konshu

A big part of what made old Posi so slow is that back then all a level 10-15 player often had for travel was Sprint. There was no Ouro portal and not even a Green Line station in south Skyway. The bias was heavily in favor of teams who had at least one player with SS and Recall.

Once players got all the proper goodies, it was a reasonable expectation to knock out a Posi TF with a PuG in 2 hrs.

EDIT: Keep in mind players had to Sprint across a lot of zones where they might encounter even con street foes, including having to travel through Perez Park with its legion of Clockwork, Circle, Lost, and so on, and occasionally unlucky players would have to hosp (returning them to Steel Canyon) just from the travails of travel.

As for the Synapse TF ... it has always bothered me that you get this TF from Synapse, when he has no real connection to the foe. A primary rule of storytelling is to "make it personal," and there's no personal connection here.

Then there's the long and unnecessary grinding through map after map of Clockwork. If the devs wanted a quick way of improving this TF, it would be to remove the redundant defeat all missions at the front of it. There's nothing cool about those missions; even players looking for defeat badges will get it from the rest of the TF.

My 2nd to last point here is more of a "shaking my head" at the current state of the story on the Clockwork King and Penny Yin. I don't know what the devs are angling for with this story any more, or what the timeline is supposed to be. The original story was confusing enough, before the Faultline revamp / RWZ revamp came along. Like, why is CK robbing robotics places when his guys are psionically animated bundles of scrap?

At least in the original telling it was somewhat humorous and ironic that the cheesy bubble-brained low level villain became the eventual ruler of a dimension in a later arc. Now, however, it seems like the joke has become the story ...

Finally ... on redside there's Clockwork in Cap that are animated by the Demon? What is up with that? To me, you either ax it or you explain it, you don't just do goofy stuff.

Even if the devs had more tricks they could play during Citadel TF, the story itself is suitable for a single mission: the Council (or 5th) have stolen Citadel's design and are planning to upgrade their robots.

This is not visualized at all during the arc, and there are more and bigger robots in Hess.

If the devs are going to tell a story of umpteen missions, there should be some sort of buildup / suspense, a sense of progress during the TF, and a sense of resolution at the end.

If this was a scanner mission, you'd just stealth to the back, click the computer glowie to erase the plans from the Council's (5th's) network and be done with it.

If it's a TF, you'd probably have to locate and destroy the robot making complex (like what you'd see on Hess maps), and either put the big bad in jail or blow him up along with his facility.

So, in a way, Hess IS the revamped Citadel.

In general, I like it on squishies much better than on melee toons. On melee toons, regardless of AT I'm often herding or wanting to keep minions close. Stunned toons tend to wander off rather rapidly.

For squishies it is a melee damage mitigation that is hard to beat.

Oh, and I heard they were working on Avilans and something called "Blood of the Black Stream."

Heck, if they relaxed the restrictions like that, I might even take Phase Shift on a toon for the first time, and try to see if it has any usefulness at all.

I do have one or two ghostly toons where it would make thematic sense if it was more easily obtained.

As far as the Fighting pool goes, I'd be inclined to make Weave the top power, and I'd make the rest open to select without prerequisite.

That way, if you want actual fighting from the pool, you'd probably start with Cross Cut. And if you were looking to pad your defenses, you'd take Tough, then Weave.

Some people would actually take just the Fighting powers, though I imagine it would be few. But at least if it was in your concept to do this, you wouldn't have to raid other pools to pick up better fighting powers (like Air Sup, Jump Kick, and Flurry). You could stick with just the Fighting pool and pick up 3 presumably synergized melee attacks.

I have a sonic def that I always envisioned as being trained as an agent in basic combat in addition to having scientific sonic augmentation. If the melee powers from Fighting are going to be strenthened, then would like to take them, without taking Tough, and I might even leave Weave on the table.

As I noted on another thread, I'd like to see gating almost entirely removed from pool sets.

One power in each set can be selected as the "top" power, and the prerequisite would be that you must take at least one other power in the set in order to obtain this top power.

With new pools coming out, and being restricted to having only so many powers, and only so many pools open, I'd like to have more opportunity to pick one power from here and one from there.

For instance, I'd like to be able to get Whirlwind without first being forced to take Superspeed. If I want the AoE fear power from Presence pool, I'd like to not be forced into taking a taunt, but be able to take the single target fear instead. With the Teleport pool, I'd like the freedom to take Group TP from the start, or to take, say, Recall and the Zone TP, and then maybe take Flight as my travel power.

