Samuel_Tow
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Quote:I want to point out I didn't mean to argue against you, and I apologise if that's how it came off. This is just something that took me a LONG time to wrap my head around and something I've put a lot of effort into gaining an analytical understanding into, so I wanted to bring it up. If your friend disagrees, then I'd be happy to discuss it. And if I'm proven wrong, then I'll simply know better in the future.Originally Posted by TheDeepBlue
That's fine, I don't actually know how it works. I just wanted to give you LJ's thoughts on the matter.
That's a good point. I've been trying to figure out what to do about just this problem, and it seems like waiting until I have a full set is the better option. I'm not sure where I'll store the things until I'm done, since even the characters of mine that have SGs don't have bases, but I'll figure something out. Worse come to worst, I can always sink $20 into buying a second enhancement tray, right?Quote:Originally Posted by TheDeepBlue
I generally don't slot powers out with set IOs until I've got all the recipes I need for that power, since just partially slotting the power out may alter its qualities to the point where it's functionally worse than before. I just keep the recipes as recipes as well, since otherwise I'd clutter up my enhancement tray with stuff I'm not ready to use.
This is probably going to make me sound like a complete *******, but I'm actually finally starting to get comfortable with the system, and one aspect of this comfort is my ability to say "That's OK, I don't need that." Maybe that's just me being weird, but in this day and age of information overload, being able to ignore much of a system's complexity and just focus on aspects I have control over is a great motivating factor.Quote:Originally Posted by Bionic_Flea
For invulnerable, I would shoot to soft-cap smash/lethal defense to augment what you already get from invincibility and tough hide, which should give you about 13% defense to smash/lethal with one enemy in range assuming you slotted 3 defense in each.
That's actually exactly what I've been shooting at, this feeling of comfort. You say these sets would be better, and I agree with you, but at the same time, I'm comfortable enough with just going with Crushing Impact that I don't mind the loss of performance. Setting boundaries and ignoring complexity is how my brain works at peak performance, and it's nice to be able to set some internal boundaries within the larger field of "Inventions."
Moreover, the reason I can ignore an optimised build for now is Crash works just fine. I could run her through some pretty brutal content even just on SOs and she'd work just fine. This gives me the high ground to not really sweat performance all that much. That helps tremendously.
I'm including this explanation in its entirety because it really is a lot of good advice. Unfortunately, this kind of pooling of resources between characters isn't something I'm prepared to do and, frankly, I hope is something I'm not going to have to do. I'm not saying you're wrong - far from it, you have the right idea. But you I'd just like to keep my characters as separate as I can.Quote:Originally Posted by Bionic_Flea
As an aside, let me tell you how I worked my way up from having SO and HO builds to having spare sets lying around. When IOs first came out, I, like you, was overwhelmed by the volume of choices. I just started replacing SOs with the generic IOs, which you have already done for some of your characters.
Just by playing normally I was getting all sorts of drops so I started crafting and storing in my base whatever recipes I had the salvage for, figuring that I may have a friend or another character that might use them later. I then realized that slows, sleeps, fears, and certain other IOs were junk. No one ever used them. So I vendored those and just crafted the 'good' stuff.
Then I started using Mids, looking at other peoples builds, and started to plan builds in advance. I noticed that a lot of builds had similar needs either for defense or recharge so I made a point of crafting and saving those things. Then, if I needed say a set of Touch of Death, I would transfer funds to a character that was off active rotation, put in a bid for 10 recipes of each and all the salvage and let it sit for a week or two. If the item was too expensive to bid for ten, I would bid for 5, or as many as I could afford. When I came back, I would be able to craft several IOs. I would craft what I could, store a couple for a future project and sell the rest. If I wasn't getting at least a few recipes in those two weeks, I would cancel the existing bid and increase it by a little.
Before long, I had at least 100 million on all my alts. I consolidated most of the currency into one character again. Once you have that much spare cash, you can bid in lots of 10 for the really good stuff -- uniques, procs, Obliteration quads -- stuff that you can buy for a few million each in recipe form and then resell for tens of millions, even a hundred million in crafted form.
The simple truth is the longest I'm ever going to realistically leave a bid on for is overnight, or a day if I'm unable to play. Much more than that, though, just isn't going to happen because if I'm playing a character, I'm playing THAT character, and if I'm not playing that character, I'm not going to come back to him. Simple as it may sound to do, "checking back" on a "marketing alt" just isn't something I'm going to do.
I realise this approach saves time, money and effort, but it makes things much more complicated, and the more complex you make the process, the more likely I am to be turned off by it. Keep track, buy with this one, sell with that one, store here, stockpile, plan ahead... It's smart, but it's also a lot of mental labour that I find alienating. Ideally, I want to do without it. If it means I get less and spend more, I'm fine with it, so long as things are even possible, and everyone assures me they are.
You know me too wellQuote:Originally Posted by UberGuy
Yeah, Crushing Impact is also a good set if all you want is some decent slotting with consistent pictures in all the slots.
But, yes, that's what I want at this point in time, in a nutshell. I'll start from there, see how that treats me and what it takes to get there, then work back from that. I have a good gut feeling about it, though.
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No. All of my characters guest-star in City of Heroes, thus nothing which happens in the game actually loops back to affect their own stories. If I choose to age any of them, it'll be for reasons completely separate from real time.
Additionally, "ageing them" doesn't really do much for many of these guys. The eponymous Samuel Tow is coming on 300 years old by this point, so what's five years more or less? Vox, my Necromancer, dates back to the time when Tielekku walked the earth, so that would put him at over 20 000 years old. It gets worse. Duriel, my alien insect hive queen, gave birth to her entire race some seven billion years ago. And that's before we start getting into Stardiver, my automaton from the beginning of time or the several characters I have who are literally ageless. -
I don't want to quote SuperOz since that's a big post, but I agree with it wholeheartedly. Maybe I'm just growing soft as the years roll on, but honestly, I enjoyed the positive message the game used to have back in the old days. As I said before - there have always been hardships and tragedies and tough situations, but they were always told in a hopeful, productive manner. I liked the idea that, if heroes just try hard enough and do what's right, everything will turn out fine. That no matter how dark everything may seem, we'll always pull through.
I'll admit that I don't exactly have a hard life full of sorrow and hardship, so it's not like I NEED that kind of escapism to survive the crushing weight of my existence. Far from it - I'm happy with my life and and I'm comfortable with myself. That's precisely why I'm much more inclined to look out for happy, positive stories - because I'm in a good mood. Yeah, OK, I know it might not seem like it from seeing me post around the forums, but honestly - I'm in a good mood more often than not, and all this heavy drama and crushed dreams serve to do is put me in a foul mood, instead.
I agree that we both want and need heroes in our world. Yes, obviously, I want my character to be one of them, but I want to know that the world has other heroes, as well. There seems to be this belief among our writers that players are somehow in competition with NPCs, so for players to "win," signature characters have to lose. To me, this really isn't the case. I see stories that put me alongside the signature heroes as a lot like me teaming with other players - when "we" win, everybody wins. I'm not competing with these people. I want to help them succeed, because their success is everybody's success. I want to be like these people, I want to help elevate everybody.
Granted, it's more fun when I'm playing the high-level character on a team of lowbies But even then, the point isn't to show others up, it isn't to crush the will of my team-mates. It's to work together towards a common goal. To me, surpassing the Pahalanx - if that were the point - would be much better accomplished by allowing me to do what they can't. Where they fall short, I rise to the challenge. That's elevation enough for me. But if the Phalanx are proven to be horrible, incompetent people, then that achievement is diminished, and I am left to realise that the people I aspired to be like aren't nearly as awesome as I had thought they were.
To me, "gritty realism" just has no place in City of Heroes, especially "all of a sudden" as it has been introduced. It serves to take the game in a direction that's coming on polarly opposite to what it was when the game started.
More than anything else, I find the notion that a story needs this angst to be enjoyable to be insulting. It reminds me of Agent Smith explaining how, as a species, human beings define their reality through misery and suffering. It's almost as though a simple story with a happy ending is seen as somehow inferior. It's almost as if a story which doesn't torture us to read through it is seen as not true art.
I ask you, tough: What's wrong with stopping a bank robbery without a deeper philosophical debate as to who is really the good guy? What's wrong with a group of heroes acting together as friends and comrades without descending into spiteful bickering whenever danger strikes? What's wrong with competent heroes clashing with competent villains in exciting battle? Why does everything have to be so complicated, so dark and so full of doubt? Is that not "realistic" enough? Is that not "exciting" enough? It seemed just fine to me all the way up to Going Rogue.
At the end of the day, it seems to be a simple case of the mistaken belief that true art is angsty. Personally, I'm inclined to accept that SOME art might be, but I'd like to get back to our more positive storytelling, and soon. -
One last thing before I go:
Quote:See, my ultimate goal is to keep the game being a game, and what this means is to find a way to integrate all that stuff into my routine and actually make it part of the entertaining side of the game, rather than the godless busywork side of it. Having to log into a character and "work" is a lot like having to do actual real-life work: All of a sudden, stuff like Bejewelled, Solitaire and The Ceiling look amazingly entertaining and I get the urge to go and do that. I want to develop a routine for playing WITH Inventions that doesn't make me feel like I want to shun the game like it's work.Originally Posted by _eeek_
*if you can bear it (and maybe you can't) find an alt to do the marketing for you. Yes, I know you don't like that. But the reason I suggest this is because all this marketing garbage is sort of "in your face" all the time when it's being done on the character you play all the time. Like it's hanging over your head, nagging relentlessly. If you can do the marketing on someone else, you can very cleanly do as Unicycle Peon suggested, which is put out lowball bids and leave them awhile. Almost all will fill reasonably quickly, which will save you a ton. Do this on an alt, and you can completely forget about it for a week, play as usual, then come back in a week and see what you've got. Thus reducing the nagging, the stress, and frustration and general "not fun" that goes with the market.
