Predatory

Just quick few questions about this power, mids doesnt state how long they actually last for, how long is it before they go away? and is it possible to perma it?

If i used world of pain in painbringer, would it increase there damage by a lot too?

and finally, how useful is this power on a whole in pvp and pve?

[ QUOTE ]
Just a question, after few MM build i cannot decide whats a good one for strictly pvp usage.
The main problem that afflicts mm's is that he needs to fight in BG mode, so he cannot move that fast or go far from pets, and i cannot find any good power to SLOW or HOLD/IMMOB players for long so that pets can destroy him/her.
Anyone got a good experience in pvp and knows good patron pools to choose to go against this problem?
Tar patch form /DARK seems to work pretty bad vs any kind of travel power..... i cannot really kill any flyin one and hate those damn blasters and controllers that flee when they die and kill me everey times i go far from pets.

tnx for any tip

[/ QUOTE ]

The problem is now in pvp any status changes outside dominator and controller only lasts two seconds anyway unslotted which means about 4 seconds slotted.

To me this makes them completly pointless except for a hold to a one off hit. Personally I think your much better off focusing on something you actually like rather than whats good because truth be told there doesnt seem too much difference between them atm on primarys... that being said ranged will definately benefit you more than melee will due to travel powers etc.

So yeah maybe robots just because of there energy damage, which doesnt matter so much anymore but energy still seems to be ever so slightly lower resists. mercs are ranged but i hear there rubbish higher level because there all DoT attacks. Thugs tend to be popular at the minute, plus you get pistols and everyone knows there cool

Im not sure about ninjas because its a set i havent played much, but necromancy should really be avoided.

Secondary wise, honestly there all helpful in there own ways but if you were looking for control, then trick arrow seems to be what your looking for. Im personally a fan of pain domination because you will be loved in pve as well, which means easier teams and easier levels, and all the +damage boosts are nice

[ QUOTE ]
There's been posts in a separate thread, and I thought in this one as well... Appears not (although there were several from Avatea at the time the problems occurred).

Anyway, to paraphrase what was said in one of the other threads on this:

The support team has received a lot of tickets on this issue. Because the issue relates to financial reimbursement all these tickets need to be escalated to more senior staff. The volume of tickets received (including, it must be noted, a significant number of duplicate tickets that have only slowed down the process) combined with the necessity to escalate them has resulted in it taking longer than normal to process through the queue.

It hasn't helped that this has coincided with the bug that has caused some bases to become corrupt. Restoring corrupt bases is likewise an issue that requires escalation and investigation time.

[/ QUOTE ]

No offence here GR but do the bog standard employees on customer service actually do anything?

I mean every petition/question/issue ive ever sent has been 'escalated to senior staff' rather than having the senior management dealing with the base issue theres not really any reason why a standard employee couldnt do it that I can see.

If every question that gets sent in gets escalated like that then no wonder it takes a few days/weeks to hear anything back.

Ok things involving money and refunds like the magic booster problem i can understand, but your saying the senior staff are also dealing with sg bases? Surely money that has been wrongly taken should take priority over an in game bug that could be repaired at any time?

[ QUOTE ]
Has anyone at all actually had a response from them yet? Are they all on holiday or just making interest on all of our monies? Its a ridiculously slow response time.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well almost a week waiting now, all i had back was a reply asking for my last 4 digits of card and payment IDs, this was 5 days ago :/

Really if your going to charge someone double for an item, at least have the decency to sort out a refund quickly rather than waiting for a week :/

My faith in PlayNC and there abysmal customer service has plummeted to the point im now looking for another game to play.

The thing thats starting to bug me about MA is the fact the devs are now blocking any missions marked as a farm.

Im neither for or against farming, people are free to do as they wish, but blocking the maps just seems pointless. Ok even if you successfully blocked all the maps with the word farm in, theres still nothing to stop players running the same map over and over.

A much better way of dealing with it would be to ask what the plan for the map is when its being created, if its a farm map then move it into a farm section, and leave the proper arcs in there own, so they dont get jumbled together and people end up playing something they didnt want.

Ok the search system needs more work than that, but its a start at least.

Another idea would be if a map has over a high number of 1 star ratings and less than 10 good ones it could be automatically unpublished, or something similar.

thanks for all the tips guys, I made a pretty poor attempt at my tank last night but hopefully when i get my graphic tablet I can actually draw properly.

