Poison

Hm, sorry, I don't see how an endurance reduction is helping...
Oh, except with all the Stamina-less people, okay.

But about the sets that REALLY have a problem, like Reflexes?

Thanks, Geko, Posi and responsibles. This was a well-needed change.

And, not meant in a bad way, I had the feeling lately that you really have forgotten about that rule, not just with defense. I hope some of the later (and possible upcoming) design changes get looked up under the same "keep it simple" light.

Welcome to the family, Arctic Sun! Good to have you.

So, Authority RP, eh? Who's your favourite member? And what do you think of Kev?

Though I do agree with some of the OP's points, like the costume mess-up, I disagree with an important point:

Yes, missions do get repetitive after a while. Of course you know the warehouse tileset by lvl10 and there will still be warehouses at lvl50. We all love getting new tilesets.
BUT, have you actually played through the story arcs again? Only some days ago I RSKed to a lower hero and helped her do the "Will of the Earth" arc. I hate DE, but those new mission kinds (rescue hostages) and many new spawns (the big DE spawning chambers and the Will crystals) made it all really enjoyable for me.
You can not accuse Cryptic of not updating "old" content because they have been constantly redoing it (see also WarWith's replies to her thread to see the desire to update the original content). And I am pretty sure that as soon as CoV is live, the effort between the games will be split again (now they're understandably focusing on villains) and CoH will get its fair share of newish glitter.

I won't even get started on changes due to "boring PvE", I still think that's crock. There was an imbalance (and still is) to the game and it was IMO tackled from the wrong direction.

I am no fan of PvP and am not really looking forward to this, but at least we have "Capture the Flag"-like PvP zones now, maybe that's a little more fun than the straight ahead Arena, also considering that the ATs from the games differ. I do hope though that the work put into PvP ends there and the devs focus on what the game is really about and what it still needs.

Gil, a big thank you for all the fun and entertainment you brought us. Also the best of luck on your future adventures, let us know where you're at, so we can go on bugging ye.

You'll be dearly missed!

I think Gil has taken the red pill too often...

Thanks for looking into this, Posi. I was already calling shenanigans.

Those numbers are all sweet and dandy, but I'd rather go into the game and actually get a feel for this than nodding or shaking my head. Every villain is different and I bet my witch hat there there are power combinations and situations where this new hex doesn't help the reflex-dependents a bit.

For now, I say you're not seeing the game for the numbers (or wood for the trees, if you will).

Edit: And people, who actually gives a damn about PvP? The game was never meant to be pvp and only a minority cares for it.

A message to devs, not Cuppa (just thought I'd mention):

So rad/rad defenders, obviously one of the best balanced ATs so far, has taken at least 2 major hits from the recent nerf-fest: first Lingering Radiation takes about 3-4 times as long to recharge (and I'm not yet sure if the slow effect time has been reduced too, so far I'd say yes), making it a "omg, I better save this for bosses" power rather than being a life saver for defenders. And now EF, another crucial power for the soloing defender, gets nerfed? I haven't even bothering checking yet if the hold times of Choking Cloud, EMPulse, Cosmic Burst and Atomic Blast have been reduced, too. I only know that these 2 recent changes were caused by decisions not associated with the defender AT or the rad powersets!

So when the defenders, after being the happiest and best balanced AT since beta, will finally cry out after being slowly debalanced, what will you do? What stupid inherent power will you come up with to supposedly make up for it again? Can't you just save us all the trouble and forget about unnecessary nerfs?

Thanks, Posi. As you said, not everybody will be happy with this, but at least we have a real explanation on the reasons. And I'm looking forward to the redone Shard TFs, since I'm convinced they'll be so good, that people who have done the actual, longwinded ones will want to do them again.

I really love the idea of getting rewarded with costume pieces for accolades, even more than the powers! I hope you get to put those in (not just Freedom Phalanx, but the Hero Corps and Thug one) once the situation at Cryptic has calmed a bit.

Increase monster and event spawns!

Change it so everybody who helps fight a monster gets the badge. Screw the exp, nobody cares for monster exp anymore anyway since it was lowered.

Put the badges for Babbage and Jurassik back into the TF's, why was it changed anyway? Aren't they the "real" monsters?

Sort the badges in the achievement tab.

Separate the achievement badges into different tabs (hunting, missions, achievement).

Get real for some of those new epic badges. 1 billion HP damage? How much healing? I'm a rad defender and don't even have the 3rd one! How much influence do I need to earn for the next 3 influence badges? There are 3 new SKing badges? But we already need about 144 hours of SKing for the 3rd one! (I SKed someone for 4 hours recently and the bar didn't even move).

