Shenalia

Getting back on-topic - "crashless nukes", and not necessarily Blasters and the role they fulfill...

Upon reviewing this thread, I had an idea. The main problem over this seems to be that some people have a desire to keep the crash component for the "feel" of how it works, and others recognize how the crash keeps the nukes from being truly viable powers a vast majority of the time. From what it sounds like, the idea of "Going All Out" is tied to the concept of comic-book Blasters. Then, it hit me...

Why do the nuke powers themselves and "The Crash" have to be the same power?

Swap Ammo's mechanic gives us the solution here:

• Take the crash component out from the nuke powers and then give them a proper balance calculation.
• For Blasters, add a Domination-like click power that is received upon taking their Tier-9 power. When activated, they receive a short duration buff (5 seconds?) that creates an "additional" damage tick on any powers used within that timeframe - bypassing the traditional damage cap that powers could be boosted to. Upon the end of that duration buff, the Blaster receives a "full crash".

With this, "The Crash" becomes an additional, non-enhanceable power with a long recharge that allows Blasters to occasionally, truly go "all out" on an enemy and leave them dramatically weakened. By separating it from the nukes themselves, the current Tier-9s can become usable on a regular basis without being "out of balance" by the devs' terms - like FA/RoA/HoB. An additional bonus: "The Crash" could easily be used for more than just the nuke itself in this situation. Each Blaster power could have an "additional damage" component set aside to only activate when "The Crash" buff is in effect, so every single power could be balanced individually around this concept.

The end result? Everybody - Blaster, Defenders and Corrupters - get useful, non-crashing nukes with proper, balanced damage/recharge calculations (overall effect: buff). Blasters receive a function that allows them to use those non-crashing nukes at their current level of power - or slightly higher, if the Devs calculate it that way - with a crash attached to it. This could also be applied to the current crashless nuke sets, giving them an extra "oomph" if so desired, too.

Comments? Likes/dislikes?

I was able to successfully download the update today and start the client. However, whenever I log in, I run into two errors:

• First, whenever I select any of the servers, I get the following message: "Account <name> is not allowed on this server. reason: Public access to this server has been disabled." My account is VIP status now according to the NCSoft website, so I'm wondering if this is the servers being down for everyone... or it not recognizing my account status properly.
• Second, whenever I try to scroll down the list of servers, the scroll bar does not "stick" in place; I cannot even try to access the Exalted server. Whenever I let go of the scroll bar with my mouse, it snaps back up to the top.

Honestly? They need to address the nukes. They're not in balance anymore. I'm not saying they need to weaken them; not by a long-shot. However, as they are, not so good.

I could easily see a starting point to this: removal of the -recovery. That, not the end drain down, is the biggest problem of the "crash".

Personally, I love the new look. However, seeing them all in line-ups like this does make me wonder...

Have you, the devs, considered spreading out the types of minions / LTs / bosses in the Circle of Thorns across level tiers at all yet? Similar to how the Devouring Earth used to have only one type of their LTs appear at any particular level range, and level 50 missions used to only have the rock-type minions and LTs in them. I would love to see a mixture of the Air, Fire, Earth, and Ice Thorn Casters in spawns... and higher-level versions of Madness, Ruin, and Agony Mages mixed in with Death Mages at the high-end levels. Is this a possibility at all?

Nope. The number of recipes in the lower left (4/20, for example) actually went down; the recipe deleted without a right-click "Delete". I haven't been able to willingly duplicate the effort, though (bought some lvl 10 common IOs to test)... and I wouldn't be able to prove to the admins that it wasn't a mistaken right-click Delete or some other faulty complaint to get a free 'replacement', either. Frustration!

This evening, I had just bought a full set of Obliteration on the tank I've been working on. I was running with a friend, looking at the set pieces for which invention salvage pieces I needed for each and discussing with them on push-to-talk (I use my middle mouse click for speaking). While speaking with him, I clicked on one of the recipes to minimize it - and it vanished from my tray! During the confusion of the aftermath, a second recipe vanished as well as I was speaking to him. I never right-clicked to see the options to possibly delete the recipes, either. Is this a bug, or is something else strange happening?

