Coffee Talk Highlights, Nov 30: Compensation Melee with Synapse

I think part of the viewpoint of Dual Pistols having a shorter range is that there is no sniping power (nor should there be one). When it's the only Blaster primary that doesn't have a power with a 150 foot range, it's noticeable.

Mind you, I don't see that as a major problem. The laughably narrow cone for Piercing Rounds... that's a problem.

Originally Posted by Venture I'd never use a nuke in a superhero universe. You nuke a city, you kill 1.5 million people minus one. The last guy not only gets superpowers from the explosion, but ones that let him survive a nuke...and wow, is he torqued off

There is already a single target attack power in Titan Weapons that has an Assassin's strike animation, you crouch and pull back the weapon then stab forward to impale/impact the enemy.

No, actually.

You'd not like me when I'm angry

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

T'be fair, though;

Guard 1: Hey, dude, does anything feel wierd to you?

Guard 2: How so?

Guard 1: Well...everything feels all static-y, stuff keeps shorting out, and there seems to be bright green lightning bolts fizzing in the air behind us.

Guard 2: Naaah. This is the Rogue Isles, remember? Wierd stuff happens every day.

Guard 1: Yeah, I guess...

Stalker: (I'm a genius! A GENIUS! Mwuahahahaha!) *stealths past*

Electric armour kinda killed that argument

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

Sadly, this.

This 'problem' didn't exist before the market began demanding new goods weekly. I'm starting to get a bit miffed at the lip-service and hand waving being done by the Dev's lately as well.

I still think Freedom is the best thing to happen to our game ever, with great potential for the future. That excitement has been tempered somewhat lately though, with the lackluster quality and commitment being delivered.

Pumping something new into the store's inventory weekly amounts to a lot of wasted time and money if everyone stops buying them. Burn us once, we'll trust you again... Burn us repeatedly and we'll stop shopping.

I implore you to be careful, we are still in the 'newlywed' phase. Once that wears off though, the reality of having a store full of poorly thought out packs and unpolished clunky looking pieces will sink in. Please don't doom us to that fate by some suits requirment to have weekly releases.

Above all else though.... Stop blaming us.
Acting like this is some brand-new vitriol from the playerbase isn't wise. It's one thing to make changes based on feedback and ask for clarification. It's a whole other beast to allude to the new restrictions being 'our fault' for complaining in the 1st place.

I wouldn't even bother posting this sort of thing, if I didn't have faith that our Dev/OCR team is still the best in the industry. I just don't want the new business model to change that opinion.

I'm of the line of thought that, if someone can control electricity to the point where they can use it to dull the impact of an incoming hit, they can PROBABLY control it enough to the point where someone they are just passing by might only notice a nominal increase in static electricity. So it becomes less "Everything is shorting out" and more "Sonofa! This doorknob ALWAYS shocks me!"

Titan Weapons isn't "Did you notice these bright green electricity bolts," it's "Hey, do you hear that ROARING JET ENGINE behind us?" or "What is that metallic scraping sound on every wall, floor, and ceiling coming up the hall?"

Originally Posted by Venture I'd never use a nuke in a superhero universe. You nuke a city, you kill 1.5 million people minus one. The last guy not only gets superpowers from the explosion, but ones that let him survive a nuke...and wow, is he torqued off

Well, Pyramid Head made it work, didn't he? Stalkers are as much fear as they are stealth XD

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

Mutant "Well I make my clothes go invisble, why should my weapon be any different?"

Science "The moleculeur structure of this blade shifts when explosed to a current of one point twenty one jiggwats, thus causing it to project a sub psychic perception field that makes me unnoticable"

Tech "See the engine on the end, it's an invisbility field projector kinda neet right?"

magic "This axe one belonged to Zars Turovich the famed headsman of Jorikstown who used to chop of the heads of those that had sinned during the night, due to all the blood it sheds it masks the wielders presence much like the hood of an exercutioner was supposed to."

Natural "I'm a friggin ninja."

Like a freakin' NINJA!

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

Funny thing about this game, though, is the freedom to make anything fit whatever concept you want. Sure you might not be able to think of a way someone can hide with a giant weapon, but others can.

Oh I can. It's called Hammerspace. I fully expect, now that I've said this, that we will see dozens upon dozens of tiny "School Girl" characters using the Fusion Hammer in a comically anime fashion I'm playing a bit of Devil's Advocate here, since the stated purpose of the Stalker is massive ST damage, and Titan Weapons has the stated purpose of massive AoE damage. They don't really fit together well, is what I'm saying.

Originally Posted by Venture I'd never use a nuke in a superhero universe. You nuke a city, you kill 1.5 million people minus one. The last guy not only gets superpowers from the explosion, but ones that let him survive a nuke...and wow, is he torqued off

Let the speculation about x (Grav, DP, IA/IM, you name it) begin :P

Let's not start up that cettle of fish again, eh?

Short answer: Stalkers are not only (or even primarily, depending on set) stealthy ST damage.

Positron said he'd like to revisit... Energy Blast, I think? In last week's thing (I think. I was at work, so I didn't get to view it). I'd be okay with that, because I have a Dark/Energy Defender sitting at level 44 that I'd kinda like to get to 50 at some point, but I failed to note that KB + Tar Patch = Not good on outdoor, wide-open maps...

