The_Laughing_Man

NCSoft aren't getting another penny from me. If NCSoft did do an about-face, I'd see them as even more incompetent as I see them now.

As others have said, it's not so much about the game closing, it was about the way they went about it. The reasons they gave were evasive and pathetic. As a community member I've seen many changes made because players and Developers talked to each other. There was a degree of honesty there - even if I didn't like it at times. To be fobbed off shows an utter lack of respect.

If someone else picked it up, I'd be back in a flash, but with NCSoft. No. Just no.

-H

I don't post much but I read a lot.

Your posts were always informative, funny (in a "ha ha" way) and often got me thinking in ways I hadn't thought of thinking.

It's a gift to translate complicated things into a language people understand and your posts helped me understand some of the more difficult concepts of the game.

CoX was/is a complicated game with some concepts that are difficult to grasp. I tried STO last week and very quickly got confused by the currency systems, kept crashing my starship, and spent a lot of time swearing at my away team member. This experience is common to the other games I've tried and I'm not sure I have either the time or the inclination to re-learn everything all over again.

Anyway, I wish you well for the future and hope you find an MMO home that suits.

Thanks again.

-H

Here's hoping that Recluse doesn't take off his mask to reveal the smiling face of NC Soft...

Thoroughly enjoyed the Strong & Pretty thread (one of many amusing threads over the years). Thankyou Mr Playskool.

-H

Hi all.

I have three (48 hour) serial codes for The War Z which "goes Alpha" today.

It's a FPS vs Zombies and other players which might turn lots of people off but... well... it's got Zombies...

Digging around on their forums seems to unearth some PvE friendly people but there are the usual clumps of loons. As there is private server rental on the horizon, I'm sure there will be people looking for more mature players to provide a more realistic environment.

Anyways... If you want a 48 hour "go" of it - drop me a PM. The first three get them.

-H

There is also 6 pages of discussion here: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=296533

Hope you find what you're looking for

-H

I think I've settled on Otherland.

It's Sci-fi rather than fantasy and I can get my head around the backstory by reading a book. The forums seem friendly, and it all feels very "niche" - which was why I started with CoH back in 2004.

The Cyberpunk era is a close second to Superheroes too.

-H

It's been download hell for me for a couple of weeks...

CO wasn't too bad, but I just can't get past the look of the game.

I didn't "get" DCUO with all the clicking and the dizzy spells from moving the screen every time I touched my mouse.

Tera suffered from the same sickness-inducing controls which is a shame because it looks very pretty.

SWTOR is the only game I've played for a decent amount of time. The story arcs seem well thought out and immersive, but I'm doing a LOT of running back & forth. Doubt it'll get played past the "free" 15 mark.

I've joined up at WarZ, and am looking with interest at the RP possibilities on private servers, as it could be very cool in a properly managed environment. There seem to be a lot of PvPers who are stating their intent to go round shooting people though, so I imagine I'll be avoiding the generic public servers once I've got the hang of how it plays.

So for me - it's probably back to NWN/NWN2. I've got both games so playing on other servers is free and there are some really good homegrown worlds out there. It's D&D, but at least I understand it, and some of the RP servers are particularly good. Can't beat a decent DM'd quest for a proper tabletop experience.

-H

Also willing to lend support financially. I'd be very sad to see the lights go out.

Might be worth setting something up away from the forums in case of... well... you never know...

-H

I wish all the folks at Paragon Studios all the best. Must be a very difficult time there over the water.

I sincerely hope you all manage to secure your futures. Whilst it is sad to lose a game as wonderful as this, at least I'm not uncertain about my job (not today anyway!).

My thoughts are with you all and you can leave with your heads held high knowing you did a great job.

Goodbye.

-H

An interesting link - thanks for posting.

-H

Also picked up a code this morning from the NA list. 6th random try. I think these codes may last a while until someone has the patience to go through the lot.

Sam - I'm an EU player that bought the NA version of the game before it was available in the EU. EU codes don't work at all for me.

-H

First up, I am by no means a Regen expert - so take what you will etc. This is also a "what I'm doing" post rather than "you should do it this way". Hopefully you can take something away from it.

