Steelclaw: FREEDOM -- How's That Workin' Out For You?
By
2short2care,
Posted on: 2011-11-11 13:18 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
First of all... sorry for missing this entirely the first time you posted it. And thanks for the PM gently prodding me into a state nearly resembling wakefulness if not alertness.
As far as being a celebrity... do they HAVE Z-Rank celebrities? If they do; they're definitely to be found on the internet. And why do I suddenly have an idea for a web-based reality show called "The Omega Celebrity"?
Huh.
Anywho...
The latest Tournament (with a capital T and that rhymes with C and that stands for Compulsive Disorder!) has changed more from the norm than any I've done before. Freedom has actually helped rather than hurt my tournament in several different ways... but the biggest change boils down to one thing:
The Paragon Market.
I have spent real money and all the freebie points I get on grabbing as many Salvage, Recipe and Auction space as I can (without drawing wife-aggro). This has had a number of unforseen repurcussions in the Tournament.
I didn't need to store things in SG bases any longer, so I dissolved my whole "team" concept. This actually created a whole heapin' helpin' of equity among my characters since the first team members through had been spending all kinds of influence on building EVERY recipe they found for future generations. The later team mates didn't have to spend anything until they'd raided the base enhancement tables. On the other hand, the first rounders got a lot more Invention badges than the later ones. With this new level of self-sufficiency all my characters were on their own; sink or swim.
I also created a number of StorageBots and TraderBots which I play to store and generate income for new characters. Every character I create starts the game with half-a-billion influence. Not exactly chickenfeed for a fresh-off-the-boat hero or villain. Now, one of the things I do with my spreadsheets (there's that word again) is plan out every level, every power and every slot from 1st to 50th.
When I play my characters I always think of 50th level. This is hilarious considering how few of my characters ever reach that plateau before I delete them and start over. Historical Fact: I have ONLY ever had TWO 50th level characters in all the time I played the game. They were both outside the Tournament structure and the ONLY reason I had them in the first place was to unlock the EATs and VEATs when 50 was the requirement.
The moment they changed the requirement to unlock the Epics, I deleted both my 50s. No 50 has ever been reached in the actual Tournament structure.
Anyway... Since I am always focused on level 50 I decided I was going to completely ignore Invention Set Enhancements until I could slot them at 50th level. What's the sense of spending all that influence on something you're going to replace six or seven times as you upgrade them? On my spreadsheets I have a spot that tells me what Sets I will eventually slot in what powers.
Now... I have uber amounts of recipe storage space... and 500,000,000 influence just sitting around... hey! What I do now is put in bids for various Purple and PvP set recipes that I want the moment I create a character. You all know how much the market fluctuates... imagine what kind of deals you could get letting a bid just set there for 50 levels of play...
I now have a 7th level Brute with five 50th level recipes.. including a Hecatomb... not too shabby...
Since I did away with teams I have also done away with having a "team" on every server. As such, the only servers I play on are Freedom and Virtue; heroes and villains respectively. I never have problems finding teams now.
I have also thrown out the "compare all the heroes and villains against each other every X number of rounds." And THIS was probably the biggest change of all and the most far-reaching.
Sounds simple, doesn't it? Don't track what the character's status is after every round and throw it on another spreadsheet to see how D'Shan Steelclaw and Guardian Edge compared to one another after 5 rounds of playing the game. Now, I just compare them all in "real time"... The older heroes are just that... older and more experienced. Wolverine and X-23. X is pretty cool but Wolvie's been around a lot longer so has more skills, etc.
Yeah, simple on the surface... but far reaching implications underneath. If I'm not comparing them on a step-by-step basis any longer then the whole concept of "Fairness" gets thrown right out the window. Who CARES if Lord Gravenheart had access to the SSA rewards from the get-go when Whisperstealth didn't? Who gives a rat's patootie if Absolute Acceleration got less Reward Merits as Veteran Gifts than Guardian Edge right out of the gate at first level? They ALL get those things at the same time and since I'm only rating them in real time anyway...
Who cares?
And so... my biggest reason for restarting my Tournament... this concept of "character fairness"... is gone... poof... finito... Ladies and gentlemen, it is entirely possible I may never restart this Tournament again.
