Starhammer

I'd like to see a couple changes to contacts in this game.

First, and most important, with the success of team sidekicking I'd love to see contacts stop blowing me off because I outlevel them. Yeah, I can go back and do the missions through Ouroboros, after I hit 25... but it doesn't affect my standing with the contact, and sometimes I just want to finish something up before I hit lev 25. It can also be important if a contact is added to the game after I've already outleveled him/her/it.

Instead, I'd like to see my contacts continue giving me whatever mission was next on their list, and auto-sidekicking me to the mission level if I've exceeded it. Then I can finish it up properly, or go back and get a contact that I wanted for concept reasons (my martial artist on one server wants all the Asian contacts) that I may have missed because I got in a really fun team on a double XP weekend.

Second, Does anybody actually buy enhancements from contacts anymore? (Devs, you've got a way to datamine this right? when was the last time multiple enhancements were purchased from a contact by a player who'd been in the game more than a couple weeks?) Lets have the contacts sell something relevant... invention salvage. Contacts seem to have two stages of sales availability, so for the first stage, give each one a different common salvage that seems appropriate to the contact (like somebody who gives Clockwork missions having Clockwork Winders available), and on the second stage of sales access, give them a similarly appropriate uncommon salvage.

In addition to making contacts relevant again as a sales tool, it would help stabilize some of the more obnoxious shortages of some salvage on the market.

I'm not sure how the actual numbers work out, with the difference in number of contacts for blueside vs redside, it might be necessary to have some villain contacts have multiple salvage available, or have some hero contacts offer the same salvage as another hero contact (not unreasonable since you can often get the same mission arc from 2-3 different hero contacts).

I would absolutely love this pool. I have numerous characters of a melee AT that have a police/military/etc theme and would love to be able to just add a couple extra pool powers to give them the powers needed to properly round out their theme. It get's old depending on the Nemesis Staff or Throwing Knives for my nightstick cop's ranged capabilities.

I would prefer a slight change in the order though, placing the pistol in slot 2 in place of the taser, then making the taser a little more powerful to be appropriate for a lev 14 power, and nerfing the pistol down to an appropriate lev 6 capability. Mostly because my melee guys already have plenty of melee attacks, and it seems a shame to pick up another just to be a prereq for the pistol. That way my ranged guys could take the knife, and my melee guys could take the pistol, then work upwards for there however fits the character best.

There's a lot of really great guns listed here, but the one's I would most like to see in the game are the following:

Colt Peacemaker
Scorpion Machine Pistol
H&K MP5K
P90
Something inspired by a Nerf Maverick (perhaps Nemesis styled)
Mauser C-96 (broom handle)
Arachnos SMG (at least it's already in the game too)
Something steampunk - There was a great one near the top of this thread.

Also, I'd love to see the existing revolvers "touched up" and perhaps made colorable.

That would be a neat effect if they could pull it off within the performance standards...

Reminds me of my desire for a Gravity Defense set for Tanks, with a Taunt toggle that does knockdown and pulls the enemies in closer to me... just seems like a fun idea.

That was wonderful. Very good work, as always

A full series of CoH/V Heroclix. (I woulda poured so much money into that if they woulda done it)

I happen to love what I've gotten from each of the Booster Packs. Sure, each has it's disappointments... going all the way back to the Wedding Pack (I still really want some high quality 3D rose & carnation lapel flowers as an Over-the-Jacket chest emblem to go with the formal wear). Maybe the Science pack didn't come with a real "power", but being able to change from a 4 ft tall anime girl into a 8 foot tall anime mecha is as good or better than some powers (and also helps to sate my desire for growth powers, if only a little bit). Ninja Run? yeah, it looks a little goofy when holding an Arachnos Shotgun, but more than make up for it when holding a Nemesis Staff (sometimes I'll just activate the nemstaff and ninja run around with it cause it looks so cool... I'd still love to see some entire powersets themed around the Nemesis Staff).

Anyway, as always, thanks for the great work that came with these optional packs, and I'll be looking forward to the next one. If you want some early testing on it, just let me know and I'll shell out the 10 bucks a couple months early and you can activate it on my account

I realize that the attack is processed before you even see the graphic outcome of that attack, so yeah, it certainly wouldn't be possibly to actively "dodge" any attacks with this. Kinda a pity, but I doubt there's any way around that.

As for Hover "stacking", I believe it would be possible at this stage in the game to either rewrite hover, or work it into the combat jumping code that turning on a flight power suppresses combat jump.

As for people jumping around all the time, well I kinda think that's the point of the idea. Combat Jumping just kinda seems to passive as is, where it being "on" is all that matters, not whether there is actually any jumping involved. Seems kinda thematically wasted if you catch my drift.

