uberschveinen
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Posts
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Joined
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Those bloody Overseers. You tell me it's okay for a fully-equipped level 50 Brute to die to two -4 bosses and a fistful of minions.
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This has been suggested at least once a week since literally the beta. The developers know that everyone wants the things, and they're not sharing whatever their reasons are for keeping them under wraps. The player skeletons thing is a half-excuse because there are still nodes to be used, and the clipping excuse is never going to convince anyone, since so many different items in the game already clip to the point of hilarity.
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Quote:I try to make the stories that I think CoX needs. In this case, I think it needs more complex storylines that actually suit the nature of one rather potent man fighting a colossal and stupendously dangerous paramilitary organisation specifically designed to fight rather potent men. I wanted something that felt more like Hero-in-spy-land than another LOLMALTA arc that completely trivialises the group.Originally Posted by Zamuel
Operation Oedipus: Glory of our Empire gave me some interesting thought processes.
Overview
Ah, Malta. Sad to say, that may doom your arcs popularity in it's own right. It's a shame since it is a decently written story. However, there are some things here and there. First is the contact. In a lot of ways anonymous drops and such seems very much like what would be done when combatting Malta. Plus, the arc does have the player a little questioning of the contact's actions so if you're willing to RP it (gasp! in a MMORPG? BLASPHEMY!) it fits. At the same time other players may view it as:
Contact: Psst, hey hero. You hate Malta, right?
Player: RAWR, detestable scum!
Contact: Well, I got this super secret plan that will totally mess them up.
Player: Aw yeah, IT'S CRIME FIGHTING TIME!!!
You handle it better than that but some people are very picky about contact relations.
There's no way for me to do this and still cater for the crowd that doesn't care. I'm not that bothered. I wrote the arcs because I wanted to write them, not because I wanted them to make Hall of Fame. If some people want simpel stories, there's six million other arcs for them out there.
Augh. I've fixed that at least four times now, and it keeps coming back. I'll try again.Quote:BTW, your contact has a logic error. The Complex gadget clue mentions Kings Row while the contact is Locker 27, Atlas Park
This is the Destroy the Titan Plant mission?Quote:Concerning your ambushes....
well...
...the last time I had to fight that many Titans was Master Koga's Agent Six Task Force. That is potentially one of the hardest completable arcs in the MA and Malta actually wasn't the hardest thing in the arc. The ambush waves could potentially be fun but be wary about that.
The way I have that set to run is that a wave of friendly Zeus Titans spawns when the guy's on 3/4, and then a wave of hostile Zeus Titans spawns when he's on 1/2. This means that most of the time the second group encounters the first group offscreen and you have either one or two near-dead Zeus titans wander in, hostile or not. The rest of the time both groups meet at once and there's a colossal Titan Fight in the middle of the fight. I've never actually seen the hostile ones get to the player first.
Wait, were both of the ambushes hostile?
The Sapper mobs were the ones I was worried about. They do give the mission more of an appropriate feel, and especially in making the last boss of the last mission more interesting than just another tougher enemy, but they can be absurdly potent. I'll tone them down.Quote:Doubly so since you have a few all Sapper ambushes. Makes perfect sense for the story but runs the risk of ragequit. I think you've got them set to Medium or Hard. I'd argue bumping them down one notch in size. Also, that final map feels too long though it could be due to fighting Malta while dragging a lowbie along for the ride.
The map's a big one, but given the sheer number of options dropped in most of the others would just be too small.
At low levels, or on some specific enemies, scripted runners are bad. But at level 41+, against a standard boss who doesn't run until very low health, you should have the tools to deal with it.Quote:Mission 4 has a runner. I'm on the fence since it makes sense and I feel CoH needs more scripted runners. At the same time, people may react negatively.
Ugh. I've fixed that one so many times, and it just keeps re-breaking.Quote:Mission 4 completes rather than requiring the lead-to. I think he needs a surrounding spawn for it to work. Just have him "order" the men to attack.
Augh. I'd changed that too.Quote:On that note, you may want to make him non-combat. Slightly immersion breaking for the guy trying to infiltrate Malta to start going all Crime Fighting Time upside their head. Also, "Fake Malta" would probably be better as "Malta Infiltrator" or even just Malta but that's a nitpick.