Honestly, if that means buying only recipes nobody wants (and still produces a decent build), I will. If that means buying with Merits, I will. Whatever that means, I want a way to work with Inventions to where they don't feel like something I have to stop having fun to do, but rather something I can accomplish WHILE I'm having fun. I suspect sidestepping the more expensive ones is the first step. It may be shooting myself in the foot right out the gate, but I'll worry about that some other time. -
Quote:There's something of a "curios" phenomenon with high recharge values, and that's that rather than increasing cost, that often ends up reducing endurance cost over time. even with no recharge slotting, Super Strength is close to 100% uptime just between its own attacks. What that means increasing global recharge just causes me to drop attacks from my attack chain or, more realistically, simply use some attacks less often. This has the benefit of allowing me to manage my own efficiency. Why waste Knockout Blow or Foot Stomp on a single enemy near death of Jab or Punch are available to finish that guy off?Originally Posted by ClawsandEffect
Also, something you will want to be cognizant of when you start slotting Set IOs. Since you don't have a lot of recharge slotted in your attacks currently, you may find that your endurance recovery is no longer up to the task of keeping your blue bar filled.
With Crash, I'm not worried about endurance. With Stamina, Physical Perfection, Superior Conditioning and decent endurance slotting, I have no run out... Within living memory. If I spend five minutes attacking non-stop, yeah, I'll start dropping low, but instances where this happens are rare and I do carry blues just in case. I suspect that if I were fighting in Incarnate Trials, that might be a different story, but I have no plans to do so.
Also, Crash already has recharge slotted in Knockout Blow and Foot Stomp and is sporting 33% recharge to everything from the Spiritual Alpha. That's already putting me far past the 100% uptime metric.
I'll have to think about that. If I had more options with similar slotting percentages, there'd be nothing to think about, but since there's really only Crushing Impact and maybe Mako's Bite (we'll see), that limits my options. That's six single-target melee attacks I need to slot up, after all. As I said - I'll worry about bonuses at a later point. Right now, I want to get comfortable looking at the enhancements.Quote:Originally Posted by ClawsandEffect
Crushing Impact and Obliteration both have a 5% recharge bonus for slotting 5 of them, and there is a limit of 5 of any one set bonus. So just make sure you keep your total number of those two sets at 5 or less to make sure you aren't wasting set bonuses. (You may not care, but it annoys me when I realize I've slotted something I'm getting no benefit from) So, if you do go with Obliteration in Foot Stomp, make sure you slot 4 or fewer Crushing Impact sets.
That's VERY good advise, and VERY well summarised. Thank you, I'll keep it in mind.Quote:Originally Posted by TheDeepBlue
If the recipe has sold recently and frequently, and people are bidding on it, you can be sure that the recipe is being supplied at a steady rate, but people are also snapping it up as soon as the seller puts it on the Market. Make your own bid and wait and you might be one of them if you've bid high enough.
If the recipe has sold recently and frequently, but no one is bidding on it, that should be your cue to bid.
If the recipe has sold recently but not frequently, there may be a supply issue or sellers are jacking up the price higher than the bidders are willing to pay, and the bidders are waiting for someone to try and be sneaky and set their sale at a lower price. In this case, you may want to find an alternative way to get the recipe.
I want to get a bit technical here, because that's not how I understand it based on Arcana's guides and previous instances when Arcana has explained it. On the contrary, as I understand it, defence has a cumulative effect such that small increases matter more the closer they come to the cap. Let me explain.Quote:At the upper ends of defense, you get diminishing returns on getting more defense
The difference between 20% def and 30% def is way bigger than the difference between 30% and 40% due to how enemy accuracy works
Arcana likes to use a "mitigation" formula, which is essentially a division of before against after. As such, the mitigation of 5% defence over nothing, as counted in "chance to get hit" is 50/45 ~ 1.11 increase in survivability. The same 5%, when going off a base of 40%, on the other hand, brings you from 10% chance to get hit to 5% chance to get hit, or has a mitigation increase of 10/5 = 2. *edit* 1.11 is effectively 110%, (or 111.11%, actually) or an increase of 11.11% over the base 100%, and 2 is 200%, or an increase of 100%
Personally, I find this a bit too abstract to use as an example, so I like to complicate it up to my "survivability duration" hypothesis. Say you have 1000 hit points and something is attacking you every second with an attack that deals 100 hit points. Assuming an "average" distribution of hits and misses, your baseline survivability would be 20 seconds, or 1000/(100*0.5) = 1000/50 = 20.
Now, adding 5% on top of that brings you up to 1000/(100*(1-0.5-0.05)) ~ 22.22, or an increase of 2.22 seconds raw, or ~11.11% relative.
So let's go from 40% defence to 45% defence. At 40, your survivability time is 1000/(100*(1-0.5-0.4) = 1000/10 = 100 seconds. Add up another 5% on top of that and your survivability duration jumps to 1000/(100*(1-0.5-0.45) = 1000/5 = 200. That's a raw increase of 100 seconds and a relative increase of exactly 100% extra time alive.
None of the above factors regeneration, enemy rank and level accuracy enhancement equivalent, regeneration and suchforth, but it demonstrates that the a defence boot's contribution to survival is relative to the defence it's boosting from, with a higher initial defence producing a longer life. That's part of why "soft-capping" is so important to people, I get that much, and also why those precious few percent points right at the end are so coveted.
I used to have a formula that accounted for health, resistance, defence and regeneration rigged up in Wolfram's Mathematica, but I lost it a long time ago. If anyone's interested, I can probably recreate one in Excel, but I'm sure Arcana can be persuaded to provide something that's a bit more scientific. I could try to do some basic calculus analysis on the formula and try to find rate of climb and such, but I doubt this would be of much interest to anyone. Suffice it to say that that's a fractional function with a decreasing variable so it'll tend towards positive infinity at a defence value of 0.5, or 50% - the point where defence says you should NEVER be hit.
That whole diatribe isn't entirely relevant to the discussion, but it IS one of the reasons I felt Super Reflexes is inadequate and needs out-of-SR boosts to help shore up defences.
That's very good news. I'll have to watch the Market for prices, then, since I don't think all of the Mako's Bite pieces are purchasable with Merits. Again, I haven't checked.Quote:Originally Posted by TheDeepBlue
Mako's Bite is not out of reach. I'm not even sure if it's as expensive as Touch of Death.
When I say I haven't had the chance, what I mean is I haven't had the time. The opportunity is always there, but there's a lot of info here in this thread that takes time to go through, and I haven't logged into the game since Saturday. I'll go through it all some time this week and check all of those out. Your advise is not going to the wind. I'm learning, and pretty soon I'll be doing, tooQuote:Originally Posted by TheDeepBlue
That actually sounds like you have had the chance but haven't taken it yet. Just go look at the sets that have been discussed.
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Apologise for the constant walls of text. I really AM finding this incredibly helpful. -
Quote:The thing, though, is I often see recipes with 0 bidding and 0 listing, meaning nothings going on with the recipe at all. Granted, that's usually with sets no-one seems to want, like slows, immobilize duration sets, fear and so forth. I haven't had the chance to look at the stuff I actually want to buy because... I'm not sure what I want to buy yet.Originally Posted by UberGuy
As Arilou mentions, it's important to realize that "supply" is best thought of as a rate, not a fixed number. So many of a given recipe come in per day, for example. When people demand something as fast as (or faster) than it it comes in to the market for sale, then there will often be zero for sale at any given time. That doesn't mean none are coming in, but rather that they're being bought quickly.
Why I say it's easier is Crash isn't a character I need to "fix," so there's no overarching goal in terms of what I want to achieve, therefore the build doesn't need to be complex. Anything that's better than what I have now with her Common build will be a straight-up improvement and thus something I can justify, whether it softcaps defence or just gives her something I don't want, like lots of range or status effect boosts.Quote:Originally Posted by UnicyclePeon
I still think the SR set is easier to work with fir a first build because it mainly does one thing (defense). Survivable incarnate invulnerability-based characters will require much more complex builds, because they still should try to softcap, but also rely on resists and assume use of powers that your quirks may prevent.
Again, the difficulty with Jun isn't that SR is harder to build for than Inv (I'm sure it's not) so much that Jun has a lot more that needs to be done about her, and in a much more coordinated effort, whereas with Crash, there's literally no way I can go wrong. Making a GOOD build for SS/Inv is difficult, I'm sure, but I think it's simpler if I first shoot for a good ENOUGH build and go from there. I need to learn to walk before I can run, to quote Zwill for the umpteenth time.
Crash is also a good basis for me to learn what I'm doing in pieces, as with her, I don't need to worry about looking for specific bonuses and stacking specific aspects. I can literally go power by power and ask "If I had X many slots in this power, what set should I put in it that will give me AT LEAST Y amount of enhcnement in Z aspects?" and the build should just keep getting better. It's easier for me to understand things if we start from something that's much more self-contained than to dive right into the deep end with a complete build.
Remember how I said I didn't want to just ask for a build, have it given to me and replicate it with no knowledge or understanding? I applaud your effort in explaining the build you showed me, and I did comprehend most of it, but it was still a whole build given to me as-is. I realise that's kind of how you plan for sets, but that just means I'd like to start with something that DOESN'T require me to plan for sets.
Crash may be more difficult to build right, but she'll be a lot easier to build "better," is what I'm saying.