Nobody can tell me this gender discussion was not foreseeable. There is a reason the bonus items so far were prestige sprint powers or capes: so everybody could use them!

The decision to make them gender-based is more than stupid. Now I have to get a pre-order at Gamestop for my gf and one at BestBuy for me, since I only play male characters (I originally wanted Blood Widow helmets for us both).

In the country I'm in they're celebrating 25 years of equal rights for women according to law. I wonder if you have heard about it at all in Austin, Texas.

I've never played an Ice Tank, but I do play an SR scrapper and am pretty afraid of the nerfs that I5 includes, so I can feel for Ice. I gasped when I saw those official numbers, 0.5% defense is a joke, especially when it's a primary power.

I was curious and checked my beta notes, they say Wet Ice used to have:
Res: Cold 30%
Def: Smashing Attack 9%
Def: Lethal Attack 9%
Def: Fire Attack 9%
Def: Cold Attack 13%
Def: Energy Attack 13%
Def: Neg Energy Atk 13%

I know it's been a while since then, but can it really be that this power has been nerfed so hard? Reduced to not even 5% of its original stats?
On the other hand, when I check the original SR defense values and look at the new I5 ones, I guess it's possible...

States, the global reduction of to hit and defense values might be a good idea, a step in the right direction, but please keep you feet on the ground and overlook those numbers again in all seriousness. Keep in mind who uses what powerset for what purpose and think hard about what exactly you want to achieve.

Just emphasizing what has been said:

- please resize the new badges. Although the graphics are awesome, it looks weird to have different sized ones. At least the hunting ones.

- put some order in. I don't like that the new debt badges (amongst others) are at the end of my list and not with the other, corresponding badges I already had.

- maybe split the achievement badges into 2 categories, Achievement (debt, inf, dmg, etc) and Trophies (all those hunting ones).

- unattainable badges suck. Maybe some people really did take 1 billion dmg points, but as a lv50 rad defender I can guarantee I will not have healed 1 billion HPs in ages. It is hard enough as it is to get the healer (and IMO mentor and stun) badges.

Additionally, I forgot to mention this, please lower the numbers for such "annoying" badges as Rikti Monkeys, Prisoners, Carnival Illusions and Rularuu Lts. Those are mobs you will never fight sufficiently during your hero career (and I mean lvl1-50) to even closely get the badges. They require farming/herding (especially the monkey one, obviously), something that you want to avert and are once again working against with the newest changes. So please don't encourage it either, knowing that players will want the badges (again, especially monkeys, since it's needed for a really good accolade).

I'v only seen heros put out fire and it looked like fun. So far I didn't have the luck to either fight a fire myself not fight the Trolls.

So first point is: increase the spawning rate! Not only on Test, also on Live. After all, there are 2 Rave and 3 Fire badges this time.

The burning building was indeed very well visible with all the smoke. Lusca can be seen from afar, the Ghost Ship glows greenish from miles away. But I can imagine that the Trolls are hard to find, so my suggestion is that you add what we already suggested for the Hellion rave mission back in beta: music! What better way to announce the rave event than looping techno music in a certain radius, interrupted by the gunshots of the police? (I don't know if it's already in, but knowing you Cryptic guys, it isn't. )

I've never been a big NERF caller, but I'm seriously glad to hear that. Earth Thorn Casters have lately beaten Malta Sappers on my Most Hated Villains list.

Pro:
The Issue looks awesome. I'm looking forward to Croatoa, since Striga set a new standard for zones and Croatoa will surpass it. Same goes for any Trials and TFs, the Hess TF set a new standard as well.
I'm happy we get new powesets.
The new mission types sound really cool, same goes for the events.
New badges are always welcome!
The graphics of the villains look awesome, it's getting better and better.

Contra:
"Only" 2 new power themes (sonic, archery). Limited to certain ATs. None of the long promised powers, like Quarterstaff or Shield (dare I mention Boomerang?).
The whole zone including villains is somewhat too fantasy for a superhero game.
No new costume options (throw in 4 per Issue, but throw some in! Can't be that hard.)

I'm looking forward to the Issue, but actually hope to be busily testing CoV when it goes live.


Info part

Long before Halloween, the Coven were already in the game files. They were then called Eochai. During Halloween, the giant pumpkin was named Eochai though. The minions were called Streng.
Eochai Info from last Halloween:
"The Tuatha De Danann and the Fir Bolg were tribes who fought for control of legendary Ireland, the Fir Bolg were the original inhabitants and refused to share the land with the Tuatha De Danann. Eochai was their king and their Champion."


The First Battle Of Moytara
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They came here when the sun was high.
The sea was calm to meet them.
From out of the wind above the hills.
Come a fleet of godly men.