Huh. I remember changing the other missions in the arc, but not this one. Must have forgotten.Quote:The first floor of the first mission could stand to have a patrol or some sort of dialogue so it isn't so dry. I find it funny the police arrived late to the action... >_>
In the end, I feel you did succeed on making this work as a standalone arc.
Spelling/Grammar
-Mission 1 intro
"neighbour"
For your native language this isn't a typo. Just noting that since I'm American. You can probably keep it but just noting it.
-Mission 3
8 Plant the demolition charges!, 2 Erase the databases!, 4 Destroy the Titan components, Defeat the Malta commander!
A bit of a formatting problem and you sometimes see this with dev content sadly. Consider rewording your plural objective text to (number auto inserted due to the system...) Demolition charges to plant!, Databases to erase!, etc
Pity there's no team recognition text. I'll see if there's a size-neutral way to word it.Quote:NPC "Take them out!"
I was still solo during this part of the arc though I think it happens more than once. Consider rewording to
Take $himher out!
Bah. Fixing all the funny text too kso long for this arc. It's probably my own fault for just having to fill up every text box ever. I'll fix it again.Quote:Broken Prisoner bio
You think you've seen this girl before. In fact, she looks just like the hero you saw captured on that What was Malta doing to her in all that time?
I believe something got cut off here. AE will occasionally chew up your text when typing quickly.
Thanks for the feedback. I'll fix these, then get to work making the second one actually not broken. Stupid Marchand map changes... -
Quote:Ah, but that wasn't the problem.Originally Posted by Obsidius
In this mission, there are Nemesis Mole Machines that, due to their high number of HPs, had great XP rewards, although they had no attacks. People would farm this mission constantly for the Mole Machines, until the devs removed all rewards from them.
The problem was that if you hit them with any power with knockback whatsoever, they became unkillable. Literally unkillable. The sheer number of support tickets this generated was colossal.
So what did they do to fix it?
Remove the XP rewards. Successfully punishing every single person who ever had that mission, except the farmers, who simply moved on to the next best thing. Everyone who played that mission thereafter was stuck with a mission that was still just as unplayable, but without even the scant rewards to make up for it. This was also long before the days of mission-dropping, so if you had, say, an Energy corruptor, it was literally impossible for you to ever complete the mission without recruiting help, absurdsly hard to recruit help because nobody wanted to do that much work for nothing, and then impossible to move on with the single most central arc to the game.
Eventually they fixed the knockback bug, but to this day it remains the single most offensive 'fix' I've ever seen implemented in the game.
Has anyone else seen similar results with the Marchand map? Is this a major oops or just a hamfisted fix? -
It's just another autoreader advert.
It's the same thing as the way the right search terms on google will bring up a sidebar advert reading "Indemnity from prosecution for crimes against humanity avaliable now on eBay!" -
I've recently noticed one of my arcs has become unplayable. On investigation, it's because o changes to the Marchan's Office map.
Big changes.
The new map has had the number of boss/patrol/destroy object reduced to four, from what I can deduce was at least eighteen before. It's also had everything removed from the top except basic enemy spawns.
Is this intended to be a fix? If so, it's almost as good a fix as the Mole Machine fix way back in I8 or so. -
I've got a slightly different help request.
I've been working on two of my arcs that are intended to play as a two-parter, and trying to make them work sufficiently by themselves that if you're just going to do one it doesn't feel like a letdown or a perversely-fast escalation. I've done what I can, but the problem with me lookign at these things is I've spent so many hours on them that I can't look at either one and not automatically work it into the other.
Any commentary on difficulty would also be helpful, because the few characters I have at this level range are either hilariously anaemic or absurdly powerful, giving me no useful feedback.
Operation Oedipus: Glory of our Empire - 372767
or
Operation Oedipus: Day of Infamy - 439295
Either would be very helpful, but the first is probably closest to single-arc functional. -
The most efficient one is whichever one is most fun for you to play. That's rule zero of power optimisation in this game.
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Making a MA arc is the way to tell that one story that you think the game always needed or could really use. Whether you use it to change the general mood of part of the game, to happify or engrimmen something that didn't feel right, to explore in more detail an enemy or plot event that you thought was needlessly skipped, or to change the feel or detail of an enemy group is up to you. You might feel that you don't like the way you never really achieve anything against Malta, and build an arc to fix that. You might not like the drastic lack of detail in the Warriors or Wyvern and write an arc that really expands it. Or maybe you just have a story you really want to tell in CoXland, and MA is by far the best way to do that.
