Tenzhi
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Posts
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Joined
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Quote:Call them what you will, they'll still be the filler episodes of combat.Originally Posted by Arcanaville
There's a term for meaningless opposition in game design: its called destructible environment.
IIRC, ChO calls them "henchman" which still equates to "faceless badguy that shows up in hordes to get mercilessly pummeled with little chance of taking down the main hero." And the fact that I found them (much less the higher ranks) to be far too tough is part of the reason I left that game to come back here (where the enemies are less "too tough").Quote:The funny thing here is Champions Online did exactly what I said the devs should do way back in '04. Just rename them. In fact, CO has stronger bottom tier critters than we do (imo) but just doesn't call them minions. If the devs just decided to call them "Super Villains, Super Duper Villains, Mega Villains, Ultra Villains, and Galacticly Insane Villains" they could sidestep 99% of these objections, and that change could be implemented in about two minutes.
Calling all of these faceless badguys "Super Villains" leads to the problem of "why am I fighting so many super villains - where are the faceless hordes of henchies which are relaxingly therapeutic to beat upon?" -
Personally, I want some decent wood-skin choices, with and without bark options. Root-like feet. And a tree-like monstrous head option. And some wood/bark armour.
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Quote:So you admit that your stance is of low moral character? Bold move.Originally Posted by Tokyo
I've never taken the moral high-ground in this thread
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Quote:Which is kind of silly. Nameless minions are nameless minions precisely because they are meaningless opposition.Originally Posted by Arcanaville
We were meant to be challenged by three minions, but generally win. By definition, that means we were always supposed to be superior to three even minions. Just not so superior that they were meaningless to us.
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Quote:Impossible. No one likes me.Originally Posted by BrandX
You get a friend
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Quote:It doesn't last long enough, which makes it slightly annoying to keep applied.Originally Posted by BrandX
This right here. this is why I...
1) Don't understand KINS who don't take a power that helps their teammates move faster. Powers are recharing faster...so going just with the hero ATs melee's big attacks/defense clickies are recharing faster, trollers controls/debuffs/buffs are coming back faster, defenders the same, blasters big attacks are coming back fast and now they have the end to use them often, so things are dying faster.
Why wouldn't you take it?
Also, "SB PLEASE!" and all its variations are irritating. -
The costume piece unlocking system in this game is pretty silly, all things considered. Making the unlocks account-centric rather than character-centric would make the system a great deal more sensible.
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Luminara amuses me when I'm not the target of her gentle ministrations. Sometimes even when I am.
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Quote:I don't think I've ever accumulated enough to redeem them on anything. If they came naturally while doing PuG missions rather than, say, committing a portion of your very soul to running one of the all-consuming TFs, I may have accumulated enough of them for it to matter.Originally Posted by NuclearToast
I have not, to this day, redeemed a single reward merit. So I guess I can't answer the question. Next!
--NT
And the meagerness of the rewards for doing TFs, or the ridiculous merit cost of recipes depending on POV, doesn't really provide incentive for committing to said TFs given the number of them I would have to run to get anything.
And between that and the cost or lack of supply of things on the market, delving into IO sets is largely an impossibility for me. -
Quote:It's a typical way of handling the matter, and *would* be fine if it followed form in being a pool that increased as you levelled (which would, methinks, necessitate the base recovery rate being a fixed number rather than a percentage affected by increases in Endurance).Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
The current system of Endurance we have is a sort of "battery" set-up. We have a limited amount of energy that we drain with power use, but which recharges on its own at a fixed rate. That's fine, as that's one way to handle it.
