PicassoCat

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That's great but...

If all my toggles drop it's not going to make much difference, could we get a cooldown period before toggles start dropping when mezzed? Short moment when, by using one of these inspirations, we could actually save ourselves?

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I'll second this.

Not so much a problem for the SR scrapper with perma-PB, but my dark/dark's main debuff - you know, the big accuracy/damage debuff that's her contribution to team defense - drops & starts its recharge count when I'm stunned/mezzed/etc. So while this will let me get out of the status effect, my teammates are staggering around with little to no defense until the frelling toggle comes back up. I'd really like some sort of short (five second? ten?) immunity timer, so if you can pop this new inspiration in that time, your toggles don't drop.

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issue 3: sorry about issue 2, now your character can do everything, no need to even speak to another player

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Yay! INTJs dancing in the streets!

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Heh. Hubby is wondering why I just sprayed Coke all over the monitor.

Now if all of THEM (you know, all those... other people) would just do what we tell them without actually speaking to us, things would be much better.

((Epic power pools sound fun! Any little bit to help squishy blaster teammates who insist on running outside of Shadow Fall, & who keep arresting my Darkest Night anchor so the debuff drops... WHY won't they listen?!?!))

Can we get an estimate on when we'll get customizable power graphics? At this point, even an on/off switch would be good; my characters are as much concept-driven as power-driven, & there are powers & powersets I'd love to play but won't (Dark Armor, Regeneration... also Hasten for my dark/dark defender) due to the effects that don't work for the concept. I appreciate the art department's efforts, but their idea of what a power should look like doesn't always fit with the player's concept.

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We're working (or more precisely our wunder-programmer Martin) on a change to melee combat that will enable you to hit runners. No more angling just in front of the fleeing foe - yep - you can punch him from behind!

We hope to get this into Update 3, but it needs testing. But I thought you'd like to know.

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<hugs Martin>

<hugs Statesman>

<does the happy dance>

Now just make Super Reflexes (a) a little less slot-hungry, (b) a little deeper (right now it's defense or nothing) & (c) able to avoid autohits & I'll be a very happy little kill... err, arresting machine.

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You are gonna kill the Energy Blasters if you nerf Nova.. they are already underpowered and about 50% of the players already hate us for knockback.

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Team with dark defenders. I group with an energy/energy & an AR/energy blaster, & watching mobs run slooooowly through Tar Patch only to get knocked back & have to do it again is funny!

(We actually work well as a team - no meleers, so we want things kept at a distance. Once we worked out how to use knockbacks without messing up Tenebrous Tentacles & Darkest Night, things were very nice. It's only the fliers that bother us now. And the undead. Tar Patch doesn't seem to affect them.)

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Hey Statesman,

I just got done reading a post about the filter, and a lot of people feel that it needs to be reworked. Words like crap, 45s, 455, kung fu, and god are censored out but words like f---tard aren't?

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I do have to agree about god - it's more than a little disconcerting to hear the Banished Pantheon praying to the "*&$%$#% of rain and the goddess of earth." Although that might explain why they're easily foiled - if you're calling your deity by a curse word, he's probably not too eager to help you!

Thanks for the post, Statesman!

Two questions:

(1) Will the Fear fix also apply to Fearsome Stare from the defenders' Dark Miasma set? Geko's thread pre-Issue #2 indicated that it would; I'd just like confirmation, as this is still a very iffy power with the current effect, & not much in line with the dark/dark's "controllerish" playstyle.

(2) Statesman, your OP here made no mention of any possible changes to Super Reflexes, yet earlier threads in the scrapper forum indicated that you (plural) were thinking of tweaking it. Specifically, while the other scrapper secondaries have some mix of defense, resistance & healing, SR really only has defense. Any update on that, or will it be post-Issue #3 (if at all)?

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In an attempt (doomed, no doubt) to get this thread off the question of programming prowess, I'd also like to compliment the sound team on the music in Brickstown & Founders' Falls. Moody jazz riffs in Brickstown; an almost church-like sequence for the area around the plaza in FF. Very nice!

