shuyun

also...

1 feet per second
= 0.682 miles per hour
= 1.09728 kilometers per hour
= 0.3048 meters per second

[ QUOTE ]
For those of you remember the CoV End of Beta event with the signature heroes battling all the players, we found a very curious problem during that event: It quickly became completely impossible to know who/where your target was. There were so many characters taunting continuously, that it was not only not fun, but essentially not playable.
So, we are trying to make sure that Taunt Ping Pong doesn't become a major concern in PvP. We want Gauntlet to be a bonus which helps, but it is not meant to replace Taunt or related powers.

[/ QUOTE ]

Firstly, is there no tech that would popup an additional targetting box (say drawn in purple squiggles) to identify the taunter? Secondly, add a purple icon on the compass to indicate the direction of the taunter. Thirdly, use Confuse technology to direct all attacks to the taunter.

The reasoning is that the character is being explicitly called out, so it follows that the player should have full indication of who is the target of the character's rage. It would also follow that since the character is focused on only the taunter, all attacks will be auto-targeted.

[ QUOTE ]
Here is how I think you interpret those numbers.
[ QUOTE ]

Defender Force Field: Force Bolt: 8% and 2% for 1 Toggle; 0.16% chance of 2 Toggles


[/ QUOTE ]
There are two separate dice rolls for dropping toggles. The first has an 8% chance of dropping a toggle. The second has a 2% chance of dropping a toggle. The chance that they both hit is

0.08 * 0.02 = 0.0016 or 0.16%

So your chance of dropping two toggles is 0.16%.

The chance that only one of them hits is

0.08 + 0.02 - 0.0016 = 0.0984 or 9.84%

So the net result is you have a 9.84% chance of dropping one toggle and a 0.16% chance of dropping two toggles.

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually, the math's slightly off.

The chance that zero toggles drop: 0.92 * 0.98 = 0.9016 or 90.16%
The chance that the first drops and the second doesn't: 0.08 * 0.98 = 0.0784 or 7.84%
The chance that the first doesn't and the second does: 0.92 * 0.02 = 0.0184 or 1.84%
The chance that both of them drop: 0.08 * 0.02 = 0.0016 or 0.16%

The chance that either the first or second roll drops: 0.0784 + 0.0184 = 0.0968 or 9.68%
The chance that at least one toggle is dropped
= 100% - chance that zero is dropped = 1 - 0.9016 = 0.984 or 9.84%

The difference isn't much, as the chances themselves are small.

[ QUOTE ]
Here is another example just so you see the pattern:
[ QUOTE ]

Defender Force Field: Repulsion Bomb: 27% and 5% for 1 Toggle; 1.35% chance of 2 Toggles


[/ QUOTE ]
Chance of dropping 1 Toggle = 27% + 5% - 1.35% = 30.65%
Chance of dropping 2 Toggles = 1.35%.


[/ QUOTE ]

Similarly:

0 toggles: 0.73 * 0.95 = 0.6935 or 69.35%
2 toggles: 0.27 * 0.05 = 0.0135 or 1.35%
exactly 1 toggle: 100% - 0_toggel - 2_toggles = 1 - 0.6935 - 0.0135 = 0.293 or 29.3%
1 or 2 toggles: 1 - 0.6935 = 0.3065 or 30.65%

As the chances of 2 toggles dropping are so slim, best figures to concentrate on should be the chance that any toggles are dropped or the inverse (chance of none dropping).

[ QUOTE ]
Thing is, "right" is a matter of personal interpretation. I don't think it's "right", for example, for people to be named things like "Chicken McNuggets", "FattyBlasterBoi" or "IRHeeler" in game. I don't think it's "right" for 8 different people to spam broadcast that they are all LFT when they could just join up and form a team themselves. There are many things which we each might individually consider to not be "right"... but none of that matters.

What DOES matter is if it is "allowed". The devs have stated that attacking someone, who is in a PVP zone, even if they don't WANT to be attacked, is allowed. Even if they are claiming exemption because they are RPing. Even if they are fighting a group of mobs. The devs have also stated that getting mobs to do your dirty work for you, be it bringing the mobs to you, or even bringing you to the mobs (like TPing you, or pulling you), is allowed.

If you do not want other players to have the opportunity to be able to cause you to die, regardless of HOW they cause it, then your only option is to stay out of the PVP zones, it's really that simple.

[/ QUOTE ]

QFE

I totally agree.

