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Don't you dare give Sun Splitter positive rep for that. |
Originally Posted by Sentai_Sage
<3
You founded the picture I referenced. |
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Dammit Karl, Epsilon gave me positive rep cause of you!
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Originally Posted by Karl_Rove_Man
Don't you dare give Sun Splitter positive rep for that.
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Added a new link to the OP. Content of the linked post here:
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Originally Posted by Positron
I am pleased to tell you that in Issue 16: Power Spectrum we have two new features that are made to better facilitate the game experience by streamlining many processes that players spend time setting up.
The first of these is the new difficulty settings. A lot of in-game Broadcasts are powerful characters looking for pads so they can artificially increase their team-size to provide more of a challenge for greater rewards. With the new difficulty settings, these players can set their team size without having to bother other players with their Broadcasts. If they want to be treated as a team of 8, even when solo, they can. The second feature is what we have come to call Super-Sidekicking but actually applies to all types of Sidekicking: Exemplaring, Lackeying, and Malefactoring as well. With this system, everyone in the team will find themselves automatically level adjusted to the level of the owner of the Mission that is currently selected. If there is no mission that is currently active, then the level is set to the leader of the Team. If you are below the level you are getting set to, you are automatically sidekicked up to one level below the owners level, just as if you had sidekicked to them. If you are above the level, then you will be lowered to the level of the owner, just as if you exemplared down. The players dont need to do anything for this to happen, it all happens automatically. This means that no matter what level ranges you have in your group, you can ALWAYS play together and you can ALWAYS get XP. Yes, we are even changing the way exemplaring works so that you get XP while you are fighting at a lower level. There will be an option of having the old way of exemplaring, and earning extra Inf. instead, for those players who want to earn some more Inf. instead of levels. Gone are the days of having to play Mentor Tetris (as weve come to call it) to make sure everyone in the team is SKed/EXed to the right person so that everyone is receiving XP, or having to tell your friend that they cant join your team because you dont have enough people to make sure everyone is SKed and earning rewards. One of the other advantages to this system is that the level adjustments take place no matter where you are in the game. No more My sidekick is out of range messages. If you are about to undergo a large level shift, you will have a dialog box pop-up giving you warning and the ability to leave the team (handy if you are in combat at the time and dont want to suddenly be fighting at a lower level). The range of levels that this dialog pops up is adjustable in the Options screen. Now we are aware of a couple things that this system doesnt do so well, and we are attempting to address most of them in the coming weeks. The first of this is the fact that you lose access to powers, especially the most-recently earned ones, when you Exemplar down. We are looking into some sort of fix for this. Next is the fact that sometimes you just want to un-exemplar and kick some butt, especially when things look bad for the team. If you leave the team you will automatically start fighting at your superior level. This will enable you to save your teams bacon at the cost of eating up any of the rewards they might have earned for those guys you defeat. Badge hunters in the closed beta have pointed out that some badges are simply favorable to get once you outlevel the content where they are given. Since Super-Sidekicking makes manipulating the levels more difficult, were going to re-examine the requirements on some badges, and lower them where appropriate. Mentor badge credit is still given whenever you are the Mission Owner, and someone is auto-sidekicked to you. Now one thing that is getting removed by this new system that is not going to be fixed is the ability to bridge. Bridging is the practice of sidekicking a low level character to JUST the right level to cap their XP earning on each entity defeated by the group. This was a side effect of how the Sidekicking system worked. While we have made adjustments to the Sidekicking system many times over the course of the life of the game to combat this, Super-Sidekicking eliminates bridging completely, since all rewards will be in parity. Before we went and removed this playstyle completely from City of Heroes we wanted to make sure we were doing the right thing. We did extensive datamines to see how many accounts were actually participating in a bridge team, and were surprised to see just how low of a percentage it actually was. This may be a case where it is possible that the advertising in /broadcasts for bridge teams actually made the practice seem more pervasive than it really was. With the ability to bridge removed, we should see an end to those Broadcasts, in addition to /tells to characters who are in the right level range for being a bridge. To us cutting down on annoying spam only makes your game experience better. (Which reminds me, weve added new features to the in-game Email system to either shut it off entirely, or only receive emails from people on your friends list and/or people in your Supergroup. Another step in the battle against annoying in-game spam.) With both the new difficulty levels and Super-Sidekicking, players can use the difficulty slider to increase the level of the entities in the mission so that they can earn more rewards. But this, at least, comes with the risk inherent with fighting higher level entities and larger spawns. As for low level characters missing out on accelerated leveling speeds, we are increasing the rewards they earn from level 1 to 20 (about 20% across the board) so that every player can get through the lower levels faster, not just those that know the tricks. (These changes are currently being tested in the Closed Beta for Issue 16, and may be changed/modified by the time they reach the Live servers) |
I like the new super sidekicking idea. No more struggling to find the right mix of 50s and non-50s for starting an ITF, for example. And if we're now exing/sking to the level of whoever owns the currently selected mission (and still earning XP while exed, no less), that means that the missions from anyone on the team are now fair game. That raises the odds of all members on the team being able to take part in things like arc completion XP and merit rewards.
