Torakage

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Did you know...

That back in the Beta for CoH, Statesman once sent a monster after a group that tried to grief him (Not realizing who it was they were teaming with...)?

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Castle, you know now that you've posted in two threads with this title, it's going to appear in every AT forum on the board right?

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Actually, you're right. I think it's also against board policy to 'call out' a dev in your post title. I think that means I've been bad by actually responding. I'll have to stop doing that.

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[vader]
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooo!!!!
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Look what you did!! SEE?! THIS IS WHY WE CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS!

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He means powersets.

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Thanks for the clarification, Posi. Also, swanky avatar--the armor is looking pretty slick.

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We were told that our role was ranged damage...

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Wrong. We are being told that our role is ranged damage. What we were told was dealing damage. And that's what the AT is. Damage Dealers. We can't take much in the way of a punch but boy can we dish it out. At least, in theory.

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"The deal," as Pilcrow puts it, is indeed that every AT should sacrifice damage for protection (whether that's holds or direct defenses), or sacrifice protection for damage. Blasters do damage with almost no defense available. Tankers do defense with fairly low damage. Why, then, do so many of the other archetypes break the mold?

If ranked on a scale of 1-5, the ATs appear to break down like this (note: opinion based on observation approaching; offense consists of ability to do damage, defense consists of ability to avoid death by heals, debuffs, defense, resistance, pets, or some combination):

City of Whatever Archetype (Offense/Defense)
Blaster (5/1)
Brute (4/3)
Controller (3/4)
Corruptor (5/2)
Defender (3/3)
Dominator (4/1)
Kheldian (depends/also depends)
Mastermind (3/3)
Scrapper (4/3)
Stalker (4/2)
Tanker (2/5)

I realize this is simplistic and heavily slanted by virtue of my observations and personal experience, but it appears to me that some archetypes are simply better than others. That's a concern for PvP but it's also a concern for PvE in that some archetypes will breeze through missions that stop others dead in their tracks.

Also of some concern, within archetypes there are "gamebreakers" like the Dark/Dark/Dark defenders used to be, or the Fire/Radiation Emission/Fire controllers, or any number of other "Flavor of the Month" builds. If the dev team can get each archetype to perform consistently no matter what powerset is taken, then they'll have a better chance of balancing between archetypes.

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There is that odd word "should" again. Hmmmm!

Edit: Bear in mind I am not arguing that blasters should never be upgraded - merely observing that it is unlikely that it will happen in a way that will make everyone happy. Would I object to having my damage doubled (or quintupled!) - no, I wouldn't mind that. Will it happen?

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Screw doubling or quintupling our damage. That's a pipe dream and I think we all know it. I'd be happy if our inherent was 30% unresistable (like in PvP) instead of the pimple on Recluse's behind that is Defiance.

Ohms raises a perfectly logical point--that if Blasters supposedly traded defense for damage, and Scrappers do nearly as much damage plus have significant defenses, then shouldn't Blasters do more damage than what they do? Somehow?

Hey, they cleaned the carpet since I died here last!

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Holy Redname-Post Necromancy, Batman! We're delving into this again?

Well, all I've got to say is that I expect them to get in some fixes to Blasters by I8. Issue 7 seems way too time-consuming for the devs even without adding extra fixes onto it, but I expect by Issue 8 they'll have enough time to fix stuff and add stuff COH side.

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This is why we're only heating tar and gathering feathers, rather than lighting up the torches and handing out pitchforks.

Issue 8 rolls around with this issue still unaddressed (resolving it seems unlikely but at least another bone or two thrown our way might appease us) and the devs will have a riot as the six or seven people who still play blasters rise up in outrage.

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We already know what's up, it's really just a case of Dev procedure:

1. Ignore complaints about weak Blaster sets
2. Continuing ignoring
3. After enough PMs, make a post claiming to have plans to fix some of the problems.
4. Return to Step 1.

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Sure seems like it. We were told that they'd be looking at our secondaries and something would be done...nearly a full year of development later, we have...

*drumroll*

Defiance. Which had to be renamed from Desperation so Blasters wouldn't slit their wrists en masse.

Color me underwhelmed.

One person's holy crusade is another person's "meh." *chuckle*

I just want to be able to roll up a blaster without automatically clicking on the /Energy or /Dev secondary (or /Electricity if I'm making a blapper). I'd love it if all of the other secondaries were even close to those for sheer utility and general niftiness.

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Very doable.. just which picture are you talking about?

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Well the move called "Castle" in chess is when you do that little dance with the Rook and the King, right? I forget exactly how it goes, it's been ages since I've played (not really). But I don't know how to show that effectively...

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Well, that doesn't quite fit the assassin strike idea.

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Well don't look at me! Castle said to think of that move in regards to the name / Avatar...

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So animate Lord Recluse punching Statesman's lights out. Just before impact, Castle switches places with Statesman, takes the punch, and says "Ow."

