Statesman Speaks at Origins
By
87____,
Posted on: 2005-07-04 17:43 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
Thanks much for the info!
Although I don't play a blaster, the blaster "desperation" move sounds very interesting.
As for the whole "defender" and "cap" thing, I'm pretty sure you have it right on the damage aspect. Think a redname said it once a month or two ago, in order to make defenders feel more "useful" in the 40+ game.
The whole store thing sounds like its part of States' plan to tweak the whole SO system in the game (increasing costs, so players rely more on drops to trade, etc). Did he say anything further to that issue?
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Blasters: First off, blasters are going to get a new inherent ability (much like the scrapper critical is inherent to that AT) called desperation. The lower the blasters hit points the more damage they will do. As I write this I wish I had asked for more details IE ratio of damage to health but I didnt <sigh>.
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To be honest, I really hope that he means "Along with some form of protection/defense/aggro reduction/ect".
The Blaster desperation thing sounds fairly interesting, seeing as I haven't seen it anywhere else. Unfortunately, some of the questions that I can think about it would probably only be answered if I got to play around with it myself. Of course, I would hate it if it ended up lowering base damage. Also, of course, there would probably be the Defender who will claim he didn't heal you because you would do more damage that way. Really, it sounds like it will make the thin line between a victory and failure even finer, but at least it helps the Blasters more than it helps his foes.
Still, the one thing about it that strikes me odd is the fact that this kind of change would be most useful in solo(I.E: Added damage doesn't matter for drawing aggro, no one to heal you and change your damage), but it's been well established by many good players that a well-designed Blaster can solo through 90% of the game. I know I did...
Also, about the stores. No! How will I get my Hero O's? Don't tell me I have to go all the way back Skyway or Steel to get my tasty cereals!
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Blasters: First off, blasters are going to get a new inherent ability (much like the scrapper critical is inherent to that AT) called desperation. The lower the blasters hit points the more damage they will do.
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Well that will come in handy for my solo play! It may be a mixed blessing for team oriented blasters though. Do more damage, generate more aggro, draw more enemy fire, take more damage. The extra aggro may not be enough to notice though.
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Right after that he said that if you can agro 50 guys and not be defeated something is wrong.
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Sounds like a decent enough standard. Enough for large teams but not enough for heavy herding.
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He really wishes he could go back and revamp the system of Stamina but as the game now stands he cant change it.
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So let's all end the Stamina nerf predictions for now.
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Skills: For something that is not coming in the foreseeable future, a lot of the lecture was focused on skills.
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Good to know they're still very much in the works.
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Hold on to your seats folks, he HATES the stores in Talos and IP. As soon as he is able he will get rid of them.
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Oh my. Well, most of the IP stores aren't that useful, but the Talos stores are very convenient. Hopefully the replacements won't be too out of the way.
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This game caters to new MMO players (roughly 40% of the player base is new to MMOrpgers).
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I hope i'm just reading that wrong...or something was lost in translation.....I'm reading that as: don't expect much 50+ content, because we're catering to the young'uns. Replay as a new AT !!! It's fun to kill Frostfire 15 times while doing your main character, then starting over again with BRAND NEW powers and killing Frostfire another random 17 times.
....*coughs*
Served Cold: 50 Ice/Storm/Ice in retirement.
Level 53: Arrows/Devices/Munitions Blaster
....and hopeless Science-Natzi.
I dunno. The stores gives a sense of a city. That business if being transacted there. Removing the stores... well, I supose you could put some NPC contacts there, just like the ones in Bricks and Founders, but people already have a heck of a time finding those guys... why confuse them in the 20s?
Dungeoncleaners! (ID#125715): Slay the Adventurers! Rescue the Monsters! Return the Treasure!
Peppermint Cat-- Lv50 Mewtant Ice/Eng Bls
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This game caters to new MMO players (roughly 40% of the player base is new to MMOrpgers).
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I hope i'm just reading that wrong...or something was lost in translation.....I'm reading that as: don't expect much 50+ content, because we're catering to the young'uns. Replay as a new AT !!! It's fun to kill Frostfire 15 times while doing your main character, then starting over again with BRAND NEW powers and killing Frostfire another random 17 times.
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Perhaps he was referring to the overall simplicity of the game catering to new MMO players, and not the content which will be designed?
I know I will see you again on another game somewhere - one game can't hold all us crazies forever.
CuppaJo
Some people just need to be on the cross at all times for the attention, I guess.