Originally Posted by Venture I'd never use a nuke in a superhero universe. You nuke a city, you kill 1.5 million people minus one. The last guy not only gets superpowers from the explosion, but ones that let him survive a nuke...and wow, is he torqued off

Well, that's because you're wrong.

How is Titan Weapons any less stealthy than strapping huge glowing lightbulbs to your hands? Or shielding yourself with crackling electricity? It's not. Guess what? YOU MUST BE ABLE TO SNEAK is not a requirement for a stalker character concept. Maybe you can cast silence and invisibility spells? Maybe you're a ghost? Maybe who friggin cares? Why is it suddenly impossible to imagine how super powers work?

As for the AoE-centricity, Stalkers already have several sets that focus more on AoE than single-target damage.

Now that makes a bit more sense

Even then, though, there tend to be sets that break the mould, on all ATs.

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

Hopefully Grav; people have been calling for it to be fixed for a very long time.

Dude, Livewire. Turned herself into a freaking electrical current.

How much more stealthy do you need to be?

If stealthy and Titan weaposn don't seem themetic to you, does that mean you think they should make it so Titan Weapons can't be paired with Dark Armor, Energy Aura or the Concealment pool?

Not to mention be unable to be invised by Corrupter, MM, Troller, Defender buffs or the +Stealth IO?

Electric Melee for Stalkers has 4 AOE attacks. Jacob's Ladder, Chain Induction, Thunder Strike, and Lightning Rod.

Titan Weapons has 4 AOE attacks.

With the idea they have for improving Stalkers, they could just as easily turn Rend Armor into the Assassin Strike. Instead of being effected by Momentum, it'd continue to be effected by the Stalker Changes, since it would now be it's Assassin Strike.

All other attacks in the set would be effected by Momentum as per Titan Weapon's gimmick.

And don't knock Hammerspace! I've used it >_> It's a great techie option. Created small dimensional pockets to store items

Well, this is what I was afraid of. Total over-reaction in response to player feedback instead of actually LISTENING to the comments and feedback. I guess they're trying to stuff someone's idea of "equality" down our throats by, ironically, doing away with all the female costume pieces and making us only use the male costume piece design from now on. Way to shoot for equality and fairness.

I try very hard to be realistic, practical and fair. In both of my posts on this subject in the oddly named "Gender Equality" thread I tried to avoid any hyperbole and express some appreciation for the costume pieces we did get while trying to explain what exactly was off-target in the Gunslinger set costume pieces. But it seems like those posts and 99% of the other player feedback has been totally ignored in favor of what amounts to punitive action directed at eliminating all future female costume pieces entirely. If this is truly the direction future costume set offerings are going to take, then don't expect me to buy any more. Don't expect many of your other PAYING CUSTOMERS to accept that attitude, either.

K

So I guess you missed Noble Savage's thread where he's trying to pin down exactly what it is we want.

The talking is fine. There's just very little listening happening any more.

Hadn't seen that thread at the time I made my post. Reading through it gives me more hope, but as it stands David's in charge of concept art. What actually happens in terms of what makes it into the game itself occurs after it leaves his hands. That's my main concern.

David's response to the feedback many of us have given on this subject has been to open a new thread for us to try and explain what we think would be an appropriate balance; this is a GREAT approach, and I really appreciate it.

In contrast, what we heard on Ustream yesterday was, "Since you don't like our idea of balance between male and female costume pieces in our latest set, we'll just scrap all future female costume pieces entirely. That'll take care of any perception of imbalance."

NOT the same approach. Not even close.

While the feedback on this subject poured in fast and furious both on the Beta threads and the threads here, people for the most part seemed to be polite but clearly impassioned. They're mostly impassioned because THEY LOVE THIS GAME, just like I do! I truly hope that both sides can keep their cool and not resort to knee-jerk reflexive responses to perceived slights. The players aren't going to get a better game without quality and effort on the part of the artists and developers, and the game isn't going to survive without the players.

Most of the feedback can be boiled down to three main points:

1) Instead of giving us a set with Gunslinger pieces for males and Saloon pieces for females, either give us just Gunslinger pieces for both, just Saloon pieces for both, or take some extra time and put in both sets for both genders. You really don't have to count pieces or meet some arbitrary percentage ratio for each individual piece. Really.

2) If there's not enough time in the current design and development process to listen to player feedback and make adjustments before a set or update goes live, then add more time to the development process. Almost all of us would rather wait another month or three and get a great product than have a weak or flawed product now, especially when people have been pointing out those flaws going back to beta. If that means the highly-touted "New Items Weekly" market feature has to be changed to a biweekly or even a monthly update for major sets or features, then so be it. We can be patient for high quality of products like we expect from this team, because you've shown you can deliver beautiful results when we all work together.

3) No one is calling for the abolition of female-only or male-only costume pieces. We're asking for more options, not less. This is not a crusade against sexy or prudish costume pieces, because we want both options for both genders. We want some pieces to be gender exclusive if it allows for more unique looks and styles, we want to be able to choose how our characters express their style and preferences, and we want the themes for new costume sets to carry across both sides. If you're in doubt, ask us. We have no problem being vocal. But when you ask us, please show us enough respect to actually hear what we're trying to say.

K