Rikmach

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Wanted to explain the reasons for changing Burn...

It became apparent that Burn was the trump power...with it, a Tanker needed to do nothing else. He could lay down a Burn patch and Taunt foes in and out of it. The damage was so great that the Burn patch itself would do the defeating; the Tanker only needed to hit Taunt.

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Well, wasn't that the point? I mean, what else was the point of a massively damaging power besides to defeat foe?

Or are you saying you feel that its boring to drop burn and taunt? IE, being a tauntbot, the reason behind the I3 changes to the tanker, Punchvoke, etc?

I think its different here- the player has a *choice*, whereas before the changes to tankers, nobody had the option to do anything but taunt constantlly.

However, if you really feel the need to change the style of play, altering the functionality of the power on a core level (IE, making it a totally different power) Might improve the situation, as opposed to neutering it, as done here, Which will just make it mostly unused.

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The question has come up - "what's the point of Burn now?" Well, it still offers Immobilization defense (we're actually going to increase that duration).

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That's fantastic. A defense against a status effect that's mildly inconvinent at best. Add in knockback, fear and confusion protection, and maybe you'll have something semi-worthwhile. Almost.

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And Burn does do a lot of damage. Taunt alone might not bring mobs into Burn continually, but stunning, holding, immobilizing mobs in Burn is just plain devastating.

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Of course, this means that Tankers will now be getting PBAoE Stuns, Holds, and Immobilizes, right? Since, you know, otherwise we'd need another archetype to make our signature power useful?

Oh, and Stunned mobs won't be able to run away full speed, jump and fly anymore, right?

Now, let's give it a test and see if this works...

Alright, my impressions of Issue #5 preview:

Croatoa- Looks amazing. I'll probablly have fun with it, but as I was expecting it to be from levels 30-40, the two of my characters within the level range are level 31.

9_9

Anyhow, I can deal, but still, annoying.

New Villians- sounds neat! Though its worth noting, two of those listed have already appeared in-game, and already have badges associated with them- specifically, the Halloween event. Will these villians give out the same badges? Confusing.

New Task Force- Always nice, but I wonder if I'll end up skipping over some of the missions due to the level issue. Ah, well.

New Power Sets: Looks rather interesting- I look foreward to playing around with them... though Trick Arrow for controllers? That just seems mildlly odd and out-of-concept for them- They don't have any other weapon sets, and I know allot of Defenders were hoping for more exclusive sets for various reasons (Personally, I think controllers should get more exclusive secondaries, and defenders should get more exclusive Primaries and secondaries.) Also... Sonic Debuff? That's a damn uncreative and immersion-breaking name.

New Badges- w00t!

New Zone Events: Always fun. Hmmm, I wonder if each villian group is going to get an event associated with them? I also wonder how fire-fighting will work, but good to see more heroic tasks are coming available.

New Debt System- Nice. But this'll make my lowbies shoot up in levels even faster. A bit of a pain if you're a content junkie. I hope flashback arrives soon.

Mission Customization- These are always nice, and it was one of the big things lacking from Issue #4. However, I hope the hostages won't be impossible to escourt, and the villian waves overwhelming.

Alright, since its unclear if multiple costumes on one character are allowed, I'm gonna submit the one I think has the best shot of being considered first:

Here's Tygara, level 50 Scrapper from virtue in her outfit she wears for special occasions, like parties:

http://www.demonbooty.com/tyg/Tygara...PartyDress.jpg

And now on with the other shots-

Here's her daring hero outfit:

http://www.demonbooty.com/tyg/Tygara...HeroOutfit.jpg

And here's her outfit from St Patty's Day, demonstrating her Irish Pride:

http://www.demonbooty.com/tyg/Tygara...IrishPride.jpg

And finally, she can't be a weretiger all the time, here's Tygara's human form, Dr. Jennifer O'houlihan:

http://www.demonbooty.com/tyg/Tygara...nHumanForm.jpg

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I posted this answer on another thread, but I'll pass it along here. The new guy from the trailer is Foreshadow.

WW

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Wait a minute..... Aren't you dead? *glances around* Isn't War Witch dead? Never trust the word of a dead woman....

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She's not dead, just bodily impaired.