Heh. Adding another one to the pile...

There are actually two problems I see people having with knockback (especially of the AoE type) primarily: controlling where they send the enemies and chaining AoE on the entire group. The first is a simple matter of experience and range; the farther you are from the group, the tighter the angle is on the enemies on the edge of the group on the knockback. You can easily keep an entire group of enemies in one large bunch, and move the whole bunch about, if you practice at it. Hell, if you're fast enough, you can move to the other side of the group in an open area and bounce them back to the original spot with your next wave of attacks.

As for chaining your AoE: if you queue an attack on an enemy or group of enemies before they are knocked back, even if they are scattered out of the normal radius of your attack, the queued attack will consider the positions they were in when you queued it, not where they are when the attack fires. This allows you to easily chain Energy Torrent > Explosive Blast, and that'll wipe entire spawns of minions out as easily as most "AoE" sets by itself while providing mitigation against the LTs and Bosses at the same time. Try doing that with a Fire blaster.

So, does this mean Kinetics can be ported over to Masterminds now, without too many problems with the pet AI?

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Seriously You think 120 million inf is absurd compared to running 5 positrons ?


Yes. Easily. Positron is not hard with the right group construction (i.e., small).

[/ QUOTE ]

5 Positrons for me = 10 hours

120 million ~ 50-60 hours

No contest

[/ QUOTE ]

Sounds about the same for me, too. Seriously, a 3-man Positron is a cakewalk - and takes little time at all to complete.

Hey, not trying to argue with you here - from what I can tell, the change coming can only help you out.

Wow. So... they are worthless for you, because your definition of "worth" is greatly skewed due to what you already have. Good to know.

Then add in the items that he didn't include in his list that could be useful to you, Siolfir... or include the ones he did simply for market value. Your choice.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
One thing I'd suggest is rejiggering the pools.

First, all the recipes that make most people go "Damn, I got a...", put those in Pool A or Pool B. Trap of the Hunter, etc.

Then, break up all the rest into three groups...useful to most, very useful to most, highly prized. Random rolls for useful to most stays at 20, very useful to most at 40, highly prized to 80.

[/ QUOTE ]

IMHO, better to break by some sort of theme because of the long-time goal of players making informed choices.

*DETAILS*

[/ QUOTE ]

Hell yes. QFT.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Then there's the use of exploits, how speed edens used to involve flying through holes in the walls. (I have to think that much of the dev's 10 minute average goes back to those.) Exploits are cheating, you'll get no kudos from me for abusing a flaw.

[/ QUOTE ]

If there are exploits being used they need to be fixed. You don't warp the entire game to enshrine them.

[/ QUOTE ]

And they've already said that they're planning on fixing them, they just don't have time right now to do so. Once things are fixed, adjustments will be made.

[ QUOTE ]
i'd like to make a suggestion, Focused Accuracy doesn't fit within the theme of "Weapons Mastery" Instead maybe "Targeting Drone?"

[/ QUOTE ]

Good one. I'm still thinking that they'll probably drop Web Grenade for it.

Please realize that the following post is my personal opinion, base on observations I've made.

What I think of immediately upon thinking of potential incoming changes:
- Scrapper Weapon Mastery: as noted above, Web Grenade. Also Caltrops: with the potential, eventual proliferation of Ninjitsu from Stalkers, Caltrops would be redundant between a secondary and ancillary pool.
- Scrapper Body Mastery / Tanker Energy Mastery: Conserve Power has the same issues as Caltrops does above, in regards to the proliferation of Electric Armor and Energy Aura. Also, we know Focused Accuracy is getting spread out to at least Weapon Mastery, but it's also been reported as blatantly unbalanced; is there the potential to have the to-hit buff and endurance costs both reduced to manageable levels?
- Blaster Cold Mastery: Flash Freeze, maybe? Not sure.
- Defender Power Mastery: Power Build Up. We know how much Castle hates Power Boost. What's the over/under on this becoming plain ol' Build Up?
- Controller Power Mastery: Same here, with normal Power Boost.
- Patron Pools: the best thing they did in the Patron pools was the very limited variety they put in, in two instances: Dominators having Waterspout / Poisonous Ray instead of an end recovery power in Power Sink / Dark Consumption, and Stalkers having Waterspout instead of the sniper attacks all three other pools get. I would not be surprised if the most unpopular "cloned" powers in the various patron pools got swapped out to create some more diversity between said pools.

