwise leaves the server, then the next person in line is the first person to join the team -- Joe. Since he's Heroic, nothing will change.

If Joe disconnects, or otherwise leaves the TF, then Mary becomes team leader. Suddenly all new spawns(*) will be at Invincible level of difficulty. I don't believe that this difficulty level -ever- ramps -down- only -up-. So even if Mary disconnected and Annabel was leader, the critters would still spawn at Invincible level, but spawn sizes (rather than level) are still based on the NUMBER of people in the team at the time the spawn is triggered.

THAT is why it is important for ALL of the team-members to go and change down to Heroic before a Task Force is formed, so that you don't get unpleasant surprises later. Of course, if you're a Superteam and can do it on invincible, well you don't care.

note well The calculation for RESPEC TRIALS is based on the HIGHEST PERSON in the team PLUS 2, up to and including max-level for the respec trial. That means a team doing the first respec trial with all people at L24 (24,24,24,24,24,24) will be facing L26 critters. A team of 24,27,24,24,24,24 will be facing L29 critters. A team of 50,27,24,24,24,24 will be facing max level critters for the TF, which is L33 (the 50 will be autoexemplared down to max level for the trial). As you can imagine, Level 24 people up against L33 critters would NOT be conducive to a pleasant event. Mission Difficulty ADDS to these base levels, and again, the LEADER's difficulty determines the difficulty modifier. If the LEADER changes, the DIFFICULTY may change, and it only ever changes -up-.

Extra Special Note When on a TF/TRIAL, the Mission drop down in the Nav Bar will only ever show the difficulty that YOU are set to. So if you're on Heroic, and the leader is on Invincible, when you look at the mission in the Nav drop down, it will say 'Task Force (Heroic)' but if the LEADER looks it will say 'Task Force (Invincible)' and it is the LEADER that determines the level, not you. So even if you check and it says the TF is on Heroic, unless you're the leader or sorted this out before the TF started, you can't be sure. Similarly if you are on Invincible, but the Leader is on Tenacious, the actual level of the TF will be Tenacious.

(*) Spawns -- mission spawns are calculated at some relatively-large distance from whatever person 'triggers' the spawn within an instance of a map. Whatever the difficulty rating of the mission is AND the number of people in the team, WHEN THE CRITTERS SPAWN determines what will spawn and how many of 'em.

This is why you get those people who was to buff up a mission's team size, they will get 8 player team, and then 'stealth' run, or otherwise trigger every spawn on a map. Once triggered, a spawn is "set" for the duration of that instance, and no more (or fewer) critters will spawn. Similarly you can do it the other way -- start off a mission with only 1 person in the mission, the rest are logged off or not in the team. The 1 person zips through the mission triggering all the spawns to be 'one person' spawns at their difficulty level. Then they go back to the start, and invite the rest of the team in, and proceed to have a tailored cake-walk mission. Useful for doing AV's (as long as you can pull off the 'triggering' alone without dying in the process.)

Some special missions don't follow these rules, notable the AV ones and 'one off' special missions.

[ QUOTE ]

Resetting the mission

I know for a fact that this one is no longer true. Missions are now dynamically loaded, so if you add a significant number of members during a mission, there is no need to have the mission reset. The next spawn will be sized appropriately.


[/ QUOTE ]

You're partially correct. If you get more or fewer people in a team and spawns have not been triggered, then the game engine will dynamically increase/decrease the number of critters, depending on team size. A map that has had its spawns triggered will NOT ramp up in difficulty -- so those teams that have some stealthy guy race through looking for glowies, and then invite a heap more people to the team, may find that the mission is way too easy, and WILL need to reset the mission in order ot generate 'normal' spawn sizes.

So sometimes you DO need to reset, but in 95% of cases, it's not required, and only 5% are specialist cases where the team is doing something different from a normal PuG.

Hope that clears some of this up.

This was my first attempt at a guide. Please be gentle.