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*Follows Fighter's "Cave of no Return" logic*

War Witch is Ghost Widow!

(And cookie for anyone who gets the reference ).

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8-Bit Theater!

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But I have an important questions! Will the powersets and/or costume options be available in both CoV and CoH?

I REALLY hope so, but somehow suspect that there will be exclusive sets/options to both.

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I'd suspect that anything you're seeing in the CoV screenshots will be CoV only, but it's unlikely that a full breakdown will be available until release.

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From what I've heard, Some costume options will be exclusive to CoV, and some exclusive to CoH- If you only own one game, you'll only get one or the other.

However, if you own *both* games, *all* costume options, Hero and Villian alike, will be available for the creation of heros *or* villians.

Its playing on the concept of "Expansalone"- two stand alone games that are prefectlly playable apart, but you get more than the sum of their parts if you own both.

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My favorite part is when Lord Recluse practices his ventriloquist act with Synapse as his puppet.

I just kept giggling and rewinding, watching LR 'animate' him.



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Hehe, that'd be a cool feature, if villians could play aroudn with unconcious/defeated heros- Toss them around like a ball, play ventriloquism with them, use them to bair traps...

Until the hero gets sick fo it and hits teh "Go to hospital" button.

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Captain Mako? What, not good enough for General Mako, or Commander Mako? Heck, I thought villains got to give themselves their titles anyway, why reach so low and pick Captain? What's next, Recluse, Duke of lower Unctberry?

At least pick Major Mako! It's one rank up, sounds nicer, and implies more of a bad@%$

On a side note, he's starting to sound a bit like a nemesis villain I had planned for my hero, Orca Hope when we hear more I find some major differences.

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Well... Maybe he's in command of a ship? You know, a Naval Captain?

Pretty high rank there.

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On Praetorian Earth, Mother Mayhem was forced by Tyrant to push her powers in order to help defeat the Rikti. When she realized she was burning out she imposed her will on a fledgling super called Northern Light. The will of Mother Mayhem keeps Northern Light prisoner within her own body. Mother Mayhem has shown no signs of wanting her old body back.

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This has *very* interesting implications- before now, I'd always assumed there was no Rikti invasion in Praetorian Earth, simply because I'd assumed the circumstances that provoked the one in the "Prime" universe simply weren't there.

Though this explains why the Praetorians haven't laid seige to us with legions of supervillians, rather have suplimented thier forces with minion, lieutenant and boss-ranked forces: They, too, had suffered massive attrition in their ranks of super-powered beings.

Hmmm. One wonders if *this* Rikti Invasion was a reaction to Praetorian agression, or something?

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Something I've always wondered...

Why do people feel the need that they *have* to be "Optimal" to have fun? Why does everything have to boil down to the numbers?

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Question, do you enjoy spending money on something that has little or no use to you?

While I know influence and power slots and enhancement slots aren't money, they're comparable things- currency you work to earn and can be "spent" to your benefit.

So the parallel is similar- people don't want to spend their hard-earned currency on something that gives them marginal (or nonexistant) benefit, especially when there's alternatives that are far superior.

Also, we're heros- We want to feel powerful. Its part of the game's theme.

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I have a question though. I was watching the DVD content with the movie ad for CoH. It shows Statesman over the course of several generations. Is it the same statesman and he's Immortal? or is it a title thats passed on under certain circomstances?



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It is the same man, Statesman is immortal. Look for more details about his origin, his powers and how he is tied to Lord Recluse this fall in the upcoming novel: The Web of Arachnos.

~M

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There goes Stateslad's dreams of replacing him...

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He can always get killed...

AS for the whole shoulder-critters, Guys should really get the option for a Shoulder-hamster.


Go fo the Eyes, Boo, Go for the Eyes!


...Hmmm, I wonder if anyone's tried to make a superheroic Minsc yet?

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What I dislike is the fact that we can not take advantage of the DUMB [censored] who chalanges some one 20 levels higher than him/her. If they are stupid enough to do it they should pay for it. And I don't even plan on doing PvP.
Later,

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Well, take into account your powers *will* be better slotted than his.

You will have an advantage, even if only a slight one.

