San_Diablo

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I don't think it's supposed to be easy to do hero/villian team-ups. THESE PEOPLE ARE THE ENEMY, REMEMBER?!

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"Just because I'm carrying around the joy of killing your family inside me doesn't mean we can't be friends."

Or, more generally, some heroes and villains are on fairly good terms (see this past weekend's Justice League cartoon for a good example, or Professor X and Magneto). Some villains are arguably more heroic than some heroes (in RP terms, my villainous main goes out of his way to keep collateral damage low, accepts surrender, and doesn't hold grudges to heroes who counter him - but I've seen several "heroes" who are by their own count bloodthirsty psychopaths). Some characters aren't particularly given over to one side or the other (Punisher, for instance).

And, well, I'd just like to know sometimes when one of my hero friends log in, without them having to tell me.

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States, might this change mean that some of the lower-level Elite Bosses, like Frostfire or Heracles, could become Archvillains for big-enough teams? That might be fun; there are relatively few AVs in the lower end of CoH as it is now, especially compared to CoV.

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That might be interesting, and it'd certainly be something to team up for in those low levels.

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I'm not saying that I think AV's are too easy, just that the game itself is. I base this on my own experience in playing the game as well as the sheer number of people that I find at high levels that still have no idea what they're doing.


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That might be any number of things, though - blind chance, PLing, unfamiliarity with different modes of play or other ATs. Ask defenders and controllers how many people just automatically assume that both ATs are always going to have healing ability.

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I have never, ever had a character spend any significant time in debt that didn't come from a specific event. I have reached the debt cap exactly one time since October of 2004, which was from a failed Hydra mission. I guess that I can also say that I've hit it a few times after I got to 50 and stopped caring if I died, but I don't think that counts. My wife also plays, and she hasn't ever been in this largely mythical "perma-debt" either.


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Okay, do me a favor, if you please. I'm not disputing your experiences, so please don't refer to mine as mythical, okay? They happened.

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You might argue that maybe I'm some gaming God (I'll accept that - no need to correct you there ) or that I min-max all my builds (my 50 has two travel powers and only got rid of Whirlwind because of ED), but my wife is anything but. She hadn't played a game since Super Mario Bros. and only picks powers based on their description and/or the advice of whoever is online at that moment.


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I'm not assuming anything other than that your experiences differed sharply from mine.

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I contend that if you're spending that long in debt, you're doing something wrong. It's time to change up your strategy, change your build, or accept that the No Pets Mastermind you're using nothing but pool powers on simply isn't going to make it to 50 solo.


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Okay, I'll cop to the possibility and/or likelihood that when my ill/emp controller hit the caps (when I wasn't purposefully going for the debt badges or building debt to avoid outleveling contacts), I was screwing up somewhere. I don't believe this to be the case, but it was the better part of a year ago. I can't say for certain.

What, precisely, would you recommend to a warshade facing Banished Pantheon? Between the mezzes, the high volume of quantums, the mobs heavily resisting my every attack, and the fact that death shamans could summon minions faster than I could put them down, the debt cap came fast. I can't spam inspirations every fight, and I shouldn't expect other players to do my fighting for me.

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I'll admit that I'm perhaps a bit spoiled since I never have to contend with pick up groups unless I'm just feeling social, but even when I did I didn't have the problems I hear other peolple describing. They're simply not what I've encountered in my rather lengthy and varied experience (this may also be because I won't stay on a bad team and am happy to kick morons). This includes standing over my wife's shoulder as she plays with random teams asking her over and over again why she's still on the team.


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While I'm happy for you, this is solely your experience, and no one else's. I can't say that either yours or mine are closer to the norm, only that my experiences have tended to be overwhelmingly negative, to the point where I prefer not to use PUGs if at all possible.

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And I know I can still get the AV's if I want to, Uberguy. My concern is that we'll have even more people rushing through content and then whining about not having anymore contacts until they reach a certain level. A lot of people I know that play solo all the time are already having this problem in CoV. Big team=more enemies=more XP, so if you team more you'll end up leveling without being as likely to run out of missions.


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Assuming you get a good team, and assuming you're not trying to hit as much as possible. Early in CoV, if you want to see all thearcs, you pretty much need to solo in debt. It's easy to get in the habit of trying to speed through contacts before realizing that they don't last as long, experience-wise, before cutting you off.

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AV's are the only type of forced teaming that I have any kind of approval of. Double and triple clicking glowies is tedious and I hate hate hate hate hate those missions. An AV that you can try to kill yourself and then have to call in the troops to help out? I think that's a good time.


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Personally, I prefer strike/task forces and trials for this end.

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Different strokes for different folks, I guess. I seem to be the only one who thinks this, so I'll concede to the wishes of the masses. I'm just making sure the dissenting voice is heard.


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Fair enough, man. While I do disagree with you pretty much across the board, I'm not going to fault you for having a different view. You're also not alone - I know at least one other person had similar thoughts.