I'm willing to acknowledge that it might still be reasonable for the +def (and immob res, forgot about that) to remain active for some period like 3-5 seconds after you stop pressing your /+up key, so that people don't need to rejump immediately upon landing to keep defense from dropping, but I'd still like to see a mechanic that rewards moving around, especially if you have a power that's all about the ability to move around.

I had an idea today. I was fighting a Fake Nemesis and he tried to blast me while I was jumping and he missed, as I jumped over the incoming blast. Looked really cool (wish Fraps had been running). But then my brain kicked in and reminded me it was just a coincidence, and that movement/jumping really has no effect on hit/miss in this game. After a moment of regret for that fact, I remembered a recent discussion about changing stone armor, and how it's now possible to make certain powers/buffs have effect "only" when you're on the ground...

Anyway, that made it occur to me, what if we had a +def that was available only when we not only had Combat Jumping active, but were specifically NOT on the ground. Instead of so many people taking combat jumping to move quicker, but still just standing there in combat getting a tiny +def, we could remove the existing +def, and add a more significant +def (maybe 5%) that's only active when you are specifically jumping and more than 1 foot off the ground (flying doesn't count).

We'd have these people with Combat Jumping actually jumping around in combat like spidey or nightcrawler, or other hard to hit acrobatic type supers...

Just thinking a change like this would make the power function more like it seems like it should, as well as make it more of an actively used power than just a passive toggle.

The question is, does the game code support this potential, or are those "only on the ground" powers something where the "only on the ground" part of the equation cannot be reversed?

I'm getting what may be a similar problem with the forums. Al my buttons do what they're supposed to and I stay logged in just fine, but whenever I load the forum pages, it seems about 50/50 whether I get the page I'm supposed to or a page of blank white. generally attempting to reload the same page will continue to result in the white screen, unless I close and reload the browser, come back and try again, of course that makes it difficult if I was following a link to a post, and it still doesn't fix it sometimes. It's obnoxious enough I've just stopped bothering with the forums as much... can't read anything important half the time...

This problem does not occur with anything other than the CoH vbulletin forums (that I have found so far).

Also, loading time seems to take significantly longer, I suppose that could be from the images... (do we really need a background image for the forums?)

There's nothing in that list of ideas that I wouldn't love to see happen. I think I might even squee a little over #2, #3, #4, & #5. Wish I could offer more useful feedback, but frankly what you have are good ideas and well laid out... not much for me to contribute beyond wholehearted approval.

Just want to add my voice to the chorus of appreciation for Power Customization. This is something I've been wanting for a long time (well part of what I've been wanting anyway... there's still a lot more that can be done down this path), and it's nice to see it happening.

I think we would have eventually gotten this regardless of the Champions release, but you can't deny that it's just good sense to release it at this time in order to "step up their game" as the competition is coming into the market. CO took a few turns that lead it down a direction I would rather it hadn't gone... But it's still a competently made game so far, and I'm hoping that it has a plenty of success through the years, giving it a chance to truly measure up against CoH. Hopefully both (and DCUO) will prove very successful over the years, and the competition will inspire all the respective teams to push harder for being the "best".

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I played this one, and I feel the need to make a few comments.

I think this mission was bad... But i believe it will make it into the Hall based on the rules of HoF as I understand them. As of my search today, this mission had 882 ratings, and showed a 5 star rating. As I understand it, Hall of Fame requires over 1000+ votes, and a rating of better than 4 or 4.5 (not completely sure which). If this really is the sort of mission that warrants Hall of Fame status, I submit that achieving Hall of Fame status is more about advertising than superior mission design and/or writing.

I played this one because I got a tell from a player that went something like, "I played your arc, gave you 5 stars, please play mine and rate me with a 5 to return the favor. I replied that I would play it and give feedback and rate it. I was a little surprised to get an auto-reply that asked me to review his mission, and began to wonder what was up, but I was curious enough to see what the mission was.

For the record, I always play mystery arcs with my Dark/Dark level 50 Scrapper. He's not heavily tricked out, but he does fine in standard PVE, and he has a lot of temps just in case things get dicey. When I first started I just found that there were lots of AVs in missions, and at Invincible this character is not gonna cut it solo. (I am curious to know what difficulty Venture normally uses).

Also, for the record, the mission is called "The Perfect Brew" by @Green Dwarf.

I did get past the mito, and let me say this. Killer GM'itis continues in the tale of the Green Brew.

I had never tried to melee a Blue Mito before, and I was curious. Honestly, I was intrigued from the start, because I hadn't considered using a Mito as an enemy before. For those of you more versed in Hami raids than I (and I suspect a lot of the player base won't know what the Blue is or how to deal with it), you should not be surprised that my Dark/Dark was kissing dirt without even denting said Mito.