Something I don't see changing:
- Ranged attacks: the most popular power type seems to be the ST and AoE ranged attacks in the various pools. Perfect example: the shurikens in Weapon Mastery and LBE / Energy Torrent in Body Mastery.

I did not see those Kheld changes coming. My Dwarf-specced PB is going to be even more insane now.

As for Energy Drain and the toggle changes... holy crap, Batman. That's insane!

Found out something interesting today: if you level from the experience you get after using Self Destruct, the level-inspiration boost will instantly rez you.

I can see this coming already: Hallowee, Zombie Apocalypse, Atlas Park... a team of 8 level 1's zone in, run to the edges of the big fight that always occurs around Miss Liberty, and all Self-Destruct, at the same time. Queue leveling spree, rezzing in place among the disaster (and many people probably LCM'ing right off the server from lag)... and training with Miss Liberty, right then and there.

You know it's going to happen.

Ye gods. If they merge mission branching into this mission creator, and allow for task force creation along with story arcs...

Best. Feature. Ever.

On a side note: there's got to be some kind of review process for these submissions, considering it's a Teen-rated game! I just hope that this process catches the most egregious, abusable farming submissions (like, task forces even faster that Katie Hannon).

[ QUOTE ]
Considering there's two little girl gamerz on their way in the next 6 months in my SG alone, you betcha.

[/ QUOTE ]

Jeez, LM, now you're making me want to come up with a creative nickname for my little one so she'll fit in with our SG babycrew.

Even I'm getting inspired, now... I might have to write a story!

Just wanted to point something out that I noticed, that I'm sure other people have thought of but no one has actually said in this thread:

The wallpaper has the Ouroboros... in an infinity symbol. It's often drawn as a regular symbol with the intent of "infinity" anyway - drawn this way, its meaning is plain. As the UK rep mentioned at one point "the sideways 8", I am solidly in the camp of the time-travel theory.

My personal theory at this point: Dr. Aeon has gone back in time for yet another reason - not sure which, at this point - with the intent to prevent Recluse from taking over. He probably planned that this would cause the Outbreak and Breakout from occuring - and preventing "you" from ever coming about to threaten or end his life.

The two causes of the end of the world... "You" and Recluse, both dealt serious blows by the same event. Dr. Aeon wanted to stop both. Coincidence? I think not.

As for all those doubting other events: the Lost are mentioned in the article, and they wouldn't be around if the first Rikti War hadn't happened. So they must be around.

Finally, one last thing: I do believe Nemesis could very well have his hand in this for one big thing. His last big plan - explained in the end of the Rikti War Zone arcs - failed because of the "you" hero-side. For being such a master planner, one would think he'd find a way to remove you from the equation to make an attempt at succeeding at his previously failed master plan...

Congrats on getting this thread stickied. I love the idea!

Reading through this thread, I've been inspired for one particular character of mine... my Ice/Energy Blaster. She's supposed to have been a jewel thief before her current career as a hero - redemption and all that. I always envisioned her having a custom stealth power, based on her magical abilities, that wouldn't slow her down and would have a higher magnitude than basic Stealth - but allow her to attack out from it, unlike Invis. This signature power would probably be great for this. (Yeah, /Dev just didn't work for the character. The Brute Energy Cloak stats would work great for this - and I'd spend a lot of my extra points on lowering the endurance cost!)

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Logged Ikube onto test. Unless this is just something I missed ages ago, it looks like they're trying to apply a pseudo assassin's strike functionality to Cloaking Device.

It doesn't work yet though.

[/ QUOTE ]

Don't get attached to that. It got nixed and sent back to the drawing board.

[/ QUOTE ]

Awwww. Do we get any spoilers as to what the other possibilities for things coming instead might be?