Elite Bosses and Arch-Villains in Dark Astoria

The dichotomy you claim did not need to exist needs to exist if the devs are attempting to address different player perspectives on the appropriate level of difficulty for content. A dichotomy that is only one among many the devs make in the design of this game. Its not just not novel, its actually very predictable, speaking as someone who keeps predicting this basic design philosophy and is never surprised when it occurs.

The problem isn't the dichotomy, the problem is that the devs didn't pick bifurcation points that exist right on top of your gameplay preference. But that doesn't make the choice invalid.

Honestly, while I'll agree with the idea that DA should have the focus on small team and solo players; I'd argue that finding a way to better scale EBs and AVs depending on team size, as well expanding the "I'd like to fight AVs solo" feature to some of the big bads of DA and the SSAs, is working on solo/small team issues.

If an issue with scaling EBs and AVs would exist if applied to DA, then it applies in the places where scaling is already being used. Also, if a better method could be developed then it would not only apply for DA, but past non-DA content and all future content as well.

I'm just really getting tired of seeing "Hero" and "Arch-Villain" on the target, and not knowing if I should be ready for a fight or a nap.

Name some, as I don't recall ever seeing any.

Being as I play characters that use and rely on control, I do notice it. Which is why I mentioned it. That you don't notice it doesn't make it irrelevant for anyone else.

Correlation ain't causation. Just because you post in a thread that gets dev attention doesn't mean you are responsible for sparking a dialogue with the devs.

A lot of people posted in this thread, with concerns on both sides of the argument that are worth discussing. You're just one guy.

Everywhere else, we just add the option and make the vegetarians prove the option spoils their eating experience. Here in DA, where the stated purpose is to serve vegetarians, the opposite should be true.

I've soloed EBs with Purple Triangles on dominators, still didn't notice the triangles, so pardon me while I play you the world's smallest violin.

Well, J_B took credit for getting Invuln buffed, when actually the reverse was closer to the truth. In this case, though, while lots of people have made this sort of comment before, its likely that this time the devs happened to pick out J_B's comments from the thread. But there's no question the devs have been thinking about this sort of thing before, because unless Aeon suffered a serious brain injury recently, he should remember all of the discussion surrounding the design of interesting encounters in the AE, given that this is fearghas we're talking about.

I'm just saying, I like fighting elite bosses that don't have purple triangles. Your statement that you barely notice their presence shouldn't necessarily be the defining anecdotal experience for fighting them.

Fair enough.

Johnny caused invuln to get nerfed or invuln caused Johnny to get buffed? WHICH REVERSE?

When I told Castle that J_B had been calling for Invuln buffs coincidentally around the same time Castle decided to look at those and passive buffs would probably make his day, Castle said that even so he'd still do it anyway.

I already did, in this thread. Johnny Sonata's Soul.

Not previously mentioned, Hopkins at the end of Manicore's TF. (Notably, Hopkins is absolutely pathetic, possibly one of the most anticlimactic AVs anywhere, especially given that the TF he appears in requires 7 characters to start.)

I just don't think such a place should have been created in an Incarnate context. Such a thing has, to our knowledge, never even been created for standard content. I question what it's doing in something like the "end game".

Moot at this point, but there it is.

But where were those attempts when people were complaining about the nature of the iTrials? I'm going to be straight here - you personally were one of the players who repeatedly responded to people complaining about the unusual rules we find in the iTrials (mag 1000 mezzes, pervasive irresistible damage, level 54+foes, NPCs who ignore all mezz, etc.) with the position that the "end game" was like that because it specifically represented a break from the rest of the game. An explanation that now makes no sense for DA.

You could not be more mistaken. The problem is that the approach to designing the "end game" difficulty is now inconsistent. I don't care so much what the exact implementation is, though I will always make suggestions seeking to make it like what I personally want. What I care about most in this discussion that it has something like at least general consistency. I care that when it was iTrials only, everything about the why the iTrials are so gimmicky and mechanically hard was defended on the basis that the "end game" should be expected to be harder than the standard game. I accepted that even when I wasn't crazy about the specifics, and even defended it to other players: it's harder because the Devs decided it should be. But now that explanation has been undercut, because we have another part of the "end game" that is in important ways mechanically easier than standard, non "end-game" content.

It's actually easier to defeat some of these EBs than it is to defeat Trapdoor. That just seems completely bass ackwards to me.

I can't recall very many at all who've made that kind of comment.

Regardless, I've been posting about my hate for the EB-AV mechanic since, well it would have to be as early as Spring '07. I remember the thread because it was only the only time a dev responded directly to anything I had to say in a post in the five years I've been here. In this case it was Statesman defending how the game presents our power progression but conceding that maybe having groups like the Family armed with tommy guns existing past the low levels wasn't all that super for players.

I was also complaining about Malta, calling them cowboys in blue pajamas and saying that for the high level they should really be outfitted with power armor for battling powerful supers. So, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised with Max's personal story. Needless to say I'm pleased with DA as a whole making us feel super powerful.


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Hopkins does have PtoD, they're just incredibly easy to miss because he dies so fast.

J_B isn't a dev.

If he has them, it is new or they do not function. He has been mezzed the whole fight on any Manticore I have run with characters capable of mezzing him. I find it inconceivable that we have attacked him when they are down every time, and have always killed him before they come back. Seriously, they can't be doing anything.

Yes but they aren't INCARNATE trials. *insert shiney glowy sound here*

Yeah I agree with you that the devs gots some splaining to do.

EDIT: As a general point this game has ALWAYS had different AVs and EBs with different levels of power, even in the same class. One EB can be weaker or stronger than the same type of EB. I don't think difficulties issues related to that are limited to Incarnate content.

What I'm getting is that since there are players like Bella, the devs are going to err on THAT side of the casual vs hardcore player divide.

You or I (PTOD also don't matter to me on my control toons) being more hardcore is irrelevant.

/shrug.

I wouldn't assume this is a ~casual vs. hardcore~ thing.

I can definitely see why that feels weird to you, and also why it makes it an unsatisfying experience for you.

I mean, I LOVED the DA arcs. I loved that I could roll through the missions on my uber-squishy zero-defense blaster, smashing my way through ranks of blue-conning EBs. I have never felt as much that my character was a real Incarnate anywhere else in the game. I beat a GOD, and he didn't stand a chance. When Ellie stood there in her Incarnate armour in the end cut-scene, it was one of the most satisfying moments I've had playing this game.

BUT, that's only my personal preference as a soloist. I know I'm lucky, in that most of the time my play preferences do seem to line up with the dev's design preferences. If there are ways of expanding the options in DA to improve the experience for other solo players, while keeping the current experience intact, I would be all in favour of that.

Please believe that I have absolutely no objection to the option existing for you to experience DA the way you did, even if it were the default option. After all, that's how I view the rest of the game's content and settings working - the default is (by my standards) easy for a level 50, and if I want more, I need to crank it up.

As noted (not least of all by a dev), DA probably is what it is and won't change, but I definitely hope they provide a better difficulty spectrum in future content.

Also, old Nightstar on the old PI arcs (she had the Resistance power, but it didn't give the customary mez protection (it's possible that it was only a gap to Stun. I don't fully recall at the moment)).

And the point is really that they don't *have to* have the PTOD. These are typically implemented in a power called Resistance, and if you don't want the EB/AV to have PTOD, simply don't give them such a power.


edit: Oh, right. Also Sunstorm and, I believe (it's been a while), Indigo in the high-level CoV arcs.