Borne on strong winds from the otherworld.
Shrouded by magical mists-
The Tuatha De Danann came in their-
Great magical mystical ships.
Nuada, king of Tuatha De,
Turned his eager sharp eyes
Towards the land of his ancestral home,
The valleys, The sea and the skies.

He was a giant among mortal men,
A hero among the immortals'
Who led his people{warriors strong}
Back to the land of their fathers.

The Fir Bolg, Who were in Eireann before the Tuatha De Danann.
Sent Streng their mighty champian to parley with the future king.
Breas was sent by Nuada to find out his intent,
"I greet you as a brother", said Streng "By Eochai I've been sent".

The terms of battle were laid, half of Eireann Breas asked,
The Fir Bolg said this can't be paid, the time of goodwill has now passed.
Both sides made plans, they prepared their wells of healing,
Tribes and clans led by the chieftains and their kings.

The sun shone down on helmets, shields and swords,
Midsummers day-The two armies walked in haodes-
Towards Magh Nai-The Fir Bolg followed their chietains,
And swept towards the Tuatha DE like waves crash on the beaches.

The clash of sword and shield, The splintering of bone,
The Fir Bolg would not yield, Though they heard their people's moans.

The naked hillmen warriors, were forced back through the fight,
Followed by his bodyguard, The Dagda took their lives'
But the ground was piled high with the dead of the Tuatha De
All surviving warriors fled to live and fight another day.

"We have been defeated but tomorrows another day"
"Summon your courage. Prepare yourselves,
Tomorrow the Fir Bolg we slay"
Four more days of battle came and many fine warriors fell,
Mothers lost their fighting sons-The wounded healed in wells.
Nuada lost his strong right arm, Now he will lose his throne,
The sons of Nuada killed Eochai, But they too were overthrown.
Streng led the Fir Bolg to the fort and met with the injured,
Nuada, Both men declared a truce and Eireann was fairly divided.
~~

The Centurions

SG forum located at CoH Guru.

Leader or Recruiting Officers:
@Vendel
@Gaidan
@Poison

Preferred Method of contact:
Post at our forum, pm here or send us a tell/mail ingame.

SG Description:
The Centurions were founded in Novermber 2001 at the pre-beta CoH forum and have existed as such since.

Heroes of all levels, ATs and backgrounds are welcome. If you stay lv15 forever or make 50 in a week, that's up to you. We enjoy RPing, but do not demand it from our members. Because we believe in quality over quantity and have all become friends over time, it is good, fun people we are looking for, to enjoy this game together.

You will be dearly missed, Vyvy.
Thanks for being here, GL with L2!

Cuppy for president.
Thanks for everything.

I remember War Witch.
And when she was first introduced to us.
Hehe...

I remember joining my very first SG on the pre-beta forums, the Dark Alliance. Lang Chi interviewed me for it, and I was there with Black Mage, Rhyno, Syphon and many other cool old-timers.

Just saw Sabre's post and him mentioning the coin beta shots.
I recently saw a one-page advertisement for the German COH at BurgerKing, and one of the 3 screenshots shown is of the coin beta meeting!

Bad decision, States.

Seeing as it is at the moment with all the Hami raids, players who can not attend more than one (if ever) will be in complete disadvantage to others, making it impossible to win those badges, titles and whatever the arena promises.

I would have thought you came up with a better solution to this. For me the arena has hereby died, don't need some griefers to show me how cool and 1337 they are because of their Hami-Os.

Good work so far, you all. We used to have many good threads like this during beta, too bad they're gone.

Name references:

There's a prisoner boss called Johnny-23, which was Danny Trejo's role in Con Air.

A Carnie boss called "The Artist Formerly Known As Claire".

There's a Malta Zeus boss called "A Titan Called Joe" and a Freak tank called "Tanker Joe", I'm sure there's a reference.

Keep it up, reading this rocks!

SG alliances with a possible own channel.
And honorary SG members. SG leaders could invite a player, even those already in a different SG, enabling them to see the SG list and talking on the SG channel of the SG they're a honorary member of.

Welcome, Bridger.

I'd apply for the German Localisation (my Spanish isn't good enough anymore), but I won't move to Brighton, sorry. Make those jobs remote!

Oh, and please put more effort into the localised versions. The German WoW is a bad joke (as have been most Blizzard and Bioware translations), you get the feeling they used the Yahoo translator. Be wise and hire someone who's a little creative and is experienced with RPGs and comics (like me )

PS. Separated forums, okay. Separated server? Nope. No good. What kind of new trend is this with the localised servers? The wonderful thing about the internet and mmogs is that you meet people from all over the world. Why do you need to take that freedom from us?
I have my US CoH and I will stay on Virtue. No chance in hell that I'm switching after spending my time there since 3 day headstart.