Victory and Pinnacle, in that order. Victory is where I started after reading a SomethingAwful article about City of Heroes, and where most of my flagship characters are. Pinnacle is where I expanded to when my 12 slots on Victory ran out, and ICF_Zombra suggested Pinnacle as an East Coast server with people I knew on it. More specifically, Jun is on Pinnacle, which is why the ordeal started there, but Crash is on Victory, and is probably my second most important character after Samuel Tow himself, who holds that position for the sole reason that he was "the first" and I still use his name to this day. I owe it to the guy, but aside from him, Crash is head and shoulders above the rest.Quote:Originally Posted by UnicyclePeon
What server(s) do you typically play on? I saw a reference to pinnbadges earlier. I play exclusively on pinnacle (with exalted for transfer overflow) so I was just wondering if I had ever seen you on pinnacle without realizing it.
Honestly, it makes sense to start with her. She's one of my characters with the most "overpowered" concept, she's close to my heart and she has a damn solid build. AND she has all my money!
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Quote:Thing is, I didn't do anything much to earn that. I got three Purples over the span of two days. One sold for 350 million, one sold for 450 million, one sold for something like 200 million and Crash had around 100 million on her at the time. The recipes didn't even spend any time waiting. I listed all three for 5000 and they got immediately bought up for those prices. I've actually considered making money in a much simpler fashion - play level 50 characters, kill stuff, hope for a purple, sell everything else. 50s make a lot of INF and level 50 Commons sell for a LOT at vendors.Originally Posted by Leo_G
You can actually make builds comprised of some rare recipes for only 200mil if you're not picky with the levels. But I've never had a character with over 600mil in their pocket. Popping over to non-actives to buy alignment merits ultimately eats into getting such figures.
Like I said, though - she's by FAR my richest. All other characters are below 100 million, most sporting between 40 and 60.
Also... "Buy it now" prices? Does that work if there aren't enough recipes of the kind I need? If that's even possible, I'd like to do that. -
Quote:I have one even simpler. Go to Cimerora and look out the door to the cave. That's Sister Airlia over there. Now go to the town square and look up at the fort. That's Imperious up there, still alive. Well, if Airlia developed a way to kill Imperious that Wade copied to kill the Statesman, then shoot her, kidnap her, mind-wipe her.Originally Posted by McNum
Anyway, to add a minor annoyance, how exactly do I arrive too late to warn Statesman in Cimerora? Now say it with me "I hate time travel!", but consider this. What, exactly is stopping us from going back to past Cimerora and leaving a message? Yeah, if we carve it in the floor, Wade would notice, but what about an Impervium plate, or, if you did the Hero's Hero arc, leaving the faceplate Statesman gave you there for archeologists to find with a message inside? Yeah, it's a far out plan, but I can time travel. "Being late" is not part of my vocabulary anymore. And that's not even getting into just using Ouroborus to rewind until I get a result I like.
OK, OK, we're heroes, we can't do that. How about this - go up to Imperious and TELL him she plans to murder him in the future. He knows you're from the future. You say Airlia enchanted him to listen to her? So disenchant him. Bring in Montague, bring in Sister Psyche, bring in the ghost of War Witch, bring in the Legacy Chain. According to Airlia, it's a "minor charm," it can't be this hard to dispel once you know it's there. And once Imperious knows Airlia tried to brainwash him, let him deal with her. If she never creates or enacts the ritual, Wade will have nothing to on.
So we arrive to Cimerora too late, the Statesman is dead and Wade has escape. OK, hop on your teleporter back to the States, walk through the crystal, go back to Cimerora and change the future. Am I missing something?
This is the problem with involving time travel in your storylines. It opens far too many plot holes once we have free access to it. I'm willing to overlook instances when the characters could have travelled back in time and changed the past just because I like to pretend rampant time travel isn't part of our world. A lot of stories lose much of their tension when you know you can just go back in time and fix it.
Oh, I just got an idea! Remember the Devil's Timepiece? Go back to the Midnight Club, snag the watch, go back to before you started chasing Wade in the first place and go warn the Statesman. I know it takes a toll on your soul for every moment it shifts you, which is why I'm not suggesting we go TOO far back and save Alexis, but Mikey "The Magic Man" Maloney seems to have used to it hundreds of times over the span of days and weeks and he hadn't lost his soul.
After screwing up like inept rookies and after bickering like children, it would be a crime to NOT let us yell/beat some sense into these guys. Right now, it seems like "my fist forgives you" is the only way for the Freedom Phalanx to save face. Slap them all upside the head for their stupidity and have them act like legitimate super heroes in the last two arcs in the series.Quote:Originally Posted by McNum
As for how the story should continue, well, I hope I get to yell at the Phalanx. Just a "What s wrong with you?! We need to stop Wade from summoning Rularuu! We don't have time for this!" yell, followed by a rapidfire brainstorm of how to find him (ask Portal Corps for any unauthorized portals to the Shadow Shard), how to push him out of his comfort zone by adding an unforeseen element (Hey, Vanguard? Rularuu is going to invade unless we stop this guy... could I borrow the Honoree for a minute?), and of course, giving Lord Recluse the full story of who killed Statesman. That ought to be enough to put some pressure on Wade. And when Portal Corps calls in the blip on their scope, I know where to go. (And so will Lord Recluse.)
Honestly, I can forgive the character assassination if it really ends up leading to something. I can forgive Liberty for being stupid, I can forgive Valkyrie for lacking tactical sense, I can forgive Mynx for wearing socks in the comic, I can forgive Psyche for making rookie mistakes, I can forgive Manticore for... OK, I can't forgive Manticore, but I can forgive the rest if they snap out of their stupidity and actually show me why they're the premier heroes of our world.
To be honest, if this turns out to be a story where these people are constantly hampered from performing at their best, right up until the end (if it were clear they were being hampered, rather than seeming like they just suck), when they actually finally get a chance to shine and we see why they are as famous as they are. Take Liberty, for instance. The woman is AMAZINGLY powerful, but the way the story has been treating her, she's been useless. So suppose that right at the end, Darrin just wipes the floor with the whole of the Freedom Phalanx with Statesman's powers, then attempts to kill her with one hit, only for her to hold him back, look him dead in the eye and go: "I've had enough of you!" then backhand him across the map. Then we see that that "little girl" isn't just a ******* in distress, she really is a legitimate, great super hero.
See, the thing here is to give Wade the opportunity for an easy victory, only for it to turn into a fight for his life when the heroes of the Freedom Phalanx refuse fold as easily a they have before. I want to see what these guys are capable of when they're not acting like disorganised petulant children. I want to see what they're capable of so that I know exactly what kind of greatness I will eventually reach and exceed. I don't want the heroes to win through tricks and tomfoolery. I want to them to win because when the moment of truth arrives, heroes stand strong and tall and hold their ground.
Obviously we have to involve the player as the Goku, so even if the Phalanx stand up to Wade and nearly defeat him, he ends up summoning Rularuu to beat them back. That way, we have legitimate great heroes to look up to, a villain who's defeated but still manages to pose a credible threat, AND a reason for our characters to be needed that doesn't make the Phalanx OR Wade look stupid. -
We'll see how that goes. When I'm done faffing about, I think I'll try my hand at something very, very simple - log in Crash and try to six-slot Knockout Blow with level 50 Crushing Impact. This shouldn't be much of a problem since the power is already 6-slotted with Commons in an A/E/D/D/D/R pattern. From everything I've seen, Crushing Impact should exceed the current slotting AND give set bonuses on the side.
If I can manage that without ripping my hair out, we'll see about replicating that on Foot Stomp. I'd have to see if Foot Stomp doesn't take different sets, though. It all depends. I'd like to try and shoot for one Crushing Impact set completely by myself just to get a feel for the involvement, then I'd open to the donations that SO many people have offered
With luck, I won't even have to respec Crash or use a second build, but if I do, I can populate that with Commons as a placeholder. They're not that expansive, even at 50.
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Also, for everyone who thought it was just me asking for advise and giving up - not this time! I'm going to go through with this and see what's on the other side.
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Quote:What the TechBot said. What keeps me out of Praetoria by FAR the most is that I simply don't want to have to deal with the hassle of the incredibly difficulty at such a low level. There's enough content in there to run new characters through it regularly and not repeat yourself too much, but it's just a pain in the *** to deal with the ambushes, with the scaled-down high-level enemies and with the aggressive mission design.Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha
There are relatively easy ways to make Praetoria far more appealing;
-Cut out about 3/4 of the stupid ambushes. Seriously. Not EVERY damn mission needs ambushes!
-Throttle back mob difficulty. Compared to Primal starter mobs, Praet mobs feel like (and usually are) level 50 mobs scaled down...badly.
That mission with the waves and waves of Ghouls (doesn't that describe, like, half the content there?) very well could have been the LAST thing I ever wanted to do in Praetoria, and is one of my least favourite to this day. -
Quote:See, this is a large part of why I would hate for Origins to mean anything. Because I could argue with you that what you have isn't Science, it's Technology. Right now, though, none of that matters. It's my opinion vs. yours, and since it's your character, my opinion is irrelevant. You're happy with the Origin, you picked it, you can explain it, and I'm just glad you have something to work with.Originally Posted by ClawsandEffect
My Main character is Science origin, even though Tech would fit somewhat better. He's a cyborg, but he invented his cybernetics himself. He was forced to use those cybernetics when there was an "accident" at his lab that made his own limbs unusable. His powers came from his own skill as a scientist.
If, on the other hand, Origins were given a purpose and meaning and it turns out my definition of Science was "correct," then it's no longer fun and games. All of a sudden, your character is "wrong" and he's forced have a lot to do with uncontrollable mutation by scientific experiment, which isn't what you had in mind. That would be bad for you because it ruins your character concept, and it would be bad for me because it would make me into an ******* for having argued the point to begin with.
