Statesman_NA

Oh - one other change coming soon to the Training Room...

This was an idea taken right from this forum. Since Ice Armor has no Resistance, it's a zero sum sort of power set. In other words, you're hit or your not. Well, someone (I've forgotten who) suggested adding a Damage Debuff to one of the powers - and we did! Chilling Embrace gains the ability to debuff mob damage (though it's Recharge debuff is slightly slower now).

Some have asked "have you looked at Circeus' numbers?"

Of course! Circeus does an absolutely terrific job of number crunching. His spreadsheets are great.

Here's my analysis of them.

The Defense given by Invincibility is incorrect in the table. Invincibility has a cap of 14 mobs; no more. The Invincibility Defense max for Tankers (with the Enhancement limitations Circeus placed) around 53% not 107.8%.

That changes the numbers significantly, but Invulnerability still ends up superior overall.

Now that assumes that the Invulnerability Tanker has 14 mobs within the slight range of Invincibility. Let's say that there's only 7 mobs within reach. Now Invincibility's defense boost (according to Circeus' chart) drops down to 26.5%. A quick scan down at the damage comparison shows that Invulnerability is superior only in Smashing, Lethal Damage and Fire damage; Ice bests Invulnerability in the other categories.

Unless an Invulnerability Tanker fires off Invincibility when 12 or more mobs are within range, according to Circeus' chart, Ice Armor will be superior to Invulnerability against Cold, Psionic, Toxic, Energy and Negative.

Also, Frozen Armor and Glacial Armor have a base 16% Def, not 15%.

I used Circeus' post here for the spreadsheets.

Wanted to explain the reasons for changing Burn...

It became apparent that Burn was the trump power...with it, a Tanker needed to do nothing else. He could lay down a Burn patch and Taunt foes in and out of it. The damage was so great that the Burn patch itself would do the defeating; the Tanker only needed to hit Taunt.

The question has come up - "what's the point of Burn now?" Well, it still offers Immobilization defense (we're actually going to increase that duration). And Burn does do a lot of damage. Taunt alone might not bring mobs into Burn continually, but stunning, holding, immobilizing mobs in Burn is just plain devastating.

Just got out of a meeting with Geko...

I completely concur that the Wet Ice Def buff is so slender that it's pointless to slot Def Enhancements...but people already have done so.

Here's what we'll do: Wet Ice will no longer accept Def Enhancements. We'll increase the base def somewhat. Def Enhancements that are currently slotted will continue to have an effect, but players won't be able to slot new Def Enhancements into it.

We're also adding resistance to Toxic in Permafrost to bring it into line with Invulnerability's Resist Elements.

Thanks for the suggestions...we'll definitely revisit the Shard to add new content (badges, missions, etc.), reformat current TF's (a little less grindy), make the teleporters fit the zone better, etc.

This thread is for you to provide feedback to the Devs on the above issue. You are allowed to post ONCE in this thread. Make it count! If you post more than one time - the extra posts will be removed.

If a dev responds this count will be reset.

Here's a basic explanation of how Stealth and Stealth suppression works:

Basic Stealth Powers (Pools, temp powers, and Powers not in a Defense set like Blaster Cloaking Device, Controller Illusion Invisibilities):

Toggles:
If you Attack, or are Hit - Critters see you. You loose half your defense buff (and your PvP stealth) for 10 seconds. Your translucency is reduced to indicate this change.

Clicks
If you Attack, or are Hit - All enemies will see you. You loose half your defense buff. Your translucency is reduced to indicate this change.

Primary Stealth Powers (Those in a defense set like Dark Armor/Cloak of Darkness, Dark Miasma/Shadow Fall, Storm Summoning/Steamy Mist, Warshade/Shadow Cloak)

Toggles:
If you Attack, or are Hit - Critters see you. (You loose your PvP stealth for 10 seconds). Your translucency is reduced to indicate this change. No Defense is Suppressed

Thanks for your feedback. I'll post an update on some of the changes we're making based on your suggestions.

Thanks gang for all your help with this set! Just wanted to say I'm still reading...

Here's the real numbers (that's what I get for doing stuff from memory).

Wet Ice
0.5% base
1.265% Defence from Wet Ice with +++ SO's.

17.71% Max Defence from Energy Absorbtion (not what I had earlier).

Wet Ice - six slotted with Defense SO's - provides about 3% defense.

