If you were a dev...
I don't see this thread ending very well.
If the game spit out 20 dollar bills people would complain that they weren't sequentially numbered. If they were sequentially numbered people would complain that they weren't random enough.
Black Pebble is my new hero.
Diminishing Returns in PvE.
Speeding Through New DA Repeatables || Spreadsheet o' Enhancements || Zombie Skins: better skins for these forums || Guide to Guides
(I do still try to have faith in my fellow players!)
6. There'll be a quiz.
Yeah. For those who like speeding through and ignoring text, there'll be SOME bit of information (of multiple possibilities) you need to know for the "best" (quickest/xp bonus/special salvage drop or something) finish. And it won't be the same each time. 8. Origin story arcs. Chain of 1-50 story arcs. Unlike epic ATs, though, they can't make much assumption about "why you are what you are" - your story is your own. This is less about WHY your origin is X and more "Why someone else is interested." For instance, take Natural. You could be a human with superb training. You could be an alien from a race that farts fire. It doesn't matter - someone's interested in capturing and possibly cloning you - and once you beat them, you have to uncover their backers before THEY try getting ahold of you and either cloning or eliminating you. Or magic, for instance. It can be inborn, it can be spell knowledge, it can be an artifact. It can be whatever you want. But, we have groups in game who are interested in seeing what makes it tick - or the mage-killers who just want to eliminate magic (not just some of the Rikti.) You have run-ins with these guys from 1-50. Or they want to steal your tech, or duplicate (or reverse) your experiment, or cut you open and see what your mutation is and what they can do about it. It doesn't force anything about you or your bio - it's 100% the fact that it has interested one or more outside groups. The groups would have to scale so you can go back and play the arcs even on an 8 year old level 50. |
Anyway though, something that people would probably hate me for as a Dev? Probably my upgrades to various villain groups, but especially Malta.
-Most Malta agents now use special bullets that debuff res and def.
-They are given +plus perception
-Some units have stealth (SURPRISE SAPPER!)
-They would now have snipers
-Elite boss "Hyperion Titans" would have a chance to random spawn once per any mission
-Some Malta agents now leadership buffs
-Also Malta engineers would be able to heal and even revive Titans
-Malta would also gain a medic unit capable of healing or reviving human Malta soldiers (as would groups like the KoA and Sky Raiders whose numbers are supposed to be limited)
-While not something that would actually make them stronger, human, non-boss would get a "teleporting away" defeat animation. (also something to give to Sky Raiders and KoA)
-Possible inclusion of special, rare object that spawns in Malta missions Field Reclaimer, that you must destroy because it gives a heal over time to all malta agents around it and spawn Malta soldiers. (Also to be given to Sky Raiders and KoA)
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Horrid Power Rebalances :
Fix Hasten so it was reasonable (ie ratchet it down from 70% to a 25% recharge buff).
Make Domination immune to all recharge buffs. Decrease it's current recharge to 75% of its current as "compensation"
Fix Rage so it couldn't stack at all, it'd work something like momentum. Triggering it a second time would do absolutely nothing. In fact give it a token system which meant it would be greyed out if already active.
I'd scrap Stone Armour wholesale and start over. That set is a mess informed by design decisions which were outdated even when the game first launched. It's being held up right now because the set is, frankly, overpowered in a lot of situations, but overpowered bad design is still bad design.
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I'd bump AoE power damage CONSIDERABLY, then make it scale down based on the number of targets you impacted. This gives AoE powers their uses against a single target without making them wildly overpowered against multiple targets. I'd think of some way to let the player make the choice of either launching an AoE at a whole spawn or concentrating all damage against a single target.
Then I'd go ahead and make all single-target powers AoE in some way, probably mostly cones of some sort. True AoEs would retrain their status by virtue of their much larger areas of effect, and possibly by diminishing less for the number of enemies hit.
Then I'd lift all target caps for anything. You want to toss a fireball at a zillion enemies, fine. Don't expect to do much.
