Stele

Personally, I think future events need to give rewards account-wide (possibly one CoH, one CoV), or at the very least, server-wide. As time goes on and the endgame continues to be missing, we create more and more alts and the devs only encourage us to make alts to experience new content. Stop punishing us with events for playing the way you've made us play.

I did the event for all 11 toons on my home server. But I got sick of it before I could finish the other 17 alts I have. Same with the Christmas event, although I did manage to do Snaptooth twice for all the toons for the temp powers, which of course you took away from us afterward. At least so far we're getting to keep our costume pieces.

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I am listening to your ideas, but a Flashback system is simply not something we can implement in a timeframe you would all be happy with.


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Maybe I'm missing something here, but when the rubber actually hits the road, how much difference is there between a story arc and a task force? They are both nothing more or less than a sequence of missions.

The presentation is different, but the content is close to identical.

Given this, why can story arcs not be handled via a flashback system that presents them using the current TF technology?



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I think that's why many of us have wondered why we can't have flashback? It's already in the game for TFs. Apparently it would be too much work to apply the tech to every contact. Perhaps they could just use the TF contacts but add an exemp option for them. It would be an awkward fix but it would be quicker.

Basically you talk to one of the TF contacts, like Positron, and you are signed up for a task-force-like auto-exemp until you talk to him again. So you're level 15 for all intents and purposes until you talk to Posi again. And you can do all the 10-15 content that you may have missed before.

The tech is mostly there already. Just adding a 2nd option besides "agree to help positron" but treat it just the same as a TF for all intents and purposes.

Granted, the better system would be for this to apply to each contact in your list, and auto-exemp you for the duration of the arc, just treating each arc like a Tf.

If they're intent on keeping pool B, this seems the only reasonalbe solution. But in doing the flashback system like this, they would have to allow repeating of already completed arcs as well. If not, they're going to need to datamine souveniers. Flashback without repeating arcs would only allow my 50 hero access to Hollows, Striga, Croatoa, and Faultline. She did everything else on the way up. My villain 50 would have access to even less. 2 of the 10-15 contacts, 1 of the 15-20, and then I think she got every other one on the way up, except Viridian.

Personally I think they could just mix up the TF and SA rewards pools and get I9 out. But if them wanting to have pool B can finally get us the flashback system that we have all wanted for years, then by all means, keep pool b, and start working on flashback.

Pool b being finite and only tied to story arcs can't work. Only way to keep it tied to arcs is to give us flashback and allow repeating completed arcs.

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And now you'll have a new, seperate inventory for Recipes. I'm not seeing the issue here.

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I think it will be an unecessary restriction that serves only to make using the system harder than people want. Many of the IO sets look like they'll only really be worth using if you get several IOs; otherwise, the lesser effect of any one IO makes slotting it a bit of a drawback. If people need to mix and match anyway, why make it harder?

The answer, of course, is that they want to encourage trading and restrict hoarding. In classic hamhanded fashion, they do that by trying to give you no choice in the matter. In my experience, attempts by developers to force certain sorts of behavior on players very rarely works as intended, and I suspect that will be the case here.

-D

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Yep. If recipes are storable in salavge base storage, you will just get a bunch of people with solo SGs on free rent plots, and the salvage storage is, IIRC, like 10k prestige, which you get 20k for even starting a sg.

Or people will make use of alts to hoard stuff, if they try to put some base restriction. Attempting to force trading/auctioning is a ludicrous idea to start with. Wake up devs. People are selfish. You wonder why people still complain about high prices for base items with prestige and want their own personal rooms or sg bases. They're not playing to help other players get stuff, they're playing to get stuff for themselves. Loot is going to be even worse with the hoarding. Auction houses will be ghost towns until a lot of people get what they personally want, even with your attempt to force us into them.

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I actually wanted to go with Drops II: Drops Harder

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*sniff sniff*

Hmm. A faint odor of a positronic suit, there. Must be my imagination.

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No way, I would have gone with Drops II: Attack of the Drops.

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Revenge of the Drops: Drops in Paradise.

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I am listening to your ideas, but a Flashback system is simply not something we can implement in a timeframe you would all be happy with.

Instead we are looking into other options to get you the Pool B choice so level 50s don't feel gimped.

