Serva_Obscura
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Posts
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Joined
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Android Tablet and phone here.
Though I'm sure the iOS crowd would be interested in some CoH-related goodness -
"The beginning" isn't a meaningful measure of vet time... time is a good measure if vet time. Tier 9 is in no way a reward for being there at "the beginning". Simply put you have been subscribed for less time so you are less of a veteran. Simple really.
Of course I am a UK player that signed up and stayed on the US servers since launch. -
I play this game for the visuals and the story and the interactivity with both.
My character identities _must_ interweave with the existing story or the game might as well be any of the bland generic FPS's where the plot may well have come from a Christmas cracker.
I have no desire to build a world myself, I can (and do) do that but I come to this game to relax. I want to be told a story and have enough latitude to weave in and out of it as I wish. I want to be part of a story and a setting bigger than me and my imagination... mostly so I can give it a well earned rest. -
Quote:Not-if-you-keep-paying-your-subscription!Originally Posted by VickieVee
I am still confused.
This makes my brain hurt, just like MIDs.
Edit: Ok, for the aged curmudgeon with Oldtimer's disease, my last vet badge is for 75 months, I have red and blue 50s several Incarnate 50s and I bought most of the packs. Am I going to actually *lose* anything?
The talk of unlocking existing stuff is only for accounts that lapse from VIP (paid) to Premium (No longer paying) -
Hmmm I wonder if "Summon signature" is alignment locked?
I have a Defender who went villain (by keeping other vigilantes/villains alive during their exploits not by initiating any evil actions himself) And did the first part of Ghost Widow's patron arc (I.E. he didn't betray her)
I like to think he was doing it all just to get a chance at warming that cold heart of hers.
And now he's back to full hero status he still has a Fortuna on bodyguard duty so that GW can "keep an eye" on him. I'd love to be able to buy "Summon Ghost Widow" without having to rotate to Villain again (especially for a consumable)
He could set up the base for an intimate dinner for two, given that he's Emp/Dark/Soul I'm sure he can rustle up something she'd find tasty
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It varies.
though I generally start with either a name or a powerset. Good, unchosen, names are difficult to find and the powersets are the most limiting system in this game so fitting a powerset to an existing idea is often an exercise in frustration.
I wanted a set of three Norns as I have those in almost every game I play, I decided that were Mu-blood so the powersets followed from that
My main and namesake came from an idea first and then powerset and then name (but she was created only a little after launch so I hardly had the process down pat by then)
There have been some interesting ones recently.- Make big Steampunk robot brute
- Discover Steampunk pack is more "American Railroad" than "British Victorian"
- Ponder Names... "Oil Baron" Hmmm, "Railroad... something", "Railroad Tycoon"... "RailRoad Typhoon"!!
- Reroll powers to match name (This may happen again when Titan weapons hits)
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The default colours for powers frequently use seperate textures that use more than 2 shades of colour, hence the colourable version is not able to match the "default" in any automatic way.
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Quote:I'm half in your camp, but by the same token my GM-sense tingles whenever I brush up against COH lore.Originally Posted by Shadow_Kitty
For those reasons, I think that the currently published backstory is adequate.
I really do think that the things that our heroes/villains should know in-character should be available to us.
Things like Longbow, like the FF, like the heroes in WWII. This is the sort of thing that may well also have secret twists but our character would be able to get the basic story by watching the news or the History channel. Without it the game can feel sparse and less immersive. While I agree that may players will ignore backstory articles I do feel that communities pick up these things and pass them on via osmosis, even to the most meta of gamers.
Honestly the external visible facts should be in the story bible and should be pretty easy to add to the existing info. Maybe we could start a thread about the info available on the website and suggest information that our characters should know that is not currently there. -
I use the Stealth IO if Nova so I can be lazier about how close I get to spawns before opening up. It just make accidental aggrop less likely, that's why I like it. I have Invis or neb+ss if I need it
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Funny thing is it only feels like a little while ago that Khelds got the ability to use Dark sustenance/Cosmic Balance in forms and have Stamina/Swift carry over. And I still sometimes forget how quickly the dwarf mire recharges now.
They have been a lot of Kheld improvements, I remember what Warshades were the lame duck and PB's we the only Kheld worth trying, then it flip-flopped.
I think that PB's could do with another pass, but I really don't feel that we've been "Ignored" -
Most people form a full trial league before entering the queue. this way the trials keep ticking along (Hence the 3 min ETA) but no one in the queue solo will ever get in.
Don't know about your specific server but mostly people form Trial leagues in Pocket D or the RWZ on other servers. -
"Get away, I'm telling you, or I call the Brute Squad."
"I'm on the Brute Squad."
"You are the Brute squad."