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I'd scrap the entire "control" system and start from scratch. The game will have only one type of control effect, but the nature of this effect would vary with magnitude. Low-mag control will manifest as immobilization, mid-mag control as immobilization plus sleep, high-mag control would manifest as a proper hold and depleting your enemy's "control bar" would manifest as an actual defeat.
Speaking of which, I'd introduce a "control bar" similar to the health bar. This would be depleted when an enemy is struck by control effects, but would recover at a set unmodifiable rate. Below certain thresholds, characters will be affected by control and their control bar would recover at a slower and slower rate. Depleting an enemy's control bar entirely would, effectively, make it so this enemy will NEVER recover from the control effect on their own, and will thus count as defeated.
Control protection would no longer exist and control resistance would act like damage resistance, reducing the chunk that a controlling attack takes out of a player's control bar. Melee characters might have more points in their control bar, but they would never be immune from control effects. Get them down past their first threshold and they WILL be immobilized. It'll just take more control effects to do so.
Under this system, control effects will not act just like support, but will also act like proper offence. ALL control effects would stack with each other just like damage does, and work together to slowly whittle down a bar, just like you were breaking down an enemy's health. At the end, enemies will not drop dead but simply remain trapped in whatever control effect "killed" them until their bodies faded. Trapped in stone forever, frozen forever, etc.
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That's all I have for the moment.
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.
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But....
... I'd go through all the IO sets and cut all the defense and recharge bonuses in half. As a consolation, we'd make the debt reduction bonuses bigger.
Simultaneously; revisit the "purple patch" and increase to-hits for +1 to +5 foes, and stack a +1/+5% to-hit/damage buff on each enemy for every enemy minion nearby, +2/+10% for every enemy lt nearby, and +5/+25% for ever boss or above nearby.
Suddenly the higher difficulties are .. erm .. challenging.
Then I get a plane ticket to Argentina. Or maybe the Namib Desert. Actually, Lord Nemesis' Submarine looks like a nice place to spend a vacation on.
As the proud owner of a 5 color Sliver deck I applaud your number 7.
One thing I would do...
OH YOU LIKE DPS....TOO BAD
Basically an enemy that would be low resistance,low defense, moderately high HP and a crap ton of Regen. Naturally it would be immune to -regen effects and any -res applied to it would only serve to buff it's regen.
The idea is that you would need strong burst damage, or team coordination to bring it down instead of just spaming attacks and debuffs.
... /Signed.
Personally, I'd ramp Inf numbers way, way, way down. Like, to a hundredth or a thousandth, or ten thousandth of what it is right now, so the high numbers aren't quite so high. Get it to the point where a mid-double-digit millionaire is filthy, filthy rich, rather than almost-trillionaires.
I think after the initial gnashing and clawing people would prefer a market where reasonable numbers of Inf have some value, as opposed to currently, where the prices on "the really good stuff" are in the multi-millions (tends to hover around 200 million, I've found).
I'd also make Salvage available for very-high-but-set prices off-market. Enough that you can market them and make Inf still, but if the RNG hates you and the market's empty, you can pop over to the "Supplies Store". Note this is already essentially true at the AE buildings.
Also, I'd totally introduce "nemesis plotlines", where there's a single recurring opponent (partially chosen / designed by you, a la AE) that has a hate on for your character, and whom you have to thwart every N 5 levels, to continue advancing.
Thanks for a good, civil start - and yeah, I already see one "Yep, I'd hate you for that" from me. (SAAAAAMMMMMM!)
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.
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1. Cars and trucks do damage: Yes this is addressed to those who like to stand in the middle of the road for no reason at all. Getting hit by a car does half health, getting hit by a truck does damage equal to falling from the max fly height.
2. You powers do damage to things around you: Right now you are thinking "How is that bad?" It is bad because each time you go to the hospital they take Inf away from you to pay for the property damage you have caused. This can be circumvented by running what used to be the aura mission at level 30. I would make it so that running that mission would allow you to toggle on or off property damage.
Those of you with a self rez may be smiling right now, but the government gets it's money! Even if they have to doc your wages from the AH, or increase the cost enhancements.