[/ QUOTE ] I too like the music in Bricks, just to the east of the Train terminal right ? I also liked the nice, but unfortunately short "piano solo" in the Chantry section of Firebase Zulu.

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Yes... I think it's The Crescent in Brickstown. (The Ziggurat is also good.) I've not been to Firebase Zulu yet.

Oh... & Steel Pier in Independence Port. Not really a tune, just drums & some backup percussion, very effective.

In an attempt (doomed, no doubt) to get this thread off the question of programming prowess, I'd also like to compliment the sound team on the music in Brickstown & Founders' Falls. Moody jazz riffs in Brickstown; an almost church-like sequence for the area around the plaza in FF. Very nice!

What happened to the nice thread about artwork changes?!?!

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We're going to be dipping into missions of ALL levels and improving the art, AI, etc. with every Expansion. There's a bunch in Expansion 3.

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<does the happy dance>

Guess it's a good thing I started another alt! I'll just get her out of Outbreak & wait for Issue #3...

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Let's just hope I3 is tested a LOT more than I2 was before official release.

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Issue 3 is in internal test already. QA reports suggest that it is already better than sucktastic. Your mileage may vary.

-jg

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And I would like to add that when it is released on Test, it will take more than the 40 of us who play regularly there to thoroughly test it... so get your characters copied over NOW!

(And I loved Issue 2 - my dark/dark defender actually WORKS now!)

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While I do LOVE what's being done to low level content, can we get some more stuff for other areas as well? I'd love to see these kinds of updates being applied to mid level content as well. I don't know if it get's better at higher levels, but fighting Raiders and Family in the same office buildings gets old fast. As does fighting DE and BP in the same caves, Lost in the same sewers, etc.

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Oh, it gets worse. Around level 29 or so you start getting identical missions (tilesets AND objectives) from two or three of your contacts. I've had to go arrest Frankie Frost twice (for myself; I've also helped others with it), saved the mob guy in witness protection two or three times; & apparently the "low-level" heroes who are raiding the 5th Column bases are real idiots, because I keep being asked to provide a distraction for them.

<mesmerized by DesolateJoker's avatar>

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So far all we have is epic ATs which im looking forward to and a new zone/villian group?
Thats it......?
What have the devs been doing all this time?!

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Mission difficulty slider should be in there, too; my scrapper's looking forward to that one.

And... "all we have"? I haven't even seen all the original zones & villain groups yet, much less the ones added in Issues #1 & 2!

<carebear hugs all around>

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I kind of wish there was an in-game feedback form like in beta but I guess all I can do is post here.

(Edit - ooops! I forgot there's a 'feedback and suggestions' button to click on the Petition form )

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Heh... don't feel bad, I've actually filed "bug" reports just to praise the devs for something really nifty. Then I found the feedback button.

It's not possible, although there have been several threads requesting it.

If the mission is group-required and was not marked as such in your contact's text before you accepted it, please /bug it so they know to fix it.

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I read through this thread hoping to see a comment from Statesman about the problem of security restrictions but I didn't see it. If I missed the comment, I apologize. That said, the reason that the group I play with hunts in city zones almost exclusively is because of the spread in levels between our characters.

Half of us joined 2.5 months ago and we got the rest to join about 1 month or so afterwards. This means that 3 of our group are in the upper 20's and the rest of the group is in the teens or very low 20's.

The problem we run into is that we cannot get into a zone that is appropriate for our team size (5-8) with everyone in the team. I had hoped that sidekicking would allow us to bring our friends into Terra Volta or Dark Astoria but it does not and I have seen the dev posts that say this will not change. This policy effectively eliminates hazard zones as an option for our team.

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<nods> That's the case for us as well. Three of us started in pre-release; another friend got the game about a month later, & another friend got it less than two months ago, so our level spread is currently 14th to 26th. We do missions rather than street hunting, but we've run into periods where the only missions the higher levels had were in level-restricted zones, locking the lower ones out of the group. Reverse sidekicking won't work since the higher levels outnumber the lower ones in this case.

