Pendragon_NA

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2. Character Transfer Service (from one server to another) - we are closer than we have ever been with this. I hope we see it around I8.

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What about purchasing additional character slots on a server?

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Multiple empowerment stations will stack the buffs that are offered (by design). If we made the buffs as good as players "expect" right out the gate, they'd be WAY too good when stacked.

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I'm not sure I understand. So to get a useful buff, our small sg has to build multiple empowerment stations? And then spend double or triple the salvage cost of a particular buff, to get one strong enough to be effective?

Why set things up like this? Why not charge the appropriate salvage cost for an appropriately useful buff, and not have the salvage stack?

Requiring multiple empowerment stations is a huge, and annoyingly hidden, cost.

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You could listen to the Wasabi Awards on SI Radio - I have a sneaking suspicion that we won something!

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I listened to SI Radio the last time you guys told me to. You know what they say, "Fool me once..."

Thank you very much for the information!

I have a couple questions for those who are testing this. I'd like to get some info down.

1. Is there only one "level" of empowerment station? Which is to say, there are three levels of workshop (basic, advanced, expert). Are there three levels of empowerment station, or just the two flavors, (tech/arcane)?

2. What kinds of salvage can the empowerment station convert? Which is to say, can one empowerment station convert any kind of raw salvage in the game into components, or only certain kinds? (I suppose this ties into question 1, since if there are 'tiers' of station, then I'd imagine each would only convert salvage into the corresponding tier of components.)

Thanks for the time.

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in short, as things stand now, I just can't see myself BOTHERING to powerup before hitting a mission.

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I don't think this was ever intended. These buffs aren't meant to serve you throughout a mission. They aren't meant to be something to rely upon all the time. Rather, you enter a mission and get to a snag, say three spawns placed inconveniently close together, or an EB, or a Longbow Ballista. You stop (or die), exit the mish, hit your base and buff up, then return and clear out the obstacle. 15 minutes is plenty of time to do that.

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The store owner had it explained to him by the lawyer thusly: If your mom cooks an apple pie for you in exchange for you mowing her lawn, technically she owes sales tax on the exchange of the pie for the service of getting the lawn mowed.

In conclusion, the law may be that silly.

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This isn't silly at all. I'd explain it thusly: If you buy something, you owe the state sales tax, whether you pay in dollars or in bartered goods.

I don't claim to be the greatest mastermind player this game has ever seen. However, on the subject of the AoE immob, I can see it being useful. It'd require the same tactic I use now for caltrops and web grenade (bot/traps). That being, to allow the bots' first salvo to hit before applying control. The mobs don't have time to move, and the fact that the bots made the first attack (and are continuing to attack) allows me to avoid most of the aggro.

Now, I might take more heat hitting the mobs with an AoE immob. Then again, the bots would still be making the first, devastating attack, and continuing to do so. And now the mobs are immobilized in the burn patches. Also, there's the damage shield to help mitigate the extra heat from using the immob.

With that in mind, the damage shield, then, doesn't need to be extremely potent. Merely potent enough to negate the additional damage that would have been taken through the use of the immob or attack in the set.

A good opening analysis. A good beta guide. I liked the way you laid out the options and made some comparisons between them. Some of your conclusions will require experience in the field to corroborate or disprove. But then, we all knew that coming into the thread, I'd hope.

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Can Permission be set for each Storage Container?

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Probably not.

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I agree. I'm guessing there'll be two new bubble-selects on the permissions screen. "Place items into storage" and "Remove items from storage" that you check yes/no for each rank.

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well if the requirement of the badge is the same, why wouldn't it be coded that way, still yet losing your badges when you cross over

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The more I think about it, the more this makes sense. If you've taken out 100 troll bosses, then that value doesn't change. So even if you lose the Hero Regenerator, you'd gain the Villain Regenerator when switching over.

So I suppose I could see some badges crossing over. Namely, those that have villain versions. But Burkholder's Bane, Statesman's Pal, Freedom Phalanx Reserve...some badges just aren't right on a villain's lapel (and vice-versa).