Of course, theory and practice aren't always as similar as we'd like them to be, so I'll reserve final judgment until I've actually seen it working first-hand.
The Players' Guide to the Cities
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Whatever else, this will make things much simpler for those of us who run in superteams but enjoy playing the characters in their own right. We have something like an 8-level spread going in Hollow Brigade right now over on Redside. That's not so bad, but it's a big reason why my character is an Earth dom and runs Tactics. It's nice when we can all hit things.|
Originally Posted by B_Samson
I like the new super sidekicking idea. No more struggling to find the right mix of 50s and non-50s for starting an ITF, for example. And if we're now exing/sking to the level of whoever owns the currently selected mission (and still earning XP while exed, no less), that means that the missions from anyone on the team are now fair game. That raises the odds of all members on the team being able to take part in things like arc completion XP and merit rewards.
Of course, theory and practice aren't always as similar as we'd like them to be, so I'll reserve final judgment until I've actually seen it working first-hand. |
Unfotunately, it'll get here too late for that toon - in all likelihood he'll hit 50 or be nearly there by the time i16 arrives - but I'm looking forward to this in the future.
One area I can think of where I'm not so pleased about the idea is that I have a habit of putting off things like Taunt, travel powers, alternate-element armors, and so forth until whatever level is convenient rather than getting them out of the way early, as I've seen others do. It's always neat to team with a level 20-some Blaster who's taken all of 6 powers combined between his primary and secondary, for example. :/ In particular I can see this change exerting more pressure on tankers to take Taunt ASAP, which is not an end-of-the-world bad thing but is hardly a 100% positive situation.
Does anyone know how Broadsword is going to breakdown for Stalkers? (i.e. what powers @ what levels?) I'm actually looking forward to rolling a stalker for once. Also any thoughts on what would be a good secondary to pair with Broadsword for a stalker?
I am going to make a BS/WP stalker. Will negate the heavy end use. You can also go Regen.
@Turbo_Starr
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Pure speculation, but I'd give good odds on this order:|
Originally Posted by 3Mile
Does anyone know how Broadsword is going to breakdown for Stalkers? (i.e. what powers @ what levels?)
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1 Hack
1 Slash
2 Slice
6 Assassin Strike
8 Build Up
12 Placate
18 Parry
26 Disembowel
32 Head Splitter
Parry is pushed to later in the order by Assassin Strike and Whirling Sword is removed. That's based entirely on the differences between Katana and Ninja Blade where Assassin's Blade pushed Divine Avalanche to later in the order and The Lotus Drops was removed.
The Players' Guide to the Cities
I think your guess will be pretty close B_Samson. I figured the devs might dump whirling sword (hope they dont), but would not suprise me. I think Parry and placate will be swapped though.
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You are SO cute! Can I keep you?
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Originally Posted by TheEmbroiler
I think you're misunderstanding the ontological necessity of belief in a force larger than ourselves. Without visible attestations of our agreement such as that provided by myself, an individual human's spiritual well-being disintegrates into a chaos of misery and nihilism. You've illustrated this latter point well with your blank line, sir, and I commend you for such a lucid philosophical proposition, but the fact remains that without testimony there can be no search for an objective Truth.
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Hope youre right, hope I'm wrong... but I'm gonna toss the dice and wager they omit Parry. I would prefer it available... Imagine my surprise at realizing Quick Recovery was denied willpower stalkers...
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Originally Posted by B_Samson
Pure speculation, but I'd give good odds on this order:
1 Hack 1 Slash 2 Slice 6 Assassin Strike 8 Build Up 12 Placate 18 Parry 26 Disembowel 32 Head Splitter Parry is pushed to later in the order by Assassin Strike and Whirling Sword is removed. That's based entirely on the differences between Katana and Ninja Blade where Assassin's Blade pushed Divine Avalanche to later in the order and The Lotus Drops was removed. |
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Nice as it is to get recognition for my deliberately-baroque style of sass talk, my heart belongs to Triumph.
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Originally Posted by Thrunk
You are SO cute! Can I keep you?
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Originally Posted by Turbo_Starr
I am going to make a BS/WP stalker. Will negate the heavy end use. You can also go Regen.