You do have to option of a decreased total amount if you come to the City Office once a month to cover the bill. Much like super group bases.
3. Sharks: Not with lasers those of you who are getting happy. No sharks that attack like those they film flying out of the water because they are attacking seal at such a high speed. These sharks maybe can even jump high enough to hit some low flyers.
4. Max listing cap on items in the AH based on rarity. I personally have billions in inf, so it is not about me. It is more about capitalism run amok.
5. All t9 Armor powers would switch to a function like the old quantum flight. When you click it it is 0 end for the first 60-120 seconds. After that the end cost increases by 1.5 for every 10 seconds that you continue to have it up. There would be no max cost, so it could in theory go up to 200 end per tick.
6. Scrappers, brutes, stalkers, and tanks would get dual pistols as a primary.
7. Scrapper crit chance would increase 2% every 5 levels. This would stack with any other item/power that increases critical chance, and with the current base rates.
8. Brutes would have a 85% resistance cap, to put them below tanks.
9. Tanks would get an increase to their base damage, and damage cap. However I would still be hated for this because it would not be enough to make J_B happy.
10. I would dump all of the old base tech, and have my new and much more competent staff (actually those working there now) rebuild it. Some would love me and say I was the best ever, others would hate me for destroying all of their hard work through the years. To appease those who hate me, I would give them x2 their total (spent and stored) prestige, but as I know how the players are, they would still hate me.
11. Conserve power would go away for melee ATs. They would all get Superior Conditioning in place of it.
12. I would be the most Melee focused Dev ever. For this all those who do not play melee ATs would hate me. To make them love me more, I would give Blasters MA as a secondary.
That is all I can think of now. I am sure I will add more, want it in a new post to keep the thread fresh, or just edit this post?
This was a bit hard, most of the things I come up with are solutions to long requested issues. Like costume and power fixes.
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Realistically, if I were CoH's producer (which means having to take into account profitability, not pissing off too many customers, respecting the various playstyles of players, dealing with the limitations of the game engine, and things like restrictions from management etc.) the one change I do think I'd have a nonzero chance of pushing through (and which would still garner vicious hate from most of the playerbase) would be adding more gear for the hardcore elite of minmaxers.
Basically, there'd be a 5th tier of rarity for both IOs and incarnate powers (probably called Supreme, and colored black), which would only drop if you finished completing content under certain conditions. e.g. Speedrunning ITF in under 15 minutes would get you a chance at a Supreme IO. Finishing STF at +4/x8 would get you a roll at another. Powering up all the terminals on at least one reactor before Antimatter arrives would get you a chance at a Supreme rarity component table, etc.
Supreme IOs are always procs and give bonuses that can't be duplicated easily by lower-rarity enhancements. e.g. +8 Hold protection (not attainable through IOs), +50% heal power (attainable through IOs but not realistic to build for), etc.
They're always bound to character. If you got one you didn't like you'd have to use enhancement converters to roll for another. Alternately, you could combine any two Supreme IOs/components into a new one of your choice.
Re-evaluate the "attack mechanics equations" that govern why power that have higher burst ST damage have longer animation times. Then do it again when peeps delt with that.
Maybe adjust and re-adjust mechanics like defiance or the degree to which some attributes of powers could be modified.
Last - just for pure spite - give Granite Armor MoG treatment.
Miss Arc #147491: Rise of Bedlam
AKA Iron Smoke @Champion Server
... I'd go through all the IO sets and cut all the defense and recharge bonuses in half. As a consolation, we'd make the debt reduction bonuses bigger.
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Well, change "debt reduction" to "resistance", and then it'd be an excellent design decision.
Wee, this is fun!
- Destroy Ouroboros -- I would remove all forms of time travel. Ouroboros would be retconned out as a Nemesis plot. The flashback system would be recast as an AE/holodeck type system used by the PPD and Arachnos to allow operatives to re-live noteworthy cases.