Precisely. Loose Origins give room for creativity, creativity that people have used, abused and run away with over the past coming on eight years. Not only is that kind of creativity better for the game than even more min/maxing, but changing it now after all this time would be a catastrophe for people whose Origins were chosen on purpose.Quote:Originally Posted by ClawsandEffect
The point is, if I were suddenly forced to have incantations and magic rituals involved with my BS/DA scrapper, I would be highly annoyed, because the sword is the source of all of his powers. He's not a magician. -
Quote:It's a single cape system, actually. He only has a cloth on the front. And even if it were a double cape system, it could still be offered with just a single cape - either one in front or one behind.Originally Posted by FlashToo
Too bad, you can't have it! It's a double cape system, which means NPCs only.
We also have precedent for cape rigs in costume items disabling all other cape rigs in the editor. Equipping the Wedding Pack Tuxedo, for instance, robs you of your "Back" category entirely.
All of that said, I still want his shoulders the most. More than the sword, more than the shield, more than anything else to do with Romans, really. -
Quote:I get the vibe that that's what she wants, actually. The way Ghost Widow describes her own existence, she comes across as very dissatisfied with it, and considering we stop her from living again multiple times, it's not that far-fetched that she'd want to go the other way. Sever the connection, free her spirit, move into the afterlife. That would free Wretch, as well, whom she cares about greatly.Originally Posted by ClawsandEffect
If she joined a group whose goal is the elimination of Arachnos it would be akin to suicide.
Granted, that's not exactly a face turn, but it does give slightly more depth to a character that's already pretty well developed. Ghost Widow has never been defined by her "evil" or by her faction loyalty, I don't think. That's kind of what makes her a good villain. She's more than JUST one of Recluse's lieutenants, she's a real person trapped in a hellish unlife that she's desperately trying to escape from. If she can't escape over the top, she might just choose to sink out through the bottom.
Obviously, I'm biassed. The eponymous Samuel Tow is built on much the same sort of basic model. He's a guy whose strength, speed, agility and intellect all stem from a parasite that lives inside his body and wrestles for control of his mind by abusing and exaggerating every emotion he shows. The man is, therefore, trapped in a world where he has to fight to suppress every ounce of happiness, sadness, anger and pain or risk losing his mind. And worst of all, there is no escape, because in moments of extreme danger, he is compelled to defend himself in every way he can by that same parasite. He is literally incapable of committing suicide or allowing himself to be killed, causing the man to grow ever more distant and seek ever more ridiculous danger in the hope that some day he might fight something he simply can't save himself from.
Yeah, my namesake character is a cliche dark brooding emo her. Gimme' a break, I made him over 10 years ago Point is, I can see that angle working with Ghost Widow because I kind of already did that before I even knew anything about her. It could work.
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OK, there are a couple more tangents I want to go on, and then an actual official update and narrowing of the scope. Stay tuned!
I just got through my PMs (don't I feel important?) and there are a couple of concepts that came up which I want to share here in the larger thread, so tangents first:
It's been suggested to me to pool my resources between characters several times now, and while I'm not principally against that, there are some limitations to what I can do. What I CAN do in sharing is transfer INF around. That should be fairly painless, and is not a bad idea. I can also use one character's various Merits to grab items for another character, as I have done before for the Steadfast Protection: Knockback Protection bit. That's not a problem, either.
What IS a problem is when we start talking about sharing drops and saving my rares and so forth. See, sharing INF and Merits requires no forward planning at all. Everything can be bought for one or the other, it's only a question of how much it'll cost. When we talk about sharing drop components, however, we run into the problem of needing to be aware what all of my characters need at any given time, and the way I play - one character for a long time, then never again for a year - that's not possible.
Well, it's not possible to remember off-hand. I could make notes, but I refuse to. When Inventions first came out and I started trying to work with Commons, I took notes of what recipes and salvage a character needed, intending to keep those, sell the others and craft as it came. That was probably the worst idea I've ever had, and it damn near soured me on the whole game. It wasn't until my mother (yes, really) suggested to me that I just sell everything, take the money, and then buy what I needed when I needed it that I became truly comfortable with Common Inventions. Instead of managing complex lists and constantly checking and updating them and being bogged down in bureaucracy, I could just kill stuff, sell stuff for whatever it sold for and boil my involvement with the system down to an "on demand" basis.
Maybe if the game had some way to track which character needs what recipes and salvage and keep those updated automatically and then allowed me to send salvage to characters' inventories directly... Then, maybe I'd consider it, but right now, I'm going to have to look for ways to work with Inventions in such a way that I only ever care about the character I'm building for at the moment. Having to worry about my whole roster - and that's a big roster - is not a workable solution. That's why I like "money" - because it's a single currency that I can translate everything into and I can then translate back into everything I need, and I don't have to worry about which character has how much of which type of resource.
Entirely separate from that is the subject of supply. A lot of people have suggested to me that I use my Merits to obtain sought-after recipes, then sell those and use the money to buy the ones I actually want. That's a fair suggestion, but it entirely skips the issue of supply. I could have all the money in the world, but that won't make a difference if the thing I want to buy isn't for sale. And I've looked at some of those Set Inventions - many of them have 0 recipes listed almost perpetually. I could bid a million or a billion, but I'm still not going to buy what isn't there to begin with.
Why this is is probably a complex question, but I personally blame the fine-grained nature of Sets. Common enhancements only ever show up in 5-level increments, so people from a whole 10-level range are only really producing two or three types of the same recipe. Not so with Sets. These exist at every level in their level range, meaning that there are so many different-level ones available that no single one will ever have much supply, or indeed much demand. This makes listing them difficult as non-ultra-expensive ones almost never sell, and it makes bidding on them even harder since I don't know where in the level range supply will show up, and I can't bid on level range brackets, not that I would.
What this means is I suspect I'll be making wide use of Merits one way or the other, just to get the recipes I need if they aren't for sale. Since I'll want to be using mostly non-famous ones, I don't expect there to be too much supply.
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With the tangent out of the way, I think we should shelf my SJ/SR Scrapper for the moment. That's a LOT to take in at the same time all at once. What kneecaps my effort is the direction of building in this case, which is Set-to-Enhancement. Let me explain:
When I first brought up SR, it was because I felt forced to indulge in Sets as I was unable to find enough defence within SR. This mandated that I pick my set bonuses first and then backtrack to see which enhancements offered those. This is the biggest, most annoying roadblock to the whole process for me, as it forces me to pick enhancements I may not want to use for the sake of benefits their sets bring. Call me pedantic (please, it's my only real sense of identity), but to me, that's a lot like being forced to use a sword that's horribly ugly just because it has good stats.
So I've decided to do the complete opposite and start from a semi-frankenslotting basis. First of all, I want to swap characters. Let's put Jun on a bus for the moment and bring in Crash, my level 50 SS/Inv/Energy/Spiritual Brute who has a build that I've tested in Dark Astoria and know that it works. Crash is solid, and I want to see if we can make her better. That's a much more comfortable prospect than taking a character I feel is weak and trying to bail out a sinking ship.
Since Crash doesn't seem to expressly NEED Set bonuses, I want to start off with improving her slotting by applying Set Inventions in place of her Common Inventions slotting. For the time being, I'll be looking at finding the cheapest, easiest-to-acquire Sets for her powers that exceed Common slotting and I'll worry about Set bonuses after the fact. Claws was right - it's time I stopped being so anal about the chaos of it and just give it a shot and see what happens.
My "research" appears to suggest that the highest percentage for damage I can get is the level 50 Crushing Impact. Everything else is out of reach. Mako's Bite is rare, Hecatomb is purple and Gladiator's Strike is PvP-only, so not a lot of damage. I'm aware that Crushing Impact is probably not the ideal set bonus-wise, but again - I'm looking at pure slotting. I'll worry about bonuses when I'm done.
Most of Crash's powers are 5-slotted, not 6, so I suspect I might have to exclude one of Crushing Impact's six enhancements quite a few times. That'll be either the least directly useful or the one that's the most expensive, whichever that is. I'll also have to figure out what to do with the passives, the toggles, Dull Pain and the others. Crash has a few "spare" slots that I stuck to stuff that don't really need them so I can alter the build around if that's necessary, but I'm hoping it won't be. I also hope to be working on Crash's Set Inventions build at the same time as I'm working in her Incarnate progress, per chance I22 comes out some time this week or next week, but we'll see. I have a few more things left to do with her before she runs out of content entirely, and Inventions are a goal worth pursuing. She's also by far my richest character, her Inf just barely topping a billion.
I can't think of a better case scenario as a first foray into Inventions. If that works - and I hope it does - that'll at least get my leg in the door and give me some vital experience.
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I apologise if it feels like I'm wasting your time and changing my mind constantly. I really am serious this time around, I just don't really know what I'm doing, so I'm tabbing through options and possibilities as the thread develops. Jun... Isn't a great candidate for a first time experience, and she's not even one of my "signature characters." Crash seems to be the significantly better option.
I'd post the build in question, but I'm posting from work and all my Mids' saves are at home. Suffice it to say it's nothing spectacular. Attacks are A/E/D/D/D, toggles are E/R/R/R, passives are R/R/R and so forth. Pretty basic slotting. -
Quote:That's OK. Chat is as chat does, and I have great respect for people who are willing to apologise even if they're not entirely at fault, so think nothing of it. I rub people the wrong way a lot of the time, just because I'm so... Picky with how I do things.Originally Posted by Sister_Jeanne
Sam, first off I wish to apologize for blowing up at you like I did in Pinnbadges several days ago. I was dealing with a crisis IRL but no matter, I should not have done that, and my apologies.