So, I said to myself, Self, how many range attacks DO I have? I've played long enough that I have a Nemesis Staff, Dark Wand, and two of my ancillary powers grant me ranged attacks (Dark Blast and Tenebrous Tentacles, but only one slotted). So, I stood back and played wimply blaster, but it was enough to take down the Mito without much trouble. Good luck to you real melee's out there.

In the final mission, you have to go and brew the beer, defeat a boss, and you can gain the Green Dwarf as an ally (he spawned as an EB for me). It's an outdoor map filled with CoT, so no biggie, but a little annoying to find things. I believe that the kettle doesn't spawn until you free the Green Dwarf though.

The Kettle is guarded by a CoT mage who I suspect is a custom AV, but I can't be sure about that. Fortunately, no AV's for me. But, he is also set to get a pile of miscellaneous ambushes that come rusing over the horizon (it was kinda funny to see them coming for me and the Green Dwarf). Having learned a lot from my days as a blaster, I realized that this was really meant to lead to team wipes, but running away is always an option. Heck, they would ony spawn up to LTs anyway, so my buddy the Green Dwarf would be able to smack around a LOT of LTs anyway. There were definitely D.E. and CoT there. I popped my purples and finished smaking the boss, and the mission was completed, but still they came. I few into the sky just to see how many baddies would join the fray, and I'm thinking it was 15-20 or so spawns. I did go back in to take names and kick some behinds, but it was clearly killer gm'ing, and just dumb. Not what I believe should make it into the HoF.

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I remember playing that one. I thought the story was entertaining, but I didn't get much out of the combat. That's mostly my own fault though since I went into it with a level 8 illusion/FF controller, and everything was just a bit too tough for me to really fight on my own, so I basically killed everything by using Deceive on something next to it (including the mito), and finishing anything leftover off with Deceive, Sands of Mu, and Nemesis Staff. Not very sporting, but it did the job. I liked the writing though, it was fun overall

Just wondering if there's anything in the works to put an arena in Cimerora at some point.

Obviously we wouldn't want a clone of the modern day arena buildings (it's a pity those don't get more use, they are cool buildings... I wonder if any more purpose could be added to them to increase their usefulness), but rather a building and some sign-up NPCs or such that are designed to fit the setting. It seems like something that should be there...

Where's Statesman's Clothes
by Starhammer Omega (@Starhammer)

Arc ID: 6672
Length: Medium
First Published: 3/20/2009 7:22 am
Morality: Heroic
Mission 1: Large Size Map, Level Range 1-54, Contains Boss, Collection.
Mission 2: Unique Map, Level Range 5-20, Contains Boss, Release Captive.
Enemy Groups: Trolls, Arachnos.
Description: Someone claiming to be Statesman has come to you for help... It seems he's missing his clothes.

A lighthearted romp for players of all ages.

So far, I love some things about i13, and hate others. I love the toggle suppression. That's probably the best upgrade this game has seen.

On the other hand, this merit system sounded pretty cool when I was first reading about it, but in practice it's horrible. I'm not a farmer... I can't just sit there doing speed runs on various TFs over and over and over, and get any enjoyment out of the game. It feels far too much like work now. If I wanted to be working, I'd be working, not playing a "game". I can't just join a team any more it seems, because all the teams out there just want to run through everything as fast as possible, trying to squeeze maximum completion into minimum time... it's like everybody is seeing some imaginary timer on every mission now, and it's always a race to finish in record time... it's just not "fun" anymore. Sure, I can still solo at whatever pace I want, but solo doesn't give me the opportunity to get the IOs I want anymore... I used to be able to buy them with mere money. As soon as the merit system was announced though, prices started going up even faster than before, and now I can't hope to afford anything unless I join a farm team and just kinda sit there while they do speed runs...

On a slightly more minor matter, I just tried out a new Shield/Energy Melee tanker... My god, this 6 second recharge sucks the life out of Barrage. It used to be my favorite power in the set, now the set just feels like a waste of time... guess I go with Super Strength instead now. Castle, I don't know what you were thinking, about taking away a nice quick power and replacing it with fighting in slow motion, but I hate the outcome. I don't care if the dps is better than before or not, this just ruins the pacing of the whole set for me. (I have other higher level EM tankers that I've tried it on since also...). Frankly I'd rather have Barrage work like a carbon copy of Brawl than what it is now.

PS: Barrage looks kinda screwy with shields... not a huge issue, but it should be a one-handed attack if the shield is out, in my not-so-humble opinion (It might actually look pretty cool with a couple of the elemental shields, but it would still look odd with the EM effect on both hands and the shield effect on only one.)