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It's not just L50's it's all characters that have finished previous story arcs and the higher level they get the more this impacts them.


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Ok I quoted this from page 5 and we're on page 7 now as I'm posting. But this is a point a lot of people may not be getting. Story Arc-only IO rewards don't just hurt 50s. They hurt 20s, 30s, and 40s as well. A level 20 can't go back and do the Bonefire arc, for one of the level 10 IO sets they want. A level 30 can't go back and do the Striga arcs for one of the level 20 IO sets they want. A level 40 can't do the Croatoa arcs for one of the level 30 IO sets they want.

Story arc IO rewards are bad for everyone except level 1s. And even then, they are bad for support characters who many times just team up to help others with their arcs. Unless everyone gets a story arc IO reward for the last mission in the arc? But as they currently don't get a souvenier or arc xp bonus, I'm not sure. Has this part been clarified?

But anyway. Sign me up with EvilGeko. Flashback. LivinigHellfire has a topic linked in his sig discussing the system:
Level 50 Content

It has some discussion of possible flashback stuff. Although as mentioned here (and there too I think), even flashback won't help us for arcs we have already completed. Unless flashback lets you redo arcs as well. Which I think could be very fun. There are some arcs that are better written, have a better AV/EB, have special modified tilesets, or are just plain more fun than others.

Yes, I saw the "flashback couldn't be implemented in a timely fashion" post. But it still merits some discussion. It might honestly be the best solution to the devs keeping their drop table, and to the players' constant requests to "give 50s more to do" all wrapped into one.

I haven't had many problems yet. But the people I teamed with were dropping left and right. And all of them were taking 2-3 times as long to load as I was. I might have just had a lucky connection night. Or maybe they are having a bad one. I don't know. There was definitely some general lag in the pocket d area though. Had some chat delay and such.

When a patch brings an event live it's hard to say if it's the patch's fault for not being stable or the event's fault for increasing server load.

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Amazing none of the devs played CounterStrike thought I'm not sure many people think of that one...

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I played CS until the cheating became too rampant. I wouldn't really call CS an MMO though.

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There was a nice warcraft mod for CS that some servers used to run. You chose orc, elf or something... I think it had 4-8 classes to choose from depending on the version. And then you gained xp for kills. And as you reached certain levels you gained new abilities. One had a stealth, one had a self-destruct grenade move. It was a bit of rpg-flavor to CS.

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My suggestion for change (given the data) would be to make it mirror the energy absorbtion. (auto hit and rchg included)

That way:
Consume has 15 endx gain + damage
Energy absorb has 15 endx gain + defense
Power sink has 15 endx gain + 10 endx gain
Energy drains has 15 endx gain + 10 endx gain

I did the 15 + 10 to show a point... That each has a base 15.. and a secondary effect that mirrors the set... EA + Elec = endurance bonus... Ice = defense bonus; Fire = damage bonus.

So consume would have the same damage, be an auto hit, and have a 60 recharge, with a 15% endurance gain. Which all seems balanced to me.

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/signed

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Wait, did you just call me Optimus? I noticed you quoted my response.

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D'oh! My bad! This is a Prime example of what happens with lack of sleep!

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*rimshot*

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Doesn't it seem reasonable, Castle, that if the big bangs are conceptually designed to incapacitate the blaster, at the very least they should be capable of delivering a *guaranteed* kill on a heroic solo spawn, assuming no extraordinary resistances?

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That does sound awfully reasonable. Solo, heroic, +1 lt, should be dead, considering the stiff penalty.

I think Geko is still with Cryptic on the Marvel MMO. There was mention of him in a topic a few weeks back by Castle I think. He is definitely alive and still with Cryptic because Castle was consulting him on something for CoX.
EDIT: Was typing at the same time Ned was. So it was Castle that posted about Geko.

Not sure about NCSoft affecting Cryptic. The NCSoft people are our GMs right? So in-game service is affected. Are the NCSoft people also part of the QA staff? If so that does affect updates and bug fixes getting out to customers. If the QA people are all within Cryptic, then nevermind.