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For a group, I'd think you'd have at least one defender &/or controller with some form of status protection or alleviation, which should help the situation; if you've got more than four people, you really ought to have two. Although two lines (Empathy & Kinetics, I think) offer only an after-the-fact effect, Storm's is single-target only, & Dark Miasma has nothing.


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And thats one of the things that worries me PicassoCat.
I know Statesman want to have controllers wanted more in a group, but are they planning on having one required all the time?

Is this game turing into eq2 where you have to have 1 of each AT?

I usually duo with a FF defender, Empt Defender or a DM scrapper. With the new patch it looks like thats going away.

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Required? No, but if status effects are that much of a concern, then your choices are to add defenders &/or controllers (note: TWO ATs to choose from); to form a group where everyone has personal status protection (scrappers, tankers, some defenders & some controllers, so FOUR ATs); or to run without protection & rely on inspirations (some defenders, some controllers & blasters).

There is also the possibility of maximizing defense, or capping accuracy debuffs, to prevent status effects from landing in the first place. Again, some ATs/powersets can provide this (self or group), others can't.

Or the possibility of defeating mobs quickly enough that status protection isn't an issue - for which you need blasters, or scrappers.

You can group successfully with virtually any combination of ATs (see the defender forum for all-defender group results, for example), but for specific types of effects (status protection, damage, defense, healing) some ATs will have it in useful amounts, & some won't.

For what it's worth, I also don't like seeing an increase of status effects at low levels; based solely on my characters (which are, thankfully, past those levels), my defender didn't get her defense/resistance buff till 8th level & my scrapper didn't get her status protection till 10th. Increasing status effects at levels where most powersets can't yet have specific protection doesn't seem to be a useful trend.

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"Just find a Group" or "Include such and such in your group."

As long as this game is advertised as one that can be played solo, those are not answers to problems/complaints people post in the forums. Please, if your tempted to make one of those responses, think twice. Your not helping and just adding noise that makes it harder to see the serious rsponses, especially in regards to update 2 which is coming.

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Every MMOG should be group based at some point (read as group nessecary).

Otherwise it should be a LAN or single player title.

And why on Earth would you pay a monthly fee for a game that you could solo 100% of the content?

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Speaking for myself, I have a group-only character (defender), a solo-only character (scrapper), & two flexible characters (blaster & scrapper) who will team or solo according to availability & personal choice.

I find I experience the story of my missions & arcs better as a soloer than as part of a group - even when the group is RL friends - because I can take time to read all the mission text, every clue, all the speeches, etc. So grouping is social, soloing is for content.

And, of course, after an eight- to ten-hour day spent dealing with needy, garrulous &/or idiotic clients, sometimes I don't want to deal with anyone else!

And that "personal choice" thing is really it - whether you comprehend it or not, some people really do want to adventure solo, & generally understand that not all content will be open to them. (Although I do think that personal contacts should offer soloable (but not solo-only) missions & story arcs.)

Nor does the fact that one is soloing one's missions necessarily equate to not interacting with anyone else. I leveled a character to 50 solo in DAoC while being a guild leader, & my chat lines were always full with general talk, RP scenarios, & advice.

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One thing that I would like to see addressed at some point is the inclusion of mission types designed to highlight the strengths of these "support" classes. Where are the "rescue civilians from a burning building" (Defender) missions, the "detain without damaging" (Controller) missions, the "destroy the runaway reactor core, up close and personal" (Tanker) situations? When there are missions that put every AT in the spotlight on occasion, not just the damage dealers, I believe some of the building acrimony re: solo v. group might go away.

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I think that was kicked around in beta, & is being considered "for the future." (I also remember something about using "detective skills" to complete missions rather than "defeating" all the villains.)