Energy Absorption similarly slotted provides 3% per target (so a maximum of 42%).

*caveat - I'm doing this stuff from memory, so I'll doublecheck it and repost later if I'm wrong.*

First - I didn't mean it to sound that the Accuracy reductions were the ONLY change forthcoming. It's just that these changes, while global, benefits the Defense builds more than others....

Secondly, I apologize if anyone thought my reference to "crying" meant "whining." What I meant by "crying" was something like "demanding" or "shouting for." That's what I get for starting threads like that without having an editor!

Thirdly, several of you have noted that I didn't address some major concerns of Ice Tankers. Here, I think, are the big ones....

Yes, Wet Ice and Energy Absorption provide relatively small DEF buffs. This is not a bug and by design. Wet Ice provides a base defense of +.5%; Energy Absorption provides the same buff for every foe within melee range (up to a maximum of 14 targets).

One shotting by AV's. In a word, you are ALL correct. It's not a good thing for an Ice Tanker to be leveled by a single blow. So we're going back and changing the damage done by AV's so that it's no longer possible for a Tanker to be one shotted.

Yes, I hear the complaints about Permafrost. And I'm...thinking. I've read many suggestions - and gotten more than a few PM's about it. There's a lot of good ideas there. So I'm going to do some pondering there.

Gang,
Sorry that I've been out of touch for the past week. I spent most of the time with my family back East. My brother is set to deploy in Iraq in just a few days so I wanted to make sure that I saw him off right! He's a hero of mine, and one of the game's most committed players. I can't speak highly enough of my brother and all that he's done for this country.

OK - now back to work stuff. I'm going through my PM's (287 of them at last count) slowly but surely. I at least read, if not respond, to every one of them. Positron and I will also be reading all of the threads over this week and we HOPE to post updates or responses on every single one.

Now, I'll wax philosophic for a moment. Before I left, I posted a couple of things that a few posters thought were "flippant" or "snarky." I certainly didn't intend either...but here's the reality. I do NOT pass my posts through PR, community relations or anyone. I post, well, exactly as I think. So sometimes I won't sound polished like a snake oil salesman. Sometimes, I'll sound just like any other gamer out there. I could have someone edit everything I post - but that would inevitably delay responses and cut back on communication. I think, though I could be wrong, that the majority of you would prefer my honest thoughts, rather than sales talk. It's probably pretty different than the game developer norm, but it's what feels right for me to say. I'm not going to always write the best responses, but you'll at least have truthful ones.

I've seen more than a few people crying for Ice Tankers to have their own place to give feedback. And since we've already planned to change Unyielding some, a few think we're ignoring Ice in favor of Invulnerabilty. So I wanted to start this thread.

Here's a couple of changes coming that I think will help:

Reduced Accuracy of Minion level Turrets from 75% to 58%.
Reduced Accuracy of Lieutenant level Turrets from 94% to 65%.
Reduced Accuracy of Boss level Turrets from 113% to 75%.
Reduced Accuracy of Snipers from 75% to 65%.
Reduced Accuracy of Archvillains from 90% to 75%.
Reduced Accuracy of Giant Monsters from 90% to 75%.
Reduced Accuracy of Monument Minions from 75% to 58%.
Reduced Accuracy of Rularuu Bosses from 90% to 75%.


BIG thanks to Circeus, for his tireless devotion to all that is Ice Tankerish. Hip hip hooray!

PLEASE keep the discussion limited to Ice Tankers. Anything else will be removed.

Thanks for giving us your feedback. We're still watching how Sonic Blast plays out on the Training Room server. No particular info - just wanted to give you an update.

More clarification: Zeb had nothing to do with the Planescape PC game. He created the original setting for D&D (the pen and paper version, that is).

Shane Hensley created Deadlands, Weird Wars and Savage Worlds.

Zeb Cook worked on Planescape. Just wanted to clear that up.

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Man, I remember that vid. He has almost Einstein type long pepper hair. Looked liked the crazy guy from the comic shop rather than the lead designer of an MMO. I almost miss that look; he looks so... well, normal with short hair.


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You'll be glad to know that I've decided to leave my hair long in the future. No more short hair.

And I haven't lost any weight, though the Cryptic team has a personal trainer that we started working with in January. So I'm definitely more fit than I was.

