Regimentos

Thanks for the quick response. I figured that the reason they had four separate categories was to keep damage, acc, endurance, and recharge separate. I am still interested in finding any information as to how it was determined what other enhancements to pair with each -- i.e. why not pair holds with recharge rather than immobilize or whatever was selected?

Since this is my first post for COH, I am obligates to say "thanks Devs for making a great game."

I was happy to recently find out about the new Incarnate alpha slot -- Yes, I realize that it has been out for a while but I missed it -- and, as my first character approaches 50, was glad to hear there was a provision for expanding characters abilities at the current max level.

So, I went nuts seaching forums for information related to "alpha slots" and "incarnate alpha" and so on. Finally, I found a link to the wiki site
http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Alpha_Slot_Abilities which answered many of my questions regarding it.

This immediately raised additional questions regarding why it was set up the way it is. Can anyone point me to any discussions or announcements from devs explaining this? Since, I am not yet 50, I haven't run the game content so if it self-explanatory once you see it in action, I guess I will get it at that time. It just seems to be to be a bit complex and I am uncertain as to why the benefits in question were grouped together and am curious if any explanation was given.

My (naive) viewpoint is that it might have been simpler to allow character to construct something similar to enhancements and slot them into the character (instead of a power) and then allow you to select your own combination of effects. Of course, I understand that there may be some game balance reasons for excluding certain combinations (such as recharge and endurance reduction or even accuracy) but am less clear why combinations such as recharge and hold or sleep duration are not appropriate.

In fact, I was disappointed when I saw what the possibilities were since, as a Mind/RAD controller, my main interest was to get recharge reduction, with some combination of hold or sleep or confuse but these don't seem to be available. It seems as if I will end up choosing recharge reduction and then going all the way to the paragon level to get the 2/3 ED bypass without getting additional benefit from the other bonsuses.

This is actually not a complaint (since, as I said, I have yet to use the content), just a request for [a pointer to] more information if it exists.

Thanks

I couldn't agree more with the Original Poster of this thread and IMO it seems as if some responders are reading more work into this suggestion than I did when I read it.

I find that not only do I have a problem remembering what I have in salvage bins but also what I need to get to make things when I get to the salvage bin -- I spend a lot of time in Steel Canyon running from University to Storage to Auction house and then forgetting something that I learned on the way. Obvious solution: write things down. But this irritates me since I am using a computer and should be able to get it to remember things for me (computers are known for things like that).

To that end, I recommend the following additional functionality be implemented (note that this can be done incrementally with the Devs postponing or even skipping some of the more complicated changes based on what can be put in any given patch or expansion):

[1] Allow read access to all recipes (owned or not) from anywhere so that crafters can see what they need while visiting the auction house or the storage bins. Note: this doesn't directly address the OP's concerns but would help me out.

[2] Allow users to take snapshots of the contents of their auctions and of their salvage (personal, vault, SG,...) every time they visit so that, subsequently, they can VIEW them from anywhere and from any character on their account. This would probably need to be saved locally by the client and, so, a given snapshot would only be available on the same computer on which it was taken.

[3] When viewing recipes or crafting items, allow user to specify whether snapshots should be taken into consideration to see what salvage is available to make the recipes: Allow them to selectively enable other characters, whether or not to use SG base snapshots, and so on. Recipes should show whether all items are available or not and whether the user has to take any special action (such as visit the vault or log on to another character) to make any of them.

[4] Later feature: allow snapshots for the CURRENT character's salvage/recipes/crafted items to be taken without visiting auction house, vaults, and bases (when the player decides that he wants to view the snapshot, the client interrogates the database[s] without the character actually going there). The snapshots for alternate characters on the same account will be unaffected and still be whatever they were when the alternate character was last visited.

[4a] Later feature: if possible, allow users to query availability and price history on the auction house at the time of viewing the log. This would not involve actually buying or selling anything but should allow user to see what is available and what items have been going for without actually going to the auction house. This could be especially useful at stores for seeing whether you should sell to a vendor or auction it.

[4b] Later feature: if possible, show prices stores will pay for items when at auction house to assist in determining whether to auction it or vendor it.

[5] Later feature: allow automatic snapshot when logging a character out if desired by the user (via an option) -- don't want to waste time if player doesn't use the feature.

[6] I think any attempt to update the snapshot of one character while on another character even on the same account will probably be too difficult but it would be nice.

[7] BIG CHANGE - LATER FEATURE:

[7a] Create a wish list of desired recipes by dragging the recipes into a list. The client will track what items the user needs, what he already has (again users can control which snapshots are used -- only use current character and no SG base salvage? fine!), and what still needs to be acquired. Note that the recipe itself is also considered an item ESPECIALLY for sets.

[7b] Provide a mechanism for users to enter estimated prices for salvage, recipes, and crafted items to determine whether it is cheaper to make an item or to buy it.

[7c] Allow users to prioritize recipes on a given character and between different characters on a given account so that users can be presented with tables of instructions such as ("send <number> of <itemname> from current character to <other character>" or "acquire <number> of <itemname> -- not available from any alternative characters" or "dispose of <number> of <itemname> -- they are not used by anything you want"). The list needs to be prioritized so that items which are few in number but needed by many recipes don't get used to make low priority things.

[7d] Provide two priorities for each recipe: one if you have everything you need for a recipe and the other for incomplete recipes (to reserve rare salvage for crafting even more rare or expensive items).

Well thats my brainstorming for now. I am not sure if I communicated everything I intended and will probably need to modify the idea in the future. The keypoint is really to provide more information to the user and to set up a roadmap that can be incremented in stages as CoX build plans allow (implementing all of item [7] would probably be very complex and expensive though I think it would be worth it -- the question is whether enough other paying customers would agree to justify the cost of the changes to the DEVS).

I welcome any constructive criticism especially regarding how to simplify the concept but provide the same functionality.

Thanks.