I have previously taken a Spines/Regen to 35 and was disappointed by the primary, so am re-rolling my DB scrapper as Regen (played DB a lot to the high-40's then deleted because of a poor secondary)

Thinking about it, Regen is quite unique in that it assumes everything hits you. IOs have been designed to offer a lot of +Def & +Res (in the next Issue!) which can become redundant in Def/Res primaries. Also, Inspirations will increase your Def or Res for a period of time, but nothing can increase your Regen (a green insp obviously does this to some extent but it's instant. iPowers are excepted as they are "end-game" only and don't help with levelling).

So by layering large amounts of Def & Res on a Regen, my assumption is that it will be extremely tough. This proved to be true with my Spines/Regen, so the theory feels sound at the moment.

Now - if you're super-tough, then you should theoretically need heals less often and therefore Recharge becomes less of a Massively Important Factor. Less heal-clicking means more attack-clicking which is also A Good Thing.

So when I built my DB/regen I shot for S/L Def, & Recharge as well as more Regen where I could. This toon struggled for slots more than most, but I think I've found a balance between offence & defence. I also appreciate that a good Regen build is going to cost a lot more than a Defensive/Resistive set because you have to chase all those expensive IOs. I also think the Accolades play an important part here as they can boost your HP which impacts the size of the regen tick (rather than regen boosts which impact the frequency).

The end result is 110% recharge when Hasten is up, which is 20% less than your build, but my attacks are all in the red for damage, and I have soft capped S/L as well as fairly good resists and good base Def to everything else. The thought is that by reducing the number of successful attacks, my Regen will have more space to work. Dull Pain, Reconstruction, IH & MOG are all nice backups.

This is what I'm running with at the moment...

I'm planning (post i24) on putting it in Nova for the same reasons as Tangler quoted.

Phew - that's a lot of toggles!!

Some thoughts...

I can't see why you've chosen Acrobatics as well as Active Defence. Seems like overkill to me.

Also cannot see why you chose Tactics as well as Focussed Accuracy. FA is a massive endurance hog!

You seem to have a lot of single target attacks. My BS/SD jumps into the spawn, soaks up AAO then hits build up>Shield Charge>Spring Attack>Whirling sword. Anything left alive (and there isn't much) gets Headspliiter>Disembowel>Hack until it's in bits. Admittedly I'm a scrapper which is slightly different so I may be missing something.

Agree with C&E about Build Up - It's a lovely bonus to damage.

Also, my BS/SD has taken to the market and created the Recovery Serum and Med-Pack temp powers (not sure on those names) for the End boost and the self-heal.

-H

Yes - welcome back!

Mids is also a great help for figuring out "how important" an IO actually is.

For example, Scrapper Weave slotted with a LoTG Def/+Rech, Def/End & Def plus a normal End redux IO gives +5.57% defence at a cost of 0.24end/sec when slotted with L35 enhancements, vs +5.78% defence for 0.19end/sec at L50. Using a more extreme example, Instant Healing with 3 L50 recharge IOs recharges in 283.7s, whereas it recharges in 287s with L35s. That's 4 seconds difference on a power with a huge recharge (650s), or 0.4 of a second on something with a 65 second recharge.

With that in mind, my "process" for levelling is slightly different - but it doesn't make "better".

I generally level a toon to 22, then fill up with L25 IOs. I start running Tips and SSA's to generate Hero merits which allow me to buy & slot the rarer IOs that aren't level dependent (LoTG +Recharge, Numina proc, Miracle proc etc).

Once I get to anywhere between 35 & 45 I start building my "IO" toon on my dual build - referring to my Mids build and either crafting drops, or keeping my eye on the market for cheap recipes I can slot. Previous posters are right - they're not so prevalent <50 but they also nowhere near as pricey and you're not in a rush because you only have 3 slots to fill every 2 levels and you have your vanilla IO build that works just fine. Waiting until after 35 pushes me out of the high "PvP" band and for me, the enhancement differences between 35 & 50 are small enough for me not to worry.

As that second build looks like its starting to take over effectiveness from my regular-IO build, I make a permanent swap to that 2nd build. I then use a respec to clear out my original L25-IO build and dump the enhancements in my base. Those enhancements are now ready for the next alt to hit 22.

This works for me because:
a) I have a lot of vetspecs per character that I'll never need (although you only need 1 per character for this method)
b) I have a solo SG base with a 2nd (Premium) account "inviter".
c) I have 30 enhancement slots/character (you need 33-38 slots for a non-kheld @22, so this is enough in 1 respec to almost outfit a new L22 toon)
d) Marketing isn't as much fun as playing (for me!) and I just need to craft a few new enhancements per toon, minimising time in the market and maximising time spent playing. (If you want to make the money as you level - Organica's thread makes great reading)

Hope this helps. It's just another angle to look at. No way is the "right" way.