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While the other changes you mentioned are fine and dandy, I want to go on the record as saying that I don't like the AV change at all. The game is too easy most of the time anyway, so removing the one thing that forces you to make some friends seems like a bad idea to me. Most AV's can be duo'd (how exactly do you spell that made up word?) and with a team of three or four, it's a guaranteed win for you (assuming you put together a decent group).


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Er... you seem to be presenting two different arguments here. One, that AVs are too easy as it is (yet a good team of 3-4 "guarantees" them), and two, that forced teaming is a good thing. Given the rest of your post, I'm assuming that you only really mean the latter argument.

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How many people can't find another person or two to help them out? Sure, if it's 3 AM on a Thursday you're going to have issues, but otherwise who is really having this problem?


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Me, for one. You seem to think that AV fights force me to make "friends", but in truth, the bulk of pick up groups I've joined have pointedly reminded me why I prefer to stay within my extant circle of actual friends. The first Strike Force that I ran in CoV, for instance, was led by someone who kept pulling his pets out of fights so that the rest of the team would die instead, and who repeatedly told us that he wasn't going to rez people even though he had the power to do it. A couple more had teams so horribly uncoordinated that the whole team died in the first room of the mission, and one even had a full team wipe without inflicting a single mob casualty. The most recent example, the rest of the team had come to a plan on dealing with the AV, but one guy simply refused to use our strategy, demanding we use his instead - no arguments, no explanations of why his plan was better than ours, just the comment that our plan's victory was a "fat chance". Half the team died as a direct result. Hell, the last time I ran Frostfire, the scrapper I teamed up with insisted that a lieutenant outcast was more of a threat to my kheld than a void stalker, and refused to try to mitigate any of the damage Frostfire sent my way, even though the scrapper had more hit points and resistances. I've teamed with brutes who wordlessly walk away from fights to rest, tankers who run through the squishies and THEN say to retreat, people who try to charge for awakens, and more.

Now, you can say that my results are atypical, and I admit that they're very much only anecdotal. What they most assuredly are, however, are what I've found to be the norm in pick up groups. This is why I, and many others, detest the so.

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The number of AV's has never bothered me all that much and the only character that was ever "stuck" with a whole tray of AV missions is my level 50. This was only because I didn't "need" to play him anymore, so I didn't care. As soon as I decided to clear one it took me about 3 minutes to get a team together and take out the Carnie AV that I had been sitting on for 4 months or so.


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Good for you, but your experiences don't reflect on us anymore than ours do on you.

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I think this is one of those perceived problems (like all the people who swear they were always at the debt cap) that doesn't actually need "fixed."


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Having been one of those people who went whole levels in debt on a character, you picked a bad example.

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If anything, you're just removing content (which is a problem)


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How so? By your own admission, AVs aren't particularly difficult with a decent team.

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to appease a small group of antisocial people who can't find a team.


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I'm not antisocial. As an RPer, quite the opposite - it generally takes me twice as long to hit the max level, because I'm socializing so much. What AVs do, however, is force me to team up with people who are antisocial, who have no desire to play along with the team, or who are just outrageously foolish.

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Or maybe I'm just spoiled because I never have any problems finding a good team. My SG and Global Chat contacts are always willing to help. I haven't had to team with a stranger for months.

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I think you're on to something, then - you're not meeting new friends, you're just hanging out with the ones you've got. For those of us who aren't in the same boat - maybe we're too high/low level for most of our SG, maybe our times clash too often - we're stuck with PUGs, and hate the notion.

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AND now...we're changing the way Archvillains spawn. A ton of forum goers disliked adding so many AV's into missions a while back...so we've come up with a solution. If the team size and mission difficulty are ABOVE a certain level, an Archvillain spawns. Below that, players will face only an Elite Boss. If the mission is set on the first two levels of difficulty, it takes 4 heroes or more to spawn an Arch Villain. On the third level, 3 heroes or more. On the fourth level, 2 heroes. On the highest (Invincible), a solo hero will spawn an AV. Note this works in BOTH City of Heroes and Villains.

In order to incentivize larger teams, Positron is going to add a bonus to AV rewards!

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That's fine and all, but is there any possibility you could reconsider your criteria for AV status characters in the first place? There's something innately frustrating that I've pounded Infernal's head in on three separate occasions, around ten levels apart each, but he's still going to be tougher than me if he pops his head up come the 41+ CoV game. Likewise, Sea Witch progressively gets stronger after each time I defeat her, even after the game itself tells me she's not going to be bothering me again.

Would it be too much to see such characters be considered even matches for me, or even better, to have them be so much weaker that they have to team up in order to face me, the way I used to have to do for them? Aren't these games supposed to be about how we become powers in our own right, rather than firmly standing in the shadows of the game's signature characters?

It's been a fair bit for Ghost Widow's clix especially, but I was wondering if we could get an update on when issue #9 will go up for download, too.

Thanks.

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I haven't been seeing any level numbers for the people that have tried to use Leery and I don't recall seeing anybody post the text he gives you when you click on him (for either successful or unsuccessful tries).