[ QUOTE ]
Ugh...this blew faster than I thought LoL. Quick question...would I get ganked if I took my prior mentioned Grav/Nrg Dom and Intangibled (I can't remember the name of the AoE Power off hand) half the FC roof? (Only about half, cause I couldn't hit the villains with it LOL) I mean, there's no debt, it wears off, and nobody dies LoL.

[/ QUOTE ]

No...because they'd be phased and won't be able to hit you...for about 8 seconds =)

[ QUOTE ]

11. Ultima Ascension- Stones


[/ QUOTE ]

6 7 8 9 8 7 8 7 6 7 6 5 3
6 7 8 7 8 9 8 9 0
6 7 8 9 8 7 8 7 6 7 6 5 3
6 7 8 7 8 9 8 9 0

Awesome melody!

1) Move - Over Drive
2) Enya - Deora Ar Mo Chroi
3) Blue Seed OST - Exceed Illusion
4) Record of the Lodoss War OST - Fantasia of the Wind
5) Crystal Bernard - Don't Touch Me There
6) Kelly Chen - 心太軟
7) 4 PM - Sukiyaki
8) Initial D OST - Don't Stop the Music
9) Ekin Cheng - 2001地球漫游
10) Silver Fins - Waiting So Long

edit: UTF-8 FTW!

[ QUOTE ]

...
What I should have stated is "the streakbreaker is essentially turned off for (up to) 100 misses."

Its a stronger statement than necessary, but its also a much easier thing to set up a test to verify: simply never attack high defense targets at all during your test.

For the record, I interpreted WBs post the same way you did: that the streakbreaker looks at the worst tohit in "the series" - meaning the current series of misses.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ah glad to have that sorted out. =) The original question about swings before a streak might really have seeded confusion.

[ QUOTE ]
The final formula, which I will expand out for geko as:

(InherentPowerAccuracy + Accuracy Enhancements) x (Base ToHit + ToHitBuffs - ToHitDebuffs - Defense)

Or if you prefer:

(1.0 + InherentAccuracyBonus + AccuracyEnhancements) x [BaseToHit + ToHitBuffs - ToHitDebuffs - (Defense + DefenseBuffs - DefenseDebuffs)]

[/ QUOTE ]

Just some questions to clear things up for me:

1) an AoE with 20% ACC penalty would be -0.2 for InherentAccuracyBonus? Burn would be around +1.0 InherentAccuracyBonus?
2) Where would the level difference bonus/penalty be applied? IAB or multiplied around the entire thing?
3) ACC inspiration is a ToHitBuff? Likewise, DEF insp. counts as a DefenseBuff?

Thanks!

[ QUOTE ]
2. The streakbreaker has a very, very long worst case scenario that it can lock into. If you attack *anything*, even *once* with an attack with net 20% or less chance to hit (something with very high defense, say a drone), the streakbreaker is essentially turned off for 100 swings. Can you point to a streak of misses where you can say with certainty that for 100 swings prior to the miss streak, you definitely did not swing at any high defense targets at all?

[/ QUOTE ]

From WeirdBeard's post:[ QUOTE ]
Something to note, for those inclined to note such things. Because we do the lookup based on your worst to-hit in the series, the streak breaker is a bit less aggressive about breaking streaks than it might initially appear from the table. If you miss an ill-advised attack with a final to-hit of 0.15, you would in fact be allowed to continue the miss series for another 99 attacks, even if all the followup attacks are of capped to-hit, should you be unlucky enough.

[/ QUOTE ]

It seems like you've misunderstood WB's explanation of figuring worst to-hit. From a logical standpoint, it would make sense to keep track of the worst to-hit only when you start a miss streak. The streakbreaker resets once a hit is registered, so shouldn't the worst to-hit too? Note that WB said that the streak breaker is "a bit less agressive about breaking streaks." I'd consider turning off the breaker for 100 swings to be overagressive. Heck, from a coding standpoint, it's certainly harder to keep track of worst to-hit within the last 100 swings rather than simply resetting everything once a hit occurs.

[ QUOTE ]
"I'm not sure what the odds are on missing 8 times in a row with a 20% chance to-hit, but it can't be that low."

I believe the odds are 0.1677, or just around one in six, so no, it's not that low.

The odds of six 20% minions all hitting you with their next attack is one in 15,625. (0.000064)

I'm not sure what this all means for you, aside from that you need to kill minions faster.

The odds of missing twice in a row with a 90% chance to-hit, by contrast, is .01, or one in one hundred.