[ QUOTE ]
I think the long looonnnnnggg runs in Mercy are a main factor why I could never be bothered playing villains. Granted its not a major problem but its so much easier starting out as a Hero - more choices = more fun.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is exactly the point I was trying to make. No one just starting out wants to run for 3-5 minutes just to get to a mission and as has already been mentioned, if you die in that mission you need to run that distance again.

The point about cap been the meeting spot on villians, ok I understand but that isnt much good for a starting player is it?

If Atlas could have a wentworths why cant mercy have a black market van?

Or rather than change Mercy island at all, how about a 2nd starting area for villians? Again heros has two, it would be nice to have a change.

If it was done as a second starting area, then theres no reason why it couldnt be linked in, plus the idea of a new starting area is going to appeal to players wanting to try a villian.

Protections new costumes

Protection 1
Protection 2

Predatorys new costumes

Predatory 1
Predatory 2

I know your going to have a long waiting list, but instead of Predatory, I wouldnt mind my tank Protection been cutified instead, Predatorys had her picture done by someone else its only fair

Protection

[ QUOTE ]
Following the success of Predatory, I have a tank that wouldnt mind his mug been modelled

His names Protection, and he does just that. Hes a tank in every sense of the word with years of experience and towers above all enemys with his gigantic size.

Powers: Invulnerability/Energy Tanker

Pics: Protection

[/ QUOTE ]

Some new links, two costumes, whichever anyone feels like doing is fine

Protection costume 1

Protection costume 2

I figured I'd have a go at drawing my tank Protection, its kind of basic but I was very limited due to fact im still with a mouse and I dont have much experience with photoshop.
The entire thing took me about 3-4 hours.

Anyway, no more excuses, heres the end result

Protection

Hey that site is looking pretty good psy nice work

What annoys me is that its always going by the americans timetable, why cant it switch over occasionally so they have to have it done in the middle of the day instead for a change?

Its a little unfair that we get punished for being European :/

I agree with the earlier comments though, if you know theres maintenence coming up, you could do one of those boxed annoucements like they have when a new issue is released etc, stating exactly whats being done and how long its expected to take, rather than big red letters saying 'The server is going to explode in 30 minutes, please log off and run for your life'

Well I've got to level 16 now and i understand what you mean with the stun thing, although it is handy to take one enemies focus off you for a few seconds while you beat up another one.

Im enjoying the set anyway so far and even though its a mainly single target focussed set, exceptions being taunt and whirling hands, i havent really struggled agro wise.

I think its going to work out fine thanks for the advice

[ QUOTE ]
*Smiles

This should help!, apologies but the linked images to the book covers have long been deleted, but the book titles and publishers are valid should you wish to google/pricecheck the titles.

Happy Drawing Predatory! .o>

[/ QUOTE ]

thanks for the linky mumsy il look into those

Good tips guys

Hey guys,

I havent seen a post like this yet and some of the art on the forums is simply amazing. However, I myself am new to this and would like to start drawing up some of my charecters.

Im sure a few people are like me when they simply have no idea where to start.

So, has anyone got any help for the people wanting to start drawing there charecters using something like photoshop? Or any tips & tricks you learned along the way to help the newcomer improve his/her work?

As the name suggests, why can it not be made so that you can get the badges for defeats of a certain mob inside mission architect?

Technically its the same as running normal maps with the selected standard enemy group anyway and if the system was really designed so the player can choose to level all the way from 1-50 with mission architect surely it would also be a good idea to not limit them with the badges they can get to just the mission architect ones that can all be achieved in a farm map in like an hour.

See I came to more or less the same conclusion.

One point you did miss there though, was the fact that super strength has a ranged attack and energy doesnt. Hurl is a handy power to have in my experience just in case of fliers or runnners, the -fly can really stop someone dead if thats the only travel they have.

That being said, I'm thinking I'l most likely go energy, just because I have played a super strength before, whilst energy would be something new.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
2-3 yellow (so I can actually hit the Eluded AV with Taunt)

[/ QUOTE ]

Your not using them mickey mouse taunts from the presence pool are you? The Secondary Pool taunt is autohit.