I tried just to try on a level 31 Brute who has an unused respec, and Leery told me to come back at 35.

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Strangely enough, he still gives me the speech about seeing the CoT respec contacts, even though I've got both badges .b]and[/b] have already cleared out all of Leery's missions. I think he's still a little buggy if he can't tell the difference between someone who's done with him and someone who hasn't unlocked him.

Some notes from another fire/thermal corruptor player.

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PRIMARY: FIRE BLAST
Fire’s secondary effect is extra DoT on top of the initial hit. In my opinion, I’m not sure how useful this is given that Fire is probably the most resisted damage type in the game. The Fire Blast primary has many AOE’s, and has a tendency to draw a great deal of agg. I, personally, only solo on Villainous, as anything harder ends up leading to a lot of debt. Duoing and in groups, though, makes murder FLY!


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Agreed, mostly across the board, with two caveats:

Extra damage secondary effect: each tick of secondary damage has a separate chance to scourge. This doesn't sound like much, but with spammed attacks, it adds up quickly. Moreover, with practice, you can tell which mobs are going to die from the secondary DoT, and better economize your attacks. Since corruptors don't deal the kind of DPS that a blaster does, and due to the scourge, IMO fire blast corruptors have a bit of a leg up on the heroic competition with regard to the secondary effect's utility.

Fire resists: While fire resists probably are the most common resists in the game, it's rare to find a mission teaming with mobs heavily resistant to it. In contrast, mobs that are vulnerable tend to be very vulnerable. IMO, it's a good trade-off, as long as you pay attention. It's very easy to draw more aggro than you can handle, since each tick of damage reminds the mobs that you're out there.

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Flares
A quick attack that throws Flares at the target. Little damage, but very fast.
Damage: Minor (Fire)

Cast Time: 2.17
Recharge Time: Very Fast (2.18)


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Pay attention to those numbers. Far from being a fast attack, flares is a slow attack due to its overlong casting time - so long, in fact, that even a single recharge TO is a waste. This is a decent pick when hard up for powers, but with each successive attack power earned, flares is more and more a waste. I personally wouldn't slot it at all unless I had no other options available. A stinker in PvE, it's even worse in PvP.

Speaking personally, I feel that the devs should cut that casting time in half, so that people aren't penalized for believing the power's description.

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Rain of Fire

Personal Note: As an AOE, it’s a doozy. It covers an enormous area, and does some massive damage. The downside is that mobs scatter as soon as the rain hits. I could swear that there’s an unenhanceable slow component to it. RoF is a good “oh crap” button, since if enemies are running away, they aren’t attacking you. In a pinch, throw it down over yourself and you’ve given yourself a good zone of zero melee. Generally, I only use this if the mobs are locked down or near death already, otherwise it just scatters them all to crap. In an ideal situation (mobs locked down or already suffering), this is the third power I use in an AOE chain.


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I've noticed the slowing effect, too. It's not always there, and apparently some people haven't ever seen it, so it might be a bug.

Regardless, this power's utility is greatly magnified in a tight spot, such as caves or in some lab missions. With these, mobs panic, and often die just from RoF itself. Since it scatters, though, I recommend that this is the third attack in the AoE chain, after fire breath and fireball.

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Fire Breath
Blaze


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While I personally haven't noticed much improvement, a few people have recommended slotting these for their range.

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Blazing Bolt

Personal Note: Sniper attacks are tricky things. They’re near impossible to use in large groups, as AoE damage inevitably interrupts the attack. For soloing, though, there’s no better power to start a single target attack chain. Even con minions will generally die with the chain of Blazing Bolt, Fire Blast and Flares. Natural resistances and scourges will change that, but you get the idea.
Personal Enhancing: 1 Accuracy, 3 Damage


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I use two slots of interrupt reduction here. Though some think it's wasteful, it does remove some of the problems I've had with interruption from AoEs, and just as importantly, this allows me to move around during the animation, since some mobs don't stay put for it. While sniping may not be the most efficient source of DPS in a protracted fight, it's almost certain to hit and hit hard. Thus, I favor it against AVs and EBs when I'm teamed, since it's easier to manage the aggro around, and gives you time to decide if you need to switch tactics and start spamming secondaries.

In PvP, people tend to notice you crouching into a sniper stance, and fire off a fast, low damage attack to interrupt you. If you've slotted interrupt reductions, there's a good chance your attack'll go off anyway, assuming the opponent doesn't continue attacking. Unfortunately, fire/thermal corruptors are iffy PvPers in terms of powers available, at least compared to other PvP builds.