Anyway it's good to hear we should get 3 updates next year. But as someone already said it's more important what we get in the updates. If we get Kheldians for villain side but no other epic ATs that's going to be pretty disappointing. We need some SFs or trials on the villain side to fill in level gaps where there are none. Hero side still needs a 35-45 zone, since The Hollows, Striga, Croatoa and Faultline all failed to fill that need that has always existed. Villain side already could use the same 35-40 zone at least, if not another new one. If all those things are in the three updates somewhere that'd be a pretty good chunk. Maybe some new (or borrowed) powersets to certain ATs could help as well. Easier than a whole new AT at least.

Anyway, happy i8 is finally here. And I will settle in to enjoy it and whatever winter event rolls around in Jan before I worry too much more about i9 and beyond.

I had to go with storylines. Running some of Television's arcs the other night on my 48 Brute was some of the most fun I've had in-game. Possibly my favorite contact of all time.

Also the reason I loathe non-arc missions, especially the kill 10 whatevers for every zone hero-side. Even though I've done an arc before on another alt it's still a feeling of being part of something important when you're working through an arc, gathering clues, and working up to the inevitable showdown with Boss/EB/AV (or Hero on CoV).

Arcs are like a great mini-series of comics, each mission being an issue. Playing a comic book is what the whole game aspires to be.

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If you had bases crash as often as arena matches, you would think that the issue was severe...with bases To a significant number of players, that's what they have to live with when they set up arena matches...it does have a huge effect on how they enjoy the game.

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Dude bases are bugged to hell and have been for months at least, maybe for the whole year they've been out. People get kicked out of bases they are supposed to be allowed in all the time. Whether it's their own base or a coalition or the base with who they are teamed with it still shouldn't be happening. If the base pops up on your list of choices to enter you shouldn't get booted from it.

And come on the trams were broken since I7 was on test. And the fix is finally in I8. Trams effect every single hero that travels between a zone and that took 4 months to fix.

Good luck with this arena stuff, but I really don't have much hope for you guys.

EDIT: Forgot to read test patch notes. Apparently base kicking bug is fixed. But still, many months for a bug that affects a whole lot more people than the arena. Good luck.

Very nice!

Stats and prestige costs to place would make them even better. But they already will help immensely as is.

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Unfortunately, there isn't a way to automate a reply to a tell.

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Wouldn't a macro or bind that does an "autoreply Just a minute--teleporting right now" work ?

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You should be able to /afk as part of your tp bind. I know there are people who have a typing bind/macro set up so that when they start typing it puts them in afk with a message above their head, which you get an auto-reply to if you try to /tell them while they are typing. Should be able to set /afk teleporting and they will get the auto-response.

I haven't ever used those binds for typing because I type pretty fast and don't really see the need. But for teleporting it would be great. Recently playing my warshade and got myself in trouble trying to quick reply a few times hehe.

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I hate superjump, but it is, hands down, the best all around travel power there is.


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Super Jump is, for all practical reasons, the best travel power there is....which is why I have it on my tank.


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Yes, and yes. 9 times out of 10, no matter the zone, SJ will get you to the mission door first. Teleport is pretty quick as well, but the chance of lag to hurt you can be a bit risky. Or the fact that it needs slots to be the fastest. SJ is there right out of the box (if you take hurdle on the way to stamina).

When I first played I had flight for the coolness. But I got tired of being the last one to the door repeatedly. And I used to take SS for the perma-hasten fix on all my toons. But even on those I would take SJ as well. Since ED I've settled in as a SJ only guy. Nearly all my toons have it, except for my two kheldians.

Very good guide. Entertaining and informative. I was thinking about a storm/psy the other day just for fun, and now I've got something to build on.

Quick comment on APPs. Power Sink != Dark Consumption. DC can miss, while PS is an auto-hit. So PS >>>> DC. Not sure how endurance heavy my build is going to be. But I'm leaning towards Power Sink or Conserve Power for the pools.

Good guide. Hopefully they've have the thing working again soon.

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Issue 10 is a ways out, but it will bring us an update to an old familiar villain group.

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Woohoo! Bring back the 5th Column. I'm ready to kill some Nazis again, thank you.

Besides Positron already mentioned the 5th making a return in one of his other magazine interviews, a month or two back. He just didn't specify an issue. Now we have something to look forward to, at least a target issue for the return.

