Starfox_NA

Thanks. Hovering near the ground is good enough except in Rikti raids.

Love the quick answer!

My search-Fu is weak; can you summon the Gun Drone from Devices while flying? Can you summon it in the air?

<ul type="square">[*]The problems Defenders have are all about soloing. Even in a duo of two Defenders, they work decently.[*]Vigilance is mostly useless][/list]To me the solution seems obvious; just remove Vigilance and replace it with a good damage buff when solo.

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Honestly, I'd like a travel power set that'd actually make sense for natural characters. Perhaps some sort of mini-vehicle power: pneumatic jump, gyrocopter pack, motorcycle.

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This is why I love the day job jetpack.

I love the Jump Kick animation, but I agree the name is misleading about the animation. I never ever pick it because of the 2.1 second animation. I hate to be locked in animation that long. However, it IS the most damage/cycle of all the pool power attacks, it just has very lousy damage/animation time. It could be useful on a Controller.

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Or as someone else put it - the heroside market would make the redside market a tasty snack before going on to business as usual.

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And this exactly what villains want, as it would make the stuff prized by villains cheap, while the stuff heroes want would still have high prices. Villains would bye for less and sell for more.

What's not to like, from a villain perspective?

And, as people say, the blueside market would not change by much, so heroes don't really lose anything.

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Blueside: 95 Bidding, 3 For sale
Redside: 56 Bidding, 0 For sale

merged: 151 Bidding, 3 for sale


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Bigger market = smaller fluctuation and less room for flippers. The danger here is the zero people bidding hero side in the above example. Zero bidders opens up to under-bids, where you place a bid of perhaps 1 million and hope people are careless when they post, With markets merged, there is always a bigger chance that someone is bidding, leaving less room for flippers.

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The devs have gone to great lengths to add code to artificially separate the sides. The most recent example of this is the one that prevents you from setting a mission unless all team members are in the same zone. This was done to prevent hero players from playing villian content in coop zones and vice-versa.

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Thankfully, this is not true - what you are talking here is a nasty bug, not a feature. It is a real pain in the [censored] bug too.

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With both markets it is virtual impossible to get everything (sometimes even a small part of everything) you want without working the market in the first place. This would not change, only the amount of work needed to get the item.

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This is very true. It is also a strong reason to merge the markets - finding stuff will be much easier on a bigger market.

Making an argument complicated does not make it true.

I think merging the markets would be great, and more fair all around.

/Signed

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Thank you for addressing our concerns.

This response of yours raised a question of mine:[ QUOTE ]
Q. What’s happening to Rent?

A. Rent still exists, but it has been reduced dramatically. Rent is no longer charged by plot size, and is instead based on the number of utility items in the base.

These are the items that charge rent:
- Storage bins: 100 prestige per bin.
- Workbenches, and Enhancement terminals: 100 per tier
- Medical Items: 100 per item, excluding Basic Reclaimator

No rent is charged for basic utility items like Teleporters, Teleport beacons, Medical Reclaimator's, Basic Work Tables, and Invention work tables. Rent free bases of any size can still be built, with all the normal utilities available. In the future, we will be looking into improving how rent is charged as well.

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These changes represent an increase in rent for me, as I was able to fit things on the default, 0-rent plot size, and paying any rent is an increase.

I deliberately kept things small to avoid the rent, and villainside it's relatively easy to get all of the essentials without increasing plot size - since there are fewer zones, there are fewer teleporters needed, less power and control needed to power them, and storage just takes up space and not either control or power.

So, the question - are there any plans to continue to excuse the default plot size from rent, since your response seems to indicate that the desire was to reduce rent?

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/Signed

My base right now basically consists of ONLY the items you pay rent for, all on a minimum plot size. I'm moving from no rent to almost maximum possible rent. How is this a reduction?

There is also the matter of rent administration. Someone has t actually go pay the rent. In a casual group, that's tricky, because SG leaders take breaks from the game and might not be around for one or two weeks - and the base goes down. Having a rent-free base removed this obstacle.

Why don't you just skip rent? ts so trivial its mainly an administrative chore anyway.

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Poster: Paradox1
Q: The Story Arc merit system seems to encourage us to solo non-TF missions, as running other people's story arcs earns 0 merits (unless we happen to have the same arc open). Is this really the way you want to encourage us to play the game?