With so many temp powers and incarnate powers and so on in the game, and IO set bonuses providing def and now res, why not just drop the restrictions a bit, and only protect the top power for each pool?

I'm glad we're getting power pool customization. Yay!

Hopefully it won't be too much longer before we get Kheldian customization. (Maybe only 2 more years? lol)

Out of this issue, I'm mainly VERY PLEASED to see that the derpy debt reduction values are being peeled off IOs ... at long last! And also VERY PLEASED to see new IO sets being added. I'm not a power player, and I'll often play without enhancements, or with mostly expired SOs or whatever, but I've got a lot of toons dinging 50 these days, and that's when I start to look at them and plan out slots and IO sets, so I'm happy to see that some of the longstanding problems in this aspect of the game are finally getting addressed.

I'm also glad to see the Martial Arts type additions to blaster and dom sets, though they're not quite what I envisioned and I'm struggling to find synergies. (I think I might go with dark/martial dom, and possibly beam/martial blaster, if redraw isn't a killer.)

I haven't ever been able to care for the Praetorian material, so on content this issue is another dud for me. I'm thankful we got tips missions a while back, because aside from the wonderful Summer Event we had and the occasional TF, that's all I do these days.

For that matter, if costume change emotes were inserted along with NPC summoning code (to spawn additionally, instead of replace), in AE you could imitate Trapdoor's bifurcation power, in part, by pairing the Dimension Shift costume change with spawning an identical NPC.

Imagine a fight in which you get the boss down to 75% and he spawns a clone of himself. Or, possibly, he spawns a clone of you. Or something completely different, like a demon.

The fight could start off easy but become tougher if the boss were to spawn buffing allies, as the Devouring Earth do.

The devs should have separated out the image and power aspects of doppelgangers, and added them - along with costume change emotes - to the list of actions available in AE and their own toolset.

That way, you could have a character like Protean change costume to look like the player's character when at - say - 50% health, in order to mock them.

Costume change emotes came after AE, but as soon as we got them I wanted to write arcs where a villain uses a costume change emote to reveal his true identity, or to morph into something different. Or perhaps when the monster NPC is defeated, what's left lying on the ground is the human who became the monster. Those are all classic scenarios.

Inserting costume change emotes that could optionally swap to a different NPC, or swap to a player clone image, would be great.

The devs should also have kept the ability to clone a player's powers separate. This way, you could set up situations where a NPC who looks different from the player's character acts like it absorbs or copies a player's powers. Essentially, that's what Darrin Wade did to Statesman. The devs hard coded that, but it seems to me that provisions could be made in AE to allow anyone to do it.

Taking the opposite action, you could have NPCs who bear the image of the player's character, but who have different powers, like what you would expect if - say - Malta, Nemesis, or the Family, was impersonating a hero.

The posts on page 8 of this thread made me nostagic for the summer of 2005, which was when - after a month or two of play - I first logged onto the forum to air the same sorts of thoughts about story and how story could be done better in CoH.

While the Gaussian's proc does fire in Tactics, Focused Accuracy, and Targeting Drone, it does not fire while in Invincibility.

(If anyone has a different experience with this, please let me know.)

My first comic was Marvel, The Avengers, #90, 1971.



What a great comic to start with! It featured not only the mutants Wanda and Pietro, but aliens Mar-vell, Ronan, and the Super-Skrull, the Kree Sentry, the Kree-Skrull War, the Inhumans, the synthezoid Vision, the Fantastic Four, Goliath (the first hero role I knew of for Clint Barton), the Wasp, Yellowjacket (the first hero role I knew of for Hank Pym), and Rick Jones.

My next comic book was DC, Justice League of America, #91, 1971.



Which featured not just the Justice League of Earth 1, but the Justice Society of Earth 2. So another introduction to a huge cast of characters.

The comics also featured Roy Thomas and Neal Adams, who did their own "crossovers," working both for Marvel and DC around that same time.

I would actually LIKE to have a melee sword set for defenders and corruptors, where instead of range the players get more debuffs.

I've proposed such a set, that seems doable with existing mechanics, at this link: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=284156

Call it Power Sword, and import Broadsword as it currently exists, with some changes. Move the PBAoE attack to the T9 spot, and make it function a bit like the T9 from Dual Pistols, where the player gets a knockdown effect and a brief boost to defense.

Replace Build Up with Aim.