Question: When in supergroup mode, does damage taken count for both the personal damage taken badges -and- the supergroup damage taken badges, or just the supergroup versions?

It seems obvious that when -not- in SG-mode, damage taken would only count for the personal badges, but I'm confused about how it works in sg-mode, regarding both sets of badges.

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That and I doubt badges would disappear.

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I am actually hoping that they will. It'd prevent heroes and villains from changing sides willy-nilly for badges, and it'd also prevent a single toon from having badges from both Recluse and Statesman, which seems silly to me.

If a hero becomes a villain, I'd imagine that he'd throw away all the badges awarded by the Care Bears and work on villainous marks of esteem. By the same token if a villain becomes a hero, I imagine badges awarded by Recluse would be a source of shame, and he'd dump them while attempting to earn renown with the Good Guys.

In the Cold War, if a soldier/spy were to defect from the USSR to the United States, I doubt he'd still wear his Soviet commendations proudly on his new uniform!

Taser, this will be a fantastic resource when finished. Thanks for going to all the effort, man.

As for the Kaolin Legacy of Earth, I believe that I read elsewhere in this forum that it's been tied to the 25-badges badge, no?

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I just did the respec earlier today.
L34 En/? Stalker, who got auto-exemped down to 30.
L27 Necro/Dark MM, SK'd to 29.
L29 Dark/Dark Cor
L24 Rob/Poison MM, SK'd to 28. (Me)

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I think the key here is that you guys were at the respec's high end, rather than working at level 24. More powers, more slots, and possibly lower level mobs (are they capped like the Sky Raiders are in the CoH respec?)

I tried this the other night with a 24-25 team and we were slaughtered. I'd love to know the success rate on this thing.

I'm not an economics major, but as far as I'm concerned, the consumer only has one right. To purchase, or not to purchase. If you don't like what is being sold (continuing access to CoH), then don't buy it.

Nowhere no how have I ever heard of consumers having a right to dictate how a product is created, or what that product's final form will be, unless you're talking about a commission.

CoH ain't no commission. It's a regular consumer product. You buy your access each month. If you don't like it, don't buy it. The fact that you -have- bought it in the past doesn't give you any more right to try and control its development.

Naturally, the developers will try to listen to their consumers so that enough of them continue to see CoH as a worthwhile purchase. But you aren't ENTITLED to any kind of input at all.

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Of course. How SILLY of me to assume

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Exactly.

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Oh?????? If this is so, if we can rebuild items that were destroyed, that puts a completely different complexion on it. I had presumed that you would NOT get the prestige back.

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And of course, as is the norm on these boards, you decided not to bother finding out the facts, but post a long-winded rant instead.

And people wonder why the developers don't take these boards more seriously...

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Those are the goals.

[/ QUOTE ]I certainly hope these task forces don't require 24 people, like the Cathedral of Pain. My sg has 4 active members, all real-life friends. Now, I don't mind that we need to spend more time to build our base than larger groups. I don't even mind that we won't be able to participate in base raids. But for goodness' sake, please don't exclude us from base-oriented PvE content as well.

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I'm confident a lot of people would see that badge as nothing more than a joke now, as I do.

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We certainly all like to think that everyone agrees with us.

For the record, I wouldn't have called you a fool for not teaming. I'd have called you a fool for not teaming, and then coming here and complaining that you didn't get the badge.

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We have to fight to do the most damage when 10, 20 or more heroes should be all trying to defeat the Giant Monster and get their badge for it.

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This is silly. A Giant Monster can be downed by four heroes. Just because 20 show up from all across the server does not mean that the Giant Monster requires, in any possible way, 20 heroes to be destroyed. Particularly now that the Giant Monster coding ensures that even a low-level hero can take on Jurassik or Adamastor and not face a significantly greater threat than a hero who belongs in Crey's/Dark Astoria.

Giant Monsters are "team events." They're meant for a team to stumble across and get into a knockdown, drag-out fight with. They were perfectly in that regard, and the coding even allows for other teams to happen across the battle and join in, also getting the badge.