I did say one other thing - that dropped Enhancements are useful only for what you can sell them for - because everyone purchases their Enhancements at the store (or at least most of them).

What I said at Origins was...

I liked our first design for stores - where Contacts sold a limited amount of certain Enhancements to each hero. That way a choice of Contacts meant something. You might get a Contact who has stuff I want and vice versa - and thus we purchase the Enhancements and trade them. Plus, we could link the Enhancement types to the background of the Contact. Another big plus.

But, we didn't have the time to do that - so we defaulted to one stop shopping at set locations. That's not quite as "cool" in my opinion, but it's what we've got for now. Until some other system comes along, stores are here for now. So Stores will be here for I5, CoV and beyond.

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Any future plans for 50 content? At all? I mean, having a lot of content between 20 and 35 is great and all... but we're going to outgrow that quick at the rate you guys keep adding it in. We're all going to hit 50 eventually. Before no one has slots left for new characters, we're going to need something to do at 50... Take a poll guys, seriously. (P.S. CoV is not an answer)


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Yes, we're working on 50 level only content.

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The post 50’s blues: Mr. Emmert mentioned several different possibilities for post the 50’s game. Going back and doing missions with a sidekick so that the sidekick gets more xp.

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Just to clarify: I didn't say this. No plans.

LOL.

Actually, my hair has always been that grey...the one photo is in shadow.

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We might giving out more respecs in the future, though I can’t make any definitive comment on that.


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But you said that you WERE giving them out after I5 last week. You backing off on that?



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Not at all - just can't give a definitive date on I5.

There were two basic reasons why we decreased the % boost of Hamidon Enhancements.



1) The encounter simply didn’t justify the reward amount. Hamidon, though difficult, was not “tough” enough to merit Enhancements of a 50% boost to any aspect. We felt that the new value – equivalent to boosting two aspects of a power by a SO level – was appropriate.

2) As we sat down to create PvE content for level 50’s – an “endgame” – a problem quickly arose. There were those that had Hammies (either a little or a lot) and those that didn’t. In City of Heroes, we’ve tried to avoid the “lewt” syndrome common in other MMP’s; I worried that the endgame that we were working on would either work for those that had lots of Hammies or those that didn’t. There wasn’t an easy or effective way that the PvE experience could be balanced for both crowds. If we tuned the endgame to cater to the Hammie players, then everyone who hadn’t done multiple Hamidon raids would be left out. If we tuned it for those with lots of Hammies, then the “have-nots” would be at a HUGE disadvantage. Quite frankly, Hamidon Enhancements boosted powers too much. So we’ve brought them down to the point where we can now balance an “endgame” for both crowds. Those with Hammies will still be more powerful than those without, but the overall experience will still be fun.



One could immediately say – then why didn’t you wait to change the Hamidon Enhancements until the endgame was finished and implemented? Simple: better to solve the issue now rather than later. If we had waited, more people would have obtained even more Hammies – and thus been even more disappointed when we did eventually change the Hamidon %.



You’ll note that the two issues above are purely PvE related. The Hamidon changes were instigated by PvE problems, not PvP. Was PvP a consideration? To a degree, yes. But if Hamidon Enhancements were ONLY a PvP problem, then I would have tried to solve those issues in PvP alone. But Hamidons were a problem that stretched into PvE. Thus, the solution covered both PvP and PvE.



I read some interesting things that I’ve supposedly said: “Hamidon Enhancements will never be nerfed.” “PvE will never be changed because of PvP.” “Stamina will be nerfed.”



Here’s what I’ve actually said…

“We’re happy with the way Hamidon Enhancements are working right now.” And I was happy – at the time. The end game issue came up when I started looking at the endgame.



“PvE will never be changed solely because of PvP.” I don’t want any PvP problem to be solved with a PvE change – unless there’s also a problem in PvE.



“Stamina will be nerfed.” I suppose this is just conjecture from the UpAllNight interview. I am concerned that Stamina is perceived as “necessary” for some builds, but not for others.



We will not be changing the recharge times for any powers because of the changes to the Hamidon Enhancements; those recharge times are still where we want them to be right now. We might giving out more respecs in the future, though I can’t make any definitive comment on that. And Hamidon Enhancements will eventually be combinable.



Just wanted to clear some things up. Sorry – I was gone for the weekend and didn’t have time to hit the boards before now.

Vampiric? News to me.