A system that essentially forces you to use "Rest"...Quote:How about an "Ammo" system? Thee Ammo system would give you a certain number of "shots" which would not regenerate on their own. You would have comparatively much more ammo to spare on attacks than an energy bar would permit, but since they wouldn't recovery, you'd be hard-limited on how much you could do before you had to "reload." Now, reload could take many forms, but the one I'd give it is a relatively long-animations, debuffing power that slows you down in combat and puts you at risk, meaning that you have to take cover to do it. This would constitute a tradeoff between having more shots to fire without running out, but facing a stiffer penalty when you DO run out 
And in such a system, rather than ticking off End every pulse, toggles might reduce your max bar, thus giving you a lower cap on your actions.Quote:An "Overcharge" mechanic could give you a LOT of recovery for your powers, but a SERIOUSLY limited amount of energy to go around, with a penalty of no recovery for some time if you overcharge your energy bar. The benefit of this would be that you had almost instant recovery which topped you off as soon as you stopped attacking, allowing you practically infinite action, but capping the amount of actions you do and the speed with which you could do them. As long as you kept under the limit, you could go on forever, but overstepping that limit would always be a potential danger. -
Quote:I find it to be extremely common, myself. Especially with any character that's running toggles or has staple AoE powers. With some characters a single spawn may run me dry on End solo, and I don't run above default difficulty/spawn size (solo) at those levels.Originally Posted by Bill Z Bubba
The point stands, Sam. Defeating a single spawn will reduce my endurance so far that I am unable to take on the following spawn without completely running dry on end unless I either eat insps like skittles or rest/wait between spawns.
This is not an aberration. This is common.
The game included a lot of bad limitations, with several added (and a few removed) along the way. I haven't expected any of them to be changed, which saves a bit of disappointment, and in the rare cases when something gets properly addressed creates a pleasant surprise.Quote:Originally Posted by Nethergoat
the game included end management as limitation.
there's a lot of stuff that would have to be completely reworked if it were removed or trivialized.
that isn't going to happen.
So "consider" away, but don't expect anything to come of it. -
They could remove End costs from all powers and it'd suit me fine. But the tier 1 attacks would be a good start.
Quote:Good idea. The non-degrading, non-expiring basic IOs work the way Enhancements should have all along. Just have them ready-made at vendors instead of the TO/DO/SOs.Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill
So, if I run with your argument, we should be dumping all non-IOs because everything else can be phased out so quickly. -
I recently encountered a very apologetic energy blaster while I was playing one of my tanks. He was apologising in team chat about the knockback and how he wished energy blast didn't have it, and then he specifically sent me a tell apologising. Then he apparently couldn't accept it when I said in no uncertain terms that I was absolutely undisturbed by it and sent me another tell apologising again and saying he knows how much it sucks being a melee character and having enemies knocked around like that.
As far as I'm concerned, if they're knocked back, that's time they're not attacking me or anyone else. I can either chase them down and get some free licks in or turn to the nearest convenient target and assault them instead. I played a 'port-less Stone/Battle Axe Tanker for awhile and never complained about having to chase enemies down despite being Rooted (though I have complained about the power Rooted and its inability to traverse the tiniest bumps at times). Generally speaking, of course. I have encountered some few players with certain toggles that can make battles quite a headache. -
I've only been kicked a few times for my builds. Once or twice on a Kin who did not have SB. Once on a Stone Tank who had Stealth and did not have Teleport. Once on a Trick Arrow Defender for being a Trick Arrow Defender. Once or twice with my Energy Blast Blaster for AoE KB that I wasn't causing. And once for a petless Robots/Trick Arrow Mastermind (Rambo 20X6).
Oddly enough, I never got kicked while playing Togglobite, my Spines/Dark Scrapper. Given that he doesn't dish out much damage at all, I always expected to get kicked with him.
For my part, my teammates' specific builds don't matter much to me. If I find that they've skipped something I deem vital (for instance, a Tanker sans key toggles) I may mention it. But as long as the team can move forward at a reasonable pace or otherwise generate a fun factor, that's all I care about. If we're faceplanting once or twice every group and the leader (who is NEVER me, for I have an allergy to stars) won't lower the difficulty or something, then I'll politely take my leave. -
Quote:Could be a bandwagon, I suppose. But the chief point is that none of the individuals on it care if anyone else is on it or not (which is to say, whether it's popular or not popular doesn't matter).Originally Posted by Carnifax_NA
So now everyone's on the "I do what I want" bandwagon instead? Or is that a series of individual bandwagons? A flotilla of bandwagons?
