Rooftop_Raider

Regarding Ultra Mode - the only two settings I don't currently use on my 2-year old rig are the advanced shadow and occlusion ones, because those can drop my current framerates of 15-20FPS down to the single digits. If I crank them all the way up, I am basically watching a slideshow, and ping rises from 150 or so, to 300ish. That said, the game still looks pretty good, and a little better, actually, than it did when I stopped playing at the end of 2008.

AMD 5200+ Black
4GB 800MHz RAM
Nvidia 8600GT 512MB
26" monitor, 1900x1200

We will see more improvements over time, incidentally, but a lot of groundwork has been laid out at this point.

I am thinking he's like me and a few others, who expected GR and everything else that was spent towards making Praetoria, would have gone to Paragon City and the Rogue Isles.

For example, the 6 new zones, 8 new factions, dozens new new tilesets, hundreds of new missions, and the amount of time creating the backstory and other things - what if all that Praetorian-exclusive effort went to improving/updating/evolving the existing "Primal Earth" instead of creating essentially a new section of the game which is now Praetoria?

My initial beef with Praetoria, once I learned about it, was similar to what I experienced when I first learned that CoV was essentially going to have several new zones, etc, all essentially exclusive to villains. At the time there ended up being two different games, with crossover, instead of being one game and a lot more content for just it. Now there is Praetoria, and it's much the same in that you start out there, and that's separate from the others, and further splitting up the playerbase now between 3 different sections of the larger overall game.

Now, I've come to terms with this occurring, and from what I am hearing, down the line heroes and villains will be able to visit Praetoria (though in what capacity, I don't know), as well as this section of the overall game going through updates and upgrades over time. But my own experiences in a previous MMO called Everquest has made me very gunshy of MMO expansion.

I started playing EQ shortly after it came out, and there were a few expansions to the game, and over time, there ended up being something close to 500 zones created - even when the playerbase was shrinking, and moving to other more advanced MMO's, most of the remaining players ended up gravitating to relatively few zones, and much of the effort expanding the world ended up being, really, a waste of effort. The lifespan of an MMO isn't great, and even the great ones will lose their edge over time.

My biggest concern for this game is, given the fact the playerbase is decreasing over time, I am worried that so much effort is spent fractionating the playerbase between added zones, and increased "sections" of the game like the Rogue Isles, Praetoria, that it will make it a) harder for the existing player base to group with others, and b) aid in the process of driving some players away.

I hope that more effort is spent in the future, allowing these 3 worlds to converge, and allow more ways for the playerbase to be together - as well as improving the overall game. Instead of adding significantly more zones to this game. It would also be something to consider, to consolidate and revamp some zones, using the existing technology. The 3 Shadow Shard zones. Atlas Park and Galaxy City. Maybe even Port Oakes and Cap Au Diable.

Between optimizing geometry, using higher-res textures, improving the design of some things (for example, Grandville is a mess), it can help to modernize this game over time. Just something to think about.

My most recent character in Praetoria is a Stalker, and while I do believe we have it easier solo than most classes, purely because of Hide and AS, the ambushes can be a nightmare for any AT, and Stalkers only get half a pass, against the location-based ones, not the character-based ambushes. But as far as playing in a Scrapperish/Brutish sort of way, that's not our thing. Even though we _can_ fight like that, we're not on the same level as either of them in that department.

I know some people bag on Stalkers because they are inferior to Brutes and Scrappers for outright melee, they represent a certain play-style that is still fun for others. Like others, I believe we need some improvement for PvE, to make us more usable on teams. Not to make us exact clones of Scrappers.

What do you guys mean when you say, free up names which are not attached to globals?

I feel that Stamina is not needed for early-game encounters, though once my characters get enough powers for an attack chain, and possibly toggles on top of that, Stamina is a requirement in many cases, unless you use a lot of inventions. But certainly not before the 20's or so. And part of me is perturbed that I have to sacrifice 3 powers to get that, but on most characters I don't lose too much to get a travel power and stamina, though 5 powers end up being delayed because of those two things.

Regarding the endgame, I'll admit that I would like all my established lvl 50 characters to be able to do something beyond the same lvl 45-50 missions and the same task forces, and I really have no interest in exemplaring them down to do other missions. And I am bored silly with farming. Just my particular take on how I want to play those characters.

