Winterminal

Hey Stalker enthusiasts.

With i22's changes, it looks like Stalkers are going to play how I hoped they would play since I started the game (silent, fast, hard-hitting melee combatants without a ton of fortitude). That being the case, I have two character ideas in mind, but I am going back and forth between the power sets.

For primaries, I am looking at Martial Arts and (though it is still unreleased) Staff Fighting.

For secondaries, I am considering Ninjitsu and Super Reflexes.

(I am leaning toward MA/Ninjitsu and Staff/SR, but I can be swayed.)

For those of you with experience with the sets on Stalkers, would you mind just dropping a few tips and/or recommendations? I am not looking for a ton of detail, since I have always been a fan of "discovering as I go," but just a couple words of wisdom about whether or not certain combos tend to work, which powers you have found totally not worth it, etc., would be greatly appreciated.

Meh.

I'm not going to spend the points on it. If I want to play frisbee, I'll call some friends and go outside :P.

Stalkers as a concept have been one of my favorite ATs, but for most of the reasons of old that you listed, Sam, I have not been able to get behind one just because, after that initial strike, I felt like the "silent, fast killer" aspect disappeared. I am logging onto the game in just a few moments, and I can't wait to try out a completely new stalker with these changes.

Now, if only they would release Staff Fighting soon...

I'd say the "what my parents think," "what my girlfriend thinks," and "what I think" pictures are spot on.

I like the idea to increase Executioner's Shot's range, to be on par with Blazing Arrow. That in and of itself would be a boon to the set, and wouldn't touch the more sensitive numbers like damage and animation time. I mean, it's a bullet for crying out loud, 80 feet is nothing.

/signed.

This is where I am glad that it appears that they are looking at old zones for updates. A dynamic world is essential toward feeling like you're making a difference. I don't mind if something (Dark Astoria) falls apart, so long as something else gets fixed (as you said, Boomtown or Faultline making progress toward getting rebuilt).

This harps on the main reason I have never been on-board with much of the repeatable content in this game. Once my character completes a significant piece of content, in the world of that character it is done. Hence, why I dislike the Incarnate System as designed thus far: if my character destroys the Lambda Sector, then I prefer to think of it as "destroyed" for that character. Returning to the trial removes the illusion that my character made any sort of positive impact in the world. Unfortunately, I don't make any meaningful progress in the Incarnate System unless I repeat the trials (until tomorrow :P).

I know that is not quite what you are talking about in the OP, but I felt I would add it since it is somewhat relevant. Perhaps unreasonable of me to want that in an MMORPG, but it is things like that that really enhance the game for me.

Last night was incredibly smoother than last week, probably due to the three or four Force Field wielding characters that showed up. I want to apologize to Incredi-Bubble and the rest that team for calling U'Kon Gr'ai out before your bomb was set. The chaos got the better of me, and I promise to do a more thorough check in the future. All in all though, good run last night!

OP has been updated.

Is it Tuesday yet?! Excellent job, as always, Michelle. I always look forward to these.

Congrats to both Second Measure and War Witch. I'm sure both will excel in their new positions.

I would prefer to have the option of choosing the type of nuke that I wanted, which has been outlined by a few people in this thread already.

If I had to choose one, I would go with "higher damage modifications and keep the crash." When I fire off a T9 with a crash, everything should be dead, plain and simple. MAYBE that one boss of the faction that happens to have high resistance to my character's main damage type is still standing, but everything else should be on the ground. That amount of power is what separates it from any other powers in the game, and we will probably only get to use that type of power if there is a massive crash.

Long story short: I vote keep the crash, boost the damage.

I do not think "mez counteraction" is the place where Blasters are lacking. The fact that I can still attack while mezzed is spot-on for the Blaster definition, in my opinion (I find the T1 immobilizations to be invaluable in those situations).

A Blaster who is playing at a suitable level of difficulty, who takes a moment to find the problem targets (CoT mages, Malta Sappers, etc.), who uses a ranged attack to pull around a corner or to a door way, and who focuses their attention on the problem target, should never be overwhelmed to the point where they quickly die, regardless of whether they are mezzed or not.

"The Atlas Awards." I like it!

But if this were done, I think it would have to be confined to content released over the past year, same as any award program. Otherwise, there would be obvious repeats.

I'm all for it!