Ex
[edit: add con table(s)]
[edit: modified information on Invincible missions spawn sizes]

[ QUOTE ]

Oh I missed that part of pt's post. You're totally corect though. Using extreme examples is a really poor method of communication.


[/ QUOTE ]

Please. PerfectTommy is the pt you were referring to here, not Part_Troll. I think it's an important distinction, especially in the light of Godwin's Law -- a rule I'm particularly fond of.

Ex

Storm in teacup.

An aside.

One of the things about online communities, is their predilection towards stratification and elitism.

Let me cite some examples (at the risk of further boring everyone to death, and yes, I think it's relevant to CoH/CoV).
[*] IRC. Internet Relay Chat, the 'CB Radio' of the internet -- join a channel, type out a message, see if there is any kind of personal response. Profit!. IRC was my first real experience with -live- communications with others in a text medium. I'd used email and newsgroups, but it was a clinical operation, you had time to think through your arguments and post cogently in response to people's offerings. IRC was line-at-a-time instant messaging between many people. Just keeping track of the subjects being discussed was an artform, as was knowing all of the jargon being used, the 'shortcut' terminology that was peculiar to the medium. IRC has this channel police option, called Operator status. An operator can silence, or kick, anyone (including other operators). Channels would be 'owned' by a group of people who would attempt to be benevolent dictators; that would rarely last more than a few months. Eventually it would be a case of 'do as I say or else', with no warnings prior to kick/bans from the channel. The elitism game, where you were either a part of the in-crowd, or you were scum. The ONLY way to not be kickbanned if you weren't an operator, was to not say anything at all controversial.
[*] [censored] gaming zone, Hearts and later Spades. A card-gaming community where the client included the ability to interact with others and have 'IRC-like' real time communication whilst playing cards. At first it was a great way to play a fun game, but then it became striated, with 'elite' player groups only playing with other 'elite' players, and unknowns languishing with other unknowns, engaged in endless squabbles about online behaviour. There were endless rules about harassment etc, with GayMops coming in and spanking anyone who infracted the rules, leading to account bannings. It was so easy to get multiple accounts that such things were done just to stir the pot. Chaotic, anarchic, and eventually it died because Up With This People Will Not Put. The game (Hearts and later Spades) was secondary to the incendiary in-fighting in the communications medium. It went to pot when some of the worst 'elite' gamers managed to get respected Operator privileges, and then went on harassment campaigns of their own, booting and banning people across the gamut of games, to 'punish' them for speaking out about poor sportsmanship etc.

When communities are TOTALLY unmoderated, there is a rapid decline of signal and a concomitant rise in noise. The 'kiddy forums' (and I'd cite Planet of Crufting fora but that might get me modsmacked) are full of the absolute worst of any communications medium, the mindless babble of a million ill-behaved monkeys, spewing their tiny pile of disingenuous cuss words at each other, and going out of the way to make "elite" avatars/graphics to lord it over everyone else. Since anything goes, kids will splatter -any- thread with their childish genitalia-fixated comments, scream and laugh and pounce around like cretins - very much Lord of the Flies mob-behaviour.

Here on the NCSOFT CoH forum, there is excess modification. That serves a purpose in keeping things cheery and bright so that paying customers won't be inclined to have 'bad' forum experience and thus cease to participate in the game itself! It's all about revenue streams. So strongly worded arguments of -any- kind are quickly nipped in the bud by a constant large team of 'moderators', who have carte blanch authority to modsmack any non-red-name post. We don't know what their mandate is, the precise wording of 'the rules' -- it's left open to their interpretation. Which is why insane situations where people discussion things rationally and sanely get deleted arbitrarily, but endless quote-cascades are allowed to propogate for as long as posters are interested in that kind of childish behaviour. The excellent example of an inherently abusive message, disguised in French, being left unmoderated, whilst the people decrying their outrage at the content of that post, were moderated into non-existence. The moderators didn't care about CONTEXT, only CONTENT that they could understand, or cared enough about to understand.