For now, I took the path of designing my "support" character for my permanent group, & my scrapper for soloing. (And picked two "gimp" powersets - Dark Miasma & Super Reflexes - in the process. ) Both are fun... & while I understand the concern of "support" players, I also don't want my soloer to be, well, forced to group to make the support classes' game experience better; that just flips the "bad" experience from one group (that can't solo) to another (that doesn't want to group). Far better in my opinion to leave the soloing experience as it is for the classes for whom it is working, & dedicate time & resources to (a) offering incentives to entice soloers to group, & (b)offering soloing options, & improving the soloability, of the classes for whom it is not.

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Mobs don't drop Disciplines as often as they use holds. If you're not hunting right next to a contact, you can't get enough inspirations to solo. Are we supposed to run to a contact after every 5th fight?


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We're going to be increasing drop rates. Sorry I didn't mention that.

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This doesn't make any sense to me.
Lets say have a 5 person group in a hazard zone fighting Rikittis.
You're going to have to pop a Disipline every minute. 5 x 60 = 300 disp.

That means you're are going to have to kill 1 mob nearly every second to keep the insp stocked. Heck even with a 3 person group, you need to either kill a mob ever 2 second and have a disp drop every time, or 1 every second and have a disp drop 50% of the time.

This really looks to penalize the large groups.
You're going to have to dedicate a large portion of your insp tray to hold them. So very few dmg, acc, heals etc.

Are you
1) Planning on having a Dispincle insp drop at least 50% of the time on a status using mobs like rikitti?
2) are you planning on increasing the time of a Disp to a longer period like 3-5 minutes?
3) will you allow stack of insp?

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For a group, I'd think you'd have at least one defender &/or controller with some form of status protection or alleviation, which should help the situation; if you've got more than four people, you really ought to have two. Although two lines (Empathy & Kinetics, I think) offer only an after-the-fact effect, Storm's is single-target only, & Dark Miasma has nothing.

(And Statesman, if you're going to be increasing the use of status effects by mobs as drastically as Issue #2 seems, then please go back & review the reasoning for excluding this powerset from status protection, or all the fixes in the world won't make us more groupable.)

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Psychic is extremely difficult to resist (I think only Stone Armor gives any real resistance...anyone know of any others?) and since they are the only villian group that is based on psychic, it seems right that it's even harder to resist them since they're so good at it.

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Dark Miasma defenders offer resistance to psychic. It's the PBAoE Shadow Fall buff, which means people need to stay close to benefit, & until Issue #2 goes live we can't actually slot it with resistance enhancements, but reports from Test are that, properly slotted, it's a great resistance buff.

******

On another note: Statesman, are you saying that one hero equals three white-con minions for all ATs? What about scrappers, who are "best suited" for soloing & can expect to be "overshadowed" by blasters & tankers in groups? Seems to me if there's an AT who will be second-class in a group, it ought to be better than the average at soloing to make up for it - say, one scrapper should equal three yellow-con minions, or whatever. (That's the case so far, I just don't want to see that change.)

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I don't know, maybe the WoW stress test has spoiled me, but in that game you get a fraction of your XP from defeating enemies, the vast majority of your XP comes from actually compleing your mission objectives. I think that would do wonders for CoH. Decrease the XP gained per enemy, but multiply the end of mission rewards by a factor of ten or more.


Missions are fun. Random "street sweeping", no matter how you gussy it up, is just drudgery.

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Excellent suggestion! I love missions, hate street sweeping.

can I say this?

Why should I not be allowed to enjoy these soloable missions because some people don't have any need for "alone" time?

All I do are story arch missions... you should keep them the way they are.

((I would add a reversal of the rest of the post, but as there is group-only but not solo-only content, I can't.))

As for "the full game experience" - solo characters already can't have that (Task Forces, Trials, new contact-driven group-only missions), & generally speaking we are fine with it. You can certainly choose to do story arcs & regular missions in a group rather than solo, while the reverse is not possible for the soloer. (Nor are we generally asking that it be so.)

This change takes away nothing from people who like to group with all their characters - all your previous content, including story arcs, can be accessed with a group, and you get new group-only content. It also takes away nothing from people who like to solo with one, some or all of their characters - all our previous content, including story arcs, can be accessed solo.