- Destroy all parallel worlds, including Praetoria -- "Parallel world" being defined as usual as worlds in other dimensions similar enough to the "homeworld" as to be recognizable but with one or more key differences. Like time travel they're a lazy writer's tool and they promote continuity snarls of epic magnitude. Think them as a serpent's egg which, hatched, would grow mischievous, etc. They're out. The thus-far unrevealed Rikti homeworld would be revealed as an "alternate world", however, and not a parallel.
- Another round of nerfs -- If you can solo past +1x2 or thereabouts, you need to be nerfed. If you can solo at +4x8 you need to be nerfed badly. Included would be a fix for the absurd buff/debuff stacking system, a mistake MMO granddaddy EverQuest managed to avoid making 5 years before this game launched.
- Open zone PvP -- I don't like PvP personally but it sells. I'd shore up the PvP system and work in a PvP switch that would allow characters to visit the "enemy" zones with the stipulation that their switch would be forced on. We'd also have PvP missions; frinstance a villain might be able to do a mission chain that results in him building a deathray (etc.), which attracts hero PCs. Eventually godmoding NPCs (Freedom Phalanx, e.g.) show up and smash it but the longer you hold out the bigger the reward at the end.
- Remove Caltrops -- replacing the power with one that builds a small cottage. Oh wait, no one would hate that.
Just off the top of my head.
Current Blog Post: "Why I am an Atheist..."
"And I say now these kittens, they do not get trained/As we did in the days when Victoria reigned!" -- T. S. Eliot, "Gus, the Theatre Cat"
This is a verrrrrrry dangerous thread.
*summons Arcanaville* muahahahahha.
If I were a dev: the base costume slots would be the base. To get anymore you'd have to buy them.
Recharge, defense, resistance, buffs, debuffs would all be CUT IN HALF of what they are now, and then they would have have DR like in PVP.
As "compensation" there would be ZERO travel suppression in PVP or PVE.
In addition there would be queues for EVERYTHING so that you could get a team easily, since the changes above would pretty much mean you needed a team to get anything done.
Blazara Aura LVL 50 Fire/Psi Dom (with 125% recharge)
Flameboxer Aura LVL 50 SS/Fire Brute
Ice 'Em Aura LVL 50 Ice Tank
Darq Widow Fortune LVL 50 Fortunata (200% rech/Night Widow 192.5% rech)--thanks issue 19!
Horrid Power Rebalances :
Fix Hasten so it was reasonable (ie ratchet it down from 70% to a 25% recharge buff). Make Domination immune to all recharge buffs. Decrease it's current recharge to 75% of its current as "compensation" Fix Rage so it couldn't stack at all, it'd work something like momentum. Triggering it a second time would do absolutely nothing. In fact give it a token system which meant it would be greyed out if already active. |
I may would even take the time and money to send you things like rotten food in the mail, and not express mail.
And I play a scrapper. I can only imagine how controllers and doms would feel about you. :P
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4. Max listing cap on items in the AH based on rarity. I personally have billions in inf, so it is not about me. It is more about capitalism run amok.
5. All t9 Armor powers would switch to a function like the old quantum flight. When you click it it is 0 end for the first 60-120 seconds. After that the end cost increases by .5 for every 10 seconds that you continue to have it up. There would be no max cost, so it could in theory go up to 200 end per tick. |
#5 would be a beautiful thing.
I'm with this, as well. People shouldn't be hitting various defence caps if they don't have strong defences in their powersets. All this leads to is power creep that puts people in a position of HAVING to get extra defences, which then put the powers team in a position of creeping critters ever upward with higher base to-hit.
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Part of me knows I'll skip it and find something easy like an in-depth discussion of 'brane theory and multiverses to read instead.
The occasional street mob or ambush that will follow you across zones.
High level ambushes in lowbie zones. There was a DE ambush in steel the other day that showed up immediately after we'd started a posi. Seeing those scary purple mobs was a blast from the past, from back when it took forever to level out of a zone.
I'd love to see occasional random enemies show up in bases like they stumbled across the entrance or hunted the SG down. (I know this is impossible as a result of the pathing that allows us the base manipulation that I'm not willing to give up, but still - just dreaming).