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Inferno

Personal Note: I have mixed feelings about the ninth tier powers after ED. I can’t really even kill even con minions without using extra damage inspirations. Leaving a corrupter enduranceless for 10 seconds isn’t fun neither. I generally only use this power under two conditions, the first being a last resort KABOOM, the other being that I have enough buffs/inspirations to do the job right the first time, that includes defense inspirations to survive long enough to get the Inferno off, as well as run away from survivors. I don’t slot it for accuracy, I ALWAYS wait for Aim to recharge before I use this bad boy.
Personal Enhancing: 3 Damage


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While I'd personally slot for Acc and Recharge as well if I picked up Inferno (if you need it, you need it now and you need it to hit), I wouldn't recommend getting it at all. It's too expensive, does too little, and is just one of the unfortunate casualties of ED. On top of all of that, it's also by far the least pretty of the powers other than Aim.

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SECONDARY: THERMAL RADIATION
TR has its ups and down. My initial thoughts about Thermal Radiation is that it is a primo grouping set. The AOE heal and single target buffs are a welcome addition to any large group. It’s not so hot for soloing, with one minor exception (I’ll get to that in the personal notes).


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A couple notes about thermal radiation: many, many people ask in tells if you're /thermal secondary, when they should be asking if you're a thermal healer. People often assume that all thermal corruptors are healers, and it's just not true.

Secondly, these powers tend to be endurance hogs. If you find that you're using one or two of these frequently enough that it's draining you dry, don't be afraid to slot an End Reduc or two.

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Warmth
You can use Warmth to heal some of your wounds, and the wounds of your group. This power has a small radius, so your allies need to be near you if they wish to be affected.
End Cost: 13
Cast Time: 2.03


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A small note to remember: unlike some heals, which are more or less instantaneous, Warmth's healing hits toward the end of its casting. I've often had all of the effects but the heal go off before the person I'm healing dies. This isn't a crippling weakness, but it does take getting used to. If in doubt, hit Warmth sooner rather than later.

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Fire Shield
Plasma Shield


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One thing to remember here: between I5's across-the-board defense and resist nerfs, and corruptors' secondaries being weaker than equivalent powers for defenders, these shields are pretty lights unless you slot them. If you don't put three slots of resists in each power, consider skipping them altogether. As always, energy and negative energy damage are fairly rare, so don't feel bad about skipping Plasma Shield if something else catches your eye.

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Power of the Phoenix
Revives a fallen ally. The fiery resurrection blasts nearby foes with an explosion and knocks them down and disorients them. Your ally will revive with most of his hit points and endurance. He will also be invulnerable for a brief time, as well as protected from XP Debt for 90 seconds.
End Cost: 49.4
Cast Time: 3.2
Recharge Time: Very Long (300)
Area of Effect: Dead Friend
Accepted Enhancements: End Cost, Heal, Recovery, Recharge, Damage, Stun

Personal Note: The XP Debt Protection alone is worth taking these rezzes now. I personally experienced, while duoing an Elite Boss, watching this power very briefly mez the boss. Not too shabby at all. This is the one power I regret not having more slots to spend on. The heal and recovery is pretty good for corrupters and other squishy AT’s, but Brutes and such are only marginally restored. I figure I can just Cauterize them after rez, but being rezzed with half endurance can be painful. Still, Debt Protection is Debt Protection, no one should complain. Anyways, I always keep a blue on hand for this one.
Personal Enhancing: 1 Heal, 1 Endurance


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This is often considered the best overall rezzer in the game, and for good reason: no slot is wasted in it, and I was personally tempted to run it with two each of damage, endurance, and recharge SOs. Unfortunately, other powers take priority. A great all around power, and beautiful to boot. If you have this, remind people of it if the fight's going south. I normally teleport people to safety before rezzing, but with this, it's just unnecessary in many cases. Still, as the OP warns, it's a good idea to hit Cauterize right after.

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Thaw
Warms an ally and frees him from any Disorient, Hold, Sleep, Slow and Immobilize effects and leaves them resistant to such effects for a good while. Thaw also grants the target some resistance to Cold damage. Some of the effects of this power will improve with multiple applications and as you advance in level.
Personal Enhancing: 3 Resistance


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I personally recommend against this slotting, since it seems it's pretty narrow in effect - the only resistance the power claims it offers, is against Cold.

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Forge
Forge a single ally into a killing machine. Forge immensely enhances a single ally’s damage and accuracy.
End Cost: 10.4
Cast Time: 2.27
Recharge Time: Long (60)
Area of Effect: Friend
Accepted Enhancements: End Cost, Recharge, To Hit Buff, Range

Personal Note: This power pushes any lackey into a damage/accuracy range above yourself, even unenhanced. I highly recommend this power to anyone that duos a lot. Unenhanced, though, this power lasts long enough to keep about two people forged continuously.
Personal Enhancing: 3 To Hit Buffs


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I run three recharges, too, but could probably afford to drop it to just the buffs. Note that virtually any AT gets a benefit out of this, with only certain MM builds being wasteful targets. Brutes love being under this effect.

