Positron Interview
By
Adeon Hawkwood,
Posted on: 2011-01-11 11:55 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
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My Fort would never stab someone through the heart.|
Originally Posted by Schismatrix
Also during. And they feel bad about it afterwards. Well, some of them.
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Why get your claws dirty when you can rip their minds apart instead (and know exactly how much it hurt in the process thanks to your amazing powers of Empathy)
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Originally Posted by Aura_Familia
Also the unpleasant (to say more would get me banned
 ) reasoning given by the devs at the time for WHY villain epic powers were crafted as such versus heroic lvl 40+ epic powers (think it was Statesman/Posi who gave the reasoning) PISSED me the hell off. |
Personally, I still find it hysterical. For those who don't know, we were told that Villain Patron Pools were a permanent, unrespecable choice because they were "stronger" than their heroic Ancillary Power Pools. But of course, that wasn't the case. Looking at the numbers proved just how off that was, and the APPs were better in almost every case. Instead of making the PPPs better and stronger to match the reasoning we were given, eventually (and I do mean eventually, at that time it seemed to have taken ages) they simply made them respecable.
Now I do recall that there was a problem about them being tied to a badge. That would have been a much better explanation if it had been used from the getgo, and the devs hadn't compared them to the APPs.
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Got it in one for me. Aside from a few edge cases such as lots of friends on both sides or badge hunting, you're handicapping yourself to run as a vig/rogue and getting very very little in return. Being able to do newspaper missions in the Isles (but no real missions unless I'm tagging along with someone else) isn't worth losing the chance to gain the very valuable hero merits.
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Originally Posted by Radmind
I'm not surprised at the numbers for Hero/Villian/Rogue/Vigilante. It's easily summed up by Hero/Villian Merits.
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This is true in theory, but I don't find it true in practice. I'm not going to spend the time earning hero merits on nearly a dozen characters. I have a few heroes that I run them on, and anything they earn using them I can send to anyone on either side. Meanwhile my Rogues and Vigilantes can attend any trial, SF or TF for the other side except the CoP, which concerns me very little. Most of my villains have become rogues, and I see no need to move them further.
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Originally Posted by Jophiel
Got it in one for me. Aside from a few edge cases such as lots of friends on both sides or badge hunting, you're handicapping yourself to run as a vig/rogue and getting very very little in return. Being able to do newspaper missions in the Isles (but no real missions unless I'm tagging along with someone else) isn't worth losing the chance to gain the very valuable hero merits.
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Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA
I suspect the reason that Loyalists and Resistance are so balanced is that a lot of people made one of each.
I have characters who are Rogues and Vigilantes purely for RP reasons - the alignments they "should" have. I don't even run TFs/SFs on them. For A-merits, I have plenty of pure Heroes and Villains.
My characters at Virtueverse
Faces of the City
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They're balanced because I made six people to run through Power and only have one Resistance toon. It's all me. |
Originally Posted by Megajoule
I suspect the reason that Loyalists and Resistance are so balanced is that a lot of people made one of each.
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Actually I have far more resistance than loyalists myself. I'm not sure on the final total, but probably something like 4 to 2.
Too many alts to list.
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I don't even work at grinding alignment merits but I also don't do any radio/newspaper missions any longer. Why would I? If I need a one-off mission to fill some time, I'll run a tip mission and get closer to an A-Merit. They're even moderately more interesting than "Rancid Hackmeister is Calling You out!"|
Originally Posted by UberGuy
This is true in theory, but I don't find it true in practice. I'm not going to spend the time earning hero merits on nearly a dozen characters.
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I know some people run newspaper/radios for the badges or jetpack, etc but I'm not too worried about those things personally.
Your experience may differ but I've never been unable to find something to do blueside while the redside SF/mission scene was hopping and I was left out. I suppose the reverse may hold more true.
I'm curious about a few of the numbers, especially alignment. Does that count all characters? Only people that bought GR? Only people who actively participated in the tip system? It's weird to me that more than half of the characters would be pure hero alignment. I can only imagine it's that way because pure heroes existed for way longer and some people aren't fiddling with those characters. And I feel like I've seen far more rogues and vigilantes than the site says, which leads me to believe most of those pure heroes are rotting in a char select somewhere.
I like how loyalist/resistance are so finely balanced. That means someone did a good job.
I'd also like to see the full list of ATs made and switched. Devs probably don't want to show what's trailing in popularity though. But I'd like to see where some of the ATs end up. Not surprising the villain ATs, Blasters, and Scrappers are popular though.