And in place of the Taunt type power, have something similar to DP's Swap Ammo. Call it "Empower Blade," and have it allow the user to switch between 4 different damage / debuff combinations. The power combinations would be something like:

Vibration: fire damage, -resistance
Dark: negative energy damage, -to hit
Electrical: energy damage, chance to sleep target (shaking animation)
Poison: toxic DoT, damage debuff on target

These power qualities would not be amplified by enhancements, but set bonuses and Interface properties could add to them where applicable.

Additionally, the Power Sword would retain the normal properties and slotting characteristics of Broadsword, including knockback, defense debuff, and defense buff on self (Parry). Half of the damage dealt by Power Sword would be L/S, and half would come from the Empower Blade selection. (If nothing is selected from Empower Blade, the sword would have full L/S damage, as is normal for a Broadsword.)

Power effects for Power Sword would be animated along the bearing hand and blade, using the blade models already available from Broadsword. These effects would be based upon whichever option is selected from Empower Blade, with the default being no effect.

The idea here is that players could draw up their characters with one or more Blade powers in mind. For thematic reasons, a dark defender could use the Dark empowerment, and thus in addition to their customary negative energy damage and -to hit, they'd also be dealing knockback, defense debuff, and defense buff, where appropriate. In terms of synergies, Parry would add to the defense granted by Shadow Fall, Fearsome Stare could be used to freeze mobs and mitigate aggro, and Darkest Night would allow a dark/PS defender to herd around a corner, drawing mobs into a Tar Patch.

If a Dark defender decided to change things up and pick Vibration, the fire damage would provide a different damage type against foes particularly resistant to negative energy, and the -res of the Empower Blade option would add to the -res of Tar Patch.

If a Dark defender was to select the Electrical option, it could work in conjunction with Fearsome Stare to provide enhanced mob control while fighting.

The Poison option would be particularly good to use against bosses and other powerful foes, diminishing their damage output and building up a cascade of toxic DoT. This would act in conjunction with the -to hit and -regen qualities a Dark defender would be expected to apply in a boss fight.

Synergies with other defender power sets would be similar. Thematically, a Storm defender might choose an Electrical Empower Blade option. A Poison corruptor might choose a Poisoned blade. A player with Thermal Radiation might choose to go with the flaming blade option offered by Vibration. A semi-medieval themed character might take Power Sword as a complement to Trick Arrow. A tech or science styled character might combine a scifi type Power Sword with Traps, Kinetics, Radiation Emission, or Force Field.

As I said, I'd like a melee option for defenders and corruptors. I've never been one to play at range. I'm always in the thick of things anyway.

I don't use mids. Is there anything about your build that you think is particularly clever, different, or outstanding?

I think the angle presented in the article might explain why GR is so different from the rest of the game: NCsoft wanted Paragon to create a different product to bring in a new audience.

That's why the expansion so greatly resembles a Star Wars empire/rebellion type story crudely welded onto a superhero game. Paragon wanted to tap into the Star Wars fan market.

Possibly that's also why the incarnate system so greatly resembles the upper levels of AD&D, where players become like gods. Paragon wanted to tap into the AD&D type audience.

Unfortunately, from my standpoint, neither aspect of this work actually supports the original premise of the game, which is superheroes, nor does either aspect communicate what it is clearly enough to draw in that new audience.

For me, these new efforts tend to dilute the game. I don't play in Praetoria ever, as it really has nothing to do with heroes and villains, and grinding through a small number of repeating missions to gain 3 extra powers plus some buffs (i.e., the incarnate content) isn't terribly attractive to me.

If marketing wants to successfully broaden the audience while keeping the focus of the game, perhaps they'll make a scifi expansion that supports scifi heroes (giving missions in space, time, and alternate dimensions such as you might find in Green Lantern, Adam Strange, Fantastic Four, or Captain Marvel comics). They could also make a magic expansion that supports magic heroes in specifically magical environments and circumstances, as clearly there are fans of vampires, mages, demons, and so on, and this audience is well-represented in comic lore (Tomb of Dracula, Blade, Son of Satan, Ghost Rider, Phantom Stranger, Hellboy, etc.).

Likewise, they could appeal to martial arts fans by expanding game options in that direction, and appeal to spy/detective fans by creating content of that nature.

Sell each of these as expansions keyed to those specific genres so people can see what they're getting.

I think this approach would be successful. Players seem to respond positively whenever the devs release a product that caters to these desires. They like the occasional rocket board, flying carpet, moon mission map, or themed costume set (barbarian, cowboy, imperial dynasty, or whatever). It would be nice to have a large chunk of content that would deal in detail with a specific genre, yet be contained within the existing game.