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Heat Exhaustion
Overwhelm a single foe with waves of exhausting heat. The initial effect will drain the target of some endurance, but the heat is so overwhelming that the affected target will be weakened. His damage output, Endurance Recovery and Hit Point Regeneration wil all be reduced.
End Cost: 13
Cast Time: 2.07
Recharge Time: Long (120)
Area of Effect: Single Target
Accepted Enhancements: Accuracy, End Cost, Range, Recharge

Personal Note: Heat Exhaustion is the only other power in Thermal Radiation (besides maybe Melt Armor) that is useful soloing. And OH WHAT A POWER IT IS! With three recharges in it, you can keep it on one target almost constantly. You can seriously hamstring one tough lieutenant, boss, elite boss or AV. My powerful memories of using this come from tough boss fights soloing. The damage reduction component makes the boss more of a sissy, but the kicker, is that it prevents endurance recharging. On more than one occasion, I’ve had a boss use up all of his high end draining powers on me and then sit there for the remainder of the fight while I whale on him. Beautiful! The end drain component isn’t much to speak of, but the end prevention is well worth the price of admission. It only lasts for 60 seconds, so be sure to reapply it when you can. I use Aim previous to applying this power, although I’m not 100% sure that Aim affects this power, based on a couple of experiences I’ve had. Anyone out there know for sure?
Personal Enhancing: 3 Recharge


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I'd slot for an accuracy, too, regardless. In big fights, or against AVs, spam this bad boy.

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Melt Armor
The searing heat from this power is enough to melt the armor and defenses of all targets in the affected area. Melt Armor significantly weakens the defense and damage resistance of the affected targets
End Cost: 18.2
Cast Time: 1.5
Recharge Time: Long (150)
Area of Effect: 15’ Sphere, 16 Targets Max
Accepted Enhancements: Accuracy, End Cost, Range, Recharge, Defense Debuff

Personal Note: I’m 5 pills away from this power, so I can’t comment on it just yet, but I’ve heard some great things about it thus far. As soon as I have some definitive input and experience with the power, I’ll post it.
Personal Enhancing: 3 Defense Debuff


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I also slot for accuracy and recharge - it's just that good. I've heard people say this puts our damage capabilities in blaster range; I don't know about that, but it's like night and day. You literally have no reason not to pick this power.

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For the records, I also have three Flight Enhancements in Fly. Therein lies the last of my slots.


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I personally prefer teleport, but that's for RP and PvP reason.

((Sadly, I'm reposting this due to the inability to edit the original post. Sorry, all.))

* Name: Atrocity Studios
* Website (if any): Atrocity Studios forums
* Leader or Recruiting Officers: Almost all of our members are allowed to recruit new members. San Diablo is the producer, however.
* Preferred Method of contact: In-game e-mail or tells to our members, visit our forums, or private message to me on this forum.
* Guild Description: This is the world, and though many wish to conquer it, in the end, there can be only one. Only one man's ambitions can triumph, only one man's reign canbe supreme, only one man can decide the fate of all humanity.

Man, that sounds like a suck gig to me. I don't know about you, but I had trouble staying awake in Economics 101; how on earth can I possibly balance brain revivification funding with the price of beans in China? Let someone else take care of it, I say. Barring overdoses from dioxin or angering some obscure deity, you've only got one ticket on this ride. Why stress it further if you don't have to? That's why I founded Atrocity Studios.

Atrocity Studios is dedicated to high risk, high profit mercenary work for other, shall we say, morally divergent organizations. Our members run the gamut from skilled robotic assassins to former Hollywood special effects technicians, all of them dedicated not to putting the world under our heels, but to making a profit so that we can live the good life so wrongly denied us. To prospective clients, that means no competition from us - we don't care who rules the world, so long as we're enjoying our stay in it. To prospective employees, it means a team-oriented career opportunity with unlimited earning potential.

We specialize not only in contract work for other organizations, but also in running decoy schemes. After all, what hero cares about a break-in at a Paragon Universtiy lab when a host of supervillains descends upon an orphanage? Naturally, we expect extraction in return for such services, but this is an incredible opportunity for other residents of the Rogue Isles.

We're available for all occasions, be they smash-and-grab jobs, terrorist strikes, bank heists, weddings, or bar mitzvahs.

Atrocity Studios: if it's mayhem you want, you need an atrocity.

((OOC: This is a heavy-RP group, centered around villains who noticed that while Cobra Commander got shot at, Destro made more money, had cooler costumes, and got the Baroness. If Nemesis is the Bill Gates of evil, then we want to be the Mick Jaggers.

Any level, AT, or origin of villain is open for membership, but we're currently looking to expand our base, so we hope you'll be willing to play often and in supergroup mode. We're also for hire from other VGs, so we're gleefully looking to join up with others in coalitions, as well as "contracts" for work, though we'll leave the particulars up to the players involved.

We do expect a certain level of RP, and just as importantly, we expect a certain level of maturity. Knock-off characters, players who think RP consists solely of PvE missions, godmoders, people who only want to RP their own plots, and the like should not expect to join. Similarly, due to both extant RP themes and the nature of future ones, we ask that each applicant affirm that they are of majority age.