A: While only offering Merits upon story arc completion to the owner of the story arc is consistent with our original reward system (only the mission owner earns the bonus story arc XP and gets to choose the SO enhancement) we understand that there is certainly room for improvement upon this. We will evaluate our options on how we can improve the rewards for party members along for the ride on a story arc.

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These days, I'm a casual gamer, tough I used to be more involved both in the game and the forum. Not having followed the discussion closely so far, I find this is the point I object most strongly on. You tried this (rewarding only the mission holder) before on IO rewards, and the player base said no. What makes you think we'll like it now? You changed your opinion then, please do so now too.

This is a showstopper. It has to be changed before merits go live, or this will be even more a city of soloers. It basically cuts of casual gamers (who already have a hard time getting the time to do TFs) from the merits system too.

On a related topic, I must say I am appalled that you still have not created a teaming incentive in the IO/salvage drops. This has been discussed since the testing of the IO system; the best way to get IO/Salvage drops is to farm a lot of easy opponents solo, which is far from fun. There is a teaming incentive on regular enhancement drops, on xp, and on influence/prestige. Wont you see the light and introduce it on IO/salvage too?

To the OP: Very cute icon! And all valid points. There is more:

Positron Task Force

No way of avoiding the mission to see PvP zone contacts and the Hero Corps agent in KR (mainly an issue for second and later toons)

Fitness power pool

Just reduce the required number of players in all TFs by one, with no TF requiring more than 6 players, and this is actually a decent idea.

But they annoyance factor when people drop or have to quit will be much higher than today.

Found its, its the Bow Tie. At the very top under Shoulders. Odd that I could miss that one.

I see now that its only available with certain types of chest. Oddly not with sleeveless jackets.

Looking good, but how do I access the tux collar on a female?

Not weven sure what you cal that in English.

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You go there expecting pvp. You don't want pvp, don't enter the zone. Period.

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We are all entitled to opinions. Even you. Still, they are just opinions.

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Umm, no that's the way the zone is built. Hence the glaring warning from the contact for the zone.

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And still people go there and don't expect PvP. They have opinions. So do you. So do the devs. But not even the devs can make one opinion wrong and one right - not as long as the guiding principle is that anything you are able to do in PvP is legit to do in PvP. Refusing to PvP is also PvP behavior.

By putting PvE content in the zone, they invite PvE players into the zone, thus inducing PvE behavior. These PvE people do not want to PvP and have the opinion that PvP sucks. They cannot stop anyone from attacking them - just as duelists and other special interest groups cannot - but they can protest verbally making zone chat even more hostile and they can get pissed off at the PvP community and backtalk it.

Many PvPers have the opinion these people should be hounded and hurt just becaus they are easy prey, which of course reinforces the above attitude. When opinions clash, there is conflict.

The only way to avoid this conflict is to eliminate PvE elements in the zone.

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You go there expecting pvp. You don't want pvp, don't enter the zone. Period.

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We are all entitled to opinions. Even you. Still, they are just opinions.

I've been thinking about this a couple of days now, and I think opening up the PvP zones with PvE content and PvP flagging is a nice idea - but it would kill zone PvP. It might be worth it if the devs decide to abandon pvp as non-selling, but not otherwise.

PvP-ers would have to glow at a distance of one mile to even find one another among the PvE crowds. And convincing a PvE player to turn on the PvP flag... Not likely to happen often.

Now when you enter a PvP zone you know that anyone you target is either a friend or a foe. With PvP flags, mostly of the people you see would be neutrals, completely uninterested. Not even spectators.

People would also develop various nasty tricks in order to get others PvP flagged. Get yourself PvP marked, then stand next to someone who is using a healing aura fpr PvE purposes? Probably instant PvP flag.

So, while I like tie idea of making these zones more useful, I don't think this is the way. One possible way to do it would be to create separate PvE instances of them. That salvages the job put into the zones from a PvE perspective, but kills the idea of introducing PvEers to PvP.

The discussion about Vigilance and general changes to the Defender AT really belongs in a thread of its own. Much as Force-Field Masterminds and Controllers and their issues.

Could we try to discuss Force-Field Defenders here?

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None of these options are available to the Defender. But I still stand by my original statement -- you can be an FF Defender, take only the big 4 powers, and still give better protection to your team than any other Defender, hands down. There is no NEED for the other 5 powers. And for many people who use the FF set, either as a Defender or something else, that's enough for them.

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QFT. The problem is that this makes FF a good secondary to cherrypick from. What Defenders need is more utility in the other powers - tough perhaps not more raw power.