-H

Thanks for the replies and the links. Much appreciated.

Does the integrated graphics of the HD4000 run CoX ok?

-H

Hi there,

My daughter is looking for a laptop and wants to be able to play CoX on it. I have done a fair bit of reading and came up with this Lenovo Laptop with an Nvidia GT630, but it's a bit over what she wanted to spend.

I can take the spec down to the Intel "HD4000" integrated graphics, but I don't know how well this will render CoX. Ultra-Mode isn't a requirement, but a "nice" gaming experience would be nice rather than "minimum-everything".

Her budget is really £450, £500 at the absolute top, and I need it to come from somewhere relatively reputable in case of problems.

Does anyone have any experience of the lower end graphic cards, or any UK sourced laptops that might fit the bill?

All help appreciated.

Many thanks, and apologies if this isn't the place to ask...

Edit to add Hyperstrikes Q&A which I just found...

-What will you primarily be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Internet, Word, Excel - nothing too heavy. No PS - Gaming will be nothing more strenuous than CoX

-What's your budget? (Real Dollars) Are tax and shipping included? This is important as it allows people trying to help you to suggest things appropriate to your budget.
£450-£500

- Where do you live? This is important as it affects what vendors you may buy from and how much shipping costs might be.
The UK

- Are you planning to buy or build?
Buy

- What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need. If you're unsure what exactly you need, say so.
Again - CoX will likely be the most taxing thing in terms of RAM, CPU and GPU requirements.

- If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Nope

- Will you be overclocking?
Nope

- What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have? What is the resolution?
Whatever laptop size is available. No preference.

- When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
ASAP

- What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? etc.
No special features.

- Any specific must-have features? Must be able to max out Ultra-Mode? Must have 6+GB of RAM? Must have an SSD? etc.
Would like to be able to play CoX above minimum settings, with a "good" gaming experience. Understand that on my budget, an Ultra-mode laptop is highly unlikely.

- Are there any vendors/brands you'd specifically prefer to use?
- Are there any vendors/brands you'd specifically prefer to avoid?
No. Would prefer reliability over cheapness with any brand though.

- Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit? (Note: If your current OS came with your computer, odds are that it is NOT transferable.)
Nope. Needs Win7

-H

Thanks ever so much for the detailed reply.

Made the change to pick up Burnout and Overload for the "fun factor" that Tactics just doesn't supply The extra slots went into the Panacea proc and a Numina +Heal in health for a bit more regen and recovery.

Also liked the idea of double end bonusses with the Body epic. There are recovery options within the secondary, but they just waste time. Pushed them further up the build (selected at 38 & 41) to take advantage of them as I level.

It was mainly your assessment of the attack power slotting/selection that's really helped. I plugged your build into my attack chain calculator, and was very surprised to see how much of a difference that extra SB made. Not only does it provide a gapless chain, it increases the chance of an AS crit significantly.

The only change I made there was to swap out the HO in SB with a Hetacomb A/D/R (+5'd) for the extra recovery. I think deciding between the two will probably be something I think about when I'm 50.

Thanks again for your help. Much appreciated.

-H

Hi folks.

I loved my KM Stalker and waited with great anticipation for Concentrated Strike at 32.

Wow. That animation sure 'aint my cuppa. And it's not so much the speed of it, more the wavy hands :shudder:

So rather than delete, I thought about building without it. Especially after reading this thread (as well as Gecko's thread on running without CS) although I must confess I didn't get my head around it all.

This is what I came up with:

