baron_inferno

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  1. Quote:
    Originally Posted by HelinCarnate View Post
    Until we know the drop rates for sure saying x number of runs should get you Y is not always going to be correct either. Drawing conclusions from an extreemly small sample size will most times lead you to the wrong conclusion.
    Except it's not an extremely small sample size. According to dev statements and clarifications, everyone is suppose to have an randomized end reward table after the "participation" threshold has been reached. To that end, I (and anyone else) can add their own personal data collection to Lobsters. I have done over 250 trials runs with 12 of my characters and their results does seem to reflect Lobsters.
  2. baron_inferno

    In-N-Out Burger

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Red_Raccoon View Post
    Worst pizza I ever had was at California Pizza Kitchen. I can assure you, their pizza is not typical of pizza served in California (or anywhere, I hope).
    Well, CPK was originally started by a pair of lawyers in Beverley Hills (artificial, fake, glam over substance) so yeah, kind of tells you everything you need to know.

    Bay Area in contrast has a some pretty good pizza joints as well as cuisine of every type you can think of. That's the real Cali as far as I'm concerned.
  3. Quote:
    Originally Posted by FrostyG View Post
    There was a time I thought the damage potential of a ill/fire dom was too high, but then I take a look at how the dev's have completely given up trying to balance this game and say go for it!
    The best way to balance ATs and power sets? Give everyone nukes and super DoTs so all can kill non-praetorian mobs as quickly as one another.
  4. baron_inferno

    In-N-Out Burger

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Partsman View Post
    Now my favorite chain burger joint is Fuddruckers. They have buffalo, turkey, ostriche, and black angus burgers, and I love their spiced fries. I've only seen 2 so far, one in Milwaukee and one in Kansas City, so maybe they are only a Midwest kind of chain.
    Nope, Fudds is a national chain, just not a huge one. I live in Bay Area in Cali now and before this I was in the DC area in Maryland, I've been to Fudds at both places.
  5. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Biowraith View Post
    Unless you're running 100s (ideally 1000s) of trials with each character, I'd expect that from a random system.
    Just a quick note. If the reward randomization (trial participation) system is really working as the devs described it, the AT shouldn't matter. As far as statistical data collection, combined number of runs between all of one's characters should suffice. That is assuming what the devs has stated is the way things really work.
  6. Not to derail the thread but... Dude! If you're only going to be in Singapore for a few days, enjoy it while you're can. All this CoH stuff can wait a bit. It's a wonderful little city-state, I almost considered living there but the cost of living is just too high.
  7. It's Brutes for me. I have taken 4 of them through the trials so far and they're just swimming in rares and very rares. In fact, ELM/ELA brute has something like 5-6 very rares sitting in his salvage inventory with just 20-25 runs through the two trials. That's the amount of runs it takes for me to unlock all four slots and create tier 3 rares before moving on to the next level 50.

    I've also had decent luck with my Doms, Corrs, and Stalkers. My MM's luck is plain awful.
  8. It almost sounds like you are really describing a Night Widow instead of all the previous choices. I certainly feel like the way you want to feel when I'm on my Widow. NW has sick ST damage and you can even add some psychic damage types to your repertoire (from the Fortunada tree) incase you come up against mobs that have high lethal resistance which is fairly often. The only down side is that it's squishier than Brute or Scrappers but it's certainly not a faceplant machine. It's even that way on the trials against +3 Praetorian mobs (before getting the level shifts from Lore and Destiny) because Widows can reach the "new defense softcap" with perma Mind Link.
  9. I started CoV 4 years ago because a MMO buddy wanted me to try it out with her. She has long since quit the game but I'm still here.

    When it comes to MMOs, I have a one track mind and somewhat of a stubborn streak. Once I start a game, I just have to keep going until it truly manages to rile my nerves and/or utterly bored. At that point, I'll just stop playing for a few months and possibly replace it with something else on a temporary basis (MMO, FPS, RTS, RPG or otherwise). If I miss that MMO, I'll resubscribe. If I don't, it's adios forever. On one hand, I feel like I have to keep going simply because I have already invested a lot of time to achieve a certain level of in-game progress. On the other hand, once I make up my mind about leaving for good, it's literally the point of no return.

