Samuel_Tow

I was actually honestly surprised when the Satanic Hamster talked about dropping the final mission. I thought for sure that if any solo mission were ever made undroppable on principle, that would be it, but I guess that didn't happen. Can't say I'd complain, even if I'd never drop it, but still...

Off-topic, I remember you came around to a more benign, more solo-friendly view on Incarnates in general. I hope you've not re-changed your mind on that

Back on-topic, I enjoy having an arc to unlock these things, especially in light of the alternative possibilities. Most of the time those really grate, like the arcs to unlock the Midnight Club. However, Incarnates don't strike me as the thing I'll run forty times, if for no reason other than because I don't have fourty 50s.

Wait, says who? I've certainly never seen anything official say anything even remotely close to that.

Nah, I know what you mean I'm just still pissed off at Ubi in general, and in how they treat PC players as second-rate citizens. I'm still fuming mad they never released the Prince of Persia DLC for the PC, and it's been two years now.

At least Assassin's Creed will EVENTUALLY come to the PC. Unlike those ******** at Capcom who will never, EVER release Marvel vs. Capcom for the PC, even though they released SF4, which I consider to be a VASTLY inferior game.

Feh!

Yeah, man. I keep experiencing that nasty bug that makes the game no available on the PC. I thought it was just me, but no, it's pretty common. Seems to be affecting all PC players I've spoken with. Weird thing, that.

Also:

I mean no disrespect, Tech, but what you describe is only doable with Inventions, for the simple fact that Blasters don't have access to powers which can do that, and I've never been a fan of powers that only work well with Inventions, even if they weren't changed to that.

Right now, I dislike Trip Mines for two reasons:

1. Their original officially-stated design is like traps, set down either alone or in fields for enemies to run through after the fact. This is a design which is very rarely useful, and even more rarely useful as designed.

2. The notion of "toe bombing" with instant-detonation explosives - which is to say explosive which go off as you have your hand over them - is an example of exceedingly bad implementation. Even if they have to remain useful as in-combat direct-fire tools (which I think they should), Time Bombs still need to be deployable at range, so that you're not leaning over the thing when it goes off with an enemy in melee of you.

Time Bomb, amusingly, is far more "pretty" for toe bombing, since you can set it down, back away and even prime another attack to coincide, such as Full Auto or Long Range Missile Rocket, whereas Trip Mines blow up in your face.

I suggest reading the previous post I made in the thread about turning Trip Mine into a Proximity Grenade and see if you like that more.

Um... Defiance is out of context here, which is why I misread it. After the Blaster changes, dubbed "Defiance 2.0," the term "defiance" lost any mechanical meaning. Before, it was a percentage damage boost which was calculated off percentage health non-linearly, so it was its own distinct entity. These days, the "defiance" damage buffs are ordinary static run-of-the-mill damage buffs attached to attacks. You can see those in practically every Blaster power's real numbers.

What I'm saying is that if you wanted the power to provide a damage buff, then you should have listed it as a damage buff. And not a 5% one, at that, because 5% is completely meaningless. A basic Enrage inspiration is a 25% damage boost and you can barely feel that. And it lasts for 60 seconds. A 5% damage buff, even on a constant basis, will simply get completely swamped, and just by the common "defiance" buffs on Blaster click powers. Hell, most of them grant 10+% damage buffs which stack with each other.

If we want to sell Targeting Drone as a better power and give it a damage buff, that damage buff needs to be at least on the order of an Enrage, around 25% or so. That would edge over-time performance slightly above two-slotted Build Up in the absence of recharge buffs, serving as a good tradeoff of burst damage for the sake of consistent damage over time. It would, furthermore, still fall behind Build Up when recharge buffs are taken into account, and I'm not talking about just Inventions. Something as simple as Hasten's 70% recharge buff can bring Build Up damage over-time damage contribution to around 33%, still outstripping Targeting Drone at 25% consistent.

For another comparison, let's look at Shield Defence -> Against All Odds for a Scrapper. It grants 12.5% damage buff for ANY targets in range and another 6.875% per target affected, including, I believe the firs tone. This gives you 25% worth of damage buff for between two and three targets, accounting for my misinterpretation of the numbers, an amount of enemies well within the capabilities, and indeed expected performance envelope. A 25% buff is not anywhere outside the norm, especially since a toggle damage buff wouldn't affect Time Bombs, Tripe Mines, the Auto Turret, Caltrops, Rain of Fire, Blizzard, Ignite, the Voltaic Sentinel and so, so many other pets and pseudo pets.

As far as I'm concerned, JUST a flat damage buff if respectable quantity in Targeting Drone has the potential to not only vastly improve the power, but make Devices not suck, to boot. And this is coming from someone which a 50 Devices Blaster, so I'm not speaking theoretically.

The actual uniformed Resistance members, yes. I hate them like you wouldn't believe. Good job on that horrible linguo, developers. Thank you for making me kill people I would have otherwise seen as good guys. I guess making the good guys insufferable is as good a way to introduce moral ambiguity as any.