[/ QUOTE ]

Correct me if i'm wrong...
probability of critters 1 - 5 missing 8 straight, and 6 - 10 not missing 8 straight
= (0.1677^8) * (1 - 0.1677^8)
= .000053065

Ways of grouping those the 5 critters that totally missed out of a bunch of 10
= 10! / (5! * (10 - 5)!)
= 252

final probability
= .000053065 * 252
= 0.01337

Here's the list showing the likeliness that the streakbreaker with kick in for X critters on the 9th hit attempt:
0 0.1593758077
1 0.3212921057
2 0.2914675596
3 0.1566883160
4 0.0552779995
5 0.0133724573
6 0.0022465062
7 0.0002587898
8 0.0000195639
9 0.0000008764
10 0.0000000177

[ QUOTE ]
OK heroes, a lot of people have many misconcenptions about random number generation systems. Lets clear some of that up...

[/ QUOTE ]

THANK YOU! I was going to post a similar comment about rand() (just not as clear and well-phrased)

Good example of that expression that having some knowledge is more dangerous than none at all.

[ QUOTE ]
1. rand() or any sufficiently random number genator works fine when it's results are spread out across multiple observers. The rand() as a whole may eventually be predictive(not by a human) but when 1000's of people are picking results out of rand() at random times, the result is that each individual observer will NEVER be able to predict with any accuracy bc each individual user has NO IDEA where in the sequence rand() is and NO IDEA how many other users are picking results out of rand(). rand() on a mod of 5 is easy to predict. rand() on a mod of 100 is not quite so easy. rand() when you aren't the only one getting a sequence is impossible to predict. So drop it on rand(). rand() is fine. PM is you want a more detailed proof that rand() is fine on MMORPs.

2. random generators work against the whole system not an individual. Seeing people with experience with long streaks indicates that the system is working fine because you couldn't predict that you'd have such "bad luck". In fact, you can't predict when your bad streak will end because you can't know all the variables behind the scenes. If you can't predict what will happen then the random generation system is fine.

3. Streak breakers are there to shield against perceived bad luck and actually reduce the randomness of the generator. When missing 99 times in a row has a 7.88e-131 chance of happening with 95% accuracy, it's still possible AND given that there are billions of sequences being burned through, it becomes probable. The streak breaker removes that possibility and therefore reduces the randomness of the system. Streak breakers remove huge chunks of possibilities out of the universe of what the random generator could churn out.

Conclusion:Having a bad day? You just proved that the system works.

For the curious, study the definition between possible and probable. Think also about the scale you are talking about with a MMORP.

[/ QUOTE ]

For the observations of improbable streaks, rand() would be the last thing to question. Logic/coding errors, miscommunication, and misconceptions would be more higher priority.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
One idea is Battle Experience. Basically, make it so that your gladiators can gain levels in battle. Experience is gained over time (by staying alive) and by defeating others. The Experience tables vary by gladiator type so that at the battle's end, Sluggers may end up gaining 5 levels (provided they can last that long), while AMoA's won't even level once. The idea of battle experience is to put not only a unit's raw Capabilities into figuring against Cost, but also a unit's Potential. It also introduces risk, as you're betting that your unit can reach that potential.

[/ QUOTE ]
Eh...I don't like this idea. Currently, part of the draw (for me, at least) of gladiator matches is the lack of consequences. I don't have to worry about losing a 10,000 prestige object from my base, or getting XP debt, or having to kill another 300 Ancestor Spirits if I lose. If my gladiators started gaining experience but started over when they died, I'd be very averse to playing gladiator matches because I'd be losing a time investment if things went against me.
...


[/ QUOTE ]

Sorry, wasn't being clear -- I didn't mean to imply that battle experience would be persistent. I totally agree that experience -- if persistent -- would be a Very Bad Thing. However, if it's only temporary, it adds another factor to the battle. Right now, once you see what everyone has at the start of a battle, the outcome is more often than not predictable, since the total power of your army can only go down. But with units able to level, players must not only take into account what's currently in the arena, but also the possibility of what they might become.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
The other idea is customization points. After you buy all your units, you have a separate pool of points with which you can customize your units. Possible customizations:


[/ QUOTE ]
This would be interesting.

[/ QUOTE ]
Yes. Like Battle Experience, Customization will be another factor for players to consider. Currently, just by looking, your opponent knows all the abilities and general tactics that go with those units. But with customization, your hidden customizations can allow you to deviate from the usual tactics. For example, normal minions aren't worth crap against bosses, but when equipped with Embalmed bombs they'll become an actual threat. Or perhaps you can slot units up with range enhancements, using them as artillery while your tanks keep the enemy beyond normal attack range. More possibilities, more tactics.