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.96
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Speed Ghost SB-BB-QS-AS: Level 50 Magic Stalker
Primary Power Set: Kinetic Melee
Secondary Power Set: Energy Aura
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Weapon Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Quick Strike -- Mako-Acc/Dmg:30(A), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:30(3), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:30(3), Mako-Dmg/EndRdx:50(5), T'Death-Dam%:40(5), Hectmb-Dam%:50(7)
Level 1: Hide -- LkGmblr-Rchg+:50(A), SW-ResDam/Re TP:50(46)
Level 2: Body Blow -- Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(A), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(7), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(23), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(25), Mako-Dam%:50(25), T'Death-Dam%:40(27)
Level 4: Smashing Blow -- Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(A), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(27), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(29), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(29), Mako-Dam%:50(34), T'Death-Dam%:40(34)
Level 6: Assassin's Strike -- SStalkersG-Acc/Dmg:50(A), SStalkersG-Dmg/Rchg:50(34), SStalkersG-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(36), SStalkersG-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(36), SStalkersG-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(36), SStalkersG-Rchg/Hide%:50(37)
Level 8: Build Up -- RechRdx-I:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(9), RechRdx-I:50(9)
Level 10: Kinetic Shield -- LkGmblr-Rchg+:50(A), LkGmblr-Def:50(11), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx:50(11), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:50(13)
Level 12: Power Shield -- LkGmblr-Rchg+:50(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx:50(13), LkGmblr-Def:50(15), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:50(15)
Level 14: Entropy Shield -- EndRdx-I:50(A)
Level 16: Kinetic Dampening -- RctvArm-ResDam:40(A), RctvArm-EndRdx:40(17), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx:40(17), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:40(19), GA-3defTpProc:50(19), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+:30(23)
Level 18: Burst -- Erad-Dmg:30(A), Erad-Acc/Rchg:30(37), Erad-Dmg/Rchg:30(37), C'ngBlow-Acc/Dmg:50(39), C'ngBlow-Dmg/EndRdx:50(39), C'ngBlow-Dmg/Rchg:50(39)
Level 20: Hasten -- RechRdx-I:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(21), RechRdx-I:50(21)
Level 22: Super Speed -- EndRdx-I:50(A)
Level 24: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+:50(A)
Level 26: Kick -- Acc-I:50(A)
Level 28: Energy Drain -- Efficacy-EndMod:50(A), Efficacy-EndMod/Rchg:50(40), Efficacy-EndMod/Acc/Rchg:50(40), Efficacy-Acc/Rchg:50(40), Efficacy-EndMod/Acc:50(46), Efficacy-EndMod/EndRdx:50(50)
Level 30: Tough -- Aegis-ResDam:40(A), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx:50(31), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:50(31), EndRdx-I:50(31)
Level 32: Weave -- LkGmblr-Rchg+:50(A), LkGmblr-Def:50(33), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx:50(33), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:50(33)
Level 35: Energize -- Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx:50(A), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg:50(42), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg:50(42), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg:50(42), Dct'dW-Heal:50(43)
Level 38: Physical Perfection -- P'Shift-End%:50(A), P'Shift-EndMod:50(48), EndMod-I:50(48), RgnTis-Regen+:30(48)
Level 41: Assault -- EndRdx-I:50(A)
Level 44: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Def:50(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx:50(45), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:50(45), EndRdx-I:50(46)
Level 47: Overload -- RechRdx-I:50(A)
Level 49: Placate -- RechRdx-I:50(A)
Level 1: Assassination
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A), Empty(50), Empty(50)
Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- EndRdx-I:50(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Health -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+:50(A), Mrcl-Rcvry+:40(43)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod:50(A), P'Shift-End%:50(43), EndMod-I:50(45)
Level 50: Musculature Radial Paragon
------------

I knew the Options part was OTT. Was hoping someone might come up with a better idea that's more balanced and less power-crazed.

Ho hum.

-H

The Radiation Accident - Life begins at 50?

It's been bugging me for a while now and this is my third attempt at this post. A lot of the problem with this idea is working out how the dev time would be justified, and whether it would just overbalance things terribly. It dates back to my tabletop superhero RPG days and a certain game with Defender as its lead hero.

Anyways, after playing it for several years, my character had amassed a vast amount of xp, which had been spent bit by bit. He was very well rounded, but boring, and I wanted a change, so the GM wrote a short session that invloved him having a radiation accident which allowed me to rebuild from scratch having all my xp in one job lot as well as the standard starting points.

So. Getting back to CoX, I was thinking about having the ability to respec my toon as something else. I could just re-roll my toon, but I'd lose just over 1100 badges - including all 8 anniversary badges, as well as all the pain of getting those lovely iSlots & accolades. My character also has a lot of history with the game. Pedestrians always have something interesting to say when I walk past. Deleting and re-rolling just wouldn't cut it for me, so I stick with the relatively underpowered Emp/Psi defender and plod on, grinding the badges because I'd rather do that than start from scratch with another.

Also, there's no way the Developers would want folks switching ATs/Power combos at 50. It would instantly devalue all the content below 50.