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the power sets before arch-types is something even I wouldnt know. thats something only the dev's and internal alpha testers could answer.

the powers in the blaster melee set were the exact same ones in the tanker secondary set (minus mace, axe, and super strength)


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Ah, what about electrical manipulation? Was that added like Devices? Because I don't see tankers having Electric Melee as an option (Kinda sad, Really, Electric Melee might be pretty cool!)

I remember cursing the lamentable power "Resist Disorientation" that was in the Regen beta set.

I remember when they were still working out the villian spawns, which resulted in fun times suchs as being unable to find hellions *anywhere* in Atlas, then suddenlly being surrounded by hundreds of them, or Perez becoming unnavigable because of the massive lag of there literally being multiple *thousands* of villians in it at one time.

A question for the really oldbies, if they'd indulge me: what were the power sets like before archetypes? and what powers were in the blaster melee sets?

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Nemesis... I bet I could've beaten him with a fully slotted Rad Infection. If it had eaten through his PFF, he wouldnt have been able to heal for anything. But unfortunately, my Rad Infection wasnt enough, and so my slow whittling turned into a slow whittling then him going PFF and healing back a bit chain of events which just pissed me off. Lingering Radiation didnt help much there... PFF's recharge isnt that slow... But maybe if I'd spammed it. Again, something I would've required Conserve Power for.

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Yeah, Most of the Nemesis AVs are just Really tough Fake Nemesis.

They Are:

"Nemesis Rex", an alt-reality Nemsis who conquered his world, and appearentlly got lazy without any heros to fight- AV-wise, he's mostlly a pushover. I managed to Solo him with my Claw/Regen scrapper, despite Claw's relativly low damage output.

The second one is named "Nemesis" and is (Spoiler) a powerful decoy Nemsis made to fake his own death. While he doesn't deal much more damage than Rex, his HP total (and thus Regen) is much higher, meaning I needed to call my broadsword friend to take him out.

As for the last one, "Nemesis?", he's apparentlly the real deal- he has the HP total of "Nemesis", and his staff blast isn't single target- its a large-sized cone blast that deals *heinous* damage- he managed to take out me and my broadsword friend, so we had to call in some people from our SG to finally take the ******* out.

And now you know your Nemesi!

...Nemesiseses?

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I'm sort of curious why something that seems a relatively minor fix should take months to go in? Is the coding more complicated than it seems? (Changing the hp #s, changing the resist penalty # to 0.)

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Speaking as someone who's worked as a programmer, its a pretty safe bet to assume that the coding is more complicated than it seems, especially in something as complex as a video game.

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Thanks for the guide. Any scrappers out there tried out the body mastery yet? worth respec?

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I've respeced in Focused Accuracy and Conserve Power, and I do think they're worth it- Focused accuracy allowed me to slot all my attacks with damage and hit *more* often, still, and conserve power power allows me to attack constantlly without worrying about endurance- ever. Some fair warning, though, to work that effectivelly, both powers need to be 6-slotted, so you may end up a bit anemic, slot-wise, elsewhere (Weave will regretablly end up being only two-slotted thanks to these powers, but I consider their effectiveness worth it.)

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This is awesome. Thanks so much for the post. You've got me dying to get to level 40 now, though.

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I'm already there. ^_^ And let me tell you, Focused Accuracy and Conserve Power are doing wonders for me.

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I have a dumb question about the "Munitions Mastery" pool. Lets say you have a blaster that's not Assault Riffle (Ice, Energy, or fire) and you pick the MM pool, how does it work? Seems like you would need the Gun to pull it off. Do you get the riffle if you choose this if your lets say energy based?

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According to my friends, you just pull out the default Assault Rifle gun to use Sleep Grendade, Freeze Gun and Rocket, regarded of your primary.

Hmmm, let's see.

Tygara (Dr. Jennifer O'Hoolihan) was a research Biologist before she became a weretiger; in the aftermath of that change and the Rikti War, she became a professional hero. Now nearing the end of her career (level 46), she's looking into becoming a Professor of biology at her Alma Matter, PCU. She shares a penthouse condo above the MC Louis Investments building in High Park, King's Row, with her SG mate Chakat Streak. While she could afford a better place, its a bit impractical for the lower-leveled Streak to get around places like Steel Canyon and Founder's Falls, and she enjoys hir company.