Mostro - Mr Methane - Beast Lightning - Akrasia - Contraindicator - BattleBomb - Norsewind - Poundy Hammer - Fatron - Mysteriesque - Chiisai Tora - Goth Claw - Mach Barrier - Bearly Human - Prototype Alpha - Crabbly - Puffy Morpheus
Part of me is just waiting for her response - though some of it I know is stuff she's said elsewhere, as I think she's made this very comment in various threads.
Part of me knows I'll skip it and find something easy like an in-depth discussion of 'brane theory and multiverses to read instead. |
*watches as she posts a 7 page math theorum just to troll Memphis_Bill*
Blazara Aura LVL 50 Fire/Psi Dom (with 125% recharge)
Flameboxer Aura LVL 50 SS/Fire Brute
Ice 'Em Aura LVL 50 Ice Tank
Darq Widow Fortune LVL 50 Fortunata (200% rech/Night Widow 192.5% rech)--thanks issue 19!
First I would remove the ability to jump/fly with any ability.
Then I would introduce the following per character power to the Market:
JUMP! 1200 PP
Allows you to use the Z axis! That's one more axis than before!
Current Published Arcs
#1 "Too Drunk to be Alcoholic" Arc #48942
#2 "To Slay Sleeping Dragons" Arc #111486
#3 "Stop Calling Me"
what would you do that people would *hate* you for? No, wait, let me format that properly to give it the emphasis due. Not that people would hate you for, but that people would
you for.
Yeah, I've got a few. Just a discussion elsewhere got me thinking of this.
Going to make a request or two first, though. Specifically, this *can* get ugly. I'm going to ask posters (and readers) not to make it so - just respect your fellow poster. If you really hate an idea (after all, look at the point of the thread!) - just leave it as "Yeah, you're right, I'd *hate* that." No attacks, please. (These aren't suggestions or requests, after all. Just a screw-around thread. Have some flame-free fun with it.)
All right. So, what would you hate me for if ol' MB were a dev?
1. Your enhancements turn on you.
This was kind of an off comment by a dev, I believe, way back when Hami-o builds were the top of the line. (It was a comment somewhere, at least. It may have been a description.) Basically, "Sure, load up your builds with hammi-Os. If you want to take that risk. You never know what might happen..."
At the time, it may actually just have referred to the SSOCS (skill system that was later scrapped and much later turned into Inventions.) But it tickled something in me - imagine a Hamidon encounter (remember, hammis at the time) where the Hamidon could - thanks to your "enhancing" with what are essentially bits of him - alter, redirect or disable your powers.
I *love* the pure evil of this idea. I don't know how it would be done NOW, honestly, but it's definitely the sort of thing I'd do. ( Edit: Might be a nice way to top off the Incarnate system - You have to fight the Well, the Well fights back with your own, freshly gained powers. ) Of course, "everyone" uses Inventions now. So....
2. Disable set bonuses.
Not permanently, no. Even I'm not that evil. But for a mission or arc, or even on an on-again, off-again way (and I am nice enough I'd give SOME warning - better read your misison text and mob descriptions!) all those set bonuses *go away.*
Perhaps even as part of the end of a task force. Yes, you have to fight the big bad. But he's managed to gut all the work you've done with his devices. So fight off waves of minions as you go to disable the devices (and he chases you.) Get all of them disabled and the bonuses come back. If they come back in stages, there'd be six to eight of them to disable.
And I'd be laughing maniacally (and enjoying my still-full-strength SO builds.)
3. Badges you get *one* shot at.
Again, plenty of warning on it - but having some that would be *one* shot only. No ouroboros. (Or there's an altered version for ouro. Say, "Victor" if you beat whatever for real, "Shadow of the victor" if you need to ouro it.)
4. Exclusive badges and contacts.
Somewhat like the patron badges, but expanded (or they were. Not sure how they are now.) Basically, let the badges help "tell" your story. If you make certain decisions, you get awarded X badge and go on to work with contact X. If you make a different one, you get Y badge and can work with contact Y. You can still do contact X's mission if you're teamed with someone doign that, sure - but it won't affect YOUR chain or badges.