I do feel that the road to 50 is much more interesting at this point, so I really don't do too much with the lvl 50's once they reach that goal.

I agree with the others - I'd love to see some endgame content so I can use those characters to their fullest, and have something to do. I don't necessarily need to do it for loot, but no doubt that will be the draw for others - which is fine, because that means more people who want to do endgame content, for me to team with.

I'll be honest, part of the few big factors I've been away since December 2008, is the lack of real end-game content. And Hami raids are often a real headache when they did occur, and some of the zones like the Shadow Shard - seriously, three zones of spacey floaty blah-edness?

I also agree Stalkers need some help in PvE, though it'll be interesting to see what that will be. I always thought it was a bad design decision they had to sacrifice a defense power for Hide (why couldn't it be like Domination, an inherent power which doesn't take up a power selection?). I also believe AS should be an uninterrupted attack - since it is usually in lieu of an AoE attack, though I think it's bonus damage should only come from Hidden status.

On another note: you can leverage inspirations to weather many a storm in this game. Here are some examples:

3 Lucks will give you 45% defense, which will allow you to cap against most mobs. (It helps to do this as early as possible, when the s*** goes down.) Thus leaving the rest of the inspirations for whatever purpose. You could either a) use the rest for resistances, thus increasing survivability if you get mobbed by quite a few enemies. Or b) in the case of some EB's, put the rest in damage, and focus on that EB until you beat it down.

I generally try to keep a minimum of 3 Lucks at any time, and often I end up with more over time, as I pick extra ones up in missions, occasionally using the "overage" in additional battles over time, which I think will be beneficial.

I always delete the rez inspirations. I never have more than 1 accuracy in my tray. If I ever have 3 or more of any inspiration that isn't a Luck, I convert that into one. Once I have the minimum of 3 Lucks, everything else gets converted to Enrages.

On my last character (the now level 20 Stalker), I face-planted 6 times total. 3 were totally my fault, for not even looking at my health. The other 3 were calculated decisions on my part - out of many, so I don't feel so bad.

It took me about 40 hours for my Stalker to hit level 20, but I believe about half of that was spent with me chatting, getting badges, and profiteering from the market. I also disabled XP at lvl 7.9, 14.9 and 19.9 to ensure I got as many contacts and missions as I could, which prolonged the experience as well.

I suspect someone who just lasers in on gaining solo XP as quickly as possible can get to lvl 20 in maybe 15 hours - probably less for a vet with a really good game-plan.

1) I'd be all for an uninterrupted AS, since we are missing one (typically AoE) attack already.

2) Perhaps Placate could have a 2-second PvE "no-attack" effect. Maybe dropping the range to 0 for that period of time so it cannot actually do anything to anyone else.

There are two specific problems that are unique to Praetoria:

PROBLEMS
1) The only Training vendor is in Nova Praetoria.
2) There are no Origin-based vendors in any of the three zones.

Although you won't have problems in Nova Praetoria in terms of buying and selling TO's at the best available price. Once you move to Imperial City or Neutropolis, a) you cannot buy or sell TO's at full value without making a trip to Nova Praetoria. And b) you cannot buy or sell DO's at full value anywhere in Praetoria at all.

In Paragon City, you can buy and sell TO's at full value in AP/GC/KR/Steel/Skyway at any vendor, at full price. You can sell them at full price at the TO store in Talos. This is the level range at which TO's still drop, and in all these cases there is no need to travel to a different zone in order to get full price for enhancements of all origins. Similar conditions exist in the Rogue Isles for MI/PO/Cap/Sharkhead.

What are the easy solutions to this?

SOLUTIONS
1) Allow all vendors in NP/IC/Neutro to buy and sell TO's at full market value.
2) Allow Origin-based vendors in IC and Neutro.

(in lieu of creating Origin-specific vendors in IC or Neutro, allow all vendors to buy and sell DO's at full market value)

No interest in moving characters, though I have one who I'd rename. I didn't realize we had free renames or I'd have used it. All my significant characters on my main account are on Freedom and Virtue.

The last post got me thinking: I believe PO and Cap should actually just be one zone.