We do believe, firmly, that RP is not mutually exclusive with running missions nor, more pointedly, running PvP. While we don't demand that everyone PvP all the time, neither do we intend to avoid PvP, either.

ICly, the group is carefully neutral-to-cordial to Arachnos, and at least one officer is going to formally join the organization sometime in the near future. While we intend to explore the ramifications of this, it's probably a good idea not to have a character who's openly hostile to Arachnos.

Finally, we're looking for a variety of creative people who are into RP for its own sake, and who are interested in using the game to explore new concepts. I, personally, am hoping to arrange for a machinima-based webcomic, but that's long term.))

I got it, but not until my count was to the mid-80s on today's run. I'm guessing it's possible that it's 100+ for the badge.

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Marcone bosses, about 100 of them. Personally, I got confused on this and hunted regular Family bosses forever, and got the Untouchable badge, whoops. Found out it was specifically Family bosses with Marcone in the name (Marcone Capos in PO and Marcone Consigliere in StM), went hunting in Oakes for quite some time and came out with Gangbuster. Counted 72 Marcone Capos defeated during the hunt, I assume I had another twenty-something from previous hunting.

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Got 50+ so far today. I'll keep counting until 100, and let people know.

That said, I've got no bars over 50% of the way through except for Finder (which I'd thought was Gangbuster, until I tagged an eremite and saw it advance ).

Wish me luck.

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But Taraxis still told him he needed to prove he hated Thorns....

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Ditto. Might it just be implemented on test?

* Name: Atrocity Studios
* Website (if any): None yet, unfortunately. This is presently a small group looking to expand.
* Leader or Recruiting Officers: San Diablo alone right now; more to come.
* Preferred Method of contact: In-game e-mail or tells to San Diablo, or private messages on this forum and to this account.
* Guild Description: This is the world, and though many wish to conquer it, in the end, there can be only one. Only one man's ambitions can triumph, only one man's reign canbe supreme, only one man can decide the fate of all humanity.

Man, that sounds like a suck gig to me. I don't know about you, but I had trouble staying awake in Economics 101; how on earth can I possibly balance brain revivification funding with the price of beans in China? Let someone else take care of it, I say. Barring overdoses from dioxin or angering some obscure deity, you've only got one ticket on this ride. Why stress it further if you don't have to. That's why I founded Atrocity Studios.

Atrocity Studios is dedicated to high risk, high profit mercenary work for other, shall we say, morally divergent organizations. Our members run the gamut from skilled robotic assassins to former Hollywood special effects technicians, all of them dedicated not to putting the world under our heels, but to making a profit so that we can live the good life so wrongly denied us. To prospective clients, that means no competition from us - we don't care who rules the world, so long as we're enjoying our stay in it. To prospective employees, it means a team-oriented career opportunity with unlimited earning potential.

We specialize not only in contract work for other organizations, but also in running decoy schemes. After all, what hero cares about a break-in at a Paragon Universtiy lab when a host of supervillains descends upon an orphanage? Naturally, we expect extraction in return for such services, but this is an incredible opportunity for other residents of the Rogue Isles.

We're available for all occasions, be they smash-and-grab jobs, terrorist strikes, bank heists, weddings, or bar mitzvahs.

Atrocity Studios: if it's mayhem you want, you need an atrocity.

((OOC: This is a medium- to heavy-RP group, centered around villains who noticed that Cobra Commander got shot at, even though Destro made more money, had cooler costumes, and got the Baroness. If Nemesis is the Bill Gates of evil, then we want to be the Mick Jaggers.

Any level, AT, or origin of villain is open for membership, but we're currently looking to expand our base, so we hope you'll be willing to play often and in supergroup mode. We're also for hire from other VGs, so we're gleefully looking to join up with others in coalitions, as well as "contracts" for work, though we'll leave the particulars up to the players involved.

We do expect a certain level of RP, and just as importantly, we expect a certain level of maturity. Knock-off characters, players who think RP consists solely of PvE missions, godmoders, people who only want to RP their own plots, and the like should not expect to join. Similarly, due to both extant RP themes and the nature of future ones, we ask that each applicant affirm that they are of majority age.

We do believe, firmly, that RP is not mutually exclusive with running missions nor, more pointedly, running PvP. While we don't demand that everyone PvP all the time, neither do we intend to avoid PvP, either.

ICly, the group is carefully neutral-to-cordial to Arachnos, and at least one officer is going to formally join the organization sometime in the near future. While we intend to explore the ramifications of this, it's probably a good idea not to have a character who's openly hostile to Arachnos.

Finally, we're looking for a variety of creative people who are into RP for its own sake, and who are interested in using the game to explore new concepts. I, personally, am hoping to arrange for a machinima-based webcomic, but that's long term.))

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If you have achieved the rare GOT-KO Accolade, post it here. Also provide proof.
Message to Posi and the Devs; Leave Sally spawns just the way they are!
After all she is supposed to be a rare spawn like that famous monster in Scotland, correct?

