Overall enjoying this issue, looking forward to what the future brings. I agree that this was one of the smoothest release I've seen. Sound loop bug gets me every other night tho. Hope to see a fix for that soon.
As an Ice tank, I'm glad to see that you're still looking at Defense.
Keep up the good work.
Phantom Rose: Ill / Kin / Psi
Soleau: Ice / Icy / Ice / Core: Ice / Fire / Pyre / Wind / Eclipse / Flare / Corona
---------------
Solo Space
I for one like the i5 changes. Thanks for putting badges on all the TFs.
[ QUOTE ]
First, a big thank you to everyone who played on the Training Room server and helped I5 to be one of our best launches ever! Were extremely happy about how I5 went live.
Second, were still scouring the boards for bugs and other issues, but weve finished making large changes to the power sets. Well still be looking at issues as the arise. For instance, there are issues with Defense builds; were going to look at that problem more carefully (the Damage Resistance Inspirations are a step, but there's a little more to come).
Thanks for all your great feedback!
[/ QUOTE ]
There's more to come for defense sets??!!?!?
I've got my crow, my hat and my shoes all ready to cook up and start chowing down on if help materializes for SR, Ice and FFers.
Thanks, Statesman.
Be well, people of CoH.
[ QUOTE ]
Second, were still scouring the boards for bugs and other issues, but weve finished making large changes to the power sets.
[/ QUOTE ]
Can you clarify this a little States? Done for I5, done period? I understand that as an MMO the game will be constantly changing, but are we gonna see more huge upheavals like we saw this past issue?
I5 sure is fun. The only legitimate complaints that I still see around are A) Defiance is worthless (most enemies can 1 or 2 shot blasters. If you've got enough aggro to get down to 20% health and you aren't running, you're dying. PERSONALLY, I'd rather have accuracy increase as distance between the target and yourself decreases. Why? Because it's annoying and unrealistic to be 2 feet away from an enemy, roll a miss, and instead of shooting his head off like any actaul blaster would, you decide it'd be nice if the warehouse had a skylight and so you fire WAY OFF ABOVE his head. Defiance would be much better suited to a Tank or Scrapper (both in execution and in archtype theme)) B) Kheldians have a lot of bugged powers and issues in general, and C) The aforementioned defense issues.
But on the WHOLE, I really enjoy I5. And I was crying DOOM when I saw the changes coming to my controller. But I really only ended up with a slight shift in gameplay tactics. So basically, all in all, I look FORWARD to future issues.
[ QUOTE ]
For instance, there are issues with Defense builds; were going to look at that problem more carefully (the Damage Resistance Inspirations are a step, but there's a little more to come).
[/ QUOTE ]
As an Ice Tank, thanks for looking more carefully.
The Dark Blade
"I've felt your mouse on me before, you perv...." - Troy Hickman
Paragon Wiki
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Second, were still scouring the boards for bugs and other issues, but weve finished making large changes to the power sets.
[/ QUOTE ]
Can you clarify this a little States? Done for I5, done period? I understand that as an MMO the game will be constantly changing, but are we gonna see more huge upheavals like we saw this past issue?
[/ QUOTE ]
I *think* what he's saying is that Issue 5 should be the only time they make a huge set of power changes that affect all archetypes. From here out they should only have to tweak individual powers or AT's. The global changes are done.
Or maybe I'm just projecting, filled with naive hope. 
Anyway, it's nice to know issues are still being looked into and not getting pushed aside.
Defiance does still need to be looked at. It still kicks in way to late to be any help, You have to be 1-2 hits away from death to see any improvement. I was playing last night, I had 160+ hp max, and was down to 50 before I saw any type of damage boost.
And an accuracy boost on it, would be nice. What good is the extra damage, if you can't hit anything.
Come on devs, art guys, where is my Maid costume for my characters! 5 years now, its a simple request.
Good:
Enhancing the team - I see why the global defence changes were necessary, and have made the game more fun for me. I have even adjusted to click IH (still dont like it that much but I have adjusted).
Croatoa is the new benchmark for a fun zone. Beats Striga by about half a length.
New powersets - great addition, I think sonic is a little overpowered as it stands but still new is good.
The idea of CT and dev response threads - was also great.