As far as the game is concerned, generally it's easier to make ends meet now than it has been before Inventions and Recipes, as you can sell those at any vendor, as well as some other general changes to the way enhancements drop. So even if you deliberatly steered away from buying or selling anything on the market, or using the invention system to create custom enhancements, you are making more money now than before.

However, there are two specific problems that is unique to Praetoria.

PROBLEMS
1) The only Training vendor is in Nova Praetoria.
2) There are no Origin-based vendors in any of the three zones.

What does that mean? I'll tell you. It means that, although you won't have problems in Nova Praetoria in terms of buying and selling TO's at the best available price. Once you move to Imperial City or Neutropolis, a) you cannot buy or sell TO's at full value without making a trip to Nova Praetoria. And b) you cannot buy or sell DO's at full value anywhere in Praetoria at all.

Note: in Paragon City you can buy and sell TO's at full value in AP/GC/KR/Steel/Skyway at any vendor, at full price. You can sell them at full price at the TO store in Talos. This is the level range at which TO's still drop, and in all these cases there is no need to travel to a different zone in order to get full price for enhancements of all origins. Similar conditions exist in the Rogue Isles for MI/PO/Cap/Sharkhead.

What are the easy solutions to this?

SOLUTIONS
1) Allow all vendors in NP/IC/Neutro to buy and sell TO's at full market value.
2) Allow Origin-based vendors in IC and Neutro.

(in lieu of creating Origin-specific vendors in IC or Neutro, allow all vendors to buy and sell DO's at full market value)

I find this shocking. Surely some of this is a bug. I've had a few ambushes so far, but other than the Kill 100 Destroyers mission (Where admittedly the mobs die in 2-3 hits tops, and you can run around, etc), I've not been mobbed anything like that. I've had a few situations where 1 mob would come, I'd finish it off, then another mob would come, but I've literally not been overwhelmed yet with 3 chars. I'm still rolling new chars, however.

(btw, I frequently carry lucks, and am always working to keep my tray modestly filled with them, and I thing that's been a key to my survivability, so I advise this tactic for others)

BLUE: Atlas Park and Galaxy City revamped into one cool starter zone.
RED: Grandville. It needs to be optimized yet made a lot more accessible as a player. As it stands, it's a huge deathtrap outside of the courtyard, and the interior of the tower.

Isn't this a feature which can be turned off? I thought I read somewhere in a patch not, or an unofficial list of notes not found in the patch notes. Maybe someone with more knowledge on this issue can chime in on this.

A lot of it is mitigated by simply knowing how to play the game. Experience does resolve a ton of issues, because you learn to adapt to the quirks in the game. I didn't mind the criticisms brought up as much as I minded how they were brought up. Some were just silly, and detracted from the more serious ones brought up, as well as took away from the good things that were talked about. The 1-2 minutes of goofing off doesn't really add to anything, and could be used to bring attention to real issues, or provide praise where deserved.

But I find this practice too common, not just in the blogosphere, the online video review sites, and so forth, but in mainstream media on a variety of issues. Quite frankly too few people know how to get to the point. To any point. Video game reviews (particularly in video review fashion) are certainly no exception to this, unfortunately.

So a) I don't think the review was that good, but b) I didn't expect it to be.

Yeah my only complaint on that issue is that there was a contact that I guess falls under the Hidden Contacts list, that you apparently have to go to, in order to get. I clicked all my inactive contacts a few times (there were like 4 at the time) and none of them gave me her. I leveled up once, still no dice. Then some person had me join her for a duo, and she went to the contact, and I clicked the contact too, and now I had her. I just don't know why she wasn't introduced to me from a previous, existing contact, now that I completed all solo missions. I didn't' even have to do anything to get her. Just click on her.

Regarding the issue of the screenshot above, it looks like the player engaged all the mobs, instead of just pulling one of them. Even if you have no vet powers or ranged attacks, you have a ranged minor damage attack depending on what origin you have, that can be used to pull. I don't believe this is vet-level knowledge, personally. There's no way you are going to pull 9 adepts (or anything similar) in a room unless you just jump right in.

Pulling is a basic MMORPG skill, in my opinion. Even if you pull multiple groups, when you come back to pull one, you're not going to pull all the groups. You will pull the one and those linked to it, if the pulled mob is close enough, or in sight.