Here's the threads I've hung on to:

Journal of a first-time MMORG player

The Jenkins Conspiracy

The Roleplayer's Guide to Facism and Nazism

In the beginning...

So I built a giant robot...

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Poster: MadScientist
Q: Have you considered simply adding 1 Merit per AV?

A: Yes, Archvillains and Monsters are just too easily farmed. There are missions where they are very easily ghosted to and defeated.


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And with Diminishing Returns I don't see a problem. First AV/HERO/GM 1 Merit, Second AV/HERO/GM 0.5 Rounded up to 1 Merit ... Third AV 0.25 Rounded down to 0.....

So someone can get 1-2 Merits in an afternoon, big deal. To prevent farming: Tie the Merit to the (Completion of the Mission + Defeat of the AV (AV Only, EB doesn't Count)) so that the mission cannot be outright farmed. Easy, and then it's not meaningless if someone gets a wild hair and decides to go Kill <insert Zone AV GM> or Whatever then Run a few missions out of their Patron Arc. They get at most a couple of merits for an afternoon's play. That sounds more than fair to me.

You could even make it Limit 1 only per 24 hours for a GM/HERO/AV, but if you did that, I'd make it 3 separate timers.

You CAN reward casual play without creating farming havens.


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I don't know about the AVs (but I solo alot, so I see less of them than many others), but I would love to see people get 1 merit for being involved in the takedown of a named GM (none of those guys on monster island and such, and probably not Sally either). It would provide a bit of much needed motivation for people to actually go out and take these things down. There's so many times that Lusca just sits there for days at a time.

"Hey, there's a giant monster threatening the bay!"
"Nah, I already got that badge..."

I could see putting a timer on it to prevent abuse if a GM just happens to keep respawning, but because of the scale I think a 6 hour per named GM would be sufficient. Even for those that do put a party together to run around hunting down GMs, the time spent doing that would definitely be less efficient than taking part in any TF or even story arc, but it would still inspire teams to form for just that purpose, which I think is a fitting purpose in the genre.

Take care and best of luck. It seems like such a short time that you've been with us now that you're moving on. Hopefully we'll see you again somewhere, someday.

Well, I'll grant that it's pretty. It stretches my screen though maybe only about 1/8th of an inch (the distance between the left-side menu and the left edge of the screen approximately), but anything that puts the scroll left<->right bar on my screen makes me a sad panda.

I wouldn't look askance at news that the in-game graphics were gonna get a smooth facelift like this though...

[i]EDIT: I Adblock'd the background image like Zombie_Man, and I gotta say it looks alot better overall. The image is pretty and all (I saved a copy of course to maybe put on the splash page or something later), but the information on the website is a great deal easier to view at a glance with the plain black background. Thanks for the idea Zombie.

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How does the counter work? If I am logged out for 8 hours do I get a 1/3 of a day credit, or do I need to be logged out the full day. I assume it's the first

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The counter is based on seconds, so every second you are logged out you are getting credit.

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I know this may sound silly at first, but my mind sometimes goes in odd directions.

What exactly is required for the server to recognize that a character is logged out? I'm sure the obvious bit of logging out will do the trick, but what about extended mapserver disconnects? I'm not campaigning to get time credited for the time during a mapserver disconnect (but I wouldn't complain about it either, as common as they can be sometimes), but rather wondering if we suffer an extended DC, does that read our character as logged out or not? I mostly wonder because I've had a number of DCs crashed the client, and upon restarting, tried to log in and was told my account was already logged in. So is there any chance of time not being properly awarded if you get DC'd, and don't manage to log back in and then properly log out?

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You mean lolChampions? Yeah..... thats not gonna kill CoX.

Personal feelings aside even, its half console game/half MMO and I very much doubt that it will have a whole lot in common with CoX other than the fact that they both have superheroes.

And I will mention that I think your estimate of i15 release is a tad on the conservative side. I'm hoping that with i14 coming early next year, they're not going to have a 9+ month wait between issues.

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Yeah, "lolChampions", and also "lolDCUO", and lolanything else that proves innovative, dynamic, and fun. While I don't think any one of them in particular is going to "kill" CoH, I think each will chip away at noticeable chunks of the subscriber base. Once NCSoft starts seeing any decrease in profit margins, how long can it be before they panic and start forcing layoffs once again, dropping game development back to "life support" levels, or maybe even less?

Add that to what has become viewed as "acceptable" delays in development timetables, and it's certainly possible that "early 2009" will translate to mid-june, which could leave I15 coming sometime in 2010, if they bother with it at all.

Sure, it might not be as bad as all that, but it nobody can say it won't (at least nobody who isn't bound by contractual agreements not to discuss certain things before marketing approves the topic).