boardthug

Arc Name: Reach for the Stars

Author: @zeya

arc #78904

Five missions, lists as very long. A fun filled mix of Arachnos, Circle of Thorns and custom creations. Beware the AV. I solo'd it, so I only got an EB, and finished the arc in a couple hours.

Making it work in game would be simple. You'd talk to your contact, you'd accept the mission, and as you entered the door you'd get the message, 'You've shrunk down to a mere fraction of your former size' or whatever else was appropriate to the degree of change. Growing or shrinking relative to your current surroundings, on the other hand, seems very unlikely.

Funny, I don't remember GEnie charging me $0.25/hour.

Honestly, I don't see the harm in NCsoft offering an hourly rate, but if they did you would almost certainly have a minimum monthly fee -- more than likely a reduced monthly fee plus your hourly usage rate. You might save a few dollars if you aren't playing at all, but they wouldn't pick a price that's going to allow even moderate usage at a discount compared to present rates. They will not keep your account open for free.

"Littlest thing"?

You understand this is a pretty noticeable screw-up, that adversely affects the performance of any buff powerset in the game? I mean, I'm definitely willing to give the devs the benefit of the doubt on this one -- I can see what they wanted to do, and I even consider it worth doing -- but they really need to reverse this, and quick, until they can restrict it to the intended target. It is absolutely not worth the gain if it's going to apply to the huge number of unintended situations it presently covers.

Karl, write your arcs, and relax. At that point you might as well be drunk as worrying whether people like them.

The easy ones are warshade and peacebringer. Those references are all over their story arc. In the Fautline storyline, does Temblor ever refer to Fusionette as a blaster, or just as a friend/hero?

Come to think of it, why would the tankers want 'tankers suck' written on the wall anyway? If the devs want to commemorate this anniversary, have that be the day a deathhead buckshot shows up holding a can of spray paint, at the regular Tanker Tuesday meeting place in King's Row, admiring the 'blasters suck' he's just added to the wall.

With or without the precedent, if "tanker" is a label Hero Corps, DATA, SERAPH or others use to classify certain of their contacts and operatives, its usage might be known on the streets, and if so I can't imagine the Hellions not hating them.

"And, to be honest, I think if the Devs are considering this, then TT would be a good place to start as it does have an extensive history in which the Devs themselves have attended."

No argument here. IF they decide they want to offer such recognition in game, Tanker Tuesday would be an excellent choice.

This is the text from one of the plaques currently in game, located in King's Row:

"For months, unbeknownst to the city's finest Super Groups, a Lost Pariah called Ishmael attempted to psychically control the entire city. It was here that his efforts had the greatest effect, causing many citizens to run about in a stupor for hours on end."

This plaque, and others related to it, give a bit of the history of this Pariah's attack on the city and the heroes' response to it. What could you say about Tanker Tuesday? Here's what Acemace proposed in his original post:

"This plaque is to honor Paragon's mightiest Champions. Once every month since the Rikti War, Tankers from all over Paragon have assembled at this location to protect the people and to keep a watchful eye over the city they all love. To commemorate five years of Tanker Tuesday, this plaque hangs as our eternal reminder of their valiant efforts."

Not bad. A few problems, though. First, it's false on every server except Champion. I recall efforts to spread Tanker Tuesday to other servers to commemorate prior anniversaries, but I don't remember them having much success even for the anniversaries, and there is no ongoing TT tradition anywhere but Champion. Second, no explanation of how tankers gathering in King's Row does anything to make the world a safer place -- what did they DO? There has never been any stated purpose to Tanker Tuesday except to boost tanker awareness, run some missions and have fun. I'm sure it must be hundreds of people who've attended these runs over the years who have learned things about tanking that improved their play, but it would pass belief that this number even matches the number who've improved their tanker play by visiting the forums, and that number is dwarfed by the number of people who've improved their tanking just by being observant, getting helpful hints from team-mates, and wanting to be better at their jobs. There simply isn't an event that could be argued to have taken place that had any significance to the people of Paragon City.

"I have deleted one character over level 20, I think, ever."

That's IT?

No wonder I've only got two 50's.

Standard boardthug advice: if it sounds fun, try it.

Here are the controller primaries, their aoe hold, recharge, and durations. Tell me, please, what you think is wrong with gravity's.

Earth: (no AOE hold, closest approximation) Volcanic gasses, multiple effects, durations range from 15 s to 61 s, deals significant damage, recharge 4 m
Fire: Cinders, mag 3, duration 10 s, recharge 4 m
Gravity: Gravity Distortion Field, mag 3, duration 10 s, recharge 4 m
Ice: Glacier, PBAOE, mag 3, duration 10 s, recharge 4 m
Illusion: ??? no reasonable equivalent
Mind: Total Domination, mag 3, duration 10 s, recharge 4 m
Plant: Vines, mag 3, duration 10 s, recharge 4 m

We're never going to agree on wormhole. I think it's one of the best powers available to any controller.

