PhoenixCreation

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The backstory of the COx universe has never done anything for me. I've read some of the comic book, tried to follow the storylines (in the comics and in-game) and they just don't compare to the comics I've been reading for ages. They have never drawn me in. I think i would enjoy the Marvel/Cryptic MMO more and longer if they do it right.

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I'd agree and disagree with this one. The CoX story is a little bland overall, but for me it is enough to keep me playing missions through from 1-50 a couple times over.

I'm a Marvel fan personally, specifically anything having to do with X-Men. Have been for 20+ years. What you say regarding Marvel stories are true, but for me, that is in the past. In the past 5 years or so, I feel the storyboards at Marvel have taken a huge turn for the worse and the absolutely ludicrous. The current state of the Marvel universe is just shambles, and that is most likely where a Marvel MMO would reside (though the Ultimate Universe would be a great place to do a game actually).

CoH definitely has an overall backstory that is growing. For a universe that is only 2 years old compared to one that is decades on top of decades old..... of course Marvel/DC is more in-depth. Heck, read some of the original X-Men, FF and Avengers comics. Their storylines were terribly cheesy and contrived (taken at face value). They grew overtime though, which is what CoX overall does as well.

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Ballista is a Toggle Dropping *******!

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Yeah, he is. He was designed to be as close to a Player Hero as we could make him. How do you guys like the Toggle Drop on him? Is it too nasty or does it add a nice challenge?

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I actually view it both ways. I think Ballista may drop toggles a bit too much, but by no means should it be removed from the game, PvE or PvP. It is a serious challange for a variety of toons, from my Brute to my Corruptor. Makes you think how you're going to deal with this serious threat, be it using a team, popping lucks or whatever it may be.

Coming from a face-planeted stone/stone brute on that arc. Took 3 tries, but we dropped him good. 1st time he just surprised us (didn't know what to expect). 2nd time we just screwed up. 3rd time he was toast. Can't drop toggles if he's on his back. Hehe.

Hehe, I agree Sword.

The only thing I saw in State's post about knowing about the game was that he focused on Strongmen first. That means knowing that his Inv/Fire build could best handle their aggro before the other Psi or other attack types. It is true that not everybody knows that. But by level 32 or so, a Tanker should know a base concept of what kind of damage he can deal with, and what he can't.

When I run into a situation as a Tanker that I get planted or near planeted, I take a look at the combat tab (which everybody has by default) to see what hit me so hard, especially when fighting something new (like Carnies for the first time).

The info is available to ALL. "Look those Carnies dropped me hard. Let's see, the strongmen were lethal damage, but the funny hats had psi..." or whatever the combo is, don't remember off the top of my head "... Hmmm, my tanker is heavy into this type defense, but not these others. OK, I'll focus on these guys, and let my blaster buddy drop the Psi witches."

Or something like that which isn't so geeky sounding.

In the first 10-15 levels people don't know their toons as well (I'm talking about people new to the game). In general, the damage types are more limited in that range of the game as well, with certain glaring exceptions, most of which are bosses or major LT's. So people get an introduction into handling different types of damage, rather than just rushing in not caring what they are fighting.

Example on my controllers - I avoid strongmen like the plague. Their disorient and damage strike is enough to drop me easily. Dazed, none of my holds or leadership are worth a damn. So I would focus on the funny hats, or others, and avoid attracting the strongmen, letting my teammates or my imps or jacks handle the metal heads.

So I don't see Statesman knowing about the game as a bad thing. We have pretty much the same ability to know during the course of our play experience. We are just now having to pay attention to it, whereas before for many of us, it really didn't matter what or who we were fighting (with the exception of the Psi Clockwork King, he could always drop a team of 8, hehe).

Those who already have their toons to 40+ may not have paid any attention to those details, and are having to learn to look at who does what and when. New players are not going to have that issue so much, as they are now having to do it from the get go. I know I am having to do so on my 40+ toons.

Here's another example: Malta. How many really know the difference between all the Malta mobs prior to current changes? Let's see.... Sappers suck royally. Gunslingers are bad (double damage stuff from them). And a few others. But what about what they do, differences between them? Not really. But now, I do know that there are major differences between the various Malta mobs. I know which ones I'll go toe to toe with, which ones I'll sneeze at to drop, and which to avoid. Previously, I just waded in, and they could have all been 100% the same as far as our teams were concerned.

My 2 cents for the little they are worth. OK, that might have been $1. Sorry for the length.

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If thats true States, then how come so many servers are a ghost town when traveling through the zones? I remember a time when there used to be people everywhere. I've been travelled about and checked out many servers. The only servers that seem to have a population now are Freedom and Virtue...the rest just seem very empty. Even high level zones like Peregrine Island seem to have nobody on them. It just seems very odd that this is the case if the numbers are as you say they are.

