Sleepwalker_NA

Thank you, Paragon, Cryptic, and everyone involved who worked hard to bring us CoH/V for...

...the annual Winter Event! I think it was December 2007 when I first discovered it, and it was a fairly dark time in my life. When I first saw the ski slopes and heard the yodeling and music reminiscent of Auld Lang Syne, I could not stop smiling for hours. Even my jaded self giggled when I first got a jingle jet. I haven't regularly subbed for a couple of years, but I still resubbed every December just to get in some skiing and to trash Snaptooth one... more... time...

... Flying! Super Speed! Leaping! Traveling in style was never so fun and so immersive.

... Safeguard/Mayhem missions! They were my first introduction to a mission where the mobs didn't just stand around waiting to get aggro'ed. I really appreciated being able to solo or duo such a fun, non-static event -- most games saved that type of dynamic mission for groups or raids.

... scalable missions! No one else out there seems to appreciate that groups of friends can come in all sizes, but you guys always have.

... costume contests! There was nothing like the CoH costume creator before, and it is still the best. It speaks to the culture that this game enabled that the costume contests became so prevalent here and nowhere else.

... Warburg missle launches! I roared when I first saw one go up. I could have done without dealing with pv pee’ers just to make a launch, but it was still a gas nonetheless.

... letting players create their own missions! The architect was an ambitious move, and I’ve yet to see anyone pull off anything close to it.


Most of all, thank you for letting a big kid feel what it’s like to be super, even in a virtual way.

PS

My building had a blackout 2 nights ago, and when the lights came back on, my GTS 8800 video card had issues.

My monitor displays a "no signal" message, but everything else seems to work right: the hard drive is loading at the same pace that it always has, the USB peripherals light up as if they are functional, & it's making all the right booting noises that it used to. I don't have a spare video card to swap out and check my system.

To get everything going again, I have the following questions:

1) Is it possible for a power supply to get damaged by a power surge/blackout so that it's not functioning at its listed specs? My expectation is that when confronted with surges/blackouts, power supplies either survive and work fine, or they burn out & die, with no middle ground.

2) If I'm wrong about #1, and a power supply can still work with diminished capacity, would a power-hungry video card like the GTS 8800 not produce any signal whatsoever if the power supply weren't up to par? Again, I'm thinking that this isn't the case, but I want to double-check.

Assuming that I need to replace the video card, I'm looking at the Radeon HD 4850 X2 2GB. It's essentially two video cards that are merged together, and work through one PCI Express slot, although it relies on ATI's Crossfire technology.

3) I currently run Windows XP 64; do I need to run Vista or Win 7 for Crossfire to work properly?

4) My motherboard is an ASUS P5B. It has the 965 chipset that supports Crossfire, but only one PCI express slot. Since the proposed video card only uses one slot, I don't need to upgrade my motherboard, right?

Hardware gurus, please offer your wisdom.

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Instanced content is great, but I feel that CoX overuses instances. On the other hand, open world content is great, but most other MMOs overuse it as well. We could stand to have more open world content for sure - they just have to be careful not to make the same mistakes that other games make. So you should never have to wait in line to rescue/kill/click on a thing - either don't put those types of quests into the open world, or use phasing so that each person sees his own copy of the thing.

One of the things I think WoW does nicely is have unique and interesting landmarks in the open world that quests require you to interact with:
- check out the beached sea monster
- steal some stuff from that weird village down there
- explore that pirate ship down there
and so on.

We could do similar things here - create unique landmarks in the world that missions send you to interact with or investigate. And instanced missions could follow from a lot of those missions. For example, investigate Frostfire's lair - a static building with ice patches around it with some specific guards out front. In fact, a lot of things would be made possible just by putting mission entrances at static doors instead of random. Maybe the Freak HQ has some funky machinery out front, or some specific guards posted. Maybe that CoT boss is at the instanced end of a non-instanced cave system with a unique look and feel.