The Proposal

At 50, a toon can complete a special arc that allows them to have a "Radiation Accident". Once the arc is completed, the toon is teleported to a special hospital with a contact who will guide them through the following process.

1. Forced Respec (toon must have one saved, or is given one as part of the arc) to remove as many enhancements as they can/want. Toon can also use unslotters and store enhancements in base/WW/mail etc.
2. Speak to the contact again to initiate the "change". This will open up the character select screen again and allow the toon to rechoose (depending on balance issues) either Different powers within an AT, or a completely new AT.
3. The character is delevelled to 1
4. The character gets to keep: Badges, Accolades, Salvage, iSalvage, Inf, Recipes, Enhancements in-tray, Temp Powers, SG membership, Merits, Alignment, Inventory sizes. iPowers would also remain - though these are unavailable until the character reaches 50 again.

So the character has to start from scratch, levelling up from level 1. Oh - and they get a badge for the accident too! (Nothing to stop folks choosing the same AT/Power combo if all they want is the badge).

Freedom Impacts? Available only to VIPs, this could also be a chargeable arc - similar to the SSAs were for non-VIPs. This might get some money back for the dev time required to make it work.

Not really thought about HEATS or VEATS...

Thoughts...

Who would use this?
- "One badger" badge collectors who hate the thought of collecting another 1300+badges on a re-roll and don't like their "main" powerset choices. (I guess a v small segment of the customer base - of which I am one Hence this wall of text.)
- Server Slot hungry people who could just rad-accident their one slot to start a new one. (Bad 4 bzness)
- Badgers looking to complete their collection. (They might get angry)

It's not a big list is it? And not overly convincing. In my mind - certainly not enough incentive to actually devote time to it. The trick would be to add something to the Iraddiated hero/villain to tempt more people into doing it. Because if you can tempt people into it, you've got them running from 1-50 twice rather than once!

So. Some options that I've been thinking over... All are far from perfect and fly right over the "this may break the game" lines.

Making It Attractive

Option 1
"Key" powers from the original primary AT are placed into a secondary power pool that the player can choose from at those levels. So, an Energy blaster respecing to a MA scrapper would be able to choose (random sample) Power Blast instead of Storm Kick, Power Burst instead of Focus Chi, Power Push instead of CAK and Nova instead of Eagles Claw.

Option 2
Create an "Iraddiated" secondary power pool, which is only accessible to those who have had the rad accident. There are 4/5 powers in this pool that come from the original AT the player chose.

For example, a Defender respecs into a Scrapper. As he levels up, he has access to a "Defender" pool (his original AT) that he can choose from in addition to the existing secondary pools (no extra power slots - just more choice). The key would be the content of each AT pool.

1. It would contain powers that already exist - to avoid additional development (10 ATs = 40-50 new powers? - not likely!)
2. It would be difficult to do this for people that stayed in their AT (Emp/Psi defender respeccing to Storm/Energy for example.)

Option 3
Have a branching option similar to the VEATS where the player can choose from either their new powers or their original pre-respec powers.
This sounds way too overpowered and even my head hurts thinking up the possibilities for Scrapper-blasters.

Option 4
Just have an "Irradiated" secondary pool with fixed powers in it. Relavitely easy to balance. Hard to think up generic powers for all ATs. Lots of work to create new powers and no money from them.

Just re-reading through these options makes me think that they are all too overpowered, and/or require far too much time to develop to be practical. Maybe this isn't such a good idea. I just want a way to play my badger without feeling rubbish.

Thoughts?

Bah... flippancy never works.

I meant no global recharge.

Empathy:

- The set relies heavily on "Healing" with the 1st 3 powers and the last 2 all nudging the green bar upwards. The simplest and smallest change here would be to maybe add some of the new Absorption mechanic to Absorb Pain and change the recharge/end/heal factors accordingly.

- Clear Mind is a great anti-mez buff but there are better things to be doing as an Empath than cycling through the team (No fun on a league!). I'd either make it last longer (for increased End/recharge), or have the same buff as other shields got (1 cast gets the whole team) with any subsequent levelling factor applied. (Dreams of CM as a PBAoE buff!)

- Ressurection has the same End cost and recharge as Rad & Poison's offerings but none of the benefits. I'm getting more mileage from carrying store bought Ally rez's + Heal Other & using the power pick for something else. (snide comments & tells aside) Just looking at NA's "Rebirth" makes me think this is how it should have been done.

-H