Interesting idea, but highly abusable. There would be organized gladiator fixing matches to screw with the economy right away.

Right now, the number of "best builds" is too few. Currently, this is from the unbalanced costs; however, even with better balancing, all the player needs to take into account are Cost vs Capability. There just isn't much depth in the concept of gladiator matches.

Perhaps more factors need to be introduced.

One idea is Battle Experience. Basically, make it so that your gladiators can gain levels in battle. Experience is gained over time (by staying alive) and by defeating others. The Experience tables vary by gladiator type so that at the battle's end, Sluggers may end up gaining 5 levels (provided they can last that long), while AMoA's won't even level once. The idea of battle experience is to put not only a unit's raw Capabilities into figuring against Cost, but also a unit's Potential. It also introduces risk, as you're betting that your unit can reach that potential.

The other idea is customization points. After you buy all your units, you have a separate pool of points with which you can customize your units. Possible customizations:<ul type="square">[*]enhancements -- you can buy enhancments for your gladiators. Severe Enhancement Diversification penalties kick in for Bosses at 0%, Lt's at 16%, and minions at 33%. You can buy a total of 1 enhancement per unit, and each unit can use up to 6 enhancements. For example, you have 1 boss, 2 lieutenants, and 5 minions, so can buy up to 8 enhancements. You get 6 SO and 2 DO damage enhancments, sticking all the SO's into the boss for +30% damage after ED, and the 2 DO's in the Lts.[*]inspirations -- you can use customization points to buy inspirations for your gladiators. Minions can carry 4 insps, lieutenants can have 2, and bosses none (they're above using them) Hopefully, the AI can be smart enough to use it when appropriate.[*]temporary powers -- limited to a max of one power on each unit. The temp. powers would be utility powers like minor pool powers (Swift, Hurdle, Boxing, etc.), and limited use powers (like flash or web grenades). There could be some more powerful (and more costly) single use powers like Embalmed self-destruct and self-revival (Crey style with constant DoT until death).[/list]Hopefully customization would provide flexibility for different stratgies even between folks who chose the same set of gladiators.

From Malachite's post in the Controller boards:
[ QUOTE ]

Stone Cages does .277x3 ticks, not 5.
Stalagmites doesn't do DoT at all, it does one hit of .694

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
http://www.cityofvillains.com/faq/

[/ QUOTE ]

Ohhh...them villains be eeeevil. Even the FAQ is on a flash-only page. Foiling my surf-at-work plans again!

[ QUOTE ]
We're making some tweaks with Defiance in the upcoming patch.

It is not getting a major overhaul though. Just tweaking the defiance so it starts to kick in earlier. The overall buffs posted earlier are staying about the same (getting only slightly better), but you will be recieving a damage buff earlier in your health bar now.

This will be reflected in the Defiance meter as well. We've made some tweaks to that as well.

I want to stress that you actually can end up being buffed over 500% with Defiance. (500% is the max buff for Blasters) This actually does nothing except protect you from damage debuffs.

This is one of the rare instances in Issue 5 where a solo character is able to reach a cap without help (or inspirations).

[/ QUOTE ]

How about adding linearly increasing amounts of Accuracy as Defiance builds?

The Defiance meter tweak would be nice. It was 1) delayed, as you could be in/out of Defiance before the meter updated, and 2) was incredibly hard to see low Defiances levels. Having it on a color gradient would also help.

Fire Control/Flashfire - 0.1667 (6/36) Fire x 5 = 0.8333 (30/36) Total

Council? Regular CoT?

[ QUOTE ]
Anyone take into account the fact that he posted on April 1st? April Fools Day?

[/ QUOTE ]

You must be fooling me.

[ QUOTE ]
Given the date, ...

[/ QUOTE ]

Anyway, it's the thing about him luving to be evil. He even italicized it for us!

[ QUOTE ]
For those types that like the numbers, I calculate a brawl index of 5.45. No, not 5.4444.

The raw data from an AMed lvl 22 controller:
Propel: 39.75
Brawl: 7.29

That leads to the conclusion that the BI is between 5.4571036 and 5.4482522. Repetitions at a few different numbers should narrow the margin further, but it seems close enough to me.