The key is to MAKE THE STORY FOR YOURSELF.
You're never going to get Hall of Fame, and almost certainly never going to get Dev's Choice. You're probably not going to get more than a dozen plays. Hell, my arcs have yet to even be rated by anyone, and I know I didn't skimp on the promotion. If you build your arcs expecting a certain result, you will be disappointed. You have to build them for the arc's own sake. If you can be happy being the only person who ever plays that arc, then you'll be fine. -
Deal better damage? Deal BETTER damage?!
Just to confirm, we ARE talking the same Assault Rifle set here, the one with Flamethrower and Ignite and Full Auto.
Assault Rifle doesn't need any help whatsoever. It is already a furiously powerful set. The only thing about it is that you can't just autopilot it in and expect it to work. Full Auto isn't wide, but it is absurdly long, and aimed properly will never hit less than its target cap. Ignite is a power completely dependant on player skill. If you can't use it it's useless, but if you can, it's monstrously powerful, capable of killing minions so fast they can't even run off of it, and also an excellent defensive power against melee foes. Flamethrower is just plain good, with huge damage and huge cone. The other attacks are mediocre because they have to be to offset just how good AR's cones are.
AR doesn't need help, and I've never seen someone who can actually use Ignite suggest it does. Maybe you should visit the Blaster forums and ask them how to do it? -
People have been asking for more fighter-style Blaster secondaries for a long time now. I don't know why they're not an option, but it seems that's the way the developers want the game to be.
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There's always going to be fights between whether martials arts should be more brawly or more ornate. The fact that there's a relatively even split between the groups who don't like it is the best sign that it's actually where it needs to be.
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One note is that Widows have only a little defense debuff resistance, whereas most Spiders have literally none. They suffer cascading defense failure worse than any other resilient AT.
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Super Strength/Shield Defense.
Combine a primary with a monstrous damage buff and one of the best AoE attacks in the game with a secondary with a monstrous damage buff and another fantastic AoE attack. Sure, not that enduring against vast hordes, but you have the defense of everything already being dead. The extensive knockdown the two share, especially if you grab Air Superiority, means that anything tough to survive is also going ot spend most of the fight flailing and falling over.
It's not the most monstrously optimised build, because it does have a tendency to die where most others wouldn't. What it gives in return is the feeling that you aren't so much a character as a moving radius of destruction. -
Quote:Originally Posted by McNum
You don't want to pilot a Zeus. Trust me. You really, really don't. Ever wonder why Psychic powers work on them? They have a brain, a human brain. Not the whole human, mind you, just the brain. Usually not a volunteer brain either. Kind of icky, really. So trust me when I tell you that you don't want to pilot a Zeus.
There's a difference between being a pilot and being a CPU. For one, the CPU doesn't get to ride the titan. -
That's successful morality in a game; when for a moment you just don't care about the meaningless numbers as much as you do for the ephemeral consequences of notional actions.
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Because you're a terrible person. That's kind of the basic premise for most of those missions.
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Quote:Funny, because I don't. Nearly every new mission outside Praetoria in the last, what, six issues has had more of those damned 5th Column in them. It's boring, tired, and uninspired. They're the new Nemesis, except without even the false novelty of memesis to it. The next LOL5THCOLUMNPLOT I get I'm just going to avoid with every character I make from now on, because I actually want some variety in my game.Originally Posted by Eva Destruction
I want more Heroic tip missions with 5th.
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I did a hell of a lot of changing characters to make them sit where they fit. In fact,the only one I didn't change is the one I'm happiest with, who's basically a humanist Archvillain. Having been around for about half of human civilisation, he gained a certain level of perspective through sheer experience, and came to the conclusion that while humanity wanted heroes, what it needed was villains. With heroes always present to save everyone from their every fear, humanity becomes complacent, and lazy. With nothing to fear, they have no reason to strive, and with someone always there to win their fights for them, they become weak. So long as humanity expected its heroes to always save them, they would never be able to save themselves, and the day the heroes failed mankind would die. A villain, though, is a foe they must fight and can never truly defeat. They can only save themselves through constant vigilance and restless toil. They cannot rely on anyone but themselves to save them from danger, and then, if their greatest efforts fail, the villain can act to save them just as well.