So I think the idea of open world content is great, but it has a few basic flaws in most MMOs that the devs can avoid easily.

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Well put, and I completely agree. I've always thought that CoX had unmatched variation in player characterization, but was very shallow in its environments. WoW does a great job with mixing up instances and open world, but the characters are very generic in look and function. An ideal game would have depth in both ways.

The AE was a step in the right direction, but I agree that more open world content is really something that this game needs to spice things up.

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Despite the 'tude, your read of the MA database is accurate. I'll edit my post to reflect it.

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Or you could have checked your facts ahead of time and saved yourself any embarrassment.

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Somehow, I think I'll sleep soundly anyway. Go make another 10,000 posts elsewhere if you really feel the need to prove your manhood.

Despite the 'tude, your read of the MA database is accurate. I'll edit my post to reflect it.

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Only a Hard Regen LT can revive. The minions don't get that power no matter what.

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It might have been another powerset (Willpower?) - I had lots of fireworks going off, and at the time, I assumed it was Regen. The last time I ran into the multiple revives, I'm certain it was a group of minions. Very, very annoying.

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Only a Hard Willpower LT can revive. The Rezz powers are tier-8s and tier-9s, Minions don't get those.

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They were minions. I remember checking their difficulty level, and being very frustrated. The powerset I was unsure about, but not the rank.

I'd say it depends on the type of story you want to tell. If you want an iconic lone npc to be the ultimate encounter in your mission, or arc, I think EB is a good way to go.

On the other hand, if you see the big final battle being against a super group (villains or heroes), I'd go with a group of bosses, maybe with some tinkering to their difficulty levels. The AV killers out there may want more of a challenge, but I think a group of carefully constructed bosses will likely make an interesting finale for the casual MA player. I intend to try this out in a mission I've been planning.

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Only a Hard Regen LT can revive. The minions don't get that power no matter what.

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It might have been another powerset (Willpower?) - I had lots of fireworks going off, and at the time, I assumed it was Regen. The last time I ran into the multiple revives, I'm certain it was a group of minions. Very, very annoying.

My point about defense-based powersets came up due to my experience with a DM/SR Elite Boss, as well as a mission that was overrun with shield defense minions & lieuts. My comments aren't meant to say **never** use them, just be careful or you'll make a very tedious mission. Those powersets are particularly hard on characters that rely on controls.

Your point about settings (first of a few people to comment on this) is quite valid. I'll adjust my comments accordingly.

My initial experience with running MA missions is that people are not doing enough playtesting of their own material. As some other posts have commented, some unreasonably difficult and tedious missions are being constructed while the player base gets used to balancing in the MA.

I wanted to generate some constructive criticism of the powerset choices being used too often, or incorrectly, in the early days of MA. I think some creators simply need a bit more notice that the powersets they enjoy playing with their characters are not so much fun to play against.

My comments below (and any suggestions that follow) address the difficulty settings where the annoying problems appear. In some cases, the most imbalancing features of a powerset will appear only when set to Extreme.

Note that, like most posts, this is all a matter of opinion. Feel free to offer counterarguments and other perspectives, but please don't merely offer the useless comment "well that's just your opinion."

- Ninjitsu: it's been well-advertised on these forums that this powerset is broken, and apparently some mission creators know it's broken, yet still insist on putting it in their missions. Please don't use it until it's fixed. The overkill in damage is pretty intense, and non-melee ATs are obliterated almost instantly.

- Trick Arrow: huh? Yep. Flash arrow goes off **constantly** and it's no fun fighting blind or converting all your insps to accuracies every time you see a trick arrow minion. Note to fire control builds: be mindful that Smoke can do the same thing if being spammed by several npcs.

- Defense-based armor sets (e.g., energy, shield, SR); on minions, the fights take forever, and on EBs+, the fights are almost impossible without an ungodly amount of acc or to-hit buffs. If you must use them, I'd suggest limiting the use to a few lieutenants or a rare boss, but please don't overdo it. See my example below, too.