    Truth be told (and this is going to sound like blasphemy to a lot of people here), if my friend from 4 years ago had asked me to try another MMO, I probably would be playing that instead of CoV right now.
  10. baron_inferno

    In-N-Out Burger

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Fritzy View Post
    Ok, the line maybe was long for the one in Allen, TX.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQowy...layer_embedded
    ..............

    You couldn't get me to wait in that line even if they gave it to me free. In-N-Out is pretty good but it's not *that* good. 8 bucks for a Double-Double combo, animal style, and 10 bucks for wasted gas. Crazy...

    Edit: Come to think of it, are these people waiting in the line even employed? How do they expect to get through that line, eat and get back to work, all with just an one hour lunch break?
  11. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tricia View Post
    Gallup polls also don't involve random numbers.
    True but often times, they also don't take into account factors such as reasoning behind the response, upbringing background, social environment, so on and so forth. Some those of factors can be just as unreliable and as random as the RNG.

    In anycase, this is getting off topic. I never said this was to be some sort of scientific study. It was only meant to be a survey of the personal experiences and hopefully, maybe some sort of conclusion (however vague) can surface as a result. It's pretty much the only thing we can do until they devs reveal more information about their participation based end reward system, if they ever choose to do it.
  12. baron_inferno

    In-N-Out Burger

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Neuronia View Post
    Lowdown on this place for a Canadian?
    Pictures make it look like a McDonald's-type area?
    It's more or less a fast food place. I'm kind of a foodie so I've been around the block when it comes to just about every type of food. Honestly, the burgers and fries aren't all that special by themselves. It's really the "animal style" (secret recipe of chopped grilled onions, thousand island dressing and some other ingridients) making it unique. Once in a while I do get cravings and it is pretty good for what it is but like other fast food joint, it's not a place I can tolerate eating on a weekly basis.
  13. Quote:
    Originally Posted by HelinCarnate View Post
    Run it a couple thousand more times on each toon and compare the results. Then you will be close to being able to figure out if it is random or not. The sample size you are using is way too small to draw any meaningful conclusions.
    Combined together between all of my characters, the number of trials completed has exceeded 200. It's still a relatively small sample size but that's why I'm here asking other people to share their results so we can compare notes.

    In anycase, the couple thousand figure is not really required for your average statistical survey anyways. Most Gallup or Pew polls only involve 1000-2000 respondents with a relatively small error margin (3-5%).
  14. baron_inferno

    In-N-Out Burger

    I always laugh when my east coast friends tell me how much they crave In-N-Out burgers after they return home following a visit to Cali.

    Then I would go buy a Double-double animal style with fries, take pictures and put it on FB just to torment them further. Yes, I enjoy being evil.
  15. Quote:
    Originally Posted by MunkiLord View Post
    This seems to fit my experience. Mainly common/uncommon is to be expected. And getting 2 very rares and no rares is fine since I'm dealing with such a small number.
    Well, on my other ATs this seems to be case both before and after the uncommon drop rate fix. They have consistantly gotten between 1-3 Very rares and 5-8 rares for every 20-25 runs through the trials (both BAF and Lambda). I just find it interesting that my MM happens to be the lone exception. This is the first MM I've taken through the trials so I don't have a basis for before and after patch comparisons. Although, the MM complaint for biased end reward table before the patch is rather well documented. Guess I'll run her more to see if this was just the result of some awful luck recently.
  16. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Adeon Hawkwood View Post
    According to the devs personal participation score does not impact the reward beyond the threads or component choice.

    There is an implication that the leagues "success score" does impact the reward but the devs have not stated it directly.
    Hmm, the 16 player BAF leagues I've led during the past few days have done pretty well I thought. We rarely leaked runners and took down the Siege/NS on their first spawn for the most part. Yesterday I even did a few 16 player MoBAF attempts. We never leaked any runners but was unable to acquire the Strong and Pretty badge and the rare component that's awarded along with it. I'm out of ideas at this point to be honest. Well, other than spending a couple hundred millions converting my uncommons into rares.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by _Klaw_ View Post
    Just out of curiosity did you use your pets all the time or your own attacks?
    Both. I lay down Acid Mortar and Caltrops as often as they are up, especially after I got my Reactive Interface (DoT Tier 3) slotted. I only have one personal attack on my MM but I do use it if my other Traps powers aren't recharged. I take down the runners in BAF like there's no tomorrow. With Lambda there is still the struggle with the sabotage phase like most other MMs. During the AV fights, I tend to focus on the ambush adds a little more since the Siege's/Marauder AoEs make short work of my pets if they get too close.