Yes, the uniformed Resistance are usually crazy and mostly dickish. However, these are the Crusaders and constitute only one part of the Resistance. The other part is the clandestine operatives and honest-to-god ordinary people who are unhappy with the regime. Regular people like that reporter girl or Dr. Steffard or the Seer who woke up. They aren't insane, they aren't bloodthirsty, they're just trying to make a difference and help people. Make their life mean something.

Praetoria's moral ambiguity is actually very expertly crafted, never painting any one faction, ideology or path as completely morally superior to another. They all have good points and bad points. That's one reason why Golden Girl does such a disservice to the game by trying to handwave that away.

I'm sorry, did I miss somewhere where it said we have to play AS Calvin Scott? All the man does is manage the Resistance. You never work directly FOR him until the very end, and you can choose to stiff him at that point. And for good reason.

Why the bloody hell would Targeting Drone offer defence? And why do you keep insisting on 5% defence for everything you suggest when that's so out of scale with what Blasters power do?

Targeting Drone is probably the best power in Devices. No, it's not Build Up, but it's still very strong. I do agree that it could do with a constant damage buff on top of its to-hit buff, though. Trading burst damage for a constant damage increase, as it were.

That's if you buy into the idea that Praetoria is a utopia, which it isn't. What Praetoria has more akin with the city in Logan's Run. What Praetoria is is a cross between utopia justifies the means and a world half empty. It's a horrible, violent, hostile world where humans have found some small haven run on happy thoughts and methodical violence, where people are oppressed and controlled for their own good.

That's not to say that the regime is strictly EVIL, as Cole and his dictatorship are, after all, solely responsible for saving the world from complete depopulation, so they did at least a few things right. However, that's not to say that the regime is strictly GOOD, as Cole has seen fit to rob people of their rights, their free will and, in fact, their very world, breeding them like pets. So on the one hand, he is the saviour of the world, but on the other hand, he IS the slave driver and slave owner of the world.

That basically just ensures I'll never make a single vigilante, however, nor ever see the need for one. I'm perfectly capable of making what you described as legitimate villains, and have in the past. When we got another heroic alignment, I was under the impression that it would be... Well, a heroic alignment. As a point of fact, it is not.

So I ask again - why do we need two "grey" alignments?

I appreciate that.

As someone making this out to be a universal panacea, I have to say that a fair few of us are just excited about the change. I don't know about other people, but when I'm excited about something good, I tend to look for people to tell about it. I'd wager a lot of what you're seeing is a direct result of that.

And while I can appreciate your concerns, I don't thin this was ever advertised as a complete and utter solution to endurance problems. I don't actually think it was intended to address problems at all. In my opinion, it was done to address the discrepancy between the "haves and have nots," so to speak. By removing Stamina as a resource-consuming choice, they removed the single biggest no-brainer in the game, and so hoped to give people more choice. Whether that was more choice for ALL people is subject for debate, but here's the thing - for no-one at no point will this result in LESS choice. More unnecessary, unwanted choice, perhaps, but more choice nonetheless.

I like the change because it means more endurance for me on most of my characters, more endurance and more choice on some of my characters and just more choice on precisely ONE of my characters - the Stone/Stone Brute I'd grabbed Stamina for anyway. For that Stone/Stone Brute, I intend to drop Air Superiority and possibly Mud Pots, and then use the so-gained slots (all 9 of them) on anything and everything I can cobble together from Earth Mastery. We'll see how that goes when I get to it.

I'll get back to you once that comes out for the PC

Yeah, I guess. I'd have to see how "broad" the Assassin's Creed axe is, though. I don't think it would look odd, but I worry the axe head would be WAY too big to be held front-to-back. If the axes in Broterhood are like they are in 2, then they're single-bladed. This one's double-bladed, which could cause odd problems.

I'm no longer as worried now as I was before, though

It's also more or less what I said, but whatever.

So it doesn't benefit YOU. It happens to benefit other people. Apparently, the problems the change was aimed at fixing weren't problems you were having. While I'm sorry to see you won't benefit from this addition, you didn't lose anything, so you have no ground to complain. I didn't complain that I didn't get anything out of the Vigilance changes or when Tankers were given Bruising just because I don't play either AT.

If all of your characters have taken Stamina, all of them have endurance issues and none of them can take powers which can be worked around that, then it's fair to say that this change wasn't aimed at you. You are within your full right to be disappointed, but you don't have a leg to stand on to complain.

As a point of fact, even if the system benefits none of your existing characters, it will still benefit your NEW characters. And contrary to how you present it, having all of fitness Earlier IS a significant improvement.

Huge woman, actually

I'm not really worried about realism. I just have some degree of problem imagining how something like this could work, which becomes problematic when I start writing stories about her. However, you are correct in that I should be more loose in my attempts to visualise. Just having the axe fit under the shield from below, upside down, is probably as close to the best I can get, even if it doesn't necessarily make sense. I think I'll go with that.

Thank you