The Bad:
The execution of the CT/Dev response threads could have been better. A once a week (or couple fo weeks) sweep by a redname saying, 'comments read to this point' and reset the clock would have been great. Why ? - beacuse in testing our opinions can change over time.
Looping Sound Bug - nuff said. I see it is being worked on and hopefully it will be fixed.
Buggy Croatoa TF - this should have been fixed on test. No-one shoudl have to break up and restart a TF to make sure they get the right reward.
The handling ovver the datamining for TF badges initially. When we were told the time estimates mosts sensible people accepeted it. The lesson is give Cuppa the information necessary to do her job right. A lot of bad feelings came from the first announcement, no matter that they changed later.
Seriously most of us are adults, and can take news better when the reasons are explained. (Its too much work sounds like a brush off, the datamining background that Positron showed that it wasn't)
Sonic Graphics - yes I am one of those affected by pretty severe headaches due to these. I knwo they were toned donw once, and a further fix is coming. This was again something raised early on Test, that probably should have been resolved prior to live, not fixed afterwards.
Put your feet up for a few days, sip a cold beverage, and come to the AASQ fight night next weekend
@Catwhoorg "Rule of Three - Finale" Arc# 1984
@Mr Falkland Islands"A Nation Goes Rogue" Arc# 2369 "Toasters and Pop Tarts" Arc#116617
Thank god you've finished the largest ones. Now get back to work fixing some of the sets you made a little worser off *snaps whip* 
This space is intentionally left blank.
PLEASE look at END Issues for HUMAN Peace bringer!!!
Thanks States. Issue 5 has not been the doomsday that many said it would be and for that I'm thankful.
Here are the issues that are still needing to be addressed from my point of view :
1) The "Lost Connection to Mapserver" messages have increased for many folks, many times over from Issue 4 levels. I know this isn't happening to all but it is happening to enough of us. I am aware that the 9/15 patch was supposed to help stability but there is still evidence of this happening in many zones, some zones are worse than others. Please urge your tech people to continue to work to find the issue, whether it is a memory leak, server instability or sound loop issue.
2) Defiance : This ability is great ..... until about level 12 or 14. Then it is largely useless for a Blaster. By the time it kicks in at the higher end of the game, the Blaster is eating pavement no matter what. Please take a look at making changes to the this inherent ability as well as the new Defender ability.
Thanks as always!
Sign It : http://www.change.org/petitions/ncso...city-of-heroes
The main difference I see between I-4 and I-5 is before when I played my tank, I would click a few attacks, sit back and watch the effects, then spin, repeat and fold while I went off and made a sammich...
With I-5, I don't have time to even think about food, it's click that toggle, run over here, leap to that person's defence, in between beating down some purple conned baddie with my particular brand of Hands-on-Justice!
The pace is so fast that surviving an AV is an accomplishment I write down... and I remember the moment more and who helped me achieve it. When I solo, it's fun too, but team play is where it's at...
Now for the bad news, this is what I hear everyday,
"She'll be back, she disconnects every 15-20 minutes".
And it's true, just traveling through PI or Talos is a major Lag Reseveration. I've tried this new Safe Mode that appeared a few days ago, and while it prevents some of the lag, eventually it returns in those 2 zones. Not so much when I am soloing but definitely with a group it's a gaurantee I will crash.
Overall it's a great Issue, but I know you guys can make it better
I'm happy with some of the I5 (and close to I5 changes). Just two big pet peeves:
1) Blasters (go figure) - Defiance has gotten a thorough scourging on the boards. I know you guys read through the boards there. Nuff said there.
2) Pool powers - Global defense changes hurt squishies, even as they let a few gaps open up in too-tight Scrapper/Tanker defenses. Were the I5 numbers too good for non-defensive AT's?
And last but sadly most important- the memory leak bug. I'd enjoy I5 if I didn't have this problem chewing up memory until it shuts down CoH. I really like this game. Please let me play it longer and with less interruptions. I hate getting debt just from playing around a bad bug.
I actually love what you've done with I5... especially taking the idea of the Haloween event and tying it in with a new zone. I love most of the changes, too. Especially the Tank changes! I actually had to decide if I wanted a Tanker that does good damage or a tanker that could take good damage... I think I've found my happy medium!
Now for the bad news...