Here.Quote:What IS a bandwagon anyway? Some sort of parade float?* 
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I was never really "pre-jaded." The early levels have felt like a tedious grind to me since the beginning. It's the most ridiculously tedious 20 levels of character creation I've ever trudged through...
Quote:Since I consider the mechanic itself to be broken, sidestepping the mechanic almost entirely is "fixing" it. Increasing expenditures as you level without increased resources to compensate is bad. Like having static HP as you level while the enemies' damage increases would be bad.Originally Posted by Samuel_TowSorry, but no. When recovery rate exceeds the endurance spent by a comfortable margin, you've broken the game. -
Quote:I avoid the Anti-Bandwagon bandwagon. It's just too much hypocrisy for me to cope with.Originally Posted by MaestroMavius
That avoids something simply because its popular?
I hate bandwagons.
If something is really hyped or FOTM I'll avoid it like the plague. Even if it's something I've looked forward to.
I refused to watch any Harry Potter movies until the hysteria died down. Then I of course fell in love with the series.
I was still rocking my pager in 2000, refusing to give in and get a cellphone. Now I can't live without one.
I'll end up avoiding Demons and Dual Pistols for at least 6 months after GR is released.
I still haven't made a Shield toon because its still so shiny.
Does this make me weird?
I think it boils down to me not wanting to be sheeple. I don't wanna be someone doing something just because everyone else is. Even when it's something I might enjoy.
Just can't stand being a clone I guess. So I'll wait and let the newness go away, wait until everyone stops gushing over something, then in the shadows I'll watch it, or I roll one up, and ask myself why I waited.
Anyone else avoid bandwagons like me?
Instead, I simply go with what I like regardless of what everyone else thinks about it. -
Quote:I'm all for BaBs having nightmares.Originally Posted by xhris
I think BaB once said that we can have either a standard weapon and customizable powers, or customizable weapons and standard colour powers. Giving us both would be his worst nightmare.
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Quote:Yes, it is. Quite often, it's only about 1-2 points.Originally Posted by Nethergoat
one SO or generic IO's worth of end reduction isn't "slight".
I play on whatever teams come along and have to be prepared for that. Not enough of them come along to be too picky, and the vast majority of them play on a higher difficulty.Quote:Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
One accuracy Common is going to cap your to-hit against most things. Unless you plan on cranking your difficulty hard - in which case I have no sympathy for your build concerns - this should be more than sufficient.
That will be universally true as soon as you convince the devs to give every power six slots right off the shelf. Ofttimes, especially prior to the 30s, my attacks and such have less than six slots.Quote:And again, you never have to sacrifice "damage" for endurance. Even with an accuracy and three damage slotting, you still have two slots left over.
Even with End Reds slotted, the problem often isn't solved. It's not solved until the recovery rate exceeds the endurance spent by a comfortable margin.Quote:Granted, that's not exactly "simple" as such, but as I said, solving endurance problems through enhancements is more complicated than Stamina. It's not an inferior choice, at least not by much, it just takes more work figuring things out to achieve. It's be a LOT easier if our in-game numbers actually supplied us with DPE metrics, but they don't. -
Quote:If I sacrafice accuracy or damage for End Red, then every time I miss or don't quite kill them with the power I just doubled the slightly reduced cost.Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
That's actually a one-sided question with a partial answer, making it incredibly misleading. People pick Stamina over endurance slotting for the simple fact that endurance slotting is harder to plan out, harder to achieve and generally more cumbersome. Endurance slotting can meet AND EXCEED the benefit from Stamina if one knows what to do and how to go about doing it, and I'm talking SOs here. Few people want to bother, however, because "just take Stamina" is so much simpler. That, and to really fix endurance with enhancements requires SOs, which become all of two levels later than Stamina.