Welcome back 5th Column. You've been gone too long already.

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Either way, who cares about the Choice of a +3 SO. If it were something other then Dmg, Acc, Rchrg, EndRedux, then it would be great.

I was expecting to see the choice of your SHO rather then a stinking SO drop. I can get these SO drops from anywhere, via mission arc, Sirens Call and the numerous counts of other AVs/Heroes I fight in this game.

Allow us to chose which SHO we get, then that is some great news! As it is now, the SHO drops suck, I have a VG mate that has ran this SF damn near 20 times and each time he got a Damage/Range. Give the choice to us or change the percentages for these crap enhancements we all get.

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Hoping for choice of SHOE is unrealistic dreaming. Not unless the heroes get a choice on Hamidon.

Now maybe, maybe, in i9, once the heroes get their own RSF to get SHOEs... then maybe maybe they'll consider a choice box for both sides to be fair. But I wouldn't hold my breath.

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* Choice table for Lord Recluse's Strike Force. - Upon completion of the mission, you will get a choice table, instead of the Enhancements simply being put into your tray (and if your tray is full, put into oblivion). You will NOT be able to pick the specific Synthetic Hami-O, but you will be able to choose a +3 level SO instead of the random SHOE if you want.

Yes this means that the Freedom Phalanx will drop SO's again.


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Now that's what I'm talkin' 'bout!!!

Shoulda been done originally but better late than never.

Well I'll answer my own question, since I've done it 3 times now. It's just like hero respec, best to keep the team within 1 level of each other and the enemies spawn appropriately.

Also, to clarify the ambush part of this guide, I have yet to see any ambushes during the AV fight. Not sure if it's been removed at some point, or if it is just because we usually clear all the way down to the AV room instead of using recall friend.

Had a fun experience last week, where we started the final mission with a team of 6, but 2 of our players (husband and wife) lost conn right as we started to clear CoT. So 4 of us managed to clear enough vines for 6 people, although it took a good 30 minutes. Everyone but me (DM/Elec Brute) died a few times but I kept plugging away, keeping the vine count between 5-25 while they ran back to the mission. At one point we got to 1 vine but then 7 more sprouted! But we made it. The Av wasn't too much trouble after that, with a few inspirations.

The villain respec might be a little harder than the hero one, but I find it's much quicker. Have finished anwhere from 1.5 hours to 2.5 hours. Great not to have to travel so much and wheras the waves in the hero reactor always take 30 min the villain side is as fast as you can clear.

Good info. Thanks Buffy.

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I to am blessed with having a DM/Regen scrapper, and is by far the most fun of any AT i've played to date.

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I'd have to agree. I actually never thought of doing a DM/Regen Scrapper before this guide, it inspired me and I've barely looked back. I outleved my previous main and can't get over how much fun i've had with it.

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That's what happened to me way back in Oct 04. I was playing a blaster and at lvl 28. Then I rolled a DM/Reg and made it to 50 before the end of the year, while my blaster only made it to 29 at that point.

Of course that's when regen was really good, and the powers still made sense (no healing in int) and so on... But I'm glad for this guide. I have been wanting to dust off my old level 50 and respec her just for the fun of it, and this gives me a little bit of an idea of what to do.

I always argued against the skipping stamina for DC because DC can and does miss sometimes. (unlike Power Sink on my elec brute, mmmmm ) But with IH being a click now instead of the toggle it used to be that required so much end, it might be a viable build. Especially if you wanted to play around with other pool powers like stealth or leadership.

Good topic.

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Lorenz Ansalado stopped giving me missions when I levelled from 24 to 25.

I Dinged in the Seawitch/Seaweed badge mission, and when I went to talk to him, he wouldn't offer me anything else. He never offered me "Bust up the Dockworker's Strike"...

You might want to adjust it to reflect this, looks like he (And perhaps the other 20-25 contacts listed) are only 20-24.

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I've ran into some things like this. Best I can tell is that contacts will give you story arc missions anytime as long as you have started the story arc. But for badge or non-arc missions, you are right, they stop when you turn x0 or x5, and outlevel the contact.

Best you can hope for is they give you the badge missions first. Or sometimes, they will give you a choice of missions when you first talk to them, so make sure you take the badge mission if it is offered.