What we agreed on is that having as many single-target attacks as it does, gravity develops its AOE control more slowly than most control sets. You listed this:
Current order:
1, Crush (ST Immob)
1, Lift (ST Knockup)
2, Gravity Distortion (ST Hold + Knockback protection)
6, Propel (ST Knockback)
8, Crushing Field (AoE Immob)
12, Dimension Shift (AoE Intangible)
18, Gravity Distortion Field (AoE Hold + Knockback protection)
26, Wormhole (AoE Enemy TP + Stun + Knockback)
32, Singularity (Pet)

I proposed two variants, both designed to bring more practical, usable AOE control to the set earlier.

version 1:
1, Crush (ST Immob)
1, Lift (ST Knockup)
2, Gravity Distortion (ST Hold + Knockback protection)
6, Crushing Field (AoE Immob)
8, Wormhole (AoE Enemy TP + Stun + Knockback)
12, Dimension Shift (AoE Intangible)
18, Gravity Distortion Field (AoE Hold + Knockback protection)
26, Propel (ST Knockback)
32, Singularity (Pet)

version 2:
1, Crush (ST Immob)
1, Lift (ST Knockup)
2, Gravity Distortion (ST Hold + Knockback protection)
6, Propel (ST Knockback)
8, Crushing Field (AoE Immob)
12, Dimension Shift (AoE Intangible)
18, Wormhole (AoE Enemy TP + Stun + Knockback)
26, Gravity Distortion Field (AoE Hold + Knockback protection)
32, Singularity (Pet)

I will say that while I personally consider the plaque to be the wrong form of recognition, I definitely consider the conversation worth having, and in no way intend any slight to those forwarding or supporting this request.

For AOE controls, gravity has the standard AOE immobilize on a short timer, and AOE hold on a very long timer. The two of its AOE powers that are unusual compared to other control sets are dimension shift, and wormhole.

Wormhole is an AOE teleport foe combined with a mag three stun, 20% chance of a mag 4, knockback in case the hold doesn't take and it's only on a 90 second timer. You don't need line of sight and you can place the targets wherever you like, so controlling the knockback is no problem. It has a smaller radius than some AOE controls, but the same target limit. I consider that limited radius a small trade-off for all the other abilities. Dimension shift is a panic button, with a 90-second timer. Most control sets have some power of this nature, and a lot of players skip them. D-shift is more extreme than most -- lots of sets have AOE sleeps that are great on overflow enemies, but wasted on the team's main target. Dimension shift is better against the overflow right up until the team is ready to deal with them, and is counterproductive if you accidentally use it on the main target. Ok, don't screw up, no problem. Alternately, skip the power. You'll hear that advice about the AOE sleep powers if you visit the controller forums often enough.

You don't like the order of the AOE controls. Wormhole fills (very roughly) the same function on the gravity list that arctic air and stalagmites do for ice and earth, and those come quite a bit earlier than level 26. The problem I have with swapping this and dimension shift is that it frontloads gravity with all of its fun single-target powers and its AOE controls very early on, leaving the skippable powers for later. I could see moving crushing field into the propel slot, then swapping propel and wormhole. Alternately, leave propel where it is and swap wormhole with Gravity Distortion Field. I can't agree with having (ST) gravity distortion, crushing field, wormhole, lift and propel available by lvl 12. And I would not change the powers themselves in any way.

Players making their own reality IS the problem. For anybody who hasn't been on a Tanker Tuesday run, that group's "historical" accomplishments never took place.

The game designers who wrote the back-story and created the lore for our game world added Atlas, and scattered a few plaques around the world for us to find, telling us parts of his story. Everybody's "instance" of CoX includes Atlas. Compare that to Tanker Tuesday. Tanker Tuesday is an event organized by a group of players; they get together on Champion server once a month and play their tankers. It is and it isn't exclusive. It's one time a month. It's only on Champion. Non-tankers are not invited. On the other hand, anybody who wants to create a tanker on Champion can show up on that Tuesday and join the fun. I've never played any hero on Champion, so in my "instance" of the game Tanker Tuesday never happened.

You know, the first thing I thought of when I ran into that one-click buff was, "This needs to happen to speed boost, force fields, sonic..."

Don't feel too bad, Lisar. Ace didn't even realize that my post of "Don't see it" meant I do not see the need to add this plaque in game.

For the record, my objection has little to do with whatever value I might attach to Tanker Tuesday. The city's plaques commemorate historic events from the official in-game lore. They are a way of communicating the game lore to its players, in game, and I think they're fabulous. A plaque commemorating a player-run event essentially elevates that event to the status of official game lore. I don't see the value in creating a mechanic to allow this to happen, nor do I think it should happen "just because." I don't want to see a plaque raised in recognition of a given server's first successful hami raid or the first successful "Master of the Statesman Task Force", nor any other instance of what essentially amounts to people playing the game. I think the appropriate form of recognition for such player run events comes from the other players, and not the designers and creators of the game.

Some players have cited prior instances of such recognition, including the skulls badge. In my opinion these should not have happened in the first place and should not be repeated. If a plaque commemorating Tanker Tuesdays did get raised, though, I would view this as no more ruinous to the game than the previously mentioned badge. Mistakes get made all the time, even by me. Letting them ruin my enjoyment of a perfectly good game would be foolish.

Don't see it.

Some of my story-lines for villains are initiated by people who know a few things but are a little thin on the mayhem and violence side. They're willing to share some of their information with the villain, to the profit of both parties, but they're usually careful not to make themselves expendable by giving the whole game away.

Sounds good, actually.

Well, I mean, if you have to eat something other than sauerkraut...

All I ever eat is sauerkraut.

People will always react badly to changes with a negative impact on their characters. The method of disclosure makes little difference in that regard. However, for those not particularly impacted by the changes, the presentation of this fix as a positive for pet casters causes some dismay. Water under the bridge, at this point.

Why would anybody want more hero zones? We've got too many as is.

Jade, falling in love with a beast doesn't make it any easier for anyone else to look at. *cough* The tier-8 vs tier-9 difference doesn't matter all that much, as there are skippable powers in both positions on any number of powersets. Also, make sure you're comparing the same pet. Corruptors, dominators and blasters all get the same damage value for v-sent; defenders get roughly 75% of that. Of course, the corruptors and dominators don't get the same damage values elsewhere in the e-blast set, making v-sent a better value by comparison than it is for blasters. In fact, straight out of the box the villain version of v-sent does more damage than charged bolts.

Based on my experience with a reasonably random sampling of player characters in pick up groups, I have not observed hasten to be very commonly used.