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Originally Posted by PRAF68_EU
Dispari has more than enough credability, and certainly doesn't need to borrow any from you.
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Simple. A lot of paper/scanner missions are easier. A lot of tip missions are "go click on box, then face ambush, then lead hostage, then fight ambush, then click pseudo contact" etc. I don't object to that, but it is not what I always want to do. Most paper missions are simpler than that, and a lot of the time, I just want a mission full of butt to whup on. I'm not going to restrict myself to tip missions just because I can get an A-merit at the end of five of them.|
Originally Posted by Jophiel
I don't even work at grinding alignment merits but I also don't do any radio/newspaper missions any longer. Why would I? If I need a one-off mission to fill some time, I'll run a tip mission and get closer to an A-Merit. They're even moderately more interesting than "Rancid Hackmeister is Calling You out!"
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Moreover, that's only for my level 50s. I still do "normal" content when I am leveling. I only run paper missions on non-50 characters to unlock contacts. I don't run tip missions on non-50 characters unless I want to change their alignment.
The vast majority of the time I spend on my level 50s is spent in TFs.
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| Your experience may differ but I've never been unable to find something to do blueside while the redside SF/mission scene was hopping and I was left out. I suppose the reverse may hold more true. |
Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA
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Ghost Falcon has the answer:|
Originally Posted by Dispari
I like how loyalist/resistance are so finely balanced. That means someone did a good job.
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| We made it actually really cool to be a villain, right? And thats awesome. And players were just choosing like yeah I want to be loyalist, I want to be the guy thats supporting the dictatorship." |
@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
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Superman is the superhero - he's not a vigilante |
Originally Posted by Roderick
Superman punches bad guys through buildings.
Are you seriously going to hold someone who causes that kind of collateral damage up as the epitome of a hero? He can fly so fast he goes back in time. What reason, short of laziness or apathy, can you give for him causing mass swaths of destruction in every major fight he has? Supes is a vigilante. |
@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
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I'm not either. I'm doing them because they're more interesting than newspaper/radios and because I can get A-Merits. Despite your portrayal of them, a lot of people manage to speed run five tips in a very short time by just racing to the end, knocking out the objective and going to the next one. If you want the xp, you can take your time. If you only want the merits, you can speed them. I've never had a problem with overly complicated objectives. The few that do have "complicated" objectives, you can just skip.|
Originally Posted by UberGuy
I'm not going to restrict myself to tip missions just because I can get an A-merit at the end of five of them.
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| I'm interested in either leveling a non-50, which I typically do solo, or tagging along with what the people I'm playing with are doing. By and large, that means tagging along for TF/SF/Trial content. The majority of that content is either blue-side-only or coop. Making my Villains into Rogues is the minimum effort I need to make to allow them to participate in all of that. |
Personally, I'd rather see rogues & vigilantes able to access (on their own) content on both sides of the wall instead of waiting for someone else to start an arc or task force. I'd happily give up the reward merits for completing R/V tips for that. Not sure how anyone else would feel about it.
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Originally Posted by Golden Girl
Superman is the superhero - he's not a vigilante
He certainly started out as a vigilante, explicitly operating outside the law. In just one page of Action Comics #1, he racks up counts of kidnapping, breaking and entering, assault and battery, plus what looks to be threating a government official - all to save a wrongly accused person from the electric chair, of course.
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Originally Posted by Jophiel
Personally, I'd rather see rogues & vigilantes able to access (on their own) content on both sides of the wall instead of waiting for someone else to start an arc or task force. I'd happily give up the reward merits for completing R/V tips for that. Not sure how anyone else would feel about it.
That would probably blur the lines too much in terms of game play, to say nothing of immersion. Nonetheless, it would be nice to see some unique Rogue and Villain content in upcoming issues. At this point, to judge from the population figures, access to both CoH/CoV maps and teaming isn't enough incentive to go rogue or vigilante for most characters.
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I get ya and agree to a good extent. It's just that the V/R thing was billed as a chance to play both sides but really the only thing you can do on the other side is say "Oh no! Freakshow stole the P.L.O.T. Device!" or wait for someone else to start something and ask if you can tag along. Not exactly how I pictured myself as a vigilante or rogue. Running missions directly for Mr. Bocor doesn't seem that different from an "immersion" standpoint than saying "Hey, you're going to steal something for that evil voodoo guy? Can I come along and help? I'd ask him myself but, you know, vigilante and all..."