I'm flattered that so many people are offering to just give me stuff for free out of the goodness of their heartsQuote:Originally Posted by Sister_Jeanne
That being said, if you want to take the build that is under proposal, I'd be happy to hand over or email you some of the stuff I have stashed. I have the relevant recipes at level 30 (I also build for positional defense and have the bad habit of bidding extras and stashing the excess when I bid on the market). I can understand if you would have issues with all your set IOs being level 30 and the generics level 50 though, and if you prefer max-level stuff I can put bids in to help you get them without you messing with the market. Originally, I wanted to do this myself as my primary goal was to see how difficult it would be to repeat, but I suppose it's worth testing out a complete build just so I know what I'm missing. Who knows, maybe that'll motivate me to put in the work? I don't know, I'd like to find a way that's more easily repeatable, but it's definitely worth trying a really good build for the sake of direct playing experience.
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There's a lot of stuff to reply to so I won't be doing bit quotes this time, but there were a few things I wanted to address besides:
First of all, I think I've put my finger on part of the problem of what's causing me resent the game right now. If we're talking about JUST slotting and enhancing my powers while picking set bonuses as they come - i.e. "frankenslotting" - then I could be convinced to do that without too much hassle. The chaos it produces is a major turn-off, as Claws already mentioned, but I'm starting to realise that the enhancement percentages might just be good enough to trump that. Moreover, when "frankenslotting," if a set contains one very expensive enhancement, I can just skip that and make for a much cheaper, though probably much less potent build.
But we're not talking about frankenslotting in this case. There's simply no way I can "enhance" enough defence out of SR even just break even against Dark Astoria Incarnate content, which means I'm looking for bonuses outside of slotting, which pretty much means set bonuses. And from everything I've read so far, though these are widely available, they also seem to be some of the most expensive.
This feeds into something else - sets with different-rarity enhancements. This is one of my greatest sources of ire. It's a lot like running through all of the Hollows and realising that the last part of the story arc I just can't do alone since it's a Trial. In the same way, I might like a set in general, but be unable to procure a specific enhancement from it because it's "special." Call me crazy, but I'd rather have sets split into uncommon, rare, very rare and so forth rather than having what feels like every set spanning the gamut of rarities and strengths.
When I spoke about Set Inventions not breaking down into Tiers very well ties into this. If I could pick "smaller" sets and work with those, accepting that "bigger" sets are just too rich for my blood, I'd do that. Hell, that's why I chose to use Commons. But "Sets" don't seem to have tiers, aside from the very elitest ones. We don't have uncommon sets and rare sets and very rare sets. Every set I've looked at so far has had components from across the board, and THAT is a problem.
It occurs to me that SR might not have been the smartest thing to try and work with Inventions on first exactly BECAUSE it's set bonuses I need to make it work, which makes things a lot more complex than they need to be. It may be smarter to start with something simpler, something that already works and, above all, I'm going to be playing soon, and work on that WHILE I'm beating up stuff for Incarnate goodness. That, by the way, is Crash, by SS/Inv/Energy Brute who's already level 50, has a solid build and is sporting a fairly uninspiring Spiritual Alpha Boost even as we speak. Altering her build might be simpler by a fair margin since I could swallow my pride and just pick better slotting for her, then see what I can achieve that slotting by.
I gotta' tell ya - if I can use all level 50 enhancements, thus ensuring I'm getting the best percentage values, that'll do wonders for my enthusiasm, and Crash doesn't actually NEED set bonuses to work. She's awesome enough as it is - one of my most awesome, actually. Yeah, she's not as good as some of the AV-soloing builds out there, but I never found her lacking. Yeah, that might be the better choice. I already feel better about it.
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P.S. I got a couple of PMs on the subject that I haven't had the opportunity to reply to, as it's 3 AM right now. I am not ignoring you, folks. I will write back as soon as I am able
*edit*
Off the cuffs question before I go to bed: Set bonuses aside, how expensive are level 50 Crushing Impact sets and how much are they worth using? -
I should probably explain a couple of things, just so you know where I'm coming from when I talk about hating the Market.
I like stability, that's my number one primary goal when designing a build. I like to be able to do what I want to do, when I want to do it. With SOs, this is easy. They're cheap and I can get as many of any kind of SO as I want the instant I want it. All that's left to do is devise a build that uses them. Commons are more expensive, but similarly easy to acquire. There are almost always ready-made enhancements for sale, and when there aren't the recipes are for sale in the University and there's always enough common salvage to make them. It's just a question of having enough money, and considering 20 million is more or less adequate for, say, a set of level 40s, that's easy enough to achieve. Even if they end up being more expensive, they're still within my budget even if I overpay.
Uncommon and Rare recipes are very different, however. Not only are they naturally less common and more expensive on the Market, they aren't even always available. Almost any time I try to sell a set Recipe, there are between 0 and 2 for sale of it. These aren't sold in any store, either, so what this means is if they aren't available, I plain can't have them, and this is what upsets me the most.
This leads me to a secondary question: Suppose I wanted to make a build entirely out of some kind of Merits, say Reward Merits since I usually have a lot of those. How much would that build I was given cost in terms of Merit cost? Yes, I realise I wouldn't have to buy all of it with Merits and it's not a good way to do it, but just toss me a number so I have some kind of perspective. If it's, say, 300-600, that's doable. Not easy, but doable. If it's something like 10 000, then YIKES!
See, if I can take away the randomness of it all and the "scavenger hunt" component, then I'd feel a hell of a lot more comfortable with doing whatever it took to get these things. That's part of what drives my mentality. So long as I know what I'm working for, I can put in a lot of "work." But if I'm asked to work for a "chance" at something, then that's when I start losing motivation.
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Also, someone asked me for a global name. No surprises there - it's @Samuel Tow. The whole reason I registered a forum account back in 2004 was because we were told to do that so we could reserve a global name when those were first introduced. Those who had a forum account would be given the name they picked for it, and those who didn't would be given the name of the first character they logged in. It made sense to make a forum account, even though I didn't plan on posting much. Yeah, we've seen how well that plan worked
*edit*
Incidentally, Assassin's Creed turns out to be one of the worst games I could have turned to as an escape from complexity and scavenger-hunting. That ******* game is packed with collectables, components and all manner of little things I have to keep track of. We'll see how long I last. -
Quote:Oh, I'm going to use this, believe me. Just not immediately. I need a break from the game, but not a long one. A few days, or however long it takes me to get through Assassin's Creed: Still More Faffing About. I might even be back to Jun to try out that build that was suggested, or just look at prices and such. At least I have a bit more of a general idea of what I'm looking for.Originally Posted by Grouchybeast
Sam, why do you start these threads when they just make you sad, and in the end you don't use any of the advice that people give you because it's all fundamentally not how you are willing to play the game?
The whole point is try and find a way to mess with Inventions without actually having to alter the way I play in a fundamental manner. Again, if I can just keep on playing arcs and maybe occasionally playing some Alignment missions, that's tenable. If I have to play the Marker, on the other hand, or farm for Architect tickets, that's not. It's the same reason I don't do raiding - if the "getting there" isn't fun, then I will never know what "being there" is like.
And if you really are serious about this, then I might just do thatQuote:Originally Posted by Grouchybeast
(And if it turns out that you still want to try out an IO build then, find one you like, send it to me, and I'll mail you the IOs you need at whatever level you prefer. Just go easy on the purples and PVP IOs, please ;-) I expressly DO NOT WANT Purple and PvP Inventions just as a matter of principle, but if you want to help out, then that'd be great. I do like that build UnicyclePeon suggested... It's a bit off with the 40s in there, but I'm willing to give it a shot.
The thing, though, is I know it will be better. There was never any question that Set Inventions builds will be better than SO or Common builds. I'm more worried of what it would take to create that, myself, since I will need to be able to replicate the result. Even at 42, I can clean out Jun's alternate crappy level 36 build and start putting Inventions stuff in it. That might give me a bit more dosh to work with, as well.
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One more thing to add: When I ask how I can tell what's cheap and what's expensive, I meant is there some way to tell the rarity of recipes and their costs to obtain with Merits of some sort? Like, Salvage is divided into very neat, tidy categories - common, uncommon, rare. Common's 250 to sell, uncommon's 1000, rare is 5000. I know Common Inventions are... Well, common, but what about Set Recipes? How do those break down? -
Quote:Honestly, I think the chief mistake is bringing us back to Paragon City in-between missions. I'm more than convinced that SSA5 would have worked a lot better as a single, huge instance because it really IS just one mission. Consider the following:Originally Posted by Lycantropus
The obvious problem is... the boat we go in. If there were a teleport, or portal, we used to get to the site, it would make more sense, and I honestly see that more as a psychological logic oversight on the Dev's part than a bad writing thing.
The player dives after Wade in the bar basement, but comes to a caved-in tunnel, then backtracks up to help fight Arachnos. The player is then told how to bypass the cave-in, leaves via the back door and is deposited in the tunnels leading to Darrin's lair. After scouring the lair for clues, the player realises Darrin is already in Italy, waiting for the Statesman right that moment. It's far, FAR too late to cross the Atlantic to warn or help him and Arachnos are jamming long-range communications.
But wait! Darrin was just in the bar. How did HE get to Italy so fast? Well, it turns out he had a teleportation crystal in his lair that he used, hidden in a secret compartment guarded by a monster. That way, the player has no way to get word of the plan out and only one, instantaneous travel way to get there - through Darrin's crystal. This eliminates the long gap boat or aircraft travel would provide, it explains why no-one else could be summoned to help AND it doesn't have the player keep returning to Paragon City for no reason.