Defiance. I know you have all heard this before, but it needs to be increased slightly. Maybe start it building at 50% health and increasing from there. At the moment, the only way to get anything that resembles "a real increase" out of defiance is to be almost dead. At level 30+, when/if your health is low enough for a Defiance shot you are either mezzed or defeated before the animation ends.
Monsters I. I've seen Sally surface 5 times since I5 went live. She probably surfaced more, but I've been doing hero-work too. All 5 times, Sally was defeated by the same character who made a broadcast that he was "Lord of the Sally" and generally being a griefer over the broadcast rubbing it in everyones faces...
Monsters II. In the Jack/Eochai spawn in the north, I was at 3 of their spawns with my level 35... all 3 times a group of 8 level 50s got the badges... It wouldn't have bee nthat bad, except 5 of the 8 were present the entire time. I think it should be more like a Hamidon fight. Someone runs in and hits Hami once, they get the badge. A defender wails on a monster for the entire fight and ends up with naught because the team of 8 blasters/scrappers did more damage.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.
Keep up the good work, I can't wait to see what you have in store for us with the "war Wall-less" zone!
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Monsters II. In the Jack/Eochai spawn in the north, I was at 3 of their spawns with my level 35... all 3 times a group of 8 level 50s got the badges... It wouldn't have bee nthat bad, except 5 of the 8 were present the entire time. I think it should be more like a Hamidon fight. Someone runs in and hits Hami once, they get the badge. A defender wails on a monster for the entire fight and ends up with naught because the team of 8 blasters/scrappers did more damage.
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You mean Lusca or the Clockwork Paladin. There is no badge for defeating Hamidon. There is a badge for walking over his general location, but you don't necessarily have to defeat Hamidon to get it (or even have hamidon be defeated :P).
The only real benefit the level 50s have over the lower levels against Eochai and Jack is their power selection and enhancement slots. They're Giant Monsters, level isn't really a factor in determining damage/yada.
Let's Dance!
I, for one, welcome our new I5 overlords.
I've enjoyed the issue. I enjoyed testing it on the training room and helping to find the bugs and whatnot. While the "looping sound crash" has been a problem for me since it went live, i know a fix is coming in a few days.
My observations:
1) Crotoa is quite good. Not as good as Stirga is, but still a quality improvement. The storys are fun (if a bit too much on the Fantasy side, rather than hero) and well though out, with new interesting challenges.
2) The sound loop bug is horrid.
3) The Lag has increased significantly, making most fast moving travel powers unweildy.
4) You have over pared some of the Resistances for tankers, making the non Smashing/Lethal far too low, even when max slotted.
Overall, not any real game killing mistakes, you are playing to your fan base (which is good) but I don't see anything that is going to bring back a large number of former players who should be eaiser to recapture.
Regards,
muffinlad
We didn't see any response to the Phase Shift change (which is now considered a worthless power).
Any responses to all the suggestions on the dev thread?
Leader of the British Superhero Corps on Pinnacle
Shego: Another one saved from the fiery pits of EEeeeeconomy Computing Hell.
I am really enjoying the I5 changes. To my surprise, I was able to have competive 1v1 duels with a lvl 50 Inv/SS tank with Perma-Rage fightimg my lvl 39 DM/SR, both of us down at lvl 37 with no inspirations. In I4, this match would have been pointless. In I5...it was heart pounding.
I still think Invinc is too easy.
You might consider lowering the knockback protection on scrappers. It's annoying to get knocked back, but there still should be some chance we get knocked around as scrappers.
Croa is a wonderful zone but alas, it goes by so quickly.
The rescue missions are fantastic. How cool is it to rescue captives and have them team up with you to fight? To bad we can't kick them when they Leroy on us .
The auto-exemping on missions is such a welcome addition, I could kiss someone...not you...but someone. The other night, got DC'd on the Katie Hannon TF and was able to come back and finish it. In I4 I would have been auto-booted.
I appreciate you looking into the defense situation. Whatever changes you make, please continue to keep the sets distinctive from each other. CoH has tremendous replay value because the sets are so different. Preserve the uniqueness of each set.
As a general comment:
[ QUOTE ]
And an accuracy boost on it, would be nice. What good is the extra damage, if you can't hit anything.