Friggin_Taser
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The Blaster desperation thing sounds fairly interesting, seeing as I haven't seen it anywhere else. Unfortunately, some of the questions that I can think about it would probably only be answered if I got to play around with it myself. Of course, I would hate it if it ended up lowering base damage. Also, of course, there would probably be the Defender who will claim he didn't heal you because you would do more damage that way. Really, it sounds like it will make the thin line between a victory and failure even finer, but at least it helps the Blasters more than it helps his foes.
Still, the one thing about it that strikes me odd is the fact that this kind of change would be most useful in solo(I.E: Added damage doesn't matter for drawing aggro, no one to heal you and change your damage), but it's been well established by many good players that a well-designed Blaster can solo through 90% of the game. I know I did...
Also, about the stores. No! How will I get my Hero O's? Don't tell me I have to go all the way back Skyway or Steel to get my tasty cereals!
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WOW..
I think this may be in response of my [censored] about Scrappers having a "critical"..
yet I as a Assault Rifle Blaster..
Had none..? excuse me??..
I'm a Rifle with Snipe..
I SHOULD be able to have the OPPORTUNITY at least to take down ANYONE with a critical snipe...
I mean it only makes sense..
but then again....
so many things in the game at this time..
make NO sense at all...
Thanks for taking the time to write this up, Zombie. 5 stars for you...
He's getting rid of the Talos stores? Can he also get rid of training enchancement drops post level 20!? 
Very Interesting, great post, good info.
Desperation for Blasters.. very interesting... I also am looking forward to the Bow and Arrows powers... after taking a blaster to 50... the rest of the game seems too easy now ... lol 
I agree hold off on skills till they are done right... if they are not fun.. I will not be doing them.
I don't understand the HATE of the stores... I think a better solution to the Enhancement problem would be to remove level 25 SO's and only offer them at level 35, certainly would make the game alot more interesting between 22-32. I like the stores.. because nobody is continually bumping into your toon... that is sooooo annoying. 
Again, great post thanks for the short hand notes!
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He's getting rid of the Talos stores? Can he also get rid of training enchancement drops post level 20!?
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Great Idea!
Desperation...sounds interesting, but considering how quickly a blaster can go from 100% to 50% health (let alone 50% to 0) I hope that's not all he has in store for us.
Furio--Lvl 50+3 Fire/Fire/Fire Blaster, Virtue
Megadeth--Lvl 50+3 Necro/DM/Soul MM, Virtue
Veriandros--Lvl 50+3 Crab Soldier, Virtue
"So come and get me! I'll be waiting for ye, with a whiff of the old brimstone. I'm a grim bloody fable, with an unhappy bloody end!" Demoman, TF2
Desperation sounds cool, but we'd best be doing our best damage at about 25%. Anything lower than that -- and even that's a stretch -- and we're pushing minion death on a team.
He thinks people need Defenders to cap out in various statistics. Uh, not to rain on your parade States, but Blasters can cap Damage on their own about every 90 seconds or so with SOs and Build Up, and that's keeping Aim in reserve -- another 66% buff. We'd better have that 500% cap if that's gonna work out. Tanks and Defenders can hit that cap as well. Tanks can cap out their Resistance on just the might of their -reduced- SOs. Defense and Regeneration have no cap. If they want to make Defenders useful in that sense again, they're gonna have to take another look at things.
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Nerfs: Mr. Emmert throughout the lecture constantly said that arising to challenges = fun. He said that all Ats should be able to do a mission on heroic solo. However, if invincible offers no challenge prepare yourself for the nerf bat (there goes my illusion/rad <sigh>. Right after that he said that if you can agro 50 guys and not be defeated something is wrong. He also stated that no one should be able to cap with out a defender. Im assuming this means defense but its one of those shorthand notes and could also mean damage. He mentioned that the 30s game and above is NOT Balanced (his emphasis). He said that he wanted to make it more challenging and exciting to get a Yes!! I beat it feeling. He didnt mention specifics other than differing damage types.
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Simply awful. I wish a new development team would take over...one that understood wimping is awful and masochistic challenge is not fun. I can guess that the "YES!!" level of challenge equates to hamidon level of difficulty. This is precisely why I left EQ.
Uh... no that would be an exaggeration.
But personally I think being able to take on 50 mobs at the same time is a whole lot of fun, it's what really makes a hero feel super. If anything I think they should have NEW mobs which makes that much more difficult and have their own zone for it.
Whatever they do, they have to keep the Super feel.
If it doesn't feel like a super hero game, and instead the dreaded EQ in tights, a lot of people will bail.
These guys exist. They're called "Rularuu" and people avoid them like the plague.
They only avoid them because the shadow shard is so poorly designed, I mean really there is no reason to go there unless you're a tourist or want to do insanely long task forces.