Of course, having said that... the Devs will take it as a personal challenge and make a change in the game that I can't ignore... but for now... I am content...
With any luck, my next Tournament announcement will be that I have finally... FINALLY... had a character within its rule structure reach 50th level.
And then I need to come up with a Tournament Rule Structure that takes Incarnates into account.
Ugh... on second thought... I may restart out of simple self-preservation.
My mind wanders so often you've probably seen its picture on milk cartons. - Me... the first person version of the third person Steelclaw
I must have missed this Tournament thing, what was it?
Eco
MArcs:
The Echo, Arc ID 1688 (5mish, easy, drama)
The Audition, Arc ID 221240 (6 mish, complex mech, comedy)
Storming Citadel, Arc ID 379488 (lowbie, 1mish, 10-min timed)
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Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
[The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."
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Here's the link. Prepare to be some combination of amazed/frightened/confused/disturbed and left wondering how much it would cost to buy Steelclaw a straight jacket |
Originally Posted by MrCaptainMan
I must have missed this Tournament thing, what was it?
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.boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=264528
OMG IT'S STEELCLAW, Can I have your autograph???
Cancel the kitchen scraps for widows and lepers, no more merciful beheadings and call off christmas!
Steelclaw, if you are having fun, you are doing it right.
But watch out. With quotes like these...
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...I expect to see an "Occupy Steelclaw" protest break out any minute. |
Originally Posted by Steelclaw
Every character I create starts the game with half-a-billion influence. Not exactly chickenfeed for a fresh-off-the-boat hero or villain...
Now... I have uber amounts of recipe storage space... and 500,000,000 influence just sitting around... hey! What I do now is put in bids for various Purple and PvP set recipes that I want the moment I create a character. You all know how much the market fluctuates... |
"How do you know you are on the side of good?" a Paragon citizen asked him. "How can we even know what is 'good'?"
"The Most High has spoken, even with His own blood," Melancton replied. "Surely we know."
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You have entered Steelclaw's Folly...|
Originally Posted by MrCaptainMan
I must have missed this Tournament thing, what was it?
Eco |
Before you lies the ruined wasteland of what once was a thriving city of ideas and imagination. Tattered remains of spreadsheets drift here and there on ragged eddies of air. Fog obscures most of the landscape, tall structures of mathematical equations and engineering feats long since forgotten visible only briefly before being swallowed once more. And everywhere you look, hazy after-images of heroes and villains who once were, or might have been, reaching out longingly for you before disappearing... deleted before their time.
My mind wanders so often you've probably seen its picture on milk cartons. - Me... the first person version of the third person Steelclaw
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I used to have this mindset, but with one of my tanks I discovered that, for the cost of a full set of Single Origin Enhancements at level 22, I can instead get Invention Origin Enhancements that will last until level 47.|
Originally Posted by Steelclaw
Anyway... Since I am always focused on level 50 I decided I was going to completely ignore Invention Set Enhancements until I could slot them at 50th level. What's the sense of spending all that influence on something you're going to replace six or seven times as you upgrade them?
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On a character with four attacks, each four slotted with Single Origin Enhancements, I'd get 33% accuracy, 66% damage, and 33% recharge or Endurance reduction.
With the same character, I can now get 34% Accuracy, 70% damage, 30% Endurance Reduction, 8% range, and 36% Recharge all with just level 25 enhancements. And I don't have to buy new enhancements for that power until level 47 if I don't want to.
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I think you misunderstood what I was trying to say (probably my fault.) |
Originally Posted by MajorDecoy
I used to have this mindset, but with one of my tanks I discovered that, for the cost of a full set of Single Origin Enhancements at level 22, I can instead get Invention Origin Enhancements that will last until level 47.
On a character with four attacks, each four slotted with Single Origin Enhancements, I'd get 33% accuracy, 66% damage, and 33% recharge or Endurance reduction. With the same character, I can now get 34% Accuracy, 70% damage, 30% Endurance Reduction, 8% range, and 36% Recharge all with just level 25 enhancements. And I don't have to buy new enhancements for that power until level 47 if I don't want to. |
I ONLY slot IO's... I don't think I've had a training, dual or single origin enhancement in one of my characters since my first four months playing.