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Originally Posted by TrueGentleman
That would probably blur the lines too much in terms of game play, to say nothing of immersion.
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When you're on the wrong side of the law, you can't expect life to be that easy |
Originally Posted by Jophiel
Not exactly how I pictured myself as a vigilante or rogue.
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@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
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I never play that way on my own. There's no challenge in it. That's gaming the game to get the reward as fast as possible. I have no issues with other people doing that, and honestly, it's how I approach most task forces. I've no interest in doing it solo. I solo to not do what I do on teams with my in-game friends - run at my own pace, ramp up my difficulty and fight for hours on end. But ramping up my difficulty in Tip missions is frequently more annoying, slow or harder than doing it in other content. In the Black Panther Malta mish, you have to stand around and wait for six ambushes to come get you. In the DE mishes, they all have +14% base toHit, which means I need to either fight them much more slowly or turn down my difficulty so there are fewer of them. That's just a couple of concrete examples that come to mind, none of which apply in scanner/paper mishes. The most annoying that scanner/paper mishes get is to offer me nothing but hostage mishes. But unlike tip missions, there's no risk that I have to go mow down mobs to get another mission. If I don't like any of my three options, I pick one, abandon it, and get a new three.
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Originally Posted by Jophiel
Despite your portrayal of them, a lot of people manage to speed run five tips in a very short time by just racing to the end, knocking out the objective and going to the next one. If you want the xp, you can take your time. If you only want the merits, you can speed them. I've never had a problem with overly complicated objectives. The few that do have "complicated" objectives, you can just skip.
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Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA
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Nor here. While expecting as much content as Blue or Red side for Grey side was probably a little too optimistic right off the bat, the Rogue and Vigilante access to NPCs with alternate dialogue shouldn't be too much to ask for. Here's hoping that upcoming issues will have real solo content for Rogues and Vigilantes in addition to just radio/paper/tip missions, street-sweeping, and badging.
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Originally Posted by Jophiel
I get ya and agree to a good extent. It's just that the V/R thing was billed as a chance to play both sides but really the only thing you can do on the other side is say "Oh no! Freakshow stole the P.L.O.T. Device!" or wait for someone else to start something and ask if you can tag along. Not exactly how I pictured myself as a vigilante or rogue.
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I didn't actually read the article, but did glance over the data tables. Pretty interesting.
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Well, originally, they came for you a lot quicker |
Originally Posted by UberGuy
In the Black Panther Malta mish, you have to stand around and wait for six ambushes to come get you.
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I can accept that you find newspaper/radios easier. I personally don't think there's enough difference (and they don't change my own gameplay enough) to give up the obvious benefits of tips.
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I actually kind of liked it. People complaining about it probably weren't playing it at +2/x6 or higher. |
Originally Posted by Jophiel
Well, originally, they came for you a lot quicker
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(To be fair, most of my characters died trying that, but it was fun. After I fought through it a handfull of times, though, I did start skipping it.)
Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA
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I'd never heard of this. Is there a reason for this? I mean, aren't the +200% toHit Quartzes they drop enough?
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Originally Posted by UberGuy
In the DE mishes, they all have +14% base toHit, which means I need to either fight them much more slowly or turn down my difficulty so there are fewer of them.
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Please try my custom mission arcs!
Legacy of a Rogue (ID 459586, Entry for Dr. Aeon's Third Challenge)
Death for Dollars! (ID 1050)
Dr. Duplicate's Dastardly Dare (ID 1218)
Win the Past, Own the Future (ID 1429)
No reason has been given, but we were told by Castle that it was intentional. It's only DE, and it's only the ones found in level 45-50 tip missions. (In the interests of clarity, it's actually the case that their base toHit chance is elevated, by which I mean that instead of the 50% base hit chance that mobs have, the DE explicitly have 64%. They don't, for example, have a power giving them a +toHit bonus, though functionally the effect would be identical.)
Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA
That's just bizarre. And it's not like it could be some kind of datamining test to see what the effect would be if they extended that buff to other mobs-- the Quartzes are going to throw the stats all out of whack.
Please try my custom mission arcs!
Legacy of a Rogue (ID 459586, Entry for Dr. Aeon's Third Challenge)
Death for Dollars! (ID 1050)
Dr. Duplicate's Dastardly Dare (ID 1218)
Win the Past, Own the Future (ID 1429)
After they stab you through the heart.
Dr. Todt's theme.
i make stuff...