Nihi was a Feral Cat in Hawaii before being transformed into a catgirl, so she'd been surviving be sleeping and hunting in Perez Park when not heroing. However, due to the recent cold snap, she's been looking into warmer accomidations.

Seismis lives off the payments of a Trust fund he was willed when his parents died. He's currentlly an undeclared freshmen at PCU, and lives in the dorms.

Omega Rabbot, being a rebel Eidolon, has no need for food or sleep, so has no perminant residence or job. She tends to hang out at video arcades, anime shops, or libraries when she's bored or needs to relax.

Lord Damien comes from a former supervillian family, while both his parents are dead or incarcerated, they managed to hide their assests well enough that Damien literally wants for nothing. As he's planning to eventually become a supervillian in his own right, he heroes only to study the methods of the enemy as well as having a legitimate way to develop his powers. He's currentlly a law and criminology freshman in PCU for similar reasons.

Shadeburn used to be an elite thief and enforcer of a criminal organization in an alternate reality before being captured (and later experimented on) by Crey in a specimin-gathering foray via their illegal portal tech. Currentlly, she's a professional hero, living in a tiny apartment in King's Row on her Stipend. As she recentlly welcomed Mindora into her home, they're looking for a bigger place.

Freedom:

Sarah Murphy/Rik Felstrom (host and symbiote, represented in game as two different characters) Is a highlly experience law-enforcement officer and is currentlly working as a consultant for the PCPD. They have, however, held jobs as an Actor/Actress and Priest/Priestess in the past in their home dimension.

War Amy Rose is a mercenary warrior, willing to work for whoever pays well (She'd probablly join Hero Corps ig it were possible in-game), And she regards her stipend from the city as a payment for her services rendered as a professional [censored] kicker.

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TFs and respecs (btw, are respecs considered TFs or trials or what?) don't have any missions that are optional, for obvious reasons.

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Since you can get a trial badge for doing them, I think its safe to assume the Respecification Trial is considered a trial.

(Trials are interesting in that they don't have a standardized way of working- some work like missions, other like Task Forces.)

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However the slow recharges is the best penalty I've heard yet since AFAIK this cannot be mitigated in game by anything. Any endurance based penalty can be mitigated by a decent Emapthy defender or even some blue pills or unstoppable. Any stun based penalty can be mitigated by the basic defense powers or a good empathy defender or disciplines. But slow recharge ... I guess a radiation defender has a minor fix for this ... but there's no innate tanker powers or inspirations that will solve the problem ... which makes it the perfect "penalty". It wont kill the tanker but it will slow them down.

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Also the Kinetics power "Speed Boost" would offer some mitigation for the recharge slowdown.

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And even if there is some kind of cool event, it's not going to change the fact that my characters' histories are being rewritten, my souveniers and badges suddenly changing from 5th Column ones to Council ones. Granted, it's a pretty weak change to the actual gameplay, but a pretty significant powerslam to the game's previously established story and to the immersion factor.


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Actually, 5th Column souvineers stay the same, only the badges change. if you run a *new* character through that story arc, they get the new Council Souvineers. The badges changing I think is an issue on how they work- IE, they can't determine wheny ou got them, unlike souvineers, and they need to change to keep integrity with new people getting them.

So your badges change to reflect the allegience change in the werewolves and Vampyres, however, your history is not rewritten, since you still have your letter from Reqium as opposed from "The Center"

I've encountered the "Mobs spawning right on top of you" bug int he hollows. That *definitelly* should be looked into, it tend to lead to a quick, messy death.

However, I am not in favor of toning down the Hollows *again*. The current level of difficulty (The Stuns vastlly lowered, hurricane less common) is perfectlly fine for a hazard zone in my opinion.

I am also highlly against removing the lowbie outcasts elemental attacks- they're not that much nastier than a gun, really, and they're interesting. I don't want just another bunch of Hellions and Skulls- that's what Hellions and Skulls are for!- Especially since I'm gonna keep bumping into these guys in Steel Canyon and Boomtown. It will seriouslly rob the flavor from the Outcasts, and in my opinion, not signifigantlly alter the difficulty- just as much as you ended up making things *too* hard, you're now running the risk of making things too easy and stealing something special from the game in the process. I beg you Statesman, to reconsider doing further changes, and find a happy medium.