I mean, I don't know if a single instance could be THAT big, but even without it, you could still put in a word about how the player used Darrin's own gateway to follow him. That would also explain why we enter Cimerora's ruins from the tunnels and don't go straight to the summit.
That makes sense, right?
You have to remember something about the game's initial ideas, way back from 2001 and 2002. Originally, the game wasn't intended to have contacts at all, it was intended to have "Mission Terminals." That's from Jack Emmert in an E3 in I think 2003. I believe that's what Info Kiosks are. Like in the old Sega game Flashback, these terminals were supposed to represent people publishing crime reports, with player characters anonymously taking them. It's never been explicitly state, but I believe that's what Hero Corps was intended to represent, once upon a time.Quote:Originally Posted by Lycantropus
AND, now that I'm looking at the old unconnected story arcs... they were horribly written!! Very straightforward and didn't communicate at all like the contact themselves would. I'm working on Bonfire right now and Lorenzo DiCosta, the street hood has sentences like "I'm afraid a conflict like that could spill out onto the streets and endanger the lives of our citizens." Yeah... an urban tough guy ex-con would say that... Storytelling has come a long way since the humble beginnings of this game.
When they swapped over to actual contacts, a lot - if not all - of the contact dialogue was written to be generic, coming out of a terminal and with no distinct personality behind it. Then, multiple random-face contacts were created, scattered all over the world and the same missions and arcs were duplicated between several different contacts, I surmise in an attempt to make the game world feel larger than it is.
The result is that none of the original Launch charcters have any personality whatsoever until later in the game. About the first ones that have any are the 40-50 ones, because these were a newer addition to the game. The stories are, thus, not so much "bad" as they are not written for contacts with personalities to read them out loud. They're written as disembodied narrative that ended up in the mouths of real people later in development.
There's still more that could have been done, and it via the game's oldest method of information delivery - clues! Well, and entry pop-ups. When we arrive at Cimerora, have the entry pop-up say something like "You were issued emergency access to one of Vanguard's portable teleporters, which instantly carried you across the Atlantic to appear in this cave. Are these the ruins of Cimerora?" Simple as that. Or when you watch the Statesman's death cutscene, just leave the player a clue about how the man died and why he couldn't be helped earlier. When Darrin disappears, leave us a clue to say he acted like the fight was beneath him, but it's obvious he couldn't defeat you.Quote:Originally Posted by Melancton
As I have read ClawsandEffects' explanation of Statesman's actions, I thought to myself that I might not have had the intensely negative reaction I had if things had been explained that way in the arc. But they were NOT, which on the face of it leaves Statesman looking like a prize idiot, unless you fill in the gaps for yourself as Claws very admirably did. But I have to wonder if it would actually be POSSIBLE to do that in the arc itself.
It seems to me that today's story writers have forgotten or outright abandoned some of the game's most basic, reliable storytelling tools, and that's a cryin' shame.
Oi! Yeah, Troy's Smoke and Mirrors got utterly butchered in that TF. I've read the actual comic that had the story in it, and it was AWESOME! It's probably the only time I've ever managed to care about any of the Top Cow comic books. But the TF made after it just castrates the story to hell. Even the final act of heroism and that iconic line of dialogue just come off as trying too hard because the actual arc doesn't earn the kind of emotional weight that really made that story shine, in my opinion.Quote:Originally Posted by Lycantropus
Troy Hickman's "Smoke and Mirrors" arc from the comics is magnificent; when compressed into Twilight Son's Ouroboros arc, it loses a LOT of its emotional resonance and the plot changes a bit. The opportunities for Hickman's scripting talents were few and far between in the arc as dialogue was minimal, and the very powerful nightmare sequence never made it to the arc. So for all I know, the death of Statesman arc that we see might have been as good as "Smoke and Mirrors" if presented in a comic. Well, if Hickman is scripting, there is a very good chance that is so.
It's still better than having to deal with Tesseract, though.
I disagree. The very idea that it's "impossible" to tell a good story in a specific medium is anathema, in my eyes. You pick the story to tell based on the medium you have to tell it over, you pick your genre of narrative based on what the medium can support, and you account for what you can and can't do. Being a good writer isn't just about writing well, it's about having the foresight to pick which stories to tell in which media and how to present them so that they work to the strengths of the media, rather than suffering from its weakness.Quote:Originally Posted by Lycantropus
It just may not be possible to tell the complete story or to do enough justice to the details as mission arcs in the game. They should revive the comic if they want to tell stories we are not supposed to affect; the SSAs are not cutting it, and it may be that their constraints are causing that.
When I first started writing, I tried to write my stories like I saw my movies - with lots of visual description of what's going on. Simply put, that's both untenable and it slows the story to a crawl. Pure writing, in my eyes, is a medium of words, and it shines the brightest when stories in it are written as they would be told from one person to another. Yes, it skimps on a lot of the visual content, but trying to relay visual information with words alone is a losing prospect from the beginning.
City of Heroes has a specific structure to how it can deliver narrative, and the way the SSAs are written, it's as though the writer is constantly running into the limitations of that structure. You can't show a whole lot, that's a given. You can't describe a whole lot, there isn't a lot of room. You can't make a story too complex, there aren't the tools to make it, and what tools are there are just... Awkward.
So work WITH that. You can't make very complex, cinematic encounters, so craft a story which does not rely on those. Craft a story which relies on a larger, over-arching narrative which can exist purely within abstract space through contact dialogue and clues, and leave the actual, practical gameplay to represent small sections of it, particular and rather simple key events that move the story. Have the story take on multiple intertwined threads, so that while the player does one seemingly simple things, he knows of the broader context and can see how simple actions can move a complex plot.
You can't put too much "show" in your arcs. I think we've seen this to plenty of evidence. So DON'T! Focus on putting "action" in the actual missions and tell the story through the narrative that you have much better control of. The most powerful tool in City of Heroes storytelling is still text, so work to that strength. Our missions creation tools are simple, so make your missions simple and rely on your ability to write a cohesive story that makes these simple missions as parts of a larger story.
I said a while ago that the story writers are trying WAY too hard, and they are. It's like taking an old 1920s black-and-white silent movie and trying to recreate the matrix with no visual effects and no dialogue. You might be able to scrounge up some way to do it, but unless you reinvent the wheel, so to speak, you simply won't make for a very good movie. And you'll have a hard time explaining virtual reality to turn-of-the-century audiences, too.
City of Heroes storytelling is not all weaknesses. It has its very marked strengths. We need to work towards those. -
Quote:I'd like to go on a small tangent, if I may. Every time I hear people telling me about how they learned to market better and make more money, I get a cold chill down my spine. The City of Heroes market is the most egregious, soul-sucking example of pointless busywork in the entire game by far, as far as I'm concerned, and easily the bit I like the least. Since I9, I've survived by finding ways to limit my exposure to it as much as possible, because just half an hour messing with that thing is enough to make me start running through my collection of other games, wondering what else I could play.Originally Posted by Organica
Along the way I had to figure out how to make more money than I had. I'd been making money on the market up to that point by crafting generic IOs and selling them, and this gave me over 100 million on a few characters, which seemed pretty good at the time. But when I got into IOs, I had to ramp up my knowledge of how to market and make money at it. These days, there are a lot of other options, and I buy a lot of things with alignment merits for example. But mostly I market for my cash, although I have farm-capable toons, and I do run a lot of tip missions and SSAs and Ouro arcs just for merit rewards.
I can stomach digging through City of Data or Mids', I can deal with making spreadsheets and crunching numbers, I can handle making builds and planning ahead, because ultimately, that's still part of the game. It's a part of the game I don't exactly enjoy, but it's intimately related to the part of the game I DO enjoy, which is kicking *** and taking names. Figuring out how to build my character is directly proportionate to how well I do at kicking ***.
The Market, by contrast, is entirely tangential to anything and everything else in the game. It's massive set of gates between me and what I want. Granted, without it, it would be even harder to obtain that stuff, but you know what? It would be a lot simpler, too. "Marketeering" is something I will plain and simple NEVER do. I don't get paid enough to profane my playtime with something that I never wanted to see in the game in the first place.
The Market is only ever convenient if I don't have to "mess" with it, in the sense that I like it when I can open the Interface, pile on the stuff I have to sell and have it all go away. Alternately, it's convenient when I can open the interface, point to what I want to buy and have that delivered to me. But the meta-game or Market PvP not only does not interest me, it's one of the few things that's capable of outright making me rage-quit out of game, and I don't have a lot of rage-quits left in me any more.
The ONLY way I'm ever going to be able to mess with Set Inventions is if I'm able to do this WITHOUT having to "play the Market." The less I have to do with that thing, the better.
The reason I keep harping on about story arcs is there are a LOOOT of them in the game. People often complain that City of Heroes is repetitive, but if you just run story arcs, there's enough content out there to run three characters from 1 to 50 and never run across the same piece of content twice. "Farming" Alignment Merits, on the other hand, requires one to endlessly repeat a collection of about 10 missions over and over again through days, weeks, months and more. I'm honestly not sure why the development team chose to invent a brand new currency and make it obtainable from such a small number of venues, this making all the rest of the game a "worse" choice.Quote:Originally Posted by Organica
Also, I think it's entirely possible to just run story arcs that you like and eventually be able to afford a build that way, but only if you play the same character a lot. Being an altoholic kind of goes against being able to pile up merits through regular game play.
Also - and this is something I don't think anyone's brought up before - what if I'm playing a Vigilante or a Rogue? Aren't those barred from Alignment Merits altogether?
Hmm... That's not a bad idea, actually. If I can even work on it like that, that may be a pretty good way to handle things.Quote:Originally Posted by MaestroMavius
The way I do it, I look to fully set a specific power each level. Focusing on only one power makes it easier for me. Starting at level 35.