What I meant was I don't even think of slotting SET enhancements like Mako's Bite, Positron's Blast, etc until I hit 50. Even if I get a drop of one I plan to use, I just sell it straight away. I stick with normal IOs until I hit 47th level.
My mind wanders so often you've probably seen its picture on milk cartons. - Me... the first person version of the third person Steelclaw
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So you mean that you don't bother slotting for set bonuses or that you don't slot anything but standard Invention Origin Enhancements? |
Originally Posted by Steelclaw
I think you misunderstood what I was trying to say (probably my fault.)
I ONLY slot IO's... I don't think I've had a training, dual or single origin enhancement in one of my characters since my first four months playing. What I meant was I don't even think of slotting SET enhancements like Mako's Bite, Positron's Blast, etc until I hit 50. Even if I get a drop of one I plan to use, I just sell it straight away. I stick with normal IOs until I hit 47th level. |
Because the first one is fairly rational, but the second one is rather limiting.
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I do roughly the same except I'm to lazy to use Set IOs. Instead I make the common IOs needed for Field Crafter use what I need as I level up and sell most of the rest. I don't overwrite and IO over level 25 so my character ends up with a wide level range based on when a particular slot was added to his build.
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Originally Posted by MajorDecoy
I used to have this mindset, but with one of my tanks I discovered that, for the cost of a full set of Single Origin Enhancements at level 22, I can instead get Invention Origin Enhancements that will last until level 47.
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> It is pitch black. Your character is likely to be eaten by a grue.
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Originally Posted by Steelclaw
You have entered Steelclaw's Folly...
Before you lies the ruined wasteland of what once was a thriving city of ideas and imagination. Tattered remains of spreadsheets drift here and there on ragged eddies of air. Fog obscures most of the landscape, tall structures of mathematical equations and engineering feats long since forgotten visible only briefly before being swallowed once more. And everywhere you look, hazy after-images of heroes and villains who once were, or might have been, reaching out longingly for you before disappearing... deleted before their time. |
[Guide to Defense] [Scrapper Secondaries Comparison] [Archetype Popularity Analysis]
In one little corner of the universe, there's nothing more irritating than a misfile...
(Please support the best webcomic about a cosmic universal realignment by impaired angelic interference resulting in identity crisis angst. Or I release the pigmy water thieves.)
Im worried because a while ago I started a trend of re rolling characters...
Ok, thats not new, but Im re rolling my main MA/FA scrapper (tons of IOs, set bonuses, 5 Incarnate habilities unlocked with Tier 3 or 4) into StJ/FA brute.
And I have like 3 or 4 new re rolls coming (and delete for older versions)...
How can I find a cure for this?
i never bother slotting ANY IO until lvl 50 (with a few exceptions such as -kb IOs or the theft of essence proc on my dark armor)
i dont do it cause im lazy and crafting is A) work, and B) more expensive at lower lvls for the most part to buy recipes
wat
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I agree to some extent that it IS a bit labor intensive at times, but expensive isn't as much of an issue as you might think.|
Originally Posted by Necrotech_Master
i never bother slotting ANY IO until lvl 50 (with a few exceptions such as -kb IOs or the theft of essence proc on my dark armor)
i dont do it cause im lazy and crafting is A) work, and B) more expensive at lower lvls for the most part to buy recipes |
If you know ahead of time what you're going to choose for powers and what you'll slot in them when the time comes, expense barely enters into the equation. The Market is great for those with patience and/or fore-planning.
For example, when a character of mine hits 25th level I start putting in orders for all the 30th level recipes I'm going to need when they hit 27th. I generally bid somewhere from 500 to 1000 influence per recipe. In general, I'll get all the ones I bid for (with the exceptions of Endurance Modification and Jump which are ALWAYS hard to come by) by the time I reach 27th. Considering how much it costs to buy directly from the Invention Table, this is a pretty significant savings.
I COULD do the same thing with Enhancements directly, I suppose, but I badge on all my characters as well, so the credits towards Invention badges are helpful. I also take those into account. If I am buying my 30th level Healing recipes and will need to build 12 for my regen scrapper, I'll always check out how many I need to build for the badge. If I need to build 7 to get the badge then I'll only BUY 7 because it's always cheaper to build from memorized recipes than otherwise.