[/ QUOTE ]

Using 5.45 (= 196.2/36) as the new BI, I got the following power comparisons:
note: Everything is relative to Propel

Damage Per Second (DPS)
-----------------------
124.0% _ RING OF FIRE
123.7% _ BOXING
109.5% _ FLURRY
106.6% _ AIR SUPERIORITY
102.6% _ KICK
100.0% _ PROPEL
97.9% _ LEVITATE
96.1% _ JUMPKICK
82.6% _ CRUSH
76.1% _ MESMERIZE
70.9% _ CHAR
70.3% _ BRAWL
67.3% _ PROPEL (OLD)
67.0% _ LIFT
64.4% _ DOMINATE
57.6% _ GRAVITY DIST
15.8% _ CRUSHING FIELD

DPS with Hasten
----------------
129.5% _ RING OF FIRE
123.7% _ BOXING
108.6% _ AIR SUPERIORITY
101.7% _ LEVITATE
100.0% _ PROPEL
98.6% _ KICK
98.0% _ FLURRY
86.7% _ JUMPKICK
80.0% _ MESMERIZE
79.2% _ CHAR
76.7% _ CRUSH
73.9% _ LIFT
72.0% _ DOMINATE
69.2% _ BRAWL
67.3% _ PROPEL (OLD)
58.2% _ GRAVITY DIST
16.1% _ CRUSHING FIELD

Damage Per Endurance (DPE)
---------------------------
124.5% _ FLURRY
109.2% _ JUMPKICK
102.5% _ BOXING
101.4% _ KICK
100.0% _ PROPEL
91.7% _ AIR SUPERIORITY
91.7% _ MESMERIZE
91.7% _ LEVITATE
67.3% _ PROPEL (OLD)
67.0% _ RING OF FIRE
61.5% _ CHAR
61.5% _ GRAVITY DIST
60.9% _ CRUSH
55.9% _ DOMINATE
55.6% _ LIFT
49.5% _ BRAWL
9.2% _ CRUSHING FIELD

Damage Per Animation
---------------------
178.4% _ CHAR
163.5% _ RING OF FIRE
162.2% _ DOMINATE
142.7% _ LIFT
123.9% _ LEVITATE
123.3% _ BOXING
118.9% _ AIR SUPERIORITY
104.9% _ MESMERIZE
100.0% _ PROPEL
83.2% _ KICK
67.3% _ PROPEL (OLD)
65.6% _ FLURRY
64.2% _ BRAWL
61.3% _ GRAVITY DIST
59.5% _ JUMPKICK
57.5% _ CRUSH
17.3% _ CRUSHING FIELD

With the nearly 50% damage increase, Propel has improved significantly, and is comparable with other powers (the closest being Levitate). Its DPS, DPE, and DPA doesn't top Pool attacks like Boxing and Air Superiority, but is much closer than before; furthermore, it has the advantage of range and not taking up a power pool. All in all, Propel has become a viable power choice.

BTW, anyone have the stats (damage, end cost, recharge, and activation) of all the APP attacks?

The I4 Wormhole is like an amalgamation of our requests in the huge controller thread.

We wanted a "gravity well" that would clump mobs together. Wormhole does that...as a single click, not constant.

We wanted an AoE disorient. Wormhole does that...but with too short of a duration.

We wanted an AoE lift. Wormhole does that...but doesn't do damage.

What we didnt' want...increased recharge time. loss of precision single target pulling/pushing. It's time for a change in tactics for Wormhole users.

Questions: what's the disorient magnitude on Wormhole? How long are mobs taken out of commission if sent straight up into the sky (rain of mobs!)?

Heh, same here.

My Grav/Kin (first character) was so gimped...took Crushing Field, Dimension Shift, and Siphon Speed (no travel power).

[ QUOTE ]

Well, how about if a match is in progress, you can click on it and it will open up a window that will let you watch the match. It would be something only visible on your computer so you won't be slowing anyone else down. It could be full screen so you won't have to worry about anyone else doing something that will hose your frame rate (just have chat windows visible so you can still talk to other people but block the participants of the fight so there could be no hints from the peanut gallery). It would simply be a webcast of the fight. That should easily be feasible.

You could even do this in a specified location(s), kind of like a sports bar. Would be a great socialization spot and I am sure quite a few matches would find their start there.

[/ QUOTE ]

Only thing about blocking the participants is that you can only block what's in-game. Outside resources like teamspeak and IM's are out of the dev's control.

Release date will be the Sunday when Spring Break ends. The devs eeeevil.