Not an easy thing to do.

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And the game engine won't allow it...

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It could be implemented as a self-affecting buff aura, like Accelerate Metabolism. Not going to happen, but it IS possible to do.

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...but in an oh crap situation, one where you might actually use this power, you certainly don't want entire classes of critters being able to ignore or resist it.

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The animation time is too long for an oh crap power, the duration is too short, and the overall effect just not good enough. When the crap hits the fan, this is not going to stop it.

EM pulse is an oh crap power. Use it and the team gets 20-40 seconds of breathing space. Repulsion Bomb is a run of the mill power - and to be competitive, run of the mill powers cannot be situational.

I never really thought Cage magnitude was a problem; only magicj mentioned it. If his idea about insufficient magnitude was relevant, I supported increasing it. If it isn't then all is well on that issue. I think I recall caging even Giant Monsters (if very briefly), so I think this is as it should be. A quick test on some GM would be good; it would let us kill the issue completely if successful.

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*Increase the endurance cost [of Repulsion Field] per hit and increase the "pulse" rate of the knockback pulses, or change the pulse rate the same as that of Repel in Kinetics.

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Are you seriously saying people wanted to increase the variable part of the End cost? I haven't counted hands here, but this is nor my impression at all. Especially combined with a more rapid pulse, this would make this a "drain end on self" power. If anything, having the end cost/target removed was what I saw requested.

Wording might be confusing us here.

Consolidation time - or culling time if you prefer. A free-for-all duck shoot on others' ideas. Please try to keep it civil. Magicj has already begun. I'll start this off by commenting on the ideas as presented here.

[u]General Requests[u]<ul type="square">[*]Add a Defense DeBuff somewhere.[/list]Not thematic, and +damage both fits better and is more useful. Lets unify around that instead.<ul type="square">[*]Give us a way to add to the team's damage.[*]Suggested power: Force Wall, a placeable "wall" of force that cannot be passed, suggested 40 foot length.[/list]There are only round drop effects in this game, so this falls under the "bonfire-lookalike" power suggested for Repulsion Bomb.<ul type="square">[*]Add "movement powers" to the set, like Kinetics has, justified as us giving ourselves and teammates "low friction".[/list]Very non-thematic to me. <ul type="square">[*]Add more contextually-sensitive elements to environments that activate for various effects under various conditions. Similar to dynamite or light-able oil-slicks that already exist in-game.[/list]Not a FF change; stay on topic people<ul type="square">[*]Add a "combo system" to the powerset that would give team buffs or enemy debuffs depending on in what order powers were used.[/list]Definitely a "cottage the way I see it. Dual Blades have this as their special - it is their only side effect. To activate, these need to hit. The proposed FF versions would be automatic, free candy. This won't happen. <ul type="square">[/list]
[u]Power Specific[u]

Personal Force Field:
<ul type="square">[*]Allow slotting for +Res.[*]Allow the field to be "suppressed", allowing the bubbler to fire through it with either a loss of defense or with a severe defense and/or resistance penalty. *Allow the user to affect allies while in the field.[/list]On suppression: What COULD be done here is something akin to what the new Rage does - a -999% damage boost. But I'm afraid this isn't going to happen. This power is just too powerful and has too much utility (mainly to non-Defenders), even if it has a steep learning curve and seems pretty useless to casual users. Also, this would be nonintuitive - there needs to be some VERY obvious indication that the power is suppressed, and I still think this would lead to may players mistakenly relying on a suppressed PFF.[/list]
Dispersion Bubble:
All solid ideas, tough the + Recovery fits better in a completely revamped Force bubble IMO.
<ul type="square">[*]Replace the sleep weakness with an immobilize weakness.[*]Add +Recovery to all allies.[*]Increase the size to the same as Force Bubble, or switch their sizes.[*]Add some defense debuff resistance.[/list]
Force Bolt:
<ul type="square">[*] Add a low percentage chance to disorient, or a minor disorient.[*]Increase the toggle dropping ability.[*] Increase the knockback magnitude.[*]Add -Damage or -Resistance.[*]Add more damage to the power.[*]Add KnockUP Mag as well.[*]Add an immobilize component against AVs/EBs/GMs only.[*]Give it a 25-30 damage base.[/list]None of these ideas is stellar (including my own delayed knockup idea), this power does what it does pretty well. Only change I can see is replacing it with something else, which is a cottage change.