[/ QUOTE ]

mickey mouse taunts lol. Even on a complete defencive pve tanker, i dont find them effective at all, they need too many slots to get them any good.

The thing with unstoppable and all godmode powers is its a marmite style love or hate relationship.

Some people love the fact they can go stomping around for a couple of minutes and not die, some people cant handle the crash very well.

End of the day its down to the player, i recommend trying it first, if you dont like it or dont use it, run a respec tf or something and get rid of it.

Depending on if you plan on using sets though, I find its handy to slot another +psi resist IO into especially since Invul has 0% psi resists.

Thats additional story arcs though, not a zone remake.

I never knew that about the fog been turned off must have missed that one.

Point being how is a zone thats two ferrys away any use for a new player to the game?

Atlas for instance, its nice for newbies to see other players running around, talking, teaming and generally having fun. There not going to wait until mid 20s soloing until they find someone else to talk to.

Boomtown, I also agree with in the above post, but the others seem fine. Dark Astoria I'm thinking you mean the fog, but thats not really a massive zone change, thats just a switch on/off :P

Also not many new players know about the /help tab or how to use it properly, its much easier to use /local or /broadcast, ok broadcast probably would get them an answer currently, but its also much nicer to meet someone higher than you and ask them a couple of questions rather than shouting out to the entire area hoping for a reply.

Yes I agree Mercy is a nice area, but its doesnt have everything new players would want just outside the tutorial. Given that i14 is being released with a new box on the shelf, this seems like an ideal time to make the begining villian experience more appealing.

Ok from looking at the title, I can instantly tell several people will just scream NO and thats that but hear me out

Mercy Island is the first area new players see when they get into villians, what do they get? a dark, enclosed area with several small streets and no open areas, more lag than heroes side and less players, trainers and stores are often miles away and it takes ages to run to missions on the other end of the map (the mission 'eliminate the infected' is a good example), no sewer network style system like heroes has, and to get to the next area its a ferry on the opposite end of the island, involving finding small elevators in a large raised fort or jumping off and losing hp.

Compare this to heroes side, Atlas park or Galaxy City. Both are large open areas with big areas for costume contests, SG recruitment, RPing or general chat, everything you need is easily accessible in the centre of the map as are mission contacts meaning your never going to have to run more than half the map to get to your next mission, players at level 50 still come back to this area as a meeting place.

There is also the sewer network which is where lots of new players get there first teams together to quickly get through the first levels before going to kings row to get there jetpacks.

Atlas also has 4 exits to different zones on the map, mercy has one to port oakes, im not sure on galaxy.

Im thinking if Mercy was redone more like galaxy or atlas, its likely to spark more of an interest because its not making things harder on the player to interact with the world.

Ok, you can shout at me now

See the main problem I find with villians compared to heroes is there is no proper meet up spot like the statue of atlas in atlas park, which means people log on villians, think its dead and they switch to heroes again.

Also the lack of teaming isnt something that can easily be solved. I think going rogue would be a great addon compared to another co-op zone, I mean, RWZ and cimerora have been played to death. Heroes and villains arent meant to be friends so why make zone after zone forcing them to be?

I dont think the world pvp would work in CoX, there just arent enough people wanting to PvP anymore. i14 i think has kind of helped that in a way because of the new pvp sets but not much, they need more rewards like that such as costume pieces, badges etc... oh and fix what they broke a couple of issues ago

For me to get villians more active, mercy island needs an overhaul and then it might attract more people. It just doesnt have the feel of playing in Atlas, its more enclosed and theres mission after mission with snakes (sorted in i14 ok)

Im sure if the starting area was made more user friendly, more players would be willing to try it out.

I dont know if this will help with your situation, but if the game files are up to date you could always try the updater skipping method found at this link

Taken from the site:

These can be run from the command prompt or entered into your shortcut. You can do the latter by right clicking on your shortcut to the updater and selecting properties then adding these to the end of the target box. So, for instance, if you want to change your game to start up with the villain skin and your target box currently contains: "C:\Games\City Of Heroes\CohStarter.exe" then you would change it to say:"C:\Games\City Of Heroes\CohStarter.exe" -cov.

The one you would be looking to change it to would be cityofheroes.exe -project "coh"

Ok its not a permenant fix even if it does work but at least you can play whilst they sort it out.