Giant Monsters are -not- Zone Events. They aren't meant to require 20 heroes to defeat, like Lusca is and does.

Let it go, man. You can't bring 20 heroes into the Tyrant mission to get all of them the Statesman's Pal badge, either.

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It's the idea I have a problem with. I can take my main into that fight, solo, set the healing aura on automatic, give everyone around her healing, regeneration aura, recovery aura, hit someone with adrenaline boost, fortitude and clear mind, making it possible for everyone around her to continue the attack, and that would constitute teamwork, even if I never fired off a shot, which would amount to Neutrino Bolt and X-Ray Beams, hardly known as damage dealing powers.

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I don't understand the "idea" you are promoting. You claim to have no problem with teamwork, but one heck of a problem with being on a team...how exactly does that make sense? If you're cooperating with other heroes, what is so sinful about being part of the team?

They even tried to include you...TWICE...in the group. So there's no basis for sour grapes on the grounds of being denied the badge by a team that swooped in and killed the monster without giving you a chance. They tried, twice, to include you in the team, and therefore allow you to get the badge along with them.

Teamwork is all the "Team" function -is.- It's not like joining the Avengers or the Justice League. That's a supergroup. A team is a group of heroes who happen to be trying to accomplish the same goal. In this case, that goal would be taking down a Giant Monster.

So really...what's the problem?

I recognize that some folks have a legitimate gripe with the way Giant Monsters award badges when multiple groups attack them...but in your case, there were only four people. No problem at all.

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Being that I was here from the beginning, I can promise you that bases were NEVER promised. NEVER. It wasn't on the box, on the website or in any promo material. The most we ever said was - "someday we'd like to do bases."


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Uh, you obviously *CAN* do bases as they're going to be in CoV. But if I'm reading this thread right, you just aren't WILLING to do bases without the purchase of CoV.

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They could also let us play the game for free, while continuing to update it. No wait, they could pay US to play it!

Jeez. What the heck are people thinking? Cryptic is trying to make money, and more power to them. So long as they are offering something I want, I'll be happy to pay them money.

I honestly don't understand how some people figure they are ENTITLED to hundreds of man-hours worth of features for free.

What they're WILLING to do is offer us features they believe are worth another $50 bucks. It's up to each of us to decide if that's true, and there's certainly nothing dark or sinister about it.

I just want to thank the team for the new "Ask A Developer!" series. These questions are more hard-hitting, to the point, and relevent than any of the previous Q&A features so far. Nearly every question has been something I've really wanted to know about, and nearly every answer is frank, honest, and expansive.

Thank you guys, for taking the time for this. I love this feature, and hope it lasts a very long time.

PS. Headbreaker, have you considered having each member email you an out-of-game email address, so you can create a master SG list and use that out-of-game to send emails? Obviously, every CoH player has internet access. So email shouldn't be an issue. Heck, everyone could make a hotmail account by character name, even.

I'm not knocking your quality-of-life request, and I understand that having an in-game mass email system would make things more convenient for you, but I really don't see how necessary this feature would be, and can't imagine it is high on the priority list...

Manticore,

One of the things that I find missing from the missions in CoH is the presence of missions that don't involve fighting, but rather choices the player must make. For example, perhaps a mission might require a hero to convince a reclusive scientist to help work on a vaccine for the latest Devouring Earth toxin. The mission would require the hero to speak with the scientist and, through dialogue options, convince him (or fail to convince him!) to help with the effort.

Are there any plans to introduce dialogue options in the game, and more importantly, non-combat-based missions?

Hey guys. I've got a char halfway through 48, so I'm starting to consider a Peacebringer of my own. One thing I was wondering, is it feasible to emphasize the Human and Squid forms? I was thinking using human form to solo, then having the squid option to blast when grouped with a tank. That's if the human form is a decent scrapper as-is.

Basically, how effective a blaster is the squid? And how well can a Kheldian solo as a human?