5. Badge ranks.
Really not *trying* to pick on the badgers here, I promise! This really goes more toward the idea of "the badge tells your story" again.
I'm thinking of things like the "Prevent 30 Fir Bolg from escaping" mission. You'd probably *really* want to solo these things.... End of the mission, you get a different badge depending on how well you did. (And redoing it won't get you a better - or worse - "rank.") Drop the mission? You get the "wimp" badge. (Yes, you are allowed to drop it. Yes, you're told there's a ranked badge.) And it goes all the way up to "No escapes and time on the clock" (or whatever's appropriate for the mission.) And again - even if you rerun it, you're stuck with whatever your first run (or drop) was.
6. There'll be a quiz.
Yeah. For those who like speeding through and ignoring text, there'll be SOME bit of information (of multiple possibilities) you need to know for the "best" (quickest/xp bonus/special salvage drop or something) finish. And it won't be the same each time.
7. You REALLY don't want to AOE....
We have a *little* of this in game now with Nemesis. And I've mentioned the idea before, as have others.
Basically, the way the game is *now,* those that want to "play for efficiency" end up getting stuff together and AOEing the heck out of it. No real thought needed, it's just steamrolled carnage, rinse, repeat.
For me, that was boring back when tanks were herding zones and maps. So... If you've ever poked through Magic: the Gathering, there were critters there known as "Slivers." Whenever you had two or more slivers, they'd start sharing abilities among *all* slivers. Sometimes it was more life. Sometimes they'd hit harder. Or they'd gain some new ability. Getting a few together could make life miserable...
So, new group or two with the same idea. you WANT to take them down alone or in small groups. Some of the abilities are toggles, so control can take them down. Some of them are just always-on, so you want to separate and kill. Try to gather and AOE them (especially for the "I HAVE to run at x8/+4" folks) will make things... *difficult* would be an understatement. (I'm not evil enough to make certain ATs completely pointless, though.) You'll want either lower settings or things like snipes, cages and control. (So this would be a high level group, yes.)
8. Origin story arcs.
Chain of 1-50 story arcs. Unlike epic ATs, though, they can't make much assumption about "why you are what you are" - your story is your own. This is less about WHY your origin is X and more "Why someone else is interested."
For instance, take Natural. You could be a human with superb training. You could be an alien from a race that farts fire. It doesn't matter - someone's interested in capturing and possibly cloning you - and once you beat them, you have to uncover their backers before THEY try getting ahold of you and either cloning or eliminating you.
Or magic, for instance. It can be inborn, it can be spell knowledge, it can be an artifact. It can be whatever you want. But, we have groups in game who are interested in seeing what makes it tick - or the mage-killers who just want to eliminate magic (not just some of the Rikti.) You have run-ins with these guys from 1-50.
Or they want to steal your tech, or duplicate (or reverse) your experiment, or cut you open and see what your mutation is and what they can do about it. It doesn't force anything about you or your bio - it's 100% the fact that it has interested one or more outside groups.
The groups would have to scale so you can go back and play the arcs even on an 8 year old level 50.
Edit: Just thought of one, kind of inspired by some other comments.
9. Revisit the set bonus rule of 5.
How? Instead of "Five of any one bonus and percent," it would be "Five of any bonus, either five of the lowest or one of each percent."
Let me illustrate:
We have a set that has, say, "Increased debt protection" (because EVERYONE builds for that!) at .0625, 1, 1.5, 2, and 3%, with a purple set giving 5%. You have five "slots" for it.
You could end up with five of .0625%. If you get one that's higher, it replaces one - so you have one 1% and four .0625% ones. At most, though, you could have four 1% bonuses. Get another at one percent, and you have two 1%, three .0625%. You CANNOT, however, have five 3% bonuses! At most, you could have one 3%, one 2%, one 1.5%, one 1%, and one .0625% (If we had one more - say a 2.5% bonus - you could drop the lowest .0625 and have a 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5 and 3% - but only one of each.)
Yeah, it makes things a little more complex, I know. And it drops those caps - not 5 3%, 5 2%, etc, etc, etc.