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The problem is you've mistaken a game for an equation.
Yes, killing everything will always be faster in terms of leveling, save against the most dangerous foes. But this doesn't matter at all if you aren't enjoying it.
It took me almost six months to get my first Stalker to 40, and I just couldn't play it any more. He was no fun. A year and a half later I came back for the novelt,y and reworked his setup, and it was fun again. I got from 40 to 50 in less than three weeks, back when it took about as long as 1-40.
The amount of fun playing your character will always be the single most critical element of levelling up and getting rewards. A fun character is worth playing in and of themselves, even if the rewards are bad, and if they're good you'll enjoy yourself even more. An annoying character can only be mediocre even with the best rewards, and without them will be painful to play.
Rewards are not the objective you're really after. It's fun, presumably. Maybe an income for a few certain individuals. So, why go to the trouble of acquiring fun by proxy through better rewards, when you can attain it directly? -
I like Assault Rifle/Dark Miasma. Dark is an excellent secondary for solo play, and it maximises many of the abilities of AR. Tar Patch means Lethal isn't a problem any more, and it turns the fire-damage attacks from powerful to outright devastating. It also keeps the enemies nicely aligned for your cone attacks. Most importantly, plenty of holds and Tar Patch means that Ignite goes from situationally good to absurdly powerful.
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Ignite is a contentious power only because it takes practise to employ well, instead of being obviously useful out of the box. At first, it does a little damage and keeps enemies away for a second. Then you start doing things like Tar Patch or Caltrops and it becomes a brutally powerful attack. THEN you slot it and start coming up against Elite Bosses, and it becomes a thing of beauty.
And then, you play in a team full of +recharge, and it becomes a testament unto heaven.
Last night I played an ITF with three /kins of various flavour. When we fought Romulus Nictus, things were getting badly out of hand with ambushes and everyoen else was screaming. I was cackling like a madman as his health moved like a Boss, thanks to the divine might that is Flamethrower-Ignite-Flamethrower-Ignite. I think I may have actually begun laughing like a psychopath at one point. -
It's a very personalised character thing, really. Some want fanfare, some don't. There's no way to turn existing fanfare off, so the people who do have to find some.
It wouldn't really make that much sense to have you attacked instantly when you left by a group that knows you, because your covertness about being from Praetoria is the reason you don't have the Freedom Phalanx personally cruising up to give you a very exciting fist-based welcome. As far as nearly everyone's concerned, Praetoria is another one of those silly bizzaro-land planets, and everyone in it is either completely powerless and helpless of phenomenally powerful and psychotic.
Actually, I think the best thing to do would be to put a contact just outside the exit who calls you over Vanguard Rep style. No missions, or anything, just a dialogue tree to the effect that 'We know you're here. We're watching you. Try any funny business and you'll regret it.'
Put one of those each side, and it would let players weaken that disjunction when you step out of the portal and BAM, Praetoria never mattered. -
In strict mathematics, the Defender is now likely the better choice. The Defender always has better support and debuffs, and when solo, now does comparable damage against anything that isn't a boss or tougher, foes you'll only have to fight sparingly. When teamed, it does less damage, but individual damage is less important then, and the added support will often make up for this. Against higher-order foes, Corruptors are damned effective, and the more legitimately dangerous a foe, the more effective their extra damage becomes.
The exception to this is on Superteams, or more carefully designed ones anyway, where the stacked supports render the Defender numbers academic, and the much higher Corruptor damage cap actually means something. Last time I got on one of these with was with my AR Corruptor, and there was so much +recharge my attack chain turned into Flamethrower-Ignite-Flamethrower-Ignite, killing things so fast they never got the chance to run out of the patch. I will admit to laughing like a homicidal maniac at the sheer amount of incendiary violence I was unleashing.
In fun terms, Corruptors are a lot more enjoyable for me. Getting their attacks earlier makes them easier to level, and Scourge is actually quite helpful when solo against EBs, because it always seems to kick your damage into maximum overdrive just as you've run out of purple and you need it to die NOW, please.
To be fair, most of the situations where a Corruptor really worked for me would have been just as much fun on the right Defender, too. -
It's a fighty-ally mission. Mine lived to the exit and I won it.