    I really don't quite understand it. The MM is the 9th character I've taken through the trials (pre and post fix), a list that includes various 4 Brutes, 2 Doms, 1 Stalker and 1 Corr. She is having the toughest time of them all when it comes to getting rare or very rare end rewards.
  17. At first I thought it was when I ran my Corr and Stalker through the trials post patch. They was able to acquire 2 very rares and 11 rares in roughly about 40-45 total trial runs. There was still a disproporationately high percentage of uncommons when compared to commons but I didn't think much of it. At least I'm getting a few commons now when compared to almost none before.

    Armed with newly found optimism, I hopped on my MM to take her through the trials, confident in the fact that MMs may finally get a fair shake at end reward tables. Disappointment. Through 17-18 so runs, I have gotten 1 rare, 11 uncommons (not including the ones awarded from badges) and the rest are commons. Maybe my MM is just unlucky so I'm here to ask if anyone else is *still* experiencing this kind of result with their MMs.
  18. I ran some 16 player PUG BAFs yesterday and took a new approach regarding the "add on" problem. I let everyone in the league vote on how we should deal with the extras from queue, stay or kick. The first time I asked, the tally is something like 9 to 1 in favor of kicking. The second time I asked, it was like 7-0 in favor of kicking. We didn't get any extras tossed into our league however so I didn't have to boot anyone. Still, this is the approach I'm going to take from now on and I suspect the results will continue to be similar to what I experienced yesterday. The issue is settled as far as I'm concerned, majority rules.

    The ironic thing is, I used to tolerate the extras and sometimes even balance the teams for their benefit. Now I'm simply unwilling to yield to the irrational logic and entitlement attitude any longer, at least in my leagues (which I run VERY often). You pro-queuers has only got yourselves to blame for this. I've said it before and I'll say it again, if you desire equal treatment as the other PUGers, go to Pocket D or RWZ to get in a trial. Otherwise, it's back to whatever zone you were in you go. Sorry, it's nothing personal, it's just democracy in action.
  19. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Fritzy View Post
    What we are getting instead is a laggy patchwork of loosely related Trials and Tf's that yield substantial rewards but are not very memorable beyond that.
    I disagree. I'm sure by now, the cut scenes have been firmly etched into the memory banks of every player who has participated in the trials. Especially Mother Mayhem's assets.
  20. I have an interesting experience I wish to share while I was leading 16 player BAF runs (4 of them back to back) late last night on my Stalker.

    First run. Two extras popped in from the LFG queue. No big deal, I put them on team three and continued on. When people from Team one or two disconnected/crashed, I would shift those two extras in as temporary fillers so they can get more iexp. Used the choke point method for runners, finished the trial, no issues. Both extras quit once we zoned back into Pocket D.

    Second run. This time four extras showed up, two of them were the same people from the previous run. Given that now we had 20 people, I shifted some people around into teams of 7/7/6. Also, since we now have 20 people instead of 16, I decided on a last minute change in runner strategy to covering doors instead of choke point due to time dilation/lag concerns. This caused some confusion but I digress. Once we finished the trial and popped back in Pocket D, I stated in league chat that I will be doing more runs as an open invitation for everyone to stick around. Three of the LFG queuers stayed on while one quit (let's just call him Bob from this point on).

    Third run. Bob, who had quit the league at the end of the previous run popped in *again*, along with two others. After one of the original pre-formed 16 disappeared, I reformed the remaining 18 into teams of 6/6/6. We finished the trial and *again* I said I will do another run. Sure enough, Bob quit the league.

    Fourth run. Before we started, I made a snarky comment in league chat along the lines of "does anyone want to wager that Bob is going to pop into this run also". We loaded into the trial, finished the cut scene, lo and behold, BoB was right there. At this point I was getting kind of irritated about reforming teams so I decided that this was the last run of the night for me.

    Okay seriously, what the hell? Is this person doing it on purpose to disrupt non-max leagues? If he wanted to run BAF repeatedly, why didn't he just stick around? It's not like he didn't know we were doing back to back runs since I stated as much on multiple occasions in league chat. I also know for a fact that his league chat was on because he was talking in it during the trials. This whole chain of events made absolutely no sense.

