TheUnnamedOne

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My beef with the MA set is that there are not enough punch manuevers. You have to add Boxing and Flurry to do something with your hands.

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I know how you feel. As an amatuer martial artist myself IRL, I was surprised at the lack of hand attacks in the MA set. Seeing as how I study Karate, that's not too odd though.

The funniest thing about it is that you can use the Kata emote in the game and it's all just punches and blocks but the MA set is almost all kicks.

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I suspect that Statesman will tell you "We know that the game is too easy at higher levels, and we're working on that," as he has said in other threads. To extrapolate from his statements there, when average mob difficulty goes up, you won't see 4 man teams fighting the largest groups available any more.

I suspect the "increase mob difficulty" project is intended to address the following problems, in no particular order:
1. The insane xp/time rate of solo AOE blasters.
2. The relative ease of encounters from levels 25-40.
3. The relative uselessness of a full 8 hero team over a 4 man team (or whatever size team can effectively mow through trial zones).

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Devs originally stated long ago that they'd rather increase enemy HP than reduce damage. What is probably ultimately going to happen, based on the first step of increasing minion HP is this:

1. Devs increase minion HP
2. People complain that Tanks/Defenders/Controllers cannot solo anymore
3. Devs increase Damage for Tanks/Defenders/Controllers.
4. People complain that Blasters and Scrappers aren't as special/needed anymore
5. Devs increase Damage for Blaster and Scrapper but ONLY NON-AE powers.
6. People complain that LT, Boss, Monster and Arch Villains are too easy with the Damage Boost
7. Devs increase HP for all enemies but Minions

End result = AE Damage is going to be reduced in relation to enemy HP. It's going to take a while, but I really think the Devs are going to do this. Instead of just doing the ONE thing that needs to be adjusted and reduce AE Damage, they're going to go the long, round-about method and increase EVERYTHING BUT AE Damage in order for them to keep their word.

Either that or they should just suck it up and increase all enemy Hit Points and also increase all Non-AE power damage by the same percentage and get it over with in one shot.

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As far as AVs themselves, I don't think they should be soloable. Sure Spidey fights Doc Ock alone, heck Batman fights several AVs at the same time when he is solo, but the AVs in this game are the pinnacle and should not be soloable...

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I'd have to disagree with that. Doc Ock is a Boss. Almost all of Batman's nemeses are Bosses. Just about any nemesis of solo heroes are Bosses. Galactus is an Arch Villain, Doctor Doom -- on his good days -- is an Arch Villain and it takes the entire Fantastic Four to defeat them. Thanos and Kang/Immortus/Rama Tut are Arch Villains and takes the whole Avengers to defeat them. Magneto is an Arch Villain when he's not a good guy and takes on the entire X-Men.

A nemesis (Doc Ock, Bane, etc.) is not always an Arch Villain but an Arch Villain can also be a nemesis, but usually to an entire group, not just a single character unless that character is of an appropriate power level (like Silver Surfer, Adam Warlock, etc.).

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If you make a map, or texture, or sound or anything else of the like to be used with the game, it is a derivative.

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I think you're putting too much leeway into the phrase "derivative works." Yes, editing a map is derivative. Making a map by hand copying the layout of fictional content in the game is derivative. Also, EDITING an existing graphic or sound that comes with CoH is derivative.

Making an ORIGINAL sound file or texture file is NOT derivative of the CoH Software or Content simply because you play or display it inside the game client software. That's like saying that ANY graphic you view with ACDSee or IrfanView is derivative of that software or that a homemade recording of my daughter's piano practice is derivative of WinAmp simply because I use it to play it back.

Textures might be derivative simply because you'd have to make it fit over top of the 3D model which you would have to derive the proper dimensinos from protected content. On the other hand, simply making an empty or transparent texture file to cause an in-game graphic (like Force Fields) to NOT show up isn't derivative.

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Additionally, once the game is loaded into memory, the memory space which the game occupies is part of the "software." Since any new files you put in to be loaded by the game would now be occupying the memory space, you have just altered the software.

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I'm just dumbfounded at this statement. Cryptic has specifically put the feature in the game to load alternate files, they just never documented it. They've had threads on their own forums for months detailing the exact method to do just that.

In a similar situation, during beta someone found out pretty much all the command line switches you could use with CITYOFHEROES.EXE and posted them to the forums, including one that let the program remember not just your Login Name but your Password as well. Cryptic read that thread, quickly posted that they would be removing those options, and the very next patch a day or two later the CITYOFHEROES.EXE file could not do those things anymore. Precedent has been set: they knew the features were there, and when they found out the users knew about and were using those features that they did not want being used, they disabled them in a quick and timely manner.

They've known about the users using the external files capability for MONTHS and have not done anything to prevent us from using it. That sets another precedent that they don't consider it "against the rules" because they have an EASY fix for it but have decided to NOT fix it. I'm pretty sure that it's technically too late for them to actually consider this a ToS violation anymore and their only real recourse would be to forcibly turn off the feature of the software. Otherwise this is simply using the software how it was SPECIFICALLY AND PURPOSEFULLY DESIGNED TO BE USED.

Well, since it's all wrapped up and done, where exactly are we going to discuss the mods now that we can't do it here? Any good forums? I checked IGN's CoH board and that was too cluttered for my tastes.

Here's a handy little bind that I have for all my characters. I always use autorun and jump on my mouse (button 4 and 5) for long distance, mouse-only movement. I liked the way that autorun stopped when you hit the "backwards" key ("S" by default) and I wanted to have that functionality for my forward key as well.

It turns out that ALL movement commands have a built-in on/off argument. You can use this in a bind to stop autorun using autorun 0. I set my "forward" key ("W" by default) to not only move forward, but to shut off autorun as well:

/bind w "+forward$$autorun 0"

Note: Using a switched movement command like up 1 is functionally similar to using ++up except that you KNOW that up 1 will definitely turn on upwards movement and not just toggle it. Weird things can happen to toggle binds when you are actually jumping at the time you activate your ++up command so I'd recommend using up 1 instead of ++up in Meraxes' toggle binds for Hover/Fly above.
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Since we're on the subject of Flight as well, here's a nifty little keybind that someone else developed that I really like having when I'm on a flying character:

/bind f "powexec_name Sprint$$powexec_name Fly$$powexec_name Hover"

What it does is turn off your Sprint whenever you hit it (to save Endurance while Flying/Hovering) and then toggles between Fly and Hover. If both are off, Hover will come on first. This is REALLY handy in a fight if you are Hovering and need to gain some distance. One key will switch you to Fly to gain distance and then the same key will switch you back to Hover.

I made this next one to go along with the previous one:

/bind lshift+f "powexec_name Fly$$powexec_name Hover$$powexec_name Sprint"

Since the first one ("F") ALWAYS turns off Sprint, the second one ("lshift+F") will always activate it if you use these together. When I'm done with a fight where I was hovering/flying I'll just hit LShift+F to land and start Sprinting again.
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After you use these for a while, you'll notice that using a string of multiple powexec_name commands will only work to shut OFF toggle powers, except the last TWO. The last two will be toggled on or off depending on which one is currently on. If neither of the last two are on, the LAST one will be turned on. ANY powexec_name commands you use in the first spots (as long as they are not the last two spots as well) will only work to turn those powers OFF if they are a toggle-type power.