That's more or less how I buy Commons now - overpay on what I need to get it immediately. I get the impression, though, that that's not going to be possible with Set Inventions. I get the impression that it's going to be an arm and a leg just to get that stuff the "correct" way, let alone trying get the stuff at my convenience.Quote:Originally Posted by MaestroMavius
I then spend a ton more than I have to, buying already crafted enhancments, to fill all slots. Occasionally I'll leave a bid up overnight but most always I overbid to 'buy it nao' and get r done. I can't stand the metagame of collecting salvage and running to a crafting table etc. So I'm willing to spend millions more than I have to for the convenience factor. Besides, not IOing all these years while using the market to sell has me sitting on quite a bit so Inf isn't an issue.
That's really what eats me about the whole system, really, and why I've stayed out of it for this long - it seems hideously inconvenient to work with. I'm sure the results are great, but getting that stuff is just a pain in the ***. Yes, there are ways to make it a significantly smaller pain in the ***, but at the end of the day, I'm still going to have trouble sitting down. SOs, even Commons - they're very convenient. I pick the ones I want, then I pay for them and off I go. Sure, at the worst of the economy, I had to pay maybe 50 million for a complete Commons build at 50, but in terms of opportunity cost, that still only cost me half an hour to an hour from scratch to full, and I made that money doing nothing out of the ordinary.
I really didn't get all that much better at it. I had the same basic slotting ideas since about I1 through I5, and I had to redesign those ideas post I6 with ED, but it has never been that complex of a decision. It always came down to figuring out what I wanted out of a power, which was always A LOT more damage, enough accuracy to hit (which can be worked out) and whatever I have left over for endurance reduction so I don't run dry.Quote:Originally Posted by MaestroMavius
So my advice to Sam would be; Don't worry about any 'Right' way to do it. Once you start slotting sets and seeing the increased performance, you'll get better at it by default. Same way you got better at knowing how to use SO's so long ago.
The thing, though, is I never had to consider how I would slot one power to figure out how to slot another. If it's an attack, it gets at least five slots with 1ACC/1END/3DAM. If I can't find the slots, I either don't take the attack or don't take another power from which I can save slots for the attack. That sort of thing.
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What concerns me most, though, isn't so much enhancing powers via the various multi-aspect enhancements. That's fairly easy to work out mathematically. I haven't run the numbers on it, no, but it's trivial to do so. What concerns me, instead, is that I'm finding myself in a position of NEEDING power stats from outside of my powersets. What I mean by this is Super Reflexes, irrespective of how you enhance its powers, isn't going to see much more than 32-33% defence to everything. I can crank that up a little bit with pool powers, but not a lot, especially not against Dark Astoria enemies. The ONLY way I can bring that up to a number that's reliably survivable is to bring defences from outside of the game's powersets.
You'd think Incarnate powers could do that, but I haven't found one that really could, or at least could with any sort of consistency. Both the Agility and Nerve Alphas have a defence buff enhancement component, but since my SR powers are already slotted past their ED caps, that doesn't amount to much, at least up to T3, which is as high as I expect to be able to go before I hit a wall, if I go even that high. I remember running the numbers and ending up a raw increase of 2% defence to all positions above that 32-33% mark with the T3, half-ED-ignoring defence buffs.
I looked at Barrier, as well, which is an awesome buff for all of five seconds, then a great buff for the next 10, then not that much of a buff for the rest of its duration. It's good as a kind of "Defence Build Up" for tougher foes, but being unslottable and recharging in such a long time, it's not good for keeping me alive from battle to battle. There just doesn't seem to be anything IN THE GAME to make SR decently survivable in Dark Astoria EXCEPT set bonuses.
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See, when I say it like that, it sounds like it's JUST SR that's the problem... And it kind of is. But there's no point in doing all the work to mess with Set Inventions and NOT doing this with all my characters. Yes, all 50-something of them. See, I don't have a "main." I don't even have favourites. All of my characters are equal in my eyes, all of them deserve the same care and attention, so if I'm going to include Set Inventions in the build of one and they DO make that one better, I have to do it for all of them. It's all or nothing. I love these characters, and it KILLS me to make just one significantly better. Not least of all because, not counting the ones I'm going to make, I have something like five SR characters spread around the alignments and ATs, and all of them deserve Incarnate status.
*edit*
Also, if it sounds like I'm talking in principle and not getting down to the nitty-gritty in-game, that's because the whole thing has put me off the game so bad I don't even want to look at it right now. I don't know how long that's going to last, but I won't be touching City of Heroes for at least a few days just because it gives me fits whenever I try to. -
Quote:I tried it without the Miracle in Health, and the build still had 0.01 recovery more than the build I had before, so again - that's somethingOriginally Posted by UnicyclePeon
As I alluded to in one of my recent posts, I slipped up and put a Miracle Recovery in Health, out of habit. Take that out and compare with just a generic Health in Health instead. Still, 4 nights of tip missions will earn you a Miracle. Well, six nights, in that you have to "confirm" your alignment once. So you could always keep the Miracle. No rush though. You could do just fine without, IMO. I'll see what I can do with the slots you haven't tied down in sets, those shouldn't mess with the build too much.
Experience tells me it's unnecessary, yes. Practiced Brawler with two decent enhancements can stack with itself with an overlap of about 5 or 6 seconds, but with Quickness, it stacks with itself well comfortably. As well, Quickness resists slows, so dropping out of syn with Practiced Brawler shouldn't happen. About the only time it's happened is when I sheepishly forget to turn it onQuote:Originally Posted by UnicyclePeon
As PleaseRecycle pointed out, I did add a 3rd, probably unnecessary recharge IO in Practiced Brawler. You could juggle slots and work that slot up (shifting others down/around) and end up with 2 level 50 generic IOs on Physical perfection. That would let you add another IO for some more recovery.
Yeah, I figured as much. I'm generally very cautious about three-slotting the same type of enhancement, usually only ever doing it for damage and other VERY important aspects. Putting in a third recharge in a lot of places was done out of having more slots than I knew what to do with, but you seem to have found a place for them all, and then someQuote:Originally Posted by UnicyclePeon
Two level 50 generic IOs give 83% to (EDIT) recharge. The third only brings you up to 99% or more, thanks to Enhancement Diversification. That means I only need to have 16% global recharge to add on to the two (2) IOs, in order to equal what three (3) would do with no global recharge. It just so happens that this build gives 20% global recharge. I did this on purpose, but in a way it was habitual / reflexive. I have become accustomed to looking at overall results of a build, rather than only considering any one aspect or any one power.
Also, and this is somewhat sideways of your post, but being able to look at each part of a build individually and assess on a case-by-case basis is one of the reasons I like the City of Heroes build system so much. In other MMOs, if I want to "enhance" a power, I pick Power II and get whatever buffs and debuffs to it developers of that game have decided for me. More damage, more cost, more recharge, overall worse power at level 2 than it was at base value. This is actually one big thing that bugs me about sets in particular and this kind of building in general - the granularity of the build is greatly diminished because I can never really decide a power's slotting based on that power's performance. There are always political repercussions for any decision I make which define the whole landscape of my build, so to speak.
I'm probably just a dumb guy for saying this, but it overwhelms my head to have to think about all this stuff at once. I really did grow very fond of picking a power and worrying about slotting just that power, not slotting my whole build at the same time, and with bags of bundled effects at that. The simple fact is I'd rather pick a small number of single large buffs than pick a large number of small buffs (or a small number of large buff packs, as it were), if that makes sense.
Something occurs to me: Do you have enhancement numbers for these powers? Is there any way I can get that out of MIDs without literally sitting down and dividing enhanced value by base? I see final stat numbers, but I lack a good number to compare them with each other.Quote:Originally Posted by UnicyclePeon
They only exist at level 40 values. Think of it this way: ALL the sets are at MAX POWER. Whether that happens to be at level 40 or at level 50 is peculiar to the set.
We'll also have to hope my patience and perseverance pays off. Right now, the whole thing has fouled me up on the game so bad I don't really want to touch it with a 10 foot pole, and Lord knows what I'll pick up when I come back in a few days, but I'm trying to think in perspective. That might be a mistake, but one of the big thing I value about City of Heroes builds (or my builds up to this point) is repeatability. I can make a large number of characters and they'll all have a shot at reaching "the end" in a non-insane time.Quote:Originally Posted by UnicyclePeon
Moderately. But it is the TOUCH OF DEATH items that are most expensive (Miracle Recovery IO aside). At least last time I checked. But I think that this build would be "affordable" for you, especially if you were only concerned with trying to build out this one character to see how it goes.
That said, one of the reasons to only mess with Inventions at level 50 is I can treat that as part of the separate end game. I can get a character to 50 and only then start messing with Inventions.
If I do, I'll be building up an alternate build as I make progress with my present one. I'm not sure how well that'll work, but we'll see what we can see. I highly dislike stepping DOWN from a complete build into a build in progress, so that's the only way I can deal with it, but it shouldn't be problematic. That's what alternate builds are for, after all. Right?Quote:Originally Posted by UnicyclePeon
The good thing about the slotting here is that you can slot it out like I've got it, stick SO enhancements in there, and then just gradually place bids on the market over a few months, waiting and crafting patiently and in small spurts while you simply play and otherwise do whatever else you normally do for fun. That way, you reduce your overall cost, and keep your burnout low to non-existent. If you pace it correctly. -
Masterminds are by far the most resource-intensive class in the game from a server capacity standpoint. Each Mastermind tracks not just the character, but at least six other henchmen, their costumes, their powers, their AI and the command interface surrounding them. When City of Heroes swapped over to its current Hybrid/F2P model, they cut a LOT of extra server performance hits from free players. The new Atlas Park and Mercy Island starting missions have almost no instances, putting less of a strain on the system having to track them, just for example.