    Edit: One last thing add. I also noticed a marked decrease in iexp gain during the final three runs. Not surprisely, those were also the runs when I was actively rebalancing the three teams due to the extras. Where as during the first run I gained 18% toward my Lore slot, the last three averaged out at 12%. The team compositions didn't change that much since at least 4-5 people from each team stuck around between runs. Between having to reshuffle teams constantly and losing iexp, I am quickly running out of patience and tolerance.
  21. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Snow Globe View Post
    Allowing players to isolate their groups from outsiders causes that promise to be broken.
    How are you coming up with this assumption when the current reality suggests otherwise? As things are now, even the 16 player BAFs or 8 player Lambdas are for the most part, formed by PUGing. When I lead these non-max trials, I recruit all of the members by advertising in Pocket D broadcast, on a first come first serve basis. I'm not alone on doing this either as I see similar broadcasts literally every 5 minutes during peak hours. Where is the exclusion? Even *if* these SG/VG/Coalition/Friends only leagues do exist, they are in such a minority that it has little impact on the general PUGing population. Those types of leagues are of no consequence to me nor will I try to squeeze into their private runs when I can just spend all of 5 minutes to join a public one.

    Now if the league lock feature was implemented, it does not change the fact that most of the pre-formed leagues will still be dominated by PUGers. That is the big picture here and I think perhaps, you need to widen the scope of your view instead of focusing so intently on the few people that for some reason, relies exclusively on the broken LFG tool to get into trials. Not when there is a far more viable alternative available.
  22. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Flux_Vector View Post
    I think the only people who'd be in favor of open-world zone events as raid content... never played Everquest 1.
    "Everyone get a dr00d teleport to <so and so zone> NAOW!!! <So and so guild> is assembling and I think they're almost ready to rush <so and so mob>. We need to hurry up to beat them to the spawn!"

    /badidea
  23. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Snow Globe View Post
    What if it is and a developer came right out and said it? Would you say the developer didn't have the high ground to tell you that is what they intended?
    They don't. We are subscribers of the service they provide but they can't dictate how we use that service unless it is illegal or against the ToS. For example, if your ISP told you that in order to get to the website/content you want to view, you *have* to go through some other advertisement or preferred partner gateway sites, how would you feel? That's what the current battle over "net neutrality" is essentially about. Which side of that fight are you on?

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Snow Globe View Post
    At this point, I think those that have made their up their mind to think that the developers are wrong or that the LFG system isn't functioning as it is supposed to be will not be appeased even if a developer speaks to the issue.
    I can't assume that the developers are wrong because they have not made their position clear thus far. However, I can indeed opine that any extrapolation or interpretation of the devs intent by the players has the potential to be *wrong* since it is little more than opinion, much like mine. Player opinions have no place in dictating my in-game decisions.
  24. Quote:
    Originally Posted by MunkiLord View Post
    It's not hard to grasp. Maybe people just don't care what the intended manner is.
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Aura_Familia View Post
    I know shocking that players are using a feature in an unintended way.
    Indeed. Though I personally look at it from a slightly different perspective which is; why should I give a hoot about a tool/system that is undoubtedly broken at this point in time?

    Frankly, I don't even acknowledge the existance of the league forming function of the LFG tool. In reality, when was the last time a viable and successful league was formed via the use of the said tool? As I have already mentioned before, the only thing the LFG tool is doing right now is dumping extras into pre-formed trials. Is that the intended purpose/use of the tool? I think not therefore it is broken and not functioning as intended. With that mind, should I choose to ignore it entirely, no one has the high ground to tell me otherwise.
  25. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Fritzy View Post
    It can include long arcs with varying types of difficult problems to solve. CoX is sorely lacking in "puzzle" challenges, so that is one area they could develop for that's scarsely been touched.
    I don't know if you've played (or even heard of) Dungeons & Dragons Online but that is one MMO where the content usually involved puzzles of some sort and that includes end game raids. Additionally, DDO end game content also involved heavy repetition since it has a random loot generation system. My opinion for such a system is really mixed.

    While the puzzles can be challenging and interesting initially, it becomes llittle more than a time sink in subsequent attempts once you figure it out. In fact, after about 5-10 runs of the same quest/raid, it becomes rather tedious. So, what ended up happening was that 1 or 2 people would just solo the puzzles while the rest of the raid party isn't even in the zone yet (or fully formed for that matter). It's a nice concept but unless the puzzle is randomized each time, the whole process is just one giant waste of time if you run the mission more than once.