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These guys exist. They're called "Rularuu" and people avoid them like the plague.
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Only those of us who don'teal challange, or are masochistic. Whats not to like about Rularuu? They have a kyrptonite for everyone. Psychic attacks, through the roof Acc and super strong brutes. If you think you can take anything you haven't fought Rularuu. And I would like to mention, that as a Blaster I rarely did against them, little more than I do against any other group.
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Nerfs: Mr. Emmert throughout the lecture constantly said that arising to challenges = fun. He said that all Ats should be able to do a mission on heroic solo. However, if invincible offers no challenge prepare yourself for the nerf bat (there goes my illusion/rad <sigh>. Right after that he said that if you can agro 50 guys and not be defeated something is wrong. He also stated that no one should be able to cap with out a defender. Im assuming this means defense but its one of those shorthand notes and could also mean damage. He mentioned that the 30s game and above is NOT Balanced (his emphasis). He said that he wanted to make it more challenging and exciting to get a Yes!! I beat it feeling. He didnt mention specifics other than differing damage types.
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Simply awful. I wish a new development team would take over...one that understood wimping is awful and masochistic challenge is not fun. I can guess that the "YES!!" level of challenge equates to hamidon level of difficulty. This is precisely why I left EQ.
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Why do we assume "challenging" means "as challenging as avoiding getting boned in prison"?
I'm sure there's a middleground between "breezing through missions on Invincible" and "how come my blood is all outside of me?"!
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I'm sure there's a middleground between "breezing through missions on Invincible" and "how come my blood is all outside of me?"!
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When has this dev team ever found a middle ground with anything? Status Effects? No. -Regen? No. Boss upgrades? No. Endurance Useage? No. Kryptonite type Enemies? No. PvP? No.
Just saying..... 
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Nerfs: Mr. Emmert throughout the lecture constantly said that arising to challenges = fun. He said that all Ats should be able to do a mission on heroic solo. However, if invincible offers no challenge prepare yourself for the nerf bat (there goes my illusion/rad <sigh>. Right after that he said that if you can agro 50 guys and not be defeated something is wrong. He also stated that no one should be able to cap with out a defender. Im assuming this means defense but its one of those shorthand notes and could also mean damage. He mentioned that the 30s game and above is NOT Balanced (his emphasis). He said that he wanted to make it more challenging and exciting to get a Yes!! I beat it feeling. He didnt mention specifics other than differing damage types.
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Simply awful. I wish a new development team would take over...one that understood wimping is awful and masochistic challenge is not fun. I can guess that the "YES!!" level of challenge equates to hamidon level of difficulty. This is precisely why I left EQ.
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Why do we assume "challenging" means "as challenging as avoid getting boned in prison"?
I'm sure there's a middleground between "breezing through missions on Invincible" and "how come my blood is all outside of me?"!
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OMG, that was prison line was priceless. I am now wiping my the Dr. Pepper off my monitor. Thank you for finishing out my day with a good laugh :P
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I'm sure there's a middleground between "breezing through missions on Invincible" and "how come my blood is all outside of me?"!
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When has this dev team ever found a middle ground with anything? Status Effects? No. -Regen? No. Boss upgrades? No. Endurance Useage? No. Kryptonite type Enemies? No. PvP? No.
Just saying.....
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Saved me the trouble. Making the game more annoying in an attempt to slow you down is not a challenge, it's just...well annoying.
What Mr. Emmert should realize is that for HIM rising to a challenge is fun, for others having lead weights added to our feat until rising becomes a challenge is not fun.
The 30s game may not be balanced in his view. But in mine, it is fun.
If the standard truely was "if invincible offers no challenge prepare yourself for the nerf bat", that wouldn't be so bad. The problem is that the standard really is "if anyone with your powerset has less challenge than we want you to have, prepare for the nerfbat." If you're not min/maxing the build, learn now, the nerfs are going to be designed so that the min-maxers are brought to "normal" so anyone less optimized will be subnormal.
My arcs are constantly shifting, just search for GadgetDon for the latest.
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Hello all I just got back from Origins and I have some juicy stuff from the lecture Mr. Emmert gave on the last day, I just want to share with you. I also have some impressions from Origins its self. For those of you who just want the juicy bits of the lecture Ill put those first and my impressions of Origins second.
. Right after that he said that if you can agro 50 guys and not be defeated something is wrong. He also stated that no one should be able to cap with out a defender. Im assuming this means defense but its one of those shorthand notes and could also mean damage. He mentioned that the 30s game and above is NOT Balanced (his emphasis). He said that he wanted to make it more challenging and exciting to get a Yes!! I beat it feeling. He didnt mention specifics other than differing damage types.