With power and authority, there comes the price of "corruption." Which might be a lessening of the 'core values' of a particular organisation, a lowest-common-denominator approach to what is allowed to 'live' and what should die. Anything that speaks negatively about the system itself is automatically modsmacked. "Who watches the watchers?"

At the end of the day, you and I are paying to access a game, and part of that access happens to be a forum system. We get very little say in what goes on with the game mechanics or with the forum mechanics. The people who provide the service have given low-paid menials the power to DO WHAT THEY LIKE to messages in the forum, and since public dissent is almost automatically deleted, there is no 'problem' to be solved anymore.

Another word for this is censorship.

Look at the situation in Fiji at the moment, where the military coup has declared that any 'anti coup' discussion is an offense and will be dealt with harshly.

Fortunately, in the forum it doesn't matter to NCSOFT. Your expenditure of minutes/hours/days to craft a post worthy of quoting, is nothing to moderators who are told 'just delete stuff that doesn't look right'.

Nothing.

"Too much nothing, can make a man abuse a King"

I fully expect this post to be modsmacked, even though it isn't directed at anyone, or contain any "rude" words. It rails at the system itself, and little lord Fauntelroys with their bytesticks are eager to pounce on anything that can be cited as 'proof' of the fickleness of the board itself.

There is nothing new under the sun.

Ex

I've had lots of threads 'modded' into extinction, and some deleted in the entirety.

Only once has a moderator contacted me in PM to say that something was changed. Once. In more than two years.

I'm sure that some of my offerings, being blunt and lacking tact, are designated as too offensive to let live. I'm also sure that some of my tongue in cheek offerings have been wildly appropriate to the forum, and yet they were deleted without any comment whatsover, by some jack-booted moderator who has nothing better to do than troll through threads, looking for stuff to 'moderate.

Moderation (the job) is a thankless task. I don't envy people who do it.

I think that this forum is PARTICULARLY evil in the moderation stakes. I can see that the OPs forum of choice is even worse, with 'lifetime bans' being arbitrarily rewarded. I like the Ars Technica open forum, they have moderators, but they actually talk to people if they consider their actions unworthy, and the forum population is a great deal less involved in personal attacks than this one (not saying personal attacks don't happen on Ars, just that they are the exception rather than the rule).

This forum needs to be moderated. Undeniably.

But the even hand of fairness should be applied, rather than the sledgehammer tactic of deleting swathes of content merely to mask out a single poster making an undisguised reference to genitalia.

Ex

Goofy guide.

Not equipping your Bruiser because of hand-clap? Man, that's whacked. He's so much better equipped.

Not getting Upgrade Equipment? Lord -- why are you playing an MM -- go out and make a corruptor, because Upgrade Equipment is the DEFINITIVE, MUST HAVE POWER of the Thugs power-set.

I'll write my own guide soon, and you can pick it to bits (no stamina, for one thing), but your guide is really weird.

Ex

I found that using the BASE TELEPORTER power -- I was invited to a group whilst I was in the base, and it BOUNCED ME OUT of the base, back to where I ported from (losing the invite in the process).

Ugh.

Ex

Most excellent.

I'm SO pleased that someone has articulated what I (sometimes, in vain) try to do by 'demonstration'.

You just hit those nails on the head, whack, whack, whack.

Awesome guide. Should be REQUIRED READING for all.

Although, I predict there will be many who just Don't Get It; :-) They're the same as the 'menaces' you mention, people using other people's high level characters and consequently not having the slightest clue of what they are doing.

Ex

The one that peeves me

The sound of the /traps ForceField Generator expiring.

I always think it's a grenade going off and get a shock.

I would DEARLY like to know which OGG file this is.

Both public (in the thread) and via PM (so I find out ASAP).

Ex

Nice guide. Makes me want to try one.