To me this is a natural method of expansion, as the product is easy to communicate to potential buyers, whereas products like GR are a farrago that can at best please a small number of the existing player base.

If you want to bring new audiences to an existing game, to me this is how you do it.

I agree with putting an "Advanced Brawl" attack in the Fighting Pool. Like most players, I care not about the punch and kick powers. The whole point is to get Tough and Weave.

If there was a Brawl option, with no redraw, I'd take it every time. Perhaps the power could be configured to apply the chance for disorient or kb depending on which animation is used.

After all, the only real use for Kick is to knock a foe off a building, Sparta-style. If Advanced Brawl were made, it would be good to retain that ability.

As far as new material goes, there's so much to work with in the old lore that was never brought forth.

For one thing, if the devs would introduce an electric guitar weapon model for ax melee, I'd like to see a "Battle of the Bands" arc involving Mullethead and the other bands we see on those Hellions posters.

I'm not sure there's a whole lot of point to making KR a starting zone, when it's so easy to get to level 3 by street sweeping in Atlas, then head on over to KR and do the same to rapidly get to 5.

But I'm fine with making changes to KR so that mobs spawn in an orderly pattern from 1-20, with lower mobs near the train and higher ones toward the periphery. That's the actual range of the Skulls and Hellions, so it makes sense. Vazhilok and Clockwork also cover that level range, as do Arachnos (if you wish to put any on the street), and Lost, Circle, Family, Outcasts, and Trolls are close at 5-20.

As an accompaniment to a texture update, the spawns could be re-ordered so as to put Skulls throughout, Hellions near the train and higher levels near the old Galaxy Gate in High Park, Clocks around power stations (with occasional loot-bearing patrols in industrial areas), add some Family near the Independence Port gate (or in general throughout the King Garment Works district), put some Trolls along with the Lost near the Skyway Gate (at the eastern end of Industrial Avenue), Vahzilok mainly in Aqueduct district, and confine the Circle to The Gish district.

Texturally, I'd like to keep the grittiness of the area, but add a bit of a gothic theme in places, and make the few tech style buildings stand out a little more; though not necessarily all bright and shiny. (The building that has the Upgraded badge on it is supposed to be a high tech lab, by the way; not an old apartment tower.)

I'd like to keep all the unique features in the zone, such as the Guns'n Ammo building and the Crey building. And of course the giant coin or medallion at the city center has to stay.

If the game ever does introduce rain for zones, I'd have it rain at least a portion of every night in KR, perhaps as part of a mild Circle event, where torch-bearing Circle patrols would file toward a location between the Gish and High Park, conduct a ritual, and depart.

As for arcs, to me there's nothing particularly good or sacred in the KR material. However, if you strip out the extra stuff and keep just the door missions, you can compress the existing arcs by half. The level range on each contact can also be extended from 1-20 on some, and 5-20 on others. Additionally, at least a few of the level 5-9 contacts from Atlas and old Galaxy City are probably better represented in Kings Row.

Tony Kord is an obvious candidate for relocation, as his lab is in Kings Row (site of the Upgraded badge), yet he was originally placed as a contact on the streets of Atlas Park. Rachel Torres is another one who would be better located in Kings Row, as her interest is with the Lost, and there never were any Lost in Galaxy or Atlas.

New material could be added, and old contacts given new missions. For instance, my first week in the game I had Lawrence Mansfield as a contact, and was utterly confused to find that a coroner - who I expected to be interested in the Vazh, who were stealing bodies from the morgue - actually sent me to Perez Park to find the Jewel of Hera. (WTH?) If I was doing a revamp, Larry would send me on a Vahz mission or two, and someone else (maybe Vic Johansson) would send me on a Jewel of Hera mission that was relocated to a spot in the Gish.

I would expect mole machines as well. There is also a mission in which there is a destructible mole machine, so if there was a way to spawn these in an area, kind of like the Rikti invasion EBs, I could see where it could be useful and thematic.

I was also put off by what I see as a breakdown in the tradition of how Nemesis is written, in the story given on the website. IMO, Nemesis should have been surprised that it was Wade who took Statesman down, but Nemesis should then have disclosed that Wade was merely following one of the many possible paths for Statesman's destruction that HE, Lord Nemesis, had planted for other villains to discover and perhaps one day implement. So, in that sense, Nemesis would be the master villain who behind the scenes engineered the demise of Statesman. Which is as it should be.

Mua ha ha!