Statesmans lecture: First off I want to say that I took the notes in shorthand so they may be incomplete. I would rather give you less but accurate information so some of points may come up a bit short. I apologize in advance for any spotty information.
Blasters: First off, blasters are going to get a new inherent ability (much like the scrapper critical is inherent to that AT) called desperation. The lower the blasters hit points the more damage they will do. As I write this I wish I had asked for more details IE ratio of damage to health but I didnt <sigh>.
Nerfs: Mr. Emmert through out the lecture constantly said that arising to challenges =fun. He said that all Ats should be able to do a mission on heroic solo. However, if invincible offers no challenge prepare yourself for the nerf bat (there goes my illusion/rad <sigh>
Stamina: Statesman said that they can not remove Stamina in its current form from the game. He really wishes he could go back and revamp the system of Stamina but as the game now stands he cant change it. He did mention that to make Stamina inherent and allow access to 4 power pools would make characters too powerful. He also brought up the theme of choices during the discussion of Endurance. He said that you should choose which powers to use when. The discussion was all very <cough> cryptic.
Skills: For something that is not coming in the foreseeable future, a lot of the lecture was focused on skills. He mentioned that he wanted to get the core game settled and then would focus on skills. I got the distinct impression that a skill system is something that Mr. Emmert really wants to put into the game but he wont accept something lack luster (thank Gods). The Universities will go in on I5 the art work is already in and cant be changed. He mentioned that there were other uses for the University but did not elaborate. He said that the typical click/craft was boring and he didnt want to use it. He mentioned that he would like to see uses like breaking computer codes for missions and base raids. He wanted resource gathering to be through contacts rather than to go into the woods and chop down trees. Superman knows someone who can get him plutonium, he doesnt go out and gather the Plutonium him self.
The post 50s blues: Mr. Emmert mentioned several different possibilities for post the 50s game. Going back and doing missions with a sidekick so that the sidekick gets more xp. Another idea was new power sets and missions attached to these power sets that would require the new power sets to complete them. My notes on this are really jumbled, sorry folks. There is more but I wont give you guesses.
I5: There was a flyer passed out at the con about I5 "Forest of Dread". There are some new villians out there the cabal of Witches, Red Caps, a Giant Fir Bolg and the legendary Tuatha de Dannan. The flyer also mentions the new powersets. Two new zone events. Hellion Arson- "The Hellions are torching buildings and it's up to the heroes to snuff them out!" Troll Rave-"There's an upgraded Superadine source and the trolls are overdosing to create "Super-Trolls" that are out of control. New debt system 1/2 xp debt when characters are defeated in missions and no debt until level 10. Also many mission upgrades ( can't wait to check those out).
Misc: States favorite TF is Ernesto Hess. Of the new power sets his favorite is archery. Other power sets he would like to incorporate into the game are Shield powers, Energy absorption, Shape shifting and Magnetism (mentioned this one 3 times). Hold on to your seats folks, he HATES the stores in Talos and IP. As soon as he is able he will get rid of them. I dont know the man, I didnt even meet him but through the whole con I never saw a look of utter disgust on his face except when he was talking about the stores. I think he wants a purely contact enhancement purchase system. No wings it would take up too much programming time. He again said that he didnt mind Power leveling but that it indicated that something was wrong if folks preferred sitting by the door rather than playing the game. Statesman will appear in the Tyrant mission soon. This game caters to new MMO players (roughly 40% of the player base is new to MMOrpgers). The April fools joke was supposed to be a temporary power of Vaz vomit. That had a percentage chance of making other heros vomit. Thinking of this power in use around Atlas park had me in stitches all the rest of the con. Mr. Emmert loves the challenge of the hallows (me too). He reads the boards and plays the game daily.
Well this is what he said during the lecture. Remember dont shoot the messenger.
Origins was a much more serious con than Gencon. Gencon had a feeling of party party party and Origins was definitely a gaming con. I liked that. Not that there is anything wrong with party but I like to game when I go to cons. I was really disappointed that I only got into 2 of the 9 events I preregged for. I had 3 over bookings and 4 Gm no shows. I flew 2/3rds of the way across the country to get screwed. That was extremely disappointing, especially for a con this old and established. There was a rumor that a hacker had mucked up the registration boards. Im going to put more impressions of the con in later but Im finding that the many days of no sleep are catching up to me right about . Now. Ill be happy to answer any questions after I get some snuggle time with my man and some sleep.