I have a Bots/Dark, Mercs/Dark and now a Thugs/Dark Masterminds, and they all -love- Dark's Tar Patch, and Darkest Night.

Doing it with a corruptor sounds interesting. Thanks.

Ex

Good guide, thanks.

Gave me a lot of ideas for my Empathy/Elec (L26 and rising).

Ex

Wow. It worked.

It's easier to just say 'go around the edge of the yellow zone 'Romero Heights' but your instructions were excellent overkill.

Was able to finish getting the damn masks , gooing from 2/3rd to full in about 40 minutes (about 70 mask).

Thanks for writing the guide.

Ex

Terrific guide.

I learned stuff. The mark of a good guide is thinking 'that's a good idea' or 'that's a good concept'.

Now I'm not looking forward to meeting level 30+ longbow

Thanks for putting in the time and effort to making something so very good.

Ex

Nobody will read this far!

Don't turn off TOOLTIPS in the Options menu!

With ToolTips, you can hover the mouse over your XP bar, and it will tell you how much XP you've made since your last 'level up', and how much more you need to make.

You can select a player or a mob, and hover the mouse over their Health bar, and see how many hit points they have! This is most useful when you're fighting Archvillains who you are connecting with but they don't appear to be losing health -- hover the mouse over their health and you will see that the Hatched Kraken has approximately 28,000 hitpoints!

Some others:

* Decieve the Sky Raiders ForceField emanators! Cool trick.

* Ice slick is way too good to avoid for an Ice Controller!

* Hasten is cool, but because you attack more, your endurance goes out the window. Be sure to get Stamina. My tank re-specced OUT of Hasten/superspeed into CombatJumping/Superjump and hasn't had endurence problems since. Not everyone *needs* Hasten, but ...

* most everyone *NEEDS* Stamina! Those blasters who are level 30 and don't have the Fitness pool -- they are slowing your team down enormously.

* As a Tank jump over and behind mobs before using Taunt. That way they turn to face you, and are far less likely to attack your team-mates, plus because you'll now be FACING your team-mates, you'll be able to see if they are being attacked before their health bar starts to (rapidly) shrink, and hopefully do something about it.

* As a blaster/defender/controller do NOT alpha strike (be the first one to fire) at any new group, since this will aggro the entire group and they will remember for the entire battle. Let the Tank or Scrapper get their attention BEFORE you strike.

* Paragon Protectors -- these guys use Moment of Glory when they get below 25% hitpoints, this effectively makes them unhittable (or hit for very few points of damage). The trick to killing them is to whittle them down to 50% and THEN use Build up/Aim on your Blasters, pop a red inspiration, and snipe or use your most powerful attacks. Then the Paragon Protector is -dead-. Usually people use their most powerful/boosted attack at the BEGINNING of a PP fight, and thats just not the wisest choice.

* Team invisibility + Invunerable Tank with Invincible = not very invisible, since Invincibility auto-aggros groups as you come into range.

* I wish I had read this entire thread six months ago.


Archvillain Q (Level 39 fire/fire blaster, Justice)
Titan-Ice (Level 37 Ice/FF controller, Justice)
Arsenic Man (Level 33 Ice/Ice blaster, Virtue)
Puzzle (Level 32 rad/rad defender, Justice)
Acutely Velcro (Level 28 Inv/Stone Tanker, Justice)
Ftoomsh (Level 9 Kin/Psi Defender, Justice)

Great guide. I have a fire/fire blaster, and I didn't take Circle Flame Sword (yet) nor did I take fire breath. I have 2 powers from my secondary -- the single-MOB hold and Build Up -- god, Fire secondary is USELESS!

Stamina, all the way, can't live without it. Similarly Hasten. I'm up to level 26 just got the Snipe power and I'm rocking!

thanks for the info on defenses. My stupid blaster gets himself beat up -real- fast

Ex
[Archvillain Q on Justice]