</princessbride> -
This was shortly after launch. I wanted a good soloer, someone who could blast and heal, and thus was born "Penumbris" a Dark/Psy defender, and he was terrible I played him for about 6 months desperately trying to get up to level 14 for a travel power. But I never did, I almost gave up on COH after that, but I tried out a DM/SR scrapper, "Serva Obscura" and I was just grabbing some Ascendant pieces for a new costume a couple of nights ago.
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IMHO:
The Client Programmers need to do one of two things:
- Get their act together
- Be given enough time to implement a usable UI rather than the mess we have now.
The UI in this game is _horrific_ new UI is patched in poorly with minimal thought and _frequently_ the game devs try to work around real UI issues with in-engine kludges (Like the blue instruction text)
We _have_ an objective UI, it _can_ already extend to show additional information (like in the PVP zone events) the pop-help is a _joke_
If there is a timer on an action the instructions need to be explicit, obvious, persistent, in an expected place and provided in advance of the timer, this is not rocket surgery.
Imagine if the instructions for the trial were under the nav area like any other mission and they were something like:
Current Task: Disable Reactor Hope- Defeat Warworks guarding cases of power cells on that ground under Reactor Hope
- Collect Power Cells from cases on the ground under Reactor hope.
- Clear Warworks that surround the Reactor Terminal
- On the 1st floor of the Reactor
- On the 2nd floor of the Reactor
- On the 3rd floor of the Reactor
- Use the Powers cells on the Reactor Terminal while the are clear of Warworks(The power cells are a temporary power)
- On the 1st floor of the Reactor
- On the 2nd floor of the Reactor
- On the 3rd floor of the Reactor
Let the team/league highlight a single row on the above for- The league,
- Each team
- Each team/league member
In addition make the temp powers appear under the nav bar like the shivan shards in PVP zones.
There are many other improvements that could be made but this would be a start. -
Quote:Yes typo, corrected.Originally Posted by Pacur
I'm assuming the 16=15 is a typo, and 16=16 is what you meant.
And also it sorta confuses me. You run 16 accounts? or am I missing something here?
16 people, any 16 people
Example: 16 people want to unlock and slot Judgement:
Together they do 6 trials spending 30 mins forming and 1hr doing each trial (The numbers here don't matter)
End result is 16 instances of Judgement gained for 144 man/hours of effort.
16 unrelated players spend 1hr30mins doing solo incarnate content 6 times.
End result is 16 instances of Judgement gained for 144 man/hours of effort.
Now, as I've said, I think the devs want to incentivize teaming. That fine but for a solo player to be expected to put in between 50 and 100 time the effort of a single player why happens to team is just silly. I think x4 is a more sane punishment for the solo player. -
Mayhem/Safeguard missions, though they are under-rewarded and a bit stale by now, the principle is spot on, I'd love to see more of this sort of thing.
"One Good Spider"/"Home Town Hero" Morality missions, theme is bang on, they feel really good, and the reward makes it even better.
Mortimer Kal (If you could start it solo) I padded to start it but really enjoyed it as a solo arc, rewards made it all the more sweet.
Some of the Praetorian 1-20 arcs (For the 15 mins I could play in Praetoria without crashing) I'd love to do that kind on content on my 50s/Incarnates
I loathe most of the TFs and trials, though the 3 trials we have would make good mission arcs.
Really looking forward to First Ward and the Signature Arcs -
I _love_ this mission, it is a fantastic example of good use of theme, pacing, obstacles and really has that "lv 50" feel.
I would love to see a bevvy of missions based on this theme (Much like the Safeguard missions)
For me all you'd need to do are:
1. Mix up the spawns, (Maybe Black Scorpion is overseeing the execution, and most of the troops are his)
2. Mix up the Villains (Have some more-epic ones that pop out Lt sidekicks maybe even The Lts themselves, An EB version of the flyer)
3. Mix up who you are rescuing (Longbow, One of the Morality-hero roster, How about one where the report is that Arachnos have are going to execute you and its just someone who was inspired by you to do good)
4. Mix up what you have to do to free them (Forcefields, Magic, Psionics)
5. Mix up the ambushes (How about some properly port in, or drop in from above)
I would happily run those over and over.
As long as the mission creation tools are up to snuff that should be pretty easy. -
Quote:Yes, precisely like man-hours. 1 team of 16 = 16 E-merits. Hence 16 teams of 1 = 1 E-merit each (plus other stuff)Originally Posted by Pacur
It's kind of like man-hours. It takes X man-hours to complete this (say 10 man hours to make a doghouse).
Also, I have never seen it take an hour to put together a trial. Just thought I'd say that.
I know it doesn't take that long to set up a trial I was constructing as conservative a case as I could, favouring the pro-teamers because more realistic numbers would result in much shorter suggested solo times.