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Run a scan for yourself. Simply join any server and do a global find team members. It will give you the totals at the bottom. Then scan for just your game AT's (if hero, mark all the AT's available and it will cull the villains from the list). That along with the global number will give you your totals online at that time.

Examples at 1300 (EST):

Champion (my Villain server): 594 Total. 386 Villains. 208 Heroes.

Protector (my Hero server): 557 total. 352 Villains. 205 Heroes.

Tonight they'll be much higher. Last month, these were the primetime numbers. Now they're the midday numbers.

And I think you'll find PI in general a lot emptier than it used to be as its old purpose of every person looking for herding teams has been removed for the most part. They days of 200 low levels hanging out in Portal Corp begging for a ninja or wolf team are pretty much over.

They may have upgraded the servers themselves. All I know is that last week, CoH Champion was running around 300 players during a 5pm scan. During head-start it jumped to 600. Last night there were 1400+ on Champion. Around 800 Villains and 600 Heroes.

I'd probably say neither of them are dead. I'm having to decline invites left and right while hooking up with my SG in both games.

I think its doing just fine.

Well it does do one thing (IMO): The primary complaint I was worried about was that since Stamina was reduced, there would be more downtime between battles (though this would be offset partially by Hasten not being as perma (if you are not firing twice as fast, you are not using end twice as fast (generally, though toggles are the exception))).

This offsets that issue, which was a concern for me. Excessive downtime is bad in general. Combined with the Rest boost, this isn't too bad. The rest is primarly playstyle, which I personally can live with.

And yes, no change, even a universal one will affect everybody exactly the same. The above doesn't help empaths and kinetics as much as many others. <shrug> You know what? I'll still take it.

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The dev's have already stated that charging full price for both is not an option for them. They have said that it will be anywhere from $1-$5 extra.

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Could you point me to that specific thread please? I've been looking for this specific information and cannot find it. I know that several devs have stated what they would LIKE to do, but I can't find any instances where it is stated what WILL be done.

I'd really like to order the CoV preorder, but I really can't justify it until this question is answered. I pay quarterly for CoH, and love it probably the most out of any game I've played in the past decade (playing since week one, and have loved the entire time).

But I am on a budget (as most people are). I can justify the one game I pay monthly for, but I'm really not going to run two full subscriptions at the same time. And I would hate to shell out $50 for a game that I only get to play for 32 days (not including beta).

Some official final response would be helpful.

PS - Great work guys. Regardless of how CoV goes, you've got a customer for quite some time in CoH.

Sorry I haven't been around TopDoc. Had some RL issues to take care of. I'll get up with you guys in the next day or so and do the bankroll I promised.

On the subject of Electric secondary and Transference and End Drain:

Transference does do end drain, but it is single target only, and unless you spend slots on it, it "generally" will not drain them to zero. So you really cannot use it to seriously debuff a mob, even with multiple Kinetics. It does give awesome End Recov though.

Elec Secondary - If nobody else wants this, I'll be thrilled to take it. I have 2 toons with Elec currently, a 30 Storm/Elec, and a 11 Elec/Elec Blaster. Properly slotted, both can reduce any mob group (short of AV's) to only using their most basic attacks. Combine that with some siphon powers and Fulcrum shift, and the mobs just don't do any damage, as they cannot attack with anything that does harm to the team.

If you want, I can demonstrate some night with my Storm/Elec defender.

As I said, I'm back around now. RL has calmed down for the time being.

I also have a TS2 voice comms that we can use if we so with (actually anybody can use it). It is a dedicated server so it can handle as many of us that wish to use it. When we finally meet up, I'll give out the URL.

If you want to run it on Protector, I have 1, maybe 2 50's to bankroll, and 2-3 that would join up as well. I have 2 free toon slots there as well

@PhoenixCreation

Starada Y'vana lvl 50 Ice/Storm Controller

Sounds like fun actually. I'll have to see if our SG on Protector wants to try it out.

Just bear in mind that ANY team that is designed around regularly working with one another, and not designed specifically to work with whoever they happen to join with, is going to unquestionably rock. We put one together on Victory back around I2, made up of 6 members. The only time those 6 toons played was with each other (about 10 hours a week at scheduled times). By themselves, or in pickup groups, the toons didn't do so hot, or at least did not contribute as well if they were slotted differently, etc, etc.

But when those 6 played together, they would cut through anything in the game like a hot knife through butter. Loved playing with those. Unfortunately, that SG ended up eventually disbanding. I have not setup a new SuperTeam with my Protector SG, but this post really tempts me to do so again.

Neat layout for the team sir. Will give it a try (or something similar) when I5 goes live.

Love the wandering patrols.

Love the +1 missions. Makes one work for their toys. Played 2 characters through levels 1-9 in the past 2 days (scrapper and defender). It was amazing. Working together, paying attention, actually being scared of bad guys.

I loved it.