Lord Dark Moon - GOTKO

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A cynical person would think you might have ulterior motives for this statement. I'm not quite there yet, but I will say this: I've known people who devoted over a hundred hours looking for her, probably more, without seeing her once. For you to tell them that this is as it should be, strikes me as inordinately skewed in view.

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YOU ALL CALLED ME CRAZY!!!

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The word was "easy", actually...

Oh, and Pos? Someone may want to talk to QA about this. This morning, I got this response from them:

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Discussion Thread
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Response (Jex) - 09/21/2005 11:27 AM
Hi Andrew,

Thank you for your report. [Sally] is a very rare spawn, but it is working.

Good luck!
Jex


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Ok, we screwed up.


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Four words that make me respect you all the more. Thank you.

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We have fixed it today (I don't know when it will make it to the Training Room server) so there is a maximum of 1 hour between spawns.


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Just to clarify for someone else who asked - this suggests that the fix isn't on test yet, so it's not on live, either.

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(Nip in the bud time: The spawn was set up in a way that we intended to have her spawn at a much faster rate than she was, but the fact that the spawn was ALSO set up to make sure that only 1 Sally was active at a time prevented her from being spawned at the faster rate. This was not obvious until we investigated claims that it was taking over 4 hours for her to Spawn. In our original thinking, it was just "someone else got to her before you did", but comments from you guys had me go in and investigate it further).

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Thanks, man. Some of us were going crazy over this.

Okay, the good with the bad...

1. My primary, the ill/emp controller, runs his pets better than ever. I don't fire off phantasms without thinking, and I treat them as another party member (albeit a sometimes hard-to-find and awfully foolish one). My phantom army isn't just a pocket tanker arsenal, it's a vicious opener to a combat. I miss throwing down my spectral terrors all over, but I can deal. My pets aren't fire-and-forget - they're strategic, and especially with the phantasms, the exchange of numbers for longetivity was well-balanced.

2. Flash was a PBAoE, so I could only ever use it when I was in the thick of combat. It was never terribly accurate, and aside from covering an overspawn or an escape, it was really only ever useful in tandem with blind to keep bigger guys down. I5 reduced the number of people it affects, slowed its recharge, and dropped its hold time. With it so heavily marginalized, I don't see it as worth buying, much less slotting to effectiveness. Down flash, my control is limited to the single-target blinds and deceives, and the uncontrolled effects of my pets. There are blasters with more mez powers than an illusion controller, and containment sometimes pushes me into blaster damage range. I'm not saying that illusionists need to be stronger - we're plenty good already - but I'd rather be able to deal hard control than dish out more damage to foes that aren't a threat for the moment.

3. The bulk of the new events are fun. The rave may need a little work (my team and I milked it for both badges on the second encounter), but Eochai vs. Jack and especially the Hellion arson attacks were rock-solid. Putting out the fires felt like a desperate scrambling of heroes, like the giant monsters but protecting something instead of attacking someone. It felt heroic. Props.

4. The exception to this is... exceptionally bad. It's not that Sally's badge requires more kills and is necessary for an accolade. It's not that Sally's apparently rarer than any other spawn I'm aware of. It's not that Sally's one-shotted and attacked by mob spawns. It's that all of this happens on the most boring rare spawn in the game. Sally swims, and that's it! She's not worth the griefing, the days of fruitless searching, the pro/anti-Sally debates, none of it. I like the idea of a lake monster, it fits the zone and the game, but the implementation is just outright dreadful. I understand that we have to "see" her on a few times before we really turn into "Believers", but as cool as that might be in real life, in a game it takes a dull event and makes it excruciating. I won't pretend that finding an alternative is easy, but I don't understand why this event got through as it is. The modicum of flavoring given to her isn't enough to hide that she represents the implementation of spawn-camping.

5. I like the mission changes. One of my khelds got offed twice by a hidden void in one mission - by mission's end, I was out of debt. My level 50 went on an AV mission as part of a six-man team, and earned over a million influence by the end (I was disconnected before mission completion). I don't really dread "bad" missions anymore, and the ones I'm good at, I'm enjoying even more.

6. Okay, the big one... I agree with an above poster that fun isn't something that can be dictated. The players on this forum, though a minority, are not remotely quiet about how we feel. If something's not fun, you'll hear no end of it. This is especially true if some major problems are getting passed over for something that, however necessary, isn't being complained about. It's also worth remembering that sometimes, the cure is worse than the disease - yes, it may suck that someone who dealt 1 damage to a giant monster could get the badge and experience off it, but it's worse when someone's team does 24% of the monster's life and doesn't get anything to show for it.

I'm not crying doom, nor am I falling to my knees in supplication. I5's got some great stuff, don't get me wrong, but the misses are pretty harsh. Still, I can't argue that I care about I5, whereas I4 was barely a blip on the radar.

A few concerns:

1. While I appreciate the epicosity of the epic badges ( ), the underlying nature of them really, truly necessitates a progression bar for those categories. I'd also agree that the billion marker's a touch high, but that'd also make for server-level fame, which I suspect is the intent. Still, it's nice to have some clue how far you are along between the 100 mill and 1 billion markers.