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I've asked him in PM what kind of imagery (super-hero partciularly) he prefers, but he never answered. Perhaps he just thinks of himself as very Linear minded, one step up from a pawn so to speak. (Oof, bad Chess pun) ...and doesn't want an Icon.

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Think in terms of Castling in Chess.

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Wait...you're switching places with the King (Statesman) in a defensive move meant to buy his life with your own?

The list of issues raised by Pilcrow and debated ad nauseum in this thread are all things I've thought needed to be addressed for the past year or so.

The fixes proposed seem to be a wee bit on the complicated side, but taken individually each change seems reasonable. Castle's stamp of approval on at least part of it only sweetens matters.

Good job on the suggestions and revisions. I wish I had something meaningful to add but anything I could say has already been said, with more eloquence and more thoroughness than I would probably manage.

*does the Thriller zombie dance through the thread in joyous celebration of this glorious thread necromancy*

*does the Thriller dance through the thread*

So...wait. I'm confused. Is this a temporary event? Or is this an ongoing thing?

What would a raving insane carrion bird do with a pony? Wait for it to die and then dig in?

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>.>

<.<

*flashes Troy_Hickman, closes his trenchcoat, and scurries back into the alley*

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Wow, that usually costs me at least a twenty...

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*tosses Troy back his empty wallet from the alley*

>.>

<.<

*flashes Troy_Hickman, closes his trenchcoat, and scurries back into the alley*

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All I want for CoH is villain costumes and newspaper missions. They just get those in, I'll be fine....

I reeeealllllllllllly hope they got brokers in. >_<

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How the heck would brokers fit into CoH?

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Police chiefs and a police scanner.

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Yeah.. buit the whole CoV contact system is based on brokers, CoH is not. Other then an occational hero version of a heist, what would be the point?

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Mantid! Thank god you arrived. We just got word that the Freakshow are massing for a breakthrough in Crey's Folly to try to crack the Zig open and free some of their members!

And if you accept you get to go to an instanced version of the area around the Crey's Folly/Brickstown gate. Keep Freaks from slipping through as they attack in waves.

Your irritation is
Understandable, but you
Should not flame here

Pilcrow has a point
PvE content has been
Sparse for too long

PvP has seen
Huge amounts of labor and
Time from the Devs.

Features we've begged for
For months are in CoV
CoH still lacks

We only ask that
CoH not wither and
Die from neglect

I've killed well over 500 hellions and fires in Steel Canyon and still only have the first fire-fighting badge. Is this a bug or did I misunderstand the requirements for getting the others?

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I can't really say as to CCGs, but Everquest has been a PnP RPG for four years or so now, and Warcraft has had two iterations as a PnP RPG (D&D Warcraft and World of Warcraft) for about three years. So, no, City of Heroes isn't the first.

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RPGing itself seems to be kind of a genre unto itself, whether it starts on paper (as in D&DO), or on computer.

If SWG and MxO are any indication, going cross-franchise into RPG/MMOing seems to have all kinds of difficult propositions attached to it -- in no small part because of the potentially exorbitant and contradictory expectations of both the customer base and licensing agency. Take note of that, DC, Marvel and Star Trek.

So, it kind of begs the question as to who's going to be the next big thing. The initial reports from D&DO seem to be pretty conflicted -- good for PnPers, bad for MMO-experienced gamers. One wonders how Warhammer Online is coming along, and if White Wolf is getting their [censored] in gear.

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Warhammer Online got cancelled, then revived, then cancelled again. Last time I heard, Games Workshop washed their hands of it and let the company they were working with have the engine, so they could license it out instead of trying to do it in-house.

Instead, GW is sticking with their strengths--armies and tactics--and producing games like Dawn of War (Warhammer 40K crossed with Starcraft) and the upcoming unnamed Warhammer Fantasy RTS that uses a similar engine. Rumblings around Nottingham indicate that if Warhammer Online ever DOES make it out of alpha, it is more likely to be a Massively-Multiplayer Turn-Based Strategy Game (Magic: the Gathering Online-style) that lets you build an army straight out of the army books and compete with people worldwide as if standing across the terrain table from them, rather than an MMORPG like the original idea that was pitched. Pity, that...the engine that I saw displayed at the various events was jaw-dropping (real-time weather effects ranging from rain darkening wood and producing reflective puddles to snow creating drifts that interfered with movement and vision, dynamic monster spawns that produced monster lairs if enough got together and the players could raid them, etc.) and allowed for a level of customization for your character that was better than anything else on the market except for CoH.

I signed on just before Issue 1 went live. There was a random detective police dude standing where Coyote stands now. Issue 2 brought Coyote, if memory serves, and he has been proudly standing there ever since.

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I thought threads are purged when they dont get replies for over a week or 2? How did this one manage to rise from the dead, heh

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Thread necromancy most foul...

But let me add my heartfelt gratitude to our dev team for producing a game that is playable and fun, for being so accessible and communicative, and for producing such a great community in cooperation with the playerbase. Thanks, and also chocolate-covered granola bars (google Kudos brand granola snacks if ye doubt!).