Detention Field:
<ul type="square">[*]Add a short-term placate effect to anyone that tries to attack the enemy that's detained. *Make the target of the field unable untargettable by anyone (possibly until 5 seconds before the power deactivate).[/list]Merged these two suggestions; they are essentially the same. I could see a short-duration placate (1 second or so) to everyone, making those who have the detainee targeted target someone else. But attacking the detainee actually does something now; it lets you built (a little) aggro on them, predisposing them to attack you when they get out. I think making the FX more obvious is a much better solution. <ul type="square">[*]Reduce duration and recharge, and allow us to slot it for duration.[/list]This was my solution to the above problem - we get to decide how long the power lasts through slotting. The drawback is that a power than now requires no slotting would require some to keep its present duration. The bonus is a shorter recharge. I think this version would better fit how the power is actually used.<ul type="square">[*]Change the graphic to where its super super obvious that thing has been detained.[*]Add a power icon to the bubbler's status window to show when the field is about to lift.[/list]While it would be nice, I don't think this can be done, as the duration is not fixed but varies depending on the level and rank (minion, boss etc) of the detainee. <ul type="square">[*]Make the detained target unable to affect itself as well.[/list]Add a hold, you mean? Too strong, and doesn't make sense thematically<ul type="square">[*]Allow it to target enemies or allies.[/list]Cannot be done with the current engine<ul type="square">[*]Make Cold, Fire, Energy, and Neg. Energy attacks directed at the detained target become small radius AoEs of the same damage type - a splash effect.[/list]Pretty sure this cannot be done with the current engine<ul type="square">[*]Allow player attacks to "move" the detained target even if they do no damage.[/list]Pretty sure this cannot be done with the current engine, as the insubstantial effect would break any such effect<ul type="square">[*]Make into a targettable AoE.[/list]There is a reason no-one ever takes Black Hole, a power much less useful than this one<ul type="square">[*] Change to a timed toggle power so that it can be turned off at will but is forced off if left on too long. Change to a toggle that has an increasing endurance cost to maintain.[/list]This is impossible; toggle powers can't affect insubstantial enemies (which is that this power does). <ul type="square">[*]Increase the immobilize magnitude and add -teleport.[/list]A good idea, fits thematically and makes the power do what it is purported to do. Particularly the weak immobilize is annoying - NOTHING should move this field. <ul type="square">[*]Increase magnitude so the defender version reliably cages AVs.[/list](Magicj's suggestion that didn't get included in the summary). If this isn't already so, it is a very good idea.<ul type="square">[/list]The ideas below are "cottage" changes or miscellaneous bonuses that add little real playability and are out of focus.<ul type="square">[*]Change to a Mag 4 Sleep.[*]Change to an immobilize and adds -Accuracy to the enemy.[*]Make into a "reverse Personal Force Field". The enemy has high Defense and Damage Resistance but can't attack.[*]Add -Regen to the detained target.[*]Add damage to the Detained enemy while it's inside the field.[/list]
Repulsion Field :
The list of suggestions here is very chaotic; perhaps a more fundamental discussion on whether we want this power at all, and what it is supposed to do in such a case is needed. My idea is still to merge this with Force Bubble, perhaps simply by layering them; make one power that has the effect of presently running both the powers.
<ul type="square">[*] Increase the endurance cost per hit and increase the "pulse" rate of the knockback pulses, or change the pulse rate the same as that of Repel in Kinetics.[*]Add a knockback magnitude modifier that is based on the radius distance away from the PBAoE; the closer to the center of the PBAoE the higher the magnitude of the KB.[/list]This could be done by having several concentric layers of effect, but would tax the system a lot more; don't think its realistic<ul type="square">[*]Either increase the magnitude to make it more powerful or decrease it to make it knockdown.[*]Add a small percent chance to disorient or a +Slow effect to enemies.[*]Give it a larger radius but decrease the pulse rate.[*]Alternatively, make it half the size of Dispersion Bubble and increase the knockback magnitude.[*]Change it to a PBAoE click power that disorients and knocks back all foes.[*]Change into a Defender version of Bonfire: It would be a placeable AoE knockback object.[/list]Agree with magicj - this doesn't sit well here (much better on Repulsion Bomb).<ul type="square">[*]Change it into a pet that follows you and has it's own PBAoE Repel ability.[*]Give it a 25-30 damage base, and add a ToHit check.[/list]Damage aura on a Defender? Because Blasters love them so dearly? No thanks.<ul type="square">[*]Add +Resistance to the user.[/list]
Repulsion Bomb:
Another chaotic suggestion list, which to me suggests that this power needs to be replaced entirely.
<ul type="square">[*] Decrease the animation and/or cast time SUBSTANTIALLY.[*]Increase the chance to stun substantially, or change the knockback into knockdown.[*]Increase the recharge time of the power to 2 or 3 minutes and/or increase the endurance cost. (Assuming that one or more of the items above are done as well)[*]Increase the damage the power does to that of a tier 1 blast.[/list]This is now being done, which I think is very sad. It might make people hurt their teams with scatter in order to cause insignificant damage. It is another power that helps Controllers (with immobilize) a LOT more than defenders, which means Controllers will resist a later change to make the power actually useful. Overall, BAD news to Defenders.<ul type="square">[*]Change it to an AoE or cone version of Force Bolt.[*]Change it to be exactly like "the old Nemesis Staff".[*]Change into a Defender version of Bonfire: It would be a placeable AoE knockback object.[*]Add a -Defense, -Resistance or -Regen.[*]Change it back to ally-targeted, or fix the description in-game.[*]Add a Transference effect.[*]Make it a placeable AoE or targeted AoE with a "reverse knockback" effect that sucks all enemies towards it.[*]Replace with a "Frostworks-Like Shield".[*]Change to a single target ranged 100% chance of Stun power.[/list]
Force Bubble:
I stand by my idea to combine this with Repulsion Field; the two are too similar to exist in the same set. This leaves a power open for something entirely new, that should include +damage like a super-Assault (an energizing effect).
<ul type="square">[*]Increase the chance of knockdown/back.[*]Make it give +10% Resistance to all, or 5-10% Defense bonus to the FFer.[*] Make it the same radius as Dispersion, or switch the radii of the two powers.[*]Increase the magnitude of the Repel effect and/or add a +Slow component to the power.[*]Reduce the endurance cost or the recharge.[/list]End cost is already very low.<ul type="square">[*]Change to a -Damage, -Speed, -Recharge, -Accuracy, -ToHit, or -Resistance aura. (Pick and choose your DeBuffs)[*]Add a +ToHit or +Damage, +Regen or +Recovery to allies. (Pick and choose your Buffs)[*]Make it exactly like Hurricane [*]Change to a 30 second click power instead of a toggle.[/list]Absolutely not! One of its main assets is that it can be turned off!<ul type="square">[*]Give all allies within +perception.[*]Make mobs "stick" to the edge of the power.[*]Make force bubble into two bubbles: Inner bubble same size as dispersion and act as FB does now, outside bubble would be the same size as FB is now, but does KD instead of repel.[/lsit]If you switch the outer and inner effect, I could sing on this idea