Good raid last night, Pinnacle! We had a bit of a massive wipe upon entering the bowl, but I will take the blame for that. I should have had buffs handed out prior to beginning that stage and I just wasn't thinking. We pulled through anyway, that's the important part. Looking forward to next week already! Always a good time.

Updated for next week!

Rockin', Torroes! Very glad I could help out. I really like your final choice for the vocal effects for the Nictus Entity. It was obscure and extraterrestrial, but not overdone.

I wish I could have been there for the Shining Star auditions, but things in real life were taking over my gaming time. As it is, I look forward to seeing the final project!

G'bye Beastyle. You made me chuckle many times around the forums, and for that, I thank ye. Best of luck, sir.

I concur with Doctor_Minerva and Doc_Reverend! (I mean, I do agree with them, but I really wanted to use that reference, given their names, heh)

The other thing there is to consider is the variable player base. As much as I like reading through contact story lines (and I do!), there are players out there who do not care about it. Reasoning varies from player to player, I'm sure, but there are players who won't click the text with "(optional)" next to it, and who won't even read the story line; they will just click the top prompt until they get their mission objective. For those players, a system like the one you outlined in your second post would drive them nuts.

To me, it seems the Devs use the "monologuing" design as a compromise. Those who wish to read through the story have a chunk of text they can digest. Those who want to get back to the shooty-smashy-stuff faster only have a couple clicks to get there.

For the record, I would love more dialogue options in the game, but contacts that would hypothetically have those options may be avoided by other players based simply on the fact that they have too much text to click through.

Totally and utterly perfect, ha!

If a costume idea pops into my head for a non-existent character, I will go to the tailor on whatever character I am on, make the costume, and then save it for when I come up with a concept suited for it.

If a name pops into my head, I'll check to see if it is a available and, if it is, at least create a place holder until I can think of a character for it. If it gets to be about a week after the fact, and I have had no inspiration, I'll relinquish the name so that someone else can hopefully benefit from it.


However, my "character creation process" usually begins with the concept. When I think one up, I roll an alt, make his costume (unless it is something I can pulled from saved file stock), and make a name, then put him in the game.

I won't always play him right away because I have other characters to which I want to devote my attention. But I like the character enough that I will want to play him eventually. (Case in point: I have a Pistols/Time Corruptor whose concept I really like, but he is on a back burner for now while I am playing other characters.)

*Runs off to create the forum handle "Streak Breaker"* MUAHAHAHAHA

Welcome, Hit Streak! Glad to have you joining our red name team.

I'm just addressing the power sets discussion, since the costume discrepancy never bothered me any. Rather than try and provide any data, or attempting to convince anyone of anything, the following is just my not-so-concise opinion on the subject.

Melee sets are more popular. I base that statement on two observations: the total number of melee types I see outnumbers the total number of any other type, and that I typically observe a majority of people rolling a melee character as their "default" for anything in particular (first ever character, first character on a new server, first character in a themed SG, etc.). Whether those observations are the results of melee desirability or defense desirability is irrelevant since melee ATs are the only standard ATs that have access to defense power sets. As such, a melee power set will most likely result in the greatest number of characters created, and consequentially the greatest percentage actually being played through, versus a non-melee power set.

Melee power sets provide a win/win on both sides of the business model. The above addresses the mindset of the provider. In the mind of the consumer, paying for a melee power set offers him/her the most for their money since it opens up a power set for 4 archetypes that are offered standard. While a buff/debuff set does the same, two of the archetypes using "Buff/Debuff" (Controllers and Masterminds) may not be accessible to some of the free/premium players, and thus purchasing a power set for that archetype gains them nothing.

Finally, the number of available options has depleted. When designing a power set, it should be unique in terms of both graphical appearance and secondary effects. Graphics are more flexible: there are obviously tons of possible unique animation effects that have not made an appearance in the game. However, what a power does is harder to make unique, as most power sets in any given category cover the multiple secondary effects in the game (Dark's -To Hit, Ice's Slow & -Rech, Rad's -DEF, etc.).


Personally, I would be fine in getting a brand new, completely graphically unique power set that also does -To Hit, same as Dark. However, from a design stand point, I understand not wanting to take the risk at making one of your older power sets obsolete.

All in all, once Staff, Darkness Control, and BM are out, I sincerely hope a ranged power set is in the queue.