The only time I run into problems financially is with the huge glut of salvage I'll need on specialty characters. D'Shan (my fave/main) is a regen scrapper and the multitude of Healing enhancements he needs always shows up on my Salvage Shopping List.
My mind wanders so often you've probably seen its picture on milk cartons. - Me... the first person version of the third person Steelclaw
DOOOM!!!!
Steelclaw's Tournament (It's capitalized!) has been dumbed down!
I remember, back in my day, Steelclaw used to delete all of his characters if he sneezed!
Haha... just kiddin'! I'm glad you're having fun and this setup sounds like it should really allow you to get a lot farther. Also, it is probably the only way you could continue (for long) with the paragon market and whatever they may kick out every now and then.
Although... Maybe you didn't need to restart for the launch of Freedom then... Doh! 
@Zethustra
"Now at midnight all the agents and the superhuman crew come out
and round up everyone that knows more than they do"-Dylan
and round up everyone that knows more than they do"-Dylan
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Yes, this needs to be added to all the "These Young Whippersnapper Heroes Today Have It So Easy!" threads. |
Originally Posted by Electric-Knight
I remember, back in my day, Steelclaw used to delete all of his characters if he sneezed!
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"Not only did we have to RUN everywhere in the Hollows, but every time a bell rang, Steelclaw had to re-start his tournament, you punks!"
Yes, the Steelclaw tourney participants of today have it SOOOOOOO easy. And they need to get off my lawn!
"How do you know you are on the side of good?" a Paragon citizen asked him. "How can we even know what is 'good'?"
"The Most High has spoken, even with His own blood," Melancton replied. "Surely we know."
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im sure it mostly depends on the IO, a lvl 25 numi unique costs around 100-110 mil, a lvl 50 numi unique costs about 35-50 mil for example lol
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Originally Posted by Steelclaw
I agree to some extent that it IS a bit labor intensive at times, but expensive isn't as much of an issue as you might think.
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Quote:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nigRT2KmCE |
Originally Posted by Arcanaville
> It is pitch black. Your character is likely to be eaten by a grue.
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Arcanaville has BEEN to Steelclaw's folly... AND LIVED!!|
Originally Posted by Arcanaville
> It is pitch black. Your character is likely to be eaten by a grue.
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What chance have the rest of us?!?
It's not how many times you get knocked down that count. It's how many times you get up.
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Same with me, except I slot level 50 IO's at 47. Until then it's SO's all the way.
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Originally Posted by Necrotech_Master
i never bother slotting ANY IO until lvl 50 (with a few exceptions such as -kb IOs or the theft of essence proc on my dark armor)
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I don't frequent the forums as much as I used to (new job is really starting to interfere with my time off, plus frustrating forum logout bug is frustrating), so if this was directly addressed before, forgive my asking. Further, I'm not saying I've got Steelclaw all figured out (who does?), but it seems to me that he's not likely to make posts stating "I did X in real life, or I'm feeling (general emotional state #Y) this week." Some folks know about his Tournament, myself included, so after these several weeks of City of Heroes: Freedom being released, my idly burning procrastinative curiosity leads me to ask this here.
That's right; long after your son stops thinking Dad is cool and starts being embarrassed by him, some of us will still think you're cool. In an oddball way, of course, but that's a good thing.
Steelclaw, how has CoH: Freedom affected your Tournament, if it has at all? How does the Paragon Market affect your playstyle, if at all? Do you have any Free accounts, and if so, how do you use them?
At the last moment, it occurs to me that I could've just sent Steelclaw a PM, but dangit, son, you're a forum celebrity around these parts, so you might as well get used to these types of public inquiry! Console yourself with the fact that, for us reading your missives, you're the equivalent of a Lady Gaga or a Weird Al, or maybe even a Jon Stewart.
M. Bison: For you, the day Bison graced your village was the most important day of your life. But for me...it was Tuesday.
-- Street Fighter (1994)
McClane: Hey, thanks for saving my daughter's life.
Farrell: What was I going to do?
McClane: That's what makes you "that guy."
-- Live Free or Die Hard (2007)