• Similar to the previous suggestion but: an inner bubble that pushes out, and an outer bubble that pushes in.

If the devs would/could allow reverse knockback (that pulls towards you) this would be pretty cool - tough perhaps not for this power. But I don't think they can, or maybe they just won't. The idea has been suggested before (then it was for gravity Control.<ul type="square"> [/list]
Phew, hope I managed most of the formatting bugs and false references on this beast of a post.

The discussion has slowed down, and the amount of new ideas is now a trickle: perhaps it is time to make a new consolidation attempt? Once we have that, we can begin to discuss the viability of the ideas; I propose discussing all ideas for one power at a time.

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<ul type="square">[*]FF's lack of damage buffs highlights Defender's low damage.[*]FF's Knockback highlights their poorly designed cone attacks.[*]FF's remarkable ability to herd highlights the uselessness of Defender's nukes solo.[*]FF's low Defense for the FFer highlights Defender's lack of a Defensive shield in their Epics.[*]FF's strong ability to keep a team healthy highlights the poor design of Vigilence.[*] The common FF playstyle of shielding the team and then using your other powers means you spend the majority of your time using the flawed secondary.[/list]
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Nice list, and it immediately leads to the already-proposed changes.
<ul type="square">[*]Give FF a damage buff power[*]Increase the non-buff primaries' utility value to make them actually useful[/list]

For me, crossover builds are still for the PvP-devotees only as long as you have to invest heavy Inf into them. The very effort of making a PvP-specific build deters me; having to use my precious inf on it is a no-no.

I don't mind making the zone games more difficult, as long as they scale with team size; they should still be soloable.