Why Controllers got the axe too, I can't say. I believe it's for parity's sake, so that heroes and villains each lose one AT, in addition to the Epics.
You can buy access to the AT off the Market. I don't know what it costs, but it's there. Or you can subscribe. That unlocks both ATs and the four Epics. -
Quote:I do have Mids', actually, and did manage to have a look at that build. It's... A lot prettier than most Set-driven builds I've seen. Some of those 40s in there bug me, and I mean A LOT, but you've manage to produce something that's still aesthetically very pleasing. The slot distribution is somewhat similar to mine, but with a few differences.Originally Posted by UnicyclePeon
OK, so first of all, I WILL post the MIDS build at the end of this post. Don't let it freak you out. I am only including it in case you have the latest MIDS installed, and/or so that others can see it. AFTER this post, I will type up the non-MIDS build in a way that should be easy to follow without MIDS.
You've outright gutted Physical Perfection, though somehow you've been able to get more overall recovery out of the whole thing (not sure how yet), so that's something. Might not even need that power overall. You've also cribbed slots from stuff I had slotted for more, like Elude and Conserve power for more recharge, though I assume you have recharge in the build to compensate (haven't checked, not sure how).
The level 40 stuff in there bugs me, though. I don't know how I feel about it. Might have to sleep on it. Yeah, overall, the numbers look better, but... I don't know.
*edit*
Isn't the Performance Shifter thing really expensive? -
Quote:That's easy enough. I don't make characters who aren't intended to be really, really powerful. If I can't explain them eventually having Mary Sue powers in terms of their own personal narrative, I don't make them in the first place. Jun may be just a little girl with a big dream, but she was born with the mother of all mutant abilities. There's literally no limit to the strength, speed and agility she can achieve if she just trains hard enough.Originally Posted by PleaseRecycle
This may be stupid advice but you might consider making your first IOed character one that should conceptually be really strong. That way you aren't just buying IOs for no apparent reason, you're working on your character's concept as well.
I feel I should clarify something - I'm looking for a way to make decent progress on Inventions WHILE enjoying the game at the same time, as opposed to working and playing intermittently. Ideally, my fun and games shouldn't include anything readily identifiable as work. That's mainly why I eschew farming - because it's not fun, and it's something I have to stop having fun to do.Quote:Originally Posted by PleaseRecycle
The most leisurely way for me to make the money I use to fund a build is running arcs and TFs that are level-appropriate from character creation. Like, as many as possible. At level 30, turn experience off or play different alts for a while and remember to log in each day and convert reward merits into a hero merit and then roll that hero merit for five random 30-34 rare recipes. This makes you a ton of money, usually enough to finance an entire build short of PVP IOs and purples. If that sounds too fiddly, just save your merits until level 50 by which time you'll have a colossal stockpile and you can do the rolls then. Or, simply buy what you need. Whatever you prefer.
Sure, running as many story arcs and TF as possible is not a bad prospect - it's what I want to do anyway. But from then on, we're talking serious work. Turning off experience to work on converting Merits, rolling on Recipes and selling them or even crafting stuff to sell... This is ye olde MMO profession stuff, and it's the very antithesis of what I want to do in this game, which primarily consists of flipping out and killing stuff.
If it seems like I'm reluctant, it's because builds, the economy, drops and so forth are - to me at least - obstacles that keep me from having fun. I find no real joy in making a build, crunching the numbers or hunting for drops. These are just things I'm forced to do in order to progress, and what enjoyment I get out of them is when I'm DONE and I don't have to mess with them for a long time past that.
I'm trying to find a way where I can focus on doing what I like AND gain at least some level of progress for doing it. -
Quote:Well, I knew where the ritual would take place as soon as I left Darrin's lair, so the Statesman's flight speed shouldn't be relevant, only my own speed of travel. I bring up local authorities because it just feels like they'd arrive faster from the nearest town than I would from the continental US.Originally Posted by ClawsandEffect
You're also assuming that any message sent to Statesman via local authorities would reach him in time. If Statesman flightspeed is anywhere near the speed of Superman's, that is unlikely.
That never even occurred to me, actually. The character I ran this arc with is a 15 year old girl who lives with her parents, and whose powers include punching stuff and dodging stuff and a great fighting spirit. Instantaneous transportation never even crossed my mind.Quote:Originally Posted by ClawsandEffect
Assuming that my cyborg character who designed all of his own cybernetics himself also invented a teleporter isn't a big stretch, ya know? But that's a specific character consideration.
I do have characters capapble of this, though, but it raises another question. If we knew this would take place at the ruins of the old Cimeroran temple - a place where we may well have been at that point - why not teleport directly there and start from topside? Or, if we have direct teleportation, why not hop on over and bring along the Phalanx? And why do we take a ship to travel to Europe?
You know what might have sold me on it, by the way? If this didn't take place in Cimerora, but rather in some kind of replica of the site that Darrin set up somewhere in secret. Then, I could conceivably imagine that the Statesman would be on site even as I read Darrin's messages to me, since my travel time to that site wouldn't be that long. It's having the place be set half-way around the world that really ruffles my feathers and brings up questions in my mind.
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See, when I threaten people that I'm a harsh critic of Architect arcs, this is what I mean. That's the sort of fairly minor detail that really sticks in my mind and makes me ask more and more questions the more I think about it. And it's also why I find it a good idea for a writer to second-guess his own work damn near all the time. I guess it can be explained if we take liberties with the explanation, but overall, it just bugs me.
Again, this makes the Statesman look a LOT less like a jerk than he did in SSA4 and I don't think it takes back much of his competence. If anything, the guy dies with dignity, which is a great thing to see, given the circumstances. It just bugs me we travel to Europe for it. -
Quote:That's easy. Already there. As in, I'm already using this exact slotting.Originally Posted by UnicyclePeon
1) Focused Fighting, with one GENERIC IO for end reduction, and three GENERIC IOs for defense, would give you 21.99% defense to melee.
Two? Is the third slot not really worth it at level 50? I checked Mids' and it suggests it's worth... 0.66% or there about. Yeah, probably not. OK, so I can spare one slot from all three toggles to go into something else. That could work.Quote:Originally Posted by UnicyclePeon
2) Dodge, with two GENERIC defense IO enhancements gives you 8.42% melee defense.
I have mine slotted for jumping for... Some reason. Easy enough to change, and Combat Jumping sucks for jumping anyway.Quote:Originally Posted by UnicyclePeon
3) Combat Jumping, with a single GENERIC defense IO, gives 2.35% to melee defense.
That's not very easy to achieve. Currently, I have it two-slotted for just recharge since that's what I tend to slot Build Up style powers for.Quote:Originally Posted by UnicyclePeon
6) Finally, if you were to six-slot your Combat Readiness power (the Street Justice power that buffs you and gives you 3 levels of Street Justice augment for your specials) and put ALL SIX of the SET IO family from the "GAUSSIAN'S SYNCHRONIZED FIRE CONTROL" set, you would get an additional bonus to Melee, AOE and Ranged equal in value to 2.5%. This is over and above the stuff that the set items do for the power itself.
Yeah, I skipped a few steps, but I follow your logic so far, I think.
See, Tough, Weave and let's say Boxing is three powers. I can only spare two. I have all of Street Justice, all of Super Reflexes, Combat Jumping, Super Jump, Conserve Power and Physical Perfection. These are not things I can give up on, and they leave only two power picks left.Quote:Originally Posted by UnicyclePeon
And all you had to do is craft the cheap/simple GENERIC IOs for your 3 SR toggles, your 3 passives, weave, tough, and Combat Readiness. You could craft as few as 30 specific invention enhancements (7 of them from sets, 23 generic) and you are at the soft cap.
That's OK, I was in the other room watching the MatrixQuote:Originally Posted by UnicyclePeon
Apologies for the delay on the post. It took a while to type. I'll check back in later tonight after dinner.
I'm not sure if I even need to hit the soft-cap, really. Even at 32.?% Defence, my Scrapper does fairly well, except against Devouring Earth Quartz eminators and Rularuu Watchers. Honestly, if that were all that's it, I wouldn't even bother trying to work for more defence, aside from maybe two-slotting Combat Jumping for it. But the thing is, I want to have a shot at Incarnate stuff with her, and with everything in Dark Astoria having a higher to-hit base... Yeah, I'll need to shoot for more.Quote:Originally Posted by ClawsandEffect
Not that I'm saying that you HAVE to give in and do what he suggested, just that you're getting yourself into a mess that you could make easier on yourself by doing so.
See, I've never been a greedy guy. My concern is to build for "enough" to have the character feel comfortable in battle. I don't need to step on Bill Z Bubba's toes and going to solo AVs or Pylons or anything
Claws has a point here. I did consider Frankenslotting at one point, but the sheer clutter of unmanaged set bonuses just bugs me to no end. Not only am I getting bonuses I don't account for, but there's no way to track performance between characters without accounting for them.Quote:Originally Posted by ClawsandEffect
At the risk of speaking for him, I can tell you with 99% certainty that Sam will not even CONSIDER Frankenslotting.
The sheer chaos frankenslotting would cause to his enhancement screen would make his head explode.
Sam and I have gone round and round on this issue so many times that I have a pretty good grasp of what he will and won't do at this point. I'm trying to keep those things in mind when offering advice here.
Honestly, if there existed a class of enhancements that enhanced two two aspects of a power, offered no bonuses whatsoever and were not limited by how many of which kind you can slot in a power that accepts them, I would be SO all over those! I'm not sure if they'd earn me a lot of extra defence, obviously, but I'd try them anyway.