2. Okay, while I respect that people want the Calvin Scott TF badge, I'd like for the TF to come back so that we can run it again (new exemping and all). Personal problem, I know.

3. I'd like to chime in and support the argument that new badges should be outlined, specifically, in number and location so that we can test them better.

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I know this was said long, long ago, but I wanted to comment that playing my Peacebringer puts me in mind of two actual comic book groups:

Heralds of Galactus
The Green Lantern Corps.

Not necessarily in specific powers (the Heralds are all different, and I don't see a peacebringer creating giant fists o' energy, but still). Not necessarily in power level, either. Just the feel. The sense of what the Kheldians are like.


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For my part, I think they DO fit an AT in comics: shapeshifters. Not as well as we'd like, certainly, but... it's partly there.

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Heck, on the GL side, how many Kheldians have a variant on the "merged with a dying Kheldian?" origin?

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Not mine. Pall's human form was the one dying

Just like to point something out here: we know of only one god in the setting that's given out this kind of power (Zeus, to States), but not why or to what extent beyond "a lot". We do, in contrast, know of several other gods beyond the Greek pantheon, or even the "modern" Pantheon represented by Magic SOs.

Similarly, the terminology isn't avatar or living embodiment, it's "incarnate" - in flesh. We have as much reason to believe that Zeus is returned in Statesman's form as we do that Statesman could simply have refined his abilities and techniques to their distilled essence, thus making the power truly his own.

Further, without knowing how Incarnates get implemented (do prexisting characters become Incarnates, or do you unlock the AT as an option for new ones?), we're at a loss for anything, really. If we don't know whether magic origins are inherent to the AT, we're really only blindly guessing at everything involving them.

I'm not a very good technical guy, so I'm having a hard time reading through bind and macro guides. Generally, I just cut & paste the ones I need. This is the first time I've asked for specific ones.

I've got a Kheldian who thinks of himself as a monster, with each costume being a different "form", at least to his way of thinking. Is it possible to have a bind or macro set up to

A) Do an emote (I'm thinking /e paladinawaken), during which time he changes costumes, and/or

B) Change the bio to go with the new form? If this is possible, could I also set up a macro or bind for the *actual* form changes to go with?

Any help would be most appreciated, thanks.

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1) When you level, you get x % of your debt forgiven
2) A certain amount of debt forgiven each day


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These, I can dig to an extent, though I'm not sure it's a good idea to encourage more suicidal behavior as players near leveling. The daily debt forgiveness is especially a good idea, especially if it's only a moderate amount (say, 10-20%).

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3) If you are rezzed you have 50% less debt from that death, if you use an awaken you have 25% less debt from that death versus going to a hospital. It encourages players to actually stock up on supplies and bring healers on missions.


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Er... smart players do that anyway. Few people like trips to the hospital, or risking more debt by popping an awaken instead of letting the empath do the rezzing. This really isn't necessary, IMO, especially since it arguably discourages people from playing rezzers - not only must they put up with spammed requests for rezzing, they're also the ones in the team who get the least benefit from this - an rezzer who dies, after all, is one less rezzer rezzing. That's an awaken or hospital trip for them to return and reduce their allies' debts. Sure, a smart team would protect the rezzer - but a smart team would do that anyway, regardless of debt relief.

Besides, since the debt hit occurs on dying, not on rezzing, I think this is likely a tangled bit of code you're proposing here.

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4) Scrappers should get less debt from dying (they do it a lot they are used to it). Alternatively you can actually have a power that reduces the XP debt from dying.

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Okay, others have dealt with other aspects of this suggestion, so I'll add only this:

Scrappers are the solo build by default, and generally outpace other ATs in advancement. This proposal would only exacerbate that trend: basically, this suggestion is that the devs tacitly state that scrappers are THE choice for PLers. This stigmatizes other scrappers as PLers, and would place further dev scrutiny on them as it is. If a scrapper wants to avoid dying he should a) fight smart, and b) get some good back-up. Scrappers certainly don't need this "break".

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Still here...been busy with visitors this week. Plus - we've got E3 around the corner and, of course, City of Villains (though I'm not saying anything other than "this year" for a time estimate).

And I've been working some on the Arena (playtesting) and even Issue 5 stuff. Oh - and whatever comes AFTER City of Villains. Wouldn't you like to know that?

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City of Pedestrians? Grand Theft Auto: Paragon City?

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Currently, if you set up a match with the "No Travel Powers" ground rule then:

No flight.

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I'm assuming that this isn't going to be wholly accurate, or else the Kheldians could have problems.

The central tenet of heroism is the preservation of life, not the ending of it. Good things happen despite death, not because of it. A thousand bullets could be fired and kill a thousand tyrants, and not unmake one widow or orphan. It is a naturally villainous activity to speak of ends and means for this reason, as only villains truly believe that simple math can make up for even one death. The only life a hero can take for the greater good, is his own.