- Dark Melee: on NPCs, the self-heal gets a lot of work, and the debuff stacks up pretty quickly. This powerset is why people avoid CoT missions in the early levels. Don't spam this one all over your minions and lieuts - it's a very tough set. One MA mission that I ran last night had an EB with Dark Melee & SR, a top AV-killing build when used by scrappers. This EB took 25 min to put down on a 1-hour timed mission advertised as "Short," and was located in a large Orenbega map. Bad idea.

- Dark armor: don't put this on an EB or AV, please. Ghost Widow is enough of a pain with it, so thank you, that type of frustrating battle is already in the game. You're not making a wonderful epic encounter if your EB heals back up to full after 10 minutes of fighting; you're making a 1-star rating.

- Revive: tons of reviving mobs are very annoying. At least Freaks do it somewhat randomly - if a custom npc in the MA has a revive power, they seem to do it very consistently. One mission that my controller started had a status protected, reviving patrol of mobs in the front. They took a **long** time to put down since they healed fast, ran all over the place, resisted all my controls, and then revived when they went down (my memory of the fight was that they were minions, but I've since been corrected and they must have been lieuts). After a few rounds of this, I quit in frustration. Whatever the powerset or difficulty, multiple reviving mobs makes for a very annoying mission. People making farm missions may want their mobs to behave like that, but it really gets old fast.

- Controls: I ran a mission last night where all the minions and all the lieutenants spammed hold constantly. Another mission had all-cold mobs slow me down to virtually no movement and no recharge (at least there was a theme to the special effect). Again, bad idea. Non-melee will be controlled very quickly, and melee will get these attacks stacked against them fairly quickly. It's not fun if you can't fight back for a large part of the mission. Please limit these types of effects to rare encounters. Even if you expect players to be prepared with some break-frees, they shouldn't be so necessary that they're all used up in the first 5 minutes of a mission.

- Status protection: yes, armor sets do help define npcs somewhat, and it's hard not to include them when conceptualizing an npc or custom gang. However, armor sets will have status protection by a certain level. When added to the natural status protection of npcs (which it does in the MA), controllers and dominators might as well go home. Be careful to check how often your npcs will have status protection in a mission, keeping in mind the fate of the control-dependent ATs.

Remember - trying out your mission with your favorite character doesn't mean it will work with a wide audience, especially if your favorite character is an AV killer. Try out the mission solo with that alt that you never quite got out of the 'teens (if you're going for a wide level range), or ask a friend to try it out. Some clever folks have trotted out missions that are simply called "test my custom gang, please," which is a great idea if you want to get early feedback without making a whole arc.

Please offer your own observations on powersets that should be used on a limited basis. A good separate thread might be generated by someone else on combinations that are challenging but aren't overkill.

**EDIT: Post edited to reflect input from concerning settings and revive.

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Cinders Level 18
PBAoE (10 target cap) -- Base Accuracy: 0.8
240 second recharge -- 15.6 Endurance cost
Mag 3 Hold, Base Duration = 8 seconds


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Sorry for the post resurrection, but I had to know: is that base duration right at 8 seconds? Other AOE holds are closer to 15 seconds, and that's what other guides say that the controller version of Cinders does.

This is a great Costume Design 101. I think some of the points by other posts here are also important, but this is an excellent launching point. Too often, I take for granted that people are familiar with basic color design concepts such as "warm" and "cold" colors. If I'd add anything to that discussion, it would be an elaboration on consistency of a bright color scheme vs. pastels vs. monochromatic combinations.

I think an important additional point was already touched on by Furry Saint with his "triangle" of gloves, belt, & boots. This is a good rule applied all over the costume -- coordination of colors or hues between major costume parts (chest, pants), secondary parts (head, gloves, belt, boots) and/or accessories (cape, weapons, aura) can add a structure or symmetry to a costume design that looks great.