[/ QUOTE ] Yes, I'm sure it would be nice...but rather bogus. If anything, a hero's accuracy should get worse as he or she takes more damage, not better. Damage increasing based on desparation makes sense. Accuracy does not.
[ QUOTE ]
It still kicks in way to late to be any help
[/ QUOTE ] I've teamed with pleny of blasters and seen Defiance help out. I've played my own blaster and had Defiance make a diff. I'm curious just how much help blasters expect it to be? Certainly Containment is the most helpful power of all the Inherents, but Punchvoke, Crits, and soon to be released Vigiliance are decidely of less benefit. No scrapper relies on crits to win a battle. What's more, most mobs die from two normal attacks so crits are not really helping much. Only against Bosses and AV's do they even get a chance to make a difference. Punchvoke is by and large unnecessary to soloing tanks. Most tanks also have things like Invinc, Mudpots, Blazing Aura, and Icicles which provide their own taunt...not to mention Taunt itself. I'd be curious to see how much a difference Punchvoke even made to the average tanker. And we'll have to see how useful Vigiliance is.
Except for Containtment, the rest of the Inherents don't seem to be any more of a benefit than Defiance.
Yes, I5 was great! It was very pleasant to spend time over on TR.
When you're scouring for final bugs to clean up, PLEASE do not forget about the missing costume pieces, such as the old suit Jacket (whose cut is SO much more attractive than the Jackets suit jacket) and the Malaise pants in the Baggy category, neither of which are available anymore.
Looking forward to another great issue in i6!
Coldfeet
removed
[ QUOTE ]
First, a big thank you to everyone who played on the Training Room server and helped I5 to be one of our best launches ever! Were extremely happy about how I5 went live.
Second, were still scouring the boards for bugs and other issues, but weve finished making large changes to the power sets. Well still be looking at issues as the arise. For instance, there are issues with Defense builds; were going to look at that problem more carefully (the Damage Resistance Inspirations are a step, but there's a little more to come).
Thanks for all your great feedback!
[/ QUOTE ]
I'm glad you like how it launched. To date, it was one of the more quiet launches in terms of stability.
I don't however see what the tank changes accomplished. I'm still able to play just as I had before with little change. I dropped one power, replaced it with another and am now able to defeat mobs FASTER than before.
My Shade & PB see no real net effect to them either.
My controller is now grossly overpowered in my opinion because she was built to solo and team support (in that order). Containment puts her way over the top.
My regen scrapper is all but retired. Why? Maybe it had something to do with the chopping in half of our I4 ability to regen damage after repeated statements from YOU & your people saying Regen was fine where it was at. I hate micromanaging my characters. Clicks are for attack powers & buff powers, not for defense powers.
My blasters... LOL nothing changed for them. Defiance was a useless concept that translated directly into a useless ability. If I'm low enough to be getting a decent Defiance bonus, I'm leaving the battle. Sonic blasters... meh. I'm just not that impressed. they were interesting on Test but on Live, their damage appears to be far weaker even though I'm better slotted on Live with Enhancements (at the same levels I was at on Test).
If your changes were an attempt to prevent herding, please try again. You missed the mark.
If your changes were an attempt to balance the game, please try again. You missed the mark so badly the target feels sorry for you.
Long ago, I posted what I though of each Issue. I'll do that again.
Issue 1: baseline. I started playing a few days before patchday.
Issue 2: Good. I was having more fun and many of the changes made sense.
Issue 3: Outstanding! I was having a blast. Every character concept I tried/played was FUN.
Issue 4: Ugh. It was all the bad of Issue 3 without any of the Issue 3 goodness. I had distinctly less fun with this issue and even cut back my playing time due to less interest. Suppression is the worst offender here. This was a major sapper on Fun's endurance. It was ill conceived and foisted upon us anyways.
Issue 5: I play about 30% of the time I did in Issue 4. This issue is a non-fun issue. I don't see what is so impressive about Croatoa. The AI isn't better. It's the same mission suite. Sure the missions now have a few new twists but they are only new for a very short while. They also are NOT engaging. The gameplay changes haven't made my game more fun. They've actually taken most of the fun out of the game for my wife and myself.