Getting Stamina on its own doesn't generally make me miss out on any important Primary/Secondary powers. Working a travel power in along with it is what causes it to be tight.Quote:And, to add to this, everyone's answer is "just take Stamina," but then everyone seems to conveniently ignore all the complaints from people who feel like they HAVE to take Stamina, but hate having to dedicate the slots. Stamina is NOT a free power pick that anyone would be crazy not to get. To get Stamina, you need to NOT get three other powers, and early on when you actually need those power picks. Stamina has a cost, but people keep ignoring that fact and arguing that it's a must-have. -
Quote:The worst part, IMO, is that the problem naturally gets worse as you level up (with most power sets) given the increasing number of powers being used often with increasing costs on top of that and no inherent Endurance growth or recovery increase to compensate.Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha
Or they could simply not slot end red? That'd work too.
Meh. I personally just hate how Fitness is handled. Its three power slots I would much, much rather use on other powers, any powers. But I have to take them to avoid moving at the pace of a snail and permanantly having to rest, which, for me, is the epitome of Not Fun. -
Plot Armor
Your super power is the amazing ability to avoid harm by dint of being the most important person around. You're the star of the show and Reality, like most everyone else, loves you for it.
1: Protagonism - You have a certain something that sets you above everyone else. Auto: +5% HP, +5 Endurance
2: Mojo - You're so smooth that attacks slip right by you. Auto: +7.5% Melee/Ranged Defense
3: Star Player - Your presence deals a severe blow to the confidence of your enemies. Toggle: 15' Radius 12.5% To-Hit Debuff, 10% Damage Debuff - Should probably be a fairly high End cost
4: Unflappable - You remain unfazed by the ploys and jibes of your enemies. Toggle: Stun/Hold/Fear/Sleep/Confuse Protection, +Perception
5: Amazing Grace - You move with daunting grace and agility, keeping your footing in the most impossible terrain and leaving your enemies feeling like clumsy buffoons by comparison. Toggle: Knockback/Immob protection on self, 15' radius small speed/recharge debuff, 5-10% Defense Debuff, small chance for Knockdown
6: Literary Device - By chance you manage to escape the worst of AoE attacks. Auto: +10% AoE Defense
7: Dramatic Stare - You glare at the target, cowing him with your sheer presence. Your will exerts such pressure that his nearby comrades might even be affected. Click: 12.5% To-Hit Debuff (unresistable and unenhanceable) on Target, 7.5% To-Hit Debuff (resistable and enhanceable)on up to four enemies within 15' of target.
8: The Fourth Wall - Even the audience recognizes (and reinforces) your greatness. Toggle: +20% Resist (All), +2.5% Def (M/R/AoE), +10% Regen, +2.5% Regen per Teamate within 30'
9: Deus Ex Machina - Through sheer improbability you can manage to survive almost anything. Your greatness attracts the attention of all nearby enemies, and is palpable enough that some opponents may be overcome with awe. Click: PBAoE Taunt up to 16 targets 30' radius with a chance to Fear, Untouchable on self for 15 seconds, HP and Endurance restored to full - can be activated while incapacitated -
Quote:The game itself is a want. Any wants within a want are virtually a need for the want.Originally Posted by BrandX
Exactly! And thus why they WANT Fitness. Again, not a NEED. They WANT it.
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Quote:And "nikuman" in Japan (as heard in a number of SNK fighting games spoken by Sie Kensou). And a number of things in China, the only one of which springs readily to my mind being "bao zi". Would that they were readily available here.Originally Posted by Evilanna
Pork buns are called "siu pau" (pronounced "show-pow") in the Philippines.
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Quote:And just like the Marketting division of Sirius Cybernetics Corp, you'll be one of the mindless jerks who's first against the wall when the revolution comes?Originally Posted by Black Pebble
I am the silent Black Pebble, otherwise known as the new North Americanbrand manager for City of Heroes.