Frankly worst case timing x4 is still stupidly long, but it's doable, more so that the current between 1:50to100 ratio. -
Quote:Why? The time invested per person doesn't change, if 16 people spend 1 hour waiting for a trial and 45 mins doing it how is that different from 16 people spending 1:45:00 doing failable missions?Originally Posted by Pacur
Well, I certainly see how the system you are proposing will work, but keeping in mind it takes a minimum of 16 people to run the trials (the Keyes and BAF anyway), I think it'll need to be a bit slower than 4x.
Also:
There are very few cries of "It's too hard" most of the annoyance that I see right now is that the mechanisms are poorly thought out and are simply not fun.Quote:Originally Posted by Pacur
I strongly suspect that if they make it more challenging, there will be cries, still, of "It's too hard".
Hard (With consummately higher rewards) is fine but the current trial is not hard, it's just broken, and will remain so as long as:
1. Pathing is broken
2. Pet AI is lobotomised
3. Anti-matter can stack gimmicks resulting in no-fault deaths and failure
4. The temp power mechanic persists with a even vaguely sensible UI
Lets make the death-pulse get worse as they damage the tiny-unobvious AV get caught in AOEs/petspam "that way we can require one of the incarnate abilities no-one takes! yay!"
Dragging an AV to a device without harming the AV? Seriously? that's what passes for "design" now. Grrr -
Quote:The fact you are enjoying the trial (If ever a game mechanic were aptly named this is it). I don't know about you but failing through no-fault-of-my-own or worse failing-through-a-tiny-slipup-on-top-of-awful-bugs-and-terrible-design generally annoys me rather than entertains.Originally Posted by Arilou
Oh no. They aren't. Where did you get that idea
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Quote:I think it's wonderful that you consistently team with people who are so on-the-ball and attentive.Originally Posted by Arilou
Hence why it's an excercise in teamwork. You can't do everything on your own.
I actually think Keyes' Island is the most fun, design-wise of the trials. (bugginess aside)
_Many_ of us are not so lucky. -
Quote:You are incorrect, demonstrably so, as I posted above. Anti-matter can quite happily stack Obliteration and time stop, giving you no chance to move nor to stop him healing if you're unlucky. He can also stack Disintegration and Time stop giving you no chance to save the poor fool.Originally Posted by Beef_Cake
...blah blah...
- Disintegration - When you are being disintegrated heal, it's that simple. there are 3 ticks of damage, just make sure you are at full health on the 3rd and final tick and you will live.
- Obliteration Beam - very easy, look for the very large green patch on the ground and get the hell away from it, don't stand there in aww "What's this green stuff" or "Oh, that's pretty" Run away from it and continue fighting.
- Finally, debuffs you will notice some players have red bubbles on them and some have blue. This is very easy to get around. Blue stay near Blue and Red stay near Red. Mix them up and you will be seriously debuffed in all aspects.
Additionally when you are being disintegrated there the _nothing_ you can do if you are out of green (which you generally are if you have lasted for any length of time) I have a macro set to alert the league, and yet it still goes wrong due to no fault of the poor schlob being disintegrated, that is annoying, sure you can DPS AM over the top of it, but it still _crap_ as far as design and "fun" goes. -
Quote:Similar, yes. the same? I doubt anyone would let that happen for some reason. I threw around a number or x4 in another thread, that is x4 the total time the teamers take to advance. So if you can run 2 trials with full rewards a day in about 1.5hr + 2hrs waiting For.. 2 components ~8 astrals and 2 Empyreans I'd be fine with solo (Incarnate) content taking 14hrs of constant play over a minimum of 4 days to get something similar.Originally Posted by Pacur
I'm sorry, I'm not entirely clear on a point here:
Are you implying you want to progress at a similar rate through incarnates solo as in team play?
Interestingly tip missions require 2 days to get to a morality mission. So you could use a similar structure. ~3.5 hrs of Incarnate tip missions = 2 astrals and that is your limit for the day, do that over 4 days and you get the option to go for an Incarnate "axiom" mission where you really get the wells attention, it's failable but if you succeed you get an Empyrean and a random component. Maybe even skew the reward tables to the low end. Just to be sure we don't advance too fast.
4 times slower than team content. Surely no one can say that that is somehow unfair to those who like to team? -
I would like to see a non-team incarnate progression path that takes under quadruple the total time team-based progress takes. I'm doing the trial currently but I rarely enjoy it. The current progression path is somewhere in the region of 50:1 solo time:team time ratio
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ITF for the Nictus shield: Sure
ITF for Entire Roman set.... ok... but there are a lot of generic pieces there.
Guardian Cathedral of Pain for the Rularuu weapons: Sure
Incarnate merits for the Ascension set: Sure
Incarnate merits for a faint emote, chest emblem or a generic aura: NO!
Gated "Unique" pieces I'm all in favour of.
Generic, useful pieces that have minimal alternates in the existing selection gated behind unrelated content, that is just poorly thought-out time sink