The overall nerfing of defense was a misguided idea. It should have been handled on a case by case, power by power basis. Some sets under perform. Some overperform. Balance is achieved when you ADD & SUBTRACT where appropriate, not when you consistently SUBTRACT.
This concept is especially true for Controllers. Some controllers could NEVER achieve perma-lockdown yet they were as thoroughly gutted as those who could do so easily. Yet for all the gutting that Controllers took, you still failed to address certain powersets' overpoweredness.
Lastly, what did the Concealment Pool ever do to so greatly piss off the Dev team?
BTW, I'm still a paying customer because my friends haven't left yet. I'm not here because of the engaging content or neato storylines. I'm here because of my friends. I used to be enthralled by the game and the story until you went overboard and nerf-happy with Issue 4. I'm not anymore. I'm here to support my friends. When they leave, I leave.
PS: The next time you are explaining a power change, just tell it how it is rather than trying to gussy it up. We aren't children. We do understand a logical arguement/debate/statement. We may not necessarily like them, but we do understand them. Treating us like children by giving us non-answers / patently false answers (phase shift nerf excuses) tends not to fly and only serves to whip people into a frenzy.
Virtue: multiple characters.
CoH/V: Woot! Maybe Fun is to be had once again.
Ack! RUN! Regen is glowing mean & green!
If it reduces you, it's a nerf.
If it buffs the mobs, it's challenge.
They are not the same.
There are a few issues I'd like to bring up on Issue 5:
1- Invuln, Super Reflexes and Ice tankers got hit way too hard. With Invuln, there's no point in slotting your non smash/lethal resistances, but rather all you do now is abuse your tough hide/invincibility. Ice Tankers are pretty much useless, as are Super Reflex Scrappers. Heaven knows why you nerfed these two sets. Had you have left htem alone (but nerfed all the other defense based stuff/monster accuracy) they would have both become very viable sets. Boost the slow causing effect on ice tankers to be about 50% or more while you're at it then you could call it a day with the sets. But instead you kicked ice tankers in the teeth while they are down, and I doubt anyone will bother playing one for anything besides novelty value. Super Reflexes scrappers get flattened very easily still, and you may as well just make a blapper and buy lots of defense insps for what its worth.
Ironically the Fire Tankers (you know, those burn abusing people you were supposedly nerfing everything for?) got off *very* light compared to invuln, and granite tankers are now the top "taunt bot" tanks in the game.
2- There are a couple of major bugs with the sound looping, and hostage missions causing mega lag. But you are aware of those.
3- Force Fields are somewhat broken now. This is because Sonics can do what Force Field does and do it better:
Sonics can debuff enemy resistances, Force Field doesn't get to debuff anything.
Sonics get resistance buffs which are *FAR* better for taking on +2s and +3s then defense is. This is because of the way resistances and defenses scale to level. You have the math though, not me. Bad guys also will get natural d20s and therefore circumvent the force field. You are basically at the mercy of bad luck, but with resitances do not have this problem.
Sonics also get Clarity, an earth quake power, and a targeted repulsion field power (instead of the self one force fielders get making it better).
Mean while force field powers focus on spacing. While force bolt and repulsion bomb are kind of neat, Repulsion field is a big useless endurance hog, and Force Bubble is useless because every enemy in City of Heroes has either an uzi, a long range blast, or a bow and arrow. Even the Freakshow tanks, who you THINK would be close range only get those god awful team whiping grenades! As soon as you put up a force field, everything will argo on you, and you will die because they all have mega sniper accuracy now. Ironically Force Bubble would be a great power on a tanker, because tankers can handle that argo. Oh wait, a fire tank or earth tank only.
Now don't get me wrong, I would love to have an auto hit magic spacing bubble in Soul Calibur 2, where spacing actually means something... but in a game like City of Heroes where every villain and their momma is a Pathfinder Sniper its worthless.
The truth is the solution from an equation of lies. ~Maileah Kirel
First, a big thank you to everyone who played on the Training Room server and helped I5 to be one of our best launches ever! Were extremely happy about how I5 went live.
Second, were still scouring the boards for bugs and other issues, but weve finished making large changes to the power sets. Well still be looking at issues as the arise. For instance, there are issues with Defense builds; were going to look at that problem more carefully (the Damage Resistance Inspirations are a step, but there's a little more to come).
Thanks for all your great feedback!