A specific CoX design concern for me is texture. Certain costume options have coloring schemes that are tailored specifically for them (e.g., Justice, Sinister, Exoproto, Stealth). I find myself choosing these texture/color combinations far more often then the spandex & assorted style options, probably because they work with more mature, modern character concepts.

I think the two-color and "KISS" rules are safe and work well, but limit you to 3-4 star costumes. 5-star costumes often break these rules, but are very careful in how they do it -- the best costume I've seen lately had a black base and 3 other colors conscientiously chosen and placed.

I don't think any written guide can be made on how to make the "best" costumes, but if you want to put someone on the road to success, you've done a fine job here, Crashfreeze.

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To the CoH/CoV staff:

I've been playing MMORPG's for close to 10 years now, and this Winter Event is the most fun I've ever had in a game. I loved it last year, and it's still loads of fun this year. The atmosphere puts a big smile on my face every time that I log in (especially hearing the polka music & yodeling), and there's a nice number of options to enjoy gifts and prizes all around. Thank you for a job well done.

To everyone else:
I know some badge hunters are going to be frustrated about the lack of instant gratification from the ski run, but some of the rest of us appreciate the challenge. Don't fret, folks -- the advice on the forums here does the job handily. I got all 3 badges just using sprint and the zero-G pack that anyone can get doing the King's Row safeguard/mayhem, if you don't have jump powers available otherwise. The jingle-jet is a LOT easier to get this year, and all the badges & powers of winters past are accessible. That's not a bad deal.

Happy holidays to all!

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I have to take issue with the phrase "instant gratification" in relation to this badge - nobody is asking to be handed these badges. The people who are reporting frustration have tried repeatedly and have failed due to many reasons outside of their own control. Leave the "instant gratification" phrase in the threads where people whine because they have to do anything to get a reward - don't apply it to people who have spent literally hours trying to what they are supposed to do to receive these badges.

I'm not even skiing this year. The fun has been taken out of it for me - there are griefers all over the slopes, and the lag for me is terrible - even when there were only 17 characters showing in a search of the zone. I thought that the racing would be fun but it's not fun for me because I simply cannot do it. <shrug> Talking about frustration and lag isn't the same as asking for instant gratification.

Storm

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Sorry, but I have to call it as I see it. I don't think the venting I've seen in this thread and others is fair to the Devs, and I think that some people are getting unduly bent out of shape. I think a bit of patience will get anyone the badges here, barring lag issues that are not the fault of the Devs. I'm no twitcher demon when it comes to games, but I've had a few different characters, at different levels and with different travel builds, each get the gold.

This event has only been Live for a few days, and there's several reasonable and easy strategies in the forums for getting the gold. I believe that over the next couple of weeks, there will be plenty of opportunities to get free aid from fellow players or temp powers to do the job without a respec or anything extreme being necessary. If you simply **must** have these badges, patience over a few days, not over a few hours, will win the day.

Griefers are a different story, but Lighthouse has indicated that they are on notice that this behavior won't be tolerated.

To the CoH/CoV staff:

I've been playing MMORPG's for close to 10 years now, and this Winter Event is the most fun I've ever had in a game. I loved it last year, and it's still loads of fun this year. The atmosphere puts a big smile on my face every time that I log in (especially hearing the polka music & yodeling), and there's a nice number of options to enjoy gifts and prizes all around. Thank you for a job well done.

To everyone else:
I know some badge hunters are going to be frustrated about the lack of instant gratification from the ski run, but some of the rest of us appreciate the challenge. Don't fret, folks -- the advice on the forums here does the job handily. I got all 3 badges just using sprint and the zero-G pack that anyone can get doing the King's Row safeguard/mayhem, if you don't have jump powers available otherwise. The jingle-jet is a LOT easier to get this year, and all the badges & powers of winters past are accessible. That's not a bad deal.

Happy holidays to all!

Normally I don't fund much inspired writing on these types of forums, but I was impressed with the humor here, particularly your introduction. Good job.