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Stalkers don't get quick recovery in any secondary, Turbs. So end use will still be on the high end.
You know what, your right. I stand corrected. I think I will give you positive rep for that.
@Turbo_Starr
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If it ain't "baroque," don't fix it.|
Originally Posted by TheEmbroiler
Nice as it is to get recognition for my deliberately-baroque style of sass talk, my heart belongs to Triumph.
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so glad rep can't be subtracted- I would so get nailed for punning
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I am trying! *click*click*click* Bah.
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Originally Posted by 3Mile
If it ain't "baroque," don't fix it.
so glad rep can't be subtracted- I would so get nailed for punning |
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Intriguingly, I did manage to add rep for that one.
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Originally Posted by Rhynwa
I am trying! *click*click*click* Bah.
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Fiar Epic for scrapper is official.
Oh, and some other things about dominators and something... I don't care. FIRE EPIC FOR SCRAPPERS.
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Wait... I think I heard something about fire epic for scrappers >.>
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Originally Posted by Sentai_Sage
Fiar Epic for scrapper is official.
Oh, and some other things about dominators and something... I don't care. FIRE EPIC FOR SCRAPPERS. |
Do tell.
Well, from what I hear, when you turn level 41, you can access powers on your scrapper that let you control the element of fire. This, of course, does not count those scrappers that could already control the element of fire.
Updated the OP with the link to this:
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For Issue 16: Power Spectrum, we wanted to proliferate more powersets; at least one per archetype. In looking at which sets to shift around, there were a number of considerations that had to be examined. There wasn't a specific rule, it was more the circumstances of development which really guided the decisions. As the art team was busy with Powerset Customization, we tried to stay away from sets that required too much animation or FX work. We also wanted to fill in matching Themes where we could, like with adding Assault Rifle and Traps to Defenders. In other instances we wanted to fill in highly requested options, such as adding Claws to Brutes. In the end though, there are just far too many aspects to cover individually, but I'd definitely like to highlight some examples. Tanker & Scrapper: Electric Armor and Electric Melee The original plan was just to proliferate Electric Armor and to use this opportunity to make some survivability adjustments to the set at the same time. To that end, we renamed "Conserve Power" to "Energize" and added a small self heal and short duration regeneration buff to the power. During testing, we realized that Energize came too late in the lifetime of a character to truly be useful, so for the new versions of the powerset, we swapped the progression of Lightning Reflexes and Energize (Brutes and Stalkers do not get this advantage, unfortunately). Ultimately, we decided that we really wanted a thematic match for Electric Armor on the attack side of the fence, and added Electric Melee to the mix as well. Dominator: Earth Assault Earth Assault began life as a training exercise for Jonathan "Sunstorm" Courney. Shortly after he began working here, he decided to build a new assault set for Dominators in order to help familiarize himself with the powers system. He spent some time picking the powers, dreaming up new ones and testing them, and in general just doing some really innovative and crazy things with them. After a while, he decided to take his test bed and turn it into something that could be released to the fans. This led to a lot of rebalancing, rebuilding, and when he was finally satisfied with it, he pitched it to me. Although it's taken awhile for it to be implemented, we're happy that we're finally able to include it with Issue 16. Earth Assault, like other Assault sets, combines a good mix of Ranged and Melee powers. It has a healthy dose of soft control, good damage, and with Mud Pots - one of the best Damage Auras available. Earth Assault: 1 Stone Spears2 Stone Mallet4 Tremor10 Hurl Boulder16 Power Boost20 Heavy mallet28 Seismic Smash35 Mud Pots38 Fissure Additionally, we also conducted a mini-proliferation pass on the Ancillary and Patron Power Pools, adding 5th powers to most Pools and adding Blaze Mastery for Scrappers. This has been something which people have been asking for since Fire primaries and secondary's were given to them. We hope that all these new powersets and combinations will provide our players with even more ways to enjoy Paragon City and the Rogue Isles so Go! Hunt! Kill Skulls! |
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... they, however, will be able to employ their mastery of oxidation combustion in new and different ways relative to their previous expertise. Conflagration, "an uncontrolled burning that threatens human life, health, property, or ecology,"* will not occur, as this is merely virtual flame and not the real and actual article.|
Originally Posted by Sun_Splitter
Well, from what I hear, when you turn level 41, you can access powers on your scrapper that let you control the element of fire. This, of course, does not count those scrappers that could already control the element of fire.
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*Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflagration
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Originally Posted by TheEmbroiler
"an uncontrolled burning that threatens human life, health, property, or ecology
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Hey! Sun has that already!
And I heard he got it from Karl
lolwut
K Thx Bai